Restaurants and critic

Tags

critics, Food, gastronomy, PEI, Quebec, Restaurant, wines

Lately I have been watching on Instagram various people visiting and tasting food. One is Francois Simon who devotes all his posting on Instagram to food, restaurants and dining in France, in Morocco, lately in Abu Dhabi in fine restaurants and hotels. He is a well known award winning author and critic on gastronomy. He makes a few observations on the food, the philosophy of fine dining, service and atmosphere. It is very European in its approach and you see how very different North America is in comparison to Europe when it comes to food culture and dining. It is a way of life and a philosophy appreciating the ingredients and how they are prepared but also the Chefs and their craft, getting to know them and their own views on food culture.

The other site on Instagram is about wines and how to appreciate them, Les Secrets des Bouteilles this fellow, Eric knows his stuff and the presentation is interesting, he does it as a conversation between himself and his off camera son, Hugo and us the public watching. Both are Sommelier with 30+ years of experience. Another one is Le Canon Francais, they drink and eat fine French Food and part of their proceeds go to protect French Heritage and restore Chateau like Fontainbleau, this is a very French site and even I would feel a bit out of it with such a crowd.

There is another fellow on YouTube called Lussier L’Affineur, he has a cheese cellar and his talks on cheese are nothing short of amazing with the detail and what to look for. Today I watch him how he described 6 sorts of Raclette cheese depending on the region it is made in. Another one was about Camembert at 1.50 Euros and one at 10 Euros, these are French prices, but all to say that if you look for quality you will buy the 10 Euros Cheese and he explains why you should.

On YouTube there are lots of French language sites on Wine and their age, what to look for in the colour of the wine if it is red to determine if it is young or older. White wine can tell you by their colour what type of grapes are used, etc. Some sites will only recommend the great names in wine and the idea behind this is to say, if you drink wine at a meal, you must have the best. In such cases the expert will name wines by regions of France and a meal can easily have 3 types of wines both red and white depending on the dishes being presented/served. Not to forget a Champagne not just for special occasions, but simply because it is the best option with certain foods. Well if you can do the 3 martini lunch why not, enjoy. Do remember that any wine expert will tell you to stay away from strong liquor prior to a good meal. You can have a Campari soda, or a Pimm’s or a sherry or sweet vermouth instead.

I learned the other day something I had been suspecting for some time that restaurants in PEI do not have a wine cooler or special room for keeping wines. Lots of box wines on the menu and wines in the lower price range which could be seen as house wines. In the white wines Pinot Grigio is always featured, in the red there will be wines from South America and USA but they tend to be in the affordable range at the Liquor store, nothing special. One chef told me that he found the wines have a sour taste or moldy taste, the reason being poorly kept in less than optimum conditions, most people do not know since this is a beer drinking island. Which is a real shame, given how tourism is suppose to be so important to the Island, you would think that restaurant owners would be more careful, not the case. What we need in PEI is a professional critic who will survey restaurants and write truthful and accurate food/restaurant reviews. That brave person will make a lot of enemies for sure. What I find sad it that because many think of PEI as a vacation style resort, the mentality is that there is no need to offer anything out of the ordinary. This does not mean that food is cheap in restaurants or snack bars, you pay big city prices. In the Summer a Lobster roll which is served on a hotdog bun of varying quality starts at $22. which is not cheap.

When I mentioned to someone how I found the food on Les Iles de la Madeleine which sits 5 hours from us by boat in the middle of the Gulf of St-Lawrence of very high quality and prepared with much imagination and attention to details, the person pointed out to me that the clientele who go to Les Iles go for the gastronomy and the vast majority are French speaking Canadians looking for that sort of experience. Again it is a matter of culture and the eternal difference between French and English in Canada. I doubt PEI will ever come close to what you see in Quebec or New Brunswick because of the Acadian culture when it comes to food.

Le Cinq, Paris

Monsieur, Paris

Mirabelle, Rome

Looking at the calendar

Tags

Bill Evans, Canada, Food, France, games, Japan, Jazz, Paris, winter

I am looking at the calendar for February and next week it would appear that we will be meeting with the specialists treating Will. This should be a more definitive answer on the curative progress and also if there is a need to do more or not. We are positive, many encouraging signs on many fronts. So just a little more patience.

