Just after Christmas Shazzi was sent a bunch of Lightsaber Chopsticks. With too many to keep for herself, she graciously handed them out to friends so that we could be as cool as her. So, this past Friday, with Lightsaber Chopsticks in hand, we all met up for some all you can eat Sushi!

I’ve never had all you can eat Sushi before, mostly because I get so full so quickly, but with the variety they had at Shabusen it made the eating and sharing worth it. Plus, you could order pieces instead of giant rolls, so it worked out quite nicely.

Chad and Dario do not eat sushi, even though Gina and I LOVE it. Someone should invent a restaurant that is Half Japanese and Half American. Burgers for the boys and sushi for the girls. Despite his disdain for seafood, Dario got on the All You Can Eat bandwagon and ordered some Korean BBQ and veggies.

Chad ordered a plate of spicy pork so that he could Korean BBQ it. He gets annoyed that people assume ‘Oh, you are a boy, you like to barbeque, so come for Japanese food with us and just eat the Korean stuff’. Yes, well, he doesn’t even really like Korean BBQ, so he was quite the trooper sucking it up and getting Asian with us.

All the food was quite tasty. I enjoyed the experience because people ordered things I had never tried before, but since we were all sharing everything I was able to try a few new dishes. Everything was quite good. I have been to a LOT of Japanese restaurants, all around the world actually (I had Sushi for Thanksgiving dinner in Genoa, Italy. I still need to blog about that) and so I have had some really simple experiences and some really fancy and expensive experiences. I guess because of that I have started to become a bit of a Sushi snob. Because I have been exposed to amazing sushi, which came with a price tag, the $2.50 California roll down at Fujiya just doesn’t cut it anymore. Shabusen was great for all you can eat sushi, and I would go back again for it. The variety of items they had made the price ($24) worth it.

The sticks, in all their glory! One of the men working there said he had seen people come in to use these chopsticks before!

We taught Dario how to use Chopsticks, though he looks more like a crane trying to pick up heavy loads, than a man trying to eat food.

It was a great Friday night! So glad Shazzi organized it. I was also very glad that the boys indulged us despite even though they aren’t fans of Asian food.

I purchased a Groupon for half price tickets to the Vancouver Christmas Market not too long ago. Time was running out, so we made the quick trip down on Saturday to take in the festivities with the parentals and family friends Deb and Doug. The weather held out and we indulged in the German culture. We also ran into the lovely Miss Melissa, but totally failed to get a photo op.

I practised my German accent with the locals. OK, not really, I just practised it with myself.

I really wanted the beer slugging lion but he was $110. The price of hand crafted goods I guess.

We all drank mulled wine, except for Chad who was all over the beer.

Everyone else took loving photos. Chad and I pretended that we were German. Angry, angry Germans.

Pretzel alert! I ate the most food out of everyone. OK, well I did have a child’s size bratwurst and sauerkraut unlike everyone else, but then I had a buffalo and cranberry ‘pepperoni’ stick, which was super good, and for dessert, a good ol’ pretzel! Needless to say, I was stuffed for the rest of the day.

It was neat to look at all hand crafted German goods and to watch the different vendors make all the food. There was this one place that was making German pasta. These oddly shaped noodles mixed with onions and sauerkraut. It looked interesting, but holy did it smell bad :( Not really sure what else was in it, but I wasn’t about to try it. All the other food looked amazing though and I wish we would have had more time to try everything.

All the crafts and items they were selling were beautiful. Christmas ornaments, wooden carvings, stunning scarves, hand made soaps. I wanted it all!

Over all it was great to visit, and so inexpensive, even with out the groupon. I’m glad we finally made it down to the Vancouver Christmas Market this year!

I had heard some chit chat from my cousin about a new little pizza joint on Main Street. We drove by it a couple of times and the decor and overall feel of the place peaked our interest.

We planned a date last Friday to check it out. Pizzeria Farina.

They open every day at 5 and stay open until they sell out of their freshly made pizza dough. Such a clever idea.

No booze, just adorable little drinks. Chad got the Chinotto and I got the Lemonade, of course.

You go up to the front and order your pizza, then you take it home or grab a seat at one of their communal tables.

I was losing my mind over the decor of this place. I just happened to be reading a blog that day where they were interviewing these two guys about their apartment. They called their design style ‘Modern Farmhouse’. For the first time in my life I finally figured out what my design style was called. I knew what I liked but I never knew how to describe it. The pizza place was designed in this exact style, Modern Farmhouse. It reminded me of my days spent in vintage houses at Burnaby Village Museum mixed with my Italian lifestyle. I would have created a home under one of the tables if I could.

The pizza. Sweet Mother. I had a craving for mushrooms and ordered the Fungi pizza. I’m so glad I did. Mushrooms, Cheese, Red Onions, Roasted Garlic, and Arugula. Best thing ever. It had so many amazing flavours.

