Up in Ontario

BC Book and Magazine Week is on!

I'm a little late to the party, but showing up with enthusiasm. Starting this past Saturday it's been BC Book and Magazine Week!

So what does that mean?

Events. Tons of them. In Vancouver, Victoria, all over the province.

One of the events I wanted to make it to but didn't manage to because I had a friend in town for the weekend for fun and a viewing of his new son, Max, was the North by Northwest Cooking Club. Hosting the event were Dolly and Annie Watts of the Liliget Feast House, a 'First Nations fine dining restaurant specializing in wild game and seafood.'

I'm interested in finding out more about local traditions of food preparation and preservation. I hear a ton of talk about local eating (say, within the confines of a 100-Mile Diet) but no talk about local food practices. The way we treat and cook food descends almost exclusively from French and Italian traditions, except for what we consider 'ethnic food' -- Thai, Chinese, Indian, etc. I want to explore local eating in full scope.

I don't know how I'm going to do that, but desire and awareness blended must be the first steps in the recipe. I'm open to suggestions too. Hint, hint to anyone out there with a clue.

But no matter where you want to learn about food from, make sure to consider adding some of the BC Book and Magazine Week events to your calendar.

Disclosure: last year I helped out on BC Book and Magazine week as a client of Work Industries, though I'm under no such lucrative arrangement this time.

Earthrace is the coolest boat on the water

Today I discovered Earthrace and the coolest looking boat I've seen in a long time. Some incredible videos, stories and photos live on the website.

The kiwi crew are trying to break the around-the-world speed record for a motorized boat, running on bio diesel, which can be made from pretty much any fat, including human fat. A scene from Fight Club just flashed through my mind.

Be sure to check out the Captain's Blog too.

5th annual Trottier-Sherrett Invitational Egg Hunt report

Easter: a time for reflection, ritual and rest. The hardest decision often becomes whether to cook a turkey or a ham. (Ham this year!) And a time for the 5th annual Trottier-Sherrett Invitation Easter Egg Hunt.

Here's how it works.

You get to buy the candies you want to receive. I know, that's pretty great. Then you swap those candies with your partner / friend / brother and they give you the candies they want to receive. You each stake out some territory for the other person's search and then start the hiding.

Oh, and you want to count the items you're hiding before you hide them. Otherwise you end up vacuuming a few months later and discovering an egg under the couch or in the radiator, and that is not cool.

This year's edition was the second time we've done a home-and-home series. Scott and Sara live across the street. We give them our goodies and they hide them in their apartment, and vice versa. Then the hunt begins. No, not at once. Much of the fun is watching the seeking. It takes turns to make that happen.

This year we introduced an easter basket, which meant that no one could tell whose candy was whose. But no matter, we just partied up and indulged a little in everything.

Best hiding place? Scott and Sara have a ceiling fan perpetually in the On position. We scurried about pulling out books, peering under cushions, shaking curtains and the like. When spent, we had two eggs still to find. Playing warmer / cooler brought us under the spinning blades. We looked up. We turned the fan Off. Taped to the bottom of one blade, an egg. Taped to the top of the same blade, the last egg.

Photos? You bet: a whole set of them.

Amstel Light Lake House ad

Shot in the wild exotics of Burnaby, BC, here is a pretty beautiful Amstel Light ad called The Lake House (Quicktime .mov file, 3.6 MB).

So why would you care? Well, that handsome chin at towards the end, the fellow singing The Rolling Stones' Let it Bleed, that be my friend Patrick Brealey. He's the payoff for the whole ad. The money shot, clef chin and all.

Soak it up!

Here are the details on the ad. And, just in case the ad link above disappears, here's the file on my server (Quicktime .mov file, 3.6 MB).