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…

Stupid, immoral, or just weird?

So I’m pleased with myself because I’ve figured out how to record music as it plays on my computer.

Now, I’d be more pleased if I could have figured out how to configure Windows to do this, for free, as is supposed to be possible. But after the simple instructions failed, and then I tried more complicated instructions that also failed, and eventually ended up in the Windows Registry and it was 1:00 in the morning and I still wasn’t recording…

I realized this was insane. So before I blew up the computer, I bought some inexpensive software to do this. Very simple; works great. Anything I play on the computer, I can now convert to MP3 (and other formats).

I wanted this for things like:

  • Ann Wilson and Roger Daltrey singing “Kashmir”, accompanied by a symphony. Awesome.
  • Queen live in 1977, as posted at Wolfgang’s Vault
  • Even the elusive “Dancing at the Feet of the Moon” by Parachute Club

This, my husband informed me, makes me a thief. Even though I pointed out that none of these things seem to be available for sale. He said that the artists should still paid for their work, and I said, well, I’m sure they were paid for their original work and now their stuff is sitting on the Internet for free listening and what difference does it make if I listen on my computer or my iPod? (And actually the argument went on much longer and grew progressively ridiculous, so I’ll spare you.)

But it did make me think that, however I get my music now—and I use many means—someone seems to thinks it’s either stupid, or immoral, or just plain weird.

You buy music? [stupid]

Most commonly expressed by those under 30, who like to point out that everything is available for free on the Internet. I don’t know how immoral it is to never pay for music, but it’s at least kind of tacky.

You buy music from iTunes? [stupid]

Boy, do some people have issues with iTunes! That it’s too expensive, that everything is DRM, that it chains you to your iPod. But expensive is relative, the DRM thing is now history, and as for chaining you to your iPod; well, I’ve never figured that was so hard to get around. For example, I can just play whatever is in iTunes on my computer, and make an MP3 copy of it using my handy new software! Voila, no more ties to Apple.

You still buy CDs? [weird. and possibly stupid]

Amazement that I still acquire some music little plastic disks, which clutter up your life. Especially since the first thing you do is convert it for the iPod anyway.

Now, I used to say all those CDs were my iTunes backup; but now I’ve started backing up my library to DVD.

Or, that I liked the packaging—but I don’t really refer to the CD case, within its tiny print and sad little cover picture, all that often. But I still buy CDs because of:

  • Price (since I often get them used).
  • Better sound quality. Compressing things for your iPod means dropping notes from your songs. I’m no audiophile, but CDs do sound richer.
  • Convenience—at least in my car, where the CD player is better integrated than the iPod.

As for clutter, my neatly organized CDs, all stashed away in cabinets in alphabetical order by artist, then by release date, are really the least of my problems there. But it brings me to…

You still buy albums? [weird]

This is, as opposed to just songs. Of course, it’s wonderful to now be able to just get songs so easily, but yes, I still get albums too. Because…

  • Classic albums like Dark Side of the Moon and Who Sell Out, which have a whole thematic that builds, can only be experienced by listening to the entire album. In order.
  • Some artists are so great in concert, I just assume I’ll like the whole album too. With a band like Swing, I was completely right—with both their albums. Which I’ve since bought more of, to give to other people.
  • Soundtracks, which may not count, since they are just a random collection of songs. Though something like the Trainspotting or Shortbus soundtracks have an overarching sound to them that make them a great playlist in themselves.
  • Reliable artists like Ray Davies, Alanis Morissette (Flavors of Entanglement is great), Bob Geldof… They put out a new album, I’m probably going to get it.

And more ways…

  • [immoral?] Extracting it from music DVDs—I have software for that, too. And I’m pretty sure it’s just another copy for personal use. I’m just thrilled that the mostly useless online help (“the filter pass setting sets the filter pass”) actually contained the one precise piece of information I needed to make the extracted songs stop “crackling”. Was driving me nuts.
  • [immoral?] Borrowing it from friends or family—Yet everyone seems to think this is just a nice thing to do, not immoral at all. Most will gladly make a copy for you.
  • [stupid?] Downloading it, not from a torrent, but from a “file sharing” location posted by someone on a Kinks mailing list. Which, I’m sure, is somewhat stupid. But I do have virus software, and all seems well since I did it, and it is a truly fantastic collections of Kinks songs. The Fan Box Set. Anyone want to borrow it? 🙂

Yes nukes, fast trains, and no oil

A few years ago, while on vacation in Costa Rica, I read George Monbiot’s Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning. While I don’t recommend it as vacation reading, it was interesting. The premise was how Britain (as example country) could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 90%, yet still maintain a decent standard of living.

I thought he had a number of good ideas, but one I didn’t agree with was his dismissal of nuclear power as one option. He struggled with it, and the fact that it produces no greenhouse gas emissions, but finally concluded he couldn’t live with the waste disposal issue. But I thought the issue was global warming?

