Of Ladies & Cherry Blossoms

A little over a year ago three very special ladies travelled very far to pay me a visit. I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to post the photos, but it just so happens that now is a particularly perfect time to share. If you’ve seen me at all over past few weeks I’ve probably tried to drag you out to see the cherry blossoms in High Park. Flowers/plants make me happy and I assume they should do the same for you.

This story really should start the night before we went to biggest cherry blossom festival in Korea. A few of us and the ladies went out for one of those big Korean dinners where they fill your table with a million little delicious dishes. Mme wouldn’t eat anything with meat in it as her children had planted the doubt that Koreans might eat dog the way westerners eat beef.

Despite our best attempts she politely refused to budge. I may be partially to blame. The night they arrived I took 2 of the ladies to a famous Korean restaurant I’d been curious about for a while. None of my friends would ever agree to eat there, and my lack of Korean resulted in us ordering deep fried chicken bums. I love you ladies. 

After dinner we had a few drinks in Seomeyon.
Rhylon picked out the records that made the ladies smile.

Eventually it was time to go home. We had a big day ahead of us and sleep would be the wisest choice. As the cab approached Gwangali I mentioned my friend Dougie’s bar. Mme gave a mischievous smile, and within a few seconds she and I jumped out of the cab, much to the surprise of the other 2 ladies. A new cast of characters quickly assemble.

 
They quickly became big fans of Mme.

And what would a Wednesday night be without a little norebang? 

We snuck back to the hotel around 4 or so in the morning careful not to wake the other sleeping ladies.

The next day we set out bright and early for Jinhea. It was a bit of an adventure.  There are two main bus terminals in Busan. I brought us to the wrong one. Had I done my homework we would have gone to Sasang and sat on a nice comfy bus all the way to Jinhae. Instead we knew we would get as far as Masan and then something was going to happen, we weren’t quite sure what, but from what little English the ticket lady spoke, we gathered something would happen there.

In Masan we walked around the station a little confused ...

... then we walked around outside a little confused.

Eventually someone ordered one of the fierce ajummas who was washing the windows to help us. We followed her down the road from the bus station and waited until the local bus arrived.
Eventually lots and lots of flowers were seen.

This year I made it out to High Park just in time to catch the blossoms. It's no Jinhea, and they ladies weren't there, but they still managed to make me smile.

Cross Your Fingers

I didn’t vote in the last two Canadian elections. It wasn’t intentional it’s just that I wasn’t around when they pulled out the ballot boxes. Ironically enough I missed the last one because I was travelling across the states following the Obama campaign. I heard the not so happy news that Stephen Harper was Prime Minister while in the back of a cab somewhere around the outskirts of Austin at 5am. This time around I was determined to vote.

And vote I did. So did they.

Considering my sins from elections past I figured I ought to get a big healthy dose of politics on election night, and where best to do that than at the biggest party for the biggest surprise of the election.

My once housemate Jimmy has always been an NDP man. He’s moved up the ranks a bit recently, and judging from the this election’s results I’d say it was well earned.

Let's not talk about that whole majority government thing.
Just cross your fingers and hope 4 years passes quickly.

X Marks My Heart

Hi.

What a nice day it was ....

 

.... to VOTE.

You Know What Peanut? I Missed You Too.

I am on day 25 of home life without the internet.
At first it was quite easy. When you’re too sick to do much aside from sleep, eat oranges, and watch endless re-runs of Pushing Daisies you don’t worry much about the outside world.

 

Eventually the vitamins and Buckley’s kicked in and I was ready to crawl out of my colourful basement.  My first night out I followed Meghan to the famed El Mo to see a band I‘d never heard of. Meghan is extremely trustworthy in such matters, and did not disappoint. It seems that the best bands these days only need two people.



I’m still a new kid at work, which translates to a terrible work schedule. I work strange and silly hours and call Monday/Tuesdays my Saturday/Sundays. The only way you get your friends out on Monday/Tuesdays is to make them food.

Some are a little better with their chopsticks than others, which is quite entertaining.

