meiyun's foods & travels

I'm Anita from Edmonton, AB :) This is a personal blog about my foods & travels stories~ [email protected] ✉ Oh! I also have an ETSY shop! Search up "Oneofako"

[missguomeiyun]

coffee @ Tulip coffee

I traveled to the south side lol

Christina brought me to this place called tulip coffee. It's a coffee shop located in a small strip mall in a residential area. She picked this place bcos her brother's friend owned it.

The interior was very minimalistic. I don't know why but there's a difference between being minimal but cozy & minimal but not-cozy. This, to me, fell in the latter category.

I don't know a lot about interior design and architecture professionally but as a customer, I think the issue is the spacing and/or arrangement of the furniture inside the square space. There's already "not much" & the way the tables/chairs are situated makes the space appear more sparse & 'cold'.

Let me know what you think. It resembles an office or a professional center reception kind of vibe, you know? It doesn't look inviting nor do they have a distinct style that would interest me.

Christina's hojicha latte that she really enjoyed & my iced Americano that was sooooo acidic.

Overall, wasn't a fan of this place.

[missguomeiyun]

Perilla leaf pancakes - regular, spicy kimchi, & pocket.

The perilla leaves situation was getting a little out of hand . .. so I made various kinds of pancakes with them haha

This 1st one is the regular one. Just plain Korean pancake mix with some water.

The process was very messy bcos I had to dip each leave individually into the batter, then placed it into the pan.

About 2.75mins for each side, on low-med heat.

It was a very time-consuming process... but I did it!

The next one is one-level up from previous. I started with the typical kimchi pancake mixture (Korean pancake mix, water, cut up kimchi, & kimchi juice) then added chopped perilla leaves to it.

I decided to go for smaller ones - no reason, just bcos.

These smelled really good!!

Done!

I placed them inside this bamboo container & stacked them up (ate for breakfast).

The last version of perilla pancakes that I did contained filling. I used shrimp & also this pork-chicken-shrimp mash that mom made. I started in this orientation but decided it wasn't the best. So I flipped it.

You got it - I flipped then also dipped in pancake batter. These ones take longer to pan-fry bcos there's meat in there & we don't wanna be eating raw meat.

These were a success too!

My personal favourite was the perilla kimchi pancake. Iuno, just better flavour, I guess. & spicy. The other 2 were good too!

[missguomeiyun]

happy hr @ Bianco

Been a while since I've visited Bianco~ I'm glad their happy hour menu is still the same bcos I really enjoyed it last time I came, which was probably pre-covid =/

1st time sitting in the patio. TBH, it was pretty chilly for most ppl but my patio season doesn't start till Sept :P

Originally a coworker dinner but these are very difficult to schedule with everyone's on shift & working diff rotations etc.. Kat & I ended up being the only ones coming.

They turned on the heater for us. It was nice but then it got really warm >.<

Kat & I got 3 of their happy hr menu items bcos the time frame allowed us to do so, & just shared everything.

The Margherita pizza ($10) & the Polpette Pomodro ($5) - ie: 2 meatballs.

I prefer traditional or deep dish pizza so the pizza here didn't appeal to me very much but nonetheless, good. The meatball dish comes with 2 pieces of bread.

The meatball, if you think about it, was like fist-sized costing $2.25 (minus the bread fee which I'm sure is over 0.25) .. . this was an amazing deal! I also really liked the texture of the meatball. Like it was legit - not them "soft" meatballs that contain non-meat ingredients.

The mussels ($15) in cream sauce. You get a choice of tomato or cream sauce & since the meatballs were tomato sauce, we got the cream sauce mussels. YUMMM!

Cappuccino gelato bcos why not? haha Kat's dark cherry one was good too but I liked mine more :P

[missguomeiyun]

PERILLA PESTO

Hey!! I did somethingggggg~

I made perilla (leaf) pesto using perilla & walnut as the base.

I can't say this was my idea but I think it's pretty rare & unknown out there! I was reading Korean blogs on perilla leaves since it's a common thing over there. I came across a post that featured a Michelin guide restaurant in Korea - it's an Italian/Korean fusion place. They have perilla pesto pasta. That's what fueled my inspo :P As pine nuts are expensive & I don't have any at home, I used walnut instead.

Other ingredients I used include: olive oil, (fresh) garlic, lime juice, a bit of salt, parmesan cheese powder & a small amount of water (mainly to get my blender started).

