As Montréal is heating up, and preparing for vibrant summer activities such as Festival de Jazz de Montréal, Just for laughs/Juste pour rire, Osheaga, etc., temperatures are plunging down in Belgium and Mr. Rain is back in the country ... And since Belgians like to complain about the weather (it's too warm, there's no rain, there's too much rain ...), I'd like to remind you that there's always worse ...
I stumbled across this nifty little footage, shot exactly a month ago. I think the guy lives across the street, coz he films the Jewish bakery where we sometimes go, the dépanneur where I buy my beer, the busstop where we take the 80 downtown, etc.
(Oh, make sure you got the sound of the video on, it makes it soooooo much worthwhile)
Last week before coming back to B-land. As the weather turns rather wet in Belgium, Montréal finally gets to enjoy +20. Sigh!
Friday went to a cheese and wine evening. Drank 2 much wine, and didn't eat enough cheese. So next morning, Tylenol was my only true friend. Hangovers and not enough Bedlehem are gettin' harder to digest, especially when getting older. So no real energy for doing something useful on saturday. So take-away chinese and rental movies. We saw "Last king of Scotland", although I thought the story was pretty lame (I am not doubting the so-called historic facts about Idi Amin but how he got acquainted with this doctor is highly unlikely), but I was baffled by the acting of Forest Whitaker. Last time I saw him perform was in ER, portraying a patient seeking revenge for Dr. Kovac's (yeah the pretty Croatian doc) medical error causing him to be paralyzed. Oops, this might have been a spoiler, 'coz maybe this episode didn't air yet in your part of the world. Consider it a sneak preview!
And on sunday our downstairs neighbour Anne took me to IKEA to buy some folding chairs and table for the terrace. Only to find they we're all sold out. This Montréal IKEA is the worst I've ever been to ... they're always out of something ... In the afternoon I started cooking, but no minced lamb, so I headed to the store. (Stores are ALWAYS open here, kinda always). But first helped a man with a map of downtown Montréal desperately trying to find his way to Toronto(!). I enjoyed the saxophone player on the corner of Parc and Bernard and finally ended up in Fruiterie Mile End for that lamb where I had this funny conversation with the butcher:
Me: Can I have some minced lamb. Him: Shouldn't be a problem. What do you need minced lamb for? Me: For Moussaka? Him: Moussaka? What is a Moussaka? Me: It's Greek Him: Are you Greek? Me: No. Him: Why are you making Moussaka then?
Anyway I quickly made the Moussaka, some fresh tzatziki and a great feta salad. And then I had to run to get a few drinks with P. before he's leaving on tour with Plastic Operator and to get a copy of their newly released CD "Different Places". The song 'parasols' is gonna be my summer anthem this year!
Oh I am quickly gonna share my tzatziki recipe with you. You take a couple of tablespoons of full fat yoghurt (take greek yoghurt if you can find it, I use 6% Balkan style yoghurt), grate a bit of cucumber coarsely and put it in a towel so it isn't all that moist. Then you chop a clove of garlic very finely. You put some salt on the garlic and mash it with the side of your knife so it becomes pulp. You mix the yoghurt, garlic and cucumber, pinch of black pepper and a few drops of lemon juice. Serve with pita bread or whatever you wanna dip into it.
And the feta salad, is easy peasy. Chop half an onion in fine rings, 2 tomatoes in chunks, a couple of slices of cucumber, crumble some feta cheese, a generous pinch of dried oregano, a good turn of black pepper, some freshly squeezed lemon juice (little less than half a lemon) a nice glug of extra virgin olive oil and that's it. I like to put it an hour in the fridge before serving so all the flavours have combined.
Anyway, lock up your sons, daughters, pets, coz Erik the Viking is back. Looking forward seeing you all back again and looking forward to all the fine dining at your places.
