Things You Must Try: London, ON

Time has just whizzed by, and I am now back in Edmonton! To sum up my foodtastic life over the past year, I am going to recommend things that you should eat for happy tastebuds in Londontown!

In no particular order, let me begin...

Bag Daddy's Big Stack from The Bag Lady:

This beautiful work of art is only made available at The Bag Lady Deli and Variety, and you need to have it. It's offered as long as The Bag Lady is open, so that die-hards can have it first thing in the morning, or it can be enjoyed in the early afternoon for the less-than-early risers. For $11.95, this glorious sandwich made of sourdough french toast, maple bacon, honey ham, fried egg, spinach, avocado, and tomato, topped with Hollandaise sauce can be yours! Dooo it! (I've also written about The Bag Lady on my blog before! For a refresher, you can read it here!)

Burek from Hot Oven at the Covent Garden Market:

The Hot Oven's bureks are made constantly throughout the day, everyday. I have yet to find anything like these in terms of the combined taste and texture. For $3.99, you can get a savoury burek like the one pictured above with spinach and cheese, cheese, or meat filling, or 2 dessert bureks with apple and cinnamon filling inside freshly-baked phyllo pastry. The savoury pastries come with a side of sour cream, and any other fixings you need are offered at the counter! It's an easy lunch/snack to pick up while you browse the Covent Garden Market, which you should be visiting anyways. (Thank you to Doris for checking the prices for me!)

Pierogi Lunch from Cafe Bourgeois at the Western Fair District Farmer's Market:

The pierogi lunch from Cafe Bourgeois at the Western Fair District Farmer's Market is a must! For $7, you get to choose 3 freshly made pierogi with some very unique fillings. For instance, when I went with my friend, Doris, we had pulled pork, jalapeno and cheese, and bacon and onion. My photo really doesn't do them justice, because they are actually massive! You can have them heated or fried up, but either way, they are pretty well guaranteed to be delicious! The drink pictured was a Cranberry Compote - cranberries simmered in strawberry tea and rose buds. I feel like it's different every week :) Find out more about Cafe Bourgeois and other vendors of the Western Fair District Farmer's Market here!

Vegetable Tempura from Zen Gardens:

I maintain that the Vegetable Tempura from Zen Gardens is the best tempura I've had. It isn't made with traditional panko, but there is something about their batter that is so wonderfully magical. I haven't enjoyed tempura as much as I've enjoyed theirs. It's a good mix of vegetables that they have on hand - enoki mushrooms being one of the unique additions. For $9.99, you, too can enjoy this fantasmical plate of deepfried veggie goodness! Read more about my love affair with Zen Gardens' Vegetable Tempura here!

Surely, there are other amazing eats in London, Ontario that I just have yet to discover, but my tastebuds were most definitely sent to heavenly places when I had the above food items.

Unfortunately, not all things can be peachy, and I feel the need to advise you on some less than wonderful experiences. That being said, I'm also going to sheepishly list things that aren't really worth it (sorry ._.):

2 for 1 Cake Slices at Symposium Cafe:

As magical as it sounds, the 2 for 1 cake deal on Sundays at Symposium Cafe is not actually that great. While the selection and portions of cake are impressive, both the service and product are subpar. It took more than 15 minutes for the servers/hosts to acknowledge my friends and I, and a server had to be flagged down in order to tend to our table. I can appreciate that only 1 server was assigned to our large group, however, the job wasn't taken very seriously at all. There were 12 varieties of cake to choose from, but of the 3 that I sampled, none had more flavour than sweet, and this was a tooth-aching, sugary sort of sweet. Perhaps it may appeal to some, but not to me. On the bright side, the half price bottles of Owner Cellar wine also offered on Sundays are quite good according to my friends, Cat and Laura.

Bibimbap at Gangnam Style BBQ Restaurant:

I completely visited this place out of novelty for its name, Gangnam Style. I am sad to report that mediocre was the word to describe the food I tried at Gangnam Style when I went with my dad including the Bibimbap, which is one of the most basic Korean dishes. Something was off about the seasoning of...well, everything. The saddest part for me was that I was craving beansprouts, and theirs just didn't give me the refreshing taste and crunch I was looking for. While its menu featured very entertaining names including the "Hey Sexy Lady Combo", the product just didn't measure up. I have to say that I have not tried the Korean BBQ here, so I'm not sure what that is like, but the disappointment with 4 dishes makes me reluctant enough to avoid giving it a try when I can go elsewhere instead.