Here's the pasta using my very own pesto sauce :')

It could use some more salt but it's almost better to be less-salty & so can be adjusted by adding more flavour when cooking.

Hurray!

I also made another batch sometime later. The perilla leaves don't go very far when you blend it all to make sauce. .. I now understand why pesto is so pricey in the stores.

I gifted some of these away but I THINK I can sell them lol

You might be asking why that center top one is darker... or maybe not. The reason is bcos the glass jar itself has a pinkish-red tint. It's not my product haha.

I am more satisfied with this 2nd yield. A behind-story for you... my mini blender actually broke while making this 2nd batch :( when it started getting really hot, I let it rest. Then after a while, when I started using it again (like an hr later), it didn't sound right. After several more runs, it just died. So I ended up using my mom's larger food processor. The texture comes out slightly different, where the leaves are more coarse. Occasionally, you get a slightly larger piece of leaf. I personally like this more but some might argue it's supposed to be smooth like a paste *shrugs*

Anyway, I'm proud of my creation!

[missguomeiyun]

Homecooking [Sept ed]

Although I am late/back, I still have the monthly homecooking posts so will begin with these :P

I miss the Solseon couple so much lol literally watching Lovely Runner for the 6th time. It's just so good! I had a long staycation in Sept-Oct. Aside from rewatching Lovely Runner, I was also taking courses via Coursera during my 3-weeks off. I firstly got the 1 month free trial - just to see how it was & browse for courses. Then I signed up for the 1 month subscription. I ended up taking & completing 6 courses during that time. I really went hard at it! That's why I didn't keep up with this tumblr blogging thing. Out of the 6 courses I took, 5 were irrelevant to my current job. It was nice to be educated again. Even though it was all online & not the traditional in-class learning I prefer, it felt good to expand knowledge & take quizzes haha sorry I'm a nerd :P yeahh that's what happened for a month - I was making full use of my 1 month subscription service.

I will talk about the food now.

Congee with cauliflower & shrimp.

Topped with thinly sliced perilla leaves.

Beef brisket noodles. I braised the beef myself! Nothing to it; I used the braised beef easoning cubes & through everything into the instant pot haha

More beef brisket but substituted the vegetable this one.

I really like these chips but they're sooooo oily. The garlic spread was amazing with these chips.

1st time trying these wings from Loblaws. They were mehhhh, where I would get again if they were 50-75% off but not for full price. I personally like fried chicken's batter but these didn't have batter. It was weird. Kinda dry. Tolerable with sauce.

Sujebi (aka Korean hand-pulled noodle soup) with a ton of kimchi & (microwaved) fish cake skewer.

More sujebi. I'm pretty sure I made a large batch & this was the dinner haha I added more veggies & cheese.

Pesto penne + salmon with some veggies.

Instant noodles with fish cake & napa cabbage & more perilla leaves lol I had a lot of perilla leaves, okay? It was overwhelming. ..

Campbell's beef soup with a very disproportionate amount of the tortilla chips bcos this was the last of it so I cleared out the bag.

Egg + napa cabbage soup <3

Same thing as above but added tofu.

Sunterra had a sale for their DIY salad bar, where it was 50% off. I NEVER get salad from there or anywhere, really. But I couldn't miss the deal. This salad was only $5.50 ish.

Thin rice vermicelli, fish cakes & napa cabbage.

Curry instant noodles - YUM!

Tried the internet craze from like 2-3yrs ago - rice paper wrapped chicken in air fryer. Iuno... it didn't work out for me but it was still tasty. I paired it with instant curry by the Ottogi brand & fresh perilla leaves.

Pasta with bacon & perilla pesto <3!!!!

Korean seafood pancake with perilla leaves. ..

3rd instant noodle of the month lol

September bean #1

September bean #2

I will share more about Coursera studies in the October homecooking post bcos it basically my staycation was essentially 1 week in Sept & the rest in Oct. Ttyl~

[missguomeiyun]

Tried these bowl ramens recently. I don't typically buy these but they were on sale at Hmart & bff Tina pressured me into trying lol

She said they were a hot deal considering how much the sale price was (2.99). I still find it steep. Turned out it was the right decision to try them.

There were other flavours but I got the purple one bcos purple is my fav colour :P as for the bottom one, it was the only spicy one available in the large wire cart.

The purple one was better than the spicy for me bcos the flavour was actually tasteful. The spicy one was just spicy.

