Spring and all the food it brings

I am surprised at how neglectful I have already become of this blog; I will make more of an effort to document my life as it happens (hence, the label name). What does April mean to you? April has been a refreshing change of pace for me. The sun is out and it's time to play. For me, my choice of activity is eating. I love to eat. I love to try new foods as well as make my own. Whether it's $1 breakfast at ikea or $200 at a fine dining restaurant in Vancouver, I love the happy and warm feeling a full stomach brings - and believe me, that feeling occurs on a daily basis. Drumroll please...let the foodporn begin in no particular order (because I can't remember the order):

My baby made me Korean Japchae & Seafood Pancake..OMG. He's a pretty good chef and I'm impressed at the variety of cuisines he has provided me so far. He defintely knows that the way to my heart is my stomach.....and letting me get my way. Hehehe.

My bestfroomie & I cook up three kinds of crab: bbq, steamed, thai curry. We actually went to T&T and picked out two crabs that were live and kicking. I was sad and relieved that they got killed on the spot. I was actually hoping to take it home so that my cat could have a new friend. *sigh* Oh well...I enjoyed every version of you Mr. Pinchy.

I wanted to suprise baby for a fancy meal at the Cannery the night before they were to close their doors FOREVER. I was so excited about going that I told him probably the day after I made the reservation. Me and my big mouth. =(

Seafood platter @ The Cannery. This was such a wonderful dish. For $40 you could sample oysters, mussels, candied salmon, lobster claws, shrimp, and scallops with two kinds of sauces (tomato and rasberry). I'm pretty sure after this appie I really didn't need anymore food but you know me, I'm greedy greedy greedy.

Salmon Wellington @ the Cannery..I love this so so much!

 Albeit I've never had Salmon wellington anywhere else, I'm sure that this is the best out there. Fresh salmon topped with a thin layer of pate and carefully wrapped in a butterly light flaky pastery. I will learn to make you one day. I promise.

Sablefish in miso sauce @ The Cannery. You are good..but not Salmon Wellington good. 

Happy 15th Month Anniversary and day I got offered my new job. Baby took me to Guu on Robson @ Denman as a congratulatory meal cuz he knows how to treat a woman. Particularly me. No. Scratch that. Only me. I think I've brainwashed him so well into everything I like that he'll probably never know how to please another woman again. LOL. oops?

Inside bar or Guu on Robson

Amaebi Sashimi...slimy and sweet

Ebi mayo

Yaki-Udon

Mushroom & seafood pastry

Takoyaki

Some sunday in april ago (I think last week) I woke up super late and couldn't go to pitch and putt with some ladie friends. Luckily for me they wanted to eat brunch so I defintely made a bee-line for that. On a side note, what is brunch? Is brunch the timing or the type of food? I always assumed brunch is the time that fat people made up so they could justify eating between breakfast and lunch. However, I met up with my friends around 12:30 so I guess I was simply eating breakfast foods for lunch? Or is that the 'real' brunch? Eating food you would normally eat at another meal time? Hmm. Life and all the questions it holds.

 

Joe's Grill on Denman for brunch

Eggs Benedict (I actually don't like hollandaise sauce..its tasteless!)

My favorite commies

Saturday night at Kobe for my Seatown friend's something something birthday. Happy birthday girl!! You never seem to age. I hope I stay that babyfaced when I'm your age.

Overall, this restaurant is all ambience and food-court terriyaki by the $1.59 per 100 grams at the mall style. I can't believe my dinner and drink cost $40 (would have been $60 if I didn't have my awesome coupon). Oh well..at least I felt like a rockstar for an evening, rolling in to some swanky downtown restaurant where a personal chef does tricks and cooks for me. Ooooh...'fiyah fiyah!'

Kobe Steakhouse downstairs bar

Birthday girl is in the middle! Thanks for coming all the way up from Seatown. The other girl on the far right is one of my favorite girls in the world. Can't wait to post up pics of my trip with her in Miami in the next couple of weeks! =)

Our table at Kobe

The fellas + CinCin

Sippin' a delicious chi chi outta budda's belly (I'm surprised the restaurant would do this actually...I'm sure it will offend half the asian population since most are buddhists).

