Cafe Aroma Latino

A couple weeks ago I had dinner at Cafe Aroma Latino for the first time. I had heard it was good, but was pleased to have an opportunity to find out for myself. First of all, I was impressed and more than a little thrilled to find pupusas on the menu. One of my favourite stops in Kensington Market was always the Central American grocery where you can get pupusas freshly made. And now I know where to find the same Salvadoran 'street' treats here in Halifax!

There are all sorts of delicious things on Cafe Aroma's menu from all over Central America. And it's relatively cheap (most menu items are $2-4 ea.). You pick and choose what you'd like to order and end up with a plate of tasty treats. I ordered a bean pupusa (bottom left), a tamale wrapped in a banana leaf (top) and a beef taco (bottom right). The tamale was new to me - I'd never had one. It was okay, but more mild than I was expecting. It would've been nice with something especially spicy. The pupusa was a little different from those I'm used to from Toronto. I don't remember bean pupusas being made of beans like these were (I remember them being filled with refried beans instead), but they tasted the same and were just as delicious. The taco was also delicious and maybe even my favourite of the three; the beef+sauce was especially tasty.

And if you're looking for any Mexican-type groceries, you should check out the little grocery next door that sells all sorts of things from that region of the world. You can find all sorts of things to make your next Mexican theme night more authentic.

So there's my little review of this place. Check it out for yourself. We want to keep this restaurant in business for a long time!

Checking in

It's been awhile and I thought I might just post a note about my progress with my short To Do List. I am pleased to report that there has been progress, so that's a good start.

• 1. Compost more consistently. Check! I've been composting since January. There's not a whole lot of enthusiasm for composting in my building, and up until this Spring, I hadn't ever seen the compost bin emptied. Evidence of this: the lobster shell I put in the bin in Feb. was still there in June. Sigh. I think I single-handedly managed to fill an entire bin with my own food waste. I guess my next "to do" item should be waste less food. Anyway, I managed to convince property management to arrange for regular pickups, and they're starting to encourage other tenants to also compost.
  

• 2. Get new glasses. Check! Not sure what I think of them, but I've got them and that's the most important thing. Here are the glasses - mine are brown and gun-metal grey. I have some lovely photos with my eyes open, however they're almost all photos with my Little and I'm not comfortable posting her picture online without permission. So no photo to show off the new specs.
  

• 3. Invest in a used GPS & go geocaching. Fail. Sadly, GPSs are expensive and this was a low priority for this year. I still love the concept and I think it would be A LOT of fun with the Little. If I didn't have other things to save for, I'd for sure get one. Alas, there ARE other things to save for.
  

• 4. Knit a pair of socks. Fail, for now. I've kind of set aside my knitting over the summer. I've got a scarf on the go, but that's it. My shawl didn't progress very far. I made far too many mistakes and the black was too hard to work with a complicated pattern. BUT I have a lot of sock wool and everyone loves handknit socks, so I still hope to learn before the end of the year. Maybe over Thanksgiving?

• 5. Read at least a book a month. Check! Well, so far anyway....I still have 4 months to go. Most of the reading this year has been non-fiction, but still all good. Of course the highlight of all the books I've read this year (and perhaps ever!) has been Uncle Tom's Cabin. If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to pick it up at your library or bookstore and give it a try.
  

• 6. Shop smarter and better: fair trade, handmade, local, and natural. Fail. I'm actually not doing much shopping these days (in an effort to save $$), and when I do, I have to confess that I usually shop for the sales and these are not usually the best option quality-wise. For produce lately I've been doing all my shopping in my mother's garden and I'm committed to buying local produce whenever it's available. I will always choose local over imported, when local is available.
  

• 7. Sitesee more. Visit more museums and galleries in the HRM. Check! I'm getting out more around the city. I finally got to Pier 21 and was blown away by the exhibits. If you haven't been, you should go! And then there was my trip to York Redoubt and several other parks and sites around the city. Oh, and I got a MacPass, so I'm gradually venturing more and more over to the Darkside (ie. Dartmouth).
  

• 8. Stargaze more & learn a handful of constellations. Check! Sort of. I'm gradually learning the constellations, but seem to forget them almost as quickly as I learn them. Being the International Year of Astromomy, I had hoped to attend the Astronomy Nova Scotia events. There's an event on Oct. 1st that I plan to attend with the Little.
  

• 9. Stop using plastic grocery bags. Check! In fact, I've gone through my stash of plastic grocery bags for garbage and now have to consider what to use for garbage. Do I buy or do I just use the pail itself? Afterall, most of my garbage isn't terribly messy after composting and recycling. I'm also saving all the small plastic bags that dry goods come in (pasta bags, bags from frozen peas, rice, etc. I used to throw these bags out because they were too small for garbage, but now I use them for kitty litter bags and they work perfectly.

So I'm considering what to add to my To Do List. I've got a few ideas. I'd like to learn how to kayak and become a member of my church, and organize my photos (which have been piling up for years) in albums and on my harddrive. These are just a few that come to mind.

I don't want my 2010 list to be too long though. I'm committed to a big project for 2009/10 and it's going to take a lot of my time. I don't want to set myself up for failure.