Peameal Bacon is an Ontario Thing

Slices of fried peameal back bacon for breakfast today

Yesterday when we were wandering around St Lawrence Market, we were surprised to see in the butcher section something called "peameal bacon". 

I had never heard of it before, but it is basically wet-cured back bacon covered in cornmeal, and is usually done in Ontario.

Peameal bacon with fried eggs and potatoes

Historically in England back in the 1700s, boneless pork loin was trimmed and cured before it was rolled in dried and ground yellow peas to extend the meat's shelf life. Since the end of World War I, the pork loin has been rolled in cornmeal.

We were curious enough to try it this morning for breakfast. I had it with three small eggs over easy with potatoes and rye toast.

The slices of peameal bacon had the cornmeal on the edge and was fried to give it a slight crunch. The back bacon itself is salty, but tender, thanks to the wet brine.

Now we know!

Cherry Blossom Season in Vancouver

The pink blossoms are beautifying Vancouver

Vancouver is deep in cherry blossom season, with lots of fluffy pink blobs covering trees around the city.

After having recently returned from Tokyo where I saw some sakura, I am biased when I say the ones in Vancouver are much prettier!

The cherry blossoms in my neighbourhood

Our city is celebrating 100 years of cherry blossoms, as it was in 1925 when the mayors of Kobe and Yokohama presented the Vancouver Park Board with 500 trees of the Ojochin variety to plant at the cenotaph in Stanley Park in honour of the Japanese-Canadian veterans of World War I.

Then from the 1930s to the 1950s, the Park Board planted cherry tree seeds that were donated by Japanese Canadians, around Vancouver. 

Three hundred more cherry trees were donated in 1958 by the Japanese consul Muneo Tanabe as a symbol of friendship between Canada and Japan. The trees were planted along Cambie Street, between 33rd and 49th avenues, in Queen Elizabeth Park and around the cenotaph in Stanley Park.

In 1990 the Park Board did a comprehensive inventory of street trees and found nearly 36 percent of the 89,000 trees on city streets were flowering plum and cherry trees. 

Fluffy pink popcorn on trees

Every year Vancouver has the Cherry Blossom Festival, encouraging residents to check out the city in pink, write haiku and have a picnic, and learn more about cherry trees.

Despite the rain earlier this week, most of the cherry blossoms managed to hang onto their branches, dry off and continue to beautify the city. They and magnolias are also a treat to look at these days. Magnolia are also fleeting, as once they bloom, the petals fall off and that's the end of the season.

Cherry blossoms remind us to stop and appreciate the beauty around us, even if it might cause those of us with pollen allergies to have some sneezing episodes!

Jelly Legs from Pilates

Pilates reformer machines help isolate muscles to work on

This morning I went to my first pilates class using a reformer machine. 

These machines were created by Joseph Pilates in an internment camp in World War I. He created it by attaching springs to the bed to help bed-bound patients to do resistance exercises without having to stand up.

The instructor for my class was a young Asian guy, who it later turns out is a dancer. He turned on the music to easy-going jazz, which made me realise the class was not going to be like aerobics classes where we had to move to the beat.

Instead the music put us in a relaxed mood and we were not expected to do a certain number of reps or sets; he just let us repeat the movements, and the key was to do it properly.

When lying in the reformer, your shoulders and neck are kind of boxed in (comfortably), while your arms and legs do the work (separately or together). That way it forces you to isolate your muscles and work on them in a controlled way.

The reformer is also attached to springs to move forward and backward, and these can be adjusted to be harder or easier to move. At first we worked on our leg muscles and at times my legs were shaking from using different muscles or in such a repetitive way. It's all good!

Eventually we graduated to arms moving in circles and it felt good and tiring! When we finally moved to stretching, one of the women shouted hurray! Again I was stretching in different ways which was really interesting.

When we did new exercises, I had to look over to my classmates who had taken these classes before, or the instructor would come by and give me directions on what to do. He seemed impressed I was quite flexible!

Needless to say I had worked up a sweat and my legs were like jelly afterwards! 

Okanagan: Road Trip to Osoyoos

Osoyoos is surrounded by hills and water, ideal for fruits, wine

Yesterday we drove east from Vancouver to Osoyoos for a few days before going on to Kelowna, both small towns in the Okanagan, a region best known for its wineries and orchards, as well as fruits like cherries, apricots, peaches, and apples. Only the cherries are for sale at the moment and they are delicious!

The drive takes about four hours but we broke it up into three sections: Vancouver to Hope, where we had a bite to eat at a well-known diner called Home Restaurant. I had the all-day breakfast of two eggs, a large German sausage, a giant heap of hash browns and rye toast. The pies on display looked amazing, but we were too full even for a bite. 

There are many colourful murals around

Then I took the wheel from Hope to Princeton, where the roads were quite winding and many hairpin turns that required slowing down and steady handling of the car. Luckily there weren't many cars on the road, and when there were passing lanes available, I was more than happy to let those speeders go past me!

