Construction can’t stop it! Hilary Duff on her unique finds, food, and music at the Great Glebe Garage Sale

A creative display of crafty supplies found at Ottawa's Great Glebe Garage Sale

Hilary Duff is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. When she’s not living the chaotically busy life of a Carleton journalism student, she also enjoys winter jogging and exploring the ins and outs of her Ottawa neighbourhood.

For the second year in a row, my experience at that crazy neighbourhood-wide event called the Great Glebe Garage Sale was nothing short of wonderful.

Unlike last year when my friend Gord and I awoke at the crack of dawn to set up our bake sale table, this year I blissfully stumbled out of bed at around 8:15 a.m.  I quickly realized that I was already late for what is arguably one of the biggest deal blitzes in city.  I got ready for the day in record-breaking time.

Construction didn't stop the Great Glebe Garage Sale

Despite the construction along Bank Street, the Glebe was already buzzing with activity.  Streets were packed as people flitted in and out of cluttered yards, greedily holding their newfound treasures.  It was not rare to see someone riding a bicycle with ski polls sticking out of their backpack, or middle-aged women dragging filled-to-the-brim carts behind them.

Being the over-connected little techno lover that I am, I decided to live tweet my entire experience.  I took it upon myself to be the unofficial #gggs (the hashtag for the day) tweeter.  At one point in the morning I was even trending in Ottawa. 

I felt like I was finally living up to my famous name (please refrain from judging my nerdy excitement). 

The Twitter hashtag for the day was #GGGS

I also used tweeting as a way to distract myself from the nick-nacky purchases that would have broken my wallet otherwise.  Having been abandoned by my two friends in favour of breakfast at Kettleman Bagels, I wandered solo through the crowded streets, searching out interesting stories and scenes.

One of my favourite spottings from the day

Hidden amongst the average “I’m emptying out my basement and want to sell this dusty old lamp” yard sales, there were also some unique vendors.  Not everything was necessarily secondhand “junk” either. 

In front of the Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, I met Teri Anne Ryerson of Yakety Yak Designs.  Teri Anne designs pottery as well as jewelry, magnets and compact mirrors, created using a button machine and scraps from old magazines and books. 

Teri Anne Ryerson from Yakety Yak Designs

While this is her first time at the Great Glebe Garage Sale, she’s been doing pottery since she was 12.

“I had quit all the sports my mom signed me up for, so she handed me the City of Ottawa book and said I had to pick something.  There was a picture of a girl playing with mud, and so I signed up for pottery,” she said. 

Teri Anne calls pottery her main hobby, and said that button making is the hobby to her hobby. 

“I’ve wanted a button maker since I saw the movie Empire Records, and so a couple of years ago I sold enough pottery to afford to finally buy one,” she smiles.

Magnets by Yakety Yak Design

I walked away from Teri Anne’s booth with a cool ring, a button featuring a cute penguin and three postage stamp-inspired magnets.  A cool $12.

Of course, what would a day be without me searching aimlessly for some sort of baked good?  My prayers were answered on Fourth Avenue, just a short stroll in from Bank. 

Set up inconspicuously between a table of random do-dads and a homemade clothesline display of crafty supplies, there sat the prettiest bake table I’ve ever seen.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since their maker, Jennifer Barnaby, is a Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef. 

The things you learn about people, huh?

Jennifer Barnaby's bake table

This isn’t the first time Jennifer has sold at the Great Glebe Garage Sale. 

“What I like about this sale is that people come back year after year to buy things.  It’s a nice way to get back into the community,” she says, reflecting on her past experiences.  “People come by and say ‘oh I remember you, I ordered a cake last year,’ and it’s fun.  I love it.”

Jennifer isn’t baking for personal gain either – every single penny she makes is donated to the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Fund, a non-profit organization that provides education and support for Nepalese children.  More specifically, Jennifer says it takes a donation of $75 every month to prevent a young girl from being sold into the sex trade.

Delicious treats for a good cause?  I was sold. 

Since I wasn’t full enough from Jennifer’s scrumptious treats, I headed over to 192 Second Ave. where Don and Jenn at foodiePrints had passed on a Twitter rumour of pulled pork sandwiches.  Indeed they were correct. 

