Category: Food and Drink

I like to eat. And drink.

A few words about “ouch”

Since an online discussion brought this back to my mind today: That’s a habanero pepper. (It’s a close cousin of, and more or less interchangeable with, the scotch bonnet pepper.) For most people in North America, it’s the hottest pepper you can easily get your hands on–indeed, there are probably lots of people who think it’s the hottest pepper, hands… Read more →

Aside

While our family has several Christmas traditions, and these are very meaningful to me, there is also one Christmas tradition that is mine alone, and it brings me a great amount of pleasure. Every year, early in December, the people from Scrumptious Delights have a booth in Halifax as part of one of the Christmas craft shows. Every year, I visit them and buy one of their “Victorian Dark” Christmas cakes. It comes wrapped in a brandy-soaked cheesecloth, then cling wrap, then foil, then a lovely plastic packaging. I ration it out over as many days as I can–usually about five. If you dislike a good fruitcake, that’s fine with me–more for me. If you think fruitcake is a joke, then you have just never had one this good. I just had my second piece. So very, very good. I am leaving out one embarrassing part of this story.

Me & Julio, Day 8: Tragedy

There was, as you may have noted, no Day 7. Last night I didn’t get to explore any of my stash, since I dined with a friend, and he provided me with samples of Dragonslayer Imperial Stout from Middle Ages Brewing Company, Saranac‘s Black & Tan, and Dogfish Head‘s Palo Santo Marron–it was kind of an east coast night, with… Read more →

Me & Julio, Part 5: Wet Hops

Tonight’s another night with just a single sampling (albeit a 24oz sampling), this time of a “wet hop” ale that came highly recommended by a pal at the office, Sierra Nevada Harvest (the “12th release” or 2008 edition). What’s a “wet hop” ale, you might ask? (Well, I did…) These hops are harvested and shipped as “wet” un-dried hops—the same… Read more →

Me & Julio: Day 3, Fruit

Today’s work session ends and I jump into my car and drive to the Whole Foods to pick up some fruit, both because I need fresh fruit every day or I go weird, and because I have plans for doing some fruit-themed explorations in my hotel fridge. When I get back to the hotel, I eat a bunch of fresh… Read more →

Me & Julio: Day One

So, I’m currently trapped in Boston, on a schedule of essentially 9 consecutive days (yes, including the weekend) of all-day meetings. Since I recently discovered that there’s a ridiculously well-stocked liquor store very close to the Boston office–and when I say ridiculously, I mean thousands of different varieties of beers; I still haven’t even seen the entire stock–I have decided… Read more →

Good Thing I Have A Supply Laid In

The news appears to be disturbing… Whisky-loving Maritimers face a crisis of the spirit High global demand for single-malt Scotch puts Nova Scotia at risk of running out of key brands, draining the rest of the East Coast dry HALIFAX — The province may be named for Scotland, but that’s not enough to bump Nova Scotia up the queue as… Read more →

Lazy Omnivore Post

Yes, that’s right, I’m going to the meme well again. This time for Andrew Wheeler’s Omnivore’s Hundred (which I’ve seen a lot of places, but first saw at the other Andrew Wheeler’s blog.). I think the “expected” result, in so far as there is one, is that people would find there are lots and lots things that they haven’t tried,… Read more →

Cooking With Beer

It’s no Guinness floatSay it with me: “FRENCH Vanilla”., but here’s something I’ve had on the old hard disk for quite a few years …although I see that the Chimay people have it on their site now. I suspect I got it from a promotion of theirs, way back in the day–the file is dated from 1998. that’s always worked… Read more →

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Chris McLaren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.