Month: January 2020

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Shanghai City Restaurant, Nanaimo

noodles and tofu hot pot

This weekend was Chinese New Year, so my son and I celebrated by eating at the Shanghai Restaurant yesterday. Located at the back of Brooks Landing Mall, it is an old favourite.

We missed the lunch and dinner crowds by going mid-afternoon. The dim sum menu ends at 2 pm but at 2:30 we could still order a small dish of those flat rice noodles that we like. We also ordered the mixed meat and tofu hot pot from the regular menu, which is a delicious sizzling stew in a clay pot. There are plenty of fresh-tasting vegetables in it and a flavourful gravy. You eat it by putting a scoop of rice in a small bowl and spooning some hot pot over it so that the gravy goes down into the rice. Mmm, yum!

Hard to stop eating when it’s so good, but the dishes were large enough that we even had a box-full left over to take home. It came to $28.25 including tax and before the tip.

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Pizza Mia, Nanaimo, mmm, yum!

Create your own taste combination .

I gave my son a Vancouver Island coupon book for Christmas. Last week we tried Pizza Mia. We got 2 four-topping pizzas for $25; yummy, not bad! I phoned in the order and they were ready by the time we got there to pick them up. Not busy on a Sunday afternoon. I imagine it would be busy on a school day at the North Nanaimo branch, as it’s right near a High School. It’s a small take-out venue but there are a few little tables if you want to eat in. You can even buy a ready-made slice for $2.50.

My husband and son still prefer their long-time favourite, Pizza Hut, but we will go back to Pizza Mia at least to use the other coupon in the book. It made a pretty good meal for a lazy Sunday afternoon!

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Still, by Jenny L. Donelly, 2020, Revell (Baker Publishing Group)

I received a copy of this book from Revell in exchange for writing my review.  wp-15792914736965110738418536929141

The author and her husband are involved in several motivational ministries to Christian leaders and are based in Oregon.

This is a very personal devotional book for women.  I think it would appeal most to busy young moms, although it was encouraging to me too, as an older woman.

Jenny starts by telling about some of her own life.  She is the mother of five children, the youngest still a toddler and the oldest a teenager.  As if this doesn’t make her busy enough, she is also heavily involved in Christian ministry and her own successful business.  And she still finds time to meditate, write, exercize on her spin bike, socialize, travel, and drive her kids around!  Wonderwoman for sure!

She also tells about her growing up years in which she experienced sadness and loneliness starting with the divorce of her parents when she was still a young child.  She struggled her way emotionally into adulthood, trying hard to be a good person and blundering through the pitfalls of bad relationships and drinking.  Finally she totally committed herself to Jesus.

The book is about finding rest in the midst of the storm.  The cover illustrates this with the word ‘Still’ in the centre of a swirl.  Her basic premise is that the kind of spiritual rest or stillness that is found in Jesus is like the calm in the eye of the storm.

Part 2 of the book, entitled Seven Ways to Rest, is Jenny’s recommendations for purposefully getting into this spiritual rest in Jesus.  Way 7 even includes how to do that while training on a spin bike!  A psychological, spiritual and physical multitask!

In a very short Part 3 she finally explains our spiritual position of resting in Jesus, and then in an appendix she gives the reader a few exercises in spiritual resting.

Jenny makes the book interactive by directly speaking to readers and including blank lines where she asks readers to write their own thoughts and feelings as they meditate on her questions.  This is part of what makes this such a personal devotional book.

www.revellbooks.com

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A Simple Christmas Wish, by Melody Carlson, 2013, Revell (Baker Publishing Group)

Rachel is a city gal, a flight attendant who has traveled the world, and the aunt of a sweet little girl who she is caring for while her brother and his wife are away celebrating their tenth anniversary. Christmas is coming and the two of them have their own fun in their own way while Holly’s parents are away, putting up a Christmas tree that Rachel knows Holly’s mother would not have chosen. Suddenly there is a phone call with shocking news. A plane has gone down and Holly’s parents have not survived. In that instant their lives are changed forever. But just as Rachel begins to wrap her mind around being Holly’s permanent caregiver, which she is actually truly enjoying, she receives another call informing her that there is another aunt on the mother’s side of the family who is to have custody. Neither Rachel nor Holly have ever met this aunt or any of the other relatives of Holly’s mother, who live in an Amish community. What should Rachel do? She seems to have no choice in the matter. She decides to take Holly there herself and meet the people who Holly is supposed to live with. This book is a nice light read and an interesting way to learn about the Amish way of life from the viewpoints of these two main characters who knew nothing about it before being plunged into Holly’s new family.  In some ways they find it quite likeable, this tightly-knit family farming community. But will Holly really have to stay here permanently, away from everything and everyone she has known up till now?  And what about Rachel?  Holly is her only family and at 35 years old she fears she may never have children of her own. There is an element of mystery as to what made Holly’s mother leave the community to begin with and an element of romance when Rachel meets Holly’s uncle.  A range of emotions are experienced with all the changes being encountered.  How does each character handle their new relationships?  What is attributed to the Amish protocol and what is due to personality traits of the people in Holly’s new family?  You’ll have to read it yourself to find out. www.revellbooks.com