Jerk Chicken and Kickass Shortbread, Toronto, March 2012

Thursday 29th March – by wonderful coincidence, it turned out that an old friend of mine called Dave (who I had met while working in Montreal) had actually moved to Toronto without me knowing it, so after a quick Facebook to and fro, Thursday was the day that we decided to catch up!

As it turned out, Adrian had to go into the city from Burlington anyway, so I hopped a lift to the station with him rather than make the epic walk and risk missing the train again like the day before. I met Dave at Union Station, where he was outside having a quick smoke. As always, he looked terribly dapper with his jaunty moustache and burgundy jacket – a very welcome sight on a cold Toronto morning! Ah, it was good to see his face again; five years is such a long time to go without seeing old friends!

I suggested that we try ‘The Real Jerk‘, the place I had spotted out near DeGrassi Street the day before, so we took a little potter out of the station to King Street where we jumped on an eastbound streetcar and got off at Queen and Broadview. Inside, the restaurant was done up in wood panelling and bursts of black, red, yellow and green, and we took a table on a raised platform. The waitress seemed fairly bemused by the two of us; we spent ages deciding what to eat and then asked for a ‘taster plate’, which they didn’t have, so there was a bit of good-natured eye-rolling going on while we dithered and she teased us. In the end, we shared a shrimp roti and a plate of their jerk chicken and jerk pork with fried plantains on the side. Did I remember to take a picture of the food? No. I meant to, but I was too busy jumping onto it and devouring it to get photographic evidence of how good it was! 😀

After pretty much wiping the plates clean, we walked a wee way up the road to another little place that we had spotted from the tram on the way in – Mary McLeod’s Shortbread. A tiny little inconspicuous shop really, but filled with yummy goodies. As we walked in, the smell of chocolate shortbread was thick in the air; the lady behind the counter asked me if I wanted to try some, and of course the answer was HELL YES! Expecting a few crumbs, I was actually surprised when she just handed me an entire cookie. It was melt-in-the-mouth amazing, just the way real shortbread should be. After I had sniffed all the alternatives and poked at all their stock, Dave was very generous again and picked up a box of their butterscotch fingers shortbread for us to share. We wandered to the tram stop and went back into the city centre and took another little walk around before going back to the main concourse of Union Station, which has a grand arching hallway and access to long-distance trains. We took up a warm seat next to a heating vent and had a little chat and nibbled our shortbread to while away the time before I had to go for my train. A nice young man sitting next to us took our photo, and that was that; Dave and I had to say our sad goodbyes until the next time we were in the same city. Boooooo! 😦

I got the train back to Burlington and then walked back to Frenda’s place, where I spent the evening quietly (doing my laundry etc) until she came home later.

And that, really, was that. The next day (Friday 30th March), I got up and packed my bags for Cuba, and Adrian kindly dropped me off at the airport – no small deal considering how far away they live. I checked in and with very little hoo-ha, I was on my way to Havana for the grand adventure! But that, of course, is another story. (Which can, incidentally, be found here when I eventually finish it!)

Thanks for stopping by,

Tara. 🙂