Cap-Breton i: La famille à l'île de Cap-Breton

Pendant la fin de semaine d’action de grâce, Annie et moi, les chicounes Newfies, ont eu une merveilleuse occasion à découvrir l’île du Cap-Breton en Novelle-Écosse chez nos amis Maxime, Simon et Heidi.  Avant de commencer, il faut que je vous introduise tout le gang. Voilà une photo du gang au phare juste à l'extérieur de Louisbourg.

De gauche à droite : Annie, moi, Momo, Clémentine,
Herman, Heidi, Gustav, Maxime et Simon.

Comme vous voyez, nous avons adopté une famille de toutous. Le premier à gauche est Moss the Moose. Moss en anglais s’agit de la mousse. Le mot mousse en français se prononce de la même manière que moose, le mot anglais pour orignal. Moss est plutôt connu comme Momo. Le homard rouge à côté de Momo est Herman. Herman était le premier l’addition à la famille. Les moniteurs du Cap-Breton l’ont obtenu pour être mascotte du char de Maxime. Selon Heidi, puisque ce monsieur le homard est doux, beau, adorable et sûrement gentil, il est donc « her [ideal] man », ainsi la naissance de Herman le homard.  Prochain est Clémentine, l’homard fluo rose sur le dos de Herman. Clémentine, la fruite de mer, est la blonde de Herman. Je n’ai jamais vu un couple aussi sincère que ces deux tourtereaux.  Finalement, le dernier est Gustave le crabe  «  érudit et distingué » comme Maxime disait. Il y avait aussi Lili, la sœur de Herman, qui manque car elle se sauvait des affaires ardues telles que les séances de photos.   

Herman à déjeuner

Herman-l’homme à femmes

Momo à Chéticamp chez les Acadiens

Gustave se prélasse au soleil

La famille fait du pouce; Lili aussi.

Herman dans une cage

Gustave se réfléchit au sentier Le chemin du Buttereau
 après avoir lu plusieurs pancartes des histoires des premières
familles acadiennes établies dans cette région, laquelles ne sont plus
 à cause de plusieurs raisons parmi l'exodus des acadiens.    

Les amoureux sur le Cabot trail.

Momo fait de la publicité pour Odyssée 

Newfoundland music

Sticking to the music theme, I will use this post to introduce some popular Newfoundland songs. I have compiled a short YouTube playlist of 14 songs which I hope will give you a taste of the music here, and for those who have time, many of these videos also come with great visuals; footage and photographs of the province.





Of this playlist, number 1, 2, and 5 are worth mentioning. Number one is titled "Salt Water Joys", and number two "Grey Foggy Days" are probably the two song which most Newfies speak of when asked for a hallmark Newfoundland song. Number five is Newfoundland's official provincial anthem- the "Ode to Newfoundland". "Salt Water Joys" is written by Wayne Chaulk and is a song celebrating Newfoundland-the beauty of the land, the pride and heritage, the simple way of life, the sense of intimacy and community-invoking the spirit of home. "Grey Foggy Day" is written by Eddie Coffey makes references to fishing, working long periods away from home and returning home to loved ones. These songs fall into the genre of folk and country. The guitar, fiddle and accordion are common instruments in this style.    
Here are the lyrics to the Ode of Newfoundland. (#5 on the music playlist.) 
Ode of Newfoundland

The flag of former Republic of Newfoundland.

The provincial flag of Newfoundland since joining Canada.

The Ode to Newfoundland; however is neither folk nor country, but has a more processional feel to it, as it was composed as an anthem back in 1902 for Newfoundland when it was a still a self-governing dominion of Britain. And now for a brief history interlude. Did you know that Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949, making it the last of the current provinces to join? Prior to 1949, the last time that a province joined the confederation was before the two world wars in 1905 - Alberta and Saskatchewan- finally uniting the East of Canada with its western confederate state, British Colombia. Most of the confederation activity took place in a five year period between 1867 to 1973. After than initial period, there was a significant time gap (25 years) before more states joined Canada. Yukon joined 25 years after the last of the activity in 1973, and seven years later, Alberta and Saskatchewan would finally join. It was another 44 years before Newfoundland joined Canada. Could this prolonged "independence" for a lack of better word and its relatively recent union with Canada be some of the factors which explain Newfoundland's current strong exhibition of culture and identity?


By: Governor Sir Cavendish Boyle

When sun rays crown thy pine clad hills,
And summer spreads her hand,
When silvern voices tune thy rills,
We love thee, smiling land.
We love thee, we love thee,
We love thee, smiling land.

When spreads thy cloak of shimmering white,
At winter's stern command,
Thro' shortened day, and starlit night,
We love thee, frozen land.
We love thee, we love thee
We love thee, frozen land.

When blinding storm gusts fret thy shore,
And wild waves lash thy strand,
Thro' spindrift swirl, and tempest roar,
We love thee windswept land.
We love thee, we love thee
We love thee windswept land.

