This article is published in partnership with Tourism Nova Scotia, who sponsored this post. Tourism Nova Scotia are inviting us to dream now and travel later.

In 19 years in London, nearly 20, this will be the first year that I won’t have once left its boundaries. I have barely left my neighbourhood. Instead, my life was distilled to essentials and became very simple. That is a luxury I know. My work was affected but I didn’t lose my job. I don’t have kids to homeschool. I accept the changes, I understand the need to be still for a while and I am embracing it, as much as I can.

Short days and long dark nights give ample time to dream

Summer was easier, it was even lovely. Now it is winter. The days close early and my time outdoors is brief, if at all. As the days close further I withdraw and I start to daydream, as I love to do when I can steal a chance. I even dare to make plans. Loose plans, no dates. Expectations carefully managed. Plotting places I want to return to, people I want to see. Friends and family to reunite with.

It is a small tight list, built on top of my list of my lifetime, however long that will be. In there is a plan to visit Nova Scotia with friends. The idea of Nova Scotia was planted in my head many years ago by my father. Friends of his had relocated there, it sounded like a fascinating place. Then I made friends with Nova Scotians in London, and then more. They moved home and now I go to visit and explore, to soak up the culture, the terrific food and wine.

There is an easy familiarity between Irish people like myself and Nova Scotians. The same sense of fun, an easy-going attitude to life. The same love of story and song. Continue reading

With thanks to Destination Canada who sponsored this post.

Lobster lovers need to make their way immediately to Nova Scotia’s South Shore. Better again, plan to go for the South Shore Lobster Crawl in Winter every year during lobster season when things get serious. Barrington is known as the lobster capital as locals will proudly tell you. There is even a Nova Scotia Lobster Day on the last Friday of every February.

The South Shore Lobster Crawl is an annual celebration which fizzes along the shoreline and celebrates the lobster fishing season. It is a big part of the local culture which isn’t a surprise when you understand that the season in this part of Nova Scotia runs from November to May and the lobster haul from Nova Scotia in general accounts for 40% of the Canadian catch. 

You will quickly discover that the good folks of Nova Scotia are always very serious about lobster. On the South Shore creamed lobster is the dish of choice for Christmas, and locals are obsessed with it, but more on that in a bit!
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I returned to Ottawa this year to visit the Sparks Street PoutineFest. It was a joy of a trip (and you can read more about it here and here). As always, a little conversation goes a long way, and I am delighted to share this edited snippet from the episode of Fingers in Pies that I recorded there.

I was speaking to Hung Ha about their poutine and the festival when he mentioned that his family had been Vietnamese refugees with a dream of a new life and their own pho restaurant. I spoke to both Hung Ha at their food truck and his father Ha Van Trung at their Pho restaurant.

Fingers in Pies will be back weekly in the New Year and I have some exciting guests and plans. So watch this space, and for now, have a listen!

Fingers in Pies Podcast on Ottawa, Poutine and Pho – An Edited Excerpt

So, my parents are part of the Vietnamese boat people where they escaped the Vietnam War in 1982. The boat they were in landed in Hong Kong. They were there in a refugee camp there. We were very fortunate that Canada had a sponsorship program, and sponsored my parents over. They had a place to stay. Continue reading

Ottawa is the kind of city that I love to visit. With so much going on every day, it bustles and there is lots to do. Ottawa embraces the extreme seasons, with festivals and events all year round. I knew that it was Canada’s capital city and the seat of the Canadian government. What I didn’t know is just how fun and friendly it is, and how diverse the population is.

Ottawa is a perfect size for a short visit. Big enough to have lots going on and small enough to make it easy to hop from place to place. The diverse population means there are many interesting restaurants. I had one of the best bowls of Vietnamese pho that I have ever had (and I have had many!), wonderful Middle Eastern food, vibrant modern Canadian, afternoon tea in a beautiful ornate historic hotel, dinner at a famous Ottawa cookery school and restaurant and of course, I went back to their central food market downtown.

Dinner at Jackson (in the Ottawa Art Gallery)

My first bite in Ottawa on this trip was in Jackson. A gorgeous bright room fitting of its location with glorious high ceilings and enormous hanging ceiling lamps. It is named for the gallery’s extensive collection of works by Canadian Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson (which you can view for free and which I did after my meal – you must!). Continue reading

All aboard for the Sparks Street PoutineFest in Ottawa! An annual event celebrating the unofficial and super popular national Canadian dish, poutine. Not just a celebration of that most wonderful trifecta of fries, gravy and squeaky cheese curds, Sparks Street PoutineFest reaches beyond the plate. It is a superb reflection of Ottawa’s rich immigrant history and diverse food culture and all things Ottawa and Canada in terms of craft drinks and music. 

Let me count the ways I love poutine

Originally from Quebec, poutine has been embraced coast to coast. We can even get it here in London! Indeed, I have served my Irish take on it here. I have had lobster poutine on the east coast, complete with a gorgeous lobster gravy and poutine with slow-cooked ox cheek ragu in place of gravy on the west coast. I have been to Quebec and Montreal and had many poutines there, including, of course, the original. Sparks Street PoutineFest was about to blow my mind. 

Show me the curds

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