Dinner at Cinquecento Cafe

I had this past Saturday night off! That NEVER happens in the restaurant industry, so I decided to take full advantage of it. I met a friend and we headed to Queen West to check out the legacy that is Terroni. However, after arriving there and seeing the line out the door and down the block we decided that we were in need of some other delicious eats. 

I pulled out my trusty I-phone (Glitz) and checked on Urbanspoon. We ended up at Cinquecento Cafe (791 King St. West, Toronto). We were impressed finding a Italian place not too far away. 

Starting the evening off right, we ordered a decently priced bottle of Malbec, and decided to split the Antipasto plate to start. When it arrived we were pleasantly surprised. Although there was only a small amount of meat (some salami and Mortadella), the fresh grilled vegetables were so plentiful. There was shaved parmesan, grilled eggplant, olives, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, grilled zucchini, pickled eggplant, and even a mini caprese salad with fresh basil and all. Each of the vegetables had been brushed, grilled, and/or seasoned differently and the flavours were very impressive.

We followed this with Nona's recipe of stuffed shells. The three groundmeats were cooked and seasoned delightfully, and packed into larger sized pasta shells. Presentation was good and each were neatly decorated with a light amount of herbs. It was a perfect amount of food to finish off with dessert. 

We choose the tiramisu… probably not the best part of the meal. There was a lack of flavour to it, not too strong espresso taste or lady finger sponge, and it seemed drenched with whipcream, covered in caramel sauce. Overall a good experience. The owner was kicking around and made a point to check on us during our dinner. I plan to go back at some point, looking around the restaurant I noticed the pizza's looked huge with a great Italian thin crust. The other pastas looked packed with flavour and like quite generous portions.

My Date with Nate

I awoke to the sound of children screaming. They were arguing with each other about something. It sounded like they broke something as well. I wondered why they were in my room. I sat up quickly confused by this thought. I sat up way too quickly and my head stung. I realized the children were actually in the television. Children in TV appear louder than they actually are.

I lurched across the hotel room and shut it off. I closed the curtains and shut out the blinding light of the sun. With my head swirling, I clambered back over to my bed. 9:20, OUCH!

My phone beeped.

The neighbours were in the doorway.

The housekeeping was vacuuming above me.

My phone beeped.

The housekeeping was cleaning the room to my left.

My phone beeped again.

I began replying to the onslaught of texts.

The housekeeping was cleaning the room to my right. 

At about 11:15 I stopped trying to sleep. I felt horrible, but I knew sleeping was not an option. I got up slowly, and wondered why it was that my head hurt extremely so. I went to the living room and checked out the bottle of gin. Half gone, ah, it all makes sense now.

I quite slowly showered and tried to drink a hell of a lot of water. I was a mess.

One of the texts I had received was from Nate, "Breakfast?"

I remembered we had planned a day of breakfast cooked by the cook. Then hiking through the mountains on the opposite side of town from where I had been the day before.

I headed back across town and had some breakfast at his place. Water, scrambled eggs, water, hash browns, and water. I met a couple of his roommates. Seemed like fun guys, good sense of humours. Two of them were in much worse shape that me. Apparently they had got to a different after-hours party, one that was only a split-second thought the night before.

After breaky we headed out to the mountains. We crossed the Athabaska river and had to stop and marvel at the view.

We hiked a little over half way up the path, and I felt like I was dying. We stopped for a break to drink some water, and catch our breath. We sat on some rocks and were chatting. All of the sudden it felt like someone was right behind us. I turned around and saw a whole lot of someones. In fact it was a whole heard of goats. They were about six or seven metres from us grazing away, not minding us being there at all. I thought it was so great and I couldn't stop staring at them. We sat amongst the herd for about twenty minutes before continuing our climb to the top. 

Once there the view was spectacular. Jasper looked so tiny and quaint, nestled snugly in the landscape. We sat up top there for at least an hour.Afterwards he lead me down to a nearby lake. The water was so clear and beautifully coloured. We sat by the lake for some time.

