We’re currently staying just off Denman Street in the West End. I may have mentioned already that when we lived here before there were at least 80 restaurants within an easy walk 5-10 minute of this area. There are now even more, I think.

So the fun has been  both discovering some of our old favorites are still in business 8 years later as well as trying some new ones that are quite good as well.

I’ve already mentioned Guu with Garlic and Legendary Noodle as two of our favorites from before. Today we went back to another favorite for the first time, Simba’s Grill, an African restaurant. Simba is the owner and we thought maybe he would have retired by now. But no, he’s still there, and still in the kitchen. Today was the first time we’d been back on this trip, though, as Simba took a month off for vacation the day after we arrived in town. But we finally go to back and sample the food in a place that used to be one of our favorites:  goat curry with ugali (a pounded flour starchy side-dish), and spinach and lamb cooked in tomato. Still all delicious!  I’d show you photos, but Chris and I were so excited to be back in one of old haunts (Simba even remembered us!), we were pretty hungry when the food came. So, it wasn’t until we were almost done that I realized I’d forgotten to take a photo. Ah well – I’ll try to get a photo or two the next time. And there will be a next time, since we still have a couple more weeks before we leave.

But as I said, part of the fun of the food here is also trying something new.  Earlier in the week we went to lunch at a new-in-the-last-8-years Moroccan restaurant.  We had quite a feast:

1. Chickpea soup:

Chick pea soup at Moroccan Restaurant

2. Ful Medames and Pita Bread

Ful Medames and Pita Bread

3. Lamb Tajine (we’d wanted to try the seafood tajine, but they didn’t have it available the day we were there,  so we ordered this one instead):

Lamb Tajine

Delicious!

In the 5 weeks since we’ve been back in Vancouver on this trip we’ve had the following types of cuisines, some more than once:

• Bulgarian
• Chinese dim sum
• Chinese noodles
• Japanese (multiple times and multiple types)
• African
• Seafood
• Pacific Northwest
• First Nation (Canadian Aboriginal)
• Indonesian*
• Trendy Canadian for lunch*
• Trendy Canadian for brunch
• Funky Vegetarian
• Very Funky Vegetarian*
• Mexican*
• Spanish

(a * indicates that Chris wasn’t there for that meal; I’ve been very lucky and have been taken out to lunch by people who used to work for me – thanks, everyone!)

Anyway, as you can see, in a very short time we’ve been able to eat our way around the world, most of it here in our own neighborhood, too. Fun to have so many options to choose from,  for both eating and deciding what to spotlight in today’s Food on Fridays post.

So click here and you’ll discover what it means if a groundhog sees his shadow in a candle in the wind …

For those who are unfamiliar with key limes, their name might imply that they are green, but in fact they are yellow (like a lemon). Except they don’t taste like a lemon — nor a lime, but rather something in between. It’s typical in the U.S. , particularly here in Florida, to make them into a creamy pie.  The particular serving style,  with a dollop or more of whipped cream, and topped with berries or not, is up to the establishment, as we’ve had all manners of it around here. Here’s a photo of one of the better ones we tried:

Key Lime Pie

While that photo shows a slice of one of the better restaurant ones we’ve had the past couple of months, the best one we’ve had by far was made by my sister-in-law — thanks, D—, for making it!! We were too busy enjoying it to take a photo of it, though.

But even without always remembering to take a photo, we have tried to be diligent about seeking out key lime pie to sample while we’re here in Florida. Research for the blog, you understand.

After all, it can’t always be about doughnuts.

Our adventures don’t end here, of course. For the coming week they will be located in the UK.  I deliberately didn’t say “in London”, though as we’re planning a day trip tomorrow to meet up with a friend in Oxford, which is just an hour away by train.

At this point in our travels, I’m not optimistic about Internet connection here in London. But I’ll see if I have a moment to at least post a photo or two soon from somewhere, since I have lots to show you all at some point. As usual, we’ll have to hope for the best this week about that.

In the meantime, here’s a page of webcams from London. As it turns out, these webcams may or may not be working at any given moment.

We’ll hope for the best about them, too.

When that area is seen from the ground while standing at the end of Via Garibaldi (the street we’re living on), you get a wider panoramic view: you have the San Giorgio Maggiore Church on the left (on its own island)  to the left of the Salute, and the Bell Tower and some of the small turrets of St. Mark’s Cathedral to the right.

Here’s my photo of that today taken just after 9pm:

Sunset, St. Mark’s Basin, Venice 2015

We ate a gelato while sitting on a bench watching the view. All in all, not a bad spot to practice life on a Gelato Diet once again.  

1. Along the Grand Canal: this one is particularly good for gondola spotting, as there seems to always be a gondola that comes into view when looking at this one.

2. Rialto Bridge – also good for spotting gondolas

3.  View of San Giorggio Maggiore Island, which is one of my favorite churches in Venice

4. San Marco Basin - the one I posted the other day

Enjoy.