DELICIOUS pulled pork sandwich bought at 192 Second Ave.

The front yard BBQ was a nice contrast to the standard hot dog carts and food trucks that cluttered other street corners.  The sandwich was delicious, and it was nice to meet Soren, Mike, Danielle and Spencer, all of whom were gracious and friendly as I awkwardly asked them questions on the stoop of their house. 

Soren said a lot of people had found out about the BBQ over Twitter, and had come to them because of that.

“This is our first year (doing a BBQ), but we saw some people doing it last year and thought it was a great idea.  Our buddy Quinn at Quinn’s Ale House gave us the idea for the pulled pork so we thought we’d try the idea out and so far so good,” he said.

Finally, there was also some great music to be had at Saturday’s event.  Ecology Ottawa had a great band playing, and people could be seen hoola-hooping on the street to the tune of the harmonica solos. 

Hoola hoopers by the Ecology Ottawa booth

The soundtrack to my Great Glebe Garage Sale, however, came from the unique melodies of Robin and John – two guys playing clarinet and accordion on the corner of Bank and Third.  Both are members of the Ottawa-based group Dry River Caravan, and urged me to mention them in anything I write.  Shameless promotional plug aside, I was captivated. 

All in all, it was a fun way to spend my Saturday morning.  The rain held off for the majority of the time and I managed to find some treasures (yes, I still ended up spending some of my money).  Purchase highlights include a silver platter for food blogging, two handcrafted rings, several colourful silk scarves, and a cameo pendant that I intend to make into a necklace.

What were your favourite finds from the day, Ottawa?

Mike, Melissa and Ruvini visit an Ottawa institution: The Great Glebe Garage Sale

Local musicians filled the streets (and porches) of this year's Great Glebe Garage Sale

Mike Cullen is a young public servant who is also a regular contributor to (Cult)ure Magazine as a music editorialist. His passions include music, coffee, writing, travel and comic books.

The Great Glebe Garage Sale has become an institution in the last two decades. During this special day, the Glebe comes alive as junk is turned into treasure, bargain hunters prowl the streets, and everyone comes out with the expectation that they will walk away with something. Garage sales aren’t usually my thing, but making the Great Glebe Garage Sale into a spectator’s sport turns out to be quite a bit of fun.

With bags strapped to ourselves, myself and two friends, Melissa and Ruvini walked over to the Glebe yesterday morning. We had a later start than most people, and by 9 a.m. the city streets in the Glebe were already packed.

Local Tourist Mel, at the Great Glebe Garage Sale

We weren’t looking for anything in particular, but I did joke that I was in search of a six piece dining room set with diamond chandelier for under fifty bucks (for a bachelor apartment that is already filled, no less). With spirits high, and a coffee in hand for this intrepid writer, we started out. There was a lot going on, and it seems that the community was determined to make this the best garage sale yet.

There were local bands jamming on porches, plenty of community organizations taking part, and of course there were the Glebites looking to sell their wares.

Mel walked away with a Jade plant from one organization, and I got a fantastic bamboo plant from her as a recent housewarming. I was able to find some comic book inspired toys to keep my borderline ADD mind occupied when I write.

Comic book toys for Mike, obviously

However, where I struck out on garage sale finds, I made up for in the boutiques along Bank Street. Nearly all of the stores were posting mega sales, and a trip into clothing store Slaysh came my big purchase of the day: WESC Jeans for seventy percent off! I practically walked out of the store with them for a song! Despite the fact that a good chunk of Bank Street in the Glebe is fenced off for pending road construction, the foot traffic in the stores was heavy with lots of like-minded people looking for that special deal.

Sadly, Ruvini came home empty handed, but not one to let something like this get her down, she showed off some sweet hooping skills.

Ruvini trying her hand (and hips) at hula-hooping

All in all, the Great Glebe Garage Sale was still a resounding success, and I’m already looking forward to 2012!

Thanks for the great post Mike!

Glebe grub: Hilary Duff tries TWO bake shops in her own backyard

Chocolate toffee crunch cupcakes from Second Avenue Sweets

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Life of Pie, located at 1095 Bank St.

In my quest to find Ottawa’s best cupcake, I have somehow neglected the two bakeries located in my very own backyard: Life of Pie and Second Avenue Sweets.

