Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (CajunKing)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:05:02 GMT

MikeS.

This thread is starting to make me think of that Calif. joke;

1,000 people were polled this question. Is illegal immigration a problem in this state?

23% answered YES it is.
77% said, es no problemo.

So on this board I've had to brush up on my German and Spanish. Now i guess I have to learn French. Berlitz, here I come.

Rosetta Stone to the rescue!!!

and Mike you cant forget Polish too

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (enginecapt)

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:27:23 GMT

MacTAC

mr chips

Que?

Is that you, Manuel?

Is that you, Sybil?

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (MikeS.)

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:43:31 GMT

This thread is starting to make me think of that Calif. joke;

1,000 people were polled this question. Is illegal immigration a problem in this state?

23% answered YES it is.
77% said, es no problemo.

So on this board I've had to brush up on my German and Spanish. Now i guess I have to learn French. Berlitz, here I come.

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (MacTAC)

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:28:50 GMT

mr chips

Que?

Is that you, Manuel?

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (BuddyRoadhouse)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:26:15 GMT

Oh Canada,

I promise, I know the difference between French toast and regular toaster toast. I was just making a little joke. Apparently, very little.

Maybe it was the thrill of sitting at a large picture window overlooking the St. Lawrence valley that influenced my taste buds, but I didn't notice any lack of sweetness in the maple syrup. In fact, if anything (again, the view may have had some effect here) there was a slightly deeper, richer taste to what I was served.

Buddy

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Michael Hoffman)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:10:12 GMT

Oh Canada

(no idea how to differentiate the font to show the reply separate from the quote...)

Oh Dear

Just place your reply after the open bracket/backslash quote close bracket.

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Oh Canada)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:01:11 GMT

(no idea how to differentiate the font to show the reply separate from the quote...)

Oh Dear

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Oh Canada)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:59:23 GMT

BuddyRoadhouse

We had several memorable dining experiences in Quebec, including breakfasts at our hotel which included real, locally tapped maple syrup with my French toast (oddly enough they call it French toast. You'd think in Quebec they'd just call it "toast" or even "toast ala us").
Buddy
French toast is bread that has been dipped, both sides, in an egg batter before cooking (not in a toaster - very messy!). Delicious.

McDonalds now has poutine on their menu. Maybe the person who is craving this could Google to confirm that it's on all the outlets' menus and pop over the border for a fix. I can't guarantee that this will be an experience of real poutine, whatever that is.

Canadian maple syrup isn't as sweet as American pancake syrup. You can purchase this on my side at duty-free stores; I've never looked for it on the American side. My Canadian friend who has lived and worked in the U.S. for decades still prefers the Canadian blend. My American cousins are just polite when I arrive with bottles. On another road trip, you could place your orders with me to bring some, or maybe I should simple stock up at duty-free and assume that people would like to take a sample home. We even differentiate among the syrup as to when it was tapped, when you can see it in glass containers. The light syrup is the early tap, deepening as the season progresses.

When I cook pancakes, I like lots of flavour in the mix and less in the syrup. I use whole wheat flour and buttermilk. Buckwheat flour is too strong; the batter in restaurants must be quite diluted. A recent recipe find suggested a drop of vanilla extract. I'm still not sure if I prefer the addition. In England I had pancakes with a chunk of fresh lemon for squeezing over the them. This must have been a rather dense batter because trying it at home produced something more watery than I would have liked.

My mother made delicious corn bread, which we called Johnny Cake. We put Beehive Corn Syrup on it. This is the only time I've used that product. I gather it's more common in the U.S. I still can't find her Johnny Cake recipe; it may have been on the Beehive label at the time but not now. There is one restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario, The Bean Bar, that makes it just like Mom. I haven't had the nerve to ask yet... At one point they started putting jalepeno peppers in, not good. They've reverted. I did a favour for someone in San Antonio a few years ago and received a set of jams for Christmas, including jalapeno jam. I had no idea.

Last year I was driving from New Brunswick home and I noticed a huge cheese outlet in Quebec (PQ, not the city). This would have been on the south side of the St. Lawrence, before reachng Montreal. Impossible to miss (famous last words when they're directed at me). I had my first-ever (can you believe it?) poutine. The only one to date. But if you're driving in that area, this place is a must-stop. And by the by, there is a lavender farm southeast of Montreal, in Hudson, PQ, I think, that you could add to your list. I haven't been there yet but I read about it in an old issue of Martha, what better source? I must say that Martha's Living magazine is justifiably a best-seller. Her staff goes right to the basics (turn on the oven, it's two dials in front of you on that big white thing...) I Googled the lavender place and it's still there.

And I guess I just sign

Oh (?)

