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So we’ve been back in London a month now and everything seems pretty much the same.  Of course I drove over to the WalMart in the north-west corner of the city to find that not only has the WalMart exploded and I can’t find anything in the store, but there are also about 30 new stores that have been built that weren’t there before.  I can honestly say that I hate the new WalMart.  It is just way too big and it takes me twice as long to park, go in and actually FIND what I am looking for.  Some people really love one-stop shopping, but if you only have a couple of things to buy, the new WalMart is a huge pain to navigate.  Maybe it also comes from living in small town Mexico where, if the item you were looking for was actually sold in the store and was in stock at the time you wanted to buy it, you had two choices: A) buy the one brand of the thing you were looking for or B) do without.

On Saturday mornings when we are in town, Don and I go to Billy’s Deli for breakfast.  They by far, have the best breakfasts in town.  Of course if you are looking to go for a pleasant drive, take the 50 minutes and drive to Port Stanley and eat breakfast at the Telegraph House-Pineapple Dining Room, which is a bed and breakfast run by the former owners of Billys (and get the perch & eggs!!).  Anyway, after breakfast, Don and I go to the farmers market at the Covent Garden Market.  We used to always go and buy bread from the Sylvan Breadsmith (seeded sourdough was my favourite).  The owner, Penelope, made this amazing organic, wood-fired oven baked bread that was out of this world.   Now, I don’t really care much about whether my bread is made from non-genetically modified, organic grains, hand picked by the locals and ground with a stone wheel powered by donkey–I could  care less about that.  I am ruled by my tastebuds and my stomach and Penelope’s bread was the best there ever was.  Unfortunately, some time after we left for Mexico and before we got back to Canada, Penelope stopped baking bread.  Her departure from baking bread left a huge hole in my life. 

However, I did stumble upon a decent alternative: Organic Works Bakery.  This is a small bake shop in a one of the city’s more interesting parts of town (on the corner of Talbot and Bathurst, near the Labatt Brewery).  Yet again, the bread is organic and the grains are actually bought locally but again, for me it’s not about the I-am-eating-organic-and-this-is-good feeling some people get from eating organic.  It’s about taste and the bread here is pretty darn good.  It won’t replace Penelope’s bread, but it is a good substitute in the meantime.  I am addicted to the 3 seed whole wheat and honey bread, but only because I haven’t had the opportunity to try  the 7 grain–it never seems to be there when I go.  They also do cookies, muffins, scones and cinnamon rolls, of which I have tried all but the scones and I can report that they are all quite tasty.  The owner, Peter Cuddy and his staff are really friendly and they even let you taste test some of their products while you are there.   

Overall, I really miss Penelope (Please start baking again soon!  I miss you!) but in the meantime, Peter and his gang at Organic Works are doing a fine job of keeping me in tasty bread and it’s defintiely worth the trip for those that appreciate something more that Wonder Plus with their toast in the morning….

 Details: 

Organic Works Bakery, 278 Talbot Street (corner of Talbot & Bathurst), London, 519-850-1800

Billy’s Downtown Deli, 113 Dundas Street, London, 519-679-1970

Telegraph House-Pineapple Dining Room, 205 Main, Port Stanley, 519-782-3006

So we’ve been back in Canada for a little over two weeks now and we are starting to settle in.  We went to a Rotary Youth Exchange conference this weekend and it was great to see all our District 6330 Committee friends again.  It’s also Mexican Independence Day today and I am quite sad to be missing it.  Last year we were still really new to the area and didn’t take full advantage of the celebration.  I saw some blog postings about the celebrations in Mexico City and it really made me miss being there.  I even heard some Norteno music and I surprisingly even miss that! 

It’s great to be back in Canada because we can drink from the tap, have hot showers and we have great water pressure, but I do miss Mexico.  There is nothing like eating tacos al pastor on the street at 2AM.  The good news is that we have the means to go back and visit our friends, it’s just a matter of when. 

In the meantime, I am working teaching English online and I will continue to blog.  Who knows what direction the blog will take now, but hopefully I can continue to make it interesting.