#86- Ice Cream

The ringer on my phone went off yesterday and it sounded like celebratory trumpets to my ears. That's because it signalled an email I received telling me I got a job at an ice cream store.

Finally, paid employment!

So while last week at this time I had zero jobs, now I have two. So in honour of that, I decided to write about the very thing I'll be dealing with for hundreds of hours over the next few months: ice cream.

I love ice cream. Some of my best memories of childhood include ice cream, from getting Superkid as a treat with my mom, dad, aunt, uncle, siblings and cousins to hanging out and eating soft serve ice cream on the grass at Ribfest with my friends. Yes, ice cream is a powerful force, bringing people closer together and, if you're not careful, closer to being overweight.

But I never worried about that because ice cream was a special treat for me and it still is. It signals the end to a good day, a special summer afternoon or a family outing.

Ice cream also lets you express yourself. That may seem a little weird to think about, but as a guy who thinks about food more than is probably healthy, I think many foods do let you define yourself. But ice cream even more so. There are so many flavours that you are not limited to what someone else wants or what you always have. It allows you to be adventurous, or traditional or both. It lets you mix and match and lets the world know if you are zany or classy or whatever you want to be.

Also ice cream just tastes good. There's no two ways about that.

So I am grateful for ice cream. I am grateful for the way it can bring people together over something so delicious. I am grateful that it can be a special treat on the hot summer days or to cheer up cold and drizzly ones. And I am grateful that it is around or I may still be unemployed right now.

#82- Beaver Tails

I've eaten many an exotic dish, from bison roasts to crocodile nuggets and even ostrich meatballs, but one of the most delicious has got to be beaver tail.

For those not familiar with the famed beaver tails you should know two things: you should get familiar with them fast and don't worry, they aren't actually the tails of real beavers.

Really what they are is dough, stretched out into the shape of a beaver's tail and fried until golden brown and then topped with delicious toppings such as chocolate sauce and bananas or cinnamon and sugar.

So no, they wouldn't be a food featured on Body Break segments (something for those 90s kids), but they are a great bad habit once in a while.

But beaver tails are more than that. They are a Canadian delicacy (Canada: serving up horribly addictive and unhealthy fried food for more than a century). This is usually how it goes with traveling foodies: they flock from all over just to get a taste of the beaver tail, are a little disappointed that it's not real beaver and eventually leave happy with chocolate smeared all over their faces.

Beaver tails are also a staple of one of the greatest events I have ever experienced; skating on the Rideau Canal. Skating on the canal itself is amazing (the largest rink in the world!), but when the wind is blowing and you can't feel your fingers, having a nice warm beaver tail in your hands warms them up quite nicely. And you don't even have to take off your skates.

In short, beaver tails are something to enjoy and to take pride in. They are a Canadian invention, right up there with the zipper, basketball and twelve different ways to say sorry. They are delicious and certainly not nutritious. They are a tradition, a hand warmer, a conversation starter and one of the best possible ways to end off a night out with friends.

So I am grateful for beaver tails. I am grateful that we can honour one of our greatest national animals with its very own food. I am grateful for how good they taste and that I can feel better about eating them after having skated a few kilometres. I am grateful that they are so popular and awesome that the president of the United States came all the way up here just to have one (and do some other diplomatic stuff I guess). And I am grateful that I can say I've had a beaver tail before, because that's something not too many people can admit they've done.

#71- $3.99 Breakfast

As my official title has changed from bright eyed student to unemployed and desperately looking, I can tell you that nothing tastes as good as a free meal. But since I'm not getting too many of those, breakfast for $3.99 comes pretty close.

Today I ventured downtown to a local eatery to have breakfast with my girlfriend. Since she will be traveling to Paris in a few days this will be one of her last chances to eat greasy, fried food before the taste of fresh bread, cheese and street crepes takes over her diet. In an attempt to wrestle with my jealousy, I joined her and was glad I did.

Yes there was plenty of butter, too much bacon (I can't believe I'm writing that) and fried potatoes for miles, but it was delicious. Besides, breakfast is an important meal that gets your metabolism working and your brain firing on all cylinders.

The price was also a draw. I mean how can you go wrong with a $4 meal from a restaurant that doesn't have smiles on the menu or spaceship themed bathrooms? You can't, it's simple logic.

