As promised, I am dedicating an entire post just to the amazing food that I got to try during my Weekend trip to Vegas! 

Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill

Wolfgang Puck was on of the first meals that I had in Vegas. Throughout the trip we actually ate there twice, once on our first night there and once for lunch on our third day. 

On the first night, we ate Wolfgang after a loaded night at Porter Robinson at Hakkasan. Which means we were having this amazing food at 4 am in the morning. We had the Italian Sausage Pizza which had Crème Fraiche, Mozzarella, Red Onion, Fresno Chilies, Baby Spinach and we added Pepperoni. We also ordered an Eggs Benedict because in my mind it was technically morning and I love me a good eggs benny. 

The pizza was absolutely AMAZING. It was probably the reason we decided to eat there again later that weekend. The highlight was definitely the italian sausage. BEST. ITALIAN SAUSAGE. EVER. I don’t know how or what, but it was the most flavourful bites of sausage I’ve ever had on a pizza. 

The second time we ate there we shared the Pepperoni pizza which features San Marzano Tomatoes, Red Onions, Fresh Oregano. And of course we had to add the italian sausage to it. The highlight of this pizza was surprisingly the San Marzano tomatoes. It made each bite flavourful and juicy and I think the taste brought the ingredients together perfectly. 

Gordon Ramsey Burger

Our second meal in glorious Las Vegas was Ramsey Burger. We had their Hellfire Wings and Truffle Fries to start along with their Creme Brulee Orea Milkshake. In my honest opinion, the wings were a little disappointing. They weren’t very hot and nor did they stand out to me at all. BUT their truffle fries definitely made up for that disappointed as they were BOMB. 

We shared their Hells Kitchen Burger which features Asadero Cheese, Roasted Jalapenos, Avocados, Roasted Tomatoes, and a Jalapeno Pesto Aioli. Their burger was EXQUISITE. We weren’t quite hungry at that point (probably because of our hefty 4 am meal the night before) so we just ended up sharing one burger. Their patty was juicy and fresh and the flavours were rich and delicious. 

StripSteak at Mandalay Bay

Oh my f*cking GOD. Stripsteak was the most luxurious and delicious meal I had on this entire trip and we had some DAMN good food all throughout. I have never in my life had better steak. Or steak that even came CLOSE to the mouth-watering tender marbled goodness of their Prime Creekstone Dry Aged Rib Eye. Really makes me doubt how I’ll ever eat non-dry-aged steak again. And even if I somehow find a place in Vancouver that serves it, will it taste as good? PROBABLY NOT. 

We ordered their America’s Best Oysters and Wagyu Fillet Tartare to start. The beef tartare wasn’t really my cup of tea. It featured basil pesto, truffle potato foam, russet potato chips. I kept tasting mustard or horseradish in the dish, which I hate, so that might have ruined the dish for me. 

Their fries might actually have been a huge highlight of the meal for me. The fries comes on a platter of three which features garlic fries, truffle fries, and another one which I can’t for the life of me remember. Garlic fries were hands down my favourite of the three. We also ordered their Brocolini side which was phenomenal as well. 

He ordered the World Wide Wagyu tasting plate which showcases three different Wagyus from around the world. The Japanese A5 NY Strip was our favourite, and stood up against our beloved dry-aged rib eye quite well. The other two, the American Rib Cap, and the Australian Short Rib were both amazing as well. But still the Japanese A5 and Dry-Aged Rib Eye blew them out of the park. 

District One Kitchen & Bar 

District One was something we found on the internet but we were both super glad we left the strip to try it out. They are a Asian fusion restaurant that features Vietnamese flavours. We were drawn in from a photo of their lobstor pho. We knew we had to give it a try. We had their Surf and Turf pho which featured half a lobster as well as rib eye steak. How ridiculous does that sound. Going into it we suspected that this place was popular mainly for the novelty of lobster in pho rather than for the taste but boy were we wrong. The soup was authentic and amazing and surprisingly it paired really well with the lobster and steak combo. We also ordered the big bone soup and OH MAN is it big. I’ve never been the biggest fan of bone marrow but I have definitely been converted. It was impressive how tasty the bone marrow, fat, and fall-off-the-bone meat was with the classic Vietnamese pho soup.

