Taste of the Danforth

This past weekend was a cultural event that Rich and I try to go to each summer, called “The Taste of the Danforth”. The “Danforth” is a street in a neighbouring town, that is littered with numerous Greek restaurants. If you want great greek food – this is the place to go (besides Greece of course)!

The street was closed off for many blocks and all of the restaurants would put out their booths with samples of their food at really low prices. You basically walk and eat, walk and eat, walk and eat some more! Everything from Spinach Pie, Cheese Pie, Pork or Chicken on a stick, Baklava, Honey Balls, Gyros, Shawarmas, Pitas, souvlaki, Corn on the cob, roasted yams, calamari, and the list goes on.

So – off we went, along with my brother and his wife, and we had a really amazing time! As you know, from my previous post, I am following a healthy lifestyle and being careful about the types and quantities of food I ingest. For the past couple of months I have been doing really well, so I knew that I had to be prepared going to this event, not to fall off track or to get too lax about things. But I also knew that I was going to have a few samples of things and enjoy myself.

I should also reiterate that I rarely eat meat anymore, but ‘every now and then’ I do have a piece of fish or chicken if I feel my protein sources are low or limited. So – as we were walking along, the first thing we got ourselves was a spinach pie (or spanikopita) – it was SO GOOD! I had a light breakfast and lunch that day, so I knew that I could eat and enjoy various foods, as long as I only had a little bit of each thing.

After the spanikopita, I think we had a veggie samosa – which again – was delish! Moving on, we came across a tasty little chicken-rosemary pastry of sorts, so we had to try it! YUM! Then came the “Greek Fries” (french fries drizzled with wine vinegar and topped with Feta cheese) – YUM YUM! (keep in mind the four of us shared a small order) Then came the pork on a stick, followed by some calamari, followed by some honey balls (basically deep fried dough balls drizzled with honey!) – double-triple-quadruple YUM YUM!!

The samples we bought were single servings (not whole dishes), and despite what it might sound like above, I did not feel like I ‘over did it’. I had a couple bites, then gave the rest to Rich or my brother. As the night was drawing to a close, we stopped to sit at one of the numerous patios to have a cold beer.

Getting home, I wasn’t feeling the greatest, but I figured I was probably just a bit bloated from the beer. I couldn’t sleep. I was hot and cold. I was tossing and turning. I felt dehydrated and irritable, and had a headache. And then the nausea came.

Was I getting the flu? Did I have food poisoning? What was all this about? When I couldn’t take it anymore, I ran to the bathroom and tossed my cookies! (sorry folks) but I was feeling so sick, and it dawned on me that my body was rejecting all the CRAP I had just put in it a few hours earlier. In spite of all of this, it was actually a good thing, because it showed me that my body wasn’t used to the change in food regime, and that it was used to be fed healthy, happy foods!

When I treated it badly, it treated me badly! It’s pretty ironic – I got sick because I am getting healthy! Who knew!?