his river I step in is not the river I stand in.”

Every year for our anniversary we take a trip to a new destination within driving range. This year we headed north to Niagara Falls and Toronto.

Our first stop was lunch in Corning, NY where we hit up a barbecue joint. I was super excited to see salt potatoes on their menu as the daily special. A few months ago I read an article about them and couldn’t wait to try one!

Salt potatoes are a regional dish from upstate New York. In the 1800’s Syracuse, NY was the major salt supplier for the U.S. and it’s said that miners (the majority of them Irish) boiled potatoes in the salty brine that came from the ground. Pretty interesting!

Boiling the potatoes in salty water forms a crust on their skin and thus a creamy inner potato. Popular at summer barbecues in this region, you can find them sold as a set at the grocery store – a sack of potatoes and salt.

They were served with a lot of melted butter.

Salt Potatoes

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Author: Oat&Sesame

Serves: 10

Ingredients

• 3 quarts of water
• 12 ounces (approximately 1½ cups) fine salt
• 4¼ pounds small boiling potatoes, washed
• 1 stick butter, melted

Instructions

1. Bring water to a boil in a large deep pot over high heat.
2. Once boiling, stir in all of the salt.
3. Carefully drop the potatoes into the water.
4. Bring back to a boil and lower the heat to medium. Simmer until the potatoes are tender - 15 to 25 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes. Test tenderness by poking with a fork through the middle. They should be very tender.
5. Drain the potatoes into a colander and leave to air dry - 5 to 10 minutes.
6. Transfer the potatoes to a serving dish and drizzle with melted butter.

Notes

recipe adapted from foodiewithfamily.com

3.3.3077

Onwards to the next stop – Niagara Falls.

I am always impressed with the power of water. It’s energizing. The raging flowing water heading to the falls was almost as exciting as seeing the water drop the nearly 200′ at the actual falls. What’s even more impressive is riding the Maiden of the Mist boat into the pool below the falls and getting completely drenched yet protected by the blue poncho provided to each passenger. Water and wind hit you from all directions down there.

We – or maybe I should say I – were lucky enough to arrive in Toronto on the same day that cooking demonstrations were taking place in the Distillery District. The theme was Pan American. I watched two chefs – one featuring Mexican and the other Peruvian. And we also got to taste their creations – I had octopus for the first time and loved it.  The potato in the photo below was coated in an edible clay. So cleary the coated potato theme continued throughout the trip.

Afterwards I made sure to stop at the Soma Chocolatemaker shop – no explanation needed here.

My absolute favorite breakfast was at Lady Marmalade – Cheddar & Spinach Waffles with tomato-orange cream. I think the recipe is similar to this one, but as a waffle.

Having a side salad for breakfast was a thing in Toronto.

We did actually do other activities besides eating. The Art Gallery of Toronto had some great Canadian artists on exhibit.  I particularly like the work of Emily Carr whose paintings I’d seen in Vancouver a few years back.

Toronto has a lot of graffiti art.

Directly outside our Airbnb was a public art installation on the Queen Street Bridge. It reads “This river I step in is not the river I stand in“, taken from the philosophy of Heraclitus.

We crossed this bridge many times during our stay in Toronto and it stuck with me – change is constant in life, so let it keep flowing freely.

 

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