Engineer’s Attempt at Writing

I was originally planning to drive to the bay area to visit my sister for the memorial day weekend. However, something came up and my plan changed. I was then going to do a little backpacking trip in southern Oregon but that did not work out as well.

I decided to drive up to Vancouver BC and stop along the way at Seattle. I arrived at Seattle fairly late at night and spent the night at my friend’s apartment. The following morning, he took me out sailing on his sail boat. It was a gorgeous day and I love the feel of going out on the sail boat. This was my first time on a sail boat and it was amazing. It was really quiet and you can really enjoy and take in the views of the surrounding landscapes and the sea.
My friend took me to this little wine shop and did a little wine tasting. Afterward, I went back to his apartment to gather my stuff so that I can head up to Vancouver BC. John gave me some great salami from Solomi.

I arrived in Vancouver BC at 8:30 PM and spent another 1 hour looking for the hostel. After I found the hostel, I meet the people I was staying with and it was not the greatest place around. Luckiy, I was able to spend the night at a friend’s place. Vancouver BC is a great city and the chinese food is excellent there. I had good dim sum, great watermelon juice with boba, gelato, and the best wanton. I went to this 218 flavor gelato place with my friend and I had the curry and rice flavor gelato. It was quite interesting. I need to go to Vancouver again and do some hiking around there. I really did not do any sight seeing this past weekend but I had great food.

You can see some pictures here:

Seattle

Vancouver BC

I had the best wonton in Richmond, BC. It was very similar to the ones I had from the street vendor near the airport of Beijing. The wrap is unlike other wonton wraps that you find in most chinese restaurants. The wonton wrap at the restaurant in BC is thin, smooth, tasty, and all other adjectives that you can use to describe it. The wonton soup is served simply in a shrimp or some type of seafood broth with a little green onion and white pepper for seasoning. There were some fried scallions or something crunchy within the wonton. As you are bitting into the “fillings”, you find a surprise little crunch. I don’t remember the last time I had something like that in wonton.

The place is:

Michigan Noodle Shop

1160-8850 Alexendra Road

Richmond, B.C.

V6X4B3

604-276-0882

I came home last night and parked my car on the street at around 9:30 PM. The signs says that you are only allowed to park there for 10 minutes before 10PM. I thought that with 30 minutes left, it should be fine and the parking lady or man will not be out enforcing it. I know some people may think that I should know better and should not park there. However, seriously it is 9:30PM and I just don’t see the point of having a 10 minutes parking rule at 9:00PM and later. I got a ticket and now I can’t buy my dinner for a night I am going to starve now!!

I bought some spinach, yogurt, and lamb shank from the farmer’s market last saturday. I was planning to use that to make dinner Saturday but I also bought some lentil coconut soup and baguette, and so I had to eat that for dinner instead. So I planned to cooked the lamb for sunday night but then I got lazy and decided to eat out. Anyhow I finally had some time tonight at around 10:15 PM to make it because my algorithm for work was not working properly and I was tired of thinking.

When I had lamb shank at the restaurants, it is usually braised. However, while I was the farmer’s market, the guy asked if I was going to grill it. Interesting idea and since I don’t have a grill anymore, I decided to bake it. I did a simple seasoning using salt, garlic powder, Cheyenne pepper, and ground pepper – the same seasoning i use on steaks. I seared the lamb first on the stove and then I threw it in the oven. I don’t know what temperature because my oven is ghetto and does not have a therometer. I let that thing baked for 45 minutes. Using the same pan (I hate cleaning), I cooked some spinach. Then I made a balsmic vinegrette sauce basically by adding balsmic vinegear with this chipotle chutney sauce into the same pan. I did not want the sauce to be too sour and so I also added a little water. I let the sauce cook until most of the water evaporates.

I am bring this for lunch but I decided to take a picture and I don’t really want to take the picture of the food in a tuperware. I put the food on a plate and took a picture. The only bad part is now I have an extra dish that needs to be cleaned.