PM Carney Sheds Light on Unfair Trade Deal

Carney explains why Canada walked away from the trade deal

Tonight in Vancouver there are flashes of light and then the ominous loud crack of thunder can be heard outside as the rain is pouring down tonight. 

It's been a long day that started this morning with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressing the nation about why the country walked away from negotiating a trade deal with the United States, and that it's time to buckle up for a trade war.

"We cannot accept what they've offered, and we will not give what they've asked," he said, adding the US 'asked too much and offered too little.'

Carney also revealed the US had issues with Canada's subsidies for French culture, the prevalence of French-language media online and even the federal requirement to have bilingual labels on products sold in Canada.

"It was unacceptable right from the start, but the Americans kept trying and trying and we said no," the prime minister said. "Ultimately it's simple. That was never on the table for Canada and it would not have been acceptable to Canadians."

For the auto industry, the Americans demanded to treat Canadian-made parts unfairly and to exempt some cars and pick-up trucks from US tariffs, but not others without any explanation.

The US also expected to determine Canada's trade deals with other nations.

"The US introduced, in the last hours, efforts to restrict our ability to have other trade deals," Carney said. "Because we believe in free trade, we're the partner of choice, in many respects, for countries around the world, and Americans wanted to restrict that, they had language to restrict that. Unacceptable."

Perhaps he was referring to Canada striking a trade deal with China worth $3 billion, where 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles will be allowed into the country, along with lower tariffs for canola oil, and seafood like lobsters and crabs into the Middle Kingdom.

But anyway -- why would Canada allow the US -- or rather Donald Trump -- decide who it trades with?

As Toronto Star columnist Justin Ling told CBC Radio today, what the US was doing was basically extortion.

Carney also noted that the US sometimes signs trade deals "in pencil," a hint that it is negotiating in bad faith.

Despite the financial hardships that will come -- layoffs and more money flowing out of wallets -- Canadians seem to be more patriotic than ever. The slogan "Elbows Up" continues to resonate across the country, with all politicians, federally and provincially on board.

As British Columbia Premier David Eby said today, "There is no question that there will be economic pain associated with this, there already is," he said. "But it is necessary to stand up to a bully, and if you don't, they'll just keep coming back for more."

Interestingly, Trump hasn't responded at all to the trade deal collapse. Did he think he had it in the bag?

Review: Mistura

Mistura is a cinematic vehicle to promote Peruvian cuisine

It was almost a full house at VIFF at dinnertime to make us salivate while watching Mistura, a 2024 Peruvian foodie film.

Set in 1965 in Lima, Norma is half French and half Peruvian, the daughter of a French ambassador who has lived in rarified circles. But she discovers her husband has cheated on her, leaving her to figure out how to pay off the mortgage on the house.

Viewers quickly see what pressure she is under with everyone gossiping about her situation, and how Norma deals with it. Despite her husband's infidelity reported in the papers, Norma is determined to keep her head held high, and retain the house -- her house -- somehow.

Norma's driver inspires her to open a restaurant

At the encouragement of her chauffeur, Norma decides to open a restaurant in her mansion, and hires a Spanish-speaking Japanese chef who had once cooked for her father. The chef makes food that diners cannot relate to, let alone pronounce the names of the dishes.

There are also scenes showing her relationship with her adult son. As she is prim and proper, Norma vehemently disapproves of his hippie look and lifestyle, but an incident later brings them closer.

Eventually the restaurant evolves to reflect Peru and the people in the kitchen, and the film's end note explains "mistura" means mixture, combining different things together, which best describes Peruvian cuisine -- featuring Indigenous, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern, African and Italian influences. 

While the scenes in the kitchen didn't show as much cooking as the 2023 film The Taste of Things (Le Pot-au-Feu), we got the idea, watching Norma chop luscious tender beef cubes with her manicured hands, see how ceviche is made, and grilled meat skewers.

Norma is a half-French, half-Peruvian socialite

Mistura is a good movie, though in some parts one wonders if it's really possible for Norma to have a 180-transformation in her perception of others, or maybe she realises she needs all the help she can get? 