Princeton to Osoyoos didn't have the hairpin turns, but many parts were single-lane traffic before arriving in the small town. There are big hotel chains like Holiday Inn and Best Western, while many others are private operations. I was surprised to see that they promoted having a "sandy beach" -- that meant Osoyoos Lake was at the back of the property, and while there was soft sand, it was only a few metres long, and no shells, just pebbles.

Nevertheless, the natural scenery is stunning, with Osoyoos in the bottom of a valley surrounded by hills. No wonder it's an ideal place for growing wine grapes, and the place is usually the hottest place in British Columbia in the summer.

Luckily for us temperatures haven't hit the peak yet, and instead the sun's rays are cooled by blustery winds. 

This legion stands out and very patriotic

Today I went for a walk around Osoyoos Lake, which looks like a slithering snake that is split in half almost in the middle by a small bridge. There's lots of green space around the lake, as well as the aforementioned "beach". People are either hanging out and sitting on benches enjoying the view, or out on the lake in their boats.

Walking into town there are several murals. One that caught my eye was the one for veterans, and pointed out they had served in both world wars, the Korean War as well as in Afghanistan, and as peacekeepers. By the lake there is also Veterans Park paying tribute to these soldiers.

Founded in 1946, Osoyoos is named after the Syilx (Okanagan Indian) word soo-yoos, meaning "narrowing of the waters". Fur traders first worked here in the 1800s, followed by miners. It wasn't until the early 1900s were commercial orchards established and then growing wine grapes in the 1960s.

The town has a few banks, national chain stores like Shopper's Drug Mart and Home Hardware, and the rest are independent shops from jewellery to books, nail salons and clothing. Oh yes and ice cream shops, and by the lake there's a trailer selling mini doughnuts and frozen lemonade.

A refreshing frozen lemonade

As I reached the trailer before lunchtime it was more prudent to just get the frozen lemonade, which was probably a ripoff at C$6, but what the heck, it was hot and lemonade flavoured shaved ice seemed like the ideal antidote after a warm day in the sun.

Picture of the Day: Sakura in Vancouver

Gorgeous cherry blossoms out in full force

There is no need to rush to Japan to see the cherry blossoms when Vancouver has a lot of these trees planted all over the city.

Hundreds of cherry trees were gifted by Japan to Vancouver to be planted in Stanley Park in honour of Japanese Canadians who served in World War I. 

After the 1950s there was also a large planting exercise of crab apple, plum and more cherry trees.

Today there are some 43,000 cherry trees in the city, including more than 50 different varietals.

This morning taking advantage of the weather (before it rained for the rest of the day!) I did a quick walk in the neighbourhood and this time walked along a street I don't normally do. 

There I spotted some gorgeous cherry blossoms and up close you can see they are little pink pom poms of blossoms on the branches which makes the trees look so fluffy. 

Review: Porco Rosso

Porco Rosso saves the day with his ace flying skills

This afternoon I returned to the Vancouver International Film Festival theatre to catch the ongoing Studio Ghibli Forever! festival, for the screening of Porco Rosso.

The 1992 animation by Hayao Miyazaki seems like an adult show at first, but really it's suitable for kids. Even the English dubbed version has witty dialogue that kids around 7 years old can appreciate.

Not many people watched this screening compared to My Neighbor Totoro last week, but it's too bad they were missing out.

Porco Rosso sizes up his rival, American Curtis 

Porco Rosso is a World War I flying ace who left the air force and kept busy as a bounty hunter. He has gained a reputation for not only his piloting skills, but also his pig-headed face, caused by some kind of curse that isn't really explained. He also seems to smoke a lot!

But his cynical attitude and one-liners quickly make him endearing to the audience, not to mention his ability to fly circles around his rivals, a rag-tag bunch of dim-witted air pirates.

These pirates team up with an American pilot called Donald Curtis, who also immediately reminds us of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast -- so full of himself and in love with any woman who walks his way.

In the skies Curtis sneaks up on Porco Rosso and believes he has downed the porcine pilot, but instead has severely damaged his beloved plane.

Fio holds her own against the air pirates...

Porco Rosso brings his wing-less into Milan to have it fixed by his mechanic, who happens to have a smart aviation engineer granddaughter named Fio.

She makes his plane even better (and costs even more), but Porco Rosso needs to get out of Italy to evade the Fascists who know he's in the country. His famous line is: "I'd rather be a big than a Fascist."

There's also a love interest -- Gina -- who is uber rich from selling drinks at her bar to those air pirates. All her previous husbands were pilots and she cares deeply for Porco Rosso, but he selfishly -- our out of self preservation -- cares only for himself.

Fio and Gina are strong women characters who reveal Miyazaki's feminist side, and these two balance out the male chauvinism very well. Gina and especially Fio are precursors to Disney's Belle in Beauty and the Beast and the red headed Princess Merida in Brave.

... and so does Gina with the air pirates in her bar

The 96-minute film has lots of action and comedy, as well as touching scenes that the time seems to fly by.  There's more to the plot with a lot of backstory which make the characters more rounded and complex.

The English version is voiced by Michael Keaton as Porco Rosso and Cary Elwes as Curtis. Brad Garrett is the Boss, the leader of the air pirates.

Porco Rosso

Hayao Miyazaki

96 minutes