Eric Demay

I’m leaving Wednesday for what is one of Canada’s eldest and smallest communities and [almost] the most eastern spot on the map: Fogo Island. I’ll be there for the next 3 weeks. Humid, snowy, windy: a total opposite of Dubai.

— Why?

Well, a private foundation, aided by the federal and provincial government, is turning the island’s economy around. Fishing has long long since declined and a renewal of economic activities is needed to keep the outport communities alive. They’re counting mostly on geotourism to nurture the island for years to come. Is has enough history (settlements since the 15th century) local culture (fishing) and geographical specifics (island, ocean) to build a story around it.

— Um, Eric, again: why are you going there?
— Relax, I’m getting to it:

So, during the February, the foundation has invited a dozen of young designers/ artists/architects from Canada, the UK and some nordic countries (Iceland, Scandinavia) to discuss the island’s heritage and outport culture and, ahem: « develop ideas for contemporary furniture and interiors inspired by traditional Outport living conditions and reality. » I’m not quite sure about the specifics, but from what I understand, this all ties in with architectural projects they are building (a 5 star inn for example) and objects/furniture/textiles the local artisans, craftsmen, woodworkers, boat builders are going to be producing.

Anyways, it’s a fantastic opportunity. I’ll be meeting a handful of people, they even invited a few well-known speakers (other professional designers and thinkers) from around the globe. It should be good.

I’ll do my best to keep you guys posted, hopefully (photo)blogging a bit at the same time.

A colleague sent me this picture yesterday and it’s worth sharing here.

Ladies and gentlemen, the view from the observatory deck on the 124th floor of the Burj formerly know as Dubai, yesterday morning, 7:45 AM:

This is a visual metaphor of the Burj’s presence and existence in Dubai, as the sole building standing out of the desert landscape. All its neighboring towers —whom most are twice the size of Place Ville-Marie— are dwarfed by its presence. It stands alone in Dubai’s sky.

Also, the Burj Khalifa counts 160 floors, all of which, starting from the 125th up, are offices. On cloudy days: day dreaming up, productivity down.

Dear RSS feed subscriber,
Cher abonné du fil RSS,

I’m very sorry about today’s feed update issues.
Merci Eric G. Merci Xavier KR.
I wasn’t trying to mess things up, seems as I didn’t manage that too well.
Mais c‘était vraiment pas d’ma faute.
Technically, things should now run smoothly.
Bon, c‘était un peu de ma faute. Mais là, on a mis un peu plus de beurre.
Being an amateur programmer isn’t easy.
Pis un blogger non plus, ça a l’air.

Thank you si much for the understanding.
Je ne mérite pas de si gentils et attentifs lecteurs.

- eric

I just started working my way trough Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio cookbook in which he breaks down the basic compositions that direct the making of so many dishes. Like he enouces so simply: once you know a series of basic ratios, you’ll know a thousand recipes. Even though I have already made and used many of these ratios in the kitchen, it was always without really understanding the relationship between the different ingredients. And as Rhulman’s hands-on approach to cooking [and writing] is so appealing and engaging, I was compelled to follow him back to the basics, starting with chapter 1: Doughs and Batters.

Pizza dough (5 parts flour, 3 parts water) was made—and devoured—over the Christmas holidays, and I just can’t get enough of it. Tender yet crusty, puffy though not chewy. It’s only then can you understand that good pizza only comes from good pizza dough: toppings won’t really matter if your dough can’t back them up.*

rustic and complete: it has risen indeed

And tonight, back to bread (same as pizza, but with a bit more yeast), a simple first iteration of a plain boule with a bit of coarse salt on top. The dough was kneaded by hand and cooked using a closed dutch-oven at high temperature, keeping the moisture trapped so the bread crusts nicely, just like in a professional oven. I haven’t eaten it just yet though: I’m waiting for breakfast tomorrow, with a batch of slow cooked scrambled eggs and some homemade jam. Yay for a good start tomorrow. I’ll give you an update.

NEXT EDITION: probably try the walnut/olive ciabatta he raves so much about. Find a Marcato machine so I can move on to pasta.

• Do check out what Una Pizza Napoletana—a purist pizza joint in Manhantan—has to say about it.

Long overdue, this visual update for the site has been sitting on my hard drive for what we can now count in years (1.3!). And now that I have a little time on my hands, I’m freshening it all up a little. Pimpin’ it right. Yes, they are subtle changes, but somebody important is in the details.

So if you are an innocent victim of glitches, mishaps or display bugs of any sort, please be a sport and let me know about it. And if you’re so inclined to discuss/criticize/suggest design and typography solutions, I’m all ears, Jessica.

still to do:

• navigation footer
• Some tag cloud, somewhere
• A search feature (UPDATE: half way there)
• All on the infos page
• Top navigation: implement underlines to current section
• UPDATE: Not sure if the fat blue dot permalinks for links are staying. I was excited at first, having them display so randomly, but now they seem a tad obtrusive.