Actress Barbara Mori who plays Norma carries the film, and subtly shows her character's emotions below the surface, while having an unconventional relationship with her driver, played by Cesar Ballumbrosio.

Nevertheless, the film is a cinematic vehicle to promote Peruvian cuisine, and it definitely gets viewers curious (and hungry) to try some!

Mistura

Written and directed by Ricardo de Montreuil

101 minutes

French Dish in Chinatown

Lunch today in Chinatown -- beef brisket in tomato sauce

Today's lunch at The Boss Bakery and Restaurant in Chinatown -- "French style" beef brisket with rice.

It's a misnomer, as there's nothing French about it.

The dish arrived with a literal mountain of rice, pieces of very tender beef brisket with slices of tomatoes, red and green capsicums and onion, generously coated in a tangy tomato sauce.

Nevertheless, it was delicious, and as usual took more than half of it home as leftovers!

Mo Posts About her Prison Experience

Mo ended her silence by posting a message on social media

Former legislator Claudia Mo Man-ching kept herself busy by reading books and learning French while she was in jail for four years and two months.

A day after she was released, Mo wrote a post on social media about her "Kafka-esque" life behind bars.

"Many thanks for all the concern and care expressed upon my release. Prison life was surreal, almost Kafka-esque to start with. But I didn't suffer the two major incarceration traumas, loneliness and boredom, thanks to the social arrangements inside," she wrote.

A new photo of Mo at home

"During my time in custody, I've managed to read more than 300 books, mainly novels. Been also picking up on my French."

Mo also thanked her family and friends for support, in particular naming Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Reporters Withouth Borders, and Unison, an advocate for ethnic minorities that has disbanded.

"My thoughts are with my co-defendants who remain in custody," she said.

Mo was released April 29 along with fellow former legislators Gary Fan Kwok-wai, Kwok Ka-ki, and Jeremy Tan Man-ho who also served just over four years in jail.

They were among the 45 former politicians and pro-democracy activists sentenced over a conspiracy to subvert the state under the national security law for their involvement in a legislative primary election in 2020.

The four pleaded guilty and were handed the lightest jail term of the defendants.

Review: Ru with Kim Thuy

Kim Thuy's novel Ru was adapted for the screen in 2023

As part of the Vancouver Writers Fest, this evening had the chance to see Kim Thuy again -- in person and on the big screen! In 2009, her book Ru was published, described as a novel about her impressions of her family fleeing Vietnam as refugees and then making it to Quebec, Canada.

She explained after the film screening of Ru that she wrote about her own memories and did not consult her parents about what happened -- it was how she remembered it. 

Ru became a bestseller, originally in French and then translated into English which got even more people reading the novel.

Thuy was 10 years old when she came to Canada

Before Thuy became a writer she was a restaurateur and one of her regular customers was a man she thought had no friends, and read books, but in fact he was reading scripts. He helped her get her story published and then he bought the rights to turn the book into a film.

The film opens showing 10-year-old Thuy, her first name Tinh, in a wealthy home in Saigon, with her grandmother, parents, two younger brothers and an uncle. Her father was a deputy minister in the government. But Communist soldiers charge into the house, ransacking it, and the family has to leave. 

They flee onto a ship, then a small boat and make it to a refugee camp (in Malaysia, but it's not explained in the film), and from there the family is chosen by the Canadian government to go to Quebec because Thuy's parents can speak French fluently.

But when they arrive, it's in the depths of winter and they've never seen snow before. Thuy later said when they arrived she was overwhelmed by the snow, but also they were very unhealthy, having lived in a refugee camp for months, sleeping next to the open latrines so they had a lot of infections, lice in their hair, diarrhea. 

However, the small town they went to welcomed them with open arms, giving them a reception and paired up families with a sponsor family who helped them get set up rent-free for the first three months, helped them with furniture and integrating into Canadian life.

The family landed in Quebec in 1979

And this, Thuy says, is what makes her so grateful for this sponsor family and everyone, including her first teacher in Quebec, to help her to learn how to be Canadian.

