Surprise Birthday Trip - Day 1!

I have quite the updates coming this way! I had the most amazing weekend and I just hope my memory will serve me well.

A couple of months ago Tom told me to request off work for a 'surprise birthday extravaganza' in June. I submitted my time off request for last Thursday and Friday with no idea what we were going to do! Somehow he managed to keep it a secret from me...he is clearly skilled in the secret-keeping department.

My instructions were to have my self and bags ready to go at 6:30 am on Thursday. He showed up at my apartment right on time in a cab, much to my surprise. While I had no clue where we were heading I was pretty sure we were driving there, so seeing a cab outside was pretty unexpected.

Tom had told me we were going to be doing my "favorite thing" on Thursday morning, which just so happens to be going to the airport! I LOVE airports/flying/anything to do with air travel but I didn't put two and two together until we were rolling into the JetBlue terminal. Tom got us our boarding passes and I STILL had no idea where I was going. Eventually one of the people checking us in said, "This way to Buffalo." It took me about a minute but I started to suspect we were going to Niagara Falls!!! Tom took this as the cue to hand me something wrapped in birthday paper, which turned out to be a Toronto/Niagara Falls travel guide -- I was right! The excitement hit me immediately. I've been wanting to go to Niagara for as long as I can remember and just couldn't believe he planned out this trip for us. I pretty much skipped my way through security and was still beaming when we got on the plane.

We arrived in Buffalo around 10 am and headed over to Hertz to rent a car.

We hopped in our cute little red car and were on our way to Toronto!

It was a quick trip -- we breezed through the border patrol at the Canadian border and arrived at the Sheraton in downtown Toronto around noon. We checked in, dropped our stuff off in our room (hello, king bed and private balcony!!) and planned our day.

 We decided to take a casual route through a few different neighborhoods highlighted in the travel book and stop for some local food and drink along the way.

We headed in the direction of West Queen West (not to be confused with Queen West), Toronto's quirky art and design district. The 1-mile strip is filled with art galleries, music stores, museums, and tons of unique, eccentric shops and boutiques. This was definitely the place for Canadian hipsters and we had a lot of fun window shopping. We did have some trouble trying to find a place to eat despite what seemed like thousands of pubs and ethnic places. Eventually we came across Swan Restaurant, which was exactly what we were looking for. I ordered a chicken, pancetta and avocado club and Tom went for the pulled pork sandwich. We shared a side of potato salad as well. It was a decent lunch although not our favorite food of the trip.

After lunch we continued our walk through Little Italy, Portugal Village, Chinatown and Kensington Market. Kensington Market was by far my favorite part of Toronto.

 

We stopped by a little pub for a couple of local beers and then started to explore the shops.

The only way I can describe the market is as a foodie's paradise. Store after store featured cheap, bulk specialty goods. Bins overflowing with nuts, seeds, beans, grains, dried fruit, fresh fruit and vegetables, candy, baking goods etc. lined the streets, and large windows showcased fresh fish, meat, bread and cheese.

We both wished we would have skipped lunch and just came to the market to eat. That didn't stop us from picking up some goods though -- we left the market with jumbo sunflower seeds, dried apricots, popped corn, and a delicious loaf of bread (that we got for free!!). Tom also got an espresso that he couldn't stop talking about :)

We walked around for about 5 or 6 hours and then headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. Before dinner we decided to stop and take the elevator up to the top of the CN Tower, hoping for a spectacular view of Toronto. Standing at over 1,800 feet, the CN Tower is currently the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere and held the record for the world's tallest tower for 34 years (I believe right now it is the third or fourth highest tower)! The view from the top was really incredible. It was really cool to see the view through sunset, and watch the city lights come on as it became darker. We were looking forward to the glass floor (a glass panel that you can stand/sit/lay on) but unlike the view, it was a bit of a let down. It was still super scary to walk on though!

We waited for the sun to set and then took the elevator down back down to the ground. We had looked up some places to eat in the travel book and had decided on The Gabardine. The restaurant was very cute and the menu was pretty close to American food except for the fish pie. Is that a Canadian thing? Is it American and I just don't know it?

