And now for some gratuitous scenery shots from a recent visit to my super-secret favorite hike in Central Virginia. Hopefully you were able to enjoy the incredible fall weather over the weekend.
Autumn in the Mountains of Virginia
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Tag Archives: travel
(Mostly Eating) Adventures in Halifax: Week 1
(Why do I eat so much when I visit Halifax?)
Day 1
Lunch at Bubba Ray’s because a football game required us to be at a sports bar. It was a fantastic sports bar as far as watching a game goes, but my nachos were subpar.
Dinner at Fid (motto: Local By Nature). Had the Farmers Market Inspiration again, in all its giant bento box glory. Took another crappy phone picture of it.
Now that I compare pictures, I see that the dish is very similar to what I got last time, but that’s ok because it was delicious. This time I managed to stop eating and take home leftovers instead of hurting myself.
Day 2
Lunch at organic, locally-focused The Wooden Monkey. Had the rice bowl, add scallops. It was incredible. Spouse declared it the best restaurant in Halifax (he got the roast chicken and pesto sandwich, sub apple salad).
Dinner at home: grilled Nova Scotia salmon and veggies from Pete’s Frootique, which specializes in local produce. Pete’s is sort of like the Halifax Whole Foods, but it’s a small independent chain. The Halifax store has a gluten-free cafe and made-to-order breakfast wraps and salads.
Day 3
Ran through Point Pleasant Park to burn some of these restaurant calories. On the way I passed the Inglis Street Urban Garden at Inglis Street Elementary School. Lucky kids!
Day 4
Coffee at Steve-O-Reno’s. It was chilly and sprinkly so I did not lounge on the porch.
I had been told this was the best coffee in town, and I can report that it is pretty darn tasty–and very popular with the on-the-way-to-work crowd. They carry gluten-free goodies; I plan to return for an Eight Ball (nuts, fruit, coconut ground up and formed into a large ball).
Lunch from Pete’s ToGoGo (yes, that Pete): West African Peanut Soup and a custom salad. With a little adventure thrown in, trying to find it from Hollis St.
The soup is much like my dearly beloved Spicy Senagalese Peanut Tofu from Rev Soup (sans tofu) and hit the spot on a dreary day. The salad packs a lot of ingredients into a small box. This would totally be my lunch spot if I worked downtown.
Day 5
Coffee at my office-away-from-the-office, Paper Chase. Great place to work and caffeinate and stare out the window.
Since it was a pretty day, for lunch I ferried over to Dartmouth for some highly-recommended fish and chips at Evan’s.
It was tasty, but I’m not used to that much fried all at once. One’s plate of food is not supposed to be a single color. Enjoyed the ferry ride and its views:
Because I was on a nutritional roll, when I got back to Halifax I wanted dessert. I stopped at World Tea House and got an oatcake (more brown food) but my favorite goody in the case was a shortbread cookie with an icing WTH, which filled me with glee until I realized it was the initials of the cafe’s name.
Dinner: back to the Monkey. I got the veggie stirfry, add scallops, which was tasty but not as good as that rice bowl. Oh that rice bowl. I tried a Nova Scotian hard cider, Stutz, and was pleasantly surprised. So I had a second bottle.
Day 6
I went back to Steve-O-Reno’s for that Eight Ball I spied on Day 4. It was amazing. Dates, almonds, cranberries, flax seeds. Cashews too, I think? And it was huge.
The Eight Ball was my fuel for a long walk to the Hydrostone neighborhood, via The Grainery Food Co-op, which I had read about while researching Halifax CSAs and other local food resources. It was smaller than I expected (I was picturing something more like the fabulous Crozet Natural Foods Co-op, which, oddly, has no online presence. It’s not gone, is it? I haven’t been to downtown Crozet in several years), but did have some local grains and dried fruits, and a bulletin board full of local food info.
Walked down the cute strip of shops at Hydrostone Market,
resisted the pastries at the patisserie, visited some of the neighborhood’s interesting little boulevards and hiked back home.
Dinner was at Jane’s on the Common. I did not take my usual crappy phone picture of my meal because I inhaled it and there was no time for pictures. I got a veggie rice bowl, add scallops, similar to my favorite Monkey meal, but this had a sweet green curry sauce. It was great. Jane’s ingredients come from local farms when possible, and the space is cozy and comfortable. Unfortunately, the restaurant is closing at the end of the year, so get there while you still can. I know I’ll be back.
Halifax Food Tour
Haute Pasture had a fun trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia a few weeks ago, full of fantastic eating and drinking (and running). Here are the highlights:
Eating
Who knew Halifax was such a destination for delicious sustainable food? We had memorable meals at three restaurants that feature local, seasonal, responsible foods.
The Wooden Monkey
The Wooden Monkey is all about local, organic food. They strive to serve only the highest quality food, while supporting local farmers. How could we not eat here? For lunch, we shared the trio of dips, and I had a Sweet Apple Salad, both of which I can recommend.
Fid Resto
Fid Resto sources sustainable ingredients from a long list of local farmers. I had the Farmer’s Market Inspiration, which changes from day to day based on what was available at the farmer’s market, and it was so good (and huge) I hurt myself eating the entire thing. It was my favorite entree of the trip.
