At Home - Baba Ganoush, Cucumber Raita

We got home from Halifax late Saturday evening.  On Sunday morning we ate a quick breakfast before heading to the grocery store.

After being away for a week we were low on everything, and were also craving veggies like crazy.

There was a lot of rain while we were away, and it looks like our cilantro and kale did well.

We wanted a fresh, healthy dinner, so we grilled up an eggplant ...

Made some pita chips ...

Then whipped up a batch of baba ganoush, and some cucumber raita.

Pita Chips

Preheat oven to 400 F
Cut pitas into wedges
Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt
Bake 7-10 minutes or so, watching carefully, just until crisp

Baba Ganoush

1 large eggplant
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 fresh lemon juice
pinch of cumin
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
salt to taste (don't skip the salt)
1 T olive oil
2 T fresh parsley, chopped
5-6 kalamata or black olives, chopped (optional)

Heat the grill.  Also preheat oven to 375 F.  Poke the eggplant a few times with a fork, and then grill it until the skin blackens and starts to blister a bit (approx. 10-15 minutes).  Remove and put in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until quite soft.  Remove and set aside until cooled a bit.  Peel the skin off, and mash the eggplant with a fork.  Add tahini, lemon, cumin and garlic.  Season with salt, and taste to adjust seasoning.  Spread in dish, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle parsley and olives on top.  Serve at room temperature with pita chips or plain pita.

Cucumber Raita

1 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups grated or finely chopped cucumber
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt (more to taste)
1/4 cumin
2 T or so cilantro, chopped

Serve cold as a topping for a spicy dish, or as a dip with pita chips, etc..

How's your week going so far?  Have you ever had baba ganoush?  

Are you growing any herbs or veggies this summer?

Halifax Vacation Part 4 - Final Day

There are donair places all over Halifax, and every pizza joint serves up donair as well.  On Friday morning, our last full day in Halifax, we shared a donair for breakfast.

 

In order to make the most of the day, we did a lot of walking, spent some time by the waterfront, and snacked at many places along the way.

We slurped oysters ...

And shared some froyo ...

The Stubborn Goat is a really cool gastropub, with an extensive, creative menu.  We shared a couple small plates including the pickled veggies, and deviled eggs.

In the evening we hit up a cool, minature, parking-lot farmers'-market-type event.  It was just on the corner of a block (it was no larger than what is pictured), and had about ten vendors selling eats/drinks/local products, and a DJ spinnin' tunes.

It was very "neighborhoody", and fun!  We bought a pakora, and it was so good that we had to get another.

Next up, we stopped by The Old Triangle to take in some live music before retiring to our hotel for the evening.

On Saturday morning we packed up our stuff, and ordered lunch to our room - donair, with some cheesy breadsticks too.

For dinner we shared some lobster mac and cheese in an airport restaurant, and by about midnight we were home sweet home.

It was a wonderful summer vacation, and we both look forward to visiting Halifax again one day.

Do you have any summer travel plans?  Getaways?  Roadtrips?

Halifax Vacation Part 3

On Wednesday we took the Ferry across the water to Dartmouth. 

It was only a short 5-10 minute ride across the water; it was a beautiful day, and the views were great.

We went to The Canteen, a super cool sandwich shop in Dartmouth, to grab some lunch.

We shared the crabster sandwich, a mixture of snow crab, lobster, and truffle aioli.  We also shared a trio of sides: kale, rice, and potato salad.

We loved everything, and were happy to finally have a delicious lobster roll.  We've had a few in the past, but have never been happy with them ... until this one.  We're still talking about The Canteen.

Later in the day we chilled out in the hotel room for a while and had a hotel room picnic.  While on our winery tour, we had picked up some Dragon's Breath blue cheese, which was named Canada's best blue cheese two years in a row.  Christopher ate that, and I stuck to the other snacks.

We hopped around to a few pubs in the evening, catching some live jazz, before heading to Field Guide for a late dinner.  Field Guide was rated as one of Canada's top 100 restaurants for 2016. 

The menu is simply written on a chalkboard on a wall, and things are crossed off as the kitchen runs out of them.

