Currently viewing the category:
"Travel and Food"
Korean tapas! So exciting!
I am originally from B.C. and I love going home. I love seeing my friends and family and usually spend most of my time in Northern B.C. and on Vancouver Island. “(I usually pass through Vancouver on the way to other places. Besides its beauty, I think that Vacouver is the capital of Asian tapas!! Tapas has always been my favourite way to eat, and Asian food is usually the cuisine that most delights my palate…especially Japanese and Korean.
I have tried a few places already: Bao Bei, which is wonderful and serves Chinese tapas calling themselves a “Chinese brasserie”. Guu in its early days and Happa Izakaya for the Japanese-style tapas or Izakaya eating. On my last trip, though, I tried a new placed called Damso. It is tiny, the décor minimalist and welcoming and the food de-li-cious!! It has just the right mix of Korean and nouvelle cuisine that I like and the Chef makes some surprising combinations.
I also often mix Korean food with western food. In fact, I believe that the best condiment I made in my life was a mix of southern-style chow-chow in which I replaced the cabbage with homemade kimchi. (I also make kimchi with kale, as you can see in this youtube video that I made in the hopes of going to Korea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5bj8oBGrY)
Mi familia!
I went to Damso with my cousin Sarah, her husband Danny, who is a chef, and my sister-friend Tisha who don’t eat-no-powk (swine). We had a nice little dinner and it was a great evening out. Tisha had never tried Korean food, and neither really had Danny and Sarah. Though this place is not at all traditional, it is great both for the uninitiated to Korean cuisine and for people like me who have a weakness for novelty.
Tisha was in from Montreal and lovin’ it…even the pork!
Here were the dishes:
Beautiful, but missing a bit of pizazz too traditional vinegared pickles
The pickled vegetables were beautifully presented, but they were too vinegary and traditional to me, and it would have been nice if each vegetable was pickled in a different way.
Green salad with homemade bacon. Delish!
This was a just a straight-up fresh salad with the usual suspects in Asian western fusion: sesame, daikon, onions and sprouts, but then there was a bit of sweetness and the homemade bacon that brought it all home: simple, but well executed.
Nice idea, but the tomatoes needed some softening and sweetening to compliment the foie gras
Here is toast with foie gras shavings and tomatoes confits. It was really intriguing, but overall, I felt the tomatoes confits were over-powering the foie gras shavings. It seemed like a dish that could work, but was unbalanced.
Classic Korean!
Tteokbokki is a very traditional dish with rice cakes in a spicy sauce– and he definitely got it right. Not only was it a hit with everyone, but it meant my friends also got to try some traditional stuff.
Definitely one of my favourites!
Here we have Korean-style chitterlings (fried intestines). My friend Tisha may not normally eat swine, but she’s got a soft spot for southern food and this was the best of both worlds.
This was wonderful and looked like the sunset on the sea and tasted like the sea! Excellent!
Squid stuffed with squid sausage served with its ink and caviar: REALLY wonderful! Beautifully presented with delicate layering of flavours.
People are usually iffy about offal, but Damso’s tongue dish brought home the prize as the favourite!
This was everyone’s favourite: the tongue. Simple and well-done. It had a gentle meat-glaze-esque sauce, velvety with collagen and flavour. J
This dish looked beautiful, but its execution was lacking. I feel the ears should be served with vegetables with more resistance in the mouth than lettuce and the ears should be least resistant to the bite by thinner slicing and the sauce would have been better as a thin vinaigrette or marinade than a thick sweet sauce.
The pig’s ear salad was the least favourite – I had pushed for it, but I was disappointed too. (I often eat pig’s ear salad, buying the ears already cooked and sliced, and there’s a reason for that; if they are over-cooked, the meat starts to peel off the cartilage and if they’re not sliced thin enough, they are too chewy and the experience of chewing through thick pieces of cartilage is unpleasant. Indeed, these were a bit too thick. The sauce was also a bit too sweet and I would have preferred julienned vegetables instead of the leafy greens. I did, however, like the ground black sesame. It was beautiful in the plate 🙂
I really loved the spirit of the place. Some of the dishes were extraordinary and some were missing a bit of finesse, but I could feel the dedication of the chef. I admired his willingness to take risks and even make mistakes, and the dishes that were super-dooper came out of his daring combinations of Korean cooking with for the most part French nouvelle cuisine. Koreans are fairly chauvinistic about food, they don’t usually want to pay much. In fact, this place remains very affordable but at the same time offers dishes that are definitely off the beaten track and beautifully presented and the tapas tasting style was refreshing. I would definitely go back to try some more :).
I forgot to take a photo of the Korean taco and the pancake, a traditional dish that they nicely re-invented as a waffle Sorry! I guess you’ll have to go and try it yourself!
