Horizons on Burnaby Mountain

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The horizon will not disappear as you run towards it. ~ Bantu Proverb Last night Suanne and I had a timeout from the boys and we went to a fine dining restaurant called Horizons on Burnaby Mountain. The restaurant is nestled in the beautiful Burnaby Mountain Park and overlooks the bright city lights of Vancouver below.

We had a reservation for 5pm. At this time of the year, it's just in time to see the sunset and the bright and yellow city lights turn on. While waiting for the restaurant to open we had a quick walk around the park in the crisp chilly weather ... the city looks so beautiful from here. This place is also referred to as The Playground of the Gods because of the many Japanese wooden sculptures on the park. We were seated by the windows and had a panoramic and spectacular view of the city and the Burrard Inlet. Already we knew this would be an enjoyable night. We see people starting to come in for dinner -- many dressed in their finest. Suanne too was stunning -- with her new leather jacket and all!

The menu is largely inspire by West Coast cuisine with grilled steaks and seafood over open flame. The setting is elegant with a warm ambiance. It's really a great and romantic place. We opted for a 3-course selection. I know it's supposed to be an elegant setting but I brought along my camera ... he he he, I must have attracted a lot of attention when my flash fired throughout the night. Note: Click on the pictures below to enlarge.

The night started off with the usual basket of warm bread and butter. It was OK, not too much of a flavour that we expect ... you know, we expect garlic-flavoured bread or so but it is just plain bread.

For appetizer, I opted for the Gulf Island Mussels. It is cooked with white wine, bacon and cream. The serving comes with seven large mussels. I like it very much. They were fresh and succulent. A very good start.

Suanne had the Roasted Tomato Soup for appetizers. The soup was prepared with fennel and garlic. It's not thick and rich -- just right. It was just warm for the cold winter weather. Truly an appetizer to start off the main course.

I chose the Grilled Beef Tenderloin for the main course and had a skewer of grilled prawns for sides. What makes this distinctive from the normal steak is that it is topped with blue cheese butter and served in red wine. I like my steak rare and it was prepared just exactly the way I like. I noticed that the plate was very hot -- I guess it's to keep the steak warm longer. The blue cheese butter makes this a 5 out of 5.

Suanne had the Herb Roasted Game Hen for her main course. It is served with Fondantes potatoes and served in apple sage jus. It was not bad except that it would be better if it comes with more juice -- it is a tad too dry for Suanne's liking. Well, it's also a bit clumsy because of the chicken is served whole, bones and all. The chicken is tender ... a 4 out of 5.

Suanne's desert was the Chocolate Mousse Cappucino. We like the way it was served with a sugar tuile made to look like fire out of the cup. This was excellent with three layers of distinct flavour -- the bottom was a layer of chocolate, the middle is the cappucino mousse and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Yum-yum!

I had the Warm Apple Brioche Pudding. The best part of this is the butterscotch rum sauce it was served on. I really like this a lot. A definite 5 of 5. Just the right touch of sweetness and a great dessert to end the night.

We both ordered a cup of coffee as we sat there chatted and looked over the now bright city lights. We felt that life is good.

As we walked back to the car, we stopped briefly in the light rain and looked at the bright lights. I took the last picture ... it did not turn out quite right, I wish I had my tripod with me. We will do this again -- it was a great way to end a hectic week.

Top Gun Sushi at the Quay

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If you find no fish, you have to eat bread. ~ Ghanaian Proverb The folks in the Service and R&R Project teams went to an all-you-can-eat sushi. They selected the one which is called Top Gun Sushi at the Quay. It is located on the second floor of the Public Market at the New Westminster Quay. I have never been there before but I have heard so much about Top Gun Sushi. Although it has ala carte but it is famous for it's all-you-can-eat.

We went early and arrived at 11:30am to make sure we have a table. It was a great idea because the place was really packed, especially so because it's a Friday afternoon. We had a great table by the window which overlooks the Fraser river.

