Dear Kid,

Do you know what a butter tart is? According to My Friend the Internet, a butter tart is “a type of small pastry tart highly regarded in Canadian cuisine and considered one of Canada’s quintessential desserts.” Yesterday, I had part of a quintessentially Canadian dessert.

It was quite delicious (according to me), and since we split one 4 ways (Daddy, Grandma Lala, and Grandpa shared it with me), it was just the right amount.

We have been eating our way through Niagara on the Lake. I thought we were coming for the theater (we saw four fantastic shows in three days) but that turned out to be almost incidental to the food.

We’ve been staying at a charming B&B where the proprietress believes in serving lovely 3,000 calorie breakfasts. One day we had eggs Benedict, fruit with honey and yogurt, and blueberry bread. Today we had cranberry scones, fruit with a honey sauce, individual soufflés with a homemade dill sauce, toast, breakfast salsa, turkey bacon…you get the point.

Some days we’ve had a little bit of lunch; some days we almost haven’t bothered. And the dinners have been delish. And about 7 billion calories each.

Friday night was amazing. The six of us had dinner at a winery called Peller Estates. Our waiter, the charming Benoit who insisted on not being told the outcome of the French/Swiss soccer game because he had recorded it and planned to watch it later in the evening (the French won), brought course after course after course.

We started with chocolate martinis and an amuse bouche which was a small piece of smoked fish and sauce—slightly more than one bite, but not much more. Dad and I shared a scallop appetizer (about which I am going to dream happily for many years to come). Then a palate cleanser which was an ice made of sparkling wine with strawberry rhubarb syrup poured over it. Are you hungry?

For a main course I had swordfish (yum) and for dessert Grandma and I shared a tiramisu which was very good but only vaguely related to a tiramisu either of us had ever seen.

And being as how we were at a winery, there was wine. But since you’re underage and I’m not good at describing wines, I’ll leave it at that.

Off to cross back into the US and bringing wonderful memories and a few extra tons of weight around our middles.

Love, Mom