Category Archives: Canada
five reasons to visit Gimli
I’ve been going to Gimli, Manitoba ever since I was a small child, as my father’s only sister lived there with her family. Until I was an adult, this small lakeside community of roughly 6,000 people simply represented a place where I had family, and where we spent many summer days walking the pier or trying to swim in the cool waters of Lake Winnipeg after tiptoeing over the stones of the pebbled beach that lines the shore. As a travel and lifestyle writer, I began to look at Gimli through a different lens. It is a proud community with a strong heritage and a vibrant arts community. As the sixth-largest freshwater lake in Canada, it is the immenseness of Lake Winnipeg as an inland ocean that draws a great number of creative individuals to the Interlake region, with Gimli as the hub. Writers, artists, musicians, performers, and photographers come to the Gimli area to congregate, live in harmony, be inspired, and enjoy the affordable standard of living. My husband and I now live just 20 minutes from Gimli and for the past six years, have called the Interlake home. There are many reasons you may choose to put Gimli on your horizon, whether as a visitor, or as a possible future resident. I’ve listed a few, with hope we might see you there this year. 5 reasons to visit Gimli 1. Gimli has the largest number of residents of Icelandic heritage in any community outside of Iceland. The New Iceland Heritage Museum is an excellent facility that celebrates the town’s Icelandic and Ukrainian settlers whose hard work and joint efforts helped make a good life for farming and fishing families. Tergesen’s General Store has an excellent book shop that offers many books about Iceland and Manitoba and predominantly features books authored …
exploring chocolate in Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia is one sweet city. Gorgeous views and vistas at every turn. But how does it measure up on the chocolate scale? As someone who’s been scouring the world in search of the best chocolate for the past 3+ years, I felt compelled to thoroughly explore the chocolate scene in Vancouver am pleased to report … it’s excellent! Vancouver is home to worldclass chocolatier, Thomas Haas, rated by some as Canada’s very best. I would definitely put this amazing chocolatier in the top tier in Canada. Originally hailing from Germany, Thomas Haas has European training and experience to his credit, and combines his youth and creativity with traditional old-world flair to bring you an excellent assortment of European-style pastries as well as a scrumptious selection of chocolate bars, treats and truffles. The bars have extremely creative packaging, taste fantastic and make an excellent gift grouped in six-packs for $33C. That’s just $5.50 a bar for quality that you’d pay $10/bar for at many of the finer chocolate houses around the world. Now with two locations (the original at 128-998 Harbourside Drive in North Vancouver and a second location at 2539 West Broadway in Kitsilano) Thomas Haas Chocolate has a devout following that will beat you to the punch and snap up the delicious double-baked chocolate croissants if you’re not quick on the draw. I was stunned at the line-ups on a Saturday in May when I visited the North Van location – particularly as it’s in an industrial area where the rest of the surrounding buildings are not open on weekends. Do call ahead or check the website when you’re visiting to be sure you’re not disappointed as Haas respects “family hours” and is not open evenings, Sundays, or Mondays in order to give his hardworking staff well-deserved time off …
Winnipeg’s artisanal chocolatier
This is Thanksgiving weekend in Manitoba, Canada where I live, and keeping in tune with our last post about Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on the Canadian Prairies, I thought I’d indulge in a post in a post about my hometown and one of the most spectacular things about it for anyone interested in chocolate travel.
Artisanal chocolate in Winnipeg
If you do a google search on “artisanal chocolate” you’ll be surprised to land on the site of Winnipeg’s own Constance Popp Chocolatier, the Manitoba capital’s only award-winning artisanal chocolatier. Good on Constance (whose last name is Menzies) for scooping up that sought-after URL, as the quest for excellence in artisanal chocolate is a growing global phenomenon and the reason I am writing Chocolatour: A Quest for the World’s Best Chocolate.
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a diversion to Saskatoon for some fall colours
I promise to get back on the Ecuadorian journey soon, but with the beautiful fall colours surrounding me, I wanted to share my recent discoveries from a road trip this past weekend to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I made the journey to Saskatoon to present a travel writing workshop at a writer’s conference promoted by the Professional Writers Association of Canada. The fall colours along the 1870 kilometre round-trip journey were my bonus.
