Category: Food

Dining in the new year

Since we were once again at Verses on New Year’s Eve, this year’s gourmet dinner we cook ourselves occurred on January 2. (January 1, believe it or not, Jean went canoeing.)

Appetizers

Two glasses of Peller Ice Cuvee.

We began with a glass of Ice Cuvée from Peller Estates. This is a Champagne-style sparkling wine (mix of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) that is accented with a bit of Vidal ice wine. The Champagne taste definitely predominates; this is not a sweet drink. But the ice wine does add a nice sweet edge to it. It’s a good starter.

Mushroom bruschetta and Pinot Noir.

Our first course highlighted wild mushrooms. First up was buffalo mozzarella with bruschetta of wild mushrooms. This was a recipe by Lucy Waverman, based on an item from Vancouver’s Cibo Trattoria. The bread used was sourdough, a fair amount of fresh garlic was involved, olive oil and balsamic vinegar participated, and the whole thing was topped with Pecorino cheese. The result was a lot of flavour, but it all seemed to play nicely together. Though if we tried it again, we might try grating rather than shaving the Pecorino.

The wine was going to be a Rodney Strong Pinot Noir, but at the last minute I substituted this John Tyler Pinot Noir that we’d also purchased in California. This is a very small winery, so their wines are unlikely to ever show up in the LCBO. It’s a really nice Pinot. Not quite the wow factors of the Rodney Strong Estate Pinot, but still very smooth, and very good with food.

We also had—unpictured because soup just looks like soup—a wild rice and mushroom soup, recipe courtesy of Alive magazine. This was mostly wild mushrooms with a bit of carrot, onion, celery (I used celery root), with wild rice, cooked in vegetable broth with a bit of red wine. It turned out very nice as well, once seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper.

And both recipes were actually pretty quick and easy to make. Because of the wild rice, though, the soup required an hour’s cooking time.

Mains

Pan-seared trout with olives and potatoes.

Next up was Pan-Seared Arctic Char with Olives and Potatoes, courtesy of Fine Cooking magazine. Only we couldn’t find arctic char, so we substituted a nice-looking rainbow trout from TJ’s Seafood. This was really a plain simple recipe, where the fish is just salted and peppered and fried in a bit of olive oil, while the potatoes and sliced and boiled for a short time, then also fried, along with Kalamata olives and fresh rosemary. Then it’s all seasoned with balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. Proves you don’t need complicated techniques to make great food, because it was delicious.

With this, we served a white Chateauneuf-du-pape that we had brought back from Provence. While I don’t remember being that blown away by this type of wine on that trip, did it ever taste wonderful last night. Very complex, very delicious. Possibly the best of the night.

Duck ravioli with sweet and sour squash.

The one item I’d decided in advance I wanted to attempt this year was duck ravioli. I found the recipe we used just via Google; it was called Duck confit and mashed potato ravioli with white truffle sauce. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but it was time-consuming. You had to make the mashed potatoes, skin the duck confit and chop up the duck meat, crisp up the skin, then warm up the meat and combine it with the potatoes, and stuff everything into won ton wrappers. (And I’m not sure what this was about, but we have a ton of stuffing left!)

The way we manage this meal overall, by the way, is to do as much in advance as possible in the afternoon, then just do the final cooking of each course as we go through the evening. The final touches for duck ravioli are just to boil the raviolis, and make the truffle sauce. Which is just unsalted butter browned and then combined with truffle oil and truffle paste. And you top the raviolis with the previously crisped skin.

As a side dish (we need our veg), we made Jamie Oliver’s sweet and sour squash recipe. This would be from his Cook with Jamie cookbook. It involves chopping the squash into “finger”-sized pieces (not sure food should be compared to body parts), and basically steaming, then frying it with red onion, garlic, thyme, raisins, pine nuts (we had to use almonds), and lots of parsley. The sweet and sour is created with balsamic and white wine vinegar, and sugar.

That was a slightly weird food combo, so we settled on a blended red wine: the 2005 Stratus Red. It’s a pleasant yet complex wine, and probably suited the food as well as anything could.

Dessert

Almond-scented cannoli and truffles with port.

We were pretty proud of ourselves for managing our portions throughout such that there was still room for a modest serving of dessert. (Also, we now have a lot of leftovers—today will be the best leftover day ever!) For this we made almond-scented chocolate cannoli, using an old recipe from Shape magazine. So it’s a light-ish dessert, with light ricotta and light Cool Whip combined with a bit of almond extract and a few mini chocolates chips and stuffed into a cannoli shell (that we bought; didn’t make).

And on the side, we made Chili Chocolate Truffles, using a recipe from LCBO Magazine (Winter 2006). So it’s whipped cream, butter, and bittersweet chocolate flavored with ancho chili power and honey, chilled and rolled in either grated white chocolate or cocoa powder.

These were served with a 2000 Vintage port from Quinta de la Rosa, a lovely smooth drink. The cannolis had a nice cheesy, chocolate, almond taste (as one might expect, I suppose) and the chili in the truffles was very subtle, just giving a slight bite to the sweetness.

