26th Annual Greek Fest, June 9-12, 2011

I'm a bit late in posting this, since I was away for nearly a week in Atlanta, Georgia, but a couple of weeks ago one of Atlantic Canada's largest annual festivals geared up for its 26th year.

The Halifax Greek Festival was inspired by tales of similar events held in the US, and plans were laid over a quarter century ago for the first Greek Summer Festival in 1986. The organizing committee grossly underestimated how popular that first festival would be, and as the line ups grew, the food quickly ran out.

The festival soon grew so large that it had to be moved outside to a large tent in the parking lot. And though it has evolved, the festival still holds true to its roots even today, as an opportunity to share with Haligonians the cultural and historical roots of the Nova Scotia Greek community, as well as the culinary specialities that make Greek food lovers and EP Daves everywhere say "opa!"

Long time readers may feel like they are experiencing a case of deja vu, but there's a good reason for that. Last year's Greek Fest was the first ever EP Dave's Terra Nova post. That's right, EPTN is officially a full year old (insert applause here). Luckily for me the festival is roughly the same as it was last year (read: awesome), so I can more or less just recycle most of what I wrote the last time... but I won't.

When I was going to all of the festivals last year, I can remember trying to experience a little bit of everything offered at each festival so that I could present my report afterwards. This year around, with most of the festivals being familiar to me and my readers, I will concentrate more fully on having a full and great personal experience to share, that will compliment and supplement the posts I made last year.

To start this year's festival season off right, I decided to go all out on the food. Last year I used to spread my budget too thin, and this would end up leaving me with an unsatisfying experience. This time I went to the opposite extreme and ate way too much. I can now say with certainty that despite my love of Greek food, there is a limit to how much one person can eat in one day. One man does not need to eat lemon roasted potatoes, moussaka, pastichio. spanakopita, tiropita, dolmades, a Greek salad, and then have a donair. That said, everyone should want to find out for him-/herself.

(Catering - Greek Fest style. These hard working volunteers cooked through the night to make sure there was enough food for everyone.)

(It's tough to see from this picture, but by "everyone" I do mean just about everyone in Halifax. This particular lineup snaked all the way to the back of the hall, and then curled around to the entrance.)

(Some more beautiful volunteers cooking up some pork souvlaki kebabs.)

(If you couldn't make it the one minute walk from the hall to the kebab/donair pit, there was a roasting lamb station along the way to tide you over. Old man getting smoked out not included in the price though.)

Since this year my motto seems to be "in for a penny, in for a pound," I checked out the souvenir tents too. This volunteer put on a master course in salesmanship, and I ended up walking away not-unhappy with my new komboloi, or "worry beads."

Draped over the hand, between the first and middle fingers, the user can flip the hanging beads over the top finger and produce a satisfying clanking sound when the flipped beads strike the hanging beads on the other side. Historically komboloi were quite a popular form of stress relief, and are still often used by smokers looking to quit. I must say, once I learned to flip the beads and reset my fingers smoothly, the repetitive motion and noise I was able to produce became quite addicting.

Of course the ever popular ethnic dancers were back again, and this time I came early enough to see the young children dancing too.

(Everyone say, "opa!")

This year I decided to absorb even more of the experience than last year, and so I ventured in to the St. George's Greek Orthodox Church. I was not quite prepared for what I saw though, and the following sight blew me away.

(This picture doesn't do it justice, but the the inside of the St. Goerge's Greek Orthodox Church is covered in paintings from floor to ceiling, and all around, and on top of that - not the ceiling, I meant additionally - there are the myriad traditional ornaments located around the church that probably have some traditional significance of which I am not aware.)

I spent about forty minutes on the upper balcony having a Biblical debate/discussion with one of the priests, as well as learning about the main differences between the Greek Orthodox Church and the other "90 000 heresies" (i.e., the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, and their off-shoots.)

(This photo is for EP Dan. The "hit the goalie" game was back, and the net too - to catch the ball if you miss.)

EP Dan's Last Day, Part 3 - Museum of Natural History

In every province in which I will eventually live, I have my major "EP Goals" to complete (see above tab, just below the blog title), but I also plan to make a number of sub-goals, specific for each province. For Nova Scotia, one of those sub goals is to visit each of the province's 27 Provincial Museums.

First up on the list of 27 is the Museum of Natural History. I was quite excited to finally pay a visit to the museum for an official blog trip - I had been here on some other occasions for special events. Additionally, EP Dan was excited to come here because we had missed out on a chance to see the animals during the Nocturne: Art At Night festival back in October, 2010, when the exhibit closed before we had arrived.

