Q&A With Michael Allemeier
November 20, 2008
Each week, Scout poses 60 questions to a local who has made life in BC that much more interesting. They pick and choose. The minimum response is 20 answers. A Rorschach test, for sure.
Michael Allemeier is the Winery Chef at Mission Hill’s picturesque restaurant, The Terrace.
————————–
Three things about your neighbourhood that make you want to live there: Being surrounded by wineries, being able to walk to work and being able to hike up Mt Boucherie within a five minute walk!
The thing that you eat that is bad for you that you will never stop eating: Duck fat and cracklings.
Sexiest fashion item for the opposite sex: Stockings and Bra.
Favourite Vancouver bridge: Burrard Bridge.
One thing you’d like to change about Vancouver: Less traffic lights.
Cheap place for dinner: Hon’s Noodles.
Last place traveled: Seattle
Biggest fear: Losing my palette.
Best sneaker in the world, ever: Chuck Taylors
Your ancestry: German and British
Under what circumstances would you join the army: To protect my family.
Your paternal grandfather’s personal story: An Oxford scholar who loved to ride BSA motorcycles. Moved to the Sudan in the 30’s to grow cotton for the British Empire.
What are you proud of: My family.
The thing that makes you the angriest: Doing something twice.
Saddest thing about Vancouver: Homeless People
Ice cream flavour: Mint Chocolate Chip
Best fine dining restaurant in the city: Vij’s – great wines, service and food all wrapped in one.
Food your mom makes better than anyone: Sunday Pork Roast
Talent you wish you possessed: To juggle.
Musical instrument you long to play: Trumpet.
Grooming products: Toothpaste – pretty important stuff.
Mac or PC: PC but thinking of a MAC = vista
Favourite sports team: Calgary Flames
The scariest situation you’ve ever been in: Being in a ditch, during a blizzard in January Manitoba Winter and car unable to start.
Best concert experience ever: Stevie Ray Vaughn
Cologne/Perfume: Never touch the stuff – too smelly
Describe your tattoos: Killer Whale and Maple Leaf
The dish you’re proud of: The latest one I am working on.
Town you were born in: Johannesburg South Africa
Old television shows you can tolerate re-runs of: Original Batman
Album that first made you love music: Supertramp, Breakfast in America
Default junk food: French Fries
The career path you considered but never followed: Being a vet.
The one country that you have no interest in ever visiting: Somalia
Luckiest moment of your life: Meeting my wife.
Favourite book as a child: Tintin
———————————-
To read past Q&As, click here.
Q&A With David Suzuki
October 30, 2008
We don’t believe David Suzuki needs much in the way of an introduction, but should you need a reminder he is the co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, the author of 43 books, and an award-winning scientist, environmentalist, and broadcaster with 30 years experience on the mic. He also lives just a few doors from you.
Three things about your neighbourhood that make you want to live there: the ocean, Kibune Restaurant, walking distance to my foundation.
The thing that you eat that is bad for you that you will never stop eating: Never may be a bit drastic but Cozy Shack tapioca.
The thing we should never tolerate: bigotry.
One thing you’d like to change about Vancouver: too many cars.
Book you’re reading: Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded.
Last place traveled: outside of Canada – Europe (Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal) in July with my daughter, Sarika – we made a film on renewable energy success stories in Europe.
Biggest fear: Tara, my wife, will stop loving me.
Your ancestry: we’re all Africans back 150,000 years ago.
Your paternal grandfather’s personal story: trained as a master carpenter in Japan and emigrated to escape abject poverty.
Person you most admire: Nelson Mandela and my wife, Dr. Tara Cullis.
Most regrettable purchase: a motorcycle when a longterm relationship ended.
The thing you are most proud of: my children who are fine people because I selected their mothers well.
The thing that makes you the angriest: powerful people who are ignorant and don’t even know it.
Saddest thing about Vancouver: Main and Hastings.
Ice cream flavour: strawberry.
Food your mom makes better than anyone: chocolate cake.
Talent you wish you possessed: playing a muscial instrument.
Musical instrument you long to play: recorder.
Sport you gave up: basketball and football.
The game you’re best at: charades.
Mac or PC: PC by default.
A person you’ve never met but you fear: Dick Cheney.
The number of fist fights you’ve been in: one.
The scariest situation you’ve ever been in: filming a standup for a show on drugs at the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King in Harlem, New York City on a Saturday night! And no danger pay from CBC.
Three things of no monetary value that you will keep until you die: memories that are none of your business.
Local person you admire most: my wife and Mel Lehan.
Best concert experience ever: Leonard Cohen June 24, 2008 – in Montreal.
The dish you’re proud of: pumpkin pie.
The thing that makes you the most nervous: global warming.
Town you were born in: Vancouver.
First memory: fishing in Loon Lake with Dad when I was four.
Quality you admire most in yourself: willingness to work hard.
The career path you considered but never followed: ichthyologist.
Biggest hope: that the world will respond to the global eco-crisis on the scale of all out war.
Luckiest moment of your life: when I spotted Tara in a crowd at Carleton University where I was lecturing.
Favourite book as a child: Ivan Terrence Sanderson’s Animal Treasure.
The first three things you do every morning: take a pee, read the first section of the paper, weigh myself.
———————————–
Each week, Scout poses 60 questions to an individual who has enriched our lives in some way. Interviewees are asked to pick and answer just 20. David Suzuki gave us 37.
