Lobster here, lobster there - a tasty crustacean everywhere

My first whole lobster this trip - served up on the beach.

No doubt those friends and followers who regularly see my posts on my Facebook pages (personal and business) and Twitter are aware of all the lobster I consumed during my two-week stay on  Cape Breton Island the past few weeks.

I believe I ate more lobster during my two weeks there than I had the previous two years. Or maybe even the previous two decades.

And I never enjoyed it more.

I also learned a lot about lobster, too - how to tell males from females, the optimum weight for a tender and tasty crustacean, how to get a lobster to do lobster yoga ("downward facing crustacean" is the best pose), and numerous other interesting tidbits about lobster.

I learned, too, that you can serve it in just about any form, and it will be good: lobster eggs benedict, lobster sauce on halibut, lobster poutine, lobster mac'n'cheese - it's all good.

Funny, I was never really a huge lobster lover. Oh, I'd had it on several occasions and it was good. But for some reason, this time around it just tasted better, in all its renderings.

The first time I had it was in 1979, at a spray camp/airfield in New Brunswick while working for Forest Protection Limited. Once a year, every summer, the company would fly in fresh lobster for the pilots, crews and others stationed there. My work partner Joe kept raving about how good it would be, explaining how the claws were the best part, especially dipped in melted butter.

Well, it was good - but obviously it didn't make a huge impression on me. Later that fall, while broadcasting a football game between the University of Prince Edward Island and the UNB Red Bombers in Charlottetown back to Fredericton on CHSR, I didn't order it for supper that night after the game, even though our meals were completely covered. My dad, a huge seafood fan, couldn't believe it when I told him during our weekly phone calls between Toronto and Fredericton.

After that, I didn't eat it for many years, and when I did, it never seemed to set off taste-gasms in my mouth. (I guess that's because I always seemed to eat it at a Red Lobster in Calgary. Good, but not great.)

That started to change in 2008.

That was the year the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia hosted the annual TMAC conference. The awards dinner that year was a lobster-fest, complete with plastic lobster bibs. Well, that year I threw myself into the festivities with abandon. I ate at least two, maybe three crustaceans. I also remember turning the bib around so it hung down my back like a cape, and declared myself to be "Lobster-Man!" Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) the photos taken that night cannot be found.

I had finally started to appreciate lobster, it seemed.

The lobster at Doaktown, NB was really fresh.

I enjoyed it again thanks to TMAC during a pre-conference tour in 2012, at O'Donnell's Cottages (since changed to Storeytown Cottages), in Doaktown, NB.

It was the first day of the lobster season, and the catch was as fresh as an inebriated Grade 10 at his first senior prom.

 And that brings us to June, 2016. (It seems I'm destined to only enjoy good lobster every four years...)

It began with the first day of our pre-tours. We were treated to an incredible breakfast of lobster-benedict at the Hearthstone Inn in Sydney. Quite the way to start a tour.

Later that night at the Keltic Lodge in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, I enjoyed a meal of halibut (my favourite fish) served with a lobster ravioli that did cause taste-gasms.

And it just kept getting better.

The next night, we were treated to a lobster boil on the beach, courtesy of Parks Canada and some of the local staff. There, our tour leader - kayaker and paddling musician extraordinaire Angelo Spinazzola - taught us how to really chow down on the treasured crustaceans.

We were not only taught lobster biology, we were serenaded by fiddler-chef Scott Aucoin. 

While the lobster cooked, the chef fiddled...

But believe it or not, we had still only just begun...

We really hit the jackpot the second night of the conference proper, (thanks again, in large part to Parks Canada) with a lobster dinner set inside the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site. Cooked to perfection, served up (to those of us who aren't oenophiles) with ample portions of Fortress Rum and plenty of other good food. (It topped off a perfect day for me, as I'd spent the morning watching sea parrots - a.k.a. puffins - during a three-hour tour. The lobster feast made an A-grade day into an A+ day.)

But wait - there's more...

Lobster kicks poutine up a notch or three.