In other news life proceed a pace, the big event coming to our neighbourhood are the Canada Games which is a big deal for PEI, hundred of athletes, sport competitions, all the hotels are booked and for 2 weeks in late Winter it will feel like a tourist season. There are a lot of open air concerts schedule for the Port of Charlottetown, it can be very cold by the river even on a sunny day. Winter events simply do not happen here so this is quite the novelty. The Federal Government is paying 90% of the bill and PEI is profiting a great deal from this or at least some business people are.

I also received today my voting card in the mail, this is a sure sign that an election is in the air. Premier Denny King believes that he would be able to sail to victory and a big majority if the election is held after the Games in May. How depressing given that he has done so little overall.

What is interesting about our system is that politicians cannot campaign or spend money until the election writ is dropped. The Chief Electoral Officer and everyone who works for him must be strictly neutral in all aspects of their job. Gives a much more civilized outcome. He can also impose stiff penalties on any politician who does not behave or ignores the rules, some have gone to jail for fraud.

We are watching on YouTube a couple, the spouse is Emily a Japanese married to a French fellow and they live in France. They go out walk around and stop in restaurants for coffee, lunch, brunch or dinner or a late snack. Fascinating, the photography and the music a lot of Bill Evans Jazz are beautiful and relaxing. They also give tips on where to go etc. The episodes are very recent, currently we are in the last week of January. I have not been to Paris in years but looking at it now, it makes me nostalgic. His postings are aimed at a Japanese audience he has subtitles in Japanese and he also shows a lot of luxury shops, knowing that it will be of interest to Japanese tourists. It blog is called France, Table & Voyage. It’s fun just to look at and enjoy.

Christmas Day

Tags

Christmas, Cornish Hen, Food, home, life, Plum Pudding

A quiet day it is, it started to snow around 8am this morning, no wind, just gently falling flakes of snow, sort of dancing around and covering the green fields with just enough snow to make it look like Christmas day.

My best wishes to all of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope this to be a good happy day today with your friends and family. If you are on your own, enjoy the Peace of the day.

So this Christmas meal will be very different for us this year, no one has been invited and it is only Will and I at the table. Will of course is restricted to his special hospital diet, he insisted in preparing a festive meal for me, with a Cornish Hen with an apple stuffing and a glaze. Vegetable roasted and of course the Rum butter sauce for our plum pudding from our friend in Vancouver, Ginny. We have our Christmas crackers and the festive silverware and champagne. I will start the meal with some good Smoked salmon with capers and onions.

Nicky and Nora those little sweet dachshunds have given me a gift certificate from Amazon. They are elderly now but remain the best little companions.

Watched the message from St-George’s Chapel of HM the King, what a beautiful message, so well done and addressing the King’s message of interfaith dialogue. The King wants to be the Defender of ALL Faiths not just the Anglican Faith. To do so, Parliament will have to pass a Law to allow him to do so. There is apparently no time now before Coronation Day when HM will take the Oath to change that detail, will see if the Prime Minister will move on it quickly.

This week we invited friends to visit Will for coffee, we certainly have the cakes and cookies all home made to pass around. We also have Geld which I buy for Hanukkah and give away. I always buy too much Geld.

Some pictures of Dec 25 in Charlottetown. It really taking me many days to write this one. We are now the 27 Dec.

Do you see the nose, Yes this is Nicky all wrapped up in his blanket and snoozing away on the sofa. He prefers it if I come and sit by him, then he snuggles right up to me and sleeps profoundly. Let sleeping dogs lie, goes the old saying.

A more simple table setting this Christmas for dinner, dinner for one and Will already had his special medical dinner. He made me dinner, starting with smoked Salmon and capers, then vegetables and roasted Cornish hen and of course flaming plum pudding for dessert. A beautiful brandy fuelled blue light, so festive. The best part WILL was able to eat some without difficulty, now that is a big step, a first in 6 months.

Christmas Morning finally some snow, just a bit but nice enough in the quiet streets and with some sunshine.

Now onwards to the New Year Festivities which will be calm and quiet also.

just a few more days

Tags

aspic, Canada, Christmas, Dresden, Food, Frauenkirche, Orange chocolate

Friday night apparently we will get very high winds in the 90km range and rain, by Sunday Christmas day it will be passed.

