Ayoub's Dried Fruit and Mixed Nuts

love the chandelier in Ayoub's

If you love nuts and dried fruit, you'll have to check this place out.  Ayoub's first of all is beautiful. It's like walking into another world.  The white shelves, silver urns filled with fragrant spiced nuts and the huge candelier hanging in the centre of the room make for an impressive first impression.

Parthenon Greek Supermarket, Vancouver & a GF rant

Spanakopita (Spinach pie) 

The best part of living in Vancouver is my proximity to good authentic eats if I'm craving it.  I live within 10 minutes of excellent foods from India, Greece, China, Japan, the Middle East, Italy, France and practically every other major country you can think of.  I'm so lucky. Today, the crave of the day was Greek.  The Parthenon is a Greek supermarket that's been around for ages.  It's always been there on W. Broadway as long as I can remember and I was born and raised in Vancouver.  Let me google it for you and see if I can find out.  Oh! Over 45 years!  that's pretty close to my age (which I shall stay mum about).

PNE Foodie Eats

Every kid has to experience those Mini Donuts at the PNE!  

Looping Video Food Porn Reviews: The Vine App

Ooh la la! Les macarons! vine.co/v/bpZQ6BziXnv
— Linda S. Kwan (@Cakebrain) March 17, 2013

This is my first time using The Vine App: 6 second looping videos.   I'm still not sure whether I like this over still shots. It gets me all dizzy watching the looping videos. Perhaps I need to work on my perspective and filming techniques. You can create stop-motion or short video clips. I think this could be a good thing if I can improve my filming techniques.

LATE NIGHT NOSHING AT THE RICHMOND SUMMER NIGHT MARKET

Spicy Grilled Squid Tentacles

RECCHIUTI CONFECTIONS, FERRY BUILDING SAN FRANCISCO

Rose Caramel. 


One bite of this Recchiuti confection and I knew it was quality stuff.

See that one lonely square of Fleur de sel caramel from my bag of many that didn’t get squished in my carry on luggage (it’s the little square with the white diagonal lines at each corner)?  They were very tasty squished anyway.

SAN FRANCISCO CHINATOWN AND R&G LOUNGE

R & G Deep Fried Salt and Pepper Crab.

This baby is what we came for. 

But first, let’s take a peek at the area that R & G Lounge is located. 

JELLY BELLY FACTORY, FAIRFIELD, CALIFORNIA

Belly Flops, from the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, California

Each visitor to the factory tour receives a bag of jelly bellies upon leaving the factory.  The factory requires you to wear their little paper hats during the tour and does not allow photography of the factory facilities.  You can take pictures of the shop and surrounding area though.

In the Jelly Belly shop, I found these interesting jelly beans.  They’re like those energy drinks, except they’re in jelly belly form.  How cool is that?  I bought a few to see if they’d give me “quick energy”.  I imagine the sugar would be doing that anyway, right?

MIETTE PATISSERIE, FERRY BUILDING SAN FRANCISCO

Macarons from Miette Patisserie, Ferry Building SF

I purchased Lavender cookies, Vanilla marshmallows and Pink Rosettes at Miette.

I thought the Rosettes were a gorgeous pink colour and thought they would taste like meringue.

GHIRARDELLI SQUARE, SAN FRANCISCO

On the walk towards Ghirardelli Square from our dinner at Scoma’s, we passed by another one of these “In-N-Out” burger restaurants.   I now regret not having eaten a burger here as my cuz said this is the place you would eat a fast food burger if you wanted a fast food burger.  I asked if it compares to White Spot burgers.  My cousins have tasted White Spot burgers and said it’s really not as good as White Spot, but way better than McDonald’s.   I suspect that White Spot has an edge because of its special sauce. 

This is the walk along Jefferson Street towards Ghirardelli Square. 

The SF trolleys had a huge lineup! yikes!

You can kind of see a part of the lineup in the left of the picture behind the trolleys.  I imagine it would be over an hour wait.

Getting closer…

FERRY BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO

Miette Bakery, Ferry Building, San Francisco.

In the Ferry Building in San Francisco resided the object of our desire.

Bebe's 8th birthday was coming up during our trip to San Francisco.   I have cousins living in California and the girls have not met them before.  This was a trip both for having the girls meet their relatives and for Bebe's 8th bday.

