Curiously Carmen

Acuvue Define – Vivid Style Daily Contacts

July 22, 2020

I am back with another contacts review! After reviewing the Angelcolor Circle Lens earlier this year, I wanted to try some other brands. Since I don’t wear contacts often, I like to order dailies. I ordered these off Clearly Contacts (not sponsored) but you could get these anywhere in Canada.

Compared to the Asian market, the Western market does not offer nearly as much colour contacts or circle lenses, making my selection quite limited.

The Acuvue Define line has 3 different “colors”. I say “colours” with quotation because they are mostly just brown or black. There used to be more colours but they have been discontinued.

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I decided on the vivid style for my first order (middle). The accent style looked similar to my Angelcolor contacts, and I wanted something different. However, if you are looking for circle lens, I would recommend the accent style as you will soon find out why!

Base curve: 8.5
Diameter: 14.2

The reason I don’t wear contacts often is because my eyes get quite dry and uncomfortable with them. Over the years, I have found better brands that don’t bug my eyes as much, but I find that the next day, my eyes feel quite dry sometimes.

On first look, the vivid style contacts were very comfortable, natural and light. Daily contacts are also thinner and more fragile, so you have to handle them with care.

After putting them on, I was a bit disappointed because I couldn’t notice much of a difference. Only if I looked super closely, would I have noticed a difference. My pupils did look clearer and more defined up close. If I am purposely buying coloured contacts, I would like it to show up more.

On the plus side, I did find these contacts to be super comfortable! Since I purchased a 30 pack, I wouldn’t mind continuing to wear them.

Wearing Acuvue Define Vivid Style here. Barely notice a difference!

From afar like in this selfie, you can’t tell that I’m wearing them. If I’m wearing coloured contacts and paying more for them (they cost more than your regular contacts) I’d like them to be more noticeable.

In addition, my eye diameter is the same measurement as these contacts so if your diameter is 14.2 or less, your pupils will probably show up slightly bigger…… but I doubt the difference is noticeable.

All in all, these were very comfortable but I wouldn’t recommend them as they are barely noticeable as circle lenses. I’d be more inclined to try the accent style (see above for picture) next time.

Water Street Cafe

July 19, 2020

Water Street Cafe is a cute restaurant located in the heart of Gastown, right across from the famous steam clock. We came here with Sangria and Lager for a much needed catch up dinner!

Walking in, I really enjoyed the ambiance of Water Street Cafe. There was a romantic, classic New York City feel to it… as if you were stepping into the crisp pages of a chick lit novel and the protagonist was about to have their first date. The ambiance was spectacular but the food was lacking unfortunately, as you’ll soon find out.

Social distancing and sanitation protocol were at place here, and it felt clean and safe. Although, we did tell them that we would be sharing, our server didn’t bring out serving utensils and plates until we asked.

Bison carpaccio: To start, we ordered the bison carpaccio to share (we had serving forks and knives). No complaints about this dish. The parmesan and capers went really well with the bison.

Mushroom gnocchi: After finding out that they make their gnocchi in-house, we decided to share this as well. Personally, I found it to be underwhelming. Truffle butter was advertised but there was no taste or scent of truffle at all.

It was also made with goat cheese so there was a strong gamey taste, which the fiance was not a fan of. We would not get this again.

Pappardelle bolognese: After a great experience at Ask For Luigi, I decided to order the same thing to see how it compared since Water St. Cafe is also a fancier restaurant. Again, this was underwhelming and disappointing.

Lager noted that the tomato sauce tasted like grocery store canned pasta sauce, which I agreed with. In addition, there were strange pools of oil at the bottom of my plate.

I could have made better pasta at home for 1/4th of the price since this tasted like canned pasta sauce anyways.

Meatballs and pappardelle: The fiance’s pasta sauce was the same as mine, and he also found it to be lackluster and disappointing.

The meatballs were very tender, but he found the dish to be pretty forgettable and meh.

Seafood pasta special: Lager ordered the daily special, which was a seafood pasta in a lemon butter dill sauce. This was far more delicious than the fiance and my pasta dishes. The sauce was buttery, while the dill gave it a nice aroma.

However, the seafood was extremely overcooked. The clams were rubbery and the scallop had shrunk and was overcooked.

Braised beef short rib: Sangria had perhaps the most satisfying dish out of all of us. The braised beef short rib was tender and fell off the bone nicely. It was marinated in hoisin sauce which was unexpected for a Western restaurant, but it worked well.

There was live music playing on the patio right next to us which was nice, but the singer was belting out ballads and it was too loud and hard to hear our own conversation at times. It was nice when he was singing softly or just playing instrumentals though.

All in all, the dishes left little to be desired and was disappointing. While the ambiance and service was great, the same can not be said about the food.

