A Little Sprinkle of the R Dizzle – Page 3 – Bucket List Adventures in Food, Travel and Fun

Perverted Ice Cream

June 6, 2018 By therdizzle in Eateries 2 Comments

Chris and I checked out the newly opened “Perverted Ice Cream” in downtown Vancouver.

The marketing and design for this shop is creative and naughty. Ice cream with a twist. When you approach the window it’s all blacked out kind of like a sex shop. The space is quite small so it’s more of a grab and go spot. They have merchandise for sale with cheeky sayings like “it ain’t gonna lick itself” or bottles of water with “rinse your mouth”. Kinky.

The menu is named with sexual innuendos in mind. I ordered the “Beg for S’more” which is chocolate soft serve, toasted marshmallow, chocolate sauce, a graham cracker in a black charcoal ice cream cone. Chris ordered the “Cocoa Dependency” which was pretty much chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. The options are inventive and the presentation is impeccable. It does not look like your average ice cream cone.

Chris thinks of himself as kind of an “ice cream connoisseur” (haha), but he doesn’t think too highly of soft serve. In his eyes this was something equivalent to what he could get at McDonalds and that made it not so special for him. He ended up tossing his out without finishing it.

I had a bit of better luck with mine. I agree, the soft serve didn’t taste like anything special…it was fine though, not bad. I loved the toppings, they elevated the cone for me. I was especially a fan of the toasted marshmallow. It was good.

We both found the ice cream to be extremely messy. The ice cream was runny, the cone thin and easily break-able, the base of the cone (cookie crumble?) blew over everything like dust while I was walking home.

I still thought it was good enough for me to give the other flavours a try. I’ll be back…

Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, Chiang Mai

June 5, 2018 By therdizzle in Thailand, Travel No Comments

Prior to arriving in Thailand, we booked a tour to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Chiang Mai. When booking, I accidentally chose the wrong year (next year), we prepaid and then I began to worry that it would be difficult to sort out my mistake. I sent them an email and they got back to me very quickly and made the change for me with no problems. It was great.

The day of the tour, we were picked up a bit later than the time we were told. It was late enough that we were concerned that we were forgotten. We needed to have our hotel call them to follow up (I attempted to call, but unfortunately our language barrier made it difficult to understand the details). The driver eventually arrived. The ride is in the back of an open air pick-up truck with several other people and can be quite bumpy and is very, very long. Prepare yourself. It’s a good idea to bring water and make sure you use the restroom.

We arrived on the grounds and the vibe in the back of the truck instantly changed. Everyone was so restless on our commute, but when we approached the grounds and saw these beautiful massive creatures roaming about there was definite excitement in the air.

We were at sanctuary camp 6. Our guide was awesome and hilarious. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. We were given special clothing to wear and told of our rules before getting to interact with the elephants. Being so close to the amazing animals was quite a powerful experience. We had the opportunity to feed them, pet them and bathe them. This company takes very good care of the elephants. Our guide was getting emotional when answering questions about what the elephants went through before being rescued. We learned a lot about the treatment and exploitation of elephants in Thailand and why it’s important not to ride them. It’s heartbreaking. The elephants are sooo sweet. I fell in love with the baby. He is just adorable. It was an amazing day.

Lunch is served during the experience. Beer is available for purchase. Be prepared to get dirty. Take a change of clothes, your mosquito repellent and your sunscreen.

Trattoria Italian Kitchen (Burnaby)

June 3, 2018 By therdizzle in Eateries No Comments

On Saturday night, the hubby and I were over in Burnaby and had a lovely date night at Trattoria Italian Kitchen.

The restaurant is easy to get to. It’s very close to Metrotown skytrain station and there’s also street parking and underground parking under the Element building. It’s in a nice new tower and the restaurant is large and fancy. There’s a beautiful circular bar at the entrance that I just love. I did see a TV screen in the corner with hockey on that Chris really appreciated. Although it’s a large space, they still manage to offer an intimate setting that was perfect for our date night.

