With a name like that, I wasn’t expecting too much (other than that it ought to be good for me). I was surprised it was so delicious.
I think the avocado is the secret ingredient. Recipe says it’s optional, but I think that, combined with the barrel-aged feta and really good Spanish olive oil I used, gave it this appealing, creamy deliciousness that seemed almost decadent.
Other changes I made:
I don’t know what wheat berries are, so I used quinoa. Grainy, good for you, and cooks in only 12 minutes.
Reduced the peppers from 2 and one-half, as my husband is not a fan.
Omitted the green onion.
Omitted the kale. Kale can be delicious cooked, but raw? Baby kale is OK, but “adult” kale is pretty bitter til cooked.
Instead of minced hot pepper in the dressing, used dried ancho, which is less spicy. (I don’t mind spicy, but I am a bit lazy, and that was less work.)
So my version be kind of like this:
1/2 cup (125 mL) quinoa
1 can (14 oz/540 mL) no-salt black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup (250 mL) halved cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 red or yellow pepper, diced
1 avocado, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup (125 mL) crumbled Canadian Feta cheese (consider barrel aged)
3 cups (750 mL) torn romaine lettuce
Coriander Chili Dressing:
2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped fresh coriander
2 tbsp (25 mL) each extra-virgin olive oil and canola oil
2 tbsp (25 mL) cider vinegar
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 tsp (5 mL) ancho chili powder
Pinch each kosher salt and pepper
Bring 1 cup of salted water to boil. Add quinoa; cover and simmer over medium-low heat until tender, about 12 minutes.
Add black beans, tomatoes, red or yellow pepper, avocado, and Feta cheese.
Coriander Chili Dressing: In small bowl, whisk together coriander, olive oil, canola oil, vinegar, garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper; pour over salad, tossing to coat. Divide lettuce among plates; top with wheat berry mixture.
Did not spend the whole weekend configuring my computer. In fact, we did a number of other activities, starting with attending Centre in the Square’s season opener event, featuring dance troupe Bandaloop. They specialize in what they call “vertical dance”, meaning they perform dangling from wires, off the sides of buildings.
So this free Centre in the Square event was outdoors. The weather was definitely nippy that day, which none of us were used to, particularly after the record-breaking heat earlier in the week (hottest day of the summer). But we coped, thanks to scarves and such. And it was pretty neat seeing the performance off the edge of the building. They did four numbers:
A couple performing a swing dance (of sorts)
A trio of women in red doing somewhat balletic moves
A solo piece to very modern music
A finale of six dancers, three on each wall (a piece normally done on one wall, but adapted for this space)
We then decamped for dinner at Sole Restaurant, where they were featuring (yet another) local food menu, this time a four-course, with matching wines—all from Vineland Estates.
It started with a smoked trout salad with green beans and almonds, served with Pinot Grigio. The fish had very nice texture but not a strong smokey flavor (not sure if that’s good or bad); the beans were just delicious in slightly sweet glaze.
The next appetizer was a roasted tomato tart with goat cheese, tapenade, and basil, served with semi-dry Riesling. The crust here was a little tougher than ideal. Jean found the filling a bit salty, but I don’t know; tapenade is meant to be salty—I don’t think they overdid it. I wouldn’t have picked out a semi-dry white with this, but it actually went very well. Nice balance.
Little tart! (This is Jean’s caption. Not entirely sure which subject he’s referring to.)
The main course was duck confit, with banana bread, cherry compote, and sugar snap peas, served with Elevation Cabernet. The duck confit was fantastic—great texture and flavor. The sweetness of the banana bread was intriguing, though the texture was a little too dry in parts. The Cabernet was impressively delicious, with chocolate notes.
Dessert was a peach trio of crème brulée, mini pie, and cheesecake lollipop, served with Cabernet ice wine. Best was definitely the crème brulée, all nice and creamy. The tart was fine. The lollipop was just kind of strange in texture.
Then Sunday morning, we participated in the Terry Fox Run for the first time, though “Run” should be in quotes, because we walked. But we walked briskly and made pretty good time, I think; not that it’s a race. I’ve just always wanted to participate in the Terry Fox Run, as he’s a hero of mine, so it was nice to finely do it. Especially as we didn’t get rained on.
