Goodbye for real, Pinetree Grill
I spent most of my life growing up in Coquitlam, BC. If you don't know where that is, it's a small suburb of Vancouver. It's well known for being right at the foot of a mountain range, as well as being home to a large Korean-Canadian diaspora; I suspect that's the reason my family chose to lay down roots there instead of elsewhere in the Lower Mainland.
The Pinetree Grill was a dingy food stall in Henderson Mall, which was Coquitlam's equivalent of an Asian shopping mall (think Crystal Mall in Burnaby, but much, much smaller). During high school, I used to tutor kids in English, most of them being part of the Korean-Canadian community in English. It turned out that one of the kids I used to tutor were the children of the elderly couple who used to run the Pinetree Grill; I'd often have my tutorial session with him right in front of their food stall in the food court. The lady would often bring some food out at the end of a session, ignoring my protests that she was already paying me enough.
I moved out of my parent's house at the end of high school (they were moving away), and into a dorm at UBC. Korean food was hard to come by in the area, so sometimes I'd make the long trek (at the time) from UBC back to Coquitlam. This was before the Evergreen line made travel easier, so I'd have to take the 97-B line from Lougheed Town Center Station all the way to Coquitlam Central.
A few years went by, and the Pinetree Grill changed hands, eventually becoming to be known as "Hwang's Kitchen." Luckily for me, the new owners kept much of the same menu items. My trips became less frequent as I found Korean places nearer to where I lived, but I would often make the odd trip or two out.
Last week, I was planning to make a trip out, but I wanted to make sure that the place was open first (food stalls have a tendency to have odd-hours). Unfortunately, I was greeted with bad news:
Hello everyone, unfortunately as a small business, it has been difficult making ends meet. Due to this and other personal reasons, we have decided to close our store permanently.
I have to say I wasn't too surprised. It wasn't a very popular stall by any means, and I imagine the significantly reduced foot traffic didn't help their profits at all. The Pinetre Grill/Hwang's Kitchen was basically one of the only reasons I had to visit Coquitlam, so it looks like I won't be going back as much (if at all) anymore.
Last week I spent the majority of my time working on an assignment for PVPV (Program Verifiers and Program Verification). It went a bit smoother than our last assignment (creating a SAT solver), but it was still chaotic; I'm glad we got an extension. Yesterday I visited the UBC Botanical Garden with a couple members of the lab. It was supposed to be pouring, but it luckily remained rather clear; we even got to see some sun as well.
Today I received a gift from a friend:
It's the first piece of art that I've ever owned. It's also small enough that it won't cause issues when I (inevitably) move again, so I can't wait for this to adorn every place I live in.
That's it from me this week, I'll see you next week!