Getting ready

Tags

cuisine, Food, Friends, home, Noël, ornaments, PEI, Tree

This Monday we had another Birthday party for Will this time with a few friends across the Street at the Water Prince, we had Malpeque Oysters, Lobster and Halibut one of my favourite fish. Will had coconut cream pie made on the premises, it is so good. A friend who is a baritone and actor came in to sing Happy Birthday to the boy who was surprised. It was a fun afternoon.

Well we are getting ready for the Holidays, Will has been cooking up a storm, muffins, cookies, Christmas Puddings 2 big and 2 small, a very rich recipe with lots of Brandy. He also made bread (no machine) by hand, mince meat pies (45) small ones. Today it was Tourtière or French Canadian Meat pie, something English Canadians find exotic and cannot make on their own, one of those strange Canadian Factoids. The Tourtière is no longer made with the Tourte Bird which is extinct since 1914. It is a mixture of veal, pork and beef, very nice and the smell in the kitchen screams Christmas Season. This meat pie should not be confused with the Acadian Meat pie which is a very different recipe and preparation, made of shredded beef and mash potatoes. The Acadians live in the Maritimes in Canada and are a distinct French speaking group from other French Canadians in Canada. We already have a year old Fruit Cake soaking in Brandy which is a traditional gift from our Friend John in Ottawa. Every year for the last 38 years no matter where we might be in the World, he makes one for us and sends it to us. It is truly a marvel unlike any other Fruit cake I know of.

Our one and only Pointsettia which is a mixture of pink, red and yellow, it stands 2 feet across.

We are going to make Amuse gueule for our Xmas Eve Party, note that I use the old French culinary expression Amuse gueule and NOT Amuse bouche which is so common today amongst the prissy class. The word gueule is an old French word and refers to the mouth of the lion or wolf, meaning that the food in small bites is so good you devour it. The new expression means nothing to me and is frankly silly, a bit like saying; Oh I will have one but should not because I’m on a diet. Well then honey let me show you the door.

I am looking for a good Stilton Cheese and I may have found one today. No Stilton is not like other blue cheese. Stilton is an English cheese, produced in two varieties: Blue, which has had Penicillium roqueforti added to generate a characteristic smell and taste and White. I want the Blue. Which I will put into a light pastry and served hot.  Will also wants to make other little bouchées for our guests. We will also have sweets like the mince meat mini tarts. We make all of this from scratch which means that I go out with long lists of ingredients.

Cheese star crackers made with very old Cheddar for that extra sharp taste, you cannot eat only one.

Mince Meat tarts, first make the mince meat and store in jars and then the pastry and assemble. Again very nice to have with a drink or coffee.

Today I also went to the dentist for a cleaning and well I was told I have beautiful teeth, again the Colgate poster kid, what can I say… Afterwards came home and polished the famous 30 Sterling Silver Christmas balls and the 10 Towle Sterling Silver Floral Ornaments,  so tomorrow we can decorate the tree. We have Delft ornaments this year to add after our trip to The Netherlands. Photos coming.

Sterling Silver ornaments all hand polished each year. Neiman Marcus has them each year.

We have our menu planned for Lunch on Christmas day, we will be 6 people. As for New Year’s Eve I really don’t know at this time, I prefer to either stay at home or maybe we will go to the Club for a drink. Then for January 1, 2020, Levée Day in PEI, I am wondering if I will go either to volunteer at Government House or to the Club. Not sure what to do. In either case you greet hundreds of people in 2 hours, a little exhausting.

So it is all coming together. Not to forget there is also Hanukkah on 22 December, in fact every year at Christmas lunch we give our guests some chocolate geld which come in the form of Canadian $1 and $2 dollar coins.

