I'm a little potato all mashed up.
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My online journal of my amazingly boring life. Don't expect anything juicy. I write those in my real journal at home safe away from prying eyes. Except for maybe my sister.
Dinner started off with a bread basket. I love bread and it always pleases me to have a complementary bread basket. Our party tried all the dishes except the Beetroot and Goat Cheese and Cream Spätzle with Butternut Squash. My favourite dish was the Roasted Baja Scallops. They were large and tasted amazing! The presentation of the dishes were very nice too. Each plate was like a work of art. I had the tuna for the main course and it was awesome and filling! It didn't look like much but trust me, everyone was very full by the end. I finished off with the Warm Apple Crumble. It contained a biscuit and cute little (and tasty) peach jelly cubes. We all agreed that we wanted more cubes in our desserts.
I highly recommend Ebo. I enjoyed the dinner very much!
Here is their full Dine Out menu:
Wild Mushroom Soup (V)
Purée of Wild Mushrooms, Feta Cheese, Seasonal Mushroom Sauté,
Truffle Oil
Beetroot and Goat Cheese (V)
Marinated Baby Beets, Molten Marcella Goat Cheese, Organic Lettuce,
Textures of Apples, Pine Nut Granola
Roasted Baja Scallops
Vanilla Scented Cauliflower Puree, Serrano Ham, Capers & Sultana Raisins
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Tuna
Rare Rice-Crusted Albacore Tuna Steak, Avocado Purée,
Asparagus with Serrano Ham, Chili Gastrique
Braised Beef Rib “galbijim”,
Crushed Potatoes, Braised Carrots
Cream Spätzle with Butternut Squash (V)
Slow Roasted Hazelnut Crumble, Caramelized Brussel Sprouts,
Chevre Noir
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Warm Apple Crumble
Granny Smith Apples, Raisins Coconut Streusel and Vanilla Ice Cream
Baked Marble Cheesecake
Berry Compote
Edit: I was wrong! It'll be an early spring! How did that happen?!
I'm betting that it'll be six more weeks of winter seeing that the cold air that is lingering around Vancouver doesn't seem to want to go away! I'm so cold in the morning that I don't want to get out of bed!
It's not preventing my flowers from starting to bloom though! Yay! Last year I planted a whole bunch of bulbs in the front yard. This spring should turn out to be very colourful. I am eagerly awaiting the spring! Snowdrops are blooming in the garden for a few weeks now and I see that daffodils are starting to come out of the ground! Some of my lilies are also starting to poke out of the soil. I'm so excited! I think I will buy some more snowdrops though. One here and one there doesn't give a lot of impact. I want clumps of snowdrops!When the weather is warmer I'll have to plant my "rescue" plants as well. They are the ones that I bought for a dollar or less at Canadian Tire when the planting season was over. Hahah I know I shouldn't have bought plants to try to revive but it was so inexpensive and I had a coupon for $5 off so it wasn't that much. I'll have to start weeding too. Those pesky weeds are coming back in again!
I also have a new camera so I apologize for the blurry photos while I'm still learning how to use it.
This year I went to Gramercy Grill with a bunch of friends. Their Dine Out menu was $28 and they had a fair selection dishes and also add-ons if wanted. I thought the food was faily good. I really enjoyed the Seared Ahi Tuna as the appitizer. My friends said they enjoyed the other appitizers as well. We were a table of five and we each ordered different things to try. The Cream of Cauliflower soup looked very good and so did the Triple A Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio which was the other one I wanted to try out. The main course was Braised Australian Lamb Shank. It was very succulent and the meat just slid right off the bone. I tried a little of my friend's Wild Mushroom & Asparagus Risotto and it was delicious! For dessert I tried the Crème Brule. It was cold and the sugar was melted and only crispy in the middle but it did taste very good cold.
The food at Gramercy Grill was good but the portions may be a little small for some people. Customer service was another matter. We had to wait a LONG LONG time between courses. I don't know if it was just us because another table came about when we were just finished the main course and waiting for dessert and they finished around the SAME TIME as us! We had to wait about 15 minutes just to get cold desserts! Yes ALL of the desserts were cold or room temperature! It shouldn't have to had taken that long to bring out. Then after when were paying the bill, we told them what to charge on the individual credit card and they them took away only to return 10 minutes later to ask us the amounts again! Was it because we didn't order any extras or wine or coffee? It shouldn't matter. All patrons should be treated equally!