So I was kind of pleased to see the very lefty This Magazine coming around to that same point of view. While they sadly haven’t made the whole article available online, you can get the gist from the cover: “Wind and solar can’t save us from climate change. Like it or not, nuclear power can.”

The Walrus’ “Off the Rails” focused on the sad state of train travel in Canada. Though I thought I basically knew the score here, I was surprised to learn that Canada did have high-speed trains; it just never had the infrastructure to actually run them at their maximum speeds. And also, that the US actually has some high-speed trains (Boston to Washington). And that they’re thinking of adding more—that might even connect to Canada! Toronto to New York by train, anyone? That would be awesome!

Pretty struck, too, by the graph of greenhouse gas emissions, per passenger, for train, plane, and automobile. First two—not as different as I thought. Last one—much better than I thought. (Too bad the graph is not in the online version of the article. Guess they need to give you some reason to buy the paper version.)

But most striking, for sure, was The Walrus article called “An Inconvenient Talk”. Which basically argues that, way before global warming becomes a crisis, we’re going to run out of oil. And that will be a crisis.

OK, sure, not the first time we’ve heard about this “running out of easy oil” point. But Chris Turner is a very good writer:

Here’s the upshot: if you plan to drive a car or heat a house or light a room in 2030, The Talk is telling you your options will be limited, to say the least. Even if you’re convinced climate change is UN-sponsored hysteria or every last puff of greenhouse gas will soon be buried forever a mile underground or ducks look their best choking on tar sands tailings, Dave Hughes is saying your way of life is over. Not because of the clouds of smoke, you understand, but because we’re running out of what makes them.

And he focuses on a pretty convincing subject in the form of Dave Hughes, whose life mission is now to inform people about this problem looming all too soon. (10-20 years, he says.)

And, Turner boosts this with views from others. Like the IEA:

As recently as 2005, well into Dave’s second career as a peak-hydrocarbon prophet, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) — probably the most trusted name in fossil fuel reserve prediction — was dismissing peak oil’s proponents as “doomsayers.” Mainstream media coverage, meanwhile, tended to focus on the hard-core survivalist subculture the science had inspired.

Two weeks after you ride along with Dave Hughes for Talk No. 155, though, the IEA releases the latest edition of its annual World Energy Outlook, which predicts a global oil production peak or plateau by 2030. In a video that appears online soon after, the Guardian’s George Monbiot [him again] requests a more precise figure from the IEA’s chief economist, Fatih Birol. The official estimate, he confesses, is 2020. Monbiot also inquires as to the motivation for the IEA’s sudden about-face, and Birol explains dryly that previous studies were “mainly an assumption.” That is, the 2008 version was the first in which the IEA actually examined hard data, wellhead by wellhead, from the world’s 800 largest oil fields. Monbiot asks, with understandable incredulity, how it was that such a survey hadn’t been conducted previously. Birol’s response: “In fact, nobody has done that research. And the research we have done this year is the first in the world…”

And from Alberta oil patch executives:

He calls the $150-a-barrel price shock of last summer “just a prelude.” “People take it for granted,” he told you, “that they can go to the gas station and fill it up. I don’t think in two or three years that’s something you’ll be able to take for granted. I really don’t.”

And as you read all this, you keep thinking to yourself what Chris Turner keeps saying you are thinking to yourself: “This can’t be right…”

Addition from the perspective of 2024: I don’t, in fact, think the projections that we’d be more less running out of oil by now have proven to be correct… (Unfortunately, I guess.)

Things I bought on my summer vacation

Because someone has to stimulate the economy.

Destinations: Quebec City, Charlevoix, and points between

  • A British magazine called Classic Rock that counted down the top vocalists of all time. Number one choice of fans, critics, and musicians alike? Freddie [Mercury], natch.
  • Blueberry honey from the Musée de l’abeille. Honey that fresh is so different from the stuff you get at the supermarket, it might as well be a different food altogether.
  • A crazy amount of Québecois cheese. Among them: la Sauvagine (from the source), cèdre de lune, le migneron, and le ciel de Charlevoix (from that source), and the 1608, made from a rare breed of Canadian cow dating from that time. (Hey, did you know you can freeze cheese?)
  • A Medieval-style red and black dress that seems slightly impractical but that I was talked into on assurances that it really suited me.
  • A used copy of Roger Daltrey’s Ride a Rock Horse LP. Not CD—LP. Really, I wanted the cover.
  • Chocolates ranging in flavors from ginger to chai to marshmallow. None of which I’ve actually tried yet, but they look and smell great.
  • A fat British movie magazine called Empire. Because in Britain, apparently, the Internet has not killed the movie magazine business, as it has in North America.
  • Items I won’t detail from La boutique Kama Sutra. Oh, and some batteries.
  • Free-range duck products in many forms—magret, foie gras, paté, confit. (Yes, we travelled with an electric cooler. Otherwise, the smell of cheese might have killed us.)
  • A copy of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. The one magazine I haven’t read yet.
  • An original art work by a young Québecois artist, done in pastels, about 16 by 20, featuring a woman bathing. Quite striking.
  • Sparkling cider products from the cidrerie at l’Ile aux Coudres.
  • An art book featuring the work of Laurent Lafleur, one of whose original paintings we already own, and whom we got to meet on this trip.
  • Two bottles of Rosé from a Prince Edward County winery, meant to distract us from the astounding Chardonnay we tasted but didn’t purchase at another Prince Edward County winery, because that one was $42. Didn’t work—we spent the next half week mooning over that Chardonnay, until our taste buds were cleared by an astounding Cotes du Rhone (with meal).
  • MoneySense magazine, which has advice on how to save money. Which I probably need now.

