Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

The "buy Canadian" sentiment has surged since the threat of Trump's tariffs and some smaller companies like Sprague Cannery are extremely worried: Tariffs may still feel abstract to many, so let me share something tangible to help everyone better understand the gravity of the situation. We employ 50 people at our Canadian cannery. A significant portion of our business is with US customers. For decades, we’ve operated under… — Sprague Cannery 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 (@SpragueFoods) March 18, 2025 They have absorbed some costs but it's not sustainable. Initially I thought they were an eastern Canadian product not really available in BC (I certainly never saw them in Real Canadian Superstore, where I commonly shop), but it turns out they're just somewhat tricky to find here. While the store locater  lists common stores like Save-on-Foods, not every store will stock them. I live near Metrotown and the most convenient one for me turned out to be London Drugs (and happily t...

In this post we'll talk about the best way to reheat pizza. Since a pizza is baked you might think you can just pop it back in the oven. You can, but that just further dries it out and generally makes it taste worse. You could steam it but the crust generally becomes soggy and icky. Instead, use your frying pan and do both: In a large, clean, frying pan, put in your slice of pizza. You'll need some room on the side to have just a little bit of water, maybe a tablespoon or so. Ideally the water shouldn't touch the pizza and be soaked into the crust, but it won't totally ruin things if it does. Cover with a reasonably tight lid because we want to keep the steam under the lid. Doesn't have to be pressure-cooker tight. During reheating, do not open the lid or the steam will escape and you'll lose a lot of heat suddenly. On the stove, turn on high heat and listen for the water to start sizzling. That means it's starting to turn to steam. Turn off the heat and let...

It's been a while since I had any coupons from  SocialNature , but I recently qualified for a promotion of A Vogel brand "Herbamare" herb-flavoured sea salt. According to the ingredients, it is "sea salt with vegetables and herbs". I tasted a pinch and it was salty as salt should be, plus clear herb aroma, though not particularly strong. I compared it with regular table salt (slide 6) and it looks like the salt particles are generally more fine than regular table salt (not sea salt). I tried it on some Pran Plain Paratha I got from Superstore. I sprinkled Herbamare on one half while the paratha was still frozen, then toasted it in my toaster oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees Farenheit (slides 7-8). I tried the pre-seasoned side as well as the plain side which I seasoned with Herbamare after. I did not put an excessive amount of Herbamare, enough to have mild saltiness. Of course the saltiness was evident, but the vegetables and herbs flavor was basically los...

It sounds like common sense that half a truth is not the whole truth, but in truth most people are probably not aware when they only have half a truth. A little crumb of compelling truth is enough to decide things for them. You may have seen assorted news about the conflict in Gaza, especially about student protests such as this one at UBC . I can't remember when it was that I first learned about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but I do remember it was about the Hamas "terrorists" acting for Palestine. Just the label "terrorist" decided for me that Hamas were the bad guys and therefore, Israel must be the innocent victims. After all, that's what terrorist groups do: They attack innocents to force governments to recognize their demands. War has erupted again, and this time students in North America were siding with Palestine. Older and more guarded about the various subtle attempts by media and politics to influence the masses, I decided to do more...

Despite more technology and more forms of communication possible, how is it that communicating with your bank can be so hard? It really still comes down to people. They can use the technology, but if there's no proper follow-up, it's all useless. Which ultimately leads to simply looking for another financial institution. (1) Earlier this year, I received  an email from a CIBC "Financial Service Representative", Tej Gill. This was the second time that this person has emailed me. When I emailed them back the first time, they did not reply and simply sent me another email weeks later, in March. (2) The email I received in March (slide 1 below) was just as vague and thoroughly uninformative as the first one: I tried reaching out [top] you regarding one of your investment accounts. Please give a call at below number [sic]. Is this some attempt to sell me more stuff? What is this about? I didn't want to waste my time calling, hoping that this person might be in and avai...

My mom is getting on in years but still refusing to treat herself to new things. So this Mother's Day I splurged a bit and got her a Qings Cake  ("King's Cake"?) They can make pictures in a jelly based on photographs you provide, but even without any photos, they have a good assortment of images you can choose from. I didn't have a picture of the cat my mom used to have, but they did have a fluffy cat image, and with a colour substitution for the fur, it turned out really quite well. From a distance it can look quite realistic but of course once you zoom in close, it's clearly not a real cat. Still, the detail and artwork was impressive. (I think many people might be much more impressed, but I'm a jaded sort and very little really impresses me). You can contact them through Instagram to get their current brochure of products -- a small 6-inch jelly cake is not the only product! I'll go through the specifications and my experience with you but I won...