Author Archives: One Dish at a Time

Process Post 12; Wrapping Up the Semester

As we are nearing the end of the 2020 Fall semester and entering into exam period, it’s crazy to reflect back on how much I have learned from this class. I never thought I would be capable enough to build my own blog and understand all the components that help put it together.

I also started thinking about my intended audience for my future blog/website that I may plan on building depending on how busy my schedule gets next semester.

I have decided to help my parents rebuild their company websites with the knowledge I acquired from here and hope to continue building on my knowledge in PUB 201 next semester. I think this is one of the very few classes which I have taken the skills I have learned and applied them to do something useful/helpful in my life today.

Newest Addition!

One of our newest addition is our Beyond Meat Gyozas!

Eating plant based has become quickly popular and almost a trend in Vancouver these days. I personally am not vegan or vegetarian but I’ve been to plant based restaurants and have been surprised with how delicious the dishes are!

These gyozas consist of plant based “meat” and cabbage. They are available for purchase frozen so that you can cook it to your own liking in the comfort of your own home!

My favourite way to cook my dumplings are to place them into a shallow pan with an inch of water and simmer for 10 minutes, then drain the water and drizzle some oil on top and a bit on the sides so the oil can seep to the bottom of the dumplings to prevent sticking, cover the pan and let them sizzle for 6-7 minutes. They always come out with a crispy bottom and are so delicious!

Bento Time!

If you don’t know what a bento is, it is basically a Japanese lunch box with sections of different foods to eat with rice or noodles.

This bento is called the “Gyu-Meshi Bento”, translating to “Beef Stew Bento”. This is one of my favourites as the beef stew is my mom’s recipe and she makes it fresh from scratch for our shops. The best part is that it is topped off with a sous vide onsen egg!

We also have a lot of other types of bentos such as tempura on rice and fried chicken with tartar sauce. I love getting bentos because it lets you try a bit of everything and it’s a meal that will keep me full all day.

Love It or Hate It

In my experience, seafood is a category of food that people either love or hate and this dish is one that definitely fits that category.

It’s called the Uni Ikura Bamboo Box. Translates to Sea Urchin Salmon Roe on top of a bed of sushi rice, topped with shredded egg and wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Surprisingly, many people rave about it but I actually am not a fan of either sea urchin or salmon roe… sorry dad…

However, when it is sea urchin season, many foodies around Vancouver are always on the search for the best uni dish and combinations like these are becoming very popular in contrast to the traditional sea urchin sashimi with soy sauce.

Essay Two

I always wanted to have a blog or some form of documentation in my life but I never knew how. PUB 101 was also a class that I have been wanting to take for a few semesters but I was never able to get in due to the popularity and waitlist that this course withholds. When I finally got in this semester, I was so excited to start a journey of not only documenting a period of my life but as well as learning all the skills to build an online presence and make it into my own!

This blog was initially to document my family and I’s journey throughout the pandemic as business owners as the restaurant industry has been hit extremely hard since March of this year. I wanted to do this so that I would have something to look back on when hopefully, one day this pandemic is over. However, this blog has slowly turned into not only just current experiences but I have found enjoyment in writing about past experiences and I was surprised at how many of the course contents were applicable. I am not sure how much value or influence I have added to others but my hopes for this was to show awareness for small businesses and how anyone can support them during the pandemic. Every little bit counts!

Along with all the technical skills that I have learned from this course, I have also been hit with realization of the factors that make up what kind of space the internet is today. Some of the topics that stood out to me most during this semester were: fake news, copyright, monetization, and transmedia.

In week 7, we learned about fake news and the circulation behind it and I slowly realized that fake reviews could be written just like any fake news report. In my experience, it is common that one may exaggerate the issue when slightly discontent with an experience regarding a restaurant, especially when they are hungry and eager to eat their food. One small slip up could stir up a bunch of emotions and cause a blowout. Lewis & Marwick (2017) discuss how trustworthy media really is and how manipulation may be used to someones advantage. Being the daughter of a long time restaurant owner, I have heard countless stories of toxic restaurant relationships in which one party is discontent with what is going on, resulting in spread of inaccurate information online, ultimately leading to manipulation of others. Luckily, my family and I have never experienced that personally.

The next week, we went on to learn about copyright. It’s actually a coincidence because the day after that lecture, I was at work and noticed a bunch of the photos of our food on the delivery app Fantuan, was switched and not the original ones that we submitted. I called the customer service line and was told “it’s fine, as long as the food looks similar”. I responded with “no, we cannot use photos that were taken by someone else without crediting them, which is not possible on a delivery platform”, and they were very unhappy with me.

Monetization was also a topic that I found to be very eye opening. I was about 14 or 15 when “YouTubers” became a thing and influencers who were made money off social media starting becoming very big. Vara (2015) writes about how Steven T, Jones, an editor, started a kickstarter to continue his love for journalism “by letting people give online contributions to help fund…” (Vara, 2015) the window for reporting and writing. In terms of integrating ads into this blog itself, a peer suggested ideas such as pairing with local businesses to benefit both parties (Atwal, 2020). However, Atwal (2020) later recommended that monetization may not be fit for my blog as it is already one big advertisement for my family business alone and any other advertisements may harm the business which I strongly agree with.