 

 

 

 

 

25%

Tags

Charlottetown, Christmas, PEI, poverty

Here in PEI with the approaching Holiday Season the many, many campaigns to help the poor are underway. Every year it’s the same story, tons and tons of food and clothing are collected for poor children and poor families. PEI is the smallest Province of Canada and our total population is 150,000, that is the equivalent of one neighbourhood in Montreal or Toronto.  The Provincial Capital Charlottetown has a population of 36,000. a small town really.  If you visit PEI from May to September like most tourists do, you will see zero poverty, we are very good at hiding it. You will see beautiful properties, manicured gardens, beautiful clean beaches and tons of greenery. We are known as the garden province. Restaurants serve lobster and seafood to tourists but that is not the diet of poor people who are reduced to eating food from the large food banks, mostly canned goods, powdered milk and other non-perishable. If you look on the internet you will find no photos of impoverished areas anywhere on the Island, it is all about affluence and pretty snapshots to maintain the myth and to make tourists happy.

Speaking with doctor friends about their daily encounter with poor people they mention a lot of mental health problems caused by poverty. We also have a zero housing vacancy which creates another layer of difficulties. At the moment and for the last 3 years the old original Downtown of Charlottetown is going through extensive gentrification. Properties which were former mansions or large houses turned into rooming houses are now being sold and thoroughly renovated and re-sold as luxury condos or high rent apartments pushing out a precarious population. For a small town we also have 800 Air B&B or STR as they are called now. The owners at the moment pay no taxes on such units and it is enormously lucrative. Most are not registered as STR’s and many do not meet the fire code regulations but no check is being made by the City.  New regulations are coming in 2020 but again we are dealing with powerful and wealthy people who are very well connected, this is a small place after all.

PEI also has the lowest minimum wages in all of Canada, so the waiter or the store clerk you meet is making a pittance a day in salary. In many ways the history of this Canadian Province is far from progressive and in its history from Colony to Province (1755 to today) the wealthy landowners and business people have ruled with arrogance and impunity.

So Officially according to the Department of Statistics of Canada the level of poverty in PEI is 15% and the number of children living in poverty in Charlottetown alone is 25% according to 2017 figures, that would be 9,000 children, an incredible number.

So in December the CBC will have a charity drive usually hosted by the local Weather guy collecting turkeys for families who cannot afford a meal at Christmas. The Churches will do free concerts for all. The Food Bank will collect food and many gifts come from large companies who have surpluses like ADL the big dairy producer. Many farmers will give excess potatoes from the last harvest. The media in general will interview donors and thank them for their generosity. But the poor themselves are mostly invisible, no interviews for them, no photo-ops. Last year the Feed a Family Campaign collected over 2000 turkeys. Other social clubs will give away free meat pies, upwards of 100 per day until Christmas Eve. Clothing for children, toys and cash donations are also taken.

Of course such charity drives exist in all cities and communities during the Holiday Season, however it is more shocking here on this small Island given the small population. I am aware of the need in the City but someone pointed out to me the need also exist and is more acute in rural areas where people are very isolated and often must make a choice between buying fuel to heat the house or food.

I wish our politicians would try to seriously address the housing shortage and minimum wage crisis more effectively and our Media stop presenting these Charity Campaign as a great gesture from the well to do for the deserving poor.  The current system is entrenched and keeps the poor in this vicious circle. Lack of education, lack of opportunities, lack of meaningful jobs and clean housing is part of a societal change required for PEI. This situation is nothing to be proud of PEI.

 

 

Wonderful Happy Hour

Tags

Birthdays, Charlottetown, clam chowder, Friends, lobster, Oysters, PEI, Seafood

Today was a bright but cold sunny day,  tomorrow a storm is coming and it will not be fun. Around 3pm we got a call from across the street from friends asking us to come and have a drink at the Water Prince Corner Shop our local and famous seafood restaurant.

Shane and his son Coady Campbell are the owners and it is all about quality seafood, oysters and lobsters in a simple decor. We went and met our friends over oysters on the half shell, Shrimps in cocktail sauce, Clam chowder and lobster with white wine, what a wonderful happy hour it was. Never going back to peanuts and chips or whatever.

We will repeat this experience next Monday for another Birthday. It was great fun and gave us that wonderful feeling of ” Oh life is so good here”.

