Seven Magic Mountains + BSB Concert, Las Vegas

Usually, when W and I visit Las Vegas, there's no real reason except to sight-see and eat to our heart's content. However, this time, there was a specific purpose. That was because I had bought tickets to go see the Backstreet Boys concert (their LV residency "trial shows") at Planet Hollywood!!! Wahahaha!! I roped W into seeing my fave boyband from my pre-teen years...oh be still my giddy heart XD

Since the concert was at night, we still had the whole day free for other things. I did some research before our trip and found out that there was a unique public artwork just 30 minutes away from the Las Vegas strip in the middle of a barren landscape. It was called Seven Magic Mountains.

The artwork consisted of ginormous colourful limestone boulders stacked like totem poles. There were 7 of these structures in total with all of them standing 30 to 35 feet high! Set against the desert landscape and the bright blue sky, it was really a cool sight! This public artwork will only be there until May 2018 so it's really it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it!

After having a quick dinner of poke at the Miracle Mile Shops within Planet Hollywood, W and I lined up to get inside the theatre! It was my first time attending a concert of this kind. My previous concert-going experiences were all of the Canto-pop variety which, I later found out, were very different to this show!

It was calm and everyone was sitting down before the concert began. The show began with a video montage of the BSB from their early days to their present-day works. People were still seated and jiving along to the music/video but when the boys stepped out and began singing "Larger Than Life", chaos erupted!!!

EVERYONE stood up and began dancing and singing along!! And me, being literally 5 ft tall, had to stand on my tippy toes the WHOLE NIGHT so that I could see the stage and the boys!! I also jammed out and sang along the whole night though XD. And W? Well, he also enjoyed the concert but let's just say he wasn't as enthusiastic as me and the other thousands of females in the theatre LOL.

I was exhausted by the end of the show but it was worth every ounce of energy and effort to get to see the BSB live in person!! It was definitely another once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget!!

Hot Chocolate Festival 2017

Back in mid January, the 7th annual hot chocolate festival commenced! This year I was pretty excited about it. Dine Out Vancouver lacked appeal this time around for me while the hot chocolate festival menu seemed fresh and interesting. There were 29 participants offering their unique take on the chocolatey winter drink but I only tried 4 places this year (I still gotta watch my figure ya know!).

Thierry
1059 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC

Taste of Vietnam - Hot chocolate made with Li Chu 64% chocolate (a single origin chocolate from Vietnam); served with a coffee madeleine and a chocolate dipped, bay leaf-infused ganache

I originally wasn't going to try Thierry's hot chocolate but at the insistence of K-chan, I gave it a shot. Thierry was offering their "Taste of Vietnam" hot chocolate for the first half the festival. Their other hot chocolate flavour would be available during the second half of the fest.

Although the drink was nice and smooth with a good chocolate taste, it seemed kind of plain. The dark chocolate ganache piece was a nice touch, giving my taste buds another hit of smooth rich chocolate.

Thomas Haas
2539 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Studying all the participants' menu, I knew I really wanted to go to Thomas Haas. Having never been to the West Broadway location (I've only been to the North Shore one), I was pretty excited to visit this shop!

Home Run (Black Forest in a Cup) - Dark (67%) hot chocolate flavoured with Black Forest kirsch Chantilly and brandied cherries; served with a baked chocolate truffle

Thomas Haas had two flavours available all throughout the festival. I knew W was not a fan of cherry so I went for the Home Run. I was definitely wowed by this hot chocolate! I, myself, am actually not a big cherry fan either but I really loved this drink!! It was more of an adult hot-chocolate though because of the boozy kirsch and brandied cherries hehe...

Hasselnuss - Milk (49%) hot chocolate infused with caramelized hazelnuts and lemon zest; served with orange madeleines

This chocolatey drink was more up W's alley. The hot chocolate was strongly infused with blitzed caramelized hazelnuts and the taste was lighter since it used milk chocolate.

Swiss Bakery
143 East 3rd Avenue
Vancouver, BC

On another snowy, wintery day, I had W take me out to Swiss Bakery so I could try their hot chocolate offering.

