Next Stop: Montreal Mon Ami


It's been three years since I've dipped my feet into the European charm of Montreal. I love the city's dynamic energy and elegant architecture. Of course, I also love the legendary Montreal Jazz Fest, the world's biggest jazz festival. Thanks to Tourisme Que'bec, I'll experience more of the city's gifts, from the also legendary circus arts festival, Montreal Completement Cirque, pictured above, to the museums and bustling neighborhoods. Montreal nightlife is the focus for this trip so I'll be documenting the exciting foodie scene as well as the nightclubs and non-stop festivals. I'm especially excited about pedaling through a night bike tour of the Mount Royal neighborhood and a visit to Bota Bota, the floating spa fashioned from an old ferryboat and boasting sublime views of the St. Lawrence River. So stay tuned for culinary, music and arts posts soon.

Comments

Andrew said…
Sounds wonderful, Rosalind. I'll stay tuned, for sure!
July 9, 2014 at 7:09 PM
Fly Girl said…
Thanks Andrew! I'll have a Montreal post up in the next few days.
July 9, 2014 at 7:17 PM
A Cuban In London said…
Bon voyage, mon amie! :-)

Re rice, some people boil it separately and then add it to the stew. I sometimes do it like that, but I like my rice to be infused with the herbs and spices I use, so I toss it in when the oil begins to dry up a bit.

Greetings from London.
July 10, 2014 at 2:01 PM
Fly Girl said…
Cubano, the infusion sounds really good, I just find it hard not to overcook the rice that way.
July 11, 2014 at 6:37 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Traveling Through A Liberian Childhood

Image
I like to explore the world with books as much as I like to actually travel. A well-written narrative can transport you to places that you'd never experience with just superficial details like photos and descriptions. I've been interviewing writers about the criteria they use to select books for Summer reading and it made me think about my own general reading criteria. As a journalist, I'm really drawn to biographies, autobiographies and memoirs more than fiction. There's something about using the facts to entice readers into your world that gets me. It's no coincidence that some of my favorite writers--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, started out as journalists. So when I glimpsed The House at Sugar Beach , at my local bookstore and saw it was a memoir written by a journalist, it was pretty much a done deal that I would buy it. Now it wasn't only that the author Helene Cooper was a journalist, it was that she was a Liberian journalist chro
Read more

Puerto Rico's Taino Culture

Image
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean region of North America were the Arawak, Taino and Carib  native peoples.  The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arawaks and are recognized as the founders of the island of Boriken or Puerto Rico.  These were the people who offered a peaceful welcome to Columbus in 1493.  They didn't know the cruelty and violence that would follow his so-called "discovery" of the land that they had cultivated for centuries. Despite official government pronouncements that the Taino have been killed off by the massacres and slavery that followed in Columbus' wake, they live on.  As demonstrated in the photo above by  members of  the Puerto Rico Folklorico Dance & Culture Cultural Cente r, Taino traditions, food and names remain strong. Throughout Puerto Rico, town names like Mayaquez, Utuado and Caquas echo the Taino language as do the musical instrument maracas and hamaca or hammock. Legends of Taino warriors, like Hatuey, who organized the ba
Read more

Switzerland's Fete Des Vignerons

Image
                                               Once every generation, the centuries-old viticultural festival, Fete des Vignerons, unfolds in Vevey, Switzerland. Watching this spectacle of music, dancing, wine and fanciful costumes, felt like I had been transported to something out of a Dr. Seuss story. With a law that prohibits the fest from taking place more than five times in a century, I felt incredibly lucky to witness this celebration of Swiss wine traditions dating back to the 17th century.  Some of the fetes 5,500 performers in costumes strolled the narrow streets of Vevey after a show that featured fairies, bees, royal courts, playing cards and 17th-century wine growers. The performance was in French but the drama transcended language barriers. It's a difficult experience to describe but if I had to sum it up, I would explain it as the magic of Cirque Du Soleil combined with the pageantry of the Olympics, topped with the history of folk celebrations.  Take a peek at my v
Read more