Sunday afternoon, 2-4, we had yet another food event! For the first time in a few years, we went to Foodlink’s Taste Local event, whereby restaurants partner with a local food producer and create an appetizer. For $60, you get 19 items. Don’t worry; we didn’t take pictures of them all, nor will I describe them all.
A look at the Taste Local event. Despite the threatening sky, we didn’t get rained on here, either.
I will note a few of the highlights, though:
Pulled duck (from Top Market Meats) with red onion preserve and chèvre on potato rosti, by Little Mushroom Catering. Mmm, duck.
Cured trout from Caudle’s Catch with radish and cucumber salad, on tortilla, by Marisol Restaurant (a favorite of ours). Doesn’t sound that good, but tasted amazing. Perfect texture, great flavoring.
Nick and Nat’s chicken liver pate on toasted with fruit relish preserve. So rich and creamy, to me it tasted almost like foie gras.
Tomato milk shake with basil foam and balsamic reduction by Solé (them again!). As long as you like tomato, pretty nice.
Taco Farm taking Herrle’s corn and adding a Mexican touch of lime, cilantro, and cream. Really good. (And served to us by Lydia Herrle, which was nice to see.)
Waterloo Inn using OK eggs to make an egg tower: Frittata with pickled egg and bacon aioli. Great idea, well executed, quite delicious.
But really, everything was good.
The main problem with the event was the odd timing, meal-wise. We had breakfast but no lunch in anticipation, resulting in Jean initially rushing through the booths at breakneck speed, because he was really hungry! We did get him to slow down after the first five or so.
And after two hours of this, we were all really full. (A lot of meat involved in these.) We attended with Kristi, who commented that we seem to be making a habit of marathon eating together (like Verses 20 courses), which maybe isn’t such a good thing. Anyway.
So clearly we didn’t have dinner after that, and facing a fairly long evening ahead, we went out to a movie. But I’ll save that for another post.
I’m just mentioning this because many people seem surprised by it, and Ontario corn on the cob is really good right now.
You don’t have to barbecue or boil corn on the cob. You can microwave it. Doesn’t require a dish or anything; you can just stick the whole thing, husk and all, into the microwave. For one cob, 3-5 minutes; for two, 4-9.
And—this is something I just learned—you can then get the husk off really easily. Just cut the end off, either before or after you microwave it, then you can just shake the corn out. Or for more fun, wack it on the counter, and the corn will slide out. No hair, no problem, ready to eat.
Here’s video proof, albeit without the fun “wacking” method:
This wouldn’t work if you have a whole lot of corn to cook, but for smaller amounts, it’s fewer dishes, faster, and doesn’t heat up the kitchen. And very tasty results!
This region has a Twitter hashtag, #kwawesome, that seems a little needy to me. Places that are truly awesome don’t need to proclaim that fact.
Still, they truly do some things well. The initial, widespread criticism over uptown Waterloo’s public square has long since died down. While certainly not as pretty as downtown Kitchener’s City Hall site, it has proven itself as a great location to hold a wide variety of public events that do bring uptown. This weekend, it’s the Waterloo Buskers Festival.
It’s the 25th year of the event, so the city sponsored a special opening event: a free concert by Steven Page, formerly of the Barenaked Ladies. I got on the iExpress right from my office door to uptown (you see I was determined to fully partake of regional services) to take it in, on what turned into a beautiful summer day.
Mr Page played with one other musician, a cellist who also sang backup. He naturally did some of his solo material, which I admit I didn’t know, but that did demonstrate he hasn’t lost his ability to write catchy songs with clever lyrics. But he also offered a generous dose of Barenaked Ladies material as well, including “The Old Apartment”, “Enid”, “What a Good Boy”, “Jane”, “It’s All Been Done”, and of course, “Brian Wilson”, the closer (before an encore). In between, he offered amusing commentary. He played for about an hour, which is quite reasonable for a free show!
Why Steven Page, a Toronto guy, for this? Because—and while I think I’ve heard this before, I’d forgotten—the Barenaked Ladies played at the Waterloo Buskers Festival way back in 1990, when no one knew who they were. Not only that, but while they arrived a trio, they left a quartet, because they met drummer Tyler Stewart at the Festival. Unlike Page, he remains in the band to this day.