We ordered three small plates to share, starting with whipped ricotta with peas.

This dish was light and fresh.  Next were the best fish cakes ever!

The charred tomatoes, dill, and beautiful sauce all paired perfectly with the fish cakes, which were crisp on the outside, and soft and tender on the inside.  Our final plate was donair steamed buns, which were absolutely incredible.

The lighting wasn't great in the restaurant, and the pictures don't do the food justice, but this restaurant was spot on with each dish. 

On Thursday we started our day with ramen at Truly Tasty.  Christopher had the fried chicken ramen, and I had the pork.  We both got ours topped with an egg, which is cracked onto the soup at the table.

I had to pack up at least half of mine to-go.  For dinner that evening we went to The Bicycle Thief, a fantastic, and popular Italian restaurant with a gorgeous patio.

We ordered some scallops and oysters to start.

We then shared spaghetti with meatballs, and the most incredible risotto I've ever had, beet risotto, topped with crisp pancetta.  This was an evening special, and it's not always on the menu, which is too bad, because I would order it again and again and again. 

We took some of the beet risotto to-go, as we were too full to finish. 

By this point in the trip we were starting to get pretty sad that we only had one full day and a bit before we'd be heading home; Halifax is really charming and the week seemed to be flying by.

When we're on vacation we try to avoid the popular touristy restaurants, in favour of the restaurants off the beaten path, where the locals are more likely to go.  Because we didn't rent a car on this trip we took taxis quite a bit, and walked for many kilometers.  We dined in areas all over Halifax, not just down by the water, where the prices are hiked for tourists, and the food isn't all that great.  We did our research ahead of time, and then talked to a bunch of locals while in town, to make sure we hit up some of the best places.

Before you go on a trip, do you ever do food/ restaurant research?

How do you decide where to eat while on vacation?

Halifax Vacation Part 2

On Monday in Halifax we went on a wine tour, visiting three vineyards in the Annapolis Valley.  The first that we went to was L'Acadie, and it was our favourite.

It's the only certified organic winery in Nova Scotia, and is organic in all stages of the wine making process.  Their sparkling wine has also won second place two years in a row, competing against sparkling wines and champagnes in the Champagne region of France.

Next up was Luckett Vineyards, a more conventional/commercial winery.

We were sad we didn't get to meet the famous Pete Luckett who owns the vineyard (and recently sold his small grocery store chain to Sobeys), because he sounds like quite the character, with an incredible amount of drive and ambition; I love people like that!  He came to Canada from England in 1979, and his story of entrepreneurship is amazing.

 

Our final stop was at Gaspereau Vineyards, where we had a little snack and enjoyed the beautiful day for a bit.

That evening when we got back into Halifax we were very hungry, and were craving fish and chips.  We went to Fries & Co., which we heard was the best.  We shared some eats, and took a good-sized doggy bag back to our room for later.

On Tuesday we had breakfast in our hotel. 

The awesome thing about our Hilton hotel was that it had a full kitchen, which came in handy with things like fish & chip leftovers, and it also included a full, hot breakfast each morning with no extra charge.  They also have 24 hour coffee, tea, etc. in the lobby, and a free dinner each evening, with just a couple offerings that changed daily; unfortunately we weren't ever in the hotel around dinner time to check that out.

We spent the day wandering around a lot in a few different areas, stopping for bevvies at different hot spots along the way.

The cannon that goes off at Citadel Hill every day at noon sure gave me quite the startle the first couple of days, haha!

We grabbed lunch at Turkish Delight, which was so fresh, so delicious, and incredibly satisfying.  We shared the baba ghanouj, cacik (cucumber yogurt dish), and the lamb beyti "sarma" kebap. 

We loved all three dishes and would order them again in a heartbeat. 

After an afternoon of more wandering, we stumbled upon a place serving up $2 tacos for taco Tuesday.  We parked ourselves on the patio and indulged in a couple, with the fish being our favourite.

We hit a couple more venues/patios before the day was done, and ventured down to the water in the evening to eat a beaver tail dessert, and listen to Lauren Hill singing at the Jazz Festival. 

Have you ever been to the east coast of Canada?  How was your weekend?  What did you do?