The cherry blossoms and magnolias are in bloom! Make sure to go outside and admire them! Though I think the forecast for this weekend is for rain. =(

Friday, April 4, 2014

Disney’s “Frozen” at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School - $5
6:30pm
Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School, 419 E 24th Ave, Vancouver, BC
This Friday (April 4, 2014), join Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School’s Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) for a family-friendly night featuring Disney’s “Frozen”. Popcorn & drink included in admission.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Fresh, local, organic foods & crafts. 60+ vendors, hot food, music! Rain or Shine!

Sakura Days Japan Fair -  $10.50 online, $12.00 at gate
10:00am - 5:00pm Sat., April 5 & Sun., April 6 , 2014  
VanDusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street (37th & Oak), Vancouver, BC
Soak in the wonderful Japanese festival atmosphere and enjoy delicious Japanese food and sake, cultural performances, arts and crafts and learn about Japanese culture and business.  Enjoy taiko drumming, martial arts, koto (Japanese harp), dance and singing performances. Participate in a tea ceremony, or learn about ikebana (flower arranging), origami (paper folding), haiku or calligraphy and try getting dressed in an authentic yukata. 

Russian Bazaar - $2
11am - 5pm 
Russian Community Centre, 2114 West 4th Ave, Vancouver
Arts & crafts, raffles, home baking, specialty food items, delicious Russion food, entertainment. Free raffle ticket with $2 admission.


Chocolate & Coffee Pairing Session
1pm - 3pm
Aberdeen Mall, 4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond
Join Purdys Chocolatier & Blenz Coffee and discover how pairing chocolate and coffee can reveal hidden flavours and enhance your tasting experience! Paring sessions will take place in the lower level centre court of Aberdeen. 

Tree Talks and Walks West End and Stanley Park
1:00pm to 4:00pm      
Meet at Burrard Skytrain Station, on Burrard on the corner nearest the Hyatt Regency Hotel      Presented by Wendy Cutler, Cherry Scout Co-ordinator. Wendy has been scouting and documenting the tree locations in these neighbourhoods since the festival began, and she has led several sakura tours of the area  This should be a walk to view many splendid ‘Akebono’ plantings and other early-blooming cherries. Probably some plums too. This is the longest walk, since we end at the Heronry in Stanley Park, but we’re always near transportation if you want to leave early.

2014 World Wide PILLOW FIGHT CLUB 9.0
3:00pm - 3:30pm
Vancouver Art Gallery along Robson Street
RAIN or SHINE. Participate in a pillow fight flash mob.

Postcard Show
7pm - 11pm
Remington Gallery, 108 East Hastings
Postcard Show Volume. 4 : Transformation happening on Saturday April 5th, 2014 at The Remington Gallery and Studio from 7-11pm. Come support accessible and affordable art!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Sakura Days Japan Fair -  $10.50 online, $12.00 at gate
10:00am - 5:00pm Sat., April 5 & Sun., April 6 , 2014  
VanDusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street (37th & Oak), Vancouver, BC
Soak in the wonderful Japanese festival atmosphere and enjoy delicious Japanese food and sake, cultural performances, arts and crafts and learn about Japanese culture and business.  Enjoy taiko drumming, martial arts, koto (Japanese harp), dance and singing performances. Participate in a tea ceremony, or learn about ikebana (flower arranging), origami (paper folding), haiku or calligraphy and try getting dressed in an authentic yukata.

Tree Talks and Walks – Oppenheimer Park     
10:00am to 11:30am      
Meet on the park side of the field house on Jackson, between Powell and Cordova
Presented by arborist David Tracey. David is executive director of Tree City, a non-profit organization “helping people and trees grow together”. David also leads workshops on organic fruit tree selection and care.  This park is the site of “Legacy Sakura”, trees planted in 1977 to commemorate the centennial of the first generation of Japanese who came to settle in Canada. The walk will include the history of the trees and many other points of interest within a six block circumference of the park

