Add one to the mix: Gowalla vs. FourSquare

In a wyn-style nutshell: Gowalla and FourSquare are "games" you play primarily from a GPS-enabled smart phone to make your mundane and exotic activities more fun. When you arrive at a venue (from school to the supermarket to a nightclub to a lowly subway station), you can fire up Gowalla or FourSquare applications and "check in" to the location, i.e., tell the game and your friends where you are; then you can potentially see how many other game-savvy people are/were around and get some cool deals that may be offered by the proprietors of the venue.

I've heard alot about FourSquare in my Vancouver Twitter feed crowning it in my mind (with undisguised distaste, mind you) a "social media darling", what with it's splashy launch party in Vancouver and other tricks that I'll get to below. Apparently, Gowalla also debuted at SXSW (a "music, film, and interactive conference and festival") this year but I had heard nothing about it until I saw it in the "Featured Section" of the iTunes App Store last weekend. A couple of screenshots in the product description were eye-catching and I was game to try it. Both applications can be downloaded for free--so, no arguments about the price.

As with Twitter, Facebook, etc., I was hesitant. The way people go nuts over some things can turn me off--who would have thought I would be that kind of "rebel"?--but playing these games, like blogging, tells a handful of people that "I'm alive!" and "I'm getting out and about!" That's why I've kept blogging despite having, like, only ten readers :D and why I don't mind having just one friend each on Gowalla and FourSquare. They are two different friends, mind you. :D

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Starbucks does it again

I was annoyed because all I have to drink at work from my personal stash of tea is green tea and black tea. I wish I had an endless supply of the seemingly discontinued (from Costco) London & Co. Fruit & Herb Strawberry and Vanilla Fool tea. As it stands, I have 3 more divine tea bags remaining and save them for "special occasions" like savouring it with NPY who likes strawberries.

Then I looked down at the cardboard tab of my "Awake" (blend of black tea leaves) tea bag and was startled because it read: "Next March 10th you will dance the hoochie koo." And it says along the bottom of the tab that my tea leaves have been read by <some stamp of a signature>.

Ack! March 10th is my birthday! What a coincidence! What is the hoochie koo? The first definition I glanced at was from Urban Dictionary for the similar-sounding hoochie coochie dance and that is a lapdance! No way! However, there is another UD definition that is far better: "To live a rock and roll lifestyle, free from worry and anxiety. Being a true free-spirit."

Huh. This is the stuff that makes my mother say, "You should buy a lottery ticket!"

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Strategic Thanksgiving

Just a few years ago, I only had the faintest idea of when American Thanksgiving occurred. In Canada, we get it out of the way in early October while Americans get around to it in late November. I did not realize how important or long a holiday it was for them.

Besides my secret impression that Vancouver is a very American city, it just cannot be faulted for being located very close to the border, right? Another reason why I love where I live: it's like a straight line drive from my place to 99S which becomes I-5. Sweet.

And it was only within the past few years that I opened my eyes and learned about Black Friday sales. My first trip was an unambitious and eye-opening midnight trip to the outlets in Tulalip, just north of Seattle. The past two Black Friday trips were more extended and strategically planned affairs!

Last year, 8 of us rolled together a Vegas trip with Black Friday shopping. I had no idea the girls had such stamina when it came to shopping and NPY and I had not clarified our expectations with each other: that I would be out shopping for 12 hours starting midnight Friday and the boys should find their own entertainment (or sleep) at the hotel!

This year, we got together 10 people to go to Portland (tax-free shopping within a 5-hour drive!) for a more shopping-heavy trip. And the guys were prepared this year. ;-) (Hey, remember when I was there just a year ago for my 3rd marathon?)

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Fall Reads: Books to curl up to

Ahh.... autumn, and this year being one of my most leisurely yet (no work commute, not training this fall), I hope to be as successful in ploughing through books like I was in the summer.

Last year, I read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love and it was fun, insightful, and uplifting--kind of sweet but you knew where it was going and I hate the smugness that I cannot separate from foreshadowing. This year, I heard of Andrew Gottlieb's Drink Play F@#k... I'm always a year behind, it seems. Is it a worthy parody? Reading a guy's take on a year off seemed like the most appropriate way to "complete" the experience.