There was great chowder with lobster in it at the Red Shoe Pub ... ditto at the Castle Rock Country Inn, the final night of our tour.

The real test came after a three-hour whale-watching excursion when we went to the Rusty Anchor. 

I was waffling between two different dishes that included lobster. Luckily, I managed to convince another writer to order lobster mac-and-cheese, while I ordered lobster poutine - and we switched halfway through so we got some of each.

Mac'n'cheese, already good, gets better with lobster.

Could ordinary dishes like these use lobster and be as good as the other renderings already enjoyed?

Yep. There were multiple taste-gasms, that night. Just picture Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" - except she's eating lobster instead of deli cold cuts.

So, after all this, I can only assume there must be something special about Nova Scotia lobster - especially Cape Breton lobster, since it seems to taste better than any I've ever eaten anywhere else. It could also be the company, or maybe it's the freshness ... but I think there's also a little bit of Cape Breton magic there, as well.

That magic, that special warmth that seems to be everywhere on the island, that alone is good enough to lure me back there again, some day.

Plus I want a whole lobster poutine to myself.

Eating well does not exclude eating sustainably

"If we can make the world sick, we can also heal it."

That was the message of hope that Chef Barton Seaver brought to a room full of travel media and industry professionals, Saturday.

Seaver, author, National Geographic Fellow, TED speaker and chef extraordinaire, is passionate about cooking and conservation - and he believes eating well and living sustainably are not mutually exclusive activities.

Smoked trout with greens.

During his presentation of  "Little Fish, Big Flavour," at the joint TMAC-SATW professional development weekend, he admitted humans have done a poor job of working with our planet's resources to feed ourselves. But, if we can be the problem, we can also be the solution.
Barton explained one of the ways we can do that is by eating lower down the food chain. When it comes to eating fish, for example, if we eat that way, we not only impact the environment less, we also eat healthier (toxins accumulate and multiply the higher up the chain we go) - and we also help create an economic system that is more sustainable.

Or as he put it, " If we put our demand in the right place, we create sustainable economic systems."

He pointed out that while the effect might not be felt immediately, it would pay dividends down the road.

In other words, while we can eat fish that are apex predators - tuna, shark, etc. - we should be choosing to eat fish lower down in the food chain - mackerel, sardines, and other species like that - more often, to create both economically and environmentally sustainable systems.

Barton does not just deliver the message - he lives it.

One time, a supplier delivered what was essentially bait - boxes full of flying fish - to his restaurant. Rather than throw it out, Barton created a dish from it that became the talk of the town.

He continues to try to source food that is more sustainable, and creates ways to cook and present that food for discerning consumers.

Smoked mackerel and cream cheese spread.

Barton did more than just talk, at the presentation, too. Working with Fairmont Whistler Chef Richard Samaniego, he created several dishes for the audience that included of anchovy pizza, smoked trout and greens salad and a delicious cream cheese dip made with cheese, spices and herbs and smoked mackerel.

The afternoon was both inspiring and entertaining.

As someone who grew up in a Washington, D.C. neighbourhood that was extremely diverse in terms of its cultural mix, and hence, its food, Barton learned that, "Food is how we understand culture."

After listening to him - and sampling some of his food - I understand a little more about our place on the planet.

And I feel a bit more "cultured," too.

Some words of wisdom from Chef Barton Seaver.

Why join a writers' association?

I recently read a blog post written by another travel writer focused on the benefits of membership in a professional travel writing association, the International Travel Writers and Photographers Alliance.

The writer stressed that through this association,  she obtained much easier access to fam tours, a.k.a. press trips.

Press trips are an important aspect of travel-writing, particularly if you happen to be a freelance writer, and no one is paying you a salary with benefits.

But there are many other benefits of belonging to writing associations - and not just for travel writers.

I guess I should stop here and clarify when I say, "writers associations" I'm talking about professional writers - journalists, copywriters, speech creators, movie script writers - anyone who actually makes a living as a writer. While some novelists are fortunate enough to be able to live off their writing income, most are not.

