I had a peaceful Friday evening at the Evening Hymns album Spectral Dusk release concert, which was also a SummerWorks Festival event. SummerWorks is mainly a performance arts festival, but there are also musical acts.
I liked the opener Fiver, Simone Schmidt, a female singer/guitarist with a great smoky voice and another guitarist. I couldn’t really understand her when she was speaking to the audience though, but I might have to get my ears checked. She was very earnest and confident.
Evening Hymns were just stunning. This will be perfect music for fall. During the concert, there were projections behind the band which fit in perfectly with the music. I was most impressed with how talented and cohesive the seven-piece band was. The dynamics were nuanced. It was an intimate concert.
On Saturday, I went a little crazy at the library.
I often go through periods of “revelations” at the public library. When I was younger I found out that the library stocked a lot of recent DVDs and CDs. Recently, I discovered that the library had recipe books. I’m always the one browsing pretty cookbooks in book stores. It’s so easy for recipe books to stay on the shelves never to be used. That’s why I enjoy borrowing cookbooks just to get a preview of the recipes inside. I don’t know if I’ll get through all these books this time though…
I also went to my first soccer/Toronto FC game! My friend had a spare ticket so I joined her for the afternoon. The TFC played against Kansas City. Unfortunately, we lost, but it was still fun to see so much red.
Since the BMO field where the TFC plays is actually in the Exhibition Place, the tickets come with admission to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). After the soccer game I stayed for a few more hours just walking around the grounds. The CNE, to many, symbolizes the end of summer. The CNE is a large fair with a whole hodgepodge of attractions including rides, food, a garden competition, performances and shows. Last year was the first time I had been in years.
It was really such a pleasant way to finish summer. I had some necessary carnival food: a corn dog (+ artistic ketchup and mustard additions).
The waffle ice cream was amazing: warm waffle and a slice of Chapman’s vanilla ice cream.
There are more restaurants/stalls inside one of the buildings on site which serve a variety of foods other than your typical fair food. The CNE is also famous for introducing calorie-bomb foods, like last year’s Krispy Kreme donut burger. This year, one of the buzz foods is bacon such as bacon wrapped hot dogs or bacon Nutella sandwiches.
So I’d say I got some very anti-CNE food at Vie, a raw food stall. I got their raw taco which was delicious! I loved the texture of the wrap which was a dehydrated corn tortilla. It had some bite to it and was slightly thicker than your regular tortilla. For the “refried” beans, Vie used a walnut paste. The taco also had guacamole and vegan sour cream. For vegan/raw food, this did not taste “healthy” at all.
Other food things:
Always a nice weekend breakfast of French toast + peaches heated on the pan.
Latte art from Bulldog Coffee.
Peanut tofu noodles based on Candice Kumai’s recipe from Pretty Delicious. I shredded the carrots and zucchini using a mandolin-esque instrument my great-aunt gave me. It’s great, especially since I don’t have a food processor.
One parting shot.