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Archive for the ‘Hang-Out with Friends’ Category

[Travel] Wine Experiences at TIME Winery & Kitchen, Penticton

Posted in Fried, Hang-Out with Friends, Joyce, Lunch, Okanagan, Restaurants, Tasting Room, Travel, Wine, Wine Pairing, Wine Series, Winery Dining, Wings, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Over a five-day winecation in the Okanagan (yes, we have an “official” name for our wine vacation) with our friends B&K, we visited a number of wineries, eateries and attractions in the area. One of which was TIME Winery & Kitchen in Penticton. Back in 2018, we had a tour of the winery prior to its opening, having the opportunity to speak with the late Harry McWatters and his vision for the urban winery. Fast forward to 2022, TIME has changed hands to Ron and Shelley Mayert, with the McWatters sisters continuing to manage the operation. B&K are wine club members there, and there are perks such as a discount on food and complimentary wine tasting. We ended up spending 3 hours at TIME, starting with a lunch.

Food & Wine

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[#DineOutVancouver 2021] Social on Commercial Drive

Posted in Casual, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Hang-Out with Friends, Happy Hour, Joyce, Lunch, No Reservation, Restaurants, Steak, Vancouver, West Coast, tagged , , , , , on March 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Life has been busy so I didn’t really look into Dine Out Vancouver until there were only 2 weeks left. There were a few interesting, attractive menus but many came from restaurants that I’ve been before. Since I don’t dine out very much these days, I wanted to use the opportunity to try some place new. Then I spotted a good deal at Social on Commercial Drive. Social has only been open for a few months, back in October 2020 in midst of the second wave of COVID.

Social offers a 3-course menu for only $25, and it’s available for lunch or dinner. Sure, you don’t get to choose your appetizer or dessert, but there are 4 options for entrees, including trout and 8oz sirloin baseball steak. I thought that’s really good value for your money. On their regular menu, the trout would be $28 and sirloin baseball steak costs $36. I decided to take Mama Lam there for lunch.

Food

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Tocador – Cocktails and Cuban Inspired Eats in Mount Pleasant

Posted in Cocktails, Dinner, Hang-Out with Friends, Joyce, Late night, Latin American, Neighbourhood Gem, Restaurants, Tapas, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , on November 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Cuban inspired restaurant in Vancouver? You don’t see many of them around, but there’s one right in Mount Pleasant. Tocador opened just last year and it’s all about the cocktail menu and share plates. I actually had the pleasure to interview one of its co-owners, Guy, a few years ago. This time, I was invited to sample the menu at Tocador.

Cocktails

First of all, let’s talk about its cocktail menu. It’s two pages long! One page is full of the classics, such as Negroni, Mojito, Hot Buttered Rum, Manhattan and Mai Tai. The other, is a list of original cocktails created by the team at Tocador. The two owners both started out as a bartender so it only makes sense that they pay a lot of attention to the cocktail menu. They infuse a lot of their liquors so you would see something like mango butter infused rum, red bell pepper infused mezcal and paprika infused tequila.

The Escocesa, for example, uses beet infused Dewars scotch.

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Ramen Koika – K-Pocha Menu at Robson location

Posted in Asian, Casual, Comfort Food, Dinner, Egg, Hang-Out with Friends, Japanese, Joyce, Korean, Late night, Noodles, Restaurants, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »

We’ve been to Ramen Koika a few times over the years, to both locations on Davie and Robson. We always ended up ordering a ramen. The black garlic one was my favourite and Mr. fell in love with the beef ribs one. Little did we know the Robson location actually has a K-Pocha Menu, serving up their version of many Korean favourites. We were invited to sample a few items off that menu.

Triple Black Garlic Ramen

Food

We love KFC! As in Korean Fried Chicken!! Their crust is always lighter and when they fry the chicken it’s always less greasy. And moist chicken breast.

It’s no difference here at Koika. The Soonsal Chicken can be either in sweet chilli or soy garlic, and we went for the sweet chilli as it’s our favourite sauce for KFC. There was a decent amount of boneless chicken pieces. The meat was moist, the exterior still held its crispiness and the sweet chilli sauce definitely packed some heat.

Soonsal Chicken

Next, the Gogi Tteok-bok-ki was spicy rice cake with pork belly. (more…)

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Baroness 小黑糖 – Bubble Tea in Kitsilano, Vancouver

Posted in Bubble Tea, Drinks, Hang-Out with Friends, Joyce, Restaurants, Taiwanese, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , on September 25, 2019| 1 Comment »

Another bubble tea shop opens in Vancouver. Hailed from Taiwan, Baroness is by design a boutique franchise with only 3 locations in Taiwan, 1 in Hong Kong, and now 1 in Vancouver. They are located near Broadway and MacDonald.

Baroness specializes in brown sugar pearls, so when you order pearls, you are guaranteed to get the brown sugar pearls in your drink. The franchise owner created his own recipe of brown sugar and he continues to oversee the production of this secret recipe to ensure quality.

Drinks

I was invited to a tasting of some of its signature drinks. They included:

Brown Sugar Milk (pictured right below) – Obviously I had to try this drink, since I’ve been on the hunt for the best Brown Sugar Milk. The drink was quite tasty. There was a lot of caramel flavour from the brown sugar, without being super sweet. I found the pearls to be softer than others but after talking to the franchisee, they explained that their pearls are typically softer in the first hour, while they are still warm. It worked out because as the drink was being brought to temperature with the ice, the pearls were of just the right texture for me. It had a softer exterior but nice and chewy inside.

Purple Yam Milk (pictured left above) – What a pretty drink! (more…)

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