I ended up ordering a burger with fries and Tom ordered the fish special of the night. Both were really great!

After dinner walked back to the hotel and called it a night. It was almost midnight and had been a long day. We made some plans for the next morning and hit the hay. I went to bed with dreams of Niagara Falls in my head :)

The Swing of Things

Just a couple of updates.

I've been doing much better on the healthy eating/exercising train since I wrote that late night post. Besides some of last weekend I've been eating much better and have ran a couple of times. Some recent eats:

Banana, hard boiled eggs and soup from ABP

Mini pulled buffalo chicken sliders for a pot luck

A boring salad -- I don't know why you can only see lettuce, but it had bacon, eggs, tomatoes and edamame

I suddenly became of roast beef -- on some delicious bread here with pretzels and grapes

Last night Tom and I went for a 4.5 mile run around Southie. For some reason the first mile was SO tough for me. I was exhausted, not breathing and had stiff, hurting legs by the time we reached a mile and a half. We stopped and walked for about 2 minutes, and then I was just suddenly fine. I took it really slow and steady for the rest of the run and only stopped for about 30 seconds to a minute after each mile. I'm still no where close to how I used to be running but it's much better than it was a few weeks ago! I know that I just have to continue doing this. It's always the same for me with running: the first few runs are miserable, they suck in every way possible, then suddenly running just stops sucking. If I can just get past that point I will be so happy!

I have the BAA 10k in a week and a half. I know I'm not going to do as well as I'd like but I'm going to try my best. I decided I wanted to run 6 times before the race but I may have to take it down to 5. Here's my plan:

Monday: 4.5 miles (completed 56 minutes)
Wednesday: 3 miles (goal 37 minutes)
Sometime from Thursday-Sunday: 4 miles (goal: 49 minutes)
Monday/Tuesday: 5.5 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Sunday: race

In other news I am on book #17! I finished the Collectibles by James Kaufman, which was okay (I hope that was a free/cheap kindle book) and just finished Divergent by Veronica Roth in like 2 days. IT was so good! I just started Insurgent today, hope it's just as good!

Tonight I have plans to get sushi and I CAN'T WAIT! I'm on a serious sushi kick lately.

Byee!

Birthday!

I accidentally used TKO's real name in one of my previous posts...whoops! So the cat's out of the bag, he will be referred to as Tom for now on :)

So I'm only a week and a half late on this. Not too shabby. And I was actually supposed to be born on June 10th, so technically I'm really only 1 day late.

My 24th birthday was really awesome and it's not even over yet...but more on that next week! Last Thursday started great. It was beautiful out and I woke up to an amazing surprise from my roommates.

How good do those cupcakes look? They tasted just as delish as the look. Unfortunately the day progressed in a really bad way, with my work laptop crashing via the "blue screen of death". To say the least, work was not fun.

When I got home I quickly got ready because Tom was taking me out for a surprise birthday dinner! He showed up at my house with these gorgeous flowers :)

and then we took an Uber over to Menton!! A little about this incredible restaurant from the website: "Since opening in 2010, the restaurant has received numerous accolades, including a 4 star review from The Boston Globe, being named one of both Bon Appétit and Esquire magazine’s best new restaurants in 2010, and being nominated as a James Beard Foundation Awards 2011 finalist for Best New Restaurant. Menton received the Best Newcomer, Best French, and Best Service distinctions in the Zagat Boston Restaurant Guide 2011-2012 and is Boston's only Relais & Chateaux, AAA Five-Diamond, and Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star property."

I had bookmarked Menton on yelp thinking I would never actually go there. I couldn't believe when we were walking up the steps to actually go in! From the second we walked in until the second we left (nearly FOUR HOURS later) the service was impeccable. We had about 20 different servers (no joke) and all were incredibly attentive, friendly and so knowledgeable.

There are two options for food at Menton: a four-course prix fixe menu and a seven-course chef's tasting menu. The tasting menu was simply a list of 15 ingredients. It was up to the chef to create seven courses for us featuring those ingredients.

