Ice hockey anyone?

So as in all good weekends - it didn’t start off at the ice hockey - but that was merely the end of a great weekend out.

As promised we headed back out to The Distillery to see the area by day, and we were not disappointed. It is so beautiful and arty and a little quirky – which makes it an awesome place to visit.



Why do we always find the awesome food places - yum fresh bread

 



We're still trying to figure out what the art piece behind us was - but at least it was good for a "Strike a pose" picture!

  

Yes that is a giant spider...





More art





My favourite!! From behind it seems like a pretty ordinary piece...

 

Um... ya

After a very cold walk around checking out the very different art randomly placed around the area – we made our way into any warm looking restaurant hunting down a cup of coffee and some brunch to line our stomachs for the big day that lay ahead of us. Ice Hockey is not for sissies… The Distillery is a definite MUST if you're ever in the area!

Getting back to our vehicle - we were greeted by a fine - "Parking within 3 metres of a fire hydrant" - um ok if there was a line in the road we would have known not to?!? So note to self South Africans - Canada has some crazy road rules that aren't very visible... and there was no way of talking our way out of a $100 fine! Sad panda:(

Coffee in and Distilleried out we made our way to meet up with the other 20 odd JITTIES at Wayne Gretzky’s (a pub belonging to an old ice hockey player) and then on to the Ricoh Coliseum to watch the Toronto Marlies take on Rochester.

Believe it - those are Nachos!

This awesome statue is on route to the Ricoh Coliseum



The Ricoh Coliseum



Now I won’t lie and make out that I’m a raging sports fan – because the truth is that I am not – but an Ice Hockey game is something I really wanted to go see due to all the rumours about players beating the crap out of each other on the ice, and well the Jerry Springer lover in me just thought that would be fun.

 Things some how changed for me when the anthems were being sung. But not only that - in support of the Canadian Armed Forces majority of the crowd were Air force soldiers (IN UNIFORM... yum)... So the whole experience was just that much nicer!

Ice hockey was amazing to watch. Unfortunately the Toronto Marlies lost - which was a little sad - but we got to see some ice fist action and many a player sent to the SIN BIN for bad behaviour. It DEFINITELY is something I would go watch again.



The lights outside the stadium while waiting for a cab to go home.

Note to anyone wanting to travel to Toronto - the street lights in winter make Toronto a beautiful city - I suggest you take a walk down town and take the whole city in.

St Lawrence Market - Toronto

I'm an absolute nut for farmers markets - and St Lawrence was no exception to that. Canada seems to have a love for all things baked - something we have hugely in common. So we decided to go check out what the farmers, bakers and butchers had to offer.

The peeps (short for people/ gang/ group) and I made our way to the market to go and sample some of their wares and I'll let the photos do most of the talking...

                      Yummy goods all around us!!

I'll have love without the heartache any day - unfortunately my clothes wont love me if I indulge too much...

Chocolate crepe with fresh strawberries in side
Its one of the nicest things I have ever eaten - so incredibly tasty

 After our initial walk around and tasters... we found an Italian butchery selling pulled pork rolls (another typical Canadian dish). I think he took a liking to our group because all he wanted to do was dish up plates of food for us. In fact so much so that when we found a place to sit for lunch - he had added in a whole bunch of potatoes to our lunch boxes. Very funny old man entertaining us South Africans (and a Pom and an Aussie).

Our trip to the market was super tasty, and I'm glad we sampled some yummy yummy goodies. However the walk back to the apartment was incredibly cold. Taking into account the wind chill factor, we froze our bums off... But have come to the conclusion that as long as we walk everywhere in Toronto we can sample loads of yummy goods - although hitting the treadmill is definitely in order and soon!



A typical sign... hahaha had such a laugh!



Saturday evening saw us gals hit the Distillery District for some R&R where we found our first cider.