Winter's Harvest - a decadent Belgian white chocolate with Genmaicha (Japanese matcha with roasted rice) paired with a leafy black sesame choux puff

Their white hot chocolate was melded with a green tea made of roasted rice and green tea powder. Although I liked the combination of tea and chocolate, the white chocolate was too sweet for my liking. Their description also noted that it came with a black sesame choux puff but it was more of a flaky shortbread cookie...

Earnest Ice Cream
1829 Quebec Street
Vancouver, BC

Just a short walk away was Earnest Ice Cream so of course I had to pay a visit! Even though I was a little full from the white hot chocolate at Swiss Bakery, it just seemed like a waste not to go! 

Spiked Hot Chocolate - a drinking chocolate inspired by their "Milk Chocolate" ice cream, topped with Amaretto-flavoured whipped cream and served with a scoop of Amaretto ice cream; both topped with house made almond brittle

Like the Home Run hot chocolate from Thomas Haas, this was also a slightly boozy drink. The light milk chocolate drink wasn't anything extraordinary but the Amaretto whipped cream elevated this to an-adult only fancy-looking hot chocolate. I actually liked the Amaretto ice cream on the side more than the hot chocolate. But hey, this is Earnest Ice Cream after all! I guess that's kind of expected? Haha!

Out of the 5 different chocolatey drinks, my favourite was the Home Run since I'm a dark chocolate fan. Now I'm looking forward to the 8th annual hot chocolate festival!

La Terrazza

1088 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC

Christmas time is a time of gatherings and celebrations. W and I and a couple of friends decided to dress up and have a fancy night out to treat ourselves for getting through the year. K-chan suggested La Terrazza for dinner as it was a classy and refined restaurant with excellent Italian cuisine.

Wine Spritzer

I wasn't a fan of red wine so I ordered a cocktail spritzer for myself.

Calamari e Gamberi ($17.88) - grilled Humboldt squid, crispy baby calamari, tiger prawns, toasted garlic - jalapeno lime reduction

The best way to have a variety of dishes to try and save a little in the wallet is sharing. We ordered 2 appetizers, 1 entree and 2 pasta dishes to be eaten family style. We started with a grilled squid (that looked like a piece of steak) topped with some crispy calamari and prawns. The squid was meaty and not chewy at all. An interesting take on the calamari that we're used to!

Bisonte ($17.88) - thinly sliced raw bison tenderloin, grainy Dijon aioli, wild arugula, crispy root vegetable chips

I chose the Bisonte over the beef carpaccio as we don't usually have bison meat. It tasted just like beef to me but it was tasty and beautifully presented. One little complaint for me is that the menu indicated crispy root chips (as in plural, as in multiple pieces of chips) but there was one ONE PIECE of root chip that was more for garnish than anything else. Boo!!! I was expecting more!

Anatra ($34.88) - pan seared Fraser Valley duck breast, golden beet, baby bok choy, roasted cipollini, spicy apricot glaze

For our entree, we had the pan seared duck breast. It was amazingly TINY LOL... I know, this is fine dining...

Spaghettini Alla Carbonara ($31.88) - spaghettini noodle, double smoked - Applewood bacon, Nova Scotia lobster, green peas, Parmeggiano Reggiano - quail egg yolk, Parmigiano Reggiano

The pasta dishes were the stars of the night. Both the Carbonara and Giulio's Pasta were delicious and the noodles perfectly al dente. The carbonara was creamy and salty that went will with the sweet and succulent lobster meat! I think I ended up eating all the peas because both W and K-chan did not like them =__="

Giulio’s Pasta ($27.88) - taglierini noodle, black-tiger prawn, capers, garlic - pepperoncino olive oil, toasted prosciutto bread crumbs

There was only one prawn on this pasta which I understand because it's not really meant for sharing, but still... At least it was large enough that we were able to cut it into 4 bite-sized pieces. This pasta was also very savoury with a slight spicy kick to it.

Tiramisu

We all just wanted a couple bites of something sweet to end the meal so we decided on sharing the Tiramisu. It was light and creamy with a balanced coffee flavour.

