Fol Epi

No, the name of the place is not a spelling mistake. Fol Epi, according to the founder and owner, means "wild wheat stock". It is a wonderful bakery with a coffee shop in the same zone; they also make delicious sandwiches, sausage rolls and pastries. It uses conventional electricity as well as wind power to turn the grist mill to grind the wheat that makes the bread. They aslo have a wood firing oven to give the bread that flame cooked look and taste. Cliff Leir is the owner and he and his staff make great items. They're open Saturday's and Sunday's now too. Perfect for taking a break after walking or biking down the Galloping Goose trial.


The website is down but this site offers great pictures and commentary.

The now serve organic vanilla soft serve ice cream with vanilla pieces from Mexico.

Dulse or Maritime Seaweed or Palmaria Palmata

I forgot to post this while I was in the Maritimes last month. Fortunately I still have a bag left. I grew up with my Mother's side of the family chewing on this and going to great lengths to procure fresh stuff. When I was young I didn't like it but after I matured  appreciated this snack food, especially after eating sushi for many years.

This is an example of a good piece. Free of barnacles and soft to the touch, it can retain its softness for quite some time with proper storage away from light and heat. It's prepared by dragging it off the beach, rinsing it off and letting it sit out to dry. Pretty simple.

Something I didn't know until I looked it up was that it is extremely healthy! An excellent source of fiber, this Northern Atlantic and Pacific strain has lots of vitamins, all the trace elements humans need, minerals and is a great source of protein, seen here. I never knew. So I you see a bag in a small store by the seaside, squeeze to check if its fresh and give it a try.

US Election 2012, Chuck Norris, his Wife and the Power of Religious Fear

I am a Canadian but am still concerned about what transpires South of the border. I am also a person who tries to abide by this statement "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." (This is commonly attributed to Voltaire but actually was first written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), summarizing Voltaire's views on freedom...but I digress.)

I was still inflamed and flabbergasted when watching the Daily Show, with Jon Stewart, I saw an excerpt of a video speech by Chuck Norris and his wife. I decided, as people should, to go to the source and investigate the source. Something few journalists and people do nowadays. I became even more inflamed and flabbergasted but since I also have the freedom to say something, in my commie Canada where we have universal health care, I will. First go ahead and watch what Mr and Mrs Norris said here. I'll wait.

 .....

History. Tipping point. Lost forever. Crossroads. Encourage like-minded brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard. If you love your family and freedom. Socialism or something much worse. Bit about getting 30 million evangelical Christians to register and vote unlike the last election. Quote from Edmund Burke "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Quote from Ronald Regan "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." Regan went on to say that "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done." Stand with us. Unite for God and country. May God continue to bless the United States of America. See you at the polls.

Religion and politics. Yum. OK lets break this down.

History. Tipping point: Letting the audience know that this election is extremely important and that we could go from one extreme to another. A bit sensationalistic and poorly chosen. If the USA is on a tipping point then is what is happening now good or bad?

Lost forever: Whoa there girl! That's a little strong isn't it?

Crossroads: Emphasizing tipping point earlier.

Encourage...like-minded...brothers and sisters: Why not send an email to your relatives rather than making a video? I guess they are saying that people who think the same and act the same are like a family. Like all other families in the world...yeah right. Lets all dress the same too while we are at it.

If you love your family and freedom: Family I get. But wait a second. If Chuck is suggesting that freedom is the ability to do what you want then why does he want people to vote his way? I guess because...

Socialism or something much worse: Ah. If President Obama gets re-elected then his medicare is the tip of the iceberg. I guess that's why when counties adopted universal health care (it has also been called socialized medicine), like Canada in 1966, they became the commie liberal den of inequity we are today. Har Har. Or Britain in 1911 or 1995 in Israel or Australia in 1984 or...well just go here to see what counties have it.

Stand with us: OK, yup because if you are not with us against President Obama you are...

Edmund Burke Quote: ...helping evil triumph.

Regan 1st quote: This was not a quote made while he was in office but one made for a Phoenix chamber of commerce gathering in 30 March 1961. The whole speech is here and it is an anti-communism speech. In particular it is an anti-universal health care and less government oversight speech.

Regan second quote: If Regan did go on to say this quote he must have been talking for an awfully long time. It was made in October 22nd 1964 for support of Barry Goldwater's Republican party nomination for President (He lost really really big and in the 1980's was unhappy with the role of the religious right in the Reppublican party. He also did not like the anti-abortion and anti-gay stance of the party. But I digress). It also was a speech that was anti-communism, against the welfare state, against the power of unions, and for balanced budgets. It is found here.

May God continue to bless the United States of America: So President Obama's actions enabled the USA to become blessed by God? This statement does not fit in the doom and gloom of before.

See you at the polls: Ok, so they will vote too. Nice of them to say so. Everyone voting is good as it reflects an accurate view of a countries population.

