Fresh Restaurant, Toronto: Brunching and Lunching

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Hannah

I miss that face up there. That face is the face of my fantabulous housemate Sarah back in Toronto, and it is a face that my face enjoyed facing every day of our long winter face something face face this is one of those situations where the more you say a word the more nonsensical it seems face face face.

(I may or may not have eaten an unseemly amount of ice cream immediately prior to writing this post. Face face face.)

See? It’s such a great face, Sarah’s face. It is one of my favourite faces to see across the table at Fresh, the vegan and gluten-free-friendly restaurant I’ve previously posted about here and here.

Before I left Toronto, Sarah and I made a point of setting aside a few weekend days for Outside The House Adventures and, each time, we started said adventures with brunch or lunch at the Fresh closest to our house.

The juices are lovely, and the coffees can be made with almond milk. At our first brunch, Sarah and I sat at the bar ogling the enormous carrots and mountains of bananas wielded by Fresh’s juice chefs (juiceisters? juicetenders? juiceologists?), before diving into our delicious plates of goodness.

Sarah ordered from the gluten allergy friendly menu, opting for the blueberry pancakes with scrambled tofu and tempeh bacon. It hurt my heart that the pancakes arrived topped with the devilfruit, but perhaps this was a deliberate ploy to prevent me from stealing all the pancakes. All of them.

I chose one of Fresh’s big bowls of vegetables and grains (I asked for extra kale, which came after this photo was taken), and delighted in every bite.

What is a meal without dessert? Fresh stocks desserts by Sweets From The Earth, and I took a gamble on the Gluten-Free Walnut Brownie.

Eaten later while watching Departures with Sarah, the brownie had a great mix of crispy-outside and fudgy-inside, with the walnuts balancing the sweetness of each bite.

A few days before I left for the U.S., Sarah and I returned for a last meal at Fresh. As glorious as the red lentil, tomato, and fennel soup, grilled cornbread, hummus, and superfood salad were, no food could compare to the joy of sitting on a patio on a sunny spring day after six months of brutally cold weather…

…with that face.

How To Keep Falling In Love With Toronto, Part Four

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Hannah

Plans and dreams and endings and beginnings and disappointments and exhilarations and sleeplessness and giddy-bursts-of-joy-beneath-my-breath and possibilities and challenges and happiness and denial and hopes have been skittering within me for a good six weeks now, and somewhere along the way I forgot to tell you why.

Oops.

So here is the result, in a nutshell, of my recent bout of debating/positing/accepting/tinkering/hoping:

On Friday, I’ll be flying into California for another few months of travelling around the U.S., later returning to Toronto to continue building a soul-soaring life in Canada.

It feels fitting, before I bid the city a temporary adieu, to write one last installment of how to fall in love with Toronto. Shall we?

29. Continue exploring Kensington Market throughout winter, delighting in its ability to constantly surprise you. A sidewalk table laden with treats offering samples galore? Why not?

30. Step into Patty King, Kensington Market’s Jamaican bakery, and gaze excitedly at such unusual (to you) sweets as Tamarind Balls and Grater Cake.

31. Buy a snack called Doubles from said Patty King (thank your friend for being the hand model), and decide after a single bite that the turmeric-spiced fried-yet-soft bread filled with channa (chickpea curry) is quite delicious.

32. Laugh delightedly upon finding a reference to your home country in a Sunday morning crossword filled out with Lisa.

33. Laugh again (though on a different day) at how ornate and complicated sushi in North America always seems to be. Remember how simple (and wonderful) sushi was when you travelled around Japan a few years ago.

33. Attend a three hour hands-on chocolate class at ChocoSol, and be so impressed with the Toronto-based company’s ethics and chocolate creations that you buy several different flavours to review (eventually).

34. Giddily order vegan and gluten-free desserts to-go from Fresh after brunch with Sarah, your favourite housemate of all time.

35. Experience a very good day at your internship.

36. Experience a very, very good day at your internship.

37. Experience one of the best days of all time at your internship.

38. Be grateful that taking these steps towards falling in love with Toronto means you’ll truly look forward to returning in the fall.

39. Start packing. No really, Hannah. Start packing. START PACKING.

My First Canadian Easter, and Brigadeiros

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Hannah

This Easter long weekend could easily have trickled past in a mopeyhearted way for me, as Easter has always been a family-centric holiday in my world. More often than not, Easter has meant a long lunch out in the countryside with my parents, brother, grandparents, assorted other (beloved) relatives, and a table laden with much deliciousness.

In other words, I could have been very homesick this weekend. Instead, I was only a little bit homesick, because I found myself with more invitations to Easter events than I could accept. To everyone who extended hands and homes to me – thank you. So much.

I spent Saturday, the first beautifully-truly spring-like Saturday of the year, in the gloriously stunning new home of one of my favourite Canadians (and work colleagues), Kristy. She and her husband have an eye for art, design, and interior decorating that takes my breath away, and yes. Before you ask, yes, I did ponder whether the poofy skirt of my dress could adequately hide beneath it the vintage pink typewriter you see above.

But then I realised that I’d rather keep Kristy’s friendship than a stolen typewriter, so I stopped my plotting. (Convict roots.)

Kristy put together a wondrous spread of fresh fruit, fluffy scrambled eggs that I think she magicked into existence, and two epic breakfast casseroles unlike any I’d seen before.

In the foreground, we have a Canadian bacon casserole made with English muffins, and in the background a French toast casserole with a cinnamon sugar topping.

Warning: the below photo may surprise some of you.

People, I have found a way to consume the devilfruit.

It is called a mimosa, and it is delicious.