Three books, five days

… And that’s pretty good for me. The key, I’ve found, is trains. And given what’s currently happening at airports, more of us may be taking trains. At least take comfort in knowing it’s good for literacy.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

… even though, I have to confess, two of the three books were consumed in Audible form, on my iPod. That way you can also watch the scenery. And the snow-covered trees were really pretty.

OK, the most important thing about finishing Oryx and Crake is that I’m no longer in the embarassing position of never having read a Margaret Atwood novel. Yes, I know. You’d be amazed at the great authors I’ve yet to read. Though, to be fair, I have tried reading Margaret Atwood before. I just had to give up about a third in, due to incredible lack of enjoyment. (Not even sure what book that was, anymore.)

But Oryx and Crake, I found really interesting. It’s an Apocalyptic future kind of tale, taking place in a globally warmed future where a single remaining homo sapien coexists with “Crakians”, genetically engineered humans who lack humans’ more destructive impulses. A lot of the realities of the book—the bizarrely genetically engineered animal hybrids, the smart technologists locked away in compounds away from the “plebe-lands”, the reliance on medicine to treat everything—seemed somewhat plausible, only a little beyond what is actually going on.

So it was an unpleasant yet somewhat familiar world, and it was fairly engrossing uncovering the mystery of what led to this point.

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell

I had seen and enjoyed the movie, so I got curious about the book, which I did actually read, and without the benefit of train motion. Julie Powell had a blog that covered her efforts to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in one year. Though a personal strain (these are not easy recipes), the blog became very popular—ultimately becoming a book, then a movie (obviously).

Watching the movie, I somewhat related to Julie. She and I both like to write about food, for example. She and and I both cook from written recipes (as opposed to just whipping up your own thing, which is a whole other talent). She and I are both in a long-term, childfree marriages to really sweet guys.

And reading the book, I found even more similarities. Like—I kid you not—her total obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One of the most dire crises of the book is when CBS wants to interview her on the night of the very last Buffy ever!

So part of my brain thinks, geez, why didn’t I think of blogging about making all of Julia Child’s recipes in a year so that I could get a book deal, and a movie deal, and get to write another book?

But then I’m reminded that there are some key differences between Julie and me.

She’s much more open than I about writing about personal, embarrassing stuff, for example. And that is a big part of the charm and appeal of the endeavour, which made it a success.

There’s also the fact that she was really dissatisfied with her secretarial job, and her difficulties in getting pregnant, both necessary fuel for taking on and maintain this crazy project of hers. (Along with occasionally copious amounts of alcohol, cigarettes, and expletives.) Me, I don’t have quite enough angst to take on making boeuf bourgignon until 2:00 in the morning, sustained only by nicotine and rum.

And most particularly… Frankly, I would never do classic French cooking. Reading the book, even more than seeing the movie, made me realize I have no interest in this type of arduous cooking: Digging out bone marrow, making gelatin from a calve’s hoof (seriously! apparently smells like a tannery), chopping up a live lobster (all the parts squirm, it appears), boning an entire duck.

It was fun to read about, though.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

This was the return trip audiobook. I had downloaded Fahrenheit 451 as well, but that was starting to seem like a little too much apocalypse for one trip, so I dug around and stumbled upon this one, the first Sookie Stackhouse mystery. OK, vampire mystery. But the vampires are still incidental, even though I realize this is the second time they’ve been mentioned in this post.

And also, that all three books are from a single individual’s point of view.

Anyway. In this case, the point of view is Sookie Stackhouse’s, a telepathic bar waitress in a world where vampires exist and have just attained legal status. Sookie meets Bill, a vampire who sets her small Southern town a-twitter by deigning to live in it. She’s intrigued because she cannot read his mind; this comes as a major relief. But their path to true romance hits stumbling blocks in the form of the murder of women who have a sweet spot for vampires.

Jean declared this too much of a chick book for him, though not too much for him to listen from start to finish.

I found it diverting enough, but I’m not sure I’m compelled to read any more of these. Sounds a bit weird to say given that the main characters are a vampire and mind reader, but there were more supernatural elements introduced later in the novel than I wanted. Made it a bit harder to believe in the world. Sookie was a fun character, it had some nice sexy bits, and I was curious about the murderer’s identify. But it’s not something I’d say you’d have to go out of your way to read.

(In case anyone was wondering, I haven’t yet seen True Blood, which is apparently based on, but very different from, these novels.)

Indiana wedding

Remember pen pals? I used to have a bunch of them. Back in the days before email, discussion forums, Facebook… It was one of the only ways to connect with strangers who lived far away.

And of course, mostly, I didn’t keep in touch with them. Some endured for only a couple letter exchanges; others lasted for years. But only a couple have lasted til now (even if more in email form these days): a grade-school friend from Timmins who is now in Edmonton, and Beth.

Beth is from Indiana. We were first matched via Teen Magazine when we were 13. (I just looked that up. Yep, still have all the old letters filed away…) Though contact has been far more sporadic in recent years than in our turbulent teens—despite the ease of email, et al—we have kept in touch all this time. Last weekend, we met for the first time. Because Beth was getting married. (Also for the first time. People keep asking that.)

Getting there

It proved fairly impossible to get there by train, and although plane wasn’t that expensive when leaving from Buffalo, in the end, we decided to drive.

