Number One Chinese Restaurant

Sometimes the best feeling in the world after a hard day is to come home...and not cook.

There is something about eating something that you have put zero work into preparing that is so...relaxing! Sometimes that means going out to a restaurant and sometimes that means grabbing some take out. When Glosette Girl and I lived in England (15 years ago!) that usually meant ordering in some Indian food. Mmmm Indian food. Around here, the default go-to options are pizza or Chinese.

This past weekend we decided to hit up Number One Chinese Take Out, which is the closest Chinese restaurant to our house and the only one within walking distance.

It hits the right notes.

Efficient sign that tells me all I need to know: check.
 

I now know they are number one. And they are Chinese. And they have take out.

Lots of North Americanized Chinese Food: check (I have a guilty pleasure for this stuff by the way. Some day I will go to China and taste real Chinese food...but today is not that day). I'm talking your Chicken balls. Your egg rolls. Your chicken fried rice. Your Almond Guy Ding. Your spare ribs. Show me a China take out restaurant in Canada and I'll show you a combo platter with those five dishes.

All Chinese take out places in Canada serve chicken balls in the same rectangular red box

And you have to love their fortune cookies.

Our fortunes:

• Me:  A great opportunity is coming (yay me!).
• Glosette Girl: (she can't remember but lets assume it also involves a great opportunity).
• Margot: You are adorable. Take advantage of this. (seriously)

Overall: it won't win any culinary awards but it "hits the spot".

p.s special tip: their online prices are higher than their in-store prices. So make sure you call ahead instead of ordering through one of the various take out delivery websites/apps that are so popular these days.

One Third of Life

You might think, from reading my blog, that my life here in Ottawa is one mad-capped adventure after another. If I'm not going to a restaurant or visiting friends or family I'm off to one exotic locale or another.

But as I hinted at in my last post, things aren't always what they seem.

Like most people, one third of my life is spent sleeping, one third is doing various random things, some of which are interesting (like going for a walk in a nearby forest) and some not so interesting  like going grocery shopping or getting a haircut, and one third (at least Monday to Friday) is spent  working.

I think in the past year-and-a-half Tough Cookies: Hintonburg Style has been up and running I've hinted at my job... maybe once? And that was just to describe the walk to work! Oh and there's also a photo of me wearing a suit in my profile picture. So now you know I wear a suit (sometimes).

Don't worry! I'm not going to bore you with the details of my job. But I would be lying if I didn't say it wasn't a big part of my daily life. It can be at times a source of stress, intellectual growth and even fun. Like most things in life it's a bit of a roller coaster ride. But that's what makes life interesting.

Sometimes I have to take work home with me. For example, I'm currently preparing to give a speech in French. Given my so-so French ability the only way I can avoid butchering the langue de molière is to practice after hours with Glosette Girl. Here I am going over my notes at a downtown coffee shop last weekend.

I apologize to any French patrons who heard me speak

Honestly, working occasionally at home isn't a huge deal. I think I do a pretty decent job at maintaining a work-home life balance and I know that in my profession it could be a lot worse.  Oh and Glosette Girl keeps me on track, don't you worry.

OK that's enough shop talk for now. Next blog post will focus on a more interesting third of my life: sleep! ;)

Storm before the Calm

My second Tough Cookies Hintonburg Style blog post was about how much I love the gentle morning walk taking Margot to school.

I still love that walk.  But what I didn't mention is what exactly happens before the walk begins. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. Quite the opposite actually - I run a tight ship which really sets the day in motion. Nothing crazy but it's amazing just how much happens every weekday before I even set foot at work.
 
Anyways, here is the typical school day/workday morning routine at the Simon-Margot-Glosette Girl household:

1. Wake up at 6:10 am (ahhh 7 am weekend wake up feels so decadent to my old bones now!).
2. Do a few groggy sit ups (need to keep the abs trim and fit for Glosette Girl!).*
3. Take a groggy shower (post-shower grogginess level now reduced to mild daze).
4. Make Margot's lunch.
5. Empty dishwasher, which are now clean from previous night's dish washing cleaning.**
6. It is now 6:50 am. Wake Margot up.
7. Shuffle Margot over to the office where, from 6:50 am to 7:30 am, she watches TV. ***

Note the cereal in the corner

8. Make my lunch.
9. Fix Margot a bowl of cereal. Let her eat in front of the TV, that lucky girl.
10. Practice French for 15-minutes (b'eh, c'est vrai Messieurs dames!).
11. Eat a light breakfast (one word: Weetabix!).
12. At some point finish dressing for work (I said finish dressing - get your mind out of the gutter!).
13. 7:30 am sharp - turn off TV.
14. Dress Margot in her school uniform. Mild herding of cats.
15. Brush teeth with Margot. More cat herding.

She's only smiling this time cause she knows you're watching!

16. Bonus step five months of the year: pile Margot into her winter clothes.

17. 7:50 am - kiss the lovely wife goodbye and we're out the door!

Whew! I'm tired just reading that. But that really is what I do five days a week. Amazingly, everything seems to go off without a hitch most of the time. Let the gentle morning walk begin! 

* Glosette Girl mumbles some random words and rolls over.
** This can be a bit loud sometimes. Glosette Girl may open one of her eyes and curse my clumsiness.
*** Glosette Girl's own routine starts about now and she helps with some of the following steps while doing some other things involving yoga and chanting, sometimes puffy pants and other arcane things that are a mystery to me.