So I am not including in this group writers' groups that get together over coffee and cake to critique each other's prose and poetry. Anyone can sit in on those; for professional associations, you need to meet some kind of minimal qualification standards to join, just like any profession such as law, medicine, accounting, etc.

If you're a professional writer, it may benefit you to belong to more than one writers association - particularly if it has a different emphasis. They all have different benefits.

I began my professional freelance career by joining the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) in 2000. That followed by membership in the North American Travel Journalists Association, the B.C. Association of Travel Writers and the Travel Media Association of Canada. They have all turned out to be beneficial for me in many different ways.

1. Industry contacts. As previously mentioned, contacts with travel industry people is, of course, a huge benefit of being a travel writer in an association, since without those contacts, it is difficult to obtain hosted trips. But networking can provide much more than knowing who to contact for subsidized travel. These professionals can also help you with story research; with sourcing images for a website or magazine/newspaper; they can put you in touch with others who may be able to help you complete your story. If you develop a good relationship with them, some of them may even be able to help you connect with editors for a story you're working on or interested in telling.

2. Professional development. Every profession requires this, but while many employers provide this for their staff, freelancers, by nature, do not have this option. Pro D sessions at conferences and monthly meetings can really help you stay on top of your game, both from a standpoint of being educated and up-to-date with respect to trends and practices in the writing profession - as well as from a motivational standpoint, encouraging you to continue writing. It can also help you develop different but related means to add income to your career.

Yours Truly (middle), John Masters (left) and John Lee
socialize at a 2013 TMAC event.

3. Writer advocacy. Not every association does this. Most travel writing associations do not; however, many other writing associations do.

Example: Several years ago, I submitted a story with about 60 colour slides (it was pre-digital) to a magazine and was paid on acceptance for the material. More than a year later, the story was still not published and I wanted the slides back to use for other stories/resales. The editor would not return them. 

After much back-and-forth with no success, I finally asked PWAC to contact him and he finally relented and returned my slides. The story never was published, but at least I was paid.

Conversely, PWAC will also advocate on your behalf for work that has been published but not paid for.

4. Increased exposure. PWAC members are included in an online writers database, accessible to anyone in the world. So if an editor in Hong Kong needs a travel story about Vancouver, the editor can search the database by keywords to find a writer to fill the need. This has happened to me on several occasions, netting me good assignments each time.

5. Collateral benefits. These are almost always unforeseen, unexpected bonuses. During a Pro D session at a travel writers conference, a presenter mentioned about a non-travel martial arts publication looking for writers. That same presentation, she also mentioned about some of the trade mags (again, non-travel) she had worked for. That spurred me to contact the martial arts publication, and for the next five years, I wrote for them regularly. Ditto, trade mags: I contacted a company that publishes several trade magazines and again, wrote for them regularly for about three years. (Both gigs ended when the editors left those mags). But I got a lot of work for several years by going to that travel writers conference.

Christine Potter leads discussion during a 2010
BCATW professional development event.

6. Benefits packages. While freelancing for various publications means you will not get the same benefits from a publication that a staff writer does, many professional writing associations offer benefits packages in the form of health insurance, and in some cases, travel insurance plans. It varies from group to group, but it is certainly worth looking into.

7. Professional feedback. Since we work alone so much, it's nice to compare notes. Maybe we don't realize one particular editor is really hard to work with; another likes to see "this" in a story; another is a very good editor to work for. Tips about the best way to pitch certain editors. These are the kinds of things you only find out by word of mouth.

8. Social benefits. Kind of an extension of #5. We work alone; we often never get out of the house. It's nice to get out once a month or so, have a few drinks with your peers, let your hair down and enjoy the camaraderie among people who completely get where you're coming from. You may even develop life-long friendships with some of them.

In summation, I have to point out that an association is only as good as the effort you put into being an active part of it. I do not mean you have to volunteer in some capacity - they are almost all non-profit organizations - although that helps. As with anything else, you need to take an active hand and participate in events, discussions and conferences. Just joining and sitting back will net you next to nothing, other than a line in your email signature. The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

Keep on writing!