After an extended hiatus of traveling, I am back (for a week before more traveling). I would have written something while traveling, except my entries would have read something like this: Today (and the past three days) I had a wonderful dinner of smoked and spiced Mackerel eaten on slightly stale french bread with a bowl of fresh spinach, a handful of baby carrots, and an ample serving of BBQ potato chips for that extra little umphf.
Well, at least that would have been my entry from my last week in Montreal. I was attending a week long math conference at CRM at University of Montreal. It was a very nice conference. I generally enjoyed Montreal, but I do have one major bone to pick with the city. The day after the conference ended, I had a chance to explore the city. I brought with me some fixins for a sandwich, and figured I would make a purchase of a baguette in the city (I was staying on the other side of the eponymous mountain). I assumed, since there were two nice bakeries near my apartment, that there would be a similar or great number of bakeries in the city. Yet, in three hours of wandering the streets of the city, I came upon ZERO. Dejected I resorted to eating the sandwich fillings without any bread. Later in the day I did make my way to an outer region of the city where I knew there were bakeries, and I made a bread purchase --- but come'on??? And they call themselves a french speaking regions??
My first summer trip to Canada was about three weeks ago and was to Toronto (via North Carolina). There I stayed with my mom's cousin and his family --- which was awesome. It has been many years since I have had my lunch packed for me, but my mom's cousin's wife was super nice and packed me a lunch every day to take into the University of Toronto (where I was working on some math). Each day I was surprised by a new goody -- a chocolate granola bar, a jello and various other yummy things I haven't had in a long time. And if the lunch's were not enough, every day when I got back to their house, she had an awesome meat dinner ready. I definitely eat better there than I have in years.
Anyhoo... I'm back now. I'm planning on making a bunch of blintzs this weekend for Shavuot and will certainly post on that. Next weekend I'm going to LA for a wedding with food which promises to be very yummy.
