Five Loaves

Just came across an interesting site called LovingPho.com.

It is a pho lovers paradise with everything you can think of related to pho, from history to recipies. You can check out the glossary to brush up on your pho terms, or even do a whole bunch of pho related polls.

The amount of info on this site is actually completely mind-bottling! If you love pho, I’m sure you could waste a few hours digging through all the stuff that this site has to offer.

McDonald’s Canada has a pretty funny promotion going on right now — they’re giving you the opportunity to win Big Mac’s for life! (Assuming you only eat 1 a week, and only live 20 more years)

To get started, head over to the McDonalds Canada Facebook page and become a fan.

Upload a photo or video of you eating a Big Mac, and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win!

They’re accepting entries until December 31st, 2009, so get eating!

CBC has just posted a neat map of the winners of this year’s 2010 ‘Chinese Restaurant Award’. The awards are given by what is described as the ‘authoritative Chinese dining guide’ in and around metro Vancouver; although I’m sure that could be up for debate.

The voting lasted for about 6 weeks, and resulted in about 10,000 ballots. You can find more details on the awards on their website here.

After checking out the map, I can definitely agree with a lot of the award winners. For example, Chubby Lamb Hot Pot on Alexandra has a great AYCE Hot Pot menu and great quality beef. The service could be better, but what do you expect from an AYCE Chinese place. Other deserving award winners include Garden City Hot Pot, which is awesome for quality fresh seafood hot pot, if you don’t mind paying the fresh seafood prices.

read more…

Next time you’re out shopping for cereal, make sure you keep your eyes peeled for one of these specially marked boxes from Kelloggs. They’re offering a $10 off coupon inside which is valid on any Hasbro board game!

From Kellogs:

Now you can Save $10 off any Hasbro^® board game by finding coupons in specially marked boxes of Kellogg’s* cereal.

Coupon offer includes all Hasbro^® , Parker Bros^® , Milton Bradley™ and Cranium games with the exception of card games and games produced under license by Winning Moves^® or USAopoly^® .

I don’t buy a ton of board games, but the Cranium series of board games has got to be one of my favourites. Games like Hoopla, Cranium, or Whoonu provide endless hours of fun in any group setting and would make a great gift this Christmas season!

You can check out the full list of eligible products on the Kellogg’s site.

Offer expires on March 31st, 2010.

[Source: RFD]

I know this is old news by now, but Milestones on 3 Road and Westminster in Richmond has decided to close down it’s doors.

I’m not sure of all the exact reasons, but I for one can say that they won’t be missed. They had intense competition from all around their area, including Cactus Club, Sammy J’s, Earls and BP, and I guess they just couldn’t stay afloat. Although I’m no expert in restaurant management, each surrounding establishment seemed to have a certain competitive advantage; a different reason to go.

Cactus Club, given new life by Rob Feenie, is actually doing some things right now. A few of their new ‘RF’ designated menu items are pretty good, and I no longer cringe at eating there expecting sub-par food. Then again, they also have those cool auto-toilet seat covers in the washrooms..

Sammy J’s has.. well.. let’s call it.. really, really nice ’silverware’; and boy’s love silverware.

Earls has always been a favourite spot of mine. They have great appetizers, good food, and with probably close to half a mill in recent renovations at the Lansdowne location, they almost look good enough to charge the outrageous prices that they do.

BP on the other hand caters to a slightly different crowd. With a light, sporty atmosphere, ample TVs, and decent specials for cheap eats and drinks each day of the week, they seem to have themselves covered.

What did this leave for Milestones? Not much. The location was slightly more inconvenient, being nestled on the second floor of the London Drugs plaza, but that wasn’t their biggest problem. Despite finally updating their aging logo, their food was below par with nothing special, exciting or enticing. Their prices were approaching Earls, but the same couldn’t be said about the ambiance or service.

Milestones, you won’t be missed. OK, maybe your Calamari with Andouille Sausage will be… but thats it.