Categories
Food

Recipe: Healing Congee

In last week’s exciting episode, Sylvain and I got la grippe and we struggled not just with days of rolling fever, but with gamey guts. For nearly a week everything we ate or drank caused nausea and, er, other discomforts.… [Read More]

Categories
Food

The Maple Report #7

Dare Ultimate Maple Creme Cookies

After investigation, I’m gonna say: not the ultimate maple creme cookies, despite the provocative brand name and hyperbolic descriptor.

They were, however, pretty good, and had real maple that presented right up front, so we et them apace.… [Read More]

Categories
Food History, Culture, and Politics

Uh Oh

I thought I was hallucinating, but it's true: they sell Cadbury Mini-Eggs year-round here.
Categories
Food

Poo Tinn

This “iced poutine” does not, as best I can discern, have any actual poutine in it. I think it’s the Québec version of the “spaghetti ice cream” you see in novelty restaurants sometimes, with ice cream “noodles” made with a garlic press and raspberry “spaghetti sauce” and maybe a couple Oreo “meatballs” on the side.… [Read More]

Categories
Experiences Musings and Observations

Prison of Smoke

Those of you who know me well know that I’m a lifelong allergy sufferer.

I’m not talking about your seasonal hayfever or getting sneezy around cats. I’ve been gifted—whether through nature or nurture is unclear—with full-on potentially fatal reactions to food additives, OTC pain relievers, particulates, and more.… [Read More]

Categories
Food

Pie of Lies

We admit it: we’ve been buying some convenience food here and there to keep on hand when we’re not up to cooking (and that came in handy when we had la grippe last week).… [Read More]

Categories
Places

Ste-CatheRAIN

The Village’s main drag (as it were) rue Ste-Catherine Est, in this morning’s rain. We’re seeing more terrasses and more rainbows as the street preps for Montréal Pride in August.

Sylvain noticed the other day that the planter boxes were arranged so their flowers were in rainbow-color order from red to purple, with pink at the end.… [Read More]

Categories
Food Musings and Observations

Help Yourself

Yesterday when I finally ventured out of our building for the first time since we got la grippe, this wooden box was on the sidewalk right outside the lobby door:

That little flower symbol on the left is the logo of the City of Montréal, so I was intrigued.… [Read More]

Categories
French History, Culture, and Politics Très Intéressant

Dans la ruelle

Our apartment balcony faces a ruelle, a little street that’s pedestrian-only. It’s bordered by grass and trees, and mostly pleasant, except on the weekends when it becomes a pissoir for soused and screaming partyers (or, as the French so aptly say, les fêtards).… [Read More]

Categories
History, Culture, and Politics Pictures

Goosed by Canada Post

While in the post office mailing some documents back home (cross-border mail is incredibly slow, btw) we saw these Canada Post special commemorative coins for 2022. They have coins for birthdays, weddings, congrats, polar bears, and other stuff.… [Read More]