A proud resident of Old Ottawa South, many of my days have been spent wandering along Bank Street.  Life of Pie, which relocated from its Leonard Avenue location last summer, now boasts a bright and friendly storefront (complete with a sitting area by the window, perfect for people watching) on the corner of Sunnyside and Bank.

Life of Pie is one of those shops that have been trying to get connected to their client base through the online world.  It was one of these outreach attempts that brought me to finally try their cupcake this past weekend.  Since I follow the bakery’s Twitter account, I find out about any contests or promotions they are having in store. 

Low and behold, on Saturday afternoon such a Twitter contest was held. 

Twitter.com/lifeofpieottawa

Seeing that the tweet above was posted mere seconds ago, I bolted out of my bedroom, unlocked my bike and pedaled the four short blocks to Life of Pie. 

Within three minutes I was at the shop, yelling out their desired phrase like a maniac.  The girl at the cash didn’t even know about the contest yet, that’s how fast I was.  I biked considerably slower home, where I tried my strawberry cheesecake cupcake in the sunlight of my outdoor porch.

Strawberry cheesecake cupcake - Life of Pie

First impression: It struck me as far more of a muffin than a cupcake.  The consistency of the cake was notably more wholesome than the average cupcake, and was less sweet, with chunks of strawberry (and possibly rhubarb?) scattered throughout.  Compromising the healthy tasting factor was the sweeter-than-sin cream cheese icing, which delivered a sugar blast straight to my veins.  Overall, the cupcake was good, but suffered an identity crisis in the sense that it was way less strawberry cheesecake-inspired and more like some sort of strawberry explosion muffin. 

Second Avenue Sweets, located at 151 Second Ave.

The second neighbourhood bakery I tried Saturday was Second Avenue Sweets.  The only time I had seen the place was when I visited its next-door neighbour, the Urban Pear, for a mouthwateringly delicious student splurge of a meal.  After my meal I had peered inside the bakery and, with my face pressed up against the glass, swore to return one day to the colourful walls and glass dessert displays.

The time had finally come and I eagerly walked inside to see what the bakery could offer.  The strange characteristic of both Second Avenue Sweets and the Urban Pear is that their locations are hallway-like in shape, in the sense that the building is very long and narrow.  Standing in the bakery gave me the impression of being trapped inside of a giant rectangle; in front of me the narrow bakery area stretched on, past my point of view.  Horizontal stripes of coloured wallpaper lined the main bakery wall, giving the location a bright and playful feel. 

Second Avenue Sweets, located at 151 Second Ave.

The front entrance of Second Avenue Sweets is quite small, and there’s no seating area for customers to enjoy their desserts.  Not a huge deal, however, and I ended up taking my cupcake across the street, where I sat on the curb with a smartly purchased carton of milk.  I very nearly got my toes run over numerous times, but it was so worth it for a seat in the sun.

As for the cupcakes themselves, Second Avenue Sweets had a few choices for me to decide on.  Before making my final decision, I seriously considered the Cupcake of the Week, a decadent looking double chocolate cupcake.  In the end, it was my friend and bakery employee Serena who helped influence my final choice.  I had no idea that Serena was working in the shop for the summer, but when she suggested the chocolate toffee crunch cupcake, I was sold.  Three dollars and one sidelong glance towards the rest of the desserts later and I was off to sample.

Chocolate toffee crunch cupcake - Second Avenue Sweets

Sitting down and opening the cupcake box, I immediately regretted my choice to not grab a napkin.  Serena told me earlier that the icing probably hadn’t set yet, since the cupcakes had just been made that morning.  As a result, the cupcake had flopped onto its side, creating tiny hills of icing on the bottom of the box.  Not helping was the fact that the cupcake was top-heavy, and the poor thing was completely unable to stand on its own.  I felt like I was in that episode of Seinfeld where they decide to just sell muffin tops, that’s how big the upper cupcake was.  Due to these strange proportions, my cupcake had way more icing than cake.  The icing lived up to its promise of toffee flavour abound, and a few Skor bits added a crunch to the creaminess.  Midway through my cupcake, I discovered a ganache filling that was a tad more bitter than I would have liked it to be.  The surrounding chocolate cake, however, achieved high marks on the sweetness scale. 