We’d hoped to get away around noon on the Friday, but Jean’s work made that impossible, so it was more around 1:15 pm when we left. It was also pretty snowy and blowy. Fortunately, we left that type of weather behind us fairly quickly. We crossed the border at Sarnia, and that went well. We were a little ahead of rush hour going through Detroit. And then it just seemed like a lot of Ohio. Not the world’s most interesting state to drive through.

We were trying to arrive in time for a dinner for the out-of-town guests, to have a chance to meet a little bit before the crazyness of the wedding itself. Of course, with the late departure, we weren’t exactly early for dinner. (The predicted driving time of 7 hours proved to be about accurate.) But we did make it while people were still there.

Mind you, Beth wasn’t actually there at that point. That, combined with the name on the door—neither Beth’s nor her fiancé’s—threw us off a little. But then Beth’s Mom Judy recognized me. “You must be Cathy! I’ve been reading your letters for years!”

Thus welcomed, I also met Rick, the fiancé, who seemed like a really great, friendly guy. And not long after, Beth herself. Who was just how I expected her to be, really. And that’s a good thing.

But as noted, late arrival, so the gathering did break up not too much later. We went to check into the same Holiday Inn where most guests were staying, and were quite pleased with the large and bright room. But we were also still hungry, so we went to the Red Lobster across the road. Very friendly waitress, and the food would have been decent, had it not been doused in what seemed like an ocean’s worth of salt. Oh well.

Visiting Richmond

We had most of the day to ourselves before the wedding, so we went to the mall! And did get a few Christmas gifts there. But Jean was soon restless, so we headed into the “historic downtown” to see if that was more interesting. We did stumble upon a really great toy store there and acquired a few more gifts for the nieces, nephews, and friend’s kids. (We were puzzling over our duty-free spending limit, which we later looked up. It’s $400 for being away 48 hours. So no problem.)

Then lunch, for which we’d targeted an Italian restaurant listed under the “fine dining” section for Richmond. It was actually quite good and a really nice space.

Then we went to check out the local museum, which had some interesting items, like a mummy. Jean was particularly taken with the collection of classic cars. (I had no idea electric cars dated so far back. And rotary-dial car phones!)

Then back to the hotel for a bit of time in the hot tub (why is it always so hard to find the dial that controls the agitator for hotel hot tubs? We had to give up for this one) before getting ready for the big event.

The wedding

Wedding ceremony, dinner, and dancing were all co-located at the Country Club, another rather attractive space. Everyone in the wedding party looked lovely. The ceremony was very nice, with a personable minister presiding. My favorite was the quirky touch of having a “best dog” as part of the wedding party. (This is a dog Beth has been sitting for for years.)

There was no arranged seating for dinner, so we took the approach of seeking out a table of others who didn’t seem to know too many people, and asking about sitting with them. That worked out well. We first joined a colleague of Beth’s (from the college) and his wife, who were quite pleasant. Then we were joined by high school friend of Beth’s and her husband: Elaine and Scott. I was more on their side of the table, so ended up talking more with them. She’d managed to keep in touch with Beth since leaving Indiana after high school, but not too much with other high school friends, whom she was hoping to spot. (“I wish they were wearing name tags.”) Husband Scott was a school counselor for grade 3 children. He and Elaine have five children themselves.

Oh, and Scott kind of looked like Johnny Depp, which was interesting. Elaine was quite attractive also. The children must be beautiful.

Anyway, the fine buffet dinner was followed by some of the briefest wedding toasts I’ve ever heard in my life, then the first dance (which Elaine said Beth was really nervous about, but she did fine), then general dancing. D-J was good, playing a variety of music, and Jean and I got to practice the few jive moves we still remember. (We’ve actually signed up for dance classes in the new year, to get some of that refreshed.)

A few more quirky touches I enjoyed: Having jars of various types of candy (tootsie rolls, M&Ms, rock candy, that sort of thing) available for “the kids” to bag—then watching the many “big kids” also indulge once the smaller ones were done. And getting a demonstration of hula-hoop technique from one of Beth’s friends. Quite impressive, actually—though we didn’t quite catch it on video.

Eventually I did get to talk to Beth, and her Mom, a bit more, which was good. And I got photographic proof of the meeting:

Cathy and Beth

Heading back

We had taken the Monday off, giving us two days to head back, which was nice. So we had a leisurely departure after breakfast, where we saw Rick and Beth one more time. We’d considered various routes, but finally settled on going back up the same way, through Ohio, but heading in through Windsor this time, in order to visit the Pelee Island region a bit (without actually going on that island).

The drive went fine. No weather issues, and the only somewhat hairy part was finding the border crossing in Detroit. That was complicated a bit by construction, so the GPS instructions couldn’t be followed exactly. Once we’d found ourselves, we were amused by all the signs saying “Following the detour signs; not your GPS instructions.”

We used Billy’s Best Bottles from last year as a guide, and stopped in Amherstburg first. We stayed in a little motel, which was older but fine, and had a really good dinner at a place called Caldwell’s Grant, that specializes in local cuisine. While there we had a moment of concern when Jean’s sister called him on his cell phone, as that was an unusual thing to do. Eventually it turned out that while Jean’s Mom was in hospital, it wasn’t a heart attack as they had feared earlier, but something much less serious. So they wanted to get in touch to basically tell him not to worry. (He also spoke to his Mom.)