Our chef for the evening! This guy was so awesome. He didn't do as many cool tricks as I thought he would, but he was very warm and fobby so that was good enough. LOL.

 The tried and true: Cactus Club Cafe, home of the foxy ladies in black

Happy 24th birthday!! Cactus club plate of desserts. MMM delicious. I'm pretty sure I had more than you. For you readers oggling at her picture, please refrain yourself. She is taken. Don't act surprised.

My two favorite party-ers hands down. I love that we can drink anywhere, anytime, dressed up or dressed down. The girl in the gray and I go way back. Let's call her "K" as I will probably refer to her lots in this blog (if she lets me). Never in my life have I met someone as genuine and care-free as this girl. She is sweet and drama-free, the two most important traits I look for in a girl friend.

Some salmon in tofu pocket thing. Not bad, but overpriced for what it is. Also, I just don't like rice cold unless it's sushi; though, it essentially was like sushi since it was rice wrapped in something. But when do you ever eat tofu cold?  I felt like screaming 'make up your mind?!?!"

My old friend Ling Ling and I at her 25th birthday party!

Yet another birthday party (so many April babies!!) Happy quarter of a century Ling! I can't believe I've known you since we were 14 years old..that's almost half our lives you know? Anyways, the birthday girl decided to host her b-day bash at Steamworks and then party it up at library square. Delicious choices. (See my lobster ravioli pic below)

So buttery and delicious. Every morsel was light and creamy with just the right touch of sauce. (I hate when things are doused in sauce). We got some cream-cheese baked mushroom caps as well but I forgot to take pics of that. Woe is me.

Us & some friends at Library square for the 90s-themed birthday party. Awesome drunk times.

Hahaha. Don't kill me. I finger point when I dance. I know no other dance move.

Late dinner making by me and my girl friend, T. We had a lovely evening of grocery shopping, making pesto pasta and painting (yes painting) a lovely picture for my living room. I have no picture of the painting ...maybe I'll post it later or make another painting and blog it as a "Hanny How to"

Making  pesto from scratch in a magic bullet. It's not magic. It's crap.

Tada! The finished product. My favorite pesto recipe in the whole wide world.

Breakfast: the only reason I get out of bed.

Breakfast with my baby at Bamboo cafe...I love breakfast. Defintely favorite food of the day!! I like to use my spoon to cut around the egg white of a easy-over/over-easy? (i always mix that up) styled-egg, scoop up the yolk, put the WHOLE THING in my mouth and then pop it so the yolk is gushing everywhere inside. O-M-G..if that ain't heaven, I don't know what is.

 My favorite cheap food that is not a burger chain.....

....ikea. LOL. Ikea has some of the best choices for the lowest prices, all day everyday. Everythign on that tray was delicious. I highly recommend the cheddar cheese and broccoli soup too. Creamy and flavorful. Similar to the quiznos ones for less! The chicken was not bad. Standard white style chicken. Oops. Did I say that out loud? I like to peel off the skin in its entirety and stuff it in my face. YUM YUM YUM. I love the buttery goodness of fat.

Just looking at all these pictures again is making me feel hungry. Are you? I bet you are.

 I sure do love writing overly long blog posts. I've tried to incorporate some of the things I've done in this past month along with the things I have eaten. Think about it. Food is what sustains us in life. No matter who or where we are, every living creature has that one basic need in common. Some eat to live, I live to eat. I probably take more food pictures than people pictures, but to me, they are almost one in the same. It's a social activity! When I take a picture, I reminisce about the memories I made with other people who were there with me enjoying the food...or at least within my viscinity stealing precious whiffs. LOL. Kidding.

Please post comments below..as in, I command you to or I will no longer write lengthy awesome posts about nothing. Til next time, happy eating. =)

xoxo,
Hanny

The Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said “you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.”

Moral of the story: Be careful of what you say because you might regret it later.
 

- Author Unknown

xoxo,
Hanny

Guess who?