(My two-headed turtle picture from my trip to Korea was so popular that I thought I'd include another. I fear this one isn't quite as impressive though...)

(Speaking of impressive water creatures, this is "Francis" the lobster, who was too big for any lobster trap. He actually would have been caught in a net, before being given to the Museum of Natural History.)

One of the major instalments at the Museum is a collection of Mi'kmaw artefacts, clothing and tools. The Mi'kmaw people, which still inhabit the region, had lived in the Maritime provinces of Canada for centuries before contact with European explorers was made.

(This is just a sample of the Museum of Natural History's massive collection of Mi'kmaw quill work on bark - assumed to be the largest collection of its kind in the world.)

The other major collection at the Museum is that of the large underwater animals found around the area. The highlight being the massive skeleton of a pilot whale found stranded on Sable Island, some 300 kms south east off the shore of Nova Scotia.

(A closer inspection of the fins will reveal five finger-like bones. I thought they were interesting.)

The real reason EP Dan and I came to the Museum today though, was to see the exhibit "A T.Rex Named Sue." Named after Sue Hendrickson - the archaeologist who discovered the skeleton - Sue is 42 feet long, and 12 feet high at the hips. Officially it is the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the world. Purchased by the Field Museum in Chicago for $8.4 Million, Sue has been on a world tour, and has been seen by over 10 million people, but Halifax is the first Canadian city ever to host the exhibit.

(Psst... Don't turn around.)

By this time we were both getting a bit tired so feeling lucky to have escaped with our lives, we headed back home. With Dan now gone back home, I'm on my own for the summer. I'm not worried though, what with all of the major festivals coming up again, life will not be boring for long.

EP Dan's Last Day, Part 2 - Lunch At Westcliff Diner

When I first moved into my new apartment, I remember quite distinctly the person who dropped me off saying that this restaurant made the best club sandwich in Halifax. This was back in June, 2010. Since that time I can remember two other people on two other occasions recommending the club sandwich or the fish and chips here as well.

I had always kept promising myself that when I had an occasion to go dining with someone I would come here. After Dan and I finished painting our pottery at Clay Cafe, we walked about twenty minutes to get back here (we actually passed it on our way to Clay Cafe the first time). This was my chance to scratch another "to do" item off of my list.

We both ordered the club sandwich with fries, and I must say it was every bit as good as its fans had suggested. For desert I ordered what has to be the best chocolate milk shake ever made, and the most delicious hand-made maple fudge.

The food was incredible, but it was the atmosphere that will have me coming back. It's a family run business, with an older couple who bicker back and forth behind the counter, make the food, serve the food themselves, and get themselves into some of the most hilarious conversations with the regular customers.

When we were there, one conversation focused on how the wife wouldn't be coming into work the next day, because she just had to watch the Royal Wedding, but not the part before or after, just the wedding, but not the part before or after, just the wedding, but not... It was too funny, and they were easily the most stereotypically "East Coast" couple I've had the pleasure of meeting.

The charm of this diner is the food and the character and the cheap price. If you're ever in Halifax, it is not to be missed.

EP Dan's Last Day, Part 1 - The Clay Cafe

I can't believe it's been eight months already, but back on April 29th, EP Dan went back home to make some money during summer vacation. Since it's about half-way through May already, I figured I should finally get around to sharing what we did.

For the better part of 2011 we had both been too busy, and the weather too crummy, to enjoy much of our surroundings. I really wanted to show Dan a good time before he left, so I decided to take the day off from work and spend it with my brother so that he could have at least one good experience before he went back home.

The first place we went was somewhere I've been wanting to visit since I first came to Halifax - The Clay Cafe. On a number of different occasions I had even walked inside, but I seemed to be waiting for the moment to feel right to enjoy one of the best experiences in Halifax. (It seems like it would be a great place to go on a date too, although that's just a bonus, and completely unrelated to this post.)

The first step for us was to choose the object we wished to paint. The price was written on the bottom, and this included the price of the paint and firing the finished product in the kiln.

(EP Dan chose a turtle and I chose a small piggy penny bank.)

Next we chose our paint. Not only were there various colours, but there were also different kinds of paints, with different textures, as well as different stencils and stamps for making shapes.

While there were a variety of different colours, both EP Dan and myself are pretty conservative, so we just went with the standard version for our creations (you can't tell, but that is pink paint I'm using).

In order to get a solid, dark look to the paint, it was necessary to cover our pottery with a minimum of three layers of paint. To speed the whole process up, blow dryers were provided. Looking at this picture again though, I probably got a little too intense while I was "shooting" the paint.

