One evening long ago at an urban planning conference in St. John’s Newfoundland, I found myself joining the legions of those who come-from-away as I participated in a “Screeching In” ceremony. When asked “Is ye a Screecher?”, if you want to answer “yes”, you need to drink some “local” hooch (a.k.a. Screech, not really local at all but Jamaican dark rum), recite some prose (the excerpt above mean “may the wind always be in your forward sails”), and kiss a cod as a way of wishing “bon voyage” to those sailing away to bring back the rum.
The other day when we decided to eat my Easter fish for dessert, I was reminded of that sloshy evening in St. John’s and felt the urge to kiss the fish. We cracked it open and found many MORE delicious goodies inside. The four of us, over a few nights, had lots of fun tasting M. Brunet’s delicious chocolate creations. When we get back I’m heading straight for the Chocolateria to see if I can inspire some Easter fun for next year.
I’m a hasty photographer and as I’m posting these pics I often cringe at the everyday objects that lurk in the backgrounds of my photos. But these bits and pieces are true artifacts of our life. Note above: there is a half-finished glass of water – that’s my fault and a common bad habit of mine. And there’s a pink hair elastic – for the love of all that is good if hair elastics were currency I’d make the Forbes 500.
I love objects with surprises inside – kinder eggs, Christmas crackers, and now Easter fish. M. Brunet’s chocolate is truly delicious and he is such a gracious and low key chocolate maker. The fish was great just on its own but then when we popped it open we were treated to a variety of new delicious things. It’s funny how even as a grown up treats like these can delight!
[editor’s aside: It’s funny, all kissing of chocolate cod aside, when writing this post, I stumbled upon another common experience between France and Newfoundland. Earlier this winter I wrote about the tasty tartiflette I made. The recipe for it concludes with putting an entire reblochon cheese on top of a huge casserole full of potatoes, onions and lardons. The recipe for tartiflette isn’t an old Alsatian tradition — it was recently created to increase the sales of reblochon cheese. Well, même chose avec le Screech. It’s not some age-old Newfoundland tradition but a newish one geared toward tourists. Ah, the power of food and booze-related economic development!]
Nous allons en France 