VanAussie Daily

German Christmas market

Monday, December 13th, 2010

Last night we happened across a very cute little German Christmas market which has sprung up on Georgia st, downtown.

This market is the sort of thing you expect to see in films, with cute little timber huts, fairy lights and real Christmas trees everywhere, a central pagoda with a band kicking out some Christmas tunes, everyone dressed up in their thick jackets and gloves sharing mulled wine and bratwurst.

Of course, there was more to it than that – lots of arts and crafts, a German Christmas ornament tent, German bread, soap shaped like fruit and vegetables… The mind boggles really. Particularly after one of their mulled wines…

Actually, it was a cute little market, and I highly recommend it if anyone is in the hood. It’s another great illustration that no matter what time of year it is in Vancouver, there is going to be something interesting happening, somewhere in the city. Which is great

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Confused

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Wow, how confused is this koala?!

It’s amazing what you find when shopping at a Chinese supermarket…

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:(

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

For shame, for shame…

I don’t think I could have gotten any more out of it though.

Lucky I’ve got another one!

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Weet-bix equivalents in Canada

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

One of the things that I went on a mission to find when I got to Canada was to find a good stand-in for my old staple breakfast cereal, Weet-bix.

Well, actually I got stuck into their sweet stuff like granola (equivalent if muesli, kinda) and their cereals… Mmm, nothing like that crispy sugar high in the morning to get you going! Captain Crunch was a particular favourite, although it really resembles nothing natural.

Then I got over the sweet things and wanted to get back to simple life, something I could have that was a good bit of low-GI energy to keep me going during the day. Although reflecting on that last sentence, I may have been swayed by advertising.

Anyhoo, I needed Weet-bix. There is no exact equivalent over here, but there are some that come pretty close. I’ve included the price in the pics, but they’re pretty damn similar anyhoo. First one I found was:

Muffets
Despite the curious name, these aren’t too bad. They’ll fill the bottom of your bowl, but they’re just a touch crispy. This means that they will hold their form for your whole breakfast, no matter how much milk you soak them in. Taste? Well… Not too much really.

Shredded wheat
A slightly larger “pillow” than Weet-bix, these will keep their shape and taste slightly bland like Muffets, but they offer a better mouth feel (I can’t believe I just wrote that) than Muffets. I have had one of the strange wheat based tendrils spear up my gum before, which I can tell you wasn’t too pleasant. The things I do for you guys!

Weetabix
Probably the closest things to Weet-bix you’ll find in Canada, these fellas have a similar texture to Weet-bix however you’ll find that they quickly disintegrate into mush when milk is added. Similar sort of taste though, just a tad sweeter. Don’t mind these and they are my current breakfast basis of choice

(Don’t worry, the other side is in English if you can’t work out the tough French translation)

Oatibix
Just to throw an extra one in the mix, these are basically the same as Weetabix, but made of Oats. They’re pretty good, have a nice flavour, but man, do they ever turn to mush faster than you can get your spoon out of the drawer after pouring the milk.

No pic of these, as Safeway was out of stock when I had the brainwave for this fantastic culinarily inspired post.

…

This was a privately funded research project, and hence that allows me to tell you what I’ve had for breakfast
And yes, culinarily is a word. I just made it up then.

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New ‘hood, new supermarket

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

So we’ve just moved house (more on that in a later blog post when I have more time to think about something other than the bomb shelter the place looks like) and we’ve managed to score a place that is in the “International Village”, and 5 floors above a big supermarket.

Why is that interesting? It’s an aisian supermarket! A whole world of brightly coloured strange looking packets! Wierd ass things in the milk fridge! Plucked ducks (not Plucka Duck) hanging up!

It’s actually quite cool, as they’ve got all sorts of good normal groceries for cheap, and all the vegies are nice and fresh. Then I spotted this at the checkout, and it was on special!

That’s right, Australian abalone. In a can. For $50. On special.

It’s funny, they probably come from my home state of Tasmania, but they’ve come a long way from the ones we used to catch ourselves and stick on the BBQ.

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Teppanyaki

Monday, March 8th, 2010

If you’ve never had the north-americanised version of Japanese teppanyaki, I’d highly suggest it! It basically turns your meal into a spectator sport, bringing the chef out of kitchen and setting him behind a grill that everyone sits around. His mission is to cook while entertaining the crowd, and this is through a variety of tricks and a consistent flow of food.

The food typically isn’t very Japanese-ey, with our local place (Osaka, on West Broadway in Vancouver) offering the choice between vegetarian, seafood, chicken, steak or a combination of the above. Everyone gets prawns/shrimp and vegetably stuff throughout as part of the deal too.

The whole reason for going is the experience, so we only head there perhaps once or twice a year, but it’s a great place to take folks who are new to the city… particularly when the chef gets the flare-ups happening!

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Granville Island

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

We had a pretty easy day today, being Saturday and all. Went for a wander around Yaletown (where our apartment is) in the morning to get a coffee and have a look through the local book store, and then in the afternoon we had to get out of the apartment as it’s for sale at the moment… bloody pushy bloody real estate lady is getting a bit much.

Anyhoo, we went down to Granville Island to have a look at the markets for some  lunch, and Nat is heading back to Australia for a couple of weeks next week, so she was picking up a few gifts for folks at home.

Granville Island is such a nice little spot with a great concentration of interesting shops. Everything from fruit and veg to jewellry, chocolates, pancakes etc. Then in the other more fixed stores scattered around the island you can find a hammock shop, outdoor store, saki distillery and all sorts of fun stuff!

If you’re coming for a visit, it’s well worth a look around. If you’re a local, it’s great to just swing by every now and then… we’re guilty of spending a lot of time in the “kids market” which is a place to get all sorts of toys and games from a few different vendors all under the one roof. Not a black market where you can buy small children…

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Milo in Canada sucks.

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

So I’ve been stewing on this one for a while, but I’m just going to come out and say it.

Milo in Canada sucks.

No other words for it. Well, there’s actually quite a few other words for it, but no positive ones… It’s really just drinking chocolate with a slight malty flavour.

About the coolest thing about it is the french on the tin

“Hot Milo” becomes “Milo Chaud”

“The Energy Drink” becomes “La Boisson Energetique”

“Chocolate Malt Drink Mix” becomes “Melange pour boisson au chocolat et au malt”

It all makes it sound so much more exotic, really

This has actually inspired me to start a new section of the CanAussie.com forum: Aussie Food Tips! In there you can tell the world if you found Tim Tams somewhere, or whatever… It’s all about the important stuff!

UPDATE: Don’t be tempted to buy Ovaltine as a Milo substitute! It tastes like a mix between Vegemite and home brand drinking chocolate… and it’s not good!

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Posted in Different things in Canada, Food | 11 Comments »

The long winter darkness

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

We’re just past the winter solstice here in Canada, which means, in Vancouver at least, the sun is coming up after 8 and going down around about 4. I’ve also been feeling like trash over the last couple of months, so I finally connected the dots, and realised that I probably wasn’t getting enough vitamin D.

For those of you who don’t know, you either get vitamin D from this:

(That’s sunshine btw)

Or this:

So after my realisation the other day, I decided to try option B seeing as there’s not much sunshine around, and I’ve actually started taking one of the above in the morning with my breakfast, and boy, what a difference! I missed one yesterday and started feeling like trash again. It’s tough to explain, but being a pale skinned dark haired guy, I’m sure I’m probably deficient in D anyway, so it will probably always help to have more.

The point of this post? It’s a long winter over here in Canada, and you won’t see much sun unfortunately, so if you start feeling like trash, perhaps it might be worth trying Vitamin D… worked for me

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