Day 1 Harmony of the Seas Cruise Trip

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*This is going to be a bit of a blog with some details of activities we did, but I promise you it is still mainly about food!!

It was a dream that after we graduated from university I said that all of us needs to go on a cruise. And Michelle being Michelle… well… dreams need some action to come true! So here we are. On the Harmony of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship (at least for now), we go!

We went with the Royal Carribean and had an excellent experience with them! They make planning, scheduling, and signing up for things so simple and easy!

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Here we are right before we board!

The ship is enormous! There is so much to see and do! We didn’t eat at all yet and the first thing we chose was Boardwalk Dog House. And big surprise! It serves hot dogs and has a variety of toppings you can put on top. (not sure if it was just the one time we tried it but the bread was super hard… like it was stale)

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I got some apple… something sausage. The sausage and toppings was yummy!

 

We got too excited with everything while we were exploring the ship and had to try out the snacks at MiniBites.

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It’s more like froyo actually. Our human milk detector, Nana, let us know. :3

Along the way we saw an ice cream machine and being the kids we are we lined up… patiently :). We even convinced health guru Brenton to eat one. 😀

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Did we even finish this?

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The guacomole though…

To be honest, this was around an hour or 2 hours before our dinner. Did we ruin our appetite? Keep scrolling to find out muhahahaha.

But first some quick photo sessions by our photographer Brenton. And the counting of drinks start to make our drink package worth it haha.

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We took a while to find our assigned dining room (Silk) hehe. But we were excited to look at the menu!

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We discovered you can order whatever you want… as much as you want…

When we saw escargot on the menu we all actually got one for each! It was yummy… but so buttery omgosh.

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Nancy’s Chicken Waldorf Salad, clean and healthy. But we wished there was some more sauce as it was quite dry.

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Next is Michelle’s caesar salad. Not very healthy ahaha. It tastes just like your typical caesar salad. But the uncut bottoms made me wonder how clean it really was hmm.

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Justin ordered this yummy Beef Carpaccio. I think it only appeared for the first day :(.

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Horseradish- Crusted Salmon. This was really yummy D: (I wish there were emojis on WordPress! I need to EXPRESS MY FEELINGS)

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Nancy made the best choice! Wild Mushroom Risotto. What I love about white truffles is that it gives a bit of a garlicky flavour and the flavour is intense but disappears quickly. Sounds like something you don’t want but it makes the meal a lot lighter and allows you to keep going for the next bite.

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Justin got the Grilled New York Sirloin Steak. He got it medium rare and ate it up quickly so me assumes it must’ve been yummy!

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Brenton got the Chef’s recommendation of the Prime Rib of Beef. Not bad! It was moist.

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Justin got this cheesecake. I wish I got this, it was light and a good size to finish off a meal. The syrup is a bit too sweet for my liking though.

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I got the (Nancy trying to help me figure out the name of this)… I think they described it almost like a lava cake, which got me really excited! But it wasn’t hollow on the inside at all. This dessert was too heavy for me but luckily I had the ice cream (as seen below) to help me with this chocolately dessert.

Update: Nana found out it was called the Royal Chocolate cake and it said it had dulce de leche and chocolate fudge (where was the chocolate fudge though? D:)

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I was craving ice cream after having ice cream… It said sugar-free, but it was still sweet and oh, so yummy!

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Nancy got this creme brulee! We wish it was a burnt a bit more at the top and wish it was more even all around. But the inside is what we love the most! The custard is light and airy and not too sweet! (If you guys want good creme brulee, I recommend Izakaya Tomo in Edmonton, Alberta)!

 

Anddddd that concludes the first day of our trip! We got to play around with the bionic bar. These mechanical arms shake up all kinds of drinks! You can make your own recipe too and other people can order and rate your drink!

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Stay tuned…

 

-Love Mish.

Japanese Snacks Volume II.

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Flavours: melon, strawberry (ichigo), some weird olive green sauce, lemon
It’s okay… just like regular crushed ice with syrup on it.

While making our way up tothe famous Gujo-Hachiman castle, Lisa and I stopped at a little store for a break (it was really hot and humid outside too). Lisa got an ice udon!

On the way to school (Nagoya University of Commerce and Business) there is this MacDonald’s that always calls out to me. This day I was weak because of the limited edition chocolate pumpkin fries that came out!

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They only gave one packet filled with essentially orange coloured sugar icing and chocolate sauce 😦 But the experience is cool haha.

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If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend the Yuzu drinks (basically like pomelo). The taste is so fragrant and refreshing! You may hear people call it the Japanese Lime XD.

This dessert I found in the grocery store is so yummy! Light taste of taro with a nice chestnut sauce. The texture is like cutting into custard pudding. This is a light dessert, so if you are craving a ooey gooey indulgent chocolate desserts, this won’t do the trick.

I ate ice cream at least 3 times a week while living in Japan. This was yet another thing I got from the Lawson 100 yen store. It contains your typical melon flavour and the sorbet is very smooth so you can spoon out a nice chunk each time! I had a bit of a trouble getting it out so make sure you have a smaller spoon hehe.

I’m not kidding when I say I ate a lot of ice cream desserts:

Lisa got me hooked on these 😦
So little pieces…
But so goodd. It reminds me of DQ dipped ice cream cones!
holy moly yesss, This was the triple chocolate thing with brownie crumble on top!
This is the banana flavoured one
the middle chocolate layer split goes down almost all the way!
This was okay… it’s like a sorbet or strawberry popsicle.
I couldn’t get enough of this. Always soft and creamy!
Caramel and oreo ice cream. Only treated myself after big papers to write.

Cooking in Japan (II)

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I shopped for groceries almost daily, looking out for the discounted foods and best deals and then thinking up of a dish with the ingredients I got! It makes dinners for me super fun!

Make sure you get the chance to read the captions of the photos for the tips on where I got the ingredients!

Curry with some beef stew cubes, tofu, and lettuce. The top is a fried tofu with toasted sesame and sweet chili dressing.
My friends were not feeling that well and so I made some congee for them! Add some white wine to marinate the pork to get some extra flavour! I also added in some goji berries for health (my mother stuffed them into my luggage).
There is this fresh smoked salmon you can sometimes get in the grocery market in Osu. Avocado and lemon from the 100 yen lawson store (they sell groceries there). And I had to be generous with the cream cheese!
Leftover smoked salmon affed to pork and bok choy to make congee.
a seafood clam white wine sauce for leftover spaghetti noodles. It is hard to find fresh clams and shrimp, but I got it in the early afternoons at the Sanesu grocery store near Chiyoda.
A spicy sweet and sour soup with cellophane noodles, tofu and oyster mushroom. If you want a cheat, the Sanesu store has hot pot broth that you can add to your dishes!
Bought a big pack of discounted pork slices and really need to finish it before it expired! Off it goes into curry!
Sanesu had quail eggs in stock all the time! They make a good snack!
Extra lazy on making breakfast in the morning, but I took some leftover onions, sautéed it and placed it with some corn, mozzarella cheese and sweet chili sauce on toasted bread.