I say it was a good decision to try these bcos ... this is it - I won't be trying again. I didn't like the noodles. I don't have a picture of them but it's the thin/skinny noodles. Not the thick kind I prefer. Like the Neoguri or even the Shin's.

PS: ya girl (aka me) is back!!! Went on a hiatus that was longer than expected......... but I'm here now.

[missguomeiyun]

spicy perilla banchan

Sharing my homemade spicy perilla leaf banchan-making with you today~~

Start with some good/healthy perilla leaves. Washed. Dried. I had a few that were from an earlier batch so the sides got a little dampened & turned dark for some reason.

The sauce: seaweed soy sauce, raw onion, garlic, gochujang, rice syrup, chili flake, & a little bit of dark balsamic vinegar. Plus a tiny bit of hot water to help emulsify everything.

I don't have a recipe/amount for any of these. I later had to readjust bcos I ran out of the sauce, so I added more soy sauce & gochujang.

After mixing, get some disposable gloves ready.

I dipped each leaf into the sauce & placed them in a glass container.

Here's the finished product. I fridged them for several hrs & it was ready for dinner. Nothing much changed - I did notice liquid content in the container increased & also the leaves got more flat/wilted.

I thought it could use some more gochujang or chili flakes for additional kick, but otherwise, flavour was good. Good for wrapping rice in it.

PS: what do you all think about the perilla leaf debate? If you haven't heard of what this is, go read.

[missguomeiyun]

lunch @ Bro'kin Yolk

After coffee at Common Ground, Christina & I came here for lunch: Bro'kin Yolk.

I personally don't know much about it. Christina told me it's a Filipino-fusion brunch place originating in Calgary. This is the 1st & only other location in Edmonton right now.

This took up an entire wall! I appreciate dining establishments that have their own art/decor.

Their menu. For some reason, it reminds me of the one at OEB lol probably bcos it's like 1 long page, laminated... similar font too I think. & overall layout haha

They have a separate drinks menu.

Christina's ube shaken oat latte & my citrus honey refresher.

Mine tasted like the Korean citron drink but mixed with carbonated water with some honey added. Tasted good!

The interior.

We got a booth seat in the back. ^the general dining area looked like this. Loved the hook detail for jackets & bags.

They have an open kitchen concept.

Christina's "Bro's Breakfast" - contains pork belly adobo, with 2 eggs & salsa on top of jasmine rice.

The pork belly has strong .. Chinese spice vibes. I think it's the dark soy sauce? It tastes very homely even though I can't say I am a huge fan of this cooking method of pork belly.

& here's mine: the Short Rib Hash. Eggs + hash + the bell pepper & onion perfect. The short rib, I was disappointed. It was quite flavourless. The texture was good but it was bland, even for me! Huge difference compared to the pork belly, which I tasted before digging into my dish. I wished this came with some sort of sauce.

Unfortunately, I'd have to give this a 7.5/10 bcos the short rib, being the item this dish was named after lol, was lacking in flavour.

[missguomeiyun]

coffee @ Common Ground

Wow this place was in the middle of nowhere...... IMHO anyway :P

Sorry for the late post - this was from about a month ago when I was working evening shift. Christina & I hung out before I had to go to work. The 1st stop was this cafe, Common Ground, located deep south, facing empty land.

It's part of a small strip mall that has a Hong Kong-style cafeteria restaurant, a nail place (I think), & a medi-centre that is a hybrid of a pharmacist & walk-in clinic. There are a few other shops as well but I honestly didn't pay much attention.

I forget when exactly Common Ground opened; however, I do know the bakery manager is my friend from Nongbu Korean Cuisine, which is now closed. She operated 'ear_yeg' if y'all remember. I posted about her baked goods several times in the past. In any case, she now works here.

These were her products. Some look familiar to me bcos she has made them when she was doing ear_yeg in the past. Being neatly displayed like this was new though since she didn't have actual 'space' for the former business (kitchen-only).

The cafe is strong Korean vibes & if you don't know what I mean.. . I can't explain either. The aesthetics is just so Korean. It is a Korean owner afterall haha but you can tell.

I like the mixture of what most would call 'normal' seating & non-traditional seating. They kind of have this concept of inter-changing what's a "seat" & table surface. It's kinda cute but also - the germaphobe in me is like. .. they need to up their cleaning game.

