Historic Halifax

When my sister decided to get married in Prince Edward Island, my entire family was delighted to be able to finally visit the Maritimes and we booked our trip so we could also spend a few days in Nova Scotia.  First stop, Halifax. Halifax is a city rich in history. There was a British settlement here as early as 1749 and  it was the seat of Canada's first legislature, which first met in 1759 and later in 1858 became the first site of responsible government among the colonies of the British Empire.

On our first day in Halifax, I was keen to check out the Halifax Seaport Farmer's market. Established in 1750 by Royal Proclamation, the market claims to be the oldest continuously running market in North America. It is now housed in a modern building which uses green energy, at the entrance to Halifax Harbour .

Having already had breakfast, I was a bit annoyed with myself as there were lots of tasty and delicious things to sample from many diverse vendors. Wine, cheeses and local produce all feature heavily as well as arts and crafts, jewellery and other design products.

Right around the corner from our hotel and on the way to the Halifax Public Gardens, on the corner of Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street, we stumbled across the Old Burying Ground which dates from 1749,the same year as the original Halifax settlement was founded. It closed in 1843 and is resting place of many of the city's founding fathers including such notable personalities as British Major General Robert Ross who burned Washington in the War of 1812 and died during that same war.

Further up Spring Garden Road, you arrive at the Halifax Public Gardens, a brilliant example of a Victorian style garden. Opened in 1867, it remains a wonderful oasis in the heart of a modern city.

Covering more than 16 acres, the gardens remain one the oldest Victorian style gardens in North America.

From here, we were just a stone's throw from the Citadel so on we soldiered to see one of Canada's most historic places. It was completed in 1856 after 28 years of construction and was part of the British Defences against the United States because of its prominent, fortified location overlooking Halifax's natural harbour.  It was never attacked, but later served as a garrison for the Canadian Army during the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

The view is impressive and you from the lookout points high on the fortress walls you can see the entire harbour and the modern city that has evolved.

Beef & Guinness Stew with Irish Brown Bread

So if I haven't mentioned it before, I lived in Ireland for close to 9 years and in that time became a great lover of all things Irish, with the cuisine being no exception. So in honour of St. Patrick's day, I'm treating myself to some hearty Irish goodness inspired by my great friends in Ireland.

Please note, Beef  & Guinness Stew is NOT Irish Stew.  Irish Stew uses lamb and a stock base, and is more soup like. While I'm a huge fan of classic Irish Stew,  I'm quite fond of the Beef & Guinness stew for its hearty richness.

Irish Soda Bread. You will find both white and brown versions in Ireland. In the areas where I lived, brown soda or simply Irish Brown Bread was more popular. Butter is in my opinion the essential accompaniment. Soup and a slice of this bread. It's all you need for a delicious and filling lunch.

Beef & Guinness Stew

My recipe is not very exact but I'll do my best to put it down as best I can.

1 lb stewing beef

1 pint Guinness

2 cups beef stock

1-2 carrots

1/2 large onion

2 stalks celery

6-8 mushrooms

Bouquet Garni of Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley

Roll the meat in seasoned flour, brown in small batches in a large casserole.  Set aside.

Add vegetables to casserole and coat with pan juices, softening for about 5-10 minutes.  Add the meat and juices back to the pan. Slowly add the pint of Guinness a little at a time, to build a rich gravy.  Cover with stock.

Cover and simmer for 2-3 hours in a slow oven.  (That'd be an expression I learned in Ireland for not very hot - say 250 - 300 F)

Irish Brown Soda Bread

This recipe comes courtesy of my friend Oonagh (pronounced Oooh-NAH).  It is the easiest thing in the world to make and takes less than 10 mins to mix. (The hardest part is to line the tin). It's handy to have a kitchen scales for this recipe as the quantities are given 'Irish style' as weight, not cups like we use in Canada.

1. Line a bread tin with wax paper or baking parchment

2. Mix these dry ingredients together: 1 lb whole-wheat flour 2 oz Oat Bran 2 oz Wheat Germ 2 oz steel-cut oats 2 tsp Salt 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 1 tsp Baking Powder

3. In a separate bowl mix these wet ingredients: 1 TBSP Brown Sugar 1 Egg 1 TBSP OIL

4. Add Wet ingredients to Dry Mixture.

5. Add in 500 ml (roughly 1 pint) Buttermilk and mix lightly and quickly with spoon or fingers and place mixture in baking tin.

6. Bake at 400 F for 1/2 hour and then reduce heat to 350 F and bake for another 1/2 hour.

To serve, I'm partial to cold butter on the bread once cooled rather than melted butter. Try it and let me know.

IMG_2221

OPTIONS / NOTES: I sometimes throw in a bunch of flax seed to the dry ingredients which makes it quite nice. Other note - in Ireland they have something called coarse meal flour which I have had no success finding in North America.  You can experiment by reducing the flour quantity slightly and topping up to the 1 lb measurement with wheat bran or additional wheat germ. The basic recipe works just fine though. When I'm making this I mix the dry ingredients the night before and then quickly add wet ingredients in the morning for fresh bread at breakfast.

IMG_2269

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Beannachtaí na féile pádraig. And to all my friends back in Ireland, thinking of you and missing you much!

Sunday Mission

For our last day on our recent trip to  San Francisco, we headed back to the Mission District where we'd already spent a bit of time...but not enough. Mission Dolores

The Mission District gets its name from the Mission Dolores, one of the original California Mission Churches.  The Old Mission or Misión San Francisco de Asís was founded in 1776 and was also known as Mission Dolores due to the presence of a nearby creek called Arroyo de los Dolores.