We have some good pho in Vancouver but damn we were both impressed.  

I’ve also developed a love for oysters during my trip to Vegas. Maybe I’ve just never really tried to enjoy them now I’m realizing that I’ve been missing out. I’ve got an oyster date with a friend in a couple of days :3 Just couldn’t stay away.    

Hakkasan

Hakkasan is an international restaurant that has received Michelin stars at some of its other locations. If you look at their list of accolades, it’s long but well-deserved. They serve traditional cantonese/chinese food with the ever so slight twist. Although their menu and options were endless, we decided to eat quite simply as neither of us could fit another feast into our tummies. We had the Gai Lan in Garlic sauce, which can I note is the BEST DAMN GAI LAN I HAVE EVER TASTED. And I’m chinese. I’ve eaten a lot of gai lan in my time. I don’t know what about it makes it so good but I’m suspecting that they just have some top-tier veges imported from god knows where. We also ordered their hakka noodles and their steamed dimsum platter. The dim sum included har gau, scallop shumai, Chinese chive dumpling, and black pepper duck dumpling. The presentation was great but I’m thankful that the taste did not stray from what traditional dim sum tastes like. I apologize for my shitty photos by the way. I was honestly too busy stuffing my face to care about trying to take a proper photo (oops!).   Last but not least we tried their Caramel Passion which featured passion fruit tapioca, chocolate cremeux, and salted caramel ice cream. I swear it had a lot more fancy ingredients than that but those are what’s listed on the menu and that’s really the only way I can remember. We also tried their Yuzu Panna Cotta which has a raspberry compote, tahitian vanilla madeleines, raspberry sorbet, and seasonal fruit. Probably wasn’t a good idea to eat these two desserts together because the Caramel Passion made the Panna Cotta really sour. But they were both delicious nonetheless. 

And that wraps up my Vegas food journey. 

All I can think about everyday is the food honestly. I’ve been eating my way around Vancouver trying to chase those flavours. No luck so far. I found a place that serves a 30-day dry aged steak which I think I’ll go try soon. GOD I want to go back so bad. 

I hope you enjoyed my food post! I’m going to go make myself some food now cause writing this up made me HANGRY AF. 

Don’t forget to check out my Vegas Trip recap post if you haven’t already and watch my Vegas vlog!

Until next time, 

Although neither of us enjoy alcohol regularly, we still had a drink here and there when it was necessary (at the pool club, at Hakkasan etc.) The great thing about traveling with someone who is equally as uninterested in getting wasted as you are, was that I never once felt pressured to drink. Which in my opinion makes the times I DO drink much more enjoyable. 

We left on Friday to make our trek down to Seattle. We bought a flight departing from SEATAC airport because the prices were significantly cheaper flying domestic rather than leaving from YVR. That’s a tip for anybody traveling to the states from Vancouver. Usually Bellingham and Seattle has WAY cheaper flights if especially if your final destination is somewhere in the states. 

We arrived in Vegas shortly before 12am and took an Uber to our hotel. We stayed at the MGM because his family has a hotel host there so we were able to enjoy a complimentary room as well as shows, food, and drinks. 

The view from our hotel room

Our first full day, which was Saturday, was spent walking and exploring the strip. His family takes trips to vegas several times a year, so he acted as our tour guide for most of the trip. 

We had a list of food places we wanted to try around Vegas and one of them was Gordon Ramsey burger. I won’t go into too much detail about the food in this post as I have a separate post dedicated to all the food places we tried, so make sure you check that post out. 

Walking the strip was honestly not a stroll in the park as I had imagined. From just looking it seems like everything is quite close together and the hotels at the other side of the strip were just a few steps away. The reality of it is that the hotel properties were SO large that they actually take up entire blocks on their own. So of course each hotel looks like they are right beside each other, because they technically are. But the distance from the start of one to the end of another was a much larger distance than I had imagined. 

Thankfully we dedicated almost a full day to exploring the different hotels, casinos, and shops along the way. 