Jean joined me for only the last part of the show (work!), then we walked over to Solé Restaurant to try this year’s Summer Dishes menu: three courses for $33, using local ingredients.
There was no going wrong with the first course: Tomatoes and feta with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and fresh basil. Lovely. For the main, I talked Jean into taking the pork with apple and sausage stuffing, sweet potato mash, and sugar snap peas, while I stuck with the trout with potatoes and corn that we’d both been eying at first. Lucky for him, as that turned out to be the better offering—really delicious all around. As for the trout, it was nicely cooked, corn is amazing this time of year, and potatoes are pretty decent, too. The problem, to me, was the remoulade on the fish, which just seemed too heavy, disguising the fish too much.
They weren’t offering wine pairings this year, so we figured it out ourselves. I started with a glass of Cave Spring rosé (local, local!), while Jean had a French sparkling of Blanquette (not Champagne). For the main, we shared a half bottle of Tawse 2010 Pinot Noir. It wasn’t as rich as we thought it might be, given that 2010 was a pretty warm summer, but it was still a nice wine.
For dessert, we both opted for blueberry yogurt from Whole Lot-A Gelata, another local restaurant, and it was just delicious. (Maybe even awesome.)
Mainly, we wanted a little getaway. Lots of advantages to travelling in the off-season, which is why we do, but it also kind of bites when everyone else is taking vacation and you’re not. So we thought we’d at least go somewhere on the long weekend in August.
Only we left that decision kind of late, which definitely limited our options on where to go. We looked into the Finger Lakes region of New York State—not the cheapest area—but even though it wasn’t a long weekend there, we couldn’t get the accommodations we wanted. Port Stanley had availability on Sunday night, but not Saturday. Other Ontario inns were a similar story.
So, we ended up at the Pelee Motor Inn in Leamington. The name of it sort of played on our mind, and we got worried we’d be staying at some semi-dive. But it turned out to be a perfectly nice hotel. We had a big room with a king size bed, sitting area, fridge, microwave (which we didn’t use, but there it was!). It also had this huge swimming pool and games area, with water slides, and badminton courts, and whatnot (which we didn’t use either, because it always seemed rather full of kids, but there it was!)
We didn’t have big ambitions for the trip. We planned to visit some wineries, do some hiking in the parks, try to find some decent places to eat, despite nothing much being listed for the area in Where to Eat in Canada. And Jean hoped to get some photos.
Lake Erie
On the way down we stopped in Port Stanley, going to the always good Me and Suzies for lunch. We ate on their patio. We shared Lake Erie smelts to start, which were great. Jean followed up with perch, while I had chicken tagine. His was better. From their all-Ontario wine list, we tried a glass of sparkling wine from 20 Bees, which was very drinkable, along with an interesting (in a good way) white blend from Organized Crime, called Mischief. (I think both must be restaurant wines, as neither seems available for sale from those wineries.)
Another stop on the way, just on a whim, was at Smith and Wilson winery. This proved a good thing, as we really enjoyed their wines. They had a nice, drinkable sparkling called Pearl that we bought a couple bottles of. I also tasted a black cherry wine which was very nice—and not so sweet as to be un-pairable with food. But the best, though, was their 2007 Gallantry Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon blend, a truly lovely red wine for only $18 a bottle. We bought a couple of those also.
On arrival in Leamington, we went for a little walk around the harbour, and for some reason stopped to read about each and every one of the many shipwrecks that had occurred in these waters.
We had dinner reservations at Oxley Estate Winery. It’s an interesting location, in a converted barn. A lot of people were sitting outdoors to dine, but we were warned that the bugs were coming out, so we sat inside. But it was freezing in there! Way over-air conditioned; I had to fetch a jacket from the car.
(c) Oxley Estate Winery
Except for that, it was a pretty pleasant meal. The highlights were definitely the appetizers: Really delicious little lamb chops that I started with, and shrimp over Thai vegetables that Jean had. For mains I had perch, which was maybe slightly over-breaded, and Jean had pork chops with delicious beans. As wines we tried their Riesling and Pinot Noir. Both were fine, but not impressive enough that we felt a need to purchase a bottle of either.
