Cheesecake - Day 2

I am starting to appreciate how good strawberry and chocolate are.

Cheesecake from Fortuna Bakery

Plain cheesecake from Fortuna, drizzled with melted chocolate... baked cheesecake is still my favorite.

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.

Mom's 肉羹湯

Not sure how to translate this. But it is a strip of pork, covered in fish paste, then cooked in thickened soup with julienned vegetables, seasoned with salt, vinegar (both dark and white), lots of grounded white pepper, little bit of soy for fragrance, and decent amount of sugar so it's kinda a sweet and sour soup. A taste that I reminisce, childhood favourite.

Vera's Burger

"You can't beat Vera's meat!" True that! It is definitely good burgers made the traditional way. But the best part is it is free (almost)! Sign up for their email list and you get a $10 gift certificate on your birthday. So the lamb burger/fries/small pop combo costed me only $1.11. Sorry Vera, but I will have my annual visit to your place.

Breakfast at Paul's Place Omelettery

My friends at work treat me to my birthday lunch at a place of my choice. So even though I've never been to Paul's, it is close and recommended by many. The food is quite... I don't want to say plain... healthy/natural tasting. Yet there are quite a bit of grease left on the plate at the end of the meal - not that I am complaining, I love grease. I really enjoyed my order (corned beef hash) and cleaned up every bite, but keep feeling an odd emptiness. Finally my eyes turned to the big bottle of Tabasco sauce and I realized what I missed... True story, my eyes get misty everytime I think about it.

Seafood Benedict

Corned Beef Hash

Grilled Yellow Fin Tuna Sandwich

Not cheap...