Roast Beef recipe

Tags

cuisine, Food, PEI, Recipe, Roast Beef

We buy our meat directly from a Farm outside Charlottetown about 20 minutes from us. The quality is very high and the butcher Drake knows his stuff. It is far better than what we use to buy at the grocery store. This month we got a roast beef about 3.5 lbs and last month we also got a roast beef same size. I also got a Veal roast which is my favorite but here in PEI it is very difficult to get, simply not on offer, I am told.

So I am trying this recipe below on the link and it all seems to be going very well, we invited guests for dinner. This being a long weekend, Remembrance Day 11 November, tomorrow will be super quiet and the only ceremony is at the Cenotaph at 11 am.

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roast_beef

The Weather has turned cold around 5 C. which is 40 F. and very windy, a cold Atlantic wind around 40Km per hour, though bright sun shine.

 

41 Months

Tags

bigots, Canadians, myths, PEI

We have lived on this Island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence for 41 months. Prince Edward Island is the smallest province geographically and population wise. Prior to 1769 it was part of the Colony of Nova Scotia (Now Province of ), in 1769 the Island of St-John became an independent colony of British North America and in 1799 the name of the Island was changed to Prince Edward Island to celebrate one of the many sons of King George III and Queen Charlotte. It turns out that Edward would be the father of Victoria, later Queen. He died in 1820, the year after her birth, so Victoria never knew her father.

The French known as Acadians settled on the Island from 1720 coming mostly from Isle Royale (Cape Breton) and the peninsula we know today as Nova Scotia. Most lived in the Eastern part of the Island until 1750 when they were deported in an act of genocide by British troops, when some later returned after 1770, they settle in the Western part of the Island without any compensation since their farms and houses had been confiscated to be given the English settlers.

So in the developing history of this Island province land ownership became an important topic from the beginning. To this day Island families identify by Lot number and everyone knows where each Lot is located around the Island, indicating ownership but also belonging to the first English, Irish, Scottish settlers after the French. Renting is seen as suitable only for people who are poor and marginal or persons coming to the Island for a short time i.e. 6 months or less.

We rented, in Ontario and Quebec total population 22 million compared to 150,000 in Pei, 75% of the population rent, owning a house is not seen as a priority and is becoming more and more unaffordable.

However in conversation with people we know, the topic of ownership of home comes back all the time. Some people we know own dozens of houses and buildings, including large tracts of land. This in PEI is seen as a sign of great success, of gravitas. People know we rent and will ask; so when are you buying a house or a condo? Why don’t you buy a house since you live here permanently now. Gently being nudge into the real estate market. I always wonder if we would look more acceptable, respectable, more solid kind of folk, if we bought a house. We have owned properties in the past. Currently being renters and living in a house which has stood on this site for 180 years, people know who the original owner was and who is the owner now. Who rented before us, with accompanying stories about them. The rental situation here now is dire with zero vacancy in Charlottetown. As for the housing market it is limited and prices have risen dramatically in the last 3 years. So the question, inflated value for money spent, comes into play.

So the underlying question of these round about conversations is; Why are you not buying? An indirect way of saying, do you have money? Are you worth my talking to you.

The population of the Island is divided along the lines of people whose families have lived here for the last 200 years and those who came here recently, most of whom are Canadians from other Provinces and now some immigrants, though they do not stay in PEI, the Island province has by far the worst retention of newcomers (immigrant) of any Province in Canada. The reasons for this are multiple, lack of housing, lack of jobs or well paid jobs with benefit, lack of quality schools, lack of international airport, the closest one is in Moncton some 2 hours away by road across the Strait and difficulty for anyone who comes here to integrate. It is especially difficult for foreigners and simply difficult for Canadians who come to work or retire in PEI. The Government of the Province does not appear concerned, though it is loosing millions annually in lost investments and opportunity.

So socially speaking the Island divides itself into segments, those who are from away and those who are Islanders. It remains a very white Island and diversity is not really a thing though politicians talk a lot about it.

So all this to say we have been here 41 months and though we have been active socially, I often wonder if we have not reached a plateau now. If you come to live here and think it will be like the rest of Canada, no it won’t in many ways this small Island is a world of its own cut off from the rest of the country, a microcosm you simply have to accept that but you do not have to buy into the myths about this place. I see how other Canadians who came here and invested are treated, polite indifference.