Quick review: I often find memoirs or narrations written by men off-putting. I can feel the know-it-all, self-promoting tone that churns my stomach. Okay, Drink, Play, F--k is not exactly a memoir so it's not actually a loss of masculinity for the narrator to be self-deprecating and honest. Perhaps the intended audience is women who want to hear a fake man display some uncertainty at times and rail at his evil, princess-y ex-wife... because we wouldn't be such horrid wives to a doting, providing, resourceful man.... I'm sure where were bits that shone in Eat, Pray, Love that I have long-since forgotten, but two that stand out is his gut-wrenching reaction to losing at poker and his comparison of men and women to different operating systems (i.e., Mac OS and Windows)--we can get along but we can really not get along.

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Movie Review: The People I've Slept With

I got tickets to watch three Vancouver Asian Film Festival movies and--are we surprised?--I watched only two of them. I didn't watch Dim Sum Funeral but I'm quite confident that with its big cast of well-known Asian-American actors, it will turn up at the video store in the "International" section or, uhm, on the torrents sites....

White on Rice was quirky and quite memorable, but I take things literally, to the letter, so I don't enjoy humour very much. I did, however, enjoy very much The People I've Slept With. NPY was not quite as thrilled because of the film's many "failings" and cliches. Here, let me enumerate them... and if you have seen any number of romantic comedies, this could be a huge spoiler....

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Does Vancouver need an Asian Film Festival?

I am hoping that the title of this post binds me to publishing this entry this year... it could very easily languish in my Drafts like many other well-intentioned blog posts. Afterall, the Vancouver Asian Film Festival starts today....

Today, we're going back to that comment made by our New York host that was just a fact of life for her but, for me, it might be the catalyst of enlightenment... of sorts. She had observed how Asian diaspora/pride/identity crisis is so pronounced where she now lives compared to twenty years of growing up Vancouver.

Now, what makes Vancouver so special? What makes the various big cities in North America different from each other? Other than the obvious that there are west coast cities like Vancouver, L.A., and San Francisco, and east (coast) cities like Toronto and New York, I am fascinated by why Vancouver, Seattle, and San Francisco aren't identical twins for our similar proximity to Asia compared to, oh, those cities way across the continent in the Eastern time zone.

We learned back in grade school how Canada roughly differs from the United States in that while the U.S. boasts of a melting pot (newcomers tend to assimilate after which you can all peacefully co-exist), Canada's multicultural picture ressembles more that of a mosaic (where differences are celebrated and maintained and overall, a coherent picture emerges). The reality, I find, is that mosaics are maintained in the big cities, American and Canadian, and melting pots occur in in the smaller cities... like in Halifax, where I grew up.

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VAFF This Year

Each year, the "release" of the VAFF (Vancouver Asian Film Festival) schedule is like mini-Christmas to me as I peruse the highly manageable list of films screening over the four-day festival. Each year, I identify at least two films I want to watch and for the past two years, I have managed to watch none during the festival run. Each year, I'm tempted to blather about how appreciative I am about living in a city that has an Asian Film Festival but I'll refrain and just tell you about the three (consecutive) film festival evenings I have committed to by having already purchased tickets.

White on Rice

If you didn't know it, there is something vaguely obscene-sounding from the expression "white on rice". Like possibly Asian fetish suggesting. It turns out "white on rice" means "all over something you like", for example,"When Krispy Kreme Donuts opened their first shop in Boston this summer, the locals were on it like white on rice."

I first heard of this movie through the series of articles about the movie written by Angry Asian Man since the movie has been making the film festival circuit this summer. Then it dawned on me that this "film festival darling" (my quotes) would be screened at my local Asian film festival--yay! I read only one article, one with the director, where I learned that (ahem, unlike the next movie), the script was written with no particular ethnicity in mind; however, since the movie portrays a family, when one main character was cast, the rest of the family needed to be consistent.

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Project Management systems galore

With an image for the blog entry--for which I have no idea how much trouble I'm in--now I am ready to talk about it.

When my director told me his website requirements, I went into a bit of a tizzy being overwhelmed and the web design companies wooing for our business started drooling at the amount of customization that we would require. Then fellow Dal alum, Karen, set me off looking at project management systems with the recommendation of Basecamp and I didn't look back (at those aggressive salesmen, er, web design consultants).

What followed was the most fun time I've had at work evaluating many of the major online project management systems.

