Moment at McDonald's

It was one of our rare sunny, Spring days this year. I was enjoying looking out at the green grass, and cherry blossoms at the UBC campus.

This big tree and all it's lovely blossoms made a huge frame behind the McDonald restaurant's famous Golden Arches signage. 

The cherry trees that beautify Vancouver at this time each year, were gifts of the country of Japan.

In the early 1930s the mayors of both Kobe and Yokohama presented the Park Board with 500 Japanese cherry trees for planting at the Japanese cenotaph in Stanley Park honouring Japanese Canadians who served in WWI. And so, as the impact of cherry tree plantings began to reshape the city’s landscape, Vancouverites were soon smitten by their fleeting beauty, their clouds of blossoms, as they heralded spring’s arrival each year. (Source:  Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival).

Vancouver has about 55 varieties of cherry trees.  On the news the other night it was reported that some of the rare varieties of the trees now need help to thrive since the strict plant health regulations prevent importing trees from outside Canada.  The news report also featured a partnership between the University of BC's Botanical Garden and BCIT’s Biotechnology Department to help save these trees. Students are regenerating some of the rarest of the cherry trees by harvesting plant cuttings and growing them in test tubes before eventual transfer to greenhouses and then planting.  They are having good success in growing these cuttings and that means good news for those of us who live in Vancouver and enjoy the beautiful tree blossoms each year.

I'm linking up with Skywatch Friday. I hope you will have a chance to visit the link and view other beautiful skies from around the world.

Happy Skywatching!

Sampling Dim Sum

This is how my day looks today. It looks worse than it feels. It is actually cloudy but warm and the sun came out when I went to the laboratory.

When I go to a restaurant, I prefer to have small portions of a lot of varieties of food; rather than big plates of the same food. So I really love tapas, which are small plates of Spanish snacks or appetizers.

The Chinese also have a type of tapas. There is a Cantonese style of cooking called dim sum which consists of small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates.

When I first came to Vancouver I would attend dim sum for lunch with my work colleagues.  There I would sit entranced as the served walked by with fully laden carts of ready made foods.  You would simply point to the plates you wanted and the servers kept track by punching holes onto a card left on your table.  Each plate was about $1.50 (Canadian) and there was really only one size. You could easily get filled on 3 orders or plates of food but when you went out with a large group everyone ordered what they wanted and so we sampled many things. It was always a bargain at about $7. per person.

These days most of the restaurants that serve dim sum, and there are fewer than before, have gone high scale. You very seldom get carts of food rolled by your table. Instead you order from a menu.  Sometimes the menus feature coloured photos of the dishes for the uninitiated.

In other restaurants you simply mark the quantity of a particular dish you want on a menu list (like the photo below). The server then picks it up and places the order. I had a choice of 4 sizes of plates at the restaurant I went to today. I ordered the smallest size.

Last night and this  morning I had to fast in preparation for blood work today.  I got a late start to my day so by the time I finished at the laboratory I was quite hungry. I went across the street for dim sum and made it in time before it closed the dim sum service.

Food (L to R - rice rolls, shrimp dumplings, steamed buns, pork dumplings).

I ordered:

- pork (dumplings) sui mai
- steamed barbque pork buns
- shrimp (dumplings) har gow
- rice rolls with beef.

The order was a little much for me but I decided to place a 2nd (take out) order of everything except the shrimp dumplings (oops, I meant except the pork dumplings).  Jasmine tea accompanied my lunch. I also had condiments of chili oil, mustard and hot sauce.

The grand total came to $19.95 (including tax). The prices have doubled since my first experience of eating dim sum. I think it is still a good bargain for two meals especially when the food is very tasty.

I took the photos with my camera phone today. The resolution and colours are not the best but it works in a pinch.

 
Update:  My blood work was normal. Praise God! I hope to keep it normal with hard work and prayers.

I'm linking up with Our World Tuesday today. I hope you join in too!