Bubble Tea and Crepes at Cafe Sentral:

It was my first birthday in London, so I decided to celebrate by going for bubble tea and crepes with friends at Cafe Sentral. While impressive that the entire place was operated by one person, the products did not seem to make the wait particularly worthwhile. I opted for Strawberry Bubble Tea with tapioca pearls. The bubble tea tasted like a mix of artificially-flavoured juice and syrup, while the tapioca pearls were overcooked and a bit on the soggy side. The crepe was acceptable, but the fillings were quite average and overcooked as well. A couple of my friends had spoiled fruits in their sweet crepes, which tells me that this one fellow running the place doesn't check the condition of his produce. I regretfully beg to differ with their 82% rating on Urbanspoon.

I'd like to leave this post with more good things rather than bad, so there you have it - some must-try items and the minimal extent of my negative reviews :)

Look forward to my next write-up on delicious eateries from my recent re-location back to Edmonton!

-M

Love for the Locals: Budapest

I'm down to my last week and a half in London, ON and I'm trying to visit all the local eateries I possibly can before I take off, between completing my final assignments and applying for jobs.

Today, two of my classmates, Laura and Doris joined me in visiting Budapest Restaurant, a local Hungarian restaurant that has been around for over 55 years. A few weeks ago, one of my professors told us a story about how he went to this restaurant, Marika, who has been running the show this whole time, told him and his friends to help themselves in the kitchen as she was too busy to serve them. He said that it was one of the best meals he's ever had, and when I saw that it was right next to Zen Gardens, which I dined at last week, I knew I just had to try it.

I unlocked 3 achievements with this visit:
1) Visit a Londonlicious restaurant
London has a food festival called Londonlicious, which is similar to Downtown Dining Week in Edmonton where you can get fixed 3-course lunch for $15 or dinner for $25 at some of the nicer restaurants in the city.

2) Visit a new, local restaurant I hadn't been to yet
After hearing from my professor and a number of my friends about this place, I just had to try it. I have an affinity for local restaurants that have been around for a long time and managed to sustain a reputation. And potatoes. They had a lot of potato things. 

3) Eat perogies
The perogies thing started earlier in May when Laura, Doris, and I went in search of perogies in London, and "Perogies Place" was supposed to be the best place for perogies in Londontown. Unfortunately, the Internet lied, and "Perogies Place" was replaced by a steak sandwich shop that isn't half bad, but we did not get the perogies we desired. But today, we were victorious.

Budapest Restaurant (348 Dundas Street, London, ON) is a medium-sized restaurant with a patio in the front, and two dining halls. Our server invited us to sit in the smaller dining hall where no one else was. We missed out on some of the amazing decor until we were leaving, but we did have a nice amount of privacy to enjoy our meals.

Budapest - A Taste of Hungary!

They had a lovely gentleman playing jazz music on the piano - as we entered, I'm pretty sure it was "Georgia on My Mind". Beautiful :)

The view from our table out into the main hall.

The view of our "private" dining hall.

The main dining hall as seen near the entrance to the restaurant. Check out all of those flags!

The reverse of their take-out menus had an article from the London Free Press picturing Marika on the restaurant's 50th anniversary.

The Londonlicious Lunch Menu - a choice of soup or salad, various platters of German and Hungarian food, and a dessert all for $15.

Green salad with house dressing. The vegetables were very fresh, and the dressing was light. Perfect to start the meal!

Long awaited perogies. These were not on the Londonlicious menu, so I had to order them separately. Until today, I never had perogies that weren't boiled before, so this was a different experience. They were absolutely delicious. The outsides were a bit crisp, but you could taste the homemade dough just past that, which invited you into fluffy mashed potatoes flavoured with cottage cheese and dill, topped with sour cream, fresh dill, and bits of bacon. So worth the wait.

Laura got the Chicken Paprikash. Doris told us that "paprikash" usually involved a mixture of peppers with some paprika. I stole a bite from it, and the chicken was very tender, and the sauce wasn't too overpowering. It came with a chicken drumstick and a thigh!

Doris got the Budapest Platter - it had Hungarian goulash, wiener schnitzel, and a cabbage roll. Doris gave me most of her cabbage roll because she's not a huge fan, but she did say she liked this one. Rather than the pitiful imitations found in mall food courts, this cabbage roll had a thin layer of cabbage wrapped around a dense mixture of rice and meat. Still, it was tender, juicy, and very flavourful.