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enjoying a chocolate piece of The Rock
I’ve recently had the pleasure of receiving some amazing chocolate from Brent Smith, “Chief Chocolate Officer” at the Newfoundland Chocolate Company in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The chocolates were not only good and highly creative, they reminded me of the love I have for Canada’s most easterly province, Newfoundland & Labrador. Canadians (or anyone) can’t really feel they’ve seen our great country until they’ve spent some time on The Rock. It’s different than any other part of Canada. In a really nice way. People speak with quite an accent, especially “the townies” from St. John’s. They almost have a different language! In fact, when writing the first edition of the Frommer’s Guide to Newfoundland & Labrador in 2003, I often referred to my trusty massive 770-page Dictionary of Newfoundland English for insight and guidance. The Newfies (I’m told by a Newfoundland friend that it’s OK to call them that) have their own words, terms and phraseology for just about everything. But they speak the universal language of friendliness. Coming from the province of Manitoba (whose nickname is “Friendly Manitoba”) I’m used to a friendly, smiling people and can honestly say I feel right at home when I’m among friends in Newfoundland. I think it was because our first-ever hosts in the province were Don & Yvonne Bradbury, a lovely couple who ran the Maunder Manor B&B until recently when they officially retired. They were the ultimate B&B hosts and became good friends of ours. But back to the chocolate. The Newfoundland Chocolate Company is located in the heart of St. John’s and justifiably considered the best chocolatier in the province. What I really like about Brent’s chocolates is that they come with a map of Newfoundland! The “Lighthouse Series” is named after villages, sites and outposts where you’ll find the province’s …
chocolate appreciation opens you to flavours of the world
I had the pleasure of spending several days over the past week in Toronto. A highlight of my recreational time (most of my time was tied up in meetings) took me to SOMA chocolatmaker’s new location at 443 King Street West. In addition to SOMA’s unique chocolate creations which I’ve previously written about here, what I really love about SOMA is the fact that they carry a small selection of premium chocolate bars from around the world. As I’m heading on a chocolate expedition to South America next month, I was particularly looking for bars from Ecuador and Peru and I wasn’t disappointed. SOMA had bars from Kallari and Republica Del Cacao of Ecuador as well as bars and chocolate treats of their own made from exquisite Peruvian chocolate. I was ecstatic! All were delicious and unique in their own chocolate profiles. As I’ll be getting into the details of those South American chocolate flavours in future posts, I won’t get into them now. I will say that SOMA’s own Twilight Forest Bar made from Peruvian chocolate, Maldon salt, pumpkin seeds and local honey is worth a trip of any length. One of the best chocolate bars I’ve ever had, and it’s made in Toronto, Canada and available online for those of you who can’t get to Toronto via the online product list. The purpose of this post is indeed to encourage you to look for new and different chocolate flavours wherever and whenever you travel. You’d be surprised where you might find them! We had a lovely Italian dinner at a small bistro at 147 Spadina Avenue called Fusaro’s Kitchen Italian Eatery where I purchased a Perugina chocolate bar made in Perugia, Italy and imported by a company in New Jersey, USA … which somehow ended up in a …
Gehry makes Toronto shine
I head back to Toronto next week for a series of meetings, so thought I’d write a post about my increasing appreciation for Canada’s largest city. (And no, it’s not just because Toronto is home to some amazing chocolate personalities!) I’d read a terrific post last week on the architectural achievements of Canadian architect, Frank Gehry, who was born in Toronto and has contributed to the list of the some of the world’s most stunning modern architectural achievements. I’ve previously written about several of them, including the amazing Marques de Riscal in Elciego, Spain. But Gehry’s Canadian achievements are high on my mind these days, as not only did he design a space-age ice shack at The Forks in Winnipeg this year, he oversaw a major overall of the Art Gallery of Ontario several years ago. Having visited some of the finest galleries of the world including the Guggenheim in Bilbao (also designed by Gehry), the Louvre in Paris, the Prado Museum of Fine Art in Madrid, the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Canada’s own National Gallery in Ottawa, I was amazed that it took Frank Gehry to finally get me through the doors of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). I’ve been coming to Toronto several times a year for meetings since 1999 and had visited many of the city’s fine cultural offerings. But for some reason, it had not occurred to me to venture forth and spend time at the AGO. That is, until legendary Canadian-born architect, Frank O. Gehry put his mark on the facility with a major $276 million expansion unveiled in 2008. The Gehry-infused transformation of the AGO was six years in the making and multi-faceted in scope. In my opinion, it has been a successful effort to interconnect the …