Apparently the Wynn hotel changes their decor quite regularly. During the weekend we were there, they featured a floral/nature set up which was absolutely stunning ?One of my favourite hotels on the strip has definitely got to be the Venetian. Everything from the decor to the architecture was aesthetic GOALS. They even have a canal running throughout the inside of their shopping area as well as outside throughout the streetscape, where you can choose to ride a gondola on with your own personal singing gondolier.

Top: Aritzia | Skirt: Levis from Aritzia | Shoes: Steve Madden from Shoes.com

The last time that I was at this hotel I was probably 12 or 13, and everything was stunning and grandiose. Coming back here a decade later, and I was still in AWE at how amazing this place was. Saturday night I got to experience one of the best dinners I’ve ever had in my life at Stripsteak at the Mandalay Bay. Details will be on the food post. It was probably my favourite night of this trip because we had a (somewhat) relaxed evening which consisted of dinner and a show. Because of the length of our trip, we really wanted to milk it and fit as much as we could into the four day weekend. Although still a little crazy, our saturday night was the chillest of the weekend and filled with all of my favourite things.

We ate like kings and watched O by Cirque Du Soleil. Of the two Cirque Du Soleil shows that I watched this trip, O and Ka, O was definitely my favourite. Although both stages were amazing feats themselves, the O show with the giant tank was just breathtaking. I’ve seen three Cirque shows in my lifetime now, and it’s only fed my love for them more. 

Jacket: Mackage from Aritzia | Dress: Aritzia | Shoes: Aldo | Bag: Alexander Wang

Sunday we woke up slow and went downstairs to eat Wolfgang Puck. We had Wolfgang twice this trip because their Pizza was delectable. After our brunch we headed to the pool to try to get our tan on. We checked out Wet Republic which is the pool club at the MGM. We only had a couple of hours to spend by the pool before we had to start getting ready for our evening at the Billboard Music Awards so sadly we couldn’t stay and wait for Tiesto to come on stage.

We left Wet Republic about 30 minutes before we had to go so that we would atleast have that time to relax and lay by their regular pool area rather than stand around at Wet Republic.    The Billboard Music Awards was such a cool thing that we got to experience this trip. Originally the plan was we would watch the Jabbawockeez on Sunday night instead. However, last minute his hotel host told us he had extra tickets so we changed our plans and headed to T-Mobile Arena. 

It was equally as weird as it was a cool experience because the show was mainly tailored to the fact that it was going to be aired internationally. Being there at the arena we got to see the behind-the-scenes version of what we usually see on TV which included all the stage changes, commerical intermissions, and even the empty stage when they showcase artists performing at other areas in Vegas. 

The most amazing moment of the entire award show was definitely when Celine Dion performed her hit song “My Heart Will Go On” in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the infamous movie, The Titanic. I think of all of the shows and stars that I got to see in Vegas, Celine Dion was the single most EPIC thing I’ve seen in a long time. 

This just happened. My life is complete. You are a LEGEND @celinedion pic.twitter.com/JMOwihqg8v

— Angel Zheng (@angelzhng) May 22, 2017

Top: Aritzia | Skirt: H&M

 Monday was our last day in Vegas and so we made it our shopping day! We visited The North Premium outlets and The Fashion Show Mall. We came back to MGM for dinner and had the simplest but tastiest meal at Hakkasan. 

This was one of the meals that I was the most excited for because of how highly he spoke of the food there. After dinner we headed straight to watch our last show of the trip, Ka by Cirque Du Soleil, and then to the airport to catch our 10 pm flight. 

Las Vegas has been one of my most loved trips yet not only because of all of the adventures that I had there, but also because of the company. Albeit short, I got to see a face of Vegas, that I may not have been able to see if I were traveling with someone else, which made me fall in love with the city. It seems that each time I travel as an adult, I seem to have better and better experiences every time. 

I have another short weekend roadtrip planned soon so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for that. 

And don’t forget to check out my Vegas Vlog!   

More soon,

Since I’ve been given the opportunity to explore this area a little more, I thought I would start a bit on my blog about some cool discoveries in Vancouver. It’s about time I expanded past just eating at Phnom Penh in Chinatown!

