Tasting the world

One of the best things about travel is tasting foods from wherever you are: so far I've tried pasta e fagioli in Rome, and chevre chaud in Paris*.One of the things I love about Toronto is that you can eat the food from just about every place on Earth in the various restaurants around the city. And it's that way in one of other favourites places too, New York: on my last trip there, we went to a vegetarian dim sum place in Chinatown. I know, you're thinking dim sum is already one of the best things ever, but the restaurant was vegetarian too? Yes, it was, and it was awesome.
The hotel I stayed at both times I was in New York had a Moroccan-style restaurant on the main floor. It was there I first ordered the avocado on toast that has become a Rogue Avocado breakfast staple. (My mom even requests it, though oddly she never makes it for herself!) One of the things on the menu that I only finally ordered on my second trip was dukkah, a Middle Eastern dish make of ground roasted nuts and spices. When I googled it, I did find a few recipes, as well as references to it being THE trendy dish a few years ago...in Australia.
I cannot vouch for its trendiness, on this continent or any others, but it is delicious. You dip crusty bread in olive oil, and then in the ground nut mixture. IT is like savory squared, with a healthy helping of fat to take it to the next level. It's pretty easy if you have a food processor, just don't take your eyes off the nuts while you're roasting them, lest you burn the whole thing and have to start over again...hypothetically of course.







*The chevre chaud was before I was vegan. Actually, it was overdosing on cheese in France that convinced me to go vegan!