Before I get into the food, I just want to talk about the fantastic service we received here. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a friendly hostess and shown to our seat. Once seated we received attentive service from our waiter and had an opportunity to speak with the restaurant manager who was inviting, friendly and knowledgeable The drinks and food came out quickly, empty dishes were cleared out instantly. They treated us well. I was very impressed by the service.

For our drinks, Chris went with rosé and I had the red wine sangria. The drinks came out quickly. My sangria was delicious. I love it when restaurants actually add the fresh fruit into this cocktail. I felt like I was drinking a proper traditional sangria. I’ve been finding a lot of restaurants are skipping the fresh fruit lately.

For our appetizers we tried the tomato bruschetta and the signature meatballs. The bruschetta was so fresh. Tomatoes, fresh parmesan and basil…mmm. The beef meatball was smooth. I know that’s maybe a weird word to use when describing a meatball (haha), but it was just so smooth. They definitely know how to do meatballs.

For dinner, we decided on the pasta platter as we wanted to try a bit of everything. The manager also suggested we give the cheese bread a try, so we did. The platter portion size was generous (initially we thought it was too much food for two people, but after that first taste we quickly changed our tune. When it’s that delicious it’s not too difficult to clean it off). The platter came with bucatini cacciatore, crab and lobster ravioli, truffled spaghetti and meatballs, and pesto gnocchi.

The cheese bread was warm and cheesy perfection.

The cacciatore had ground chicken, zucchini, roasted peppers and eggplant. When I read the menu, I wasn’t certain that I would be a fan of this one. I’m not usually so into eggplant and it just didn’t sound as appealing on paper as the others, but boy was I wrong. It was so good.

The crab and lobster ravioli was one of my favorites on the platter. It was served with a creamy sundried tomato sauce. How can you go wrong with that combination? Yum!

The truffled spaghetti and meatballs was a clear stand-out on the platter. This was the highlight of my meal. Perfectly cooked spaghetti in a creamy ricotta with those smooth signature meatballs and tomato sauce. Ohhh myy! Heaven!

Lastly, the pesto gnocchi. My husband is not a huge fan of gnocchi and even he liked it. It was very well done.

Usually I have some sort of critique to offer, but I just can’t. Our meal was so satisfying. At several points today I found myself daydreaming about last night’s dinner. That’s how good it was! My only regret is that we didn’t have room for the zeppole dessert. The group sitting next to us was celebrating a birthday and the waiter brought out the italian donuts with candles lit for the birthday boy. It looked absolutely delectable, but we were in our happy carb food comas and there was just not enough room. Big regret lol. I will be back to perhaps try their Carne e Pesce Platter next time, which is more like a protein platter. It sounds great and may make it easier to leave some room for the zeppole.

We had a great night.

Breka Bakery

June 1, 2018 By therdizzle in Eateries No Comments

Today is National Doughnut Day! I spent my lunch break on the search for the perfect doughnut. I came across Breka Bakery and decided to pop in. There’s a great selection of beautiful sandwiches, mouthwatering pastries and delectable doughnuts. I decided on the bocconcini panini and the chocolate hazelnut filled doughnut. This bakery wasn’t too busy at lunch, but the staff was surprisingly cold. Breka is open 24/7 so perhaps they were reeling from a long shift, but sometimes a smile can go a long way. They did seem to provide service quickly though, so I will give them that. The bakery has tons of seating. There seems to be a lot of people on laptops just chilin out. My sandwich was good. It wasn’t mind blowing or anything, but a good sandwich. The doughnut was the star of the show. It was even better than it looked. The icing was out of this world and the chocolate hazelnut filling was sooo good….mmm. It was definitely a good way to celebrate National Doughnut Day!