Who needs seating with you have sunshine and a sidewalk?

Final verdict: the cupcake had a lot of homemade charm, but considering they were one of the priciest cupcakes yet, I expected the presentation to be a little less…well, homemade. 

Glebe and Old Ottawa South lovers: Second Avenue Sweets and Life of Pie really are great neighbourhood bakeries (especially if the cupcakes are free!), but they probably have other specialty products that will better satisfy your sweet tooth.

Life of Pie

1095 Bank St.

Twitter: @LifeofPieOttawa

Cupcake personality: ***½

Cake: ***

Icing: **

Cupcake overall: ***

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Second Avenue Sweets

151 Second Ave.

Cupcake personality: *½

Cake: **

Icing: ***

Cupcake overall: **

Hilary’s now hit a baker’s dozen of Ottawa cupcake shops! Wow! Stay tuned to see what’s next … 

From British Columbia to Ottawa: Kelly-Anne Maddox becomes a Local Tourist

Kelly-Anne Maddox relocated to Ottawa from British Columbia in 2010 and is busy being a mom to her one-year old daughter.

Kelly-Anne Maddox

I’m not the sort of person who adapts well to change.

Major upheavals in my life have brought with them fear, trepidation, and a not-so-healthy dose of introspection. So when my husband announced to me last year that he had been transferred from British Columbia to Ottawa, it was with much kicking and screaming that I tagged along. I lamented the loss of my dear friends, my job, my house, my beloved mountains, and the bounty of Okanagan produce.

I had been to Ottawa as a tourist many times in the past, visited Parliament, strolled along the Canal, and wandered through the museums, and was well aware that I was moving to a beautiful city. But nonetheless, I was plagued by doubt as to how I would live my everyday life here: Would I get to know people? Would there be interesting hikes? Would I like the neighbourhood I had yet to see? And were the people of Ottawa interested in 100-mile food?

We arrived in Ottawa on September 1st, after a meandering ten day road trip. For the first couple weeks I sat at home, brooding, with a six month old and a dog for company. As I started to put a finger on my initial loneliness, I realized that I was in mourning for lost connections and companionship. With two choices in front of me – get out of the house or go mad – I decided I had to start building my own community in Ottawa.

As luck would have it, I found out about the Boomerang Kids Strollercise program around that same time, and before I knew it Baby and I were whiling away three mornings a week walking the Canal with other moms and chatting over coffee in the Glebe. We added Mom and Baby Fit classes at the Glebe Community Centre to our routine, and signed up for Hush-a-Bye Babies, a locally owned song and rhyme class. My family and I discovered our Quartier Vanier Farmers’ Market and, at the last market of the season, I won their gift basket – a delicious welcome to the neighbourhood! We expanded our radius of exploration and spent Sundays at the Lansdowne Farmers’ market, and weekend afternoons hiking in Gatineau Park. We found sustainable beef and heritage pork, and a nearby organic store where the shop owner now exchanges pleasant banter with us.

My original questions were all eventually answered with a resounding yes. I’ve made friends though the various programs I became involved in, gratefully embraced the heartpounding ascents of the Wolf trail, planted roots in our delightfully colourful neighbourhood, and unearthed a locavore presence that’s very much alive in my new city.

Thanks for the post Kelly-Anne! We hope to see more of you soon!

Do you want to tell us how you ended up in Ottawa? Send us a note or leave a comment below!

Centretown News on the Ottawa cupcake craze

As former Carleton J-School students ourselves, we’re always excited to follow along with the school’s current young journalists and their adventures. To be honest, we’re even more excited when they offer to write for us!

If you’ve been following along with food blogger Hilary Duff’s hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake, you know exactly what we mean.

Recently, Hilary published a news story about Ottawa’s cupcake craze in Centretown News, the community newspaper produced by third and fourth-year students in Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication.

“Centretown just got a little sweeter,” Hilary writes. “Thimble Cakes, the neighbourhood’s newest bakery, opened its doors last month, embracing the cupcake craze that currently has Ottawa in its grip. The opening of Thimble Cakes means Centretown is now home to two cupcake specialty shops: Auntie Loo’s on Bronson Avenue opened in October 2009. In addition to the Centretown shops, other Ottawa neighbourhoods, including New Edinburgh and the Glebe, have recently become home to their own cupcake cafés.”

