Toronto

It's been a couple of decades since I've actually lived in Toronto but it's always nice to spend time in my hometown and visit friends and family. I didn't have much time to be a tourist but I was content enough walk along Yonge Street and visit familiar Toronto landmarks like the Eaton Centre and the Ontario Provincial Parliament.

 

No visit to Canada is complete without my favourite Canadian sweets, so in addition to the usual mint Aero bars, Coffee Crisp, and Laura Secord frosted mint chocolates, I had my first butter tart and nanaimo bar in years! There are days when I'm tempted to move to the British Colombia town of Nanaimo just so I can be closer to their place of origin, that's how good they are.

 

I stayed with one of my closest high school friends and her husband and baby. I was there for the baby's first birthday and the poor kid came down with a fever the day before the party. Even at just twelve months old, he's definitely his mother's child and was a great sport and host despite his obvious misery. He wasn't feeling up to making a mess of his birthday cake but he did enjoy some of his gifts which was a clear bright spot for everyone.

 

Once he was feeling better, we took the baby out for lots of walks and to play in the park. We picked up falafel from Ali Baba's, a middle eastern restaurant, and brought it to the park. The falafel was fried yet it didn't have that dense, greasy texture and taste fried falafel often has. When he was preparing the falafel pitas, the server lightly squished the falafel balls with his fingers, a quick and simple way to allow the falafel to soak up the tahini and hot sauce and ensur better falafel distribution throughout the pita. There was just the right amount of tabbouleh to give a bursting flavor that didn't overwhelm. All in all, this was outstanding falafel.

 

My social calendar was quite full during my visit to Toronto. I had a great time catching up with a couple of high school friends I hadn't seen in far too long and I had a fun lunch with an Antarctica friend. She and I discussed tentative plans to go to the Arctic next fall, so I will gladly accept contributions anyone would like to give me towards the cruise cost! Back in Mach, when I had a whirlwind 24 hours in Lima, Peru, I stayed with my good friend's family. Their daughter has lived in Toronto for the last couple of years and we were finally able to get together. The last time we had seen each other was briefly in Washington DC several years ago and before that, it was in the early 1990s!

 

If greyhounds are sleek dogs, best known for their sprinting capabilities, then think of Italian greyhounds as their smaller, perkier cousins after nine espressos and Pepe as their supreme leader. His favourite past time is to brutally attack a squeaky, bikini clad rubber chicken. His appetite is shameless and he circles the baby's high chair at mealtime like he's a piranha. The first time I left my backpack unattended, Pepe knocked the bag on its side, unzipped the zipper and then opened the internal zipped pocket to pull out a bag that contained two Sublime chocolate bars that I had been carrying across South and North America for the past four months to give to my Peruvian friend from her parents. We came home to find two silver wrappers that had been desperately opened and the chocolate had been decimated! About the only time he settles down is when you throw a blanket over him and he curls up. The problem is that at only eight pounds, he's so small that I accidentally sat on him more than once, not realizing he was snuggled under the blanket! Luckily he's a hearty dog and survived unscathed.

 

My next stop is Europe for the summer for family trips, solo travels, and the Olympics. I'm very much looking forward to it, but there will always be a part of me that will miss Canada.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Santiago falafel

Near Parque Forestal, Pita & Co. boldly advertises falafel so I recently gave it a try.

 

I was impressed with the amount of options but not necessarily with the options themselves. First you choose your sauce (pesto, oriental, garlic, or mayo) and three toppings. I went for garlic sauce and goat cheese, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

 

Despite the restaurant's name, the falafel was served in a dry tortilla and not a pita. A second disappointment was the soggy falafel.

 

As I ate and made a mental review of the falafel, the teacher in me started to develop a falafel rubric. I'm not sure if this is a good sign or not! Regardless, my newfound love for Santiago wasn't enough to sway my taste buds when it came to something as important as falafel.

 

Viña falafel

One thing Viña del Mar has in spades is good eateries. On my first afternoon, I found Jerusalem which serves falafel among other Middle Eastern dishes.

 

I opted for my standard falafel pita. I paid, got my receipt ticket, and sat down to wait.

 

The dining room was nice enough, though possibly a little too cosy.

 

Lunch arrived in a wrap with tomatoes and lettuce. The wrap itself was fine, very standard. The veggies were unbelievably fresh. Two sauces accompanied; a garlic cream sauce that must have had an entire head of garlic; and a really bland, flavourless sauce that looked like hummus.

 

As for the falafel itself, it was subpar. It was fried but not overly so, though it was rather dry. The falafel was in my preferred shape, patties, but they were too thick which meant there were too many bites without falafel and too many bites of just falafel. Had they been thinner, there would have been a more consistent taste throughout.

 

What Jerusalem has going for it is the serving size (very generous), the tomatoes (fresh and juicy), and the garlic sauce (you'll be exhaling it for the next two days).

 

It's lick-your-plate-clean good

Since a backpacking trip in western Europe one summer during college, I've become something of a falafel connoisseur and seek it out wherever I go. I stumbled across this place in Cartagena the other day...

 

...and promptly went in for what turned out to be some of the best falafel I've had on five continents!

 

So what made this falafel experience so good?

-This falafel was fried, as most falafel is, but it didn't taste greasy or oily

-Generally it comes in a ball shape; this falafel was in quarter sized patties so it was more evenly distributed throughout the pita

-All of the ingredients were fresh and flavorful

-The pita bread didn't get soggy and disintegrate despite the generous serving of tahini

-Eggplant was a nice touch

 

More please!