With the promise of Doris' cabbage roll, I opted for the Wiener Schnitzel. It came with 2 pieces of schnitzel and homefries, and as with the other plates, homemade spaetzle and cabbage salad. The spaetzle was perfectly cooked, with just the right amount of sauce so that it wasn't drowning in soup or soggy. The wedge of lemon provided just what was needed to accompany the crisp outside and tender inside of the schnitzel. The homefries were amazing. The outsides were heavenly crisp, with fluffy hot insides that I definitely burnt my mouth on, but it was worthwhile. The cabbage salad was interesting - it was slightly cooked so that the cabbage was wilted, but shredded very finely and seasoned with a tangy sort of dressing.

There were 2 choices for dessert; a poppyseed roll and cottage cheese tart. I picked the poppyseed roll. It was a very interesting taste. The pastry was swirled around a mixture of hundreds of poppyseeds and shredded coconut. While interesting, I learned that I don't actually like poppyseeds that much, and was unfortunately unable to finish it. Laura and Doris were also well into food comatose states, and couldn't offer their assistance.

Both Laura and Doris chose the cottage cheese tart. I should have asked a bit more about what it was - my fear was that it was something like a custard tart, which generally has a lot of cream content. That plus cottage cheese sounded like bad news for me. It was actually like a pastry cake of some sort with cottage cheese embedded in the cake to make it moist, with cherry filling. I feel like I missed out...

The tea, although simple, was a lovely conclusion to the meal. I have a feeling that dinner will be later today. (There was a definite sign that I require more sleep. As I began to pour my tea, I realized that I had yet to put the tea bag in the tea pot. Sigh.)

Budapest was the first Hungarian restaurant that I've been to. Although some of the food overlaps with German cuisine, it was quite the experience. It makes me yearn more for a trip to Europe someday I can afford it... The staff were all so friendly. Marika must be working some real magic back in the kitchen because everything was so delicious. The poppyseed roll was an exception, but moreso due to personal tastes than anything else. I would definitely go back if I had the chance.

I urge you to try Budapest while Londonlicious is still on because it is a great deal, and there are only 3 days left! Be sure to check out the other restaurants participating in this festival too :)

-M

Love for the Locals: Zen Gardens

The end of my program here is drawing near, and some friends that I've made during my stay are starting to go off into different directions. Last night, we had a get together for dinner only a few days before my friend, Meagan moves away, at one of her favourite restaurants in London - Zen Gardens. It isn't unique to London as they have multiple locations in Eastern Canada, mostly in Ontario, with 1 in Quebec, and 1 in New Brunswick. However, between my two visits to the one in London, their food and service have been consistently impressive.

Zen Gardens (344 Dundas Street, London, ON) isn't my typical eatery because it's a vegetarian restaurant, but I have yet to have something there that I didn't find enjoyable. It's a smaller restaurant that seats about 40 people, with simple Asian-inspired decor. It's really easy to get to because it's on the route of the 2 Dundas, one of the most frequent busses here. The menu is comprised of Japanese and Chinese-inspired dishes with vegan and gluten-free options available. The prices are quite decent, and in cases where your meals haven't been too spread out, it's likely that you'll have leftovers. 

My initial visit was with my school project group, where one of my classmates, Andrea had a severe fish allergy. Being a vegetarian restaurant, there was no problem for her at all. I have to say that I was very skeptical at first. When I initially moved to London, it was a bit alarming to find that Chinatown doesn't even exist. As well, in the first 2 weeks that I was here for, the only other person of Asian descent that I found lived in the same student residence building as me - the one where all the international exchange students live. Partly due to an immense state of hunger, I gave Andrea the benefit of a doubt, and to my pleasant surprise, it was definitely a good pick!

So, when Meagan mentioned that she wanted to go to Zen Gardens for her farewell dinner, I was totally in.

Zen Gardens Vegetarian Restaurant in London (beside Budapest, an apparently underrated Hungarian restaurant).

Tofu and Mushroom Casserole ($14) - I had this on my first visit, and it was delicious. It wasn't exactly what I would call a "casserole", but it was more like a Tofu and Mushroom Hot Pot that you can get in most Chinese restaurants. There was a good variety of mushrooms - shiitake, button, white, enoki, king mushrooms, in addition to fried tofu, carrots, and bok choy hidden underneath. I could only finish half of it, and had to take the rest home! It made me feel like I should have come here when I was missing the authentic Chinese food I ate so often back home in Edmonton. In most cases for the first 2/3 of the year I was here, I would just wait until I visited my relatives in Toronto to eat things like this. 

