Balsamic BellaVitano

I had intended to only get one type of cheese (the Tete a Papineau), but then, I stated to chat with the salesperson and asked her to give me a rundown of how the cheese in the shop were organized. I asked some very naive questions about how I might think about the different cheeses and what I might consider for the next time and then she asked the deadly question: "Do you want to try something else?" How could I say no? I mean, there were so many different cheeses available, so I wasn't really sure where to begin, so I just asked her what her favourite cheese was, and she said the Balsamic BellaVitano...from Wisconsin. I laughed out loud that it was an American cheese and she chuckled as well. I think it's also part of my silly romanticism of Europe, but I was thinking that I would want to eat my way through European cheeses. But of course Wisconsin would have some good cheeses too!

Here's the description on the label (which, was of course written in French although it's an American cheese): "Fromage a pate ferme affine au vinaigre balsamique gagnant de la 1er place au American cheese Society 2010. Fin 2e. debut 3e service. Vin: Rose de Provence." (Translation, by google)

The cheese (from the Sartori Company) reminded me of a cheddar. Made from pasteurized cow's milk, it's a little harder, and has that kind of "cheddar" taste (I've got to develop a better flavour vocabulary)...I don't know how to describe it...salty? Thick? There is a hint of balsamic vinegar (obviously), but with my crappy palate, it's super subtle to me. The description of the website is helpful and I like the recommendations of what it pairs well with. I mean, that didn't really help me, because I was only looking at it after I'd finished eating, but knowing which foods it would go well with was interesting to think about.

Anyway, another cheese that I enjoyed. I mean, it's great that I'm finding all of these cheeses that I like, but I guess when you are able to taste the cheeses before buying them, that helps. I mean, I usually try one or two cheeses before deciding what to buy, and I don't really think I've actually tried something that I thought was vile. Mind you, I'm probably (based on the salesperson's knowledgeable recommendation) trying cheeses that probably wouldn't be too offensive (to my limited cheese palate). It's been fun going through these different cheeses. I'm really holding back from moving into goat cheese territory, but it seems like there are so many cow's milk cheeses that  don't have to worry too much about it quite yet.

Tete a Papineau

So, I'm continuing to go through the selection of brie-like cheeses at my regular cheese shop. I think at some point, I'll need to move along to other types of cheeses and diversify, but for the meantime, I still start my conversation with whoever's helping me in the shops with something along the lines of, "I usually get something from this section, like a brie...what would you recommend that's similar?"

This time, the recommendation was Tete a Papineau. Another Quebec, pasteurized cow's milk cheese and coming from the Fromagerie Montebello. I wouldn't describe this cheese to be "spreadable" per se. It's softish, but not quite as soft as some of the other cheese that I've gotten. In terms of flavour, this cheese has NO flavour. Like, even eating the rind, I don't get that kind of bitter or funny taste that stays on the tongue. I get no hints of anything, no undertones...so if you like a strong cheese this one is not for you. I googled a little bit more about the cheese and found a description of its flavour as "Douceur, arome de creme fraiche, legerement herbace." (Translation, by google).

The description on the label from the shop reads: "Fromage artisanale a pate demi-ferme & croute lavee. Affinage de 35 a 60 jours. Finalist Fromages Fins Can. 2014. 2e service. Vin: Cahors, pinor noir." (Translation, courtesy of google)

Anyway, it was a light cheese that I enjoyed. Today's incredibly hot outside, and I'm sitting on my balcony (luckily, a big tree is blocking the sun right now), so it's very warm, but there's a nice breeze. And with a fresh baguette, tomatoes and fruit juice, eating this cheese is enjoyable.

Montreal Jazz Festival (June 26-July 5, 2015)

It's festival after festival in Montreal during the summer. One of the big ones that recent finished up was the Festival International de Jazz.
I managed to head down to Place des Arts to take in a couple (free) concerts. That's the awesome thing, Place des Arts is a wonderful set up and they erect massive stages and sound systems and provide opportunities for the public to experience the festivals without having to pay for the festivities. Retailers and concession stands, I'm sure benefit from the traffic.

Three concerts that I attended stood out to me:

Michael Kaeshammer (British Columbia, Canada) -  I guess I would describe this music as big band jazz? Music that you can dance to, that's for sure. It's just such feel-good music.

Ginkgoa (France, pictured above) - I would describe this band as having an electro-swing flavour. As soon as they started playing, I immediate thought of this playlist on Songza. The band was awesome, playing music that you couldn't help but move to. And the lead singer couldn't help but move either. A fun touch was that she tap dancer through one of her songs.

Adam Cohen (pictured, left) - So this is Leonard Cohen's son. I imagine that's a tough gig and maybe I shouldn't have chosen that as the opening to introduce this musician, but to me, it's also a good descriptor of the sound of his voice and style of his music.

It was absolutely incredible how many people attended the festival. There were tons of concepts that you had to buy tickets for, and I'm sure those were well attended too. I just couldn't believe how many people were packed into Place des Arts. For Adam Cohen's concert it was a seriously big deal of a concert. A huge production. Lots of lights, lots of big screens so that people not in front of the stage could still see the performance and of course an awesome sound system so that you could hear the concert from all around. I was so impressed with the show and will the turnout.
There were concerts happening all the time, and of course staggered a bit so that performers weren't competing between the stages. The soundchecks might have overlapped a bit, but that's it. And in between the big(ger) shows were smaller concerts and street performers. In fact, you can the vaudeville street performers pictured here standing in the background (in suits) of Ginkgoa's performance. They were enjoying and respecting fellow artists' performances. And it was impressive how quickly the festival crew was able to clear an area to let the performers set up and to set up the sound system.