Damso
867 Denman St, Vancouver, BC
V6G 2L9
(604) 632-0022
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Damso-Modern-Korean-Cuisine/210596938969979
Painting of Samuel de Champlain and his Order of Good Cheer
This year’s anniversary was very unique, and may not be easy to wrap your head around. It was a tribute to Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (1758-1838) and his dinner club and “goguette” or singing club Le société du caveau . I’ll let you read about Grimod la Reynière, but I will tell you this: he was the first food critic in France and the world! He wrote the Almanach des Gourmands or the gastronomic almanacs. He was also a grocer and one of the first people to use the business card. He also set-up a comittee to taste and critique foods. We see drawings of him in a library where there is food on the shelves instead of books. We always see him portrayed alone at a table writing, eating or pondering the food in front of him. He is portrayed as an independent thinker and taster in this way and his tools for his livelihood are the pen and the fork. Grimod de la Reynière had deformed hands, and his parents kept him out of public view. Because of his time alone, he developped his intellectual faculties, independent thinking, but also a deep desire to gather people together with him around a table and shared gastronomicexploration. I can relate to this. At one point, he had a dinner party at his parents’ house and they came home to find a pig dressed-up and eating at the table with a sign saying he was the president. His parents disinherited him after this.
Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com
Grimod de la Reynière was a trained lawyer and had been a theatre critic, but was forced to write about somehting more “neutral” which led him to gastronomy. He had a love for art. Besides eating with his club and drinking as the name “Caveau” suggests. The club was a goguette which means that they also sang together. You could find poetry and theatre during their dinners as well. His dinner club mixed food with the arts.
Reinacting the play from the Order of Good Cheer where De Champlain meets Poisedon: The priest gets eaten by the whale! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com
The second pioneer that we payed hommage to for our club’s 11 year anniversary was Samuel de Champlain and his club L’Ordre du bon temps ou The Order of Good Cheer . Samuel de Champlain started L’Ordre du bon temps to keep his men from dying of scurvy or of fatally low moral during their first winter in New France in 1606-1607. Each member took turns hunting and coordinating the catering, and they never missed out, in fact, they ate lavish meals. They also mixed food and art and had a theatre piece about de Champlain meeting Poisedon.
Special guest Nathalie Cooke editor of Cuizine Magazine narrating Samuel de Champlain’s meeting with Poisedon Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com
The new Samuel de Champlain: a pioneer and a woman! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com
As a side note, I had a French professor tell me that Grimod de la Reynière was much more interesting and his club pre-dated de Champlain’s. It’s hard to see clearly when you see the world through your country’s belly button. She can’t help it… Sorry to the French people, but the Société du Caveau only started in 1729.
Ingredients for a yogourt rice recipe from Pondicherry, a region of India colonized by the French Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com
Sensual pleasure and vitamin C in February is a must! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com
So how did all of this work into our dinner club celebration? Well, first things first, we celebrated it on February 1st, right in the throes of winter when the morale of many is at an all-time low as is their consumption of vegetables.
Tahitian “Poisson Cru” Like a ceviche in a coconut sauce- the star of the evening! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com
We are also a bit of a do-gooder club once a year and we like to spread the joy, so myself, special guest Nathalie Cooke and long-time member Judith Colombo went and sang folk songs at an old folks home for “La Journée m’enchante” which is practiced in 3 countries. It turns out that most of the dinner club isn’t that much of do-gooders, they mostly come for the food…We, however had a really nice time singing at Le Manoir de Verdun songs like “Au Chant d’allouette”, “L’hyme de l’amour” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow”. It was really nice.
Fresh herbs Vietnamese style
We chose the food them of “French Colonies” as it gave us alot of options and we are in a former French colony! We ate a Cambodian beef salad, cretons, tarte au sucre, bahn mi, crispy vietnamese lemon duck, “poisson cru” a Tahitian ceviche in a coconut sauce, yogourt rice from Pondicherry, cajun artichokes stuffed with shrimp and a black triangle salad (sugar, rum and nutmeg in it!).
Guillaume Mansour of the Guillaumansour Experience
Playing
Frank Zappa was even there!
We also mixed music, dance and theatre with the meal, Nathalie helped us re-create the piece about de Champlain and Poisedon. It was amazing!
Majiza Phillip Tap Dancing
Later…De Champlain bellydances
Sexy Me!
This was just what I needed to get through the lowest part of winter and experience some good cheer with my fellow goguettiers! I think De Champlain and his men would have had an even more delightful winter if there were a couple bellydancers in the mix!
…Beautiful..
…Sensual..
…and unforgettable Dominique Jean
Along the journey...
I have been undergoing an identity excavation and restructuring for the last couple of years. This excavation became somewhat archeological in 2010 when I traced my genealogy and ancestors. Who are they and then who does that make me? I have been trying to measure all of the genetic material and what it has overcome to endure and thrust me forth. I guess I was looking for perspective, but the question quickly turned into “what did they eat?”
Where the search for my roots would take me
For Christmas 2010, I went on an extreme back-country ski trip in the Charlevoix region, being prepared for cross-country skiing with a friend from Montréal and two great girlfriends from France. We had a great time, without accomplishing the skiing from refuge to refuge. We ate a decadent reveillon dinner in a cabin in the woods and then got shamanistic and loose in an igloo under the moon. On the way home, though, we stopped in the villages of my ancestors: Petite-Rivière-St-François for my Simard side, Chateau Richer for my Chabot and Mésange side and Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade for my Leduc side. It was winter and very beautiful, but things were closed for the holidays, and the only hint of my ancestors’ diets was that in Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade were the ice fishing cabins dotting the river, and I imagined my ancestor Antoine Leduc, courreur des bois, ice fishing as well. These cute villages seemed to take on a special meaning as I connected them to my genetic origins.