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (BuddyRoadhouse)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:32:49 GMT

Our first meal in Quebec Province was a heaping plate of Poutine Italiano, a hearty variation on the original dish replacing the brown gravy with an Italian meat sauce. We were driving northeast along the St. Lawrence coast from the Quebec Airport to the town of Riviere du Loup, and stopped at a little roadside cafe/gas station. We knew we needed to eat something, and wanted a taste of a local dish. We'd never heard of poutine before and figured we'd give it a try. The brown gravy sounded okay, but we wanted something with a little more protein, above and beyond the cheese curds. Our waitress suggested the Italiano option and we went for that. It wasn't bad, but it was obvious that the meat sauce had been sitting in the steam table a tad too long. It had a very strong flavor, almost bitter, the way meat sauce gets if its been reheated one too many times.

Our waitress was a hoot and a half. At first, she approached us quietly, speaking fluent French until we politely asked, "Parlez-vous Anglais, s'il vous plait?" She then burst open with a big smile, a bigger personality, and a Boston accent that made you wonder where she'd pahked her cah in the Havahd yahd.

We had several memorable dining experiences in Quebec, including breakfasts at our hotel which included real, locally tapped maple syrup with my French toast (oddly enough they call it French toast. You'd think in Quebec they'd just call it "toast" or even "toast ala us"). One interesting note; almost everywhere we went, from the tiny mom & pop cafes to the high end dining establishments, spaghetti and meatballs held a prominent place on the menu. We never got a reasonable explanation for this fixation. It puzzles me to this day.

Buddy

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (enginecapt)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:53:49 GMT

For some reason, I'm suddenly craving poutine.

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (BuddyRoadhouse)

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:02:47 GMT

You're welcome. Thank you for the Province de Quebec, home to one of our favorite cities in North America. Mrs. Roadhouse and I spent a few days, both in the old city and further up the St. Lawrence coast in Riviere du Loup. Had a delightful time in both places and look forward to a return visit soon.

Buddy

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Oh Canada)

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:19:37 GMT

mr chips

Que?

Actually it's Quebec.

Buddy

we do that as PQ, Province de Quebec; thanks for the chuckle!

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (BuddyRoadhouse)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:35:27 GMT

mr chips

Que?

Actually it's Quebec.

Buddy

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Oh Canada)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:05:23 GMT

which was the arrival of Two for the Road, thanks to Amazon; I've drooled over 78 pages so far; it reminds me that I would rather enjoy the food with good company than prepare the recipes, hence the benefit of Roadfood tours; I see there's a forum about mini tours...

on my calendar, Thanksgiving is marked as today, which is a statutory holiday here so that's probably correct; however, the big gnosh is usually on Sunday, after praying for continued good health... my calendar also says that today is Columbus Day in the US, what a coincidence that he arrived on our Thanksgiving; so do I say "happy Columbus Day?"

a place worth the drive is Rheo Thompson candies in Stratford, Ontario; they don't serve ice cream, but when I walked into Parkside Candies and inhaled deeply my immediate thought was "not nearly as good as Rheo Thompson"; a short drive from Buffalo is Niagara-on-the-Lake for Greaves jams and marmalades; you can order them online but the shop is the former apothecary so is an interesting visit; and two of our largest festivals, Shakespeare and Shaw, are in Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake

I chatted briefly with Chris about their visit to Toronto restaurants. You can't go wrong with places run by famous chefs. But after that it's risky. When I lived in Toronto (born and bred) I, along with everyone else who lives in Toronto, thought that I was at the centre of the universe. Now I realize that Toronto relies on that reputation. For much better food at lower prices, come on out to the farmland. You could do a wonderful Roadfood tour in the Niagara peninsula and points west.

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Oh Canada)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:42:05 GMT

I've translated that as "What was your favourite food of the weekend?"

which were the Girl Guide cookies that three of the neighbourhood kids and one Mom brought to the door yesterday afternoon. They were mint-on-top-of-chocolate cookie crumbs. covered with chocolate. The kids were a little alarmed that I had my Great Dane taste test them; apparently chocolate isn't good for dogs. But at 135 pounds (that's her, not me; hmmm, must think about that) one or four chocolate cookies aren't going to have much impact.

One other highlight of the weekend, read on...

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Oh Canada)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:35:08 GMT

throw in a "todos" regarding the new friends and you've got it; muy bueno!

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (mr chips)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:06:08 GMT

Que?

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Michael Stern)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:23:24 GMT

Tres bien, je pense. C'est aujord'hui, non? Manjeons la corne d'abondance!

Re:Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (enginecapt)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:51:50 GMT

I'll apply my knowledge of Spanish in order to translate this:

Happy Thanksgiving Day
Hello to my new friends from the weekend in Buffalo and Rochester.

In English: goggle gobble.

How'd I do?

Joyeux Jour d'Action de grace (Oh Canada)

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:28:07 GMT

et bonjour a tous mes amis nouveaux du fin de semaine en Buffalo et Rochester

en anglais: gobble gobble