Birthday Food Fanfare – The Finale

My foodie extravaganza was extended to the Sunday with a sunny patio lunch in Coal Harbour. My girlfriends picked the Mill Marine Bistro, which is located at the corner of Bute and Cordova Street. The restaurant overlooks a cute children’s water park which was perfect to occupy one of my girlfriend’s rambunctious 5 year old. The menu was ‘atypical’ pub food with the selection of sandwiches, burgers, salads, and pizzas. But the location made up for the lack of cuisine ingenuity. We were enjoying our salads and quesadillas when we eyed a photoshoot being set up at the edge of the water park. It was an idyllic spot for prime photography but it was suspicious. Firstly, it was in the middle of an extremely sunny clear day which is usually not the best time to utilize outdoor lighting. Secondly we noticed the overly-tanned model was cloaked in a long red robe with tacky black platform shoes…we immediately thought ‘uh-oh’. We were speculating maybe she was just cold, or clothed in some couture outfit that needed to be protected from the elements. And then she disrobed and we were mortified. She was not even wearing a bikini…it was just some star paisleys covering her ‘buddies’, a barely there g-string, and a transparent sparkly plastic bag looking top. She sauntered in the middle of the busy park and started to pose as if she was auditioning for the Hustler. And we lost our appetites.

After that entertaining lunch and a nice stroll, I met up with my family to head to Richmond. Of the many Shanghai / Beijing restaurants, Dinesty is one of my favourites. I like the variety of dishes and its open kitchen. You can see the many cooks nimbly making and shaping fresh dumplings, and each one comes out surprisingly uniform and perfect. And with the open kitchen, you know the area would need to be clean and the cook staff on their best behavior. An appetizer I like to order is the ‘Drunken Chicken’ which is cooked-chicken marinated in a special rice wine mixture. Depending on the cook, you can actually get a buzz off of it (speaking from personal experience). We ordered a variety of dumplings to share and a few stir fried dishes like the popular Fried Thick Noodles.

The evening ended with a decadent layered chocolate mousse cake from Saint Germain Bakery. It was an awesome weekend of great company to mark this milestone of mine’s (even though I’m still in denial)…and now the detox.