Curiously Carmen

Beauty: Dole Plantation Pineapple Loofah Soup

August 15, 2019

When Macaroni went on a trip to Hawaii earlier this year, she gave the boyfriend and I a pineapple loofah soap from the Dole Plantation! We have not yet to been to Hawaii but it is on our travel list. In the meantime, we will have this pineapple loofah soup as a souvenir!

The loofah in embedded in the soap, and I would say that most of the product is loofah. After the first five washes or so, most of the pineapple scented soap has been used up. While it lasted, the soap cleaned well and had a delicious pineapple scent.

Now, we keep this in our shower as an exfoliator. The picture above is probably after ~5 ish uses, you can see that the soap around the edges has been used up. As an exfoliator, it is great! It is rough and durable, and helps you scrub all the dead skin off. You don’t need to apply a lot of pressure as the loofah is already rough. I like to use this about 3-4x a week as you are not supposed to exfoliate every day.

Also, did you know that loofah is a type of vegetable, which is usually dry and grown on vines? It is part of the cucumber family!

Anyone know of a good natural loofah soap? Once this is used up, I would love to purchase another one! Or maybe it’s time to go to Hawaii…. 😉

Yay!

Availability: Dole Plantation, Hawaii
Price: Not sure, was given as a gift

Whole Foods Cakes

August 13, 2019

Over the past two years, Whole Foods has been one of my to-go places for cake. They have really good cake there!

I figured it was time to write about the cakes that I’ve tried here in the past years!

Berry chantilly cake: The cake that started it all. I was introduced to this cake by Sangria two years ago, and have not looked back.

It is my go-to cake during celebrations. For my birthday one year, I had this cake 3 times in the span of a week!

Anyways, the berry chantilly cake is amazing. The inside is filled with a layer of fresh, organic berries inside too. The whipped cream is light, but also has a slight hint of berry flavour. This is one of the foods I miss most now that I can’t have dairy.

Chocolate eruption cake: For the boyfriend’s birthday this year, we tried the chocolate eruption cake since he loves chocolate cakes.

The inside contained chocolate mousse and chocolate shavings. It did not disappoint either. The cake was super chocolate-y and delicious. Perfect for chocolate lovers!

Vegan chocolate cake: For a vegan cake, it is quite impressive and passable. I’ve had this cake a few times with many dairy-loving friends, who enjoy it despite it being vegan. To quote Cheese, ‘a vegan cake that finally doesn’t taste like tree’ LOL!

The vegan chocolate cake is moist, decadent, and very chocolate-y. I’m really glad that this cake exists, because living in a world without cake is just sad.

The only negative thing I would have to say, is that the writing on the cake can be quite ugly depending on the staff member. But, you can ask them to rewrite it so it’s not a big deal.

If you’re looking for good cake, I would definitely recommend stopping by Whole Foods!

The First Dessert

August 10, 2019

After a delicious dinner at Hoang Yen, Avocado and I were looking for a place to hang out at afterwards. She brought up The First Dessert, which was a new restaurant she passed by while walking to Hoang Yen!

The First Dessert is located by Victoria and 41st. The place is small but does fit a reasonable amount of tables. Speaking of tables, we really liked the decor! It reminded us the style during ancient China.

Service was nice and patient while we both asked a bunch of questions about the menu!

Sago with soy milk and pearls: My initial pick was the sago with fresh mango, but sadly they didn’t have mango that day!

The bowl was very refreshing and I found it alright. I don’t have this dish often so I don’t have much to compare it too, but it was enjoyable. My only complaint was that the pearls were a bit hard in the middle.

Sesame paste with rice dumpling: Avocado went with the sesame paste with rice dumpling. The sesame pudding had a thicker consistency, she would have preferred it to be a bit more watery but that’s personal preference.

I had a bite and it was very sesame-y! The rice dumpling came with sesame inside as well.

Overall, it was an alright first visit to The First Dessert.

I wouldn’t drive purposely here, but if I was close by, I wouldn’t mind stopping by again.

Meh!

Bun Cha Ca Hoang Yen

August 7, 2019

I finally tried Bun Cha Ca Hoang Yen after reading many positive reviews and hearing good things about it from friends! This restaurant is different from most Vietnamese restaurants because they specialize in seafood broths, which is what they’re famous for.

Hoang Yen is located on Victoria Drive. It is an old, small restaurant with a hole in the wall feel. This place gets lined up during peak hours, and I can definitely see why after trying their noodle soup!

