Shopping South African Imports

Well friends, it has been a busy week so far and tomorrow (Sunday) I am getting a visitor so I will be busy for another week or so.  I went out today and had a very long day of shopping.  I was looking for some sheets (bed linens) as I have another family guest arriving tomorrow.  After that I ended up on an impromptu get together with a friend when I ran into her at a local coffee shop. We had a very long visit and needless to say I am ready to drop into bed, but first I need to get this post published.

Many of you seemed to enjoy my rather long list of "To Dos" posted for the last week of June. I did make excellent progress on the listed items in the short time I had.  Alas I did not have time to finish the "works-in-progress" or to start any new projects. What was I thinking?!  I don't know how I ever thought I would accomplish all that in one week but there's nothing like giving it a good effort, lol.  I won't likely have time over the next week either but after that things should settle down a bit and give me time to work on more enjoyable things (crochet, quilting and knitting).   I can't tell you how glad I am to have finished an enormous amount of work over the past few months. Now I hope to kick back a bit, enjoy my time with my niece and after that keep plugging away on on-going paperwork and crafting.

Antique store near 4th & Alma.

For those of you who read and enjoyed my post about outreach efforts in Kenya, I ask you to continue to pray for these efforts. Both for strength for those involved more directly in the work (Jonah and the missionaries and church volunteers) and education (Elvis) and for the funds to undertake and/or finish the work.

Today's post has a South African angle.

An interesting store in the area.

For a long time now I've been meaning to get over to what we call 4th Avenue (in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) to take a browse through a shop that imports and sells foods and products from South Africa.  I never seem to get over that way but just over a week ago I had an errand to run in that neighbourhood so I decided to stop there and see what was on offer.

The shop is called African Breese Imports and is located near Alma Street.  There is another location in the North Shore but that is much further away from where I live.

I had an ulterior motive in wanting to go to this shop. I happen to LOVE dried meat and had read on line that this shop sold 3 kinds of biltong (dried meat or jerky). I really love dried moose meat which you cannot buy in the store and is actually very hard to get these days.  I thought I might have a chance to sample some exotic meats from South Africa.

What struck me about the food and products on offer is just how global our world is these days.  Many of the snack products on offer are also available in Kenya and here in Canada. I recognized a lot of the chocolate bar brands, lol. I ended up choosing these snacks:  1 small bottle of bitters (I haven't tried it yet); 1 small chocolate bar called "TV Bar" and 1 small bag of biltong.



The biltong was very good and was seasoned with cilantro and a few others spices. I didn't get any exotic biltong (it was made of beef) because the wild game from South Africa cannot be imported for sale.  I should have known this would be the case because one can't sell moose meat in Canada either.

In any case, I did enjoy the biltong and will stop by and purchase  more whenever I get that way again.

If you happen to come to Vancouver you can find African Breese Imports at 3654 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BC.

Note:  I was not compensated for writing this review of the African Breese store. 

I'm linking with Our World Tuesday.

This view looks west. It is a just a few blocks from here to the site of  Vancouver's Annual Folk Festival.