we had a potluck at jane and rich’s home with a number of my old friends. everybody cooked yummy food!

daphne even brought me a special strawberry shortcake cupcake from NYC because i couldn’t eat the sushi she ordered. very sweet (daphne and the cupcake)!

we have been replenishing our chinese stomachs with food from both spectrums of fanciness. a couple of examples include:

a wonderful discovery my mom and i made at the yaohan food court. xi an style lamb noodle and buns stuffed with pork. it was so yummy, all for $13.

joe’s parents took my family out for dinner. a succulent scallop with vermicelli drenched in a garlicky sauce. beautiful and delicious.

joe’s brother derek and family were visiting for the week from california. one beautiful day we went to granville island and had lunch at “go fish”, the outdoor fish n’ chips shack. i’ve actually been craving it for awhile now. the line up was long, but it was worth it!

my parents are in chicago this week to help us out with the move back to vancouver. we took a break with a nice father’s day brunch at sola, one of our favorite restaurants. my aunt kathleen was also able to drive up from indiana and spend the day with us.

last weekend we drove to jackson, MI to attend Todd and Trilisa’s wedding. on our way there, we stopped at a diner on the side of the highway for lunch… the “Waffle House of America”.

in jackson, we stayed at Hankerd Inn, a cute bed & breakfast which was conveniently located only a few minutes from the church. we were assigned the “Teacher Room”, filled with antique knick knacks, dating from the early 1900’s.

breakfast was at 9AM every morning, and always delicious.

huge piece of carrot cake which we had for dessert at “Mellow Yellow”, a local Hyde Park diner. it was so delicious… i wish we had discovered it earlier.

helen is visiting… let the eating begin. tonight we went to ‘avec’, a trendy restaurant in the west loop, featuring french basque food.

very interesting flavours. to the right is a “wood-grilled sturgeon with shaved beets, roasted ramps and cilantro vinaigrette”, and to the left a “roasted chicken with chimichuri, chickpeas, squash, cauliflower and shaved haricot vert”. another favorite was a wood-fired flatbread with lamb tongue.

saturday brunch with blueberry pancakes at the original pancake house. yum.

salt and pepper anyone? or some extra monosodium glutamate perhaps?

the harters are visiting for the weekend and so i had dinner with melody and the kids, together with anne and the stefanuts.