Chives
Another lovely dinner at Chives featured seasonal, local ingredients. I had a farmer’s market salad, again based on what the chef picked up at the market that day, and a local lobster special. The crème brûlée at Chives edged out the Fid version, in our expert opinion.
Drinking
I had a lovely mango lassi at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market. It was a sweaty day, and I was venturing far from the hotel and appreciated the refreshment. I enjoyed browsing the local produce and crafts at the market.
I drank lots of coffee at Paper Chase, which served as my office for a couple days. It had a funky vibe, tasty vegetarian food, and excellent window-side tables for people-watching while working.
Being avid supporters of the local beer, wine, and cider (we need a cider trail) scene in Charlottesville, we looked forward to trying some locally brewed beverages, but apparently we are spoiled by our local offerings. The Nova Scotian beers and wines we tried were nothing special.
Running
From anywhere downtown, run up the hill to the Citadel, turn left, and head down South Park Street to Point Pleasant Park. There’s a quiet, leafy loop through the park with sea views and lots of other runners. The run is fairly flat, other than the big hill up to the Citadel, with just one tough climb past halfway in the loop (going clockwise). Downtown, through the park, and back is roughly 5 miles.
Halifax is a cool town with strong popular support of local businesses. Responsible restaurants like The Wooden Monkey, Fid, and Chives extend that support to area farmers, as well, by serving local, sustainable, seasonal ingredients. I hope that trend continues and I see more restaurants following their lead on my next trip.
Vacation egg fail
Last week Haute Pasture was on vacation in the Caribbean. We cooked half our meals, and had two grocery stores to choose from when doing our provisioning for the week. Neither store seemed to be on the local/organic/sustainable bandwagon. Despite the fact that chickens could be found wandering the streets in many places, our grocery store egg option was this:
Factory farmed eggs that travelled from far away. I visited the Hillandale Farms website hoping to at least read some marketing lip service regarding caring about the well-being of the chickens, but alas, there’s nothing.
So yes, I willingly ate factory farmed eggs that were shipped a long distance. What made it worse was I had just gotten to the chapter on the treatment of chickens and other poultry in Temple Grandin‘s book Animals Make Us Human.
The chickens chapter details the horrors she found when she first started working to improve the living conditions of factory farmed poultry. I recommend reading it, but not while you’re eating factory farmed eggs.
It’s a good read if you’re interested in animal behavior, including dogs, cats, and horses, as well as livestock. I’ll write a more formal review when I finish. And yes, the eggs I just made for breakfast are local and from pasture raised hens.
HP in NYC: New Amsterdam Market
What better to do on a Sunday morning than go to a local artisan market? We visited the New Amsterdam Market at South Street Seaport to sample local foods and buy a variety of treats for lunch: gourmet grilled cheeses, a lobster roll, and an Indian combo platter.
Each vendor’s sign listed their home location, and while some where coming from a few hours away (I think Pittsfield, MA was the farthest I saw), most were from close by, or within the city.
The food was excellent, and we had a pretty nice view to lunch by:
The New Amsterdam Market is open from 11am-4pm Sundays. Vendor information can be found on their website.
HP in NYC: Notable Food Experience #1
Hello from New York! I am here for a weekend of eating and drinking, with big plans for deliciousness; but today’s a regular work day, so I needed to grab a quick lunch to bring back to my desk.
I’m staying waaay downtown, between the Financial District and Battery Park, so there are lots of quickie lunch options catering to the buzzy workers and the bumbling tourists. A popular restaurant trend here (everywhere? big cities? for some reason, not C’ville) is the build-a-salad joint. I’ve eaten at a bunch here and in other cities, but I don’t recall ever seeing the word “local” used in signage, until today. That’s what drew me into Flavors.
Here are some descriptions from their website:
Healthy, fresh, natural
Organic where we can. Fresh & natural all the time.
Nothing about local. Googling doesn’t tell me anything about their local claim. Hmm.
It was a good salad, though.
HP in Asia stop #3: Tokyo
Daytime meals in Tokyo (i.e., not at a real restaurant) were somewhat of a challenge for me. I loved the street food in Singapore; the majority of my meals there were veggie curries. Hong Kong had that lovely natural foods grocery with the food court, and I got several meals there. Tokyo had meat, meat, and more meat. And weird soy products. After guessing at ingredients at various food stalls the first afternoon, I finally went with this for lunch:
The next day I was starving in the Harajuku area and came upon this t-shirt display. What the heck?
I think I’ve seen the Sesame Street one before. The KFC one is a strange picture for someone to want to wear, but whatever. I don’t get the Ronald McDonald bear attack. I really just left those three in the picture to show the complete display of meat shirts.
But the top three are just awful! Animals with sad faces because they were served their own type of meat or eggs? That’s gross and depressing.
That’s all. Nothing intellectual or meaningful today. Just sharing my dismay.
Eat Well Guide
This is an interesting tool:
http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home
It accepts an address or zip code, and returns a list of nearby markets and restaurants that carry local food, along with lists of CSAs and farms. (One result for this little town: Chipotle.) For a responsible consumer traveling to an unfamiliar place, this tool could be a great asset. The site can also map a route and show you ethical food options along the way. Very impressive!