Tag Archives: food

What you pay for

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Fear is the biggest hurdle in poverty.  This is not only because a sense of lack, something perpetually put to you as evident, makes you act in ways that push reason.

But there are those that know of this fear and are only too determined to make the most of it.

They come at you with their ads and bargains, their dollar stores and discounts, their news events and threats upon the nation.

They push you and pull you and tell you that all you need to really do is go under their wise wings and everything will be alright in the end.  They put pressure on you at just the right moment.  Time is their greatest weapon against you.  You don’t want to miss out do you?  You don’t want to miss the boat!  After all, these chances don’t come along often.

Bull.  Can you imagine someone saying that to a salmon?  You’re both creatures.  You’re not missing anything.

It does cost a little more to steer away from where they want you to go at first, yes.  But as people we are not that complicated.  One thing I have noticed just this morning is how much better my day started by just going out for a walk.  Came home, started writing into my notebook (I write on their before going digital) and had some oatmeal with blueberries.  Coffee.  Nothing you would really think to Instagram (some might, I know I’ve gone there too!)  But like the salmon that I sort of plunked down into this little ramble, we are not that complicated a creature.

No one has all the answers.  If they say they do, tell them you’re just browsing.

 

 

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Top ten fast food items we miss!

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Those old containers less missed

Some of my posts I like to push for interesting narrative ideas or use of poetic imagery.   Yeah, this isn’t one of those.  But i have though about doing this one for a bit as I was born in the seventies so I’ve seen lots of products come and go. 
Much of this is locally based and as a former employee of Tim’s I naturally tend towards that but I will try my best to think outside the snack pack.
Here’s a countdown of those cheap treats too soon gone..

10 Tim Hortons Stew in a Bread Bowl
Oh there is lots of things to say beyond here since the in house baking stopped but it remember this little idea they had.  The stew was decent and the sourdough bowl was good too.  The leftovers did look really icky though.

9 As show above the Mcdlt by McDonald’s.
It was the fancier one, more an attempt at a proper burger that I remember my parents liked.

8 McDonald’s Pizza

There was preset ones like vegy, meat and Hawaiian but you could custom it and they came in personal and family sized.

7 Subway Horseradish melt.

Sounds like a crazy idea too but it was actually really good.

6 7-11 The Turkey Croissant

I use to live on these back in the early ninties when I looked for work.  Actual croissant with light turkey, lettuce and cheese and it was really light and nice.

5 Sobe drinks

Just that…again, ninties.  They tasted amazing and had a humorous little under the cap saying to do with lizards.  You could get them at (and I’m going locally here…)

4 The Entertainer Victoria, BC

This store was a mix of video store and snacks just behind the TV station across from Wendy’s.  Great spot to load up for a movie at home kind of evening.  It had a drop box in the back of the building that is now covered over.

4 Tim Hortons Chocolate Sour Cream

This one I really liked which also came in timbit form.  Bought freshly baked these and the walnut crunch were especially amazing.

3 KFC downtown location Victoria

Ok, this is another locally spun one.  This use to be on Douglas and Yates and was perfect for when you had to change buses but wanted a bite half way.  Ok it’s KFC but back there I was fine with it.  A popular location but the changing landscape of downtown and the families of Victoria preferring to be outside the downtown core pretty much killed this off.

2 Tim Hortons Party Pack

Ok, I worked there back in the day so that helps with me knowing the details but this one surprised me that it went (very possibly to do with the new…um…baking)  this was a huge box, held together partially with tape, that held either fifty donuts or three hundred timbits.  Large functions would actually buy multiples of this but my fondest memory was creating one of these, by myself, with the person choosing them a single donut at a time.  Slow going…

1 Tim Hortons the Cakes

Couldn’t help it.  Not only were these made in house with full baking equipment from scratch (blenders, wood tables and rolling pins…we had it all) but our cake decorators actually were made to take a local cake decorating course to learn to do the roses that garnished the top.  There are rumours as to the reason for there demise but with the upcoming baking methods it is likely that these were eased out.  Rumour is that they were more trouble than they were worth due to the onslaught of complaints about things gone wrong so the company pulled them.

Anyone have any that I missed?  I know there was a burger joint that use to be at Pandora and Blanshard and another out by the Admirals bridge but anything you want to add would be awesome!

Keep your eyes on your fries and have a good one!

Can I take your order?

Tom

Created by TomPogson.com

Little bit about coffee

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This is one of those posts that I think was inevitable.  My day work is as a barista and has been with some exceptions like janitorial and university for some time.  Behind the counter is much like playing music.  You certainly don’t know it the first day and their isn’t any official training.  The more you’re standing behind the portafilters, steam wands and coffee sprinkled counters the more you pick up.

The challenge with coffee is the three factors, namely the product, the water and the equipment.  I like to think that the real drink of a barista would either be a light roast taken black or a single shot of well pulled espresso.  These drinks give you the inherent flavors of the source at its fullest and the wine like subtleties that are otherwise masked.  It’s sounds all fancy but it’s like anything else.  The more you drink the more you notice how bright or not, bitter or not, ect.  The coffee menus are actually simpler than they seem as well.  It is simply “how do you want your milk prepared?”  I won’t get into all of them but with a Latte it’s simply steamed milk over espresso.   A cappuccino is steamed milk and milk foam over espresso (with its name derived from the brown and white outfits of the Cappucine Monks).  Americano….just hot water…you add the milk.  Africano…half hot water and half steamed milk.  Then the other variables come in and yeah…you get those drinks that a barista needs to take a deep breath before announcing.  I can understand the fun of fine tuning like that.  The first coffee I had was at the age of 12, helping in the kitchen at church so I could get out of…well… church.  I remember taking lots of sugar and cream while I helped get ready.  There wasn’t actually much to do in that big square room of counter tops and fridges attached to the hall.  It was mostly about being outta the church sipping coffee.

Naturally your water source should be clean and filtered.  Your best bean choice is from a cafe or local roastery.  Supermarkets rarely throw out old beans and they do go stale eventually.  With the machine you want it to be as clean as you can possibly make it and one trick is to run a pot of water through first to heat the machine (like pot scalding with tea) and to improve the machines ability to extract flavor.  It is also common for people to use to much coffee in the ratio of coffee to water.  One teaspoon of beans per cup of water is perfect.  Your lighter roasts also have more caffeine as the roasting process extracts the caffeine and also gives it that shiny coffee oil look.  Lighter roasts also go better with savory and dark with pastries (sweet).  Chocolate is a great pairing, famously with the mocha which got its name from the port of Moka which traded beans around the world from places like the original source of coffee in the hills of Ethiopia.

There’s a bunch to consider.  Coffee’s almost done.

Cheers,
Tom

Created by TomPogson.com