I can't wait to continue to explore and experience more festivals in the city.

Twelfth Night (or What You Will)

I had mentioned in a previous post that I would need to check out Repercussion Theatre's Shakespeare production in the park...and I did!
This year, the company put on Twelfth Night (or What You Will). I was recently chatting with a friend about the experience but had forgotten the name of the play. My description was, "You know, that one where a girl dresses up a a guy, and someone falls in love with her/him, but then someone else falls in love with some else, and there's a mix up and some other stuff." Pretty vague and unfortunately encompassing of a couple of Shakespeare's plays!
Anyway, the play was lovely. There were a couple songs in the play and I enjoyed the musical interludes. The last song that was sung to end the play and into the final bows sounded very familiar. Not like, it's a famous song, familiar, but like I'd heard it in another Shakespeare in the Park production. And since I think I've only really seen the Canadian Stage Company's productions in High Park, I'm narrowing it down to something that they did. So, is there a common song for Shakespeare?
As per usual, I packed a picnic dinner for this outing. It was fun. I'm really getting into this whole cheese and baguette thing. The cheese with ferns was purchased for this particular event.
Repercussion Theatre does things a little differently from the Canadian Stage Company. Instead of residing in one venue, the production moves around different parks around Montreal each night. Thus, you are able to select a night of a location that is convenient to you, or visit different parks in the city. It also means that the set and the whole she-bang needs to be easy to set up and rather portable. The set was simple, but effective. I went to the July 3rd show which was at a really large park. It was kinda cool because the entire evening there were people just walking by (because people in Montreal really love wandering and their green space...at least when the weather is nice) and stumbling across the production. There were also teams playing soccer on the fields in the background. And of course lots of people picnicking.
The company is touring until July 26th, so there's still time to catch a show! You can either find a patch of grass to sit on, bring a lawn chair (people here seem to not just bring those collapsible camping chairs, but straight up folding chairs) or even pay $5 to rent a chair (and get a seat right up front). The show is by donation (collected by cast members during intermission - I guess they don't have to bubble themselves throughout the entire show...mixing and mingling with the public doesn't throw them off).

Quebec City

I've been to Quebec City a couple times this year. Unfortunately, neither time was during Carnival, so I'll have to go back again at some point.
Something funny, is that prior to moving to la belle province, I would call Quebec City, "Quebec City". But people here refer to it as "Quebec". Is that what folks in New York refer to New York City as.
For the first little while, I was always confused when people talked about Quebec because it didn't seem like they were referring to the entire province, but then I finally clued into what they were talking about.
I don't know how much of Quebec City I've had the chance the chance to city. Both times I was there, I was staying quite close to downtown. I had a chance to walk around the downtown area and go to the old city and it is quite quaint, but not too large, and I kind of got my fill of the city within an afternoon. I'm sure there's more to see, but it would probably require some sort of transportation more than my feet. I'd like to visit the ice hotel.

Coulommiers Fougerus

On recommendation, I tried a different cheese shop. The shop is small, with a small selection, but a very nice boutique. Apparently they have cheeses that are more rare in the city, and the service was wonderful but I did have to buy my cheese blind because I wasn't offered a chance to taste anything.

Anyway, going with my continued quest to go through the bries, I asked what was available in that family. I was presented with two options, one made with unpasteurized milk and the other, pasteurized. As someone who was enceinte would be probably be eating the cheese, I went with the pasteurized cheese, the Coulommiers Fougerus.

This creamy cheese from France has a rind (still getting used to it) and is covered with ferns (so apparently, there's a hint of fern flavouring the cheese - can't taste it at all). This cheese shop doesn't provide any details about the cheese on the label, so I can't give more specifics about the cheese other than what I can find online. What freaks me out a bit is that through my online reading, this cheese is made from unpasteurized milk. Uh oh. 

The cheese is easy to spread on a baguette and doesn't have a strong flavour, but it does have a bit of an aftertaste. Like that bitter-ish flavour or that rind-y flavour or something. Or maybe it's a little sour. Or mushroomy. It's a decent cheese. I don't LOVE it, but I enjoyed eating it.

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture, by Jeffrey Zaslow and Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture is a book based on a talk given by Randy Pausch in Carnegie Mellon's Last Lecture series in 2007 (embedded at the end of this post). You may know of it as it went viral.
At the time, I had seen the video, and followed Randy's blog until he passed away in 2008.
Randy had pancreatic cancer.
Randy was also a tenured professor in computer science, a family man, and a lover of life.
His talk was entitled Really Achieving Your Dreams.
I had enjoyed his lecture and found it TED-talk-esque.
I wasn't really sure what this book would be above and beyond what his talk discussed. The book is quite slim (and a quick read...if you tried, you could probably finish it in an hour or two). I enjoyed the book like I did his talk, but it wasn't quite as rich, expansive and compelling as I had hoped. Randy did remind me of some important life lessons and qualities to live by/for, but the story was rather brief. "Chapters" of the book were a couple pages at most, some even just a couple paragraphs. Perhaps it was because the message was so simple that it didn't need to be belabored. Why take pages and pages to say something that can be said in one? I guess what I was hoping a little bit more for was a lengthier narrative to provide background to his message. To read more about his stories, his life, his experiences. I just wanted more.
Still, I did enjoy this book. Reading it now seemed appropriate. Randy wrote about being an academic. Randy wrote about making the most out of life. Randy wrote about dreams. Randy also wrote about achieving your dreams.
This year has been a strange one for me. It's been a little bit bumpier than I would have liked, and I'm not sure when things will smooth out. But I am alive and thriving. And this book reminded me to make the most out of life, to continue to do awesome things and be positive.



- picture courtesy of www.chapters.indigo.ca