I’m just back from two weeks visiting my hometown. I always thought that word was so evocative of autumn in a small town. Hometown. Maybe I’ve watched one too many episodes of Gilmore Girls, and I associate visits home with Thanksgiving and Halloween, pumpkins, roast turkey and harvest season.
In reality, my hometown is Toronto, where I am more likely to find sushi, noodle bars and shoe shops than cosy family evenings on porch swings, mum in the kitchen baking pumpkin bread and dad firing up the last barbecue of the season. My mum and dad have a condo in the suburbs, but it’s still pretty close to the City, and just across the street from a plush new shopping development. Oh, and I don’t think my dad has ever been to a barbecue, much less fired one up.
I haven’t lived in Toronto since I was fifteen, so when I go back I’m pretty much a tourist. My accent sounds strange to the natives, but I still remember places and street names, and some of the old shops and restaurants are still around – though probably having changed hands at least a couple times since.
When I lived in Toronto, across the street from my mum and dad’s apartment was a hideous shopping mall with quite frankly a dire selection of shops. It was run down and depressing, and I think the last time I even went in the place was sometime in the late 90s. Well, they razed the whole thing to the ground a few years ago, and out from the rubble they built a fancy-shmancy shopping development. Even the name sounds posh, “The Shops at Don Mills”, rather than “Don Mills Centre”. And ooh! There’s a Mendocino, Leigh and Harlow, two shops selling fitness gear (New Balance and Salomon), an amazing food shop-slash-supermarket with a drool worthy deli counter, Anthropologie…North York has never looked so good to me.
On my first night, my favourite aunt took me out for dinner at Linda, the French-Thai restaurant at Shops. I’d been there once with my mum and dad the last time I was in town, and Auntie and I wanted something quick and easy. I have to say, I love the décor of the place. In fact, I was inspired by their Thai Buddha triptych and found a smaller one for our flat from the Thai grocers. Still undecided where to hang it, but that can be said of most things I own!
The next day, Auntie took me out for lunch at Glow Fresh Grill at Shops. Wow.
The salads were unbelievable. I had a side salad that came with my main, a lobster mac and cheese, and I think I can say without hesitation it was the best salad I have ever eaten. Oh lordy, it had the freshest raspberries and blueberries in it, a sweet but still tangy maple cider dressing, crunchy and colourful greens…even the julienned carrot and pepper was lovely, and I usually hate raw carrots. All this was topped with toasted sunflower seeds. I have never been one for ordering a salad as a main, but I could have eaten a whole plate of that salad and been happy.
My aunt ordered the plain Caesar salad, which was fabulous as well. It wasn’t too heavy, which is usually a problem with Caesars I find, and the dressing was just garlicky enough. I think I recommended it to my mum when we went there for lunch again later in the week, but she had hers topped with grilled tiger prawns, which were huge. Oh so yummy!
I decided to hit McEwan at Shops for some supplies for mum and dad, who were landing in TO in the evening. I’d spied it earlier and bought a bagel and some juice for my breakfast. It's a high end grocery shop with all the whistles and bells, the kind of place I could lose myself for hours. Mum and dad would be back at the flat around 8 pm, so Auntie and I decided to get some dinner ourselves and get some things from the deli counter for them to snack on. I was only planning on a couple dishes, but the deli counter is pretty impressive, and I walked away with about $200 worth of groceries.
There were tiger prawns, both grilled and poached, and fresh garlic aioli to dip. These prawns were the size of a baby’s hand, no joke. The poached prawns were amazing; they tasted unbelievably fresh and clean, with just the right amount of seasoning. The grilled ones were pretty damned tasty as well. Then there was braised pork belly, which I didn’t try but my mum said pretty much melted in the mouth. Curried chicken wings, roasted sweet potato salad for my dad – he hates regular tatties but loves the sweet stuff.
Into the basket went a fruity berry Danish for my mum and an apple one for my dad. It’s been a tradition of mine ever since boarding school to buy my dad apple tarts, danishes, pies and cakes. I’m not even 100% certain he likes apples anymore, but it’s a hard habit to break.
There was some honey and sunflower seed bread for breakfast and a few fresh smoothies. I also bought some Chobani Greek yoghurt for myself, which I’d heard about from friends in the States but had never tried.
By the time we rolled up to the checkout, I had an overflowing basket and a humungous credit card receipt, but also loads of scrummy food to surprise my parents with. I’m a total dork when it comes to my mum and dad, and I always spend far too much kitting them out with food and drink when they visit me.
Addresses
Glow Fresh Grill
7 Marie Labatte Road
M3C 4G6
416 384 1133
Linda
11 Karl Fraser Rd
416 642 3866
McEwan
38 Karl Fraser Rd
416 444 6262
