Vermont Ski/Snowboard Trip - December 20, 2013

December 20, 2013 - Beginning of our Journey

Breakfast of the Champions at Cakewood Bakery & Cafe

Location: 1571 Sandhurst Circle, Scarborough, ON M1V 1V2

Time: 10:45 am

Party Size: 8

Price: $3.50 plus $0.50 upgrade to hot lemon tea, before tax

Food consumed:
- Ham and macaroni in soup

Pictures of food consumed: (Click on image to enlarge)

Review of Restaurant:
Your typical HK breakfast. Fast, cheap and 50 cents for a lemon tea? Since when do they charge extra for slices of lemon? I should have walked over to Food Basics which is a 2 mins swim through the sea of elderly people. They must have thought that we were all skipping school. "Those naughty school kids."

City of Toronto Inspection Report

(Click on image to enlarge)

Source: http://www.toronto.ca/health/dinesafe/index.htm?show=detail&id=113823

Perfect track record with only one inspection. This is suspicious since this bakery existed over 10 years ago. The name hasn't changed at all. What happened to the results from the past 2 years? Did they bribe the inspectors? So many questions and so little answers.

VERDICT: Approach with caution, nevertheless, passed my stomach test.

Car Ride Snack

Featuring: Potato Chips Takoyaki Flavour

Reasons not to buy this:

1. Made in China. Can never trust the QA with that country

2. Not even the real Japanese snack, it's a knock-off

3. Potato chips packed with instructions

4. MSG galore

5. Paid for lots of air

6. Excessive packaging

7. 280 calories

8. Why do you Shake and Roll? Shouldn't it be "Shake Shake Shake"?

Late Lunch at A&W (ONroute)

Location: 680 Highway 401 Eastbound, Mallorytown, ON K0E 1R0

Time: 4:00 pm

Party Size: 8

Price: $7.00, before tax

Food consumed:
- 2 buddy burgers - $1.75 each
- Mama burger - $3.50
(Tax tip: Make two separate order under $4 to avoid paying PST. Amount saved: $0.56)

Pictures of food consumed: (Click on images to enlarge)

Review of Restaurant:
Cheapest food around. I don't usually eat at A&W and wanted to give them a try. No stomach issue at this location. If you have A&W cravings, be sure to drive all the way to Mallorytown for their burgers because you know you can trust their food!

6:00 pm - We made it to the border at Cornwall, ON

9:49 pm - Made it to Costco at Colchester, VT but found out that it was closed. We were so close. Darn snow slowed us down. We just had to take a photo to show that we arrived.

We made it!

Trying to be Sam Fisher

Reason to buy Petzl Tikka XP 2 headlamp:
1. It's French engineering
2. Can be used to co-pilot with map in hand. The driver will feel like he is in a rally race. True story.
3. Used to help the driver back up in pitch dark when we were stuck on an icy road.
4. Can be used for camping or mountaineering.
5. Includes a rape whistle

9:54 pm - We drove across the street for Shaw's grocery store.

Facts about Vermont (summarized from Wikipedia):
- Second least populous state in US with more than 600,000 residents
- Canada's competitor for maple syrup. We make better maple syrup!
- Most populous city is Burlington (200,000 + residents) but capital is Montpelier
- Known for its ski resorts, thus tourism is an important economy for this state
- Food and clothing are exempted from sales tax

Super Late Dinner at Junior's Italian

Location: 85 South Park Drive, Colchester, VT 05446

Time: 11:30 pm

Party Size: 4

Food consumed (Click on image to enlarge):
- Sausage penne with marinara sauce - $11.95

Website: http://www.juniorsvt.com/

Review of Restaurant:
We arrived with only 30 mins before closing. It was snowing really hard outside so there weren't many people dining here on a Friday night.

The pasta was very watery and the sausage was undercooked. There is still some pink. My friend's meatball was also undercooked. Might have been because we rushed them but they should still cook it thoroughly so we don't end up suing them for causing stomach upsets. This is Murica after all.

December 21, 2013
December 22-23, 2013
December 24-25, 2013