Dine out at Brix

I looked at this year's Dineout menu and one place I really wanted to try was Brix in Yaletown.  I also wanted to go to The Refinery but it was booked on the night we were planning to go.

For more information on Dineout 2012, please click here

Brix is a restaurant/ wine bar with modern cuisine using local ingredients.  It's located in a 1912 Heritage building in Yaletown.

  When we got there, it said at the front "Please come through the curtains".  At first we were super confused but when we open the curtains, it led us into the courtyard. The courtyard seemed like a place out of a fairytale with candles everywhere!  It's a perfect place to take your loved ones.

You can sit inside or outside.  The courtyard has a roof and a lot of heaters so you don't have to worry about getting cold.

There were two choices on the dineout menu.

Menu A and Menu B.

Menu A was $38 and menu B was $48.

We decided to get Menu A. 

We all got prosciutto wrapped scallops, barbeque duck fried risotto, scallions, crisp garlic and shallot for appetizer, and my friends both got 5 oz Alberta beef tenderloin, pomme puree, olive oil poached asparagus and I got mushroom risotto for main. 

Happy 2012!!-New Year's Eve at Lupo

I know this post is somewhat late but Happy 2012!  I can't believe it's already 2012.  The last 21 years of my life flew by and it's hard to believe that some of my friends will be graduating this year. 

 I was hoping to go to some kind of awesome New Year's eve party with awesome food and company but that didn't happen. I decided to grab a very pleasant dinner at Lupo with my boyfriend and went over to my boyfriend's house to chill to celebrate the end of 2011 and to welcome 2012.  Come to think of it, I totally forgot about New Year's resolution and did not think about it until recently.  I have decided that this year...

1. I really have to save up some money.  Mostly to travel so less shopping and less eating out for me this year.  I will try to cook more at home and save, save and save!
2. Eat healthier
3. Try to get better marks
4. Find a research opportunity
5. Start a new hobby - I would love to learn about video editing, InDesign, or illustrator (anything similar)
6. Treat other people as I wish to be treated
7. Go out with my camera more often
8. Blog more often
9. Read more often

I think this was about it... If I think of more, I will mention it on my next post.  To start off on the right side, I've already finished reading one book, "The Girl Who Played With Fire".  I've read the 1st book of the triology last year during the summer but I got too lazy with the 2nd book and didn't pick it up until recently.  I actually watched the English version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" yesterday but I personally enjoyed the Swedish version better because the Swedish version stayed with the original story and I thought Noomi Rapace did a better job portraying Lisbeth Salandar. 

Anyways, enough about me, I am going to talk about Lupo. 

I've only heard good things about this restaurant and I've been wanting to visit for a long time and when I was trying to make reservation for New Year's Eve last minute, 2 spots were available at Lupo. 

First, when you first look at Lupo, you will see this homey exterior with long stairs (obviously not accessible to people with wheelchairs).  When I walked in, I felt cozy and homey as if I was at a dinner party.  Since it was New Year's Eve, they decorateed the restaurant with balloons which added a festive feeling to the atmosphere.  (I apologize for the bad quality of the photos.  It was taken with my iphone)

As you can see, it was quite empty when we went at 5:30 but as we were leaving around 7:00, the restaurant was almost full.

We ordered "3 ways Crostini" for antipasti and this dish was $11.

Holly jolly Vancouver Christmas Market!

I really wanted to go to the Vancouver Christmas Market last year but unfortunately I wasn't able to make it due to busy final exam schedule and I had to leave on a trip to Whistler right after my exams and came back on 23rd and the market closed on the 24th. 

This year, I decided to take one day off from studying and went to the Christmas Market before all the exam madenss.

The gate

The entrance fee to the market is $5 for adults, $15 if you want the seasonal ticket.  Upon your entrance, you can get a bracelet if you would like to purchase alcoholic beverages inside.

Nutcrackers and various other things!

 Weisswurst!  (pronounced veissvurst).. it's made of veal.. and the price is  $7.50 I believe

German Pasta (What's the difference? Italian vs. German?)

hot spiced red wine and rum $7+ $4 for deposit.  You can return the mug when you finish it and get $4 back, or take the mug home for $4.