I could not have asked for better weather. The sun was shinning, hardly any clouds. There was a light cool breeze that whistled in fresh cool air off the mountains. The conversation was one of the best. Nate is a great guy to talk to. We spoke about family, video games, cartoons, movies, economy, society, politics, spiritually, tv shows, and must have laughed most of the day away. He's got great views on the world, and keeps strong open-minded opinions about the way the world is. Not to mention has great stories to share.

We walked back into town and were faced with some Elk. I've never seen Elk before, and was completely impressed with their massive size and calm attitude. The only time I've ever seen Elk before was at High Park Zoo, and they were not half as close. We walked within 10 feet of them. Nate was not impressed at all. He actually seemed a bit annoyed with the Elk, like they were in the way and should stay out of town. They were grazing on some grass about a block away from downtown.

We walked back downtown and I headed back to hotel to start packing up my stuff. I fell asleep for a while, and awoke to a text from Nate asking if i wanted to watch a movie.

I went over to his place and we ordered a pizza, and watched Sherlock Holmes. I feel it's a really well done movie, and I quite enjoyed it.

Afterwards he asked me to stay the night, and although I considered the thought I declined and he walked me back to my hotel. We said our goodbyes and I said goodnight to the mountains for the last time.

Winnipeg

          After the sun went down, I got comfy in my seat and watched a couple episodes of Planet Earth. I got sleepy and stretched out across my seats to nap for the evening. I was awaken every hour or so to the train stopping, either to let a freight train pass, or to let passengers on or off. Also, the attendants walking past me would wake me to as they awoke the passengers and got them ready to leave. Or welcomed the new passengers and orientated them to the train. I remember at one point being quite annoyed that we still hadn't arrived in Winnipeg.
          As we stopped I noticed that some of the families were getting off the train. Little Ava, and her young momma were the first to leave at Sioux Lookout, at about midnight. Passing their empty seats heading to the washroom felt different. A couple hours later the native family mommy, daddy, brother of 7 years old and baby were the next to leave. I didn't want to lose any more of my coach mates... but then I realized.... I was next!

          I fell back to sleep an hour or so later. I awoken this morning to the sun rising in the prairies. It was such a different site from anything I'd seen before. The land stretched out for miles and miles, no hills, and no trees. I could tell that the prairies were coming because the trees kept getting shorter, and had less and less branches. The evergreens were getting so skinny.
          We arrived in Winnipeg around 7:45am. I climbed off the train, as a different kind of feeling overwhelmed me. It wasn't completely sadness for leaving my coach-mates and comfort of the train. It wasn't completely fear for being alone in a brand new city. It wasn't completely the exhaustion I felt from a lack of sleep in four days. Maybe a mix of all, with a mild bout of excitement for the trip I was about to embark on.
          From the train station I used my fancy phone to find the closest breakfast place. I ate at a Pancake house (called Pancake House). I tried their pancakes.... which made me realize as much as I like pancakes, they are never what I except them to be, and am constantly disappointed. I should really only eat pancakes when I make them. I make them to be much thinner, more like crepes, and usually add bananas. Yum! I would like some now...
          Anyways, the scrambled eggs had great flavour, the bacon was perfectly cooked. The hash browns were perfectly cooked, but could have used more seasoning... and the pancakes, were pancakes.
After breakfast I began to wander around this area of Winnipeg called "the Forks".
          I headed towards the water and noticed a giant area with a historic landmark. When I first got there, there was a fitness group using the area as their own home gym. They were running around the monument, and using the viewing benches to do exercises off of. I felt like I was bugging them, and sat by the river for a bit.
          When I was ready to, I headed back to the monument. It was this circular rock thing with these large metal arches over top of the giant half sphere. The metal was designed to allow the sun to shine different symbols through shadows and light. SpongeBob climbed up on the rock sphere and tried to decode some of the symbols. He said it resembled Squidworth's music or something... I wasn't quite listening, he tends to ramble on a wee bit from time to time.

