(Image by Justin Shearer)

it’s amazing that during most of our lifetime we are in constant move. To school, back home, to work, to and from the car, on our way to our annual vacation, moving houses, moving in bed, moving out, moving in… I have a feeling that we are some sort of crappy sharks.
Sharks have to keep in constant move or else they’ll die. I guess that we never made it to be with the cool sharks in the ocean and were considered a defect of the factory. Ever Since that time we were doomed to keep on moving in land and find the right boxes that will carry all of our junk to our next destination.
In the last 2 weeks I was in the process of moving out of Montreal, Canada after 5 years of ups, downs, snow, summer, french and poutine and decided to move out. The only dilemma was where to?.

Since I had no clue, I decided that there couldn’t be a better timing to see other wonderful spots in the world and hit the dusty traveling road again. But what do you do with everything you’ve accumulated during those years?. Considering the fact that I came to Montreal at 2004 on a dare to study with one suitcase and new nothing about the city nor knew anyone there. However, I managed to get along pretty well, not to mention the fact that like most people I manage to accumulate a fair amount of ‘things’. I have some friends that turned it into an art. However that is not my point, the dilemma was how on earth could one find so many good boxes to place all of these goodies in.  when we move in or out all of our world is in those boxes , it usually takes us days to shove everything into them, only to find that we don’t care much for that paper holder we got from a colleague.

We become obsessed with one thing “where can we get more boxes?”.   I remember walking around my neighborhood in ‘little Portugal’ area of Montreal searching next to the clothing stores of Ste-Denis, the boutiques… you name it. I had one thing in mind “Boxes”. I even caught myself thinking once “mmm….those boxes don’t look as great as the one from the wine store…after all, the need to hold all of those bottles”-  a complete madman!. To calm my crazy buzzing mind, I went into one of my favorite eating spots in the city called: “Chez Jose“.

This little Portuguese sandwich, pastry place has a special place in my heart. it is a wonderful mix of funky looking place with great food (and very low prices). I usually go there for their famous Seafood Soup-$4 that comes in a huge bowl aside a fantastic toast with bread from the nearby bakery, but usually don’t stop there.
Although their soups are a meal by themselves, I tend to order the Churasco sandwich as well. To me, the soup is just the warm up band before the rockstar (the Churasco) which is the translation of happiness between 2 slices of wonderful bread.
So, I got myself the Churasco sandwich, closed my eyes and forgot all about my move for 30 min, chewing my sandwich with a smile.

Armed with a full stomach I went on to continue my quest to find good boxes before the rain comes, However it came earlier then expected and I had to head back home. On that Sunday, I even persuaded a friend of mine to go for  a walk around the block to get some air, but inside my head I knew it was recycling day and had only one thing in mind : “More boxes!”.

I even stopped listening to our conversation and turned myself to a ‘box-radar’ imagining each and every one of my items fitting into a huge box for me to ship it back home. After a week of madness and some common sense, I’ve decided that I am not going to ship anything home and instead I will just sell everything and give the rest away. Think about it for a second, as funny as it sounds we work most of our lives to live in a ‘box’ of some kind. So before buying a house, moving in or out, make yourself a Churasco sandwich to get some common sense into your head and warmth into your stomachs.

Churasco Sandwich:
1/4 a cucumber sliced into thin slices
2 slices of Cheddar Cheese
1 tsp of Mustard
1 tsp of Mayonnaise
2 cuts of chicken breast
1 Avocado
Pinch of black pepper
1 tbs of Olive oil
1 tbs  of Paprika
chili powder (optional)
Pinch of salt
Fresh Portuguese bread roll (could be replaced by a jabetta bread or a crunchy bun)

Note-  for the chicken breast we have 2 cooking options  -BBQ or in a pan, both come out fine.  I personally prefer BBQ for the flavor but let’s stick to a pan for now.
1. marinade the chicken breast with a bit of olive oil and paprika for 30 min.
2. Cook the chicken in a pan, till it gets tender on the inside and red on the outside.
3. slice the bread into two and toast it slightly to make it a bit crispier & crunchy.
4. spread a thin layer of mustard  covered by a thin layer of mayonnaise on both slices of bread.
5. place chicken in the lower part of the bun and the thin slices of cucumber, cheese and avocado on the other.
6. add pepper and salt if needed

bon appetite…