As loved our fathers, so we love,
Where once they stood, we stand;
Their prayer we raise to Heaven above,
God guard thee, Newfoundland
God guard thee, God guard thee,
God guard thee, Newfoundland.

The Ugly Stick

The ugly stick: with such a name, those not familiar with this stick can only smirk at its name and wonder about its intended purpose. What were the first things which came to your mind?

The ugly stick is a traditional Newfoundland percussion instrument. It is usually made from a mop handle or any unused stick lying around the house. Fixed along various lengths of the stick are nails threaded with beer bottle caps to give the jingling sound when shaken, tapped, or stomped to the group. At the base of the stick, some may sport an old rubber boot, or other unneeded footwear to give the stick a nice large surface for stomping the ground. Since it is called an ugly stick, people have fun and get creative in decorating the stick; adding heads and additional noise making objects.

At the Iceberg Lounge with one full size and one mini ugly stick.
This photo captures my failed attempt at toe and heel tapping. 

Ugly sticks are brought out at parties when there are singing and music making.  It is easy to use, fool proof, and with such a curiously humble name, anyone, even the untrained musician would be tempted to pick it up, give it a wiggle, a tap tap here, and a stomp stomp there. Before long. they will too be getting their groove on.

Here is a video of the ugly stick on action at a house party.

Newfie food: Donair

Donair. Donair as a pizza topping; donair kits and tubes of donair sauce available in grocery stores...
Donair is not a Newfoundland specialty. It is a middle eastern meat that is cooked in a vertical spit. I was amusingly surprised to see this spiced meat so readily available, and common here in Newfoundland. I guess, once upon a time donair got introduced in Newfoundland and has since made itself home in the Newfoundland menus.

My quick fix lunch kit.

Newfoundland foods: Dough boy/ dumplings

Dough boy, or also known as dumplings, and yellow slip pea soup.

Dough boys are balls of steamed dough mixture of flour, baking soda, salt and water. These dough lumps are usually served with a meal of soup, because the dough mixture is cooked by the steam as it floats on top of the of soup. The taste and texture reminds be a lot of the Mandarin man tou buns (饅頭), which are plain in taste, but fluffy in texture.

Newfie food: Cod au gratin

I absolutely love the cod au gratin dish. Cod au gratin is a cod casserole topped with grated cheese. Gratin, or gratinée is French for any dish served with a béchamel sauce made of whisked milk and flour, grated cheese or bread crumbs and then baked in the oven until the top is crispy. The shallow-oval dish in the photo is a typical gratin dish where the design allows for a larger surface area of the meal to be browned in the oven to create a crispy texture.    

Newfie food: Pan fried cod

This is a breaded pan fried cod filet. Apparently according to Joy, they were not always able to eat cod, because some years there would be so few cod, their fisherman friends would not have any extra to spare, or it would be very expensive at the market. This year is the first year in a long while that she has been able to enjoy cod.

Fishing expedition

I guess the cod population is fairing well this year, because the recreational food fishery, a two week leisure fishing period,  returned this fall after already having one over the summer. This year's fall food fishery were held during the last two weeks of September. Here are some photos taken on the last day of the recreational fishing period.

Green Bay.

For someone like me who rarely travels by water, it was not initially evident to me that a two week fishing period is in fact a very short window of time, since all expeditions depended largely on the wind conditions of the day. It is no fun being out on water during high winds, nor in the rain. Out of the two weeks, there were maybe four occasions where the weather was deemed agreeable to go out on boat for the recreationist, which might I point out may not have necessary landed on a week-end day, or on a period after the work day. We were lucky that we had lovely weather on the day we chose to out go, which incidentally was also the last day of the food fishery. The day turned out to be a full day of adventures.

I saw a huge jelly fish as we were unloading the boat into the water.

The fish head adds just the right touch to the snap shot.

We got lost for awhile when the GPS stopped tracking us,
and eventually ended up on Little Bay Island.

After being out all morning, we had needed to use the washroom, so we had decided to dock and see what options were available to us. Not too far away from the marina, we came across a cute old fashion Bed and Breakfast: Aunt Edna's boarding house. The decor of that place helped take you back in time. 

The wind organ with its 40ish keys, two pedals,
and knobs for various instruments, was a common parlour item.

Fisherman at work: gutting, skinning, and making filet.

As you can tell from my outfit, I am quite the fisher-lady. 

Here is a photo of my only catch of the day. It must have been beginner's luck, because within 10 minutes of dropping  my hook, I had caught a cod. I kind of felt bad for this fish, because it was so small, maybe 1lb, that it deserved a longer life span. Unfortunately my hook had caught it in it's belly, and it was as good as dead. I learned from Jerry that only about one in a million of the eggs actually survive to maturity. (The amount of eggs laid is proportional to the size/weight of the fish, where the average fish can lay around one million eggs.) Many of the fish get caught, or consumed within the food chain before having the chance to reach maturity.

