Thanksgiving

Just so I don't appear insensitive, and in case anyone missed my e-mails, I want to take this opportunity to live up to the name of the occasion. Thanksgiving is a great time to thank everyone who helped us out along the way, be they family, friends, or strangers. It was truly an amazing trip, and adjusting to life is hard now. I just want to hit the road again and tear off.

So though I had two massive family dinners for thanksgiving, I only got a few pictures. It works that way when you've been away and go to a big family occasion. Most of the time is occupied catching up, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Here are a couple shots to give a brief overview.


Pumpkin pie with whip

Guava and mustard roasted pork loin.

Leftover pork turned breakfast sandwich. Blue cheese and red onion on toasted rye.

Oh yeah, and I'm staging at a couple restaurants around Ottawa right now, as well as making beer and apple cider with the pops. Check back for that stuff.

Home At Last, but far from done.

So I wasn't entirely sure whether or not I would be continuing this goofy thing, but as it turns out, I think I'm going to keep it running. Yesterday I was twenty feet above the ground in an apple tree, smacking the last of a bunch of massive wolf rivers out of the twisted branches, when it hit me. Apples in the face really hurt. Beyond that, I also realized that a food blog really can't have a beginning or end, you just sort of have to slide in and check it out for as long as you can. When you are finished, someone else will do something twice as interesting. All you can hope for is that they check you out first so they avoid repeats.

I love food, and I'd be pretty frustrated with my life and the general state of the world without it. I'm still frustrated with the general state of the world, but at least I have something I can enjoy working with when it gets to be too much. Plus, I can help change things as best I can. The food industry needs explorers and people to help discover it's depths, I'm honored by and happy to undergo the task. I'm going to keep this blog open, sort of blogging and chronicling my experience as a developing cook in serious Canadian kitchens. And other kitchens, depending on where I end up going. I hope you all keep tabs, and see me somewhere along the way.

As a note to the wrapping up at the end of the trip, I'm absolutely bound to say it, but it's true, I thank everyone from the deepest depths of heart for their support and help along the way. This trip would have been nothing without the people in Canada, making and shaping the food culture we live in. Nowhere have I seen so much outpouring of not only respect and education, but aid, support, and awesome products for us to work with. To everyone who follows the blog, everyone we met, and everyone who had a couple kind words when it was tough, thank you so much, I can't say it seriously enough. Though I often make grandiose plans for the future when I really have no idea what lays there, I like to think I'll do this trip again in a couple years. Revisiting places to see how Canada is growing, the pace at which things are changing, and just to see the amazing people we've had the honor of meeting on the way. Cheers again and I wish you all the best in the future.

The pictures along the way are gratuitous snapshots of my experience picking apples yesterday. It's an awesome thing. I got to play monkey with an excuse for the first time in some time, and even joined up a few local farms in pressing for fresh apple juice. If you can stomach it, there is nothing like a couple glasses of fresh pressed juice while you work. The air was crisp and cool, aromas of apples floating around, and people sort of working and playing all at once, and all for the reward of pure lovely cider. It helps if you accomplish the task with ancient machinery, a basket screw press and a reconfigured grape crusher do the trick. So I now have twenty litres of fresh apple cider in my basement, which will slowly, over the course of the winter, become hard apple cider, and then with a little more goading, vinegar. I'm excited for the results and as they say, I'll keep you posted.

Much love.

The Last Meal

For our last meal, we decided to do decadence. Foie pate with roasted rye and a cranberry shallot compote. Delicious, simple and a great cap off to a great voyage.

The Route Home

So we're back on the trailhead home. Trip has been more than a success and we only have a few small stops to make on the way back. The foie gras farm that we missed is one of them. Or so we thought. After powering through the vast majority of New Brunswick and stopping to eat crappy poutine in Edmunston, we spend the night in St. Apollinaire. The town is only on our map because of a farm known as "le Canard Goulu". It's a traditional small-scale Quebec foie farm, with a loyal base and what at first appears to be open visitation to the farm. It becomes clear on arrival that it's merely a storefront, not a real farm. There is, however, a petting zoo in the back, which, much to our chagrin, doesn't have any ducks with big livers. So we bought a small pate and decided to move on, disappointed that one our finale highlights was going to go down as a failure. The storefront is pretty and all, but that isn't what we came for.

Thankfully the second promised to make up for it. A friend from Quebec had given us her sister's number on our first drive through. Her sister is an owner of a wicked cranberry farm in Quebec. To be precise, the second largest farm in Quebec. And so young as owners, it's extremely impressive. Her husband took us in his massive ford to roll around the farm. In what is an extremely base example, the farm is basically a bunch of trenches dug out to produce cranberries. As it turns out, with a large capital investment, you can do a lot with cranberries. After the initial hit in the bank, they basically take care of themselves. Very hardy, easy to maintain, they choke out weeds and live through the winter if cared for properly. Once planted, the plant is good for life.

The harvest is also a point of real interest. They flood the entire field before running an agitator tractor through the lot to loosen the cranberries. The cranberries float to the surface, then are dragged by a massive hose between tractors on either side of the field. At the end they are being dragged to is a massive suction hose which runs them up to a conveyor to a truck, the water is sucked up and drained into the next pond. The filter also gets a lot of the branches and leaves out.

