Fri Dec 19
One very bumpy flight (due to a windstorm which knocked out power all over the province) later, we were on the ground in Halifax. The 20-minute drive to Bedford through rain and wind was even worse than the flight, but we made it. We tried to sleep, but a disruptive cat made it difficult.
Sat Dec 20 – Mon Dec 22
After a bit of shopping we drove to the farm, arriving just minutes after brother #1 and his progeny. Brother #2 was laid up in hospital, but sister-in-law #1 and their kids came over for a big feed. The next day brother #1, my dad, and I drove to the hospital visit the missing brother, then got home for lunch just in time for brother #1 to head back to Halifax. After that, many games of crib ensued. On Monday brother #2 was being discharged so I picked him up and drove him home; afterwards, there was more crib and a movie (Secondhand Lions). A typical quiet time at the farm, less the nightly visits next door to sip some wine.
Tue Dec 23 – Thu Dec 25
On Tuesday we drove back to Bedford, stopping at Truro along the way, which included lunch at the Nook & Cranny, coffee at NovelTea, and a lot of one-way street confusion. A few more errands along the way and we were back in Bedford, eating dinner, drinking eggnog, and listening to East Coast Christmas.
We spent the 24th (mostly) chilling, eating lobster rolls with grandparents, drinking wine, and watching Die Hard.
Then: Christmas! Which looked a lot like Christmas Eve, TBH: eating, drinking, grandparents, games, silliness.
Fri Dec 26
Moving day. I got up and went to a light version of the Dickinson family reunion, this time hosted by brother #1 at his new place. It was fun to see some family, even if illnesses and travel meant the crowd was diminished. Someone even brought a rare curiosity: Cumberland (County) Trivia!
From there I drove down to St. Margaret’s Bay to meet Lindsay and her brothers at their dad’s. Seafood chowder, Dubai chocolate, lots of animal interactions, and a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck.
From there, the brothers went back to Bedford while we drove to downtown Halifax, checking in to our Halifax home: The Muir.
Sat Dec 27
God, we missed a king bed. Best sleep in a while. We eventually headed downstairs to Drift for breakfast, ran out to do a couple errands (nearly freezing to death while doing so), had a coffee at Café Lunette, and went back to the room to relax. I watched the three Stranger Things episodes that came out Christmas Day; Lindsay Stardew’d.
The only solid plan we had in Halifax before we arrived was a dinner reservation at Mystic, recently named the best new restaurant in Canada by En Route. We arrived for our reservation, and things started off a little shaky — our cocktails (Yellow-Eyed Grass for Lindsay, Silverweed for me) took a weirdly long time to arrive, but they were taken off the bill. Once the food started, though, we quickly realized why it’s garnered so many accolades.
Fauna (Lindsay)
- Snacks (cheese gougère, cheese and zucchini tart, corn crema)
- 2017 Lightfoot & Wolfville Brut
- Acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora sea mustard
- 2023 Seguin-Manuel Aligoté
- pasta w/ lobster raviolo, lobster cream, NS saffron chanterelles, seaweed brioche
- 2022 Gachot-Monot Pinot Noir, Hautes-Côtes-de-Beaune
- tart w/ foie gras, cherry, black apple chutney cured duck salad
- 2015 Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot Gris, Furstentum Grand Cru
- wolf eel fish w/ brioche, scallop, crab, sea asparagus crab hollandaise
- 2023 JM Boillot 1er Cru Chardonnay, Montagny
- [some kind of sunchoke dessert that isn’t on their online menu]
- 2019 Grüber Roschitz Beerenauslese Chardonnay, Niederösterreich
Biota (Dan)
- Snacks
- 2017 Lightfoot & Wolfville Brut
- Acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora sea mustard
- 2023 Seguin-Manuel Aligoté
- tartar of tuna & veal w/ crispy toro horseradish meringue, Jonori flatbread
- 2024 Le Morette Bardolino Chiaretto Classico
- arctic char w/ sea asparagus scallop, koji turnip friske, juniper yogurt, ponzu butter
- 2023 Lucien Crochet Sancerre
- ribeye w/ beef tongue potato, maitake, kale kombu, tamarack vinegar jus
- 2020 Osoyoos Larose Le Grand Vin
- chocolate w/ koji caramel, ganache, pineapple weed cremeux miso, black honey ice cream
- 20 Year Old Taylor Fladgate Tawny Port
Honestly, every course was amazing. Incredible flavours, perfect balance, strikingly presented. Lovely staff, especially the sommelier, who we ended up chatting with quite a bit (we knew some people in common). I even bumped into a colleague there. Anyway: one of the best meals we’ve had all year, for sure. Maybe the best.
