Coffee Talk

Both Monday and Tuesday night, I was invited to dinner. Generally speaking, a meal made by someone else always taste better. The Monday dinner was a simple but tasty affair of vegetarian spaghetti. Tuesday's was also vegetarian but more elaborate for a dinner party. Warm and fragrant apple and celery root soup was followed by a savoury cauliflower cake, sauteed bean sprouts, lentils with goat cheese, roasted pumpkin, and a dessert of apple crumble and pear sorbet. My favourite was the cauliflower and soup: subtle and flavourful. Oddly, despite its rich colour, the pumpkin was a bit bland.

But the conversations were equally interesting. My Monday host was Jewish so we got to discussing the various rituals, considering that this time of year has a succession of Holidays: Rosh Shashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. I read an English translation of the numerous interpretations of valid and invalid sukkah (hut) that are to be built. Makes reading a technical manual seem easy by comparison!

Tuesday,  the current political landscape in Toronto got top billing. With all guests of a liberal bent, the saga of the Ford brothers and their continued support was a large source of exasperation. Since it was also part of the 1000 dinners TO event, we also discussed ways to improve the city. Those with children leaned toward daycare and housing affordability. The childless were more into social justice issues including minority representation and gentrification. I would have liked to hear more daring solutions, even if in the real-world they would need to be toned down. I also wondered about the make-up of the other dinners. Were there any that included guests with true differences of opinion, or did we all gathered with like-minded individuals? Toronto describes itself as a city of neighbourhoods, but I often think this is true not just at the physical level. We have not just two but a multitude of solitudes.