All in all, a lovely meal to celebrate the holidays with friends :)

2016 Japan & HK - ANA (HKG-NRT-YVR)

Time flies by so quickly when you're having fun. Sadly, it was time go back home :(

Leaving Hong Kong International Airport, we boarded ANA to Haneda Airport for our connecting flight back to YVR. On this short flight, we were served one hot meal, being our dinner.

Appetizers: (L-R) Japanese buckwheat noodles with Nameko mushrooms, nori, noodle sauce; Pork ham and pastrami beef with potato salad; Pickled diced veggies; Dinner roll

Entree: Seafood Creamy Pasta

Dessert: Mini Crunch Bar

Drink: Kayanoya vegetable soup

ANA had 2 unique drinks on board. One of them was the "Aromatic Kabosu", a green citrus fruit drink (sort of like lemonade). The other was the Kayanoya vegetable soup. For my dinner meal, I tried the vegetable soup as my drink of choice. It was a delicious savoury broth (reminiscent of a consomme), but a little on the salty side.

Entree: Simmered Beef in soy-based sauce over steamed rice

W opted for the Japanese meal. I think it was a sukiyaki style beef served with rice. Naturally, I had to eat all the peas for him LOL...

Same as when we flew to Japan, we were served one hot meal and one cold breakfast box as we made our way back to North America.

Appetizers: (L-R) Potato salad; mixed leaves with creamy French dressing; Noodles with minced meat and miso sauce

Entree: Seafood, Chicken and Simmered vegetables over steamed mixed rice

Dessert: (not pictured) Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream cup

Drink: Coffee

For the last leg of the flight, I chose the Japanese meal. It certainly looked yummy! Unfortunately, I was feeling tired and cranky so I wasn't very into the food at that time.

I loved the variety in this plate though. The bamboo shoots were marinated well and surprisingly the shrimp and the egg was not that overcooked!

Entree: Tandoori Chicken with Saffron Rice

W had the Indian-influenced rice dish. Not sure of the flavours though since I didn't try it...but with ANA's quality of food, I'm sure it was tasty.

Finger sandwiches (L-R): Egg salad with cucumbers and deli meat; Smoked salmon with cream cheese; Ham and cheese with tomato and lettuce

Sides: Kabocha pumpkin mash paired with cocktail fruit; Bacon and cherry tomato

Dessert: Lightly sweetened plain yogurt, Mini Kit Kat bar

Finally, breakfast was served, which meant only a couple more hours until we land!

I was absolutely enamored with this breakfast box! The little pieces of crustless sandwiches were so dainty and cute! This time, a Japanese-branded yogurt was served alongside instead of the North American produced yogurt cup we had on our first flight. It was just lightly sweetened (no vanilla flavour) but I enjoyed it a lot.

Well, that's the end of my very first Japan trip! I've had a taste of the amazing city and experienced a tid-bit of the culturally-rich country. It has definitely left me yearning for many more return visits!

2016 Japan - Notable Mentions... (Dinner)

This segment of Notable Mentions is dedicated to dinner. On our last night in Tokyo, my family and I headed over to Lumine Ikebukuro in search of good eats.

Lumine Ikebukuro is a large department store within the Metropolitan Plaza Building. There are 2 whole floors just for restaurants alone and many more cafes and eateries dispersed throughout the multi-floor department store!

We headed up to the 8th floor, restaurant level, to look around for interesting places. There were so many options but a lot of them had long line-ups already. We decided to try Keisho-An, a restaurant specializing in Japanese-style chicken dishes.

Hiyashi Tofu

We ordered a bunch of items to share and the first to arrive was the chilled tofu. The fresh and soft tofu came with the cutest, smallest bottle of sweet soya sauce! Eaten by itself, the tofu was super creamy and soft, with a mild yet sweet soy bean flavour. A little drop of the sauce turned the dish into a savoury appetizer.

Karaage

The deep fried chicken pieces were so yummy, we ordered it twice! They were seriously juicy inside, and salty and crispy on the outside. It's a glass of ice-cold beer's best friend!

