Happy New Year! (For my thoughts on that, see
saucylittledish). I spent the past weekend in Toronto (which Canadians seem to pronounce "Tronno") for a wedding, and though there was plenty of drinking and dancing, I had eyes for all the food things that crossed my path.
There were a lot of festive goings on and when everyone crashed the afternoon after the wedding I went to the grocery store for an hour and a half. I could have tortured someone by dragging them along, but it was probably better I went alone. It can be useful to go with someone so I don't look as insane as I go though every aisle in slow motion-and it defends against getting in trouble for taking pictures...Oh well, I had a fine time. I went to an incredibly regular, mainstream neighborhood grocery store, which luckily still gave me plenty of perspective, though I would have loved to visit more kinds of places. Grocery stores give me an idea of what makes a place tick. I had forgotten that they sell milk in bags here, (and are way into recycling) and everyone has a handy oval milk pitcher in their fridge. (I did not see smaller pitchers for cream). I am so tickled by this, I must have really needed to get out of town. Seriously, I am really excited about these minorly different customs.
More dairy: I decided to buy cheese, hoping the pasteurization laws would be less stringent than in the U.S. (I have pined on about this
before). I picked some soft, young French cheese too, because I wanted cheese made from milk from French cows...(Meux). All of the cheeses list the milkfat and moisture content on the packaging, and I bought a camembert, a "washed rind" young cheese, and some "pressed cottage cheese". We also had that old standby black pepper Boursin. I honestly am not sure if they were much different than what I can get in New York, but they were meltingly lovely anyway.
This was the best flavored hummus I've ever had. If you examine the photo close-up you will see it includes apricots, almonds, spices and honey. It wasn't overly sweet or over seasoned, just perfectly balanced and interesting. Word.
I couldn't resist this tiniest of pimiento jars that was all the way from, well, Tennessee.
I couldn't get away without throwing some meal together. It was my wedding present. I made a vegetable soup and and a potato leek soup, and a pasta/green salad situation. We had bread with those luscious cheeses and humus and jam alongside.
Real fruit gummies. My favorites are cherry and black currant, and of course there were hardly any of those, darnit.
Popcorn being thrown out behind a movie theater. I was surprised at first, but I suppose if they dumped two of these every day, and they just scattered it on the ground, the street would look like a sandy beach with obese pigeons and black squirrels lolling like walruses freezing to death.
Though this minitrip made me ever hungrier to go farther afield, thank you Canada for adding some depth to my marinade, as it were.
