Mexican Food and Guacamole: Canadian Discoveries in California #2

So there is definitely no Mexican food. in Canada. At least not much. In Canada, you found “authentic” Mexican food at a fancy upscale restaurant pretending to serve exotic food. They got away with it because no one really knew what Mexican food actually was or tasted like.

I guess it’s understandable. Much like Apple being in Cupertino and having more Californian users because of its location, Mexican food is probably popular because Cali is so much closer to Mexico.

When I got to Berkeley, I was overwhelmed by the amount of burritos, beans, and especially guacamole that was everywhere. Chipotle introduced me to guacamole (supposedly Chipotle used to owned by McDonald’s. Why couldn’t thy just change all their golden arches to mass produced burrito joints?!). To me a few months ago, guacamole probably meant a yucky ugly mole or something. Now it is synonymous with the most delicious thing that could come as a side for anything–Mexican food, sandwiches, Chinese food, pizza, chips, bread, feet (jay kay. but not.), everything. I’ve seen it all. I am now convinced anything tastes good with guacamole, especially if it’s served with even more guacamole!

Thank you, California, for introducing me to flavoured mashed avocado! Who knew I’d find love with a green mush? Now if they could only invent guacamole bubble tea, I think my life would be perfect.

Well, maybe not.

Follow my food adventures at Misplaced Canadian.

discoveries

bean, berkeley, burrito, california, canada, chipotle, food, guacamole, mcdonalds, mexican, pinto, salsa

July 4, 2010

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Apple and its fanboys: Canadian discoveries in California #1

Aaaaah, Apple. Technology’s equivalent of Chanel. Kind of.

When I was blissfully ignorant in Toronto, I remember thinking of Apple as kind of a joke. Who really used Apple? We all knew everyone who was even semi smart had a Windows computer. That was just the image.
Granted, we were users of iPods. I guess it’s because playing music was such a simple task that we were comfortable with using simple machinery. But with something like your grade eleven English essay? No way were we trusting that to multicoloured pieces of plastic (because, really, that’s how Apple sold stuff). We NEEDED complicated technology. At least, it’d be nice to be able to right click.
As for iPhones, they weren’t really sold in Canada at first. As always, our American brothers forgot about their country’s hat, and we were neglected at its release date. Eventually, the iPhone slowly crept into our pockets, but not extremely successfully. Again, it seemed a bit gimicky and too pretty for Serious Business.
Don’t shoot me, but we liked our Blackberries.

In California, especially near Silicon Valley, it was a whole new ball game. (Of course. No one plays hockey in Silicon Valley.) Apple’s fanboys are in full force. When a new Apple toy comes out, there are swarms. We get those swarms like that in Toronto too, but usually only when Justin Bieber is visiting MuchMusic headquarters downtown.
Every chic/prep/hipster/techie/surfer/douche/geek has a macbook. It doesn’t matter what stereotype you are, you have a macbook. And if you visit Starbucks or some indie cafe, expect the macbook count to increase exponentially. Now, if you’re REALLY hardcore, you also have an iPad. Because one Apple computer isn’t enough. You need to have the giant iPhone as well. Kind of pointless, because you also have the real iPhone in you pocket. And I’m not just talking about the fanboys. Every regular person has a macbook and an iPhone and you’d better take him seriously or he’ll crush you into submission with his 24″ high colour mac monitor.

And the best way to tell that Apple is winning here in Berkeley? When you see the local hobos carrying macbooks.

Comment and vote Apple or PC at Misplaced Canadian :]
(PS I have a MBP currently but I’ve Windows the great majority of my life. It’s a long love-hate story.)

discoveries

apple, berkeley, bieber, blackberry, cafe, california, canada, chic, douche, fanboys, geek, hipster, hobo, indie, ipad, ipod, justin, mac, mob, monitor, muchmusic, phone, prep, silicon, skate, Starbucks, surf, tech, toronto, valley

June 27, 2010

5 Comments

What am I doing in California?!

It all started with my Asian parents.

They liked education as much as the next Asian parents, so they decided that I’d go to a good university. Come grade eleven, they gave me an intimidating list of universities to apply to, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and Yale. The grand total was nine univeristies. It was eight to begin with, but they threw Berkeley in as an afterthought. Oh, and all the top Canadian universities were “safeties”.

As a perpetual underachiever, I didn’t manage to get in anywhere besides my safeties, except Berkeley. It’d have to do. I got shipped to Californian much to my delight.

Coming from cold Toronto, I was excited for my Californian higher education. Sun, beaches, surfing, scorching weather, tanning, and, of course, hot surfing lifeguards were on the agenda, not to mention Hollywood and stalking celebrities. Shows like the OC educated me on what to expect.

So imagine my surprise when I arrived Berkeley and it was cold, wet, and too hipster for surfing. After surviving my first year in Berkeley, as well as internships in San Francisco and Stanford, I have collected several discoveries and widsoms about California. I’ll compile them here, along with new ones as they come.

So as they say in the OC theme song… California, here I coooome!

misc

berkeley, california, canada

June 25, 2010

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