Morning Wisdom From Jethro's

WARNING!!! Not safe for dieters!!! (NSFD)

My gastronomical Guru, Denny's taught me that "Anything can be solved over a stack of pancakes". Then Jethro's Fine Grub came along with a sign with bold statements that caught our eyes:

Jethro's Fine Grub sign (back)

Jethro's Fine Grub sign (front)

Not really in the mood for having bacon for breakfast, but it gave us an impression that they take their bacon seriously. That's a good sign.

It was a weekday so there was no long line up which regularly happens in several popular brunch places in the Vancouver area during the weekends.
We have a table ready and the service is fast; the attendant gave us a Mexican hot sauce right away which I really appreciated. I always ask for hot sauce when I go to brunch places. They also regularly check if we need our coffee refill.

Smoked Salmon Benedict vs. Apple Cobbler French Toast

There are a lot of great choices on their menu; it took me a while to choose between Smoked Salmon Benedict and Apple Cobbler French Toast I forgot to take a photo of their menu. I decided to order the Smoked Salmon Benedict instead of the other, and my 🐻 ordered The Gold Rush.
At that time we were not really in an adventurous mood (but would be ordering Crab Cake Benedict next time we visit)

While waiting for our order, I enjoyed the funny illustration on their wall. For sure it's an offensive joke for vegans and animal rights advocates, but I can see the humour in it.

Bacon is all that matters!

My dear 🐻's facial expression was priceless when he saw his order..it's huge! He was speechless for a few minutes. I gladly proceeded to enjoy my Benedicts and shared some of my hash browns with my dear 🐻. I am also having some bites of the yummy huge pancake.
I remembered messaging my sister about wishing she was with us, we need reinforcements 😂! I even saw the customer's order beside us, french toasts--- and the slices of each toast were thick!

Serving comparison

My order: Smoked Salmon Benedict

And his order...The Gold Rush

What's in The Gold Rush? A giant pancake stuffed with banana, pecans, streusel, and caramel. Topped with whipped butter and more caramel, pecans, and streusel!

We both enjoyed it (I actually loved it) but we couldn't finish it. One of the attendants provided us with a take-out box with instructions on how to reheat our generous leftovers.

Want to accept the challenge?

Jethro's Fine Grub has two locations: the Dunbar location and the Fraser St. location, so there are two battlefields to choose from:

Jethro's Fraser Street Location

Next time, we will be bringing an army to share the giant pancakes with. I guess from their sign it might sound like having too much of good things is great, but the real joy is sharing it with people who are special to us.

We need another empty tummy to help us...

Update: It's a great sadness to write this update...Jethro's Fine Grub has closed.(◞‸◟；)

Escape to Nacpan Beach

Most girls dream of a romantic proposal. Imagine yourself being on a quiet beach, with white sand, and clear blue waters somewhere in a faraway exotic land.

That's Nacpan Beach where we spent our Valentine's Day 2017 away from the busy El Nido town.

Nacpan Beach

Going to Nacpan Beach?

One must have to endure one hell of a bumpy ride going to Nacpan. During that time there were few modes of transportation to reach it:

Beach bum for a day with my fresh coconut water

• renting a scooter (lucky if you have one)
• tricycle which will wait for you as long as you want to stay there  (Philippine Tuk-tuk)
• book a tour van
• and part of the Tour E-package (Inland Tour)

Half of the road going there was not paved as Palawan Island, in general, is still undeveloped, so there's limited accessibility going around.

Sounds like another adventure to us,ᕕ༼⌐■-■༽ᕗ We decided to be beach bums for a day after the action-packed Tour-A Island hopping package the day before.

I highly recommend that you do your research when you decide to use the service of tricycles for their pricing is quite odd, if you can haggle for a better price, good, we paid P1,500.

The commute was quite rocky, it's a uniquely interesting experience for someone who has never been had a tricycle ride, the uncomfortable ride is semi-compensated by several views of the charming sight of rice paddies, they're so nice to look at that few tourists would stop their scooters to take photos, for sure the carabaos and the farmers were having a celebrity moment!

Entrance fee to Nacpan

After the long bumpy and dusty tricycle ride, we were greeted with a long stretch of white sand, clear blue waters, and less crowd, there are few small business establishments so it's quite peaceful. Perfect for a laid-back Valentine's celebration.

According to my research online, walk a bit farther from the crowd as there are more huts that can be rented, so we walked away from the Twin Beach part of Nacpan; eventually, we found ourselves on the quieter side of the beach.

I asked the lady who seems to be the person in charge of the huts, I explained that I am not staying overnight but for a few hours, to my surprise, she allowed me to use one empty hut's patio for free! She also cooks lunch for P180.00, and sells fresh coconut water for P60.00.

