Thousand Islands

First things first. Yes, this where the dressing comes from. I reproduce from ask.yahoo.com (complete with links):

Dear Yahoo!:
How did Thousand Island Dressing get its name?
Salad Spinner
Chesterfield, Virginia

Dear Salad Spinner:
With a toss of lettuce and a sprinkling of croutons, we searched for the "history of thousand-island salad dressing." This led us to the original birthplace of the creamy condiment. This slightly sweet, chunky salad dressing got its name from the Thousand
Islands area of upstate New York. The region is filled with about 1,800 islands and stretches along the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario, reaching into both the U.S. and Canada. In the 1870s, vacationers discovered the area and began building summer homes and hotels.

In the early 20th century, Sophia LaLonde of Clayton, N.Y., served the dressing at dinner for guests of her husband, who was a popular fishing guide. One of the dinner guests was leading actress May Irwin. It was Irwin who christened the dressing with the Thousand Island name, and the dressing was
served by Irwin's request at the Herald Hotel in Clayton. The actress also introduced the dressing to the wider world when she gave LaLonde's recipe to the owner of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Thousand Island Dressing is a variation on the so-called Russian dressing popular around the time, which consisted of a yogurt base with chili sauce or ketchup added for flavor. Early Thousand Island recipes used mayonnaise instead of yogurt and added pickle relish, chives, and sometimes chopped hard-boiled eggs. In the 1950s, Thousand Island Dressing made of mayo, ketchup, and pickle relish became a standard condiment, used on sandwiches and salads alike.

We visited the Thousand Islands on our way to the Niagara Falls on 30 Sep 2006. As the little story above suggests, the Thousand Islands is a scenic stretch of islands within the St Lawrence Waterway. One-third of the islands belong to the US and the other two-thirds to Canada. We took a cruise around the islands, so at times we were in Canadian waters. The houses on the islands still remain largely private property so can only be looked at from the boat. However, one island, Heart Island, and Boldt Castle on the Island has been bought by the state. The story is that the original owner of the island actually bought it and started building the castle for his wife. He planned to give it to her on her birthday, which was on 14 Feb, Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, she died before her birthday and he was so heartbroken that he never went back after that and made his children promise not to go back either. The castle fell into disrepair until it was bought and restored for public viewing.

More pictures of the Thousand Islands can be found here.

After our cruise, we proceeded on to Niagara Falls where we had a stop for dinner. Did I mention that our tour operator (Sunshine Tours) is actually run by a Chinatown company? It should be no surprise, after this piece of information, to hear that we stopped at a Chinese buffet restaurant for dinner where the two Singaporeans and one PRC Chinese had a hearty meal. (Some had heartier meals than others. I had one plate of food, one plate of dessert, in the same time as my Chinese classmate had three full plates of food and dessert. He says it was the best meal he has had in the US.) Our Indian classmates, on the other hand, had a nice time shopping in K-Mart and ate the pratas they had prepared before coming. Talk about a clash of civilisations!

Watch this space for the Niagara Falls post...