I just noted that Massimo Marcone (one the nicest and most brilliant guys at the University of Guelph) has published his new book — In Bad Taste? This one is definitely going on my must read list. Massimo Marcone is a food scientist at Guelph who is internationally known and respected for his studies of coffee. Although this book is about food apparently it is not one to consume when you are actually eating or having anything to do with food. The subtitle “the adventures and science behind food delicacies,” only hints at some of the intriguing connections and background information that Massimo explores. He extends his work with the exotic Kopi Luwak coffee bean to delicacies such as Casu Frazigu cheese that derives its ‘special’ taste from the maggots that it contains. Yum. The book recounts his personal experience attempting to find out what makes a food a delicacy and it sounds absolutely delicious, even if the contents do not.
The jacket description is particularly well written:

Part travelogue, part scientific investigation, Dr. Marcone describes his journeys into remote regions of the world, often risking life and limb at the hands of rebel warlords, corrupt police, international smugglers, and hungry crocodiles. He does this all in the search for the hidden secrets and science behind the world’s most expensive and bizarre foods. The stories and information in this eclectic collection of food delicacies will certainly satisfy the curiosity of food aficionados and adventure travelers alike but is also sure to whet the appetites of the just curious.

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When in Montreal, one must savour the fine eating opportunities and I am thrilled to report a gem of a spot. Rumi is a Persian/Sufi restaurant located in Mile’s End at the corner of Hutchison and Fairmount. It has a charming terrasse and absolutely stunningly yummy food.

After wandering around the Laurier, St-Denis, St-Laurent, Parc area for a spell, I pushed one more block and found what I was looking for. Unfortunately, I also left my camera at the hotel and immediately wished I had brought it along. The decor has streaming fabrics and a one feels rather ensconced. I remember Vika Zafrin carefully photographing our food in Fredericton for her blog and now understand why. The presentation just begged being captured for posterity.

I started with the featured baba ghanouj. Not that I have tried a vast array of baba ghanouj (i have no idea how to pluralised that), but this was absolutely the best I have every had. It was burstingly full of flavours featuring just the right amount of lemon and paprika. Rumi also featured a hearty (seriously) Italian rosé superbly complementing both the baba ghanouj and the chicken tajine that I enjoyed as an entree. The tajine had a tomato base with black olives and marinated onions. Delicious! I finished the meal appropriately with a some Morroccan tea and a small slice of baclava.

In case you didn’t pick it up from the glowing descriptions — I am mad for this place. The delicious food, fine evening and Montréal; terrasse make Rumi a hands-down recommendation.

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In my research into nineteenth century Canadian drinking habits, I very quickly learned that the temperance folks had a special enmity for the custom of treating. The crusade against this special social practise informed much of the pamphleteering and petitioning of legislative bodies. You can see the threat: if you have a lot of friends, and the members of group want to maintain the respect of their peers, the rounds just keep on coming. It was often the exuberant nature of the bar that so threatened the well being of the average Canadian. The warm surrounds of the tavern, the good company of friends and the intellectualizing influence of alcohol. The temperance folks figured that they might be able to somehow beat this custom out of Canadian bar behaviour. There are however some customs that simply do perpetuate and certainly treating is one of them.

So lets take that into the internet age…not constrained by the need to be physically present, the Frog Pub chain has introduced TextToPint. You can now purchase a round for your friends online. Its pretty simple. You pay for the round online and are provided with a simple code that can be text’d to your buddies and they can redeem it from their ‘genial host.’ Brilliant. Good for the pub. What will the temperance folks say???

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I have spent the last decade naturally evolving towards a work day that largely takes place in coffee shops. Having written my MA largely at the Second Cup in Guelph and turned to the Starbucks before that to do business planning, I currently spend the bulk of my time at the Second Cup in Westdale. During this time, I have evolved from relying on pen and paper to hopelessly attached to my laptop. That same appendage has gone from tethering to an electrical outlet to craving attachment through wireless connectivity. The way in which I work away from the office or home has evolved, technically and socially.

