A fond memory I have growing up was walking to a restaurant in what seemed to me to be the middle of the night. I was young and it was dark out and I remember that my parents and my cousins decided to go out to a restaurant that was within walking distance. I thought it was pretty awesome because it was after 10pm and we were going out to eat. There are two things that I remembered eating that night and they are some things that I try and always order when I get the chance. The first is salt and pepper squid. The kids love this and we will always order either salt and pepper squid or tentacles whenever we see it on the menu. It is one of our staple orders that I still do to this day. The other one that I love is clams in black bean sauce. This one is a bit trickier as not everyone likes it, so it is not something that I can eat all on my own now. As a kid I always wanted to order these and if it was not on the menu I would ask my parents if we could order it. Chinese restaurants are different, as they have secre menus and things written on the walls in these large scripts that are not present in the english/chinese menus that they hand out. You need to be able to read the calligraphy on the walls to know that you can order it. Food was always something that was important to my family growing up and it is something that they did not skimp on. I remember my parents spending hundreds of dollars on shitake mushrooms and them going to specialized stores to buy the best ones. My parents always told me to buy good ingredients and when they see me buying things now that is not up to par, they are sure to tell me. As a child I remember going to Wonderland, and going to the zoo, frequenting the Eaton Center, but the memories that are my fondest are going out to eat. My cousin would seem to know people and be able to get us tables when the restaurants were full. Tables would be setup and shifted around to make room for us. I am not sure how she did it, but she always told me to just keep my mouth shut.
When we travel now with my current family my kids tell me that it is all about the food. It is a tradition that I have kept alive and something that Mel and Olivier love to do as well. Xavier and I are dropped off at the arena while Mel and Olivier go gallivanting looking for a hidden gem. Today we went to Manitoulin island with two goals in mind. We were going to have a picnic lunch where we would eat the smoked whitefish dip I made and we would get some fish and chips for dinner. Everything else we were going to make up along the way. On the drive Mel started to look up things and we found a local bakery that made sourdough bread that was close enough to where we planned to go. We always go to Bridal Veil falls and I had wanted to try and walk the river trail from the falls down to the lake. We did not bring the wheelchair and I wanted to try and push myself. I figured that I could make the walk. Mel also identified a new chocolatier that created chocolate from beans. This was obviously something that interested us as well. When we arrived at Bridal Veil unfortunately the river trail was closed and we went back to the top and we found an empty parking lot. Traveling to the falls themselves was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I used my walking sticks and Mel and Xavier went behind the falls to take some photos. We also tried to recreate some similar photos to ones that we had taken before. Every visit that we have made to the island we run into people we know. At the bakery we ran into one of Xavier’s former hockey team makes who recognized me and we had a quick chat. He was picking up some bread and they lived just a couple of houses down from the bakery that was in the middle of nowhere. We ended up spending over $100 at this small bakery and it was totally worth it. After going to Gore Bay for chocolate, we went to the Gore Bay bluffs and had our lunch and then went to the boardwalk. Walking down the boardwalk by the beach was nice and we proceeded to go have some fish and chips. As we were eating all day the kids were not hungry so we decided to share a 2 piece fish and chips. The wait was 40 minutes so it worked out well for us. After sharing the food we went to 3 cows and a cone for ice cream before heading home. Overall it was quite the fun day that went by quickly where we were doing things all day but nothing felt rushed or us spending too much time anywhere. The kids enjoyed the trip and we came up with some fun ideas for the future. At the end of the day my legs are shot from all of the walking and I am fatigued. I do not mind it though as I am trying to rebuild my muscles and I think that it is happening.
Mel and I like to be spontaneous at times. When Mel was living in Toronto, her friends were supposed to come visit one weekend but the weather was bad so they decided not to come. Mel’s sister lived in Ottawa at the time and was haing a rough weekend so we came up with the crazy idea of renting a car at 4pm to go drive to Ottawa for dinner and back. We did not tell her, and it was hard to find a rental place that had some availability, but we managed to find one at the Eaton Center downtown Toronto. We took the subway there and on the way we had to pass through Whitby where Mel’s aunt lived. On the drive we decided to see if her cousin wanted to come and she was shocked with the idea that we would just randomly pick her up and go surprise Julie in Ottawa. We showed up and called her while we were outside her apartment and told her that we were going for dinner. We went to a small diner I knew about and Mel and her cousin ordered Tuna Nicoise salad. I remember this because Mel’s cousin had not had it before and it had anchovy on it and she was not sure whether she would like it or not. She ended up loving the salad and after dinner we drove back home and got home around midnight I think. What we had decided with the kids is that it would be fun to drive to Toronto and find the cheapest flight, hop on it and go wherever it takes us. We would just pack a carry-on with our personal bag and see where life takes us. Xavier made a comment that we would be flying economy as it would be the cheapest flight. The boys have never flown economy so it would be quite the experience for them. They have been quite spoiled that every time that we travel business class has been wierdly cheaper than economy. I think that this idea is fun so we will try it out sometime now that Xavier does not have such a hectic hockey schedule anymore. If we can not go on that wild trip this fall we will take a day trip to Bracebridge to explore the falls and see what random food we can experience.
Q