La Grotta Del Formaggio + Dolce Amore + Chinese food in China

Okay fine. I didn't get to update the last place I went to the day before I left for China, and since it's finally the weekend and I have some time in the morning, I guess I'll write a little something something. La Grotta Del Formaggio, meeting up with Kevin from 604Foodtography to make up for flaking out on him when I got sick;

Really, we were supposed to be going out to grab some pupusas, but both being rather uninformed (I don't think anyone reads information anymore ._. Just a theory), we didn't realize that it was open only in the afternoon. Alright. That's fine. Lets grab a sandwich. The sandwich shop also sells a multitude of specialty cheese and imported European snacks.

It's a make you own sandwich set-up, with good prices. : )

With many fresh and quality preserved veggie ingredients.

preparing....

Sandwich! Consisting of Montreal style smoked meat, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and all the preserved veggies. Neither of us were extremely hungry, and we wanted to try other this and thats as well, so we ended up splitting a half focaccia (if you're reading, pronounce this for me, right now. Go on. Try it. Because both of us got it wrong when ordering. Ah. The educated.... : 3)
I wish they had more places to sit outside. Unfortunately, all the spots were taken, and a bum was occupying the only nearby bench. Thus, we walked over to TimmyHo's, I grabbed my obligatory coffee (off topic: I have not grabbed one coffee over here in China. Be proud of me.), and we sat down to eat our sandwich.

I wish we had eaten it straight off the grill. Because of the wait time, it was a little softer/damper. Not the eateries fault. I know it's been said that this place makes the most amazing sandwiches, and I really wish my personal tastes could agree. But really.. I thought the preserved veggies and smoked meat in combination were too salty for my tastes. I really much preferred the sandwich I bought from Mario's, which now that I think about it, was really quite good....
However, this wasn't bad by any means, and I hope you don't read it that way. It just wasn't to my personal tastes ._.

Of course, mandatory dessert (look up: being female). I got the hazelnut gelato...

And Kevin went for "Lime-etta".

Hazelnut beats out lime any day ; D.
My apologies, I don't remember the gelato shop we stopped at, but I did enjoy it.
You can be assured though that it wasn't the gelato shop beside La Grotta though, as they denied us any seating, although we had stated we'd buy icecream after, and there were many free spots outside. Take that!
..ahah..hah; hah.

This is what I sound like when I write at 6am in the morning.
Naw. But I really shouldn't hold that against them. I understand why;;

Anyways, it was a very nice way to say goodbye to Vancouver, and thank you to Kevin for bringing me out : )

edit: My bad. Kevin very kindly found out that the gelato shop we visited is called "Dolce Amore". Very nice tasting gelato.

La Grotta Del Formaggio:

Food:

• If you're a fan of heavily salted preserved vegetables, you will love this sandwich. 
• Decent bread
• Lots of variety in what you can create

Service:

• The woman at the station was very patient with us, despite our indecision

Atmosphere:

• n/a?
• Great lunch spot on a sunny day.. if you can find a spot to sit.

Also: Special bonus picture that I don't wish to make an extra post for, because it's really not a very good picture. This is Beijing Jiaotong University Canteen food. : ) I know the picture doesn't do any justice, but this meal is huge. Huge. See where all the strange fried looking meat is? Among them is a rather large egg. So think of an egg, and then think of the scale. All this was 8rmb. In Canadian that's $1.23. Okay, so it's about the equivalent in tastes with something from maybe a food court chinese place, but I'm not complaining. : )

Also, a fancy large dinner at a restaurant equivalent to say... Sun Sui Wah, but with hardcore service is $6.38 Canadian.

Food is cheap here to say the least, and you all should be jealous. ; D

I could upload more China food if you guys would like? : ) Maybe some street food?