The next morning we headed to Point Pelee, having concluded it would be too complicated to navigate ferries to get to Pelee Island. It was a very nice day again, so we did some hiking. Though always pleasant to walk in the woods, and though always kind of neat to look at the Great Lakes (so much water! so little salty sea scent!), we did not find it particularly spectacular. It’s quite flat, does not have especially interesting vegetation, and we did not see much wildlife.
We were impressed by this spider web in the park. There were “Spider Control” ads all over Leamington. We weren’t sure if that was about controlling spider infestations, or about using spiders to control insects…
They did have an exhibit of various Ontario snakes there, that you could touch and everything, but Jean did well just to go near them; he wasn’t up to taking photos. (I offered to, but he didn’t seem to want that, either.)
We also took the shuttle to the Tip, so now we’ve been at the southern-most point of Canada.
Our lunch this day isn’t worth going on about; that was our one bad meal.
But on happier note, we then visited more wineries! Viewpointe Estates we visited partly for the view, but we did also try some wines. We weren’t bowled over by them, but we did leave with their refreshing 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, along with their rather smooth 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon—pretty well aged for an Ontario wine.
The grounds at Viewpointe Estates. We did walk around, but did not have a drink on their patio.
We next visited a newer one called Cooper’s Hawk. They did particularly well with off-dry whites, and Jean seemed particularly in the mood for those, so we left with Pinot Grigio, a Chardonnay Musque, and a really interesting, effervescent Riesling / Gewurtz blend called Touché.
Though we’d originally planned to stop at two, we ended up also visited Black Bear Farms Winery, which had been recommended to us by the Smith and Wilson folks. They do only fruit wines (and here Jean would point out that grapes are a fruit, so OK, they make wines only with fruits other than grapes). And everything tasted pretty darn delicious—sweet, but not too sweet, not ice wine sweet. So the key was not trying too many types, or you’d whole cases of the stuff. As it was, we left with a blueberry, a red raspberry, a red / purple raspberry, and an elderberry (blended with some strawberry and raspberry).
I did some serious research afterward, in an effort to find a decent place for dinner. We ended up at Mettawas Station in Kingsville. It’s in an old train station, which was neat.
Side view of Mettawas Station Restaurant in Kingsville
Service was unsophisticated, but good, and most importantly, food was quite delicious. I had the escargot in portobello mushrooms, which was nice; very moderate in cheese. Jean had tomato, basil, and bocconcini—hard to go wrong. We both had pasta mains: Jean the gnocchi, me the “Athena” with olives, roasted red peppers, feta, white wine sauce. They do very well with pasta. After much debate, we had a Pellee Island red blend (2010 Vinedressers) that we quite enjoyed.
Very good pasta
There was a bit of confusion over our taking home the leftover wine, but it was sorted, and we left with the corked bottle.
Monday was mostly travel, but after breakfast and checkout, we did visit Mastronardi wines, in Kingsville (and bought some peaches from a stand along the way). We weren’t too bowled over by their wines, but did get the 2008 Cabernet Merlot. We stopped in Port Stanley for lunch again on the way back, this time dining at the Windjammer Inn. Quite a pleasant outdoor lunch there, of baked goods followed by more Lake Erie fish.
Seated in the third row of the Avon Theatre at Stratford, engrossed in our conversation, Jean and I were nearly jolted from our seats by the extremely loud opening chords of “The Overture”.
Judging by the nervous giggling all around us, we weren’t the only startled patrons. Welcome to The Who’s Tommy, live on stage at Stratford, Ontario.
Spot The Who amongst the literature at a Stratford bookstore
I enjoyed it very much, of course. Having seen it back in the 1990s in Toronto, I suspected I would. This version has more complex staging, more special effects. I couldn’t tell you what the differences are; I don’t remember well enough. But I can tell you this is one of the most elaborately staged musicals I’ve ever seen. There were always things to look at, all around the stage. (And from the third row, that sometimes made for a sore neck.)
So the one critique this production has received is that the effects and all are too much; that they overwhelm the excellent cast. Jean and I would disagree with that. Tommy is big rock musical with big themes. It and its cast are only enhanced by staging that matches those ambitions. And I, for one, did not find that it diminished the play’s emotional impact. I remain touched by Tommy’s situation.
