Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

If you haven't signed up for Royalty rewards with Red Robin you really should. I just got another free birthday burger! Still feeling meat-guilty I went with their vegetarian Garden Burger although our server told me I could get any burger--which is actually not correct because their line of "Finest" burgers is actually not part of the promotion. These burgers use the special Angus beef patties and are have a special theme. Plus they among the priciest burgers. Garden Burger ($10.99) An amazingly delicious blend of vegetables, grains, and spices with a touch of cheese, topped with tomatoes, fresh lettice, pickles and Country Dijon sauce on our whole wheat bun. The patty here is a bit on the thinner side but taste is not bad. Otherwise burger construction is very basic. TIP: Immediately remove the pickles hiding underneath the patty unless all you  want to taste is pickle. Where this burger gets more than merely a passing grade is the bottomless fries. With t...

So my bill at El Santo was almost $30 after tax and tip, for one main and one non-alcoholic beverage. What you can definitely expect from El Santo is Vancouver fine-dining prices. Fortunately, you can also expect pretty interesting flavours in their Mexican fare. TIP: Larger groups can be put in a private room at the back that can easily seat 14 with OK spacing between diners. Enchiladas Flor de Jamaica ($18) Hibiscus flowers, jicama, carrot & cabbage, fire roasted tomato chipotle sauce, Oaxaca cheese & green rice I can't really rate this properly because it tasted way too much like my mom's spring rolls. She uses a lot of jicama, and that for me was the predominant flavour here. Lots of cheese but it hardened way too quickly to be fun. Not sure how that can be avoided, however. Green rice (possibly just rice with green herbs, such as cilantro) was al dente and had a firm, coarse texture in the mouth. Interesting for not being your normal tender rice. The...

Sad news -- July-30th will be the last day for the Hamilton Street. Your last chance to get their famous Gingerbread Pudding. Thank you for Steak Month every June . All the best to the captain and crew.

Here's why evevyone should download PressReader today: Hotspots. PressReader HotSpots are WiFi locations that let you download newspapers off PressReader for FREE. And they are as common and common sense as your local library, for instance. The nearest one to me is the Burnaby Public Library Metrotown branch, and just to test it out, I downloaded today's Financial Post: There's obviously more than the Financial Post, of course (there's over 5000 newspapers and magazines, in over 60 languages, from 100 countries). Whatever your culture you are likely able to find something relevant to you. Handy if the library doesn't normally carry it or if someone is hogging the only copy. You can squint at the newspaper off your smartphone if you like, but there are other options. Keep reading... Press and hold on the article and you get a pop-up with various options, including to have the article read to you. Newsprint too squinty even on the the real hardcopy n...

A fun little gadget you can get for your kitchen (or anywhere you don't mind having a couple of potatoes sitting around) is a Potato Clock. Now, obviously, before you buy any clock, you would want to know whether it's accurate. Yes it is. The potato doesn't determine the accuracy, the electronics do. The potatoes just supply the power. And they can last a long time! A science experiment clock using potatoes of 1 pound each apparently lasted a whopping 561 hours , or over 3 weeks. And I'm assuming those are raw potatoes because if you boil them, they can apparently last around 10 times as long . This miracle battery from Jerusalem can be shipped to your home for less than $10, but if you are too cheap to buy that and don't mind some MacGyver -ing you can make your own potato clock . You obviously need a small clock -- one that runs on small batteries.

You can get coupons for LUVO here. Before I get to my review of two LUVO frozen entrees, I need to start with the disclosure that I'm an investor in LUVO -- all the way from a few years ago when they were just raising capital in Canada to launch the idea. Now they are all over the US, and you can even buy bulk packs of LUVO online from Amazon (shipping to US addresses). They launched last year in Canada at classy supermarkets (Whole Foods!) for the health-conscious demographic, and LUVO is even more widely distributed now in stores like Urban Fare, IGA, and even Superstore . I chose to get it from Whole Foods at Cambie and 8th because it was close to where my friend and co-eater in this investigation lived. Each pack was $7.99, and you can save $0.10 off your transaction if you bring your own bag (or you can donate it to charity (probably one of theirs, like the Whole Planet Foundation or what not) -- they ask at the till and handle it for you). Clearly if you buy thing...

Got back from Whole Foods at Cambie and 8th  where I had "dinner" -- that is, my friend put together a dinner plate from their $2.49/100g hot food selection while I looked for something more interesting... and found it! In the cold salad deli area, there were the these Quinoa Sweet Potato Cakes that wer colourful and fun-looking, and turned out really decent. It's got tons of ingredients including the intriguing wehani rice  (which flavour and aroma was, to be honest, probably completely hidden by the medley of other ingredients) and use of yam and dried cranberries to make this an actually rather sweet rice ball. Came salad-chilled from the refridgerated counter, and was moist. May have been better hot, but it was definitely fine the way it was. Also tried was a Spinach Pakora, which was terribly lacklustre. This is definitely the sort of thing you need to eat not only hot, but freshly fried. Wait too long or let it sit and the flavour experience is just ted...

Just back from Whole Foods at Cambie and 8th with this really fantastic find: G.H. Cretors  Blueberry Lemon Caramel Corn, apparently a limited-time flavour. Basically it's caramel corn, but with wat looks like chunks of dried blueberry and tiny bits lemon. I didn't inspect every single kernel but it does look like you get a piece of blueberry pasted on every one. Taste is mostly fruity sweet (but not so reach-for-water sweet like caramel corn often is) with mild lemony tang -- not enough to overpower the other flavours, but with the word "Lemon" in the description, you may therefore find it a bit tame. A very welcome change from most seasoned popcorn, which is either too caramel-sweet or savoury flavours.

My first experience of queso fundido was at Telus Garden, where I really thought they did a great job of it. I spotted the dish again tonight at The Mexican Antojitos Y Cantina , where you have two options: with chorizo (the traditional way) or mushrooms (the veggie option; doesn't cost any less). Queso Fundido ($11)  Flame-melted cheese mixed with your choice of mushroom or homemade chorizo, corn tortillas and pico de gallo . It's an appetizer so portion is smallish. Salty cheese. And only three (?) tacos so be generous with the cheese. Cools quite quickly but doesn't harden for a while. Still, it's not tasty when it's not hot so don't dilly dally! Definitely use the salsa (pico de gallo) provided as it helps to offset the heaviness that comes with basically eating a whole lot of cheese. Overall it's pretty tasty in a salty-tasty sort of way, and if you like stringy cheese it's fun. BUT -- and I can't believe I'm saying t...

Love KFC? I don't actually crave it, but to be perfectly honest, the original recipe does taste pretty good (yeah, whatevs, go gag elsewhere all you chicken-haters!). Apparently some people really can't get enough of it and have copycat recipes! Here's one from Food.com, by " The Spice Guru " who claims to have reverse engineered the product -- even down to using specific brands of spices! And unfortunately he insists on using all-caps for parts of his recipe, so here it is in a more legible way: Notes: For authentic results, prepare recipe exactly as directed. MSG (accent seasoning) is in the actual original recipe, but may be omitted if necessary. Egg white powder is sold in health food stores. You may substitute egg white powder with cornstarch. Finely grind required herbs and spices separately in a clean spice mill or coffee grinder. Use a pepper mill to medium-grind tellicherry peppercorns. I recommend McCormick brand tellicherry black pepper an...