ImagiNation writers’ festival: a food talk in Quebec City
Tips on where to buy the best French bread, fine chocolates and fresh specialty vegetables were on in 2015 when I was a guest author in an unusual location for a food talk – the Morrin Centre, inside the historic walls of Quebec City.
Asked to talk about my cookbook, Made In Quebec: A Culinary Journey, by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, I was in unusual company for a food journalist as one of 15 speakers at their annual ImagiNation writers’ festival.
Novelists, university writing teachers, a military doctor, an investigative reporter, a children’s author, a humourist, and a cartoonist were on the program along with two food writers – myself and U.S. barbecue specialist Steven Raichlen.
Contrasts at the 6-day event also included the food. While the audience of largely anglo Quebecers ate samples of my recipes in an upstairs drawing room/lecture hall, the cellar of the elegant pre-Victorian building had a table set for an imagined meal, sparsely served using pewter plates and mugs. The house was Quebec City’s jail from 1812 to 1867, and grim little cells may be toured if you visit the spacious house and English-language library, once a part of McGill University. For details on the building and society, visit morrin.org, tel. 418-694-9147.
Quebec City, located close to the verdant Île d’Orléans, has superb restaurants, as the Montreal Gazette’s dining critic Lesley Chesterman regularly reports. Asked how I decided where to go for my book’s 135 recipes and information about the many new food products throughout Quebec, I talked of the word-of-mouth methods journalists use when tracking down a story. One chef will lead to another, and these new, young, culinary professionals always know of a certain grower with a notable food product. It’s part detective work, part treasure hunt, part power of persuasion, since chefs detest having to spell out their recipes.
A vital question came from CBC arts reporter Jeanette Kelly, who asked about the big food stores and their appealing prices and how we can encourage the small producer with unique fresh foods to sell. My answer: Be aware that it’s our job to keep our small farmers in business. That means patronizing farmer’s markets, signing up with Equiterre for weekly organic food baskets, and shopping the supermarkets with a close eye out for local products even if the imports look beautiful. And those independent farms can be found in the city as well as the country. Example: the Lufa Farms greenhouse on the roof of a factory near Montreal’s Rockland shopping centre.
The audience was informed on a variety of Quebec foods. One man offered information on how to turn the salt cod made according to a 400-year-old tradition in the Gaspé, into delicious Portuguese fare; his grandmother was his source and he believes there are 365 versions of bacalau, the salt cod dish. Another knew that Gaspor pork, the delectable meat made of baby pigs near Mirabel, was invented using a special diet that includes milk. Another, when I suggested we should grow more parsnips, recalled a memorable parsnip purée she had enjoyed at the First Nations’ Restaurant La Traite at the Huron-Wendat Nation in Quebec City.
A mouth-watering menu was served after my interview, conducted by Quebec City food blogger Héloïse Leclerc. Served in miniature cups, we enjoyed trout gravlax flavoured with vodka and served with chopped lime and melon; tender strips of rare-cooked venison with asparagus, Parmesan cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, and a miniature profiterole iced with a maple icing, all prepared by caterer Chef Chez Soi. It was a fine sampling of the latest local food trends.
Julian Armstrong answers questions and signs her book at the Salon du Livre in Quebec City. (April 2015)