Celebrate the Holidays at the Vancouver Christmas Market

The annual Vancouver Christmas Market is back for it's sixth year at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza in downtown Vancouver, from November 21 to December 24th. It's the perfect place to get some handmade creations including holiday ornaments, soaps, wooden toys and knitted sweaters. Don't forget to bring your appetite - there are over 20 food vendors this year, serving favourites such as pork hock, schnitzel and spatzle. Enjoy the performances and join in on the Christmas carols as well!

I was invited by Zomato to join them for a night out at the Vancouver Christmas Market and we hit up the food stalls. I had my eye on the roasted pork hocks at Haxen Haus, which they roast on spits. They were crackling in the heat, my mouth was literally watering when I was looking at them. I had the shredded pork hock served in a bun and covered with sauerkraut. The pork hock was very flavourful and very filling. There is the option to get a half or whole pork hock as well, which I might do next time I visit the market! I also had a mug of hot cider, which was perfect for the cold weather! 

Someone in our group decided to go with the traditional German egg noodle, Spatzle. The noodles are boiled then heated on a pan and then topped with cheese. It had a very chewy consistency, and was pretty tasty!

We wanted sweets afterwards so we visited I Love Chocolate, which serves hot chocolate and various skewers smothered in chocolate from their chocolate fountain - yum! Their best seller is the strawberry and cream puff skewers and I can honestly saw it really hit the spot and satisfied my sweet tooth! Honestly anything covered in chocolate is fine by me!

Of course after eating, we had to go on the carousel, and we had so much fun on it that we went on twice!

There are plenty of vendors selling holiday goodies so we went around to take a look. 

Cookies, mugs of Gluhwein, nutcrackers galore!

Plenty of cute and intricate handmade holiday ornaments, more cookies and crafts.

There is plenty to see and eat at the Vancouver Christmas Market and it's a fun place to bring your family. Normally tickets are $8 each but Social Shopper has a promotion right now where you can get a pair of tickets for only $11. The market will be downtown until Christmas Eve.

EB Games Funko Mystery Box [Black Friday Unboxing]

Because I'm crazy, I ventured out early in the morning on Black Friday to do some shopping. Since I've been collecting Funko Pop toys lately, I decided to grab a special Black Friday EB Games Funko Mystery Box that was advertised. There were five different Funko pops you could get, with a gold variant of them all. As well, each box has a Pocket Pop, Pop Pin and two ReAction figures, all for $25. 

I ended up getting the gold version of Borderland's Claptrap, a Anna pocket pop, Loki pin and a Breaking Bad and Tomorrowland ReAction figure. Not too shabby! Mystery boxes are so much fun!

Sal Y Limon - Taco Tuesday!

My coworker took me to Sal Y Limon, a little Mexican place on Kingsway, since we've been trying to plan a taco night for a while now. This restaurant offers tacos, burritos, quesadillas and other yummy Mexican fare. The tacos are quite small so make sure you order several, or make it a combo (I got a side of tortilla chips and a lemonade).

Grilled beef, grilled chicken and slow roasted pulled pork tacos.

Fish, grilled chicken and vegetarian tacos.

The tacos were pretty good (they come with 2 tortillas, so you can make them into 2 tacos each!) and I think I'll be coming back here soon to try some of the other things on the menu soon!

Mimibuloveme Desserts

Just across from Oakridge mall is a little dessert place with a really interesting name - Mimibuloveme. The name itself isn't shown on the entrance of the restaurant though. I went for dessert with C and J since we were in the mood for sweets. They offer bubbletea and parfaits, and even pasta! 

Really funky artwork on the wall.

J ordered the small sized black sesame parfait - the ice cream is topped with corn pops, cakes and mochi balls.

I ordered a scoop of black sesame ice cream. It was a bit too sweet and didn't have the taste or aroma of  fresh black sesame seeds like I've had at other restaurants.

The desserts and drinks here are very sweet so make sure you request less sugar in your drinks. This place is opened quite late so it's one of the few places in Vancouver you can go for late night dessert!

 

The Oakwood Canadian Bistro - Sharing Plates

I visited The Oakwood Canadian  Bistro a few weeks ago with C and J since I enjoyed their food a lot when I went during Dine Out Vancouver a few years ago. I was surprised to find that they had switched to a sharing menu, which I'm not really a huge fan of since I always think the portions sizes are too small. We decided to get a few dishes.

Pulled pork, miso pancake, smoked korean BBQ sauce, apple, crispy onion. Comes with three small pancakes on a platter.

Warm kale salad, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, buttermilk onions, lemon parm. This was surprising really good, as the veggies were roasted and while I'm not a fan of Parmesan cheese, it wasn't too overpowering in the dressing.

Seared scallops, crispy and roasted celeriac, pear, dijon mousse, boudin noir puree. A gorgeous dish with three scallops.

Mussels, tomato chipotle cream, cilantro, house baguette. The sauce was very creamy and perfect for soaking up with the bread.

The food was delicious but like I was afraid, the portion sizes were very small for the price. That being said, the restaurant is very homey with a roaring fireplace and cool decor and it's a cool place to go just to share food and chat!