Christmas Windows and Freshly Roasted Nuts

It is interesting how much food defines our childhood. I think back over the years and can relate what was on our dinner table to where we lived and how well things were going in our lives. One time period I specifically remember was living in Florida. To begin with, we ate a lot more seafood than back in Toronto but then the truckers went on strike so my father’s company was unable to get the materials they needed to continue with their construction project. After a few weeks, our dinner table began to look a little different. There were still the boiled and pan fried potatoes (a favorite of my Irish father) and the accompanying canned vegetables (no frozen for my parents) but that is where the bounty ended. No longer did we enjoy clams and halibut, now we lived the life of vegetarians unless a neighbor would share their spoils from a weekend fishing trip.

Once we moved back to Canada and were living in Calgary, one of our favorite treats was visiting the cafeteria at Woodwards for pumpkin pie with our mother’s sister and our cousins. If we were lucky, they were making cherry chip donuts in the little machine downstairs and our moms would buy us a bag to take home. This was the only grocery store I ever remember visiting that had a donut machine. They also had little fuzzy chicks, dyed in all the colors of the rainbow at Easter time. I don’t think this is something we would see today, but we sure loved our visits there.

Children gathered in front of an Eaton's store window from the archives of Ontario

Another favorite activity with our cousins was our annual visits to see the Christmas windows at Eaton's in downtown Toronto. One of the best parts of these trips was sharing a bag of freshly roasted cashew nuts with our mom. They were served, hot and salty, in a little striped paper cone and were accompanied by a cup of hot cocoa from one of the other street vendors that populated Yonge and Queen Streets at the time. My mom would sometimes buy ‘fresh roasted’ cashews at the drugstore near our home but they were never the same having been poured out of a bag onto a tray that spun around under a light bulb to keep them warm.

I still find myself relating places to the foods I enjoy there. My husband and I are planning a post-retirement road trip in the spring and have a long list of coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants we want to visit along the way. There are so many favorites I’ve enjoyed over the years, including Café du Monde in New Orleans and The Loveless Café in Nashville and I want to share them with him now that he has the time to travel. I’ve started a travel blog, www.vintagebluesuitcase.ca, to keep track of our adventures and share them with our family and friends. I’ll be sure to include stories about our best-loved meals and the restaurants that serve them. I’d love to hear about your local favorite spots so we can check them out on our journey.