The Ferry Building Marketplace is a foodie's paradise.  Inside you will find artisanal cheeses, cured meats, handmade crafts, pastries, breads and confections galore. Sur la Table is also located in the Ferry Building.   I lingered in the Scharffen Berger and Recchiuti Confections shops and later was gifted some chocolates and confections from my cousin Sylvia.  Thanks Sylvia!  You're so sweet!  :)

I'll post my Recchiuti and Miette goodies in separate posts as they seem to have survived the plane trip back to Vancouver and deserve better photography with my hefty Nikon than the crappy point and shoot I was carrying on the trip.



We had burgers and fries from Gott's Roadside and I thorougly enjoyed my Bacon Cheeseburger (I didn't eat my bun, though was tempted because it was like challah).  The fries were really good too and we tried the garlic fries, sweet potato fries and regular fries.  The garlic and sweet potato fries (served with housemade ranch dip) were my favourites and the chocolate milkshake Bebe had ordered tasted like rich chocolate ice cream.  I shudder to think of the calories we ingested at this establishment.

The Miette Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake which you see in the slideshow is the object of Bebe's desire.  We chose to come back for it closer to her bday for pickup and you will hear that story along with seeing the rest of my Miette purchases shortly.

FISHERMAN’S WHARF AND SCOMA’S

"Lazy Man's" Cioppino, Scoma's in San Francisco

RICHMOND NIGHT MARKET

Richmond night market on a Sunday at dusk.

Oy. I have a new laptop. It's a Dell and it's red. My mouse is red too. It's purrrty...and faster and a whole bunch better.

Everything looks so wonderful but I have been having nothing but problems with Blogger because I can't click and drag my pictures in the Compose mode and I don't want to fiddle with it in html though I know how to cut and paste in it. I also am having a whole lot of aggravation with the sensitivity of the keyboard and the touchpad. Every now and then for some reason, my screen's view maximizes on its own or sometimes I accidentally open up a new tab.

Weird things are happening that I haven't seen before.

So, it's taken me about 8 times longer to post something than usual. I gave up trying to upload a bunch of pics because it was wearisome trying to reorganize them. I hate how blogger just spits them out wherever. So, I created collages first.

Hey! now for some reason, there's like circles showing up all over my screen. They're like water rings that move out from the centre and they also go from bottom to top of my screen. So weird.


a bonanza of cheapie toys, sunglasses, techno gadgets and even underwear and socks can be bought at the night market!

We headed out to the Richmond Night Market around 6:30pm on a Sunday. We found ample parking and walked the 10 minutes to the market from the parking lot. It was still warm and sunny and Bib was in her stroller. The market officially opens at 7pm, but many vendors were already set up. About half of the stalls were already set up at 6:30 and ready to sell their wares.

There seemed to be an inordinate number of stalls selling pretty much the same stuff: a whole bunch of sunglass stalls, dvd stalls, techno-gadget stalls and cheap jewelry stalls. I couldn't believe how many stalls sold underwear. Like how are you going to try on any of the bras out in the open? They also had stalls that sold just socks...hundreds of socks: Hello Kitty socks, Instant noodle socks, Pokemon socks etc. You could buy Chinese tea, plants, knick-knacks, kiddie toys and electronic games, purses, shoes, wallets, refurbished iPods and cell phone decor. I found a stall that sold fresh local berries. They were delicious. They sold a ready-to-eat fresh mix of them in individual plastic cups so you could grab, go and eat. And we did. Even that magical Shammy cloth was sold there.

the food stalls are the highlight of the Night Market

What do most people do at the Richmond Night Market ? Well, I didn't see too much buying going on in the retail section. People mostly walked around lookie-looing. However, the food section was bustling with activity. Huge lineups indicated that the stall was worthy. I noticed the takoyaki one was pretty long. The bubble tea and eggball stalls were pretty busy too.

Most items in the retail section were less than $20. Many of the items I looked at were around $10. At the food stalls, you could buy most items for under $5. Most people go to the market for the food. There's so much stuff to try out. They had Dragon's Beard candy, dim sum, takoyaki, bbq squid , corn, smokies, pizza, Japanese-styled hotdogs (think Asian condiments) and bubble tea. There was grilled squid and meat skewers, fresh juices, fruit, noodles, buns and though I didn't go looking for it, there's usually stinky tofu (yuck!) There was so much to try and so little room left in my tummy!

Bebe's got the Pearl Milk Tea and Bib fought her for it. Bebe's bigger (almost 6!) but Bib screams louder and fights dirty. We had to break it up by inserting another straw in the cup. Then, it was a sippy-contest to see who got more of those little carcinogenic bubbles they love so much! Yes, we love it; no we don't indulge too often fortunately!

Stomach was seduced by the huge grill with the little squid tentacles spilling across it. The little curly legs were calling him. He took off and came back with some grilled squid and fried tofu all smothered with sweet Thai chili sauce. Though I had no inclination to try it, he said it was good.