Her parents had a rough time starting over, as her dad began working as a food delivery person for a Chinese restaurant, her mother a seamstress in a clothing factory. 

In one poignant scene, an elderly Vietnamese man who shovels snow tells Tinh that he used to be a judge and nearly had his brains blown out. But when the soldier ran out of bullets, the former judge looked up at the sky and for him it was his ticket to freedom. Which is why he kept asking her about the colour of the sky. 

When the filming began, it was all shot in Montreal and they could not go to Vietnam nor Thailand because of Covid-19. Thuy was named associate producer in the film, but she says she was only given this role so that she could be on set because of pandemic restrictions.

Thuy recalls when she stepped onto the set of the home, she began crying because it brought her back to when she was 10 years old, and made us the audience realise that she still hadn't fully processed her trauma. She said the most emotional scene for her was the car driving along a stretch of road in the snow, which to Thuy says demonstrates how far her family had come, and she found it unbelievable that they had come from Vietnam and were now in Canada.

Thuy (right) is grateful about being in Canada

She also says it was at the age of 50 that she first expressed anger, being in touch with emotions she had repressed for decades because her family had to live with Communist soldiers in the house, so they didn't dare say anything that would incriminate themselves; she was forced at school to denounce her parents and grandparents for playing music, or reading books and such. So it was best to keep quiet about everything.

These days she's very open, emotional, lively and grateful for everything that has happened to her in her life. At the end of the family the post script says her parents retired, and her brothers became an actuary (for Sun Life) and a dentist.

Someone asked what Ru means, and she said in French it's a small stream at the top of a mountain, which eventually becomes a river, while in Vietnamese it means a lullaby, lulling a child to sleep. So to her both words were beautiful images she wanted to convey.

Ru

Directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud

116 minutes

Based on Ru by Kim Thuy

Classical Concert in the Church

Zanrosso and Kahn at the front of the church

Before we headed to San Francisco International Airport, we attended a free concert (well donations of US$20 per person) organised by Noontime Concerts. It was held at Old St Mary's Cathedral, which is near Chinatown. 

We arrived early, so we attended the tail end of mass. The father presiding over mass talked about how Americans need to be more humble, using the Olympics as an example. He said at the closing ceremonies, the French tied sports with the arts in a thoughtful presentation and as the next Summer Games are in Los Angeles in 2028, what do the Americans do? Have Tom Cruise jump out of a plane...

Old St Mary's Cathedral

It was an amusing observation from an American!

After mass was over, the baby grand piano was wheeled in from the side and the concert began, featuring Evan Kahn on cello and Amy Zanrosso on piano. Zanrosso has a Canadian connection, as she studied music at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, and did a Masters degree at McGill University in Montreal. 

Because we had luggage with us, we sat at the back of the church; that made it hard to focus on the performance with people coming in and out of the church, as the die-hard concertgoers were near the front.

Nevertheless it was nice to hear some classical music in a church where the acoustics are great! The performers got a standing ovation at the end.

Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1 by Beethoven

Melodie for Cello and Piano, Op. 20, No. 1 by Alexander Glazunov

Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Major, Op. 65 by Benjamin Britten

 

Au Revoir Le Crocodile by Chef Michel Jacob

A meaty Dungeness crab cake with a red pepper mousseline

It was announced in early February that beloved Vancouver French restaurant Le Crocodile will close at the end of April, as chef-owner Michel Jacob will retire after over 43 years. 

He has sold the business to one of his early apprentices, Iron Chef winner Rob Feenie, who has been a consultant chef at Cactus Club for many years and most recently had a pop-up at Bacchus at Wedgewood. Currently Feenie is biding his time at the Vancouver Golf Club -- in Coquitlam.

Calm before dinner service at Le Crocodile

There's some skepticism that Feenie can pull off "Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie" as he intends to call it -- which is why diners are heading to Le Crocodile now for one last taste of Jacob's food. Since the news broke, reservations have been snapped up until April 30 and I managed to get a table tonight.

