Written by Sister #3

I was joining my sister for dinner the other night and we decided to visit Kokonuts on Hidalgo as Sylvia of Sardinian Smile is now the new manager of Kokonuts. 

It’s a place I have always wanted to try and a favourite of my sister’s as it reminds her of her trips to Italy. I’m hoping to travel to Italy this year, and while I’m not likely to make it to the island of Sardinia, I’m anxious to soak up all things Italian as I dream about my trip. Owner Silvia shares her family’s traditional Sardinian dishes along with a variety of other selections that highlight the fresh products available on the island. 

Upon arrival we were greeted by Luciano who was a wonderful host. The set up of Kokonuts isn’t exactly the vibe you would expect for this fine Italian establishment. Inside feels like a bar with video screens and flashing lights. but we selected a table on the street to soak up the energy of Hidalgo.  The live music of Jesús Campuzano adding to our experience. We were grateful that Sylvia and her staff amalgamated with Kokonuts so we could still experience their food. 

We settled in with two-for-one mojitos that were a refreshing cocktail to start the evening.  We had a couple of appetizers recommended by Sylvia.

The crab cakes were crispy on the outside, tender inside and full of crab flavour. They didn’t need the tartar sauce but it was so yum that I ended up eating some of it with the cakes.

The pulpo a la gallega was amazing. A traditional dish from Galicia it reminded me of the tapas we ate in Spain. Tender chunks of locally caught octopus on tender potato slices, topped with olive oil and paprika. We added a kiss of salt to bring out its full flavour.

For our main we selected their lasagna, made with bolognese and béchamel sauces, it was rich and melt-in-your mouth.

But my favourite dish of the night was the ensalada Kokonuts, a romaine and cucumber salad with slices of crisp Granny Smith apple and chunks of mango. Topped with candied walnuts and perfectly seasoned shrimp. I will be back for that salad very soon. Served with scrumptious homemade buns it was simply perfection. 

If you need info about their hours, location and menu, please feel free to check out www.mapchicks.com

Kath’s quote: “This land resembles no other place. Sardinia is something else. Enchanting spaces and distances to travel-nothing finished, nothing definitive. It is like freedom itself.“-David Herbert Lawrence, Sea and Sardinia, 1921

Love never fails.

North Garden has long been on my favourite street in Centro-the street that leads to North Beach and perhaps that is one of the many reasons for their success. As you walk by, you can smell cinnamon buns and bagels being baked. That aroma sticks in your head but you are determined to get a prime spot on the beach (under a palm tree for shade), so you say to yourself  “On my way home, I am going to treat myself to lunch there” Then you may do, as I once did: I plunked myself in my chair from the hotel, but when the bottom fell out of it and I was splayed across the sand, I stood up and announced that I wasn’t going to stay anyway. I was on my way for breakfast at North Garden!

On this day, my brother and his wife joined me for breakfast. They had never been to North Garden and I love to get reactions to places from Newbies. They both admired the ambience of the garden. Don’t you just feel revitalized when you are surrounded by green? Instead of coffee, I opted for a green juice (chia, pineapple, cucumber, lime, orange and ginger) at which time I felt even more alive. Truth be told, I had recently shaken off the travel and settling in jags and had just started to be able to finish a sentence.

We commenced by sharing an amuse bouche of cinnamon roll French toast, with chocolate chips mixed right into the eggs. Chopped peacans garnished and enhanced the crunch. There was one each and it worked! My mouth was definitely amused and I was hungry for more. My husband D and I make a version of these at the Bread and Breakfast we sometimes help out at. I am going to suggest the B & B owners try the chocolate chips inclusion when I get home.

The breakfast menu is so extensive that I needed Brenda, one of the owners of the restaurant to guide us. She took the guess work out for us and we were delighted with her choices.

My brother had the Breakfast Bagel. Crispy bacon, orange yolked eggs, cheese, tomato, lettuce and chipotle mayonnaise on an in house baked bagel.

