Today is the 50th birthday of the Poutine. Celebrate by having one today, and knocking a few months off your life expectancy! Cheese curds are on sale at SuperStore this week, $2.99 for a package… I’ve got mine!!
This year’s Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo is finally starting to come together. We spent this weekend rehearsing the opening sequence and the “A Night at the Opera” sequence, definitely having more success with the former than with the latter (in my eyes). I’m sure we’ll have it all figured out by showtime. I’m trying to shoot some video of some of the sequences, and I’ll put it up when I get the chance (I do feel a little self-conscious with my camera on stage, though…).
Also, since they wanted us there for THE ENTIRE WEEKEND, the Tattoo was nice enough to give the choir $9 meal vouchers for both Saturday and Sunday. Our dining experiences on these nights differed vastly. Saturday brought us to the Candy Apple (where the Apple Barrel used to be). Their niche is “breakfast-cereal based dishes” (very odd, indeed; certainly catering to the late-night, messed up on mushrooms crowd), but they had a little “Tattoo menu” (where our vouchers would pay for an entire “meal”). We were unanimously underwhelmed: the Chicken Fettuccine (which I had) was bland and dry, and the fellow with us who ate the fish and chips only had two bites of it, only to become considerably ill later on in the evening. Sunday, we went to the Alehouse. Ever since having a Philly Beef Dip over at Rogue’s Roost, I’ve been trying to find one somewhere in town that was as good, and had not been successful, until last night at the Alehouse: a greasy baguette covered in beef, cheese, peppers, cheese, mushrooms, onions, grease, and more cheese for good measure. We had a great time at the Alehouse, even though we thoroughly confused our server by chatting with her while she was taking our orders, leading to profuse apologies (on her part) after she messed up several orders (in her defense, there were 10 of us at the table). I will go there again. Candy Apple, not so likely.
Bad pun of the show (so far):
Me (relating a headline I’d seen on fark.com): “Did you hear about this guy who attacked a bear with a log? (I didn’t know bears were arming themselves with logs these days)”
Art Finbow (going for the math pun): “Was it a base-10 log?”
Me: “No, it was a natural log.”
Mom and Melissa went to KFC last week, and they had no chicken!
“Not much of a chicken joint then, is it?”
Last night we went to dinner at Cheelin’s Restaurant in the Brewery Market with Dan and his girlfriend Carla. They’d never been there I think, and in the end we all enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Afterwards we journeyed up to Syn on Blower’s Street.
For those out of the know, Syn used to be a restaurant called La Cave, which was famous for its atmosphere (it’s in an old basement, complete with old stone walls and candles and the like. Very Old-World, European I find) as well as its cheesecake. A few months ago, La Cave moved to a larger location on Spring Garden Rd., right beside the DQ. However, what many people don’t know is that apparently this move happened in the night, without telling any of the former employees. In any event, La Cave obviously must not have realized that much of its appeal was in the charm of the location, and as a result it’s apparently not there anymore (good cheesecake can only take you so far, I guess).
So now we have Syn, which is trying very hard to be what La Cave was. In most ways, it succeeds: the atmosphere (visually) is spot on, and the cheesecake selection is quite varied (although I don’t think their cheesecakes were quite as good/rich as La Cave’s were, they were still quite nice). It was weird that they were playing techno music when we got there because it did NOT fit with the atmosphere. They soon rectified that with some jazzy offerings, but that should have been playing in the first place.
All in all, a good night out. Syn is still a nice place to chill, either as a couple or as a slightly larger group (8 max, I’d say, given the coziness of the booths), and their dessert menu has something for everyone, as long as you’re into cheesecake. 
On the way home from Nanny’s funeral the other day (which was a very emotional and touching experience, particularly the procession from the funeral home to the church, because we all walked behind the hearse. The entire family that could make it (which was most of it). There were at least 100 of us), we stopped at the Big Stop in Aulac for supper. For some reason I seem to recall having made a decision that we wouldn’t eat there anymore, but I guess I forgot.
We get there, and since the restaurant was virtually empty, we are attended to almost immediately. We place our order, for some food and for a couple of drinks, including a hot chocolate for Jackie. Our drinks come, but no hot chocolate… Hmm… When reminded about the hot chocolate, she said, “It’ll be just another minute,” at which point we saw another guy start making it once she told him. An emerging theme, methinks?