I started looking at Basecamp, of course. It's a beautiful-looking service that is 2009-looking and functioning. One feature glaringly lacking is a Gantt chart module but since I'm not a full-fledge PM or anything, I hardly miss it in my use of Basecamp. Our projects cannot be placed on a hosted service so I don't consider it for work but, of course, I signed up for their free, one-project account.*

When you Google "alternatives to basecamp", one particular trend stands out and those are links pointing to active collab. For a very short time, active collab was open source, a brilliant and elegant alternative to Basecamp. The price of a perpetual license is insignificant compared to the power and utility of the system you get.

I read tons of reviews of the above systems and it was in forums and comments that other systems were mentioned: Project Pier, Open Atrium, 5 pm web, Comindwork, etc.

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CIBC Run for the Cure 2009 -- Vancouver | "Fun Run" Recap

a.k.a. "The race I nearly forgot was a race and thus nearly forgot to blog about it...."

As is plainly obvious (or is it?), I haven't been running much since my May marathon nor do I have a race to train for. Wait, I did have one. No, I didn't really.

Over the summer, NPY and I went for many walks. As a runner, I would disparage this slow-going past-time, casting it as something old people do. But it was a really nice summer and we had to do something since in 2009 we didn't manage to rollerblade more than once nor organize any substantial hiking expeditions.

I can vaguely remember first telling NPY that I run. In fact, the summer we started dating was also the first summer I trained for a marathon. He didn't quite understand why I take part so ardently in something that is not a game, that I won't win. I took him out on one of my easy 6K training runs but it proved far too much for someone who doesn't run -- ever -- however much he alleges he is a "natural athlete".

Slightly mortified that I had so abruptly and successfully turned him off from running forever, I never broached the subject of him running with me again. So I was so surprised and in pleasant disbelief when NPY suggested that this year he would participate in the CIBC Run for the Cure, a 5K run.

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Look Book

The little sister, MY, is quite an advocate for the Joe Fresh line of clothing you can find while also at The Real Atlantic/Great Canadian Superstore for groceries... and I can't say that I disagree.

The prices are so reasonable--$89 for a coat! $29 for fall shoes!--and then if you live close to one or do your grocery shopping at a Superstore, you can check often and get the quality clothing on sale! Which MY has done and so have my girlfriends here who delight over finding clearance shoes for $5 and a blouse for $7! As for me, I go infrequently so I only really buy things full price.

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Yet another 101 food items to try in Vancouver

Yes, wyn is copping out a little (a lot) and posting the list that I fastidiously made after Joyce tweeted about Vancouver Magazine's recently released 2009 list of 101 foods to find yourself eating around the city. Because I like having yet another list to refer to... and that means there will be about one more year to make it through this list and last year's list until the next list, right??

Legend/Guide:
* Bolded -- I've been there and/or I've had that there!
* Italicized -- Haven't had it but I really think I will manage to try it... someday....

1. Prawn Crab Rolls - Pattaya Thai Restaurant (NW)
2. Mango Popsicle - T&T
3. Black Truffle Pizza - Market
4. Giant Oreo - Butter Baked Goods
5. Crispy Cauliflower - Nuba
6. Stuffed Rabbit Saddle - Bacchus at the Wedgewood
7. Jasmine Dragon Pearls - Granville Island Tea Company
8. Fricasse - Medina Cafe

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The Grammar School

When asked, I like to tell people that from primary to grade 8, I attended "The Convent" (it became a Sacred Heart School). And from grade 9 to graduation, I attended a grammar school. Because, you know, in the real world where private school alum are swamped by former public school kids, you have to focus their attention to your uniquely sheltered lifeview with monikers like "Catholic girls school" and pish-posh British-sounding "grammar school". Yup, although my ten-year non-reunion rolled around 4 years ago, I think the sheltered life still has some repercussions. Particularly, at times, I still gawk at the shenanigans people got up to during their high school years!

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Currently Reading: Double-Take Books

I was intrigued when I first saw Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man because it seemed to promise a woman's view of the world of men; you know, that baffling 50% of the population you wish could just understand us women! Then the hardcover was on sale for $5.99 and owning it and reading it was actually meant to be. ;-)

Ms. Vincent disguised herself as a man for 18 months and orchestrated her infiltration in a variety of settings that women would either be barred from or highly discouraged from joining: joining a men's bowling league, visiting strip clubs, dating women, joining a monastery, working door-to-door sales, and infiltrating a men's self-help group, in that order of chapters. It was a very difficult book for me to read and I ended up dragging it out over a year. You see, I was skeptical based on the first few chapters: she admits to being a more manly woman and I naively assumed that masquerading as a man would therefore be easier than if it had been my project; I wasn't sure the project was truly productive if she was often viewed as sensitive man; and I was irritated with what seemed like she was always trying to draw on men's sensitive side. Early into the book, I thought her conclusion would boil down to "Men are sensitive creatures, too."

