So It Begins...Dine Out Vancouver 2013

It's been a nearly a year since my last post on here, what is "en foote", why it's journey of life. In the last year, I've had the fortune to spend over 3 months trekking around much of Europe http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/ritawritatravel/1/tpod.html for my travel blog, meet new friends, explore a number of cities in countries. In just over a month, I'll be on African soil, albeit for just a short trip in Morocco.

Life is a celebration no matter what we do, where we go, who we're with. At the end of it all, it's a journey we can look back on and smile at. Had the world ended on Dec 21st 2012, there was little that I wished I had been able to do. With the world continuing as I believed, this is a time to continue that spirit and keep on living, and what helps us keep us living? Why food of course.

For us lucky ones, food more than just feeds us. Moreover, dining out is an experience to share with friends, it is the experience of a meal in an environment. I am not the most experienced foodie, but I like good food and eating, and sharing it with friends. This year my restauranting days begins at Five Sails Restaurant at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver.

Five Sails is always a hot spot during dine out, with reservations booked up early on. A tip from my brother secured me and my friends a table on the opening weekend of the festival. We were able to get a table by the window, just to the left of the sails as we looked out into the night sky. With the heavy fog currently hovering in the city, we felt a trippy looking outside. It was almost as if we were aboard the Titanic in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean without the waves.

Having previously scoped out the menu, it didn't take us too long to make up our minds. Between the four of us, the only dish we didn't cover was the gnocchi. Beginning with appetizers, the ravioli with steelhead salmon and dungeness crab was stands out unique from the salad and roasted porcini mushroom soup, though reportedly it was short of amazing given that the pasta was a bit too chewy and the spinach a bit mushy. My soup was nice and light with good flavor, though the lone crouton was too lonely and could have used a few companions. Good reviews on the salad.  We were offered walnut cranberry bread to go with the appetizers, which had a good flavor combination between the nuts and fruit. The bread was a bit hard to cut and required some tearing, but such is the case with most dinner buns.

Onto the main course where we had 3 orders of the soy glazed marinated sablefish to 1 of boneless Wagyu ribs. Both would be good choices as they were satisfying in taste and presentation. I quite liked the sablefish and the sauce grew on me throughout the course. A good portion and smooth texture, it left us wanting more in a good way. The accompanying shimejii mushrooms went well with the sauce and also had us wanting more. Wanting more is always a good thing right?

Dessert - usually my favorite course saw both options arrive at our table, the luxe lemon mille-feuilles and an apple strudel and tart with homemade pistachio ice cream. Leaving the better for last, the presentation of the strudel and tart left more to be desired and nothing too special, though the pistachio ice cream was liked. The luxe lemon mille-feuilles was paired with a chocolate wonton - strange I know. Whereas the apple option was paired appropriately in terms of flavor, the chocolate was an oddity I could have happily done without as it didn't go well with the lemon and phyllo pastry concoction.

The chocolate sits in a tiny ball (not pictured) beneath the fried ends of the wonton wrapper that stretched above the plate, oily and unnecessary as it made for messy eating as the wrapper flaked off as you try to eat it. Now, the lemon and phyllo was beautifully together with just the right amount of tang and creamy texture. My only complaint was that the phyllo was card hard to gently cut through. The trick to cutting a bite sized piece? You'd have to do a quick jab down with your fork.

Overall a good meal, that while not the most filling was fairly satisfying as our later seating allowed us to chat after dinner in the restaurant. Add points for atmosphere and great service, this is a place to check out whether you see the North Shore mountains through the windows or not.

Night out at The Hub & Milestone's

The nicest nights out sometimes are just chilling with friends, and exactly what we did over the weekend, especially when they involve friends you haven't seen in awhile.  Our adventure begins with an old friend visiting and a common wanting of a bellini.  Browns has grown to be the spot (at least among us) for bellinis, and who can argue at $4 any given night.  The problem though was location, either way out west by UBC or in Kits where it's not as easy to get to via transit - until we looked on an out of date website that claimed and had an address for Yaletown.

