Happy 22nd birthday, James

Today was James’s birthday and I had yum cha with him and his mother and grandmother. I got filled up pretty quickly. Afterwards we still decided to have dessert, so we went to a little dessert bar called Passionflower and had a black sesame ice cream dessert. From the outside it always appeared to us as just another dessert place, but today we realised that they actually had a menu of specialties including crepe and waffle desserts. Now I know where to get a good waffle! Waffles are uncommon here, at least to buy on-the-go. You actually have to walk to a cafe, sit down, order, and so on. I don’t know, maybe I need to get out more and I’m missing some places? I love having dessert with James. It’s a nice treat.

On Saturday James and I will be having pizza to celebrate again. /eee It’s a bit hard thinking of how to really celebrate birthdays as I get older. (Not that I celebrated my birthday much when I was younger.) Last year I had a birthday dinner, but I’m not sure if I’ll do that again this year, or if there’s something different I can do to mix it up. Either way, I’m still looking forward to some good vegetarian pizza with James and a lovely afternoon/evening out. ♥️

I mentioned vegetarian pizza because… well, it’s been about three weeks since I decided to go pescetarian, to encourage myself to eat more vegetables and because my doctor actually said I should get my cholesterol checked. Again. Which made me realise I should try to eat less meat. I dread every time this happens, and now I’ve been taking copious amounts of omega 3 fish oil to help. Being pescetarian means I don’t eat land animals, but I eat fish and other seafood. So far it’s been alright. I’ve actually found myself sadly put off by the abundance of chicken and pork lately. I don’t eat duck; ever since I took care of the ducks on the school farm and one of them was killed, I couldn’t take it anymore.

Each time I go to a restaurant I have to go for the vegetarian options but that doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve been making my own lunches and cooking my own food lately. It isn’t much and I’m a shoddy cook, and everything I make probably looks bad, but it tastes good to me. I like the simple life. My boss was surprised that I liked plain green lentils just boiled.

They are really delicious, and I know that sounds odd to most people. /drool

I’ll be honest; for a while I’ve said I hated Chinese food. I’m part Chinese, and I like Asian cuisine, but every time it came to buying food I was hesitant on buying Chinese dishes and every time I went out with my family I would flinch a little if we went to a Chinese restaurant. I would order the same thing on the menu each time (salt/pepper squid), much to my parents’ annoyance - and to this day, I still, truly and honestly, dislike fried rice. :( It’s just very near impossible for me to find fried rice that is cooked the way I like. I love my mum’s cooking, but I don’t like the way she makes fried rice. It is nice and moist how fried rice should be, but I feel bad saying that I want it a bit drier. And I don’t like the taste so much, but my brother loves it. My mum cooks with ham and Chinese sausage, which I obviously won’t eat now. She has come to understand that I dislike fried rice but has made so many efforts for me to enjoy it by putting egg or trying different ways. I do feel bad that I am impossible to please.

I go to the store and I buy fried rice and it’s too dry, or the texture is “wrong”, or I don’t like what’s in it, and then I just get turned off. It’s impossible to explain what kind of fried rice I like best, but I like Japanese Pepper Lunch style. And now I feel a bit of a tool because that is pretty damn buttery, and I complained about some rice being too oily.

On top of that, dishes have just not been appealing to me anymore, and it makes me sad. My mum names dishes I used to like and now I’m saying, “No, I don’t want honey soy chicken. Too sweet. No, sweet and sour pork is yucky. No, I don’t want Mongolian beef”. I can’t remember when it started, but I’ve always known my tastebuds were a bit silly.

Regardless — I enjoyed today and the last time James and I had yum cha (which was shortly before I went pescetarian). I’ve only had yum cha once before I’ve ever been with James so it felt special to me. :3

Happy birthday lovely 🌹