Harvest Community Foods is just a couple doors down from my workplace and it is one of my go-tos for days I don’t pack lunch. It’s a small neighbourhood grocery store that also sells signature fresh veggie and meat noodles in homemade broths. Harvest opened in 2012 and started as a community project in a empty space. “This Space”, the name of the project, had a goal to start a small community business that met the locals’ needs. After much research conducted in the Chinatown and Strathcona area, it was decided that a small local food place/grocery store was exactly what was needed at 243 Union Street. 

Harvest carries a variety of different goodies on its grocery wall. From artisan olive oils, to Earnest ice cream, to milk and cream. They also have a small kitchen area that prepares fresh bowls of noodle soups. They’ve got ramen, udon, and Rice noodles with different soups and toppings. They often have daily specials as well if you want to try something that isn’t usually on their menu. 

From their static menu, I decided to try the Udon with Sake Kazu chicken, shiitake mushroom, and watercress. The shoyu based soup (soy-sauce based) was rich and flavourful, and soaked in the sweet and distinct flavour of the mushrooms. Udon is one of my favourite types of noodles and I thought it paired really well with the soup. The only bone that I have to pick with this dish was the watercress. I wasn’t too fond of the raw watercress added on top as when I soaked the veggies to soften it, it gave the soup a bitter after taste. 

This is definitely something I would order again for lunch, especially since it’s literally 3 doors down from where I work! I’ve had one of their weekly special ramens as well which I LOVED. As someone who probably eats noodles way too often, I thought Harvest did an amazing job with their menu by serving fresh ingredients and delicious soups. 

I’ve got a few more food reviews lined up to write so stay tuned for that!

Until next time, 

I found this recipe on Pinterest (as I do most recipes that I try) which I have both linked and embedded down below for you guys to see. The only thing that I really did differently with mine was that after I mixed the cooked beef, tomatoes, corn, and rice together, I put it all in a baking dish as I didn’t have big enough of a skillet to cook it in. This was actually a pretty brilliant idea as we were able to make a larger serving than we would’ve in a skillet. After topping the entire dish with cheese we baked it until the cheese was melted to gooey perfection. We added all the other toppings (salsa, jalapenos, cilantro etc) on top once the cheese had cooled a bit. 

You literally have no idea how delicious this was. And the best part is, it tasted even better the next day @_@. UNF, I die. I’ll link the original recipe here. It is a one skillet dish and they actually cook the rice with beef broth in the skillet which is amazing. I changed it just the tiniest bit so I’ll throw my (barely different) version that I recreated down below!

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, 

more soon. 

Starting off with The Broad. Sadly I didn’t even get to walk through the entire exhibition because halfway through the alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate the building. But the parts I did get to see were amazing enough. Of course I couldn’t miss out from taking photos with the infamous giant dinner table and chairs piece. (BASIC I KNOW, BUT WHATEVER)

I loved this piece that I saw that said “your body is a battle ground”. It’s one of those super cool, simplistic pieces that I would love to have when I own the loft of my dreams. 

And of course I couldn’t go to Los Angeles without eating some of the infamous blogger-approved foods such as Eggslut. The line was DAMN long when we went. A solid 20-30 minute wait. But oh man was it worth it. I had the Fairfax sandwich which is a soft scrambled egg and chives sandwich with cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, and sriracha mayo… Oh and of course I had to add avocado and bacon. DUH. And oh dear lord was it everything I’ve ever dreamt about and more. My mouth is currently watering just thinking about it. 

We discovered this cool bar/lofty hangout place called the Arts District Brewing while we were walking around looking for stuff to do. So we stopped by and had a beer of course! I’m actually not usually a big drinker but the vibe was so cool and chill here I had to try something! Ended up sharing a beer with Janice. If you’re ever in LA looking for a cool place to hang out and drink beer, I would definitely recommend this place. They’ve got a bunch of different game setups there as well (skeeball, darts, you name it). Plus they have this giant neon sign that of course you haaaavve to take a picture of. As I did. 