That said, we set off mid-week to scout this out, and after circling around, we finally get the response from some helpful valets - "I think it's been gone for awhile, otherwise it's a couple stores from the Starbucks".  Gone?!? Indeed he was right, and when we checked with the hostess there, our disappointment confirmed. Browns Yaletown as been gone for 2 years. But of course we were there anyway, checked out the menu and were promptly back on the weekend.

Flash forward we sit down and without looking at the menu (since we already had) - the first words out were: "Can I get a bellini please?" to our surprise, we don't have any bellini's - whether anymore or that day, we didn't check. Sigh.  On to other drinks then.  

The raspberry lemonade was really not that great, lacking lemonade and was more water despite the colour.  Similar feelings were had about the classic lemonade.  I had had a late lunch that day so only ventured for dessert food-wise. Also pictured below are some appies.

photo by Shannon K

Friends ordered the brownie pazookie - which was pretty cool, coming in a skillet that kept the brownie warm.  As for the apple crisp, it was quite tasty, though it definitely needs more crumble. Food-wise it's alright, good place to watch the playoffs though. They've also got a nice selection of burgers.

 
Following our outing at The Hub, we headed over the bridge to Milestones to meet with other friends.  Now full, we didn't order much food, but to our delight we did get our desired bellini's.  10 people, 5 bellini's, not a bad ratio =) Top it off with really good service, and a great waiter, one who of few who can help you pull off a fun joke with a completely straight face.  "ID please." (though the person clearly was of and over age) "Can I see a secondary piece of ID?" 

Why you ask? Let's just say it was a fun way of retaliating for a fun booster seat joke =) In the end, you could always find compliments out of both jokes.

Icy Plates in Winter

Who eats ice cream in the middle of winter? Who eats icy plates in the middle of winter? Why do they eat cold things in the middle of winter and late at night?  Sometimes it's not what we're eating but the company that we're with.

My group of high school friends and I got together last night to send off one of our friends who will be moving away to Toronto for work.  While most of us do see each other regularly around birthdays and new year's, it wasn't this often that we all are able to get together, especially with everyone's busy schedules.  As we sat there chatting and catching up with those we hadn't seen in a long time, it made me realize how long we had known each other and how lucky we are to still be in touch and good friends.

Technology, while we've been lucky, with Facebook and email, was a way we were able to stay in touch - but it's really not the same as the old traditional ways of getting together, talking on the phone, or writing a letter and mailing it.  The warmth we feel amongst family and friends can ward off any cold predicaments. It is a feeling that sadly technology will unlikely ever be able to evoke. Nor should it, humanity needs interaction amongst its members, real life physical interactions that no machine can ever provide.  You've all hugged someone, kissed someone, shaken hands, smiled during a phone call, you know what I'm describing.

Of course when it's impossible because you're literally miles away, then technology is a wonderful gift that while it can't substitute entirely, can be a good surrogate.

So despite this cold weather we've been having, pull yourself away from the computer sometimes and get outside, perhaps have an icy plate with your friends. You can pick and choose the toppings, just like how we can choose to live our lives.

 

Games Night - 1 of ____ for 2011

There's nothing like getting together with some friends in for a night of eats and games, when it's cold out and the 12% HST hangs over our heads.  We began the night with a homemade meal, and sadly I forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures.  

We had a Singaporean noodle soup which was super yummy, though a little on the spicy side. I'm not sure exactly what's in the recipe, but the assembly goes like this:  Rice vermicelli, sliced boiled eggs, tofu puffs, bean sprouts, and the soup base, topped off with sliced orange limes for taste.  There was also smoked salmon, a cheese plate, chips & salsa plus several desserts to boot, including yummy cake and an apple crumble pie.  Needless to say, the table was covered with plates, but luckily our first game didn't require much room - APPLES TO APPLES.

