The Power of Food

Well it's been a while my friends, but it is time to get back at it. I apologize for being away so long.

It's funny that no matter how busy life gets...husband, father of 4, friend, retail manager, there is always one constant that keeps me grounded, brings me back to reality, calms me down after a bad day, makes a good day into a great day, and that's food. Now, it's not the I need to sit down and eat a family size bag of potato chips to myself type of food experience that I am talking about, It is the excitement of seeing a new recipe I want to try on one of the social media platforms, it's watching The Food Network with my family, it's going out to a new restaurant or food truck that we haven't tried before, and last and most importantly of all, it is cooking for my friends and family.

The power of food to bring people together has had an over-whelming effect on me. When I think about it, I think back to my childhood and to the importance of the Sunday dinner. This had many different forms over the years, from those "special treat" Sundays where my parents would let us eat dinner downstairs in the recroom and we would put on the CBC on channel 2 and they would  let us watch the Disney Sunday Movie as a family, to a time where my sister and I had just recently moved out and started our own separate families, so the Sunday dinner became the time where we all got back together around my parents dinning room table and caught up with each others lives.

One of wonderful thing about the Sunday dinner was the different variety of guests that would join us around the table. From Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents to friends and co-workers, all ages, all different backgrounds, the Dinner table was a place to eat, to drink, to break bread, to share ideas and opinions, to debate, to laugh and to enjoy. Jokes were told, world issues were solved, and heated debates carried out until the dinner plates were cleared.

Like everything in life, things change things adapt. My parents eventually retired and moved out of the city. This made the Sunday dinner a little more challenging, but as our adult lives evolved so did the new version of the Sunday dinner. It wasn't specifically on Sundays anymore, and now it wasn't primarily at my Parents place. Family gatherings now became the new Sunday dinner.. Birthday parties, Holidays, Super Bowl parties, these were the new get togethers, and wow how they have grown. What use to be 4 - 10 people around the dinner table has now flourished into 20- 30 people occupying all areas of the house, eating, talking, debating, joking and laughing, with different topics of converstion from one room to the next.

The faces have changed over the years, some friends have come and gone, some family have come and gone as well, but the power of food to bring people together hasn't changed. It allows us to live in that moment, it makes us feel like we have never been apart, it lets us feel safe,  that our opinions do matter,  that there is always someone to listen, and that what ever may be going wrong in your life just doen't matter right now, because the feeling of being part of this event just feels so right .

So, If it's alright with everybody, I'd like to invite you into my world of food, to have all of you join me at my virtual dinner table. I will share some of my favorite recipes, review some of the local restaurants and smaller unknown grocery stores, and we will have a few dinner table debates over some of the topics of the day.

Please follow me on twitter @awateats  and look for me on instagram under awateats as well

I look forward to sharing this journey with all of you

Awat

Hard work deserves a reward :-)

        So lately I have been working hard to try and get rid of some of the weight that I put on while I was hibernating over this extra long winter that we've been having, and my mission to eat and live healthy has turned into a family mission. We have included into our lives such things as gym memberships, almond milk, granola, and multi grain everything, and we have done a fairly good job of sticking to our healthy regiment and we both have seen the results we wanted. However going cold turkey from all the decidant foods that we use to eat before has been very difficult, and since we both have worked soooooo hard lol,

We decided to treat ourselves 

http://fiveguys.ca/en

Now there are a couple of things that a restaurant can do that in my mind make it one of the best.

1) Anything resembeling the classic diner look is always a win

 

2) A fun environment

free peanuts

thank you wall from cusomers (done in crayon of course)

3) And of course fresh made food!!

Now how can you go wrong with a place that the "standard" burger comes with 2 patties made from 100% fresh beef, and the "little hamburger" on the menu is the single.

 If you decide to order your bacon burger the way I did with all the standard fixins... mayo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup and mustard, all that you have to say to the smiling face behind the counter, is that you want your burger "ALL THE WAY", but in case you feel that your burger could use a few more toppings, you have several more ingredients that you can add such as relish, onions, jalepeno peppers, green peppers, A1 steak sauce, bar-b-q sauce, and last but not least hot saue. Combine your amazing creation with one of your favorite Coke products and a regular or large serving of their Five Guy or Cajun style fries (cooked in pure, no cholesterol, tasty peanut oil) and your perfect reward dinner is complete.

Well no regrets after this amazing meal, it was the perfect celebration meal, but its time to put down the laptop, and hit the treadmill and get back on my quest to be ready for summer.

If you have a place that you  are passionate about that you would like to see me blog on, or if you are just curious about a restaurant, and would like me to try it out for you first, please comment on this blog or reach out to me on Twitter at @awat56