“With everyone eager to share their frosted fares with the public, many of the shops have developed their own product niches to help them stand out.”

Click here to read the whole story at Centretown News.

Would you like to write for Local Tourist Ottawa? Send us a note!

The search for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake: Part II – The Flour Shoppe

The Flour Shoppe

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 20-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. When she’s not living the chaotically busy life of a Carleton journalism student, she also enjoys winter jogging and exploring the ins and outs of her Ottawa neighbourhood.

She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Hilary's roomates...out to get their cupcake fix at the Glebe's Flour Shoppe

Since I’ve been talking about my cupcake challenge non-stop with my five roommates, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to accompany me for a review.  As a result, five of us piled into my roommate’s small hatchback and, surrounded by her arsenal of cross-country skiing equipment, drove down to The Flour Shoppe at the edge of the Glebe.

Unlike many of the other cupcakes that I’ll be reviewing, I’d tried The Flour Shoppe cupcakes before.

Like many restaurants and bakeries in Ottawa, The Flour Shoppe has a great online presence.  An example of their social media savvy is how on slow days they sometimes use Twitter to post neat little challenges in order to rally people into coming to their shop.  One challenge I responded to was “the next ten people to come in and say ‘tweet, tweet’ get a free cupcake.”  When I see these messages pop up on my Twitter homepage I have absolutely no choice but to somehow get down to the shop and claim what is rightfully mine.  On occasion I have been in class for these announcements, and have promptly texted my roommates telling them to get down there and grab their share of the glory.

My obsession with free cupcakes has brought me to the shop in snowstorms and mini-typhoons. What can I say?  I’m hooked.

Toffee almond cupcake topped with chocolate ganache

But on to the review…

Distracted as I may be by the setting of the shop, it is impossible to miss the cupcake display.  Behind a glass pane are the objects of my affection: small cupcakes sitting upon white pedestals.

As I inch my nose closer to the glass I feel as though I’m a small child intently examining some sort of museum display.

Behind the counter stand two steel racks, holding identically cloned versions of the cupcakes on display.  To further emphasize this artful showcase, track lights line the ceiling, directing light towards the main dessert attractions.

As for flavour diversity, I’d like to send a major kudos to The Flour Shoppe for their wide variety.  If you go online you can see the shop’s flavour schedule for the week, featuring everything from an Earl Gray flavour (another of my favourite hot drinks in cupcake form, I see a trend!) to s’mores, maple brown sugar to toasted coconut lime.  Since I’ve decided that I’m either going to ask an employee for their cupcake recommendation or try a shop’s featured flavour, I settled on Sunday’s feature: a toffee almond cupcake with chocolate ganache.

Cupcakes at The Flour Shoppe

Sitting down to eat my cupcake, I made a few preliminary notes.  I immediately notice that The Flour Shoppe focused way more on icing than Thimble Cakes, with each cupcake donning a perfectly-piped frosting chapeau.

Carefully peeling down my cupcake liner, I take my first bite.

To tell you the truth, it was a little underwhelming.  The icing was delicious and rich with a nice crunch of almonds, but was contrasted by a cake that I thought to be a tad dry and crumbly.  This may be just a personal thing, but I love a moist cupcake, and this one just didn’t cut it for me.  By the end of my cupcake, I had a large pile of crumbs surrounding me on the table.  Although I quickly blotted the tiny morsels up and popped them in my mouth, it meant that almost as much time was dedicated to eating crumbs as it was to enjoying my cupcake as a whole.

I will, however, say that this cake issue may just be with a few flavours; I tried a bite of my roommate’s carrot cupcake and was met by the most wonderful and moist ginger zing.

While my roommates and I were eating our cupcakes, the shop maintained a steady Sunday buzz, with a young family sitting next to us and several people coming in as we were leaving.  Although The Flour Shoppe may not have the same cozy “I’ll stay here for hours” feel as Thimble Cakes, the shop is a nice place to drop by for an afternoon treat.  Heck, with four tables, you might as well bring the whole family.

Final verdict?  You should probably go and try the flavours for yourself, since the icing/cake probably varies greatly for each.  With all the variety available, there is sure to be a unique flavour to satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth.

