Gabby Peyton

Last summer we tried the Quintal Cafe in Bonavista for the first time while Bear Mountain Coffee in Clarenville, Darkstar Coffee Roasters in Carbonear and Norton’s Cove Cafe in New-Wes-Valley are on my list to try this summer. I had the delicious task to write an article about St. John’s food trucks last year for CBC and can’t wait to eat at my old favourites in St. Johns, but Newfoundland Comfort Food Truck in Corner Brook, Spud Nados in Indian Bay and Stage Grub in King’s Point are on my Newfoundland staycation bucket list this year. Roadtripping the Great Northern Peninsula has been on my Newfoundland staycation bucket list for years and I’ve wanted to revisit L’Anse aux Meadows since I was nine years old. Other glamping spots on my Newfoundland staycation bucket list for this summer include The Homestead Adventures in New-Wes-Valley and Humber River Off Grid Tours near Deer Lake

There is no shortage of “best restaurant” lists when it comes to Italian cities, but Milan isn’t the site of food pilgrimages like Rome or Naples (hello carbonara and pizza) despite the iconic Risotto, Veal Milanese and Osso Bucco being from there. While most Italians eat their biggest meal — filled with pasta, bread and meats — at midday, you can have your pick of the best restaurants in Milan for lunch or dinner. The second is aperitivo: the end of the workday drink and light meal — essentially it’s the best kind of happy hour you can imagine! Dinner in Milan you can pretty much eat whatever you want from high-end Peruvian food like Pacifico to modern pizza joints with intimidatingly hip interiors like Dry.

While Montreal is on everyone’s gourmand radar (and for good reason), but the Quebec City restaurants scene is far from the underdog with its culinary cornucopian of Québécois dishes, European flair and modern Canadian cooking, along with great pizza and vegan food. What started as a quick weekend break became an eating marathon through the best of Quebec City restaurants (I know shocker) from multi-course menus to multi-stop food tours. Stops included Le Chic Shack for poutine with taters, braised beef, and cheese curds delivered daily from the farm with shaved Parmesan, pickled onions with horseradish cream and gravy, as well as the ever-popular Restaurant La Buche where we sampled a bunch of traditional Québécois dishes — smoked salmon with maple syrup vinegar, Quebec-style yellow split pea soup and Pâté chinois, a traditional dish akin to Shepherds Pie with beef, corn and potatoes. During this particular trip, we opted for a French-style bistro meal at D’Orsay on the first night and a splurge-worthy dinner at Le Champlain inside Fairmont Le Château Frontenac on the second.

October 11th is World Egg Day, and to celebrate all those awesome egg farmers across Canada, I combined one of my favourite Middle Eastern egg dishes with my favourite food group, pasta (yes, in my kitchen its a food group), to create this Shakshuka Spaghetti Bake. This World Egg Day, Chef Lynn Crawford has teamed up with Egg Farmers of Canada to introduce you to some of those formidable farmers across the country making sure you enjoy the nutritious and delicious benefits of eggs every day; you can see their stories here. Eggs + pasta + a great shakshuka recipe makes for a delicious egg dish that is easy to make and even easier to serve. This Shakshuka Spaghetti Bake is the perfect dish to impress at weekend brunch or a great comfort food feed for a crowd and how I plan on celebrating World Egg Day this year.