Monday, August 17, 2020

Summer vacation! 2020


This year's sailing vacation was a much needed change of scene.

Driving straight to Waupoos to start my holiday was like fast forwarding past opening credits to the start of a favourite film. 

Long summer days. Eat when you're hungry; sleep when you're tired, read and read. Each day passed languidly, sometimes a bit of boredom would hit and that would be a sign to jump in the lake or play a game of Backgammon. Then on the last day of the holiday, wondering at how time could pass so quickly.


5 am on Brakey's Bay

Stayed in several new places, including anchorages in Brakey's Bay, Huckleberry Island and South Bay. Visited Laura and Peter on Wolfe Island, enjoyed lunch at the Ganonoque Inn's summer terrace, stumbled upon a masterly built dry stone wall on Amherst Island. A beautiful stretch of time, out of time.

I so love a Big Sky! Such beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and night time skies lit with stars. Cloud watching. 

Some favourite moments: Doing yoga at Waupoos Marina in the boat shed, thinking of how much the place had declined in recent years and then seeing a rainbow in the sky, both a reminder of the beauty that continues and hope the place will rejuvenate in years to come. Lying face up into the night sky in the cockpit, and counting shooting stars with Rob. Driving the dinghy along Waupoos Island shore and seeing the freshly shorn lamb. Witnessing the exact moment the sun rose into the morning sky. Stepping off the swim ladder to float in the lake. Gently swinging at anchor.

Sunrise at Huckleberry

Day 1 - anchored by Waupoos island

Day 2 - anchored in Little Bluffs

Day 3 & 4 - Waupoos Marina

Day 5 - anchored Stella

Days 6, 7, 8, 9 - anchored Brakey's Bay

Day 10 & 11 - Ganonoque Marina

Day 12 - anchored Huckleberry Island (Thousand Islands)

Day 13, 14 - anchored Waupoos Island (west side)

Day 15 - anchored South Bay

Day 16 - home again!

Dry stone wall on Amherst Island

Freshly shorn lamb on Waupoos Island

Summer terrace at Ganonoque Inn



Sailor's Garden.


Only two weeks away and came back to a jungle. 

I have to admit I did enjoy the two hour tear of weeding, mowing and pruning.

Note to self: next summer when we go away, pay someone to come and mow the lawn and do some tending!

Monday, August 3, 2020

Six meals that changed the world

Curious Minds, via Hot Docs, was offering a lecture series on Six Meals that Changed the World. Usually the lectures happen during business hours at the movie theatre, but due to Covid, transitioned online, where I joined the table May through June. Just polishing my notes off now.

I see at least one theme for a future Epitourist get together!

Dr. Laura Carlson was the presenter. She is a professor and host of the podcast The Feast, about meals that changed history. Each lecture caught a moment in time, from Ancient Egypt to America in the 1960s. What's on the menu? Who's seated, who's cooking, and who's serving? Where have the meal's ingredients originated?

I'll admit I haven't yet made the recipes that were included as part of the series, but it's on my 'to do.' This was a fascinating look at how food, culture, agriculture, trade, history and society become essential ingredients at the dinner table.



King Tut's Final Feast (~ 1343 BC ) 
 
Recipe to try: dates soaked in honey

Provisioned for the afterlife and his final journey, archeologists found the young Pharaoh's tomb well stocked. Not only with food, but with servants nearby to prepare it in the style he was accustomed. 
  • Fermented spirits were often safer to drink during this period than water. Unfiltered beer, date wine, palm wine, grape-based wine. Wine was enjoyed by more elite classes, while everyone drank the beer, including kids.  One theory is that beer jars were communal and people would use their own reed straws to sip. Some craft beers are reviving ancient tastes, such as Dogfish Head" from Maine.
  • Bread was made from the same grains as beer, with emmer wheat and barley. Teeth of mummies show lots of wear, so it's thought the bread was fairly gritty and not finely milled. Many kinds of bread were available, and yeast was used by bakers to help bread rise.
  • Protein included fowl (duck and pigeon); hedgehog; mice; antelope; beef; chickpeas; eggs; cheese; lentils.  Chicken wouldn't be available for a couple more centuries. There wasn't any pork or fish either, and in some circles it is hotly debated whether that is because the food was taboo or simply not available.
  • Vegetables included the period's aphrodisiac: lettuce! Also cucumbers, radish, leek, garlic, and onion. Raw onion was a common snack.
  • Dessert: dates soaked in honey.
After King Tut's reign, new trading partners from Greece would bring olive oil, chicken, rice, pistachio, beet, asparagus, walnut, and citrus.

