Summer Traveling- Vancouver Day 0-1

I am currently in Vancouver for my annual Family Summer Trip. We come to Vncouver often since it is quite close to home and almost like mini HK. This year is perhaps my 8th or 9th time here, but I never get bored of this awesome city because of its vast variety of food options and fun shopping here.

Day 0- Car Ride

Okay, so Day 0 I spent most of the day car traveling, besides seeing a ton of mountains and trees and munching on junk food, reading my novel I Heart London by Lindsey Kelk, nothing much happened.

Day 1- Richmond shopping and munching

Since I am staying at Burnaby and not Richmond this year, we decided as a family we will be going back and forth to Richmond for a few days to satisfy our shopping crave. Okay, so Day 1, first thing we did was head off to the Chinese Community chrch CMCC in Richmond. I was pretty excited for the Cantonese mass since I knew the cantonese choir there sings really nice songs for their masses. I remembere back in 2009, I met with a few of the people from this parish during the WCCCLC camp, so being able to hear their voices again brought back a lot of memories f the awesome camp. After mass, we headed out for lunch....  I was having this Wonton noodle crave for about a week back at home, so when we decided to go to Mcnoodle house for Wonton noodles  I was really happy. ^__________^ Mcnoodle House in Richmond is best known for their quality wonton noodles, definitely should try it if any of you are planning to head towards Vancouver this summer!

After filling our bellies, the Shopping mission began. First, we headed off to Aberdeen center where the well known store Daiso is located. To be honest, I love shopping at Daiso, I always manage to find some useful and kawaii things such as stationery, stamps, cups, etc. Best of all Japanese style utensils and other things. It's funny how shopping doesn't only slim down the money, it also makes you feel super tired-- just like you have just finished a mission impossible adventure XD. My parents are both born and raised in HK, so they have this tradition of heading towards an HK style cafe for tea time. We went to go recharge our energy at Lido Restaurant having fresh pineapple buns and a cold lemon honey drink.

"Dong Buo Rou" and Drunken Chicken

I have never really had Shanghai Cuisine before, so going to Top Shanghai Restaurant (or whatever it is called) was really adventurous of us. I may have heard about some of the famous dishes such as "Lions head" (Big huge meatballs) but not so much the other things like creamy fish cilantro soup. Unlike Korean cuisine, the "boldness" of Shanghai delicacy is different. It is not so much spicy and colourful. Rather it is more oily and salty. We ordered "Dong Buo Rou" (basically fatty pork with bak choy in a clear glossy/brown sauce), Fish and cilantro creamy soup, veggies, steamed pork dumplings and drunken chicken. "Dong Buo rou" is known for its "melt in the mouth sensation" fatty pork, one thing that really surprised me was that is wasn't too oily to taste and it didn't make you feel like you wanted to spit it out as if you were eating spoons of fat. Though I am not a fan of fatty meat, I guess this dish was okay. My favorite dishes of our meal is perhaps the druknen cold chicken and Fish soup, definitely something lighter and different for my adventurous taste buds.

The Annual Canada Day Trip: Lake Louise & Banff

Lake Louise: The Fairmount Banff Spring Hotel

Every year, my family and I would travel to the near by small town of Banff to celebrate Canada Day. We love the close to nature feelings the town gives us, it is a great way to get away from the city life and pollution once in a while.

Lake Louise

 First Stop: Lake Louise

This year, it was a little bit different, we were able to get two other families to join us so it was a little more fun! The first stop we went to was Lake Louise, this small town is just approximately 1 and a half to 2 hours away from my city. There isn't very much to do in this town except to visit the amazing hotel and take pictures at the beautiful lake. However, just becuase the city is just so stressful most of the time, being able to get away from it and enjoying the beautiful scenery of nature, totally makes it worthwhile to visit.

One thing I really like about Lake Louise is how you can still experience the "Classical Grandness", the Hotel is a very old architecture that has been preserved, yet at the same time you get a fusion of Mondern lifestyle in it.

Next Stop: Banff 

Perhaps my most favorite town in Alberta. Banff is just approximately 1- 1 and a half hours away from my city. I fell in love with this amazing town since I was a child. Though I visit this town almost every year, I never get bored of it. I love the close to nature and multicultural feeling it has to it! I have blogged about Banff before, so I won't go into all the details of the town. However, this time, for the travel adventures, I will be talking about the Korean Restaurant "Seoul Country".

