Shank S Mare

Describes the favorite walks of statesmen, astronauts, travelers, writers, naturalists, novelists, scientists, and soldiers

Canada’s culinary treasure revealed in recipes, stories and photographs Canada has a culinary treasure in Quebec, one that is not perhaps as celebrated as it could be, at least outside of that distinct and gloriously food-obsessed region. Julian Armstrong, longtime food writer for The Montreal Gazette, has spent her career eating, cooking, thinking and writing about Quebecois food. Quebec, A Cookbook is the result of those years of delicious effort. Quebec has a cuisine firmly based on French foundations, but blended and enriched over the years by the cooking styles of a variety of immigrant groups, initially British and American, more recently Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern and Asian. More than in any other province or region in Canada, people in Quebec are passionate and knowledgeable about their food. The restaurant scene is robust, not just in Montreal and Quebec City—you can go to just about any small town in La belle province and have a splendid meal. Farmers, purveyors, chefs, casual and dedicated home cooks all are poised in every season to produce or procure the perfect, seasonal ingredient; not for them the out-of-season asparagus from Chile. Quebec is where you can truly experience what food tasted like before the industrial food complex. Here unpasteurized milk and cheese is commonplace; indeed there is a herd of cattle descended from cows brought from France by Samuel de Champlain producing dairy just for this purpose. Imagine that in Ontario! Of course, Quebec is big news in the global foodie world these days, with Martin Picard (Au Pied de Cochon), Dave Macmillan and Fred Morin (The Art of Living According to Joe Beef), and even our own Chuck Hughes showing off the joys of dining in this great province. But there is much more still to discover about Quebec, from restaurateurs certainly, but also from farmers, foragers, artisanal cheese and bread makers, home cooks, and so many more. These people, their stories and recipes, will make up the bulk of Quebec: a Cookbook. It is high time for a comprehensive celebration of Quebecois cuisine.

A pair of irrepressible scoundrels are the heroes of this madcap chronicle of adventure, full of earthy humor, along the great highway from Tokyo to Kyoto. The lusty tale of their disreputable doings is Japan's most celebrated comic novel. Shank's Mare was originally issued serially beginning in 1802, and was so successful that the author wrote numerous sequels, appearing year by year, until 1822. This novel portrays all the varied colors in Japan's Tokugawa era.

On July 10, 1943, two great Allied armadas of over 2,000 ships readied to invade Sicily. This was Operation Husky, the first step toward winning a toehold in fascist-occupied Europe. Among the invaders were 20,000 Canadian troops serving in the First Canadian Infantry Division and First Canadian Tank Brigade — in their first combat experience. Over the next 28 days, the Allied troops carved a path through the rugged land, despite fierce German opposition. Drawing on firsthand accounts of veterans and official military records, Operation Husky offers a gripping, meticulous account of this seminal operation and the young men who fought, died, and survived it.