St. Patrick's Day

Last weekend was St. Patrick's Day. Time to eat some good ol' Fish 'n Chips. I don't need a deep-fryer, because I make my chips in the oven. Less fat (also less crunchy) but kinda more sweet caramelized taste on the edges. And the fish? Fresh cod fillet in a beer batter. You have to deep-fry the fish, so I used my wok instead. And of course an ice cold pint of Guinness!

And on Sunday we went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade. But I hear you thinking ... "wait a minute ... Montréal is a French city ... why do they celebrate an Irish holiday?". As a matter of fact, Montreal has the oldest St. Patrick's Day Parade in whole of Canada. It has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759 by Irish soldiers in the Montreal Garrison following the British conquest of New France. But I have to say the parade was kinda lame.

This week we received news about the scholarship Tinneke applied for. Unfortunately she didn't get it. I was our last hope for a substantial scholarship, but fate decided otherwise. We would have loved the extra money to move to a better apartment, but we'll figure out a way to do without it. So the apartment hunt has started. So far we've seen a couple of places, but nothing that blew us away. If we are going to spend twice the amount of money on rent, it better be worth it. We're looking for a place that has an exhaust hood (our house still smells like fish 'n chips) and has a washer and dryer (or at least an outlet to install those). And it has to be in Mile End as well (or the Plateau if we really have to :-)

This weekend is Easter Weekend. Most people take Good Friday instead of Easter Monday. And so did I. Friday we were invited to an Easter dinner at our neighbor Anne's mother's house in Westmount, birthplace of Leonard Cohen, Conrad Black and residence of Jacques Villeneuve. Today I'm making a traditional Flemish Easter dinner. (Or at least this is what my mother cooked up). It is called "bird's nests" and closest English thing to it scotch eggs. Tonight we're going to see Caribou (how Canadian can you be?) and tomorrow our last Habs game of the season and burgers at M:BRGR. More about that later!