I'm Only Here for the Food!

And here I go again, hitting the road (or a plane, in this case). Where? St. Louis, Missouri! And, as usual, my post of the meals I had while leaving Vancouver to my destination city and back.

I had to connect in Denver, so this picture is somewhere in-between…

My initial departure was 8:00 a.m., which meant being in Vancouver International Airport really early and, as a result, having breakfast there. Now, because I was not sure of how long it would take to go through US Customs and security check, I decided to have breakfast after that. Previously, I have been to Tim Horton’s and, this time, I rather went looking for something else. The problem? Almost everything was close at that time of the day. The other option I was able to locate… Burger King…

While I usually try not to go to fast food chains, when push comes to shove, oh, well… As for the food, I ordered their version of the breakfast sandwich, a croissan’wich with sausage, egg and cheese, which comes with, again, their version of hash browns. The sandwich was quite decent, though I think I still prefer Timmy’s. As for the hash brown, well, they were terrible. Completely bland and no condiments were able to salvage them.

After having my breakfast, I walked around a little bit (it took me less than expected to go through the usual procedure) and took this picture. If you ever come through the International gates, you will be welcomed by similar arrangement/decorations.

After that, with over an hour to go, I just decided to sit still and wait… And wait… And wait… Not sure how much you have heard about Vancouver’s weather (if you are not living here) but it can be summarized as temperate where, despite being farther north than a lot of cities, winters are quite mild. However, on the day I was flying, there was a freaky snowstorm. So, while we boarded on time, there was already a queue for the planes to de-ice and leave YVR. Unfortunately, I had a really tight connection in Denver (slightly over 30 minutes) and, as a result, I completely missed it. The next flight? 4 hours later. Ouch. Now, the story does not end there. We were already queued for the flight to St. Louis when… A problem was encountered in the plane and we had to wait. In the end, we had to wait 2 more hours, which meant I did not arrive to St. Louis until 9:30 p.m. It does not end there! I still had to drive 2 hours (to Jefferson City – my final destination)! Now, I mentioned previously I have to take Gravol but, fortunately, the effect was already worn off by then (I originally took it before the first boarding so it was already 5 hours). While I had something to eat at Denver (check tomorrow’s post), I couldn’t really stop to have a proper meal for dinner, specially because most people I talked to mentioned that drive could easily take 2 hours. I ended up grabbing something from a drive-through (a Jack in the Box – no pictures due to crappy lightning). At what time I got to the hotel? Past midnight… Good thing I was sleeping the whole time…

Picture taken just after leaving St. Louis – Lambert airport.

For the trip back, instead of going through Denver, the route was St. Louis -> Toronto (Pearson) -> Vancouver, which meant having lunch in Pearson. I have written about my meals in Pearson (check here and here) and, again, I was looking for something different, aside from Tim Horton’s (which, at this time, it is starting to look really good…). I walked to the other areas of the terminal and checked a restaurant called Exchange Cafe.

Initially, the menu did not look that bad, with items like pizza, sandwiches, fish and chips, and so on. I chose to start off with a clam chowder.

I won’t say it tasted bad; rather, I found it… Artificial? Instead of the smoothness of freshly made soups, I felt something grainy/powdery. Was I still under the influence of Gravol? OK, I will give it the benefit of doubt on this one. As for the main, I went for fish and chips.

Fish and chips – the fish being sole. It had a somewhat strong fishy smell (being overly suspicious here) which, obviously, raised some suspicion. The coleslaw was basic, though, it was vinegar-y, rather than creamy type. The fries were, well, generic, that nothing else ought to be mentioned about it.

As for the fish, even if I put that strong fishy smell aside, I felt there was a bit too much batter (not to mention, it looks suspiciously mass made, frozen, and sold as wholesale). Fortunately, the tartar sauce managed to salvage it. Had not been for it, I might as well, stopped eating after the second bite.

Overall, I was not disappointed. What? Let me try again. So far, almost all meals in airports have been crappy. Given all these failures, yet another one does not bother me anymore (specially considering these were being expensed). Instead, if I end up eating something decent in an airport…