Oysters oysters everywhere!

Hi from Galway, Ireland! Today we have a special treat -- a video blog!

We are here for the big Oyster Festival, at the recommendation of Patrick McMurray (known for his restaurant, Starfish, his book Consider the Oyster, and, most recently, his Leslieville pub Ceili Cottage), who is himself a former World Champion Oyster Opener at this very competition.

In fact, we ran into him just as we arrived at the main event -- the Oyster Tasting, a bargain at 55 Euros a person (as opposed to the 110 Euros for tonight's big Gala dinner) -- and he took us backstage to get a bit of insight on the action as the competitors in this year's Oyster Opening Championship warmed up. (I apologize in advance for the sound quality in the latter part of the video. There was a ton of background noise and because I had to stay out of the way of the servers carting stacks of oyster platters out into the main room, I couldn't get the camera close enough to Patrick for the mic to pick up well. If you can make any of it out, he is mainly talking about the different shucking techniques of the various competitors.)



Before the competition began we feasted on a delicious seafood platter that included smoked salmon, baby prawns, some sort of seafood paté, and salad, plus, of course, a plate of six lovely oysters!

The competition is very spirited and pretty intense. Before they start, each competitor must provide a psedonym so that the judges will not know whose platter of 30 oysters is whose. Audience members shout out suggestions, which the MC takes or leaves at his whim. The first round included competitors nicknamed "Obama" and "Clinton." There was a "Michael Jackson" and a "Shakespeare." This is the third and final heat, featuring the Swedish, Canadian, American, and Estonian competitors. Naturally, we were rooting for the Canadian!



Oyster openers get penalties and bonus points for presentation of their opened oysters, which are added on to the time it takes for them to open 30 oysters in order to arrive at the winner. Watch the American in this video -- the way his knife cuts through the oysters makes them look like they are just made of butter. Also watch the Swede -- cool as a cucumber and perfectly focused! He later won for presentation.



Oysters may be the main event this weekend, but of course the Irish love their trad, so there was music and dancing too. I'll leave you with this last clip -- enjoy; we certainly did!



After Galway: WWOOFing in County Sligo for about a week.

PS to Dawn -- we are staying at the Salmon Weir hostel, where you and I and Sean and Heather stayed in Galway 10 years ago! It hasn't changed a bit. :)

First official days of no school

On September 8th and 9th, instead of heading back to school with the rest of the world, we took a "mini-honeymoon" in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Stratford. Yes, we did purposely time it to co-incide with the first day of school. :)

Thanks to a wonderful gift from my department, it couldn't have been a more perfect experience. We stayed at a friend's lovely guest cottage, Wisteria House, and we had perfect weather. The Zoom Leisure bike tour of the historic old town and three wineries was idyllic, and it certainly is fun wobbling along the bike trails with just a *wee* bit of wine running through your system! :D

We visited three wineries: Lailey, Reif, and Jackson-Triggs (basically, small, medium and large), and, in addition to some excellent whites and quite good reds, got to sample quite a bit of the local ice-wine, which is world-renowned. The Jackson-Triggs tour also included a brief foray into their vineyards, through their fermenting facility, and down into their cellars, where they often hold wine-pairing dinners amongst the oak barrels.

Dinner at the Charles Inn was delicious: we shared a gazpacho that has inspired David to attempt his own; I had pan-seared salmon over pureed spinach with a wild mushroom tartlet that was to die for; David had halibut in a nice gingery broth; and we finished everything off with a trio of fantastic Quebec cheeses.

Our cottage-owning friend had recommended we ask them to seat us at a "special" table (not sure what she had in mind, but ours gave us a nice view of the sunset over my shoulder. We were also highly entertained by the bizarre conversation of the couple at the next table -- the woman seemed to feel it necessary to read the entire menu aloud to her husband, and to repeat to him everything the server said) and because we had mentioned that we were on our honeymoon, they presented us with a local sparkling wine from Konzelmann that chased our three courses of excellent food down with a little extra something.

The next day, we spent a bit more time visiting market stands and wineries on our own time. Southbrook has a gorgeous facility designed by the same architect who designed the new opera house in Toronto. They also make a spectacular framboise dessert wine. Konzelmann (they of the great sparkling) has vineyards that overlook the lake, making for a most picturesque setting.

Feeling a bit odd every time we saw kids being dropped off by their schoolbusses, we took the long road on secondary highways to Stratford to see West Side Story. Since David's not a fan of musicals, this was a bit of a coup for me, but the show was fabulous, so he couldn't complain. I seriously highly recommend seeing it if you can get down there before it closes!

Thanks so much to my department for such a thoughtful and amazingly apropos gift! It was the perfect way to kick off our year-off travels.


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