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Holiday food finds

> Delicious dishes for the winter season

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

he holiday season is a time when

everyone spends time with each
other. One of the things that everyone
will do during this time is eat food.
This year, there are holiday food
offerings in a variety of fast food
places, restaurants, and coffee shops.

Here are some of the holiday foods
that you can find in the Lower Mainland.

In Mcdonalds, they have their
Season’s Cravings menu, which highlight
the flavours of the season. One of the
big items in the menu is the Potato Rosti
and Bacon Burger. It has a beef patty
with a hashbrown—though they call it
a “Rosti”—cheese, onions, and a cheese
sauce. The hashbrown adds flavour to
the burger and the cheese sauce causes
the burger to be creamy. Also, they
have waffle fries which taste like the
potato wedges they used to have, and a
Turtles sundae, which has the taste of
everyone's favourite chocolate treat.

At Tim Horton’s, they have a lot
of minty options to choose from. One
of the items to highlight is the Mint
Fudge Brownie Doughnut, which has
a chocolate filling, a mint frosting,
and brownie pieces on top. They also
have a Chocolate Mint Filled Cookie
and Peppermint Hot Chocolate,
which is available in regular and
white chocolate. These food items

will cause your mouth to be cool.

The coffee shops in the Lower
Mainland have a lot of holiday drinks
to offer. All of them are bringing
back drinks that they offered in the
past few years. Here are some of
the holiday drinks to highlight.

In Starbucks, their holiday drinks have a
variety of flavours. There is the Caramel
Brialée Latte, which is a latte that has
whipped cream and caramel pieces. The
latte is very smooth, and the caramel
pieces cause it to be sweet. There is

a holiday version of their cold brew
coffee called the Spiced Sweet Cream
Cold Brew, which has sweet cream

and holiday spices in it. It tastes like a
latte, and it is delicious and creamy.

At Blenz Coffee they have holiday
drinks that are very sweet. One of
them is the Egg Nog Café Latte, which
is a latte mixed with egg nog. The egg
nog causes the latte to be very rich.

At Waves Coffee they have gourmet
holiday drinks with their Holiday
Classics menu. One of the holiday
drinks that they have is a Gingerbread
Latte, which has gingerbread and
a chocolate gingerbread cookie in
it. When you drink it, you will not
immediately taste the gingerbread,
but you will taste it after a few sips.

So, when it is snowing outside
or you spend time with someone,
you can eat holiday foods to
celebrate the holiday season.

And more!

( Holiday wine pairings

(¥ Mobile photo editing apps

Fear and loathing 1n a winter wonderland

> How to not be an ass during your holiday shopping

Brittney MacDonald
Life & Style Editor

 

he holiday season is supposed to be

a wonderful time of year that brings
people together and fills everyone’s
heart with joy—that is, unless you
work in retail. If you do happen to be
one of those poor, poor souls, then the
holiday season is a time of stress, insane
amounts of overtime, and frequent minor
workplace injuries. In fact, the only thing
that grows more than your collection of
bruises is the dread over having to do
it all again next year. As someone who
works in retail, | am here to tell you
exactly how you can avoid becoming
the bane of some mild-mannered
department store lackey’s existence.

To be clear, I am not here to judge.
As someone not entirely filled with the
Ho Ho Hos, I understand that the weight
of finding the perfect gift for everyone
on your list and having to battle your
way through your local mall to do so
can be incredibly stress inducing. I’m
just here to let you know what problems
a retail worker can’t fix for you.

1. There is no magical horde of things 3. Websites can be wrong. Never take
in the back room. If you ask if an item information available on a website as
is in stock, and the employee says no, gospel when it comes to what a store’s
then it’s not. You insisting that they inventory may be. If youre travelling
check in the back is generally a waste a long distance to hopefully pick up a
of their time and yours. Retail workers much desired item, there’s a magical
are not dragons so they are not device called a telephone. Calling
hording all the good stuff in the back and asking someone in the store if
so that you can’t buy it, that defeats they have an item ensures that it
the purpose of retail. However, if will be there when you arrive to buy
you ask if an item is in stock and an it, and if the employee is especially
employee replies that they might have nice, they might even set it aside for
it in the back, then youre a-okay! you. Getting angry and yelling when
Not everything can go on the shelf information on a website misled
at once, so asking is good—it’s the you won't help anything—you're
demanding that makes you a jerk. still not leaving with that item. All

2. Don’t get mad if they don’t know what youve done 6 make som ‘etalk Ise
youre asking for. Stores in general mrseraine FOO ane rnars foray

o. : not in the spirit of the season.
are large buildings filled with a lot
of stuff. If you only have a general 4. Don’t be mad if you get passed

idea of a very specific gift one of
your loved ones asked for, it’s not
the employee’s fault that they don’t
know what you need. If all you can
remember is “camera,” and not the
specific make or model that your
intended wants, don’t be surprised
if someone making minimum wage
can’t tell you the exact item to buy.

around. Larger department stores are
generally guiltier of this as opposed
to smaller outfits, but if one or two
employees get someone else to come
and help you, it isn’t because they
don’t like you. In general, people
working at a store will have a couple
different specialties; they might know
the items in one department really

well, but fail when it comes to any
other department. Sometimes, they
might just be there because they're
really good at sweeping floors—all
of that is normal. So if an employee
says they need to call someone

else to help you, don’t take it as an
insult. Sometimes you might have to
repeat your question four different
times to four different people, and
if you don’t think you can handle
that, then try shopping online.

Saying you're going to go somewhere
else isn’t a threat. With how busy
stores are during the holiday season,
every retail worker is secretly
hoping that you go somewhere

else, especially if you're the type of
problematic customer that uses this
phrase as a threat. Retail workers
are not company owners—they
don’t care if you take your money
someplace else, because they don’t
profit from you spending money at
their place of employment—that is,
unless they work on commission—
so they get paid whether you buy
that overpriced red toaster or not.

  

Photograph by Analyn Cuarto