There was also that night I went to my first work party.  I’d heard rumours of parties past that involved broken doors and other stories that should probably remain secret. I knew what to expect, and yet, there is something about seeing your boss drunk that never gets old. I enjoyed all the blushing and shy smiles around the airport the next morning when everyone seemed to be avoiding memories of the night before.

And in keeping with one of my favourite traditions I returned to the Hotel Mogelonsky to enjoy my gentile status at the Passover dinner. Obama was so kind as to keep us entertained during traffic. I knew I was making the right decision when I brought him back from Hawaii.

There are so many pretty things at the Hotel Mogelonsky, lucky me, I got to play with the shoes.

 

Chocolate matzah never tasted so good. 

Ruby's Fish Tacos

The recipe I am about to suggest is a little fussy.
Sorry.
However you should know that my intentions weren’t entirely humble, I was making my first dinner in the new apartment and so things had to be a little out of the ordinary. The guest was a good friend from high school, a friend who has been to cooking school, cooked all over the world and who writes about it, so really there was no pressure inviting her to dinner.
Despite growing up the daughter of strapping Northern Ontario man who could clean a fish bigger than me with his eyes closed, knowledgeable of fish I am not.

                                                                                                                              Nice boots eh?

When I buy fish it’s usually in a nice plastic case and all it’s bit have been taken care of  - no heads or bones please … but then I spotted the Jamaican butter fish  while I wandering around Kensington market and I gathered a little courage. I recommend you try the same. Jamie Oliver asks for mackerel …. but he wasn’t holding my hand, and they were so pretty and red.

Ruby's Fish Tacos

which are basically the same as Jamie Oliver's

For the Salad

• 1 green or yellow zucchini 
• 4 asparagus spears
• 2 large green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 radishes, cut into matchsticks
• Juice of 1 lime
• Chilli oil
• Salt & pepper

For the Tacos

• 1 ripe avocado, halved and peeled 
• 2 limes
• 2 mackerel, or in my case, pretty red Jamaican butter fish
• ¼ cup sour cream
• A few spring of cilantro - if you like the stuff. I think it tastes like soap. 
• Hot sauce
• Stack of small yellow corn tortillas
  
  

First, you start with a zucchini

 Then you introduce it to a vegetable peeler. One proceeds to shred the other to ribbons.



Next you get the asparagus.
Its fate is similar when introduced to the peeler. This is made simpler if you hold the asparagus down on the cutting board and peel ... there is no running away.

Mix it all together with some chopped green onions and radish, the juice of a lime, and a little chilli oil. Grind a little salt and pepper over the whole thing and you’ll have a nice little salad.

If you have a grill, grill the fish. If you are grilless you could fry the fish - or do what we did, drizzle some olive oil over your fish, putting a little extra oil on each skin side so that they don’t stick to the pan, then shove a few lime slices here and there, a little salt and pepper, and then  put it all in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes or so. Keep your eye on them. They’re done when you pull back a bit of skin and see that the fish flakes when you poke it.




Mash up the avocado with some lime juice. Set aside.
Heat up your tortillas the way their packaging tells you to.
Sour cream, and hot sauce on the side.
Assemble.

Yum.

The Walls Are Alive

I loved my old neighbourhood.
I loved its shabby charm and colourful characters who always had nice things to say about my short skirts.

I loved living near the water, and I loved living down the street from the park with the albino squirrel, but eventually a girl has to move along. It may have had something to do with the stabby neighbours across the way, or the nervous mornings waiting for an early bus surrounded by shadowy figures, but it was perhaps most heavily influenced by the one too may nights opening the door to the warm scent of garbage, the couch that made me itch, the toilet that protested when used by making loud angry noises, and my personal favourite, the surprise of  coming home to find that all the pots had run away only to sporadically reappear dishevelled and dirty in the sink when their tyrant captor was too lazy to wash and hide them again.

ANYWAY
Mom and dad came and helped me move.
I`m a lucky girl.

 My old room was a bit bland ....

... and while my new place doesn't have the internet just yet, it certainly can't be accused of being bland.