Summer food fun and drink - The Classic Ice cream battle · Saturday July 19, 2008 by colin newell
Once a year there is a corporate magazine that hits the stands called (I think…) The Best of Victoria or Victoria`s Best Stuff or Shit we think you should want
or something like that…
and what burns me about it – is that (in my humble opinion…) It is a crock of information cooked up by Men and Women in expensive suits and no brains.
Example: (and this, my friends, triggered my now legendary “Victoria`s Best Cafe”) — as chosen by the readers of the CoffeeCrew.Com website…
Anyway… the example:
Where is Victoria’s Best Coffee?
Number one choice… Starbucks.
Number two choice… Serious Coffee. (Yikes, and to think that Geir and I actually wrote the catch phrase – Want great coffee, Get Serious!
and Number three choice? Never mind. By now you should be scratching your head.
Okay. Next example:
Where is Victoria’s Best Ice Cream?
Answer. Number One… Beacon Drive In
Uhm. Hello? Does the Beacon actually serve anything with Dairy in it? I have it on a pretty good source that they do not serve anything with Dairy in it at the Beacon Drive In. It is a vegetable oil product or something (To the best of my knowledge…) Correct me if I am wrong thank you very much.
If you are interested, I think their number two choice for Victoria`s best Ice-cream is Baskin-Robbins or Ben and Jerry. From a Mall no less…
Say it with me friends… Jane! Stop this crazy thing!.
Seriously – The best Ice Cream in Victoria is a bit of a toss up. It could be Sweet Memories on Government street. It could be perennial favorite Mister Tubbs on Burnside Avenue. It could be the new Rogers Ice Cream Parlor (open hardly 2 weeks) on Government Street. Ice Cream is kind of personal, I guess – and I beg our readers (not just regulars Jeanie and Cheryl) to express their Moo-Pinions in the comment field.
Listen up you corporate boot lickers: Ice Cream is made with milk. Not Hydrogenated f*cking Vegetable oil! I have to take Lactaid prior to eating any Ice Cream and I am proud of it.
In fact, if there is a God, she is probably made of pure Ice-Cream… with milk and chocolate syrup running through her veins – Oh great lady of the Dairy I worship you. And If she uses cold cream (and I doubt it), it is probably real cream – without a drop of trans-fat.
Did you know that there are 2 types of Ice Cream eaters out there; lickers and chewers? I am a chewer. I bite and chew ice cream. Always have. Go figure.
Oh yea. According to this mysterious Cities Best according to the Establishmentarian`s Magazine The Best burger in Town?
McDonald`s apparently. :-/ Right. Listen up Corporate toadies: Victoria`s Best anything is all home grown, all Mom & Pop, all Local
Not McDonald`s. Not Starbucks. Not Ben & Frickin Jerries.
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Summer fun food and drink - Avoiding that mood killing moment in your favorite haunt · Thursday July 17, 2008 by colin newell
Picture this. You are just settling into your favorite table at your favorite cafe or bistro with your favorite girl or boy… the wine is poured… the music plays softly in the background… you have ordered your entrée…
and…
Pop… pop… pop…
The familiar report of a Glock 9MM semi-automatic pistol disturbs your serenity as a gun fight breaks out between patrons at an adjacent table.
Patrons dive for cover as the slugs cut a searing path through the restaurant. One projectile grazes your Hugo Boss sport coat – the one you wear for special occasions only. I guess this could be considered a special occasion.
Okay then. Let’s rewind shall we.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go out on a hot date and skip the gangland violence, gun fire and bloody carnage? And if you are as Gangsta as I am, you would really prefer to leave your Heckler&Koch MP5K machine pistol at home – I mean if only to avoid having to put down cover fire for your loyal buddie baddies…
Anyway. Digression. A new program in Vancouver hopes to quell nasty criminal activity in cooperating restaurants… at least during the dinner hour.
“Participating members of the Restaurant Watch program will display large decals to show that they strive to maintain safety for diners, Vancouver police said.”
Large decals? Like… “Gangsta? Shoo!” or “Packing? You ain’t snacking!”
Yea. Like that’s gonna work.
“Owners and staff of local restaurants have pledged to call police if they feel a customer fits the description of a gang member, gang associate, drug trafficker or someone with a propensity for violence.”
I have a better idea. Want to rid the restaurant of criminal riff-raff? Change the menu to vegetarian. You will never find a gangsta in a joint that sells tofu anything. No beef, no bullets I figure.
The Restaurant Watch program will give police more eyes and ears and ensure the public has a safe and enjoyable dining experience. Read the whole Story
I would have a way more enjoyable experience if I knew there weren’t going to be loud and annoying people there will cell phones…
But what you gonna do?
Bada Bing.
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Summer fun food and drink - Choux Choux Eat like France in Victoria · Wednesday July 16, 2008 by colin newell
830 Fort Street in Victoria B.C. Canada – on the North side of this bustling one way street – huddled in the middle of a scrum of antique stores and government offices is Choux Choux Charcuterie.
