… and the Two Hungry Blokes are still rolling. If posts are appearing and disappearing, that’s because I’m giving this blog a complete makeover in a quiet time of early Sunday morning, trying to put in consistency in all the articles we’ve written in the past three years (wow, has it been that long now?). The system is being a pain by deciding a few posts from way back when are being posted today, deleting posts, and rolling back a few articles to an unedited state.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A Skinny on a Hula Theme. Da Kine Coffee Shop
1921 Quadra St
Victoria, B.C.
778-432-2229
E: After a short walk to find where Victoria’s newest street truck vendor is parked, James and I chanced upon Da Kine Coffee Shop, a relatively new operation. The building is a small house with a lot of personality.
Unfortunately, I could not say the same about its soup of the day, chicken and chickpea. For some odd reason, it tasted like one of my mom’s old country Chinese soup recipes. The taste was muddled with a lot of earthy plant like textures than that of chicken soup. Good or bad, the chicken and chickpea did live up to its name: the pea-soup taste was strong.
Fast Bites at La Crêperie Voilà
La Crêperie Voilà
707 Pike Pl.
Seattle, WA
(206) 447 – 2737
A word to the wise, most fast foods need to be eaten after it’s made than saved for later. At La Crêperie Voilà, they are made on the spot and the scents are a delight to tickle the taste buds. Although they ran out of the ratatoulie late at night, I certainly hope this place is well stocked during the day for those hungry crowds looking for a lunch-time bite. At the rate this place is able to churn out a product, the time between order to delivery is very good.
GT’s Kombucha for the silver-tongued?
Fermented tea? With a drink called Kombucha you betcha! And with a variety of brands sitting in many a health food store and Fairway Markets over a year now, I finally made the decision to try this concoction.
GT’s Synergy brand seems to be leading the crowd, and this carbonated drink is not for the weak of heart. Simply put, the drink is highly carbonated and sour. I tried to polish one bottle off over a few days, taking a sip each day, and I did not get that far.
No matter what the added flavour is, this particular style of a fermented drink is not for everyone. This brew is nothing like beer. Try as I might, I didn’t get used the bitterness of this drink at all. I can see the drink working as a mixer to help balance out the acridness, but as for the health claims, the evidence is not there. I’m better off brewing my own mixture of herbs, fungi and bark prescribed from a traditional Chinese medicine man to mend my ailments away.
Ironically enough, that’s where this drink comes from. The origins of this kombucha drink can be traced back to ancient China where it was considered a “remedy for immortality.” So if the drinker wants a short life, he should sip this liquid? That’s a twist.
Another tale tells of how a Korean physician, Dr. Kombu, gave it to a Japanese Emperor as a healing tonic. Seriously, I think this drink is a product of folklore and many a Wild West tale. If readers remember all those travelling physician carts purporting to carry cure-it-all medicines, I’m willing to bet that kombucha was one of them.
A Tale of Two Candy Stores
The Sweetest Things
4649 West Saanich Road
Saanich, B.C.
(250) 590-6619
Store Hours:
Mon – Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 4pm
Sweet Delights
#113 – 2187 Oak Bay Avenue
Oak Bay, B.C.
(778) 430-4906
Store hours:
Mon – Sat: 10am – 5:30pm
Sun 11am – 4pm
To be fair, The Sweetest Things and Sweet Delights are two other candy shops in Victoria, and they are distinguishable. The former is located in the district of Saanich and the latter Oak Bay. Although Delights have been around longer and Things are somewhat new, the areas they are located in are not really convenient for me to reach by car. Busing into either store is far easier than finding parking—especially when I consider a good part of residential Oak Bay to be riddled with maze-like streets.
The Cherry Bomb Sandwich is Really Thumpin’
The Pig BBQ Joint
1325 Blanshard Street,
Victoria, BC
(250) 590-5193
Cherry Bomb Toys
1410 Broad Street,
Victoria, BC
(250) 385-8697
Cherry Bomb Toys and The Pig BBQ Joint worked together to create a monstrous sandwich (aptly named the Cherry Bomb) that Godzilla can easily challenge. But for me, a simple Ed, I was not quite sure.