The end results turned out better than I thought they would. My piggy bank says "A penny saved..." on one side, and on the other I wrote "... is a penny earned." My goal is to collect all the pennies I find on bus seats, or on the ground, or in my wallet, and deposit them in my bank before depositing them in the bank, as I run a little experiment to see how much money we waste by just throwing away our pennies.

HRM Monument #31: WWII Lost Ships

Perhaps the newest monument in Halifax, this large stone slab located at the start of the Halifax Waterfront board walk was dedicated in 2010 by the Atlantic Chief and Petty Officers Association to, "commemorate the ships and men of the Royal Canadian Navy who failed to return through enemy action, stress of weather and accidents during the Battle of the Atlantic and to remind future generations of the price of victory."

On the backside of the monument is a list of all the names of the Canadian ships lost from 1939-1945.

(Notice EP Dan to the right of the monument. For the trivia buffs out there, this is the earliest taken photo on EPTN that includes him.)

Nocturne: Art At Night: October 16, 2010

Nocturne: Art at Night, is a one day, completely free festival that takes place once a year in various public and private locations around Halifax. Somewhat similar to Toronto's Luminato Festival, Halifax's Nocturne aims to promote the arts community and make it more accessible to the public, by facilitating collaborations and exhibition opportunities in the form of a free, night time contemporary arts event.

This year marks the third instalment of this annual event, which runs from 6:00 PM until Midnight, and features over 100 art exhibits. Did I mention that it's all completely free?

You'd think that six hours is a long time to look at art, but since many of the exhibits were spread out around peninsular Halifax, the time simply flew by and I was not able to visit even half of the galleries/shows that I had wanted to see. However, that's also the genius of the Nocturne festival, since everyone has to come back the next year, and the next, just to see everything they want to see.

(My brother, EP Dan, contemplates his inability to understand the tangible form given to the contrasts and surplus of information the artist sees as the root cause of chaos, and subsequently decided to represent in this picture with a multiplicity of systems that coexist and confront one another in the same piece.)

(As I mentioned above, not all of the exhibits were indoors. Some, like this one entitled Paths No. 2: Reticulating a Warren, in Victoria Park, were outside. No, I don't know what it's supposed to represent either.)

(This is famous Atlantic Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis' actual house. She painted/decorated it herself, and it is so tiny - 10 feet x 12 feet - it actually fits into one floor of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where it stands today. She lived in this miniature house with her husband for many decades before succumbing to rheumatoid arthritis in 1970.)

(At the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia I also participated in a "hands on" art exhibit, that called for participants to decorate a piece of cork board and then place it on a large tracing of the human brain. In my contribution, which I entitled "Some String, and a Sea Shell, and Some Other Stuff", I attempted to expertly recreate what someone who would have had no idea what they were doing, would have created had they been asked to decorate a piece of cork board and stick it on a giant tracing of the human brain.)

(This is your brain on art. Don't do art, kids. Of course I was joking there. Additionally, in case you were interested my piece eventually gets glued somewhere along the upper cerebellum.)

Chuseok: September 22, 2010

It may not have anything to do with Canadian history, but September 22nd was the Korean holiday Chuseok (pronounced "chew-sock"). Chuseok is often described as Korean Thanksgiving since it happens more or less around the same time as our Thanksgiving. The main difference though, is that rather than celebrating the harvest (or simply a day off from school/work, which is how I think most Canadians view Thanksgiving), Chuseok in Korea is a time when families gather together to remember their deceased ancestors/relatives.

One of the many traditional activities that occurs at Chuseok is the making of songpyeon. Songpyeon is a form of pressed rice-cake (ddeok) that can be filled with an assortment of semi-sweet fillings. Traditionally in Korea, families would often get together and share their songpyeon creations with their neighbours. This practice can be traced back to around the 10th Century.

Earlier in the week my brother, EP Dan, and I had invited a Korean friend of mine - "English name" Joshua - and his wife over to our home. To return the favour, Joshua and Cristin (his wife) invited us over to their house for Chuseok (technically the day after Chuseok) to partake in a meal of delicious jabchae (among other things), and to make songpyeon.

(Left to right: Joshua, Cristin, EP Dan, EP Dave - me, sitting down for delicious Korean food.)

(EP Dan and I make songpyeon. We filled it with the delicious myung bean paste you can see in the bowl. Incidentally it's the same delicious paste found in jjinpang, which probably means nothing to many of you, but was a catalyst for many an adventure while I was in Korea.)

It was a wonderful night, and so was the afternoon spent at our house the weekend prior. While I'm having fun exploring Canada, I'm sorry to say that the most exciting part of living in Canada is hanging out with Koreans.