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So You Think You Can Dance Canada - Season 2

Just in case we are not aware of it, Angry Asian Man takes it upon himself to alert you to the Asian contestants in some reality shows even when it is apparent he does not watch them himself (SYTYCD s05, SYTYCD s04). It's always interesting to me to note when there is an under- or overrepresentation of Asians in a competition compared to general demographics. And if they deserve it, I'll root for them staying in the competition as long as possible.

NPY and I rapidly gave up on watching So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) Canada but we're sucked back in this year with what seems like better production and dancers, and the host is hitting her stride. We might potentially get overloaded with SYTYCD, and television in general, this fall when the American version starts a new season very quickly after wrapping up the last one....

This year we watched with great anticipating as the auditions continued and a Top 20 group of dancers was selected. The harrowing and physically demanding process whittled some 200 finalists down to the top ten guys and top ten girls... and there is Asian representation in each.

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Living Olympic on the Coke Side of Life

Silly me, I actually dream of carrying the Olympic torch during some part of the nation-wide relay later this year. I thought it would be super-nice to have a reason to go home in November as I had requested to run Lunenburg-Halifax or Halifax-Truro, assuming those are lower-demand regions. I signed up with RBC by filling out a brainlessly easy online form and then I knew I needed to increase my chances (up to two entries) by signing up through iCoke. I do not and will not drink Coke... or dark pop.

So it's kind of fitting that in order to make my little dream come true, I had to write a mini-essay (200-220 words in length) explaining how I "live Olympic on the Coke Side of Life." What does Coke embody anyhow? There were suggestions to write about "the positive impact you have had on yourself or others related to how you help the environment". The environment? I don't know about that. But I can re-iterate about running so here we go....

(Mind you, I don't expect at all to win a torch-bearing spot, period. Especially not with this POS I wrote over my lunch hour the day before the deadline. :P)

When I was in high school, I looked at cross-country club runners like they were crazy and rued the 50-metre dash requirement of the Canada Fitness Test. How, then, did I end up fifteen years later with four marathons and twenty other races under my belt?

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One of the things I would miss a lot if I left Vancouver is the dining options.

My apartment's proximity to a great eating distict/neighbourhood (after decades of living in the suburbs) makes me think in passing that I live in a cool Asian city where I can walk down from my apartment and be greeted at street-level with a buffet of restaurant offerings. In truth, I have to walk about 5 blocks and it's not a true buffet; still, it is a far cry from having to drive just to get anywhere when you're living in the 'burbs.

For all that, I have tried a paltry twelve items from Vancouver Magazine's list of 101 things to eat in Vancouver.* Without further ado, I am re-presenting the list with my own comments as follows.

Bold - Things I have tried from those specified suppliers or something close enough
Italicized - Foods that have been on my radar for a while, but I haven’t tried yet
Left plain - Foods I had no idea were so high on the “must-try” list!

1. Raspberry Wheat Ale – Granville Island Breweries
2. Salmon Tacones – Go Fish
3. Gyu Yukke – Gyoza King (Been to G.K., but didn't order this!)
4. Thomas Haas’ Double-Baked Almond Croissant – 49th Parallel (Will seek this one out now!)
5. Rabbit Sausage – Cioffi’s
6. Smoked Beef Tenderloin –JN&Z Deli
7. Hercule De Carlevoix cheese – Mount Pleasant Cheese Shop (Hey, that's close to my house! I can do this one!)
8. Clayburn Raspberry Jam – Sugar & Co

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Da Lang Dinner at Neptune Wonton Noodles

There's a style of Cantonese dining that I have never heard of taking place at the places I go to. Su told us about da lang and recommended Neptune Wonton Noodles in Richmond since we were passing through on our way home from a day trip to the States. If one of us should not want to have da lang, there were usual Chinese food options.