Considering that our brunch spread involved representation from Canada, England, and France (at least in terms of the dishes’ names), it makes sense that my contribution to the day was a batch of Brazilian brigadeiros, right?

Right.

Chewy, sweet, chocolate-y, eminently moreish, and rolled in coconut (rather than the traditional sprinkles), I can only hope that these simple treats in some small way conveyed how happy I was to be a part of Kristy’s Easter celebration. Dear Kristy: you are gorgeous and generous and amazing.

My heart soared.

(P.S. Get the recipe for the brigadeiros here.)

How Little I Knew, and Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate Marzipan

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Hannah

Remember that time I proclaimed winter had broken me?

Oh, how little I knew. How little I knew.

Here’s the truth: you haven’t been broken by winter until you find yourself hunched over in a packed-to-bursting streetcar on March 21^st, the official second day of spring, having realised that the first time you saw snow in Canada was five months ago (almost half a year) and that, because of travelling across hemispheres, in the past ten months you’ve had only three months of warmth/not-winter, and you’re sitting there, alone amongst many, hunched over in the streetcar, and it’s snowing outside, it’s still snowing outside, and so you hunch over more and pull the hood of your winter jacket further past your face because it’s grey and cold and it’s snowing and you’re tired, you’re really tired, and you cry hunched over behind your hood without sound and without trembling so that no one knows but you, because you feel like you can’t bear it, because you feel like you can’t bear the dark winter a moment longer.

That’s when you know that winter has broken you.

Thankfully, there’s always chocolate to bring comfort to a frayed soul.

Even if the weather is forecasting more snow next week.

Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate Marzipan

Ritter Sport’s Dark Chocolate with Marzipan is a chocolate block that I’ve bought and gobbled up frequently over the years, yet have never quite got around to blogging for you.

This is likely because my thoughts on this chocolate can be summed up as follows:

Vegan. Vegan good.

Sweet. Easy silky smooth sweet dark chocolate. Dark chocolate good.

Mmm, amaretto aroma. Chocolate syrup too. Like thick sweet almond chocolate milkshake. Mmm good.

In other words, this Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan is a simple and pleasant dark chocolate bar that errs on the side of sweet and is filled with a thick, slightly grainy, and subtly almond extract-tinged marzipan. At a stretch, I could say the dark chocolate has woodsy and praline notes, but that really would be stretching. In truth, this is a straightforward dark chocolate treat that, as long as you like marzipan, is very easy to eat and enjoy.

Even after you’ve been secretly crying on the streetcar like a dang melodramatic fool.

Toronto Dining: Fresh and Banh Mi Boys

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Hannah

Remember that time I fell down the stairs on Valentine’s Day (I love you too, universe!), ended up with a nasty concussion, and was put under strict orders by my physiotherapist housemate to stay on total bedrest for the next three days?

Well, I rested properly for one day.

The next day, Lisa visited me in my woebegone state for an hour or so, and we saw a ninja clad all in black leaping around the backyard adjoining mine. The excitement was so extreme that I had to nap for two hours after Lisa (and the ninja) left.

The day after that, I caught up with the wonderful and inspiring Ricki, whom many of you know as the woman behind Diet, Dessert and Dogs and the upcoming cookbook Naturally Sweet and Gluten-Free: Allergy Friendly Vegan Desserts, and her HH for lunch at Fresh.

What? I was totally resting. It’s not like I danced a jig atop the restaurant table or anything. And a girl’s gotta eat, y’know?

Fresh

I’ve been to Fresh once before, and think it’s a great place for hearty, nourishing, soul-warming and delicious vegan meals.

Ricki opted for the Powerhouse Bowl (top photo), which included avocado, chickpeas, grilled tempeh, tomato, red onion, nuts, seeds, and a tahini sauce. Ricki can attest to the fact that I desperately wanted to order cake for lunch, but I ultimately decided that my body needed the healing power of epic greenery. My Macro Greens (second photo) was a huge bowl of steamed greens, grilled vegetables, and salsa, and it soothed me greatly.

However, what truly nourished my soul was the joy of spending several hours chatting and laughing with Ricki and HH, both of whom are magnificent beings I am honoured to call friends. Thank you, Ricki and HH, for driving all the way downtown to visit befuddled ol’ me!

Banh Mi Boys

Several weeks ago, I was also lucky enough to grab lunch with the lovely Janet and her partner Rob. I love Janet’s blog because she posts (nigh on daily!) savoury recipes that, almost without fail (sometimes she uses orange or avocado, but I shan’t hold that against her), are exactly the kind of meals I love to cook and eat myself.

What’s in the box? In the box? What’s in the box today? (Does anyone remember where that song comes from? It’s arrived unbidden in my head, and I’m very confused.)

Jicama Papaya Salad, Banh Mi Boys, Toronto Janet suggested we meet at Banh Mi Boys, and I was powerless to resist once I discovered that Jicama Papaya Salad was on the menu. (We all know how I feel about Som Tam.) Alas, I must admit that this papaya salad was not to my taste, as I like my Som Tam super zingy and spicy. To me, Banh Mi Boys’ dressing was so sweet as to be like pouring syrup on my salad, but no worries! For lo! Look what lurks over yonder!

Sweet potato fries topped with kimchi.

Yes.

That is all.

Again, though, for all the deliciousness of the kimchi-topped fries, the high point of lunch was meeting Janet and Rob.

Canadians really are rather swell.

P.S. The alternative title for this post is “In Which Diners In The Background Are Caught Mid-Chew Unawares.”

Wayfaring Chocolate

adventures in chocolate, travel, cooking, and living

Tag Archives: Toronto