That’s how I treat my cooking these days, too.
I like to be inspired by other HO’s travel abroad (looking at you @ZivBnd ) and restaurant meals.
Apart from my 4 day trip to Montreal in 2025, and some road trips to small towns and cottage country in Ontario, my meals are limited to what I can find in Toronto and Southwestern Ontario, what I can order online (Goldbelly has become ridiculous with their surcharges to Canada, so I did not place orders for anything to be delivered to Canada in 2025), and what I make at home.
I am really really glad I visited Japan in January 2020, and NYC, Kauai, Maui, Germany, and Austria in 2019.
I really wish I had squeezed in a trip to Greece to see my cousins in 2018 or 2019, because I can’t travel to Greece now, apart from vicariously through ZivBnd.
One of the best things I ate in 2025 was my first Sunday Gravy that I made at home. I didn’t seek out red sauce when I lived in NYC in the 90s. Back in the 90s, my favourite thing to order at an Italian resto in NYC was penne alla vodka.
I wasn’t really curious about Sunday Gravy until 2 or 3 years ago. I really like it.
