“Poutine is one of Canada’s Blessings!”

Ayman with his poutine treasure, UofT

That’s what Ayman, a PhD grad student in metallurgy at the University of Toronto (UofT) shared with me as we huddled in the chilling cold at one of the many roadside food wagons along St. George Street. Clutching his prize—a large container of steaming poutine—Ayman confided that he had first discovered poutine about 6 years ago when he came to Canada from his homeland of Egypt to study engineering at UofT.

I was on campus, located in downtown Toronto, visiting my writing friend Nina Munteanu, who also teaches at UofT. “Come visit me and we’ll have lunch!” she’d blithely said to me and then proceeded to get caught up in meetings with students as I scampered around campus in the chilling minus 20 degree cold. That’s when I spotted one of the many food wagons that line St. George Street with steaming aromatic foods of exotic nature—from BBC pork and vegetable on rice to Halal to hot dogs and … well … poutine…

Poutine—made with French fries and cheese curds topped with a light brown gravy—originated in Quebec. It’s sold across Canada in small “greasy spoon” type diners (casse-croûtes in Quebec), pubs, and roadside chip wagons (cabanes à patates) and is popular in hockey arenas. The dish supposedly originated in the rural Eastern townships of Quebec in the 1950s—where and when I was born. Which may explain my affinity for it.

Poutine classique of la Banquise, Montreal

The most widespread story is that poutine originates from a restaurant formerly called Le Lutin qui rit in Warwick, in the Arthabaska region. In 1957, a trucker named Eddy Lainesse asked the owner Fernand Lachance to mix some cheese curds in with his fries. A Drummondville restaurant called Le Roy Jucep registered a trademark stating that it is the inventor of poutine. Jean-Paul Roy, owner of this restaurant in 1964, is the first one to have served poutine as we know it today, i.e. "French fries, cheese and gravy." Poutine could also come from the region of Nicolet, in Centre-du-Québec or from Saint-Hyacinthe in Montérégie. The high number of cheese dairies producing cheddar cheese curds in these two regions could explain the phenomenon.

Poutine Parisienne

Outside of Canada, poutine is still considered exotic, where it has appeared on menus in Europe and Asia. In Paris, where I’m originally from, poutine is served in two Canadian pubs, the “Moose Head” and “The Great Canadian”. In New York and New Jersey it’s served as a late-night side dish at clubs and called disco fries. 

The Dictionnaire historique cites the Provençal forms poutingo "bad stew" and poutité "hodgepodge" or "crushed fruit or foods"; poutringo "mixture of various things" in Languedocien; and poutringue, potringa "bad stew" in Franche-Comté as possibly related to poutine. According to Merriam-Webster, a popular etymology is that poutine is from a Quebecois slang word meaning "mess”.

Poutine contains a lot of calories and cholesterol. So, it's not exactly healthy. For instance, an average male would have to jog 2.5 hours to burn off the 1,500 calories in the country-style poutine (bacon, chicken, gravy, fries, onions and mushrooms) available at Smoke's Poutinerie. It's salty. It has fat. It's "junk" food. Having said that, it is made up of potatoes and fresh cheese.

Ultimately, it comes down to moderation.

When you’re briskly scampering from one end of campus to the other on a winter day as the wind chill blows the temperature to 30 below zero and chafes your little furry cheeks bright red, a steaming dish of poutine looks and tastes like ambrosia! And, as Ayman said, a blessing!

En vous souhaitant le meilleur cette saison! Je suis Toulouse, le COOL Chat voyage!

Christmas Day Hike...

Toulouse and Mouse go "walkabout"

Merry Christmas, fellow felines and others!

When I was briefly in unseasonably balmy Toronto, visiting with writer friend Nina Munteanu for the Christmas season,  my friend Mouse and I decided to take a break from the city and find some Nature on Christmas Day.

We jumped into the TolouseMobile and ended up in Mississauga, where the Credit River flows eventually into Lake Ontario. Mouse spotted a small park near Streetsville and we went on walkabout.