For a weekday 10:45, this place was packed. Most customers do take their cups/dishes to the wash-up bin area but their occupied space was not wiped down by staff. It isn't really a huge concern if you have the regular chairs & tables situation but ppl had their feet/shoes up on the 'surface' that some utilized as a table. The sighting was unpleasant for me. Also the other way, vice versa, where there were pastry crumbs, but next set of customers sat on the same surface.

So yeah... I wished they could pay some attention to this. Concept is good but in practice, improvement needed.

Here's our drinks. Christina got the hojicha matcha latte & I tried the (close to $10) strawberry tiramisu latte.

I figured I wouldn't come often so I splurged on something I haven't seen on other menus. ..

I don't recommend this. The overall flavours just didn't work for me despite they're all things I like. I didn't know what to expect really- I think there was too much going on & the balance between the chocolate, strawberry & the coffee was off. *shrugs*

There ya goooo. If you end up going, lemme know what you think of this place.

[missguomeiyun]

Chocolate from a local Montreal chocolatier <3

Dark chocolate + coffee is the best!

[missguomeiyun]

Homecooking [Aug ed]

Hi! Is summer over yet....??? Still so hot >.<

I have my 1st vacation of this fiscal year in Sept. What should I do?? I realized I still haven't post anything from my Montreal trip yet =/ that was in November 2024!

I finished this book in August & started another one but not done that one so it'll have to go onto the Sept post :P

Ramyeon with kimchi, egg, & bokchoy.

Thick glass noodles with olive oil, kelp soy sauce & perilla leaves. YUM~

Thick rice noodles with some cabbage, cucumber & Busan fish cake.

Basically the same as previous lol but a stir-fry version. This was my evening shift work dinner.

Beans of the month.

Yes I know.. . this has been around for a long time but you know what, I can't keep up with my beans situation. Part of it is my own problem but also, THANK YOU TO MY FRIENDS WHO GIFT ME BEANS FOR MY BDAY, AS SOUVENIRS, & CHRISTMAS <3

Hmart kimbap. These were leftovers from the previous day so I microwaved them, hence the evidence of steam in the bottom right corner. They're still really good microwaved.

& in case you haven't read my post(s) regarding the frozen kimbaps, pls do not buy those. They are simply not worth it. The rice quality & everything is just really poor.. .

Thin rice vermicelli with some cucumbers, my homemade spicy perilla leaf banchan (I used up the remainder of it so emptied all the sauce into this), fried egg & wings. Kinda like my home version of a bibim-myeon.

Spicy soybean paste group with rice.

An outing at Southgate with my family.

Steak by my brother.

Rose pasta by me using pre-made/packaged rose pasta sauce from Hmart.

I LOVE FISH CAKES! These were new & on sale at Hmart so I had to get them. The red one is spicy, while the purple is well . .. I got it for the purple lol regardless of the colour of packaging, it is squid-based so would have gotten it either way.

Mixed pasta bcos I didn't have enough of the rigatoni. I put in perilla leaves, air-fried zucchini, garlic, ham, butter & the lemon pepper.

1st time trying this cheese.

YUM!!! I ate it with sweet onion rye cracker.

I'm trying to be innovative with my perilla leaves. I used it here with salmon & the dill cheese .. air-fried. I don't recommend this use of the leaves bcos it actually makes it kinda tough/chewy. I thought it'd turn out to be crisp but I was wrong.

Cheese gnocchi with...... MY pesto :P you'll find out soon what it is bcos I have a separate post for it. Just keep it in mind.

Congee but not really....... a severely modified form of the avgolemono. I used rice (obviously), chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, tamarind leaves, bay leaves, lime juice & egg. & used fish sauce to flavour. It's unusual hahah but you know what, it was pretty tasty. Good use of leftover veggies.

A salad consisting of kimchi, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, & cucumber .. . with fish cake udon. Omgggg this is what I'm talking abouttttt. So satisfying.

So yeah. .. ummmm I'm continuing to look at vacation items. I don't think I'm gonna go to Korea this yr even though it has been 2 yrs.. . iuno, I mean, I love Korea & I'd love to go but there's been a lot of damages due to weather & slowing down of the economy over there from inflation & such. We'll see.

[missguomeiyun]

Wednesday dinner @ Ikea

Hello~ went to Ikea for dinner again but this time, it wasn't the Midsummer buffet :P the buffet only happens once a yr, on ONE day.

This was just a regular dinner but bcos it's Wednesday... extra deal! Kids eat free.

My coffee & the haddock & chips.

The lindonberry drink & meatball plate.

