Neil is what I like to call ‘careful with money’. He likes to call himself ‘frugal’. Read into that whatever you like, but the truth is he refuses to pay over the odds. Yesterday, at our local supermarket, a $95 bill was reduced to $53 with the use of coupons, club cards and a gift card. Neil was ecstatic. So was I, actually, having watched extreme couponing for the last few weeks. These people can get a $650 grocery bill down to 2 bucks. OK, they spend 50 hours a week collecting and cutting out coupons, even stealing them from the driveways of people they know are away and hours surfing the Internet, but, they accumulate a stockpile of things they don’t actually need, and hey, a bargain's a bargain.
The reason I’m wittering away about these facts is to help you better understand our dilemma today. We visited 3 new food carts, 2 of which Neil refused to buy anything on account of what he called ‘the overpricing of food that wouldn’t fill him up’. Therefore, Neil’s voice is going to be strongly heard in these reviews today, he has values and he wants them known.
First, after a long walk in absolutely pouring rain, we found ‘Feastro, the rolling bistro’. Even though the sky was grey with the ocean even darker behind, the actual truck shone like a brightly coloured beacon, advertising it’s menu inspired by far warmer and more tropical places. The menu was impressive with a lot of variety, (they note on their website that they have the most options of any street cart in the Vancouver area). Tacos, seafood, sides and home made dips. Very nice stuff. I ordered a soft shell taco with prawns and grilled prosciutto and looked over at Neil, hoping he would order the fish and chips. He looked at me determinedly and said, “I don’t want anything”. “What about my blog”? I shrieked, “This is in the name of research”! He waited until I got my taco and we had walked a distance away, out of earshot and then said “I have a story for your blog – there’s no way I’m paying $12 for fish and chips from a street cart, while standing in the pouring rain, when I can get the same for half the price in a warm, dry food court” I questioned why he didn’t get a cheaper $7 taco to which he stated he saw how small they were and wasn’t going to pay $7 for something that wouldn't fill him up. "But what about the quality"?, I responded. "This food is better than a food court". He answered "not necessarily ", and to top it all off, he lamented that Vancouver street carts are not getting the concept of street food. It should be cheap or reasonable. Why can’t it be like Portland? I agree with many of his points, but I think Vancouver will get there. Portland has so many carts (400 Downtown), that competition keeps the prices competitive. We’ll be the same eventually.
So, my taco: Prawn with Prosciutto. Yes, it was good. Very good. 4 large, succulent prawns, some Prosciutto not quite as crispy as I’d hoped, some guacamole, salsa and some battered, deep fried shredded vegetables were all very skillfully combined atop a taco. There were other people ordering, but their lunches were wrapped in foil to keep them warm, so we didn't get to see what they looked like. Wonderful food, not so wonderful prices. (That's Neil's voice again, although I have to agree).
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