2008
Nothing like a reminder of lovely places and sunrises as a pick me up in the morning.
I can’t tell you how many people were tickled by our attempts to pronounce the name of this town. It was ridiculous and I think that while travelling through Iceland, the two trickiest town names that we tried were Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Höfn.
Trying to pronounce Höfn is like trying to inhale and speak at the same time, and there doesn’t seem to be a firm rule on how it should be pronounced. Its seriously pronounced like you hiccup and get startled at the sametime. Another blogger described pronouncing Höfn somewhere between “hep” and “hup”, with a glottal stop. I always wonder about how people come up with this stuff… the same question comes up when I think about the rotting shark dish : Hákarl or kæstur hákarl. Who exactly decided that they would eat this stuff??
I found a receipe on how to prepare “rotten” shark but the awesome thing about this webpage was the warning that you shouldn’t try this at home unless you know what the end product is supposed to taste like and that Putrefied shark can become spoiled. WHAT!?!?!? How can something that is rotting become more spoiled?? It is like a dead person being more dead – you dont have more than one type of “DEAD”. Dead is always dead! Yanno!!!
So quoting from http://www.simnet.is/gullis/jo/shark.htm
I read in a book that fresh shark is unsuitable for eating because there is uremic acid in the flesh. This I am inclined to believe, considering that cured shark smells like stagnant urine or ammonia. It has also been claimed that that there is cyanic acid in shark meat. Fresh shark meat is said to have caused people to vomit blood. The curing process removes the acid from the flesh and makes it easier to digest. Connoisseurs of strong cheese generally like cured shark on the first bite. Others find it to be an aquired taste…
Traditional method:
Take one large shark, gut and discard the innards, the cartilage and the head. Cut flesh into large pieces.Wash in running water to get all slime and blood off. Dig a large hole in coarse gravel, preferably down by the sea and far from the nearest inhabited house – this is to make sure the smell doesn’t bother anybody. Put in the shark pieces, and press them well together. It’s best to do this when the weather is fairly warm (but not hot), as it hastens the curing process. Cover with more gravel and put heavy rocks on top to press down. Leave for 6-7 weeks (in summer) to 2-3 months (in winter). During this time, fluid will drain from the shark flesh, and putrefication will set in.When the shark is soft and smells like ammonia, remove from the gravel, wash, and hang in a drying shack. This is a shack or shed with plenty of holes to let the wind in, but enough shade to prevent the sun from shining directly on the shark. Let it hang until it is firm and fairly dry: 2-4 months. Warm, windy and dry weather will hasten the process, while cold, damp and still weather will delay it.
Slice off the brown crust, cut the whitish flesh into small pieces and serve, preferably with a shot of ice-cold brennivín.
The modern method for curing shark relies on putting it into a large container with a drainage hole, and letting it cure as it does when buried in gravel.
Like seriously! Who figured this stuff out??? How does that first person figure out that they can eat this stuff??? It still amazes me!!! The Icelanders have a festival in which the goal is to eat the most crap. Its called Þorramatur and this consists of many different foods. The only thing in the list that I would even consider eating would be the dry bread.
It includes:
Kæstur hákarl, putrefied Greenland shark
Súrsaðir hrútspungar, the testicles of rams pressed in blocks, boiled and cured in lactic acid.
Svið, singed and boiled sheep heads, sometimes cured in lactic acid
Sviðasulta, head cheese or brawn made from svið, sometimes cured in lactic acid
Lifrarpylsa (liver sausage), a sausage made from the offal and liver of sheep kneaded with rye flour
Blóðmör (blood-fat; also known as slátur, meaning slaughter), a type of blood pudding, which is prepared like lifrarpylsa without the liver and adding blood.
Harðfiskur, wind-dried fish (often cod, haddock or seawolf), served with butter
Rúgbrauð (rye bread), traditional Icelandic rye bread
Hangikjot, (hung meat), smoked and boiled lamb or sheep meat
Lundabaggi, sheep’s loins wrapped in the meat from the sides, pressed and cured in lactic acid
Selshreifar, seal’s flippers cured in lactic acid
I think back to 2007 and touring Tokyo and Kyoto… now perusing the papers while I’m on the bench and I happen to see this gem of an article….oh tourists (myself included in tourists, why do we fuck things up for everyone else, excluded from fucking shit up)
TOKYO: CAN TOURISTS BE TRUSTED IN TSUKIJI?