Okay so - from Mon-Fri, adult's menu's most popular items are half price! This is the haddock & chips, & the meatball.

It's a lot of (good) food & it's cheap. So worth it!

[missguomeiyun]

Take-out from Double Greetings Wonton House

It's been a while since ordering from Double Greetings Wonton House :') I ordered pick via SkiptheDishes app - I don't know about many other places but their app pricing & IRL pricing are the same so it's good!

#238. Peking Pork Chops.. . I didn't care for this one too much.

#138. Rice with Chicken & Garlic Black Bean Sauce

There is an option for fried rice or steamed rice, & I got the latter. I believe this is the first time I ordered this. It was good. I would get the steamed rice with it next time as well. The toppings plus the sauce is flavourful & so having fried rice (paying more) doesn't add to this. It'll get soggy anyway.

#78. Beef chow fan with bean sprouts. YUM!!

#73. Pork with Shanghai noodles. They were very generous with the Chinese style pickled vegetable. They're kinda soft & not that crunchy but the flavour really sticks out. I also liked the fact that this wasn't flooded with grease.

#261. Deep fried chicken wings with spiced salt. This was great! I love the blend of the salted aromatics. I wished they had it as a side so I can eat it with rice!

Well, a very satisfying meal~

[missguomeiyun]

Happy hour gelato at L'oca~

[missguomeiyun]

Heritage Festival 2025

Pretty unexciting this year.. . As Hawrelak Park is still under renos/construction, this year's Heritage Festival was also held in Borden Park/Convention Centre. I went on the last day, which was August 4th.

The Croatian doughnut $6.00. Better than the Kdays one.

German pretzel with their in-house mustard $6.50. I'm not huge on mustard but got it anyway. I was meh with the mustard. The pretzel itself was kinda tough. Not the steamy hot one like from Mr. Pretzel. This was more like. .. bagel texture but in the form of a pretzel lol this has definitely gone downhill since previous years.

The biryani chicken from Bangledesh $10. Very good for $10 & the flavour was good too, esp the rice. I don't know what seasonings they put in but I'm not a rice person & I liked it. If they're around next yr, I highly recommend this dish!

[missguomeiyun]

Food delivery from Tropika makes evening shift that much better. Laksa love <3

[missguomeiyun]

K-Days 2025

I really toned down the food purchase this year.. . Mainly bcos it is getting so pricey.

When I looked at the new food competition menu that was released just days before K-days started, I was interested in the foot long fries that was "hot cheetos" flavour. Sadly (but fortunately) the ppl in front of me got it & the item was not what I had expected. I was imagining hot cheetos-coated fries but the hot cheetos were on like sprinkles. It wasn't appealing at all =( so instead of getting that AND the ranchin' bacon, I just ended up getting the ranchin' bacon. Saved $17 yay!

The length was legit! The texture of the fries wasn't my fav; I like the Costco fries bcos they have a crunch exterior. These were just meh. The ranch sauce & bacon bits were good. Gonna have to experience with sauces on my fries at home :P

The mini doughnuts~

My favourite food vendor :D

Their "new destination" this yr was the apple cinnamon crunch, which I cannot eat. I got "The Taco"

Tasty!!

The strawberry lemonade from Princess Corn lol it was super refreshing~

Came back for a 2nd one...

I've eaten this before; it's the Canadian haha ie: poutine. But they also offer green onions & salt & pepper so I got that too. Yum! The Taco was better IMHO. I really liked the beef in that one.

Elephant ear. Large & crisp... I think they may have over-done it a little bit. It's not chewy. The Croatian doughnut at Heritage days is better.

My fav thing was The Taco perogies!

Now for the non-food things.. .

I like the look of the ferris wheel at night. Omgggg Lovely Runner vibes! lol

Stayed for the fireworks.

The exhibition halls inside the Convention Center was kinda disappointing this yr. There was a lot of empty space. I guess the renting fee is $$$ so not a lot of vendors signed up.

These were DIY heat-printed stickers on mini canvas pouches that was at the EPL booth. From left to right: mine, niece #1, & niece #2.

A coffee vending coffee that's super fancy but also it doesn't drop off a cup...... lol I'd rather have that function & have it all as one-size only.

I went on this ride twice.

I also went on the ferris wheel.

Yeah so I visited K-days twice. I also went to the dog show but it was meh...

View from the top. That's the kids side of the event, featuring the small ferris wheel.

See ya next yr, K-days!