"The Internet is a Series of Tubes"

My absence from Magic Lantern this past weekend was the result of a tri-generational excursion to the big city.  Saturday morning my mom, grandma, and I hopped on a train and headed for Toronto for some delicious food and fabulous shopping.  We stayed at my favourite hotel in the whole wide world, The Intercontinental Yorkville, and admired all the gorgeous, unique clothing found in nearby boutiques.  For me, the highlights were purchasing $800 worth of clothing for $350 in a sale off-season (yes, I'm one of those people who brags about good deals...), and the incredible supper we had at Era Aura Sunday evening.  

As the train left at 6:30, we were forced to dine freakishly early and ended up with the restaurant to ourselves.  Years ago this would have bothered me immensely, but recently I've come to enjoy the exclusive feeling of a near empty restaurant.  My parents have raved about Era Aura for years, so my expectations were sky high.  Normally I'm weary of such hype (self-induced or otherwise) and secretly braced myself for disappointment.  As soon as the bread came, all my doubts melted away:  it was warm, straight out of the oven, and drizzled with olive oil and rosemary.  Breaking my own rule of sticking to a single slice of pre-dinner restaurant bread, I ended up having three.  For dinner I ordered salmon risotto in a rose sauce with...wait for it....you'll never, ever guess in a million years....strawberries!  It sounds weird, I know, but this has got to be the cadillac of unlikely taste combinations.  The arborio was done to perfection, the salmon tender and flavourful, and the sauce creamy without seeming too heavy.  Even the temperature was perfect.  Despite filling up on bread, I ate every last bite!  My only regret is forgetting the camera at home and being unable to share a photo of this delectable dish with y'all.  Here's one of the restaurant instead.

Photo courtesy of the Era Aura website.

Such a perfect weekend was an ideal pre-curser to a longer trip in a bigger city...but more on that later...

(P.S. Don't even ask about the title of this post.  It's a long story).