Betty Baguette - fresh sandwiches delivered by bike in Vancouver
Seen via @nickmolnar and others. Clicking through to the web page, there is only a phone number. No email / contact form makes me sad :(
Seen via @nickmolnar and others. Clicking through to the web page, there is only a phone number. No email / contact form makes me sad :(
I'm hoping that I'll have time during my trip to play some disc golf. I brought a couple of my golf discs just in case.
I posted this originally on Urban Vancouver, way back in December 2004. I thought I'd move a copy here to make sure I could keep a copy.
About a year ago, I put together a collaborative map of places to buy great ingredients in Vancouver over on Foodists.ca. Here's the map:
View Foodists Vancouver map of key foody locales in a larger map
My parents are both originally from Germany. I grew up speaking German, and we originally lived just off "Robson Strasse" as it was then known because of all the Germans that lived there.
Even today, living in Vancouver, most Europeans don't need to change their diet (i.e. lots of good bread, cheese, meat, sausages, chocolate, saurkraut, etc.) if you know where to shop.
And that's where this post really starts. Read on for the tour of shops to fill your Euro-diet needs (and just really good stores/food in general)
First up, the hidden treasures of European Specialty Importers. They're on 220 Prior Street, which is just off Main by the Georgia Viaduct. If you're coming over the viaduct from downtown, take the offramp as if you're going to Main. Instead of turning on Main, cross it (you're on Prior) and it's the warehouse directly on your right, with a big sign with their name. If it looks like you're pulling up at a loading dock, you're at the right place.
What's there? Well, pretty much any canned or packaged European food -- coffee, tea, saurkraut, mustard (in a tube!), dumplings, etc., etc. There is a small selection of meats and cheeses as well, but we've got another spot for that. Oh yes...did I mention the chocolate? There is an entire cold room (under video surveillance) filled with chocolate (cue Simpson's reference here).
Next stop, Andy's Bakery. A very small store front at 935 Commercial (at Venables) conceals the best "landbrot" (big, multi-pound loaves of German rye) in the city. Nice buns, and a really good dark multi-grain as well. No foamy insubstantial Wonderbread here! If you need a lot of bread, you can call ahead to order.
You may have seen the name Freybe before -- they produce a lot of commercially packaged meat stuff. But, they also happen to have a factory outlet store at 716 East Hastings Street. It is sometimes so busy on Saturdays that they have to lock the doors and only let people in as others leave. Cold cuts, sausages, and fresh meat. Have you ever had meat salad? They have it, and it's delicious.
OK, the car is getting pretty full at this point, but there are still a few bits and pieces we need. Famous Foods is at 1595 Kingsway at King Edward. They bill themselves as "The Original Bulk Food Store", but they have so much more. The "bulk" stuff is nicely packaged dry goods, from great spices to pastas, beans, flour, oats, etc. etc. They have a good selection of meat, seafood, cheese, and even vegetables. The last category is natural products -- environmentally friendly cleaning and hygiene products. Yes, the variety is incredible, and the prices are great, too.
Now I'm going to throw in a couple of bonus links, both on the drive -- Santa Barbara, a store a bit like Famous Foods. Expect to spend as much as 20 minutes waiting at the deli counter for service, but it's worth it. The other one is Norman's Fruits and Vegetables. The owners have produce from local farms in the valley, and you can get masses of produce for really cheap -- e.g. $2 for a 5lb box of roma tomatoes.
What are your favourite food shops in Vancouver? Anyone have pointers for shopping for Chinese, Indian, Thai, or other cuisine/ethnicity ingredients?
Let me explain - and allow to me to over-generalize for a moment. Let's say you want a loaf of bread. How many of us will pay an extra 15-30% for a loaf from the local baker, versus a loaf from the local hypermarket? Yet, because we won't, the bakery - and its jobs - vanish.After all, why would you pay a slight premium, for goods that are substitutes? Except, of course, they're not - really. Your bakery has radically different incentives than your local hypermarket, and might just offer you a significantly higher level of artisanship, skill, service - and trust. Yet, it's exactly those we don't seem to value.
Tuesday I attended an event at Joel Solomon's place hosting Woody Tasch, talking about the Slow Money Alliance.
Thanks to Joel for opening his house so everyone could hear Woody share his views, and get some thought and discussion flowing as well.
A question / comment I expressed to Woody is that I am uncomfortable with the label of investor applied to myself (and yes, with those that know my Bootup context, that is some what ironic). And for many, I think "investor" is not a good rallying cry.
As per the quoted text above from Umair Haque, making that sort of local, personal _movement_ happen is something I feel more comfortable with.
Supporter seems too weak a word. Yes, I would like to invest. I would like to invest my support, vs. the local hypermarket.
Later on I will stand in one of these stores in front of a pyramid of Coke Zero bottles and consider the fact that a whole infrastructure exists for bringing this substance of no nutritional value from wherever it's bottled in Europe up to a place like this. I happen to love Coke Zero and whatever cyclopyrimidines or butylated phenols give it its weird fake sweetness, but seeing it stacked in quantity after coming off an island where everything has to be carried in by hand gives me pause. I feel like the Burfjord grocery store will someday form part of a sanctimonious diorama about the folly of late-period humanity in someone's well-meaning, sustainably-built museum or alien terrarium, and the thought fills me with irritation in advance. I buy a large bottle of the stuff as my way of shaking a fist at the future.
Found via @mezzoblue, and wonderful reading.
Reminds me of when I was on a small atoll that is part of the Marshall Islands. There was one cinderblock construction supply store for both visitors and locals. We all lined up to pay $1USD for… …a cold can of coke. It also seems that $1 is the universal price for a can of pop.
The video is creepy. It's nice and haunting as a credit roll for True Blood.
What must it be like to have the murder of nature upon your very soul? To have sacrificed all the world's creatures for your own kind, and thereby lost your souls more completely than by any evil magic?
The god had been looking for a heart in the city, a heart that was worthy, a heart that knew true worship. And the god had found such a heart, and a voice that called upon Him without greed or demand, without wheedling or whining.
The heart of the prophecy did Enlil find in the stable while the storm raged, upon the altar that was the shore at the end of time.
But though the prophecy was fulfilled upon that moment, the humbling of the city had just begun.
In the meantime, learn to do real things and how to create value for other people. Make friends with your neighbors or, if necessary, neighbors out of your friends.
This is not a nightmare scenario, no matter what “they” say it is. No need for apocalypse, regression, or guns. That’s all silliness.
Good times ahead.
Good advice. Seen via @jonhusband.
Today's post has another great quote about the connection between "stuff" and how much we actually need to work to survive - "I believe we could take care of pretty much everyone’s needs – at least in America – with all of us being employed perhaps 10% of the time."
Good times ahead indeed.
Here's the natural object 9 hole disc golf course I came up with this morning.
