Low

Did some filing at the photo hosting site, which led to mending a lot of broken image links here. Kind of a hassle, but needs to be done sooner or later.

My mom said it today. The nightmare has began. (Why the heck is she so good at spreading fear and insecurity around?) My dad is screwing up more and more everyday. Now it's at the point where it's pointless to tell him what he did wrong. Like, forgot to lock the front door. His memory decreases everyday and not very responsive. They never told me whether he's actually been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And I'm too chicken to ask.

Signs...

There is no way you can miss the toilet seat one. The Guu one was spotted by my friend. I totally missed it. Yeah... it doesn't sound right.

Pocky Dessert: Orange Double Chocolate

Airmailed from Japan. Thanks Sora~! (^_^)

Although orange + chocolate is kind of mainstream, and many other famous brands have done it, this flavour is a little rare for Pocky. Maybe it's been done and over done. If I remember it correctly, I've only had orange Pocky once before, years ago. (That other one was dark chocolate.) This fragrance says orange and chocolate alright. But there seems to be something more. And it's quite strong and artificial.

The taste matches the smell. Yup, orange and chocolate alright. Like all "dessert Pocky", it's got the thick layer of chocolate on a slightly thicker than regular cracker stick. Somehow the cracker stick is... probably not stale, but under baked? It looks very pale too. Overall it's quite sweet, but keeps the touch of bitterness of chocolate. However, Jacobs still wins. This feels a bit artificial. Like they're trying too hard.

There are 12 sticks in a box. (4 bags, 3 sticks in each bag.) I ate them all in one sitting and my stomach has been feeling weird for 3 hours.

Emergency

One firetruck and two ambulances. That house around the corner has been having episodes every now and then. Sometimes late at night too. I wonder what it is.

Gross food?

From Top 10 things you don't want in your Oven

The "century egg" is not moldy. The colour and texture are the result of chemical reactions. And I think they only use duck eggs, not chicken or quail. (Or is it goose eggs?) Yup, although not often, I've been eating that since I was a kid. It's not stinky either. I've eaten sea cucumber too. It's considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

A friend of my cousin ate roasted guinea pig on a trip to... I forgot where. My next door neighbour had a huge bottle of baby mice wine.

Daffodils

I'm so sick and tired of my dad collecting junk. This time, it's my aunt's old vacuum cleaner. Looks like it's from the 70's. Now we have 4. Do we need 4? Absolutely not. And I know as a fact that he's got a 5th one, already dismantled and the parts hidden. A few chunks are in the garage, and some more hanging in the backyard to "act as a scarecrow". I'm so sick and tired. I'm so sick and tired. I'm so sick and tired. I'm so sick and tired. I'm so sick and tired. I'm so sick and tired.

Jacobs Orange Club

Oh~ doesn't this bring back memories! This was one of my favorite when I was a kid. Well, it's still high up on my list today. Made in England, I didn't think I can buy them locally. Who knows? Apparently the store had been importing these, but I just happened to miss it every time. Incredible. And, this batch is the last shipment before the weather gets too warm. (They'll melt.) I'm glad I caught it. (^_^)
Hmm~ orange. The reason why I like this so much, is because it feels real. At least more real than most other orange flavoured chocolate. A perfect ratio of cracker and chocolate makes it feel like legitimate snack instead of junk food. (By junk food, I mean candy bar.) The taste is well balanced so it's not too sweet or bitter. You can even pick out the orange peel bits too! (Or something that feels like orange peel.) Around $4 for a pack of 8, or $0.6 each. Yeah, more expensive than the ordinary chocolate bar because of its size, but having one every now and than makes me feel so good. This reminds me of what a friend said. European candy bars are way better than the North American ones. I haven't had others, but in this case I totally agree.

Aloe flower

Never seen aloe flower. They say when plants that don't usually flower do flower, it means they feel death coming and need to reproduce.

Failed to go to the food show this year again... (T_T)

Oolong tea egg roll

Taking a break from Japanese stuff. This should be Taiwanese... (Naah, actually 95% of these reviews are not real time.)
Got it from my cousin visiting from Toronto. A very innovative idea. Tastes... kind of weird. There's a slight bitterness and less "egg" comparing to regular egg roll. The greenish brown is probably colouring. To be honest, this reminds me of mold and isn't the most appetizing colour. You can tell there's something else besides the egg roll, but can't really pin point it. I wouldn't have known it's Oolong tea if it was a blind-folded taste test. And then the tea doesn't really do anything. Neither improve nor worsen the taste. Seems like it's just an experiment that didn't go anywhere. Judging from the "2 roll" packs, this unusual egg roll isn't cheap.