I don’t think we fully realized this when we came here 41 months ago. To be continued…

The bridge across the Northumberland Strait. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we come to the end of August

Tags

Beach, Charlottetown, Europe, Food, Parade, PEI, Restaurants

In PEI after Old Home Week 15 August, the last week of August feels like the end of the tourist Season, families disappear over night replaced by older couples with no kids. Motel and camp grounds empty and you know that as of 1 September tourist spots and restaurants catering to them will start to close. We will still have Cruise ship traffic until November but there will be less to do for the tourists.

The PEI Tourism Board has tried to lenghten the Season into a shoulder Season at least until mid-December but that is very difficult, the merchants are not interested for the most part. They made their money and now they move to Florida for the next six months. In the Spring we would benefit from early opening of tourist restaurants and bars around 15 April because the first Cruise ships do arrive on 1 May. But no, that again is difficult to do, many businesses open around 1 June, this makes for a very short Season.

Despite promising myself I would go to the beach this Summer we never went, until 15 July the weather was cold and miserable and then it became hot and unpleasant. We are both busy with volunteer work and one thing after another and we stayed in town.

We did go to Rustico to the Watermark theatre and discovered a new restaurant with very good food owned by a Portuguese couple. We also attended our friend S.D. Summer party in New Glasgow which is always fun. We went to Victoria by the Sea to see our friend J.D. at his antique shop. The Landmark Café has a new owner and it is great food and service as always. There were some other social engagements but other than that not much really.

On Monday we travel to catch a flight to Amsterdam which will make for a complete change of venue. Our friend B.P. is coming from Ottawa to babysit the puppies.

In the meantime here are some photos of our Old Home Week parade which is such a tradition here in Charlottetown in August.

The Royal Canadian Navy from HMCS Charlottetown

Lots of ACADIAN flags since the World Congress was taking place in August.  Looks like the flag of France but it has a Yellow Star on it.

The Lieutenant Governor of PEI with her Aide de Camp in the carriage.

The Belfast PEI, Bag pipes, they practice in the park across the street from our home. Nice group.

The Canadian Army PEI Regiment with their regimental flag (Black and yellow)

The float of the Mayor and City Councillors in a canoe no less.

The Royal Canadian Air Force Band

The Mi’kmaq of Abegweit (AKA PEI)

And the best band of the parade bar none, a group of music teachers and professional musicians including the Green Party Leader, who is also leader of the Official Opposition in the PEI Legislature plays the trumpet, talk of versatile politician. This group is known for its zany costumes, always a big hit with the crowd.

 

Gold Cup and Saucer Parade day

Tags

Bloody Cesar, Canada., deportation, genocide, PEI

On 15 August 2019 we celebrate the 135 th Anniversary of the Acadian People celebrated at the World Congress right here in L’Acadie known today as the Maritimes. The flag is based on the colours of France with a yellow Star symbol of the Virgin Mary patron of the Acadian people (Stella Maris). Thousands of Acadians were violently deported by the British in 1755 from what is today the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. An act of ethnic genocide on a people who lived peacefully and did not want to get involved in Imperial wars between Britain and France.

But the Acadians came back, the World congress celebrates their presence today in Canada. Here in PEI we are having an Island wide cultural festival with many Acadian Artists.

 

At the request of many I am publishing here the recipe for Canada’s Official Cocktail, the Bloody Cesar.

DID YOU KNOW

To commemorate the inauguration of an Italian restaurant in 1964, Calgary bartender Walter Chell created Bloody Caesar. Chell took his inspiration from the Bloody Mary, but added clam juice to the mix, he spent a few weeks crushing some of these molluscs, until he managed to achieve the perfect balance with the tomato juice. More Bloody Caesars are sold in Canada than any other cocktail. A wonderful picker-upper in the morning.

