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Curiously Carmen

Vegan Pizza House

February 23, 2017

Another month, another vegan adventure with Vegan Buddy! For my birthday, Vegan Buddy treated me to some delicious pizza at Vegan Pizza House. The name of the restaurant is as simple as it gets, and is also quite obvious at what they offer. However, they also offer non-pizza options such as vegan lasagna, donairs, salad, spaghetti, spanakopita, and more!

Vegan Pizza House is owned and operated by a friendly Vietnamese man, who has had over 20 years of Greek and Italian cooking experience in restaurants.

Vegan Pizza House is located on Kingsway, just off Victoria by the McDonalds and hotel. The interior has seen better days and looks like a hole in the wall joint, but don’t let that stop you from eating here. The tables and chairs were those reminiscent of Asian restaurants, with a table cloth and glass cover which allows for easy cleanup.

The restaurant is quite small with only three tables, but we did notice that there were a few delivery orders. Once you place your order and pay at the counter, they make the pizzas for you. I saw a few slices in their warming oven, but I guess because we ordered two whole pizzas. In total, we waited about 15-20 minutes for the pizzas. We were starting to wonder why it took so long, but after taking one bite, it was worth it!

Vegan meat lover, small $14.95: I really wanted to try how their vegan meat measured to regular meat! This pizza came with ham, chicken, capicollo, sausage, bacon, and ground beef.

My favourite part of the pizza was the DOUGH. The dough was so chewy and soft, the perfect consistency. It was so comforting and had that homemade quality to it. If my grandma (rest in peace poh poh) was still here with us and made pizza by scratch, this is what I would imagine her pizza dough to taste like. To be honest, I was so distracted by the amazing pizza dough that I forgot to make a mental note of how the vegan meats tasted, fail. All I could think and look at was the dough <3

The texture of the vegan meat was there and similar to real meat, but the taste was not really the same. The cheese was dry and crumbly as well, so if you’re a cheese lover, you will probably be disappointed. HOWEVER, THAT DOUGH THOUGH. <3

Vegan house special, small $14.95: Since we weren’t sure what to order for our second pizza, the house special is always a good option! This came with vegan ham, chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, green peppers, and olives.

Again, the pizza came with a very generous portion of toppings, topped to the brim! The dough was equally as amazing, while the comments about the cheese and meat remain the same as above.

Vegan Pizza House is a great option for vegans, and even those who aren’t full vegan like us! You know how you have those vegan food items that only taste good to vegans? Well, this place isn’t one of them! Even though the cheese does not compare to real cheese at all, come here for the freshly baked pizza dough. The quality really shows through and is really worth the $15! Also, much healthier than Dominoes and does not leave you thirsty and greasy feeling (although I do love my cheeseless Dominos pizza once in awhile too).

Yay!

Vegan Pizza House Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: Beauty, vegetarian/vegan

Heme T-Zone Peeling Mask

February 20, 2017

When I think of peeling masks, my mind always diverts to the Biore pore strips. I used to use those in high school, until I found a drastically cheaper method to make my own pore strips, that work a lot better than the Biore strips. I do the gelatin & milk mask, which smells unpleasant, but it seriously WORKS. I might do a DIY post on it, so let me know if you’re interested!

Anyway, Cinnamon gifted me with another Heme product, the t-zone peeling mask. It looks like this version is a collaboration as the top reads “Heme x C…..” but ain’t nobody got time to decipher what the C says.

After doing a Google search, it looks as if this product is the same as the regular t-zone peeling mask, but just with a different packaging for the mysterious C collaboration.

What it says (taken from Heme’s website):
-Exclusively formulated to cleanse skin, clear up blackheads and refine pores
-Contains bamboo charcoal and grapefruit oil 

It seems as if charcoal is all the rage for beauty products right now, both in the Western and Asian realm!

I enlisted the boyfriend’s little brother to test this with me as well. He is 16 and has taken an interest in skin products as well, and was more than happy to use this. =P I warned him before that if it’s anything like the other peeling masks I did, it would hurt pulling off but he said it was fine.

Application: Due to the what I am assuming is the charcoal, this mask comes out REALLY black and slightly goopy. Like jet black. It reminded me of squid ink. Even though it was goopy, it applied thinly so I needed to put about 3 layers on it.

Here I am waiting for the mask to dry, sans any makeup. When it is completely dry, the mask will become matte and loose its shine.

Then came the most dreaded part of all peeling masks… the PEELING. I braced for the worst, but surprisingly, it didn’t hurt or make me tear up which was a bit disappointing. Because when it hurts and makes your eyes tear up, that’s when you know it is pulling out all the blackheads and crap out of your pores.

I’ll spare you the picture of the afterwards, but it wasn’t that gross. I would say it took out about half of the nose junk, but then again, I didn’t exactly count. My nose felt slightly smoother but I could still see some blackheads.

However, I did like how the mask was super black, so it was easy to see all the junk that was lifted out of my pores.