(When we did get home, we had 10 messages from various siblings, all fairly vague on the reasons why they were calling…)

The next day we visited some wineries. The first we stopped at was D’Angelo. Though their website said they opened at 10:00, they weren’t open when we got there around 10:45. We later found out we can’t taste wine before 11:00 anyway, though. So no iced Foch for us.

Next, after almost despairing of locating it, we did get to Sanson, which was open. We tried a few wines here, then bought two bottles each of our favorites, which were the Sauvignon Blanc and the Baco Noir. They also had some organic meats on offer, and we bought some of those.

She recommended Viewpointe winery to us, so we went there next. That’s a beautiful site which must be a great place to picnic at in the summer. This time of year, we were the only ones there. We came out of here with four bottles as well: two of the Auxerrois, a white usually used in blends, that has an interesting floral flavor, and the Cabernet Merlot.

Finally, we visited Mastronardi, whose wines we’d enjoyed at Caldwell’s Grant the night before.  And here we left with seven bottles: two Gewurtz (in a more off-dry style), two Cabernet Franc, one Merlot, one Syrah (more of a French style), and a very nice sparkling wine.

But that was enough! Next business was lunch, but that proved a bit tricky, as many restaurants are closed on Monday. We finally ended up at a “family” restaurant in Leamington. Though that term tends to make me leery, they actually did a find job of the sandwiches we had. The drive home was a bit dreery with fog, but went fine. We got in around 5:00.

So it was a nice getaway, and although not an intense first meeting, it was good to finally have one after 30 years! Maybe we won’t wait quite so long for the next. (And maybe, just maybe, I’ll even get on Facebook so we can keep in a bit more regular touch that way.)

And the rest of the weekend was pretty great, too

The day after the concert began with breakfast at the Day’s Inn, which turned out to be rather better than these continental hotel breakfasts usually are, thanks to the available waffle batter and waffle iron. They did run out of coffee, but we were able to save that one by making a pot in our room afterward.

After checking out, and getting the word of mouth that general notices on the concert were good, we headed to the hottest spot in Ontario—the Flu Clinic! Seriously, we decided to go see if Orillia flu clinics were being run any better than Waterloo Region ones. And boy, were they ever. Very short lineup, everyone in it quickly assessed as to whether they qualified (Jean did, as a healthcare worker; I didn’t even try—I do have some morals) and given a time to expect their shot. In our case it was so soon, and the weather was so fine, we just stayed in line until it was done. The whole thing, including the 15-minute after-shot wait, took half an hour, 40 minutes, maybe.

Oh, and Jean had no after-effects from the shot, other than the expected sore shoulder muscle.

After that triumph, we headed to downtown Orillia to see what might be interesting there. We spent some time in a kitchen store (weirdly, perhaps, Jean likes kitchen gadgets as much as I do—maybe even more), and got ourselves a few things, and some Christmas stuff. We also traded casino concert stories with the owner, who had apparently seen a very awesome Santana show there. (Actually, it did sound great.)

Next was a clothing store that had some used, some consignment, some remainder items. So really great prices, and stuff for both men and women. Jean tried on this leather jacket that fit him really well. And this almost never happens—he’s just not an “off the rack” size. So at $19.99, that was pretty hard to resist, so we didn’t. He also got a leather belt, while I picked up three tops. The grand total was under $60.

It was around lunchtime at this point, and we were hungry, so we decided to go to the “restaurant in a train” place that we’d been to on our last visit to Orillia (to buy the tickets). We had the same waitress! It was an enjoyable enough meal. In particular, my scallop appetizer, in chili and cocoa, was quite nice, and Jean enjoyed his main of lake trout (or some local-ish fish like that).

We now figured it was a reasonable enough time to head toward Singhampton, where we had bed and breakfast and dinner reservations. The drive was just fine, and we had spotted the B&B on the way up, so no trouble finding it. It’s called the Avalon, and while not the cheapest B&B ever, it’s really nice accommodations. You get a whole downstairs (not basement) area to yourself, with huge windows onto a beautiful view. The owner also toured us around most of the rest of the 5000 square foot house, all very open and festooned with stained glass. And interestingly, it uses geothermal heat (and cooling).

Lake view of the Avalon on a beautiful day.

The grounds are also huge, and we took a little walk around those next, and got some photos (as above). Then it was nap time, as neither of us had slept that well the night before. Then up to get ready for dinner at Haisai.

This would be Michael Stadtlander’s new, cheaper (though certainly not cheap) restaurant. And the room is very characteristic of him and his wife Noboyu, with a crazy festooning of pottery and all natural wood furniture. Noboyu recognized us from our stop in August and generally made us feel comfortable. We were a bit surprised to see that the restaurant was not sold out on this Friday; it was maybe two-thirds full. And they were having fireplace issues, so it was a little cool in there.

But, everyone wants to know about the food right? It was a 10-course tasting menu. I made a point of writing down what we had that night.