Da lang is a late night dining option that seems to be a meal centered around a big communal bowl of congee. Neptune is apparently famous for their plate of fried shrimp that you shell yourself. I vetoed it since that is what I grew up on in Halifax so it was no delicacy to me*. Other than that, we chose from the late night da lang menu of small dishes costing just $5-6 for about three servings. It is more generous than a tapas restaurant downtown, that is for sure!

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We all made stew

It's like a bloggy chain mail! First we all saw The Food Pornographer's post. Then Sulin did it and posted a recipe. And just like most chain mail, this one will probably die after my attempt.

Poor NPY suffered a hit to the head playing hockey and was taking it easy so I just had to skip a run I signed up for. Frank came over because our signals were mixed and he thought we were going running but we ended up catching up instead. With NPY practically passed out on my couch, me prepping food in the kitchen, and Frank hanging around, I had that infrequent sensation of having a verifiable (little) household.

It was one of those rare days where I'm just awesome with a variety of food in my little house to offer up so this is what NPY and Frank, too, (if he had stayed) enjoyed:
1. Slices of edam and extra old cheddar cheese - one squishy and one more solid and strong
2. Fresh cherry tomatoes
3. Sundried tomato tuna salad
4. Curried spinach soup (from the Wild Rose Detox recipe book - no, I'm not on Wild Rose)
5. Asian-style chicken stew
6. Five-minute chocolate cake in a mug with Hagen Daas Caramel Cone Explosion ice cream

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Crossing Culture Lines

I wanted to add my thoughts to the lackluster, non-existent debate* swirling around the July 16 episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" when ten dancers remained: five guys and five girls. The night before, to show off their talents in smaller groups, the girls performed a group number together and the guys did one later in the show. The girls' number was a sassy, athletic, graceful, exhilerating Bollywood number. The guys closed out the show with an acrobatic and athletic African dance routine. I fully enjoyed the Indian-style of dancing but was less than entirely impressed by the guys. The guys' routine seemed more random and I could feel myself yawning.

On Thursday nights all the remaining dancers perform together and we saw the curtain rise (so to speak) on a night-time set with a full red moon over some shadows evoking the rooftops of Japanese-style establishments. The routine was choreographed by the super husand-and-wife team of Wade and Amanda Robson and set to Janet Jackson's "So Much Betta".

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Chant: Trader Joe's! Trader Joe's!

Through blogs, a long time ago, I heard of this American grocery store, Trader Joe's, and in my mind's eye, I imagined a rustic place with a log cabin theme and glass jars of maple syrup. How wrong I was. And to think that for some reason, I never quite realize that I, too, could shop at Trader Joe's. It's those immigration officers at the border and at the airport who sternly ask me, "Did you bring back any food?" And I know that in order not arouse their suspicions, I must truthfully continue to answer "No" to all their questions.

In a recent day trip Stateside with NPY and another couple, we had enough girls to push for a long Trader Joe's run. NPY grumbled about our misplaced enthusiasm and text messaged a female friend while we shopped. Upon learning where NPY was, the friend text message-exclaimed, "I love Trader Joe's!! Their stuff is the best!" I guess we had him cornered and convinced. ;-)

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North American Chinatown

Sometimes I feel like I do not need to live in Vancouver to "keep in touch with my culture"; except for the personal touch of being in a city that is about 15% Chinese, a lot of my daily fix comes through the Internet and other widely available resources.

With the magic of RSS feeds piped through Google Reader, I get sufficiently bombarded with Asian information from the few feeds I subscribe to.

It seems the longest-standing pillar of blog-style Asian-American information is Angry Asian Man and NPY has noticed how much stuff I've seen fit to forward to him since I have become a subscriber — AAM is concise in each post and churns out a lot of posts covering diverse interests. I would not be as informed about the detention of Laura Ling and Euna Lee if it were not for his up-to-date coverage and links.

Disgrasian is run by two women who are sassy and their "news" is slanted towards entertainment updates. Since it is run by women, they have a better eye for spotting the hot up-and-coming Asian entertainers. :D

Visualizasian, a name at which I shudder, streams in-depth interviews with Asian-American community leaders. Of the three or four since I've started subscribing, I have only been interested in the one with Yul Kwon, famous for winning Survivor several years ago but he's gone on to do a lot with his fame and wealth.

Finally, the only Canadian one I subscribed to is one associated with a magazine I have not had the occasion to read, Schema. Instead of reading about fun events tantalizingly held in California, I can read about events in Toronto and, less often, Vancouver. Yay. However, that is how I get my Asian-Canadian events alerts even though the site can be a little slow to the game - several times, I've learned of an event the day of or after it has occurrred.

