Chinapie

Tried out a restaurant called Chinapie today.  Was pretty interesting, an Itailian + Asian fusion/inspired restaurant (this was apparently the sister restaurant of Pomerol).

Some dishes worth calling out...
#1) The Pomerol: A pizza that had Foie Gras, Hoshin sauce, and apple slices on it.  Anybody else reading that would probably run away from the dish - but not us!  We tried it, and was pleasantly surprised.

#2) Foraged Mushroom Potstickers: Rarely do I promote a vegetarian dish, but this one is high on my list.  The mushroom tasted really good, and putting it in a potsticker was a nice touch.

Soccer and Issian

We lost today's outdoor soccer game, but I was able to score a pretty nice goal.  Basically started from our side of the half, took on 2 defenders and the goalie, and walked the ball into the net!!!  Even players on the other team congratulated me on the goal :)

As a reward for myself, went to Issian.  Played some pokemon and the guy next to me was like - oh, you are still playing (turns out he had like 148 of the pokemons, including Farfetch!).  When I got the check, the server saw my phone on the table and said she was also playing. Hahaha.  She even knew there was the valentine's day special event thing going on.  Guess there are still people who play it from time to time.

Issian is a pretty good spot for Pokemon catching.  There were two Pokestops and in the hour or so I was there, caught at least 30 Pokemons.  But more importantly, caught 2 Lickitungs, and 1 Ditto!!!  What a good haul!

Shiki - Uni Tempura

Finally had it.. Delicious!

Verdict: Different, but really tasty. The shiso leaf kept the uni moist, and not overcooked.

Wintermelon New Years!!

My personal wintermelon soup... I am spoiled :)

Exercise Galore...

4 exercises in a week... Sat, Sun, Tues, Thurs!

Treading carefully - but it feels like with every step I take, the pain in my ankle that just hasn't been going away for 2 months... is slowly fading away!

I guess it's true what they say - what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger!

First Outdoor Soccer win - Lobster Sashimi Criteria Met!

First outdoor soccer win in probably ever for this team since I've been on it.

To make it even better, we won convincingly (6-2).  My partner in crime scored a hat trick and I got one goal.

…Lobster sashimi criteria met!

First Outdoor Soccer Practice

First practice/playing soccer for a while.

Overall: Leg doesn't feel too stable, guess will just take it easy for the upcoming game.

Auntie and Uncle 6 in S.town for a Week

After their trip in the east coast, Auntie and Uncle 6 first stop in the west coast was S. Town.

As the good nephew aka tour guide, picked them up from the airport, and then took them first for some dim sum, then some Chinese grocery shopping where we bought some dungenesss crab to be eaten for dinner.  This was followed by some lil dragon dumplings at Doughzone.  And to top if off, dinner was home made with the standard steamed fish, crab, bak choi and Chinese soup.  It was a complete Chinese food day!

The next day, we would go to Naka for some kaiseki.  The menu was the same exact one as the one we had the last time we went - however, the food was not prepared as well as the last time we came.  For one, the chawanmushi was warm, almost cold (not hot), so that took a lot out of it :(.  Not to mention the service was pretty poor, as the server took quite a while to do anything, and the plates came out really slow.  At some point, the other table next to us who sat after us got their food before us... even though we were a couple dishes ahead of them.  So the only thing that saved this outing was the ambiance of the restaurant - but for the price, it was quite disappointing :(.

Fast forward to Thursday, took them to Cinerama to watch Star Wars.  Thought the newly listed tourist attraction turned out pretty well - especially since there are not many cinemas like this one in the world.

To round out the trip, went to Old Village for Korean BBQ on Friday night - which was pretty good and filling, and then Palisades for brunch on Saturday.  The oysters at Palisades were below par (maybe the red tide up in Vanc affected it?), so I guess it remains to be seen whether Palisades can make it into the list of top tourist attractions that I would take our guests.

After Palisades, headed to Snolquamie Falls and the train museum - took some photos, but was pretty cold.  Finally went to U Village and walked around while waiting for a table at DTF.

For the last night, got some sashimi from Uwajimaya.  The Chutoro was a bust (again! :( ). Guess have to be super careful with the downtown Uwajimaya - pretty shady that they would sell bad Chutoro - seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

So all in all, while the various places we went to had slight blotches, it was still pretty fun overall!

Thank you for visiting!  Come visit us again soon!

Revisiting Kashiba

The Omakase was the same as last time except for one dish.  Was hoping there would be more differences than that.

Somewhat mediocre (probably because there was nothing new so there is no 'wow' factor anymore) - though the geoduck was super fresh.

The dishes:
- Duck breast, Pear, Balsamic glaze, Dried fig
- Yoshi (tamago bean, dashi shrimp)
- Bluefin toro seaweed wrap
- Albacore, tuna , oached tuna, toro, sea bream, flounder sushi
- King salmon, sockeye, amaebi, smoked king mackerel seared, toro searted, scallop
- Mirugai, salmon roe, uni, eel

Pokemon phone returns…

Special holiday event where Charmander, Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Squirtle are out and about - so I had to start playing again!...

The adventure continues...