The sushi was good, the selection was similar to the many all-you-can-eat sushis in the city. The prices are pretty cheap compared to some other places I went to. Here are the prices:

Adult: $9.95 weekday and $10.95 weekend Child (4-9 years old): $5.95 weekday and $6.95 weekend All-you-can-eat Salmon and Tuna Sashimi is just $2 extra -- pretty good deal.

Here are some of the items we ordered (CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR A LARGER VIEW):

So thanks a bunch for buying this lunch and for being such great project team members. I want to say that you are the reasons that our projects has consistently been successful. We delivered a lot didn't we?

Cactus Club Cafe on Kingsway

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Work like a slave and eat like a gentleman. ~ Albanian Proverb I have farewell lunches everyday right until my last day at work next week. Already I have gained 1kg since last week. I am not going to weigh myself anymore until all these lunches are over. Today's lunch is the "official" farewell lunch which is organized by the PMO. We went to the Cactus Club Cafe on Kingsway. The Cactus Club offers casual fine dining and has a very global menu. This place is one of the favourite lunch places the people in the company goes to because of the menu caters to every palate. The menu includes items such as dim sum, quesadillas, steak, burgers, pasta, ribs, and fajitas. Check out their menu and prices. I ordered the grilled salmon which if I recall correctly, costs $10.

The salmon is served with rice and green beans. The sauce used to cook the salmon is pretty spicy. I like the green beans which has a touch of saltiness. It was a big serving.

My boss paid for my lunch. Oh, I should have ordered the Ultimate Mushroom Deliglace at $31 ... just kidding boss!

It was a good gathering and felt appreciated because the PM team showed up along with many members of my projects. We did not talk about work at all, which is a good thing. We just ... chatted.

It has been a pleasure working with them all.

Grand Pacific Buffet in New Westminster

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"I heard" is good; "I saw" is better; "I tasted" is best. ~ Ben Yap The chinese employees at my workplace organized a Chinese New Year lunch celebration today. We do that every year. This year, they have graciously invited Suanne too for the lunch because they wanted to also make this a farewell lunch for me. For the first time, the organizer decided that we go to a buffet for a change. We went to the Grand Pacific Buffet in New Westminster. The Grand Pacific Buffet is a buffet with Western, Chinese and Japanese food with predominantly chinese food.

There were a lot of varieties. The food is so-so but then it's not fair to compare buffets to the normal restaurants. I was wary of MSG with the tell-tale thirstiness after the meal but nope, it was not at all. Suanne and I went for two full rounds and ended up sharing the dessert. The photos below does not tell much but anyway, these are our second round plates. It's about $8 for a weekday lunch.

Good food goes best with good company. These people are not co-workers but has been friends to me for a long time. I was always the odd one out with this group because I do not understand their brand of Mandarin. It does not matter, as long as the food is good -- they are the SME's (Best Buy's overused term for Subject Matter Experts) in Chinese food around Burnaby.

I have worked directly and indirectly with most of them on some of my projects. They are all awesome and great to have them in the team. I must say that one of the primary reasons that many of my projects were successful were because of these people. I will miss being around the office with them.

We raised our cups but I didn't know what they were toasting (remember, I don't understand their brand of Mandarin or for that matter, any brand of Mandarin?). But to me, my toast is for a great chinese new year ahead, success in their careers and may all their dearest dreams come true. Best friends deserve the best wishes!

So, here we are -- Ben and Suanne smilling from ear to ear. It's because we did not have to pay! Thanks buddies, for the treat. Oh ... remember to invite me for the chinese new year lunch next year ... this time I'll pay ... for my own, not everyone's!

I'm bringing Dilly Bars for everyone tomorrow.

My Commute

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Last night I made a thousand plans, but this morning I went my old way. ~ Chinese Proverb OK, I know this is not about food but I thought I have a break and blog about something I love to do very much -- biking. Well, many of you already know that I am leaving Best Buy. It's been a long six years and my last day at work is next week. Today is about the only day I could bike to work and so I thought I make a change and blog about my commute to work. My new place of work will be further and worse, I will have to navigate two killer hills. I guess it'll be a while before I get the chance to bike again.

