The 7th Blogiversary Itch

The seven-year itch. A phrase alluding to marriage fatigue, a decline of intimacy. But The Food Girl in Town is a food blog feeling no lethargy seven years in — I may not post as often as I would like, but I’m still itching to eat at the newest St. John’s restaurant. I’m still itching to plan the next trip. I’m still itching to tell you all about it. When I moved to Halifax in 2012 and started this food blog, I had no idea where it would take me, but I knew what I wanted to do:

…my recent move to Halifax has finally sparked the flame underneath my back-burner dreams of writing a food blog… My hope is that this blog will inspire adventuresome eating, even if for you this means trying a new pizza place other than your habitual corner slice, or experiencing the tribulations of offal. Explore. Eat. Repeat.

While my tagline has long gone by the wayside, its aim remains. I’m more likely to sign off an email with “writer. traveller. cheese eater.” but I think 2012 Gabby would be pretty happy to see 2019 Gabby making a career from writing about food. In celebration of my seventh blogiversary, here’s what I’ve been up to in the past year.

Honeymooning

Adam and I finally took our two-years delayed honeymoon in late September into early October, 2018. Let’s just say it was worth the wait. We spent five glorious days in London devouring Michelin star after Michelin star and another six days binging on all of the french fries, beer and waffles in Belgium. There are many posts to come from our time in Bruges and Brussels, but you can read all about my fave favourite bites from our London here.

Restaurants… where dreams come true

I ate at just over a hundred restaurants this past year, 101 to be exact. There were a lot of amazing restaurants from my pilgrimages to eat at legendary The River Cafe and Fergus Henderson’s St. John Bread and Wine in London to rediscovering what local means by eating in every Atlantic Canadian province at least twice. Let’s just say I made several food dreams a reality this year. The biggest food dream come true was meeting Dario Cecchini at his amazing butcher shop in Italy, plus having the almost-ten-course meat-centric meal of a lifetime at his Antica Macelleria Cecchini. I have about 10,000 words to write on the subject, you’ll be able to read soon!

The Italian Trip Trifecta

Speaking of Italy, I travelled to the boot-shape land of pasta and pizza for the third time and it was by far the most transformative trip. Over two weeks, Adam and I explored most of Tuscany in our little rented Fiat 500, ate gelato at the world-famous Gelateria Dondoli in San Gimignano, AND I got to see Eataly World people! Yes, that’s right, the world’s largest food amusement park and it was everything you would think it could be (and just as delicious). We stayed in an agriturismo in the western, more remote region of Tuscany, shopped at local farmers’ markets and cooked better food than I ever have. Inspired by the dishes in my ragged copy of Under The Tuscan Sun — which I jokingly bought at a used book sale before our trip and turned out to be one of the best pieces of travel literature I’ve read, Diane Lane’s film interpretation is garbage) — I used those well-crafted pages to dissect the history and culture of the Tuscan countryside.

Hotels

I’ll never get sick of a fluffy bathrobe and room service. I stayed in more than 16 hotels since my last blogiversary from a brand new chain hotel in Fredericton, New Brunswick to high-end (but slightly disappointing) boutique hotels in Notting Hill. My favourite hotel? It would have to be The Culpeper, a small pub hotel we stayed in for part of the London leg of our delayed honeymoon. Read all about our stay at The Culpeper now.

Cheers to food hikes!

I attended some amazing events since last year’s blogiversary, from judging my first cookie competition to photographing another amazing dinner for Well + Good. But my favourite event has to be Roots, Rants and Roars, a three-day celebration of Newfoundland food and culture which involves a hike along the coastline in Elliston, stopping to graze at tables of food made by chefs from across North America. Does that sound like a dream to you too? Here’s the low-down on our experience at Roots, Rants and Roars!

Blogiversary outlook

So what’s in store for the 8th year of The Food Girl in Town? In addition to writing about the five new restaurants that have opened in St. John’s this summer (a truly momentous occasion), there are trips to Philadelphia, New Zealand, Halifax and potentially Bali and Singapore coming up in the next six months. Stay tuned for all the delicious! Cheers to seven years!