  1. Single New Brunswick oyster—I forget how seasoned. But very nice.
  2. Smoked hock (from their farm, smoked for six months) on whole-wheat bread made there. The meat had really lovely taste and texture not quite like any other “ham” kind of thing I’ve had before. (And I do mean that in a good way.)
  3. Jerusalem artichoke soup with shallots and smoked pickerel. This man is really a soup genius; I couldn’t believe the creamy, wonderful taste and the contrast with the shallots. You almost didn’t need the fish.
  4. Georgian Bay lake trout (caught that day) in wasabi butter with blue potatoes. Definitely a highlight, the fish was meltingly good, and the sauce was so amazing, it was difficult not to lick the plate after. And the potatoes tasted pretty remarkable, too.
  5. White fish on a sauce of beet, chervil, and carrot, with spinach puree. Also a great combination of flavors.
  6. Salmonberry (or maybe some other kind of berry?) sorbet on wild apple. He’s also quite good with the sorbet.
  7. Roast piglet with wild mushrooms and cabbage. The meat was mouth-watering. Mmm, fat. Of course the mushrooms were good, but the cabbage also tasted just amazing. Because, I think, it was cooked in the mmm, fat.
  8. Duck breast with roasted carrot, squash, turnip, parsnip, and a squash ravioli. The most interesting thing here is that the duck, while good, was actually the least of this plate. These vegetables tasted amazing.
  9. Three kinds of Ontario cheese—goat, sheep, and gouda—served with pear and walnut cranberry bread. Ontario, it turns out, also makes good cheese.
  10. Tarte tatin with rum ice cream.

The new restaurant has a wine list, all Ontario. We enjoyed our first five courses with a lively Frog Pond Riesling, then switched to a glass each of Stratus Red. That’s an expensive wine, but it did taste fantastic. We have a bottle here, and now I’m dying to open it. With dessert, we had Earl Grey and mint tea, both well above average.

We came in quite hungry, and ended feeling satisfied but not stuffed, which is perfect. And we slept really well that night.

Onto Saturday now, which began with the breakfast part of the B&B. While we’d met the wife more the day before, today it was the husband who sat and talked with us while we ate our apple starter, delicious coffee, fresh baguette, and frittata. He was quite an interesting guy. He told us about how they’d ended up moving from Toronto to this location, the whole process of designing and building the house extension, the mechanics of geothermal.

They made Creemore sound like an interesting little town, so we decided to head there after checking out. And it is pretty cute. We spent some time in a bookstore, and I wanted many things, but decided I really needed to catch up on my reading first. At an antique store, we bought new stools for our breakfast bar—not antiques, those, they were new. They do look a bit snazzier. (Can’t say we’re not doing our bit for the Ontario economy.) And at the 100-mile shop, we bought a bunch of Ontario cheese, including some we’d had the night before. Fifth Town Cheese Company from Prince Edward County—try them out.

Then we headed home, so you might think this travel diary is done, but no… We decided to keep it going.

That night, we ate out at Art Bar. Once again, the food was quite good, holding up surprisingly well to our recent experience at Haisai. But once again, we seemed to be left fairly close to curtain time. I still don’t understand why they have such trouble getting us out in two hours. But anyway…

We had tickets to Cirque de la symphonie, which was the KW Symphony playing various pieces while, during most of them, circus performers did their thing. This was riveting! I couldn’t believe how fast the two hours (or so) went by. Particularly notable was this beautiful trapeze artist who did a really spectacular set on a rope in the second half. And then there was the gorgeous man who did this act with a big square (I find this stuff hard to explain) in the first half, then, shirtless, did this Icarus act in the second, jumping and flying around with a white sheet flapping behind him.

And the finale were these two guys, all in gold, one of whom can balance on the other and get into the most amazing poses. OK, my whole description of these performances sucks, but trust me, they were wonderful to see. (And thankfully, the Centre was very full for this show.)

Anyway. We both ended up very satisfied with this little November getaway. And Jean also had a great paddle (canoeing) on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, wasn’t it?

California Dreamin’

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I’ve been out walking for a while on a winter’s day
I’d be safe and warm
If I was in LA…

Or, better yet, back in San Fran…

Yes, it was a good trip. We were there for a week, Saturday to Sunday. We started with a visit to Yosemite on Sunday, headed to Napa  and Sonoma on Monday and Tuesday, and drove into San Francisco on Wednesday, where we stayed for the rest of the trip.

San Francisco photo.

People ask, “What was your favorite thing?”, which I can never answer. Too many options. But to quote Maria, these are a few of my favorite things.