The bagels laid out in the window beside our table indicated all the varieties they bake. One of them could easily be breakfast itself on a future morning.

My sister-in-law was delighted when the eggs benedict were placed in front of her. It was exactly what she would have ordered if we had chosen ourselves. Their Pecana version, was expertly prepared (eggs were poached to still have a runny centre), as well as crispy bacon, spinach and tomato. They too were garnished with chopped pecans. She was slow to taste and savour, and you could definitely see that they were both enjoying their first visit to North Garden.

My breakfast plate was so laden with food that I could have shared it with at least one more person. The Hotcakes Trio came with lightly scrambled eggs as well as pancakes topped with bananas and Nutella! I honoured the kitchen by trying a couple of bites of the pancakes, but was really excited by the premise- made sausage that was also served. The chefs grilled a beautiful Argentinan style sausage made with brisket, garlic, chipotle and jalapeno chilies as well as mozzarella cheese, which deliciously bound the ingredients together. I am also a potato aficionado and the Garden’s breakfast potatoes are tossed in a delectable amount of olive oil and cooked until the inside is still sweet and the outside is crunchy. Perfecto.

Drop in anytime on your way to or from the beach!

For the hours, address and menu for North Garden check out www.mapchicks.com.

Kath’s quote: “Breakfast is everything. The beginning, the first thing. It is the mouthful that is the commitment to a new day, a continuing life.” – A. A. Gill

These sea glass hearts were collected by my friend Ann, who I have known for years but only met IRL recently. She was also dining at North Garden that morning.

Love never fails.

In less than three weeks I will be heading south to the warmth of my home-away-from-home, Isla Mujeres Mexico.

I am so blessed that I get to spend a good portion of the winter in my happy place. You see, I HATE WINTER!  And unfortunately I was born in a place aptly nicknamed WINTERPEG. We have been very fortunate to have had a very mild winter so far, but the cold is now upon us. With the wind it’s -35 this morning. So today I’ll share the recipe for the most soul warming dish I know, chili. Funny name for a cozy dish.

The other night I was with my niece, and her two adorable children (my honorary grand babies) and she had made a crockpot of chili con carne. It was so delicious. The warm spices and the melting cheddar cheese on top. It reminded me that I should likely make a pot of my chili before I head off to Mexico. My house sitter is vegetarian and my favourite chili recipe happens to be vegan.

This dish was first made for me by my sweet friend Betty on a midwinter trip to the cabin. This dish has it all, it’s economical, nutritious, easy to make. And most importantly, it’s delicious. Stay warm and enjoy!

Out-of-this-world Vegan Chili

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil                    1 onion

1 carrot                                1 red pepper

3 cloves of garlic                 1 can black beans

1 can kidney beans                            1 can plum tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste                         1/4 cup salsa

2 tbsp chili powder                            1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano                      1 tsp basil

12 oz package Yves Veggie Ground Round (optional)

Method

Clean and dice onion, carrot, pepper and press garlic. Heat oil in a soup pot.  Add onion and cook till translucent, about 3 minutes. Add carrot, red pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute.  Add beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, salsa and spices. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium.  Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes or until carrots are tender.  Crumble and add the package of veggie ground round and heat through. I make mine without the meat substitute.  

Kath’s quote: “Tension translates to your guests. They’ll have a much better time having chili and baked potatoes than they would if you did roast duck with a wild cherry sauce and then had to lie down and cry for a while.”-Nigella Lawson

Love never fails.

Another beautiful, sunny and warm day in Brooklyn.

It was our last full day. I felt like we had seen the sights and I was content to stick around the apartment and “live” there for a day.

At lunch time, D found a great Jamaican Deli just around the corner from us. We ordered jerk chicken and D chose this as one of his sides. I am not sure it is Jamaican but I know that the locals often eat macaroni salad with soda biscuits in Mexico and it was a staple in his home, growing up.

We also discovered great shopping that was almost in our backyard. D stocked up on discounted Gap blue jeans.

