Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

My mom likes snacks and popcorn so for Mother's Day I got her a selection of Pop Art popcorn available from the natural foods aisle at Real Canadian Superstore. Just under $5 per pack and sadly lacklustre especially for the price. The Sweet & Salty Sparkles had light sweetness, barely any saltiness, and you have to look quite closely for the predominantly blue sparkles. I'd recommend just buying some caramel popcorn instead. The Cheddar Jalapeno with Avocado Oil  had a mild creeping heat from the jalapeno but otherwise tasted like bland unflavored popcorn. I suppose if you paid close attention you might get a bit of cheddar flavor. 2025-May-15 UPDATE: I also got to try  Rosemary Truffle with Olive Oil . If you smell a bowl of it there's mild olive oil aroma but the taste was predominantly rosemary although this seemed to be inconsistent if you eat a little at a time instead of large handfuls. In both aroma and taste, truffle flavor did not come through.

I honestly don't think I've ever been to a Denny's , which seems odd because it's Canadian Owned and Operated since 1992. Maybe I just had the image it was a boring place for seniors (and they do have Thursday discounts for age 55+ seniors). First things first: ASK ABOUT THE SPECIALS. I honestly don't recall our servers mentioning the current burger offer (apparently ends late May) of buy-one-get-one-at-half-price, even when my friend ordered a burger. I only chanced to find out when the promotion screen at our table (which includes a smartphone charger) flipped to the offer. And it took a too-long time to show that offer. By then we had already put in our orders and it was too late to change. Really temped to outright fail them for this.    Dessert menu looked really overpriced and lame. Many of the menu items look great in photos but are pretty boring. That said, the items we got were mostly nicely prepared. Bourbon Bacon Burger ($19.59) My friend's order. ...

Yesterday I reviewed Sprague Cannery's Minestrone Soup . If you haven't heard of  Sprague Cannery , they are a Canadian company making soups in Canada and extremely worried by Trump's tariffs: 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 If you're trying to buy Canadian during these uncertain times, you can use the store locater  to find Sprague's products. You'll want to look carefully at which stores are listed because only some stores of a chain will have them (e.g., not every Save-on-Foods, just some of them). Sprague Cannery's soups are also a "premium product", loaded with limitations such as Plant Based, No Preservatives, Gluten Free, and  BPA -F...

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...