Tag Archives: British Columbia

12.16.17
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Updates on Capital City Comic Con

capital_city_comicon_event.jpgThe groups behind organizing Capital City Comic Con is confident folks far and wide will come to the Garden city of British Columbia to get their geek on. It takes place at the Victoria Convention Center and Crystal Garden on March 16-18th, 2018 and passes are on sale through Ticket Rocket.

Cherry Bomb Toys, The Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) and Tourism Victoria are not resting over the holidays. Announced Friday morning is Patrick Warburton. He’s done many cartoon voices like Kronk in The Emperor’s New Groove and played The Tick (2001) and the narrator, Lemony Snicket in Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. To hear him talk about his career will be fascinating. Most will remember him from Senfield but how many people will remember him in Quantum Leap?

Guests announced in previous month include Graham McTavish (Aquaman movie, Preacher) and James Marsters (Buffy). Both are great draws for those people who love their works. More names will be revealed in the coming months, and the plan is to make the star around this city brighter. It is known for Nerd Row where the corner of Broad and Johnson has a high concentration of shops to buy goodies from and the municipality of Oak Bay is recognized as where Gracepoint was filmed. On other parts of Vancouver Island, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla came to town and so did parts of the western beachscape became the battlefront for War for the Planet of the Apes.

Biago Woodward is one of the convention producers. He said he would love to get more people from Hollywood to take notice in everything this city, if not the entire island, can offer. It’s been used in many a cheery Hallmark movie like A Heavenly Christmas and independent production like Nick Simon’s masterful horror flick The Girl in the Photographs. Disney and Fox sent a crew to this island to make use of Hatley Castle to film Descendants (both movies) and X-Men 2. Deadpool knocked at the door of this historic building to find Professor Xavier. Only time will tell when the second movie comes out if he answered it or not.

“This city has its own tastes, its own feel … we’re going to do what’s best for the city to highlight the tourism and what the downtown core offers,” revealed Woodward.

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11.29.17
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The Sandwich Nazi Reigns Again … on VOD!

viff2015sandwichnaziLa Charcuterie
19080-96th Avenue Unit 8
Surrey BC V4N 3R3
(604) 882-0881

While everyone loves to have a good sandwich, not every body visits the same place to have it made … and hear the life story of the shop owner at the same time. The Sandwich Nazi made waves last year at the film festivals. As I wrote in my review of the film, “A trip to the industrial neighbourhood of Port Kells in Surrey, BC is needed to experience ’s capricious if not salacious behaviour in The Sandwich Nazi. Yes, the allusions to Seinfeld are there, and if the two had to be compared, Kahil is funnier.”

Filmmaker Lewis Bennett said in an interview on otakunoculture.com about how he loves how juvenile humour can play out on screen (i.e. when the cameras are rolling). “I’ve been drawn to people like Salam since I was in kindergarten. He kept making us laugh so we wanted to spend more time with him. The project started with a short documentary and as we were making that film we felt that there was a whole lot more to his story so we expanded it into a feature,” revealed Bennett.

I thought about visiting this operation on my last recent trip over to the Lower Mainland since I was there with a friend driving us around, but alas … it was on a day when the shop was not open. Fortunately, for those people who have not seen this funny, serious and somber documentary, it is now available on iTunes and Google Play. Additional services include Vimeo on Demand, Amazon Instant Video, and Microsoft Video.

To stay abreast with other releases, including a physical home video release (let’s hope there will be outtakes!), please visit them on:

Twitter @TheSandwichNazi
Facebook @NoSandwichForYou

09.27.17
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James’ Last Dance at Han’s Korean Restaurant

IMG_20170319_181938947Han’s Korean Restaurant
615 Johnson St
Victoria, BC
Phone: (778) 265-1760

E: Sadly, the diner Skinnytato closed operations around late Summer of last year, and in its place, the diner went from Polish to Korean. Will I miss it? Not necessarily. Some mom and pop operations can only last as long as it is profitable or the owner/operators wish to keep their business going. Another possible reason is that the people behind Skinnytato decided to retire. I did not investigate to know for sure, but with what James is about to officially announce, all I can do is sigh. He is getting old too.

