Living in Halifax is wonderful at the best of times however some days I really miss things from home… especially some of the food!
Mandarin oranges are pretty much non-existent here. All I have found are clementines… which are good, but just not the same.
My dad often sends one huge tin of Good Host Iced Tea a year, which is something else I grew up loving as a child.
Since there is no set “China Town” area here, a lot of the food I love and shopping I like to do can’t be done here. One of the things I miss most is Bubbletea. There are a couple of shops in the area that do sell bubbletea which is a nice fix once in a while however they do not live up to what you would find in places like Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, etc.
Tony Roma’s (best-ribs-ever), authentic Chinese food restaurants (some Chinese/Cantonese places have been good, but I can’t find my staple Peaches & Shrimp dish ANYWHERE here), Vietnamese food restaurants (VERY few can be found her, and not the best quality), & Taco Time are just to name a few.
Oh – and sort of on the food list is IKEA (hello, $2 breakfasts!!)
One observation that I made here is there is a minimal Ukrainian population. It seems as though many of the Ukrainian immigrants who landed here years past, would leave and make their way to the Western Provinces.
The only thing Ukrainian that I’ve noticed here is a statue in one the little parks in Halifax dedicated to the early Ukrainian immigrants.
I cannot find any Ukrainian food anywhere in the HRM area, so.. I enlisted my dad to bring some of my favorites over during his visit the other week. He brought over 12 rings of real Ukrainian Sausage (kubasa), 4 dozen cabbage rolls – the way my grandmother Baba made them: with rice and NO tomato sauce and NO meat, along with 20 dozen perogies!! On the airplane, he actually had a separate sports bag filled with coolers specifically for my food! I was VERY grateful for all of the goodies!!
The other night Dave & I got to enjoy some of the goodness. Here are some of the pics of the deliciousness! (I always love onions with my perogies, it’s just not the same without them!) The sausage (kubasa) shown is not the stuff my dad sent. It was the “Ukrainian Sausage” that I bought at Sobeys….. nothing like the real deal. I had a ring so I had to use it up!
Man – I love my heritage!
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2 comments:
Totally agree on the Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants!!! I'm so planning Pho for my trip home soon!!! although I've never heard of the Peaches & Shrimp...sounds deeeelish.
And I've never noticed that you can't get Good Host Ice Tea here...how weird!!
I'm intrigued by cabbage rolls with no sauce or meat? Sounds crazy! :)
That has got to make it tough being so far away from home from the style of Asian food you're used to having and not having the more a uthentic Ukranian food. From what I've heard from most people, it seems like each "area" has their own "style" of Asian cuisine that you get used to and any time you travel somewhere else it just isn't the same!
I had never even heard of bubble tea until I had it at that xmas craft fair and it was kinda "weird" with the little balls that I had no idea what they were and you told me they were tapioca balls! lol
I hope that you had a wonderful visit with your Dad and so happy he brought you some tastes from home!
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