After 8hs of being out on water, we returned home with five fishes; not quite the personal limit of 5 fishes per person/ 15 fishes per boat exceeding 3 people. Regardless, we had a great day out enjoying the last bit of sunny mild weather and we did not come home empty handed.

Candy variety and brands

So I was at the pharmacy the other day when a flashy sale sign in the candy section caught my eye. I don't usually indulge in junk food, so I have never took the time to study the kinds of candies found in the aisles of my new adopted province. This time however, my eyes stopped long enough to take in the products and read the labels to realize that quite a few of the sweets on the racks are in fact new to me. The lady-pink Ganong sweets were the first items to catch my eyes. I have seen Ganong truffles and chocolates in Ontario and Quebec, but I have never seen their chicken bones, a candy which I have never even heard of before. This led me to a candy shopping spree to discover all the candies yet unknown to me.

So according to the Ganong website, Ganong was founded in 1873, and is Canada's "oldest" candy company. Their chocolate makes up the largest volume of their sales, so this is probably why I am likely to be more familiar with their chocolate than their other products. Their head office is in St Stephen, New Brunswick.

Ganong chicken bones.

The chicken bones are apparently a favourite of Newfoundlanders. It has a glassy pink candy cinnamon exterior, and a hint of chocolate on the inside. For those who like cinnamon hearts, they will not need to wait until the Valentine's day period for their dose of cinnamon if they can get their hands on chicken bones.

I quite enjoyed the chicken bone bark - a dark chocolate with tiny crunchy pieces of cinnamon chicken bones.

  

Top left to right: Caramel log, Caramel, Tea Cake, Snowball.

Next, I discovered the Tunnock sweets. Tunnock is a Scottish company established in 1890. Their candy products are apparently really popular in the United Kingdom according to wiki, and has equally made a big hit in Newfoundland.

When I asked to buy a Snowball the other day at a bus rest stop, the shop owner regretted that they do not have any more snowballs with the tourist season just wrapping up, because Snowball has become one of the more popular "Newfoundland" souvenirs to buy and try.

The snowball consists of a marshmallow, and is covered in chocolate and coco nut flakes. However, the marshmallow does not have the dense and springy texture of the typical North American marshmallow. In fact it is a kind of Italian marshmallow which is moist all over, fluffy, and when you bite it lightly, your teeth slice through the fluff right away with no resistance.  

Tea cakes are similar to snowballs, except it is not covered in coconut flakes, and it has a thin bottom layer of shortbread.

As you can see from the photo, tea cakes require careful handling, or else the chocolate shell will crack into multiple pieces and leak out the soft marshmallow.

The Tunnock Caramel is a candy bar of wafer flakes   with a thin layer of caramel sandwiched in between the flakes, and then entirely covered in chocolate. I personally prefer Nestlé's Kit Kat with thin layers of chocolate in between the wafer flakes, because I find the caramel in the Tunnock bars eliminate the crispy texture of the wafer flakes, and I prefer the crispy crunch to the candy bar.

The caramel logs are almost a replicate of the caramel bars, except for its layer of coconut flakes on the exterior. Do you see a pattern here? A whole candy bar niche can be exploited by changing just one ingredient to create a  new candy bar.



The photo shoot for this post was very gratifying.

Newfie food: Bologna for breakfast

The Newfoundland breakfast is pretty similar to a continental breakfast. On the menu, you can expect to find toast, french toast, pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausages, ham, and bologna. Yes, bologna, a very specific kind of lunch meat. I wonder if I could start a trend making fancy cold cuts part of the breakfast staple, and not just have them for appetizers. 

Lovely bologna brunch made by Joy.
It was also my first time using an egg cup, since egg cups are not part of the Chinese kitchen dishware.

Hiking in Springdale: Little Indian River Trail

I am so blessed to be surrounded by so much beauty here, and that it is all easily accessible to me by foot or on two wheels. Here are some photos from my walk along the eastern section of the Little Indian River Trail which is about a 10 minute walk from my place. Apparently if I had not gotten off course, and gone off the trail by accident, I would have come to a waterfall. That section of the trail will be for another day I suppose.

On the way to the trail head, I passed by this pretty spot on a residential street.

Beginning of the trail.

Boardwalk

To entertain myself, I decided that day I would look for mushrooms.

Even dead things can look pretty in the nature.

Unfortunately, I am really bad with names, and can't tell you what any of these  mushrooms are called. All I know is not to eat them. 

Flat ringed mushrooms.

A pastoral view which reminds me of the same serenity in Monet's  coquelicots  (poppy fields).

Same scene as from above, but with a landscape view. I wish I could download and execute the skill to paint and draw.