The pen and paper days also involved a good book and allowed for reading during the day. As data connectivity has progressed, direct social connectivity has decreased. Yet, I am increasingly unable to be productive in an environment where I am not at least socially ‘exposed?’. I pay my rent (an expensive latte every morning) and then work within the milieu for the next 4–12 hours. People come and go and sometimes I notice, sometimes I don’t. I experimented with wearing headphones (with and without music) to create a sense of isolation within the environment, but have actually found I usually don’t need them. The tone and pitch of voices dictates…there are some voices that are just more piercing and I am unable to shut them out. If I key on a phrase in ambient conversation sometimes I can’t pry myself away and have to resort to audio distraction. Traffic and the occasional re-arranging of furniture sometimes distract…there is of course certain rules that not all may be aware of. That’s a topic for another time. I talk less with the people around, and am able to usually be quite productive. Environment is crucial to this productivity however and the Westdale Second Cup works quite well as it has huge windows that I focus on and away from the cafe proper. If its sunny I am in full productive mode. If its inclement, I am sometimes depressed by that. Increasingly so. The bottom line is I like to work in private in public.
And I don’t think I am alone in this. How many laptops clicking within a 25 foot radius here…5 (and that’s a low sample). 16 people…just over 25%. Its often considerably higher here. There’s transiency and better time for some than others. I sense I tend to work longer than most. What do I need? An electrical outlet, wireless access (although for writing tasks I find I do better without it), my table and some commotion. I tend to work through the day fairly consistently, but I used to take breaks and engage with someone for an hour or two and then go back to work. So we digital nomads have certain needs, but they differ amongst the group I am sure.
Which brings me to the point at hand…Josh joined the Queen Street Commons in Charlottetown when he was in PEI last summer for an extended spell. To me it was a unique development that offered social networking, stimulation and public private place to work. It is not unique and there are many cooperatives springing up through which individuals are creating specialized environments to support his need. Quite often these are digital nomads. On another area of the spectrum is the Core Club, which Dave pointed me to yesterday. It is also a group of individuals coming together to create an environment to support their social needs. In this case its by invitation only which raises a sense of elitism, yet they are dedicated to embracing diversity.…and providing a wide variety of social and cultural events to stimulate their membership.
Which raises one of the larger questions in my mind: how much of the social can actually be engineered from without? I was just speaking with an acquaintance here who admitted that there are a limited number of places to find to work in this nomadic coffee shop environment in Hamilton. She admitted to knowing of a club downtown that was trying to encourage the social workplace and matching it with stimulating events, but that from experience, it lacked the critical mass of participants to recreate an appropriate milieu. So there are some pereiveable parameters that go along with the factors that ‘we’ are looking for. How much of this can actually be turned into metrics? What are these critical masses? Inquiring minds want to know.…

to be continued.…

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I will probably betray my rather unrefined palate with post, but its all about honesty right? Tasted a grape that I hadn’t tried before on Monday night. The Italian Primitivo. Its apparently a relative of the Zinfandel and is harvested from the heel of the Italian boot…so appetizing. Apparently both the Primitivo and Zinfandel can be traced to vines originating in Dalmatia sometime in the seventeenth century. The Primitivo is generally fairly high in alcohol content, yet it tends to be more on the fruity side, with a spicy finish. I was quite impressed. I’ll have to get the label off the bottle I had.

I did find a 2003 A. Mano Primitivo (product id 972588 — can’t link directly to a page in their less than user friendly site) at LCBO vintages and it was quite delicious another American site mentions the American winemaker in Puglia who is actually fashioning this fine stuff. So, I throw this out to you as a Shawn pick for all that’s worth.

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I have long been a fan of the Food Guru podcasts. This was one of the first video podcasts that I started to download. Peter Harmon, the presenter kept these up on a weekly basis for quite a while then last Fall there was a huge dry period. Then they seem to have started up again recently — cheers. For the last week I was getting download errors and figured that maybe he was going dark again. But suddenly today I have re-established contact and three new video recipes popped my way. One for brown sugar salmon (sounds yummy) a very nice blue cheese and caramelized onion buschetta and the subject that drove me to blog this…an absolutely decadent sounding pizza. But this is not a pizza that you could see coming…no way. It starts with peanut putter on pizza dough, adds jelly and then is topped with marshmallows…if he stopped there, that’d be quite a sweet little treat, but no…it gets better. After cooking he adds three separate sauces and two separate shaved chocolate garnishes. The product is then finished with fresh strawberries and sorry…I was talking aloud to the podcast at this point. Quite the interesting culinary feast. I highly recommend Harmon’s podcasts. They are a great example of a new genre…they are short, concise and well produced. Moreover, there is a handy companion website with even more info on it as well as available text of the recipes. Check it out…it’s a treat.

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