$20 in Strathcona

During the spring/summer right before we got married, my husband and I had a nice Saturday morning routine going for a while: sleep late, eventually make our way out of the apartment and across the bridge, then hit Bee-Bell Bakery for breakfast and head to the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market for a little weekend shopping. Then the hectic last stages of wedding planning interrupted it, then the honeymoon, and then…and then…we never got back to it. To be honest, we’ve lived downtown for so long it doesn’t often occur to me to leave. So it seemed strange this past Saturday to wake up and head out and across the bridge, but it had been too long and had to be done.

One catch: a cheque we were expecting was delayed in the mail, and we realized Friday night that we only had $20 for the weekend. I like a challenge, though, so no worries.

The morning started, of course, at Bee Bell. The shop was bustling with the usual Saturday morning crowd, but the staff was doing a great job of keeping the line moving along at a good pace. I enjoyed the opportunity to inspect all the tasty treats behind the glass while waiting for my number to be called: pastries, muffins, cookies, rolls, croissants, and several varieties of bread. What I was after was the little display of hot treats hiding in the corner – distracting sweets be damned, my heart belonged to a warm, buttery, flaky sausage roll. YUM. I could probably live off of these and die happy.

After my husband secured a free coffee at the nearby McDonalds, we headed to the Farmer’s Market. I was nervous about being surrounded by so much amazing food with hardly any cash in my pocket, but I managed to appreciate the tasty scenery while only buying a couple items – a big bag of saskatoons (Allan’s favourite), and some perishke and dill cream sauce from Two Babas and a Stove, which honestly I don’t think I’ve ever managed to leave this market without. And, then, sadly, I hurried out before I made any hasty decisions; I still had another stop on my list.

So off we went to Coney Island Candy, a shop I’d read about but somehow never actually visited. I just finished reading a fascinating book called Candy Freak, which made me realize how much candy was out there that I was missing out on and just how wonderful it could be, so I’ve been pretty keen on picking up new goodies. Honestly I didn’t have high hopes for this store. I’d heard it was as much a novelty shop as a candy store, and I’m not really one for cheesy gag gifts and “naughty” adult items, but it was better than I’d expected. Fun atmosphere, HUGE wall of bulk candy (most of which I’d never even heard of), and best of all, an impressive collection of more obscure chocolate bars. I spotted a bar I’d only read about and didn’t even know was still being made – the Necco Skybar, which features four blocks of chocolate with 4 different fillings (vanilla, caramel, fudge and peanut). I snapped one up, as well as a handful of gummy Cola Pandas. The pandas were, of course, delicious, as any cola-flavoured candy is. The Skybar was alright – sub-par chocolate, but tasty, gooey fillings. Worth trying, at least.

On the way back to the car, we passed 2 Fat Frank’s stands, and by the second we’d lost any self control, at least as far as highly processed meats were concerned. We caved and shared the basic Jumbo Dog, slathered in sweet onion mustard and spicy chili sauce and sprinkled generously with onions. I took a big bite of it when we got back to the car, and discovered that it was both extremely tasty and extremely spicy. Luckily Allan was understanding and went back through the McDonalds drive-through to get me a giant root beer, adding at the end of the order “can I get anoth-er…a free coffee?” Smooth, honey.

At this point, somehow, we still had $5 and change, so instead of going straight home, we hit up someplace in our own neighborhood: Duchess Bake Shop. It’s a pretty little bakery – small but bright and welcoming, and filled with friendly staff and smiling patrons. Everything looked delicious, and there’s no way $5 could ever do this place justice, but for the sake of at least having a taste I grabbed a little assortment of macarons: salted caramel, rose, and lemon.

My favourite was definitely the salted caramel. It really nailed the texture; ever-so-slightly crisp on the cookie, soft gooey goodness inside, and creamy smooth caramel in the middle, not to mention the near-perfect balance of sweet and salty. The lemon was Allan’s favourite, unsurprising as he is possibly the single biggest fan that lemon meringue has ever had. Rose was the least favourite, but still certainly worth eating: delicately flavoured, and beautiful to look at.

All in all, a pretty good day on a budget. But I think every one of these places deserves a good, long revisit now that there’s some money in the bank…stay tuned for gluttony to come!

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