Originally named "trusting creek" (Missinnihe) by the Mississauga First Nation people, the salmon-bearing river drains about 860 square kilometres of Ontario and flows some 90 km from its source at Orangeville, over the Niagara Escarpment through several suburbs and eventually into Lake Ontario at Port Credit.

Mouse and I walked a good length of this river park. We observed and discovered many things on our Christmas Day walk:

• thriving aquatic life like water striders, caddis flies, mayflies and others
• the chewed up log-remnants of very active beavers
• an old gentleman in bathing shorts who announced to us that Christmas Day is for swimming and then proceeded to pour icy Credit River water from a bucket all over himself
• shy squirrels gathering food
• plenty of bright green moss for tardigrades (moss piglets) to live in
• friendly people and friendly dogs (and they didn't even want to eat me either!)

Best Wishes for a joyous holiday season, wherever you are.

Toulouse LeTrek

Summer Drinks by Toulouse: The Corona-Orange

Happy Toulouse...

The days are getting warmer and as I anticipate the coming of the first day of official summer, my summer is already here, with the first of my summer line of Toulouse-original drinks.

Following my discovery of Mama Chia (see previous post) thanks to writer friend Nina, here is a Toulouse original to take the edge off those hot summer days when the humidex promises to glue your shorts to your ... well ... you know ... (I don't have that problem, but I'm always thinking of you)...

Here it is:

Toulouse's Corona-Orange

Ingredients:
3 bottles of Corona beer (one for now and two for later)
1 pitcher of pure freshly squeezed orange juice (a carton of your best orange juice will do in a pinch)

Procedure:
Mix the Corona with the juice in a half-half ratio or to your taste, mix, then savour by sipping slowly. Enjoy!

I'm Toulouse, the cool travel cat!
Ciao Baby!

Adventures with Chia

I was recently visiting SF author Nina Munteanu who is currently teaching how to write science fiction in Toronto Canada’s UofT and George Brown. It took a while to track her down—she is a true Romanian—a wandering itinerant, like me, with a gypsy heart that yearns for fun and adventure.

The day was pleasant: sunny and warm. Nina took me to one of her favorite places in the city and we walked for hours along the Credit River—well, she walked and I scampered. Meow!

We walked right beside the river. It rushed and swirled over the rocks, sounding like a joyful crowd spilling from the theatre. I scurried over litter and dirt and glanced up at the overhanging trees. They reached their arms out as if to greet, leafy canopies trembling like green and gold glitter in the warm breeze. At my level, the ground was a carpet of dark textures, home for a bazillion little creatures that stirred and rustled there. Squirrels and birds foraged, ignoring me as though I was just a stuffed cat.

Credit River

The Credit River is a fish-bearing river that flows through mixed forest for about 1,500 km from Orangeville and empties into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, a charming village in sprawling Mississauga (part of the GTA). Chinook salmon and rainbow trout live in the river and its headwaters are home to brook trout and introduced brown trout. A long linear park system with natural paths and dominated by a woodland of Manitoba and Sugar Maple runs pretty much the full length of the river.

After scampering for hours, I rejoiced at the sound of: “Hey, let’s stop for something to eat and drink!” Nina had read my little mind—or had I sent her my thoughts?

Toulouse sips pure happiness

She surprised me by not driving to a funky but sophisticated café—our usual habit. Instead, she parked in front of a grocery store! I peered up at the Starbucks-like green sign: Whole Foods Market.

What the MEOW?...

Nina grinned—the kind of sideways grin that told me that this was still part of our adventure. I faithfully followed her inside. 

If you haven’t been to Whole Foods, this organic slow-food grocery store also provides an amazingly tantalizing food and juice bar with excellent coffee and a bright open area to eat and visit.  

Deciding on a refreshing drink instead of coffee, we both chose the cherry-lime chia juice made by Mamma Chia. Chia seeds are tiny black seeds from the plant Salvia Hispanica, which is related to the mint. Native to South America, chia means “strength” in ancient Mayan.

