My (Not-So-Guilty) Guilty Pleasures

Working in the restaurant industry has allowed my servers and me the unique experience of catering to some of our customers’ most guilty pleasures! Whether it be our homemade Coconut Cream Pie for breakfast or our Eggs Benedict and 3 spicy Caesar for lunch, we see, in the run of a day, tons of people giving into their weaknesses for sugar, liquor or simply a nice meal by themselves with all the trimmings!

Now guilty is defined as “having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong” and when we’re talking about Caesars in the afternoon, that just doesn’t sound right! We, at the Justamere don’t see anything “offensive” about indulging in what makes you happy, and we love to see people come in to enjoy a great meal! In fact, the term “guilty pleasure” should be completely banished, and I will hereby refer to them as… “shameless amusements” (big shout out to thesaurus.com for that one). So, in the spirit of indulgence, I will now stroke my own ego and indulge you all with some of my Shameless Amusements!

An Exhaustive Archive of my Shameless Amusements
(thanks again Thesaurus.com)

1. Ice Cream: I bleed that stuff. Ever since I was little and I can remember my dad giving me ice cream to sooth the chicken pox IN MY THROAT (yeah, seriously, down my throat and in my ears), I haven’t been able to get enough of the stuff. Honestly, it ruins every diet I’ve ever been on… except for the Ice Cream Diet, that one went over quite well. Everything can be A’ la mode….

2. Wine: I highly recommend not mixing #1 and #2… it can get quite interesting….(OR intigestioning… Did I just make up my own word??  TAKE THAT thesaurus.com!) But seriously, Mmm Mmm wine! Am I right? I prefer red, and luckily (not that I had any part in this) the Justamere Cafe serves my favourite kind, Banrock Station Shiraz! You can get it by the glass, the 1/2 Litre, the Litre… and maybe even the box… but that would be quite excessive… but hey, I’m not judging your shameless amusements! There isn’t anything nicer than relaxing after a long days work with a nice glass of wine!

Banrock Station

Backrock Station Shiraz

3. Canadian Classic Burger: Speaking of red wine, it pairs quite nicely with my next shameless amusement… the Canadian Classic Burger from the Justamere Cafe and Bistro. My life changed the day that this burger appeared on our menu! It is Ah-MAZING. A fresh bun, BBQ sauce, cheddar, bacon and burger… *drool* It is a daily struggle to not eat one of these for lunch. Together ice cream and the Canadian Classic Burger were solely responsible for the destruction of my Vegan lifestyle.

4. Degrassi: For my ideal date… er day… I’d be at home in my PJ’s with my cats, eating a Canadian Classic Burger, sipping a glass of wine and watching Degrassi! Which Degrassi you ask?? ANY OF THEM. Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, Degrassi the Next Generation, The movie’s Degrassi High: School’s Out, Degrassi Takes Manhattan, or Degrassi Goes Hollywood… It matters not. I can’t get enough of those crazy kids. That show is the reason I will never do drugs, have unsafe sex, or break into a chemical plant with my leather jacket wearing boyfriend, Claude. 

5. Dresses: I could be absolutely broke and I would not be able to pass up a cute dress… Pants are part of my past… I hate them. This phase is reminiscent of my Birkenstock phase where I refused to wear shoes, even in the winter, and instead opted for 2 pairs of socks and my moms old Birkenstocks. My budget for socks alone that year was ridiculous. I recently bought a purple dress from Walmart with horses on it… Eileen refuses to let me wear it to work, saying “It isn’t appropriate” … to that I said “When isn’t a horse dress appropriate??” 

Modcloth (I must have this)

6.  Horror Movies: People are often surprised to find this out about me. “But your hair is curly!”  they all say,  ”but you wear dresses!”  they gasp! Apparently I don’t have the look of someone who doesn’t truly appreciate a movie unless there is some sort of bodily dismemberment or a blood loss quota to be met. The gorier the better, the more I jump the more happy I am. I love them. They are all I watch. The worse they are the better sometimes, the cheesier the more entertaining. Horror movies aren’t meant to be taken too seriously, and sometimes we could all be a little less serious, so I enjoy relaxing in the evening not just with a glass of wine, but also with a little bit of gore. 

7. Sweet Chilli Heat Doritos: My oh my… It wouldn’t be out of the question for me to eat a bag of these a day… in fact I think that’s exactly what I have been doing for the last week. They however, are not low fat and as such, make my refusal to wear pants even more steadfast. 

Sweet Chili Heat

8. The Justamere Cafe and Bistro: It is REALLY, REALLY hard to work at the location where many of your guilty pleasures are created! Walking around all day with the wonderful aromas of Stirfry, Quesadillas, fresh baked Coconut Cream Pies, and Canadian Classic Burgers can be awfully tempting. But it isn’t just the food that makes this place a shameless amusement for me, although it does help. There often isn’t a day that goes by that we’re not buckled over in laughter at some point. Even today Chelsey had to pull up a seat while she caught her breath from laughing. To me, a guilty pleasure isn’t really a guilty pleasure, like I’ve said. It’s something that should bring you joy and make your life a better one to live. For me the Justamere is exactly that. 

