ReallyGoodWriter | Food • Writing • Poetry Iambic Cafe

food & poetry, but mostly the poetry of food

Food • Writing • Poetry

Spent last weekend across the water in Vancouver, a long way to go for a nine minute reading, but we do what we can to help the cause. Anyway I was lucky to be first and actually get my nine (and I did count ’em) minutes; as too often happens with multiple-reader events, those at the end of the program got squeezed for time. I was appearing with the Poets In Transit gang at the Word on the Street, and what a spectacular day we had for it. I read with Jen Currin, Marya Fiamengo, Kevin Roberts, Gena Thompson and finally Elise Partridge – who graciously but very sadly for us only read two poems. A wonderful thing this PIT program, and, we learned really only in existence thanks to the hard work of poet and anthologist Sandy Shreve, who introduced the event.

My poem as it will appear on better buses near (some of) you. Don’t know who is mr grumpy on the left or what he has to do with it all.

Packing them in at the Poet’s (sic) Corner (Lynne Truss, where are you?)

The Oolichaners (Hiro Boga and Ron Smith) brace themselves as another mob of book buyers approaches. I pushed my way to the front of the crowd and came away with a gorgeous new cookbook, Just Chicken: 100 Easy Recipes from India by Sharda Pargal.

Lots and lots at WOTS. Cool library building, huh?

Rhonda Batchelor holding the latest – hot, hot, hot! – issue of Malahat Review.

A stylish Heidi Greco stars at the sub-Terrain stand with some local autumn foliage. Next door neighbour Anvil Press had wonderful news about the shockingly good novel Stolen, by Annette Lapointe: she has just been nominated for a Giller Prize.

Last night’s chow was garlic prawns with orzo, that clever little pasta that imitates rice, with a few zucchini slices and slivers of red pepper so I wouldn’t have to make vegetables.

Followed by yet another variation on our dear friend the Lightning Cake, this time featuring a sliced apple topping, sprinkled with juice of half a lemon, about half a cup of brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon (I’ve made it with blueberries and ginger as well – terrific). I ladled into the cake batter about half a cup of raisins – which had wallowed some weeks in leftover hooch – sherry? brandy? who knows – until plump. The result was gooey and crispy and perfect with Udder Guys Ice Cream (maple walnut this time). And it held up well overnight: a delicious breakfast.

It seems the Curse of Blogger is upon me once more: I’ve spent three days trying to post a few more snaps from Feast of Fields but Blogger leads me down the garden path and then just refuses to let it happen. And then I got to the end of today’s snappy, entertaining and endlessly erudite posting and Blogger quit on me again. Grrr. So I try once more, from memory.

I read last night at Malaspina College where I was delighted to see a number of my former classmates from Kate Braid’s form in poetry course in the audience. One of them, Gabriola Island’s own Audrey Keating, did a terrific opening reading, or more accurately recitation. Brave and well delivered.

I was also delighted to receive as part payment for my reading, a hand crafted banana bread from the organiser, the lovely and talented ev nittel. It was wrapped in brown paper and warm from the oven. It was crunchy on top and springy in the middle, laced with chocolate, pebbled with walnuts and scattered with caramelised and chocolate coated almonds. To die for. Or at least to drive to Nanaimo and give a reading for! I will see if I can pry the recipe from her, but I fear she simply has a flair for baking that might not be possible for most of us to duplicate.

In keeping with my latest time-wasting activity (and you need lots of these when you’re getting ready to go away for a year!), namely keeping track of which poems I read where, here’s the evening’s playlist:

White Dresses (from Hour of the Pearl, read in honour of the surprise appearance of my long ago pal and fellow boarding school survivor Pamela!)
Leaving the Refuge (from new manuscript)
Suitcase (from Cartography)
Vegetables
Journeys
Tales
The Thirteenth Fairy Bites Back
The Rhonda Poem, or the Madness of D
Vegetable Kingdom (one for the vegetarians, written at Wired a couple of years back)
Ghost in the Machine (new manuscript)
Hard Cold Realty
London Plane
Ache and Pain
Boston School of Cooking Cookbook (Old Habits / Crosswords)
Another Life to Live at the Edge of the Young and Restless Days of Our Lives (Creating the Country / Crosswords)

Wickaninnish Inn’s gorgeous tomatoes.

Wonderful Feys & Hobbs caterers came up with these clever sweetcorn soup shots with mushroom tuille.

Camille’s Restaurant presents venison carpaccio.. assembly line seldom looks like this!

By some miracle I was in a conscious state and near my radio on Friday morning when Paul Vasey offered a chance to win tickets to the sold-out foodie event of the season, Feast of Fields; and by some further miracle I was the lucky, the very very very lucky recipient of a pair of these. Thank you CBC!

So this afternoon Aurelie and I hustled over to join the shockingly long and surprisingly patient queue that had gathered at the Glendale Gardens and Woodland by 1:59 for the 2pm opening, accompanied by our finely honed appetites and a steady sprinkle of rain. But being rookies at this event, we had failed to accessorize with clever little plastic cocktail plates to hold our booty and wineglass and were thus obliged to consume our morsels on the run, one mouthful at a time, as we sprinted and then trailed and then wallowed from tent to tent, running out of adjectives and resorting to whimpering pleasure. How these stall-holders managed to cater for and be delightful to a mob of 700 starved gastronomes is food for thought indeed.

Interesting to see what was being presented (and it was all pretty amazing, and beautiful, and local). Not a huge amount on offer for vegetarians, but we omnivores were well served. Beef and chicken are out; duck, venison and the odd rabbit are in. Salmon never left; ostrich made an appearance, or five. Goat cheese is very big for sweets and savouries.

Some thank yous to… our municipal treasure Zambri’s, for the amazing risotto balls spiked with water buffalo meat; Smoken Bones Cookshack for proving we can find real ol’ barbecue way up here in the north; Butchart Gardens for providing mini cedar planks and edible flowers with their yummies; 2% Jazz Coffee for the life-affirming honey macchiato. And Dock 503, I worshipped all your offerings: the chanterelle mushroom cannelloni with tomato confiture was to die for, and the sparkling caesar soup with manila clams and spicy yellow beans had me weeping with gratitude. My big regret is being too full to try your smoked sable fish and soybean steamed bun with yuzu sauce. Next lifetime, eh?

A few of the tents sheltering 60 restaurants, wineries and other food producers: the view from the Glendale’s heather garden.

Choux Choux Charcuterie: Rhona recommends the rabbit rillettes.

Part of the Aerie’s offerings: duck liver lollipops in chopped hazelnuts — strange, silky and delicious.

Dock 503: Ohhhh that sparkling caesar soup… Hey look, that clam just dived right in!

Butchart’s pretty li’l planks. The round green items are spot prawn and smoked salmon purses: too cute!

My favourite flavour-fusion duck dish: duck leg confit with Tiger Blue cheese and bosc pear, from Lure seafood restaurant.