Sun Dec 28
We didn’t stay in bed too long before ordering breakfast up to the room. After a while we struck out to meet up with Patrick for a quick (and awful) coffee at Cafe du Port, then collected their mom and walked back down the hill to Darya for brunch. We all had their buffet, and left stuffed to the gills with delicious food. Those two left to go about their days; Lindsay and I crawled back to the room and had naps.
Dinner that night was at Peacock Wine Bar, and it was basically a reunion of five of the six people who had assembled Friday night…just with different drivers. Here’s what we had:
- Shared plates (everyone):
- Focaccia w/ fermented chili butter
- Burrata w/ lavender, sichuan, plum, black sesame toasts
- Local vegetables w/ yogurt herb dip
- Chicken fried halibut cheek w/ scallion gribiche, pickled cauliflower
- Mains (just Lindsay and I):
- Dan: Braised pork belly w/ leek, fingerling, mustard cream, plum
- Lindsay: Tagliatelle w/ wild mushroom, sage, pine nut
- Drinks (just Lindsay and I):
- Dan: 22 Rustenberg Chardonnay, Stellenbosch / 24 Gérard Bertrand Gris Blanc Rosé, Languedoc-Roussillon / 24 Tenute Rade Barbera La Pruma, Piedmont / Madeira
- Lindsay: NV Blomidon, Crémant, NS / 20 Gérard Bertrand, Genora, Vin Orange, Languedoc-Roussillon / 21 Chateau Escalette, Cote de Bourg, Bordeaux
Mon Dec 29
Got up (not easily), packed (not carefully), ate some breakfast (not bad), checked out (not a hassle), had a quick coffee date with friends and their new baby (too cute), picked up Lindsay’s mom nearby (too easy), saw Lindsay’s grandma (too briefly), drove to Bedford (too fast), ate a donair (too messy), re-packed (too painful), and then waited to find out how long we’d be delayed due to weather (too stressful).
VERY frustratingly, Porter was playing like everything was okay, so we made the very treacherous drive to the airport thinking we were only 40 minutes delayed. Just as we checked in, they closed the runways at the airport, but they wouldn’t officially cancel our flight. Everyone knew the flight wasn’t going to leave, but they wouldn’t formally cancel it, so we couldn’t rebook or get our bags back. A plane full of people sat in the airport for hours, with no information, no updates….just a bunch of meaningless “your flight has been delayed by 15 minutes” emails, stating to times that had no basis in reality. I know the weather was the root cause of this situation, but Porter fell down INCREDIBLY hard on the job when it came to looking after its passengers.
Finally, around 8:30pm, they officially cancelled our flight. The email confirming this wouldn’t arrive until 1am, but right away I could see that we’d been rebooked on a flight the next morning. We walked down to get our bags, which came out at about 9:55pm. Then it took us forever to get an Uber in a brutal windstorm. The driver got us back to Lindsay’s mom just as her power came back on from a 2-hour outage. We crawled into the house, weary, but glad we had a booked flight and a place to sleep. Other people were being booked for flights several days from now, and every hotel around the airport was totally booked.
Tue Dec 30
Woke up to emails saying our flight was already delayed from 9:15 to 10:00 — not exactly surprising, since there’d be such a backlog of flights trying to get out. But then it kept going: 11:40, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30. We got nervous. But eventually the delay notifications stopped, so we went to the airport, and finally got on. Glory be.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 