A Quinoa Burger Worth Writing About

This is just a quick blog that I felt compelled to post about an amazing burger I ate recently in my Kitsilano neighborhood.

To set the scene, I was out running some errands when suddenly it began to rain... and then POUR. I was caught without an umbrella, several blocks from home, with a what-feels-sorta-like-leather handbag. I HAD NO CHOICE but to declare 4pm a totally acceptable time for an early dinner and duck into the first restaurant I happened upon. It was Romer's Burger Bar, a place that, incidentally, I'd been wanting to go to for awhile anyway. Its location is just far enough down 4th Ave that we rarely walk that far for dinner or lunch, but here I was on that suddenly rainy afternoon - presented with the option of either dining there or running home in the downpour. I chose the former, obvi. That's what this blog is about. You know that.

Anyway. It didn't take me long AT ALL to figure out what was goin' in my belly that day:  their quinoa burger and their watermelon salad. Nom. Nom.

The details:

Keen-Wa Burger: A hand-crafted quinoa patty, skinny bun, avocado aioli, local goat cheese (which I skipped because EW GOAT CHEESE), tomatoes, greens, mustard vinaigrette, and what appeared to be julienned apples. I don't know why the apples weren't listed on the menu, but they was alright with me.

Watermelon Salad:  With watercress, watermelon chunks, feta cheese, and some sort of citrusy vinaigrette for dressing.

The damn things:

I MEAN. Good lord. Lookin good, quinoa burger! LOOKIN REAL GOOD. Tastin' real gewd, tew. Mmm... The orangey-citrus dressing on the watermelon salad was really bright and delightful as well. The quinoa burger fell apart a good deal, as most veggie burgers do. But look at those gorgeous little quinoa beads up there in that picture! LOOK AT THEM! For a golden burger to be made out of something so exquisitely natural and healthy... it's perfectly fine with me if I have to eat some of it with my fingers after it falls apart onto my plate. Still tastes delish.

So that's all I needed to say/show you from Romer's. Probably not the best review of the entire place, since it's a burger joint and all, and you'd probably be going there for the meat and the beefy burgers. But if you're a fan of veggie burgers and looking for a good one in Kitsilano... now you know that Romer's has you covered, brah.

Romer's Burger Bar
1873 West 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC

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This post isn't sponsored. I just love food.

Afternoon Tea Service at The Urban Tea Merchant

A few weeks ago, fellow Vancouver blogger Whitney posted a recap of an afternoon she'd spent at The Urban Tea Merchant sampling some of their services. Her review made the entire idea of an afternoon tea service sound so g.d. delightful, that I immediately set to work planning a trip there myself with some other local bloggers (including Whitney!), which went down this weekend!

Part "tea salon," part cafe, and part tea retail boutique, UTM is located in downtown Vancouver at Georgia St. and Burrard St. You can go there just to grab a casual tea and some macarons, or to enjoy a full afternoon tea service, like we were doing that afternoon.

Joining me were Jayne, Britta and Whitney, and the four of us unanimously decided to order UTM's special summer service - the Pink Flamingo. Sounds amazing already right? It was:

The entire service began with an adorable little sample of one of their brand new teas - a jasmine something-or-other (I asked our waitress twice what this one was called, but then I promptly forgot what she said each time). It was SO good that I accidentally kept making audible "mmm" noises after each sip.

Next came our Pink Flamingo Cosmopolitan signature cocktails (which 3 out of the 4 of us ordered as alcohol-free mocktails instead). This was really lovely and tasted like a coconutty-sherbet, slightly-fizzy, holiday punch. It was even garnished with a small dried rose bud.

Partway through our drinks we were brought out our pots of tea. Each of our tea services came with an $8 credit towards a pot of any of their teas. There were SO many incredible-sounding teas to choose from. I debated between some minty or jasmine or fruity options before deciding on a whim to go with their Caramel black tea. SUCH A GOOD DECISION. It instantly made the air smell delicious when the pot of it was set before me on the table. I finished the entire pot, which lasted me throughout the rest of the 2-hour service.

Soon they brought out two large glass trays of gorgeous and colorful sweet and savory food and set it down in the center of our table. All four of us being bloggers, we all immediately took several pictures of the display before any of us dared to disturb the photo op by digging in.

Hanging out with other bloggers makes a mandatory food photoshoot seem completely normal, by the way. I like that.

