About biking, ever since I discovered this awesome site bikely.com, biking has become way more fun. Bikely lets you map out routes on google maps, and search a database of routes as well. The end result is that you can reasonably estimate the distance you rode (or are planning on riding), and you can benefit from other people’s knowledge by looking at the routes they’ve posted. This is especially useful in Montreal, where conveniently placed highways and traintracks can really make life difficult for cyclists.

Anyways, this was the route we did today. Unfortunately, unless one feels like going all the way around the eastern tip of the island, there’s no direct route back…which is why the path gets a bit wobbly towards the end.

Upon returning home, it was unanimously decided that food was in order. We decided to try a nearby vegetarian place La Lumiere du Mile End. It’s amazing that you can live half a block from a place like this for two years and not eat there…of course, if you were to eat at every interesting restaurant you saw in this city, you’d be eating about six meals a day. La Lumiere du Mile End was really good though. I had a sandwich on dark rye bread with olive tampenade, cheddar, and roasted red pepper, and DP had a quinoa burger which he said, restored his faith in veggie burgers, after an unfortunate run-in with Provigo’s frozen ones. And they make killer cookies =)

I try to eat more vegetables than non-vegetables (hence the lunch choice), but every once in a while, especially when a 30km bike ride is involved, I just need meat. Tonight was one of those nights, well, that and the fact that the flank steak idling in the fridge needed to be dealt with. Anyways, a couple days ago, I had hauled it out of the freezer and marinated it in garlic, EVOO, balsamic, and herbs, with a dash of red wine vinegar for good measure. So the plan was to grill it up tonight and make wraps. Then I found this:

Fresh Herb Risotto from the New York Times.

Despite the fact that I didn’t actually have any of the herbs they suggested in my fridge, I decided to give it a try. Turns out, it’s a pretty flexible dish. I used arugula, sage, thyme, scallions, oregano, and some pesto that was in the freezer, in place of the recommended herbs (chives, basil, rosemary etc.), and it worked pretty well–and went great with the steak. The wraps will have to wait for tomorrow night.