So — I went to Canada last weekend and had a lovely time — and tried poutine for the first time, it’s kind of a national thing up there. We never made it to the fancy poutine restaurant in Vancouver because neither of us felt up to a 4-5 hour evening round trip (travel and eating time) so we got some closer to home with Skip The Dishes, kind of like Door Dash without the bullshit premium pricing.
My US phone did not want to make the jump across the border without a little cash infusion, but once I got that done I could at least use the maps, which plugged in nicely to the dashboard of the car — a Subaru little cute thing that is FAR too low to the ground after driving a F150 — and I found the condos — but the gate to the parking was locked and I couldn’t place calls. So I drove to the area next door which turned out to be a Bible college — and like an answered prayer there was a security guy making the rounds who called her up and got me where I needed to go.
There was Diet Pepsi, mac and cheese casserole and a long evening of just hanging out and catching up. We were supposed to go on a coast drive Saturday, but I am loathe to do anything outside the house on Shabbat (feels like cheating, even though I’m not orthodox anymore) so we stayed home and ordered schnitzels and poutine.
Now that may seem like an odd combination, but if it’s a restaurant they likely serve poutine and I was eager to give it a go — how badly can you screw up fries, cheese and gravy? (it is possible I was told, Applebee’s is particularly bad — but my experiences were good) The delivery tool about an hour and a half, but the food was AMAZING. I haven’t had schnitzel that good since I left Germany at age 9. We were full after the schnitzel plates and saved the poutine for breakfast. I heated it up in the toaster oven and we split the container for breakfast and it too was amazing, even 12 hours later and reheated. It must have started out as divine when hot, but it was incredible.
So you start with crispy hot fries, and cover them with a generous amount of cheese curds. Not shredded or grated or anything — curds. Then you cover the whole mess with a butt ton of brown gravy and that melts the cheesy goodness and it’s all a big pile of YUM. Even the next day the fries weren’t soggy, and the cheese remelted, probably one of the best breakfasts of the trip.
Then we hung out all day, and then had Indian that night, I had palak goat, which is chunks of goat meat in a spinach sauce and that was amazing too, with cheesy naan, and there was so much food that I had the remainder for lunch the next day. On Monday my friend had to work (she works from home) so I did homework and we chatted in between and then were going to have casserole for dinner — and then we remembered that her home health worker had told us to try Dairy Queen’s poutine because it was extra cheesy — so we did. Believe it or not, but the burgers, drinks, poutine and blizzards cost more than the schnitzels! It was good though, and a lot faster. The poutine had slightly less crispy fries, with a LOT of cheese curds for the size of the order (basically a medium fry) and a lighter brown gravy than the schnitzel place and less of it — about ¼ of a cup more would have been perfect — but it was also very good. Finally I got up and packed and headed to my hotel which was about 9 miles from the airport in Vancouver. (this becomes relevant later)
So I was up at 4, got ready and packed, and remembered they had breakfast at 6, so I ran down and got a waffle and some chicken nuggets, because chicken and waffles is a thing. Ate, checked out and hit the road with the trusty maps pulled up. I was running a little behind, but not horrible. Until I missed a turn in such a way that it took me 35 minutes to get back toward the airport because of the exits and one ways involved, it wasn’t an easy hop back on situation. So now I’m freaking out a little, and then I had to return the rental car — and by the time I got upstairs they were boarding and I still had to check in — so I missed my flight.
They managed to reschedule me for a few hours later and I would have had to stay in San Francisco overnight, but it would get me home Wednesday midday — and I emailed my profs so they knew I was going to miss class and why — I was still in Canada and zoom wasn’t an option. However.
Did I mentioned it snowed while I was there? Sunday evening, just enough to be pretty, didn’t stick on the roads the next day, just a gentle cute blanket of snow, and didn’t affect my drive in any way. It was just that while I was in the airport it kept snowing. And snowing. And snowing.
My flight to San Fran was canceled because the pilot couldn’t get to the airport because of a wreck in the snow. They rescheduled my flights again, getting me home this time Wednesday evening, but home. I got a taxi (after a 3 hour wait in the cold and dark outside the airport) got a couple hours sleep and went back — no chicken and waffles this time.
My first leg was Air Canada, which was nice, only my bag stopped in Los Angeles, while I went on to Houston and then my hometown on United. (second plane was cramped as hell after the exit row on Air Canada) and finally I caught the last flight into Louisiana for the night, but no idea how to get my bag back.
I had 4 hours sleep in the last 48, I figured it was safe in LA and spent 20 minutes remembering where I parked the truck, and came home, snuggled and fed the boys (Mum had been there earlier but they ate it all) and crashed. I blew off my morning class and went to the last two of the day, panicked about the assignments that were due and not finished, finished it and crashed again.
Today I got a call from Jack from Air Canada Los Angeles, who sent my bag on United today and I will pick it up after Shabbat, probably on Sunday. So my new favorite hoodie and my squishy will be home soon. I got my homework turned in today, with my profs good graces, and met the fish team for a celebratory pizza lunch downtown which was very nice. I like being social a little after all this time.
And if you want to make some at home and can get cheese curds where you live — Mum says we can get them here, she thinks at Aldi’s or Albertson’s, and they are right near each other — ideally you want cheddar cheese curds, I suppose there are other kinds though. I learned this from a French Canadian Food Blog (in French no less — OH I UNDERSTOOD THE AIRPORT LADY IN FRENCH YAY — takes a lot of words in French to say cheddar cheese curds)
So — yeah. Live, laugh, eat poutine. That’s my new motto.