           I followed the river and discovered the Plaza. This is a nice skate park that was full of young skateboarders using the various ledges, bowls, half pipes, and ramps. The coolest thing I saw was this hill type thing. It went up and down like a wave, and I kicked around for a bit to see if anyone would ride on it. No one did. This park was the biggest skate board park I've ever seen, with the most equipment. It was entertaining to watch. Although I did notice the age of the skaters were much younger than what I would expect. Usually at the Bathurst skate park is anywhere from 15 - 30 year olds, where at this park were 10 - 16 year olds. Much younger kids.
          After watching the kids skate for a bit and realizing I missed skating with my brother, I left the park and decided to follow the river. There was a nice nature path that I followed along. It was peaceful. The river was overflown and a lot of the paths down to it were chained off and closed due to flooding. It was slow moving, and seemed like it had only recently unthawed.

          I stumbled upon another monument of sorts. At first I thought it was these weird copper pipes pointing to the sky. As I got closer I noticed it was huge. There were steps leading down in the centre. I was so confused as to what it was. In all directions the copper pipes were set up circling the huge area. In the very centre was a circular sun. There were plaques all around the centre. As I went over to read the plagues I noticed each one was about different constellations. It told when they would be the most visible, and a little bit about their historic significance.
          I realized that each of the copper pipes pointed out the constellations, and if you stood on top of the sun in the centre, you could clearly see these sites. I thought this was grand! It was something I was very interested in, and I wished that my hotel was closer to here so I could have gone there and saw all the different figures in the sky.
          I then wandered around the Forks market for a couple hours. It's kind of on par with St. Lawerence Market, only slightly more pricey, due to mainly tourists. I liked checking out all the specialty shops, and seeing all the organic produce. I spent about an hour in this antique market. It was full of items 50 years old and older (at least that's what they promised). The antiques market reminded me of my father's house. I saw a lot of similar dishes, decorative ornaments, blue cobalt glass (he collects this) which became popular in the 1950s. It made me wish to see him.
           Eventually I made my way back to the train station and picked up my luggage. I started my walk to my hotel. Two people along the way asked me if I was headed home. I smiled... the whole time I was wondering around Forks I felt like people were staring at me. For one, I noticed that NO ONE in this town wears heels. So my clip, clip, clop, as I walked certainly attracted people's eyes. I also haven't seen anyone in my age range who wasn't native. I was probably the only red-haired girl running around the city. But people asking me if I was headed home... well, I guess I really didn't stand out that much.
I walked uptown, getting a chance to see some of the city. I found out where the shopping centre was, where some places to have dinner and what-nots.
          I checked into my hotel, no issues, and finally got to shower. SO AMAZING!! Having space to spread out my belongings and having access to my giant suitcase was great.
            I took a brief nap and headed out for dinner. I went to a casual pub and sat at the bar. Had me some wine and dinner. Got into a bit of a chat about the Leafs with Captain Hook... He wasn't Captain Hook, I don't remember his real name... but he was this 47 year old guy with a hook for a hand. Our chat was quite brief, as I was ready to head back to my hotel.
Once here I called my brother and we chatted for a while. Then my exhaustion got the better of me and I fell asleep watching Doctor Who. Hehehe

Magically Delicious

This morning as I am getting ready for work and eating breakfast as I notice the Lucky charms cereal box in front of me. On the front Lucky is advertising that they have a new shape; the hourglass! It is gold and yellow, and as I look over the side panel of the box, it appears that all the colours are represented, and everything seems to be in order.
Then it hits me smack in the face, Where are the pots of gold? The yellow pots with the gold on top! They were replaced with hourglasses? Are we in the Wizard of Oz and Lucky (Dorthy) only has so much time to live? Is this some kind of horrible foreshadowing that Lucky Charms will only be in store for a 'limited time' (gasp!). I, personally was under the impression that with a leprechaun comes a pot of gold. Should the cereal not look like the picture on the right?
I look to the back of the box for more information. I discover that when Lucky uses an hourglass, it make everything go backwards (in time was my guess). That's a cool power to have, but when did Lucky get powers? Is he not just lucky? Is that not the purpose of a leprechaun, to be lucky and give you some of his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?
On the back of the box there is also a comic strip showing how Lucky uses the hourglass to foil some kids out of their box of lucky charms.
Should Lucky not use his pot of gold to pay rent, and stop sleeping in the forest. Maybe then he wouldn't have to steal cereal from unsuspecting kids.