Agedashi Tofu with Chicken

To mellow out the crunchy goodness, we had a dish of fried soft tofu sitting in a savoury broth. Usually, the agedashi tofu back at home just has tofu and sauce. However, at Keisho-An, their version had pieces of simmered chicken and oyster mushrooms. If there was a bowl of rice, this could have been a full meal by itself!

Chicken skewers - Tsukune Set (top) and Yakitori Set (bottom)

Next up, 2 sets of chicken skewers!

The Tsukune Set consisted of 5 skewers of minced chicken meat balls, all with different sauces on top. From left to right, there was teriyaki, umeshiso (pickled plum and a type of Perilla leaf), Nagoya miso, mentaiko (salted pollock roe), and teri-mayo.

The little meatballs were great for sharing but because of its size, the meat was not as juicy as I expected.

The Yakitori Set had 5 skewers of different parts of the chicken: the gizzard, thigh, skin, thigh with leeks and another that I can't remember (sorry!). These were simply grilled over charcoal and brushed with a sweet soya sauce. These went well with beer too! Yum!

Oyako-don

For our starch dish, we chose the chicken and egg rice bowl. Typically, the chicken would be simmered with onion in sweet dashi broth and then topped with soft scrambled eggs. This version actually had a raw egg on top instead of the chicken! This lent a different kind of silkiness to the rice and chicken.

Caprese Salad

Our lone veggie dish of the night was the Caprese salad...though technically, this did not actually have any vegetables in it! LOL... We originally wanted to order a green salad with lotus root but they ran out of lotus root :( Caprese became our second choice. It was a small portion but the ingredients were fresh and helped lighten up the chicken-heavy dishes on our table.

Even though we had to wait a while for a table, all those yummy chicken-centric dishes were well worth the time!

2016 Japan - Notable Mentions... (Dessert)

One of the places that I had to go to, no matter what, was Pablo to have their ooey-gooey cheese tarts! My friend, K-chan, kept raving about Pablo to me non-stop so I had to check it out myself to see if it really lives up to the hype.

I took the whole group to the Omotesando location because it was just a short walk away from Meiji Shrine (which we had just finished visiting in the afternoon). I also chose this location because it had a full-service cafe (some other locations of Pablo were take-out only). This cafe had 2 floors. The bottom floor had a take-out counter with a self-serve sitting area while the top floor was a dedicated full-service cafe space.

We went upstairs to the cafe to rest our weary feet and enjoy a late afternoon snack.

Pablo Cheese Tart (Original Flavour) served with apricot honey sauce and vanilla ice cream

We chose 3 different kinds of cheese tarts to share amongst our group. Of course, we had to get the original cheese tart so we could compare it with the other flavours! The filling was lightly sweet, creamy with a soft cheese aroma while the crust was thin and flaky. No wonder they're famous for their cheese tarts!

Camembert & Quattro Fromage Cheese Tart

The second flavour we chose was the Camembert and "four cheese" cheese tart, only available at the Omotesando location. As expected from the name, this tart had a more intense cheese aroma and flavour. This one had more of a sweet and savoury thing going on due to the different cheeses used.

Chestnut Cheese Tart served with chestnut ice cream, walnuts, cashews and chestnut pieces on the side

For our third cheese tart, we went for the limited edition Chestnut flavour. As chestnuts are typically associated with the autumn season, this one was limited for a short period of time at the shop. The cheese tart had a light chestnut flavour while the top and sides were garnished with candied chestnut pieces. This had an earthy and warm feeling to the cheese tart.

Matcha Latte

Since it was a chilly and rainy day, I had the matcha latte to warm up. It was ok...the milky foam was not fine enough for me =P

Here's what the cheese tart looks when cut. Apparently, one can order the "doneness" of the cheese tart! You could either have it soft (so it looks oozy and gooey, and a bit under baked), or you could have it regular (which is the doneness pictured above). Darn it, if I had known earlier, I would have chosen the ooey gooey version!

I think Pablo was one of the best places we have visited on our entire Japan trip. Our entire group agreed that the cafe was comfy, quiet, warm and relaxing, while the cheese tarts were delicious and indulgent! So glad that we came here!!