Gastronomical Adventures!

There's nothing like a road trip in spring ..... especially if it includes great food! Last week my friend Diane and I headed to Halifax, Nova Scotia to attend her daughter-in-law's graduation from medical school and to visit my son and his girlfriend in the lovely town of Lunenburg. The scenery was awesome, the companionship and visits with family was wonderful and the food was deeeelicious! No fast foods joints for us, just nice restaurants and scrumptious little cafes! 

Diane and I are travel companions from way back ..... I mean way back! When we were backpacking through Europe in the 70s, gastronomical delights were usually foil wrapped triangles of Laughing Cow processed cheese and a package of Knorr soup prepared over our portable "camping gas" tank. Things did improve, however, when we found ourselves a couple of "sugar daddies" in Germany who treated us to some good schnitzel and other German cuisine. Later on, when our kids were young, we would get together for yearly visits that included meals for a crowd (six kids and four adults) prepared at home ..... my standby was "prepared ahead" lasagna. As our families got older we continued to travel together and enjoyed eating out but often we had the tastes of other travel companions to consider as well as distance, time constraints, costs and whether or not there might be a nice washroom. On this road trip, however, our first consideration when choosing an eatery, was satisfying our own taste buds!

Here are some of the highlights:

• The Agricola Street Brasserie on Agricola Street in Halifax (did you know that agricola means farmer in Latin? - I should know - I took 4 years of Latin in high school! LOL!) was our first stop. I had a mushroom quiche and a side of squash with toasted barley and lime juice .. yum!
• After walking around downtown Halifax Saturday morning for an hour and a half and hoofing it up that steep hill back to our lodging , I was starving. Not wanting to take another step, we found a great deli for lunch across the street from our hotel. Diane had a club sandwich that could have fed a family of four, and I had the delicious combo below. The soup was different but delicious!

Corned beef sandwich with sweet and sour borscht at Hali Deli

• Cha Baa Thai Restaurant - a great spot for Thai food in the Spring Garden area of Halifax.

Since I was in Thailand I've been hooked on green curry! I mean I LOVE this stuff. It's almost embarrassing .... Diane sent a text to my husband while we were in the restaurant to say that I was moaning over my green curry! 

• En route between Halifax and Lunenburg we chose a scenic tour, stopping at Peggy's Cove, Chester and Mahone Bay. In Chester we had lunch at the Kiwi Cafe where I enjoyed a BLAT  " A grilled Panini roll filled with bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato, and garlic mayo" and a nice cup of tea! Lovely!

Peggy's Cove 

• The culinary fun just kept on going during our two day visit in Lunenburg. We enjoyed meals at two great restaurants just a short walk from Joel and Alicia's place. On Saturday evening we ate at a new Restaurant called Lincoln Street Food where I had some delicious scallops. I couldn't find their website but I did find this blog featuring the restaurant with some great photos - Lincoln Street Foods. After some serious second hand shopping on Sunday we had lunch at the Salt Shaker Deli, where I enjoyed a delicious chowder packed with sea food. On our last night, Alicia made a fabulous meal of manicotti and  kale Caesar salad with homemade, dairy free, coconut cream pie! 

While it may look like all we did was eat, that's not exactly true. We did lots of sight seeing as you can see by my pic of Peggy's cove above. Lunenburg also has some great sights with its fabulous architecture ..... Diane even found a building that matched her outfit! Joel showed us the community garden that he and Alicia have been working on (an incredible amount of administration on Alicia's part and Joel worked on building the raised beds) as well as one of the recent carpentry projects he's worked on. The modern looking home in the collage below is a house designed by Brian Mackay Lyons, a Nova Scotia architect, that Joel and his company are completing. We had fun in a vintage clothing shop in Halifax and visited a great farmers market..... and I just had to sneak in a pic of my favorite cat enjoying a rest on my sleeping bag. Our great four days on the road ended with a walk down memory lane for Diane when she visited her old stomping grounds in Greenwood and finally a relaxing ride on the Princess of Acadia back to New Brunswick. Can't wait for the next road trip!