The Distillery District is an internationally acclaimed village of brick-lined streets and dozens of vibrantly restored Victorian Industrial buildings. It’s one of Ontario’s hottest tourist attractions (yes I found that on some website - not so sure if its the hottest but that sounded cool) and home to live theatres, galleries, fashion, design and jewelry boutiques, unique cafes and restaurants. It’s all completely closed to traffic and just a few minutes walk from downtown Toronto. However, due to the fact that we froze walking back to the apartment we caught a cab to the District (I know - we broke our first rule to sampling yummy food).

It was so beautiful by night that we made a date to come back during the day at a later stage



Our first Canadian cider.
Missing good old Savana Dry - but this was pretty good!
Savana would have a right go at the name though - which made me laugh!
[South African insider joke]

And that dear friends was another awesome way to spend a weekend - with some great new friends, an awesome city and fun memories made!!

Niagara-on-the-Lake and Ice Wine

Canada's wine region is very pretty. I realised that I'm a few weeks behind sending any news - so I hope to update the last 4 very busy weeks, and decided to start with our day trip out for the Niagara Ice Wine Festival.

The festival was a food and wine pairing and for those of you who are unfamiliar with Ice wine – it is a slightly thicker version of South African dessert wine. The discovery pass was our gateway to six Niagara wineries to enjoy VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance - not really sure what that is - but sounded cool to mention it) wine and culinary pairings throughout the Ontario wine district. Being a very sweet wine I had figured the pairings would all be sweet – but I was incredibly impressed with the savoury options we experienced. The first being chili (a mince base dish) and the second and rather strange choice, pad thai.

Sweet potato pie pairing - first farm

The process of producing Ice Wine is an interesting one. To make Ice wine, the grapes are left on the vine until after the first frost hits. These grapes are harvested after being frozen in the vineyard and then, while still frozen, they are pressed. They must be picked early - before 10 a.m. During both of these processes the temperature cannot exceed -8 degrees C (yes thats colder than even Sutherland in South Africa can drop to). At this temperature (-8 degrees C) the berries will freeze as hard as marbles. While the grape is still in its frozen state, it is pressed and the water is driven out as shards of ice. This leaves a highly concentrated juice, very high in acids, sugars and aromatics.

Chateau des Charmes - we just stopped in to check out the farm

No fences between the road and the vineyard

The farms we choose to visit were Lake View Estate, Hillebrand Estate, Pond View Estate, Marynissan Estate, Inniskillin Winery and River View Estate. I realise now as I read through the list that most of the farms names are water system names – but you must understand that approximately 15% of Canada is covered by marshlands.

 

Farm 2: Hillebrand

One of my favourite vineyards (“wine farms” appear to confuse the shit out of the average Canadian) was Hillebrand who served their ice wine with chocolate chili (a Canadian mince dish served with cocoa nibs which melted in the hot chili – the pairing gets a definite 9/ 10 for the amazing savoury aspect of it). Their ice wine had wonderful peach notes which definitely made it the winner of the day.

 NOT only that though - they had an outside fire going and the whole vibe was very cool!!


Having a break at the camp fire.



Still outside Hillebrand - can you tell we liked this farm?

 

Farm 3: Pond View Estate - just in case the name above didn't give it away

Another great pairing - both Vidal and Cab Frank ice wines tasted



And the snow was on its way...

  

Farm 4: Marynissan



Farm 5: AMAZING Inniskillin - say the name quickly - such a mouthfull



Inniskillin is a beautiful farm and the flurry had arrived strong and fast when we arrived at the farm. Their pairing was a Vidal apple tart topped with a dollop of freshly whipped Gewürztraminer cream. The winner of the sweet category of the day, but because of the farms beauty and the staff at Inniskillin I would rate it as my favourite all round of the day. A definite must if you are ever in the Niagara-on-the-Lake area.



Farm 6: Riverview Estate



It was but again – another great experience in Canada… Needless to say the drive home was entertaining with me having to use our snow duster (have no idea what its actual name is) for the first time. Driving in the snow is not for sissies… But ICE WINE – it's awesome – especially in the cold and snowy weather. Yum yum yum…

No this is not a black and white photograph

Watch this space: “Saint Lawrence farmers Market in Toronto” and “My first ice hockey game” coming soon.