Dark and grayny
Posted on May 7th, 2010 –
Zach’s post about the G20 kinda freaked me out a bit. Not about the clampdown on the city or anything, I think that’ll be a riot. My main concern is the volume of simultaneous stuff that’ll be happening, and the lack of bodies to attend. Last year I got a request to cover Caribana so I spent the whole day wriggling through a million people in the blistering heat. I had to miss about three other things that day, three things within my highly limited scope of “what’s happening”.
This year the city’s shipping in Euro-crazies for the summer, doing a mayoral throw-down, plus all the other usual seasonal stuff that’s supposed to happen. It’s all a bit overwhelming.
One day at a time.
And by the way, if you’re ever eating Fiddleheads, steam or boil those suckers first. I won’t go into detail but two of us spent many hours ejecting vile green masses and bile from our retching stomachs. Otherwise the baby ferns tasted quite pleasant. They’re in season for only about a week; they say three in the fridge but they start to unfurl in there and get all leafy and bitter — blech – straight into the trash.
Early risers like strawberries and asparagus should start showing up soon if fern isn’t to your liking. After that we should start seeing beans and potatoes, then tomatoes herbs and squashes, and finally apples, pears, peaches, and other fruits. I probably also missed a couple or dozen fruits and vegetables in there. When they’re in season, they really are much better.
Okay, you got me, I spent the day booting around St. Lawrence Market replenishing some much-needed stock. It was dark and grayny today so there wasn’t much else to do – the city felt a bit like a ghost town. One of those days when staying under the covers isn’t such a bad idea, you know? Did I ever suggest that statutory holidays be based on the weather? The first mayoral candidate to take that and run with it automatically gets my vote.
Probably won’t be Rob Ford though. That guy just got a one-two sucker punch; first some comments he made a few years ago about gay people are thrown at his face by Furious George (I believe I did mention how both George’s bulldogged qualities and his homosexuality would be to his advantage), then Rob gets publicly scolded by the integrity commissioner for revealing how much the city was planning to pay for some house.
I suspect this won’t deter him, though – he’ll just have to get his shit together for the next salvo. Whoever’s running the campaign might want to start maybe talking to Rob and get to know him; find out a little more about the candidate. It seems obvious to me but maybe that’s just the nature of municipal politics. Maybe meat just likes to get roasted.
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May 8th, 2010 11:10 am
I am wondering how that fiddle heads cooked and taste like :)
May 8th, 2010 12:25 pm
Actually they taste best pickled! These are real big in rural northern Vermont which is where I first ate them – pickled – real good!
May 8th, 2010 12:26 pm
Oh wait – "rural" and "Northern Vermont" – redundant…sorry.
May 8th, 2010 7:42 pm
Can't be all bad, Grace. There are irreplaceably charming aspects to rural life, especially in the summer. And I bet you get fresh Fiddleheads too, right? :)
May 8th, 2010 7:45 pm
My singular experience with them, VanillaSeven, was not unlike baby cabbage. Very tender and mild. Shortly thereafter I got to taste them again coming back up. Did I mention that I recommend boiling or steaming them first?
May 8th, 2010 9:34 pm
What are those green things? Fascinating! I have never before in my life seen those! I'm sure they're very nutritious given that intense green that they are. Surprisingly they don't seem to be very popular in New York….
May 9th, 2010 6:50 am
Those are Fiddleheads, Diva — basically curled baby ferns. They taste a little like cabbage or young greens. You can gather them wild around Toronto (especially out of the city) but as you mention, they haven't quite hit the mainstream yet.
May 9th, 2010 10:47 am
I no longer live in vermont – thank god for small blessings – tho burlington wasn't so bad. godawful weather – i really don't do snow and cold. unfortunately I now live in fiflthadelphia. i have lived many, many places in the last 20 years – filthadelphia's the worst of the worst of the worst…ewww!
May 9th, 2010 12:32 pm
Sorry to hear that, Grace. Actually, no, no I'm not. :)
Burlington's okay, but for me it's a visit-only area.
May 11th, 2010 6:56 am
Burlington Ontario or Burlington Vermont? I think Patrick, you're referring to the first and Grace might be referring to the latter.
In any case, haven't tried fiddleheads yet. pickled sounds interesting. :)