Once the truck is full, it goes to the sorting house, where it gets graded and separated into bins. Another interesting note is wintering. Cranberries winter well, but before winter, they flood the trenches again to cover the plants. This water will freeze, but ironically, stays warmer than the air, and won't kill the plants.
Another super interesting innovation. On top of letting us come into Quebec and checking out their farm, they also gave us free reign on a cranberry patch, to pick what we could. We probably only took two pounds, but they go a long way and they are extremely annoying to pick by hand. I have to thank both Christine and Seb for their hospitality and for letting us get our hands on fresh cranberries, something I don't think I've ever had before the last few days. I actually just finished cooking the last of them about an hour ago.

After the cranberries we hit the road to Ottawa, the end, and only one more stop before that. For the record, the drive back featured the most poetry inspiring leaves in the entire world. The changing colours are nature's insanity at it's finest. Too bad I'm no poet.

Halifax

Halifax is a beautiful and foggy place, with the amount of fog only equal to the amount of university students thronging it's streets. We were staying with a really good friend of mine, and didn't have much planned. It turned out to be a great last city, and a nice finale meal was in store for us at a local restaurant. We had a great time in the city, managing to fit in some fish and chips, a trip to the maritime museum, a quick visit to an SMU football game, and a great dinner in just two short days.

We first hit the museum, got sunk into a little history. We were particularly interested in the Halifax explosion, as I didn't know much about it. Turns out it was the biggest man made explosion before Hiroshima. Pretty epic stuff, and all because some idiots couldn't drive their boats properly. There is also an impressive array of model boats, some done extremely detailed. All in all a pretty worthwhile experience, though not much in the food department.

After the museum we met up with our delightful hosts for a few seconds before visiting a local restaurant to see what's going on in Halifax. The restaurant is known as Chives and bills itself as an all-canadian bistro. Cool concept, and I was recommended to check it out by two maritime chefs. Craig Flynn, the chef at Chives, is one of the chefs pushing the hardest to use local products in Halifax. He has an impressive array in his reach, so that's understandable. The maritimes boast some amazing food production, with everything from seaweed to beef and most stops in between. There is absolutely no reason there aren't more restaurants utilizing local products. It's coming around slowly. Craig, however, wasn't present when we first checked in, he was out visiting a producer, so we spoke with George. George is the front-of-house manager, and a genuinely nice guy. He not only gave us a brief overview of what the restaurant is, but also where they want to go and how they intend to do it. He even convinced us to come in for dinner the following evening. Slick talker to say the least.

Following the visit to chives we went to Sara's and made bouillabaisse, basically an ultra-classic fish soup, and though we were missing a couple components, it came out decent but lacking something. Actually, making it this time made me determined to try it again soon and really concentrate on getting the maximum flavour out of the ingredients, and seeing if I can simplify to be really tasty, rustic soup. As it was intended to be, I think.

After bouillabaisse we hit the town, played a new(new to me) drinking game called murderball, and went to a bar that serves outrageously cheap drinks. Needless to say the next morning wasn't pleasant. I haven't been such a slouch in a long while. In any case, we did make it out of the house in time for dinner at 5, and arrived at chives fashionably late.

The dinner was really a nice finish off to the trip. The food at Chives is really uncomplicated, direct, and tasty. Chef Craig was kind enough to do a overview tasting menu for us, and we basically got the gist of what he is shelling out for his loyal patrons. I didn't take pictures of every course, but I did of a few. All in all it was a stellar experience, especially with local wines to pair with every course helping round out the feeling of place. Excellent stuff.

After chives we took a roundabout route through a football game home. It was time to take it easy, we were still suffering from the night previous, and now stuffed to the brim with food, so sleep was near, and movement was far away. Definitely a decent day, regardless of the vicious hangover. Funny how food can do that.

The following day we ran by the farmer's market for a quick bite to eat and some easy lunch before departing Nova Scotia. Its a beautiful market, brand new and seeking LEED certification for it's environmental initiatives. Jammed with people, probably one of the most well attended farm markets of the trip. Amazing market and products. Goodbye Nova Scotia!

East Coast Scallops.

I feel it prudent to mention we ate among a gaggling crowd of ducks. They were so used to being fed that we could easily have foregone scallops and eaten some tasty duck for dinner. Happily we like to keep it humane and skipped the option.

So we had left the center of Nova Scotia, and headed back west under the bay towards the Annapolis Valley. After a couple wineries, we also visited a chef by the name of Michael Howell, who is a great gentleman and extremely passionate about his line of work. Though he was in Halifax upon our arrival, we talked on the phone and he agreed to meet up with us a little later at his restaurant, the aptly named Tempest.

We checked in at around 5 to meet the man, and he was extremely hospitable. He poured us a glass of local wine and we shot the breeze for a while. He recommended some spots in the area, a couple of particular interest, and even donated some mushrooms to one of our culinary exploits. After that he had to get home to the family and we got on the road south to Chester, near a mussel processor he recommended.


As it goes in Nova Scotia, we were in fog so thick it was like a really gray, nasty soup. The drive was cautious, but we found an amazing spot right by the port, getting the nice sea breeze in while we slept. If not for the mosquitoes there would have been absolutely nil about which to complain. The next day we awoke and paid a visit to the scallop and mussel operation. Though we had unerringly walked in on the owner's birthday, so he was away, we got a great little show round, and departed with a pile of shellfish. It was a scallop night.


One one course this time, but nevertheless delicious. Seared Atlantic scallops with their coral, wild nova scotian mushroom, hearts of romaine and a potato vinagrette.