Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Canada in Review

So I'm 2 nites into my stay in Canada... here are my observations thus far.

1.) Cheezeburger
Whose dick do you gotta suck to get a good cheeseburger in Canada?
For some strange reason... every deli sammich I've had here in Canada has been amazing. At this point, I'm tempted to try a cheeseburger every evening in hopes of finding something worthwhile to write home about.

2.) Heinz ketchup tastes way DIFFERENT.
I don't know if they put sugar in the Ketchup but the Heinz ketchup is unusually sweet.

3.) Beer.
I've had a number of good beers in my short visit.... Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale and Keith's RED are both quality brews. I had a pint of Moosehead Lager tonight. That too was quality... rounding things out was a pint of STELLA. (not Canadian, but available here)

Worst beer so far... I had a pint of Alpine before I broke back to the hotel tonight and that was a little weak.

4.) Bars
I've been to a number of bars in the two nights here in St. John. Here's what I got.

a.) Jungle Jim's Bar n' Grill - Grade : F - I walked into this place only because I saw some young asian kids with cool haircuts. Had the WORST ch eeseburger of my life and the place is borderline - family friendly, despite it's bar front appearance.

b.) Thandi - Grade A minus - This bar was very chill... they have a nice TV... the beer seemed a bit overpriced and there was NO one at the place when I went in. I had a drink with the house chef. He's a cool guy too'. If you're in this place, stop in.

c.) St. Johns Ale House - Grade : A - Stopped by this place tonight on the recommendation of a co-worker in San Antonio. The beer selection is the best I've run across (on tap that is) in St. John. The House Cheeseburger (forget the name but it has HAWK in it) was the best burger I've had so far... but that isn't exactly saying much.

d.) Callahan's Irish PUB - Grade : B + - I had a drink here before I busted back to the hotel tonight. There was only one person at the bar and I think that guy was visiting his mom who was tending bar. The place had a lot of sports memorabilia and they had the only jukebox I've run across here in Canada. (Tom Waits - RAIN DOGS is in there and I plan to listen to it Start to Finish on my birthday friday) - The bar should deserve a greater mark... but it's far from being a solid visit because of the poor beer selection on tap... come to think of it. They had only 1 beer on tap and it was ALPINE. There was NO Irish drinking music on the jukebox. To rub more salt into the wound... i think there's a better Irish bar just up the street.... I didn't get the name but I plan to swing in tomorrow nite.

The only redeeming thing about the place is the building its in. Peep this place!


I sorta drank in the basement of this place.

5.) TSN - The ESPN of Canada
Admittedly, I haven't spent a lot of time with the Television in Canada, but that isn't exactly a bad thing... I switched over to "TSN" to catch Monday Nite Football the other day. Prior to the 10:00PM kickoff time, I had a lot of time to watch the Canadian Sports Center... It's very weird to see Sports Center lead with Hockey news... only to be followed with a detailed report about the Toronto Raptors. Only to be followed with late breaking Hockey related news... Still can't figure out who New Brunswick likes to root for. Boston is sorta within shouting distance... as is Buffalo NY.

6.) Local News
I watched 10 minutes of the National Canadian broadcast news the other nite... only to have it interrupted by having the news repeated in french. I tried to find a local news feed but for some strange reason - BOSTON (channel 7) and DETROIT (channel 7) are shown here. I settled on watching the Detroit news only because I lived there for so long... The news of Mayor Guido passing was really sad. Admittedly, I never spent much time in Dearborn, but the news made me feel incredibly homesick.

7.) Tim Hortons
Listen... I'm not going to hate on Tim Hortons... I woke up this morning and I purchased a fabulous hot chocolate from them. The only observation I have about the establishment right now is... there's one just about every 200 steps. From the front step of my hotel, there's 4 Tim Hortons I can easily walk to. How do these guys do it?

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