Just listening to the concert today from the Frauenkirche in Dresden with at the organ Matthias Grunert who is playing Cesar Franck, Grand Choeur for the series of concerts given at the Frauenkirche during Advent, Klingenden Adventskalenders.

Such a magnificent baroque Lutheran church built in 1726 by George Bahr, destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1993.

Today in LeDevoir from Montreal I was reading about Christmas dishes you no longer see on the table, it seems that after 1980 such dishes just fell out of favour after centuries, literally of being associated with Christmas. Reading the article I thought, yes that is true, how did that happen. It seems that fashion changed and so did how people eat and what they eat. The old Christmas of French Canada with traditions coming from France of the 17th century changed and it all became much more simple and less about traditions. Noel itself is no longer the big religious event it was once, it is now very secular and even the creche under the tree has disappeared. There is at least 2 generations who remember nothing of the old ways of French Canada because their own parents simply do not follow them anymore.

So the first dish was Aspic, my grandmother whom we called Tante Fernande because she was my maternal grandfather’s second wife made this dish every year at Christmas, usually with chicken and green peas. I loved it and there was also the other version with beef which I think was equally good. It was only in Poland in 1998 that I saw it again on the table, we had our Christmas party at the Embassy and the staff made what is called there Galaretka drobiowa, it was sooo good. You will no longer find it in Canada. It originally came from the Court at Versailles, in his old age King Louis XIV had lost his teeth and he could no longer chew food properly, so his chef had to invent new soft food dishes. In Poland Carp which is a very old fish which can grow to a large size and found in ponds of european palaces and in rivers is bought at the market live and kept in the bathtub at home. The day you need to make the dish you wack it to death and then use the meat cut in filet. Our cook would prepare this dish for us and it was wonderful.

The other dish was called Pain Sandwich and that was not a favourite of mine, it was a commercial invention in 1920 to push the sale of white bread. You sliced it on its lenght instead of the usual slices. Use spreadable cream cheese and decorate with pimentos, slices olives and roll up. You then apply mayonnaise on the outer side and roll in chopped up parsley. You can then slice it to make little wheel sandwiches. Tonight at the Club we talked about this in the lounge by the fireplace. Everyone had a story about childhood where their family and relatives would prepare dishes like green jell-o salad with corn and peas, it was so festive and the height of sophistication in the late 1950’s and 60’s. We laughed and realize that today we eat very differently and no one goes to the lenght of work preparation and trouble our mothers, aunts and grandmothers went through.

At Christmas I always look for Orange rind dipped in dark chocolate. It is easy to find in Europe but not so much here where big chocolate corp control the market of sweets. I did find dark chocolate with orange flavour, the thing is shaped like an orange and wrapped in golden paper. It is good but I prefer the taste of orange rind, more chewy, sweet and bitter all at once.

I also got my sister in NYC to get me a new hat, I have specific taste and I wanted a Drilby which is a hat that was worn by Andrei Gromyko. I had bought one in Italy around 2010 and I wore it in Winter only. Could not find anything here in PEI.

We are currently having a fierce wind storm and it is suppose to bring rain later during the night. The same storm pass over NYC earlier. Apparently it will cause some damage and after Fiona about one month ago, people are skittish about power cuts on the Eve of Christmas. The bridge to the mainland closed at 6pm tonight and there is no way to leave the island now, flights are cancelled, moral of this story, do not travel at Holiday time.

We are safe and sound at home. Hope everyone has a good Christmas with my best wishes.

Minus 10 days

Tags

Christmas, Concert, Dresden, Food, Frauenkirche

This week Will cooked 60 sausage rolls. A good recipe where he will caramelize 2 big red onions and then incorporate them with sausage meat, using in this case Bangers. He also made some mince meat pies and I made more of my shortbreads pistachio, cranberry and orange zest.

The weather in the next 36 hours will be rain and sleet with high winds, no snow. Apparently the temperature will be well above average this Winter. I believe it, it’s not cold at all, but that is not good for colds

Found on YouTube a very nice concert given at the Frauen Kirche in Dresden for Advent. This wonderful 90 meter tall church in the German Baroque style was destroyed in February 1945 in the fire bombing of Dresden. It has been totally rebuilt and is spectacular. They hold regular Lutheran services, they also have concerts and recitals and most are on YouTube. The church has 4 organs and its own music school and choir.

