Canada 6-8
Our routine breakfast fit perfectly at the little wooden table in the cabin-like basement room. We prepared to explore the very touristy Old Town in Quebec City, taking the 30 min bus ride to arrive around noon. We just browsed some stores first; Kay was searching for arch-supporting sandals and we didn’t know yet where we’d like to eat lunch. In our search we didn’t find any suitable sandals, but ended up misplacing my cap. We had to retrace our steps and found it at the Croc’s store.
On our way towards the castle, we figured we’d try multiple spots for lunch. First we tried a duck confit salad with cranberry, carrot, and pistachios, a baguette side, and a mushroom soup from a chain restaurant called “Paillard”. It was a tasty starter, a perfect variety of flavors and textures. Then we searched for a reliable crepe place, which took a considerable time since too many were tourist traps. At last we found a delicious sounding crepe at “La Buche”, which happened to be a place our host recommended. It was a salmon, goat cheese, and spinach crepe with Bechamel sauce. We were satisfied, since it was perfectly rich and fluffy that we didn’t crave any more savory food. We hiked to the castle, and all the way up the hillside. Atop a green patch of grass, we could see the castle, the river, and the town surrounding both sides of the water with spots of colorful house facades. The sun was pleasant and welcome - perfect for napping.
For our first dessert, we discovered a little pastry place that I cannot remember the name of, tucked into a brick building. There was a single case of pastries, and they all looked delicious. We picked out a small tart with a cone of meringue on top. The custard was orange and citrusy, delicious with salty sweet, crusty crust and light meringue. Our second dessert was not as harmonious, although it looked promising. We got a ‘Paris Brest’ from Paillard; a choux pastry ring filled with praline cream. Sadly, the choux was dry and the cream was not very full in flavor. We figured there could be a good gelato place outside the square, so we hopped on a bus over to a newer part of town, where there was a little ice cream shop. Kay ordered a grapefruit sorbet, Ben got a double chocolate, and I got apricot caramel, yet I didn’t really care for mine, as it was too sweet. My cravings weren’t satisfied, so I suggested getting some tea from a place we’d walked past. After picking up some groceries from a little grocery store for dinner, we ordered a black tea, jasmine tea, and sencha. Ben lead us to another grassy park where we lounged around and I played with dandelions. I braided a flower crown, and we ceremoniously placed it atop a little ginko tree and gave it a blessing.
Back at our place, I cooked chickpea curry with tomatoes, spinach, onions, garlic, cilantro, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, hot pepper, lemon juice and rind, and garam masala spice. It was very fulfilling as we hadn’t eaten many vegetables all day, and the spice was refreshing. We forgot to buy playing cards, so we thought to make our own small set with paper we found there. Ben handled tearing, Kay glued, and I drew the designs. We developed our own card game meant to create insightful, personal conversations by ascribing meanings to each of the numbers. It’s kind of like a tarot system - some are symbolic and vague and others are more direct. We played a round for debugging, then watched the season finale of Sex Ed while eating watermelon.