Edible Tulip

The Rebellion of the Pattypan

When I went up north last to visit my parents their garden was a veritable tangled mass of zucchini plants weaving high and masking the huge amount of flowers and summer squash that existed deep in its interiors. Some, as zucchini often does, witness the 2 foot long cylindars that pile high at farmers markets in early August, had grown quite large unnoticed. While others were perfectly sized and ready for picking giving room for a whole other colony of yellow to grow. We filled our basket with green beans, yellow patty pan squash, cucumbers, herbs and tomatoes.

The pattypan is bright yellow, round and flattish. It has a slightly scalloped edge and it looks like a tiny crown. The skin is soft, unmarred by disease, and the vegetable is firm to the touch.

We usually cube the squash and roast them with cherry tomatoes and sea salt in the oven. But sometimes due to their obvious stuffing capability cap them and then fill them with roasted peppers, tomatoes, diced green olives, bread crumbs and top them with grated parmesan.

Roncesvalles Avenue

There is no better way to get to know a city than to move to a new neighbourhood and walk it on foot - stopping into the hardware store and chatting and then the local butcher and chatting and then getting a coffee and chatting, picking up some flowers next door, browsing in the used bookstore, getting more cash at the local bank and then buying bread on the way home. I've been lucky enough during my time Toronto to have lived in at least 7 different neighbourhoods, the latest being on the cusp of both Roncesvalles Village and High Park. An entrance to the large park was only a block away (the smell riding your bike down Parkside Drive in the rain was a combination of sweet and swampy) and the main drag of Roncesvalles was a few blocks in the other direction.

Roncesvalles is historically a Polish neighbourhood and it's evident by the number of Polish hair salons, delis, bakeries and products available at the local drugstore, that there is still a large Polish influence. Roncesvalles is also home to probably the highest number per capita of double income families with children under 5. Every second house has a stroller on its front porch and you can count on daily visits from neighbouring children to both Scooter Girl for music classes and the Film Buff for ice cream.

The neighbourhood boasts a slew of restaurants from a Thai/Fish and Chips place at the top of Roncey all the way down to Queen Street west of Sorouran where Mitzi's Sister lives and breathes a pub-like vibe. I tried a few restaurants and had a mixed reaction - BoHo was hardly bohemian (the menu was pretentious and plain weird - trout served with french fried yams in the heat wave of July? - and my father almost smacked our server he was so annoying), The Local had a waitress who told us about rapid turnover in kitchen staff and not to order the hamburgers b/c the new chef made them like sloppy joes (anyone who works in a kitchen and can't make a decent hamburger patty scares me), and the Freshwood Grill's tiny patio doesn't have a liquor licence past 9:00 p.m. I ended up at the lovely treed patio out back of Loons - a pub that served excellent burgers and fish and chips - more than I cared to simply because on a hot summer night the other options weren't as appealing.

In the few weeks I lived there, I didn't get the chance to eat at Silver Spoon or River or Shala-Mar or try the recommonded local pizza joint or have a glass of wine at the new wine bar but I did get the unique opportunity to have a pint at the Inter Steer around 1 a.m. on a Wednesday night where a bunch of guys were headbanging to ACDC and the oddly librarian-ish Polish bartender sat on her stool reading a book.