1) G scavenges on the beach in Point Roberts, Washingston

Currently resident in London at Riverside to support my sis who is undergoing surgery; nice to be home as always despite the circumstances.

Meanwhile, G and I visited Point Roberts last Sunday morning. Point Roberts is a geopolitical oddity created by the division of Canada and the United States along the 49th parallel. It is part of the mainland United States but is not physically connected to it, making it a pene-exclave of the U.S. It is located on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula and is part of Washington State.

It is some 4.8sq miles total and has a population of some 1,300 souls. Water, fire and telephone services are all provided by Canada via the City of Delta. Really, Canada oughta just take over the place using the rationale Americans use when touting their antics internationally: we’ll just assume Americans want to be Canadians and that the Canadian way is the best way. Course, then we’ll have to also act with utter contempt and disbelief when the Point Robertians tell us they don’t hold this view and actually don’t want to be Canadians … but we’ll just ignore them and then take them over regardless. 

 

2 & 3) welcome to Point Roberts

4) visiting Lighthouse Marine Park; 5) a drift wood shelter on the beach

6) at the marina

I woke up on Friday last week with a bubas obsession. I don’t know why or how this came upon me suffice to say, it did and I needed to take action. So, Friday night had be starting the long long – though not overly laborious process – making these delightful French cakes.

7) babas goodness!

8) initial rise is yeast and flour; 9) second rise add in butter, raisins, more flour, salt, baking power

10) for the rum syrup combine: sugar, water, lemon rind, and vanilla; 11) just let this all boil down and then strain

12 & 13) after the second rise, roll, cut and stuff into the popover pan

14) bake and then pour rum syrup over warm babas – they soak gobs of it up; 15) plate and enjoy with ice cream and a coffee or tea

Also, spur of the moment, we decided at 4:30PM Sunday to have a tapas-inspired dinner.

16) the batter for the croquettes; 17) preparing the shrimp croquettes

18) before; and, 19) after deep frying

20) the potato and egg frittata; 21) the meatballs are readied

22) the Marcona almonds; 23) in lieu of manchego we opted for Parmesan, ham and olives

24) the frittata and the omg delicious pork/beef mini meatballs

When I returned from Winnipeg a fortnight ago, I met G at the Westin Wall Centre, Richmond for a night out (or in actually). We did venture over to Aberdeen Centre to see the display of bonsais that they were hosting. It was stunning.

25) G admires the view looking north the Vancouver

26 & 27) our suite at the Westin

28) the Aberdeen Centre; 29) Japanese maple hybrid bonsai

30 & 31) the bonsais

32) do you see the little cranes in this one?; 33) stunning!

34) another plane comes in to land (with Richmond Night Market in foreground); 35)  the marina

36 ) the marina at Wall Centre; 37) the sun sets in the west

38) going … 39) gone – good night!

On Saturday we also headed to “The Drive” (aka Commercial Drive), which is the heart of the Italian community in Vancouver to try a new Neapolitan pizza place that just opened, called “Famoso“. They use an imported 900°F oven here that cooks the pizza in about 60 seconds. It was outstanding!

40 & 41) inside the restaurant

42) the results – a classic margarita; 43) and a prosciutto and arugula

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