.  check out britta's huge camera on the left  .
.  jayne is instagramming at the top of the pic and whitney is IGing from the right  .

Savory dishes on the menu for us included:

• miso-maple glazed sable fish in butter lettuce (this was my FAVORITE!)
• “Dignitary’s Tea” chicken cone (a sophisticated chicken salad in a sesame waffle cone)
• wasabi and smoked salmon with ponzu jelly (salmon folded onto a piece of brown bread with a jelly)
• “Tokyo-Singapore Tea” seared tuna tataki (like a mini-wrap of seared tuna and cabbage)

Sweet items on our menu:

• a TWG Tea “Bain de Roses” macaron (this was my first macaron ever, I'm pretty sure)
• “Pink Flamingo” panna cotta (topped with a raspberry and a blackberry)
• “Pink Flamingo” petit éclair - the daintiest little eclair I've ever seen

.  as seen on my own IG  .

As mentioned above, the sable fish in butter lettuce was my favorite. I love butter lettuce (Dave has referred to it as "the Cadillac of lettuces"), and the crispy strips that topped the fish added such a nice crunch. The rosey macaron was so unusual, in that it's sort of strange to eat something that tastes so floral, but ultimately I liked it!

On top of the drinks, tea, and food being so enjoyable, the company was fabulous as well. Whitney, Britta and Jayne are all very nice, interesting, and easy-to-talk-to ladies. (Ladies? Girls? Women? I never know what term to use to refer to a group of females in their 20s/30s. Help me.) I'm glad we got together over something so classy ;)

.  left to right:  jayne, whitney, me, britta  .
.  thanks britta for letting me steal this pic ;)  .

Oh and speaking of classy, I did don a dress for the occasion and had fun picking out some accessories to go with it:

.  blurry selfie!  .

.  lacy dress  .

.  banglez n frecklez  .

If you're in Vancouver and looking for something fancy to do with your girlfriends, you would be wise to go to The Urban Tea Merchant at some point or another. There are several different tea services you can choose from, plus a separate menu of more traditional food items you can order from.

Have you been out to "high tea" anywhere in your town?

What's your favorite type of tea to drink?

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This post isn't sponsored. I just love food.

Sophie's Cosmic Cafe in Vancouver

Just a few blocks up the hill from my apartment, there's a very popular 4th Ave diner called Sophie's Cosmic Cafe. Since moving to Vancouver, Sophie's has become one of our top picks for breakfast places... in part due to its close proximity to our home, but also because of their tasty food and fun atmosphere. You've probably even heard me mention it here on my blog multiple times, if you're any sort of a regular reader.

See, Sophie's doesn't just serve up food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) - they also serve up a trip down memory lane. Every inch of the entire building is decorated - covered, I should say  - in old, classic toys and nostalgic memorabilia.

Even the building's facade has character - "Sophie's Cosmic Cafe" is spelled out above the door in leopard print letters, and the entrance is flanked by a 4-foot-tall fork and knife set...

.  source  .

 Here's a peek inside the place, though keep in mind that I took these photos months ago, during the holiday season (hence the Christmas decorations you may notice in some of the pics)...

.  obviously these particular pictures were snapped back during the holiday season  .

.  this is a shot looking UP a wall!  .

They have cute hand-drawn placemats too...

Onto the food though!

There is a massive menu, so be forewarned. However, my favorite section of their breakfast menu is called the Light and Low Cholesterol Breakfasts, which is where I always order from.

Actually, I always order the same thing - 2 poached (medium) eggs, wheat toast, bacon, and a side of fruit. It's called the Light Breakfast and it comes with a choice of bacon or sausage and fruit or salad. I love how thick the toast is and the slightly vinegary taste of the poached eggs.

The fruit bowl at Sophie's is also one of the best in Kitsilano, as far as breakfast places go. They give you banana, kiwi, strawberry, melon, pear, orange, grapes and grapefruit!

If you're in the Vancouver area and are into yummy breakfasts AND pop culture relics/vintage toys, you should probably head to Sophie's. There is always something to look at, and they even have a great patio that's open during the warmer months.

http://www.sophiescosmiccafe.com/
2095 West 4th ave, Vancouver, BC
(604) 732 6810

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This post isn't sponsored. I just love breakfast food.

A Few Good Things

Between my trip home to Massachusetts in January and the first half of my February, a stash of photos has accumulated that seemed share-worthy. Here are some highlights from the last month of my life:

This is my 3-year-old niece, Tierney. She's a sassy little peanut. 