As I know both the album and the movie inside and out, I found it interesting to see how the story was adapted for the stage. I had recalled, from the Toronto production, that the story is somewhat softened from the movie version, both necessary (to not restrict the play to those 18 and over) and a relief, given that the Uncle Ernie, Cousin Kevin, and Acid Queen happen to the 10-year-old Tommy in the play, unlike the Daltrey-aged Tommy in the movie. (And no, little Tommy is not left alone with a hooker; his father merely toys with the idea before coming to his senses.)
But I had forgotten tons of things, like the interplay of Tommy at ages 4, 10, and 20something, which both dramatizes the character’s extreme self-imposed isolation, and allows us to enjoy the performance of lead actor Robert Marcus in the first half, before Tommy grows up; the very different handling of the Sally Simpson story (at least compared with the movie); and the much bigger role of Cousin Kevin—which is great, as he’s played by the wonderful Paul Nolan (Jesus in last year’s Jesus Christ Superstar).
Most especially, I’d forgotten that lyrical changes that turned “We’re Not Gonna Take It” into Tommy’s refusal to lead his followers into his world of isolation, whereas both album and movie had Tommy trying to do just that, and them rebelling. (Of course, the followers reject him here as well—only for a completely opposite reason.)
There are many other lyrical changes (for example, “21” refers to the mother’s age rather than the year), but only one new song appears in this production: “I Believe My Own Eyes”, which provides the segue into “Smash the Mirror” (without any need of the movie’s baked beans and melted chocolate). It’s very much a Broadway song, more so than a Who tune, but having bought the soundtrack, I do find myself humming it at times, which is interesting.
As I’ve already suggested, I thought the cast was very good, and on a shallow note, I found young Mr. Marcus very attractive, looking rather better on that stage than he did in his publicity photos. Jean was similarly struck by the lovely Kira Guloien as Mrs. Walker.
Gotta say that one thing really lost in the stage version is the power and potency of the “Listening to You” final chorus that you get from hearing The Who play that live. But a play is a different animal than a rock concert. And this one is also worth experiencing, in my opinion.
Select quotes
“At least now I know why Tommy was deaf, dumb, and blind. I never understood that before.” — Jean
“I was hoping that I would know at least one song. Just one. But I didn’t recognize any of them.” — My Mom
“Oh my God. The music is by Pete Townshend? Of The Who? Oh my God. This is terrible!” — Lady sitting behind me
Après theatre dining
If you do go to Stratford, for Tommy or other, I might suggest dinner or lunch at La Taverna, which is a new section of Pazzo restaurant, as we very much enjoyed our meal there. It’s pretty small, but a pleasant room, with a comfortable feel. Sound level would have been fine, except we had a big Italian family dining next to us! 🙂 And the service was very good.
Appetizer
We started by sharing oysters, and a bocconcini bruschetta with figs and prosciutto (not pictured, but very nice).
Main course
Jean had a very nice gnocchi dish as his main, while I went with the fish special of the day.
Dessert
And we concluded with an arborio rice pudding for Jean and a “baked vesuvius” for me, that being a limoncello-soaked cake with lemon gelato and cardomom meringue. Delish.
We’d contemplated doing an overnighter this long weekend, but ultimately decided that a day trip would do. We decided to visit the little town of Fergus. Turns out to be a pretty quaint little place, with a lot of historic buildings. Many of the homes sport signs indicating the previous inhabitants’ name and occupation: landlord, farmer, shoemaker. The Grand River runs through it, and that lends it some interest as well:
Grand River in Fergus
It also had some nice trails.
Walk in the woods in Fergus
I also enjoyed its I Love Chocolate! store. And, we’d been hearing about how it had this fabulous Indian restaurant, so we tried that for lunch. It’s called Tandoori Grill. We decided to make it easy on ourselves and have the set Dinner for Two. This started with three small pieces of chicken tikka, and three small vegetable pakora. Both were tasty and came with three really nice dipping sauces.