Avocado and I got here right before 6pm on a weekday, which was perfect because there was not a line up yet. I noticed that the line started around 6:15pm, so definitely get here earlier if you hate waiting.

We ordered the two noodle soups which they are the most famous for! Avocado has been here a few times and always gets the same thing because it’s so delicious.

Bun Rieu: Avocado went with the bun rieu, which she loves! This is one of their most popular noodle soups and I saw many tables ordering this as well.

The bun rieu came with crab meat, tofu, Vietnamese ham, pork leg, and shrimp in a crab broth. I had a sip of the broth and could immediately tell why it was popular. The broth looks spicy but it actually wasn’t. It was delicious!

Bun cha ca: I had my eyes set on the bun cha ca before coming here. It was amazing. The crab broth was light, but still fragrant and full of umami flavour.

The freshly chopped dill elevated the seafood broth and gave it even more flavour. Every bite was amazing and I did not want it to end!

The bun cha ca also came with some fish cakes, which were good too. But the star of the show was definitely the soup!

Pho: I kept thinking about the bun cha ca, so the fiance and I came back a couple days later! Instead of the seafood soup, he went with the beef broth. It was delicious and fragrant too, and he wouldn’t mind getting it again.

Spring rolls: The fiance also ordered some spring rolls, which were disappointing. The filling was too dense. He wouldn’t order these again.

I will definitely be back for the seafood noodle soups! Hoang Yen is unique and their amazing seafood broths set them apart from other run-of-the-mill Vietnamese places.

I’m already looking forward to my next visit!

Blue Water Cafe

August 4, 2019

This review is a long time coming, because I have wanted to try Blue Water Cafe for a really long time. Each year for my birthday or anniversary, I suggest Blue Water but we always end up going somewhere else!

Well, I finally got the chance to try Blue Water and it did not disappoint! Maki and Nigiri wanted to take us to a nice restaurant for a special occasion, little did I know it was actually the night the fiance would propose to me after our dinner.

Blue Water Cafe is located in Yaletown. As the name suggests, they specialize in seafood. I found out that night they are part of the Toptable group restaurants, which include Elisa Steakhouse (across the street), Theirry’s, CinCin, West, Araxi, and more!

The inside of the restaurant had a classy and fancy vibe to it, yet was still welcoming and not pretentious.

Our server for the entire night was amazing, I wish I grabbed her name. She was so knowledgeable about all the dishes and paid attention to the little details.

Bread: We started off with some complimentary bread! It was served warm and tasted fresh. The bread came with a seaweed infused butter, which was well liked by everyone. The seaweed gave the butter some umami taste.

The other spread was a vegan lentil garlic mix, which Maki and I enjoyed but the fiance and Nigiri didn’t.

Forgot to take a photo of the tower only, so you can have my face staring admirably at it as well 🙂

Blue Water seafood tower: The star of the show! We upgraded to the Blue Water seafood tower which came with extra items. All of the seafood was really fresh as expected!

Top layer: The first layer came with chilled Dungeness crab, tuna tataki, and jellyfish. The crab was super fresh and meaty. The tuna tataki was spicy and had some crunch to it. The jellyfish was well marinated and included some imitation shark fin.

Second layer: The second layer had jumbo shrimp, clams, oysters, mussels, real crab California roll, and salmon tartare.

The shrimp were fresh with a nice snap. I love my shrimp and had most of them that night! Everyone else enjoyed the clams, mussels, and creamy oysters. The real crab California roll was delicious too. The salmon tartare came in a marinated sauce with fresh, fragrant dill.

Bottom layer: The final layer of our seafood tower feast came with spicy tuna roll, more clams, mussels, oysters, jumbo shrimp, and scallop ceviche.

The spicy tuna roll was delicious and had a spicy kick to it. The scallop ceviche was very fresh too!

Wagyu beef meatballs: This was a special feature that day! Since it had cheese, I didn’t have any but the others really loved it. They all said it was the most tender meatballs they’ve ever had!

Lobster bisque: The fiance ordered a lobster bisque as well, which was heavenly. It arrived at the table in an unique way, with the solid ingredients first.

The soup was then poured into solid ingredients which melted the dairy block (sorry, unsure of the exact name). This was a creamy, delicious amazing choice.

Truffle risotto: This was another feature, but unfortunately disappointing and least favourite. The truffle taste was barely there.

Overall, Blue Water Cafe surpassed my expectations and I really wish I came here sooner. I am a huge seafood lover and all the seafood dishes were executed with quality and care.

The service was amazing and although it was a fine dining restaurant, there was no pretentiousness here. I will definitely be back for the seafood tower!