Date night at Chambar.

José and I have always had date night on the 15th of each month. It is the day we consider to be the first day we became boyfriend and girlfriend. In September, José made a surprise reservation at a restaurant in Vancouver called Chambar. 

I had heard lots of lovely things about the food, and so I put on my new red dress and we headed off to Beatty street. 

The decor of Chambar is just beautiful. Lots of warm colours, fancy lights, brickwork and leather sofas.

 The food was so hearty and falvorful. I had the Tajine d’aziz à l’agneau, which is braised lamb shank with honey, figs, cinnamon & cilantro, served with cous cous and zalouk. The little pieces of fig make the dish a little bit sweet, but it definitely has quite a spicy kick to it. The picture really isn´t capturing the dish. The restaurant is so dark it is impossible to photos without a flash.

For dessert, inspired by all things European at this point, I got the Café Brulé, which always makes me think of the movie, Amélie. 
Chambar is a little pricey, but for a special occasion, well worth the price. 
A Vancouver gem. 

Nero Waffles

Waffles, waffles, waffles...

Okay, a waffle place on Robson street ... Nero Belgian Waffle Bar. It is a tiny place, barely noticeable, except for the line of people waiting for a seat. Now, I really haven't tried enough waffles in my years to really say these are the best... but, they are amazingly good. 

We went on a snuggly Sunday morning and ordered waffles and coffee. 

They have two types, Liege or the Brussels waffle (I think that's the right name). I ordered one of their more simple combinations, Nutella + banana and an Americano.

 I think I possibly closed my eyes the whole time as it was one of those 10 minutes of 'I have to savour every single bit of this'. Having a little dish of chocolate spread is total heaven.

 They have other more elaborate toppings... ice cream, cream, coffee, caramel, fruit... although I personally think the simpler, the better. 

Jose even ordered sneaky seconds to go!

It is a bit of a naughty treat, but you have to be naughty sometimes, right? Sorry... I don't mean to waffle on ... ha ha ha 

IMATS (International Make-up Artist Trade Show)

When mum told me that she had managed to get tickets to go to IMATS this year, I started counting down the days! First off, it was actually really nice that mum, Rachel and I could spend a day together.

Lunchtime!

IMATS is a trade show that takes place in London, New York, Sydney, Toronto, Los Angeles and Vancouver. The idea is that different companies can show case their products, make-up schools are able to advertise and make-up artists can pick up a lot of products at a much cheaper price.

I want this to be my company.

However, normal non-artistes can go to. We got there around 10.30, and walked into one of the exhibition rooms at the Convention Center. It was really busy, and lots of girls were shuffling around with their IMATS bags ready to fill.

This was a make-up demonstration using makeup from Ben Nye; the makeup was beautiful, but the makeup artist didn't create anything special (sorry) I think I could have done it better.

It did get even busier, and the line-ups were a bit ridiculous. We waited in the Ben Nye line for the best part of a hour, while one cashier... slowly and manually put everyone's orders through.
Some of the brands I had never heard of as they cater specifically to makeup artistry, I did recognize Makeup Forever, and that was about it.

 

We all bought some bits; I didn't want to lose it and spend a silly amount of money because you really easily could. I am sure some people walk out a couple of hundred dollars lighter!
Here are my IMATS purchases.

• Ben Nye - Eye shadow/blush palette. It is so beautiful I can't stop looking at it. Quite powdery and very pigmented. This would be beautiful for wedding makeup. 
• Eve Pearl concealer palette - Absolutely beautiful. I had never heard of the brand. 
• Eyelashes.
• Foundation blender.
• Setting spray and makeup brush cleaner.
• Oribe Dry Texturizing spray.... I'll explain more below. 

Jaelyn, the girl who cut my hair last month was telling me about the brand 'Oribe'. While waiting in line (of course!) there was a display of some products by Oribe, and so out of boredom I started smelling them. One of the ladies at the booth asked me if I wanted to try some. She came round and started vigorously spraying this stuff into the roots of my hair. I looked in the mirror and couldn't believe it! My hair was all poofed and volumized... something I don't excel at!
Although it is a little pricey, there were offering a 25% discount, so I though... Oh why not.
 Watch this video... It's mesmerizing.

La Bodega

Jose and I went to a restaurant on Howe Street called La Bodega about 3 weeks ago. We had walked past the patio a couple of times, and it looked really cozy and Spanish looking. We went on a Friday evening, but we were seated upstairs. At first we were a bit disappointed, but upstairs is very traditionally Spanish, and so you do feel like you could be in Spain somewhere. There were four of us, so we each ordered a couple of tapas each and sort of shared them (my parma ham was off limits though).
I tried paella for the first time. I loved it, but maybe it was terrible... I haven't had much Spanish food so it's hard to tell! We washed everything down nicely with two jugs of Sangria, and then like little piggies, we went off to the market... or the Marble Slab (the modern version of the story) and got an ice cream.

 Mine was dark chocolate with scor pieces... heavenly.

Mink Chocolates

Mink is a café... a chocolate café. While walking around Coal Harbour, we stopped to get a coffee. They have a really beautiful collection of little chocolates and bars. Although very tempted, I only bought an iced-coffee as it was really hot. Mink is on West Hastings, between Howe and Hornby. The lady that served wasn't as lovely and chocolate-lady as I would have liked, but she made me a coffee and that's enough I suppose!

 

Breakfast in Bed

Since moving to Canada, Jose has proven himself to be quite an expert an breakfast in bed. He likes making sure our breakfast contain all the food groups, so that we geared up for the day. 

Greek yoghurt and Apple. 

A brown rice waffle with almond butter, and an omelette. 

Needless to say, after this breakfast you feel very full and have a little breakfast baby inside your belly. 

Carnaval del Sol

The Carnaval del Sol (aka The Latin Carnaval) was about 2 weeks ago (I haven't blogged for a while...)

I started my day off with a colourful and flowery dress, and picked up a coffee from Café Artigiano, my favourite coffee. I sat on on the steps of the Art Galley and pretended I was on the steps in some latin country. 

Canadian food cart. I wish they had a little tape shouting 'Tamaaaales... Oaxqueñossss...' If you have lived in Mexico that part should make sense!

 ¡Viva Mexico!

Traditional Colombia dress. 

Eu sou do Brassssil

We are lucky that there are great people that organize these kinds of events for us! This year was really nice, especially all of the music and dancing. I also watched some of the Zumba, which I love and have taken quite a few classes in the past; however, the Latin Fitness Ztudio in Burnaby had a booth set up and they were giving away tickets to try a class for free. It is a bit far out, I take the sky train to Royal Oak which is one stop past MetroTown. All of the lights are switched off, and 'disco' lights are turned on, so it has a bit of a club feel.... a tacky 90's club actually, but a really good atmosphere and more interesting way of exercising.