What the Dickens! Food Blogging At the Best of Time: Clotilde Dusoulier in Toronto

Believe it or not, there are six degrees of separation between British author Charles Dickens,  Parisienne food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier, who's the 2011-2012 Joseph Hoare Gastronomic Writer-in-Residence, Culinary Historian Shirley Lum (yours truly) of A Taste of the World Walks,  Paris, the City of Light and Toronto, the Meeting Place. What the Dickens! 

Charles Dickens was quite a foodie in his time. Whether you read one of his numerous novels, personal letters or diaries you'll find many detailed mentions of food or fabulous meals. You may ask "what was his grist for literary mill?" Well try this: Dickens published the famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities after visiting Paris, the City of Light with his wife in 1855. In 1882, Macmillan & Co. posthumously published his unconventional handbook called Dickens' Dictionary of Paris, after he revisited Paris in 1865 with actress/mistress Ellen Ternan! 

Wondering about where Toronto, the Meeting Place fits in? It got a nod in his 1843 travel handbook, American Notes (which by the way, I had autographed by his great-great grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens and I'll read excerpts on the tours).  Yes, Saturday December 3rd marks the final In The Footsteps of Charles Dickens: Toronto 1842 walk in year 2011. If you've not had a chance to attend this incredible  Da Vinci Code-type Literary Detective walking tour yet, you're truly missing out on this  "librarians' dream come true" walking tour experience lead by your guide armed with old maps, diary excerpts from Dickens and even his wife's long-lost diary circa 1842 ! Can't make it this weekend? Mark it in your calendars: Saturday February 4th, 2012, we will be celebrating his 200th birthday, even though it actually takes place on Tuesday February 7th, 2012. More details to come of the celebrations to take place throughout 2012...

Still wondering about the connections between the Charles Dickens and Clotilde Dusoulier? Hold onto your hats... here it come...  Guess who also dropped into town? Clotilde Dusoulier! In case you haven't heard, she's the Writer-in-Residence from Paris, France. She pens the award-winning blog Chocolate and Zucchini and has published several books, one of them, Edible Adventures in Paris (which I'm sure would tickle Dickens' fancy).  Clotilde Dusoulier spoke at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario on Thursday November 10th, 2011. What a fabulous turn-out! I've never seen so many faces I recognized who are  Women Culinary Network (WCN) members - Elizabeth Baird, Nettie Cronish, Mary Luz Mejia, Marion Kane, Joanne Yolles, Preena Chauhan and new faces! All eager to hear what award-winning blogger, Clotilde Dusoulier has to say during her informative talk on the Art of Food Blogging. What would Charles Dickens' reaction been if he was there that night too?  Whenever I conduct one of my walks, you'll always hear one of my favourite wistful musings, "Imagine...  if we could use Dr. Who's Time Machine and bring Charles Dickens back to Toronto along the  In The Footsteps of Charles Dickens: Toronto 1842 walking tour!"   The prolific British writer who was dubbed by one walk attendee as the "Danielle Steeles  of the Victorian era" would have loved being a "fly-on-the-wall" during the fabulous Art of Food Blogging seminar. 

Thank you Eleanor Kane and James Morris, the Co-founders of Stratford Chefs School for developing the Joseph Hoare Gastronomic Writer-in-Residence  Program at Stratford, Ontario. Those of you who read Toronto Life magazine might recall its former food editor, the late Joseph Hoare, who was immensely supportive of young writers interested in food and gastronomy. To honour his lifelong passion for food and food writing, his family generously established the innovative position of writer-in-residence at Stratford Chefs School.  The individual who is graced with the title Writer-in-Residence is given these key roles - s/he leads workshops about food writing, conducts one-on-one consultations with students who are interested in food writing and presents readings of his/her work to both students and the public.  This dynamic program included national and international writers over the past years: 2007-2008 James Chatto; 2008-2009 Corby Kummer; 2009-2010 Michael Symons; 2010-2011 Ian Brown. 

The program's mission: To help people experience, enjoy and understand the gastronomy of our time so that a distinctive Canadian food culture may continue to develop. 

Here's a little highlight from that seminar that can be savoured... 

 10 Golden Rules in the Art of Food Blogging from Clotilde Dusoulier

1. Choose Focus 

2. Look at what others are doing

3. Set yourself apart

4. Be genuine

5. Focus on great content

6.  Keep learning

7. Give credit where credit is due

8. Connect

9. Keep at it 

10. Have fun! 

You can read the wonderful detailed recap of these rules by Mardi at the fabulous Food Bloggers of Canada.   If Dickens lived in this era, how many of these rules would apply to him?  I can just picture Dickens sitting there nodding his head while listening to Clotilde and making mental check marks as he goes through that list...  