We visited several times as it was being rebuilt. Dresden has in the last 25 years been reborn. The concert was on the 11 December with Diana Damrau (Soprano) Mauro Peter (Tenor) Nicole Chirka (Mezzo – Soprano) Martin-Jan Nijhof (Bass – Baritone) Marie Jacquot (Conductor) Staatskapelle Dresden and the choir of the FrauenKirche and the Opera House of Dresden. What is nice about such a concert it allows you to listen to Christmas music which is not the old standards and come from less heard composers. One is René Kollo, Christmas Peace or Gounod, Noel, Cesar Franck, sortie pour Noel.

Advance polls

Tags

City, daschunds, elections, Food, PEI, pizza, voting

Today was the first day of 4 advance voting days before the 7 November date for the Municipal Elections in PEI.

I follow the candidates most of whom I know at a certain level to have spoken to them or met with them since 2018 when I ran for office in Charlottetown. I do remember their stand on various issues and do we ever have lots of urgent and pressing issues in Charlottetown, from housing which is in an acute crisis no matter how much money you have to buy, rent or build. Homelessness in a city of 40K and infrastructure in general in a state of decay or in complete fail mode. A city council that is completely dysfunctional, financial scandals and nepotism on the grand scale.

We also have elections in other towns like Cornwall, Summerside, Stratford and in many small settlements in rural areas. In the smaller settlements, it has been very difficult to find anyone who wishes to run for office, this means the Province has to step in and put those area into trusteeship.

The media in general does not cover much of the election or the candidates, a lot of fluff pieces and roundtables where the candidates make nice statements and every one smiles a lot. You have to appreciate that the media in general in PEI, this includes the National Broadcaster CBC are very gun shy when political topics come to the forefront. The population being so small, you cannot speak of someone without bumping into a relative or an old school chum. People can loose jobs for not voting for a certain candidate, this is why people never want to say who they are going to vote for. The political actors are also pretty much the same gang, related to business or political parties. This year because of FIONA and the tons of debris still laying around, many candidates have no signs. They go door to door instead, but there is a strange apathy amongst the population.

In Charlottetown, we have 3 candidates for Mayor of the Capital ( a big village) one is the incumbent whose own family have been public office holders for several generations, they are also in construction and are well known. The other fellow is someone who is the head of the Landlord and Owners association, a group devoted to defending the privileges of the powerful who are so often maligned. He is also a housing crisis denier. The third fellow is totally unknown and speaks non-stop about abortion which is clearly NOT a municipal issue.

In my Ward which is the old town of Charlottetown of 1779, we have 3 candidates, this is probably the most important Ward in terms of population, tourism, businesses and political power. The population has attracted more and more wealthy people and wide gentrification is underway, tourism yes all the hotels and Air B&B are in Ward one, the cruise ship port is also here and the Legislature and all the government buildings including City Hall. So we have the incumbent who is closely allied and employed by the most powerful business family in PEI. The other candidate is a young women, who made her name by creating a group who organized help in PEI for everyone needing it after FIONA, her efforts have been widely appreciated, the Government being largely absent and totally disorganized or unable to help. The Premier Denny King, a former comedian, thought he would give money to people, a cheque for $250. for anyone asking for it. The Red Cross is handling this charitable endeavour, problem is, the Red Cross has virtually no staff and cannot really do this. The other problem is that a lot of Islanders have no fixed address OR we should say they have 2 addresses, one is formal but they do not live there and the other is informal where they actually live. It makes things complicated when you want to check on the home address of people for official purposes. So the Red Cross has a tough time cross referencing who lives where and who is the the real beneficiary? Ah! the Island way.

The third candidate in Ward 1 is a fellow who believes that the first priority is to build nuclear silos on the docks to prevent an attack by Russia. Yes we always have kooks in every election it provides entertainment.

So I voted and I was the only one there with 6 employees of Election PEI, they were not very busy this morning. In all it took me 3 minutes, in and out. It is all paper ballots with a pencil. I always preferred paper ballots so simple and old fashion and no fuss. There is also a register where you sign your name to indicate that you did come in to vote. All very civilized.