But the price was really just a bonus. Having breakfast with my girlfriend was the best part. Eating meals can sometimes be a lonely endeavor, especially when everyone seems to be at work or traveling to the far reaches of the world. But today I was able to spend some time with someone I love.

So I am grateful for $3.99 breakfasts. I am grateful for the boost it gives me and the delicious nature of home fries and toast. And I am grateful that I could sit down, have some amazing company and enjoy a side of morning sun with my eggs and bacon without it meaning a bounced rent cheque.    

#46- Wraps

It's a great feeling when you take your time to write a nice letter, put it in a clean, crisp envelope and then slip it in a mail box, patting it on its big metal top to wish your letter well as it travels to the hands of a friend, family member or stranger.

What would make it even better would be if the words and sentences in the letter were pieces of chicken and dollops of tzatziki sauce, the envelope was a tortilla and the mail box was your stomach.

That's exactly what happened tonight for dinner. I rolled all the delicious food on the table into a nice, neat wrap (or three) and patted my stomach contently after. 

Now food is great in any form, but wraps allow for all the tasty creations from your kitchen to create one super food. Wraps let all the tastes come together, to work as a team. And they don't require a fork and knife either and finger food is always the best kind of food.

So I am grateful for wraps and everything that goes into them. I am grateful for the awesome texture of the cheese, the savoury meat, the healthy vegetable and the tangy sauce. Most of all I am grateful for the tortilla that brings all these things together into one, awesome food envelope that provides me with everything I would ever want from a meal. Sometimes the best presents aren’t wrapped in nicely coloured paper, but rather in a delicious tortilla. 

#45- Gum

At the age of five I swore off gum for the rest of my life.

The decision was based on the astounding news that my baby sitter had told me and that was that gum was made from car tires.

It was a conspiracy of epic proportions! The whole gum industry had people chewing the black rubber on my parent's mini van and my friends and siblings loved the tire-filled taste of the gum. Bazooka was trying to divert the public's attention away from the scam using funny and endearing cartoon and even my parents were buying it. As far as my little brain knew, this deception went all the way to the top; maybe even the principal was in on it.

Well I have come a way from then and eventually I realized that my baby sitter probably lied so I wouldn't chew gum and she wouldn't have to clean it out my hair when I decided to find out how the two things reacted. I also grew to see how a little piece of gum could be a really good thing.

I do love food, I love to eat it and I love to talk about it. But for some reason people don't always like knowing I had onions and garlic for dinner just from my breath sometimes. That is why gum saves the day. Popping a piece into my mouth helps keep my breath minty fresh when I don't have a tooth brush handy and besides that, it tastes really good.

So I am grateful for gum. I am grateful that it comes in so many different types and tastes and packaging. I am grateful it is so easy to carry around and it saves me from bad breath attacks. And I am grateful for the people who make gum. I'm happy that I realized the gum industry isn't all conspiracy and scandal and that I learned how enjoy the gum.

#44- Buffets

I gathered with my family for Easter dinner at Copper Creek Golf Course last night. That place probably still doesn't know what hit them.

My family loves food and it was available in abundance last night in the form of a buffet. Let's just say there's as much to love about buffets as there are food choices at one.

Buffets always offer a wide selection of food. From sushi to lamb to salmon and chocolate fountains there is always something to please even the most picky eater, which first of all makes everyone happy and gives you an opportunity to sample a bunch of different things. 

With selection also comes adventure. The variety of food at buffets usually means there's something I haven't tried before and I love testing the limits of my taste buds. One of the most memorable meals I've ever had was in Kenya with a little buffet that offered up goat intestine as an option. I'll probably not be sampling that piece of meat again, but at least I can say I tried it. 

Another great thing about a buffet is that you can take as much or as little as you want. I'm a big fan of not wasting food, so buffets are really good for keeping the thrown out stuff to a minimum. You can try something you've never had, but you don't need to order a heaping plate of it if you don't want to. It's the best of both worlds!

So I am grateful for buffets. I am grateful that I am fortunate enough to be able to eat at buffets around the world and with some of my closest friends, loved ones and memorable people. I am grateful for the freedom buffets allow you with their choices and for the people who work to make buffets so great. If variety is the spice of life than buffets are never wanting for taste.