Seoul Country Restaurant

Fried Mandu, Mandu/Dduk soup, & BBQ

Cute decorations found in the Restaurant

I cannot stress enough how much I love Korean food, though some things are similar to Chinese Cuisine, there is a sense of richness in taste that makes Korean cuisine one of my favorites.  The Restaurant is located in Sundance Mall of Banff. You won't miss this mall because there is a very famous Chocolate shop in the mall, so if any of you do travel to Banff, you can look for the mall with a large glass window on the front, that displays chocolate making. Seoul Country is just in the inner corner of the mall.This year, there were 10 of us who went together to eat, so we could order a variety of foods to try. Having tried Korean cuisine before, I often look for the foods that are kind of special and appealing to try. However, I guess because this Restaurant is located in a tourist town, there wouldn't be too much of the "special dishes" of the Korean Cuisine. So like the usual, we ordered Mandu & Dduk soup, fried dumplings, Hotpot and BBQ, and Bibimbap. One thing I didn't really like about their menu was the fact that they didn't have set combos. So if you were to order meat on the grill, you'l have to order each item separately. The meat options they had were beef, pork, chicken, and seafood-- the usual. Having a large number of people, we ordered all 4 options ^___________^.

Hanging out. Shopping. Eating

Ever since the CORE shopping center in the Downtown of my city got renovated, a number of great stores, awesome food choices (at the food court) came along, not to mention the stunning architecture and interior design-- compared to the super gheto looking mall few years back!

froshberg Gelato

Green apple Gelato! YUM!

I think everyone knows what gelato is, it's ice cream really, but Italian style. And with gelato, I personally think it is lighter, less rich and creamy compared to the usual "ice cream". In fact, with gelato, there are way more interesting flavors comparing to the normal ice cream choices like bubble gum, vanilla, chocolate, tiger, etc. With gelato, you get more choices such as nutella, coconut, watermelon, grapefruit, green apple, pistachio, etc. After walking in the heat and eating such a large Korean lunch, my friends and I stopped by the gelato place in the mall to chill from the heat. The place we have gone to is called Froshberg Gelato, it  opened since  renovation completed, but I have never been to it before. If I could rate the gelato place, I would give it a 4 out of 5, I absolutely loved the design of this concession, and the servers were absolutely polite and kind. Most importantly, the  amount of gelato you get for a single scoop is more than enough for a person, so it is really worth your money! But why did I knock of one point? Not because of crappy services or unreasonable pricing, but the fact that they ran out of Pistachio gelato... definitely will have to go back another day to try it out!

Fruit Bursting Flavors!

Grapefruit/Watermelon and Green Apple Gelato with my 2 friends!

I mentioned before, that gelato has more fresh fruit flavors to pick from compared to usual ice cream. So for the first time trying out this place,I took the recommendation from my friend and  picked a  light fruit flavor -- GREEN APPLE! How to describe it? Maybe because I was feeling kinda bloated  from the heaviness of the Korean lunch, so having green apple help lighten up my bloated stomach. The sweetish & sour taste really sparked my taste buds and help me feel refreshed from the heat and bloated sensation. My other friend, who had been hear before, ordered two scoops of different flavors....watermelon and grapefruit. Although I only tasted a little bit of both, comparing the two flavors she picked, I prefer the grapefruit flavor more. I mean, the watermelon was great, but some how I felt that the watermelon flavor almost tasted too much like children's toothpaste. Whereas, the grapefruit flavor had the tingy, sour, refreshing taste to it; similar to the green apple. But, I guess if you combine the two flavors together, it's like "perfect couple match" the sweet light taste of watermelon balanced out well with the sour and refreshing taste of grapefruit.

A stroll in the Garden.......

One thing I really like about  the City Center mall is the close to nature feeling it has 4 seasons a year. This mall has a interior garden build in that is incorporated into the food court, the garden is called "Devonian Garden"... so it's almost like you're chilling and eating out in nature, without all the bugs and birds crowding around your food. The garden has fishes, trees and plants in a modernized design. However, compared to its previous layout (before renovation) it has become much smaller. But then again, you can't really complain after seeing how clean and eco- friendly it looks. I guess it's a good way to incorporate the garden to be part of the food court, you can go for a quick stroll "in the park" after munching on a whole bunch of calories.








Well that's all for today!
Little Stars