My birthday treats

So I had a superb day yesterday.

Harvey is a wonderful person to celebrate ones birthday with; he almost gets more fun out of it than the birthday person!  He sang “Happy Birthday” to me upon awakening, and at intervals during the day and kept saying, “it’s your birthday!,” in a tone which indicated what a VERY big deal it was!

After he made breakfast, we down to the shopping centre near us where he had to do a bit of banking and I waited for him in one of our chain drugstores which has perfumes and other enticing bath products. I ended up getting some gorgeous bath gel by Crabtree and Evelyn; it has the most enticing smell but I haven’t used it YET..

Then we went to another mall where I got some lovely perfume and also some chocolate

YUMMY

from our wonderful Purdy’s

Now that I had  been spoilt, we went to one of our favourite Chinese restaurants(this is it, was surprised to find a picture of it!) where we had an excellent repast of  sauteed spinach, beef, ginger with a big bowl of rice , of course.

Now it was time for our road trip.

Off we went up to a park/lagoon/ ocean/beach area called Witty’s lagoon.

(click on each photo for a larger view)

Witty's lagoon(fresh water) looking toward bridge

I took a few photos,

The one above shows the lagoon

and this one

looking toward open Ocean(salt water, of course) and Olympic mountains

shows the gorgeous ocean and beach. It was VERY very windy but exhilarating, and we enjoyed tramping around both sides…

Then home we went, refreshed and yet simultaneously exhausted. LOVELY!

Good dentist appointment reward; off to a good Chinese food dinner

H’s son and daughter in law have invited us to meet them at our favourite Chinese restuarant(their treat in honour of H’s brirthday; yes a bit late but better late than never!)

It should be good!

I just got back from having a dentist cleaning and checkup; one that I had put off about 3 times(remember how I dislike going to the dentist?)

It was a good appointment, and the cleaning was painless, so I can now wrap my sparkling choppers around the good meal!)

Funny but successful day

This was a funny day; the beginning was, anyway.

I had thought that it was H’s birthday, and was pestering him with requests of a desired itinerary(the birthday boy, after all) He was laconic(but also thought that it was his day)

THEN we looked at a calender and realised that tomorrow was the day to celebrate! LOL.

Then we started thinking about what we wanted to do for Christmas. We have been in town the past two years and were both feeling like it would be good to, “get away”.

So we began the usual search at all of the travel sites online; expedia tending to remain the favourite.

In short we are going to Vegas for the Christmas week! We are going on a DIRECT flight(which will only take us two and half hours(rather than 10 hours total, comprised of short flights then hours waiting for the connection..)

We are both excited, as we both love going there(me, not to gamble but to window shop and just enjoy being in a new local while H will play a bit of blackjack(at which he is a modest player, with a strict monetary limit)

Then in between, we will stroll around, view the new sites, people, eat good meals and enjoy staying in a hotel!

After we had finalized our trip details we had to rush, as we were supposed to pick my mom up to go for lunch.

When we got there, we found that my sis wanted to come with us which was nice. We had hoped that the new nearby Bistro was open but sadly it doesn’t open on the weekends(weird) so we had to settle on the good restaurant we often frequent with with my Mom.

After a good lunch, I dropped H off to visit with his brother while I came to the library…

Now I am TRYING to remember the name of an author of a book that looked terrific while we were browsing in a bookstore with my Mom…

Chinese banquet

H belongs to a  Chinese benevolent society club and two or three times a year we get to profit thereby in the form of a lavish banquet.

Last night was one such event.

We had such a good dinner that I thought I would blog it…

The dinner’s always feature at least nine dishes(this is traditional) and even the types of dishes tend to be quite traditional. Over the years though I have noticed there are less red meat dishes and even pork is taking a minor role compared to even 10 years ago. This reflects the members need to eat a bit more healthily…

For those who have never been to such a meal; the dishes are brought out seperately(but this is NOT western chinese food; no “sweet and sour pork” is ever featured nor either of these two ubiquitous western palate favourites; “lemon chicken” or even worse, “chop suey”)

We started with a cold plate that had several appetizers;

my favourite amongst these is a lovely little egg pasta, “package” ,that contains a savory piece of “chinese or shitake mushroom”. They are JUST big enough for a mouthful. Yum..

Also on the plate was Jellyfish, another universal favourite; crunchy and a bit chewy with a lovely mild flavour similar to abalone.

Closely following behind the appetizer platter was the soup. Sometimes it is birdsnest, other times sharks fin,(which due to ethical concerns has actually disappeared from most restuarants offerings)

but tonight it was fish maw. The fish maw is combined with crab and is a very delicious soup.

After the soup(and after every one has put their used bowl into the larger soup bowl so that the servers may remove it, thus making space for dishes to come) arrives

the delicately roasted and tiny quail legs..VERY tender, and very moist and surprisingly very low fat…

Next to arrive is one of the stars of the evening,

the lobster. It is steamed with ginger and when presented is nicely cracked so one doesn’t have to wrestle with the shells…

The servers passed around hand towels at this point;  after eating lobster and the quail ones hands got quite messy..lol.

NEXT arrived the Prawns which are served with sugar snap peas and candied walnuts. The peas are lovely; so crunchy and the prawns also have just the right amount of crunch but are not too chewy..

Next comes a nice dish which  I particurlay like;

fish with tofu (this is EXACTLY what it looked like; interesting that the tofu is japanese… These  are yummy little parcels , about a two bite size; succulent with a lovely sauce.

NEXT(more??) camea dish which ALSO featured tofu but this time a dried version served on a bed of young baby bok choy.

Then, another star of any chinese cuisine the Crispy skinned chicken.

Finally the penultimate dish; a sweet and sour fish(panned fried with a sweet and sour sauce poured over)

Lastly, but not least came the fried rice. This was the only dish that wasn’t very good, perhaps the poor cooks were tired after cooking so many dishes for so many at once(as the restuarant had regular patrons as WELL as our club) so I am only going to say that fried rice is a hard dish to get JUST right. This one was sprinkled with FISH ROE and it was yukky (but probably not cheap)

After such a repast were we rolling on the ground in agony? Not at all! In fact in is very similar to eating good french food; one comes away feeling comfortable but never bloated.

Early Birthday treats

It is my birthday on Monday but don’t worry, I will definitely be talking about it lots before the actual day.

I personally LIKE my birthday.

I don’t care that I am getting older(we all are!) but see it as a fun celebration that is just for me, and what could be nicer!?

Today dear sweet patient H took me shopping after giving me some money to go wild with. It was fun, and I still have some left…

All I got so far is some tea( Hurrah!); two kinds, my favourite orange spice chai(but in LOOSE leaves) and

Some gorgeous (loose leafed) summer chai..which is spiced tea with raspberries…(NOT sure the pic turned out bigger, but oh well!)

Then on my request we visited a fav natural foods store where I purchased some lovely body lotion(Alba botanica, again).

Then I went to the english sweet shop and got a few goodies..

We parked our car and walked into town from the china town here. We walked about an hour and a half, most pleasantly by the water and through the old town. There are still lots of tourists around so it was quite busy and bustling. We got to chat with the employees in the stores that we have come to know over the years, so that was pleasant too.

Right now we are enjoying the summer chai tea. It is truly a refreshing and intensely flavoured tea with just the right amount of spices…

Tonight we are going out to eat at a good restuarant nearby. SPOILT!