The Urban Grind at Harbour Centre [events]

I've always loved taking part in local community events and trying out new things. I realized I haven't participated in any local events for a long time and I have almost forgotten how much I enjoyed doing things like that. 

If you like trying new things in Vancouver, enjoying gorgeous views, and could use some exercise, then this is perfect for you. The Urban Grind at Harbour Centre is a winter alternative to the Grouse Grind, though of course, it is shorter. 40 flights of stairs, 593 steps, up the 28-storey building to Vancouver Lookout. Ok, does that sound exciting? It did to me. It's not just about climbing staircases, but it's the atmosphere and the reward that you get when you reach the top.

Currently, they are doing a promotion for every Tuesdays in March. Simply pay $5 for entrance and you get $5 back in food voucher to use at the food court at Harbour Centre. You also get a free cup of beer at the top! It's a win-win situation.

coat check, food voucher, beer ticket

Here we go! Starting from the lobby and from staircase #1! 

Don't expect any fancy staircases though. This is what they look like:

And more of this. 

We've reached the top!

Skyscrapers of the world

Harbour Centre is relatively very, very short. 

At the top, they have a live DJ. 

And beer! This is what I'm talking about. 

Though your ticket only gets you 1 cup, there's always that option of paying though. 

There's also no need to carry water with you as each person gets a bottle of water at the top!

Beer & water

Views from the Vancouver Lookout:

It was a fairly gloomy day with fog, but I think that made it look nicer and calmer. 

View with beer.

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Shishinori: Hungry for More

Recently, I've noticed that Shishinori has been hitting Urbanspoon's homepage top ten "Talk of the Town" list. After browsing through a couple of food pictures, I was sold. Shishinori is a small and cute restaurant located on Cambie near Save-On-Foods. This restaurant reminded me of Marulilu Cafe, a nearby cafe that's also fairly cute. Even both are Japanese, their menus are completely different. 

It was the pictures of all the different and refreshing salads that attracted me to this place. As I'm trying to include lots more vegetables into my diet, I find it quite difficult to do that in typical restaurants. So, I decided to come here for dinner on a Sunday night. I got their wild salmon paradise bowl and I loved it, especially the appetizing dressing. This bowl contained brown rice, edamame beans, alfalfa sprouts, carrots, grape tomatoes, spinach, red radish, half an egg, and pieces of salmon sashimi. 

wild salmon paradise bowl $10.50

wild salmon paradise bowl

I loved how they have brown rice instead of white rice in this dish! Even though I enjoyed this dish, I was definitely not full. I wish there was more rice in it to go with the dressing as there was like just a small scoop of rice. (or perhaps I'm just a big eater) Oh, and there could also be a bit more salmon too.

wild salmon paradise bowl

The second dish we got was the ahi tuna carpaccio bowl. With any order, you can simply add $2.50 make it into a meal, in which you'll get a drink and miso soup or dessert.

ahi tuna carpaccio bowl with enoki portobello mushroom miso soup and green tea $12 + $2.50

I found that the ahi tuna was a little bland. Again, this "meal" was fairly small, and it seemed more like an appetizer to me.

ahi tuna carpaccio

Besides the presentation of the food, another aspect I really liked of this place is the wooden utensils and cutleries that they used. On the wall, they also have a projector that plays anime. As winter is creeping around the corner, I'd advise you to wear more if you are planning to visit this place! They had their doors wide open to show that they are indeed, open. However, I got chilly sitting there so I asked if they could close the doors. They told me they'd turn on the heat higher because they wanted to keep the door opened, but I didn't feel a difference. 

I'd definitely be come back to Shishinori to try other dishes or to even have the wild salmon paradise bowl again. Though portions are small and I wouldn't really say prices are cheap, but they are affordable and a much healthier choice. 

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Twisted Fork Bistro: I ate for free!

I love weekend brunches, whether it's at home with my family or out with my friends. This weekend, we decided to go to Twisted Fork Bistro in Yaletown. It's a fairly small place and only have about 8 tables with an open bar. We were told that the wait was 45 minutes and we decided to wait as we had set our mind to it already. They have an electronic waiting list and you can even request a phone call or text message in which you'd be notified several minutes before your table is ready. What I don't understand is that another group came in after us, and they were offered the bar so they didn't have to wait. I would have totally be OK with sitting there. 

Twisted Fork Bistro

Why is it called Twisted Fork? I have no idea, but I think it's very unique and they actually have twisted forks as decorations which I thought was pretty cool! (But no, the forks you're given to eat with aren't twisted.)

All their brunch items are now $14.00 each. (They were $13.50 before June 2014.) I had quite a hard time choosing as I wanted to try basically everything on their menu. Finally, I decided to go with the Gruyere Baked Eggs and my friend was set on the Eggs Benedicts, but guess what was brought to me? 

Eggs Benny

Two plates of Egg Benedicts! Yup, they got my order wrong. They're so busy, they didn't seem like they wanted to make a new one for me because they said that "this is very popular and it'd be on the house, are you ok with that?" I said yes, even though I'm not a fan of bacon. I didn't mind trying their Eggs Benny, especially when they're $0 and I was starving from all the waiting. Also, I'd feel bad if they throw that plate away and have to hold up their waiting list.