Chad got the Calabrese, naturally. The black olives were a nice touch. The crust was utterly perfect.

I took some leftovers home and they wrapped them up in Deli paper. I lost my mind, again. Now all I want to do is buy a roll of Deli paper and make all my dinner guests take home care packages all wrapped up in Deli paper.

OMG. Stop killing me with your adorableness!

I told Chad, this is the place where Hipsters go to be Italian.

In Life, he who risks nothing, gains nothing.

I know that Vancouver now has a million Italian pizza joints, but this is an experience you need to try. It’s the only pizza place where you can actually call in your order and take your pizza home. It is adorable and cozy. The pizzas are simple but amazing. You can buy freshly baked bread, oils, sardines, and cans of tomatoes.

Pop in, have a pizza, fall in love.

Last night I fulfilled something I never thought I would be able to. I finally got to see Death from Above 1979 LIVE.

I think it was my brother who introduced me to the band back in University and I was hooked on their dance punk noise rock instantaneously. Every song on You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine was amazing, with my favorite being Black History Month. Actually, I think that is probably everyones favorite song.

It was at the height of my music obsession when I discovered them and I was so in love with these two elephant nosed guys that I even went out and bought their album on Vinyl, just because, which was something I forgot I had done until I moved back into my old room this weekend and found it. How poignant.

When these guys broke up, I thought my dream of seeing them live was over, that was, until little Miss Music, Alicia, messaged me that they were ending their 2011 Reunion Tour in Vancouver and wanted to know if I wanted to go. Um HELLS YES.

When my Mom asked what concert I was going to last night and I said Death from Above, she asked ‘Is that those guys with elephant noses?’, yes Mom, exactly. See, even she’s with it.

The concert was so high energy, so loud, so amazing. I told Chad that is was kind of like what I imagine a Slayer concert would be like, but with punk rock dance music and less metal heads.

I fulfilled my tradition of buying a T-shirt from every concert I’ve ever been to (aside from the Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion because I was a child then, and would never be caught dead wearing those T-shirts). Knowing my luck, I was a little worried about what sizes would be left, since they usually sell out of the small sizes first. Well last night all they had left was XS and XL. Score for me!

It was such an amazing experience, I am so glad I went despite how tired I was from our insane weekend. It was well worth it.

I would have taken pictures but my little camera is stuck in a set of drawers squished in the back of the storage locker (that in itself is another story). To see pictures check out Rick Chungs review here.

 Thank you, Alicia and Adam, for inviting me to a night I will never forget!

We went bowling on Friday night, kind of randomly. Dario & Gina invited us out. Off to Revs Bowling in Burnaby, the old 10 pin staple.

I kind of find it surprising how busy it is in there every time I go there. Lots of parties and stagettes. People in costumes, people having fun.

We bowled 3 games for $20 which was pretty good, but it was about the only good thing we were about to encounter.

Revs has a rule that if you want to drink booze while you bowl then you have to buy food. Its actually a law or a by-law or something. Dosen’t really bother me, I like munching on stuff and their platters to share aren’texpensive. So we flag down a waitress, the one and only waitress working the entire bowling alley and order a pitcher of beer. We ask if we have to order food as well and she says we are supposed to but she doesn’t care, so we don’t. It took half an hour for her to finally bring us said pitcher. The old ‘sorry, the Keg was being changed’ excuse was given to us. The boys were not impressed but at least they had their beer.

The pitcher went down quick, so another one was in order. I suggested trying our luck at the bar so Dario headed over. 15 minutes later he comes back pissed off and beerless. There was a group of guys standing at the front of the line ordering shot after shot and the bartender only seemed concerned with them. The line up didn’t more for 15 minutes and the bartender didn’t seem to care. Thank you, Revs, for your wonderful service. Dario was about to have a rage attack on someone.

So, we tried our luck with the waitress again. Chad finally found her and ordered another pitcher. We finished up our second game and the pitcher still hadn’t shown up. Now Dario was ready to kill someone. Halfway through game number 3 we decided if this waitress ever did show up we would not accept the beer, given the fact that we had waited another 30 minutes. We bowled and nothing came.  No beer at all. No waitress. NOTHING. Are you kidding me? The real kicker was that all the groups around us were ordering beers and shots and food and they got everything they ordered right away. Us, we got shit. Maybe it was because we ordered pitchers, or maybe its because Revs has the worst service ever.

Personally, I could care less about beer, but when you are trying to have a good time with boys who put way too much importance on beer and then end up in a piss poor mood when they don’t get beer, you get frustrated.

The good thing was that I won. I won all three games. Yea, that’s right, apparently I rule at bowling. 5 pin not so much, but 10 pin is where I excel. I took this photo as a tribute to my Nonno, who loves to pose for pictures like this. That’s right, I am a WINNER.

This is what a winner looks like from behind.