We arrived for 6pm and were seated off to the side by the bar, which is a nice, quieter area. For starters I had the Le Crocodile classic of tomato and gin soup that arrived piping hot topped with whipped cream. It was so comforting to have the soup, the creaminess tempering the acidity of the tomato, and yet it wasn't too rich either. 

The Dungeness crab cake was a thick puck-shaped portion choc full of crab meat that was fresh and flaky, topped with salmon roe and dressed with bell pepper mousseline and a side of greens. Another classic is the Alsatian onion tart full of umami flavour served with an endive salad with mustard dressing.

My favourite tomato and gin soup

The bread basket was so good we couldn't help ourselves but ask for a refill! We paid for it later as we barely finished our mains.

Mine was one of the four specials -- duck confit featuring two legs that were so tender they literally fell off the bone, together with a vol-au-vent with a savoury custard inside with citrus fruits on top, and a salad on the side. The duck skin wasn't crispy at all, but rather braised and moist. The vol-au-vent was small, but still crispy and held up the custard inside. The citrus fruits were a welcome counterpoint to the savoury duck. 

The pan-seared Haida Gwaii scallops were huge! Not having read the menu I thought they were from Hokkaido, but no they were on British Columbia's front step. They were cooked perfectly, meaty and subtle in flavour with a beurre blanc sauce.

Lovely pan-seared Haida Gwaii scallops

Meanwhile the grilled tiger prawns were quite large too, decorated with swirls of thinly zucchini spaghetti and in the middle some angel hair pasta in a lobster veloute and Pernod sauce. The sauce was not to one of my companion's liking, who found it a bit on the sour side. 

By now the dining room was filling up and becoming noisier, and a couple seated next to us celebrating their wedding anniversary. We got a mini pre-dessert, a small scoop of pear sorbet. It was so divine I could have eaten another.

We ordered a Grand Marnier souffle and it looked lovely, like a mushroom with a muffin top sprinkled with icing sugar. The server generously poured in creme Anglaise, a vanilla custard that made it quite wet at the bottom. Nevertheless, the souffle itself was very light and airy.

Duck confit with vol-au-vent and citrus fruits

Our second dessert was sunburnt lemon meringue tart with passion fruit sorbet. The presentation was dramatic, the lemon tart decorated with frilly piped meringue that was torched. Also a nice light, tart finish, though we could have had more passionfruit sorbet! Lovely finish.

We thanked our server and asked him to pass on our gratitude to the chef. He said the new owner plans to keep the restaurant as it is, but even he is not sure if it will change and urged us to try it under Rob Feenie.

There are too many memories in this restaurant, as we have eaten here many times over the years. The best part of it is the quality and consistency over four decades, not an easy feat. The landlady lives upstairs from the restaurant and we've heard she dines here regularly. So there will be expectations to keep it pretty much the same... we can only hope!

Lemon meringue tart with passionfruit sorbet

Le Crocodile

909 Burrard Street #100

Vancouver, BC

604 669 4298

Kindergarten Numbers Continue to Fall in HK

Kindergarten schools are competing for fewer students

Kindergartens in Hong Kong and desperate for students, as the number of applications is one-third less than last year, due to emigration and the falling birth rate.

Parents need to submit a "Registration Certificate for Kindergarten Admission" in order to get government subsidies, and the number of applications for this designation has also fallen by more than 20 percent in five years according to official data.

Lam says the birth rate continues to fall

Nancy Lam Chui-ling, vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers and a kindergarten principal says the actual number of kindergarten students is actually even smaller.

"This is because parents will sign up for a few kindergartens to pick from, so the actual number of registrations will definitely be even lower than the number of offers we give out to the applicants," she said. 

"The number will keep falling as people emigrate and tend not to give birth. I do not think the emigration wave will stop."

For example, the number of births began dropping in 2017, from 56,500 to a record low of 32,500 in 2022.

In the first 10 months of last year, the number of registered births fell slightly from 27,823 to 27,293. The final figure will be revealed in February.

A few months ago the government announced it would offer a HK$20,000 bonus to eligible parents with newborns. The authorities project a 20 percent increased birthrate to around 39,000, but that's well short of the more than 50,000 recorded in 2020.

