This weekend was a wet one. Heavy rain pelted down on the city and pools of water accumulated on the roads, and here we were with a stunning sport car that we couldn’t fully take advantage of.
The 2025 Genesis G70 3.3T Sport is a looker with its sleek body work and lowered stance, it was meant to hug tight turns and take on straightaways with abandoned care, and here we were splashing around with it in the rain. Despite the deluge we were safe in the G70 with its extremely responsive braking, 360 camera and safety alerts, and the ability to pick up speed on a dime as we needed it.
I am not partial to the royal blue paint job and would have liked to see a caramel or a taupe to further elevate the visual appearance and match the interior. A compact cabin with a prominent fire red stitching throughout it. It flows as a checker pattern on either doors and travels across the dash, around the steering week, meeting at either seat.
The stitching adds an extra plush feel to the faux leather, alongside the electronically adjustable bucketed seats. A firm cushion with plenty of lumbar support, and the ability to fully lower the back in rest. Both of which adjustable on the bottom right hand side for the passenger, or on the left hand side of the seat for the driver.
Although you can technically seat 3 in the 2025 Genesis G70, plus the dricer, you would not do so comfortably. There is barely any leg room for the back seat row, and if you move the seat forward neither rows would have enough. It would be interesting to see the model as a coupe, as an even tighter, smaller, and more agile ride.
Although the weather had us wanting to stay indoors and dry, we had things to do so got on with our day in water repellant gear.
We found ourselves driving from Burnaby to Richmond, then Delta by the border. The next day Downtown Vancouver to Surrey, then New Westminster. All with stops at home in Burnaby to rest and play video games in between. There was a lot of weekend commuting and with it we still had 1/4 of the tank left at the end of it.
On Saturday we swung by the
Canadian Cultural Festival hosted at the Nikkei museum and cultural centre in Burnaby.
This seemed like a celebration of Asian cultures as we saw booths and artists selling art and accessories, heard from singers, and watched performers incorporating their traditions to their presentations.
There were booths to shop from with anime prints, homemade stationary, traditional Hawaiian garments and beads, loose leaf tea, plus more. This roaming-style showcase also doubled as a job fair with the ability to connect with corporations hiring.
There were also tables selling traditional snacks like Thai style mango sticky rice, spring rolls, samosas, and Japanese-style milk bread caricatures.
Looking for something more substantial to have for our first meal of the day, we decided to head to the neighbouring retirement home for their in-house cafeteria and restaurant. This was only to discover that Hi-Genki has since permanently closed.
Plan B was to swing by the Japanese market instead. They offer a large assortment of Japanese dry goods like instant and cup noodles, a wide selection of chips and candy, frozen desserts and even imported meat and seafood.
We grabbed a few onigiri to have in the car as a quickie breakfast, plus a bento box and rice bowl to have for lunch later at home.
The rice and seaweed was perfect, but I could have used more filling for each of the onigiri. Only a couple of bites worth of tuna, dry salmon that could have used more mayo, and mentaiko that was less than a bite’s worth of filling. Neither inexpensive or all that worth it.
Similarly, the rice box and bowl were nice, but pricey for what it was. This was simple comfort eating with uncomplicated ingredients and sides.
We then went to McArthur Glen for the only Crocs store in BC. I felt that the perfect footwear to epitomize not working and going back to school full time are Crocs covered in jibbitz. There we spent 30 minutes picking the perfect pair, before spending 1.5 hours covering them in accessories.
We went for the seasonally relevant fleece lined crocs in neutral colours so that our Jibbitz would pop all the more. There are so many options to choose from and they had a buy 13 and get 13 promotion we took advantage of.
My partner covered his pair in cartoon characters and I just went with ones that I liked the look of. Not a fan of food with eyes or things that looked too wacky, I stuck with smaller jibbitz so that I could get more of them on. In the end I just threw them on and was happy with the haphazard nature of the activity turned accessory.
For dinner we drove all the way to Delta’s Grange for a long table dinner. Here, it was a literal farm to table experience as we would enjoy dishes crafted from produce grown on the farm land that we would be feasting on.
The menu was prepared by Chef Ocean of the newer Combine Cafe, that we had recently tried and were officially fans of. More on our 3 course meal and accompanying drinks to come in its own post.
The next day we found ourselves eating all day. Despite another rainy day we were water side at Coal Harbour’s Lift Restaurant. Here, to judge another Vancouver Foodster Pasta Challenge contender. A stunning seafood offering reflective of our surroundings. We ate and watched dragon boat rowers training from our corner table.
Seeing as we were here during breakfast, we also dipped into their brunch menu for a taste. More on that and the pasta above to come in its own review.
For lunch we visited the newest location of our favourite Japanese udon restaurant Kokoro Mazesoba. Now in their soft launch period with this outpost in Surrey. It was busy, the community already accepted them, located at the base of a new high rise. Parking was a challenge but the food worth the trouble. More about that in a post to come.
And for dinner we were at a potluck for a post dated Thanksgiving celebration. We brought Jolibee fried chicken and baked mango peach pies, seeing as that we were in Surrey and the location was nearby. A quick and easy online order and pick up. To re-bake it in the oven when we got there.
Others made shrimp pancit, ceviche with guacamole, and steak and garlic cooked over the stove. We ate our fill and took home leftovers.
