In an ongoing and very concerted effort to keep a smile on my face this winter, I decided to I needed some greasy comfort food (sure, that’ll make me feel just great!). Last weekend, in an attempt to release my inner Paula Dean, I hit Loblaw’s to get the requisite ingredients to make a homemade Chicken Pot Pie and then realized that my craving was going to take approximately 7.5 days to prepare. So, I scrapped the “homemade” part of the plan and took myself out for dinner to my favorite Irish pub, The Foggy Dew, instead. The Foggy Dew is the kind of place that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. It’s dimly lit, has the perfect din level and has a great big fireplace smack dab in the middle of the bar. Everyone there – both employees and patrons – are cool and welcoming. I grabbed a seat at the bar, ordered a pint and of course, the yummy chicken pot pie with fresh Prince Edward County peas. Mmmm!
After about 5 minutes, I heard someone simultaneously reciting poetry and stabbing a giant piece of meat with a large knife. Several people stood up and toasted while he was doing this, but I didn’t really get it so I just kept watching the only thing they had on TV. About 10 minutes later, the same speech thing happened so I asked the bartender if this happened every Friday night. He laughed and told me they were celebrating Robert Burns Day, a famous Scottish poet known in most circles simply as “The Bard”. As I turned around to see the commotion, a live bagpiper started playing his bagpipes and marching around the bar, followed closely behind by a guy carrying a huge plate of haggis. Craziness! Then, everyone in the bar was served free Fried Mars Bar desserts in celebration. Sweet. I thought fried desserts were only found in Texas (Fried Twinkies! Fried Snickers!) but apparently Fried Mars Bars are very popular in Scotland. Who knew?
The moral of my little story is this: just when you think you can’t muddle through…pick yourself up, take yourself out and eat a fried dessert! I left happy, sated and not nearly as blue. I love you, Toronto!