So Mr and Mrs Norris are concerned on the future of their country. That's great but using unfounded fear is not. Combining it with religion is also not cool. Many counties have adopted universal health care and increased government regulations to make them more stable. Here are the countries again that have adopted it (green is universal health care and pink is for mandated universal coverage but have not met thresholds of the green countries. From Wikipedia):

As seen above, these counties have not become dens of Lucifer or evil world conquering commies. Heck, even Russia doesn't have universal coverage like it used to anymore because they tried a two tier system recently and made it worse. Even in the bible, Jesus did lots of stuff for everyone he met because it was the right thing to do because he had the ability to do it. That's why I'm confused with Mr and Mrs Norris's stance. Isn't helping heal those who are sick the Christian thing to do? The good Samaritan would agree. Health care is a crippling cost in the US for the average person and with government help it gets those who stumble, back in the workforce and more money in the economy. The Republicans also have to get over anti-regulation as well. Unfettered freedom is anarchy. There has to be guidelines for conduct in education, economics, health, food, water, building codes and a variety of subjects. Guidelines help everyone recognize a standard that keeps competition equal and the customers protected from substandard products. One can still strive for success with guidelines.

I myself am a centrist moderate. I see advantages in simple, easy to understand laws and regulations that allow for freedom to improve oneself while guaranteeing that someone will be there to help you off your butt if you stumble.

I also do not like fear. Using the threat of 1,000 years of darkness if Mitt Romney is not elected is false. The rapture will not happen if a Republican is not elected Mr and Mrs Norris. Stop the fear mongering. Stop the lies and prophesy. You have the freedom to say what you want, Mr and Mrs Norris, but please say the facts and let them speak for themselves. Proper government oversight means stability and universal health care is not the road to darkness.

Restaurant - Zambri's

After coming back from the Maritimes and my wife missing out on the restaurants I went to, I thought I'd treat her to an old favorite of ours...Zambri's.

Zambri's started in 1999 as a simple Italian lunch trattoria style food with the brother as chef and sister in the frount. It has morphed into the Sunday brunch, lunch and supper fantastic food place it is today. I recommend either a table outside in the early evening or in the atrium itself when it is too hot or at night.

I ordered a mocktail to drink, a rhubarb and ginger fizzy drink and my wife had a prusecco. Mine was very delicious and refreshing.

For an appetizer I ordered the special pizza of the day with a broccoli-anchovy pesto with some anchovies and pecorino cheese, which was delicious. I even shared some with my wife and she shared some of her appetizer with me, the special which was roasted local figs with Gorgonzola on top and under the figs a bed of arugula greens.

For our mains we both had pasta. For mine I had an old favorite, the spaghetti alla chitarra and sage brown butter and pecorino cheese. It may not look like much ingredients when it gets to you but the taste is divine. My wife had the spaghetti with crab ragu which was also good. I also recommend the tagliatelli pasta with duck and olive ragu. We ended up taking a little less than half of our pastas home with us for supper the next night.

We weren't thinking of dessert but the waitress twisted our arm with two scoops of fresh gellato with lemon and raspberry flavors. The lemon reminded me of our trip to Italy.

By the way, Zambri's has an excellent sommelier who trains the staff well. Ask for their recommendations and you should not go wrong.

So if you want authentic Italian in Victoria, head to Zambri's and you would be very glad you did.

100th Posting and Thanks!

For this, my 100th posting, i'd like to say thanks for visiting!

When I started this blog 18 March 2012, I said:

"I've created this blog to post, primarily, pictures and experiences with the various games that i play. These will include mainly tabletop games: Warmachine/Hordes, Malifaux, Firestorm Armada to name a few. Other games that will be talked about are Role-Playing games and board games.
I'll also try to post pictures of my travels, musings on life, comments on history (past, present and likely future) and links to things I've found interesting on the the internet.
Enjoy!"

I've achieved most of what I set out to do and the commenting on history and cool links not so much. I may just incorporate that into my blog in the future.

As of this point 2407 people have visited my site. They visit from from divergent countries, prominently Canada and the US but also Russia, UK, Germany, Australia, Spain, France and Poland to name a few. Posts I never thought would be popular, like my hike in Thain road quarry and Lobster Rolls, amazed me as to things people would find interesting.

So to sum it up...thanks for looking and here's to another great 100 posts!

Blackberry Picking

Myself and my wife went out blackberry picking at the patch we go to every year. Its a fairly large patch that usually is picked over fairly well but still offers good pickings.

 Here's the patch above. It was picked over but not to the same degree as years past. In 90-120 minutes we had picked several containers full; about 6 to 8 liters. Pretty good considering the cost of them in stores. Especially since there are so many patches in and around Victoria waiting for people.

 There's my wife doing some picking. Proper attire is important. Sunscreen, a wide hat, old pants and shirt are some of the items needed to do serious picking. We also bring a footstool and ladder as well as gardening gloves and hand shears but this year only the footstool was needed.

The berries to pick are of course the purple-black ones. They will also have more bulbous globules. The really nice ones that are almost bursting taste like the sun when you eat them as you are picking, which is a must. About one in every 20 to 30 berries. Also just give them a slight twist and pull to see if they are ripe. If they pop off then they are good. If not, leave them on the tree for the next person or animal or insect. You have to be careful of handling them too much or they will smooch in your hand easily.

My wife made a peach and blackberry pie with ours and also froze them for enjoyment in the winter. She learned that placing them on a cookie sheet in a layer and putting it in the freezer will allow the berries to freeze separately. Then after a while you put them in a container and into the freezer till you want them.

Also expect some scratches on your hands and legs. Its a small price to pay for great tasting fruit.