{"id":1616,"date":"2012-09-03T01:03:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T01:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2012-09-03T01:03:29","modified_gmt":"2012-09-03T01:03:29","slug":"traffic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=1616","title":{"rendered":"Traffic City"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cranes in Toronto<\/p><\/div>\n

Traffic in New York City is horrific but Toronto\u2019s has it beat by a mile. Partly, it\u2019s because of the tremendous amount of building going on\u2014cranes are the main feature of the skyline.\u00a0 Who is going to buy all the condominiums going up is a mystery.<\/p>\n

Getting from our hotel to anywhere was hampered a) because the hotel, which shall remain nameless, was out of the way and b) there was Busker Festival in full swing between the hotel and anywhere we wanted to go. (A busker is a street performer, sometimes fun to watch but in this case mostly a nuisance.) To be fair to Toronto, the public transportation is excellent\u2014once you get to a stop.<\/p>\n

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Busker, this one not clad in full body paint<\/p><\/div>\n

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AGO, the Art Gallery of Toronto, was most recently redesigned by Frank Gehry in 2004. Gehry\u00a0 inserted contemporary elements throughout the museum in a very artful blend of old and new. We had lunch in the Members\u2019 Lounge (old) and fell into the Picasso exhibit showing works from the Picasso Museum in Paris, some of which we’d never seen before.<\/p>\n

Dinner at Acadia was either a marvel (me) or not enough to eat (my husband.) It\u2019s high-complex cuisine in a very informal setting. An appetizer of chicken cracklins\u2019 with hot sauce, the pieces served on small puddles of whipped blue cheese, the whole presented atop a piece of (non edible) slate, was original and delicious.<\/p>\n

The Distillery District is a must see. No mass marketers, lots of street sculpture, charming restaurants, cobblestone streets, boutiques and more, all in reclaimed buildings from The Gooderham and Worts Distillery, the largest collection of Victorian Industrial Architecture in North America. I took a Segway tour, something I\u2019ve hankered to do for ages, and found it great fun. A Segway is incredibly easy to maneuver –wish they could replace cars in big cities but suspect the high price to own one gets in the way.<\/p>\n

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Ready for the Segway tour<\/p><\/div>\n

Dinner at Cava,\u00a0 aptly billed as \u201csmall plates, big flavors,\u201d lived up to expectations as did a quick stop at Xococava (‘chococava’) their chocolate shop , artfully hidden nearby in a ho-hum shopping mall.\u00a0 Their salted chocolates get an A+.<\/p>\n

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Once home, in a nod to Toronto’s\u00a0 exceptionally good food, I made this cold avocado soup which I served\u00a0 to dinner guests in small cups as a first course.<\/p>\n

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Cold Avocado Soup for 8<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 seedless cucumber, chopped (a misnomer\u2014it does have seeds but fewer)<\/p>\n

2\u00a0medium avocados, peeled and pitted<\/p>\n

2\u00a0shallots, chopped<\/p>\n

4\u00a0T plain yogurt<\/p>\n

4\u00a0T fresh mint, chopped (or less, no need to be ultra-fussy)<\/p>\n

More fresh mint for garnish<\/p>\n

8\u00a0tsp fresh lime juice<\/p>\n

1 1\/2\u00a0 tsp salt (you can always add more–taste)<\/p>\n

1\/2\u00a0tsp ground black pepper<\/p>\n

1\/2\u00a0tsp ground cumin<\/p>\n

2\u00a0radishes, chopped<\/p>\n

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Put cucumber, avocados, shallots, yogurt, 2 tsp mint, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, and 1 cup cold water in a blender and process until smooth.<\/p>\n

Chill for at least 1 hour. Serve garnished with a dollop of yogurt, chopped radish and mint leaves.<\/p>\n

I made the soup again for the many family members in residence over\u00a0 the Labor Day weekend where it was a big success with avocado-fanciers. Because we had it, I added a third avocado, more yogurt and a drop more citrus juice. This recipe is very forgiving–keep tasting after the initial blending and add more of whatever you feel it needs.<\/p>\n

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Traffic in New York City is horrific but Toronto\u2019s has it beat by a mile. Partly, it\u2019s because of the tremendous amount of building going on\u2014cranes are the main feature of the skyline.\u00a0 Who is going to buy all the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[244,169,245,243],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-avocado","tag-cheese","tag-flavor","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1644,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions\/1644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}