Anything and everything books, food, and living the best life possible
Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.
— C. S. Lewis.
This is the first post on my new blog, Life, Lunch, and Literature, about anything and everything books, food, and living the best life possible.
Continue reading “My First Blog Post”
It’s January 15th. We are halfway through the first month of 2025 and nearly a full month into winter, though you would never say it by the weather we have been having here in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The temperature has barely dipped below zero celsius and then only on a hand full of days since the season began, and we may have had five centimeters of snow; two that fell on Christmas Eve and were gone again by the day after Boxing Day, and three that fell yesterday and last night. Not being much of a fan of winter, I am not complaining.
In spite of these unseasonably mild temperatures the city crew responsible for Bannerman Park has managed to create and maintain the ice surface that goes down over the walking path for a few months each winter, to become the Bannerman Park Skating Loop.
Continue reading “Skating the Loop”Today is the shortest day, or if you prefer, the longest night, of the year, the Winter Solstice. And, for the first time in a very long time, I have a Saturday with nowhere to go and nothing pressing to do (the reason for this is not so great, which I will come to shortly, but I shall make the best of it and enjoy this unexpected free time).
I am writing this sitting at my desk in my home office, enjoying my morning coffee in my favorite holiday mug (with just a splash of bourbon, a rare indulgence that this cold and rainy morning seemed to call for), with the CBC Playlist Classical Holidays playing in the background. Life is good.
Continue reading “Brothers”
I was looking at the Calendar on my kitchen wall this morning and noticed that, despite the weather here in St. John’s, Newfoundland, we will indeed be having an early spring this year; March 19 in fact. If this seems a little early to you, you’re right. In 2024 the sun will cross the equator on Tuesday, March 19 at 11:06 pm EDT, heralding the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
Why a day early? Because 2024 is a Leap Year, and that extra day in February, at least as far as our calendars are concerned, will give us an early spring. You might be thinking, doesn’t the first day of spring sometimes occur on the 21st of March? And you would be right. However, this is quite rare. In fact, there has not been a vernal equinox on March 21 in the 21st century, and there won’t be. The next time the sun passes over the equator on March 21 will be in the year 2101. I will be 136 years old that year, so I may not get to see it.
I am, like many people here in the more northerly climates, awaiting spring with breathless anticipation. However, regardless of what the calendar might say, anything that even remotely resembles spring as most people have come to know it is not likely to make an appearance in Newfoundland Labrador anytime soon. Just this past Friday, March 8, we had a storm that dumped more than 80 cm of snow on my little corner of the world.
I have to be honest; this was a little difficult to deal with. In fact, it had me on my laptop looking for condos for sale in Aruba. In the meantime, in the week since this storm we have had some relatively mild temperatures, and the snow has shrunk back quite a bit, though I don’t suspect we will be seeing crocuses on the front lawn, or the front lawn itself for that matter, anytime soon. All the same, seeing on the calendar this morning that spring is only four days away served to pick up my spirits a little; put a little “spring” in my step, you might say.
So, in our kitchen we have a small chalkboard towel rack. My wife, Kim, who is a food blogger and a rather proficient amateur chef, had originally hung it there to display the menu when she was preparing one of her amazing evening meals. However, in between its being employed for this purpose we had started using it for some of our favorite inspirational, motivational, thought provoking and amusing quotes. Feeling inspired as I was by this morning’s equinoctial revelation, I (with apologies to Bob Marley, who’s quote it was I erased, and to my wife who had placed it there) I wrote a simple little quote on our board that I felt was appropriate to the day.
Cheers!
Stephen
Prior to a few months ago it had been years since I’d had an oyster. So many years in fact that I could not remember how I felt about them.
I was in my early twenties. I was in a bar somewhere (it seems a lot of my stories from my younger years start with “I was in a bar somewhere”) and I noticed this large glass jar filled with water and some form of sea life in a shell, sitting on the bar. I asked the bartender what they were. “Oysters”, I was told.
Now, my memory is not really clear on this, it was a long time ago and I had most likely had a beer or two in, but this is how I recall it. Being young and game for just about anything I said I wanted to try one. A plate, a napkin and a bottle of tabasco sauce were placed in front of me, then the bartender unscrewed the lid of the jar, reached into the somewhat murky water, and removed one of the mollusks. He held it in one hand, then with the other he reached under the bar and came up with what looked like a short bladed dagger with a round, wooden handle. He inserted it into the shell, gave a little twist and the shell popped open. One half of the shell he threw away, the other he laid on my plate.
I’m not sure what I had expected to see but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that. I just stared at it. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. The bartender must have noticed the look of perplexity, and perhaps revulsion, on my face, for he came over and explained to me how to eat it. I put a dash of tobasco on it, as instructed, tipped the shell up to my mouth and sucked out the meat.
I don’t remember what I thought of that particular grog bit but given that I never had another for thirty-five years I’m going to guess I was underwhelmed.
Fast forward to 2023. I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia for a couple of days for a work event. At the end of day-one someone in our group suggested we head to Gahan House for beer and Oysters (Gahan House makes its own craft beer in house), to which the rest of the group agreed enthusiastically. Not wanting to be the loan voice of dissension, nor wanting to be left out and ending up spending the evening alone in my hotel room drinking Woodbridge wine and eating Miss Vickie’s potato chips, again, I got onboard with this idea.