After all this time you are still a child. You don't even look at me; you look through me as if blurring your eyes will help you feel more confident when you walk by me with your nose in the air. Sometimes I dread going to certain events because I know you're attending and I'm plagued with the guilt that our friends must endure the awkward and painful tension that still lingers between us. It's pretty pathetic that we can't make eye contact and force a smile through our bared fangs just to appease the others. Oh well. At least I know I tried to make amends. Maybe next time I will be more confident. Maybe next time I will casually smile and wave at your mouse-like face just to keep you on your toes.

xoxo,

Hanny

Hanny's How To's: 5 steps to look like a TAGIAC (typical asian girl in a club)

1) Makeup
A lot of it - and yes, there is a certain look. It is called the "smokey-eye" look. For your reference, I present to you the two basic smokey-eyes: smokey black and smokey brown.

For nighttime outings, use the above two pictures as starting points for any outfits. That's right. ANY outfit. I don't care if your dress is black or white or pink or blue or neon green. USE ONE OF THESE TWO eye looks. Do you know what the number one common feature of all clubs in the world are? No matter how ghetto or how posh it is, it will be DARK. This is good and bad, for obvious reasons. The good thing is, that massive zit on your nose or the uni-brow you forgot to pluck will seem almost non-existent. (Hooray!) The bad thing is, all cameras will be forced to use flash which will wash-out all that makeup you took so much effort to put on. It will show up three times less than what it really looks like in real life. I kid you not; it is a science.  Therefore, it is necessary to PILE ON the eye makeup. Load up on the eyeliner, mascara, and caterpillar-like fake eyelashes.  If you absolutely must have some color on your eyelids to match the colour of your dress, pat the colour on the inner one third of your upper eyelid and/or below the inner one third of your lower eyelid. I have carefully and scientifically drawn a duplication of this using the above brown-smokey eye example for your convenience:

My chicken scratch says "fake eyelashes" on the top and "dress matching eyeshadow" on the bottom, in case you're wondering. For your viewing pleasure, I have enclosed a video to show you this process step-by-step:

2) Coloured contacts/circle lens

If you are asian, you probably have dark poo coloured eyes like me. I guess you could say it's dark-chocolate coloured, but poo-coloured sounds funnier. Changing your eye-color is as easy as 1-2-3! All the cool people do it. We change hair-colour, so why not eyes?

Note: It just makes you look a little bit like a cracked-out alien doll, but hey! Who cares if it looks stupid in real life if it looks great in pictures?

3) Teased hair

There's something really sexy about big bouncy hair. Other than boobies, it's the feature that really stands out between a girl and a guy. Although guys have many hairstyles (spiked up, 'faux-hawk', crew cut, skater-boy, pony-tailed, bald-headed) you'll never see them with a head full of lush, silky waist length hair (or at least I hope not). Whether your hair is short, medium or long, it will ALWAYS look better teased. Why? Bigger hair means smaller waist. Haha. Oh, and the more bleached it is the better.

4) Dress shirts

And I don't mean these kinds:

I mean these kinds:

....

Shirts used-as dresses.

"Where are your pants?"

"Oh, I don't need pants, this shirt covers my bum...almost"

Riiight.

5) Nothing less than 4-inch heels

This has the same effect as big, bouncy hair (step 3). The taller the heels -> the longer the legs -> the slimmer you are. It's like magic!

...And there you have it. The guide to looking like a TAGIAC - typical asian girl in a club. I know I sound condescending and mean, but anything funny mean's there's some truth to it! lol. Afterall, I'd be a hypocrite if I said I wasn't a TAGIAC. I really am. *sigh* Anime-looking sad-face coming right up. -_-

xoxo,

Hanny

I am the dog whisperer

If you are already my friend on facebook you've probably seen her on my page (or at least know that I have a dog name Keiko). Keiko is my pride and joy. To this day she is still probably the single most expensive thing (well not 'thing' but you know what I mean) that I have purchased. I bought her on impulse when I was obsessing about puppies. At first I was insistent on buying a chihuahua, but I suppose the heavens had other plans. I believe that every person that enters my life comes for a Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime. I will explain this further down but it's pretty self-explantory.