And my Mom and Gram say that she looks a lot like 3-year-old me, which I can get down with.

This is my 5-year-old nephew Cohen. He's a little coconut sweetheart. 

He wasn't feeling very well on this particular day. 

If you must know, he threw up a few hours after this photo was taken. 

So... now you know. 

As a Christmas present, my sister Mallory and my brother-in-law Doug got the whole family passes to an indoor water park in Lake George, NY. We all went together one Saturday while I was in Mass and it was a really fun day.  Here's a look at the park:

.  so. much. fun.  .

My younger brother and sister made sure to come visit me in Pittsfield while I was home. My brother Rob works on the north shore of Massachusetts, and my sister Markie is in her senior year at Fitchburg State University. I was glad they made the trip - they are hysterical. Here are all four of the siblings together - we try to take a group picture whenever we can:

.  clockwise from top  .
.  mallory, me, markie, robbie  .

Sidebar, see that piece of artwork behind Mallory's head on the wall? I made that back in 2009! It's one of my favorite collage crafts, EVER. Here's a better look at it, 

before it went into its frame:

So once I left Massachusetts and flew cross-country into Seattle, I had to then take a bus from Seattle to Vancouver. About 20 minutes into the bus ride, as we were crossing a busy viaduct in Seattle, the bus... stopped working. It just stopped working, right there in the lane! There wasn't even a breakdown lane, so we were really just stopped ON the highway.  

Rather than relay the negatives of that whole saga, I will share with you the silver lining to being broken down on the highway for 90 minutes that day: It happened to be one of Seattle's very few sunny-ish days... and we had a beautiful view of both Bainbridge Island as well as this new Seattle ferris wheel:

Last Saturday I joined four other fabulous local bloggers for a brunch date in downtown Vancouver. Rose, Britta, Tina, Amy and I met up at Twisted Fork Bistro on Granville St. and thoroughly enjoyed our food and conversation. I love the twisted fork detail at the top of their menus...

After brunch Rose and I headed down to the Seawall and took a nice walk on the bike path in the sunshine. Until last week, Vancouver had been really dry for the last month or so, which is unusual for the winter here. It's always nice to take advantage of the sunshine when it's around... even if it means that the weather is acting quite strange and the earth is actually dying. #Oops.

So those are just a few good things that have been going on in my life this past month. I hope you're having a nice weekend!
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Parents Visit + Touring Vancouver

This past weekend, David's parents came all the way from Massachusetts to visit us here in Vancouver! We had a packed weekend full of tourist-type activities and LOTS of amazzzzzzzzzing food. No, seriously. Did you see how many z's I put into the word "amazing"? The food was all really that good. So here's a little breakdown of our time very well-spent last weekend:

Friday

Tony and Pauline arrived in Vancouver mid-afternoon and settled into their room at the downtown Marriott hotel, where they stayed on the 28th floor and had an impressive view of downtown and the Coal Harbour/Gastown area. David and I met them at their hotel and the four of us walked a few blocks north to the waterfront and ate dinner at The Cactus Club Cafe. I've eaten at 3 different CCC's around the city and they're all completely lovely as far as I'm concerned. This time I ordered a roasted butternut squash soup that came with seared scallops, apple curry foam, and basil oil. (I just realized this is what I ordered the first time I went to CCC, way back in October 2012.) I also had a salad of seasonal greens with almonds, feta and a lemon-thyme vinaigrette. All yummy!

After dinner we walked around by the water, but it was quite cold and rainy and the view of North Vancouver wasn't too great, so we walked back to the Marriott to have a nightcap for an hour or so before Dave and I grabbed a cab back to our apartment. We don't "grab cabs" often at all - we usually walk or bus it everywhere - so this was a treat that we kind of indulged ourselves in all weekend long!

Saturday

On Saturday we picked up T &P at their hotel in the morning and we drove north of the city to Squamish to show them some of the views along the Sea-to-Sky Highway. Again, it wasn't as clear as we were hoping, but we did get some patches where the clouds would part and show us a towering mountain peak or two:

.  david admiring the mountains  .

From there we continued just north of Squamish to the town of Brackendale, where we stopped at a tourist viewing area for nesting bald eagles. It's apparently the home of one of the largest congregations of bald eagles in North America. We got to see an eagle up close right away - in a tree above us right as we were getting out of our car in the parking lot!