By the way, did I mention that there was the reception afterwards, where food and drinks were served and attendees had a chance to mix and mingle?  Me think, Dickens would have been in seventh heaven watching as a fly on the wall and observing how we network, use our smart phones to tweet the event. He would fall off the wall laughing so hard as he watch how we wander to the two tables laden with six types of delicious hors d'oeuvres (half prepared by the Stratford Chef School students and half by George Brown College The Chefs' House) and start to take photographs with the very same cell phones before we start noshing ad sipping! He would probably leap over to the book signing table to chat with Clotilde about copyright and maybe pick her brain about modern day Paris! Which dishes do you think tickled the fancy of Clotilde Dusoulier and Charles Dickens?

Menu: 6 different types of hors d'oeuvres served 

3 types by students of the Stratford Chef School
- Smoked Albacore Tuna crispy wontons
- seared lamb loin, pickled eggplant
- Stratford Chef's School madeleine, sauce grenache

3 types made by GBC The Chefs' House 
- crispy fried mini scotch egg, mango chutney (right)
- foie gras custard in egg shell, creme fraiche, chervil (below)
- beef pot stickers, chili lime dipping sauce 

I look forward to reading Clotilde Dusoulier's blog about her foodies adventures while in Toronto, the Meeting Place! What distinctive Canadian food culture do you think will tickle her fancy? 

A little bit of Paris in Toronto

I'm looking forward to tonight's public lecture, Eating Words: The Art of Food Blogging by Parisienne food blogger, Clotilde Dusoulier. She pens  the award-winning blog, chocolateandzucchini.com and she has a current book, Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris! Here's the best part: she's been invited by Stratford Chef  School to speak at George Brown College in Toronto on Thursday November 10th, 2011.

And what great timing!

Hubby just suggested that our 5th wedding anniversary in 2014 should be celebrated in romantic Paris! He has never been there, whereas I've been there long, long time ago....

Ahhh, Paris of 1988...  A solo 2-wheeled foodies adventure in Paris in the summer of 1988. Yes, I pedalled and ate my way through France and parts of Europe as well. A trip to France begs a stop in Paris, whether on foot or bike.  I celebrated my birthday with a treat from a crepe food cart on a street lined with quirky antiques shops filled with relics too big to fit into my MEC panniers...  Paris, the city with a decadent patisserie every street corner (yes, the avid cyclist in me was able to justify having dessert twice a day to make up for the long rides. I long to go back to revisit old haunts and discover new ones...

Did I also mention that along the way in 1988, I collected cookbooks and postcards printed with delicious local recipes.... I think I'm long overdue to go back and add a few more cookbooks to my collection...

I can't wait to meet Clotilde Dusouslier and discover what new foodies adventure awaits us... stay tuned or À Bientôt! 

Let Us Not Forget... 11/11/11

Halloween flashed by... As we enter into a new month, it keeps getting darker earlier, and nights are dark longer... we slow down, reflect and remember deceased loved ones on All Saints' Day (November 1st) and All Souls' Day (November 2nd).

Noticed lately as you watch the news on TV, that the anchors are wearing their red poppies? Stroll along the streets of Toronto and you'll start to  see them pinned on coats or blazers or hats (yes, yours truly has done that in the past and will do it again this year).  Yes, Remembrance Day is coming. Let us not forget...

If you are within the vicinity of the University of Toronto, drop by on Friday for the Remembrance Day service by Solders' Memorial Tower as this year is 11/11/11.

Growing up in Toronto, it was a tradition into high school years to recite on Remembrance Day In Flanders Fields poem written by John McCrae, an Alumni of Victoria College at University of Toronto. Those of you, who attended my Haunted Yorkville, U of T & Queen's Parks Walks, would have seen his haunting poem carved on a special wall close by Solders' Memorial Tower. If you've had wedding photographs taken nearby Soldiers' Memorial Tower you might have stood right by it and didn't see it as it's fading with the weathering of time and the elements...

In Flanders Fields 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row.
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the Dead.  Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie, 

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields. 

                        - John McCrae (November 30, 1872- January 28, 1918

While you're there, get into the long line-up and go through this beautiful wooden doorway. Climb up the stairs to the Soldiers' Memorial Tower Room. You'll find it will be time well spent chatting with the remaining veterans.  Take the time to examine the treasured items housed up there... Take the time to contemplate how much has been sacrificed for our freedom...

Thank you for remembering to
wear your red poppy 

Toronto, the Multicultural Feast, Harvest & Meeting Place

Toronto, the Meeting Place ... the meeting place for so many diverse cultures since 1792 ... the Meeting Place for four seasonal bounties.... the Meeting Place for sharing diverse ways to cook the local and seasonal harvest ...

