Halifax - the food

Next stop on our journey was Halifax, a much smaller and gorgeous town in Nova Scotia. You wouldn't think the food here would be fantastic...but we still had some really yummy meals. First off, we thought that some pub grub was appropriate, and went to the cute little English pub a block away from our hotel called the Henry House. Here we started off with the amazing artichoke and spinach dip that you fine in most places that I grew quite in love with but made me fat. I had a yummy vegie currie soup for main, while Jay had an almost artistic looking salmon sandwich.

Unfortunately, I was quite sick in Halifax so we didn't get to explore too much here, but we also had a lovely meal down on the waterfront at a cafe/bar called....Highly recommend this place.

You can't get much better than fabulous cocktails, good vegie pasta/polenta in the sun, looking over a goregous harbour with good company. I must work out how to make their white sangria though, absolutely perfect. It would be fabulous for spring/summer drinks in Canberra. It had the following ingredients: Bianco Vermouth, Limoncello, Fresh Strawberries, Basil, Homemade Lemonade, a splash of Prosecco.

 

Vegie Poutine in Toronto

I suppose I should put up one photo of Poutine on this blog...though as this one was vegetarian and gluten free, I am sure my Canadian friends would say it doesn't count :p

Back in the land of pop :)

Toronto - the beer....

As you will have seen from my photos, Toronto has an amazing historic distillery district with some gorgeous architecture. Jay was probably, however, more impressed with the brews on offer inside at the Mill Street Brew Pub :) I had to settle for more yam fries after explaining to the confused waiter that I don't drink beer despite being at a brewery.

Osheaga rock festival in Montreal

Toronto - the food

Time to finish my food blog posts from Canada.....if I can remember where we went...oops sort of rand out of steam at the end there.

We had probably one of the best meals of our trip in Toronto (and no Jay didn't have to eat cabbage). It was at a vegan restaurant called Fressen - which was also helpfully a few blocks away from the local 80s/goth/industrial club. 

To start with, we shared the eggplant manicotti. I must try and make these. Quite similar to an eggplant cannelloni I make.

Then it was on to mains...with crusted tofu for Jay and a gluten free corn pasta for me. Jay's looked like an art work that he really shouldn't haven't eaten. Mine though less beautiful tasted absolutely incredibly, and was definitely the best GF pasta I have ever had at a restaurant.

Despite Jay's cabbagetown-angst, I must also just report that there is a fabulous pub there, amongst the crazy junkies, called House on Parliament - probably more for meat eaters, but great looking pub fare, cocktails and of course beer....

I had a brilliant Pimm's Cup with a golden beet salad (never had those before, very yum!). This was also the only place in North America that Jay and I saw a wine class with a line as in Canberra....

I ended up finding a copy of the Canadian Constitution - in an incredibly unusual way.

We're back. Well, not completely home yet, but in Sydney, and the dreaded jetlag has struck. Our flight from Ottawa to Vancouver was on time, but the flight from Vancouver to Sydney was delayed. Lots of tired and grumpy Australians waiting at the gate, past midnight, including us. Fifteen hours after takeoff we were back in Sydney, and it didn't take long to get out of the airport and into the first direct sunshine for about 31 hours. Ottawa is a bloody long way away.

I quite liked Ottawa. Posts probably didn't sound all that enthusiastic but I think this was because I was getting a bit tired, as well as being conscious of the looming flight home.

But here's a story.

The other day, I moaned about how I couldn't get a copy of the Canadian Constitution from the bookshop in the Houses of Parliament (there are many, many, MANY things that differentiate Canadians from Americans, in my observation, and knowledge about their founding documents is one of them - you face societal ostracision in the US if you can't quote chapter and verse, but in Canada, nobody seems to know much about them). I followed this up with inquiries at a few large bookshops in the centre of Ottawa, as well as the bookshop at the Museum of Civilisation, which had an exhibition/display on Constitutional development, but no copies of same document available for purchase. I comforted myself with the thought that my enquiries might prompt these institutions to stock some copies for future customers - even though it wouldn't do anything for me.

Anyway, so we're at the departure gate in Ottawa, waiting to leave, and I'm wearing my Icelandic 'brennivin' t-shirt as I always do when flying. This guy sitting opposite me asks about it, because his wife is Finnish. I engage in conversation, and he instantly thinks I'm British (my accent isn't Australian enough? -struth!) but I correct him, and we get onto talking about Australia which is where he guest lectures sometimes. We get on to talking, and soon enough we're talking 'what we did in Ottawa' and I mentioned the tour of Parliament and how I couldn't get a copy of the Constitution from the bookshop. Expecting him to stare blankly at me, or wonder what planet I was from, he said "give me your email address and I'll post you a copy - I'm a Senator".

How weird. I mean, how *unbelievably* weird. He really is a Senator - Vern White, from Ontario. Good thing I said nothing about politics as he's from the 'wrong' side of the spectrum, but a very nice man with a highly distinguished record of public service. And as he was rattling off all these career achievements (including outgoing chief of Ottawa Police - but not in a boastful way, mind you) I felt myself lapsing into the Australian 'tall poppy' reaction and started thinking to myself 'this guy can't possibly have done all those things', but it turns out he has.

It's a shame *that* flight couldn't have been delayed, because soon enough the flight was called, but I'd have loved to chat a bit longer about similarities and differences between our two systems.

Anyway, I've sent him my address, so hopefully a copy will soon arrive in the post.