Curry Steak Rice ($9) - I was feeling a bit adventurous and decided to find out what a "soy steak" was like. It didn't taste much like meat, but the texture was actually pretty similar to meat for something made out of soy. The curry was delicious - mildly spicy, with a good mix of veggies (mushrooms, peas, green bell peppers, carrots, and potatoes), and fried tofu. I would probably get it again, but there are so many things on their menu to try.

Vegetable Tempura ($10) - I had this the first time I went here and I had it again last night. I ordered a plate to get everyone at our table to try some. I'm convinced that their tempura is actually the best tempura I've ever had. There's something about their batter...there's a slight sweetness and peppery taste to it. They cook it perfectly so that the batter isn't too thin or thick surrounding each piece, and it's just the right kind of crisp. I love it. Again, the variety is impressive - potato, taro, broccoli, mushrooms (button and enoki), and eggplant. I think that the first time I had it, they used some sort of squash as well. 

If you order one of their bento box style combos, which is about $11 for lunch or $16 for dinner, it comes with a dessert and pot of Oolong tea. It was a nice way to end our evening meal. That, and the little guava candies that came with the bill.

I have to say that despite the limited Asian population in London and my skepticism derived from that, Zen Gardens is a winner. No, they don't have anything with meat and seafood that's commonly found in Asian cuisine, but if you're looking for more authentic tasting Japanese or Chinese food at a reasonable cost, this is the place for you. Zen Gardens is really worth a try - at least for their tempura and excellent service, if nothing else!

-M

B-b-b-baking: Presenting on my Personal Passion for Pizza?

Hello lovelies!

It has been a month since my last post, and I apologize. Ever since I moved back to London for the final term of my program, it has been rather busy. I have something kind of fun to share though!

Today, I did a microteaching session for my Information Literacy class where we were required to teach "something" to a group of 3-4 MLIS/PhD LIS students for 20 minutes. Since we had the option of doing something creative rather than what would be considered academic, I tried to come up with a topic that I was passionate about, but could only come up with something to do with music or badminton. P, listening to my flurry of confusion over the phone, said something along the lines of, "well, you like food..." to which I replied, "I do like food..."

The end result? I taught the class about the different components to a good pizza! I had a lot of fun with it, especially considering how I got to make pizza~

I made 3 different pizzas - one made with regular wheat flour and yeast, one with wheat flour and baking powder, and one with gluten-free flour (therefore xanthan gum as well) and yeast!

All 3 were baked at the same temperature (450 F) for 15 minutes. I decided on a classic margherita, because well, it's one of my favourites. A margherita pizza is essentially made up of a pizza dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. Delicious. Also, just a few days ago, I purchased my first plants ever, which included a basil plant!

Hazel (the basil) and Phil (the dill), my new roommates. 

So far, the plant care seems to be going alright, but the aphids are starting to get a tad annoying...

What I have learned today about pizza:
- A good pizza is actually really easy to make! All it takes is flour, yeast, olive oil, salt, and then your choice of toppings!
- The taste and texture is substantially better if you leave the dough to rise overnight in the fridge as opposed to just baking it after 1 1/2-2 hours of rising.
- To give your pizza crust some real oomph, you can knead in some herbs like oregano! (I actually didn't learn this today - I learned it from my roommate, Kaitlyn who lived with me for the past 2/3 of my school year!)
- Fresh basil is the way to go. Dried basil is okay, but if you have fresh basil, it makes a huuuge difference!
- While pizza dough can be made with gluten-free substitutes, and you can kind of make it with leavening agents other than yeast, it just isn't the same...
- The yeast in bread products isn't what gives it the air pockets! It's the agitation done either through mixing or kneading. By doing either of these things, you are incorporating air and creating gluten, making the dough more elastic and flexible, and making more space for it to expand!
- It's not just in grade school. Pizza tastes good cold or hot!

This was what the "dough" from the gluten-free pizza looked like. Really, it was more like a batter than anything. In order to form the shape, I had to wet my hands with water and pat and spread it. It resembled something like hummus, especially when I drizzled olive oil over top...perhaps it could have turned out better if I had more experience with gluten-free baking/cooking...

