Lots of restaurants are making special menus for the Olympics. Ebi Ten is a good, cheap fast-food Japanese restaurant on Robson.

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I spent a summer in Taiwan as a youth and saw a lot of unusual things – bulls wandering freely on a beach, a spaceship themed bar, snake blood served as a drink. I wish I could have seen this! 10 locations too. I think this is one of those ideas that wouldn’t translate well to N. America unfortunately…

This place was a chance discovery from last summer and now if there’s any kind of excuse to eat chocolate (Valentines, birthdays, halloween, st. patrick’s day, Fridays)…I’m there!

Schokolade Artisan Chocolate & Cafe is on an unassuming part of the East Hastings strip, up past Victoria, almost right across from the Dayton boot store. They make the most amazing chocolates – all handmade, from natural ingredients, in small runs with no preservatives or additives. It’s also all peanut-free and most of the fillings have no sugar added – they just use juice. Don’t quote me but I was told there was a cup of raspberry juice in each Dark Raspberry Jelly (coincidentally, my favourite).

If that’s not enough to entice take a look at the listing of chocolates they offer:

Dark Pomegranate, Dark Passion fruit, Dark Raspberry heart, Dark Mah-Jong with fresh orange zest, Dark & White Sunny orange, Dark Raspberry Jelly, Dark Blueberry, & Dark Cherry, Strawberry Pepper, Mango Jalapeno, Dark Brandy Truffle, Dark Crown Royal, & Dark Pear William, Dark, Milk or white Almond Clusters, Dark or Milk Hedgehog with Hazelnut, Italian Nougat with mixed fruit and nut, Pistachio nuts and Hazelnut Crunch.

You can go there and just have a coffee (also good) and a couple of chocolates, and they sell baked goods as well. They also offer chocolate workshops where you can bring a group – I’m still mulling it over but it has to be a good idea for some future event…

Schokolade Cafe is located at 2263 E. Hastings, Vancouver. Open Tuesday – Saturday : 9am – 7pm, Sunday: 11am – 5pm, Monday and Public Holiday: Closed. Map to location.

Over the weekend we finally made it out to the new-ish Medina, the sister cafe to Vancouver’s much loved Belgian establishment Chambar. I’ve been there before for a take-out coffee and waffle and wanted to go back to try the brunch.

We had to wait 20 minutes outside in the cold for a table, along with about 10 other people. While we were waiting, we darted across the street to look at Provide, a swish home store where the nice man made us espressos on his European sourced Nespresso machine, and it was actually quite good. What’s more, he reassured us that people regularly wait outside in the cold for food at Medina for up to 2 hours and always tell him it’s worth the wait.

After we finally were seated in the back room (the layout is like Chambar; there’s an extra room in the back), the big decision was figuring out what to order. Duck sausage cassoulet? Fricasse? Tagine?

We decided on the Oeufs Cocotte (Baked eggs on smoked black cod, asparagus, lemon roasted potatoes and goat cheese with shaved fennel and onion salad) and the Jambon et Fromage (Braised pulled pork, morbier cheese, cherry compote on toasted fruit and nut bread. Belgian endive, pecan and watercress salad), seen here:

Both items were amazing. The Oeufs Cocotte is light, baked and fluffy perfection. The Jambon et Fromage contained the tastiest braised pork ever (and I’ve been to a lot of BBQ joints).

In fact, I think overall this could be the best brunch you can get in Vancouver. And yes, it’s worth whatever wait you have to endure. It’s a little on the fancy side, but if you’re looking to take someone out for brunch or even just coffee, this is the place I would recommend. Try a waffle for dessert – they’re small!

It’s located at 556 Beatty Street. Open until 5 pm on weekdays and 4 pm on weekends. Closed on Mondays.

The thing that really sets Aberdeen Centre in Richmond apart from the rest of the malls in the world is the originality of concept when it comes to stores. Take for instance, Cube Inc. Not convinced? Now there’s also Look So Real, a store that asks, “are they real or just look so real?”

You may ask yourself why the average person would buy a plate of plastic lobster with garnish. Here’s the copy off the site:

Bring home a lobster dinner when you’re on diet or throw on a pair of ice cream cone earrings… Here we have the greatest selection of products that are great for restaurant display, movie props, television commercial, or simply enjoyment for yourself and your friends…

I don’t really know what else to add, except that they seem to sell stuff that looks so real plus lottery tickets (which I believe are actually real). I took some pictures of other stuff and, well, see for yourself…

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I was looking for a recipe the other day and came across this Japanese cooking show on YouTube called Cooking with Dog (note: I was looking for a Japanese recipe, not a dog recipe). I am not sure if this is something the whole world has seen except me, but all I know is that a) this is a cooking show hosted by a poodle named Francis b) he’s Japanese but speaks English and c) the recipes on this show seem like they’d be quite good.

I am totally mesmerized by this show!

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The Chinese have invented a lot of things: fireworks, pasta, chess, umbrellas, whisky, paper, toilet paper, matches, kites, the mathematical concept of zero. Not to mention my own invention of a household cleaner called Zapherboo.

One thing the Chinese did not invent: fortune cookies.

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One odd tip I got from my friend Jon who lived in Japan for a year is that the Japanese make really excellent Italian food.

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