All of a sudden, a freakin’ bus tour shows up and fills the joint! Did our waitress stop by to let us know that she hadn’t forgotten about us, that she might be a bit bogged down due to the crowd? No. Did she come check on us during our meal? No. Did we get a free refill of our pop? No. Did she get a tip? Take a guess.
Sure, we probably shouldn’t have spent the entire meal complaining (quite loudly) about the “service” there… It’s not OUR fault that a bus tour showed up, we’re no lesser customers than they were, so we should have at least expected some degree of attention! Jackie was a waitress once, and she understands what these people have to go through and is usually supportive of wait staff, but she had no sympathy for our waitress whatsoever because it only takes 2 seconds to stop by to see how a patron is doing.
And how are we doing? Well, as far as I’m concerned, the people at the Big Stop in Aulac will never know again.
There’s nothing like a meal at Burger King to restore one’s faith in fast food. Long Live the King!
While at the mall today, we got a craving for milkshakes or something cold, so we foolishly went to DQ for Blizzards. Remember when Blizzards came out, you could hold them upside down and it wouldn’t make a mess? Not anymore. These were the sickest looking Blizzards we’d ever seen. And for $4 each? I think we’d have fared better had we gone to Cinnabon.
Mmmm… Cinnabon…
We went to DQ for lunch today and we tried the new GrillBurger. Our verdict:
BLEAGH!
While the burgers themselves were quite taste and grilled, the bread just didn’t cut it, and the condiments were horrible!! Melissa had a “nasty-ass” Mushroom Swiss burger, which consisted of the following:
Mine was the Bacon Cheddar burger, that looked so sick I wanted to bring it to the ICU for some treatment. The cheese on it made process cheese slices look like Black Diamond cheddar.
To top it all off, they screwed up our pop orders! During my undergrad, I was at DQ a lot. I loved their Ultimate burgers. They were beautiful, wonderful, magical things. Obviously, times have changed. No more DQ for us, thank you!! As much as I love their commercials, there are some things I just can’t forgive.
There was a piece on Canada AM this morning about how there is an apparent link between barbecueing and cancer. While this is apparently old news, it’s still a bit of a bummer for someone like me who loves to fire up the grill and throw a few burgers and steaks on it, and who loves nothing better than a good flare up from time to time.
The meat (heh) of this research is that barbecued food is really only bad for you when it’s charred, that steaks and such should only be cooked until they’re medium/medium rare, to minimize the formation of these “heterocyclic amines”, which are apparently carcinogenic. So much for my harping on smokers, pass the A1 please. Of course, hamburgers present you with another dilemma, being that they should be cooked straight through to kill all bacteria (steak bacteria exists primarily on the surface).
So what’s a BBQ freak to do? Well, for starters, cook on low heat for longer (rather than charring), which is what we’ve been doing lately, mainly because it makes for better, juicier food. We should probably also replace our lava rocks because of all the gunky buildup of fat and cheese on them, which usually cause flareups as soon as you light the sucker. We might also want to start BBQing healthier, maybe some salmon steaks, or perhaps some veggie-kabobs. Of course, if you’re gonna go kabbobing, I believe there’s an unwritten law that states Bacon-Wrapped-Scallops have to be involved.
Mmm… Bacon.
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It appears as though the good people at Kraft have decided to put a “Healthy Living” panel on their boxes of KD. This method of preparation is probably meant to make KD a little better for us.
Let’s see here… Water, check… A little less margarine, and non-hydrogenated at that… Skim milk… But we use more skim mikl than we used regular milk. Ok, so I give up: what really makes it healthier? Well, there is one thing missing from the Healthy Living directions that is in the Classic directions… THE FREAKIN’ CHEESE SAUCE MIX! That, my friends, is what you might call “sacrilege”. Call it what you will, it’s DEFINITELY not Kraft Dinner. This is effectively noodles and milk. I think if you’re looking for a “healthier choice” of food, then you should probably leave the Kraft Dinner on the shelf and walk away slowly. |
A year or two ago, my brother introduced me to the Ultimate in Snack Cake goodness: the Hop & Go. These little monsters can only be found at Sobeys (I’ve yet to see them at Superstore), and come in several flavours, but most of them are unimpressive.
