Wanderlusting Mama’s favourite Bubble Teas!

We love Bubble Tea

The fam loves Bubble Tea. It pretty much became a weekly treat until quarantine. 

With most places were closed, we trekked to the nearest Asian grocery to make the milk tea at home! We just combined all the ingredients for a great substitute to our treat!

Bubble tea treat at home!

Now as the city is slowly reopening, we will surely go back to our favourite spots. Here are our favourites:

For Mango Slush we love Real Fruit’s Mango Diamond Slush. We love that they use fresh mangoes (not powder) and that there are actual diced mangoes in the slush. Also, they now have paper straws!!! Yay!

Mango Diamond Slush Bubble tea @Real Fruit and now with paper straw!

Coco’s Three Guys (or sometimes Two Ladies) is the family favourite. This Hong Kong style milk tea has tofu pudding, grass jelly and tapioca. Also served warm or cold, we just love it. They can improve on making the warm a tad bit warmer, though. However, they don’t skimp on the amount of pudding, jelly and tapioca.

Our Favourites: Bubble Gaga and Three Guys @ Coco

I enjoy Kung Fu Tea’s Brown Sugar Latte. This can be ordered hot/warm or cold so it is perfect for any season. As with other places, the level of sweetness and amount of ice can be customized to taste. The regular sweetness level is perfect for my taste and it has a great tea/milk ratio.

Brown Sugar Latte, Warm @ KungFu  Tea

Chatime is another family go-to bubble tea place. The Brown Sugar Milk Tea or Mango Slush are both pretty good. The girls love Peach Slush and Taro Milk Tea as well.

Brown Sugar Milk Tea with Pearl @Chattime

There are also other places we wouldn’t mind going to such as Presotea, Palgong, and TenRen. We just don’t go out of our way to go there.

Palgong Tea Bubble Tea 

And as summer is here, we are looking forward to enjoying bubble tea (even if it is take-out) again! Stay safe, everyone!

Virtual Wanderlusting

Travel to Backyard

We may be home physically, but that does not stop us from connecting with our friends and family from all over. This situation also does not mean we can no longer travel—we can still do so, virtually! For me, the wanderlust is still always there but our health and safety are more important during these times. So, I am sharing instead some links to enjoy the world from the comfort of your home.

You can search destinations in https://virtualtours.city/ and you can have a virtual trip. Great for shoppers as it features a lot of shops who sponsored the site, but you can still get a preview of the general feel of the location.

For museum lovers, Google Arts and Culture has made available various online exhibits from various galleries around the world.

• We missed Musée d’Orsay on our trip to Paris last year. Was planning to catch this next time but for now, we have this virtual tour of this museum: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris?hl=en
• And since we are talking about France, check out the virtual tours offered by the Palace of Versailles. http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/resources/virtual-exhibitions#louis-xiv-/-nicolas-fouquet:-a-certain-history-of-taste
• The National Art Gallery of Washington also offers online exhibits: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-gallery-of-art-washington-dc?hl=en
• And here is the one for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/uffizi-gallery?hl=en
• Or take a streetview trip to Tokyo National Museum https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/tokyo-national-museum/PQG948Fv3mc_KA?sv_lng=139.7759333&sv_lat=35.71879&sv_h=-151.87621284312152&sv_p=-23.15760655907158&sv_pid=wQva_jfaR5T1clE3NB4ZXg&sv_z=0.9999999999999997

How about trying out some virtual rides on Disney and Universal? Most Youtube videos are not the very best quality but there are some good ones out there:

• Youtube channel iThemePark has a great collection: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo83OnV1SoOZHPQd1UNMx-g
• Here is the New Star Wars Ride—Rise of the Resistance experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbWghpV0Q8
• and the classic Space Mountain ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N0otrMuh7E
• And of course, for Harry Potter fans (like my DD#2), here’s a virtual ride on the Hogwarts Express: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u16kKrⁱbb_4

Sadly, we are also missing a few shows this year. However, there are living room concerts available! 

• Check out: https://www.broadwayworld.com/topic/LIVING-ROOM-CONCERTS
• Or catch some of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s shows on his Youtube channel. The Shows Must Go On streams a different stage production on Fridays for free (for 48 hours): Today, it’s Carrie Underwood in the Sound of Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag

I hope this simple list (there are many, many more out there) allows you to discover many places and experiences albeit with our current limitations. Stay safe and healthy!