Destination Port Dover: Apple Fritters and Tall Ships

I finally got to the Fritter Place in Port Dover for my first half dozen fresh apple fritters of the year. Mary Ann didn't come because I was stopping a couple of times on the way to Port Dover, first for a motorcycle gang meeting at Tim Horton's and next to take a peek at the last day of the Paris Vintage Motorcycle Rally, 2010. Neither of those interest her.

We all showed up at Tim Horton's on time as usual. We are a punctual gang, if nothing else. The main item on the agenda today was verbally bashing Bob's Intruder 1400. As we were getting into it, a Harley rider parked next to us and remarked that we seemed to be picking on Bob, and one of our members (The V.P in Charge of Motorcycle Judging) took the time to point out that our actual favourite object of verbal bashing was the 150 cc Kymco scooter, but that we have grown bored with 6 weeks of steady abuse of the scooter.

After the meeting adjourned, I headed for the Paris rally, but there were only three tents left and they were all being taken down. So I took the opportunity of riding my motorcycle through the show grounds, in order to introduce my Kawasaki Vulcan to the tire tracks of legendary motorcycles such as the Rudge, as featured on the T-shirt commemorating the 38th Annual Paris National Rally of 2010, and the 100th anniversary of Rudge. Check out the top photo on this page of my motorcycle website, with my mother and all her brothers and sisters in 1939 with both my uncles on Rudge motorcycles. (Click it to enlarge)

A quick lap of the rally site, and back on the road this time to Port Dover. Because of the nice Sunday weather it was packed with beachgoers and motorcyclists. I parked my bike near Tim Horton's along with maybe fifty other bikes, and walked over to the Fritter Place. This year the Fritter people are only going to open three days a week in the summer, and they have a new cashier to help out, and a bigger machine for peeling the apples. After looking at this machine in operation, I asked exactly how new is this machine, and I don't remember the exact date, but it was a four digit number and the first two were 18. I commented that Tim Horton's apple fritters were probably being made on a much more modern machine, but then realized that the apples in Tim Horton's "apple fritters" would not need to be peeled, as they were mostly imaginary apples. (That is not a type of apple, it is when you think there is an apple but there is no apple)

Tied up at the dock near the door of the Fritter Place was the "St. Lawrence II", a training ship with square sails. Beautiful to look at. Scary to change the sails.

So to summarize the ingredients of a perfect day: A motorcycle club meeting where my motorcycle is not on the agenda, a ride across the field of motorcycle dreams, a new Rudge T-shirt, a half dozen real apple fritters (I only ate three, three for Mary Ann), a square sailed tall masted ship, 25 degrees C and sunny weather.

Picture: The Dock in Pt Dover, I took this picture today at 3:00 PM.

Bikers Guide to Floradale, Ontario

Floradale is about a 15 minute drive north of Waterloo, and is such a low-key place that I have never even driven through there, and I've lived here for thirty years.

So Mary Ann decided we would ride there for breakfast this morning. She heard that was a small cafe called Bonnie Lou's now opened in the old general store. We took her scooter for a ride to Bonnie Lou's, which was easy to find, even though it is not on Google Maps, it was smack in the middle of town. Just where you might expect an old general store to be located. And the town has a population of only about 500, but looks very well established. We circled around to the back to park, and found there was an outdoor patio and an entrance at the rear.

The waitress was wearing Mennonite dress. Well, maybe I should qualify that. I'm not sure it was Mennonite, because maybe everybody in town dresses that way. And she wasn't really a waitress because you ordered your food at the counter. But she did come over to our table to ask us if we were new and if we had come in on the scooter, which she saw come down the main street then drive to the back of the building. A good guess, I thought, as we left our helmets on the scooter. But in a town this small, and non-touristy, it is very hard to remain incognito. Floradale is in Mennonite country, and many old order Mennonites use horse and buggy to get around, instead of a car. And during breakfast Mary Ann was musing on how she probably wouldn't mind being a Mennonite, and I think she's got that just about right.

Anyhow to get back to our waitress, she told us that we needed to go to the counter to order, which we did. We both got a 2-egg breakfast with bacon and toast. Then I got a coffee and rhubarb torte for dessert. The food all seemed home made and very fresh, and later on I found out why. After breakfast, Mary Ann wanted to take a walk over to the dam, because there is a trail called the Lion's Trail around the dam and reservoir. But just when we got our jackets and helmets locked up, Mary Ann remembered that she needed to ask what day they were open for dinner. Usually they are breakfast and lunch only, but it turns out Friday they have dinner too, which they call supper. On the way back inside, she met a Mennonite looking lady coming out, and as Mary Ann is wont to do they struck up a conversation which led to the Mennonite Lady, who I will simply call ML, leading us through the back yards of Floradale back to her house to show Mary Ann her vegetable garden, which is of huge interest to Mary Ann. Also of some interest to me, as many of the sticks used to tie the row strings are old brushes, spatulas, and even old steel wrenches! As ML said, they don't throw anything out.

