As a forward-thinking and youthful city, Vancouver is proud of its many progressive actions in response to climate change and global warming. In addition to extensive recycling programs, popular car-sharing initiatives, bike-friendliness and growing electric car ownership, Vancouver is home to a large variety of farmers’ markets. City farmers’ markets became much more mainstream following ... Read more »
When travelling to a new city, I love exploring on my own – I usually read up on the area first, so I know a few highlights to look out for and sometimes I mark up a map with personal points of interest. That’s what I did ahead of a short visit to Toronto, pulling out ... Read more »
Ottawa has a bit of a bad rap amongst Canadians. Visiting Toronto in Ontario and Montreal in Quebec, as soon as we mentioned that we were heading to the nation’s capital we were immediately asked why and told not to bother! Ottawa was dismissed as dull, boring and not worthy of our time by several ... Read more »
Have you heard of kamaboko? It’s a type of surimi fishcake from Japan. Surimi is made by creating a paste of pureed white fish paste that is flavoured, formed into different shapes and steamed to cook. In Japan there are many surimi products which are sold both fresh and dried for consumers to add to ... Read more »
Welland’s Farmers Market in Niagara-on-the-Lake is not nearly as vast as the mind-boggling markets I visited in Montreal and Quebec but it’s plenty big enough to offer a wide selection and is a wonderful place to buy local and regional produce. Fruits, vegetables, fresh meat and dairy, cheese, honey, charcuterie, baked goods and other food and ... Read more »
Do you know Niagara-on-the-Lake? No? Well you can probably guess a couple of things about it at least – that it’s near Niagara Falls, and that it’s on the shores of a lake! That’s all I knew too, but last autumn I visited for myself, and discovered a lot more. What I came away with, as well ... Read more »
The first produce market I visited in Canada was the impressive Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal, a wonderland of fruit, vegetables and other produce, plus a paradise of specialist food shops and delis. I’ll be writing more about my non-market food finds in Montreal soon, but next I want to tell you about the next destination ... Read more »
Visiting the Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal’s Little Italy district, I felt like a kid in a sweet shop; overwhelmed by stall after stall piled with beautiful, fresh, brightly-coloured produce, I didn’t know where to look next. Punnets of tiny physalis, known locally as cerise de terre (ground cherries) sat next to the last of the ... Read more »
There’s something very indulgent about taking a mini city break in your own city of residence. Holidays at home (or staycations, in the American vernacular) usually involve heading out of town; a shorter journey than heading abroad, perhaps, but further afield than the place you live. On the rare occasions we allocate leisure time to ... Read more »
I’m conscious that nearly a year has passed since our last trip to Japan and I still have so much about the trip that I haven’t shared yet. One of my favourite mornings was a visit to Kyoto’s Toji Temple for the monthly Kōbō-san flea market that’s held in the grounds on the 21st of ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]