Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

A little while back I mentioned 1,000 point tables from Open Table, the online restaurant table reservation service when I went to the Granville Room . Another 1,000 point table (which puts you halfway toward a $26 voucher), and one that's very easy to get 1,000 points with, is Maurya Indian Cuisine . It's fallen off the map from Dine Out Vancouver now, but back in 2009, it came out well ahead of the competition, and it's most popular dishes on the Dine Out Menu are still proudly featured. I recently caught up with an old (vegetarian) friend there. Our order came out to... Chaat Tikki (2009 Dine Out Vancouver Award for best appetizer) potato and pea cakes pan-toasted, served with chickpeas, mint chutney, tamarind chutney, and yogurt Chicken Chettinad (2009 Dine Out Vancouver Award winner) marinated chicken in South Indian chettinad paste of coconut and poppy seeds; South Indian specialty served with rice and naan bread Garlic and Basil Naan Indian leavened bread ...

With The Eatery's huge menu, it's not hard to claim having the largest selection of veggie sushi in Vancouver. You've probably at least heard of the place and it's funkiness. There are immense sculptures hanging from the ceiling, some made from hundreds of tiny toys mashed together. It's worth a look, even if the ambiance isn't for you. And as for ambiance... It's busy and it's loud (even the music is loud, to blast over the buzz of the busy restaurant-goers). Personally, not my scene but at 25% off, what the hey? Yes, 25% off. You probably missed it, but EarthSave put on a bit of a fundraiser for their organization. The deal was $2 for Earthsave if you weren't a member, and 25% off your meal at The Eatery . EarthSave's Vancouver Meatless Meetup does put on quite a few interesting dining events, so I highly recommend signing up (it's free to sign up -- no commitment to events, no membership fee) and getting their announcement e-mails. ...

Oi! I'll be playing catchup with restaurant reviews this week, after going to The Eatery and Maurya Indian Cuisine these past few weeks. But first, I wanted to post a quick note about a fixed-menu dine-out put on by Earthsave this coming Sunday. You may even have gone to this fairly popular restaurant before, but you may not have had quite the same items. It's an all-vegan menu, so everyone can enjoy: guacamole platter with tortilla chips cactus taco (medium size taco with with beans, cactus, cilantro and onion) half of huitlacoche (corn smut) quesadilla half of squash flower quesadilla refried beans mexican style rice Prepayment by PayPal or credit card is required to secure a seat.

It's been a stressful week wrangling with clueless customer service. It's not that I think the customer service person is an idiot necessarily, but they just aren't aware of what's going on and they're hapless on the front lines. Case #1 - ScotiaBank and the Land Titles Office My late father's home was fully paid off around 2005. Just recently -- six years later, and over a year after he's DECEASED -- ScotiaBank sends a form to be taken to the Land Titles Office. It is to notify them that the mortgage on his home has been paid off and they should take it off the property. So, I go to the Land Titles Office and get some song and dance about how nothing matters except getting the processing fee . (Like, WTF?) At the Land Titles Office, I am explicitly told I do NOT have to report back to ScotiaBank because "they already know the mortgage has been paid off". I go back to ScotiaBank and ask them how come it took six years before they sent the...

Still feeling confused and unsettled by one helluva wringer of a meeting with my financial advisor on Wednesday. Every now and then, I try to tackle the question of "Is my financial advisor handling my mutual fund portfolio well?" or, more basically, "How is my portfolio doing?" I have never really gotten a useful answer to this, and it's largely futile to ask another financial advisor to analyze your portfolio because they will generally angle to get you to switch advisors. (That said, ScotiaBank will dissect your portfolio through an analysis tool that dissects it with MorningStar mutual fund reports , that show what you're invested in and how each fund performed over the last few years. You can at least take that with you for what it's worth.) Mutual fund portfolio critiques have taken various forms, including simple "did it outperform index such-and-such", to "what is the quartile ranking of the underlying funds?" Compli...

I headed out for light dinner at the Granville Room on Wednesday night to help my bestest dining buddy get 1000 points with Open Table. If you don't already know, Open Table lets you reserve restaurants, earn points with fulfilling reservations, and redeem those points for $26 Dining Cheques . The Granville Room is a curious little hideaway on Granville. Even on the sunniest day, it's dark and basically black on the inside. Even the washrooms are very dimly lit and with shiny black toilet bowls. And the music is loud. Not really recommended for getting together with your friend to catch up. At around 5pm when we walked in, it was dead quiet with basically just staff there. According to the bartender, the hockey crowd doesn't swoop in till around 5.45pm, and they linger till around 9pm. Then there's a strange dead zone between 9pm and 10pm when the clubbing crowd comes in and stays till 3am. On Open Table, the Granville Room offers 1000 points Sunday to Thursda...

Hi Everyone! It looks like not everyone knows (or cares) that it's FREE Cinnamon Knot Day today at a Bread Garden near you. Yes, despite the direct mail blitz, there were no lineups this morning at BG Urban Cafés all over the Lower Mainland, apparently to formally announce the rebranding / makeover of The Bread Garden into a trendier brown-colour-themed BG Urban Café (your VISA receipt will still show "Bread Garden", at least at the 888 West Pender Street location). And although the flyers show the website address to end in an accented "e", it is actually not necessary to type that special character for the web address. The Cinnamon Knot is not a cinnamon bun at all, but a moist and chewy twisted bread. Simple and delicious, and definitely worth a try, especially when they're handing them out free today. No coupon necessary -- just show up! I also took the chance to pick up a "Black Ganache Cake", which is listed in the flyer as a "Ch...