As we enter into the month of November, we're right in the thick of Fall Harvest. A season for all the senses! Witness the burst of colours in any of the Toronto markets thanks to the pumpkins, squashes, peppers and dried corn on the cobs ...  Throughout Halloween ghost walks madness, my husband  and I survived on my hearty Fall Harvest soups made ahead of time. We had my Persian Spinach Soup (minty meatballs floating in a thick broth of spinach, eggs and loads of sweet Ontario onions).  We supped on Ontario Leek and organic Sweet Potato Soup. We savoured my Salmon Bouillabaisse with multi-coloured Ontario carrots. Yes, this year, I decided to support cook and eat as much local and organic ingredients as possible while sticking to a tight tour guide's budget.

I look forward to the remaining weekends for this month as I shop and try out new produces.

I can't wait for the next Saturdays (November 12th, 19th) when I drop into Kensington Market along my Kensington Foodies Roots Walks with my camera and shopping bags in tow. This coming Saturday November 12th, I'm thinking of I asking fellow shoppers along the streets plus guests on the walking tour, how they'll use Brussels sprouts ... Of course, I'll share what I plan to cook in the next while ...  the lovely Brussels Sprouts  - I'll try again Chef David Lee's fiery recipe for Thai-style Brussels Sprouts in the Saturday October 22, 2011 edition of The Globe & Mail  ... and then make another favourite Brussels Sprouts dish, where I'll steam and then marinade them in Treadwell's fragrant Baco Noir & Blueberry Balsamic Vinegar.  Now, what about those lovely pie pumpkins?  I think Cinderella just found out what happened to her pumpkin stage coach at the stroke of midnight! It became Pumpkin baklavas or cheesecakes or cupcakes or muffins or pancakes or risotto or soup or waffles! Did I miss anything? What do YOU plan to do with any of the above mentioned?

Stay tuned for Toronto's multicultural holiday celebrations as I revisit Kensington Market with new eyes, palate and other senses along the Kensington Festive Foodies Roots Walks on Saturday December 3rd, 10th & 17th, 2011.  Yes, I love all the holidays, so we celebrate not one, but all the Festivals of Light: Diwali, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Channukah and Kawanzaa. Of course, the best part of the celebrations -  the spirit of sharing the foods, the drinks, the changing customs and traditions of your own culture with others!

Toronto: November 1st, 2011 All Saints' Day

Victorian Lady aka Shirley Lum,
guide during Halloween Week Ghost Walks 

How more appropriate could it have been that on Monday October 31st, 2011 we celebrated All Hallows Eve or Halloween along the Haunted Kensington, Chinatown & The Grange Walk. It's suppose to be the vigil of the Feast (the eve). And feast we did.  I kicked-off at Moon Bean Cafe with a ghost story complete with eerie multicultural twists, while guests noshed on Chocolate Rugullahs and sipped Hot Chocolates.  We reflected over how many consider Halloween pagan (and in many instances the celebrations are for many), as far as the Church is concerned the date is simply the eve of the feast of All Saints. Many customs of Halloween reflect the Christian belief that on the feast's vigils we mock evil, because as Christians, it has no real power over us. However, for some Halloween is used for evil purposes, in which many Christians dabble unknowingly. 

Dia de los Muertes window display
Courage My Love 2011

    In the Middle Ages, poor people in the community begged for "soul cakes," and upon receiving th

ese doughnuts, they would agree to pray for departed souls. This is the root of our modern day "Trick-or-Treat." The custom of masks and costumes developed to mock evil and perhaps confuse the evil spirits by dressing as one of their own. Some Christians visit cemeteries on Halloween, not to practice evil, but to commemorate departed relatives and friends, with picnics and the last flowers of the year.  Over the last few years, I've noticed more Mexican venues within Kensington Market and celebration of Dia de los Muertes (Day of the Dead) is becoming more mainstream. 

Look up!
At ROM's steps between the two
Marble Lions

How even more appropriate that tonight, Tuesday November 1st, 2011, All Saints' Day, I'll be conducting the Haunted Yorkville, U of T & Queen's Park Walk.  Guests will be haunted by a ghost story told  over delicious Hungarian Coffee Cakes and hot coffee at the oldest remaining cafe in Yorkville Village. I'll be leading my guests through one of Toronto's most oldest and revered university, and we will celebrate all the saints as we stroll through Victoria College (Methodist), St Michael College (Catholic), UC (non-denominational), and Trinity College (Anglican). All the while, I'll be sharing eerie ghost stories and slipping in Toronto's fascinating history in these three adjoining neighbourhoods.  

The day after All Saints day is called All Soul's Day,  a day to remember and offer prayers up on behalf of all of the faithful departed. I'm sure tonight's guests will be reflecting over some of the haunting tales on this day.  In many cultures it seems the two days share many customs. What customs do you still practise at this time of the year? Feel free to share

Art Deco Period costume perfect for
Millionaire's Row aka Queen's Park Circle