Before anything else, I just realized that in my last post, I made it out like Spring follows Fall, and totally forgot about Winter! Lol! Blame it on the fact that it rarely snows in Vancouver (at least since I've been here) and Winter is mostly just cold and rainy, so much like how Fall is. We actually got snowed on just last Saturday (last time was November) and now we're back to rain showers. Great.

Moving on now. My family and friends know me as fond of taking pictures of food before I eat them, I even have an album on Facebook solely for them, titled Food I Love. I haven't updated that in ages and have just succumbed to posting either on my Twitter, Tumblr, or my Facebook wall. I should probably do restaurant reviews - though I don't often try out different places, my friends and I on occasion check out other places besides our ever-favorite hangout, Boston Pizza. But I don't think I can do good reviews, so yeah, scratch that idea for now.

Anyhoo,  I'm just rounding up photos of food I've taken recently. I know I already posted them on my other social networking sites so this is making it redundant but for the purpose providing a backgrounder, I'm posting them again. Lol.

 Triple Seafood Roll from G-be Izakaya. Yes, the 7-grain sushi rice is violet! I've had better ones, but I'd give it to them, they know food presentation from the heart.

 

Assorted dishes for Filipino Pot Luck Party.

 Roses given to my Mum for her birthday. I know it's not food, but aren't they pretty?

 Chocolate chip cookies and milk I had one night to pamper myself. Dipping these in milk make 'em so yummy! I thought I'd sleep better 'cause of the milk but since cookies are sugar, had a hard time falling asleep, of course.

 Seafood, seafood, seafood. It is apparent I love seafood. Indulgence courtesy of Mum's birthday at King Buffet.

 King Buffet. The place seems not to have a lot of people but it was actually pretty packed that night. Funny thing was, half of the diners were actually my Mum and aunts' friends from way back in high school! Talk about sudden reunion and small world. Who would've thought right?

 Kyung Bok Palace. Sunday lunch date with Janey. I liked it there, plus the price is just right methinks.

 Our Pastor's wife' birthday cake from La Patisserie. Looks really good but not sweet enough to be really a cake.

 Instant and improvised Japanese meal at home. I'm pretty resourceful when it comes to feeding myself. Haha! Oh yeah, Mum and I made those Sushi ourselves. Since I so love Japanese food, I better know how to make 'em!

 Sunday lunch with friends at Misoya, said to be one of the best Ramen places in Richmond. It was alright for me, I think I still like Rai Rai Ken better. Sadly, there isn't one here. But the best part for me - I was able to use my little knowledge of the Japanese language! Haha! 

 Black Sesame Ice Cream by G-Be Izakaya. Surprisingly, I found it to my liking, it's actually pretty good. Those biscuits (I think they're lenguas?) topped it off.

 Soy Milk Hot Pot in Paper by G-be Izakaya. Name is weird plus it being a paper in a hotpot made my friend try this one. Plus points to presentation again but taste is bland. Basically, just vegetables in soy milk and put in a hotpot to make them constantly hot.

G-be Izakaya's Sansho Chicken Karaage. I think they described it as flash fried rice-covered chicken with Japanese salt and pepper. They had me at flash fried rice. What is that right? So I ordered that and this is what I got. I actually like it especially when dipped in the 'yellowish' pepper and salt. Yum.

Yummy Holy Week Experience

This year's Holy Week was unlike our family's traditional Holy Week Celebration. If in the past years we go out of town to do our annual Visita Iglesia, we decided to stay home this year, perhaps to stay away from places crowded with people. I hate to admit that I almost forgot the
reason why I (or most of us for that matter) was granted with this 5-day long holiday if not for our seafood fiesta. It served to remind me that meat is not allowed while celebrating the Holy Week. So, while others were busy going to churches praying and doing other religious practices,
forgive us for indulging ourselves in seafood and other yummy treats (hey! We did stay away from meat. hehe!). So let me begin sharing my Yummy Holy Week Experience.

On Thursday morning, I woke up with the smell of choco.. oh wait. No, that's not what happened. I actually woke up in an empty house as my thoughtful family decided to go out without me and without leavng a note telling me where they've gone to. But they did leave something delicious in our table for me to treat myself into - Churos with chocolate syrup! Talk about starting the day sweetly. My mum is fond of taking pictures of meals that she herself prepared(I think she did prepare this breakfast) so here's our breakfast meal.

Churos

After eating, I busied myself with cleaning up the house a bit for my 'rents not to yell at me for waking up late yet again. Hehe! An hour and a half after they arrived and I found out that they went to the Farmers Market to buy fresh seafood for us to eat for lunch and the following days. I was so excited with the thought of fresh seafood (I'm a real seafood lover!) that I volunteered to help prepare our meals for lunch. Yeah, you guessed it (or not), I cooked! I cooked Baked Mussels! I cooked and baked the sauce for the Baked Mussels myself! Yey! So, I present you with (drumrolls please!) Baked Mussels ala Aimee (LOL!) garnished with Parsley leaves on top to give it a distinct aroma and more for presentation.

Baked Mussels

Along with that, we had Mussel soup, Lato (cultured seaweed I think), and Tuna Sashimi! Yey! The meal was just so delicious that I forgot I planned on going on a diet during the Holy Week. Hehe!

Mussel Soup

Lato

Tuna Sashimi with Wasabi and Kikoman Soy Sauce

Friday came and we really didn't cook anything and just ate some fish and veggies, nothing fancy. But my Mum and I busied ourselves in the afternoon with baking Oatmeal Chip Cookies. Mike came for a visit and so he had the privilege of tasting the very first batch of Oatmeal Chip Cookies baked by his Hunny (hehe). When I asked for his opinion, he couldn't help but say the cookies were delicious or else.. Haha! Kidding! But our cookies really tasted delicious since they were fresh from the oven, they had that chewy soft and sweet taste. Yum! I can still taste it in my tongue! Hehe! These were the very first cookies I baked and so my Mum had insisted on giving Mike a jar of our Oatmeal Chip Cookies for him to take home to his mother. Hehe! And his mum loved it as well.

Oatmeal Chip Cookies

Saturday came and we went out to eat breakfast and went straight to Farmers Market again to buy fresh seafood for our lunch in my Lola's house in Antipolo. We had pretty much the same seafood course as last Thursday's and we enjoyed it as much again. We also brought along our Oatmea Chip Cookies for my aunt, cousins and Lola to enjoy as well. And they did! My lola loved it! Yey!

Sunday morning I woke up at the sound of my mum's voice waking me up and telling me to take a bath as we'll go shopping in Trinoma. That immediately woke me up. Hehe! So shopping I did at Trinoma! But since the weather was scorching hot that day, thanks to the summer heat, we bought ice cream on our way home. My mum is fond of presenting our food in a "fashionable" (for lak of an appropriate term. hehe) way and so when we got our ice cream srving, it came topped with marshmallows and a piece of a chocolate chip cookie. And what can I say? Yummy!

Ice Cream topped with Marshmallows and Cookie

Monday was a little bit of a drag for me since I woke up late, tidied my room and reformatted my laptop for the nth time. But thank goodness my parents consider eating good food very important and so we had salad and laing (funny combination thought hehe) for lunch and Pesto-Spaghetti for dinner. And for dessert - Oatmeal Chip Cookies served with warm green tea.