  • The weather. Nothing but sun, all day, every day. Need I say more?
  • The wine. Particularly these aspects of them:
    • Interesting tours in Napa and Sonoma. Wineries with art galleries and patios where servers bring you tasting portions of their offerings. Organic wineries that give full tram tours and let you taste the grapes (very sweet). Organic wineries on beautiful grounds with hiking trails up to great views.
    • Cav wine bar in San Franciso, which may have been our favourite restaurant. The first time we went, it was because we tired of trying to stuff down dinner after having a big lunch. So we dined on wine and cheese. It was lovely. And later, we went back for a full dinner. Also lovely. Many wines by the glass, from all over, at pretty reasonable prices.
    • The taste, of course, which often surprised us with its subtlety and sophistication, particularly in the Bartholomew Park Cabernet Sauvignon and the Rodney Strong Estate Pinot Noir.
    • Not paying duty on the wine, despite bringing home double our allotment, which we declared.
  • Seeing the wild parrots     of Russian Hill, who may or may not be the same flock as on Telegraph Hill. At any rate, we had read that almost no one got to see these birds, yet there they were, following us along on our walking tour of that neighborhood. (And with seeing the bear and the deer in Yosemite, and numerous birds there and in San Fran, plus all the sea lions in San Fran, it was a surprisingly wildlife-filled vacation.)
  • Great experiences for free (and not only because they were free), such as:
    • Just walking around the interesting, and very safe-feeling, neighborhoods of San Francisco, such as North Beach and the Castro, just getting a sense of the shops and the people and the atmosphere.
    • Free city walking tours, which San Francisco offers hundreds of each year. Our favorite was the City Scapes and Public spaces, which took us into the elaborate bank buildings and hidden park areas of the Financial District.
  • Experiences worth paying for, such as:
    • Alcatraz tour, where you take a boat to the island and are then free to explore it, including an introductory film and an excellent audio tour of the cells. Very well done.
    • SFMOMA, a modern art gallery that managed to balance the sublime and the ridiculous better than most.
    • Brunch at the beautiful Awanee Inn in Yosemite, apparently one of the best restaurants in the US. Certainly had some divine little desserts.
  • Listening to JD Fortune’s fantastic version of “California Dreamin” on the ride from Napa to San Francisco.

And then there were the more “interesting” experiences that will probably make the best stories…

  • Staying across the street from, and therefore finding it impossible to avoid, the Lovelution Festival, which seemed to mainly be about young people dancing to techno music in glittery underwear… If that…
  • Our insane, high-speed taxi ride to the hilliest part of San Francisco, that morning we were running late… We ended up arriving early…
  • Getting an impossible case of the giggles upon perusing the vegetarian, yoga-themed menu of a Napa restaurant I had insisted on, feeling not quite hungry enough for meat and potatoes. But you know, those beet-roast crisps and semolina gnochis were actually, suprisingly very delicious.
  • Jamestown, our home base to Yosemite, which really still looked like an old Western town, with saloons and such, and nary a Starbucks anywhere.
  • Rasputin Records, squarely aimed at the punk and hip-hop crowd, where old-timers like me who prefer classic rock are shunted off (really, driven off by the music) to the four floor, which was accessible only by a tie-dye painted elevators operated by one of the remarkably friendly staff.

Longer web page on the trip: San Francisco, Yosemite, and Napa—All in one week! (Not in that order)

Tasting locally and freshly

For the third (or so) year in a row, Jean and I attended Foodlink’s Taste Local! Taste Fresh! event. This year, as in all previous, it was a beautiful, sunny day. The venue was new, however: a park in St. Jacob’s instead of at Victoria Park in Kitchener.

I had been emailed several times about this event, so was starting to wonder if ticket sales were slow. Apparently not, because there were plenty of people on hand. I later heard it sold out. This despite the $65 tickets, which is arguably pretty expensive.

What you got for your money was access to 20 booths where local restaurants combine with local food producers to come up with a tasting dish. This year, in a nice touch, we each got a porcelain dish to put the food on, replacing the previous biodegradable styrofoam. As previous years, we left completely full from the experience, despite not having lunch first nor dinner after (though we did eat breakfast).

Best ingredient discovery: Ground emu. Which tastes very much like ground beef, as become clear in the mini emu burgers served by Benjamin’s. But it doesn’t have the health and environmental concerns that beef does. I want to get me more emu!

Most creative dish: Charbries’ tomato lollypop and tomato cotton candy. Delicious and nutritious! But seriously, reminded you that tomatoes are a fruit, but not being a terribly sweet one, the cotton candy and lollypop weren’t sicky sweet. Very nicely done.

Most popular dish: Ironically, the one we simply did not have room for, as we kept waiting for the line to diminish—and it never did. This was Art Bar’s mini hot dogs, hand made with local organic beef.

Also pretty darn popular, and we did try this: Whole Lotta Gelata’s Fire and Ice, which combined a piece of local beef (again) with savory gelato: garlic, chipotle flavor. Actually, very good.

Clearly, this was a meatatarian crowd.

Most useful information: That Uptown21 has a few special dinners coming up in October, including one on October 29, partnered with WordsWorth, featuring recipes by Lucy Waverman (Globe food writer). You also get a copy of her cookbook.

New restaurant discovery: Duke Street Muse,  a vegetarian restaurant and cafe, which made a nice curried veggie dip. Because we sometimes do have to dine with vegetarians.

And actually, the vegetarian contingent acquitted itself nicely. For example, we really enjoyed the veggie and herb cheese balls from The Children Museum’s Exhibit Cafe, and also the delicious ginger pumpkin cheezecake by Divinely Raw.

Also noteworthy: Uptown21’s smoked lamb fantastico was delicious, if messy; 20 King’s beet cannoli’s were delicious; and it’s hard to go wrong with baked brie from Harmony Organics (by Vidalia’s).

