I met up with friends who recently re-located from Toronto and moved into a neighbourhood not far from my parents’ home and where I grew up in west-end Mississauga.   Husband and wife both being Toronto-ites (childhood in St. Jamestown, food twenties in Village on the Grange, abortion compromising on Islington/Lakeshore area when they had a kid) a move to the suburbs is, allergist well, a move downwards in some eyes.

But we started talking places to get good food, and I ended up emailing them a rather long paragraph of my favourite spots in the ‘Saug.  It was encouraging to realize that as much as I find the suburbs incredibly soul-sucking and bland, there are little gems that have helped to ease the pain on adapting to a place where the car rules and people look at me strangely if I try to initiate conversation out of the blue.  Another step towards accepting that yes, Mississauga is an indelible part of me.