Rain, Rain, Go Away

My visitor this week was Jeannette, who was a participant in a homemade video and also a guest blogger last summer. We hadn't seen each other in over a year and she made a long drive all the way from Virginia to see me!

We decided that on her short stay we would venture up to Toronto and do some shopping, exploring and eating of various foods---but especially poutine.

Our day started out pleasant but then while we were exploring the hipster Kensington Market area, the sky turned gray and a heavy & steady stream of rain fell onto the city. We just happened to get caught in a massive rainstorm in Toronto; full of power outages, floods and endless traffic. Our dreams of getting poutine at Smoke's Poutinerie quickly vanished (no power there) and our journey home seemed never-ending (traffic lights were out and highway lanes were completely flooded).

the sights of Toronto before the monsoon

Not to worry, I wasn't about to let Jeannette miss her chance to try some poutine. We found a version in Buffalo at a Canadian chain-restaurant called Jack Astor's. A little lukewarm and not completely satisfying for me but Jeannette was pretty happy with her first poutine encounter (I didn't like the taste of the gravy and could barely taste the cheese curds).

We also made sure she had some wings so I took her to a local brewery, Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, but also had a hidden agenda to try their version of Beef on Weck Pizza. A quick refresher: Beef on Weck is a Buffalo favorite---thinly sliced roast beef with horseradish on a kummelweck roll (caraway seeds & globs of salt). I previously had it twice and wasn't impressed; it was either too salty or too spicy.

I think Beef on Weck Pizza is totally for me. The salt and the horseradish (in the form of creme fraiche) was a perfect marriage on the flatbread above the beef and cheese. They weren't overwhelming and tasted delicious. It's making me think I should give the real thing another go. (The wings were pretty tasty too).

We ended her trip with a visit to Larkin Square again for Food Truck Tuesdays. This time around I finally tried out the Buffalo favorite Lloyd's Taco Truck. This happened to be right after our poutine snack so I only ordered a chimichurri chicken taco. Didn't really taste the chimichurri but it was flavorful and tasty nonetheless. Can't wait to try out more menu items at Lloyd's.

Jeannette's my last visitor this summer (unless any of you want to come visit me. I'm here until August then I go home to Chicago for that entire month). So it's back to cooking and maybe more running to curb my food belly from all my food adventures.

On a side note: I had some fun with the Line Camera app on my phone. This was from the rainy day in Toronto with my not-so-good umbrella. It was dripping on me!