Finding Delicious on Nova Scotia's South Shore

After two days in Halifax, we took the well known journey along the South Shore and did the drive along route 333 to Peggy's Cove winding our way around the coast on the 329 and then the #3 to Lunenberg. This is a stunning drive along some spectacular coastline dotted by pretty little fishing villages. Peggy's Cove. Yes,it's a postcard stop that no self-respecting Canadian can pass and stop we did. This is a real working fishing village and despite its picture perfect beauty, the evidence of the working village, in form of the brightly painted fishing boats and neatly stacked lobster traps, is everywhere.

I could have spent a day here easily. There are so many colours and textures to photograph.

Continuing along from Peggy's Cove, we wound our way around the coast to Chester Basin where we had planned to stop for lunch at The Seaside Shanty Restaurant. We had got a tip  from a couple of  good friends in Vancouver who travelf frequently  to the Maritimes. (Thanks N & H) and we were delighted with what we found. The setting at Chester Basin is very picturesque , on the edge of a quiet haven filled with boats.

You need to keep your eyes open for The Seaside Shanty as you don't have much opportunity to stop but with its brightly coloured sign and pretty painted building, it's hard to miss.

The back of the building faces the water, with a neat row of Adirondack chairs overlooking the boats in the harbour. The bright flowers in the flower boxes made an appearance later in our lunch.

The menu is full of staples of maritime cuisine. Chowder, mussels, scallops, lobster. I chose the lobster roll - my first of many on this trip. It completely filled a gap. Delicious and fresh and light, not overdressed. And beautifully presented.

The chowder was rich and full of fish and shellfish, not like some you get where you have to chase one prawn around the bowl.

Just like I can’t pass up a staple like crème brulee (I have a sort of running contest going), chowder is one of those things I always like to try to keep comparisons on. I don’t think that are any two the same.

My mum chose the scallop burger and seemed to enjoy it. The scallops looked beautifully seared on the outside and again, like all the dishes we had were presented beautifully.

Afterwards wth a brief photo stop in Mahone Bay, site of the famous Three Churches, where we also discovered that our rental cars tires were completely bald,  we set off in slight trepidation for Lunenberg where we would stay the night.

We ate at Magnolia Grill. Sadly no photos but this was one of our favourite places of the trip. Solid homey food, not overly done, but just tasty with lots of choices for different tastes. Very important in our group. Besides that, the service was delightful and friendly and the room was cozy with little snug-style booths. A perfect refuge from the cold and drizzle outside that descended suddenly over us. The kind of place you’d like to stay all night.

The Seaside Shanty

5315 Hwy 3

Chester Basin, Nova Scotia

http://seasideshanty.ca/

Magnolia Grill

128 Montague

Lunenberg, Nova Scotia

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.

Calm Before the Storm?

I just returned from an amazing 13 days in the Maritimes.  As I watch the current pictures on TV about the remnants of Hurricane Irene, it is hard for me to reconcile the images  I'm seeing with what I experienced while we were there. Blue skies and beautiful days.

The reason for the trip was to attend my sister's wedding on Prince Edward Island and we were truly blessed with wonderful weather in a beautiful location in a wonderful part of the world.

It looks like the worst of Irene is over and that the Maritimes have escaped most of the major damage of Irene, but to anyone who has been affected, either in Canada or along the eastern seaboard of the United States,  I wish them speedy recovery.  I'm reminded how quickly lives can change.

Gregan's Castle

My current trip to Ireland is winding to an end. It's been great to spend some time with friends here and visit all the old places. But it's also been fantastic to find a few new ones as well. Gregan's Castle Hotel is located near Ballyvaughan in the Burren area of County Clare. The hotel itself is very comfortable, quiet and secluded, the kind of place you would go to to escape or hide. I've known of this place for years but never ever been there. Recently it seems they've brought their food to a whole new level and in 2010, chef Mickael Viljanen was named Bridgestone Chef of the Year. So as this was literally in our backyard from our base in Liscannor, Co. Clare, we set out to have a look. This is the view from the top of the Corkscrew hill at the edge of the Burren in County Clare. You can see the limestone area of the Burren in the distance. Corkscrew hill is not for the meek and if you are driving, don't take any chances - designated driver a must!

burrencorkscrewhill_6372LOWRES

The hotel has beautiful gardens and our table overlooking the gardens, and with views of the sea and the Burren was in a lovely light filled room.  Dinner started without delay as we quickly decided on the tasting menu option.  We chose 6 courses with paired wines but 9 and 12 course options are also available as well as an á la carte option.