Last but not least was a food place recommended by a friend. I wanted a really good brunch option and she recommended Joan’s on Third. It’s located on W 3rd st. right by the Beverly Center. It’s got a super clean and cool vibe but was definitely packed with people at brunch time. Thankfully they have two tills going and the line moved quite quickly. Oh and I saw Jason Biggs from American Pie there. Pretty cool experience seeing him and his family just living their lives. For those of your who live in LA… does bumping into famous people happen often?!

Hope all of you have been enjoying my LA posts so far! I only have one or two more before I’ve shared all my content with you :'( I wish it never has to end! 

Also make sure you check out my vlogs that I’ve been posting on my Youtube channel! Come experience my LA adventures with me!

Until next time! 

Here’s to the start of a new series that Vernice and I decided to start on our Youtube channels ! We are both lovers of food so we thought of this great idea to add cooking videos to our channels. They aren’t going to be weekly videos because of the amount of time we need to prepare and set aside to film and edit these videos (pretty much an entire day) and we are both busy with school, work, and social media. BUT hopefully we can do this at least once a month as a special video that’s a little (or actually A LOT) different from the content we usually produce.

For our first Catty Kitchen episode, we made roasted chicken, potatoes, and an avocado dish for dinner. We looked for recipes online and we found this one (roasted chicken) and this one (avocado). As for the baked potatoes, I took used an easy recipe that I thought of myself. 

And voila! If you want to just recreate the dishes yourselves, all the recipes are included in this post. Or you could follow along with us in our video. Hope you guys enjoy watching this video as much as we enjoy creating it! I would definitely recommend doing this with a friend so you can share the cooking load as well as food after (: 

I’ll also leave you guys with Vernice’s links incase you wanted to check her out on Youtube and Instagram. She’s got an awesome feed. 

Youtube

Instagram

Twitter

If you guys have any recommendations or recipes you want to see made, leave us a comment on this post or on the video! OR go ahead and tweet me. 

Until next time, 

Tried out a new brunch place this Sunday in Kitsilano. Brunch is definitely one of my favourite meals of any day, and I’m constantly looking for new places to try (so if you know any LET ME KNOW). 

I’ve actually had a few people recommend Chewies to me for brunch; And since I just so happened to be in the area, Vernice and I decided to go there and pig out. 

We ordered the Chicken and Waffles and the Crab Cake Eggs Benedict to share. Their chicken and waffles wasn’t as impressive as I’ve heard. The fried chicken itself was delicious. It was very crispy and had texas style spices on it. The waffle was the part that I was a little disappointed with. I found that the waffles weren’t crispy enough on the outside. So with the honey drizzle, it felt a little soggy. 

However, the Crab Cake Eggs Benny was a different story. I originally thought that the crab cake would come on top of the english muffin that bennies usually comes with. But they actually replaced the muffin part with the crab cake. It made the dish small, but VERY tasty. The crab cake’s richness was paired perfectly with the buttery goodness of the avocado. And then of course the egg was poached to absolute perfection… UNF. 

Another thing that I loved about the place was our server. He was humorous, nice, and chatty. That’s one thing I consider really important when I’m judging how much I like a restaurant, is by their servers/service. He did an amazing job with our food selection, and generally was a joy to talk to so A+++, Chewies, for hiring dope people. 

If you’re looking for a place to brunch in Vancouver, definitely check Chewies out. I know they also have a downtown location as well as the Kitsilano location. You can go to their website to check out their menu and locations ! 

More soon, 

Little bit of a throwback , don’t know why this wasn’t posted earlier, but Summer, Terri, Janice and I went to Rain or Shine ice cream ! 

I think compared to Earnest, Rain or Shine is probably my second favourite ice cream joint in Vancouver. However, they have this great Taco Tuesday deal (as seen in the second last photo), which features a waffle taco shell, two scoops of ice cream, and topping of your choice ! 

Got a shot of Terri taking a picture for her instagram as well ! Make sure you check out Summer’s instagram for great travel pictures of her trip to Europe, and Terri and Janice’s blogs for their adventures around Vancouver ! 

Until next time,