Sutori - Stories Tagged With 'food'

great souvlaki, great service

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:00:21 -0700

With our busy lives, we tend to order out during the week, and one of our favorite places to order from is Mr. Greek's (http://www.mrgreek.com). If you live in Toronto and vicinity, I'm sure you've eaten there once. It is somewhat expensive for delivery, but the food is always great and timely, and there's so much of it that it we usually make 2 meals out of it (Hmmm cold souvlaki is great...).

A couple of weeks ago, we ordered our 'usual' meal from them, 2 chicken souvlaki dinners, 4 chicken souvlaki skewers and fries (for the kids). When it arrived, we opened our chicken dinners, and noticed that they were pork instead of chicken. Now, pork souvlaki is very good as well, and we did not want to send the food back, but we called anyway and spoke to the manager. He felt very sorry for the mistake, offered to replace the food (which we did not want), and without even asking, offered us a $20 credit on our next order.

I'm not sure if the experience at other locations would always be like this, but if you're looking to order in, and want greek food, Mr. Greek always treats you right (well at least us:)).

Love and Elation in Trader Joe's

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:24:09 -0700

On the corner of Glisan and 21st Ave. in Portland, Oregon are three little gems: a sweet old-fashioned cafe serving breakfast bagels, great coffee and, best of all, devilled eggs (devilled eggs!); Bartinis, a martini bar featuring drinks like basil-infused vodka with fresh berry juice and $5 fondue during Happy Hour; and Trader Joe's.

Ah, Trader Joe's. Rows and rows of chocolate-covered cherries and veggie chips and mini raviolis and hearty onion soups and fresh goat cheese-sprinkled salads and wine, so much wine, all at amazing low prices on squeaky clean shelves and rung up by the friendlist staff ever (although that may have something to do with Portland's incredibly friendly vibe). Having visited Trader Joe's for the first time as the last stop on a recent road trip with three other girls, we crammed our overflowing grocery bags into the remaining floor space in the car and spent a lovely day driving while happily stuffing our faces.

I may have to make a monthly trip. It's only a seven hour drive...

www.traderjoes.com

Cobs bread makes every day delicious

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:27:30 -0700

If Cobs has come to your town, I'm probably preaching to the converted here. If not, let me explain.

First, a little history. Cobs Bread is a chain of bakeries that create really delicious versions of really basic day-to-day bread products. And sell them for really good prices. They are all over the Greater Vancouver area, with new ones opening all the time.

They are actually a Canadian-ized version of a chain that’s all over Australia and New Zealand called Baker’s Delight.

Before Cobs came along, I would buy most of my day-to-day breads at the supermarket. Nothing fancy. I’m talking about the pre-sliced stuff you make sandwiches with. Hamburger and hot dog buns during the summer months. That sort of thing.

If it was a special occasion, I would maybe go to one of the specialty bakeries in town and pick up something a little special.

But mostly it was the stuff I grabbed at the Safeway. This was always a very hit and miss proposition. It involved shifting through loaf after loaf squeezing and checking best-before dates. I was always changing brands in pursuit of the perfect loaf.

I was never satisfied. I usually ended up throwing half a loaf out at the end of the week.

Then along came Cobs.

Unlike those special occasion bakeries I used to visit--and still do on occasion--Cobs is all about the basics. They take the sliced supermarket loaf and turn it into something fresh-baked and mouth-wateringly tasty. And they charge LESS than the supermarket.

Genius, I tell you. Genius.

And to top it off, they're always located right across the street from giant supermarkets to make it nice and easy to add them on as a postscript to your weekly shop.

The do this thing called a “country grain flour loaf” that I never get tired of eating. I’m salivating just thinking about it. And their hot dog buns . . . damn!

The only drawback, if you can call it a drawback, is that they don’t use preservatives so the loaves don’t last long.

But we usually eat the whole thing before it has a chance to go bad.