Mother's Day Barbecue

So this Mother's Day we decided to go simple and just do a barbecue. Mostly it is because my mom always think eating out is a waste of money (she would rather spend the money on purses, and clothes, and groceries, not so much on shoes). But anything involving my mom would not be simple at all. After a painful grocery shopping trip (Oh, btw, I am not complaining. I am writing all of this with a smile... and love~), where she want to buy anything that can be put on a grill and I have to remind her "no, we have plenty of food already", when we actually already fired up the grill she would still be digging around the fridge looking for stuff. But this is just how my mom is - if more can be better, then we must have more!

So we did my usual potato wedges and red onion, mom insisted on adding carrots, asparagus, and peppers. We marinated the chicken thighs the way she likes, which is too much sauce that would make the grill sticky. Good for my mom to dig out tofu puffs, fish balls, and shrimps to make the kabobs. The tofu puffs gets crunchy on the fire so added an interesting texture to the meal. We also did a porkchop but didn't do the steak that my bro really wanted - again, too much food.

Anyway, good meal, good times. My mom is happy even after we kept telling her to sit down and let us make the meal. We took her shopping in the morning so she had her purchases, and other purchases in the past couple weeks, lined up against the wall and say "Look at all the Mother's Day gift I received. Take a picture! Give me the camera!" It was really quite impressive, two purses and bags and bags of clothes... did not cost an arm and a leg but we really gets out of control when my dad is not in town.

Tentatsu Japanese Restaurant

For foodies living in Vancouver is really a bless - good variety of restaurants and good quality - the ones that lasted anyway. So most of the time you just need to walk into a restaurant that seems to have been there forever, and you can expect something good. Tentatsu at Hastings and Nanaimo is a good example. They execute the common items well, crispy tempura and fresh fishes, and they also invent some specials - look good on photos and I am sure they taste good too, but I didn't order them.