Monday, May 9, 2011

Discovering TO #1 + RC3

As I wait for my coffee to finish steeping in my FP, I will write...

I just had a FANTASTIC weekend!! As you may know, I am from Toronto, but I currently reside in a small town about an hour east of Toronto. I love my job so it's completely worth living in the town, but I get a bit stir crazy sometimes, and as such, I spend most weekends in Toronto.

Despite being from Toronto, and spending most weekends here, I really haven't discovered much of the city. Even in a place with so much to do, you still tend to stick to your tried, tested, and true neighbourhoods - go to the stores there, the restaurants there, the cafes there, etc. However, I really want to take advantage of this great city, so I've decided to start to try branching out, and what's a good way to do that? Find a resto you want to go to and let that be the excuse to explore a new area. Bam!

So this weekend I discovered new areas on two ends of Queen Street. On Saturday night I rode the streetcar East to Leslieville and ate at an amazing restaurant called Queen Margherita Pizza. My girlfriend orders the Margherita Pizza at any place that serves it, as she calls it the metric for a great restaurant. If their MP is good, then the resto is good. So - when I found out there was a restaurant with the pizza in the name? I thought, we've gotta try this! Plus - it has a rave review in the Toronto Life 2011 Restaurant Guide... not a bad reason to go! It was delicious. She obv ordered the MP, I ordered a pizza called just the Vegetarian Pizza, and both were amazing!! We also started off with a re-imagined bruschetta which was amazing, and finished the night with their Tiramisu which was the best I've ever had - light and yummy! We didn't walk around Leslieville enough, but it seems like a great area with some eclectic shops and a very relaxed vibe.

On Sunday morning I rode the streetcar West on Queen to Roncesvalles, and had brunch with my bestie Rachel at Easy Restaurant. It was also highly recommended by Toronto Life and www.blogto.com, so I wanted to give it a try. My friend was a "bit late", but I was in no rush so I relaxed with a cup of coffee and a book. The serving staff were fantastic - just kept refilling my cup but never pressured me to order or asked me when my friend was coming; they just left me alone... much appreciated. When Rachel arrived, we ordered - she got the vegetarian toscada, and I got the house specialty: Huevos Divorciados. They were delicious! Mexican-inspired breakfast food... no complaints. Unfortunately I didn't walk around Ronci that much either, but I love the vibe there, too. Once again - lots of neat shops, some hipsters walking and biking around, and it didn't hurt that it was a gorgeous day... so was Saturday. Man, good weather really makes walking around a total pleasure!! Anyway, needless to say, it was a great weekend!!

And that's not all... I discovered two areas of Toronto AND finished two books. I hate getting into a reading funk, but the fun of getting out is that if you have 5 books half-finished, suddenly you feel like you're breezing through.
  1. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
  2. The Girls by Lori Lansens
  3. Live from New York by Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller
  4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
  5. The Divinity Gene by Matthew J. Trafford
HP7 - the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series - was awesome!! I laughed, I cried, and I enjoyed every minute of it... especially the last 100 pages or so - I felt as though I could not stop. It really was a fantastic story, and I'm already looking forward to re-reading it sometime in the not-so-near future. The HP series can't be double-counted in the reading challenge... that just wouldn't be fair. Anyway, so I'm done the series! I can't wait for the movie, now knowing what happens... it's going to be quite the show!

Secondly, I wrapped up reading The Divinity Gene by Matthew J. Trafford - who I know personally, but haven't seen in a while. Man oh man can that man write... wow!! I think I can safely say that aside from Margaret Atwood, that is the most inventive, imaginative writing I have ever witnessed. The stories... they were so out of this world that I couldn't believe they were conceived by the human mind... but that's why I love fiction! I also love reading a book of short stories for a change. For one thing, you don't feel as guilty setting it aside for a little while, and for another, it's so nice to have so much variety in one book. I highly recommend the book and bought a copy for a friend this weekend to support Matthew, as he deserves it!

That's all for now!

Also - 4 sleeps until NYC!!!!!

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