Amuse Bouche:

These were simply darling, and were described to us as follows.

Pig Tail Bon Bon consisting of Black pudding and hazelnut mayo, Smoked Eel, Beetroot Meringue, Baked Potato Jelly, Rooster Liver Mousse. These were very beautifully presented and definitely set the scene for the type of cuisine we were going to enjoy. I think the meringue was the most interesting, it was light and melt in your mouth good and the slight salty taste of the fish combining with the sweetness of the beet. The jelly was very interesting and tasted of the skin of a baked potato but we all wondered if we would have been able to identify it had we not been told what it was.  The liver was great too, mostly from a textural point of view as the crisp it was served on was beautifully delicate and light.

First Course: Foie Gras, honeycomb, pear and almond textures, pain d'épice for the ladies.

The gentleman chose Raw milk with lovage, artichoke, rye and morteau sausage.

Second Course: I chose skate with beetroot, fricassée of peas, lobster, girolles mushrooms and chicken oyster, caper shoot and raisin dressing, riesling velouté. The mushrooms were divine, the skate almost undercooked - but perfect - so beautiful and delicate.

For my dining companions, scallop served with truffle, cauliflower, hazelnut, wood sorrell, smoked apple, leek and ash. (The leek was charred slightly). We all had a taste of the smoked apple which was amazing. Very bright.

Third Course:

At this point in the meal, we'd been discussing Obama's recent visit to Ireland and how the Prime Minister of Ireland had got into trouble by using parts of Obama's Inauguration Speech without attributing it to the man himself. Then the pigeon arrived and to be honest, it looked terrifyingly rare. My friend exclaimed: Well, choose hope over fear! and it became our mantra.

The ladies: squab pigeon, new season carrots, date, vadouvan. This dish was served in two parts, with the main plate including the apparently rare breast, liver and heart of the pigeon. The breast was delicious and once I got over the sushi like look of it, I was pretty happy with the flavour.  We guessed it had probably been cooked sous vide so there was no colouring. The highlights were the beautiful new season carrots with flavours of anise and the beautiful mushrooms, which looked to me like enoki. This dish literally burst with flavour! I was not familiar with vadouvan, but it is sort of a mixture of caramelized onions, garlic and Indian flavours - I think cardamom, cumin and ginger were probably present. Delicious!

The legs of the pigeon were served in a pan over burnt hay which imparted the smoky flavour to the meat. The smell was that first time you lit a bonfire smell. I enjoyed it although it alarmed some of the diners at the next table who started to wonder "what was burning?"

The gentleman: veal sweetbread, madeira, peach, macadamia nut, fennel, liquorice. A very pretty presentation.

Dessert:

Me: cherry, celery sorbet, goats milk, yogurt. No picture of this sadly. It was divine and had various textures and flavours. I always enjoy having lots to choose from so this was right up my alley. The highlight was the celery sorbet which was the perfect complement to the cherry flavour.

My companions: coffee deserts with caramel, green apple paired with champagne flutes of Murphy's stout.

Petit Fours:

As if we hadn't had enough, out came the petit fours, with traditional macarons, jellies and some mini-magnums - baby ice creams.

The entire meal was really bright and refreshing and despite the number of courses, I felt I had been able to enjoy and taste each one. It's a great special occasion place. The hotel and bar look lovely and I'm sure it would be an enjoyable stay as well if you wanted to make a weekend of it.

A very special thanks to O & J for treating me!

