Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

After a really excellent first experience at Feastro , I invited a foodie friend who worked downtown to come with me. We were there shortly before 2pm and there wasn't any lineup at all. The fresh sheet had changed and the excellent Manila Clams I had last time were not on the Feastro menu that day. My friend loves crab, so I went with the Crab and Shrimp Cake. She opted for the Bonzai Prawns. As mentioned in my previous review, the Crab and Shrimp Cake is a good-sized block and sits on a colourful salad that includes a few blackberries, olives, and slices of beet. The salad wasn't heavily dressed and I give it high marks except that the vegetables could have been cut to more manageable slices than whole leaves. Especially on a tiny take-out plate, it was quite inconvenient and had the potential of splashing some dressing on somebody, or on oneself. The crab cake itself looked very promising. The taste of crab wasn't very strong, so the ratio of crab meat to filler is...

Went by Feastro last week for an afternoon date. She had a tight lunch hour, and there was some confusion over where we were supposed to meet, so we just had a measly half hour to dine and dash. Fortunately, things worked out anyway. The Feastro purple truck had only a moderate line up, possibly because the service was pretty fast. The prices are fair for what you get, considering it's pretty much restaurant quality on a disposable plate. The food seemed to be hot and fresh -- there were no signs that my sweet potato fries were reheated as they were hot and crispy! I got the Manila Clams from the fresh sheet (not normally available; $14.60 after tax if I remember correctly) and my date picked out the Crab and Shrimp cake ($13 before tax) -- her second choice, because they were out of Bonzai Prawns. The clams came in a savoury, tasty broth that was almost piping hot. By the time I was done slurping out the clams from their little shells, the broth was still quite hot and mad...

To celebrate some of my friends' August birthdays, I herded them down to La Casa Gelato -- the world-famous store with over 200 flavours on-site all the time. If you've never been there before, it's at least worth a look. Price wise, it's a bit pricey... Two scoops -- generous scoops, I must admit -- in a cone will be about $6.50, which is more than you'd pay for a small tub of ice cream at the supermarket, where the flavours are more conservative but the quality is good. Keep this in mind before you go . Unlike some ice cream places, you can try as many flavours as you want before buying. And realistically, they probably can't keep track of who's had how many samples when the place is packed virtually shoulder-to-shoulder in the evening. Given the above, what I'd recommend is two scoops, with ice cream on top and sorbetto on the bottom. Sorbettos tend to be fruity and a more refreshing way to finish than milky/creamy ice cream. Definitely t...

If you've read this blog on and off, you may know that I've been quite pleased with the value-for-dollar of frozen pizza . With pizza wars between Superstore and Save-On-Foods driving down the price to a few pennies less than $5 every now and then, it's hard to shake off $5 as being the par price for reasonable quality. Every year, Superstore / President's Choice comes up with new products, and there were a few new pizza products in the latest flyer. One of them is the PC Cheese Rip and Dip Pizza (there's also a pepperoni one). It's a new product, so you can expect the price to be closer to $8. It's also a great idea IN THEORY -- There's the convenience of not having to cut the pizza after you bake it, plus it comes with dipping sauce (which basically tastes like spaghetti sauce). Also not much crust, since you're pulling chunks apart. Finally, the crust/bread is already baked (and too brown, almost burnt-looking, on top, in my opinion...

As of August 8th, 2011, Google Maps couldn't tell me how to get from Vancouver, BC to Vancouver Island, BC. But it could provide detailed instructions to get from "China" to "Taiwan" (although it's a bit fuzzy on where exactly you land on Taiwan after Step #48, but presumably if you just head inland, you will reach the road indicated in Step #50).

A few months ago, I found what I thought was an excellent investment opportunity in Alberta. A company had secured a chunk of land in the Acheson area between Parkland and Edmonton, and by all accounts it was very promising. The mayor of Parkland not only confirmed that development of the area was high-priority to position it for " Port Alberta ", but that the development company identified was "one of the best, if not the best" of the companies working on the area. I also spoke with a hotel chain that had been courted for the hotel to be built, and they were positive about locating there, so it seemed like the development already had a solid buyer even before construction began. But there were delays at my end. At first, these seemed like ironic annoyances. There was a mail strike which delayed funds from a mutual fund cash-out. After the mail strike, the funds still hadn't arrived after a week, so we cancelled the cheque, in case they got lot. Not three day...

After hearing vegan acquaintances rave about it over and over, I finally got myself down to Organic Lives (around Quebec and 2nd ). The initial plan was to rope a few friends together and order one of every dessert. Didn't quite work out schedule-wise, so it was just me and one foodie buddy. I (of course) ordered and shared " The Ridiculous ", expecting it to be chocolate cake since that was what everyone said it was. Well, it was no cake. More like a pie with delicious, smooth, thick (but not too hard) ganache . It is kept slightly chilled at the counter, and if not gulped down it will start to melt at around room temperature (it was a bit of a hot day when we went, though the ceiling fans were blowing). It's really more like the simple shot-of-chocolate PC Tarte au Chocolat , but with a chocolatey crust and infused with coconut. Not too much of it in the ganache itself, but enough to give it a light, magical touch. Definitely try it at a mere $7, and a shara...