Heaven in the Junction

I’m a Cuban from Miami living in Toronto.  Toronto is considered to be a multi-cultural city, but I have found it very hard to find places that serve Latin food and the ones I’ve tried have been less than authentic and a bit disappointing (other than one Peruvian place on St. Clair and Bathurst that has awesome ceviche and a mouthwatering anticuchos platter).

When a girlfriend of mine suggested I try Espresso Mi Vida in the Junction I was initially excited to have a place so close by and skeptical at the same time that I would be disappointed as I have been in this city thus far.  How unfounded was my skepticism!  I only tried two dishes but am anxious to go back and try more!  I had the most authentic empanada I’ve had since I made some myself last year ~ a sweet and savoury concoction of chicken, dates and olives awaited inside the fried dough.  I also tried the peanut butter stuffed plantain patty, an unlikely but delicious combination, and finished it off with an Inca Cola.  The menu included a Cuban sandwich and Ropa Vieja.  The Cuban Sandwich will be the next item I order from them, although I am a little apprehensive as it’s made with Ciabatta bread as opposed to the traditional sweet roll.  Based on yesterday’s experience, I’m sure I’ll be pleasantly surprised.    Muchas felicidades Espresso Mi Vida!  I’m happy to have you in my ‘hood!

Tag, You’re It!

Oh boy!  Here I had all but forgotten about my blogging endeavour and now I’ve been tagged by my friend Gina!  I’ll take it as a nudge that I should continue my musings.

Here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share six (6) non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
• Tag at least 3 people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Six Things About Me:

• My pinky toes on both feet curve under my other toes, completely hiding the toenails on said toes.  Also, my middle fingers of both hands have a curvature towards the pinky fingers of each hand.  I have attached pictures of my bodily deformities for your viewing pleasure.
• 
• Halloween is one of my favourite days of the year and I have gotten dressed up every year of my life except in 2007 and only because Declan (my son) had been born two days previously and I could barely get out of bed, much less get costumed up! (hmm, run-on sentence) He, on the other hand, did wear a costume!
• I ABSOLUTELY LOVE to pick out boogers, ear wax, eye crust and finger/toenail dirt out of my son’s body.  Gross, I know, but true.
• I’m a pretty big chicken shit.  I have screamed and/or had an anxiety attack during every quasi-scary movie I have ever seen and then suffered nightmares for a period lasting at least 3 days.
• I dream in both Spanish and English.  I don’t find that very interesting at all but have had several people ask me.
• I sometimes secretly wish I was a porn star or stripper.  I guess it won’t be a secret anymore.

I don’t know many bloggers, so I will tag the only three I can think of right now   Hope you enjoy it, Anna, Paul and Kirk!!  Thanks for the nudge Gina!

My First Post

At the risk of being hailed as “one who follows the crowd”, I have started a blog (as you can see).  I’ve done this for two reasons.  One is because it might be fun and two is because I used to consider myself a decent writer 15 years ago and I’m pretty sure I suck at it now and would like to remedy that.  So for any of you reading this, my apologies in advance for any suckiness you may encounter in this or any of my future posts.  My hope is to get more interesting and well-worded as the time passes

I got an invite to start a stroller fit class in High Park a couple of weeks ago and decided to give it try.  I’ve been doing it now for two weeks and absolutely love it.  The other moms are great.  I haven’t come across any cattiness or clique-i-ness so far and have actually met a couple of women that I hope to become better friends with.  To be honest, I’m really really relieved to have met some other moms in the area that are cool.  I only have a couple of friends that are parents (none of whom live anywhere near me) and it’s been a little bit hard and lonely at times for me to not be able to connect with other people going through similar things as me.   A lot of times I feel like I’m a split person, I have all my young, single, baby-free friends that I party with and love, and I connect with them at so many levels, but then I have this mom side to me now that I feel is so totally separate from the “other me”.  Weirdness.  But I’m bridging the gap I think, little by little.  So either way, I’m happy that I decided to go do it.  Even though it’s at 9 a.m.

On another topic altogether.  Today I came across two separate articles on bestiality.

http://www.thelocal.se/15610.html

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/89558

Can somebody please explain this to me??  Is there something sexy here that I’m just not seeing??

Bye for now……….

E