The eagle viewing area, known as Eagle Run, is atop a long dike with a stretch of the Squamish River between us and the eagles in the trees.

We probably ended up seeing around 15-20 eagles (and also a couple of seals!) that day. Apparently there'll be waaaay more eagles in December and January, so I hope to go back then and hopefully take some better photos. For now, you can sorrrrrta see the eagles in the pictures below - just look for the bright white spots in the trees!

On the way home from Brackendale, we stopped in Horseshoe Bay, a small community in West Vancouver. There, we took a few pictures...

.  tony took this picture with his ipad. ayo technology!  .

... and then grabbed some lunch at Troller Ale House, where I ordered a quinoa/black bean veggie burger with a side salad. The burger was ENORMOUS. Like the size of my face.

We began making our way back to Vancouver (via a detour around Stanley Park to show Tony and Pauline some big trees), and went back to our Kitsilano neighborhood to give an extremely brief tour of our apartment before heading back out for a nice afternoon walk in the lingering daylight.

We're in love with our Seaside Bike Path, so we knew we wanted to take Dave's parents along it so they could see the beautiful views it affords of the city. We walked along the path from our apartment for a half hour or so before eventually turning around and heading back towards Granville Island...

On the island, we got some tea, showed Dave's parents around the bustling Public Market...

... and then we all split up for a couple of hours to refresh and regroup before our 6:45 dinner reservations at The Sandbar (just recently voted the Best Restaurant on Granville Island).

Dave and I had been to the Sandbar twice before, but this was the first time we were eating inside on their second floor, rather than out on their third floor's heated and covered patio. Totally different vibe than being on the patio, but - good news! - being surrounded by four solid walls inside the building does not detract from the incredible food. I ordered pan roasted prawns with citrus cream and a chile-rice that were just as good as you'd imagine them to be. I really love this restaurant, and I'd recommend that anyone who likes seafood head there if they're in Vancouver.

Sunday

For their final day in the city, we took Dave's parents around the UBC campus, where Dave gave us all a tour of the lab building where he does all of his research everyday (I know I don't talk about it much here on the blog, but Dave is in a graduate program in the Earth and Ocean Sciences Department at UBC - that's why we're living here in Vancouver!).

For lunch we did a quick walk up and down 4th Ave in Kitsilano before deciding to stop in at Burgoo. I'd been to Burgoo just the week prior for a solo lunch, and it was yummy food with a nice atmosphere. This time I ordered their Gooey Grilled Cheese Grillers - a generous portion of grilled cheese made on angle-sliced baguette with mozzarella, gruyere, Swiss and white cheddar cheeses. It's a yummy sambo, but a LOT of fried cheese!! Burgoo has a great soup-and-sandwich combo option so I added a cup of butternut squash soup to my order. (Are you picking up on the fact that I love butternut squash soup?) The soup is filled with warm spices and maple syrup and garnished with toasted hazelnuts. I actually hate hazelnuts, but that wasn't Burgoo's fault. I should have asked for the soup without them! #Oops

On Sunday night we made sure to bring Tony and Pauline to Kibune - arguably our very favorite restaurant here in Vancouver. It's a deliiiicious Japanese restaurant that's right around the corner from our apartment, and I'm actually perpetually appalled at myself for not having written a blog all about it yet. Someday, I swear! I've entirely lost count of the number of times that we've been to Kibune at this point.

We ordered an amazing spread of different Japanese dishes - sushi, sashimi, gyoza, vegetable and prawn tempura, spicy beef and lots more! Really, the food is worth an entire blog post so I won't go into it too much right now. Suffice to say - if you're in Vancouver and looking for some Japanese food that will knock ya socks off, head to Kibune!

After we'd stuffed ourselves with Japanese food, we took a quick walk up the hill to 4th Ave so that we could then walk back down the hill and check out the view of the city. I didn't snap any pictures of the view that night, but this is basically what you can see walking down the hill from 4th Ave to my apartment:

And that was the end of our evening and our eventful and food-filled weekend with Tony and Pauline! It was so much fun to show them all of our favorite spots and be a tourist in my own city. Having visitors is a great excuse to really take advantage of all of the awesome things that Vancouver and BC have to offer.

I can't wait to go back to Brackendale in a month or so to see some more eagles, and I've been re-inspired to spend more time in the Granville Island Public Market because there are so many talented vendors there.

Have you had any visitors lately? Anyone else want to come visit us? :)

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