A President and His Mechanical Horse
Plus more Jello and a big ol' recap
After spending a brief 48 hours in Quebec this week, I’m going to impart some highly anecdotal Canadian wisdom:
Poutine should be sold in every city on every day that the temperature tucks under 60 degrees.
Folks up there in Quebec are very friendly
They sell hats that say “Canada is not for sale” and according to all the bartenders I talked to, only American tourists buy them.
Quebecois wine is slept on
Is eating rabbit right around Easter weird? I’m not sure, but I did it and I highly prefer it to pork, ham and other Easter favorites. If you can find rabbit, it’s worth trying for the many of you out there who’ve not yet done it yet. And if it’s not your thing, that’s great, too, enjoy ham or crab legs or whatever else instead.
Why did I find myself in Quebec? Part of it was for Cookin’ with Congress, so yeah, business, but it all started with a flight credit from Air Canada that my wife and I got in 2022 because Canada regulates airlines and requires them to compensate customers for certain flight delays and cancellations. Delightful.
Life got busy and we forgot to use that credit, and I noticed in March that the credit was expiring in May 2025. So yeah, with about two weeks of forethought, I booked a ticket to Quebec to do some CwC exploration and inspire the new international version of Eating Like America (coming soon).
I’m back and my blood is still 30% poutine gravy.
The Mechanical Horse
If you missed me eating like Calvin Coolidge this week, I shared a piece of a story I can’t get out of my head: Calvin Coolidge’s exercise obsession, the mechanical horse in the White House. Coolidge was an avid horseman (horse rider? horse guy?), but of course, he couldn’t just be riding a horse all around the White House. So what’s Silent Cal to do? Buy an electric horse, one with two different speeds to mimic the multiple speeds of a real horse. He did this because he enjoyed the exercise of riding a horse. As someone who rode a horse one time in the past 10 years, I can confirm that riding a horse is exercise.
Picturing Cal Coolidge, who was nicknamed “Smiley” by the White House staff because of how little he smiled, on a mechanical horse, riding back and forth with the most serious face of all time brought me so much joy. Hope it brings the same to you. I only wish there were photos of this, but Coolidge was teased so badly about it that he eventually removed it from the White House. Can you imagine being the President and getting bullied into quitting something you love?
The Weekly+ Recap
I realize it’s been way more than a week, with the multiple trips across time zones, so thanks for the patience:
Jello is back on the menu, this time with canned meats and lots of soup.
I ate like Teddy Roosevelt and boy oh boy was it caffeinating. Folks had lots to say about his egg intake and wild coffee habits, the comments truly didn’t disappoint.
If you’re in the mood for lobster or seven-course meals, might I suggest Herbert Hoover’s day of eating. Might not be good for your reelection efforts, but you’ll go out with a bang.
I want to recommend another Substack here that I think just needs even more love: it’s called Food is Stupid by Dennis Lee and I absolutely love it. If you watch my stuff and think “This is nasty, why can’t I stop watching?” then you’re going to dig Dennis.
Lastly, I’ll be posting a NEW paid-subscriber-only episode of Eating Like Royalty later today: King George III. It’ll surprise you how the King during the American Revolution dined every day.
Stay fun out there,
Bennett