Funniest moment: Talking with the representative from Lyndon fish hatcheries, whom we’d previously sat with at one of those local chef’s gala dinners we go to: “Oh, I remember you. You’re the ones who blogged about us!”

Seven people and a vegetarian

A number of people ended up being interested in Uptown 21’s Tawse wine dinner, so a wee bit of organizing was required. One factor was that one person was a vegetarian, and needed to know if that could be accommodated. She called and confirmed that it could, with forewarning, so when I called to make the reservation, I specified that one individual was vegetarian.

The dinner was a sell-out, so the week before, they called to confirm everyone’s attendance. This was their phone message to me:

“I see you have a reservation here for seven people… and one vegetarian.”

And that was our joke for the evening. Because if you’re not going to eat the lower life forms, are you really a person?

Unlike Uptown 21’s daily specials, at this five-course wine dinner, full glasses of wine were on offer for each of the five courses. With refills, if you wanted (I declined those). But it was over a fairly extended amount of time—starting at 6:30 pm and continuing to past 10:30—so that kept the level of drunkenness at bay.

The first wine was a 2008 Echoes Riesling, which is one of those Ontario Riesling that is actually dry but tastes rather off-dry. Quite pleasing to me; I think Riesling is one the grapes that Ontario does best. That was served with a peach, arugula, and burnt goat cheese amuse-bouche, indeed a nice balance of flavours.

Next was another 2008 Rieseling, this one the Foxcroft Block, which actually has the same level of sugar as the first, but tasted much more dry. That made it less appealing to me to drink on its own, but some at the table liked it better. All agreed that comparing the two was interesting. That was served with a fresh tomato-mascarpone and wild leek tart with Riesling braised pork belly and micro greens salad. Excellent tomatoes, nice crisp pork, and the acidity of the wine was a good balance for the fat.

Next up (after some talk with the vintner, who was doing the rounds of the tables): 2006 Quarry Road Chardonnay, a very oaky, very rich-tasting wine. With flavour this strong, it was a bit polarizing, with some not liking it on its own at all, and others very much. But all agreed that it changed some with the food, which was seared sea scallop in sweet corn consommé, corn marmalade, shallot popcorn foam, brown butter, and sea salt.

(Yes, I kept the menu; I couldn’t remember that all that.) These plates came with the single seared scallop and corn, then the butter sauce was poured over, then the foam. It was very peppery, and the foam didn’t have much taste on its own, but the scallop was nicely done, and the corn certainly in season.

Now we hit some reds, starting with the 2007 Laundry Vineyard Cabernet Franc. Four glasses in, my wine recollection is getting a bit fuzzy, but I think that was a fairly fruity Cabernet Franc. It was served with slow roasted beef striploin over chive whipped potatoes, caramelized summer vegetables, and a plum glace de veau. I found my beef perhaps a little too done (is that the second time this has happened to me at a wine dinner?), but the potatoes were quite delicious.

Pinot Noir was the next featured wine, this one the 2007 Grower’s Blend. Quite liked that one, a mix of pinot grapes. It was served with a delicious duck confit atop a stack of French pancakes (really, crèpes) smothered in a maple-roast summer garlic sauce, foie gras torchon (so cold foie gras), wild mushrooms, and fresh blueberries. Although I couldn’t quite finish this plate, due to getting full-ness, it was probably my favorite course.

And the finale: Dessert. Yes, we had wine for this too, and it was a 2007 Chardonnay ice wine. This ice wine was lighter than many, with a distinct apple flavour, Very appealing. It was served with vanilla custard, fresh doughnut, chardonnay caramel, and Sean’s famous “Duff-mellow” brulée. The doughnut, not too sweet on its own, was really great with the wine. The brulee is justly famous; nice texture and flavour of burnt marshmallow.

And a little decaf coffee, and some more water, and we were on our way.

I was quite happy to not have a headache the next day.

The office water cooler could kill you

I’m a fan of the Food Network’s Food Detectives. I record it every week. On Food Detectives, they do experiments to solve those nagging questions, such as, is there any validity to the 5-second rule? (No.) Does eating turkey actually make you sleepy? (No.) Do you really eat less if you use smaller plates? (Yes.)

It’s great because it combines two of my favourite things: facts and food. Facts are good because I can then recite them and look smart. And food… Well, everything is good about food: eating it, cooking it, reading about it, talking about it… even watching it on TV.

So a recent test they did was of public water fountains. Just how bacteria-filled is the water from those things?

Actually, not that bacteria-filled at all. They’re cleverly designed such that the water arcs out of them, not really coming into contact with the spout. As long as your mouth touches only the water, not the spout (some people don’t, so the spouts do end up somewhat bacterial), you’ll be fine.

The water from the office water coolers, though… woah. Bacteria city! Not so well designed. Activated by bacteria-covered hands. In contact with reused, improperly cleaned water bottles… And rarely cleaned. Result was much worse than any of the tested public fountains.