Today I also gave a bath to Nicky and Nora, they don’t like it and Nora knowns something is wrong when she sees us get their towels and soap and run the water. She gets this look in her eyes, too funny. Both needed it and they feel better afterwards. All their blankets were also washed.

Tonight is home made pizza night, fresh made pizza dough, toppings, Fontina and Parmesan cheese, sliced tomatoes, sauté mushrooms and a green pesto sauce. I always prefer a white sauce or a pesto sauce, I am not big on tomato sauce on pizza. In Italy, the variety of pizzas is interesting and ever changing and tomato sauce is not common. Again it looks like it is an Italian immigrant cuisine invention. The pizza is cooked in the oven in a black cast iron skillet pan at 500 F. for a few minutes.

Pizza ready to be cooked toping is arugula Pesto, Mushrooms, slice fresh tomatoes, red onion, Fontina cheese and Parmesan.

Out of the 500 F. oven, ready and delicious.

End of October

Tags

CANCER, Food, inflation, life, spaghetti

Well the weather in PEI so far and despite hurrican Fiona has been very very mild, take today 27C with humidity, that is NOT normal folks and points to a climate crisis. Despite this our politicians will not speak of it, except in bland generalities so as not to scare the horses. Everyone complains about the price of gas and when it is suggested they look at EV cars they claim they are too expensive to buy despite a rebate of $15,000. They also drive a fossil fuel car worth $45,000 so that is not much of a logical arguments and they will wait 30 minutes, motor running, at the drive through for a coffee. Yes people are funny.

I had a bit of a difficult day yesterday, the weather was bad but mild and I was really depressed. I always try to be up and smiling for Will, he is the one who is sick. So being positive is important, though as I told him I do not like to go to the Cancer Treatment Centre, it is a depressing place starting with the lighting and the beige colours. The staff is great and very good. It is also a quiet place unlike the hospital next door which is a zoo.

Our friends on the Island have been great, bringing home made foods and giving support. A friend brought some Borscht, it was excellent, the beets on the Island are very sweet, it makes for a very good soup. Another friend brought a Persian Beef Stew and that too was very good. Others have brought vegetables from their garden and zucchini cake and a very nice piece of paté.

Speaking of food, I saw another spike in food prices yesterday at the grocery store, a few months ago any item was $5 or at least it started at that mark. Now its $10. despite the supply chain arguments, this no longer bear any credibility and it has been revealed that the grocery chains are making record profits in the billions. The Federal Government is finally looking into the matter.

Today the good news is that Will has put on 3 lbs the doctor was happy and he has to put on more. So fatty foods is the solution. Will also made today his spaghetti meat sauce, which is a combination of Veal, Beef, Meat of Italian sausage no casing, there is also carrots, onions, herbs all put into the food processor. Then into the slow cooker for 5 hours and voila. So for dinner I will have spaghetti, looking forward to it.

News

Tags

cake, Food, PEI, zucchini

Well we are at the end of week 3 of treatment. We have 3 more weeks to go. There is progress and that is good news. Thank you to all who have sent good wishes, it is very much appreciated.

We are coming to the end of October already, time is flying so quickly, I am surprised by how fast events come and go.

We had a visit today by a friend and we sat outside it was such a beautiful day. She lives with her family in the St-Peter’s Harbour area, quite a lovely area of the Island, it is also where the Greenwich National Park is located. They have a large garden and we got some bounty of vegetables. So this evening I am having a large salad for dinner.

Will today made a Sweet Potato Cake, it is very good and an easy recipe to follow.

Our friend also brought some zucchini cake and it is wonderful. The weather is cooler but the brilliant sunshine makes all the difference.

Voting card and Spaghetti squash

Tags

Election, Food, squash, sweet potatoes, voting

We are in the midst of a Municipal Elections in the various villages and towns on the Island. The vote is on 7 November, but we can vote as early as 29 October. In some municipalities no one wants to run for Office and the incumbent is retiring, the question is who will govern such places? Would they come under trusteeship of the Provincial Government?

In Charlottetown, we have some Councillors who are retiring, some are re-offering and should not. In the 10 Wards many are single candidate meaning they you are elected by acclamation, not a good thing. For Mayor there is 3 candidate but only one is very well known and a previous unsuccessful candidate, one is totally unknown and of course the out going mayor who is not very popular, due to too many scandals and mistakes not to mention a lack of judgement.

