Flashback: Summer 2006 Toronto

Amazing Clouds - taken from inside the plane

I haven’t realized how much I miss blogging.. Until now…

As you may have noted, I have been absent for the longest time ever.. Perhaps more than 3 weeks. Or, almost a month! During my last week in Canada, when school was already over, I was out celebrating summer almost everyday. One day we went Strawberry Picking, the other we went to try out one Summerlicious restaurant, or simply watched a movie and took a leisure walk at Nathan Philip’s Square.

It’s the middle of summer already in Canada and I thought it would be useless to write long posts about events that have been long gone. So, I decided to give a quick flashback over what had happened during my short course of summer in Canada.

Strawberry Picking at Whittamore’s Farm

I have always wanted to do this. I made planning ahead, before the season even began. The difficulty of not owning a car showed up here as no public transportation reaches this suburbia part of southmost town of Markham. Given no other choice, my hard-willed desire helplessly opted to ride a taxi. We could’ve walked… for 6 kilometres! Rather than fainting in the middle of the deserted road, we’d rather be paying for a taxi ride.

The strawberry farm wasn’t disappointing at all. I loved the surroundings and the peacefulness of the hectares of vast land. The picking was made especially comfortable by the straws neatly arranged in between the strawberries so that we can lay our buttocks there wile picking. I got too carried away that Mr. W and my sister had to remind me to stop plucking the strawberries. We’d secretly ate some strawberries we just plucked while sitting down. They were oh so juicy and melted in our mouths right away!!! Finally, we ended up with 13.6 pounds of fresh-picked strawberries. For a complete set of photographs, please visit my Friendster album. It’s a little slow, so I hope you could bear with it.

Summerlicious at Pangaea Restaurant

Summer won’t be complete without Summerlicious. This unique fix prix event, where a bunch of renowned restaurants participate, owned only by Toronto. The first restaurant that came to my mind was Pangaea. I’m not sure why, but I guess it’s mainly because of the reviews I read in the past about this simple and spacious restaurant. The dishes they presented all have distinguished taste, simplicity in presentation, and free of any pretentiousness.

The appetizer that I ordered was the octopus salad, citrusy and refreshing. The main course of choice was a seared tuna, which I’ve never had before. Being an open-mined eater and a lover of sashimi, I quickly fell in love with this juicy tuna topped with fresh cilantro sauce and grated horseradish.

However, don’t be surprised if these two didn’t quite leave an impression on me. The climax of this lunch was marked by the gloriously simple dessert of Raspberry Mousse with Lemon Ladyfingers. I can’t stop licking my spoon and gumming my cheek everytime I put a spoonful of raspberry mousse into my mouth. The mousse was a bit tart paired with a perfect sense of sweetness, making it delectable. The addition of fresh raspberries lining the bottom of the tiny ramekin brought the dessert to life! I wish I could ask for a bigger portion…

Toronto Street Festival

Locations: Nathan Philip's Square and along Yonge Street north of Queen

Farewell Tasha, Farewell Husky, See you soon Toronto!

Clockwise: Nathan Philip's Square in the summer; Tasha and Husky finally getting along; Sushi Pizza at Sushi Time, Queen Street West; So long Tasha and Husky!

This entry in itself, would already indicate that I am no longer in Toronto, temporarily. In fact, I am writing this entry in the heat of the night at my home in Sidoarjo! Yes, I have flown back from Toronto to my home country, Indonesia! After overcoming the jetlag and expected sickness, I hopped to the keyboard. Too excited to share the findings that I got during my first week at home. Just watch out for it!