Holy Bread of a Different Kind

Having heard about Tartine which reportedly makes best loaf of bread in the world we thought we'd try our luck at coffee and a pastry for breakfast.  Given the line up which extended a block from the entrance they must be doing something right. Patience not being my biggest virtue we decided to move on and try it later.  We did manage a lovely biscuit later in the afternoon. Not bad. I can't speak for the bread but by all reports it's amazing and sells out within 45 minutes of 5pm when it hits the shelves each day.

We did a bit of a drive-by on Delfina which seemed to be the talk of the town. All weekend, anyone we asked recommended it as a great place to eat. There is a main restaurant as well a more casual pizzeria. Again - big line up waiting for the Pizzeria to open for lunch. It looked great but we were too hungry to wait.

Down the street is Farina, an Italian bistro, specializing in pizza and pasta. We were there for breakfast so didn’t get to taste the latter but really enjoyed the floor show in the open kitchen where pizza dough was tossed and rolled before being slipped into a forno style oven.  Another chef hand rolled pasta and made what appeared to be squash tortellini.

Later we walked  around the Mission to take in the atmosphere and check out the murals which are very prevalent in this area. Some of the more elaborate ones, like the Maestrapeace Mural which covers the Women's Building, feature incredible detail.

We would have been very happy to spend the entire weekend here. Such a lively neighbourhood with plenty of options for food and a great atmosphere. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip to  San Francisco.

Addresses:

Delfina, 3621 18th Street

Farina, 3560 18th Street

Mission Dolores, 3321 16th Street

Tartine Bakery, 600 Guerrero Street (at 18th)

Street Cars & Cable Cars

Can I just say how much I love the modes of transport in San Francisco. Let's face it, in my ideal world, I'd really be more of a car and driver girl than a bus passenger but in San Francisco it's different.  The Cable Car and the Street Car transport you to a time forgotten. And rather than being a hokey tourist attraction, they provide a very efficient and valuable service that actual residents use.

Campeones España

When we planned our trip to Spain, we weren't thinking of the World Cup. We picked our return date of July 12th, somewhat randomly.  It was only after I had booked that we realized that the World Cup Final would be on July 11th and that we would be in Madrid and that there was a very good chance that Spain would be in the Final. So from that point, it was very much a case of believe and it will happen. That said, the first game we watched, still in Canada at this point, at Vancouver's Cafe Barcelona, left us a little shaken - losing to Switzerland? But from there, there was nowhere to go but up.

Having watched a few games in Spain, we were cautiously optimistic, but by the time we hit Segovia and watched the Germany Spain semi-final, it was clear that we were on the right track.

So as we reached Madrid, the mood was great and everyone had their party clothes on.

The morning of the final, we got up early enough and headed to the Retiro, Madrid's beautiful park. Apparently this is a Sunday tradition for me. My dad used to take me here every Sunday, when I was a child and we lived here for a few months. I love that everyone comes here. The old ladies, the young hipsters, the loud-mouthed youths, the families. It's a beautiful park with acres to walk and lots of shade to keep cool in.  This Sunday was different only in the displays of yellow and red and the sound of the vuvuzela which started early.

Being our last day in Spain, we hit the Corte Ingles one more time to see if there was any last minute shopping we could avail of.  Near the Puerta del Sol, the fans were out in force, even Mickey Mouse, who everyone knows is Spanish, was there.  At this point, I was somewhat weary of the Vuvuzela and game time being still several hours away, I had serious doubts as to the lasting power of some of the more ardent fans.

For the match itself,  I'll be honest, and just tell you that we wimped out of going to Plaza de la Cibeles, a short walk away, with the thousands of fans and opted for the cool, air-conditioned comfort of our hotel bar.  The atmosphere was still very lively with lots of fans and we were close to the action, in Plaza Santa Ana. Our own group consisted of myself, Super G, my friend Jay who lives in Germany or (Yeik as he is known locally in Spain...more on this later), my sister and her fella plus one of her former work colleagues and his wife who are both Spanish. So we had a nice little international but clearly pro-Spanish contingent.

The match itself was kind of difficult to watch, with attrition setting in pretty early, the Dutch clearly determined to stimy Spanish efforts. But with Iniesta's late goal, the atmosphere exploded and the fans went mad.  After the match, there was nothing to do but hit the streets and join the party!

We joined the action for a while and then headed for a meal, at a local pizza place nearby.  It was perfect, simple and just what was required. The partying continued long into the night and even by morning, there were still a few stragglers around.

The next day, our flight was delayed by two hours, which delighted us because it gave us another couple of hours to enjoy in Madrid. When we finally did go to the aiport, we learned that the Spanish team would be arriving around 3.  We didn't expect to coincide with them, but as we were taxiing for our flight, the captain indicated that the aircraft carrying the Spanish Team was on our right hand side.  (I think this also explained our long taxi and why we were making a runway change at last minute...)  I have to say, this was a pretty cool moment, and everyone on the aircraft started to clap at this announcement.  It was the cherry on top of a beautiful and memorable trip.

Taste of Childhood

I love Fanta de Limon. (Lemon Fanta) I'm not sure why we don't have it in North America. It is the perfect soft drink. For me it's the taste of childhood - I always preferred it to the 'Naranja' or orange variety and there is nothing finer for quenching thirst on a hot summer's day.  And did I mention that it is 37 C today in Madrid.