Random thoughts of restaurants and food in Vancouver, BC!
From the category archives:
Last week in Vancouver, it was the Santa Claus Parade. I am not aware when the first one occurred and, when I was living in Downtown, I never paid attention to it. But, given the fe$tive environment right now, I thought I should check it. So, below, the good, the bad and the ugly of Santa Clause Parade 2009!
Yesterday, I wrote about my visit to New York City. Reality is, I am not that much into Broadway shows or similar activities that New York City is known of. Instead, me being a lone-wolf type person, I prefer to do activities of my own. And the “best” such activity in New York City? A visit to Central Park! Here is my photo essay of that visit.
Note: Click on the picture for a larger version.
As you should have noticed on last week’s posts, I was in New Jersey. How long? How about two weeks! So, during the weekend, I decided to, once again, make the best out of my trip: In this case, go to New York city, the Big Apple! Here is a photo essay of places I went. Please, sit down and enjoy the ride!
Following my visit to Van Dusen Botanical Garden (click here to check that post – will open in a new window), on the following weekend, I chose to go to another local park/garden. In this case, Queen Elizabeth Park. I must mention it was raining on the prior days and started to rain again an hour or so after I left the park so I was really fortunate I took advantage of that small window of opportunity. So, without further ado, enjoy this photo essay!
Note: For a larger version of the picture, just click on it – will open in a new window.
Note: Today, I have two post! This is the second one of two – the “other” one is called “Cooking Shows“.
In the last couple of days, the weather has gone sideways. Weather almost hit 0C/32F for a couple of days and we are not even winter yet! Likewise, it has been raining in the last couple of days! Now, rain as in actual rain, not that drizzle that seems to last forever. Anyway, in a small gap between those two wacky instances of Vancouver’s weather, I went to my favourite garden: Van Dusen Botanical Garden, which I have blogged previously – 2008 Festival of Lights, 2008 Festival of Lights Dancing Lights and pictures in spring. (On that note, I also visited Queen Elizabeth Park, my other favourite garden/park. Pictures coming next week!). So, enjoy this photo essay!
Note: For a larger version of the picture, just click on it – will open in a new window.
To those who have read this blog for some time, to those who know me, specially those whom I have broken the bread with, know I am quite adamant about attending open houses, receiving “freebies” and similar situations. It is because I am an average person who just happens to write a blog which tries to describe experiences average consumer would have. However, you can’t deny that, despite my public notes about what to expect from this blog, once in a while, people in charge of PR have tried to contact me (the most hilarous one being one from a local restaurant – which shall remain unnamed – asking me to wear my stilettos and attend an event). So far, I have chosen not to attended any events from places restaurants in Vancouver but, I was quite puzzled when I received this email:
Hi! I have a review offer for you from President’s Choice. President’s Choice is celebrating Canada’s culinary cultural mosaic
with 1000 Tastes of Canada.Would you like to sample some of these products? We’d like to send you:
- PC Indian Butter Chicken Cooking Sauce
- PC Blood Orange Italian Soda
- PC Tzatziki Yogurt Dressing
- PC Memories Of Mexico Fajita Cooking Sauce
- PC The Decadent Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- PC Barbeque Baby Back Ribs Rippled Potato Chips
I’ve also got a release, backgrounders and images I can send. You can also learn more at www.presidentschoice.ca.
Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll have the samples shipped to you. Thanks so much for your time!
Rather than say yes or no outright, I checked with some other local food bloggers because, while I had some thoughts, I wanted to hear their thoughts too. In general, they were quite enthusiastic about it. However, I still had to ask one question in mind:
Dear ************,
Thanks for your email.
I will safely assume you sent me the email because I write a food related blog. But, before I answer your question, can you, please, tell me the expectations from your side if I choose to accept the samples? I.e., Do you expect I will blog it after I have sampled them? Will I have an independent opinion of the products? Please advise.
Now, before anybody tells me I might be making up this email, let me assure you, others were BCCed on this email… And, here is the response I got:
I was looking through Vancouver-based blogs when I found I’m Only Here for the Food. I saw that you write about a diverse range of foods (as you said Vancouver has a wide variety of offerings), and thought this 1000 Tastes of Canada campaign would be perfect for you. We would like to send you the sample products and hear your honest opinion. If you hate the food and don’t want to post about it, that’s perfectly fine. If you hate the food and want to write about how much you hated it, that’s your right, also. You are not entering any kind of agreement with us by accepting these products for review.
I hope this answers your questions, but feel free to get back to me with any other concerns.
Let me translate that just in case: Although I received these free samples, I have total editorial control over this post. No $$$ was provided in exchange for writing this post. In fact, rather than me keeping them for myself, I had a really good idea (something echoed by the people I BCCed): Do a mini-gathering and cook with these products!
Note: For a larger version, please, click on the image – it will open in a new window.
Note 2: To readers outside of Canada, President’s Choice is a private label brand of Loblaws, who operates different supermarkets in Canada, the best known being Superstore and the recently purchased T&T.
