Category Archives: Reviews

Smitty’s Restaurant, Southgate

After Church yesterday we went to Smitty’s in the south of Nanaimo as it had been recommended to us.We went in and after ordering our coffee and meal, we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, we asked a server if our food would be arriving shortly and her answer was “oh I heard there was a 20 minute wait as of 5 minutes ago. We have already been waiting for about 30 minutes. Oh well. There is a young couple in my direct sight-line and this is where we are going to remain. You won’t believe it but I swear it is all true.

The food arrives at their table. Before the plate for his companion was placed, he was stuffing whole slices of bacon in his mouth. Not biting, but stuffing, pushing into the one cheek. Not having even finished chewing on the first one, he is now pushing the second one in. Oh my goodness! But wait, a third piece of bacon is now going in.

He has three eggs on his plate, with 4 half slices of toast. You can’t possibly guess what is going to happen now. He takes a nibble of the toast to remove the corner. Puts an egg on top of the remaining slice, and PUSHES the entire thing in his mouth. He looks like he is going to explode, but surprise, surprise! He doesn’t even choke.

He has shredded potatoes on his plate. I am not exaggerating when I tell you this. He tries to push the entire order of hash browns on his fork and SHOVEL it into his mouth all at once. The shreds are hanging down from his mouth to his plate and he just keeps pushing it in. OMG!

Now back to egg number two. Same procedure, nibble off the corner, place an egg onto the toast and shove it in all in one piece. Egg number three is fast behind. Again, the same procedure.

Now he has sausages (3 I think). One at a time, he pushes the entire sausage into his mouth, following as fast as possible with the next.

There are still potatoes on the plate and he just pushes it all on the fork and, again, it dribbles on the plate from his mouth. Disgusting!

Now, he has about 4 slices of very thin, very large pieces of ham. He picks it up and tries to get one piece in his mouth all at once. Almost! This too is hanging.

Never to mention he is not consistent, the remainder pieces of meat are shovelled in the same way. Whew! He has finally finished this (I think)…..no, he reaches over to the lady’s plate and grabs a fistful of her french fries and pushes them in his mouth.

For your  information, the lady sitting across from him has said nothing, keeps her head down and finishes eating.

There! Oh no, we are not done yet. He has ordered a very large cinnamon bun (looks like). He stabs his fork into the middle of it and pulls it apart. Yup! He tries to push,  shovel and poke it into his mouth. He really looks like a balloon ready to explode. Now, before you can blink, he shovels the rest of the bun in.

I wanted to go over and offer my apologies to his mother. If he asks why, I would have replied because she never taught you ANY manners at the table.

Don can tell you this is true. He even caught a glimpse of the nonsense.

Okay, I have vented but I am appalled at what I watched. I hope the lady with him just runs away. I forgot to mention, after each of these episodes, he put all ten digits into mouth, one at a time and licks them from the fingertip to the hand. The lady passes him a napkin and he just puts it aside. To also show how classy he is, when he stands up, he tosses a $20 on the table towards the lady. She passes it back to him, pays the bill and they leave.

Our food now has arrived. I ordered the cinnamon swirl pancakes. The pictures always look larger, and I never dreamt I would get the size of this order. One could have been cut in half and shared with another. Three of them? Not a chance. No wonder the populace is expanding in size. This was so sweet, it could put you in a coma for a week.

Don ordered eggs benny (his favourite) and the hashbrowns were burnt all around the edges.  All in all, it was quite the escapade. Maybe, just maybe, we will return.

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My husband’s Lovely Cousin/Family

These are my thoughts to share about family, cousins not seen for awhile and general travel into the State of Washington.

My husband has a cousin he met again about six years ago when we attended his Uncle’s funeral. They were best friends when younger and I was so glad they got together again. Then about 4 years ago, Pauline came to Canada to visit with us and she is so delightful, I wanted a repeat visit so this week we got in the car and drove (get this) over about 15 different highways, got lost, got back on the right road and, eventually, we found her. I will never know how people can drive on these freeways every day, to and from work, and think it is normal, Sheesh!

Now for the good parts….When we arrived, we enjoyed catching up with everything and then enjoyed a lovely supper of pulled pork sandwiches and chilled salad with the PROMISE of ice cream later. We were too stuffed at this point. Pauline, we are still waiting for the ice cream, ahem!

Oh, just to mention that when you are visiting some one else and staying over, ask if they drink coffee. Just joking Pauline! NOT…this family does not drink coffee or tea, so off we go and are going to buy a pound of coffee, only to find, no coffee pot in the house. Says me “instant’ is fine, after all we are only there for such a short time. I actually did.

The next day we had a slower start and headed off to the Chihuli Glass Museum and spent a bit of time there and then headed for home. We did stop off at Appleby’s Restaurant for a light lunch and off to get ready for the party tonight. Pauline made the very best enchiladas I have ever eaten and perhaps would not eat any other recipe. These were perfect and I am going to post this perhaps tomorrow. Then we had refried beans and a Mexican-style rice dish to accompany these. Sorry, I forgot the actual name but I will also post that recipe as well.

Pauline has to be the easiest, most accommodating person I know and is so much fun to be with. The night is to be shared with her brother and his wife, and her son and his wife and their two teenage children. The most outstanding feature of this crowd are the two teenagers. So well behaved and, yes, they are very bright students. The lad is into Math and his sister is a remarkable soccer player. You saw them but never heard them until they were spoken to. WOW! Polite? Absolutely.

The conversations (and there were several) flowed freely and the laughter was loud and long. It was so much fun, it was truly a highlight of the summer so far. I honestly hope the friendships made this week will flourish long into the future. If it wasn’t for the freeways, I would want to be near them. Oh, wait….silly me! They could all move up here. I will work on that.

It was such an experience…not harsh words, no bad words and no nasty  ‘gossip’. Loved, loved, loved it. Only animated conversations and  lots and lots of laughter.

Okay Pauline, the next visit is up to you. Hitch a ride with the others and we could do it all again. Please?

 

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