Cupcake personality: ***½

Cake: **

Icing: ***

Cupcake overall: ***

Store atmosphere: ***

Want to check out The Flour Shoppe? It is located at 617 Bank Street (at Strathcona). Do you know a cupcake shop that Hilary should try? Leave a comment below.

Holiday shopping in Ottawa – Part I (The Glebe)

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Annie McEwen is the best. She is currently studying at Oxford University in the United Kingdom…and we miss her every day.

This will be the first December in eight years that I haven’t spent at least part of in Ottawa. For all the quaint delights of Oxford at Christmas, (including mince pies, mulled wine and boys’ choirs) I miss Christmas shopping in Ottawa. Part of what I love about the Capital is that you can live very centrally and never find a good reason to drive to the ‘burbs to visit a big box store, or lose all sanity to the incessant Christmas tunes blasted through the mall.

To me, Christmas shopping is just as much about popping in and out of interesting little boutiques and catching up with friends over an egg nog latte and gingerbread, as it is about finding the perfect little something for someone you love. The gift giving tradition in my family is about finding something thoughtful and fun rather than spending serious cash or fulfilling a practical wish list. The thrill is in the hunt and the look on their face when they open it, rather than the stress of finding that particular cake pan my sister emailed me about. Which gets me back to why I love weekends in December poking around my favourite parts of Ottawa. Perhaps the lists below contain nothing new to the Ottawa-saavy, but hopefully they’ll inspire you to get out there with a smile, rather than the dread and stress that fills the malls for many.

I should warn you, these lists are terribly incomplete. Please post comments with your favourite Christmas shops around town to help point the hopeless to holiday happiness!

Part I – The Glebe

A classic classy Ottawa shopping destination if there ever was one. My highlights of the Glebe (North to South):

Wallack’s – I could spend hours in here followed by days playing with all the fun art-supplies I’ve purchased. Some of my best gift ideas have been born in this shop, including the “only-homemade-gifts-year” when my sister and I decorated all sorts of ceramics for our family using an easy kit purchased at Wallack’s. They’ve got a wide range of art supplies and gift ideas for everyone from your five-year-old niece to the closeted acrylic painter (there’s more of those than you’d think!).

Glebe Emporium – A Glebe institution. Perfect for those reliable kitchen gadget gifts and full of cheap stocking stuffers (pickle-grabber or egg cup, anyone?). Giving it a fair run for its money and some interesting alternatives is JB Adams, near Bank and Third.

Home Hardware - Don’t overlook this Canadian mainstay with an urban storefront, it’s a treasure trove of practical and oddball things for your Dad, gardeners, or new homeowners. It also has the decorating and wrapping supplies you might otherwise trek to a big box for.

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Magpie Jewellery – Much more fun than the over-run outlet in the Rideau Centre, if you’ve got a girl on your list, chances are you’ll find something cute in here that will fit the bill, and not blow the budget.

Nicastro’s – perhaps an odd pick for a Christmas shopping outing, but if you have a foodie on your list, this is the place to source some ingredients for a beautiful hamper or pick up some gourmet cheeses and olives for an evening of board games with friends.

Mrs. Tiggy Winkles – a location of a bigger chain, again a great place for stocking-stuffers, or picking up a board game or puzzle to bring the family and friends together over something more memorable than a Hollywood blockbuster. Upstairs is the more adult-oriented Lost Marbles, so don’t forget to make it up there!

The Papery – another Glebe institution, and my shopping trip to the Glebe would not be complete without at least stopping in to laugh at a few clever cards. I’m also a snail-mail fiend and tend to nudgingly give friends stationary in the hopes they’ll pick it up and send me a letter when I’m far away (hint-hint).

Food and Drink: No shopping trip is complete without a few hundred calories to keep you going. And the Glebe is overrun with places to fuel up, and I know everyone has their pick. A few of my favourites: grabbing a table behind the foggy glass at Morala’s which has the best selection of homemade cookies I’ve ever seen (and great waffles on the weekend) the French Baker for an illy coffee and croissant; the Wild Oat for some tasty dhal if you want some warm, healthy sustenance; lastly, Kettleman’s Bagel is never a bad choice.

Where are you doing your holiday shopping?