Shop, Shop, Shop till You Drop

Tuomo writes: Had a fabulous day of fabulous light shopping. Once we got dressed, we picked Angie (Joy's cousin) up and drove over to Richmond for dim sum. For those of you out there who have not heard of dim sum, it's basically a Chinese style brunch where you order your food as you go from carts pushed around by the staff. Although Dave had insisted on going to Vancouver, where the dim sum restaurant reviewed in National Geographic was, I convinced that we should go to the one a class mate of mine had recommended. This one was supposed to have carts rather than the staff bringing the dishes to your table, an important aspect since neither one of us speaks Chinese and the staff quite often does not speak English. Finding the dim sum restaurant turned out to be more of a challenge than expected, but fortunately that particular area of Richmond literally teams with dim sum restaurants.

We decided to go for the one called Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant. Despite no carts pushed by squat ladies with limited English skills (as in our favourite dim sum restaurant back on the east coast), placing our order was no problem. As the reader who knows us might have guessed, yes, we ended up ordering way too much food! However there were very little left-overs, none of which we had boxed though the staff asked us on many occasions. The food came to our table faster than we'd expected, it was delicious, and Angie, for whom this was the first time out in a dim sum restaurant, said she'd definitely go out for dim sum again. On our way out, the fish tanks caught our attention, and in true adult behaviour, we had to talk to the fish...

Then we made a stop at Aberdeen Mall, just around the corner from Sun Sui Wah. Angie wanted to go to this Japanese two-dollar store, i.e. a store where nothing cost more than two dollars. Whoo boy, was that ever a discovery; bless a find like her!! Let's put it this way, a certain friend of ours, whose alter ego goes by the name Gigi, would've had a field day! Not that Dave and I managed our shopping behaviour in any more controlled manner... I believe our bill ran surprisingly low $38 (considering the temptations...), and we both agreed we'd go back (lots of ideas for stocking stuffers!).

Then off to Granville Street for some leisurly window shopping and then to Chintz & Co. on Homer Street. A little too Christmas-y right now, but definitely a place to return to for some fabulous chotchkes! Mandatory coffee break at Starbucks, and then a walk around the block (we even discvered a store that sold stuff by Marimekko and Iittala!!!). Faboo!

Before going home, we tried some retail shopping, but unfortunately we ran into another Bagel Issue: Canadians do not value retail shopping on Saturdays after 6PM (they allegedly prefer to spend time together at their homes rather than shopping together... what a novel concept!). Therefore we hung around some time at Chapters and then decided to go for some Bellinis at Milestones, home of the best Bellinis around! In the end we had two each, with the second round spiked with some raspberry flavored vodka. Throw in some Thai chicken wings and artichoke dip, and we both stuffed (we had all been burping up dim sum flavors all day, so the appies just enough for dinner) and lit - whoohoo!

So we're now back home. I cross stitched for a while before working on the blog while Angie and Dave hit the couch to watch HGTV (surprise!), so now it's time for me to join them. I wonder if there's anything in the kitchen pantry as a late evening snack... Finn Crisps, or hapankorppuja anybody?!