It was a regular favorite, and for those of you who don't know it, it's lots of fun, and generates great conversation.  There are two sets of cards, topic cards and answer cards.  Each player takes a turn to read a topic card (only 1 per person can do this per round). Everyone else selects from the answer cards in the hand the answer that they think best suits the topic card - or rather the card they think the person who read the card will pick.  The chosen answer cards are laid down and mixed up before the topic card player reads them and makes their decision.  The player whose card is chosen gets to keep the topic card as a point.  Depending on how many players, the number of points needed to win differs.  

Onwards then to Saboteur, a card game, that required us to clear space for playing surface. The object of the game is to find the gold nugget card.  There are 3 nugget cards that are faced down and mixed up.  Players then need to use cards in their hand to build a path from the starting card to what they think is the gold nugget.  Of course it would be no fun if everyone is on the same side, so randomly and secretly players are split into miners and saboteurs, with the saboteurs' goal behind to stop the miners from getting to the gold.  There are a few more rules but I won't get into it here.  Was a saboteur for the 1st and 3rd round.  The first we were just getting warmed up, but alas, the 3rd round was lots of fun - though it's rare for a saboteur to win.  Did I you ask? Nope, 1 against 5 --- I was close though, just needed one more card or rather if someone hadn't had a certain card.  Alas, next time =)

Those candy looking like objects are NOT candies.  Don't eat them, they're "gold"

Last of the night, we hit up Citadels, another card game.  This was new for most of us, but sounded like a lot of fun.  Players take turns being Assasins, Thieves, Magicians, Kings, Bishops, Merchants, Architects, and Warlords (note only one of each is available).  The goal of the game is to build 8 districts. Be careful though, just because you build 8 first doesn't mean you'll win as each district is worth different points with additional bonus points overall.  The roles change every round, and each character card has a different special ability including that to switch cards with another player, to "kill" them and thus skip their turn, to steal their gold or even yes, destroy another player's district, preventing them from winning.

All in all a great fun filled night =) If these sound appealing to you, pick one one up and give it a shot.  Apples to Apples is good with especially larger groups, while the remaining have limits on number of players.

Winter Blues

2 years ago, I got hit with my first case of winter blues.  The cure? Hawaii for reading break.  Despite project deadlines hanging over my head, off I went =)  This year, the winter blahs are here - a cousin of the blues, because some days we feel more blah than blue.  I suppose school was a factor then, and now, it's needing a quick recharge on the creative juices which have been flowing since the beginning of the 2011.  Projects moving along, inspiration hitting, productive days and then some.  Maybe it's needed a bit of vitamin D and just another brief escape.  Hawaii pictures to come, that might be a good short term cure.

Focus

How much is too much? Most of my friends will tell you I've always got a lot on the go, between work, work, movie watching, volunteering, filming, a frien'ds birthday, there's usually something going on.  It is today Wednesday of the week of the blue-est Monday people say, that I start questioning the reality of what I've set for myself as a goal to complete this year.  Is it the right timing? What about previously unforeseen projects that come up? What about personal goals, such as writing a screenplay, that will inevitably take longer than planned? How does one fit everything they want to do in a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, a lifetime? Maybe we try to do too much, because we can't let go and turn down things.
A director I met once said to me, focus on one thing, and you will do it well. Focus on one thing at a time.

Good advice, now if only I knew which was the most important so that I can focus.

Reviving and Updating

People say, knowledge is key, and there definitely is truth to that, because only be knowing can we use the information to achieve our plans and goals.  I attended a film networking breakfast this morning. It's been a long time since I last went to one, but with the topic being feature film development and production via Telefilm support, it was definitely time to go, get updated information and be re-inspired.

Updated information yes, re-inspired, hm..we'll get there.  As usual, there are always more applications than there is funding for.  However, knowing a bit more about the program keeps us grounded into what realities there are in terms of obtaining Telefilm funding.  When I went to school, finance plans were so easy to create because it wouldn't be real.  The project I worked on was a $5 million dollar budget that we poured hours of work into, cashflows, budgets, financing plans.  We had Telefilm in for 49% as we knew that to be the maximum, though I learned today, unlikely that we actually would be able to that amount, usually it's less.

So what's a producer got to do? Get creative, pre-sell rights, get some private investment. One day, everything will come together.