#34- Salt and Pepper

Bert and Ernie, Calvin and Hobbes, Kobe and Shaq. These are all great duos in the history of two-person teams, but they pale in comparison to the greatest of all, salt and pepper.

I couldn't help but make this conclusion tonight as I prepared my dinner, using the trusty salt and pepper shakers that always stand ready for culinary duty whenever called. 

As a student I tend to purchase the lower grade, blander brands of food so that I can manage to rub two loonies together. This usually means that I add liberal amounts of salt and pepper to my food when I cook it to make it taste good.

Don't get the wrong impression, I'm not a terrible cook, but salt and pepper make the job a whole easier. Salt and pepper are some of the most underrated spices in the culinary world as far as I am concerned. We all use them and they are integral to almost every dish, but people don't always show appreciation for them. When watching Hell's Kitchen, one of the most common mistakes the chefs make is not seasoning the food with salt. It just goes to show that it's the little things are important and that you shouldn't underestimate spice, or people for the that matter, because everyone can have a big impact.

So I am grateful for salt and pepper and the flavour they add to life. I am grateful that there are things in this world that are so small, but so important. I am grateful that they can work in harmony with each other and set an example. And most of all I am grateful that they make my food taste great! 

#31- Breakfast

Today my girlfriend and I went to get some breakfast at the 24-hour restaurant around the corner from her house. An hour and a big plate of bacon, eggs and home fries later, I sat in my seat, content, the greasy breakfast food blocking my head from thinking of exams and assignments  and quite possibly blocking my arteries from functioning properly as well.

It was one blissful morning today and when I did come around to remembering I had to study, hitting the books wasn't so bad, I suspect because of breakfast.

Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day, but why? Because it gets your body up and running for the rest of a busy day? Well yes, but it also helps you take a breath before you plunge into the busy world with your friends, family or the trusty sports sections. It lets you recount the night before with your pals to get ready for the day ahead. It brings your thoughts together, but more importantly it brings people together, like food often does and that is a great start to any day.

So I am grateful for breakfast and the hearty, but simple food it usually consists of. I am grateful for being able to have breakfast and for the people who make it for me when I don't. I am grateful for breakfast, the meal of champions.

#22- Pasta

After a long news cast day in my radio class I was very hungry, but I really didn't want to spend a lot of time and energy cooking. I knew exactly what I would make for dinner: pasta.

Pasta is the best meal to have when you're tired, but looking for a hearty meal. It's fast, takes almost no prep and is a fast clean up. And most importantly it tastes great and fills my stomach.

I have always said that if I could only eat one food for the rest of my life it would probably be pasta because it comes in so many different types and can go with so many different sauces and vegetables and meats. If variety is the spice of life than pasta is the spiciest food there is as far as I'm concerned.

I will admit, my love of pasta isn't all about the stomach. Coming from Italian roots, pasta is something that brings my family together over dinners, sauce making days and impromptu cooking lessons. I've had some of the best conversations and learned some of the greatest lessons over a plate of pasta with my family.

That's not to say I haven't had these great times eating pasta with friends, because I have, and the time I made pasta from scratch with my girlfriend gave me a newfound appreciation for the food.

So I am grateful for pasta. I am grateful that it nourishes me after a long, hard day, how it can be rich and jam packed with ingredients or simple and quick and be just as delicious, elegant and fun. I am grateful that pasta has brought my loved ones together on so many occasions and given me one more thing from my heritage that I can be proud of. I am grateful that there is a food that I can think about with both my stomach and my heart. 

#21- 24 Hour Restaurants

Last night, at around midnight, all my stomach could think about was getting a burger. And, as often happens, my stomach demanded my brain think the same way.

So I hightailed it to the McDonald's close to a friend’s house, got the coveted burger and was very satisfied.

That whole scene happens more often than it probably should, as it pays a heavy toll on both my fitness and my wallet, but it also goes to show how fortunate I am to have access to restaurants that run all day and night.

Living in Ottawa, a relatively big city, I am lucky enough to have these restaurants, be able to get to them and be able to get food. To have the opportunity to have food when ever I get hungry is something that I am so fortunate to have, but having an abundance of options is even greater.

So I am grateful for 24 hour restaurants, the availability of food, the friends I can eat with, the people who run these restaurants and the people who make my food. It makes me realize how fortunate I am, 24 hours a day.