belly.

Belly was undoubtedly my favourite restaurant we visited on our West Coast roadtrip. It may, in fact, be one of my favourite restaurants ever. 

red fish blue fish.

Red Fish Blue Fish is pretty much a Victoria landmark up there with the Parliament buildings as far as I'm concerned. If you live in Victoria and haven't been... What? Get yourself there immediately before they close for the winter season on October 31. If you don't live in Victoria and haven't been... get yourself there immediately before they close for the winter season on October 31. Maybe even arrange a trip around it. Stranger things have been done.

eli's asian salmon.

After all the cooking and feasting I recently blogged about, we were ready for something easy and (insert gasp here!) healthy, for a change.

lowell's.

Pike Place Market is one of my favourite places in Seattle.  I love it on a sunny summer's morning and a crisp winter afternoon. I love wandering the crowded aisles and eyeing the rows of colourful fruits and vegetables; hearing the calls of the fisherman in their rubber overalls wrapping up their catch of the day in brown paper and tossing it at the lucky person purchasing it. 

shrimp scampi.

Generally, my boyfriend and I disagree about meals. We rarely come to a full and happy agreement about what to cook, and we could probably never do the "order two meals and go halvsies" thing at a restaurant. He's a big seafood guy and prefers lighter, tomato, oil or pesto-based sauces with his pastas and meats - my palate is yawning as I type - whereas I'll rarely turn down anything rich, cheesy, creamy or fried (yup, guess who's never given a thought to their weight and who's best fashion-friend is leggings and the ever-forgiving black?) Basically, if we were to try and order calamari at a restaurant, he'd be gunning for the grilled variety with tomato olive salsa, whereas I'd be throwing a hissy fit about the deep fried with extra garlic-lemon mayo. So we just don't really share stuff.

capellini with shrimp and creamy tomato sauce.

While I've been crazy about good food for as long as I've been eating, I just recently started to put an effort into cooking (maybe when I came to the sad realization that eating out for every single meal while living on my own in Toronto wasn't an option unless I was planning on camping in McDs.) I don't have a lot of time to cook, but I'm obviously not going to waste that precious time making crap to mindlessly shovel in my mouth in front of the t.v.


Enter this pasta recipe that my boyfriend and I discovered while browsing the ten-minute-mains on gourmet.com (thank god for ten-minute-mains good enough for gourmet to put its name behind!)


Over time we've tweaked it perfectly to our liking by tripling the garlic (it was a little bland for me with the dose the original recipe calls for, just don't sit too close to me) and using canned, fire-roasted tomatoes for a bit more of a complex flavor. 


Recently, I jazzed it up a bit for my parents with fresh basil and shaved parmesan for a simple al fresco meal. My dad, who's currently attempting a "diet" and initially requested a miniscule portion could be seen scraping the empty pan it was cooked in with a spoon and proclaiming that had he been served the exact same dish at the Union Square Cafe in New York, he would be thrilled silly.


For those who don't know my father and his love for that restaurant, this is a huge compliment. Make this!