Bruce Cost

Bruce Cost Ginger Ale Unfiltered Original

Saw this at Loblaws for $2-something. It's delicious! The ginger flavour is strong, yet it is still pretty sweet. That fresh ginger taste is what makes this drink awesome. You can see the ginger bits in the settled drink - be sure to invert before opening. 

The ingredients are simple: carbonated water, pure cane sugar, 100% fresh ginger, and citric acid. And really, that's all it needs. 

Would I buy this again? I already have, heh. It's the best tasting ginger ale I've ever had.

Loblaws

Loblaws (60 Carlton Street, Toronto)

When they turned Maple Leaf Gardens into a giant Loblaws, I was really excited. We couldn't make it to the opening day, but Monique and I managed to find a day to visit. And we were glad we did!

The first thing we see: CUPCAKES!

Many kinds, different sizes. The display looks lovely.

 There's sushi, there's hot food, there's soups and sandwiches. Monique got chicken and sides and the chicken didn't look dry one bit. She was happy with it.

 In case you don't know where things are, there are giant signs. DELI!

There are plates of samples on top of the display. 

There are definitely some T&T elements in this Loblaws.

This thing scared the crap out of me, as it made gun sounds while shooting out those flat snacks.

The cheese selection looks extensive.

The block of carved chocolate looks kind of cool... but I thought it was going to be giant.

Uptairs, there's some tables, a cooking school,  Joe Fresh, and one more thing...

LCBO! Loblaws + LCBO = magic. I wish I could live there.

The LCBO had Korbel! 

But I picked up a bottle of this instead.

There wasn't regular Sir Perry, but there was Sir Perry Berry. 

We had to go back and get some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting infusion (approximately $3.50 each).

That was a lot of cream cheese. I felt like there was 1/2 a pack of Philadelphia in there. The flavour was good, but the cake could have been softer. I'd get it again. It would satisfy my random cake cravings.

Would I return?
Yes. That cooked chicken looked really good. Free samples and nice staff are right around the corner. There were cheese samples, cold cut samples, cake samples, cracker and spread samples, Chinese cookie samples, and bread samples... and we didn't even go into the grocery section yet. The LCBO upstairs had a good selection of stuff I want.

Galleria

Galleria (7040 Yonge Street, Thornhill, Ontario)

905-882-0040

Hours: 24 hours daily

The MSG crackers are back (in my life)!

This brand seems to add more spices or something to the rice crackers that sets it apart from the others. I can see how someone might be turned off by the extra flavour, but I love it. If I think "fish sauce", it sort of tastes like that. They're very addictive, and I managed to finish a whole bag (with a bit of help) in one go.

Renée spotted some milk tea drinks on sale (3 for $1.98). 

She's pretty good at discovering new drinks. I liked it! They tasted like legit milk tea, and not too sweet. I haven't tried the green one yet. It should be noted that they're on sale because they expire within the next month. The green ones will last until October, but the brown ones are best before September something.

Walnut-shaped pastries filled with red bean (2 boxes for $5).

Mel said she wouldn't be able to finish two boxes, and generously gave one to me. Yay! :D

They're jam packed with red bean paste. I like the cool walnut shape too. 

Would I return? Yes. Not sure if it's because the stuff I buy at Galleria is more exciting than at a normal grocery store so that when I get to the checkout, the sheer joy is in my face and the cashier only mirrors that, or if the staff there really are just more polite, friendly, and approachable - regardless of what language they're speaking to me in. For the past two times that I've been there, I haven't come across the apathetic, bored/annoyed-looking cashiers that I see at other places. This time, I was greeted properly (even if it was in Korean - that's okay), and the cashier even smiled a seemingly genuine smile. It's like whoa. On my previous visit, I was even handed back change with two hands. (I'm still not over that.)

I don't know how they tax things. My MSG crackers had no tax, but the bottled milk teas did have tax. Mel's discount boxed food and walnut cakes that came to about $12? No tax. It seems that only bottled drinks were taxed, but not packaged junk food or end of day "fresh" food. 

Total damage: $2.24 for the 3 milk teas + $4.98 for the 2 packages of MSG rice crackers.

Nasty Peach Goo

I bought a basket of peaches because they were in season and looked so perfectly round (and they were on sale).

As I took one out, I noticed a strange, clear, gooey substance seeping out of it. I tried to wash it off, but it just danced around under the running water like rubber, still clinging to the peach.

After being slightly grossed out, I decided that maybe the rest of the fruit was still okay and cut around the offending substance. Then I found another pocket of that goo inside the peach. I cut around that too, and ate the rest of the peach which was sweet and slightly crunchy, by the way. Then I Googled. If it happens to be larva, I'm moderately confident that my stomach acids will take care of it.

Ontario freestone peaches for the win!

H Mart

H Mart (5317 Yonge Street, North York, Ontario)
647-727-3733

I decided to check out this Korean grocery chain for some Asian snacks.

