Visiting a supermarket and the Governor General’s garden – 11 October 2023

 


Visiting a supermarket is not on everyone’s wish list of things to do when visiting a different country.  I love going there to see what products there are and the prices.  Graham took us to Farm Boy which is a similar concept to Moore Wilson, with lots of fresh food and well labelled with provenance and even calories if you want to know that.  The prices were very similar to what we would pay for similar products in New Zealand.  Of course there were lots of differences as well.  The range of yoghurts was less, the cereals were mostly full of sugar (although many of ours are as well) and there were lots of out of season products at reasonable prices. 

The supermarket was in a huge shopping mall which consisted of a series of very large car parks with big box retailers forming the boundaries.  Walking around would not be the thing to do.  Porirua in NZ has a smaller version.  Not the ideal place for a shopping excursion. 

My friend Yvette, picked me up in the wonderful electric Mercedes and took me to the Governor-General’s gardens.  The residence is called Rideau Hall.  The Prime Minister lives in the cottage on the estate because the PM’s official residence is in such a state of disrepair that it is unfit for anyone to live in.  The grounds of Rideau Hall are lovely with lots of trees and some nice pieces of sculpture.  I found out that the maple leaf on the Canadian flag is from the sugar maple which is quite distinct to another type of maple.  Apparently the gardens had the other maple and are now being replaced by sugar maples. 

Rideau Hall

Rideau House is in a beautiful part of the city.  Close to the CBD it is leafy with really interesting houses.  They are very different to our NZ houses and designed to keep people warm during the very cold winters.  The enclave around the Rideau House has houses that are large and on very big sections. Many of them are the homes of ambassadors.  Then there are smaller homes on very small sections and two stories.  Whereas NZ has lots of windows they have fewer and are typically smaller.  Of course, they are double or triple glazed.  I asked why every house has a basement and was told that this was so the foundations of the house were below the frost level and therefore not affected with the freezing and unfreezing of the ground. 

We were able to sit in the sun and enjoy and cup of almost good coffee. 

In Ontario and much of Canada alcohol is sold by one organisation called the Liquor Control Board.  The Ontario Board is the biggest purchaser of wine in the world and provides to Ontarians a wide selection of wine.  Yvette and her husband Paul took me to the largest shop in Ottawa which has a ware associated with it.  The range of wine was impressive and it had quite a few NZ wines ranging from cheap and cheerful to the premium end of the spectrum but not the really top end wines. Most of the wines were white, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot gris.  There were a few pinot noirs as well.  I was more interested in what Canadian wines were available.  Most were from the Niagara region, quality unknown.  I bought a reasonably priced chardonnay.  We had this later and it was a beautiful wine.  Not grand but quite sophisticated. 

In between we had a ramen in rather cute café in one of the funky streets on the western end of the CBD.  The food was rather good.  

 



 
Autumn colours in the GG's garden


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