The three information websites have been quite timely and echoing each other on one thing recently: the upcoming publication of Bonnie Tsui's American Chinatown [AAM, SCH]. (Oops, it seems Disagrasian did not write about it but it just seemed like everyone was!)

Do I care about Chinatowns in the United States when I am Canadian? Why should I? However, when I travel to new cities, I will often seek out Chinatown and take pictures of somewhat identical looking gates and then file them away in my Flickr under my Chinatown tag. So, I do care.

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Summer Reading in the End of East (Vancouver)

I didn't stagger out my reading so well and in the past three weeks have read two Chinese-North American novels with some superficial similarities that momentarily made my head spin trying to recall which novel I was reading.

I do believe it was Daily Candy that alerted me to Wendy Lee's Happy Family (it was!) and I was amused how Asian-American fiction made it onto the otherwise annoyingly "witty" site. So I thought it was a chicklit nanny story and perfect for summer reading.

A careful look at the somber cover and you know it's not chicklit. Nor does it read like one.

It turned out to be so captivating. Wendy Lee spins a captivating tale about Hua Wu's immigration, life in New York's Chinatown, and the backstory. You're given a glimpse into an immigrant's mind - the loneliness, the naivete regarding The New World, and perhaps that what she left behind was quite nice and uncomplicated while kind of repressive. At times, I did not sympathize with the protagonist or her actions but still found myself rooting for either scenario where she succeeded or the Upper East Side family "won".

Next, I read Jen Sookfong Lee's The End of East (henceforth she is simply JSFL) that gives the name of this blog post: four of the characters travel by boat from China to Vancouver, "the end of east, where the west begins." I really worried in the opening pages that I wouldn't get into the novel - there are hints of not-quite mysticism in the form of dreams as a vehicle for storytelling and "Asian exoticism" but I was gradually drawn in. The immigrant stories of father and son were well drawn out and it seemed that when their wives made it over - a female perspective - their corresponding struggles were somewhat glossed over. Well, there were other stories to tell.

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Grammar Geeks

At work, when I tire of doing finances, wrapping my head around some uncommented code, or am not getting anywhere with some administrative matter, I pull out my copy of Grammar Girls' Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing for a breather and to read a few grammar usage tips.

I bought Grammar Girl's first book last year when it was hot off the presses but only just now cracked it open on the eve of starting my first proper technical writing/editing class.

Earlier this year, I took another course in the Technical Writing program and it left something to be desired: I felt that group work was a huge part of the curriculum designed to cut down the instructor's workload; it was a course about writing for the Internet and I cringed when the instructor struggled to define some web concepts; I cringed some more when the instructor referred to blog entries as "blogs" (no! no! no!); the exam was open-book and dead easy; and not only that, we marked each other's exams and then all were able to argue to regain the marks we lost.

I was so wary that my second course would be unspectacular and riddled with group assignments... but it's quite the opposite experience so far.

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dance dance dance

The initial idea was to replace running with dancing. But with a 90-minute ballet class costing $18 (or $14 at my reduced rate) per, I go approximately once every two weeks*. I really wish it was as often as once a week (Monday, after work) but once you insert a commute time, well, I am dragging my feet no matter if all the other factors are in favour of me going: gloriously sunny day conducive to walk to and from class and nothing else demanding my attention or presence in the evening.

Returning to dance even in my casual way gives me confidence again as a dancer. I liked hanging out recently in the basement rec room of Herb's bachelor pad townhouse with someone's iPhone plugged into the stereo system and chanelling my clubbing days or practicing a retiré.

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Delightful Chambar

Our anniversary is a once-a-year chance for me to pick a can't miss Vancouver restaurant for us to try. The other days of the year we evenly rotate our business between only about six Chinese diner-type restaurants. Thus, this year, I picked Chambar Belgian Restaurant because it's consistently one of those top-named restaurants that's displayed staying power.

I'm not sure which restaurant has the most reviews on my preferred Vancouver restaurant review website, dinehere.ca, but I can tell you that I was giddy at the prospect of having 118 reviews to sift through to figure out Chambar's best dish(es). I only made it through about 40 reviews before calling it a day... and they only dated as far back as last summer. This review only adds to the pile but - look-ee - I've got pictures!

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