Mamma Mia! at the Stanley Theatre

May 31, 2018 By therdizzle in Events 1 Comment

On Tuesday evening, my mother-in-law and I headed over to the Stanley Theatre to check out the play “Mamma Mia!”. I had actually never seen the show or movie before, so I was completely new to the story. As I sit here writing this, I’ve got the movie on in the background so that I can compare just how true to the story the performance we watched was. So far, pretty spot on. Everyone has heard of Mamma Mia, the musical that uses the music of Swedish pop band, Abba, but not being too familiar with the story I had no idea what to expect. What we got was a wonderful evening filled with hilarity, great music, spectacular singing and dancing. It was just a very fun, upbeat show. I really enjoyed myself. My mother-in-law, who is Swedish, was filled with nostalgia listening to music that she used to listen to back home, often enthusiastically singing along. She really enjoyed herself too. I feel it was a show great for all ages. I’ll admit, at times I did feel that there was some over-acting, but that is sometimes expected in theatre. The actors knocked it out of the park. (Kind of a side note, but I thought that Donna kind of resembled Jennifer Aniston and Rosie resembled Melissa McCarthy a bit.) The set was beautiful, the costumes were bright and fun, the set changes seamless. I was very impressed. What a great show.

The show runs this summer until August 12. Will you be checking it out this summer?

Burger Bar, Las Vegas

May 30, 2018 By therdizzle in Eateries, Las Vegas, Travel 2 Comments

Since both Chris and I are foodies, we wanted our wedding dinner in Vegas to be at a casual yet delicious burger joint. We went wit Burger Bar. This is the restaurant of celebrity Michelin Chef Hubert Keller and it was our first choice right from the get-go.

When setting up details, we dealt with Rachel by email. She was very professional and we set up our menu with our logo on it which was nice and decided it would be cash bar at this portion of the night as we would be having booze at the portion before dinner and an open bar for our party right after.

On the day of the wedding, we arrived and we were seated in a long table in the centre of the restaurant. It was a casual pub vibe. When we sat down there were appies already on the table and they were delicious. Everyone was starving at this point in our day so that made everyone happy. Our menu was on the table with our logo. So cute. It was cool walking through the pub and having people cheer. It was just the kind of feel we wanted for our day. It was a fun atmosphere. Everyone cheered when we walked in which was awesome.

My groom and I arrived a few moments later than my party as our photographer was taking pictures of us on our walk to burger bar. The guests were aware that it was cash bar for this portion of the evening and while some of the guests were using this part of the night as a breather, the ones who decided they would have drinks were willing to pay. I don’t feel it is my responsibility to explain how it works with billing at the restaurant especially on my wedding day. They wanted the guests to pay for any drinks at the bar in order for it to be cash bar, but the staff took drink orders at the table. I feel I made the arrangements with them and it should have been explained to my guests how the business works when there is a cash bar. At the end of the night, the drinks were on our bill because people ordered at the table. When I asked them to just bill people for their drinks, they told us that they could not issue more than 8 bills for a table (this was on my contract with them) and it would have only worked that way if people ordered at the bar, they said they could issue one bill for the booze and one for the food and we could pass the booze bill around for our guests to figure out what they owe. We thought it was insensitive of us to ask our guests to go through one receipt (not to mention it’s embarrassing) and figure out what they owe, plus we had an after party to get to. We paid for it, but when I spoke with Rachel about it she mentioned that she didn’t charge us for the people that didn’t show up. We had just one guest that didn’t end up flying to Vegas for the wedding. Paying for his meal would have been fine because it was calculated into our wedding budget. Picking up the liquor tab for our guests did cost more than the one meal.

I also requested for a vegetarian burger to be added to my menu. We had a guest who used to eat meat, but is now a vegetarian. The vegetarian burger was not added to our menu. He didn’t want to inconvenience anyone, so he ordered a beef burger. I unfortunately did not notice until after he ordered and at that point he said it was fine. He hadn’t eaten beef in years. He left our after party early as he wasn’t feeling well.