Finally, the last topic that stood out strongly to me was transmedia and how we can incorporate multiple forms of media and how diverse it can be! Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com (2013) discusses how Pokemon has developed into such a big corporation with many types of media, ranging from TV shows and video games, all the way to stuffed animals and even theme stores! By doing so, this company has been able to stay in the spotlight for many years and continue to be a relevant part of not only kids but adults’ lives as well! After learning about transmedia, it made me think about how I would want to incorporate different types of media to advertise my parents’ business.

This class has ultimately taught me so much in such a short amount of time and it has made me want to discover and learn more about the publishing industry. I didn’t think I would want to continue blogging after this semester due to my busy schedule but now, I wouldn’t mind putting aside some time for this blog. There is so much to discover in this industry and I am planning on taking PUB 201 to further my knowledge. I am so excited!

Sources

Atwal, J. “Peer Review Three”, Don’t Ruin My Mood. Retrieved from: http://dontruinmymood.com/pub101-assignments/peer-review-three/

Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. 2013. “Pokemon as transmedia storytelling. https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/

Marwick, Alice and Lewis, Rebecca. 2017. “Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online“. Datasociety.net.

Vauhini Vara. 2015. “Survival Strategies for Local Journalism”,  https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/survival-strategies-for-local-journalism

Delivery Services

As the Covid-19 situation begins or worsen in the province of BC, many restaurants are once again, turning to delivery services to generate income to stay afloat. From UberEats, Skipthedishes, DoorDash, Fantuan, etc., there are so many choices but which one is the best?

UberEats is one that most people think of first when they want to order delivery. They often have deals and free delivery over a certain amount of orders and are often very reliable with good customer service. 5/5

Skipthedishes is one that has been around for quite a long time but I find that the delivery fees are very high no matter how much your order total is. There is also less variety of restaurants so I don’t use it that often. 3/5

DoorDash was a platform I used to heavily use before UberEats came about in Vancouver. Again, the delivery fees are moderately high but is a little better than Skipthedishes as it offers deals from time to time. 3/5

Fantuan is a platform that I have had the worst experience with. The delivery is by km so sometimes deliveries can be as high as $20 which is insane! The prices are also jacked up around 20%-30%. Every time I have called customer service, I have to contact them at least 1 or 2 times after again as they never fix the issue initially. I have even had them hang up on me as I asked for someone who speaks English as they are a Chinese based company and many workers speak little English. I have also heard that people have been charged multiple times on their orders but cannot get a refund as customer service has been no help. 0/5

TIP: In order to support such establishments, if it is possible, try your best to order directly from the restaurant as many of these services charge the restaurants anywhere from 20%-35% commission from each order.

What is your most preferred food delivery platform?

Online Hate

This week, we discussed the issues around online hate. I am very grateful that I have not experienced much online hate towards myself online.

When thinking about this topic, one event came into mind which was the incident which took place in 2018 where a Vancouver restaurant was under fire for a whole rat found in a bowl of soup served to a customer! I have heard many opinions about this incident. Some say it was set up, where a worker may have been unhappy with the boss/owners and sabotaged the business. Some say the customer themselves set it up in order to ruin the company. This could have been plotted in hopes of online hate towards the restaurant or certain individuals involved in this business. Still, no one really knows the truth but unfortunately, the establishment has closed down due to lack of business after news broke out.

The article by Maria Konnikova, explains how online hate comments can not only influence the opinions of others but as well as psychologically and mentally. In fact, after reading the news about the rat in the bowl of soup, I was hesitant to return to the restaurant to eat despite all the opinions on whether the kitchen was actually unsanitary or it was plotted against them. I was in fact influenced by comments online from others.

Not a Dish!

Within the next week, we are trying to wrap up renovations so that we can hopefully re-open by the first week of December! I’m so excited to get back to work and spend by days by the Steveston Water and watch the sunset.

Anyway, I thought this wall we had was super cute and eye catching!

Everything was made with just coloured construction paper and some coloured foil for parts such as the eggs so that we can highlight the half boiled yolk. I though it was so creative of the chefs to create a visual menu to make it more appealing to all ages!

Process Post 11; Transmedia

Although this blog focuses mainly on food and restaurant business, I think there can still be a lot of opportunities for transmedia to be incorporated!

When going through this week’s lecture and readings, I realized how much more content I could create with this blog. This blog post talks about how Pokemon has grew from simple trading cards and a TV show to much more, such as stuffed animals and even a whole store dedicated to Pokemon in Tokyo! Pokemon is still very much alive and now more than ever, individuals of all ages are taking interest in it!

With that, some other media that I thought I could include on this blog could be videos of food reviews done by food bloggers (of course I would get their permission before incorporating their content)! Another idea I had was to find a way to incorporate surveys and such on the food. That way, customers can come directly to the website to fill our a questionnaire based on their experience instead of going on Google, Yelp, etc.

Process Post 11; $$$$

This week, we focused on the topic of advertising and revenue. I was always fascinated by how people made money off the internet. The first time I found was when one of my best friends signed up for Google Ads for her Tumblr account. over the summer, she made well over $1000 and I was shocked by how that was possible from sitting on your computer all day.

It is interesting how many connections are involved in one ad click and where the money is dispersed. Some people may not be in favour of this idea where as, some may love it and use it to their advantage. I guess it depends on what perspective you are looking at it from. From a seller’s point of view, it must feel nice to make money just by someone clicking on a link in where some clicks may even be accidental. However, from a consumers perspective, I understand some may be bitter or petty that someone gained money from their actions online.