Marble Pocky: Rum Raisin

It actually smells and tastes like rum raisin ice-cream! (Sorry, the only other rum raisin I know is ice-cream.) Again, the chocolate strips are just for decoration. At times it's a bit too sweet, and then the next moment it's fine. Kind of weird. It sits right on the edge of being "too sweet". I know I'm probably writing the same thing over and over again, but $2.39 for just 12 sticks is too expensive. And it's not so good that I must buy another box. One is enough.

French Pocky = Mikado

Thanks Izard for the info. This, unlike the Korean one, is legit. (Meaning, an official deal between LU the French company and Glico.) Mikado is actually a stick game.

Marble Pocky: Caramel Chocolate

From my Japanese friend Sora. Thanks Sora! (^_^)
A kind of moose Pocky with strips. The strips are probably for decoration only, as the amount shouldn't be enough to affect taste. This caramel chocolate lives up to it's name. Very nice, very caramel, both in fragrance and flavour. Moose Pocky's chocolate layer is thicker so this feels more like candy than cracker stick. Not too sweet, though. I think this proportion is perfect. A box only contains 12 sticks and is on the expensive side.

Krazy

Went to VAG to see the Krazy comic exhibition. Wasn't as good as I hope. Oh well. Got home and fell asleep at the desk until dinner. Very tired... (T_T)

Cops

2am, at least two, maybe three drunk guys were walking down half a block around the corner, swearing and making a lot of noise. A police truck came within 10 minutes and seemed to have picked them up. 3am, there were some noise so I looked, and saw a fire truck, plus maybe a police truck or ambulance at that site. (The bright area on the left.) The streaks of lights in the photo are the fire truck. Hmm... I wonder what happened?

It was so hot yesterday, my brain went on strike. Trying to do some house cleaning on the hard drive, but couldn't find a lot of stuff. (T_T) Then by the time I went to bed, I noticed my dad's dentures weren't soaking in the usual cup. Which means, he forgot to take his dentures off. Then today, I caught him struggling at the "water station" for a few minutes. What was he doing? He was trying to screw a Sobe cap onto a Minutemaid bottle. Sigh...

And of course as usual, he never admits he spills pee on the floor. Stinks. Literally. (T_T)

Burning hot

It turn into mid-summer overnight. It as so hot, I gave up on going to Richmond. But the house was like an oven so it didn't help. (T_T) The weather is screwed up.

Yesterday's old photos. Left: traffic jam at around 7:15pm just before entering Lion's Gate Bridge.
Below: Marimo?

Last sakura

Almost gone. It was hot like summer today.

Bakery Flat Style Pretz: Bacon & Cheese

Quite good. Yes I can taste the bacon, but can't really tell the cheese. Maybe it's overpowered by the bacon? The next recognizable taste is pepper. There's real pepper on the ingredients list while bacon is "bacon extract". Huh? Wait!!! "Wheat flour, vegetable oil, margarine, sugar, cheese powder, onion powder, yeast, salt, pork extract, pepper, soy sauce flavoured paste, onionsin oil, bacon extract, flavour, seasoning, soya lectin, citric acid." Margarine is 3rd! And... what's the difference between "flavour" and "seasoning"? Hmm... it's not bad but don't think I need another box.

Grapefruit

My relatives left today and managed to dodge the rain. Ooowwww neck, back, and shoulders hurt probably thanks to the weather, but it can also be from lying in bed too long. (Had to make up for the lost sleep from the past few days.) I wonder if I move to a desert, will I be able to feel better?

The picture is a Chinese grapefruit at my brother's place. Usually they are teardrop-shape but this one is unusually round.

Ate too much

Since my dad is disgustingly stubborn, we haven't been able to eat anything but Chinese food. And every time out of town relatives come visit, we end up eating out too much. Way too much. And he always looses control on eating. Sigh... My cousin acts like "the good guy" and urges him to eat more and freely, but if anything ever goes wrong, like a stroke or something, who will have to take care of him? It won't be her, I'm 100% sure. So don't impose unnecessary risk on us.

Went to Richmond to complete some shopping and couldn't go to to Granville Island. Oh well. The milk tea won. My uncle lost his way and our 15-minute trip turn into 40. Why, why does he hate stopping at traffic lights so much? He would rather go into small streets and meanders at a much lower speed than to wait at traffic lights. (And he thinks this is much faster and he's super smart by doing that.) I'm thankful for the ride, but all these turning around and around made me carsick.

The lack of sleep makes me grumpy too. Sorry if I sound mean. Can't help it.

Happy Mother's Day!

Slept about 3 hours. Drove back and forth from Richmond. Mall, London Farm, and Steveston's Village. Ate out lunch and dinner. Parking and eating out hell thanks to Mother's Day. Exhausted. Happy Mother's Day!

