Playing with Food

As I mentioned in my last post, I had my bday dinner Wednesday night--as usual, we came out of there completely and utterly stuffed with Peking duck (and ribs, salt and pepper pork chops, fried rice, kailan, seafood baskets, chicken, ice cream....yes, we may have ordered a tad to much food). I brought brownies, and my friend brought TWO giant boxes of macarons from her cafe (Artichoke Cafe). I know I may be a bit biased, but I really think these are the best macarons I've had in NYC so far (Silver Moon coming a close second). We finished most of one box at dinner and I brought the rest home--and in the face of such riches, what's the natural course of action? Well, take pictures, of course! (I didn't take a single photo at dinner because it was too dark. No, it had nothing to do with the fact that I was stuffing my face.) So enjoy my newfound and COMPLETELY DORKY love of putting speech bubbles into my photos:






Ah, everything tastes better when it's shared. Or so I'm told. :)


Another friend showed up with this cute little red velvet cheesecake from Magnolia Bakery. I am not a fan of their cupcakes, so I haven't been to one of their bakeries in ages, and had no idea they made cheesecake! This is yummy, especially the crust, but so rich I can only eat a bite at a time. Good, it'll last longer. The same friend also made me adobo! How sweet is that? It's so delicious and I'll be bringing some for lunch next week.


And here's a gratuitous shot of the chocolate brioche I got at Silver Moon Bakery this morning (along with a loaf of gruyere bread, yum). The weekend's here, HOORAY!! It's supposed to thunderstorm, which hopefully means it'll cool off, which means I can squeeze in some baking! Fingers crossed! In the meantime, I am attempting to teach myself to crochet--not very successfully, I might add.

Another Birthday

This time, it's mine! (How self-congratulating of me! Please forgive me, I just want to show you pictures of my trip to Vancouver.) Another year older...well, everything still works, more or less (joints still bend, etc.) so I can't complain too much. Besides, if you calculate my age based on maturity level, then I'm probably still back in my teens! Woohoo!


I wish I didn't have to spend the day at work, but, that's the way the cookie crumbles. But I'm starting the day off with a slice of this mango cheesecake, which should take some of the sting away. (Mango count: 4 left!) This is especially dedicated to Flickr bud kaimono888 and blog/Flickr bud Carly, both of whom have been suggesting mango cheesecake to deal with my glut of mangoes. Thanks for the good suggestion, ladies :) This is my first time making a chilled (vs. baked) cheesecake, and I'm converted! It's deceptively light in texture, because you fold in whipped cream, so it's sort of moussey.


Enough about mangoes and cheesecakes! Let's talk about my weekend trip to Vancouver to celebrate my birthday. It was really a GORGEOUS weekend, and actually quite hot in the sun! I definitely got some color. First order of business? Trip to Japadog! After all, no Japadog, no life!


I got a spicy cheese teri mayo hot dog (it's so hard to choose) and Pyota got an ume dog. He claims it's his favorite so far, but I dunno, the spicy cheese teri mayo was FREAKING DELICIOUS. I want another one. RIGHT NOW. After we were fueled up, we hopped on one of the adorable little ferry boats and went over to Granville Island. I love these boats, they are SO CUTE.


See? Plus when you ride one, you are really, really close to the water. It's very relaxing, unless your pilot is new to the job. Anyway, we wandered around Granville Island for a bit and had some beer at the Granville Island Brewery (mmm, honey lager) and picked up some groceries for dinner. It's kind of touristy, but there's no denying that there is some really great stuff there (and I just remembered that I meant to buy salmon candy. Drat.)


On another day, we were planning to go hiking in Pacific Spirit Park--Camosun Bog, specifically (left from the last ice age! How cool is that?) But, we took a wrong term and ended up at Wreck Beach, which is a clothing optional beach. Whoops! This photo is actually taken at Wreck Beach, just on the deserted end--behind us were a lot of naked people enjoying the sun. I felt a bit weird, and stared at the ground a lot because I didn't want anyone to think I was a perv or something, since we were wandering around fully clothed. Hah! Anyway, one of the things I love about Vancouver is how you can see the mountains from damn well anywhere in the city.


Another highlight (who am I kidding--THE highlight!) was going to the Vancouver Aquarium, where they have OTTERS. Is that a face to love or what? I took about 100 photos on this trip, like 60 of which were photos of otters--and out of THOSE, only 3 came out! Hah. They are quick little things.


Moon jellyfish.


The aquarium is located in Stanley Park, so we had a really nice walk to get there. Along the way, we spotted this smart turtle, who is clearly on to a good thing and not giving it up anytime soon. And, it being spring, there were flowers everywhere!






We went to Provence for my bday dinner, and it was super yum! I had wild salmon (so good) and this really, really delicious apple cake for dessert. I realize I should have taken a better photo of the cake, but, hey, I'm amazed I took a picture at all rather than diving right in.


And here's the man's cheese plate. Nice selection, right? And then, we had to hotfoot it to the airport so I could make my flight. A wonderful weekend, all around. Despite the gloominess of today (darn you, rain!), I think this is gonna be a good year.