Breakfast in Ireland

Here's the view that greeted me when I woke up from my electric blanket / jet lag induced coma. Yes god bless Ireland and electric blankets. They make everything all right.

I'm staying with a good friend in County Louth, just north of Dublin. This friend is also a talented chef, so the added bonus of our friendship is that I eat like a Queen and let's face it we all know how much I like that. Today, granola and fruit. Blueberries here are amazing. They are just juicy balls of flavour.

Sunshine in London

I'm on my way to a friend's wedding in the west of Ireland. I left Vancouver late yesterday and found myself with about 7 hours to kill in London. Desperately wanting to avoid yet another unnecessary Tie Rack purchase and over indulgence in badly prepared pastries, I escaped Heathrow and headed into Central London on the Heathrow Express to spend a few hours walking around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens enjoying the beautiful English sunshine.  Yes, sunshine! And of course, I couldn't resist my childhood favourite, a 'flake 99'. For the uninitiated, this is an English classic - a soft serve ice cream cone with a chocolate flake stuck into it. I always thought the 99 part referred to the price.  But I've been told that's not the case. And anyway, then it would be a flake 1.65 as of yesterday's prices.

After a quick cup of tea near Paddington Station it was back to the airport to catch the flight.  I snapped this last shot of a lovely lady in her later years, enjoying a 'fag' as they call them here.

Learning from Others

Hi all, I haven't posted in a while and lots has been happening so I'll thought I'd just do a quick post with some of my photos from the last month or so.

Among these are some photos that I took when I recently had the great fortune to spend the day taking pictures with the lovely Clare Barboza and a group of avid food photographer students at Clare's food photography workshop in Seattle, WA.  Clare is a Seattle based documentary food photographer and spending the day with her was truly a joy. We have so much to learn from each other. I was so struck how of the 7 people in the workshop, not one of us had the same shot, even though we all had access to the same props and subject matter.  It truly goes to show you the importance of vision. Thanks Clare for a truly magnificent day.

The food was  prepared by Seattle chef Becky Selengut and I can tell you it tasted as good as it looked!

Additionally, I'm including some photos from some of the things I've been baking and cooking lately.

A Food Blogger's Dream Opportunity

Recently one of my favourite food photographers, Penny De Los Santos, of Saveur and National Geographic Fame, agreed to give a free food photography workshop through CreativeLive. You can sign up on the CreativeLive Website. The workshop is free for those who watch live online on the weekend of May 13 to 15.  As an added bonus, Penny offered a chance for some lucky people to attend on the day with her in Seattle as part of the live audience by submitting a video audition. Penny, this is truly a gift of your great talent and just to get a chance to do this is an honour. But seriously, please pick me.

Here is my video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqvZS8i4Xdc]

I'm hoping that Penny will see the story of my vision through the bad editing (nothing like a challenge to give me a crash course in Garage Band  and iMovie!) But for a first effort using these tools, I'm pretty happy.

For more information on Penny De Los Santos and to witness the beauty of her talent,  visit her website.

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.

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

Cuban Lunch at Delux

This past weekend, I went to Toronto with my mum and sister to visit my other sister who lives there. Without giving too much away, let's just say we had an important task on hand. It involved shopping. And we needed fuel.  Somehow I'd heard about Delux on Ossington Street so we decided it to make it our pitstop for lunch on Saturday. I love the design of this place, beautifully simple and comforting place settings with a clear simple menu design.

It seems Edison bulbs are popping up everywhere in restaurant design these days and despite their ubiquity, I do enjoy them. The warm soft glow they give is wonderful. Someone told me that Edison's original design was quite environmentally friendly compared to the bulbs that followed later. So it's interesting that we are now looking back to older designs for both aesthetic and practical reasons.

Delux offers a Cuban Lunch featuring traditional Cuban Sandwiches and other Cuban inspired dishes. I opted for the Achiote and Lime Chicken Avocado Sandwich which was served on lovely thick bread.  I also had a very fresh and light jicama salad.

