Today was fantastic! It is my first official day in the big city and so far, I am in love with it. Thank you Eric Ng for showing me around!
First we had lunch at this delicious place called Starving Artist on Landsdowne Ave. Surrounded by beautiful little houses, this amazing gem specializes in the yummiest waffles. I had the "Starving 4 Vegan" - four mini vegan and gluten free waffles served with fruit salad and fresh mixed greens. The waffles were crisp on the outside, soft and moist on the inside, and they had a lovely hint of banana in them, which was really nice. They were not too sweet, and just perfect with a drizzle of syrup.
After brunch, we took the transit downtown to Eaton Centre and met up with our good friends, Eli and Leah, as well as their adorable 16 month old, Keiran. I hadn't seen either of them for at least a few years. And Keiran... it was my first time meeting the little guy and I am seriously in love with him. He is one of the most joyful and energetic babies I have ever seen. It's great seeing Eli and Leah so happy. Kieran is a very lucky boy to have such fantastic parents.
After our afternoon hangouts with the Kleins, we were headed towards Kensington, via Chinatown, which was great. The sidewalks were taken over by the overflow of the shops' offerings to the loads of people that walked on that strip. It gave me a slight sense of being in Hong Kong, just in a much smaller scale. Kensington was equally as wonderful. The narrow streets were sandwiched by the neatest shops and restaurants, and sprinkled with pedestrians. I managed to find my sister a little gift at one of shops, called Good Egg. Pretty excited about that! And then we treated ourselves to mini cupcakes from Miss Cora's Kitchen, which was a delightful treat. We walked around for a bit, just browsing, and then we decided to stop for some food at The Grilled Cheese. It was everything that I had hoped for. Simple concept, simple menu, tasty food. I had the "Dill-icous," which was truly delicious. Dill havarti, pesto, sun dried tomatoes, and onion. Nom! I even got the pickle I was hoping for when I saw their wall of pickled goods. It was all kinds of goodness in my belly.
When we left Kensington, we had some time to kill before heading to a show, so we headed for the BMV Books on Bloor Street. This place is packed with books and magazines... all three stories of it. I went up to the 3rd floor and grabbed myself a copy of Ghost World for $6.99. I wanted to get more but that would mean an extra 50lbs to my luggage when I go home, so I decided that buying anything more would be a bad idea. I plan on going back to Bloor and checking out the famous Honest Ed's!
We headed towards Queen Street for the show after BMV. Side note, I seriously can't wait to go back to Queen Street - so much shopping! We made it just in time to see Late July, Eric's friend's band. I really enjoyed them. It could be because of the girly lyrics, mostly about love... I am a huge sucker for love songs.
After the show, we started our walk back to Eric's place, but was sidetracked by Smoke's Poutinerie. I haven't had a poutine since I became vegetarian 8 years ago, so one of the things on my "to do" list was to have a really good veggie poutine. That was exactly what they had there. Eric and I shared the Veggie Deluxe Poutine, which had fried onions, mushrooms, and peas loaded on top of golden fries, veggie gravy, and cheese curds. It was very good... so very very good.
Today was a good day.
Final words - I ♥ TO.