I had talked to Rachel prior to the wedding to have bacon taken off the chicken burger as a lot of our guests that eat chicken do not eat pork (including myself). She mentioned that guests could just order it without the bacon so we left it on the menu. At the table, my food was almost brought out to me and then it was realized that there was bacon on the burger. It was taken away. All my guests were already eating. A second burger came out also with bacon on it. I explained I ordered it without bacon and so the burger was taken away, the bacon was picked off (something I could have done myself if I was fine with that) and brought back to me instantly. That was not cool and I had to explain my reasons for not eating pork before they made a fresh one. Finally a new burger was made, at this point my guests had pretty much finished eating and it was time to get to the next part of our festivities. I can’t eat that fast. I had one bite of the burger and my husband scarfed down half of the rest. I believe it’s normal protocol for the bride and groom to be fed first on the wedding day, or at least at the same time as the guests. I felt like an after-thought.

The bites that I did get to have were really delicious and I can see why Hubert Keller is the king of burgers, being the first to open a gourmet burger in Vegas. Being a foodie, I am sad that I didn’t get to enjoy my meal properly. My guests all really enjoyed the food that they got though and that’s the most important thing. Perhaps I’ll go back one day and try it without the craziness of a wedding. Perhaps they are better at smaller groups.

I will say that i emailed burger bar after the wedding and voiced my concerns. They were really apologetic and I didn’t want to hold the errors against them. They also asked for my mailing address so they could send me a hand written apology. A bit of time passed and I had to email them again to touch base. Eventually they sent me one of Hubert Keller’s cookbook with a lovely note. I do wish things went differently during my wedding dinner, but it didn’t ruin my day. It was still the best day of my life.

Peaked Pies

May 28, 2018 By therdizzle in Eateries No Comments

My husband is a huge fan of meat pies. We were starving as we were walking back home from english bay and saw Peaked Pies and decided to grab some for take-out. It’s a small, cozy, cute shop. They offer lots of unique pie combinations. We picked up a couple pies and decided to try them fully “peaked” which means you get it topped with mashed potatoes, gravy and mushy green peas. We also got some lamington cake. We took all of it to go. but you can eat in also. I chose the chunky steak and mushroom pie. It was delicious and hearty. The crust is nice and flaky. They know how to do a pie crust that’s for sure. It’s the ultimate comfort food. My husband is an even bigger fan than me as he’s been back numerous times. I absolutely loved the lamingtons. My sister made this cake every year when I was younger and it was almost as good as hers. Yum!

Royalton Hicacos Resort and Spa, Varadero

May 27, 2018 By therdizzle in Cuba, Travel No Comments

We booked the Royalton Hicacos Resort and Spa for our honeymoon trip. We arrived to this resort and right away we were treated like royalty. We were checked in while we were seated comfortably and presented with champagne and a hot towel. We were shown around the stunning grounds and knew instantly it was going to be a magical week.

The beach – The part of the beach that this resort is on is absolutely breathtaking. Smooth white sand and clear blue waters – it’s paradise. You could get drink service right on the beach which was nice. There is also a massage canopy which is maybe the most relaxing thing ever. I got two massages here during our week stay.

The room – Large, clean and comfortable. We had a jacuzzi tub and a patio. Everyday there was a different towel animal on our bed and they were cute. We looked forward to seeing what we’d get.

The pools – So awesome. There are canopy beds, plenty of seating and fully stocked swim-up bar/bars nearby.

Food – This was my second time travelling to Cuba and I’ve learned that the food on the resorts isn’t always the best. With the exception of a few misses on the resort, the food wasn’t too bad on this resort. We dined at all of the restaurants and we enjoyed the italian and caribe restaurants. I thought the tex-mex restaurant was awful and I wasn’t a huge fan of the beach eatery. They had a special dinner for the honeymooners at the resort which was nice. We had some delicious soup and lobster during that meal. There was always something yummy at the buffet. A highlight was the ice cream bar where you could get freshly made ice cream and all of the toppings. Yum! It’s not amazing food on this resort, but not terrible. Oh in the evenings there is a station set up in the hall where they make a coffee sambuca concoction – it’s delicious.

