Monday, February 18 was declared a statutory holiday in Ontario last October by Premier Dalton McGuinty, a day already observed in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I always wished for it in BC while I lived there, since the span of time between New Year’s Day and Easter was FAR too long to go without a holiday. Especially since winter is the toughest season to get through — it seems to go on forever.

Since I have no family here, I spent it with the rest of the House of Fielding: the Caster kids, and Kate from Vancouver, who’s staying at the HoF for a few months. Kate and I completely rearranged two rooms and the place looks great!

All that housework deserved some spicy comfort food, so I brought Kate to the place where I like to indulge my lemongrass and chili cravings: Xe Lua on Spadina.

Kate had the curried chicken with noodles

I had my lemongrass fix, with chicken and chilies

With unlimited free tea our total bill came to $13, and Kate had to take some of her food home. You can see why I keep coming back — there’s no way we could make two big meals like this for $6.50 each!