Chia seeds

My first gulp was a burst of surprise. Composed of mostly hydrated chia seeds, the drink is like a refreshing explosion of bubble-tea—without the tea. You don’t so much drink it as swallow down the refreshing gel-enveloped seeds that crowd the drink with solid happiness. The refreshing cherry-lime tickled my palate with fresh joy and the chia “bubbles” played on my tongue.

Now here’s the best part: chia seeds are oh-so-good for you! In Authority Nutrition’s article, entitled “11 Proven Health Benefits of chia Seeds”, Kris Gunnars gives us the skinny of chia happiness:

1. Chia seeds deliver a massive amount of nutrients with very few calories (the calories are mostly locked in with the fiber, which the body excretes—along with the calories). “Chia seeds are among the most nutritious foods on the planet, loaded with fiber, protein, Omega-3 fatty acids and various micronutrients,” says Gunnars.
2.  Chia seeds are loaded with antioxidants, which protect the sensitive fats in the seeds from going rancid. Antioxidants, fight the production of free radicals, which can damage molecules in cells and contribute to aging and diseases like cancer.
3. Almost all the carbs in them are fiber, which is a win-win situation. Fiber doesn’t raise blood sugar and because of the fiber, chia seeds can absorb up to 10-12 times their weight in water, becoming gel-like and expanding in your stomach. Fiber also feeds the friendly bacteria in the intestine. Chia seeds contain 40% fiber by weight.
4. Chia seeds are high in quality protein (about 14%) along with essential amino acids, which makes the proteins more usable by us.
5. Chia seeds can help you lose weight, mainly because of the high fiber and protein, both of which increase fullness and slow the absorption of food. Protein helps reduce appetite and food intake.
6. Chia seeds are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, although the form is not the most beneficial (ALA vs. EPA and DHA).
7. Chia seeds may lower the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, potentially reducing LDL cholesterol and triglycerides (with an increase in HDL “good” cholesterol and reduction of inflammation).
8. Chia seeds are high in many important bone nutrients, such as calcium, phorphorus, magnesium and protein. The calcium content, at 18% of the RDA in a single ounce, is higher than most dairy products.
9. Chia seeds can reduce blood pressure and help balance blood sugar levels.
10. Chia seeds can improve exercise performance. Apparently the Aztecs and Mayans used chia seeds to fuel performance.
11. Chia seeds are easy to incorporate into your diet; they can be eaten raw, soaked in juice, added to porridges and puddings or added to baked goods. People sprinkle them on cereal, yogurt, salads, vegetables and rice dishes. They can thicken sauces and be used as egg substitutes in recipes.

Now, I like that! MEOW! I’m Toulouse the COOL Travel cat!

Toulouse introduces Mamma Chia to his friend Mouse

When Snow Looks Like Plastic...

When I was travelling throughout the Greater Toronto Area and ended up in Scarborough, visiting friend and itinerant writer Nina Munteanu who was cat and housesitting near the Scarborough Bluffs, I fell upon a very strange phenomenon. I call it "plastic snow"...

I went to bed one night and the following morning the snow on the ground was enveloped in a layer of very thin ice that had congealed. It looked as though the world had been plasticized!

The effect was very cool ... but slippery for a light stuffed cat like me... I had to be careful!

Here are some cool shots I took...

Toulouse and friend Mouse enjoy the ice-snow

Ice Fishing in Scarborough Ontario

Toulouse and old friend Mouse go ice-fishing in Scarborough, Ontario, after freezing rain has coated the old snow in a magical sheet of mottled glistening ice...

Toulouse and Mouse ice fishing in Scarborough

"Let's go ice-fishing!" Toulouse said.

Exploring Guildwood Bluffs

When I invited Mouse, my good friend from Kentucky, to accompany me on a hike to Guildwood and the Bluffs in Scarborough, we had no idea it would be this wet!...