Wanderlust and Words

What a treat to be able to do some of my Christmas shopping at Borough Market in London, UK! There’s been a market on this spot for 1,000 years and it’s an amazing place to shop for local and international food products. The market sprawls beneath the arches of London Bridge with trains rattling by overhead. There are many vendors in the market buildings, while others have independent premises nearby. Quality over Quantity The food at Borough Market isn’t cheap, but it’s all of superior quality . Many of the vendors are also producers. Others offer hand-picked wares from small-scale artisan producers. Much of the food is organic and made by hand, and the market has close ties with Slow Food. You’ll find unusual products, excellent quality, and incredible flavour. British Cheese There were so many vendors selling cheese and I made a point of buying British cheese although I could also have bought cheese from Croatia, France, and Switzerland. I’ve pur...

I’m housesitting in London, UK, for the next month. I arrive in central London at Liverpool Street Station. This is an area of London that I’ve never visited before so I spent the day wandering the area. Liverpool Street Station opened in 1864 and is Britain’s third busiest station serving 64 million passengers a year. Not far from the station is Spitalfields Market. The former covered market now houses a wide assortment of restaurants, craft stalls, and an innumerable number of food stalls. It amused me to find The Vurger Co., a plant-based burger pop-up in the former meat market.  The area has always welcomed immigrants from around the world. The boat used for this sculpture transported immigrants from Turkey to Greece. This area appears to be a very busy, high-density business district, and there are quick lunch options for every taste – in restaurants or street markets. There are so many tall, modern buildings in London, more than I've notice...

Chef Jenni Launches Season , Dec. 23 Exciting news! If you love Chef Jenni’s cooking, you’re sure to want a copy of Season , a collection of stories and recipes featuring local ingredients. She’s launching her book at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market from 11 am-2 pm , Dec. 23. And, if you haven’t yet bought a copy of Renée Kohlman’s All the Sweet Things , here’s your chance. Scotch from the Islands, Jan. 12  Taste a sampling of Scotch from the Islands around Scotland on Jan. 12 at Co-op Wine Spirits Beer. Latte Art Throwdown, Jan. 20  Venn Coffee Roasters is holding a Latte Art Throwdown on Jan. 20. Email bear@drinkvenn.com to register or to watch. Cooking Classes  Cooking classes for January and February are now listed on the Simon’s Fine Foods’ website . There’s everything from Pulses, including chickpea pancakes and chocolate lentil brownies, to Young Chefs, Afternoon Tea, and Sushi. Is Your Snack Bar Really Healthy? Raising the Bar: Choosing Health...

I've been eating some very fresh eggs this week! Botté Chai Bar  Parviz Yazdani plans to open Botté Chai Bar , a Persian tea house and eatery, to share the culture and food of his country of birth. Hearth Restaurant  Beth Rogers and Thayne Robstad grew up in Saskatoon. After travelling and finessing their culinary skills, they moved back to Saskatoon and opened Caboose Catering in 2015 . They have now purchased the former Crazy Cactus restaurant on Melrose Avenue and hope to open the Hearth Restaurant in Spring 2018. Cooking with Chef Jenni, Jan. 10 & 25  Learn to make homemade perogies with Chef Jenni at The Local Kitchen on Jan. 10 . Or you can join Chef Jenni on Jan. 25 and learn to make some new vegetarian dishes . Karma Catering  Karma Conscious Café and Eatery has a catering menu with sandwiches, soups, salads, main courses, desserts, and drinks. Kernza  Tall Grass Prairie Bakery in downtown Winnipeg is selling sourdough bread m...

Bristol, in southwest England, has been a major British trading port for centuries and the leading slaving port in the mid-1800s. Nowadays it’s home to Banksy, a thriving alternative/creative economy (the Bristol pound), and a strong streak of independence. With less than 24 hours in Bristol, I chose to focus on the docklands and wended my way to the dockyard where the SS Great Britain launched in 1843. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the SS Great Britain was the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic. The ship travelled over 1 million miles to New York and later Australia before being abandoned in the Falkland Islands. Now completely restored, the SS Great Britain can be viewed from below the waterline to observe how it was constructed. A walk through the ship is eerily realistic – the cow on deck moos, you can hear people coughing and smell sweat in steerage. There’s a bloody basin of water beside the woman who has just given birth ...

Christmas Evening Market, Dec. 14   Enjoy drinks and treats at the Saskatoon Farmer’s Market Christmas Evening Market from 4-8 pm , Dec. 14. Christmas Stollen The Night Oven Bakery has Christmas Stollen. Raisins, almonds, and candied citrus are soaked in rum and mixed into a rich sourdough, which is then wrapped around house-made marzipan. After being baked, it’s soaked in rum butter and dusted with icing sugar. Place an order for pickups on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday from now until Christmas. Books  From War Zones to Comfort Food  The Guardian newspaper has published their list of the best food books of 2017. It’s an interesting collection: from a comfort food diary to women’s stories and recipes from Syria. Hunger, Migrant Workers, and Roundup  Civil Eats provides a much more sober list of recommended books covering farming, migrant workers, hunger, foraging, antibiotics and herbicides. School Kids and Fast Food Communities in Great Britain ...

It was a foggy, foggy day in northern France, but that didn’t stop crowds of us from heading to the Christmas market in Arras. The large squares in the centre of Arras are unbelievably beautiful. Arras was part of the Spanish Netherlands for many years, which helps to explain the Flemish-Baroque architecture of the 155 townhouses surrounding the two squares. Originally made of wood, they were reconstructed in brick after extensive damage during World War I when Arras was only 10 kilometres from the front. The Marché de Noël occupied one of the squares and was jam-packed with people. There were young soldiers cradling machine guns on the perimeter and we went through a security check before entering the square, but people didn’t let that bother them. This was the biggest Christmas market that I’d been to and there were way more booths and way more food, much of it with a regional focus – sandwiches from Alsace, mulled wine with prunes from Anjou, and even mapl...