We couldn't resist the excitement of a tasting menu so we both went for it. After ordering a bottle of wine, the food started rolling out. I can't remember exactly what everything was, but I'll do my best!

The first bite: some sort of fish in a crispy shell topped with caviar (my favorite of the 4 starter amuse-bouches)

A beet "whoopie pie" with a creamy cheese filling (they did not actually call this a whoopie pie, but it clearly needs to be dubbed one!)

Mini cornbread topped with sauce and caviar

I have no idea what this was, it was the sweetest of the bites and tasted cookie-like

Next up was a tiny tea cup filled with delicious clam chowder. Tiny spoon included!

Followed by the most delicious, flaky, moist, and adorable croissant of all time.

Next up was one of my favorite dishes of the night, halibut tartare with a grapefruit "snow". Tom received something similar with a different type of fish. There were a few courses where the servers brought out two types of the same dish, I think they always picked the best one for me :)

In between courses, 3 types of bread:

Tender Nova Scotia lobster (which according to our waitress are notoriously sweet)

White Asparagus with caviar (I LOVED this even thought I'm typically not a fan of asparagus)

Homemade whole weheat pasta with bacon and some type of liver based sauce for me (yes this looks like worms! But was sooooo good!)

The same pasta with cheese and greens for Tom -- mine was better :)

The star of the meal, foie gras with apricots and house made granola. This was my first time eating foie gras and I was so surprised how much I enjoyed it. Luckily my Top Chef knowledge failed me and I couldn't remember what foie gras was before I started eating (fattened duck liver FYI).

Quail foie gras (I believe) for Tom. These two dishes actually tasted very different and I definitely preferred mine.

Marcho farm veal with mushrooms and fava beans. Another fabulous one!

And for Tom, sweetbreads aka fancy chicken nuggets according to our server. Sweetbreads are neither bread, nor sweet. According to wikipedia: Sweetbreads or ris are culinary names for the thymus (throat, gullet, or neck sweetbread) or the pancreas (heart, stomach, or belly sweetbread) especially of thecalf (ris de veau) and lamb (ris d'agneau) (although beef and pork sweetbreads are also eaten).^[1] Various other glands used as food are also called 'sweetbreads', including the parotid gland ("cheek" or "ear" sweetbread), the sublingual glands ("tongue" sweetbreads or "throat bread"), and testicles (cf. Rocky Mountain oyster).^[2][3] The "heart" sweetbreads are more spherical in shape, and surrounded symmetrically by the "throat" sweetbreads, which are more cylindrical in shape. 

Next up, strip loin of beef with a garlic foam, potatoes and green beans.

At this point I was starting to become insanely full., but when the server asked if we wanted a cheese course I couldn't resists. A man came over with a cart full of delicious and unique cheeses. He explained each one, touching upon the origin, taste, hardness and uniqueness, and then we chose 5 to taste. He gave us a plate with crackers, jam, candied nuts and honey as well.

 

After the cheese was a little palette cleanser! You know you're getting fancy when your pallette needs to be cleansed.

And finally, dessert! I have no clue what I was given but it was delicous!! Seriosuly, no clue. It has a candle on it too :)

Tom got dark chocolate "polenta" with fresh cherries, coconut ice cream and red pepper flakes. This was spicy!

I thought we HAD to be finished by this point but there was still more to come! A few little bites to finish the night:

A play on tea and biscuits

A lemon puff pastry (Tom ate his before I snapped the photo)

Dark chocoalte ganache

The cutest little macaroons (see how tiny they are compared to the quarter)!

This was seriously the best meal of my life, but I was SOOO full by the end of it. I expected it to be seven tiny courses and was so surprised by the amount of delicious food prepared for us. Overall the best restaurant experience I've ever had :) Major thanks to this guy:

The birthday celebrations continued through the weekend, starting with the Friday night session of the American Craft Beer Fest! I went with Tom and his brother and had so much fun tasting/trying new beers.