When it was time for dinner, we decided that we would venture out to shop for some local ingredients and use the great kitchen in the apartment.

But the darkened skies coaxed us into staying home.

Instead, we knew that Junior’s was a famous deli in Brooklyn and there were still a couple of “Must eat while in NYC” items on our list. D ordered brisket on latkes.

I just wanted to latkes. But truth be told, I really only wanted New York style cheesecake so I ate one half of one of the three enormous latkes.

And savoured the cheesecake. We smugly thought we had dodged getting soaked in the rain, but we felt horrible when we realized our Uber Eats delivery person was on a bicycle.

Early the next morning, we were back in Toronto, where more eating adventures took place.

Kath’s quote: “We broke up because he ate a slice of my cheesecake!” ~ Unknown

Love never fails.

With this trip being our first time staying in Brooklyn (our previous locales were Gramercy Park, The Piers, Central Park, Garment District, Madison Square Gardens, Jersey City and Queens), we set out to explore DUMBO (aka Down Under the Metropolitan Bridge Overpass).

I imagine that travelers ordinally gravitated to the area to see the Manhattan skyline, but as you can see the fog had rolled in with the persistent rain.

Many people chose this street to get their selfies in front of the bridge (us included-please ignore my rained on hair). We did some browsing at the weekend flea market but were soon looking for sustenance. It turned out that resulting lunch, was my favourite meal of the entire trip!

D had discovered it just around the corner from the flea market. It was an inauspicious little place but as soon as the aroma wafted from the open door, we knew that we were in for a treat.

This magazine feature taped to the wall by our stools indicated the success that was had when Jeremy Dean flipped his vegan bodega into a noodle house!

This decadent starter was assembled from mixed mushrooms, black garlic and yu choy dumplings. Absolutely stellar!

This noodle dish was named after the restaurant and were the silkiest, I have ever eaten.

We also tucked into a fried rice dish in a cardboard take out container, just because we wanted to eat with chopsticks right out of the carton like everyone does in shows and movies about NYC!

We had a lengthy subway ride back to the Theatre District for a matinee that we had gotten tix for in the Broadway lottery, but we were too early for curtain. So we spent some time in our favourite Bryant Park, our destination with every trip to the Big Apple.

Here is a reflection of the Empire State Building. One of many lovely aspects of this trip was because we had already done all the touirsty things on previous trips, so we could relax and return to our favourite spots.

There is always a point when I have been in New York, that I crave home-not my city house so much as our lake house. This is why.

The best thing about the Broadway play that we saw, were our great seats. Otherwise, I won’t even mention it.

We had dinner reservations at a place called Becco on Restaurant Row which was close to the Theatre District, so we first enjoyed a tea and pastry in the hood and then happy hour beverages, when we were still too early. D would say that Becco was well worth the trouble.

Lidia Bastianich and her son Joe, both of Food Network fame, are collaborators of the restaurant, so my sights were pretty high. D said that his choice of Cesar salad was the best he had ever tasted.

I very much enjoyed the anti-pasto, sharing the nibbles with D. My favourite taste prior to dinner was skinny little breadsticks rolled in course salt.

I am guessing that the proximity to the theatre district must have created their pasta tasting menu. Piping hot selections were served from skillet pans delivered by wandering chefs/servers. One was of el dente broccoli in a light sauce and the above was torn sheets of pasta in a seafood sauce with little morsels of more seafood peppering the dish. D loved both and had to decide which dish to have seconds of because the pasta came around and around until you yelled “Uncle!”

I loved the mushroom stuffed ravioli in an equally decadent mushroom cream sauce. We passed on desert and decided that a stroll through Times Square would be a great idea. D was doing some souvenir shopping for the kids and grandkids at home. He didn’t have the correct change for a t-shirt vendor, so the kind gentlemen said “Take the shirt and come back and pay me after you find an ATM”! We were so touched by his kindness.

Kath’s quote: “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it in five minutes as equally as five years.“-Tom Wolfe

Love never fails.