Too Hungry While At North Park Multicultural Festival

20220724_113628DK: Victoria, BC’s North Park Multicultural Festival is unique for a couple reasons: 

  1. Vendors aren’t charged any fees 
  2. It’s explicitly marketed as culturally diverse. 

Does this make the quarterly event wildly different from any of the other market-type events hosted throughout the CRD? I certainly hoped it would!

ES: I wasn’t aware of this event until Don told me, and I suspect it started up when health restrictions were lifted to allow for such gatherings. Out by my neck of the woods, Saanich, we also have a similar type of show but do I really want to go to Uptown Mall? 

Downtown is a better choice–North Park is west of the city core, and it’s a beautiful area with a handful of diners and other goodness to wander around in. 

With this event at Royal Athletic Park, it took up one side more than to use the baseball diamond field. All I can say is batter up! Don and I were there to see what was offered, and there were some interesting goods that I could’ve picked up, but I wanted to fill up instead. I didn’t have breakfast.

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Hot Dog Hu$tlin From The Causeway to Catering

20220612_110841Inner Harbour Causeway
790 Government St
Victoria, BC

Phone: (236) 838-4091
Hours: Thurs to Sun 11am to 5pm 

ES: Hot Dog Hu$tlin expanded their operations from Vancouver sometime ago and after talking to the owner/operator, he said they are often the competitors to Japadog. They were the talk of the town for the North Van. 

I’m glad they came to sell at Victoria’s First Annual Prawn and Fiddler Festival, as that was the scent that drew Don and me towards the cart when we patrolled the area before the official start of the event. It wasn’t just the scents of the bratwurst and the grill that had my spider sense tingling!

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Is it Too Fast and Furious with Finest at Sea’s First Annual Spot Prawn and Fiddle Fest?

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DK: If I were more prone to hyperbole, I would encourage Ed to title this post “Angry Protesters Clash With Security, Disrupt First Annual Spot Prawn and Fiddle Festival.”

But that is not the real story of this promising new event. True, three young protesters were escorted out of the park shortly after the festival started, but most people missed whatever their message was. My advice to young activists: make sure your banner is facing the crowd when you’re being whisked away.

Maybe next year we’ll all learn why listening to fiddle music while sucking down prawns and watching youth rugby makes us bad people. For now, however, blissful ignorance! The real story of this year’s event was a large crowd got the chance to enjoy some damn good BBQ spot prawns.

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ES: June 12th marked the end of the season for harvesting these sweet, lovely crustaceans, and I’m going to miss them. Technically, one can buy them in the freezer section, but there’s no denying when they’re from the ocean to the tanks to the grill, the taste difference is enormous!

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A New Ramen Player in Town, and It’s All Arashi

20220111_1426402950 Douglas St Unit 222
Victoria, BC

Hours: Tues to Sun 11:30am to 8:30pm
Phone: (778) 922-2950
Website: www.ramenarashivictoria.com

Sugoi! Victoria ni atarashī totemo oishii rāmen-ya ga arimasu yo. As for whether that’s grammatically correct, I think I got my statement right and insert a pun for good measure.

Ramen Arashi is a diner that opened over the holidays. I’ve been keeping tabs on when they’d open since they’ve been making noise mid last year on the social media front. They’re not competing in the busy downtown area, and I think they’re likely to carve a niche in Burnside. They’re located a few blocks south of Mayfair Mall and I’d visit this operation in a heartbeat. Their bone broth has a nice additional peppercorn flavour.

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When Cravings Are Tough to Satisfy at Cinnaholic

20211027_173335Cinnaholic
#102 – 535 Yates St
Victoria, BC 

Hours: Sun to Sat: 11:00 am to 9:00 pm
Menu: cinnaholicvictoria.ca
Phone: (778) 265-2564

ES: Don’s the real Cinnaholic between us, and when a operation (technically, it’s a franchise) opened up in town, we pondered when to sample their wares. They boast freshly made cinnamon rolls which can be decked out anyway you want. I counted more than a dozen possibilities, and all I can say is wunderbar! Or should that be cinnabar? Okay, so the joke doesn’t work….

It’s often cold and wet in Victoria these days. To nibble on anything warm is required when out on the town late at night.

DK: Cinnamon buns are like cars, as soon as you drive them off the lot they start to lose value. A bun can be a 10/10 fresh out of the oven, but a 3/10 by midday. Also if you park a cinnamon bun in a bad neighbourhood you want to make sure not to leave any change lying around in the frosting.

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Updates on Esquimalt’s Ribfest 2021

Free admission, live music and kid's activities. Ribs and craft beer

Bullen Park
527 Fraser Street

September 10th to 12th

Admission: Free

Esquimalt’s Ribfest is on this year, and it’s following in the heels of British Columbia’s rollout of the vaccine passport. There won’t be any gatekeeper checks. But for anyone people concerned about catching that virus are best advised not to attend (entrepeneurs would make a killing through Uber Eats or Door Dash should this suddenly pop up), but for those craving the best pork/beef ribs (and chicken too) that House of Q, Prairie Smoke, Gator, Grizzy, and Boss Hog are cooking up–nothing’s gonna smoke ’em out now. The operative word should be stop, but will Two Hungry Blokes be there?

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