Last Meal of Pompeii (79 CE) 
Recipe to try: Asparagus Pie or Flatbread and Goat Cheese

Pompeii was a prosperous port town and a very fertile region, so there was an abundance of food to sample and enjoy. Different cultures would meet here to trade, including the Persian and Greek.

A dig revealed the last great feast of the noble Poppei, in the House of Menander.  Mussolini would host a dinner at the same location, 2000 years later. Considered one of the finer homes in all of Pompeii: 19K square feet, 200 years old, gorgeous fresco. 

Dinner was served by slaves in the Triclineum, a room "of the three couches", where guests would recline and converse. Nine was considered the ideal number. Lower status, if invited, would not be served or spoken to by the host as often. Who knows who these final guests were, but after Vesuvius erupted, the house was buried 20 feet under over a period of 36 hours.

According to Seneca, the Republican State began to decline when dishes were created to rouse the appetite rather than satisfy hunger. This being the Republican period, a more simple approach with three courses would have been served: appetizer (fresh cheese, herb, egg, perhaps an asparagus pie); main (sauce based dishes: mussels with wine; chicken stuffed with pork; lamb or crane with turnips);  dessert (honey served with a light fruit dish or fried dough).  

Romans loved their bread. In Pompeii there were at least thirty different bakeries. Archeologists found carbonized loaves made with walnuts and eggs; Virgil's Moretum describes a recipe for cheeseball with homemade bread.

Thanks to Project Gutenburg, Apicius de re coquinaria  the ancient book of cookery and dining, is available online and contains recipes.
 
Ancient Rome had their fast food joints too, offering snacks heated over fire at thermopolium. Roman recipes courtesy of PBS  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/roman-recipes/

Other modern sources for this period's recipes come from the culinary archeologist Farell Monaco and her online blog tavolamediterranea.com/. The flatbread and goatcheese were specifically recommended. 


Montezuma's Last Meal (1519 AD)
 Recipe to try: Shrimp and Cactus Salad

Cortes and his retinue were received grandly by Montezuma's court, who toured them through the golden city of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish were repulsed by the human sacrifice of the temples, and later used it to justify their own slaughter throughout the kingdom. Aztec's were a highly advanced civilization and Bernardino de Sahagún and collaborators catalogued some of what they saw in the Florentine Codex. “It was all so wonderful,” said conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo “that we do not know how to describe the first glimpse of things never heard of, seen, or dreamed before.”

The floating city of Tenochtitlan became capital of  'New Spain' and later Mexico City. Although the Aztec civilization would disappear, its food spread throughout the world. 

Aztecs introduced both turkey and hot chocolate to Europe, along with corn, cactus, and tomato.
Mexican cooking as we know it —moles, carne asada, burritos, cafe con leche, loads of melty cheese—would have been unrecognizable to the Aztecs. They didn’t have cows, pigs, sugar, cheese, butter, cinnamon, or wheat. They did, however, have an abundance that astonished the Europeans who arrived in the 1500s: corn of many colors, beans, chiles, chocolate, cactus, avocados, tomatoes, lake fish and shrimp, fowl of every description, agave nectar, intoxicating pulque, even dog, grasshopper, and worm. Of squash alone there were 760 kinds.  The Getty

The Getty also offers instructions on How to Cook your own Aztec Feast, including turkey and hominy stew; guacamole; and shrimp and cactus salad. (No recipes based on human sacrifice!!!)



