Lunch at T&T

Yesterday's grocery run plan:

• Head to Costco to buy a bunch of snacks that are on sale
• Grab stuff for hot pot at T&T
• Eat lunch at T&T
• Get home in under an hour and a half

What really happened:

• Spent not even 10 minutes in Costco; snacks were sold out
• Spent over 2 hours in T&T; lots of pointless waiting

Instead of shopping in T&T first, we were going to eat but when we went to order some dim sum, we were told that the shrimp siu mai would be ready in 20 minutes. And so we went back to our original plan: shop first; eat later.

When we were walking around, I saw a kid snacking on a hot dog on a stick. But it was topped with green onions. How intriguing!

I wandered over to the former bubble tea stall. It has since been converted into a snack stand selling drinks, ice cream, Taiwanese-style sausages, and even jianbing. Jianbing is a breakfast crepe that's eaten on the streets in China.

They were selling a variety of snacks like this Taiwan-style sausage. For only $3, you could get it dressed with a variety of things. Since we had time to kill, I bought one so that we could snack on it while we waited to eat lunch.

As I was waiting in line, I noticed that the gentleman and the older lady were training a younger lady.

When it was my turn, I asked for a spicy sausage with black pepper paste, garlic, and green onions. The lady cut down the center of the sausage to fill it with stuff. It tasted really good. It tasted sweet at first, then the heat from the black pepper paste washed over the palate, then the garlic, then more sweetness from the sausage, and then finally the cayenne pepper kicked in. The sausages reminds me of the sweet Vietnamese version of Chinese sausages that we eat with congee. Andrew and I were very impressed with how good and addictive it was.

We shopped some more, taking our sweet time snaking down the aisles. Mom checked in on the dim sum and they said it still wasn't ready yet. At this point, Andrew and I were getting impatient. We knew the shrimp siu mai wouldn't be worth the wait. I went back to the snack stand to get some milk tea (without tapioca pearls) to enjoy with our lunch.

The. Service. Was. So. Slow.

The gentleman and younger lady were making the drinks people ordered, while the older lady was making the jianbing. I turned my attention to the older lady making the crepes before I began to lose it.

She was much more efficient with her actions, whereas the trainee looked unsure of every move she made while making the drinks. It didn't look like that was any urgency from the trainee.

Once both milk teas were handed to me, I rushed back to meet Mom and Andrew. They had just started to eat. I just wanted to eat, pay for our groceries, and go home.

Discounted noodles and vegetarian spring rolls.

There were also two orders of shrimp siu mai. This is half an order. 

We've tried their dim sum items before and it was quite lacking. We were eating there for the convenience. You can tell from the photo how processed the siu mai was. It was definitely not worth the wait. The filling definitely had a lot of cornstarch or something.

The milk teas were on the weak side. I think the only place that makes a great version in Ottawa is at My Sweet Tea.

After lunch, we grabbed a few more things and then checked out.

Oh yeah, I got two boxes of Melona bars! Mom was pretty sure they were cheaper at the Superstore, but I bought them anyway because we weren't going there. Turns out the savings would've been about a dollar at the Superstore. Dammit! I could've used that dollar to buy an iced coffee or extra large fountain drink at McD's. I'm just not at that level of being "smart with my money," as Mom likes to say.

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Side story:
After having brunch at Stoneface Dolly's today (more on that later), VN and I went to buy some Melona bars at the Westboro Superstore. They were all sold out -- of course. I asked for a raincheck but the lady at the customer service desk said that she won't give us one because it wasn't in their flyer. "It is in the Superstore flyer at home! It's on a 'World Flavours' page." I told VN. "I swear, I'm not going crazy." I'm not sure why I was so determined to get the raincheck.

I got on my phone and tried to check the online flyers.

Nothing. There wasn't any "world flavours" section in either the in-store flyer or online flyers. I even checked the regular Loblaws' flyers. Again, nothing -- and yes, I did search the Ottawa flyers. I was so frustrated. "I'll send you a photo of it when I get home," I vowed.

Boom. How is it that the "World Flavours" section is totally missing from the in-store flyer and online flyer? Brutal.

I guess the lesson is to bring the flyers you have with you.