Tag: things i miss

So…. I might have just ordered 2 kilos of squeaky cheese curd

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I’m Canadian. This means that I have a fondness for poutine. It goes with the territory. Unfortunately, getting cheddar cheese curd outside of western Canada has, in the 15 years I’ve lived overseas, proven impossible.

Until now.

I recently came across this little gem of a news article:


Walter Grob, the current owner of the Engelberg cheese dairy, moved from Unterland to Engelberg. After years of hiking in Switzerland and Canada, the young man from eastern Swiss took over the business in 2015 at the age of 24. He produces traditional products in outstanding quality – but always tinkers with something new. Thanks to his innovative strength, he has already launched several new products, such as the Cheddar, and won prizes at the Swiss Cheese Award.

From there, auntie Google provided this information:

Walter Grob
Klosterhof 1, CH-6390 Engelberg
Telefon: +41 (0)41 638 08 88
info@schaukaeserei-engelberg.ch

So I reached out by email.

But got no answer.

Then I reached out by phone.

And got in touch directly with the man himself. And found out that the email reply was written but never actually sent, and since they make cheddar 3 or 4 times a month, I could have as many curds as I wanted. He’s been trying to get the product in stores, but with little success.

But I will get 2kg of freshly made cheddar cheese curds by post next week.

This makes me stupidly happy.

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21 years ago, on this day, I was probably not sober

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As the ice storm hit, I was still working at the lab. The sidewalks were so covered in ice, I fell on my back and slid pretty much the whole length of Drummond, ending up in the middle of Dr Penfield drive (with oncoming traffic goodness). When the lights went off a couple of days later, downtown was a mess. Sheet ice was sliding off buildings and crashing down on the sidewalks. I remember how quiet is was, apart from the random shots of cracking ice. That, and the army trucks coming in.

A bunch of us… I forget exactly who now… ended up at Khaled and Paul’s apartment – they still had electricity because of their proximity to Ste Justine hospital. I remember we were 9 people in a 4 bedroom flat. I ended up sharing a sofa bed with Joanne, the new tenant who was moving in on that day, but had no furniture. It was surreal. God bless her, she completely took it on her stride. It turned into a continuous party. I didn’t sober up for a week. People would wake you up for a wake-and-bake. When the power came back on, we stayed there for another couple of days, for the fun of it. When I went back home, the worst thing was cleaning out my fridge, where everything had defrosted and spoiled. The smell… The horror… The horror.

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Montréal highlights 

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Our trip started out with us all in good spirits. As expected, that didn’t last, but that’s another story. The flights were uneventful, except that I broke my cardinal rule of air travel and didn’t pack a lunch. The child, who could eat the meal choice that would have caused me pain and discomfort, didn’t like it and ended up eating half of the only thing I could eat (and then proceeded to rave about it for the rest of the flight). We landed, got our bags, and then had a “yes, we’re back in Montréal” cab ride to our airbnb. Let’s just say the cabbie was a bit high strung… 

The apartment was in the mile end. Great location, perfect on paper. In real life… it was someone’s flat, with a very particular bohemian-chic decor and a door lock that could have been defeated by a sharp sneeze. I couldn’t have lived there full-time without needing to rebuild the whole flat from the ground up and fix everything that gave it “character”. But whatever, we only needed it for a bed and a toilet and both were perfectly serviceable. The location, however as mentioned, was great. We were a stones throw away from St-viateur bagel, several good coffee shops, a breakfast place where I had a breakfast poutine, and a gin bar where they make their own tonic water and where we had a superb ploughman’s lunch. 

We did our usual Montréal things: Reubens, Ming Tao Xuan, Eggspectation, etc. etc. We went to the Cirka gin distillery with Michel and Christina, then spent a lovely afternoon on the St-Ambroise beer garden swapping stories, then carried on over an izakaya-style japanese dinner (and more cocktails). 

We met up with Sara and Em, our favourite not-married old married couple and caught up with all the major life events we missed over the last few years. 

The last day in Montréal, we walked in the Village before taking the bus to Ottawa and talked about how the city has changed since we were last here (seems like there’s been a nutter explosion and club Super Sex closed down!!!!) and how much we’ve been spoilt with the view of the lake, the mountains and all the greenery in Morges. 

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Brunch, bitches! 

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Katy and I went for brunch at the Café de Grancy in Lausanne this morning. It really reminded us of Eggspectation, but with a nicer vibe. We had croissant, fresh bread and brioche that should come with a warning label it was so moreish. I had an English-y breakfast and Katy had smoked salmon, Asian-y salad and pesto toast. The service was a bit slow but the food was excellent. We’ll definitely go again. 

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Acidwarped!

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This picture was taken a loooong time ago, when the buzz page was still in existence. I don’t know the exact date, but I can say it was taken in the summer between the end of my B.Sc and the start of my M.Sc. This was my profile picture for the chat room for InterFace, the pirate ratio station for the longest of times.

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Impromptu apple pie

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Take a shop bought sweet shortcrust pastry base, some apples (*), some cinnamon, some sugar and a bit o’ butter and bung in a pie dish! Voila, apple pie in 25 minutes. Not as good as momma used to make it, but still highly delectable :)

(*) being leftovers from the work fruit baskets

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