INGREDIENTS

45 ml (1 1/2 oz.) vodka
120 ml (4 oz.) Motts Clamato juice
5 ml (1 tsp.) Worcestershire sauce
A few drops of red Tabasco sauce
1 lemon wedge
Celery salt
Ice cubes
Salt and pepper
A fresh sprig of Celery

DIRECTIONS

Frost the rim of a highball glass containing a few ice cubes with the lemon and celery salt.
Add all the ingredients.
Stir using a mixing spoon.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Garnish with a fresh sprig of celery.

Canada’s drink. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Ferragosto

Tags

Ferragosto, Italy, Le Marche, Old Home Week, PEI, Pesaro

Ferragosto 2019 is upon us, in Charlottetown it’s Old Home Week with harness racing and parades, my neighbour already reminded us to not forget to come over for a stiff drink usually a Bloody Cesar, Canada’s Official Cocktail and food at 10am an old island tradition, no one misses the parade. It will be our fourth, yes 4 years already on the Island, time flies. This is also the peak or height of tourist season and signals also the end of the Season, after 16 August suddenly tourists vanish.

In Italy Ferragosto is the beginning of the Summer vacation for everyone, I mean everyone. It is pretty much the same in other European countries. Time to pack up and leave the cities for the beach, the mountains, the countryside. Leave the towns to the tourists. Everything shuts down and if you decide to stay in town better plan ahead because shopping is restricted and difficult to manage. ATMs machines run out of cash and gas stations are only open for a few hours if at all.

For us it was the best of time of the year, we would travel to Le Marche region on the Adriatic for spectacular towns, food, wine and festivals. A relax quiet time by the seaside and evenings at the opera.

We would stay in Pesaro, visit Rimini and Urbino a few minutes away.

Since Seafood is important on PEI, it is equally important in Pesaro and our favorite restaurant was Ristorante Bristolino “Lorenzo e Bibo” which use to be on the sea front at the Bristol hotel. However in 2015 it closed and just re-opened to the delight of its many fans on Via Mazzolari 54 in the centre of the city. Incredible quality of seafood and dishes so well prepared and presented with flair. So happy to see them back in action. Will wrote about this restaurant and so did I in my blog.

We came of course to Pesaro for the yearly Opera Festival to its most famous son, Gioachino  Rossini. We would drive from Rome on excellent Italian roads through scenic and dramatic at times, mountain views.

City centre park, Piazzale della Liberta, the Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro has left his golden sphere monuments all over the world. One of them has become the symbol of Pesaro in Le Marche. Tell any person from Pesaro that you’ll meet them at ‘la palla di Pomodoro’, and they instantly know where to go.

Wishing everyone a Felice Ferragosto!

 

PRIDE PEI

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, LGBTQ, PEI

Well today was the 25th edition of the Pride Parade and it was big. Everyone is in it, families, grand-parents and grand-kids, politicians of all stripes, the Armed Forces, the RCMP, the local police and just plain people, all celebrating and having fun. The parade is one of the events of the week of celebration all around the Island and here in Charlottetown.

The parade snakes around the downtown core through residential areas and people are 5 row deep. Remember this is a town of 36K, so not a big place but PRIDE makes it big.

We had a great deal of fun at the Parade today and saw so many people. At the end of the Parada there was a party in one of the city square and the Premier of the Province said a few words. Live music with local artists and just a nice time in the shade.

This Island has come a long way in 25 years and it is amazing.

PRIDE Flag at the PEI Regiment base

The Haviland Club

The Canadian Navy with their float

The orange theme float of the NDP (political party) the leader is holding a Pride flag with the smily on it.

Some young conservative who had T-shirts with the letters PC (progressive conservative) in rainbow colours.

Lots of Unicorns at this parade.

Green Party Youth group

This is S. my videographer during my campaign with his girlfriend dressed as Ms Kitty, she has a big following on YouTube, such nice people.

Grafton Street, it was 27 C in the Sun today but a nice breeze was blowing.

Everyone wearing are with the Green Party, the Official Opposition in the Provincial Legislature. The Greens have had a pretty good start since the election passing some important bills on reduction of Carbon emissions to 1.2 megatons by 2030 instead of the Paris agreement of 1.4 megatons. This is why a minority government is a good thing, gets things done.