Surprisingly, I did see quite a few drunk people in the market...I guess they were indulging in these and some German beer.  When I took a sip of the drink, I knew why. 

 

 Melting block of cheese.

When I saw this before I went on the news, it looked SO GOOD.  At the market, I was appalled by the smell..(kind of smelled like feet).  It came with two pieces of bread for $8.50. 

 My boyfriend ordered this and I tried it.  It doesn't taste as bad as it smells but it was quite strong.. I thought it tasted like gorgonzola

 German waffles.  There were $7 each I believe. 

 (Everything in the market is overpriced :()

The waffles were good (nothing amazing) except the fact that the icing sugar was going everywhere when I was eating.  As I was eating, the powder landed on my peacoat and I was panicking

Pulled pork and baked potatoes $10 i think?

This was really gooooood.  It's expensive but I think it might be worth the money. 

Gigantic Christmas Tree

The Vancouver Christmas Market is a great place filled with holiday spirit.  There were some amazing musicians playing Christmas tunes on their fiddles in super cold weather.  I was amazed at how well they could play with their frozen fingers.  We ended up dancing for a bit because all the happy spirit that was around.. so..we just had to :)

The food is overpriced for sure with everything ranging from $7-10 but I think it is worth giving it a visit maybe once just to experience the food and the atmosphere.

I got to go and study for my exams now.

Good night!

21 days until Christmas!  Time sure flies..

Good luck with exams everyone (if you are writing one)

Guu Kobachi

It is quite sad to think that Toratatsu on Denman no longer exists. :(
  I loved their tuna+avocado bread spread, cheese tofu and some of their rolls. 


Fortunately, a new Guu opened on the same location and I was very very pleased with my first visit.

The place is super bright compared to what it was like at Toratatsu.  We went around 7 o'clock but not a lot of people

Afternoon tea at Urban Tea Merchant

I've been dying to go to an afternoon tea for a while but never got the chance until this week!  I was debating whether I should go to Urban Tea Merchant or Faubourg.  The last call for Urban Tea Merchant was at 5:30 and Faubourg at 5:00 so we decided to go to Urban Tea Merchant because we left the campus around 4:30 hoping to make it on time. 

When I first walked in, I saw two counters.  One selling desserts such as macarons and truffles and the other was for tea.  I was thinking... "where are we going to sit?"  .... hahah after a moment of confusion, the waitress took us to the back and there were seats for peple who are visiting for brunch, dessert (from Thomas haas), tea, and afternoon tea.

The waitress gave us 3 menus.  One was the harvest afternoon tea special which was $48 per person, one was for tea and the last was for food.  When I opened the tea menu, I was overwhelmed by all the choices. I ended up ordering the creme caramel rooibos tea

Sausages!! -Wurstküche, Los Angeles

Before I left to Los Angeles, I did some research on some of the unique restaurants that I might want to drop by.  Wurstküche was one of them and the other one was a macaron shop called "Lette" in Beverly Hills.  Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Lette but I made it to Wurstküche.

"We're young; let's have fun with encased meat," says Joseph Pitruzzelli, the 27-year-old co-owner of Wurstkuche, downtown L.A.

Wurstküche is inspired by German sausages and it serves Belgian fries, 24 imported beers on tap and exotic grilled sausages.  It's located in downtown LA and they are opening one in Venice beach.

The entrance

I loved the red brick walls and it was like this inside as well...  The walls actually reminded me of restaurants in Crosstown! (i.e. Cafe Medina)

When I first walked in, the place seemed tiny with only 5 chairs.. a display of sausages, cashier counter and a couple of grills behind

Zuni Cafe -San Francisco

When we first arrived at San Francisco,  we were craving for Italian food so I searched up Italian places on Urbanspoon and Zuni's had one of the highest ratings.  We walked to Zuni's from our hotel which was in central part of downtown and we ended up in the sketchiest neighborhood in downtown San Francisco. It took us 15 minutes to get to Zuni Cafe.

Zuni's is a fancy restaurant and it reminded me of the restaurants in crosstown, Vancouver. 

Zuni Cafe is famous for their Chicken for two roasted in the brick oven ($48) but it takes approximately one hour to cook.

the menu at Zuni Cafe change every day inspired by seasonal ingredients incorporating Italian and French cuisine.