That was followed by a chicken curry, a beef curry, (can’t recall exactly which ones of either of those) and veggie curry with cauliflower, chick peas, and potatoes. Served with rice and naan. This was clearly a place where they ground their own spices, which makes such a huge difference to the taste. The beef—something we normally wouldn’t have ordered—had fantastic texture and slightly sweet taste. The chicken was more “lively”, though the spice wasn’t excessive—it had more of cumulative effect.
Meal at Tandoori Grill in Fergus
So if you like Indian, and you find yourself in Fergus, I’d recommend this place.
We stopped in on Elora on the way home, acquiring yet more Rieker shoes! I also picked up some amazing champagne citrus vinegar at the Olive Grove.
Since we go to the Electric “Thursdays” series of concerts with friends, we typically go out for dinner first. This year, for whatever reason, each meal has been at a downtown Kitchener restaurant we’ve never been to before. Here’s how they were.
Niko Niko Roll &Sushi, at 20 King Street East, blessedly was not an “all you can eat” type, and did have pretty good sushi. One in our party had the Korean bim bap dish instead (vegetarian version), and also enjoyed that. The lack of wine was a bit disappointing; we tried the saki, but it wasn’t one of the better ones. The service was fine, if unspectacular. And they certainly got us out of there in plenty of time for the show. In fact, we even had time to get some wine from Centre in the Square…
271 West Restaurant, which is in fact at 271 King Street West in Kitchener, has kind of an Italian-focused menu, and brags of everything being made in-house. They also have a wine list, although not a good understanding of Ontario liquor laws: The waiter insisted (pretty adamantly) that we were not allowed to take a leftover bottle of wine with us. He’s wrong about that—here’s the proof—and as a result lost out on the sale of a bottle of a wine (in favor of two glasses).
The food was all right here, but nothing outstanding. But again, they at least did get us out in time.
Caesaria, at 320 King Street West, was selected based on its online menu, and at least some of us were surprised by its bar-like appearance. Our waitress was young, perky, and pretty, but not that well-informed about the menu. We heard “I’ll have to check on that!” quite a bit. But, to be fair, she did.
The meal timing was rather odd, in that our mains arrived very shortly after our starters, so we ended up with this overflow of food on our rather small table. The upside of it was that, at least, ensured that we once again were done in time for the show. The food here, too, was all right, but not outstanding. (Jean and I shared the edamame and hummus appetizers, and I had the chicken skewer main, while Jean had the squash ravioli.)
The final downtown Kitchener restaurant we tried, Marisol, at 30 Ontario Street South, was just me and Jean, before the KW Symphony’s wonderful Tap! pops concert (featuring dance music, complete with dancers). And it was… A really nice experience.
From their website: Marisol sign
The room is nice-looking and mellow, and as a change from the all the other places described, the waiter was very professional and skilled. He gave great wine suggestions and was clearly knowledgeable about all items on the menu.
The chef here once worked at Langdon Hall, and the menu is Mediterranean, with a lot of seafood items on offer. I started with the grilled calamari, which had a good texture and was in a really good sauce, while Jean enjoyed the grilled sardines in tomato caponata. If sardines can never live up to those we ate in Portugal, they were still well-prepared, and the tomato sauce very flavorful.
As a main, I had the lemon ricotta gnochi with tomato and pine nuts, and that was very nicely done. Jean had the fish special of the day, which was sea bream. We didn’t take the time for dessert on this outing, but if we had, I believe they still would have gotten us out in time for the show. Now, Marisol is more expensive than any of the other places we tried. But you do get what you pay for sometimes, eh?
So the do-overs would be Niko Niko Sushi & Roll and (especially) Marisol. The other two were experiences that were not unpleasant, but don’t particularly need repeating.
Since ’tis the season, I’ll share this recipe. It’s very easy (most tedious part is stirring until it thickens), and it’s delicious. Not overly sweet, it comes across as very light but with distinct maple flavour.
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 egg
2 cups skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp maple sugar
In a saucepan, beat all ingredients together except vanilla and maple sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and begins to thicken. Cook one minute more. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Spoon into 4 dessert dishes. While still warm, sprinkle with maple sugar. Serve warm or chill before serving.
(If you don’t have maple sugar, brown sugar works.)
