Cross Border Food Tripping

It was my Birthday in May and my friend wanted to take me out for dinner in the city.  Days passed and no plans ended up happening.  Then he asked if I would want to go to Buffalo, NY for a couple of days to shop for clothes, which I have been in desperate need of and which I have been complaining about a lot.  Yes I have gained weight being at home and not having any stairs to climb like I used to when I lived in a house to offset some of the food.  In the past year I have not had to run for TTC to get to work and be limited in what and when I can eat and run up and down stairs in my house to do things like cook, laundry and whatever else needed to get done.  So I have gained weight over the past year,  well more like steadily over the past few years due to stress and other issues and now working on the food blog and experimenting with food more with both cooking and eating out isn't helping it.
 I always had enough clothes to wear because I could still find something to wear if I looked hard enough.  In my house I had a laundry room where I could hang my clothes so they lasted a lot longer.   Now my clothes are gradually shrinking to the point of not being wearable so I thought it might be a good idea to take a trip to Buffalo and see what they have there.  Remember the people in the U.S. are slightly larger than the rest of the people in the world.  Well maybe more than slightly, but anyway you would think that there would be a good selection of all kinds of sizes of clothes available for all of their residents to purchase.  Well maybe they fit on your body if you are lucky but you probably wouldn't want to be caught dead wearing them.

We started our day with a Big Breakfast at BOB EVANS,  I have never been there before, I used to go to Denny's when I went to Buffalo so this was a new place to me.

I ordered some kind of Biscuit breakfast with hashed potatoes.  With crumbled sausage and a white gravy and poached eggs.  The eggs were the only healthy thing on the plate but it was very tasty.

 Anyway, we went over to the Walden Galleria and the Outlet Mall and we stopped into the Boulevard Mall to say hi to my friends cousin so technically we didn't shop there.   We also hit some independent stores like TJ Maxx, SteinMart and Chico's.   After all of that I ended up getting 2 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes and my friend bought me some Hugo Boss sunglasses for my birthday.   This clothes shopping trip turned into more of a FOOD TRIPPING jaunt with us enjoying some really great food there.

First up was The Cheesecake Factory at the Walden Galleria where we had some excellent Steam Bun appetizers and a Tuna Tartare that we shared.  We then ordered this massive salad that we also shared and I can't imagine being able to finish that salad on my own.   Pretty healthy right?  Yeah and then we blew it by ordering 2 slices of cheesecake, it was the Cheesecake Factory after all so we had to try their namesake food.  We ordered Kahlua Mocha and a Key Lime Cheescake slices.   Oh so good and oh so bad for me at the same time.  It did fulfil my Gastropost mission of the week being Citrus.   The Key Lime was a bit soft and it kind of flopped over a bit but it still tasted good and there was a rainbow on it  just before we started eating it.  My friend asked them to put a candle in the Kahlua one for my birthday even though it was a couple of weeks before, we were finally getting around to having that birthday dinner.  I was stuffed.  We went to see "Now you see me" at the Mall afterward which was a good thing cause I was too tired to do anything else.  Yes we skipped the popcorn and junk food after that huge meal.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel, nothing special but it left us room to get some good food the rest of the day.

After trying to go to many different stores to find clothes and getting frustrated I was done with clothes shopping and it was on to food shopping instead.  My friend had a list of things he wanted to get at WEGMANS' supermarket.  That's all he shopped for except for the sunglasses for me.  I have never been to Wegman's so I was curious to see what they had there.  He said the one we were going to was better than the other ones.  WOW what a grocery store.  It was more like a Whole Foods.   It had a huge Organic section with even their own branded organic products like ketchup and mustard.  They also had a huge food bar with all kinds of food.  Italian, Chinese, salads, you name it.  Talk about a great buffet.

You could just go there if you have a bunch of people that can't decide what to eat.  They have a little eating area upstairs.  My friend was raving about the subs they have there so we split a small one and I got a container of Sushi just to have something small to fill us up a bit.   The sushi was so so but the sub was fantastic with a great Sesame bun.  It was an Italian sandwich and they added pickles to it for a nice tang.   Energy up and it was time to hit the aisles of the store.  They had so much great food that I couldn't buy because of border restrictions so I ended up just getting junk food and things like bread and some other things that I needed.   I spend about $50 and my friend spent about $200 on all kinds of things.  I can only imagine how much we could have spent if we could bring more things across the border.

A trunk full of Wegman's groceries

After shopping we were pooped and needed to get a good sit down meal before heading back home.  We went back to the Walden Galleria and headed to Gordon Biersch this time.  I never heard of this place before but it is kind of a Milestone's-ish type of place.   It was the afternoon on a monday so it was very empty in there.  I was still kind of full so I only ordered the Baja Tacos and my friend ordered a burger and garlic fries.   The fries were so good and garlicky that I ended up eating more of his fries than he did.  I am sure we both had lovely breath after that meal but it was totally worth it.

One last stop and then we headed to the border.  We had a 20 minute wait to cross the border so it was a good thing we weren't hungry.

So all in all my little shopping trip to Buffalo was more of a Food Tripping cross border food shopping trip, but it was great to try places we don't have here.   I just wish I could do more food tripping and check out more new places.

So if you decide to go do some cross border shopping don't forget to stop into The Cheesecake Factory or Gordon Biersch for a nice meal or stop into a Wegman's and go crazy.

Now I see why the people in the U.S. are larger.   Oh.. and by the way... if you hate Toronto's gridlock then go to Buffalo for sure... no clogged subways and hardly any road traffic and free parking.

No I am not getting paid by Buffalo Tourism but it's nice to see the differences in how cities are set up.

My junk food haul...but Organic ketchup, mustard and bbq sauce.. yeah I needed that part.   I also got Bread, Beets and Collard greens not seen in this pic.