 Story time! I met a guy friend who was in the same faculty as I was during university. I was in 1st year and he was in second. Truth be told, we don't even talk anymore and I can't even tell you what his last name is. I randomly hung out with him one summer day and he had the cutest, scruffiest little mop of fluff dog name "Iota" pronounced "EE-OH-TA." Iota looked like a furry little caterpillar; sometimes it was difficult to tell which was his front and which was his back lol. My friend had to go somewhere for a weekend so he asked me if I would be able to take care of his puppy. I've never been allowed to have a dog at my parents' house, let alone take care of one over a whole weekend....so I did it without consulting them! They fell in love with him surprisingly, and I knew at that moment that I was meant to get a shih-tzu and not a chihuahua. I returned Iota back to my friend and due to courses, lack of mutual friends, and plain-loss-of-interest, I never really talked to him again! However, I will never forget him because without him, I would never have thought to get my precious lil' baby Keiko.

Point is, my friend came as a "Reason" in my life. Ever heard of that little story? I'm too lazy to retype it and you've probably read it so if you're really that interested click here. People come and go a lot in my life and I always like to classify them as "Reasons, Seasons, or Lifetimes. I guess "reasons" are always the easiest to spot since they are there the shortest amount of time. The reverse is true too: "Lifetimes" are harder to recognize because, well, it takes your lifetime! I guess I'll blog who were my lifetimes when I'm lying in my death bed.


Okay no more depressing things. On to some pretty pictures of my baby and me!

Keiko with her siblings! Keiko is on the furthest right with the biggest head lol. Beside her is her brother, sister, and other brother that's only barely peeping out from behind. Don't let the picture fool you though...she's the smallest of the bunch. Only her head is the biggest.

Keiko with her first little McDonald's happy meal toy that I swiped from work. Look how small she was!

Her favorite outfit: spider outfit. Jk. She hates it.

Me & Keiko on my 24th birthday

Like mother like daugther

xoxo,

Hanny

The Evolution of Internet from the point of view of a mid-twenty year old

Blogging is very intimidating. The last time I touched html code I was in grade 11 at high school and I remember being so proud of myself for inserting and centre aligning a picture. Even that marquee feature..does that still exist? Haha I've never felt so old and out of the loop before. *Note: Marquee is that thing that moves words from right to left* *Second note: if this still exists and is still quite common I guess I just made a fool of myself* Aiya.

Right now I don't even know how to make a post template so that all my new posts have this font and colour? I manually have to click on this light grey color and the Trebuchet font and centre align buttons. That's THREE things I have to do to post. Oh, woe is me. I'm such a noob. -_- I started this blog thinking, I'm going to be so pro. I'm going to learn every tag and widget and customizable object on this page that I can improve to reflect my style more. All the "professional bloggers" have links to their facebook, twitter, youtube and even MUSIC on their pages. In the end, I chose the template mode and moved things around with the user-friendly layout/template mode that Blogger provides. Ha! I guess I would rather be lazy than be creative. By golly wow I learned something new about myself.

I'd like everyone to think of the Internet Evolution that has occurred these past few years. It hasn't even been a decade yet and it amazes me how the Internet has changed my life.

1. Browsers: Netscape -> Internet Explorer -> Firefox/Safari

Do people still remember Netscape? Hahahha. The explorer that took forever to load up but seemed 'superior' to Internet Explorer? It had the big capital "N" as its logo. I think I started using this back in Grade 5 to look up sailormoon pictures. Remember all the 'cool' browsers? Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, Askjeeves...errr...that's all I can remember. What happened to them all? The Internet should just be renamed to Google. No one says "Just Internet It!" afterall. I use both IE and Firefox (Yes, I am a PC, and Windows 7 was my idea). I don't see a difference so I click whatever is in my line of vision. Safari seems to be the same too. I can't tell, I don't own a mac, but I do own an iPhone. Cool points for me!

2. The chatters: ICQ, YAHOO MESSENGER, AIM, MSN,

In order, that is what I used to talk to friends. Even non-friends. Remember how ICQ had that option, 'Random chat" or something like that? Why isn't that popular anymore? I guess most people realize it isn't that fun to talk to strangers. LOL. I don't even use MSN much anymore. Who wants to chat when I can just wall post/text? Which leads me to my next point.