Now I haven’t used the office water cooler in years. I’d like to say it was because of a well thought-out concern about bacterial contamination, but actually, it was because of a completely paranoid concern about water sitting in plastic for so long potentially picking up carcinogens. So instead I’ve been drinking bubbly water out of glass bottles, which I hope is slightly more environmental than plastic bottles—but I’m not sure.

At any rate, I have been remarkably cold- and flu-free the past few years. And it seems that, at least partly, this is why.

Restaurant recommendation: Uptown21

Run by the former chef of the now defunct Hannah’s, I’d been wanting to try Nick and Nat’s Uptown 21 since its positive review in the Record. But our first attempts butted up against their popularity; each time we tried to go, it seemed to be full.

Yesterday, we finally got in. (Actually, it wasn’t even all that busy.) And while I’d love to give you a menu overview, having gone in with the preconceived notion that I wanted to try their $45 four-course chef’s special, I didn’t really give the regular menu much mind. Similarly, once spotting that they did $22 wine matchings with that menu, I didn’t peruse the wine list too much either. Though did notice they seemed to have quite a few by the glass, which is always nice.

Jean spent a bit more time with the menu, noting that it included both foie gras as an optional add-on, and cheese for dessert. He finally decided to start with a foie gras appetizer, then have the three-course version of the chef’s special—exactly the same as the four-course, except you leave out the first appetizer, and save $10.

Figuring that four glasses of wine was too much on a school night, we were going to share the wine matchings. But they explained that each was actually 3 oz. glasses of wine, for two glasses total, so we each proceeded with that. (Smart idea; more places should do that.) For Jean’s foie gras, they offered up a Tawse chardonnay that normally isn’t sold by the glass. It was quite nice; reminiscent of that rich Prince Edward County chardonnay we’d really liked.

With my first course, I got a typically floral Viognier—forget from which winery. It went down pretty easily also.

My item was very lightly seared, thinly cut tuna served with radishes, a nice coleslaw (no mayo), and sides of pesto and spicy chili sauce. Beautifully presented, and all very enjoyable (though I skipped the radishes—not a fan). Jean was also impressed with his foie gras, to the point of concerning our server, who couldn’t quite tell if his expression meant that he liked it or not. (If you’ve ever seen Jean eat foie gras, you know what I mean.) That was served with greens and salty peanuts, which worked well.

Now the chef’s special includes two choices for each course, but for the next two, we went with the exact same items.

The shitake soup with asparagus seemed almost too subtle at first, but once I mixed in the light cream sauce, it came to life. Nice to have flavouring from other than salt. That was served with a Trius Cabernet Franc, and the earthiness of that wine worked quite well with the mushrooms.

The next course was Ontario trout, served on a lentil risotto. I was thinking that either a white or a light red ought to work with that, when the server came by and asked whether we’d prefer red or white with that one! We went with one of each. The white was a New Zealand Astrolab Sauvignon Blanc, nice and crisp—intense but not too sharp. I really love a good Sauvignon.  The red was the Ontario Rosewood Pinot Noir, which recently won an award as Ontario’s best Pinot. We had this wine at the Verses wine matching dinner in the spring, and were really wowed by it. (And, it’s only $18 at LCBO.) It was quite enjoyable again—to me, a bit fruitier than Ontario Pinot’s often are.

The fish was beautifully done, nicely crisp and seared on the outside, still tender and moist inside. And the lentil side dish was very tasty, with added bits of chorizo and beets! One more, the plates were cleaned. (Each course was a perfectly reasonable size, so in the end we were just satisfied, not stuffed.)

For dessert, we diverged. I tried the mocha caramel mouse with doughnut, while Jean had a trio of gelato: cinnamon, lemon, and berry. Those all tasted amazing. He asked where it was made, and it was from Whole Lotta Gelato, down the road. My mousse was pleasingly less sickly sweet than I was expecting—that’s a good thing. And the doughnut was small, plain, and certainly had that homemade and not Tim’s feel to it.

With that, I had Graham’s 10-year port while Jean went with Lailey’s Vineyard’s late harvest vidal, a lightly sweet wine with apple accents.

Though we never felt rushed, the whole meal experience was fairly efficient, as we were there about two hours. Servers were attentive and knowledgeable. As per the subject line, I’d recommend it!

(And in other restaurant news: I noticed that the wonderful Verses Restaurant is once again offering their Summerlicious menu, $25 for a three-course lunch, or $35 for a three-course dinner.)

How does my garden grow

The yard is not as embarrassing any more. Can’t go so far as to say it looks good, since with the weeds pulled and the mulch put down where they were, the garden areas tend to look a little… sparse. But it’s definitely better than giant thistles and crab grass.

It’s been the project of the last couple weekends. We paid to have the heavier work done (gathering those receipts for the tax credit), leaving the more interesting stuff like planting for ourselves. The front garden now has some daylilies, two of which are blooming nicely with quite a few more showing signs of blooming soon.

In the raised bed out back, we have several tomato plants and a bunch of herbs—parsley, basil, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, sage… I’m still at the excitable stage where I go out and see how they’re doing each day. So far, so good.

And, I’m kind of disappointed each time a recipe doesn’t call for one of the herbs I’m growing. Guess I need to make more Italian stuff.

Maybe once I have a bunch of tomatoes, too…