Tag Archives: event

O5 Tea

Check out O5 Tea, a unique tea shop that sells only selected, rare teas from around the world. Don’t expect your cheap bags or leaves from fast food or regular cafes. If you’re really serious about tea, this is the place to go.

The interior decor is fresh, unique and modern. The tea ceremony bowls are sold at $150. There isn’t really a menu or set stock as the teas are always changing. There are pretty ikebanas in the bathroom, and coat hangers since there are only stools to sit at (except for one table with 2 chairs).

Cool lightsUnique set up and presentationChamomile tea Tea ceremony bowls $150 eachNoriko-san making okonomiyakiRare teas available

I was invited by a friend to join Noriko-san on a Monday evening for her Tokyo nights series, focusing on different aspects of Japanese cultures. That night, it was Okonomiyaki. Check out their website under the events menu to see something different happening almost every evening.

It was kind of like a house party. Don’t expect your food to be ready right away or have restaurant service. It’s a sit, chit chat while Noriko-san (and a few helpers) cook up the food as if they were cooking at home. My friend’s Dok Cha (tea) $12 took 30 minutes to boil and be ready to drink!

The Okonomiyaki, dessert (red beans filled yaki with vanilla ice cream) and special tea (except matcha) comes out to $15. I suggested the ice cream to add to the red beans, so they are pretty open and free to do what they want. I didn’t find free parking in the area, so I ended up paying $7.25 from 7:30pm to when it wrapped up around 10pm.

It was an interesting experience, and the main is socializing and enjoying the tea. Of course the food was good to, though if you’re hungry, it can be a bit frustrating if you’re so used to restaurant culture. However, watching one of the girl prepare all the different kinds of tea in front of us was quite interesting. The presentation was unique and memorable. I would definitely love to go back again for another evening, though will have to check out on parking around the area first…

Taste: Price for Value:

Atmosphere: Service:
Location:

International Summer Night Market

After going to the Richmond Night Market, we decided to go to the Summer Night Market for a change. Admission is free, and finding parking is a lot easier than the other market.
Despite the free admission, there is less crowds than the other one. It could be because there are less booths, but most of the booths – at least what they offer seem to be similar.

There is a small stage where for the entire evening, there was live performance from belly dancing and hip hop singers. We lined up at one of the booth to get the taiyaki and the famous hurricane potato. I’d always wanted to try out the hurricane so it was about time.

There are several filling options for the taiyaki $1. Nutella, red bean or Bavarian cream. I wanted the red bean, but my friend wanted the Bavarian, so we got that. It was super hot, and I ended up burning my tongue T_T. My friend squeezed and cream shot out burning him a lot more. He complained to the people that there should be some warning – either by telling us, or a sign.

Hurricane Potato $4

There were also different flavours available for the hurricane $4. We got the BBQ. Looked greasy although it wasn’t extremely terrible but it was EXTREMELY salty. My friend brushed off the BBQ powder that they had rolled the potato as much as he could. We forced ourselves to eat it, but only could do half. The saltiness was nauseating. We ended up throwing away the rest. Should have gotten plain!

There’s a Pepsi stand to see whether you like coke or Pepsi. We were both coke drinkers, and ended up choosing (blindly) liking coke. Pepsi had a chemical after taste. Anyways, there’s no right or wrong answer. I think Pepsi does it to see which ones are popular. For participating, we each got free bag of sunflower seeds.

Near closing time, around 11:30pm or so, you can enjoy the closing sale deals. Many booths will have their dishes lowered to $2. Closes at midnight!

Open from May 10 to September 8, 2013.
Friday and Saturday: 7pm – 12am
Sunday and holidays: 7pm – 11pm

Richmond Night Market

It’s summer time and that means festivals and eating out! Of course that means you have to go the Richmond Night Market for some Asian foods and gadgets!

Getting to the location by car is a bit challenging, especially to find parking. If you follow everyone else, it’ll take you forever just to get to a parking lot. I’m not sure how my friend found one so quickly, for free and right by the market. But then again, he’s good at that kind of stuff…lol

Admission is $2! You’d think that this would deter everyone in going to the other market (Summer Night Market – yes, there are 2! Don’t get them confused) but no! It’s probably much more lively and crowded than the other one. It’s FREE admission for children 10 & under and for Seniors over 60.

2013 theme is the yellow duckling!

This year, the theme is yellow ducks. There are 2 huge inflatable ducks, along with little ones scattered throughout the market dressed up in different traditional uniforms/clothing, great photo opportunities.

I was surprised to see the huge increase in prices. Meat skewers used to be 3 for $5. Now it was $7+. Everything seemed to have gone up…but that didn’t stop the crowd from buying all the food!

It definitely seemed like more booths than the other market. My company wanted to buy a car camera and laser but no luck. It felt like there was a huge supply of phone covers and less real gadget products. I didn’t see those electric LED tshirts that I use to see.

Around 11:20-30 or so, the booths will start having the ‘closing sale’ deals. Usually, this means that most dishes will be priced down to $2. If you go around 10 minutes to midnight, you might be able to get even better deals, but you have to bargain with them. I got 2 noodles for $3 instead of $2 each. My friend got some deals on the mini-donuts.

The last couple times I’ve gone, the stage has been empty with no performance.

Hours of operation are Friday and Saturday 7pm-12 midnight and Sunday and holidays 6pm-11pm. It’s open from May 17 to Oct 14 – plenty of time to go several times! Go check it out!