We had our staff Christmas party at the small room
off the lounge at the Explorer where you attended that redneck
wedding reception.

The place is really benefitting from well to do winter Chinese
tourism and has a new chef so the food is great once again. They are
doing a lot of arctic char and (farmed) "wild" game things.

Nothing wrong with that until the introduced
varieties start overwhelming the ecology, requiring
ever-bigger airplanes and more and more hotel rooms.

The breakfast menu includes Eggs Frobisher Bay which is basically
Eggs Benedict with smoked char subbing for ham.

In the rest of the world, that has other made-up names
such as eggs royale or salmon bebedict, but as there's
no recognized authority since Escoffier for that kind
of nomenclature, Frobisher Bay is as good as anything.

The lunch menu has a char, scallop, shrimp and crab chowder, char
gravlax and char fish and chips as well as more mundane things like
fancy ass burgers.

How about blackened char?

The dinner menu offers elk goulash, a bison mixed grill of ribeye
steak and beer sausage, elk tenderloin and confit duck leg, cherry
wood smoked elk back ribs, and grilled local lake trout along with
the standard steakhouse beef dishes.

Sounds interesting - are the prices geared toward
rich Asian tourists, or can locals or even
modest-budgeted Canadian tourists afford to eat
well - I shudder to think about the juxtaposition
of Chinese and Arctic economies.

In our old age, a number is two or three, whereas
it once might have been six or eight.

Your're right ... I stopped at four, had just 1 glass of wine with
dinner and drank ice water at the after party. And went home without
stopping for the traditional last call nightcap at the Strange Range.

Been there, done that. At the Jamestown Historical
Society volunteer party this week I nursed two
successive short pours of Jim Beam on the rocks for
the entire time and felt only slightly disloyal to my
tippling heritage. My supper was 10 prosciutto-wrapped
dates and a handful of Bugles, which I didn't even
know they still made (my own quiche was far too cheesy
for me to eat).

... Aliens lock their doors when they fly by Earth.

There's a cartoon I saw in the paper that showed
a kid and his dog gazing at the starscape and
wondering why we're considering putting out
beacons for potentially marauding bands of aliens.

Rigodon (Bourgogne)
Categories: leftovers, desserts, French
Servings: 6

1 l milk
1 vanilla bean
250 g somewhat stale brioche
24 walnut halves
12 blanched hazelnuts
200 g powdered sugar
1 pn fine salt
1 ds cinnamon (opt)
9 eggs
4 tb cream of rice, Maizena, or potato starch
30 g butter
h - Garnish
fruit jam - pear, quince, peach, apple,
- or strawberry

The rigodon is a Burgundian dessert originally
made with last week's leftover bread, cooked
in the oven still warm from this week's baking,
which slow cooking lent a suave texture. Today
it is made with brioche.

Infuse the vanilla in hot milk.

Meanwhile, crumb the brioche and crush the nuts
without reducing them to a powder.

Off heat, add the sugar, salt, and cinnamon to
the milk. Let cool, stirring occasionally.
Remove the vanilla bean.

Oven at 150C/300F.

Beat the eggs in a large vessel, then sprinkle in
the cream of rice. Then beat in the milk, and
finally fold in the brioche crumbs and nut bits.

Pour in a buttered baking dish, smooth the
surface, and dot with butter. Bake 45 min and
test for doneness.

Let cool before unmolding on a serving plate.
Spread jam on top, then let sit until cold before
resting in the fridge at least 2 hr. Slice and
serve. May be kept refrigated up to 2 days.

Traditional Burgundy recipe, noted by Rene Gagnaux
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