the lucky country

Have you heard of the saying, "Australia is a lucky country"? It's a common saying in Australia to describe our general prosperousness -- although the original intent of the saying was critical to the country. Nevertheless, I feel that we are indeed a lucky country, we have great weather (none of this snow non-sense), the economy is robust, and the people are easy-going and generally tolerant.

go fish, cloudy day taco

The consensus with fish tacos is it's a great spring/summer chow. In spring, it reminds you that summer is around the corner. In summer, the salsa rejuvenates your tired palate.

helen's fish & chips

When I found Helen's Fish & Chips, I had been in Canada for 3 months. And in that time, I had not found any fish & chips shop that's worth going back to. So when we did find Helen's, it was like finding a long lost brother.

We got the seafood platter, which had a few pieces of halibut, prawns, scallops, chips, salad, lemon and tartar sauce. All the seafood was moist and fresh (not fishy at all!). The batter was light, not gluggy, nicely crispy and had no burning oil taste. The chips had the skin on, ie. they were the wedges kind. I'm not a fan of wedges, but I didn't mind this one. It satisfied almost everything I want in fish & chips. Helen's is definitely a fish & chips shop I will be going back to.

Seafood platter - $13.25

The shop's located in the river mouth of Lake Ontario. The view of the water from the shop was a killer. The shop itself was clean, if not somewhat disheveled. It was a family-run restaurant after all. They had their menu written with chalk on blackboards. It's all part of the charm.



Helen's Fish & Chips
111 Lakeshore Road West
Mississauga, ON
Open Sunday-Thursday 7.30am-8pm, Friday-Saturday 7.30am-9pm (Spring & Summer hours)

mosley street grill burger

One windy sunny day in spring, we went to Wasaga Beach, about 133 km North of Toronto. I was sorely disappointed of course, being used to the white sandy beaches of Australia. I have said to my Torontonian friends, and I would say it again, Wasaga Beach is not a beach. It's more like a mud shore surrounding a huge lake. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on them since they are land locked and nowhere near a real beach.

After a full one hour of dipping our toes in the freezing water, we decided to grab a quick and greasy fast food. But, I saw the Mosley Street Grill out of the corner of my eye and decided to try that instead.

penrose fish & chips

My husband has searched far and wide for great tasting fish and chips in Ontario, but he has not found any that compared to the Australian fish and chips. I thought I might help him find one and suggested the Penrose fish and chips.

The shop was small and quaint. It's the type of shop that has been in the neighbourhood forever, owned by the family from one generation to the next. The wall was covered with pictures of the area in the 1940s, there was old newspaper clippings and fishing paraphernalia. The proprietor was courteous and efficient.


All that quaintness and niceness, however, cannot compensate the fact that the fish and chips was sub-par. It was not that the fish was not fresh, because I think it was. It was the oil. I think they've used it too many times or that they didn't have good control of the oil temperature, which made the fish and chips taste like burnt oil. I was very disappointed. We promised oursleves to give them one more try, hoping that this was just a one time thing.

Halibut & Chips - $9.50

Dad's Root Beer - $1.75

Penrose Fish & Chips
600 Mount Pleasant Rd
Toronto ON
Open Tuesday-Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 11am-6.30pm

fish & chips hunt

My dear boyfriend, only recently fiancé, as I said, is a fish & chips aficionado. Every opportunity he has to eat fish & chips, he will, without doubt, take it. To satisfy his craving, we went on a fish & chips hunt in our recent holiday around WA. Yes, I said craving, I liken his need to a cigarette addiction (without the implication) or a lady’s craving during pregnancy.

Sadly, it was a short holiday of only two weeks, which started on the day before my birthday. To be fair, the holiday wasn’t purely for hunting the best fish & chips, but it sure did feel like it. We managed to go to three different fish & chips shops, in between the REAL restaurants & cafés that I insisted on visiting. And the only time that we did not go to a fish & chips shop, we would be looking for ways to get into one.

Traditional fish & chips - $12.60
Barramundi battered - $10.50
Chilli mussels - $22.00

job cut detox

I went to Adelaide last week and let me tell you, if you felt the same sense of doom and gloom as I did, I would prescribe a few days of holiday at a location of your choice. Sometimes you just need to get away from it all to lift up your spirit and recharge the body, mind and soul.

In all honesty, I did only go because I had a Qantas voucher that I had to use before its January expiry date. But, it turned out to be a holiday taken at the most opportune time, I could not time it better myself. Even with the crazy heat wave, I really enjoyed myself.