According to their website: “Choux Choux Charcuterie is Victoria’s premiere charcuterie. They specialize in house made pates, sausages, smoked and cured meats. Their products are made on premise, using only fresh, free range, un-medicated pork from Sloping Hill Farm in Qualicum Beach, Mill Bay rabbits, Cornish Game hens and chickens, free-range chicken livers, Quebec foie gras, and Cobble Hill lamb, when available.”
Food expert, Mark Engels, joined me for my first lunch here – and apart from the wall of cheeses, meats and bread that I saw in this cute little walk-in, I did not know what to expect… Okay, I did. Meat. Meat and more meat. Smoked meat. Cured meat. Cheese. More meat. Some bread. Meet. Cheese. Strange Cheese. More meat. Apparently this is a meat lovers paradise. Personally, I like to eat less of the red stuff and more of the green stuff – and I encourage everyone to do the same. Anyway.
When I saw that the lunch special was Sirloin with a swirl of steamed spinach and a lump of blue cheese… I thought to myself: “Self, what on Earth are they going to do with this?” Well – not surprisingly, our 2 identical orders arrived: 2 plates, 2 handsome slabs of beef perfectly cooked (medium rare I think) – about 1 ounce of steamed spinach and 2 or 3 ounces of melting grainy blue cheese on top of the steak. This is crazy, I thought. The French don’t eat like this… or do they?
After resisting the urge to growl and snap at anyone that came near my dish (we were, after all, sitting at a busy sidewalk as civil servants and beautiful people walked by) – and I knew they were looking at my sirloin. I growled under my breath – my upper lip curling slightly revealing perfectly sharpened incisors.
Anyway. The beef was insanely tasty and I felt pangs of guilt with each alternate bite and surges of a B12 rush with the other bites. The perfect follow-up to this feast would be curling up on the sidewalk with a good bone or chasing down a frisbee or a tennis ball.
But at $10.95, this was a fun and filling meal – heck, if they were to add frites (French fries all dressed) they could probably rival those beefy slabs from Brasserie L`ecole. Maybe just maybe.
Next visit: Cheese and bread. And that’s a promise!
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident, University employee and Pop culture savant. His food reviews on this blog make up for the endless political drivel!
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Summer fun food and drink - Finding great coffee and cafes in Victoria B.C. · Tuesday July 15, 2008 by colin newell
Buon Amici’s – The Black Stilt Coffee Lounge – 2% Jazz – Bubby Roses – Habit Coffee and Culture – Sounds like Coffee – Discovery Coffee – and others.
Wherever you find your coffee and friendship or companionship… well, that is your best place. It is the best place… for you.
In the last 10 days or so we have had the fun exercise of polling our readers (and many people who have never seen this website before…) on where the Best cafe is in Victoria B.C. Canada.
It has been a fun, but largely pointless exercise… because the reality is: The great cafe is truly in the eye of the beholder. Some Examples:
(a.) Bubby Roses 2 Cafe – Andrea and I sat at Bubby Roses Bakery a few days ago while I spooned their Vegetarian chili into my tummy and shared some wonderful croissants.
At the next table was a very sweet looking young girl with crazy red hair sitting cross-legged in one of the chairs – and she was hand-writing a letter to her lover (and future husband) – Yes, I am naturally curious and yes, I have impeccable vision. He was somewhere far away – but she had this curious smile that would spontaneously appear when she checked out some of the people walking by. At some point a male friend appeared, asking her where her man was – she explained – and they sooned walked off down the Cook street sidewalk – hand in hand…
(b.) B.A.‘s – While at Buon Amici’s on Friday I talk with owner-creator Derek Lucas as he describes, in great detail, his model for the perfect cafe – his passion is measured in megawatts – his ideas flash pass me like a meteor shower. His clientele are urban professionals and all appear to be enjoying their environment.
(c.) The Drumroaster – At the Drumroaster Cafe South of Duncan (my pick for Island’s best cafe [maybe the next poll]) on Saturday Geir Oglend describes the latest and greatest pieces of new equipment for the leading edge cafe. Geir and his wife Pat run one of the few totally Mom and Pop third-wave places on Vancouver Island (and arguably British Columbia too) that is All Family oriented that produces coffee and espresso based drinks as good as they can possibly be – and the food is as good as it can possibly be as well. Bubby Roses, obsessed with every minute detail leader, Mark Engels, comes up with edibles that rival Geir’s – but they are neck and neck.
(d.) The Black Stilt Coffee Lounge is an interesting blend of fine design, eco-friendly deployment with an adult-oriented menu (they have a liquor license) – The coffee is good too. The staff are highly motivated, effusive, friendly and very professional. Half of the guests, tonight, were stationed behind lap-tops – surfing, texting, messaging and face-booking – some were even talking to each other. The space is warm – and even if you are alone, you feel like you are at home.
(e.) Habit Coffee and Culture is home to hipsters, scene-makers, artists, observers, hangers-on and wanna-bee’s – And yes, I am all of those things… especially that last one! If you are a hip chick or sick dude, you suck back your espresso at Habit – you might even find time to work on your sneer or perfect that utterly disinterested look.
So. Long story short. Buon Amici and Black Stilt may have cornered the market on the votes – but the reality is… The best cafe in Victoria B.C. Canada is the cafe you are sitting in right now. You know it better than I do.
But thanks for participating!
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