I took it easy and stopped at various points to take pictures. Here is what my commute was like:

	I started off at 7am, much later than my usual commute. I mean, I am no longer in a hurry to get to work early. I always enjoyed this short part of the commute ... the South Arm Park
	The snow fell at the North Shore mountains again the past weeks. I find this is the beautiful side of Vancouver and am always awed by the mountains, particularly in winter.
	I looked east while biking along Garden City and saw the silhouette of Mount Baker. I tried to catch it on camera but the clouds obscured it somewhat. Anyway, the sun rise was beautiful. It's a beautiful day for a ride.
	I cross over to Vancouver thru the Oak St Bridge. Heavy traffic over the bridge as usual but there's an advantage on this stretch on a bike.
	Once in Vancouver, it's on the Kent Bike Route all the way to the office in Burnaby. I will miss this route having travelled countless times and do seem to know every part of the route.
	I stopped by the Fraser River side and saw someone working on a log boom. As I took the picture, I saw the pilot stared at me. I quickly put away the camera and biked on.
	I normally don't bike on this trail and stay on the asphalt. For today, I thought I take the more scenic route. I like this way because I get to greet people along the way. This is the friendly route.
	Ah, spent 6 years in this company. Saw it grew from strength to strength and today we have no peers in North America. Great people from who I learnt so much.
	Back to the desk. See that piece of pita? Well, it's Suanne's creation. I'll tell you about it next time.

Buns, Buns, Buns and Buns

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Warm food, warm friendships. ~ Czech Proverb Polly and Xiao Qin came by this morning to make the buns Ben & I blogged earlier. We made two batches of buns and experimented with four different type of fillings. Polly brought her own (stir-fried) minced pork and Xiao Qin brought some peanut butter. I still had some pulled pork leftover and I also bought some lotus paste from the Great One Supermarket.

I had the dough prepared the night before. So, we started off immediate filling the dough. Polly and Xiao Qin did the filling for almost all the buns while I played paparazzi. It was pretty hard work as it took almost 1 hour to fill 24 buns. We baked the buns in two different batches.

While waiting for the buns to rise and bake, we had a good time chatting about the upcoming Chinese New Year, and about our kids growing up in Canada. We also discussed techniques of disciplining our kids. :-) We had a good laugh.

All of us, both kids and mums, had the buns for lunch. The kids enjoyed Polly's minced pork bun while the mums had the spicy version.

Thanks for coming by and sharing your time with me, Polly and Xiao Qin. What did the rest of your family say of the buns? I hope they like it.

I had a great time. Let's do this more often.

Green Lemongrass Vietnamese Cuisine

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A good name is better than good habits. ~ Vietnamese Proverb We went to a Vietnamese restaurant today for lunch. There are a lot of vietnamese restaurant serving Pho' in Vancouver. The Green Lemongrass Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant we went to is apparently new because we have never noticed it before. If we remember correctly, I think it used to be a Greek restaurant. It is located in 8180 Westminster Hwy, just next to the Richmond Public Market. Click here for the Google Map of this location. We ordered three dishes to share among the four of us because vietnamese noodles always comes in very big bowl. All Vietnamese restaurants served the traditional Vietnamese noodles called pho -- noodles in clear beef broth. Norman always ordered either the Beef Ball Noodles or the ubiquitous No 1 Special. This time he ordered the No 1 Special which comes with thin cuts of beef (steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket), tendon, tripe and meatballs. Since Marcus liked spicy food, Suanne ordered the spicy version -- Pork & Beef in Hot & Spicy Soup. The large No 1 Special costs $5.95 while the Hot & Spicy version is $6.95. I ordered the Curry Chicken which costs $9.50. It was the first time I see that curry chicken is served in a claypot. The presentation was pretty good and come together with pieces of butter/garlic bread. The bread was very good and is eaten by dunking it into the curry gravy. We had lots of gravy left over and ordered extra servings of steamed rice. It was a good meal.