The gluten-free pizza. Made with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour, yeast, eggs, salt, and olive oil. Taste was okay, but moreso because of the toppings. The dough was kind of cakey - not ideal for a pizza crust. It seemed that it just never crisped up.

The baking powder pizza dough. This took a lot of molding. Since there was still gluten in the dough, you could sort of knead it, but it broke kind of easily, and just didn't feel as nice in your hands (or mouth) :(

The baking powder pizza. Doesn't look so bad after baking. Taste? Eh...edible, but not the same...

The dough for the regular pizza. This was the funnest to work with because it was the real deal! I wasn't daring enough to throw it in the air and catch it while shaping it into a flat circle...maybe another day?

The best for last! A real, classic margherita pizza. Mmm...perfection (or at least pretty close).

The best part about making 3 pizzas to teach a lesson is that you have to test all 3 pizzas. Score. Can you tell which one is which? :P

The experience was really interesting. I haven't been exposed to the world of instruction very much, and hope I get more opportunities to do so in the future! Especially if it's about food...

In case you're interested, below are the accompanying slides from my microteaching session, (although they don't have as much content as my actual presentation did, because I tend to explain things a bit more myself and just use the PowerPoint as a visual).

The Science Behind a Good Pizza

And last but not least, the recipe...

A Good, Old, Classic Margherita Pizza (adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction)
*Makes ~4 personal-sized pizzas*
1 package quick rising yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp brown sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (plus extra for kneading, rising, and drizzling on top)
1 tsp sea salt
Tomato sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil leaves

1. Preheat your oven to 450 F, and line a 6-8 inch cake pan with parchment paper.
2. Meanwhile, add yeast, warm water, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Stir until sugar is dissolved, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave for 10-15 minutes or until foamy.
3. Stir yeast mixture a bit, then add flour, olive oil, and sea salt, stirring until combined.
4. Lightly oil your hands, and knead the dough for about 7-8 minutes until you can form a smooth, round ball.
5. Lightly oil the inside of the mixing bowl, place the dough ball in the center, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave for at least 1 1/2 hours in a warm place until doubled in size. (It's better to leave it to rise in the fridge overnight. Believe me.)
6. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Take one piece and gently stretch and shape it into a circle to fit your cake pan. Drizzle the top with olive oil, and brush to coat evenly.
7. Add tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and basil to your liking.
8. Bake for 15 minutes until the crust is browned and a bit crispy.
9. Remove from oven, slice, and enjoy immediately.
**You can choose to bake the other 3 right away, but they freeze very well. Simply wrap each piece in plastic wrap and stick in the freezer for up to 1 month. To thaw, leave in the fridge overnight until pliable, and continue from the second part of step 6.

Buon Appetito!

-M

B-b-b-baking: Rappin' Crackerz

It's getting to that point in the term where I have to start using things up. Sadly, this is probably the last of my baking until the summer. I know...tragic, ain't it? I happened to have a package of wonton wrappers in my freezer since the potluck we had about a month ago, but because other types of protein went on sale at Loblaws, I stocked up on all of that rather than ground meat. I mean, I could have made fish dumplings by grounding up my fish, but I thought of this after the fact. I'm not so sure that I would have liked eating 40ish fish dumplings over the span of 3 weeks anyways.

I was trying to look for creative ways to use wonton wrappers, but all of the things I got were just different dumpling fillings and/or different folding methods. Turns out, what I really should have consulted was Pinterest. Believe it or not, but I kind of just got into the Pinterest-y thing last week. It's like Imgur, but for artsy craftsy people! Basically, it's great.

One of the pictures was of "Parmesan Wonton Crackers". I'm not thaaat big on parmesan cheese, nor did I have any, but the cracker idea? Genius. It's around now that I'd be getting the munchies while working on the remaining term papers, and even better, I'd actually have a snack food at my disposal! So, I decided to throw together what I thought would make a cracker out of a wonton wrapper.

What I learned today about wonton wrappers:
- Some people think of wonton wrappers as "pasta" (i.e. Martha Stewart), which I suppose in essence it is, but Asian pasta just sounds weird.
- Pinterest is apparently a good source for creative ideas for anything! Including what to do with a package of wonton wrappers that linger in your freezer.
- Wonton wrappers are commonly used for a lot of different party foods! I wonder what my family would think about putting things like artichokes and cheese or pizza toppings inside wonton wrappers :S

I kept doing batches of 6. Clearly, I could have been more efficient by using more pans, but I was down to my last sheet of parchment paper.