J: After seven years, I’ll be packing it up and moving on. Also, I am disheartened to see many of the restaurants we have reviewed close up shop. It didn’t matter if a restaurant was good or bad; sometimes Victoria is a tough place to run a place that serves food. We just don’t have the customer base a big city like Vancouver has. Victoria is a little more cut throat.

E: In other words, he’s burnt out (as a mutual friend pointed out). The many labours he has to do at his day job(s) and responsibilities to his family show his mind is elsewhere these days. He’s no Hercules. I’m finding he is not willing to put in the effort into any idea he has or we have come up for this site anymore. He was ambitious and industrious once, but it’s all gone. We were going to pen an article on a variety of novelty sodas we discovered at the Lilly Gobble Sweet Shop early Summer, but even that is constantly getting put off by him than me. I’m willing to bet he wants that article idea to fizzle.

I firmly believe he is making a big mistake by walking away from what we spent many years shaping as this blog’s identity. He does not care and shrugs off everything I suggest to him. Two Hungry Blokes is not ending. I plan on carrying on.

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07.12.17
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Get Your Nom Noms with The Cookie Guy

IMG_19261122 Blanshard St
Victoria, BC
Phone: (778) 430-4444

Not too many dessert type shops exist in Downtown Victoria proper. While plenty of chocolatiers are sprinkled around the touristy areas, namely Roger’s, Oh Sugar and Empire Doughnuts, these companies fills a gap.  There’s other operations I’ve walked by, but am I being picky? I’ve often wondered if other delectable confectioneries will set up shop to sate my sweet tooth.

The Cookie Guy fills in a much needed gap which certainly satisfies my inner cookie monster when that craving comes. Best of all, they make them just like grandma! Even better, they are warm, soft and oh so gooey. Their turnaround is very fast since it is all baked in-store; Honestly, you can not get any fresher than this!

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06.28.17
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2017 Feast Food+Film – Creole & Chinese Delights

FEAST-Logo-design-website-4-02

Feast Food+Film is a three-day movie festival in Victoria, BC taking place in mid-June I generally do not miss. Some years are better than others in terms of how many movies I can see (tickets are $25 each). Sadly, James is losing interest in going to anything culinary and is very frugal these days. Also, at least for me, when a few of the movies / documentaries are quickly getting offered on VOD or Streaming services to view, my decision over what to see on a big screen is getting difficult. I want to save money too, but I’ll be missing getting to enjoy the tapa-sized tasters are offered at these events.

I did not have to view Cook Up the Storm, but a little voice in my head said go see it.

The organizers at the Victoria Film Festival never fail to tickle my taste-buds. I really enjoyed Bugs on the Menu from last year, and while nothing as exotic was offered this year, I had a well-made documentary in Commanding the Table to give me a quick history lesson on creole food. I love this style of cuisine and will go out of my way for it. To learn more about one of the early pioneers behind raising the bar on this style of cooking was engaging.

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05.31.17
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The Songhees Have a Beat at Victoria Clipper

this-is-canadas-first-aboriginal-food-truckSonghees Seafood & Steam
Victoria Clipper Terminal
254 Belleville St
Victoria, BC

Visitors arriving at Victoria, BC via The Clipper will be in for a treat! Not only are they arriving in a city originally occupied by this First Nation, but also they have an opportunity to partake in this culture’s yummy in my tummy traditions. From fried bread (I love this over Naan) to salmon, their selection is delectable. Their homemade jam (usually made from blackberries) makes for a perfect dip with the bread they offer. At the end of the day, they may give away the leftover supply so a fresh batch can be made for the next. For this dough, it’s best experienced warm than cold. With my extra piece which I could not finish, I got to try both extremes.

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In what this place supplies is basically comfort food. You’ll find french fries too (I don’t believe this is a cultural product, but that’s okay), and I had their version of poutine and it was very filling. The fries were very good, and the paprika mayo dipping sauce certainly helped make this dish over the top!

Next time, though, I will have to try one of their burger combinations. There’s the choice between salmon and portabella as the main source of protein, and both sound good. My money is on the latter on my next visit. As much as I love bison, I find it hard to believe that some of these creatures roamed to this land during the last Ice Age to settle here. They may have but I find prairie type of oxen better tasting!

3½ Blokes out of 5