Joey Burnaby – Happy Hour

July 16, 2020

Good ol’ Joey’s, many good times were had here. I’ve written a couple of reviews over the years on Joey’s, but thought I’d write another one on their happy hour.

I don’t think I’ve gone to happy hour the whole year due to the pandemic, how much I’ve missed happy hour. Sangria and I usually go to Cactus Club, but we found out that they changed their happy hour to 2-5pm so we went to Joey’s instead.

Sangria: Sangria and I started off with a sangria each. This was a pretty good deal at $5, but there was barely any alcohol in it. My Asian flush is pretty bad, I always get red after a few sips of alcohol… and my tolerance is low as well. In addition, Sangria gets red after drinking too.

However, we both felt nothing nor did we taste any alcohol in this. So while it was a delicious drink, it was more like a juice.

California Chicken Club: It’s been awhile since I had their chicken club, and it did not disappoint! The chicken club came with grilled chicken breast, cheese avocado, bacon, and arugula. I’m a huge fan of arugula in burgers and pizza, and it was fresh and crispy here.

Sushi cone: I’ve had the sushi cone many times and loved it, so Sangria decided to try it. The sushi cone came with prawn tempura, avocado, spicy mayo, and tobiko. The regular price is a bit pricey and not really worth it, so ordering it at happy hour is a better choice.

Yam fries: The yam fries came out piping hot and fresh! Sangria had no complaints about this.

Even though Joey’s was not our first choice for happy hour, we left pretty satisfied. The service was very attentive and friendly as well. Joey’s never disappoints.

Kaisereck Deli

July 13, 2020

Kaisereck Deli is one of the food stands inside Granville Island Market. The fiance and I decided to get some takeout from the market and enjoy it outside (and pray that pigeons don’t steal our food). Granville Island was pretty quiet that day, because they rely on tourism to stay busy.

Social distancing signs, directional arrows and hand sanitizer was set up inside, and people were following the rules. There were also security guards outside taking count in case it got too packed in the market.

After walking around the food stands, we decided on Kaisereck Deli which served German food.

Ordering was a bit confusing. The line was split into two: one for sandwiches, the second for German sausages and perogies. Since we were getting both a sandwich, sausage, and perogies, we were directed to two different ordering counters.

It was fine since it wasn’t busy that day, but I could see that it could cause confusion during peak periods as you’re potentially budging and moving around.

Kaiser club: I was not sure on what to get, but after hearing the two customers ahead of me both ordering the Kaiser club, I decided to as well. It was an excellent idea!

The Kaiser club came with turkey, bacon, cheese, crisp lettuce and tomato on a ciabatta bun. Everything tasted fresh and was quite good, one of the better club sandwiches I’ve had. The only con was that it was pretty expensive, but not surprising considering it was Granville Island.

Perogy plate: The fiance and I also split the perogy plate, which came with assorted perogy flavours and a sausage of our choice. We picked the turkey sausage. They specialize in sausages and the turkey sausage did not disappoint! The sausage was juicy and big with a nice grilled flavour.

The perogies were disappointing though. They were the mini type, which wouldn’t have been an issue but they were tasteless and bland. We ended up bringing this home and added some sauce to make them more enjoyable.

Overall, Kaisereck Deli is a decent choice inside Granville Island Market minus the perogies. I wouldn’t make a trip to Granville Island purposely here for it, but it would be a nice lunch option by the dock.

Silver Tower Cafe Restaurant

July 10, 2020

Silver Tower is a longstanding Hong Kong style restaurant in Richmond. The fiance used to frequent this place with his coworkers when he used to work in Richmond, and often talked about how delicious it was. After meeting a wedding vendor nearby in Richmond, we didn’t know where to have dinner so he suggested this place.

Normally, this parking lot and area is really hard to find parking! We were really surprised to see a few spots open in this parking lot, which Silver Tower also shares with Matsuyama next door. The street parking was also empty which is unheard of for a weekend!

Half of the restaurant tables were closed off, marked with red X tapes on the tables. I think it’s quite cool to capture photos like this to look back on, we are living in such strange times right now.

We also had to sanitize our hands and write down our name and phone numbers for contact tracing. I personally don’t mind as it’s more responsible if we were around new COVID cases!

Spaghetti bolognese: My go-to meal at HK style restaurants. Silver Tower’s version did not disappoint either! It was delicious and the portion size was decent as well.

Baked pork chop: The fiance’s baked pork chop was delicious too. There was a generous portion of baked pork chop on top of the rice, which was crispy and flavourful. The rice underneath could have used more flavor and more egg.

Overall, Silver Tower is a decent choice for quick, filling, and cheap HK style food if you’re in Richmond. It has been around for a long time as evident by the exterior, but they seem to have renovated inside at some point. They are also open until 2am (not sure if this is the case during the pandemic) which may entice some people!