Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

My friend visiting from SFO very kindly and unexpectedly brought me a very thoughtful gift: Two condiments from TraderJoe's! As you may know, we simply don't have Trader Joe's in Canada, and no doubt she was thinking of my penchant for strange things. Maybe I haven't looked too carefully hereabouts, but I certainly dont recall these condiments on the supermarket shelves. Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend I do rather like " Everything Bagels " and so I do like this seasoning blend. That said, my experience of Everything Bagels is that the predominant flavour is tasty onion, and this blend has the same. Definitely try to keep this one airtight as the onion flakes are crispy, and combined with the sesame seed, provides a fun crunch. I'm not sure I'd try to use this just to make everything a Everything Bagel, but instead for the onion flavour. And that said, maybe it would be cheaper (but less colourful) to just look for a...

My friend re-visiting Vancouver after many years was reminded of Japadog so we stopped by the outlet at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet -- which you can skytrain to for free from YVR airport . Just get out on the correct side of the station. Otherwise you might be confused by the map inside the station. After some agonized selection (we figured we could only try two between the two of us), she settled on the Menchikatsu Dog and the not-shown-on-the-website Okonomi. Together they came to $22.24 after tax. It was interesting to get my friend's take on the Japadogs because she's Japanese. For starters, she recommended eating the Okonomi first, because she estimated it would have a subtler flavour than the Menchikatsu Dog. Okonomi Dog Inspired by the Japanese okonomiyaki pancake, what you think of this Japadog will probably depend on your idea of what an okonomiyaki should contain. If you start with a blank slate about this, then this Japadog will simply be special for having...

(UPDATED article:  Even easier and with less electricity! ) Like me, you probably make rice easily in the InstantPot : Throw in the rice, throw in the water, hit the "Rice" menu and come back when it's done. Easy, right? WRONG. Because afterwards you'll have to clean up that stainless steel base once you've scooped out all the rice. You can save yourself a bit of hassle by making soup and when it's done, scrape down the steamed-wet sides and deglaze the bottom of any rice stuck there. But you'll still have to rinse out the pot, etcetera etcetera. If you make a LOT of rice each time, that's great. But for my 8 quart InstantPot, even cooking four cups of raw rice seems like a waste -- and most especially as I'm a poor bachelor who eats one bowl at a time. What you actually want to do is make your rice in a bowl. Inside the stainless steel base of the InstantPot. (Slide 1) You can see I've put some water in the stainless steel base for steaming....

This Yelp Review of the Surrey City Central Walmart demonstrates just why you should never ever sign up for a Walmart Mastercard when offered to you by the cashier in the checkout aisle. You are already done with your shopping but they'll pressure you to buy even more. There are apparently various promotions for a first-time sign-up that you have to use right away, and you may not have the time to adjust your shopping cart to take advantage of it; or you just don't need anything at the moment that would add up to the required amount. You really want to just get the brochure and read it through first, especially if you really just care about the one-time sign-up promotions. Then you can properly understand the terms and conditions and ensure that you will indeed properly qualify. And since these are one-time promotions, it's not really important exactly when you sign up for the Walmart Mastercard, especially if your current credit card already has comparable or superior ben...