  • Mess free and easy to use
  • Travel size, good to bring on vacation when you want to just do a quick and easy mask

  • Not as effective as the other peeling/nose strip masks I have used

It was hard finding the price of this online, but I stumbled upon another blog review who purchased this for $14.90 Singapore dollars, which is $13.71 Canadian dollars.

I wouldn’t pay more than $7 for this mask, especially since it is a pretty small size.

Meh!


Filed Under: Beauty, face

Heme Waterproof Eyeshadow Pencil

February 20, 2017

Cinnamon is working abroad in Asia, so we delayed our annual Christmas gift exchange until February when she came back to visit. When she asked me what I wanted for a gift, I told her that I wasn’t too sure, but it would be nice to try some Asian beauty products!

So, I was gifted a few Asian beauty products that I will be reviewing in the months to come! I will be starting off with the Heme Waterproof Eyeshadow Pencil.

When we were opening our presents, the four of us weren’t sure what this brand was. Heme? He love me? He heart me? He Me? Hahahaha! We went with Heme and this is the correct version, as I went online to look it up before writing this review.

Although I do follow a few Asian beauty accounts on social media, I had yet to hear of Heme. I was told that this brand was everywhere in Taiwan, which is why she decided to buy it for me.

After doing a bit more research, I found out that Heme is a 100% Taiwan based company. This means that all the ingredients in Heme’s products were made in Taiwan. The company has been around since 2005 and appears to be more focused on skincare rather than beauty products.

What it says (Taken from Heme’s website):

  • Soft and creamier texture and easy to apply.
  • Waterproof formula holds the highest concentration of pigments for more intense eye appearance, lasts all day without creasing or smearing.
  • Contains shimmer glitter powder for more sophisticated results.

As you can tell from the description, English isn’t their first language but I think the translation is really good compared to other translations I’ve read over the years.

The two shades I received was brown and grey. The brown definitely looked more like a gold, due to how shimmery it was.

As for the packaging, I found it to be not that sturdy. When I first opened the gold (I’m just gonna call it gold b/c it def does not look brown to me) packaging, a chunk of the gold pencil fell out. I had to gently nudge it in after, and was very gentle and careful when applying the product.

Application: As their product description stated, I found the eyeshadow pencils to be very creamy! They glided very easily, and were very pigmented. One swatch was all you needed. It was reminiscent of the Urban Decay 24/7 glide on pencil, except this eyeshadow stick is more chunky and not meant for precision.

Wear: One swatch was very pigmented and you could definitely see the sparkle on my eyelids! The eyeshadow lasted about 8 hours without primer before it started to crease. I was pretty impressed because most eyeshadows/eyeliners, without primer do not stand a chance 3+ hours after application!

Although the eyeshadow is in the packaging of an eyeliner, it is definitely more of an eyeshadow. The tip of the eyeshadow pencil is pretty thick, so you are unable to draw a wing. 

  • Very pigmented
  • Creamy, easy to apply. Good for when you’re in a rush and just want a pop of colour to your eyes!
  • Vibrant colours

  • Packaging is a bit flimsy. My brown pencil almost fell out when it was first opened.
  • Not waterproof as stated
  • Hard to find in Canada/USA

Yay!

Product received as a gift. Opinions are my own. 


Filed Under: Beauty, eyes, makeup

Maru Korean Bistro

February 17, 2017

For Valentines Day, the boyfriend and I decided to celebrate by trying a restaurant we haven’t been to before! That, and exchanging memes that we created for each other. We are both so obsessed with memes and had an awesome time laughing until we teared up at each other’s meme creations!

Originally, we had made plans to go back to Bai Bua for Thai, but two days before, we both realized we would rather try a new place.

After a bit of Yelping, I found this place and suggested it because it looked nice and had good reviews. As well, we didn’t want to go anywhere in Vancouver on Valentines Day, as parking would be hard to find. Can you tell how much we hate waiting in lines for food and looking for parking?
Maru Korean Bistro is located in North Vancouver, by Lonsdale Quay/seabus terminal. From reading the reviews online, it opened a little under a year ago. I would say it is walkable from Lonsdale Quay, but there is a steep hill! The boyfriend and I go to Lonsdale Quay quite often in the summer because it is a quick drive and offers a beautiful view of downtown Vancouver’s skyline.

Since we hate waiting in lines, reservations were a must on Valentines Day. Ain’t nobody got time to wait in line and glare at customers who are happily eating when the hanger hits.

The girl on the phone was really friendly, and when I asked her how booked up they were for Valentines Day, she said they didn’t have that many reservations yet. I took as a good and bad sign =P

An hour before our reservation, she called us to confirm which was greatly appreciated. I took their friendliness on the phone as a great prelude to our dinner!
There is street parking outside but it may be hard to find, depending on the time you go. Luckily, we found the last spot just steps away from the restaurant. Walking into Maru, we were really surprised at how big it actually was! It appeared that they separated the restaurant into two. The picture above is where all the customers that night were seated, ourselves included.