My favourite thing to eat at the food stalls is the tako yaki. It's a little savoury doughball with a chunk of octopus in the middle. It's topped with takoyaki sauce, mayo and bonito flakes and seaweed. It doesn't sound like it should be so good, but it is. You could also ask for shrimp or other fillings if you like. I never bother trying anything other than tako. I love watching them flip the little dough balls. They used a flick of their wrists and the skewers to rotate the balls to cook all over and make perfect balls. The texture is a little crispy outside; slightly chewy inside and the mayo and takoyaki sauce all brings it together. It's very Japanese and very good.

If you're looking for the Richmond Night Market, you turn right off of Bridgeport Road (that's where Ikea is) and drive past McDonalds and Home Depot. You'll see signs posted everywhere pointing you to parking. Parking is actually free and ample if you get there early like we did, but it's about $5 if you get there later or want to park close. It's $5 to park in the lot where the Night Market is. It's located on 10 acres of light industrial land amongst warehouses. The Night Market is open on Fri-Sun. Fri-Sat from 7-midnight; Sun from 7-11pm. Holidays are Sunday hours. It's on from May 15 to Oct 4, 2009.

12631 Vulcan WayRichmond, BC

It was another great day of eating and I will keep you posted of more places to have fun and eat in Vancouver this summer.

Sunday Fun in Vancouver

Fisherman's Wharf in Vancouver, near Granville Island Public Market
there's the Burrard Street bridge in the background


I can feel that summer's here in Vancouver. I had a fantastic meal of local Spot Prawns twice already in the past week. Yum!

School's almost out; I'm finished all my marking and everything's winding down. Whoopee!

Today was such a fantastic day. It was warm and sunny but there was a definite strong sea breeze running through the city. We took the kids and headed to Granville Island public market. I wanted to see if any local Spot Prawns had arrived yet. Unfortunately, the sign on the dock said that the boats wouldn't be in until 1pm and we were there at 10 a.m.

ah well.

It was nice looking around the docks. There was fresh wild sockeye salmon, and a couple of tuna boats were docked too.
walk along the seawall...it's lovely!

Undeterred by the lack of local prawns at the dock, we headed off towards the Kids Market where I spent way too much money on scrapbooking supplies again at the I'm Impressed store. Then, we had a bite to eat at Sammy J Peppers since Bebe proclaimed she was starving. I wasn't wanting to fight the seagulls for a spot on the dock to eat so we opted for the restaurant setting on their patio. It was great because they're decked out for kids. They had crayons, paper placemats that they could colour and they even had a family room. I had no idea since I had never gone to this restaurant before. The meal was a success and the food was good. No one had any complaints...plus we had a great dockside view of the boats moored nearby.

fresh produce in the public market: Rainier and Byng cherries

We went to the public market to buy some food for the coming week. It's so great seeing all the fresh fish and produce and it inspires you to cook fantastic things.
I'm a sucker for cherries and there's nothing like sitting on your deck in the summer with a bowl full of 'em.
The girls never leave the public market without a bag full of donut holes from Lee's Donuts. Sometimes if you're lucky, you can see them through the big window out front making them fresh. We always buy 1/2 a dozen each of glazed plain and chocolate. mmmm! By the time we get home, most of the holes are gone! and I haven't even touched them yet!

Chocolate and Plain Donut Holes from Lee's Donuts in Granville Island public market.
Here's a pic of the huge planter full of flowers on my deck. The Nasturtiums are humungous!

On another note, the other day I received some samples of black sesame and peanut mix from a HK company that makes these dessert mixes. I received 2 boxes of each flavour so that I could test the products and create some recipes.

My mom took one look at the boxes and ripped one open, exclaiming that she loved the black sesame dessert soup and wanted a bowl right now. She just added hot water and then sat back and slurped one package down. Each box comes with 4 packages that makes 4 bowls.

I decided to make a chiffon cake with sesame swirl. Let's just say it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I think a cake is too unpredictable for this product because of the other added ingredients...sugar and starches etc. I wanted to give it a try anyway. In general, I prefer freshly ground black sesame that I grind myself. I've never used prepared dessert soup mix for baking. The other ingredients are proving to be a bit difficult so far. So, I'll try again in a few days. I haven't had a cake flop in ages and it was quite deflating! literally! I kind of had the feeling it wouldn't turn out but I crossed my fingers and tried it anyway. I'll be trying something less temperamental in a few days. I am not deterred!

this test cake was garbaged because it was such a flop! too dense and not too pretty either!