Verses Restaurant had previously done an “around the world in 20 plates” dinner; this time they offered a mere 13 dishes—one per Canadian province and territory. The event was conveniently timed around Jean’s birthday.
We arrived around 6:00 and were greeted with a cocktail built around maple-infused rye liqueur, nicely balanced by less-sweet ingredients. After about a half hour, we were seated. We were only three people at the last multi-course extravaganza; this time, we were a group of eight:
This is the menu we were working our way through. It’s definitely the cod tongue that caused the most chatter; Jean and I were the only who’d ever had it before. But more on that later…
The wine was handled the same way as at the 20-course dinner; no wine matching per se, just as much of the selected red or white as we wanted. The wines selected were Canadian (natch), from a winery called Sprucewood Shores. The unoaked Chardonnay was very crisp and citrusy; I wouldn’t have guessed it was Chardonnay at all. The red was a blend of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, and was pretty easy drinking. Both were suitably food-friendly.
First course was a crispy oyster from PEI, in a chow-chow sauce. We all had the same thought: “That was delicious. Sure could use some more.”
We weren’t moving through the country geographically, though, so our next stop was Saskatchewan. It consisted of squab on saskatoon berry sauce, with greens and wild rice. Despite being informed (by me) that squab was just a foodie word for pigeon, everybody dug in and enjoyed it.
The Nova Scotia item was listed ambiguously on the menu as “street food”. We tried to figure out what that might be, with some opinion that it must be some sort of sausage. I can’t remember who guessed “lobster” (wasn’t me), but that person was spot on. We got a lobster roll on coleslaw, served in a paper container! Quite tasty.
Jumping west again, the Manitoba offering of duck prosciutto, bison jerky, blueberries, and hemp chips proved to the favorite of many, albeit with some debate over whether the duck or the bison was the best part. (I’d go duck, myself, but would probably be outvoted on the whole.)
From the North now, Nunavut (misspelled on the menu, the many writers at the table noted), was a hearty caribou stew with bannock.
The home-grown offering (Ontario) was trout with corn and Jerusalem artichokes (solving the mystery of what j chokes meant on the menu). As typical with Verses, the fish was properly cooked, meaning not too much, so it wasn’t dried out. But at the end of this course, I started to realize I had a problem: We weren’t even halfway through the meal yet, and I was starting to get full.
The next item might as well have been designed exactly for Jean: A poutine of foie gras and Sauvagine, a Québec cheese that may be his favorite. The foie gras was really the jus for the dish, which I also found quite nice (unlike typical poutine), and blessedly pretty small (despite the picture making it look pretty big).
Moving to New Brunswick, we were offered rabbit dumplings with wildflower honey. It’s getting boring to say, but this was really good, too! Though I had to start leaving some on my plate by this point, knowing more was on the way.
The Yukon offering included two of my favorite things, crab and wild mushrooms.
And now, the infamous cod tongues! These ones were larger and a little chewier than the ones I’d recalled having in Newfoundland, though one might guess they were a bit fresher there. I still didn’t mind them; I think they basically taste like cod. This remained the most controversial dish of the evening, though.
And we don’t seem to have a photo of the Northwest Territories item! Elk and beans, that was.
Then, from Alberta, lamb chops with a side of barley. At this point, quite a few people, including us, requested a doggie bag. They were delicious the next day, too.
Dessert was from BC, featuring a gourmet Nainaimo bar and “hay” ice cream. Somehow, that dish managed to “slide down between the crevices”.
Deb from Verses then spoke to everyone, explaining the challenge of finding ingredients from across Canada at this time of year! The kitchen all joined us as well, for a well-deserved round of applause.
The final item was familiar to those of from the “more North” of Canada: Tire on snow, complete with log. That was great fun.
All that was left after was decaf coffees and teas, along with settling the bill, which was $150 a person all in, including tip.
Of course, with that much wine, nobody was taking a chance on driving home. (Well, except one, who took her “no alcohol with cold medication” advice very seriously indeed, and just drank water all evening!) Another group took a cab, but we decided to try the Over the Limit service, where two people come out to where you are, and one drives your car home while the other follows, counting kilometres. That worked out quite well, despite some glitches with their website booking. It costs slightly more than taking a cab, but nice not to have to go back for your car the next day.
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