Service – This may be the best service I’ve ever received at any resort I’ve ever stayed at. The butlers were so sweet and personable, with one of them sharing personal photos of her family and asking questions about our wedding and actually trying to get to know us. We utilized the butlers to help with booking our trip to havana, with an electrical problem that I had with my straightening iron (in the end she insisted I borrow her converter as mine was not working), mailing our postcards and my husband even had a romantic evening arranged through them where we went out to dinner and we came back to a bottle of champagne, a sweet card from the hubby and flower petals everywhere. Amazing! They were just lovely. Every single person who works on the resort went above and beyond for us. Everyone was so helpful.

Gardens – The hotel grounds are gorgeous and very well kept.

Entertainment – There’s a nightclub on the grounds. Although it never gets super busy, it’s fun with enough drinks in ya. There’s a cigar bar on the grounds. We met lots of great people in there. We did stick around to watch a couple shows and got pulled onto the stage for one of them. They’re okay. The dancers work very hard. You need to purchase cards for wifi and it only works in the lobby. The resort has a cuban day where they have a show and authentic food.

This resort was incredible. I highly recommend staying here if you’re planning a trip to Cuba.

Notch 8 Weekend Brunch Buffet

May 25, 2018 By therdizzle in Eateries No Comments

My hubby and I had a couples massage at the Absolute Spa at Hotel Vancouver so we decided to make reservations for brunch following our appointment. Notch 8 is also located at Hotel Vancouver and they offer a full brunch buffet so it seemed like a no brainer. We were seated quickly and our very nice and professional server came over to our table to introduce himself. He advised that we could just go on up whenever we were ready and asked if we wanted any coffee/juice etc. He also told us that our meal included a vodka to head on over to help ourselves to the caesar bar….he had me at caesar bar. I loved it! You can customize your caesar with all of the fixins that you want. It was pretty awesome. For those who aren’t big fans of caesars, you can also opt for a mimosa instead. The brunch buffet is unrivaled as far as brunches in Vancouver in my opinion. They offer everything! There was fruit, salads, breads and spreads, cereals, waffles and pancakes, eggs, roasted potatoes, seafood, a carving station, hot sides, and desserts. It was so amazing! There was a chef customizing benny’s also and he made me an awesome crab one and torched it to warm it up, plus he was so friendly and just seemed so enthusiastic about making something unique for me to try. It was the highlight of my meal. My only piece of advice I would offer is be prepared to eat! When we went we were coming off of a few weeks of eating pretty clean and we got full way too fast. There’s so much great food and for the price you pay you do want to make sure you get your money’s worth, so it might be a good idea to take a couple days and stretch out the stomach with some eat training haha. A lot of times buffets make their food in large quantities and the food isn’t all that wonderful, but Notch 8 does not skimp on the quality. Although it’s a bit pricey for brunch, there’s great food, endless variety, that amazing caesar bar and attentive service.

Rembrandt Hotel, Bangkok

May 23, 2018 By therdizzle in Thailand, Travel No Comments

Our first stop in Thailand was Bangkok. After a very long flight we were eager to get to our room and freshen up. When we pulled up to the front of the Hotel it looked quite regal. Our check-in was easy and painless which was awesome after our travels. We stayed at this hotel for 3 nights and from start to finish we were well taken care of. The staff, from the doormen to the maids, were all super friendly and helpful and they all spoke clear english which helped us out. We received a complimentary beverage at the bar and when we went over to receive it we realized it was a mocktail, albeit a delicious tropical one. There are restaurants, cafes and stores nearby. There are several places within walking distance for thai massage. The pool was awesome. It felt like we were walking into a pool party, but you could still relax (if that makes any sense?). It was busy with people having a good time, but you could just chill and no one would bother you. You could also order food and drinks up there. The interior of the hotel was nice. Our room was spacious, clean, modern and comfortable. This was one of my favorite hotels that we stayed in on our trip. I felt right at home here.

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