The parade certainly had all the colours of the rainbow and then some. There are no big floats like in other cities, it is just local people celebrating, all ages and backgrounds. Which makes it fun.

Tonight there is a huge party at the DELTA Hotel in the ballroom. Seems like everyone is going.

 

 

Listening

Tags

Crisis, doom, fishkill, Oil, PEI, plastics, pollution, the end

This week CBC radio host Paul Kennedy retires from Ideas after many a years. Ideas as the title indicates is about discussing topics about our world, it is well done with many scholars, writers, philosophers who present their views based often on books or research they have done for years on a topic which affects how our human society functions and evolves. Paul Kennedy has a relaxing, pleasant mature voice, easy to listen to.

Today the topic was Climate Change and was part of his acting as moderator of the Muskoka conference in Ontario. The question was: Are we doomed?

Currently, if several polls are to be believed, some 84% of Canadians are very concerned about Climate Change and what is happening all around us. Here in PEI in the last 12 months we have seen changes with rapid erosion of the soft coast line, projection show that in 50 years the City of Charlottetown and surroundings will have disappeared under water. The Island at most stands about 30 feet above the sea level in some areas and as little as 3 feet in others. The Winter started early in November and ended late towards end April, the Spring Fishing Season was delayed 2 weeks due to storms and the planting Season for agriculture was also delayed to mid-June. The Summer so far has been cool and rainy. This has an impact on fishers, farmers and the tourism industry. The Chamber of Commerce says that tourism is down 50% this year due to poor weather. I believe it, it is abnormally quiet.

All around the world, if you care to read, it’s one big heat wave and huge storms, more unusual than the next. Nature is dying all around us, it is much more than melting ice caps or rising water levels. Entire species have disappeared, over fishing has depleted the oceans, plastic pollution everywhere. The statistics are frightening and still politicians and the public dither.

Despite all this, most people pretend it is not happening or simply cannot cope with the magnitude of the crisis. Some experts in the field believe it is too late to save ourselves. There is no Planet B.

On Ideas, some of the speakers said that if extreme measures are taken we  could slow down the process or reverse it, an example the town of Sudbury in Ontario, pop 164,000 where 100 years of nickel mining had by 1960 transformed the entire area into a moon scape with a strong odour of sulphur, people still lived there. However in the last 40 years an aggressive program of cleaning and reforesting involving intensive action by several groups with the support of the local authorities have turned the tide and now despite having some 50,000 hectares still to be rehabilitated, Sudbury has been transformed for the better. The City has 300 lakes over 25 acres within city limits, natural beauty which is being brought back.

But is is not the case everywhere, in most places there is resistance to doing anything at all. Here in PEI constant resistance against electric cars, the City of Charlottetown turned down the opportunity to develop a bike path through the city core, bought diesel buses instead of electric, allows cancer causing pesticides to be spread to keep lawns green, City Councillors cannot see the importance of saving bees, are putting an asphalt plant in a semi rural residential area, etc.. The easy justification is jobs, it seems that jobs trump every other concern, obtuse thinking rule.

How do you educate a population who refuses to listen, should we just let the crisis take over, it seems human nature learns better when a catastrophe strikes.

Last Thursday the Legislature of the Province passed a bill to reduce CO2 emissions by 1.2 megatonnes by 2030, instead of the Paris Accord agreement of 1.4 megatonnes. Still 6 conservative members of the government refused to go along, they collectively simply do not believe in climate change, it’s a hoax. The majority in this case got its way, now we have to figure out how to achieve this target, won’t be easy. How do you bring on-board towns and settlements when our politicians don’t understand the gravity of the problem.

As it was pointed out on Ideas,  you can build infrastructure to stop flooding and erosion, you cannot save nature when irreversible trends are happening, this we do not control. So maybe we will avert the worse but there is no guarantees and I am not hopeful.

At my age this is not really a concern because if I have 20 years to live, I will be dead and gone by the time the crisis is irreversible. What is sad is for children or anyone under 40 they will live through it.

Photo; Alberta Tar Sand exploitation and the environmental disaster it creates. Yet some people see nothing wrong with this picture. A picture of death near Edmonton.