Nifty for Fifty - $1
11am - 8pm
Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street
30 local designers and artists will gather under one roof for the 7th annual Nifty for Fifty shopping sale happening April 6th 2014 from 11am-8pm at Heritage Hall (3102 Main Street)! Find everything from accessories to clothing and trinkets, all for $50 or less. Just in time to revamp that Spring wardrobe! CASH ONLY 

Tree Talks and Walks – VanDusen Botanical Garden     
1:30pm to 3:00pm      
Include a tour of the garden as part of your Sakura Days experience. Meet at the Guides’ table just inside the Garden.  
Note that paid garden admission is required for this walk. Presented by VCBF and VanDusen volunteer Anne Eng  Anne Eng has been a keen, energetic Cherry Scout almost from the beginning, and is familiar with the cherry trees in VanDusen from her guiding experience there.

They're doing a sequel! They're back by popular demand! The Muppets are back again in a silly, fun filled adventure. Starting right when the previous Muppet movie ended, the Muppet cast launch into song about how they are doing a sequel and what the plot should be. The entire Muppets gang ends up going on a world tour. Along the way, Kermit gets kidnapped and switched with Constantine, the World's Number One Criminal, and Kermit-look-alike. While Kermit has it figure out how to escape jail, the gang unwittingly wind up as part of Constantine's crime scheme.

The Muppets: Most Wanted wasn't as good as the previous film (they poked fun at this in their opening song), but was still very entertaining and worth going to see in theatre. It was laugh-out-loud funny, with tonnes of cameos from famous people, and the songs are just as good.  

• They've Ordered a Sequel performed by Walter, Statler & Waldorf
• We're Doing a Sequel performed by The Muppets
• My Name First . . . Your Name performed by Constantine & Ricky Gervais
• I'm Number One performed by Constantine & Ricky Gervais
• The Casa Grande performed by Kermit, Tina Fey, Jemaine Clement, Danny Trejo, Ray Liotta
• The Big House performed by Tina Fey
• Stick With Me performed by Constantine & Miss Piggy
• I'll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibu) performed by Constantine
• The Muppet Show Theme performed by Los Muppets
• Answer Some Questions performed by Ty Burrell
• Interrogation Song performed by Ty Burrell, Sam Eagle & The Muppets
• Oh Foo Foo, It's Always Been a Fight performed by Piggy & Foo Foo
• Something So Right performed by Miss Piggy, Kermit, Celine Dion & The Muppets
• We’re Goin' Underground performed by Kermit
• Working In The Coal Mine performed by Jemaine Clement
• The Gulag Finale performed by Kermit
• Together Again performed by The Muppets
• Moves Like Jagger performed by Scooter & The Penguins
• Muppet Most Wanted Score Suite performed by Christophe Beck

Bonus:

• We're Doing A Sequel (demo) performed by Bret McKenzie
• The Big House (demo) performed by Bret McKenzie
• What You Want (outtake) performed by Bret McKenzie
• I'll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibu) (demo) performed by Bret McKenzie
• Something So Right (demo) performed by Bret McKenzie

Hawkers Market, the monthly underground food market featuring local food makers, celebrated its 1 year anniversary last Saturday night. Founded by Chris Jerome in Vancouver, the goal of the event is to create a opportunity for food vendors to connect with Vancouver consumers. With the success of the Vancouver market, the event has since expanded into locations in Calgary and Edmonton. Every event is full of delicious food, drinks and party music. 

Their anniversary party was a huge success! It was a full house; tickets to the event were sold out!

InstameetVancouver also had set up a table that night for Instagrammers to take beautiful photos of their food with props.

Making their debut at the market was Electric Jelly Doughnuts, which consisted of a 7 person team including Joel Oschendorf of Oxtale, David Mendes of Blue Mule, Vancouver food bloggers The Food Gays and Chris Jerome from Hawkers.

Jeremy (1/2 of the FoodGays) manning the "do it yourself" doughnut bar.

$5 for 3 donuts or $5 for 2 donuts filled with foie gras (fancy!) and you can choose whatever crazy combination of toppings you like to put on them.

YUMMY!

Some more vendors:

Otimo, Brazillian Style Cheese Puffs, made from Manioc Root.

