1984.

"Winston had disliked her from the very first moment of seeing her. He knew the reason. It was because of the atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about her. He disliked nearly all woman, and especially the young and pretty ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy.”

“Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."

"Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom."

"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

"It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same--everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same--people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world."

“Beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”

“ “She’s beautiful,” he murmured.

“She’s a metre across the hips, easily,” said Julia.

“That is her style of beauty,” said Winston. “

“Power is tearing human minds apart and putting them back together in new shapes of your own choosing.”

“There is truth, and there is untruth. To be in a minority of one doesn't make you mad.”

"Did not the statement, 'You do not exist', contain a logical absurdity?"

Resto Misto.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending an entire day with a good friend of mine. We started with coffee, and decided to find some place to eat dinner. Assuming the plethora of good places to dine in Montreal, we decided to casually walk toward St Laurent from Atwater and find an outdoor patio with some good, cheap salad options. Seems like an easy task, doesn't it? We meandered from Atwater, up St Laurent, with detours down Prince Arthur and Duluth, ended up walking up St Denis, and finally down Mont Royal. It was an amazing walk and a beautiful day, but somehow we were never satisfied with any of the options thus far! Then we stumbled upon this beautiful patio with amazing salads, though a little more expensive than we would have liked. Enter: Restaurant Misto.

Thank God for patios, otherwise I would have felt incredibly underdressed in my jean shorts and striped T-shirt. Although mainly a French area, our server was quick to accomodate us with English menus and perfect English (with a cute French accent of course ;) ). He brought us bread and filled a plate with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette, which was perfect to curb our then incredible appetites. I ordered a refreshing glass of Pinot Grigio and we chose our meals. There were tons of salads to choose from, ranging in price from $12 to $16. Alli chose the Calamari salad, after assurance that it was grilled and not fried, and I chose the Duck Confit salad. We received our meal shortly after ordering, and the presentation was phenomenal. My Duck was cooked to perfection; crispy flavourful skin on top, succulent meat, and melt-in-your-mouth pieces of fat. It was accompanied by fingerling potatos, which, though by definition are cooked in duck fat, were full of flavour and not dripping with excess grease- cooked to perfection! It was served on a bed of arugula and topped with a creamy honey and tarragon sauce. Soo good!  Alli's Calamari salad looked delicious, although a bit small. There were tons of pieces of grilled calamari, and by the end of the salad she was surprised at how filling it was. We left feeling too stuffed to walk anymore, and took the metro to Brulerie Saint Denis for an after-meal coffee. I walked home feeling sleepy and satisfied, and no doubt in my mind that I will need to go back to Resto Misto for another incredible dining experience! 

Food.

Sooo I spent this rainy afternoon perusing food blogs, and decided to give myself some incentive to quit smoking (or at least cut down to the occasional morning or patio-with-a-beer cigarette). Cooking well is somewhat of an indulgence, as is smoking. I decided that I will spend the money that I have been spending on cigarettes on making one gourmet meal a week. Future recipes include salmon tartare, kimchi fried rice, and homemade pesto and mayo. I need to actually become the foodie I've been striving to be!