Visiting Toronto and long for that small town warmth? About an hour west is a quiet college town ripe with unique shops, lively entertainment, and best of all excellent restaurants and cafe’s.

Guelph Gothic Cathedral

Guelph has a good mix of old town charm and new city features. Towering over the town of just over 100,000 inhabitants is a large gothic Catholic Cathedral that is a must see. It’s filled with stories told on stained glass and is open for tours to the public. Just below is the historic town hall, train station, and in the winter, a public ice skating rink. The ice skating rink is free, bring your own skates, and according to the sign food and drink are “not recommended“. I love that Canadians are so nice. Around the corner is the farmers market full of local produce, cheeses, and my favorite, cured meats and sausages.

The downtown streets are lined with boutique shops, book stores, and eateries. No Starbucks or McDonalds here, which is so refreshing. The best croissants outside of Paris can be found at the Artisanale Cafe’ & Bistro, connected to The Bookshelf, a local book store with a small theater.

Down the street and around the corner are even more shops.  Dutch Toko is the perfect shop for imported foods from the Netherlands and pick up a pair of wooden clogs while you’re there.  I love getting the ABC sweet soy which has a thick syrup like consistency and can be used to sweeten any spicy dish like fried rice, curries, and other Indonesian Dutch dishes.  Another excellent find is their Curry Ketchup and Mustard’s.  There is a deli so stock up on authentic dutch cheeses like the red wrapped Gouda.  Aside from the food shops in downtown Guelph you’ll find a lot of unique shops for gifts and clothing.

Guelph is home to two very distinct pubs, one you’ll know about if you follow my blog, Woolwich Arms Pub and the other is the Penny Whistle.  I like both a lot but tend to favor the Wooly for its friendly environment, however the Penny Whistle is the place to go for Curry food.  Here you’ll get some interesting pub fare with a hint of curry in almost every dish.

Guelph Ice Skating

Guelph is more than a place for pub crawls.  There are plenty of established dinning options in and around the downtown area.  Bin 23 is a great date night or take the parents out type of place.  A lot of meat options from beef to duck but also serves up a smoked tofu for the non-meat eaters.  Another option is The Other Brothers where you’ll find mini duck tacos with raspberry and goat cheese, Cabernet braised oxtail, or veal mini-burgers with a side of duck fat french fries (mmmmmm).  Both are excellent options if you only have one night in Guelph.

Another great option is Milestones, which is just outside of downtown but certainly worth a visit, especially for lunch.  I liked the spicy chicken wrap and the spicy Asian chicken bites, enough to share with others as an appetizer.

But wait, there’s more…

Guelph isn’t just pubs and evening grub, it has some fantastic breakfast and brunch options and my ultimate favorite is With the Grain.  I highly recommend getting a loaf or two of their “baked on site” breads (get them sliced there).  These freeze well so take them home and enjoy later, one slice at a time.  The breakfast menu is extensive and heavy on the bakery side of things and you won’t go wrong here.  But you can get a breakfast burrito if you crave such a thing.  My ultimate favorite here is the breakfast parfait made with maple pecan granola.

If you didn’t know by now, you should know that I just love Guelph.  I’ve been a few times and I plan to visit again.  Toronto is a great city but I’ve been to a lot of big cities and they all have similar things.  So if you want to experience something totally different, totally Canadian, and totally worth your time, visit Guelph Ontario Canada, tell them Jimmy Stewart the Hungry Traveler sent you.  Cheers!

Pablo Picasso Exhibit at VMFA

The Pablo Picasso exhibit came within driving distance to home this month and indeed was a rare event as it is the only east coast opportunity to see such a large composition of Pablo Picasso works.  The show hit only 3 cities in the United States, Seattle, Richmond, and San Francisco.   Previously the show was in Finland and Russia.  You have till May 15th to catch a glimpse of the workings of this great artist.  But don’t just go to Richmond for the Picasso exhibit, go for the rich culture and good eats.  The Picasso exhibit is being shown at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art (VMFA).  I recommend getting to the museum early, tickets for the Picasso exhibit are timed so plan to get there with enough time to stand in a long line, again this is a rare event but certainly worth it.   There is a covered parking garage that costs $3.00 and you pay as you go in, so plan to leave the vehicle and take a stroll after visiting the museum.

The VMFA is only a few minutes walk from Cary Town, a trendy little section of Richmond surrounded by mansion like homes from an era long ago.  Restaurants and shops line Cary Street and it is a town where people don’t hesitate to say Hi and hold doors open for strangers.  It is a very friendly town and worth a visit.  A good friend suggested Weezies Kitchen, a great little one of a kind restaurant with southern style food.  The Mac-N-Cheese is a town favorite and the side salads are not small.  The meatloaf po-boy was a moist treat and will certainly make you wish for more.

Grilled Salmon with Salad

This is a simple dish anyone can make.  Salmon is a bit tender and can fall apart so I like to use a brush and coat the meat side with olive oil and season with just salt and pepper.  Placing the salmon meat side down on the grill at an angle and coook for several minutes, then using a spatula and tongs I do a half turn to create the nice looking grill marks and cook for another 5 minutes.  Then flip and cook skin side down keeping the grill covered the entire cooking time.  Add to a garden salad or serve with rice, salmon is a perfect quick dish anyone can make at home or for dinner parties.  Enjoy.

Grilled Chicken with Pico de Gallo

With the weather turning to warmer nights I love to fire up the grill and putting fire to anything I can find.  This dish was inspired by the cover of Food and Wine magazine May 2011 issue. 