Out of the blue, ScotiaBank sent a letter to my father a few days ago, saying that the mortgage on his home has been repaid in full and that we should arrange for a "registration of the discharge" as soon as possible. They sent us a form to this effect. It doesn't sound special, except the mortgage was paid off many years ago and my father has been dead for a while now. In any case, I took it down to the Land Titles and Survey Authority office. The teller took one look at the form and immediately announced that she (speaking on behalf on the LTSA) didn't really care about anything other than seeing the form filled with an applicant name, address, phone number, and signature; and getting the fee. It didn't matter that the mortgage was long gone. It didn't matter that my father had died. It didn't matter who I was or who filled out the application. It didn't matter that Scotiabank be advised when it was done. It didn't matter who paid the $30.0...

You may remember that way back, I attended a specially arranged vegan dinner at Joe Fortes . The Vancouver Meatless Meetup arranged for another vegan dinner at a posh restaurant -- Goldfish (1118 Mainland) . The menu initially presented was horribly boring, but this time the restaurant selected wasn't rushed to throw something together, and the actual dishes were utterly delicious. chilled mint pea soup, composed salad (meaning NOT lettuce with dressing), tofu with eggplant risotto with asparagus fruit tart with a seasonal sorbet The somewhat grainy chilled mint pea soup turned out to be probably the largest course in terms of volume. It had a simple look to it, but sometimes simple things can be very delicious. Not overly minty -- just enough to give the chilled soup a refreshing quality and wake you up. If there's a criticism here, I think it'd have to be the portion. It was very generous, to the point where someone might find it a bit heavy because of its thi...

Thursday night our Meetup Group (the Culture Sponges) went to the Russian Barin Restaurant (2141 Kingsway; menu ). Disaster! First, the good news: It's a big room and actually quite a nice space. If you like hot servers, the two waitresses had black tops on that seemed to incidentally-deliberately expose their generous cleavage. A bit obtuse an overkill, I must admit. Medium-sized TVs showing Russian (?) music videos! Fun Euro-pop stuff. A bit retro for a North American audience, but lots of fun and frequently sexy. We were over 30 people and the restaurant had definitely arranged seating for everyone, but strangely they only had two quickly overwhelmed servers. Also, the menu was quite restricted -- no soups whatsover (no borscht!), and a few entrees dropped. Plus there was talk of no cabbage rolls and only 6 chicken tapakas . Strangely, most of our group ordered Olivie Salad ($5.95) and a Beef Stroganoff ($14.95) prepared in the traditional way (not the North Ame...

50% off at Sanafir (1026 Granville) on May 17th, 2011, between 5pm and 8pm. Here's the catch -- it's a FREE admission " Travel Lovers Tweetup ". Here's the blurb... Do you love to travel? Have you travelled in the past, have an upcoming trip or looking to plan a trip? This is for anyone interested in meeting people who love to travel. Meet, mingle & chat with other fellow travellers about previous trips, upcoming trips, dream trips, etc. Sanafir - Arabic for ‘meeting place’, will be the location for the inaugural Travel Lovers Meetup/Tweetup. The Moroccan-style richly upholstered beds in the mezzanine level overlooking the restaurant will put us in the mood to dream about far-away lands. Sanafir will also have their entire menu at 50% off so be sure to munch on some tapas-style plates prepared with the flavours of the North Africa, Asia and Middle East, offering a mix of both regional and exotic ingredients. This is an informal, casual event where yo...

I hadn't seen my friend from the UK in months and months, and as she had expressed an interest in afternoon teas and the like, I suggested we meet at ShakTea (3702 Main Street) . She inquired into the price of the full afternoon tea service and was daunted by it, but was still so taken by the concept of the place (the word she used was "amazed") that she just had to meet there anyway. It's a rustic/oriental looking place, with a sort of quiet, calming vibe inside that is totally different from bright, bustling Main Street right outside. On the counter were three glass teapots on little stands with candles lit beneath, keeping the teas nice and hot. Tiny teacups were plentiful in a basket nearby for all to sample these three teas. I tried the intriguing Blueberry Yogurt Rooibos , which really does have yogurt bits in it, and was not disappointed by the interesting flavour. My friend and I sat down for tea, and she ordered a Pumpkin Spice Rooibos to go with her...

The election is over and as of 1:30am Tuesday, May 3rd, the stats as reported by The Globe and Mail are: 166 Conservatives 102 NDP 35 Liberal 4 Bloc Quebecois 1 Green Sad to say, we Canadians can no longer claim to be smarter than the Americans. We can no longer hold it over them that they allowed George Bush a second term, since we've allowed Steven Harper a third, and stronger than ever. It took three elections -- that would be about $900 million taxpayer dollars -- but Steven Harper has finally spent enough of our money to buy control of Parliament. On the up side -- The Greens finally, finally, have someone in Parliament! Just one seat, but hopefully their voice and vision will be more visible to Canadians -- though that might not be till the next election. And the Bloc Quebecois will also finally quiet down in Parliament too, at just 4 members. Long have they had a decisive voice and vote, which was strange as they are the only party that selfishly watches out fo...

On my way home on the skytrain on Friday night, there were two girls (young women?) sitting in the skytrain. One, a blonde, was texting on her cellphone. Her friend, a brunette, had thrown up on the floor. At Nanaimo station, the train was detained. Because one person had thrown up, the entire train (not just that one car, but the whole train) was taken out of service. The blonde pulled her friend over and advised her to keep quiet and inconspicuous. For her part, she tried to not be seen as an associate of brunette, who threw up again. The skytrain attendants finally located her and asked if she were alright. Another train came by. The blonde got in, leaving her friend behind. Hmm...