Eggs Benny with bacon

Eggs Benny with bacon - toasted brioche, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, sautéed spinach, rosti, and baked beans. Only one of my poached eggs was perfectly done; the other one was overcooked, perhaps it was sitting there a bit too long before being served and got cooked. The hollandaise sauce was perfect and I also loved the baked beans.

Eggs Benny with honey lager sausage

Eggs Benny with honey lager sausage - Basically the same as mine, but instead of bacon, my friend had chosen honey lager sausage. If I had chosen Egg Bennys, I would have gotten the honey lager sausages instead as I prefer sausages over bacon. Again, same problem with the poached eggs.

Remember to ask for their homemade ketchup! I just gotta eat rosti with ketchup (same as with fries, hash browns, etc.)

homemade ketchup

I've heard so many good things about their ("best ever") banana bread that I had to order some to go.  $4 for 2 slices which came with homemade jam and whipped cream. They packaged it nicely in a box. Their banana bread was very moist and had walnuts in them - my favourite! They were indeed very good, especially with their homemade cranberry jam, but I wasn't blown away.

Overall, I think this is a fairly cute place for brunch, but be prepare to wait or go earlier to put your name down first. The food also took about 30 minutes to arrive so there was a lot of waiting to eat here. I was pleased with the food, but I don't think it justifies the wait time entirely.

Menu

Menu

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Pâtisserie Für Elise: High Tea in a Super Cute House!

Think pink. Think princesses. Think tea party. Pâtisserie Für Elise in Yaletown is all that, and more. This is absolutely the perfect place for a bridal shower - so it was exactly what we did. We held a bridal shower here for my friend and they had a special room for us for 2 hours, which was perfect.

Because Pâtisserie Für Elise is actually in a heritage home itself, there are 2 floors of this high tea location. The main floor is a bakery shop where people can just go in and buy their products while high tea is on the second floor.

Once I stepped inside the house, I felt like I was in a dreamland of a princess. Everything was so detailed, adorable, and looked delicate, including their waitresses, whom were all wearing a very cute dress. I wish I had taken some pictures of the decor, but I was just too focussed on surprising my friend and living in the moment! Pâtisserie Für Elise offers their afternoon tea set menu for $30 per person with your own choice of tea.



Their menu of teas has an elaborate description of the teas, so you can get a good idea of your tea. Their selection of tea included the classics: honey scented black tea (apparently exclusively imported by them), Jasmine green tea, Earl Grey, and the more unique: creme brûlée, blueberry yogurt, to name a few.

First, we were our choice of tea with our own tea pots. It also came with a sandglass timer which is exactly 2 minutes so we know when the tea is done seeping. On our tea cups, we got a little birdie strainer for catching the tea leaves. Look at how delicate the cups look!



Secondly, we were then served a very delicious blueberry panna cotta. Smooth and creamy, light and refreshing, and not too sweet - absolutely perfect.

blueberry panna cotta

Then came our 2-tier of goodies! The bottom tier consisted of the savouries and the top tier were all the sweets. There were 4 of everything as we sat 4 per table.

Afternoon Tea at Patisserie Fur Elise

Savouries (bottom):

Proscuitto, brie, and fresh basil in a croissant - very yummy and a great start to the platter

Cucumber dill finger sandwich - simple, yet refreshing

Asparagus and mushroom quiche - loved the flaky pastry

Almond strusel scone - especially good with their homemade jam

Cheddar and pancetta scone - really liked the tad bits of green onion and pancetta

savouries

Almond strusel scone and proscuitto, brie, fresh basil sandwich croissant

Ok, so after the platter of savouries, I already felt quite full. Probably from all the butter. But as the saying goes, we girls have a second stomach for dessert! The top platter consisted of:

Honey madeleine 

Macaron

Maple pecan daisy tartlet

Tiramisu

Mini Für Elise

Sweets

From the sweet platter, I especially liked the maple pecan daisy tartlet and the mini Für Elise, similar to a strawberry mousse. It was smooth and had great strawberry flavour. 

I was absolutely stuffed after all the savouries and sweets! Overall, I really liked this place because of the atmosphere and the fancy, princess feeling I got while having high tea here. It was absolutely perfect to hold my friend's bridal shower with all the girls. We also had privacy as we had the private room in which we could place gifts and party favours, which I shall show in another post. In fact, I also played a couple of videos I made from my laptop here. Here is a group picture!

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Matcha Green Tea Waffles [Recipe]: Super easy!

I finally tried making waffles! Waffles are one of my favourites - either for breakfast, afternoon snack, or dessert! Recipe below!

Ingredients

I used the Hamilton Beach Waffle Maker. It's very easy to use, and extremely easy to clean as well. Put in batter, flip, wait, flip, done!

Matcha Green Tea Waffles

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk (I used Flax Delight)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp matcha powder
2 tbsp sugar
Topped with: Raspberries + Nestle Chocolate Syrup

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix together sifted flour, baking powder, matcha powder, and sugar thoroughly.

2. Make a hole in the middle and crack in the egg and pour in milk. Mix it until you get a smooth batter.

3. Depending on your waffle maker, you may want to butter the inside. Heat up the waffle maker and when ready, place 2 scoops of batter in the centre. Close the lid, wait for a minute, flip it over, and wait another 2 minutes. The waffle should be crispy on the outside, while soft in the inside.

4. Serve with chocolate syrup (or maple syrup) with fruits of your choice.

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