Feasts & Family - Spring Break in TO

Despite my entrenched resistance to growing up in general, Audrey and I appear to have reached that stage of adulting where holiday family dinners can't help but be exclusionary in some way; by flying to Toronto for Spring Break so we could spend Easter weekend with Fenya and Bobby, it meant abandoning Glory! But with the Noah Kahan concert on Friday night and a visit to her bestie's family for Easter supper, we knew she would not be completely abandoned. And what a wonderful week in TO it was!

Air travel is still a conundrum to me in some ways; a mere four-hour flight that between airport travel, security screening and getting a ride from YYZ to F&B's Cabbagetown apartment, somehow felt like we were travelling the entire Tuesday, or at least from 8 am to 8 pm... Some of this discomfort is mitigated by the ability to have waffles and a bevvy at the Belgian Beer Cafe at 9 am, however.

Wednesday saw poor Bobby both under the weather with a (non-Covid) cold and under the gun for his PhD committee presentation the following day, which I understand to be not only an intense, nearly hour-long Powerpoint show but is followed by what is essentially a mini-dissertation defense. We left him to his own devices and best wishes and just got a little shopping in, including the turkey that we agreed to cook up for Easter supper. 

But even a simple shopping trip is kind of cool when you realize their neighbourhood Loblaws was formerly the legendary Maple Leaf Gardens and has their eponymous sigil recreated in an array of arena chairs on one wall...

That evening the three of us heading back to Etobicoke to visit our friends from Wesley-Mimico United Church, our congreagation from when we lived there in the late '90s. John and Nancy had graciously agreed to host a potluck there, and it was nothing short of delightful to reconnect with these dear friends (and some new ones, including their new minsiter and his wife!). 

Despite our only having lived in Toronto for four years, those relationships have somehow managed to stay intact, and they were hugely important in helping F&B get settled when they were apartment hunting there last year.

Thursday began with a trip to Kensington Market, a truly funky assortment of shops and restaurants situated in former homes in this old Toronto neighbourhood that most people my age are likely to associate with Al Waxman. The primary purpose was to find a dress for Fenya at one of the many thrift and vintage shops in the area (as she has a singing performance coming up), but when Bobby showed up following his academic ordeal, his cerebellum truly wrung out and in need of a rest, he and I made tracks to the nearest restaurant.

Blessedly, this turned out to be my first encounter with Jamaican/Italian fusion at the amazingly named Rasta Pasta. My Fettucine Irie (with a generous portion of spicy jerk chicken stirred in) was fantastic, but I think his namesake dish of Rasta Pasta was even better - the fluffiest gnocchi I have ever tasted paired with a mixutre of ackee fruit and salt cod. The ladies ended up getting the same thing when they joined us a little later, and agreed that the dish was worth seeking out, even if the restaurant's three-door layout was a little confusing.

I could have spent an entire day at Kensington Market - as it was there was enough time to see some amazing vintage clothing, visit two cheese shops, see the Cocktail Emporium and marvel at their selection of bitters, and even grab a margarita at Pancho Y Emiliano (with walls full of Zapata quotes!) before heading home so F&B could make it to choir practice that evening.

On Friday, we attended Good Friday service at St. Luke's United Church, which included hearing Fenya sing a sombre but challenging solo from Handel's Messiah. It is a small congregation but still vibrant, meeting in a crowded chapel space because their sanctuary is in need of repairs.

I was delighted to learn that F&B's apartment is a 15-minute walk to the fantastic Stormcrow Manor, a self-described "sports bar for nerds" that lets you build burgers using an RPG character sheet, roll for random shots with a 20-sided dice, and has some of the best-presented cocktails I have ever encountered. One of the better Friday-nights out, in my books at least.

Xenomorph Brain Fluid (15)

Yes, OBVIOUSLY I kept the Lich King Tiki Mug...

I'm gonna level with you -my chicken wings were only so-so, but Audrey's chickpea fries more than made up for that, and I fully intend to go back and try to hit that natural 20 on the shots table!

By Saturday, Bobby's cold had begun transferring itself to Fenya, but she was still up to walking just over a block from their place to the Allan Gardens Conservatory. This collection of plants is not dissimilar to the Muttart in Edmonton, but is contained within a set of greenhouses dating back to before Confederation, and their tropical wing has a tremendous collection of turtles I found entirely captivating. The plants are amazing too!

We had told our young hosts that we intended to take them out for supper Saturday night as thanks for hosting us and being our guides for the week, but the gobsmacked and delighted look on Bobby's face when I told him we were going to Medieval Times made it clear we had chosen correctly.

And in case you are wondering, MT lives in a weird sweet spot betwen children's entertainment, historical recreation and professional wrestling, and you will have exactly as much fun as you want to have, so long as you can get past the innate silliness of sitting in an arena eating a half-chicken with your hands while wearing a paper crown on your head and cheering on your designated champion (ours was the Blue Knight).

This was the fifth visit for Audrey and I, and once again, our knight failed to triumph. But we all marvelled at the athleticism and horsemanship of the performers, and I had forgotten how engaging the falconry demonstration is in that small a space. And if we ever felt jaded or unsure, we had only to turn at look at Bobby: "Oof! So our guy is off his horse, so is he just out now?"

"Oh no, now he will continue to fight on foot."

"WHAT."

We attended the 4:30 show (which included birthday announcements for celebrants aged 4 to 50, which I found delightful), but they hustle you out of there pretty quickly afterwards, leaving a lot of souvenir and bar money on the table in my opinion. But this left enough time for our traditional viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar, which Fenya was keen to do before Easter Sunday, as the movie ends on Good Friday.

Tragically, the cold was well entrenched by Sunday, so she had to miss church that morning, prompting an emergency change in choir anthems, but the service was still lovely. Even more importantly though, we got to meet a number of their fellow congregants, all of whom expressed how much they adore our daughter and son-in-law, which is just something I will never tire of hearing, despiute how natural such reactions seem to me.

And afterwards, their friend Maelyn took us on a tour of the church, which is due for a major remodelling soon as they transition a bunch of their space into affordable housing, something their neighbourhood deperately needs.

Audrey's impetuosity led her very quickly up a steep and narrow spiral staircase with a rope handrail, and my curiosity and FOMO led me just as quickly to follow. I was too apprehensive to enjoy myself fully but really appreicated the chance to go where so few have been, and which soon may be inaccessible or demolished.

Returning to the apartment, we started assembling their apartment's first turkey dinner - with Fenya excused duty, I looked after the stuffing and turkey, Audrey the broccoli and onions for veg, and Bobby took care of the mashed potatoes. The Look bag I had brought got the 10.5 lb bird cooked in a little over two hours and made cleaning up the roaster a snap, much to Bobby's amazement.

While the turkey cooked, we watched music videos and chatted and caught up, and as much fun as all the Toronto activities and attractions were, this was my favourite part of the week - just enjoying each other's company (and sampling many Ontario beers, and watching the Ayreon Universe conert in its entirety and facilitating Fenya's first glass of icewine).

And this of course includes Skye, who, while still a terror when left unsupervised and has disassembled a closet and its contents, including at least one door removal, obviously has a tremendous amount of affection for her new family, but still remembers us fondly too.

I've mentioned before that we should all pay attention and be grateful for the people in our lives that we are comfortable doing nothing with, the folks with whom time can pass unencumbered and with swiftness despite the lack of an any sort of agenda. Such a delight to have such people in my family by both birth and marriage!