Being so grateful for letting me use one of her huts for free, there's not much shade along the way and there are no other places to grab food nearby, I decided to give her our business, or else me and 🐻 would be having so much of that unwanted painful tan.

Now the Proposal

We've been talking about weddings, and having a family for quite some time and I have expressed to my dear 🐻 that I don't really like the sudden and public proposal. I feel more empowered when I am involved in this life-changing event. I came from a culture where couples decide together when they want to get married (though some couples are catching up with popping the question style).

Our view when he popped the question

While sitting on our lounge chairs, in front of our hut enjoying the breeze, talking about how lucky we were to find a spot on a long beach, then my Dear Teddy Bear held my hand and asked me, if I want to marry him.

I guess the North American in him still wants to pop the question...

"Of course, I will marry you! We've been talking about it!"---my unromantic but elated reply!

On Valentine's day, we were in one of the most beautiful places in the world, a semi-empty long beach, while enjoying fresh coconut juice, we were engaged.

Our first meal as an engaged couple, for less than $5.00 (Cad):

Ginisang Hipon (Sauteed Shrimps) and Inihaw na Puisit (Grilled Squid) with rice

And this is our view:

Chilling in our hut while enjoying our lunch

Aside from the mysterious pricing system of the tricycle drivers, other things to watch out for when you decide to visit Nacpan Beach:

• When the strong wind blows, sand hits you, so better protect your eyes!
• Not that much shade, be generous when you apply sunblock lotion
• It can get really hot, bring water
• The current can be unpredictable, stay near the shore
• Other tourists reported sandflies, though we were not bitten, just be aware of it, bring insect repellent.

Planning for the wedding began when we got back in Vancouver. Stay tuned for the next posts as I blog about my busy 2017!

My beautiful pink sapphire engagement ring from Minichiello Jewellers

-Life is great! ヽ(⌐■_■)ノ♪♬

The Yakiniku Virgins

Grill that! 

It's the first day of Dine Out Festival and me and boyfriend (my teddy bear 🐻) decided to try a Japanese style barbecue at Gyu-Kaku, it's something new for both of us considering we've been to several sushi places or Japanese style restaurant around Lower Mainland. My 🐻 enjoyed the idea of cooking our orders in our table, it's a novelty to him and it makes you feel of being more in charge of your dining experience, you have the choice- which one to grill and how much you want to have. In our experience the only blunder that we made is placing the veggies directly on top of the grill instead of placing the foil where they where served on top of the grill. 😅 This blunder resulted to a semi charred veggies though i don't really mind because i also enjoy my veggies raw.

We are Yakiniku virgins!

I would say first time trying a new dish leads to a new experience, and new experience is learning something new! After posting another version of this photo in my Instagram account a follower commented "Japanese bbq= Yakiniku". New Japanese word to add to some of the words that i know: Harigato, Hai!, Gomenasai, Sugoi and few more words...

It's a sign that life is really prepping me to my upcoming trip to Manila and i will be in Tokyo for an overnight layover twice and get to see bit of Narita.

Tokyo, can't wait to see you!!!💕

"Anything Can Be Solved Over A Stack Of Pancakes."

Early morning meditation with Denny's wisdom.

"Anything can be solved over a stack of pancakes." --- I think I have a new mantra, thank you Denny's.

When we feel like going out for brunch but not in the mood for a non-chain brunch place; Denny's is usually the place to go for me and my 🐻.

For some reason I really love their pancakes, they are fluffier than one of their main competitor and I love their occasional featured flavor.

I had a birthday slam from Denny's last year, and that's the best slam ever!

Here's another photo of our brunch in the same Denny's branch, and there are times that I just didn't take photos of my Denny's meal at all, I know deep inside that meal would not be my last...

There are plenty of great brunch places here in Vancouver, but Denny's successfully managed to keep me coming back. I guess that's the power of their stack of pancakes...( ˘▽˘)っ♨

My First Food Photo Here!

I have lots of food photos, I have this hobby of taking photos of most food that I ate when we dine outside and not mainly for the purpose of reviewing, but compared to a real food blogger, my food pix collection is minuscule, then I remember---before Instagram i have been taking photos some of my dine out experiences in the past! Unfortunately, I lost (eventually deleted) some of them. Nowadays my Instagram account (604Emijoy778) is pretty much 80% food photos, and there's more unposted!
I love good food!

Here's the pic of one of my favorites: cheesecake 😮😮😮

 My "Cheesecake Paradise" in Vancouver---Trees Organic Coffee & Roasting House.