There was another seating area in the back that was 3x larger than this, which we assumed was reserved for larger parties or overflow.
Korean seafood pancake, $12: Of course we had to try their seafood pancake! Unfortunately, the seafood pancake was pretty disappointing due to the lack of seafood. There was barely ANY seafood in there, except for maybe a few pieces of very tiny frozen shrimp and skinny squid pieces. It felt more like a veggie pancake.

Despite that, the texture was perfect and I liked how it was crunchy. The dipping sauce was slightly spicy, which we enjoyed as well. But we probably wouldn’t order this again because of the lack of seafood.
Korean fried chicken, $8.50: The Korean fried chicken came with a Korean chili sauce, which I would describe as spicy but also a bit sweet. Like sweet chili, but packed with a lot more heat! This dish was delicious!

The fried chicken was fresh, and had a variety of different textures with the pumpkin seed, cole slaw, and chewy ricecakes.
Open faced BBQ pork bun, $8: The BBQ pork bun came with slow-braised pork belly, kimchi, shredded lettuce, garlic chips, jalapeno, and mayo. I really loved the soft and doughy bread, which reminded me of the Chinese man tao buns or steamed buns. Because of that, this was a very comforting dish to me.

The pork belly was juicy and flavourful, and there was a lot of mayo, making it creamy. The veggies inside the pork bun were also fresh and crunchy. However, the fresh bun was my favourite part, surprisingly!

Soft tofu soup with seafood, $12: Yummmm! Adding to the deliciousness, the soft tofu soup was tasty as well. There was a nice spicy kick to it. Actually, not just a small kick- more like a full body karate kick to the face. Spicy food lovers would definitely enjoy this! The boyfriend drank more of the soup, and his nose was running by the end of the meal.

There was a decent amount of soft tofu and vegetables inside. We ate this with the bowl of rice, which was really comforting and warming for the rainy evening.

One disappointing thing about the tofu soup is that there was barely any seafood! With what seafood we did salvage, they were tiny pieces and did not taste fresh at all. It seems that the pattern here is that they aren’t generous with their seafood at all, and they are also very tiny and unfresh pieces.

Despite the lack of seafood in our seafood dishes, we left really satisfied which is saying something. Everything else was very flavourful and executed very well. We were discussing what our favourite dishes were that night, and we both couldn’t decide! It was a tossup between the BBQ pork buns, fried chicken, or spicy broth.

Bonus picture of the meme books that we made for each other! It’s amazing how well you know a person’s habits and quirks based on the amount of memes you can come up with for them. <3

Yay!

 

Maru Korean Bistro Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: food & drink, korean

Yu Xiang Yuan Handcrafted Noodles Restaurant

February 11, 2017

Once the boyfriend and I arrived back in Vancouver from a weekend in Victoria, it was almost dinner time. Seeing how we were in the middle of that Arctic air snap, we both wanted warm, comforting noodles. The first choice was Deer Garden since we had to drive past it to go home, but then we remembered this restaurant was in the area as well.

This is one of the unusual cases where the boyfriend finds new places to try. For the longest time, we wanted to try this place because we both LOVE handcrafted Lanzhou style noodles. BUT, we couldn’t because we kept on forgetting the name or where it was! Even when writing this post, I had to Google ‘Fraser and 41st noodle restaurant’ to find the name. =P
The restaurant is more on the small side, but the seating still felt pretty comfortable. The decor is a bit all over the place with mismatched chairs (note the more royal red seat covers vs. the others) and mismatched tables (note the white table cloth tables, wooden table, and glass pane table) but that’s when you know it’s a legit Chinese restaurant!
Beef noodles w/ vegetables in soup with cutting noodles, $7.50: For $7.50, this was really worth it and so delicious! The broth was clear and not too heavy, but still full of flavour. There was a generous amount of beef slices and vegetables as well.

And of course… the noodles. DELICIOUS. Lanzhou style noodles are one of my favourite foods ever, and this place nailed it perfectly. They were nice and chewy and soaked up the delicious broth. It was a perfect bowl of noodles for my yucky cold and cold weather.
Dan dan noodles w/ dragging noodle, $7.50: What Lanzhou noodle soup to me, is dan dan noodles to the boyfriend. He loves dan dan noodles due to the peanuts and spiciness. I only tried a small bite since I was sick and didn’t want to aggravate my stomach with the chili oil, and it was really good!

The dan dan noodles had a nice spicy kick to it. There was a strong peanut flavour and a good portion of meat as well.

We both loved our noodles here and will definitely come back when we are craving it! If you’re not familiar with the different types of noodle styles, there are pictures at every table showing you what style it is.

As an added bonus, the free wifi sign at the front of the restaurant says “FREE WIFE” instead of wifi. LOL! Now you definitely know it’s a legit Asian place… typos everywhere and too cheap to print it again.


Filed Under: chinese, food & drink

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Hi and welcome to Curiously Carmen! I am Carmen, the girl behind the blog. You can read more about me here!

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