Yes! There is free money in the world. On the Chinese new year day, I went to dim sum at the new Kirin restaurant in New Westminster, which is right next to a new casino. Kirin give each customer a $10 coupon for the casino. At first I though the coupons just exchange for chips, so I have to gamble away the chips. It turn out that I can change the chips back to cash right away! I got $10 for free! My lunch cost $14.5, minus the $10 cash back, the real cost is only $4.5. What a good deal!
We have a big group of engineers went to lunch that day. We are good at maths, we know the odds are against the gamblers. So none of us would spend a dime gambling in a casino. However, we all walked out from a casino with a small profit. Of course there many stupid people in this world. They will take the $10 coupon to gamble, at first they will lose the $10, then they will start losing their own money. The casino is quite smart giving out free money, as baits to fish stupid gamblers. I guess if everyone thinks like engineers, the casino would go bankrupt pretty soon.
I am having Hainanese chicken as dinner the second time this week. There are many reasons. First the hainanese chicken at So Kei taste very good and they are boneless. Second So Kei is really close to Pat’s place, only around the corner. Third, I am too lazy to cook dinner, especially I know there will be free (but crappy) lunch tomorrow at work. I am wondering, will there be any side effects of eating too many Hainanese chicken? Albeit, I still don’t feel like cooking at Pat’s place. I am not familiar with the strove and the cooking utensils. The fridge has no space to store food. It is full of useless bottles of sauces. I only need use the very basic ingredients, soya sauce, cornstarch, salt, sugar, pepper, sesame oil and chicken powder.
Tonight after meeting with my supervisor at SFU Harbor Center, Pat came over pick me up to have dinner together. I always drive by that area but rarely slow down and walk around the blocks. The restaurant we went is by the water front of False Creek, on the other side of the noisy crowded Yale Town. Although it is a bit cold today, we sat on the outside and over look the ship yards. Haven’t had time to enjoy a romantic dinner with Pat for quite sometime, so tonight is pretty relaxing for both of us. After dinner, Pat suggested we walk along side the water front. I observed that there are so many dog owners walking their dog in the area. I wonder where all the dogs come from, there are only apartments in the area. I feel sorry for the dogs who has to locked up in the small apartments for the whole day. We also went to check out the Urban Fare, which is one of those upscale supermarkets. It seems that this kind of organic food stores are so hip and trendy these days. However, as an engineer myself, I couldn’t understand why people would fall for those over-priced fancy items. Why would someone pay $7 for a bottle of water from Norway or $10 for a canned Salmon Chower soup? That hippy image is so skin deep, those high income urban people are all brained washed by the corporate marketing campaign to accept that particular style of living.
Thanks to a popular TV series, Dae Jang-geum, Korean culture is the most trendy topic in Hong Kong as well as the Chinese community in Vancouver. The show is about the first female royal physician in Korean history. I had only watched about 5 minutes of the show in total, and couldn’t understand why Pat and many of my friends are so addicted to this show. Luckily the show is finally finished, so no more bombardment from the media. Inspired by the glorified cooking of this show, me and Pat went to try out the Korean royal feast yesterday, . The meal has about twelve courses and took almost 2 hours to eat, kinda like fine dining served in Korean style. The food is pretty neat, very different from other Korean BBQ restaurants we are used to. Out of all the dishes, the ginseng tempura is most extra-ordinary. The dinner is not very expensive, comparable to having 3 courses in any bar and grill restaurants in downtown Vancouver. Highly recommended.
Tonight, I made enoki mushroom beef roll for dinner the first time. I spent quite some time in preparing it and the out come is very delicious. This is the latest addiction to my favourate recipe.
Other than that, nothing much happened today, except I went to see an allergist. My forearms got poked many times for the skin test and have some itchy rashes due to positive reaction afterward.