Except, of course, for the Hop & Go Chocolate Chunk Homestyle Bar. These things absolutely rule the universe of chocolatey snacky cake goodness, all the while maintaining a semblance of healthy, being chock full of a more cakey-muffiny-granola-y substance (I’m not going to compare Hop & Go to the 1/2 Moon, Jos. Louis, or Ah Caramel! cakes, because these guys are in a different class, the bad-ass “We’re not good for you at ALL, and we know it” class). I almost always buy them when I’m at Sobeys, mainly beacuse they’re not always on the shelf, and I consider them a treat, nay, a delicacy.
So I’m at Sobeys last night, and what do I see on the Hop & Go shelf?
Hop & Go Apple & Cinnamon Homestyle Bars.
Oh. My. Shit.
Many of you may already be aware of my affliction with all things apple and cinnamon. Couple this with the marvel that is Hop & Go and we have a match made in snacky cake heaven! I am inspired: time for a Haiku!
Snacky cake from God,
Sweet apple and cinnamon,
A delightful treat!
So, next time you’re in the Vachon section of your local Sobeys, do your tastebuds a favour and buy some Hop & Go’s (Chocolate Chunk or Apple & Cinnamon; I won’t vouch for the other flavours). You’ll thank me!
Man, this post sounds like an advertisement. I hope the Vachon people send me some free Hop & Go’s. That’d be awesome.
We fired up the BBQ for round 2 tonight. This time, it was burgers, with a whole bunch of stuff in them. We usually throw green peppers, onions, and mushrooms in the burgers (not on), along with some breadcrumbs, an egg, and some Worchestershire Sauce, and probably some Mrs. Dash. Put that along side some BBQ’d potato slices and a garden salad, and you’d think it was freakin’ July.
Tonight, though, on a whim, Melissa decided that instead of breadcrumbs, she’d add a bunch of bran. That way there’d be fewer carbs (not that I care about carbs), and it might actually be good for us. In the end, while the burgers were quite delectable, we’ll see the true impact of her secret ingredient in the coming days.
After a quick trip to Costco for refuelling, BBQ season has officially begun! Our first victim treat is a couple of steaks, nothing fancy, of course, but we look forward to an exciting summer of all sorts of things burnt to a crips (and maybe even a few things cooked to perfection). Bon appétit!
The other day Melissa bought some Lipton’s “Light” Chicken Noodle Soup. 30% Less Salt, they claimed. We had it for lunch today. Of course, when she popped open the box and looked at the packet, this is what she saw:
No, it’s not that it was already open. This is the exact packet of soup that we ate for lunch. Well, we didn’t actually eat the PACKET, we ate the soup inside, mixed with some boiling water. But I digress.
If you know anything about the reguar CNS, you’d know that it requires 4 cups of boiling water, and not 3. So, let’s do the math:
30% Less Salt
- 25% Less Soup
============
A Shitty Deal
The Marketing Geniuses really struck gold with this one! Obviously there’s less salt in the package: there’s less soup! (of course they could have reduced the “soup amount” all around, but then this wouldn’t be as funny) The worst part about this is that it’s more expensive to buy the less-salt soup.
Well, it’s finally snowing in Halifax. And much earlier than usual, too… Last winter, we didn’t get decent snow until after Christmas, and here we are in November getting pounded. We were out at Costco yesterday, and on the way home we saw a stupid cab driver do a 360° spin going down Parkland Ave. I’ll definitely have to put my winter tires on this weekend.
Friday night we went to Owen’s place for a party. It was a good time. Owen made Lissa a “mystery drink” (just a bunch of rum and some Coke), which had her feelin’ “tipsy”. Pat and Charlie’s girlfriend Jen disappeared for a good while for some reason or other (who knows? all’s we know is that both were praying to Beulah by the end of the night). I was hoping to come back here and find Lissa’s old picture of Pat wearing her bra, with the intent of scanning it and posting it here, but alas, we can’t find the thing. When we do, it’s going up.
The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. Watched some movies (Barbershop 2 — not too bad — and Attack of the Clones), shovelled some snow, played lots of cribbage, and we made some shortbread cookies, the process of which was painstakingly documented in the form of a bunch of pictures on our digital camera. Which I will post here, for the benefit of all mankind.
I should have brought the camera to the party the other night. Not that anything “picture-worthy” went down, but interesting things always happen when you put a camera in a drunk person’s face.