The Richmond challenge should come with mandatory medical oversight, like the guy in Super Size Me who ate McDonalds for 30 straight days. Full medical tests before the 365 days begins, and checkups and blood work each month to ensure the participant isn’t actually putting his/her life in danger. You can go the gym all day, but if you are shoveling fried Chinese foods, duck fat, pork rind, kung-pow-chicken and egg-foo-yung down your pipe everyday, or spending your free time at Richmond’s infamous all-you-can-eat buffets, there is no gym, hot yoga or fitness fad that’s gonna save you.

I could never do anything like this because I’m too honest when it comes to restaurants, and I know too much about the PR biz, enough to know I could never be a indentured shill for a city’s tourism board for an entire year.

Big Wheel not on my radar. Heard too many bad things about it. And why take a chance when I can go to Pink Bike?

I plan to revive YRS from dormancy in a couple months when we take a trip down to San Francisco and Napa. Look for that trip report on my blog in mid-late April. I suspect the wine will be flowing at a good pace.

Keep on eating,
YRS

The city acknowledges the fact that eating out every day is unhealthy, and therefore have supplemented the offer with a year membership.

Cynical YRS indeed, sure it’s a PR stunt but I know secretly deep down inside there’s a part of you that may want to apply for this too. Hah

The job also states they are not looking for a critic. So essentially, the blogger would be tooting Richmond’s horn for all things positive. I never read Eat Magazines annual best-of list, last year was enough to make me steer clear of their dollar-biased “votes” and winners.

Haha vanity press, great term. Whatever happened to “any publicity is good publicity”.

Have you been to Big Wheel yet? There’s a case study.

The vacation stipulations and “at least once per day” is on the extreme side of things,

For a full year, you will be a slave to Richmond and its mostly Asian eateries. Can’t leave Richmond for an entire year. Can’t go on holiday. Can’t go visit my dying relative on the Island for a couple days cuz to do so would be in violation of the job’s contract (Is that even legal under BC labour laws!?). Not only that, but must blog EVERY SINGLE DAY about it, with photos and video and tweets and all that other social media crap to boot. Sounds a lot like the makings of Richmond’s answer to Sherman’s Food Adventures – that blog of pure daily drivel and grease drippings based in Vancouver.

Richmond dining for a year? I wouldn’t wish this sodium-cholesterol-duck-fat-MSG sentence on my worst foodie enemy.

Seriously, this is one of those careful-what-you-wish-for “opportunities.”

Great PR stunt by the Tourism Richmond, I’ll admit that much.

Still alive and ever cynical,
YRS

PS: Did you read Eat Magazine’s annual best-of list published in the current edition. In addition to it being mostly wrong, and rigged in favour of its advertisers, they had the utter gall to let their own magazine stand as first place in a couple of the categories. Not only an advertorial publication, but a vanity press, too! Ha!

Regarding the bread and tea, etc., for me, these things are not big deals, as tea and bread are not why I come to restaurants. And if they are, the bread is for soaking up sauces, and the tea is to cleanse your palate and have with something sweet anyway. Red Rose tea may not be the high quality, but it’s just what’s served in so many households, really strong and really sweet. About the mushroom, any mushroom grilled without oil will get dry and wrinkly, and this is why I don’t order kebabs but make them myself.

I’ve found most places I really love are amazing at certain dishes, but if you go back enough times and order a few different things, usually the odd meal is not as stellar as the one that knocked your socks off previously. Heck, sometimes it depends on who’s cooking. This for me is not a reason to write a restaurant off, but a reason to give them some polite feedback, and return to the dish I liked before.

As for the service, it just depends again on what’s important to you. I would consider Side Dish to have “no-frills” service, but it’s not rude. Perhaps your energy was a little negative, and may have influenced their energy towards you? Or, if you really don’t think so, perhaps it just depends on how much of a fuss you want. For the prices they charge, I wouldn’t think to expect a lot of fussing or fancy decor. They are just a simple, basic restaurant serving traditional food, and that’s all. I don’t think they are pretending to be more than that.

Chicken and chips, fish and chips is another famous fast food in Trinidad. Just to correct one of your statement, it is split peas and not lentil. This type of roti is called Dal Puri. Traditional to Trinidad and Tobago

I rate them 100%