Oollo Tea

Sweets from Living Lotus.


Simply Pasta.

Pretty sweets from Sweet Petite Confectioner.

Lotus Root Sandwiches from Wonton Girl.

Rickshaw Foods.

Food cart alley - Reel Mac N Cheese Truck,  Flip Top Food Truck, SuperThai Food Truck,

Candy Meister.

The Holistic Kitchen Soup Club

Brown Paper Packages Ice Cream...sold out.

Drinks from 33 Acres Brewing Co. and Cocktails by Hawkers Market.



The next Hawkers Market is on May 10th and tickets are on sale now at hwkrsmrkt.eventbrite.ca and are $10 in advance. Stay up to date by visiting the Hawkers Market website here. Electric Jelly Doughnuts will be back!

Well, April Fool's came early this year as Google has release a Youtube video announcing a new job role at their company: Pokemon Master. Contestants have to find Pokemon hidden around the world using their smartphone and the Google Maps App.


If you have a couple of hours to spare, you can start searching for the the 150 Pokemon. According to the Youtube video, those that collect them all will be invited to Google headquarters to battle it out for the job. Hahah.


An obvious place to start would be Google headquarters. Then try searching for famous landmarks. Usually where there's one Pokemon, there may be others nearby so pan around to see if any are around. Sometimes you need to zoom in for them to appear.



Here's one Pokemon that is located in British Columbia! Search for Whistler Mountain!



You have until 2pm PT, April 2nd to collect them all! Good luck and have fun!

Original Joe's is celebrating 10 years in BC and is offering a $10 menu for the month of March. I went to the Cambie Street location with my family on Saturday when they had their 10 year party. We were told the wait was about 25 minutes but got a table way faster than that. It was a full house though. Because it was their party, they had prize giveaways and live music playing!

DRAGON BOAT LETTUCE WRAPS $10 roasted chicken and vegetables, chow mein noodles, cashews, cilantro and fresh lime; tossed in a hoisin peanut sauce and served with crisp romaine boats.

Dad ordered the Dragon Boat Lettuce Wraps but we all ended up trying it. It tasted great and had very good flavour!

LOADED DOUBLE DOG $10 two charbroiled european wieners, carmelized onions, cheddar cheese, bacon, banana peppers and our own mustard sauce, stuffed into a garlic grilled baguette.

We also shared a loaded double dog, which comes with two sides of your choice. We had the mixed green salad and fries. I liked the gravy that came with the fries. The hot dog wasn't anything special. It tasted ok and filled us up.

LONG BEACH FISH TACOS $10 blackened mahi mahi seared in a light chili lime sauce, avocado, lettuce, roma tomato, green onion, cilantro and our house made chipotle sauce, folded into lightly grilled flour tortillas.

I had the Long Beach Fish Tacos, which came with salsa and chips. I loved it! It was not spicy at all and also had great flavour. 

Today is the last day for you to take advantage of their $10 menu, so you'd better hurry!

Noodle Box, a Southeast Asian noodle bar chain, opened its doors in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood on Main Street at Broadway on Saturday, March 29th, 2014.


This location is one of many they have opened in BC. The concept is simple: you choose what style of noodles you want, your protein, spice level and any extras. Things can also be substituted in, how ever you want it.


To celebrate their grand opening, Noodle Box gave away free stir fry noodle boxes to everyone who visited! And any donations collected benefited the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. All the staff was volunteering and the food was donated by the suppliers! What a great way to enter into the neighbourhood by supporting it! 


 Order at the counter,


 pick up your order on the side. I ordered the Pad Thai with beef, mild (because I'm a wuss).

While, we waited for our orders to be prepared, the staff distributed samples of Cambodian Spring Rolls. I liked that they had a little lettuce wrapped around it so that we didn't get our fingers dirty.

Our order came in a cool looking take out box. It is covered in the same illustrations that is on the left wall of the restaurant.

 They really packed in the noodles and toppings.


It smelled and tasted delicious! I thought it was a little salty but mmm it was still very good. 

Check out their website at www.thenoodlebox.net for more information.