Five Guys (Bellingham)- Million Flavours of Pop (including Mello Yello!)

Not too long ago I went to the US with my family and we stopped by the 'Five Guys' in Bellingham for a quick bite. My coworker raved about how great the burgers were at Five Guys so I knew I had to check it out.

From the outside, it didn't look very appealing but I knew I was heading into something good. :P

They provide free roasted peanuts for everyone! You can just grab some to munch on while you wait.

Honestly, I normally don't like peanuts but these peanuts were delicious! 

Random Thought- Seafood Night Starring Live Sea Urchin, Spot Prawns, and Clams

Since it is spot prawn season, my friends and I took the opportunity to have a seafood night starring spot prawns! We were spontaneous so we just bought whatever seafood we wanted along the way. This spontaneity was rewarded with some delicious uni (sea urchin). :D

We first wanted to buy spot prawns at Steveston but they were all sold out by the time we got there. We saw people selling sea urchins (3 for $10) and I was instantly drawn to the stall. I was intrigued yet creeped out by the spiky looking creatures and I ended up convincing my friends to give it a try with me.

The fishermen were really nice and gave us five instead of three sea urchins. They were live and still moving right before we cut it.

None of us had any idea how to open and clean sea urchins so we just watched a youtube video. :P They made it look really easy but that clearly was not the case! Our first one was a fail and the delicate uni that laid underneath all that gunk were damaged.

Dougie Dog- Donut Burger and Mac N' Cheese Hot Dog

I was working one day and realized that Dougie Dog, the hot dog food truck stopped by and started selling hot dogs right in front of our building!

They purposely came to Richmond for the Rick Hansen Relay event, and on that day, all profit they received from sales were donated to charity. That was one of the reasons why I ended up getting a hot dog from here even after I just had lunch!

Their menu was fascinating and I had the hardest time deciding what to get! My coworker bragged about how awesome the Charlie Mac Dog ($8.00) was so I couldn’t resist and ordered that as well. By the way, read what's in the “Donut Burger”... O.O Now THAT is a monstrosity.

Apple Pie Baked in Apple Recipe- Inspired from Pinterest!

For Yoshi’s going away party, I really wanted to make something cool for dessert and FW gave me the recipe for “Apple Pie Baked in Apple”. I originally heard of this from Pinterest and it seemed like such a cool and (relatively) healthy idea!

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe. This recipe serves four but I doubled it for the party.

•          5-6 Granny Smith Apples (make sure they can stand on their own)
•          1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
•          ¼ Cup of Sugar
•         1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar
•          Pre-made Pie Crust (or make it from scratch if you want)

Pre-Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

I bought 10 granny smith apples and cored four of them. The other two were used for extra filling but we realized near the end that we had way too much filling so we technically should've cored all 10.

Cut off the top of the apples and discard (or eat them). Remove the inside of each apple with a melon baller and make sure not to puncture the peel.

Once cored, it will look like this. It will start to brown so you can rub them with lemon juice if you want but we didn’t it for ours.

Izumi-Tei - Buffet Inside Izumi-Ya Japanese Marketplace

Izumi-Tei is a very small restaurant inside the Izumi-Ya Japanese Marketplace (my post here on them here) located on Alderbridge. They opened not too long ago but their presence has generated an enormous buzz in the Richmond community.

Essentially, it is a Japanese buffet and when they first opened (which was honestly just a few weeks ago), their price was $9.99 for lunch or dinner. I unfortunately waited too long to come because they have already raised their prices to $11.99 due to the high demand.

I went with Misu, Trixie, FW, and Lil Sis at 6:30 and there was already a huge line up outside. The waitresses and staff seemed very disorganized and overwhelmed by the large amount of hungry customers. However, they probably never anticipated nor planned for such a huge explosion of customers right from the get go.

The ‘restaurant’ was very small and you have to get everything yourself including food, water, tea, napkins, and utensils.

I started off with a weak looking sunomono. It was alright.

Toyotomi (Revisit)- AYCE Sashimi and Yummy Egg White Creme Brulee

Ever since my first post on Toyotomi, I have received a lot of feedback regarding other peoples experiences there. Some people had a great time, while others (such as Janice from GoodEat :P) vowed never to go back again. I wanted to try out Toyotomi again to see if they were consistent with my last experience there... plus I was really craving sashimi that day.

I noticed their little dessert area near the front entrance where they have a display case of all their desserts. The egg white crème brulee looked goooood.

How cute is that jello?!

They actually raised the price of their AYCE since my last visit. Bummer...It’s not by much but still...

Because this is All-you-can-eat and we didn’t want to be fined for any leftover food, we ordered much less than we normally would have on our first round. Surprisingly, we didn't even go to a second round because we were both full by then. Here is our sashimi platter full of salmon, tuna, ika (squid), spicy salmon, and some other type of seared tuna.

The American CheeseSteak Co.- What Could Be Better Than Cheese + Steak?!

The American Cheesesteak Co. has been on my wish list for quite some time now but because I don’t live anywhere close to Yaletown, I found it hard to purposely commute there just for a cheesesteak.

The show “You Gotta Eat Here!” filmed at American Cheesesteak Co. just a few days after I came. I love that show so I can’t wait to see that episode!

Meta Knight and I shared a Large Cowboy ($12.00) as it seemed to be the highly recommended one on the menu.

The large cowboy consisted of shaved prime rib, crispy fried onions, their homemade spicy BBQ sauce, bacon mayo, and aged white cheddar. I have to say... this was one indulgent cheesesteak.

Daimasu (Burnaby)- Decent Raw Oysters and Scallop Roll

Meta Knight and I went to Daimasu in Burnaby a while ago to try out their late night menu. I believe it starts at 9pm.

When we went at exactly 9pm, the place was completely empty. This came as a surprise because Meta Knight said the place was packed the last few times he went.

Their late night menu is pretty standard with rolls, nigiri, and dons offered at a discounted price.

They also have tapas and even raw oysters!

Meta Knight and I ordered four Raw Oysters ($1.25/ea) to start us off and they were actually pretty delicious!  

Crawfish King- Crack. Peel. Eat. Wipe Face. Repeat.

A few weeks ago, I was going to have lunch at Bistro The Home but when I got there, I found out they were closed down! I was depressed because I really loved Bistro’s pasta, especially their unique squid ink pasta that normally cannot be found anywhere else.

Even though I was sad, what intrigued me was the new restaurant that was going to take over. It’s called Crawfish King and they opened just over a week ago. They specialize in Southern Cajun Seafood Boil and this is their second location. Their first location is in Seattle.

I’ve never had crawfish before so I went here with Meta Knight for dinner.

We came at around 7pm and much to our surprise, the entire place was packed! Richmondites really know the place to go for cool, interesting food, eh? We had to wait for a good 15 minutes before we were offered a small cramped table.

If you know what Bistro the Home looked like before, you can probably tell they did a complete makeover on this place. The entire restaurant is decorated to look like you’re on deck or on a ship catching crawfish.

The Naam- Popeye Pita Pizza For The Win!

The Naam is a vegetarian eatery that is open 24 hours a day. A lot of people have been raving about the food there so I have wanted to try it out for quite some time now.

The one thing I had to try from their menu was the dragon bowl. It looked and sounded delicious and healthy!

The lineup for Naam was quite long, about 30 minutes or so, and the tables were really cramped together.

Trixie’s chair was even broken but she managed to sit on it throughout the meal without it breaking on her.

I LOVE how they provide the honey bear and brown sugar on the table. Much healthier than traditional white sugar!