Productivity & Awesomeness

The last couple of days have been pretty busy doing such productive activities with awesome people =)
Yesterday, after having my mouth thoroughly cleaned by the dentist (and then doing some celebratory shopping because of my cavity free-ness), I headed to Steveston to catch myself some fresh fish! Well, by headed I mean my friend drove and by catch I mean walk to the dock and purchase fish off a boat.

Anyways, we got there and it wasn't the best day to go sight seeing but I felt like a tourist nevertheless. It seemed like a quaint little town with about 80% of the buildings being seafood restaurants and the rest cafes but most dealing entirely with tourist consumption (this percentage rate is provided through a random counting technique). We immediately began our search for fresh fish. To our pleasant surprise, we found a lonely little boat selling *flash frozen* salmon!!!! The minute we read these words our eyes bulged as we envisioned the platter full of sashimi for our consumption.

After purchasing an extremely inexpensive and already gutted coho we made a beeline to the grocery store for ice and rushed home. I didn't realize how difficult it was to make sashimi. Despite the fact that it was already gutted, we still had to chop it into smaller pieces, skin it and de-bone it! After hours of chopping, filet-ing, skinning, debone-ing we made our very first salmon sashimi! It was the best that we've ever had ....and we did not get sick after (I waited a day to write this blog).

The next day, I plopped myself into a franchised neighborhood cafe with a friend where I ordered my usual, a yummy Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Panini, before we attacked the job banks. And after feeling so unaccomplished (due to the lack of replies--- actually my friend was getting a phone interview so it's really just MY lack of replies), we decided to do the Coquitlam Crunch. I felt like it was a bad idea at first since the most active I've been is biking and the beginning of this crunch was a freaking steeep hill AND my iphone was dying so I couldn't listen to music (I was whining ten times more than this at the time). After reaching the 2.4 (2.6? ---all I saw was my friend stopping and by then I didn't even care how many km's we walked) we turned around and headed down, which was SUUUCH a beautiful view, totally worth the all the effort.


After getting an amazing pedicure at Bello Nail in Sunwood Square, getting drenched from running to the atm cause I stupidly did not give the esthetician a tip (their card machine was confusing and I thought I had cash), I bought some fresh veggies from the produce market and cabbed it home. Soon after my friend came over and we began to filet more chunks of coho salmon to be barbecued with chopped eggplant and zuchini on a cedar plank. I unfortunately forgot to take photos of the finished product due to our eagerness to taste it.

I'm pretty sure this is my longest blog to date. I accomplished so much within such a little time frame I almost started to feel like this blog was some sort of writing exercise to see how much I can squish and summarize from the past two days. And in trying to be detailed in listing my activities I've probably lost or skimmed over the essence or depth of experience that entailed each one of them. If you don't already know, I'm quite an over thinker. While I know that is mostly a bad thing, I like to think that I can fully appreciate everything in life.

These activities, although quite productive, would not have been as fun without the people I did them with. It just goes to show how much a friend's impact can have on your life. The awesomeness that some friends can bring to your day is truly beautiful (this is a bit short ended but I'm sure you don't want to hear more of me blabbing).

The Search

Lately, my new found obsession for pan seared sashimi/ tataki/ahi tuna has led me to spend a ridiculous amount of money trying to sate my appetite for the best. At Henderson there's a hidden Japanese / Asian fusion, I guess, restaurant called Robata. Their tuna tataki was lightly flavored with mild sauces and topped with what I can only describe as thin slivers of what tastes like salmon flakes.

At Cats Social House in Granville Island, I experienced the BEST ahi tuna I've ever had in my life. I can still remember it tasting awesome. Maybe it was a combination of the spinach feta walnut fig salad or the amazing weather or the fact that I felt like such a tourist, but when I placed that tiny (well not so tiny but I ate it in pieces) piece of pan seared tuna with their sauce into my mouth... I was in heaven. I would even dare to say that it could be as good as eating 65% dark chocolate (any more is a bit too bitter for my taste).

As if I couldn't have enough, I went home later that day and after dreaming about bbq tatakis I dragged my sister out to Sushi Shelter 101 to try their Salmon Tataki. It was good, however, I thought it was a bit strange since they had ice underneath the salmon. I guess that's too keep the sashimi cool? Still not entirely sure why that was necessary. But it couldn't compare to the one I'd had earlier. Specially with just soy sauce for dipping, the other sauce was without a doubt soooooooo yummy!

And then (you know when you're obsessed when ...) today I ate at the Keg in Coquitlam and tried their version of Ahi Tuna. It was a bit different from the rest since it was sliced in thicker but smaller cubes (the others were thinner and the meat tasted a bit more meaty lol). It felt like the smaller cubes made the meat a bit more lean? Is that even possible with fish? I feel like I'm not getting my point across... Basically it was a bit of a disappointment compared to the others I've tried. I'm not saying it wasn't good (or that my taste is superior ---probably far from it) but it did not taste as good as the others. It did, however, come with sides which were yummy although I didn't know those were mushrooms until my cousin told me.


As I was on the super comfy fancy keg patio sipping my mojito (my very first ...three, I had three), I realized that the search for good yummy food is almost as tough as finding good friends. And maybe 'good friends' is not a descriptive enough label for someone you consider to be more than friends. Being a "good" friend is so generic and abstract. But you know you have one when you're both crying and apologizing to each other after a fight that seemed so pointless and minute. Because at the end of the day all you can think about is how they're doing and if they're okay --- and you're willing to go out of your way to spend time with them. Those kind of friends are tough to find.