It is simple, cubed chicken with some fresh lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and a dash of cumin.  I like to use little plactic containers with a lid and I shake the heck out of the meat and  spices to get every piece coated.  Then skewer the chicken and grill for about 15 minutes, depending on the heat of your grill. 

My pico de gallo is very much ad hoc with a tomatto base, lots of onions and peppers.  Served here with a bed of mixed greens.  Enjoy

Imaginary City by Prefete Dufaut

Today I decided to celebrate Haiti by making some traditional Haitian cuisine starting with Griyo (Griot), which is a delectable dish made from pieces of pork.  I started yesterday by purchasing a 3lb pork shoulder, picnic style and had the butcher cut it into 3 inch pieces.  I added some herbs and spices to a bowl, cumin, paprika, chili, cumin, salt, pepper, cilantro, oregano, and chopped some garlic and onion then added this all to my pork pieces with a few table spoons of oil and did a thorough massage of the pieces to ensure consistent coating.  I then put in the fridge for an overnight marinading (about 12 hours).  

This morning I preheated the oven to 350 and placed my pork into a very large heavy roasting pan (Le Creuset works well) and placed on center rack.  I’ll cook this for several hours (based on the size/amount of pork) and allow it to get a nice crisp outer crust while maintaining a soft and tender juicy inside.  

Served with this will be a Haitian styled rice and beans.  This will start with a half pound of pinto beans and 4 cups of water.  I’ll cook the beans uncovered to allow the water to evaporate and add more if needed.  The beans will cook with cumin, salt, pepper, cloves, and cilantro.  When the beans are tender I’ll add  2 cups of rice to them and cover.  It takes about 15 minutes for the rice to cook completely. 

Celebration by Haitian Ludovic Simpson

I’ll also create a coleslaw that is a spin on a traditional Haitian salad chou (coleslaw).  I learned this version from a traditional Haitian woman.  I cheat by using the pre-package of coleslaw and add cut onions, bell peppers, garlic, and a very small habanero pepper.  I sprinkle salt and finish with a half cup of white vinegar.  Some call this salad Pikliz.

I’ll finish my celebration with a rum cocktail of brown sugar, vanilla, lime juice and Barbancourt dark Rum. 

One day I hope to learn how to make Tasso!

***** Update *****

Here is a picture of the results of my Haitian Cuisine.

Hungry Traveler makes Haitian Cuisine - click to enlarge

This past weekend I had the pleasure to review the Old Town Alexandria Wine and Food Festival. Like many I went for the wine more than the food. The event was headquartered at both the Holiday Inn and Crown Plaza hotels on the north end of Old Town. Both were equally jammed packed with people without stretched arms with wine glasses at the ready. These wine fests always appear to be over crowded and that is partly the reason I love to go. The crowd makes the scene and this inaugural event was no let down. After visiting each vineyards wine station several of us tasters headed down to King Street where we visited a few art galleries to again enjoy the taste of Virginia wines and see some fine art. We ended up at an Irish Pub where we consumed an assortment of burgers, chips, and lamb dishes.

This evening we attended a party where people were asked to bring an appetizer or dessert type of dish. We decided to bring pulled pork BBQ sliders because it would be easy to make, different from what others may bring (deviled eggs???), and probably something people would enjoy eating. We stared with 3lb pork butt, picnic style last night and placed it in a crock pot slow cooker along with a ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup ketchup, 2 tbsp of white vinegar, and some McCormick Pulled Pork BBQ mix. That cooked all night and most of the morning before I took out the bone and all the fat and allowed the remaining pork to cook on low in the sauce for another 3 hours. We used dinner rolls as our buns, cut in half, a few spoons of the BBQ, a dollop of Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, then a spoon full of homemade cole slaw to top it off. The cole slaw is a simple mix of cabbage with a ½ cup of mayo, 2 Tbsp of white vinegar, ½ Tsp of sugar, dash of salt and pepper to taste. It was certainly a hit as all 18 sliders were gone within the hour. I’ve included a picture here so you can see the production.

Summers in Washington DC are very friendly and enjoyable if you can get past all the tourists that come to this great city. Fridays are special for me because one, it signals the end of a work week and two, the weekend is here. At lunch on Friday I normally take a walk with Rachel to the Trader Joes in Old Town Alexandria and pick up a few picnic items like sushi, crackers, cheese, olive spread, chips and dip, etc… we store the items in my office fridge for safe keeping and around 4:00 PM we drive into DC across the 14th Street bridge where we start looking for unrestricted parking or parking that will get us through the 6:30 PM time frame…. parking in DC is a gamble as the DC government apparently hates it when people drive into their city and evidence of such is the numerous pink parking tickets that adorn the windows of just about every other parked automobile in that city. If you can park it, they can ticket it! I think a new license plate motto is in order? I digress… We make our way toward 7th and Madison where the Smithsonian’s Sculpture garden is situated. We go early, and find a spot that will be shaded for the duration of the evening as summers in DC can be brutally hot. We lay out our blanket that is obviously too large for just 2 people but soon the crowds will cover every inch of grass available go go early, get a good spot, and protect it with your flip flops. We settle in and get our sangria and chill. About 5:00 PM the music starts and runs through 8:00 PM as the sun is settling over the horizon. Visiting DC or live in the area, check out Jazz in the Garden every Friday evening in the summer. I am said to say that the last Friday of the season is upon us and I at least hope to see a full crowd. Cheers!