3. The personal websites: Xanga. Geocities. Angelfire. Asianavenue (aka "AA"), Blogger

 I actually never had any of these. Okay I lied, I made an angelfire one that I never updated. I don't even remember the address for it anymore. A lot of my friends back in Grades 8 through 10 had it though. I remembered thinking, "WOW. They are so cool and smart. How do they own a piece of the Internet?!" Yes, I was quite dumb. I guess the only one left is Blogger, but that's only because it's still relatively 'new.' Defintely more user friendly. Actually, I can't pretend I know because I don't know how easy/hard it was to use the other sites. I'm such a poser.

4. The social websites: Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, Linked In
I guess this is more of the "present" now. Minus Friendster which is not cool anymore. NOT COOL okay? I think myspace will eventually fall off the face of the planet too once people realize how trashy it has become. Myspace is like the popular snobby hot girl in highschool and facebook is like the classy and smart kid that everyone liked. In the end, you'll all grow out of Myspace! Hahahhaha. What a waste of your precious 100 hours of your life updating everything.

 We're all getting so lazy to update our OWN personal sites that the social media ones have become even more popular. Think about it, they are the ultimate blogger template lol. You don't have to really learn anything and you don't need to be creative because all the pages look the same! I think I actually like that better because you will always know where to click to stalk learn about the person you are viewing. I feel like there's so much information overload that I just want everyone to have only one website, one email, one contact number, ....no creativity! It just takes up too much space in my brain for me to learn everything about your life and it's like a drug! I don't really gain much use from learning what your favorite food and/or makeup is, but for some reason I really like to know?! WHY? Why are we all so curious about each others' lives?  Okay now this sounds like a rant which I don't mean it to be. I am such a hypocrite lol.

5. Miscellaneous: Blogs, Twitter, Youtube, Ebay, Skype
My boredom factor is starting to kick in so I better blog quick before I lose interest. Oh..no....starting....to...lose..interest...getting...painful..to..continue...typing. Okay. I failed. No more typing I'm tired now. I hate to end my post on a stupid note but I need to get my day going! Blogs, Twitter, Youtube, Ebay ...I'm sure all the 20 somethings that are reading this post know what I'm talking about. It seems like there's so much new things to see and learn that it makes me wonder how much time we should learn any one program or site because everythings becomes obsolete so quickly!  Note to self: do not post overly long blog posts that might eventually become obsolete.

...I guess I already failed that one, huh?

My First Entry

It is 2:50am on April 7th, 2010. I have read many blogs these past few years and secretly followed (okay, stalked) the lives of many bloggers out there - typically the makeup gurus. I'm the worse kind out there too; I never comment nor subscribe - I prefer to stalk from afar. Yes, shame on me. I don't think it's because I'm socially awkward (*nerdy laughter followed by snorting of nose and pushing up of glasses*); I think it's because I'm lazy. I DO love makeup and I DO love shopping but my passion for anything is really quite fleeting. Makeup, clothes, hairstyles, cooking, eating, studying, tv-watching, daydreaming; it seems that my mind can only focus on one thing at a time. I obsess over obsession! I just like to obsess over one thing at a time and research the crap out of it until I get bored and move on.
As I stare at this flickering cursor practically begging me to type another word I realize how personal a blog really is. It is a public diary that will forever evidence that my existence, well, existed! (Can I use 'evidence' as a verb? Hmm..)The more I think about what and how I should write, the more daunting the task is. Firstly, what should I talk about? Maybe this blog should be my own private time line that will chronicle my achievements (failures?) that will continue from this post onwards. Or maybe I should keep it short and simple and talk about the things I want to buy, the things I've done over the weekend and the people that are pissing me off in life. LOL. Jk. Maybe it'll be a combination of the two. Maybe. Probably. Yes. Secondly, how should I write? Should I show my more intellectual $40,000-worth-of-education writing abilities or should I talk as if I were in high school again -straight forward with a lot of slang and minimal use of proper grammar? Should I be funny? Endearing? Sweet? Crazy? Oh the joys of being a Gemini. I'm not two-faced, I'm ten-faced, get it straight. I wouldn't want to anger me. -_-

Alright, I have no more inspiration for tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Insert picture of me looking very innocent and daydream-y.

xoxo,
Hanny