Just don’t lick the tuna
Foreign visitors overwhelm the world’s largest seafood market
TOKYO — Tourists are known for acting silly sometimes. You have to cut them some slack. But licking the tuna?Overwhelmed by an increasing number of misbehaving tourists at the world’s largest seafood market, Tokyo fishmongers decided last month to put their foot down, temporarily banning all visitors from one of the most popular tourist destinations: their predawn tuna auctions.
The ban, which was lifted earlier this month, was front-page news in Japan. Now, the tourists are back, but the debate goes on: Can tourists be trusted in Tsukiji?
“We understand that the sight of hundreds of frozen tuna looks unique and interesting for foreign tourists,” said Yoshiaki Takagi, the deputy director of the market. “But they have to understand the Tsukiji market is a professional place, not an amusement park.”
The sprawling Tsukiji market dates to the 16th century, when the military rulers who had just moved Japan’s capital to Tokyo – then called Edo – wanted to ensure that they had a proper channel to get enough fish to their hungry vassals at the nearby castle.
Today, Japan is the world’s biggest consumer of seafood. The market handles 480 kinds of seafood, bringing around 40,000 buyers and sellers daily. The value of its seafood trade amounts to about $25-million a day on average, making it the heart of the national seafood distribution system and the biggest fish wholesale market in the world.
It is the kind of place that Japanese take for granted, like, say, a big pencil factory might be ignored in the West.
But because of its long history, the traditional way that the fish are auctioned off by men in rubber boots and baseball hats using arcane hand signals, and the volume and variety of fish available there every day, it has become a big hit with foreigners.
Takagi said nearly 90 per cent of visitors for tuna auctions are non-Japanese.
“In Holland, we have a flower market, a cheese market, but nothing like the Tsukiji market,” said Jan Groeneweg, a 55-year-old banking analyst from the Netherlands who came before sunrise to see a tuna sale. “It’s one of the top 10 attractions in Tokyo.”
But popularity has brought its problems.
One of the more notorious recent cases was that of a drunken British tourist – caught by a Japanese TV crew – who licked the head of a frozen tuna while two others, also caught on TV, rode on a trolley used by wholesalers.
“Tuna is a very expensive fish,” Takagi said. “One tuna can easily cost more than $13,000. But some tourists touch them and even try to hug them.”
Fed up, the market decided to impose a ban on visitors to tuna auctions for its peak season at New Year’s.
So, when on Jan. 5, the first auctioning day of the year, a premium bluefin tuna fetched $132,000, the highest in nearly a decade, no tourists were anywhere in sight.
The restriction was lifted on Jan. 19, despite some grumbling from the fishmongers.
The most common complaint from auctioneers is tourists using flash cameras, which makes it difficult for them to read the finger signal code used for bidding. The market put up English signs saying, “No Flash!” but that was widely ignored, Takagi said.
“The flash of cameras really bothers me. Since I don’t speak English, I make gestures to ask foreign tourists not to use a flash. Most of them stop, but some just keep doing it,” tuna buyer Yasumasa Oshima said.
After the ban was lifted, the market began distributing leaflets at the entrance of the tuna auction site in English, Chinese, Korean and Russian, as well as Japanese. Along with the no-flash warning, it tells visitors to stay within the observation area and leave promptly after the auctions, which open at 5.
The post-ban crowds have been better behaved.
“This is something you only see on the Discovery Channel,” said Chris Szydlo, a 33-year-old American business consultant from Florida. “We don’t have anything like this, not even close.”
Things that one doesn’t think about.. but is different about this city!!
- Warm up to shopping in the Underground City
- Ride the funicular to the top of the leaning tower over the Olympic Stadium, part of the ‘legacy’ from the 1976 Games, and the city’s best viewpoint.
- Eating the best bagel around at St Viateur and Fairmont Bagels
- Having dinner at the Delta Centre-Ville with one of the best views in the city.
- Hanging out in the Old Port in Montreal.
- Go check out the stars in
- the Planetarium
- See a show at Place Des Arts
- Good music at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra or McGill Student Orchestra
- Speaking of McGill, tour the grounds and explore the campus.
- Go skating in the Atrium.I’ve done this once and I know I won’t do it again but hey it is something fun to do!
- BioDome and Botanical Gardens…in the winter … I don’t know about that!
