THE POPPY pistachio + strawberry + plum + cheddar

Life is rosy folks. (Is how I started off this post when I began the draft TWO MONTHS AGO. Following is a more whiny post of how I'm feeling currently.) But I think it's apt that I made such a rosy sandwich for a post about being in such a crummy mood, 'cause it's sort of cheering me up just to look at it. 

What do you do when you have the travel bug, but no real freedom or funds? No, seriously, I'm asking. I'm going a little crazy in my tiny, stiflingly hot sublet in The Junction, save for this one coffee shop I've found that I pretty much want to live at, and should start doing all my computer "work" from. I've been thinking a lot for the past two years, but more specifically since my last move, about moving out of Toronto again, and I think a lot of those could be solved by as little as a two week stint somewhere else. Really, I'm not asking for much. just to get away, and maybe be reminded that Toronto, my first real love, is a place where I really want to be. Having lived in other places, with plenty of new amazing things about them that Toronto doesn't have, I couldn't get Toronto out of my mind. I would talk about it constantly, like an ex you're still hopelessly not over. I missed the music scene. I missed the food and coffee scene. I missed the creativity, and passion, and individualism that goes into every storefront here. Europe totally doesn't have that, save for in small, excepted pockets. So I'm in this constant dilemma of wanting to leave, and in a way being totally ungrateful for what an idyllic place this is, and thinking I really should just use my powers to change my life here, and make it look like how I want, rather than try to jump ship and build one again somewhere else. How do you know when it's time to let go, or time to (wo)man up? I guess the real answer is it's always time to (wo)man up. Just someone get me outta here for a few weeks or something, k? 

THE NORTH BY pulled pork + grilled pineapple + corn relish + cheddar

It's basically like my favourite week of the year here in Toronto. No, it's not Christmas/NYE, or my birthday. It's NXNE (North by North East). It's like a prolonged Wednesday-Sunday weekend of running around the city (read west end), going to an obscene amount of shows, as if for sport. There are awesome shows going on in all the dozen of usual venues, and like 30 others I don't go to, free concerts at Yonge + Dundas square, so many bands, free in-stores at record shops, and lots of official/unofficial events like the Toronto Island Vice takeover, or the many years running Great Heart Festival, which is pretty much a big park concert where bands do semi-acoustic arrangements of their songs, and it gets filmed and put online for everyone to relive the greatest time of year all year round. 

North 'By', as it's generally called is always an amazing time, some unforgettable sets, but a general blur of a weekend, what with the constantly jetting off to see another band somewhere, and continually evaluating whether you're too day-drunk to bike. It's something my friends and I highly anticipate, some of us months in advance, but come festival Sunday, no one wants to do anything but shovel BBQ and tacos into our mouths. The crowds at Sunday shows can be pretty sparse.

Anyway, this year I was pretty lazy and only went to like 2 shows a night, and none of the daytime parties or house shows. And I had a blast. Here's my NX Sunday sandwich special. If you're in Toronto and you've been "festive", you know this is what will keep you going, just one more night folks!

THE FESTIVAL SPECIAL chicken + avocado + nectarine + onion sprouts

So I just worked this music festival in Toronto this weekend, Field Trip music fest

THE NEIGHBOURHOODWICH pork sausage + roast fennel + mushroom pâté

So, basically every day for the past year, I wake up, eat one of 3 rotating breakfast options, later I eat a salad, and by the end of the day, I'll probably have eaten a same-ish version of a vegan, viet-style soup. I didn't used to be like this! I used to make the same thing no more than 3 times. Then onto the next idea. My eating has become so routine, that even the things I do to break the routine, like occasionally making sandwiches for blog purposes, and eating things like, *gasp* bacon, have become routine. So I went into my local deli/sandwich supply magical happy house, determined to try something new. They make these really nice sounding apple and sage sausages ('cause who really thinks sausages look all that appetizing), and this weirdo mushroom pâté that just sort of spoke to me. It was nonchalantly crying out "why not?" And then I went out and bought fennel. Because honestly, fennel kind of scares me, as my only encounter with it had been one time using someone's strongly fennel flavoured toothpaste in the morning without realizing I was not to be expecting mint. Anyway, there's really nothing better in life, in general, than breaking routines, exploring, and finding out there are all these other things you can add to your life that you can enjoy, along with all the things you already have to do so. Which I guess is really the point of this blog. Yay for more things in life that are nice. Especially when they are things that you can eat!!!