I couldn't find my favourite Japanese MSG rice crackers, but I found these things that resembled them. 

My first reaction: Ugh, they're sweet! I really wasn't expecting that. 

They reminded me a bit of honey roasted peanuts. I suppose if I didn't have the wish for them to taste like my favourite snack, I wouldn't think they were so bad. 

It should be noted that the store had my favourite koala cookies, and it also had Crunch Crunch Pear, a drink that Renée has not been able to find since last year. She thought it was overpriced though, and didn't get it.

Total damage: around $3.

Of Tov Teddy Bites

At first, I was really excited to eat teddy bear shaped breaded chicken nuggets. In the Kosher aisle of the grocery store, I took a while deliberating if I wanted these or the dinosaur shaped ones.

 Then I tried eating them, and I suddenly craved McDonald's chicken McNuggets. These things didn't taste like meat. They reminded me of that Simpsons episode when the kids find out their cafeteria food is made from shredded newspaper. 

Looks like I'll have to shape my own meat from now on. 

Galleria

Galleria (7040 Yonge Street, Thornhill, Ontario)

905-882-0040

Hours: 24 hours daily

That 30% off box was actually 50% off. Yaay!

There was a large amount of tobiko on top of the green tea rice roll. 

The green tea taste is kind of cool, but the fact that they've been refrigerated for so long made the sushi kind of stiff. It's $0.05 for each extra packet of soya sauce. The wasabi packet was nose-drippingly spicy. It stung more than most restaurant wasabi that I've had.

One thing to note about Galleria's new location is that it's a lot less exciting. There's a massive wall dividing the grocery store, and it just gets in the way. There's no more outside stand that sells those red bean fish-shaped fried treats, and there's no central freshly cooked food area. Part of why I used to like Galleria so much was for the outside stand, and the hot dog sticks wrapped in fish cake. They also don't have as much randomness, like crazy fridges for sale (e.g. Swarovski fridge). They did, however, have my favourite msg crackers. 

When I went to purchase my discount sushi, I was really taken aback by just how polite the cashier was. There was a greeting, a "thank you", and she handed my change back to me with two hands. Two hands! Considering the treatment I get in regular grocery stores, I was super impressed. Something about her manners made me think that she wasn't born here. 

Would I return? Yes, I need more msg crackers, and I like people with good manners. Cheap discount sushi is good for people on a tight budget who need dinner - late at night. 

Snacks from Wal-Mart

I liked the cartoons on this bag of kettlecorn, but not enough to buy it.

Josie's snack of choice: Apple chips. Makes me want a dehydrator. 

Mel's snack of choice: plantain chips. They're salty. They're sweet. They're not quite banana chips.

My snack of choice: Bits & Bites. I was a little boring, but these are addictive and they were on sale.

Tofurky

Saw this in the frozen section of Metro:

Me: Tofurky??!

Jess: Sounds like a swear word.

Ha ha! Yes, it does. I might just use it as such. I just thought the name was amusing so I took a picture. I didn't actually buy it.

Random SF Food

Breakfast chicken made by Casey

Mmm, the golden brown skin is delicious.

Boneless chicken wings.

Casey really outdid himself with this one. Sweet boneless chicken wings for our mini road trip. It's great when we pull things like this out of a cooler from the trunk and just start eating it in parking lots.

During a car ride in a traffic jam, we got hungry. Remember that there were packed sandwiches in the trunk, it took me a lot of work to use the club to reach in from the backseat and get them out.

Healthy avocado, orange, spinach sandwich by Casey.

More eating out of the trunk. This time it's peach pie (courtesy of Casey) in the Korbel (more on that later) parking lot. 

The peach pie tasted like apple pie, but it still tasted okay. The best part was when the security guard drove by us and gave us funny looks. He probably thought we were drinking alcohol out of the trunk.

Apple orange spinach sandwich by Casey.

Healthy!

Perfectly arranged apple slices!

Healthy!

French toast breakfast by Casey

This was quite delicious. I liked the texture of the soft bread with the crispy edges.

Alaska spruce tip syrup

It tasted like... if I licked the needles on a pine tree. It was interesting, but I think I still prefer maple syrup.

My chopped up seaweed.

Seaweed and avocado

Sunny side up eggs

The complete meal: rice, seaweed, avocado, and a fried egg.

Simple idea from Casey, but relatively healthy. 

Cream of mushroom pasta by Casey.

Oatmeal breakfast.

... Casey eats a lot of oatmeal.

Trader Joe's!

I picked out these sausages to be barbecued.

Barbecued meat, rice, and vegetables.

So the chicken I cooked were slightly on the raw side at first, but it was my first time!

The sausages from Trader Joe's were pretty good. I liked the spices that were in them. 

Great coaster at Casey's place

Bones from wing tips.

We leave nothing behind.

Major thanks to Casey for so much cooking and healthy food on the trip. There was a lot of thought put into it, and I really appreciated it!