Nougat is first described in a recipe from 10th century Baghdad but the nougat we know is a confection of boiled honey or sugar syrup mixed with beaten egg white to form a mousse to which are added nuts and preserved fruit. Traditionally there's a tendency to eat the French variety from Montelimar to the extent that the town name was often used as the name of the confection.
Italian Torrone and Spanish Turron are also forms of nougat and Turron is very much the result of the Moorish occupation of Southern Spain It appears in the late 14th century and is certainly my favourite because it uses almonds and has a higher concentration of the nuts than any other nougat.
The 19th century saw the addition of cocoa powder to the egg white to produce a darker nougat.
It was our AGM. There's not much to say about that other than it went off successfully without a hitch.
The most important happening was our Christmas Lunch on Saturday which unfortunately I was unable to attend. The highlight of the lunch was the presentation of a Paul Harris Fellowship to Liz Brunjes for the very hard work that she has put into the club over the years and a Sapphire Pin to her husband Bill Brunjes for his, sometimes frustrating, successes with fund raising especially for his management of the annual golf day.
Personally I feel that both these awards are long over due and I am sure that many club members would agree with me. Congratulations to you both.
Next Week
We are into the holiday so there will be an informal lunch and we will decide where to go on Wednesday as the Grand Slam Diner is no more.
Our next official meeting is on Wednesday 13th January so make sure you have a:
International - Canada, Thailand & Turkey
Maryjane Klunder was 17 and living in Thailand when she heard about the contest. In September 2024, the Rotary Club of Istanbul invited teens to submit an original essay about peace. The winner would receive US$3,000 and be flown to Turkey in February 2025 for the Presidential Peace Conference convened by Rotary President Stephanie Urchick that would help inaugurate the Otto and Fran Walter Rotary Peace Centre at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul.
A resident of Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula — that stretch of land that separates Georgian Bay from the rest of Lake Huron — MJ (as Klunder prefers to be called) had only recently begun her stay in Thailand as a Rotary Youth Exchange student when she learned about the essay competition. She immediately asked a rather presumptuous question: Because she was travelling on a single-entry visa, if she travelled to Istanbul would she be able to return to Thailand to complete her exchange year? "Don’t worry," said her Bangkok hosts. "If you win, we’ll work it out."
The contest came at a perfect moment for Klunder because she suddenly had a lot of time on her hands, an uncommon situation for her. At home, in addition to her classes and assignments at Owen Sound District Secondary School, Klunder had a schedule filled with music, sports, and her job at a local coffee shop. "In Canada, I live a very busy life," she says. "I’m involved in basically everything, like clubs and volunteering. When people ask me to do things, I usually say yes."
Things were different in Thailand. Living at first with a host family that spoke no English, she devoted some of her time to learning Thai. School, however, was not particularly demanding. "I attended classes mostly to make friends and learn the language," Klunder says. "But when other students were in maths, for instance, I spent my time reading. When I heard about the contest, I thought, how could I not write an essay if I have all this free time."
Klunder began by writing down phrases and ideas about peace. As the deadline approached and she began to compose her essay, news reports about deadly torrential rains in Spain caught her attention. Angry that coverage focused on the politics of the tragedy, Klunder wished for some acknowledgement that events like floods don’t stop at or recognise national borders.
"I think to approach world peace is to think beyond those invisible lines drawn on a map and realise we are all human, and we all suffer," she wrote. "The fight for peace is fought together, not against each other." (See next page for Klunder’s essay.)
In the end, the Rotary Club of Istanbul received 470 submissions from 41 countries. As she was rehearsing a play with her classmates, Klunder learned via text that her essay had taken first place. "I started screaming and jumping up and down," she says. "I told my friend who was fluent in English because my brain was moving too fast to speak Thai. All my friends started cheering. It was an amazing moment."
Klunder was able to make the trip to Istanbul for the peace conference, and there she was reunited with her parents and two sisters, who traveled to Turkey to celebrate her success. ("They were not going to miss it," says Klunder.) She accepted the $3,000 prize provided by the Rotary Club of New York, where Otto Walter had been a member for many years. And she was invited to the President’s Ball — "the most spectacular event I’ve ever been to" — where she delivered an impromptu three-minute speech.
"I am proud of myself for getting up there and doing that," says Klunder, who before the ball had never considered herself a public speaker. "Having done that, in fact my whole Rotary Youth Exchange experience, filled me with an immense amount of confidence. It was me proving to myself that I can do anything. Not exactly, but after that speech. I feel like I’m someone who can tackle whatever is thrown at them."
Back in Canada, where she’s finishing her last year of high school, Klunder is contemplating where to attend college and the course of studies — such as environmental studies, political science, or community planning — she might pursue. "The opportunities that have sprouted from this have been immense," she says. Whatever the future holds, MJ Klunder is up for the challenge.
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