Dinner for 11

Originally 18 people. My brother's gang and one of my cousin's family couldn't come. It's gonna be constantly eating out for the next few days. On Mother's day weekend, it's gonna be tough... My Ontario cousin can't stop talking about her grand kids. Sigh... (>_<;)

Ferrero Prestige

Got it for Valentine's Day. (Yup, this is a stocked-up report. Wrote it late, and published even later.) Wow~ all I've ever gotten on this day was cards. This heart-shape box is so cool! Thanks~! (^_^) Then I realized I've never tried the silver and the brown ones. Should do a report.

Silver = coconut:
I haven't been a big fan of coconut ever. But this one changed my mind. It's actually surprisingly good! The size is the smallest among the 3 probably because of it's complicated structure. There's a wafer disk as base, with some kind of nut in the center. Outside the creamy filling is a coat of white chocolate and then coconut shavings. On top of all that, a blob of white chocolate, probably for decoration. The taste is dense, sweet but not too sweet. Most of all, fruity. It brings out the good side of coconut. I think the reason why I don't like coconut is the texture. Here, the shavings are fine enough and not too fibrous.

Brown = dark chocolate:
Quite strong, but not too heavy. Yup, it radiates dark chocolate. As usual, there's a nut in the center. Instead of a wafer shell, it's got chocolate bits(?) which makes it crunchy.

Gold = Ferrero Rocher Regular:
No need to say more. One of my favorite! They've got the proportion of ingredient, texture and taste perfect. And it's good stuff too, because it's not addictive like the peanut butter cup. Usually when it's addictive, there's a lot of bad stuff in it.

Tread marks

... what happened?

Rainbow rose

Came across a Japanese ad that goes something like, how about some rainbow roses for Mother's Day? Thought this wacky idea is Japanese, but no, I'm wrong. You won't have trouble finding it outside Japan. Like here or here, etc. I know the roses are white to start with. But... Each pedal seems to contain only one colour. If the split-stem-in-dye method is used, how do they keep the colours from bleeding between pedals?

Squid chocolate

Sent by EMS from Japan, thanks Sora for this wacky junk food! (Well, maybe not as junk as stuff like chips and candy bar.) Chocolate-covered shredded dry squid... You'd think only Japanese can come up with this combination, but noooo. There is a Hawaiian version. Exactly the same idea, but 5 times bigger. (See the review of this and the Hawaiian one at Kishokunoyakata.)

I saved it for a special occasion, my brother's birthday. (Actually it was in the second half of April, but I forgot to take a picture, so the review is delayed.) Yeah, call me chicken, but Sora gave me enough warning to scar me from eating it alone, haha!

Each box contains 5 small bags. Although I gave them a bag each, my brother and his wife shared one just in case. They didn't comment on whether it tastes good or not. But rather, "it's like putting dry squid in your left cheek and chocolate in your right cheek, each retaining its own distinctive flavour." If it was good, they would have said so. Which means, they didn't really like it. Oops! But my sister-in-law kept her unopened bag. Maybe she was being polite, but I'm pretty sure she would eat it at home too.

When I tried it, it doesn't taste as horrible as I imagined. (How can you not picture it as the most yucky thing when multiple warning signs are flashing?) It's true that they have distinctive flavours, but if you separate them in your mind, it's not bad at all! It's like dry squid that's sweeter than regular ones. The squid part tastes good, and so does the chocolate part. Think of it as squid instead of chocolate. That's the trick.

Sakura

51st Ave one block west of Knight Street. The one on the left was taken with regular landscape mode. The one in the middle with sunset mode. Which always makes things red.

The one on the right is 51st Ave one block west of Fraser Street. Sorry for the same composition. I was walking on the same side of the street.

PC Fruit & Nut Bar

President's Choice Fruit & Nut Multi-grain bar. 3 different flavours verities pack.

(1) Mixed Berries & Almonds. First of all, it's not a candy bar, so it doesn't taste as good. (Usually the worse it is for your health, the better it tastes.) As a quick snack when you're on the go, these nut bars are awesome! President's Choice is Super Store's store brand and I've been having the impression that it's inferior to the name brands. How wrong! It's not bad as all!
This mixed berries flavour is light and doesn't taste like cough syrup either. (Most berry flavour do.) It's got the right amount of tartness and a good balance of nuts and rice puffs. Well balanced. And it's inexpensive too!

(2) Apple & Almonds. This is even lighter than the mixed berries. The base is the same, but the flavour is changed to apple. However, it's too weak and a bit bland. I would prefer the mix berry one.

(3) Cranberries & Almonds with natural orange flavour. This is the best one among the 3. Perhaps the orange flavouring does the trick? It adds another layer to the taste. I've been trying to buy a box of this alone, but it's always sold out.

More sakura

Mainly along the Main Street area. The 2 on the left (actually the same view with wider lens) is on 16th off Main. The closeup in on Main between 15th and 16th.