Friday, December 15, 2023

Scarborough Town Centre Beef Patty

I grew up in Scarborough, the east district of Toronto. The biggest mall in Scarborough is Scarborough Town Centre a place where a person or family could shop, watch a movie, meet up with friends and also take public transportation. One of the best things about taking public transportation at STC, was that it was a bus and subway terminal for getting around the city. Unfortunately, once you paid to get inside the terminal you weren’t allowed to enter the mall to buy food if you were hunger. Fortunately in the 90’s they added a small little stand on the corner so that transit users could buy a snack, a newspaper, lotto, cigarattes and coffee (I’m sure a lot of people bought them all at once, lol). My favourite was the beef patty at STC because it was delicious, cheap and a quick meal when you were in a hurry trying to race from one bus to another bus or train. Anyways I recently had the chance to go back to STC and thankfully the same little stand was still there with the mustache owner. Beef patties are now $2.50 and as always are handed to you nice and warm in a white paper bag. Despite the subway now being gone, I’m glad that I can still get my beef patty at STC.

Scarborough Town Centre: https://scarboroughtowncentre.com

YouTube: https://youtu.be/61taH9awYOQ


Monday, December 11, 2023

Nike SB Dunk Low Black Gum

Well, I have to confess something. I haven’t bought a new pair of Nike SB dunks in a long time. It’s not because I don’t like them anymore, or that I quit collecting. Rather it’s because I hated the maze you had to go through in order to buy a pair. I’m in Canada, so people from outside of the United States will understand our struggle. Where certain sneakers don’t release in our region and so we end up having to buy them from an American online website (reseller sneaker price, shipping, import fees, US dollar exchange rate = a lot more than I’m willing to pay). And even the shoes that do release in Canada often sellout within minutes in limited quantities. So after taking a significant amount of L’s, I decided to just stop following the new releases and wear the sneakers that I already had. However I ran into a problem with that as well, where most of my SB collection had risen in value and so I just couldn’t bear wearing anything worth over $300 and above.

So fast forward to this year (2023) and I suddenly wanted to start wearing dunks again, after collecting Adidas sneakers that past few years. While most issues hadn’t changed as far as SB dunks selling out quickly, thankfully Nike was releasing a couple of dunks that were meant to stay constantly available at retail; the Black Gums and White Gums. There is some history towards these sneakers which I don’t care to explain, but I will say that I bought the black gums this summer. As soon as I bought them I was immediately reminded about why I fell in love with SB’s; the quality, the comfort and the style. My only complaints about this release is that the nubuck will get dirty when water touches it, and that they fit a little snug (so I recommend you go up half a size in these). Other than that, these are the perfect sneakers for anyone that wants to wear SB’s and can buy them at retail without any stress.