My Lovely Toronto Weekend...

Lovely Thing #1 (and #1.5) Eating...and Running the Waterfront Half!

I spent this past weekend in Toronto visiting my girlfriend Kathryn and ran the Waterfront Half Marathon on Sunday morning. There were just too many wonderful and inspiring things that I saw and did to cover in just one post...so for the rest of this week I will be sharing my Top 5 favourite things about my lovely Toronto Weekend.

The race itself was amazing...although I may have felt more of a sense of accomplishment had I actually remembered to bring my race bib and timing chip, and that of C, my running companion who came up from St. Catharines to run the race with me. Luckily she forgave me and we put that incident behind us, running just for the fun of it. Despite knowing I would show up as DNR (Did not run) on the race website, I managed to enjoy the crowds, the sunshine and the scenery. But enough about that...let's get to the food because there certainly was a lot of it!

When I lived in Toronto, one of my favourite spots to frequent in my Annex neighbourhood was Fresh. I loved that I could indulge in healthy, vegetarian food in a trendy, not-intimidatingly-hipster kind of restaurant. After sweating out the previous night's champagne at an early morning Moksha Yoga class, Kathryn and I hit up her local Fresh for a delicious and healthy lunch. Between my baby buddha rice bowl, steamed greens and Immune Boosting smoothie, I felt totally rejuvenated!

Kathryn's wheatgrass shot and my Immune Boost Smoothie - Carrot, Beet, Apple, Ginger, Vitamin C and Echinacea. Not exactly a cosmopolitan but at least they were healthy!

My new favourite Fresh location - Queen West near Trinity Bellwoods Park.

Even more fun than fuelling up for a half marathon is getting to indulge in a delicious post-race meal. I was thrilled to have plans to meet up with my friend J for a post race brunch. We met at Mildred's Temple Kitchen in Libery Village. I can honestly say I do not know if I will ever have a brunch that flavourful and satisfying again in my life. Not only did I get to enjoy the Huevos Monty (refried black beans, and sharp cheddar in a fresh tortilla, topped with fried eggs, salsa and avacado creme fraiche), I may have had the most delicious buttermilk biscuit of all time...the texture was somewhere between a biscuit and a croissant. I will be dreaming of it for many, many days to come!




The Sunday brunch scene at Mildred's.



The cooks in the open kitchen.

Tomorrow...my newfound love for Queen West and the Ossington strip.