Although I enjoy neither beer nor back bacon, I defy anyone to say that Take Off [4.3MB MP3], by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (aka Bob and Doug Mackenzie) and Geddy Lee is not a brilliant song by any standard. “It’s like it was sung by angels…”
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I am Peter Rukavina and this is my blog. I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.
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“I enjoy neither beer nor
“I enjoy neither beer nor back bacon”
…(shudder)…
On the beer, you can get help. Even my mother, the minister’s wife, has been convinced by a good Belgian Framboise. I’m not saying you outta daydream about a lukewarm Moosehad Light down Myrons on a Tuesday night but, yumping yimminy, a cold Belgian Wit on a hot summer day, a pint of Guinness with braised lamb and leek stew, or a litre of mild after a May morning hauling dirt in the garden? You may need a edg-y-cation.
On the bacon, I remember the first time I realized back bacon was a different thing (different from strip and pea meal and english) at the CNE in the late 60’s probably before I am in kindergarden where they had a section called “Foods of the World” where the Canada booth actually served back bacon sammies with the bun fried in face down in the bacon drippings. I am sure that we were taken there to satisfy my Scots-born parents lust for fried bread. About 10 years ago I tried to recreate fried bread with bacon but threw the glommy mess out after one bite.
What’s the difference between
What’s the difference between back bacon and pea meal…except for the cornmeal coating? I love pea meal bacon, but can’t cook it right…mine always shrivels.
I take back my beer comment,
I take back my beer comment, at least somewhat.
One of the things I miss about living somewhere other than in Prince Edward Island is that there aren’t any bars here. There are, of course, pretend bars: places like Myrons, Pat’s, and the like, that are pool rooms, restaurants, etc. first and serve alcohol second. But there are no “beer halls” — places with a primary purpose of selling, well, beer.
During my twenties in Peterborough, Ontario, there were places like the Pig’s Ear and the Red Dog Tavern where you could go and order glasses of beer for 90 cents and enjoy them in basically ugly surroundings with a bunch of other similarly intentioned people. If there was food it was probably limited to pickled eggs or potato chips of one flavour.
Mind you at the Pig’s Ear there was a piano in the corner that nobody ever played. And at the Red Dog there was a buffet dinner every night, and on certain nights of the week you could somehow win your dinner by some mechanism or another. But the central role of these establishments was to sell beer in drab surroundings; everything else was secondary.
I won’t claim that I was a frequent visitor, and sometimes the last thing you wanted to do was to indulge in so low an environment, but once or twice a year you’d hit a sweet spot, with the right combination of mood, time of day and follow revellers, and you could happily polish off a platter of 8 ounce glasses of swilly draft among the table, and at times like those there was no better place to be.
(daydreaming: Ahhh..The
(daydreaming: Ahhh..The Kingston Brew Pub with a Dragon’s Breath and Lamb and Blue Cheese Burger…)
I find that pea meal is a thicker cut with even less fat and smoked longer so there is a feel of rawness to it.
I also went to university in
I also went to university in Peterborough and frequented the Red Dog, which at that time was called the American House. In those days, you could get a lunch that consisted of a slab of roast beef, potatoes,veg and pickles for the princely sum of 35 cents. This does not mean I went to university in the 1920s. The lunch was a loss leader, offred on the theory you would also drink beer. I didn’t drink much beer…but those hearty and filling lunches sustained me and most of my friends through our lean days.
Thanks Alan..I’m going to try to find back bacon and compare
thanks a bunch Peter -
thanks a bunch Peter - instant in-the-head loop which will require a search on audiogalaxy for a copy of this classic later this evening..
‘take off! to the great white north! take off! it’s a beauty way to go! doo do do do do do do dooo’
I also went to Trent and
I also went to Trent and frequented the Red Dog too and attended the Friday night “red dog dinner” that Ann described - which was up to $1 when I was there. The thing I remember most about that place was not the beer but the abdundance of petite older women who worked there and really ran the place.
Most meat shrivels because of
Most meat shrivels because of too-high heat. It doesn’t look very pretty (cuz the ooze is an unfamiliar colour) but cooking thick slabs of back (or pea meal) bacon - very slowly - with a short burst of high heat at the end will render it tender, juicy, and unshriveled… that’s what I find.
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