I remembered I’d had oysters ( or rather an oyster ) once before but, as already mentioned, I could not recall how I felt about them. However, given that I had no horrible, nightmare like memories associated with them, as I had with the first time I had an olive (https://lifelunchliterature.com/2020/04/23/if-god-made-anything-more-tasty-than-the-olive-he-kept-it-for-himself/ ) I figured that I was probably good to go.
When it came my turn to order I did like everyone else, I choose a beer from the craft beer menu ( I had the Beach Chair Lager ), and an order of oysters. What arrived at our table was so unlike what I had that long ago day in that now forgotten bar, pulled from that jar of warm, sandy seawater, that I at first thought there had been a mistake. This was not how I remembered oysters. Each order was six oysters on the half shell, resting on a bed of ice in a small wooden tray, and served with lemon, tabasco sauce, seafood sauce, and another condiment that I don’t recall the name of, if I ever knew. All I know was it was all delicious.
I had the first with just a dash of tabasco, a nod to the bartender who served me my first oyster all those years ago. It was so good: cold and salty and absolutely fabulous. I squeezed lemon juice over the other five and tried the seafood sauce, and the other sauce, but my favorite way is still with just a dash of tabasco.
As luck would have it, or perhaps the generosity of the Gods, not a month later I was at the Delta Hotel back home in St. John’s, Newfoundland, attending a networking function, that included food stations set up by a number of local restaurants. And who should one of the food vendors happen to be? You guessed it; Gahan House. And what did they have on offer? Right Again; craft beer and oysters. Sometimes the universe just smiles on you.
Cheers!
Stephen
Since about my late thirties or early fourties, since the idea of my own mortality became real to me, (this came about as the result of a diagnosis of bicuspid aortic valve disease) I have kept a list, the kind that has now commonly become know as a bucket list, though I have never used that term. It is not that I have anything against the term, I appreciate the wit, but it has always seemed to me too light a designation for something I feel to be so important. It makes it easy to dismiss. I have always called my list “Things to do Before I die”. I just feel that this creates more of a sense of urgency. I believe that seeing those words written across the top of a page in bold letters makes what is written below seem more important.
Continue reading “Things to do Before I Die”
In a previous post, Top 10 List of Books That I Would Read A Second Time, My number one pick was Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. Recently, I did read it again, and all I can say now is, “What was I thinking”?
Continue reading “Moby Dick, Again. What Was I Thinking?”
Like many people, music is a big part of my life. I love all kinds of music; from Mozart to Marley, from Glen Campbell to Slipknot, from Miles Davis to The Real McKenzies, from… well, you get the picture. My musical tastes are wide and varied. Where once I had a huge record collection, then a huge cassette collection, then a huge CD collection, I now have a huge and eclectic Spotify playlist.
I enjoy different types of music at different times and in different situations. When I am out in my garden on a sunny afternoon, with a cold beer and a good cigar, I listen to what I call my summer songs; these can be just about anything so long as they “feel like summer”; Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, Glen Campbell, Charlie Pride, The Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffett, and so on and so forth. When it is game night, I just let everything play and occasionally skip songs that I, or others, are not in the mood for. When I am in my home office, relaxing in my wingback chair with a good book, it is usually smooth jazz or classical.
Continue reading “Bowl For Two”
Just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, I have always believed that you can’t judge a wine by its label. Granted, wine labels contain quite a bit of useful information, such as the Brand Name, the country and region the wine comes from, the vintage, the grape used, the name of the vineyard, the volume, sweetness, alcohol content, and all other information required by the laws of the country in which the product is being sold. However, all of this information, along with the requisite eye catching picture or illustration, cannot tell you exactly how a wine is going to taste or if you are going to like it.
Continue reading “You Can’t Judge a Wine By Its Label?”
I don’t watch much TV. I am just not a big television fan. I would much rather spend my limited free time hanging out with my family, playing dinosaurs with my grandson, reading, walking my dog, playing my guitar, or playing cribbage or Trivial Pursuit with my wife, Kim. There are some shows, however, that Kim and I do occasionally enjoy watching together in the evenings. These include, from the Food Network: Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, Chopped Canada, and You Gotta Eat Here, and from HGTV: Beach Front Bargain Hunt, Caribbean Life, and House Hunters International. We also used to enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain on CNN on Sunday evenings, and more recently, Stanly Tucci: Searching for Italy. This latter, however, has had only one season so far, and it looks like it may be a while before we see a season two.
Continue reading “Somebody Feed Phil”
We May Not Be Big But We’re Small
Motto of the Vinyl Cafe record store
I know that I said in a post not too long ago something to the effect that life is just too short to read the same book twice. I hereby amend this. Upon reflection I have come to believe that maybe life is too short not to read the same book twice, sometimes. To spend some time with characters that have, over time, become so familiar they are like old friends, can be soul restoring. That is why one evening about two weeks ago I took Stuart McLean’s Home from the VINYL CAFE from my bookshelf and began reading it again. I finished it the following evening, and started in on VINYL CAFE UNPLUGGED. Over the next ten or twelve days I finished this book, Stories from the VINYL CAFE, Extreme VINYL CAFE, and Christmas at the VINYL CAFE.
Continue reading “The VINYL CAFE Revisited”
Life, Lunch, and Literature