Snacky munchie food for the paper-typing blues :D

Wonton Wrapper Crackers
1 package of wonton wrappers
2-3 Tbsp of olive oil
Sea salt
Sesame seeds

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F, and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Lay out 6-8 wonton wrappers flat in a single layer on the pan.
3. Brush each wrapper with a bit of olive oil, then sprinkle sesame seeds and sea salt to your liking.
4. Pop in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until browned and cracker-like, but not burnt.
5. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Munch away!

I have a tendency to eat an entire bag of chips or popcorn in one sitting (P can attest to that), so I hope these last a bit longer :/

-M

Love for the Locals: Dishington's Tea Room

So, I got a Groupon a while back for Dishington's Tea Room, but didn't realize at the time that I'd have to take 3 bus transfers to get there. That was when I ended up going to The Bag Lady with Cat. I finally got the chance to go when one of my classmates, Heather offered to drive. Heather, myself, and another classmate, Elyse, went to Dishington's Tea Room for a late lunch/afternoon tea, and it was lovely.

Dishington's Tea Room (2485 Main Street, London, ON) is actually in a little area called Lambeth, which is slightly outside of London, but was about a 20ish minute drive from the University of Western Ontario campus, so it wasn't too bad. It looks like a little house, and it's actually a tea room on one side, and a gift shop on the other. Elyse said that it reminded her of her grandmother's house. Sometimes, I wish I had a set of European grandparents so that I could say the same. This type of place is so much more my speed compared to nightclubs and bars and pubs. It's such a relaxed atmosphere, and good food and company makes it even better!

Dishington's seems like a rather small operation, but it's these little local places that have so much character and somehow, the better food. They also serve high tea from 11am-2pm, but must be booked 2 days in advance. It seems like it'd be worth a try at some point! It comes on a three-tiered stand full of sandwiches, desserts, and scones, as well as your choice of coffee or tea!

After an adventure somewhere out on the highway, we made it!

The front waiting area. It was half tea room, and half gift shop, as you can see the racks of shirts on the right.

Waiting to be seated in the tea room! The lady in the pink shirt is the front of house and server. I wish I had gotten her name...

I took this when we were leaving because it was the end of the afternoon tea time, so everyone had cleared out. Good for me though!

Look at how cute the menus are! I love bows and ribbon... *_*

Their tea cozies were like little pouches rather than the ones that go over top and cover the tea pot. So cute!

Elyse and I shared a pot of Earl Grey...theirs is nice! Not too overly fragrant, and not too citrusy and instanty. Some day, I will learn the real terminology of a true tea connoisseur... 

Our table was right next to the fireplace. It's a real fireplace! It was so nice and toasty :) The trimming on the wall was so cute. It had pictures of various fancy tea pots with names of different kinds of teas like Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Darjeeling, etc.

The special of the day was a strata, which the lady described as a quiche without the pastry. I couldn't bare to part with my pastry, so I ordered a salmon-dill quiche. Everything on the menu came with a choice of soup or salad, so I picked the soup of the day - a carrot puree soup with apple and rhubarb, and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. It was sooo delicious...I don't know if cozy is a proper term to describe the texture of soup, but that's what it was. Mmm...

Heather let me take a picture of her food, ha. She also chose the soup of the day, but with the Smoked Turkey and Havarti sandwich. It had cranberry mayo (?), slices of cucumber, and romaine lettuce leaves on what they called "ancient grain bread". It looked delicious... it was going to be my choice if I hadn't gone with the quiche.

They had two dessert specials. One was a fudge brownie served with vanilla icecream, and I chose the other - a piece of carrot-pecan coffee cake with caramel drizzle and Devon cream. Although I won't be able to have any more dairy for today, it was so worth it. The streussel was done just right, and nothing about the sweetness was overpowering. Probably the best coffee cake I've ever had.

I stole a bite from Heather's rhubarb pie too, also served with Devon cream. The crust was not too thick or thin, and the pie filling wasn't too tart or sweet. Heather said it was easily the best rhubarb pie she'd ever had and she would come back for it.

I love finding these local eateries and sharing the experience with company. It just makes the whole package, you know? It would be even better if P was here, but until that happens, I'll have to manage with my London friends! If you have access to a vehicle or to someone with a vehicle, I would encourage you to try Dishington's for lunch or afternoon tea! 

-M