... when all else fails!

This evening on the way home from work my car lurched twice as I was merging on to the Queensway. It was a "running low on fuel" sort of lurch, of which I am intimately familiar (for those who have missed the opportunity to mock me, I have run out of petrol twice in the parking lot of my employer; as well as once in my garage, and once on the ramp into the gas station on the corner of Woodroffe and Carling - all of this in the last two years!). My eyes instinctively flashed to the fuel gauge, momentarily comforted to see that it was half full, only to notice a minute later the warning light lit up in amber. At the time, I had no clue what the light meant - but I was pretty sure that it wasn't reminding me to add oil - it had that ominous shape of an engine part. But in my "I'm a writer not an engineer" sort of ignorance, and with the temperature guage registering normal, I decided to soldier on - albeit at 80 kilometres an hour.

And as all of this was happening my mind ran through the next 30 minutes and options for dinner. With my regular dining partner out of town I had already decided that I was going to whip up some simple salsa's for dinner, along with guacamole. . . but I had no chips. And with this beacon taunting me as I made my way down the Queensway, I decided to head home and hit my favorite corner store rather than risk being stranded in the parking lot of the "world's worst Loblaw's" (on Isabella).

One of things I love about living downtown is the character of the corner store. Within a block of my house I have one good corner store and one great corner store. The good one I use for the necessities of daily life that result from poor planning - I run out of TP, paper towels, haagen daaz, half-and-half, or I want to rent a movie. The great one, however, is indispensible.

I plan the meals for my regular dining partner when I travel; and when I'm gone for a full seven days, and my imagination runs out after five, I fall back on advice to go down to Ayoub's and choose from a range of freshly made Lebanese fare.

Ayoub's is an institution in Sandy Hill South. Unlike Michael's (good corner store) Ayoub's has the things that you know you don't have when you decide that you really want something. On a Saturday afternoon when you settle on mediterranean, it could be feta cheese, vine leaves or pine nuts; it could be ground beef when you have a craving for taco's, as well as fresh jalapeno's and cilantro; whole peppercorns, coriander seed, coconut milk, or rice noodles if you're thinking of Thai; or tonight, decent tortilla chips - unsalted, Que Pasa tortilla chips.

I've forgotten what it's like to live in the suburbs - forgotten what's it's like to have to jump in the car to pick up that one ingredient that I've failed to anticipate - that I need when I'm in a clutch - or to be faced with a Mac's Milk.

I don't know what tomorrow morning is going to bring - I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to cut in to some savings; but on the off chance I was to be stranded for a day, it's comforting to know that my creative flare would not be entirely constrained by the absence of that one key ingredient.