The sun going down on the idyllic Chateau Richer, Qc., once the home of my Chabot and Mésange sides
In the summer of 2011, I went to France to visit the same French girls I had visited my ancestral villages with in Québec. I wanted to see them all, but I didn’t have time to see Angoulême where my Simard side is from. I did see Nalliers in Poitou-Charentes where my father’s paternal Chabot side emigrated from. It was really old, rural and quiet. The village was tiny, the church empty and I only saw a few really old people in the streets.
Generations upon generations in Nalliers in Poitou-Charentes' cemetary- origin of the Chabot family
The second place I visited was the origin of Antoine Leduc, my maternal grand-mother’s ancestor. There is a novel about him and he had quite the adventures as a Courreur des Bois, getting married to a Fille du Roi and eventually getting killed in the Toronto or Detroit region by the Iroquois while trading furs. His village was called Louvetôt and it was in Normandy.
School and town hall in the village of Louvetôt in Normandy- origin of Antoine Leduc the Courreur des bois
I took the train from Rouen to the closest village and then I was going to walk 7 km to Louvetôt. A trucker picked me up, and asked why I was going to Louvetôt as I was obviously far from home. I told him I was searching my ancestral lands for my roots. He said “Oh la vache!” when he thought about someone coming from Canada to a place like Louvetôt with probably about 100 inhabitants.
Oh la vache! La sacrée vache! The cow, like the apple, is for real in Normandy!
When I got there, I couldn’t really figure out what they ate either as they had one bakery that sold a few pan-French pastries and cheap candy. There was a church and the City Hall and school were combined. It took me about 5 minutes to walk from one end of town to the other. I walked through the countryside all afternoon from one rural village to the other. It was nice, but I didn’t find my ancestors’ food.
Cross and all- Louvetôt
The last place I visited though was wonderful! It was called Mortagne-Au-Perche- still in Normandy. I hitch-hiked there and was driven by a sweet Portuguese family and a very kind Turkish man that went out of his way to bring me there. I stayed with a sweet 71 year-old woman named Madeleine.
Mortagne-au-perche sister city with Boucherville- really?
Mortange was the place of origin of my ancestor Marie Mésange, wife of Mathurin Chabot(My father’s paternal ancestor). She was baptized on April 4th, my birthday, and Mathurin died on June 12th the day of my father’s birth. Mésange is the French name for the tit (bird).
What will one find when one looks inside?
The culinary past is still present. Boudin Noir! Mortagne is the capital of Boudin Noir (black blood sausage or pudding). Over 100 exhibitors, butchers, traders and artisans from around the world gather for an annual festival for blood sausage enthusiasts! Four to 5 kilometres of black blood sausage is sold during the three days. There is a competition for who has the best blood sausage (tasted cold), a pig squealing contest and participants have to take a vow, swearing that they eat blood sausage at least once a week religiously and that they will sing and spread the good news.
The real comfort food that resonates in my dna! Blood sausage, apples and onions.
I didn’t eat blood sausage until I got to Québec, and I loved it. It felt like coming home. I made it for my Simard family in a Caribbean-style (Pudding and Souse) a few years ago. My Mom, my Aunts and Grand-parents were overjoyed to eat boudin visibly displaying pangs of nostalgia, but my cousins weren’t having it. Why did blood sausage feel comforting and delicious to me and not my cousins?
The Church
My heart skips a beat!
Pangs of nostalgia- so beautiful
Gargoyle avec un peu de vécu et de la vie
I really felt at home in Mortagne-au-Perche. The architecture and scenery was gorgeous. I was welcomed into Madeleine’s home. I also enjoyed the company of Madeleine’s friends one evening, two newly re-married couples in their 60’s living life to the fullest, cracking jokes, the wine flowing, getting that dreamy Shangri-la look when they spoke of the mystical Quebec of Gilles Vigneault that they’d never gotten a chance to visit, but had seen on tv so many times.
The door
They grumbled about how the butcher, in the centre of town with a snazzy shop, shouldn’t make blood sausage because he’s stealing business and the work of the charcutier. They made it clear that Le Roi du Boudin was the place to go. The boudin was delicious. I had it smoked, with candied oranges, apples, chestnut, and much more. Other regional specialties in Mortagne-au-Perche are cider, pommeau and calvados. I don’t drink anymore..but I drank while I was there… I love pommeau and cider and it was great with the blood sausage. I did find traces of my ancestors: I ate what they ate, I saw buildings that had belonged to the aristocratic Mésange family and I saw the bird itself.
It's good to be home...
Mélissa means "honeybee" in Greek. The sweet pea is my flower. On the last day of my trip I saw a group of black carpenter bees with blue iridescent wings in a patch of sweet peas. Thank you!