Many young families have emigrated overseas

Lam suggested kindergarten schools offer full-day classes, but are kids ready for that? For some just going to school is traumatic already... That said full-day classes would allow both parents to work.

Nevertheless, kindergartens are trying to entice parents to sign up with them by offering to teach their children other languages, such as Spanish, French and Japanese on top of English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

As if kids don't have enough to learn already!

The French Food that Chinese Like to Eat

The mini pho bo with a sous vide egg at Linh Cafe

Linh Cafe is popular -- among mostly the Asian crowd.

The vast majority of the customers are Chinese -- both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers to come eat elevated Vietnamese fare and French bistro dishes like steak tartare, escargots, and mussels.

Three mini spicy baguette sticks

However, practically every table has at least one bowl of pho bo -- Vietnamese beef noodle soup with slices of beef brisket and rice noodles in a flavourful broth.

We later saw a Caucasian couple sit down, order two glasses of red wine and a bowl of pho bo each. How romantic.

Another Instagram dish is the spicy baguette sticks. We saw the table next to us had it so we ordered it too.

It comes with a minimum order of three sticks and they are mini baguettes sliced down the middle and filled with pork liver pate and topped with hot sauce that isn't really that spicy. It looked like a curry wurst, but was actually warm pate with a tinge of spiciness. Not something to order again.

We liked the frogs legs that were marinated in a spicy and garlicky sauce before being deep fried. If you were patient enough to extract the lean meat you were well rewarded with small plump bits that had a lingering spicy finish.

Delicious fried frog legs with a spicy finish

The country terrine is a classic dish, though this one was wrapped in a very fatty bacon. Nevertheless the combination of foie gras, Black Forest ham, and liver did give it a rustic texture that went well with the complimentary bread.

And like everyone else, we also ordered the pho bo, though ours was the mini size with a sous vide egg. We marvelled at the broth that had very deep flavours and yet was light and maybe some MSG in it? The beef brisket is a step up from typical Vietnamese pho places that offer thin slices of raw beef. Good to the last drop.

My friend was curious to try the palmier, but it wasn't exceptionally crispy or delicate; perhaps this pastry wasn't made in house? But a disappointing finish nonetheless...

Linh Cafe

1428 Granville Street

Under the Granville Street Bridge

604 564 9668

VIFF Review: The Pot au Feu

Most of the film is centered in this kitchen

One of the closing films of the Vancouver International Film Festival was The Pot au Feu, also known as The Taste of Things or The Passion of Dodin Bouffant by director Tran Anh-Hung. It's interesting to note that exactly 30 years ago he became an international star with his film The Scent of Green Papaya.

In The Pot au Feu, Tran makes viewers hungry, watching actors Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel cooking numerous dishes using 19th century cooking equipment. One of the earlier scenes in the film is the French version of Eat Drink Man Woman, spending a lot of time watching mostly Binoche's character prepare a roast loin of veal, a whole turbot poached in a milk bath, a vol au vent, which is a puff pastry where the inside is hollowed out and creamy vegetables spooned in, and a Baked Alaska -- yes it existed in the 1830s.

Dodin cooks a romantic meal for Eugenie 

Magimel is Dodin, who seems to be wealthy enough not to "work", and instead has an estate with a large garden to grow vegetables, acquire fine wines and entertain his male friends who are serious gourmets, while Binoche is Eugenie, his loyal cook for over 20 years who intuitively knows exactly what Dodin wants. 

Oh and they are lovers too; he has asked her many times to marry him, and she politely refuses, saying the arrangement they have now is fine.

There isn't much of a plot in The Pot au Feu: an Eurasian prince comes calling and wants to impress Dodin and his friends with a terribly lavish meal that lasts eight hours. The chef is none other than Pierre Gagnaire himself who in one scene reads out the outlandish menu.

Chef Gagnaire plays... a chef in the film

The other storyline is Eugenie who has fainting spells and the doctors don't know what is wrong with her; When she convalesces, Dodin uses the opportunity to finally cook for her and presents a romantic meal for one that includes oysters topped with caviar, a chicken with slices of black truffle stuffed under the skin and the cooked in a broth that is used for consomme, then the meat is the main course. 