Winnipeg’s new airport terminal brings the Manitoba capital into the 21st century
I love to travel, and frequently travel through the terminal at Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. What a joy it was, when on October 30th, a new state-of-the-art terminal was finally opened to the public after  more than four years in the making. A joint effort of US-based Master architect, Pelli Clarke Pelli, who have also been responsible for various world class designs including the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the World Financial Center in New York, and our own local architectural firm of Stantec, Winnipeg’s new terminal is proudly the newest and greenest of all airports in Canada. A nice high for Winnipeg to enjoy. Combined with the recent return of the Winnipeg Jets pro hockey team, and the fact that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Eastern final in the Canadian Football League game today — getting them into the Grey Cup championship game next weekend — the Manitoba capital is really enjoying a much-needed resurgence. Many of you reading this may have never been to Winnipeg and are likely wondering, why visit this frozen wasteland? It’s true. We have winter for five months of the year (generally from early November through March) during which we time we have snow and below freezing temperatures. But I must tell you, Winnipeg is a warm place to come at any time of the year. People are caring and friendly. They welcome you into their lives and their homes. I have friends who have lived in larger cities for many years and have yet to make any close friends. That just doesn’t happen in Manitoba. If you’re here and you’re friendly … you’re family, and are welcome into our homes and to share our hopes and dreams. Can those of you living in larger centres say that? I …
chocolate scene in Montreal worth exploring
Thanks to everyone for sharing your favourite thoughts and highlights of Montreal. If you haven’t visited the site since the last post was uploaded, please take a moment to check out everyone’s contributions in the “Comments” tab at the beginning of the last post. This week, as promised, I’d like to focus on the sweeter side of Montreal, the city where Chocolatour was officially launched back in October of 2009. There are a plethora of excellent chocolate bistros around the city that not only offer a tempting selection of handmade fresh chocolates to take home, they serve sensuous chocolate creations that can be the main focus of your meal or the perfect ending by way of a make-you-squeal dessert. I really enjoyed lunch at Juliette & Chocolat located at 377 Laurier Ouest. The atmosphere is perfect for lunch with the girls, and the menu offers some really unique offerings such as the chocolate salad! The Juliette & Chocolat Salad is served with seasonal fruit, and goat cheese with buckwheat crepe slices, topped with a chocolate raspberry vinaigrette. Delicious! Juliette & Chocolat is also famous for its drinking chocolate, offering an exotic list of chocolate origins to choose from. This picture of a friend enjoying her drinking chocolate tells the story of complete satisfaction. The chocolate selection is lovely, too, and take time to peruse the “Chocolate Bars” on the menu which provide interesting tidbits about chocolate and cocoa around the world. This is truly a place for chocolate lovers! I also enjoyed chatting with chocolatier, Marlain Jean Philippe, owner of Marlain Chocolatier, located at 21 Cartier in Pointe Claire, a suburb of Montreal. The small shop is located in a historic house and don’t be surprised if you’re welcomed by the ear-to-ear smile of the proprietor when you walk in the …
Montreal has an important place in my heart
Montreal has an important place in my heart as it is the place where the research for my book, Chocolatour, was officially launched! Fellow chocolate lover, Kathe Lieber of Montreal, accompanied me on the first overseas chocolate research trip back in October, 2009. Hard to believe it’s nearly been two years of chocolate tasting that has gotten me to this point! But before we boarded the big bird and flew to Brussels, Kathe took me on a journey of chocolate discovery in Montreal. I’ll share some of our findings in the next post on this blog. For now, I’d like to focus on the city itself, as Montreal is such an amazing metropolis that as sweet as it is, chocolate will have to wait its turn for our attention. Being a travel writer has its perks and privileges. It also instils some wonderful habits that come in handy. I looked thru my mini-notebooks that diarize my travels and found the one dated May 26-June 3, 2001. It had been exactly 10 years since my last visit of any length had been to this great city! At that time, I had the great privilege of staying at two terrific hotels, one so very different than the other. The two properties personify the two distinct personalities of Montreal: the modern, chic French-speaking metropolis of North America, and the charming “Old Montreal” where you’ll find numerous reminders of the four centuries that make up the city’s rich and colourful history. The Hotel Le Germain on Mansfield, is situated in downtown Montreal, a close walk to the bustling shopping street of St. Catherine and to McGill University. If you are looking for a chic boutique hotel with impeccable service, this is the place to stay. We also enjoyed being the guests of suite 501 in …