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The Justamere Proudly Presents… A Casual Chat With Mark Curry

For so long I thought I was one of the lucky and select few who got to know Mark Curry really, really well. I had worked so hard for months and months to build a relationship and friendship with him that would eventually allow me to see who he really was, the Mark that he shows no one else. I was arrogant about it too, thinking “Noooo one knows Mark like I do”… ugg such a brat…  so nieve….

It wasn’t until I started working at the Justamere Cafe and Bistro a little over a year after I had met Mark that I realized I wasn’t so special at all. Not even a little bit. The Mark that I imaged he had kept behind closed doors and only exposed to me wasn’t really so private after all… He wasn’t hidden away, he was just in the kitchen. In the Jmere kitchen Mark is absolutely 100% himself, he is constantly dancing, laughing, singing and making jokes. Even during the most stressful days Mark has an amazing ability to brighten everyones spirits. Not just mine, but anyone who walks into his kitchen.

Now, that being said… since you folks have the unfortunate problem of not being able to go into the kitchen at the Justamere to see Mark in action, I arranged a little interview with  him, so that everyone can get a glimpse into the mind of the man behind the pancakes…

Favourite Movie: Ghostbusters
(now this answer honestly took about ten minutes to get from Mark… at one point I even left and came back… so if we read between the lines we can learn two things here: (1) Mark loves the movie Ghost Busters, and (2) He can be infuriatingly indecisive!)

Favourite TV Show: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
(again, we’re running at about 5 minutes per answer)

Hobbies: Art, Scratch Tickets, House Plant Enthusiast
(Seriously… scratch tickets. He loves them. And I kid you not, he will spend about 20 minutes scratching every bit of wax off a losing ticket to make sure that he hasn’t missed anything… And the house plant thing is both cute and slightly disturbing. He will blatantly ignore me to tend to a sagging stem… I could literally be on fire and he would lock me out of the house to save his plants)

Last meal: “I’d eat until I killed myself”
(Not exactly specific… but a colourful answer non-the-less)

Favourite thing to cook: Fish
(Mmm mmm, and he’s good at it!)

Why do you like working at the Justamere?: “Because I’m the boss… no really, because it’s like a family…” then he added in a god father-like voice “and I love my family”

Did you always want to cook?: “Nope, I fell into it when I met Bernard and he inspired me”
(Mark had originally gone to NSCAD for art, some of his work is displayed in the Justamere)

Your perfect date?: Bacon wrapped!
(Not exactly what I meant…)

Craziest thing you’ve ever done?: White water rafting, nose diving in a bush plane, being inside a tent with a grizzly bear outside.

I’ve included this photo as proof that Mark lives on the dangerous side of life… where people white water raft and sleep soundly beside grizzly bears!… and join Cape Breton bike gangs…

Least favourite food?: “…but I don’t not like things…?”
(And with a new record, this answer took 6 days!) 

If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be?: Citrus zester!
(Who knew?!)

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would play you?: “Philip Seymour Hoffman… or Ryan Gossling”
(Bahahahahhaha… yeah right… like Philip Seymour Hoffman could ever have the acting range… get serious) 

What would the title of your biography be?: “Really?! You’re STILL hungry??”
(I say this to Mark more than anything else… “Really?! You’re still hungry… just stop eating for a minute and listen to your body!!”) 

So there you have it! A little taste of the Mark Curry  that everyone at the Justamere knows. He’s really weird, a little crazy, and a lot ridiculous, but he can definitely cook!

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Patio Season is Coming!

My favorite part of the summer days in Nova Scotia has nothing to do with daylight at all. Rather, it’s that small window of time between getting off work and when my favorite TV shows start in the evening. It’s that 3 or 4 hours where the sounds of children playing in their back yards and the smell of BBQ’s combine to create what summer feels like. To me it’s not about the hot days, it’s about the luke warm nights. It isn’t about the beaches, although I love them, it’s about the patio weather.

There’s something special about relaxing on the patio of a restaurant. At no other time of year or day, is it acceptable for me to sit out and get bitten by black flies or to have my food cool quickly in the evening breeze. But if you put me on that patio between clocking out at work, and when Jeopardy begins, then I’m content to be eaten alive by bugs while my fishcakes cool to the temperature of my Greek salad.

The drinks taste colder and the view can’t be beaten. Seeing the sunset over the town while people bustle to get their groceries for the evening just makes you feel like you’re doing something right. Like you’ve got this summer thing figured out. Sipping a Caesar on the patio of the Justamere Café and Bistro just sounds so good I can already taste it.

Dining on the patio is the epitome of stopping to smell the roses, except in our case you’re stopping to smell the sweet coconut curry aroma from your fresh mussels.  Everything is slowed down and your can let your workday slip away. There are no clocks outside, only the setting sun to alert you to when Jeopardy is starting, and only your Goosebumps to tell you when it’s time to go inside.

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