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, 

On a spontaneous thursday evening, my lovely friend Megan and I decided to grab dinner together since I was close by her place studying. We always eat in the Kitsilano neighbourhood, so we decided to urbanspoon a place in Kits that we haven’t tried. We found this place called the Oakwood Canadian Bistro.

I’ve actually heard about the Oakwood before from some other friends, but have never bothered to try it. I thought that it was great that the food was all made from fresh, local products. Anything from their “bread to the pastas, butchery to the sauces”, they are all locally sourced. Not to mention their service was great as well. Somebody was always ready to check on us and made sure we had everything we needed.

We decided to order 3 dishes to share so we could try a few items. The first dish we got was the rabbit rillette, truffle butter, shaved foie gras, caraway epi bread, and pickled veg. Interestingly, the dish was served in the jar.

Our server explained to us that this dish is placed in layers. The rabbit rillette sat at the bottom, the truffle butter in the middle, and the shaved foie gras on the top. We ripped the bread into pieces, and used the dish as a spread. Oh. My. Word. This was AMAZING. And although it looks like a small dish, it was actually pretty filling because of the bread and the rich flavours.

The next dish we ordered was the seared scallops, truffle sabayon (cooked and whipped yolks with seasoning), dijon spaetzle (small dumplings similar to pasta), bacon crumble, and black kale powder. Another perfect dish; Packed with creamy, delicious flavour and perfectly pan-fried scallops. I adore scallops so this was definitely right up my alley. Also usually I can’t eat too much truffle because of the intense richness, but with both this dish and the first one, they used just the right amount of truffle so that it wasn’t too overwhelming.

The last dish we ordered was the mussels in tomato coconut broth, house baguette and cilantro. We didn’t think that the dishes (that looked so small) would be so filling, so we got it with fries too.

Honestly, we could’ve gone without this dish and we would’ve left satisfied and full, but of course we under estimated these dishes, and ended up not being able to finish this dish. We did manage to put away quite a bit of it though. Enough for me to tell you that it was also absolutely amazing. The coconut tomato sauce was amazingly delicious, tasting a little bit like thai curry. Tasted amazing with the fries and bread as well.

Overall, I was extremely happy with my experience at the Oakwood. The food was good, the restaurant was beautifully decorated, and the service was good. It is definitely on the pricier side, but I think it was perfectly worth it. Between the two of us, the bill came out to around 60 dollars. I will leave the menu here so you can check out their other dishes, along with the prices.

I think I would give this place a high 9/10. If you’re ever to go for a little bit of a fancier meal, definitely go and check it out.

The Oakwood is located at 2741 West Fourth Avenue

 Their phone number is 604 558 1965

and their hours of operation are : 

Dinner: 5pm – Late (closed Mondays) – reservations excepted

Late Night Menu – 10:30 – Close
 
Brunch: 10:00am – 2:45 Saturday & Sundays – no reservations

Thanks for reading,

More soon.

I recently went to Lush and purchased some new things to try out ! Alright so here’s the zinger…. Before this Lush trip, I’ve actually never set foot into Lush before. DUN DUN DUUUUNNNNNNN.

I know I know, what kind of blogger/youtuber has never tried Lush before. Unheard of ! Unbelievable ! Unacceptable !

But, I’m not going to lie, I’ve only been using these products for a few days, and I am already in love. I know I’m definitely going to be trying more things from them as soon as I finish these.

The only thing is, I really don’t want this to become a full on addiction where I go crazy buying products before I’ve finished the previous. Because 1) I can’t give you guys good enough reviews if I’m using too many products at once ! 2) Products will go to waste because I won’t finish them before their expiry date. SO. I’ve decided I’m going to learn the art of self-control and NOT go ham buying Lush products.

Bath bombs though… might be a different story. We’ll see.

Okay, Products that I bought : 

The first product that I picked up was Mask of Magnaminty. I’ve heard countless youtubers talk about this product, so when the Lush girl recommended it to me and my problematic skin (as of late) I bought it without a second thought. I’m going to be doing a full review and demo on this mask soon, so I don’t want to say too much about it. I will say however, that I’ve only used it once but I’m already loving it ! The smaller size (125 g), which is the one I picked up, costs $12.95, and the larger size (315 g) costs $24.95.

The next two products I bought both have Tea Tree as their main ingredient. My skin has been breaking out like none other for the past couple of months. I’ve already tried a bunch of different things to treat it but nothing has really consistently solved my issues. I’m just finishing up the last of some of the other acne-treating products I have, so I thought I would give Lush a go.

Known for it’s natural and fresh ingredients, I’m sure it will be a lot better for skin than trying out products with I don’t know WHAT in them.

So I bought their Tea Tree Water which is a toner. I bought the large size which is a 250 mL bottle, which costed me $21.95, but there is also a smaller size that is 100 mL for $9.95. I use toner every single day so I didn’t see a point in buying a small bottle of this. I also want to mention that I love that this comes in a spray bottle. It feels really good spritzing this on my face after I wash it, but also, when you eliminate the use of cotton pads with your toner, every last drop of the toner will be going onto your face. So you won’t be wasting none of it on the cotton pads !

The other product I wanted to try was their Grease Lightening Tea Tree Gel. This is a much higher concentration of tea tree oil, and is supposed to be used as a spot treatment. So when you’re breaking out or just have a spot, you rub a little bit of this on your problematic areas before you go to bed, and this will really help deep clean it as well as dry the spot out ! This only comes in one size, a 45 g bottle that retails for $13.95, but honestly this bottle will last me quite a long time. Because I will only be using this as a spot treatment, I only use a very minimal amount each time. And honestly, a little goes a long way with this!

So far I’ve only been using these products for what… 2 days? So I definitely want to continue using them for a while before I can give you guys my opinion on them. I will definitely be doing reviews on everything I try out from Lush from now on. I have seriously fallen in love with their company in the last couple of days. I’m really hoping these products work well with my skin because I would choose Lush purely due to the fact that they use so many natural ingredients and don’t do any testing on animals.

Not to mention their products don’t cost a ridiculous amount of money either !

I also tried out one of their bath bombs today, but it wasn’t one of the items that I bought, it was actually a gift. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of it as it was dissolving, so I think I will skip on a review on that particular bomb. But if you guys want to see reviews on other bath bombs definitely let me know !

ALSO, if you’ve tried any of the products mentioned above, let me know how you got on with them !

Seriously cannot wait to try more Lush products… GAH.

More soon,