I don't know if I will be returning. Good food, if not paired with good customer service leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Here was their Dine Out menu if you want to ever try them out:
Appetizer Choices:
Cream of Cauliflower Soup
Hearts of Romaine Salad
pancetta lardons, crispy capers, grana padano cheese, roasted shallot & garlic vinaigrette
Triple A Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio
truffle aioli, crispy capers & grana padano
Seared Ahi Tuna
sesame seeds, seaweed flakes & pea shoots orange ginger vinaigrette
Entrée Choices:
Oven Roasted Sablefish Filet
miso, ginger & tamari cream roasted baby carrots & asparagus, vegetable spring roll
Wild Mushroom & Asparagus Risotto
grana padano & mascarpone cheese
Cherry Creek Free Range Chicken Breast green onion mashed potatoes,roasted baby carrots & asparagus, truffle tapenade
Braised Australian Lamb Shank
merlot jus, butternut squash puree, roasted baby carrots & asparagus, pickled celery & carrot
Butternut Squash Agnolotti
sautéed spinach & tomato sauce, topped with grana padano cheese
Angus Triple A Beef Tenderloin
additional $5
garlic mashed potatoes, roasted baby carrots & asparagus, shiitake mushroom merlot jus
Baby Back Ribs & Blue Cheese Macaroni additional $5
house made whiskey barbeque sauce
Dessert Choices:
Lemon Tart
local berry coulis & whipped cream
Pecan Pie
cardamom caramel sauce & whipped cream
Warm Flourless Chocolate Torte
caramel sauce & whipped cream
Duo of Cheeses additional $4
Crème Brule
There is always the threat of the "Big One" looming in BC, ever since more than ten years ago I think. And I had heard we were overdue for one and it was rather anti-climatic when none really did occur. The last earthquake we experienced was the aftershock from Seattle and that was back in high school. It was rather funny at the time because I felt it shaking before everyone else and I was looking around the classroom to see if anyone else felt it but the everyone was acting normally and the teacher kept teaching. I was tempted to raise my hand and ask if it was an earthquake but more tremors started up and my teacher screamed "OMG IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!!!!"
So now everyone can practice drop, cover and hold on after all these years of going soft with no earthquakes. It never hurts to be prepared. Which reminds me that I still need to put together an earthquake kit.
You can find out more about the ShakeOut here at http://www.shakeoutbc.ca/.
It's been a long time since the last time I have drawn anything...When was it?...My last pic upload was winter of 2008! That's really too long I've been absent from the art world. I'm thinking of starting up again. I have a Tron themed pic floating around in my head. There are a few things a want to buy though. I'm thinking of purchasing Photoshop CS5 and upgrading my Wacom tablet. But I also want to some other electronics like a DSLR! Then there's the Kinect. Decisions, decisions...
Photoshop CS5 - US $199.00 on Adobe.com
Wacom Tablet - CDN $69.01 on Amazon.ca
Maybe I should just not delay and purchase them. I'm still waiting for the Canon T2i to come down in price a bit. Maybe next boxing day...or black friday.
The one-year anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic games is fast approaching and there are events going to be hosted everywhere in February. One of these events is a film called With Glowing Hearts: A Vancouver 2010 Social Media Story. This documentary will talk about how social media had a huge and positive impact during and after the games for the people living in Vancouver by letting everyone tell their own story. For a limited time, tickets to the screening are free! Request tickets here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1203033305/?ref=estw
Watch the trailer here:
So this latest site is called The Daily Steal. And to get lots of people to follow them they are hosting a HUGE giveaway which started today! All you have to do is sign up! http://thedailysteal.ca/?utm_source=uu2531
Make sure you use the registration code located in step number 2 because they will credit your account with $10 right away for you to use on their deals!
Here are the list of prizes to be won:
Day 1: $200 Memory Express GiftCard Day 8: one Apple iPad every 12 hours
Day 2: $200 BestBuy GiftCard
Day 3: $200 Metropolis GiftCard
Day 4: $200 Starbucks GiftCard
Day 5: $200 FutureShop GiftCard
Day 6: $200 Holt Renfrew GiftCard
Day 7: 7 Days in Paradise in Orlando Florida. (Value $3000)
Day 9: one Apple iPad every 12 hours
Day 10: one Apple iPad every 12 hours
Sign up at The Daily Steal today and get in on the giveaway!
Incendies begins with the reading of the will of Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) to her twin children Jeanne (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette). Naval's last requested to her children is to deliver two letters - one to their father, whom they thought was long dead and a letter to a brother they never knew existed. This sets the twins off on a journey to the Middle East where they start to discover their mother's horrific and heartbreaking past and in turn discover theirs as well. The movie shifts back and forth in time following the twins’ journey to find their brother and father and Nawal’s journey to find the son that she was forced to give up. The movie just builds and builds until the shocking revalation at the end.
How to describe this movie? Incendies has me leaving the theatre reeling. Montreal filmmaker Denis Villeneuve draws us into the tangled story of Nawal Marwan and her children with great skill. It is not a feel-good movie but I cannot deny it is very good storytelling.
Incendies has already won a lot of awards and there are rumours that it will be up for an Oscar in February.