Then there is a precocious girl Pauline, who helps out in the kitchen and Eugenie and Dodin immediately see she has the potential to become a great cook.

Director Tran uses a lot of mise en scene, long lingering shots of the food being prepared from scratch, and how they cook things methodically but with a lot of love and care through how they handle the ingredients. He also uses a lot of natural light, while the lighting at night, particularly the dinner for Eugenie is dimly lit.

Tran (left) directing Magimel in the kitchen

The dialogue is relatively sparse, as the food seems to speak for itself, while viewers can sense the sexual tension between Eugenie and Dodin -- Binoche and Magimel were together for five years and have a daughter together, so they are very comfortable with each other on screen.

Sadly there isn't much character development in the film, but the real star of The Pot au Feu is the food. I had been forewarned not to watch the film on an empty stomach and it's true. Clocking in at 134 minutes, it's a long film about cooking and eating food. However, it surely has inspired some audience members to try their hand in the kitchen, and are probably relieved they have modern cooking appliances and not have to tend to a fire to heat the stove...

The Pot au Feu

Directed by Tran Anh-Hung

Stars Juliette Binoche, Benoit Magimel

134 minutes

Kissa Tanto's Creative Dishes

Beautifully plated octopus salad, pickled radish at Kissa Tanto

A friend of mine who enjoys dining out managed to snag a reservation at the Michelin-starred Kissa Tanto, which features an eclectic mix of Japanese-French ingredients and cooking styles. Our reservation was for 6pm and when I arrived at the address, which is in Chinatown, there were two other women wanting to go into the restaurant, but two homeless people were sitting on the doorstep.

"Oh sorry, excuse me," one of them said politely and removed her things from the step. They were gone after I had climbed the long stairway and looked back at the door. Not surprising the restaurant needs to put a gate on the door during the day...

Charcoal udon with crab, prawns and squid

Upstairs it's a quaint slightly old school, slightly hipster space with a bar at the front, and dining room to the back that faces Pender Street. The first round was already underway when we sat down and perused the menu. 

The staff suggest sharing everything and for two people, two to three appetisers and two mains, but we went for two appetisers and three mains (after two mains I was just full, the third was definitely filling).

For starters the carne cruda (CA$25) is beef tartare using Snake River Farms wagyu mixed with nashi pear, and tons of finely shaved Parmesan on top -- so much so that it covers the entire beef tartare like a mound of cream-coloured snow. 

A bit excessive for a dish that's supposed to focus on the beef.

However, the octopus salad (CA$25) was memorable. Beautifully plated like a colourful wreath, it featured bits of crispy octopus -- pan fried with lots of pickled radish slices in a parsley and chilli puree. Very refreshing and different textures.

Sablefish with marinated currants, pine nuts

Our plates were cleared before the mains arrived. The sablefish (CA$47) was another lovely presentation but my only complaint was the portion was so small! A tiny portion of the gorgeous fish that was perfectly cooked and paired with oyster mushrooms, a slight kick of chilli and pine nuts for another texture.

We also had the charcoal udon (CA$49), the thick noodle made with spelt so that it can have an al dente texture and coloured black, with bits of Dungeness crab, prawns and squid. 

After we finished these mains, I was just full, but my friend was hungry for more and ordered the spaghettoni (CA$35). It's basically a Japanese-Italian pasta with wagyu and pork ragu sauce mixed with Japanese curry. Again this dish was completely covered in shaved Parmesan, but in the case of this pasta dish it was warranted. Mixing the cheese in made it much more creamier and richer.

Now I was full, and the waiter told us we only had 15 minutes left before we had to return the table, even though there were two or three empty tables around us that were soon filled.

Spaghettoni with wagyu, pork and Japanese curry

So we called it a night, with drinks it came to about CA$120 each plus tips. It was a hefty amount, but creative dishes. Still thinking about the octopus salad.

Kissa Tanto

263 East Pender Street

Vancouver, BC

778 379 8078