Vancouver Coal Harbor

It's pretty rare to catch a sunny day in Vancouver these days, so I felt the urgent need to take advantage when the clouds finally relented, letting us have a peek of summer weather.

I hopped over to Coal Harbor for a quick visit and a brain break- over the past little while I've been immensely busy with an animated commercial that I'm working on. Despite my best efforts however, the project is a little behind with a copious amount of work left.

Why is it that production schedules never go according to plan??



I also can't wait until all the gloom passes and summer finally hits. I am definitely a summer girl. It's been my favourite season ever since I could remember.

There's something in the air that just buzzes and hums, it gives me an extra surge of energy to do... stuff. To go out, meet with friends, get a drink, whatever. Winter just makes me want to stockpile food and hibernate forever alone.

But honestly, I'm really excited for the first few days we make it past 20 degrees. And patio dining. And ice-cream on those sweltering days. And hitting the beach. And summer blockbusters! And finding the perfect summer anthem on the radio :)

Ugh, cannot wait!

My Valentine (night)

So this is a continuation of my Valentine's day post.

After work I wanted to change for dinner as I thought my day outfit was a little too cute/girly for where we were going.I wore my floral crop top with a high waisted red skirt and topped it off with my black chevalier blazer and my new thick gold necklace. I thought this would be more appropriate for nighttime, having a bit more edge but still having some feminine/Valentine aspects.





I had put off making reservations for the longest time, so by the time I finally got around to it most places were all booked up for February 14th.

Coast, however still had some room and we managed to get a late table.



One of my favourite things at Coast is their Caesars.

They have the best ones in town. With just the right amount of a spicy kick, and actually comes with a jumbo prawn as a garnish!

It's like a meal in a glass.



We started off with the Seafood Tower, which included jumbo prawns, shucked local oysters, dungeness crab, marinated mussels and salmon nigiri.



The presentation was beautiful as it came flowing in a mist of dry ice.



They no longer offered their lobster mac & cheese so I decided to try their Crab Poutine instead. It's served with smoked bacon and a sunny side up egg.

Was great, and had a decent amount of crab inside.



This is one of my favorite flatbreads ever. Truffled Brie with roasted portobello, truffle oil, arugula, ricotta and farm egg.

The combo is crazy good, and even though it's completely vegetarian, you don't notice at all since the the protobello mushroom is so meaty.



Ah the main event. Lobster Stuffed with Dungeness Crab served with garlic greens and tobasco hollandaise.

This thing was massive.





Felt so indulgent eating this hah. The hollandaise was very rich, and the amount of butter in this dish is ridiculous. Good thing calories on holidays don't count (Lucy's rules).

We were very full after this feast, but since it was Valentine's Day I felt like we had to get some kind of a sweet treat.

This is the Mocha Hazelnut Torte with caramelized nuts and mocha cream. It was a pretty standard cake. Not my favourite, as the texture was a bit dry (I like my cakes moist!).



Also had the Bruleed Lemon Cello Tarte, over a shortbread crust and served with sweet basil puree and goat cheese cream.

I used to hate all lemon desserts. Like loathed them. But I've just recently grown to enjoy them, and decided to chance it on this experimental dish.

Well it turned out well, because I loved this. It went really well with the goat cheese cream. Suprisingly! As goat cheese cream sounds kind of disgusting, but this was actually really yummy. And the presentation of the plate is gorgeous with the colors and spun sugar.

So anyways, hope you all had a great Valentine's night (as well as day) and thanks for reading! :)