My mother chose the Empanada, which was really more of an open-faced galette style pastry. It was filled with chicken and chorizo and had a wheat flour pastry (as opposed to a corn style).  Despite the debate over the accuracy of the nomenclature, which ensued at our table, it was very delicious and yummy.

Dessert was one of the lovely highlights. We opted for traditional cuban coffee and donuts. The espresso coffee is served with sugar added and in thimble size paper cups.  I remember seeing this in Miami years ago so it brought back some memories for me.  The donuts were cake style vs yeast style, a gourmet Cuban version of the 'Tim-Bit' for the Canucks out there. The cream served alongside was drizzled with dulce de leche which made these irresistible and more-ish.

More than anything, I have to commend Delux for the warm welcome and service they provided. Despite having just one person to manage the entire front of house, she managed to serve us promptly and with a friendly and engaging attitude despite having her hands very much filled. One of the best experiences I've had in a restaurant in a long time.

Seattle

For the last weekend in February, I was happy to pay Seattle a visit to meet up with a friend from Ireland.Friday

Despite having spent a good part of my childhood in Canada's north, where minus 40 Celsius was not uncommon,  these days if it hits the freezing mark I'm ill prepared. But that said, the gorgeous sun made up for it.  After settling in to our hotel, we headed down to Pike Place and Lowell's, a Seattle classic and had a couple of pints and watched the sun set over Puget Sound.  The changing light gave me plenty of opportunity to play with my new SLR.  I'll be spending a lot more time learning over the coming months and am excited to get going.

Saturday

If you have ever been to Ireland or many other placed in Europe, you may be familiar with the Spar chain of corner shops. While hardly a culinary mecca I have a very fond memory for a certain prepared pastry that always appeared in the hot case of my local Spar at the corner of Glentworth street in Limerick City.  Having been away for several years now, I was pleased to discover on a previous trip to Seattle, Le Panier, and their versions of the same pastry.   Warm and yummy with various fillings of cheese, spinach, potatoes, onions and mushrooms, Le Panier's versions are far superior in nature, but they also give me the warm memory feeling that I associate with the original.

Having already had quite an ample breakfast, this occasion we opted for one of their gorgeous pain au chocolat which rival anything to be found in France.

The requisite walk around Pike Place market provided a bit more photo practice.

Sunday: The Oscars

Finding ourselves in Seattle on Oscar night we thought why not take advantage of all Pike Place Market has to offer and have our very own Oscar Picnic in the comfort of the Westin. We hit De Laurentis' deli for some beautiful Jamón Serrano some lovely blue cheese from Oregon, and Aberquina olives.  While this year wouldn't have been my favourite year for the Oscars, I was very happy to see Colin Firth and The King's Speech be recognized. The  food certainly didn't disappoint.

Caraway Seed Cake

This recipe is inspired by a good friend in Ireland. Actually she was my former boss. I  have to hand it to her in terms of providing excellent office perks. Every day at 10:30 or 11:00 we'd break for tea and she would often bring in some of her own home baking to share.  This was one of my favourites, and something that I had never encountered in North America. Seed Cake is quite popular in England and Ireland and the recipe goes back as far as Mrs. Beeton's original cookbook. If you like caraway you'll love this.

My friend told me to use a simple Madeira recipe and simply add Caraway seeds.  Madeira cake is not something very popular in North America but you can find lots of recipes online.  It's similar to a pound cake, although a bit lighter in texture.  Some recipes call for madeira, some do not. I ended up combining a few versions.

Here's what I did:

6 oz butter

6 oz  granulated sugar

3 eggs

8 oz all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla (this is what I used on this occasion but you could also use zest + juice of one lemon instead for a lemony version)

1 1/2  tsp caraway seeds

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoon full of the dry ingredient mixture with each egg.  Add remaining flour mixture and once fully combined add the vanilla (or lemon flavouring) and fold in the caraway seeds.  Bake in a loaf tin at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Perfect with tea at the office or at home. Enjoy!