Edible Tulip

Le Scandinave Spa

Down a path of cedar chips lined by white pillars of birch trees lies a remarkable getaway that is completely transcendant to its location at the base of Blue Mountain in Collingwood.

Le Scandinave Spa at Blue Mountain in Collingwood Ontario is a pretty incredible spot if you like quiet and relaxation, sitting in a solarium that smells like cedar with a view to a grove of birch trees, wet and dry saunas (finnish versus norwegian), and thermal and frigid outdoor baths which you are supposed to rotate amongst but I only went into the cold waterfall bath once - at 54 degrees F on a wintry spring day could you fault me?! The scene is very mellow. More women than men (the women come in gaggles for girl-time it appeared) but more men than I thought. The grounds are typical Ontario - cedar and birch with a view to the slowly rising slopes of Blue Mountain - and the facilities are warm, sophisticated, rustic: a large red barn type structure that houses the main reception area, fire place, eating lounge and cafeteria. There's lots of stone and wood and windows. People hang out in their bathrobes eating lunch, sitting outside by the fire, reading in the solarium. The downstairs in the main building has the change rooms (clean with lockers, shampoo, hair dryers, private showers) and the massage rooms.

Spend an afternoon if you can. A massage is a nice touch (literally!) but the baths are worth the visit. All you need is directions, a bathing suit, flip flops, a bathrobe, and the desire to chill out. There's a code of quiet around the grounds and in the baths and the saunas so there isn't much laughter or chatter, there were no kids when I was there. It was so mellow and so relaxing that amidst the sound of water falling and in conjunction with bursts of eucalyptus from the Finnish sauna (it's in a silo!) I could hear the buds bursting on the limbs of the trees encircling Le Scandinave.

Is that a WORM in my quesadilla?

During my trip to the spa, Rio Caliente, we took a day trip to Guadalajara to go to the local Mercado and also to visit Tlaquepaque, a suburb of the main centre of Guadalajara, and a virtual haven for folk art and dining. It's a small town feel with long corridors of cobbled roads blocked off to traffic and behind each structural facade lies a courtyard full of artisanal works. The roads lead to the central square with a bandstand, a cathedral, and verdant grounds full of wrought iron decorative park benches. The shops for the most part carried high end items - crystal, large pieces of exquisitely made furniture and furnishings, 4 foot candles - but you could find smaller crafts to take home as souvenirs: I came away with two carved and painted dangling skeletons (in honour of Day of the Day) and three pressed tin decorative mirrors to hang on a wall.

The area is also known for its sidewalk cafes. I was with a group who chose to return to the restaurant they had visited the year before. We entered into the cavernous and colourful restaurant entrance and walked across a sunlit courtyard past the large fountain and iron table and chairs to a shady area under a bamboo woven roof where we sat around a large table. I've been anxious to find good Mexican, here in Toronto, there in Mexico, and I'm sad to report I'm still looking. The food was fairly awful. At the spa, I had been eating fruits, vegetables, and a few grains, for a week. When I saw the menu here at the restaurant I chose the Enchillada Verde thinking it would be a cheese enchillada in a green sauce. Nope. It was a plate full of chicken stuffed into corn tortillas and covered in melted cheese. Not only would I be blocked up for a week if I dared to eat any of it I feared I would throw up from the smell of that chicken. I cut into one of the rolls hoping to see something green and leafy inside but it was just grey meat and lots of it and the smell that emanated was like a dog who had crawled under a porch the summer before to die and noone found him until the spring thaw. I'm quite certain it was not chicken in those enchilladas. I had one bite and that was enough. Someone down at the other end of the offered to share her quesadillas. They were a starter and her main had arrived and so she passed down the two squares that were left on her plate. I took one bite. One measly bite. All I wanted was a simple bite of melted cheese topped with some fresh salsa to get me through the afternoon so I could return to the spa and eat more sprouts and papaya. I took the bite and looked at the quesadilla as I chewed. There sitting perfectly like it was taking a nap in a hammock was this damn larvae.