Crafts and Drawings

An unexpected treat for me as a parent is getting to see all the crafts and drawings that Margot comes up with. Day after day she breaks out her pencil crayons or pulls out her markers and just...draws away!

Its amazing to see what she is capable of doing - all with no adult supervision! Here's a sampling of her Christmas drawings:

I feel an odd sort of pride when seeing this. Like, wow, my kid did that! Do all parents experience this?

Anyways those beauties were recently gracing my wall although they are in the process of being replaced by her post-Christmas collection. Here are some works from her modernist series. This is a boat:

And these are dogs:

Haha just kidding (I can imagine some of you now thinking, with worried expressions, "um, Simon...those dogs look like birds to me..."). But still, pretty cool.

How does she come up with this stuff? School maybe? TV has actually been a good influence in this case.  Artzooka and Mister Maker are two craft-based shows that she regularly watches and likes.

Regardless, it's fun to be witness to all her creations. Thank goodness for digital photography.

Why El Salvador?

Oi! Sorry for the long blog posting absence but I just got back from my latest adventure in...El Salvador!

"El Salvador"?! you may be thinking. "Did I hear that correctly? Why, with all the news reports of gangs and violence, would you go there?" To which I would respond, go see for yourself (after you read my blog of course - need to keep the blog stats up).

Glosette Girl, Margot and I were only there for a week but what a week it was!

The Approach

Numerous government websites warn against visiting the country yet there are hundreds of personal accounts on trip advisor and other online forums that testify how amazing it is. To be honest, this confusing mix of information ultimately dictated the travel approach we finally adopted: stay at a resort and do day trips. In hindsight, we were probably a bit conservative. I never felt in danger on or off resort.* The tourist police were everywhere and, probably most importantly, my family's interests naturally kept us in safe, touristy areas (not too many gang members at the top of volcanoes or at Mayan archeological sites). Still, for someone who is interested in El Salvador but perhaps a bit intimidated from all the negative news online it's a nice way to ease into the country.

The Resort

We spent the whole week at the the Royal Decameron Salinitas, which is in Western El Salvador on the Pacific ocean.

Generally speaking, I am not an all inclusive resort type of guy. Usually, I prefer something more real. That said, having now stayed at a resort with unlimited food and alcohol I must admit it has its advantages!

It was super relaxing to let someone else take care of everything, including making all the food. The food at the Royal Decameron Salinitas "hit the spot" Margot loved the pupusas which, interestingly enough, was served only at breakfast (I grew up with eating tortillas/pupusas at dinner).

El Salvador is famous for its pupusas

The many onsite pools were heaven.

The El Salvadoran version of "dabbing"

As was the warm Pacific breeze.

A Cultural Experience

Probably 90% of the Royal Decameron Salinitas' clients are Latin American. Most of the remaining clients are French-speaking Quebecers (due to the fact that the major package tourist airline to El Salvador from Canada flies from Montreal). While some staff spoke a bit of French, English was spoken by far less people than I had expected. Intimidating? No, I loved it!  It was fun being surrounded by Latin tourists enjoying many of the same things I was enjoying (sun/sand/food/music) but doing it their own way.

We experienced the local culture in other ways too. The excursions we took gave us a sense of the history of the country. For example, we learned how important Indigo was to El Salvador's early prosperity:

The guides on our excursions were also not shy about giving us their personal views on the many problems the country is facing (crime, overpopulation, poverty, and perhaps most significantly, the machismo culture) and also its enormous potential. For example, did you know that 25% of the country is powered by geothermal energy, most of the rest is hydro power and there is even a small but growing portion of solar energy production? How, in the era of climate change, is the fact that El Salvador produces most of its energy from non-fossil fuels not touted as a success story?

Anyways, seeing and hearing all this information first hand really gave me a better understanding of the country.

Day Trips and Landscape

I would say we experienced Salvadoran culture in two ways on the trip. The first, as I mentioned already, was just being around normal people at the resort doing normal things - but with their own Salvadoran or Latin American twist. The second way was through day trips. From Mayan temples at sites like San Andres and Tazumel to the villages of the Ruta de Las Flores El Salvador packs a lot into such a small country.

Tazumel

Of course I can't forget about the volcanoes. Think Arenal in Costa Rica looks nice? Check out Izalco. Is that not the most volcano-looking-volcano you've ever seen?

This is what kids draw when they think of volcanoes

And..oh yeah.. did I mention I climbed an active volcano too (Santa Ana)? It's nothing special...other than the bubbling lake of sulphur in the middle!

OK...where is that contact lens...

Me and my bro next to the sulphur lake at the top of Santa Ana

Family 

The most important aspect of the trip for me was family. Glosette Girl, Margot and I travelled with my brother J and his wife and daughter. It took a little planning to work out the logistics but in the end it was a smooth success.

Family was important in another way too. At the end of trip we invited my grandmother, L, and aunt, M, who live in El Salvador, and my uncle T, who is often down here, to come stay with us for a few days at the resort.

The Gang!

Trust me when I say there was a plentiful supply of hugs, kisses, laughter and Spanglish!

I feel I know them (and myself) more than ever before and it was bittersweet to leave.

Hard to believe all this happened in one week. Anyways, I hope I gave you a little taste of our adventure. If someone ever asks you, "Why El Salvador?" respond to them with "WHY NOT?!"

* I was scared at one point during the trip: on the two-hour drive back from Montreal through the icy "weather bomb" we've been experiencing in Canada lately.