We received our voting cards today, people here are automatically registered to vote based on their home address and health cards and or driver’s licence, very simple process. NO there is no voter fraud. At the voting place you have to show your health card or driver’s licence to get a ballot. Strangely enough, a lot of people do not bother to vote, but municipal government is the closest thing to the citizens and the city provides basic services like garbage removal, snow removal, public works. Also in Charlottetown, this being a big village everyone knows the Mayor and his family and the Councillors, you may have been to school with them. So it is very direct democracy.

This time of the year is squash time in many sizes and types of, selling at many farms for $2 or so. Squash are very good to eat and very filling. Last night found an easy recipe with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice. I also cooked some chicken thighs in the oven and drizzled pesto over it. Made a nice dinner.

Yellow Spaghetti squash like the name indicates once cooked it comes out like spaghetti, you can mix it up with any pasta sauce and parmesan.

I also bought a buttercup squash and will find a recipe for that one.

Recently I developed a taste for Sweet potatoes and Red Sweet Potatoes, Will has a recipe for sweet potato cake and we are making that tomorrow. I find that a sweet potato has more taste than the regular potato. Easy to cook in the oven and just good as is.

Speaking of Will, he has now completed week 3 of treatments and it is going well. So 3 more weeks to go.

Boeuf haché a la Lyonnaise

Tags

books, cuisine, Food, Lyon, Stalin

So for dinner tonight in celebration of our dear friend Urs Spo, https://sporeflections.wordpress.com who was suppose to be here with us but with all the airline snafu could not make it, we decided to go ahead and celebrate. If he had been here we would have had Champagne, Lobster and Oysters, what he would have liked. Oh zut alors, we will have to do this another time.

The recipe is simple, it is as you can tell by the title a hamburger recipe served bun-less and always with a sauce and it is name after the City of Lyon.

You will need Lean ground beef

INGREDIENTS

Nutrition

• ³⁄₄cup finely minced yellow onion
• 2 tablespoons  butter
• 1 ¹⁄₂lbs extra lean ground beef
• 2 tablespoons marrow or 2 tablespoons fresh pork fat
• 1 ¹⁄₂teaspoons  salt
• ¹⁄₈teaspoon  pepper
• ¹⁄₈teaspoon  thyme
• 1 egg
• ¹⁄₂cup  flour, spread on a plate
• 1 tablespoon  butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• ¹⁄₂1/2 cup  red wine or 1/4 cup  water
• 2 -3 tablespoons  butter

DIRECTIONS

• Cook the onions slowly in 2 Tablespoons of butter (about 10 mins) until tender not browned.
• Place onions in mixing bowl. Add the beef, butter (or suet, marrow or pork fat) the seasonings and the egg; mix well.
• Form into patties 3/4″ thick.
• Cover & refrigerate till ready to use.
• Just before sautéing, roll the patties lightly in flour.
• Shake off any excess flour.
• Place butter and oil in heavy skillet over med-high heat.
• When butter foam begins to subside, saute the patties for about 3 minutes per side (or more depending upon how you like your burger).
• Place burgers on serving platter and keep warm while finishing the sauce.
• Pour fat out of the skillet and discard.
• Add stock (or wine, vermouth or water) and boil down rapidly.
• Scraping up the coagulated pan juice till reduced to almost a syrup.
• Off heat, swirl 2-3 Tablespoons of butter into the sauce – 1/2 Tablespoon at a time until absorbed into the sauce.
• Pour the sauce over the hamburgers and serve.

the finished product.

Today also our cleaning lady came and completed washing the windows. It looks so much better now. It was a hot sunny day today at 24C with a breeze. I am continuing to read my new book on Stalin’s Library, a story about his 25,000 book library and what happened to it after his death, really interesting and it gives you a real picture into who he was as a person independent of the persona we know as the dictator. It involves a lot of details about his parents, childhood in Gori, Georgia and his life before the revolution of 1917, his education. Stalin (man of Steel) is nom de plume so to speak was born Joseph Vissarionovich Dzughashvili. Stalin was an avid reader and an intellectual but also a fanatic in terms of politics. I will review further the book once I am done reading it. I do have one thing in common with Stalin, Emile Zola was is favourite writer, I read Zola and I also find it to be a great writer of his period in France.