The room was hot and a little hectic, one of the two side rooms used for private functions off the main Parliamentary Restaurant. It's not everyday that so many MPs, Senators and journalists venture to the sixth floor of Centre Block to get some lunch but Wednesday at noon, everyone wanted to get into the room.
The MPs and Senators, along with Miss Newfoundland and Labrador, sat around the table while we journalists gathered nearby to record their speeches extolling support for the seal hunt.
The European Union has banned the importation of Canadian seal products and there is a push by animal activists to extend a boycott to even more Canadian goods unless the hunt is ended. With rare exception Canadian politicians back the hunt and the Harper government's move to find new markets for seal products.
That's the background to my seal meal. Lead by Liberal Senator Celine Herviuex-Payette, politicians gathered for a three-course meal with seal at the centre. I tried the seal appetizers and they were good, a pate and a sausage like piece that while it had a fish or seafood flavour, was not unlike other pates or sausage.
The main course I did not try but Ron Eade, the Food Editor of the Ottawa Citizen did. Eade describes the process of cooking the meat as steaming it, wrapping it in bacon and baking it. The main course was also served with a port reduction sauce. While it all sounds great to me, Eade says these steps "mitigated" the flavour. He is not a fan. While giving the meal a good grade and saying the chef had to work with a difficult piece of meat, the good writer says seal is a novelty item.
I don't know, as a haggis eating teuchter, I'm likely to try it again.
You can listen to my radio report here.
Brian Lilley is the Ottawa Bureau Chief for radio stations Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal. Follow Brian on Twitter to get the latest as it happens.
Get more from Examiner.com's Canadian Politics Examiner
Comments