I was more interested in ML's garage, where there was a buggy parked, and behind that was a horse. ML also does repairs to soft topped buggies and she took us in to show us her workshop which included a commercial electric sewing machine, and lots of Naugahyde and velour, and what looked like leather. Also she had a buggy body in for restoration, and was showing me the work she had done so far and it was fantastic with the velour cloth inner liner finished already. I got a chance to really appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into the buggies, which rivals that of bikes found at custom bike shows (in some cases). From a distance the buggies all look kind of similar but apparently there are huge differences close up.

ML also showed me several diaper bags she was making out of Naugahyde, and honestly they looked as good or better than any commercial motorcycle luggage, including the standard saddlebags on my Vulcan 900 LT. She also sells those at the market. I would be tempted to buy them to use as motorcycle saddlebags but they were a bit small.

We also looked at the horse, and I was told that this was a new horse they purchased just two years ago, as the other horse was a bit small for this buggy. The way she talked it was almost like listening to a Harley rider discussing why he swapped the motor in his 883 Sportster for a 1200 cc V-twin. She also explained that the bigger horses were very much sought after by the younger men, because they "like to go faster". I guess people are the same everywhere.

Then she gave us a lettuce head from her garden, took us upstairs to see a quilt she was finishing for sale at the market, and gave me a review from the Kitchener Record, by Andrew Coppolino, about Bonnie Lou's Cafe. And she told us that the rhubarb for the torte came from her own garden, and that she made pies for Bonnie Lou, and was starting to make butter tarts as well.

We never did see the Lion's Trail, but that fits in with Mary Ann's travel philosophy of "Go with the flow".

Picture: As usual, I didn't have my camera, which was actually a good thing as I'm sure it would have spoiled the experience completely. Anyhoo, this here is a picture of a Mennonite buggy in West Montrose. Except that ML's horse was black, it's about the same.

An International Food Guide

Another chain email arrived. Here it is

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.
4 The Italians drink a lot of red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you..

I immediately noticed that there may be a better link between our car culture and heart attacks than there is with language. So I googled "International cardiovascular disease statistics". Listed below are just the countries mentioned in the chain email. But I added Russia as it has far and away the highest rate of coronary deaths of any country listed. And I added Canada because I live there.

Russia with 1555 (deaths per 100,000)
Chinese rural with 413
Chinese urban with 389
England/Wales with 301
USA with 289 and
Germans 270
Mexico 235
Italy 218
Canada 212
Japan 170

Then I noticed all the top countries in order were Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, China. I guess you could also make the argument that eating in a Communist restaurant leads to heart attack.

But it is not from lack of trying that America loses out to Communists in heart attacks. Americans don't like to come second.

I took the pictures from a patriotic restaurant that goes by the name "The Heart Attack Grill"

Food Review: The Bauer Kitchen, Waterloo

Here is a new idea for me, as if I don't have enough stuff to write about. How about a restaurant review? Last night Mary Ann and I went out to a new restaurant called The Bauer Kitchen, located in the newly renovated Bauer skate factory. I have no idea where they make skates now. Actually yes, I do.

Mary Ann does not like to go to the food court for our anniversary dinners, and Bauer's obviously had table service, so we decided to try it.

I am lacking in imagination when we go out, and usually order what the restaurant is famous for. At the Fritter Place in Port Dover, I order Apple Fritters. Luckily, because they don't have anything else. At Bobby O'Brien's in Kitchener, I order beer and wings. I like making my decision quickly, the quicker I make up my mind, the quicker I get my food. So last time I was at Knechtel's in Port Dover, I had ordered the perch dinner while walking past the waitress on my way to the table. It helps that I was on my own. Because when Mary Ann is there, as a rule, the waitress will return four or more times, with the question "Are you ready to order yet?" And as I have found out, it is not good to say "Well I am, so just take my order now"

In an unfamiliar restaurant, where I don't even know what they're famous for, I like to order the rib dinner. This is what I ordered at Bauer's. But it was called "Short Ribs with Potato Gnocchi". Unfortunately I didn't have a clue what potato Gnocchi was, and still don't know how to pronounce it. So I ordered "short rib dinner". When it showed up, actually brought by a different waitress, she put it in front of me, and called it "Gnocchi", but I didn't remember or even understand the word, and not only that, but the ribs had already been deboned, so they did not look at all like ribs either. So I guess I said something like "Did I order this?"

One thing you will notice about most restaurants is that the stupider you are, the nicer the wait staff will treat you, so I get a lot of good service usually. Unless I'm at Tim Horton's where the competition is fierce. So the waitress said "Oh I'm sorry, we must have misunderstood, I'll bring you something else if you want." I didn't want to wait any longer as we had already been there some time before deciding. So remembering the Gnocchi potatoes, I said, "maybe it's the pronunciation of that word." The waitress was very understanding, and pleasant about it, meaning this must have been an unusually dumb statement on my part.

Anyway, the food was great,even the gnocchi (tastes like potato perogies), the dessert too. I always order cheesecake, and theirs was about the best, with white chocolate, blueberries, and some other stuff. But cheesecake is always pretty good wherever I go. I didn't get sick afterwards, which to me is an important consideration. I didn't go away hungry, it cost less than our average anniversary night out, and Mary Ann really liked it too. So it's highly recommended.