The next morning Tom and I were up early to head to Beer & Wine Hobby in Woburn to attend a home brewing class. This was actually my Christmas gift to him but it was fun to include it in my birthday weekend :) The class was really cool and made me want to be a home brewer! It's an expensive hobby though so I definitely need to think about it before investing the money.

 

 

After the class I came home and got ready for my friends to come over. We met at my house for some drinks and then went out to Scholars. I love Scholars and need to go more! It was a fun night with way too much drinking by me.

 On Sunday morning we all went to the Beehive -- one of my new favorite spots in Boston! I got a Bloody Mary (no idea why I was craving this) and a short rib grilled cheese that was a-maaazing. We sat right by the jazz band and it was really just the perfect brunch.

Overall a fantastic, amazing, awesome birthday full of good people and good food!! Just what I wanted :)

Thoughts on Balance

So. My apologies for the dramatics last night.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this struggle after I published the post. I really felt like I needed to do some re-evaluation. What it all comes down to for me is balance and how to find it and LIVE it. Isn't that what this blog was about in the first place -- finding balance and self acceptance? Since I started this blog I've done really well with the self acceptance side. After a lot of work and help I feel like a completely different person mentally than I did 2 or 3 years ago. The progress I've made is really pretty unbelievable.

Now for balance. Have I made any progress there? I think so. I'm not sure. For my birthday I wanted to buy myself BOTH a pasta making class and personal training sessions. Is that balance? Or is that just crazy? I have very strong hobbies (hobbies? is that even the right word) that revolve around food and fitness. I am actually one of those people who enjoys exercise. Most of the time I enjoy going to the gym, I love group fitness classes, I love hiking and anything outdoors. I truly enjoy learning about nutrition, trying to fit nutrients into meals and love eating fruits, vegetables etc. etc. I could read health and fitness blogs and magazines all day if I was able to, and sometimes I think I may have traveled down the wrong career path, but that's a whole other issue. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I LOVE going out to new restaurants and eating big meals way more than the average person. As much as I enjoy cooking sometimes I would rather eat out every day, and probably would if I had the funds and metabolism to support it. There's nothing like a huge bowl of homemade pasta piled with shellfish and spicy sauce. I love trying new foods and want to try everything out there. I love the whole atmosphere of restaurants.

So where's the balance here? I don't think I've got it down quite yet. It seems I usually go through periods on the healthy side of the spectrum and then periods on the crazy foodie side. How can I have both of these things and lose weight? Is that even possible? Probably not.

Wow I am really rambling now.

Enough analyzing for now. I managed to wake myself up and go for a 3 mile run this morning. I pressed the snooze button 3+ times and it definitely wasn't the best run I've had, but it was something. It was a small step and a POSITIVE reaction to last night's meltdown. I packed some tote bags to bring to the grocery store later and have been looking up some new recipes to get myself excited. Time for action.

Rain or Shine

I forgot to mention that my 24th birthday was last Thursday. It was incredible and I'm SO lucky to have people who care about me and made my birthday so special. I promise full posts filled with food porn soon, I just need to get my bearings.

My frustration with myself is at a high right now. I've been eating like shit and haven't worked out for a week and a half now. I've been fairly nonchalant (as opposed to my feelings in the past) toward this weight gain and attempted loss. And it's starting to hit me. Despite the 50 degree temperatures I know summer is coming and it's going to be another that I feel uncomfortable in a bathing suit. It's frustrating. That's the best word I can come up with. It's frustrating that I've been THINKING about this now for 15 years. Others who have battled with their weight all their lives know what I mean when I say it's all-consuming. It's constant stress and guilt about what I'm eating and why I'm eating it, and when I'm working out and why I'm not working out. It's constant comparisons and internal wars over what is fair and what is unfair. It's constant fear over how I will possibly live with this forever, over how I feel like I'm wasting my twenties, over how I will ever find a way to live a healthy life with a family when I can't even do it now.

I don't know why this is such a struggle. I don't know what to do except try and make tomorrow better. So here's my accountability. I just set my alarm to wake up and go for a run in the morning, rain or shine. After work I'm going straight to the grocery store. So here goes nothing.