Mexican Food and Israel Independence Day

 April 15-21

So – The other day, Lilo asked me if I was missing Mexican food yet. And I hadn’t been – until she mentioned it.  LOL!  So I googled Mexican restaurants and turns out there is a highly popular one right across the street.  It is downstairs, under some other shops with a pretty small sign that was kind of hard to read, so I wasn't tuned into the fact that it was Mexican food.  We walked all the way across the street for our first Mexican meal. 

  For an appetizer, we had the shrimp quesadillas.

  (I’m starting to feel like a food critic!).   They were quite tasty – even though they had a slice of avocado on them but they did not resemble how I typically picture a quesadilla. They had big puffy tortillas, not flat ones.  For the main course, I had fish tacos with guacamole and Dave had the chicken enchiladas with verde sauce and rice and beans.   The enchiladas were my favorite.  Lots of cheese on top – healthy portion and beautiful presentation as well.  It would have been nice to have a margarita to top it off, but they didn’t appear to have a liquor license.  Cést la vie! 

On Thursday, Montreal celebrated Israel’s Independence Day.  They actually called it Israel 70 Love Fest. Isn’t that cute?  I donned my one and only Israeli shirt (some of you may recognize this from high school days where we participated in Israeli dancing sessions)?  Not only did I wear it because it was from Israel but amazingly enough – I can still fit in to it!  That’s reason enough, eh? 

We met up with one of the Rabbis from Temple and took the metro over to Phillips Square downtown. Then the whole crowd walked a short distance accompanied by music, dancing, lots of flag waving and some shofar blowing.  We saw TONS of Israeli flags, a lot of Canadian flags, even some Quebec flags and one Turkish flag.  Even a dog was wearing a flag.   There was a lot of police protection and only a few protesters on the outskirts of the crowd.  Fortunately, I didn’t witness anything controversial. Without getting too political, I admit I am conflicted by some of the things that Israel does, but I totally 100% support their right to exist.  The fact that their statehood is only 70 years old seems a bit crazy.   Having only visited Israel once, in the safety of a tour group, and never actually having lived there, I can only imagine what it is like on a day-to-day basis.

It snowed for a short bit but that did not deter the crowd.  The locals are super tired of the snow, but David and I are still fascinated by it.  This week is predicted to have much warmer temperatures so spring may actually be on the way after all.  I track several locations on my weather app and see that it is still snowing in Colorado. So Montreal is not that much different from the US after all!  Ha! 

David and I filled out applications to volunteer at the neighborhood non-profit group, NDG (Notre Dame de Grace) Food Depot.  They have several programs to address food insecurities in the area.  They are a combination of food bank collection and distribution center, providing cooked meals twice a week and food baskets for people to take home, along with educational and many other community outreach programs.  

Friday night we attended a vegetarian potluck dinner at Temple and then went to services. We have officially joined Temple Emanu-El Beth Sholom (TEEBS), the only reform synagogue in Montreal.  We continue to meet new people and almost every time we go, someone offers us a ride home (since we have been taking the bus).  This afternoon we are headed to Marche Atwater (the Atwater Market).  Check back for more details on what that looks like!  Have a great day!