- Eat a Foie Gras poutine, have two steamies at La Belle Province and then head to Schwartz or Rubens for Smoked Meat.
- Go smoke shisha and have turkish coffee with some of Lebanese food on the continent.
- Sit in the horse drawn sleigh rides in Mont Royal
- Food touring in Jean Talon market…and have a poutine in there!
- Sugar shacking in Mont Tremblant.
- Have coffee at Second Cup at Stanley St and St Catherines
- Go for the lunch buffet at Chez Paree! ha!
- Bar Hopping on Crescent St
- Go paddle boating in Beaver Park, or Jean Drapeau park or the Old Port
- How about clubbing on St Laurent and have a pint at Vol De Nuit and then some pitchers at Annie’s and then go dancing and hang off the rafters at Le Lodge
- Biking on the Lachine Canal
- Climb Mont Royal and hike through the forest at the top
- See Montreal from Notre Dame Basillica and the view at Snowdon
- Go shopping during the St Laurent Street Sale
- Boustan and Amirs on De Maissoneuve, nothing else needs to be said.
- Have dinner at O’Noirs….
I guess most things I can associate with Montreal is food. Now I’m determined to have dinner at O’Noirs… and I guess time to start Toronto F’n'C…
So two days ago I was reading the news and I saw that Venice had suffered it worst flooding in more than 20 years. I saw the pictures on the news and realized that no matter how much technology we have and how much engineering we have, we really cannot defy Mother Nature.
December 2, 2008Tourists warned to stay away as Venice suffers worst flooding for two decades
Sirens sounded across Venice yesterday as flooding submerged 95 per cent of the city and left tourists in St Mark’s Square thigh-deep in water.
The highest water levels in more than 20 years paralysed services. Elderly residents were carried to high ground and some people took to the piazzas in inflatable dinghies.
As the water retreated it left a layer of sludge and debris. There were fears of more flooding, with another surge into the city from the Adriatic predicted today as high tides coincide with bad weather. Temperatures in the past few days have barely risen above freezing.
“Venice is completely paralysed,” one official said. “We are submerged.” Massimo Cacciari, the Mayor of Venice, advised residents and tourists to avoid moving around unless it was unavoidable. “Anyone thinking of coming should think again,” he said. “These are exceptionally high waters. Don’t venture out unless it is necessary.”
Driven by strong winds and heavy rain, the water rose to just over 5ft above sea level, the highest acqua alta since the 5ft 2in (1.6m) of 1986. The tide monitoring centre gave warning that the levels could yet reach a 30-year high.The water reached 6ft 4in above sea level in 1966, causing devastation to homes, shops and historic monuments and artworks.
Workers set up duckboards and elevated walkways, and text messages with updates were sent to those who had registered with the flood warning service. Ground-floor pumps were activated in homes and shops.
Officials said that the red alert put out yesterday at dawn remained in force. With wellington boots defeated by the rising waters some residents used fishing-style waders. Householders without pumps struggled to bail out water with buckets.
Some tourists were seen photographing each other while wading through the flooded streets and piazzas. Many said that they had been charmed by the water wonderland. “The hotel had to turn off the gas and the electricity but they made us a nice candlelit cold lunch,” said Yacob Laurent, a visitor from Paris. “They gave us boots and my wife and I went for a walk. It was a lot of fun.”
The flooding was compounded by a national transport strike, which affected the Venice vaporetto or water bus service. Giancarlo Galan, the head of the Veneto region, said that the workers had chosen a bad time to strike. “I’d like to give them a medal for their sense of responsibility,” he said sarcastically.
The entire city, founded on a collection of marshy islands in the 5th century, suffers from periodic flooding. The growing severity and frequency of the floods is attributed to silt deposits raising the floor of the lagoon and a rise in sea levels caused by global warming.
Italian meteorologists said that the entire country was being affected by bad weather, with driving rain, snow, hail and high winds causing flooding from the Alps to Palermo. Many roads in Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy were closed and Rome was hit by hail and rainstorms, with fallen trees blocking roads and cars submerged in flooded road tunnels.
In Udine, not far from Venice, one man was killed when a wall collapsed. Another died when driving rain, wind and poor visibility were blamed for a traffic pile-up. Residents of Trieste said the main square had been flooded.
Then I thought back to the pictures of Venice that we took when we were there earlier this year….
