(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
As you can imagine, it is not easy for a travel blogger to…not travel. How have I managed through the pandemic so far? One key coping technique is travelling through food.
I’ve tried all kinds of wonderful food while travelling: check out Part 1 and Part 2 of my 2014 food highlights. Trying new food, even in lockdown, brings back some of that adventurous feeling. Today’s post is about faraway food and drink that I’ve discovered within the City of Kingston since the pandemic began.
I love cheese. All those stereotypes about Dutch and Swiss people eating immense amounts of cheese? 100% true, in my case. And I found a great new one just this month. It’s a goat cheese called “Midnight Moon”. While it is sold by an American company called Cypress Grove, it is actually made in the Netherlands. It’s a firm cheese that looks like Gouda…but is aged just enough to take on the sharper characteristics of Swiss “Alpkäse”. It is currently my favourite cheese. And I found it at the local “Farm Boy” store!
Farm Boy was also where I found a decadent new dessert. I was familiar with the vanilla-esque goodness of Portuguese Custard tarts, but they recently introduced a variation with chocolate hazelnut filling. The infusion of Italy makes these already delicious pastries even better.
Still in the sweet spectrum, I found some Sweet Chili Plantain Chips at the local FreshCo grocery store. These are made in Colombia from green plantains and have a nice balance between sweet and spicy…and, most importantly, no garlic. And apparently they have “40% less fat than regular potato chips”.
Speaking of spicy, I recently tried some Gochujang Chicken in a “prepare-it-yourself” meal kit from Loblaws. Gochujang is a fermented red chili paste from Korea. The sauce was mostly tangy, rather than sweet, and had just the right amount of heat for both of us. I’d never heard of it before, but I’ve already started looking for it in local Asian grocery stores.
But what to drink with all of this interesting food? I’m not much of a beer drinker, but I’ve discovered two good new ones in the past year. For spicy food like Gochujang Chicken, I like a Jamaican beer called Dragon Stout. It’s made by the same people who make Red Stripe, but Dragon Stout is very different: it’s a high-alcohol (7.5%), nearly black beer with hints of licorice and chocolate. It can stand up to even the spiciest food.
I’ve also enjoyed Leffe Blonde, a Belgian beer that also exhibits sweet and spicy flavours. Like Dragon Stout, it’s also higher in alcohol content (6.6%), so it’s good that they are only availably locally in small bottles!
Today’s photos are all from a recent walk at Lemoine’s Point. Lots of wild turkeys…but no owls or deer on this particular day. That’s okay: we still see them on about half of our walks. Coming soon: some “lost” photos rediscovered!