It's bigger and grosser in person. You can see the sections of its body and all its fine hairs. You can also see sets of about 18 pairs of legs. This was a detox week at the spa. Good food and no alcohol. The cheese, the chicken and the worm did me in. I leaned over and shouted down to the only woman in the group who had ordered alcohol. She had a marguerita. It was happy hour. One equals two. Everyone at the table quickly whisked that second glass of cold tequila down my way.

Tropical Fruit

If there's anything I miss about Mexico now that I'm back in Toronto in November (and apart from the obvious like sunshine and warmth and moustachioed men), it's the daily access to ripe, flavourful, local fruit. Papaya is everywhere. Mangoes, Bananas, grapefruits, oranges, watermelons, limes are featured at many street stands like this one with everything cut up and ready to eat.

Mercado Libertad - Guadalajara, Mexico

Hola! My apologies for a rather long absence however I've been busy - traveling to a spa in Mexico with my mum (rio caliente), horseback riding in the volcanic region around Mount Tequila, dining in a treehouse while watching exotic birds like the vermilion flycatcher eat watermelon from a rustic feeder, swimming in my birthday suit in 114 degree mineral water heated by the lava in the volcano, watching shooting stars at 7 a.m. on my walk to yoga class. You see, I've been busy and I'm exhausted!

One day we broke away from the mellowness of yoga, vegetarian food, quiet walks and to bed at 8:30 p.m. and visited the glorious colonial city of Guadalajara. I lived there before, back in the summer of 1992, when I was in University and I took the summer to learn spanish and live in Mexico. It's an enormous city and it can be rather overwhelming. Having a destination to go to, explore, and enjoy makes it more manageable. We decided to spend the first part of the day at the Mercado Libertad in the historic centre of Guadalajara and then take a taxi over to Tlaquepaque which is a vibrant pedestrian strip of artisan shops and colonial courtyards full of folkloric art.

The Mercado Libertad (also known as San Juan de Dios) is one of the largest combination indoor/outdoor markets in Latin America. It was built in 1958 over the original Guadalajara Tianguis from pre-Columbian times so the three leveled market stalls over look the interior open air circle. It is a maze of guitars and banjos, crafts, wooden toys, fake jewellery, leather goods including shoes, hand embroidered peasant blouses, sombreros and cowboy hats, textiles and a floor full of food. I wouldn't eat a morsel of anything in that market but I did buy things to take away and cook with, notably dried chiles. I also bought a bag of toasted fava beans in chile powder.

New Years a la Lanark County

Viva 2005 and all that jazz!

I spent New Year's Eve in a big house with a roaring fire in Lanark County, Ontario (stairs above lie adjacent to enormous stone fireplace). This is a county that lies on the stretch between Kingston and Ottawa and is full of lakes, rocky landscape, farming communities, charming small towns and stone houses. Perth is exceptionally pretty: a town of 6,000 that sits atop a river and has a huge central park and bandstand, a lively artist community, a wonderful array of restaurants, a divine bakery and one of the best whole food stores I've ever visited (FoodSmiths).

We ate a quick dinner before the rural escape to the farmhouse party at a quaint retro-diner called Harry & Rosie's. And while the food was a spoof on comfort food with porkchops and mashed potatoes scattered throughout the menu we settled on our own version of comfort: I ate halibut fish and fresh cut fries and my date had the burger with cheese, sauteed mushrooms, fresh cut fries and coleslaw. Harry & Rosie's is the twin restaurant to the GoodWood Oven; this is a lovely ambient restaurant in an old stone building with excellent pizzas and pastas.

After dinner and wine we had to pick up a few vagabonds and make our way north out of Perth to a destination outside of a hamlet called Ferguson Falls. We had our overnight bag packed, a few bottles of chilled champagne, a bottle of red wine, 2 six-packs of Heineken and a mixture of rye & coke (not for me!).