Doggone It

Monday morning, I walked to my checkup; one reason why I chose this AirBnB in the Bloordale area. Although I should return to my room and work remotely, I haven't been that motivated since the pandemic. Luckily, my company has not installed monitoring software (that I know of). A potential lunch fell through as my friend had a last-minute emergency. A co-worker had a death in the family and they wanted to drop by and offer emotional support.

So I wandered down to regular spot Le's Sandwich on College St. I bought some vegan dishes to take back to Ottawa and chatted with the owner. Their daughter graduated just before the pandemic in the summer of 2019. She was doing contract work but has now found permanent employment. Oddly enough, it was remote work for an Ottawa company.

I should also have bought a banh mi from Le's but I wanted to try a new take-out place at Bloor and Lansdowne called Saigon Sandwiches. It replaced Indian Home Cooking, a mediocre place that I only visited once. With better options at Dosa Mahal, Vena's Roti, Queen of Patties, and new-comer Roll and Bowl, Home Cooking was an also-ran. Unfortunately, Saigon was a dud. They won't last long if they don't improve quickly.

The two workers (co-owners?) looked like they've never operated a professional kitchen. With my order of a Chicken Banh Mi ($8.25) and a Viet Fried Dog ($5.25) and 1 other customer in the store, they changed disposable gloves close to 10 times. You don't need the extreme frugality (and questionable sanitation) of re-using plastic gloves several times (like at much missed spot Qian He Chinese Pancake) but inefficiency was a sign of other problems.

A traditional banh mi includes a strong-tasting pâté spread. This works when they (used to) cost $2 and had cheap meat. When you have nicer ingredients like grilled-to-order chicken, slathering on the pâté killed all other flavour. The condiments and baguette were sub-par, too. Deep-fried hot-dog and mozzarella wrapped in rice paper and breading sounded like a fun alternative to Korean corn-dogs. But when the cheese did not melt (and was at room temperature) and you were wondering if you are eating raw hot-dog, it didn't make for a good lunch. The saving grace was with 10%-off for cash and the fried dog being a daily special ($3.99), lunch was less than $15.

I didn't get a chance to find a good place for dinner. I dropped by my friend's restaurant to inquire about her co-worker's state of mind and catch up on personal news. I was also seeing if her spare bedroom was available for future visits, at least until her brother immigrated to Canada. But since last time, a distant cousin was now living there temporarily. I bid farewell and walked back to the AirBnB, grabbing some pizza from 241 Pizza on the way.