The Last Potatoes of Paris (~1765)
Recipe to try:  Pomme Parmentier 

Parmentier is France's Johnny Appleseed. With political savvy, he adapted to royals, revolutionaries and republicans. Louis the 16th congratulated him, saying "France will not forget you found food for the poor." After the French revolution Parmentier retained his hero status and later, Napoleon would grant him the Legion of Honour.

The pharmacist studied agriculture and made the humble potato into a personal crusade. To help make the potato more fashionable, marketing efforts included epic banquets at the royal court to celebrate potatoes. Notable attendees included Jefferson and Ben Franklin who took recipes back to America.

Famines were widespread throughout Europe, as the population was growing rapidly and farming techniques were not keeping up. Between 1500 and 1800 in France alone there were more than 40 famines, with at least one per decade. England had 17 national famines between 1523 and 1623. Prussia was faring no better.

Prussia was at war with France and during this time Parmentier was captured FIVE times during battles. This is where he became a fan of the humble tuber. King Frederick was also waging his own war on famine and promoting potatoes by growing them on palace grounds.
 
Although potatoes had been around for a long time and cultivated in other parts of the world such as Inca and Peru, they were thought inedible and disdained even by starving peasants. Parmentier made it his mission to promote the potato as safe, even potentially healthy. A "nourishing vegetable that in times of necessity could substitute for ordinary food."


I remember visiting Père-Lachaise when in Paris and coming across a gravesite adorned with potatoes, not really understanding the significance.

Last meal on the Titanic (1912)
Cocktails to try: The Bronx
Recipe: Barley broth with whiskey

6,000 meals had to be prepared each day. The ship's manifest recorded 15,000 bottles of beer; 12,000 dinner plates; 6,000 pounds of butter; 1000 pounds of grapes. The galley would serve meals that would compete with the best restaurants of the time, with Escoffier trained staff.

The chef was the highest paid staff after the Captain. Dinner really was the evening's entertainment, with courses served 6 pm to midnight.  No expense was spared to recreate the finest dining experience for first class passengers. The Verandah Cafe and Aquitania Grill were restaurants on board for those that wanted service a la carte.

Even third class ticket holders dined well in Edwardian style, with table service and fine linen. 


Navy biscuits were in the ship's hold as a remedy for seasickness and to settle stomach. Hard tack is baked twice, and aptly named, it needs to be soaked in milk or alcohol to even take a bite.  Traditionally taken to sea as an emergency food, it keeps very well..... so well that one of the Titanic navy biscuits sold at auction 70 years later in 2015 for 15,000 pounds.

Other resources

Dinner in Camelot (1962)
Recipe to try: Beef Wellington

What a night that must have been, with 49 Nobel Prize winners gathered with prominent writers, scientists, and thinkers of the day. The guest list included Robert Frost, Pearl S. Buck, James Baldwin, Oppenheimer, Schlesinger, and the widows of Hemingway and Marshall. It came to be known as 'The Brains' dinner, and a book published in 2018 recounts all the fascinating details, including the After Party at Schlesinger's house in Georgetown. 

Jacqueline Kennedy had hired Rene Verdon to serve as the Whitehouse chef. He was classically trained in France, and that night would prepare American dishes done in the French style. Although the recipes from the night don't exist, the menu does:


Some of Verdon's recipes can be found at greatchefs.com, including Chicken with Pink and Green peppercorns.  

Sunday, August 2, 2020

Sailor Moon


Last night was very cloudy, and the distant shot of the moon peeking through the clouds didn't do it much justice. Photos never really do.

My friend Janine texted me saying "Social distancing for sailors is a breeze." So true. Caroline and Alex & Aldo are also here in Waupoos. They have their own separate bubble going, which is okay as we still see them often and shuttle the occasional supplies back and forth.


To start my two week holiday, I only had to drive 3 hours to get to Waupoos and hop on board Yondering. Rob sailed here ahead, and it took him 4 days to arrive. We anchored the first two nights but are tucked in at the marina tonight, expecting a bit of weather.


Moon is officially full August 3rd, 11:59 am