What do you miss? I'm sitting here thinking and realized most of what I miss is food related.
Note: If you are scared of anyone figuring out who you are don't post the cities.
As a kid in Toronto there was a candy store around the corner. They sold black balls, and licorice, jelly beans and candy necklaces, caramels and candy cigarettes. You could buy three candys for a penny. If you had saved up your money you could gamble and buy a grab bag and see what you got. It was always worthy the nickel.
My favorite was a little larger than a caramel. It had coconut in it. It was chewy and not overly sweet. I loved it. But no one seems to make it anymore. I have checked every candy store I have passed from the east coast to the west. No luck. Just one of those things that have gone the way of the dodo bird.
In Montreal I learned about Poutine, smoked meat and bagels. (I told you it was all about food) Few people outside of Quebec know about poutine. And when described few people have a desire to taste the fries smotherd on gravy and with curd cheese on it. IN Winnipeg they changed the curd cheese to Mozzarella - sorry - it isn't the same.
Now I know you can buy bagels just about anywhere. But a true bagel must be boiled and they baked in a wood burning over and immediatly after coming out of the oven rolled in any seeds. Nothing better than going into a bagel bakery and smelling bagels fresh out of the oven. Almost every bagel store in Montreal had line ups for people to get their hot out of the oven bagels. You could even phone ahead so the wait would be shorter for you.
When I moved to Winnipeg they had no idea what a real smoked meat sandwich was. In fact they didn't even know what smoked meat was!!! It took me three years to figure out they called the meat a smoked brisket but had no idea how to make the smoked meat sandwich. Sad - really sad.
But Winnpeg has its own delights - yeah more food Mordens: The Chocolate Store. A place to die in. Let my ghost haunt the place forever as long as I could still taste the food. Hand made chocolates with secret recipes. They even had sugar free chocolates that you would never know were sugar free.
And I have to mention the little Italian restaurant that had an appetitezer of carmelized mushroooms. I would have been happy just to eat that - forget the dinner - - unless they were out of gnocci. The most amazing gnocci I have ever tasted. They knew when they saw me coming - mushrooms and gnocci.
I had to come back to Montreal for a moment to gross some of you out -- frog's legs. Not every restaurant knows how to make them. Some really mess them up by putting a tomato sauce on them. Good thing I learned how to make them - if I could find them somewhere