Busy, busy

Been a fairly active few days; I’ll try to catch up with a variety of things here…

The new Ignatieff ads

If these work, I’ll be terribly disappointed in my fellow Canadians.

Verses continues to excel

The new summer menu is out! The new herbed gnochi with wild mushroom appetizer is wonderful, and Jean declared the foie gras possibly the best ever. Anywhere. Also pretty cool: “The cocoa nib braised Belgium endive” on the duck breast main course.

Hannah’s doesn’t survive the loss of its chef

Website is still up, but Hannah’s Bistro restaurant is history. There’s a sign on the door saying they’ve vacated the premises with rent due.

West Side Story‘s a winner

We saw a preview performance with my parents at Stratford; it was excellent, with a really strong cast of young dancers and singers. And even though I knew perfectly well what would happen to Tony, it still made me cry.

Drowning in Riesling

Well, not really, but do have a good stock visiting four Beamsville-area wineries with the folks. At Angel’s Gate, besides the Riesling, I took a chance on a blend not available for tasting. At East Dell we didn’t do any sampling, but I do recommend the restaurant. Malivoire‘s Gamay and the Gerwurtz won me over, and at Cave Spring I liked everything I tried, and took home the Estate Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.

And we all gained appreciation for Jean’s GPS on the drive home.

Television finales

In the evenings, we caught up on some of these:

  • Grey’s Anatomy: Now there are rumours that Izzy isn’t really dead. That would just be cruel. (Still liking Owen and Christina, Bailey, and little Gray + McSteamy. Whom Mom agreed really does look like my cat.)
  • Bones: I enjoyed it, but it was an odd season finale. And amnesia? Seriously?
  • Desperate Housewives: Bad news: Looks like Jackson (Gale Harold) won’t be on the show anymore. Good news? That means I no longer have to watch Desperate Housewives!
  • American Idol: OK, I only read about (didn’t watch) the finale, just as I’ve only read about (never watched any of) the entire season, but I’m still surprised Adam didn’t win.
  • 30 Rock. Funny.
  • How I Met Your Mother. The goat! The jumping! Barney and Robin! Yay! And also very funny.

Still a bit over-ambitious

Oh, not in my career. I mean in my cooking. Hosted sister, brother-in-law, and kids over with the parents, and saying I said just make a simpler dinner. One main course, not three. Dessert made ahead. Simple appetizer. Yet somehow I still ended up peeling lima beans for the guacamole (don’t ask) and spending three hours on lasagna.

Everything was good, though.

By the time we got to Woodstock

It had been over for 40 years. So we had to make do with a symphonic makeover. Which frankly, was really enjoyable, and much more comfortable than sitting on a blanket in the mud while tripping on acid. (Oh dear. I’m old.) Highlights:

  • Rik Emmett doing Hendrix (All Along the Watchtower) and Santana (Black Magic Woman) justice on the guitar.
  • The rock chicks—Rique Franks letting loose on Joplin’s “Piece of my Heart”, Katalin Kiss on “White Rabbit”.
  • Neil Donnell channelling Joe Cocker in the liveliest performance I’ve ever seen him give, totally capturing the gravely voice while still hitting every note perfectly (as he does). Fantastic orchestration on this one (“With a Little Help From My Friends”), too.

My one quibble, being me? Just talking about how great The Who were at Woodstock, but not performing any Who—”because we already did The Who this season.” Yes, like everyone in the audience would be so upset to hear symphonic “Pinball Wizard” again only nine months later! That’s way too soon!

Geek excitement—Tasks in Google calendar!

The one feature I like in Lotus Notes—the To Do lists—now finally available in the email program I otherwise prefer! A geeky thrill!

Le menu

Dining in the cavernous Waterloo Inn with strangers was certainly different from, well, dining with strangers in the intimacy of Michael Stadtlander’s Eigensinn Farm. For one thing, the chef was in the room dining (and speaking between courses) rather than in the kitchen, cooking. But, it was his menu, and all sourced with ingredients available from within 100 miles. And if not quite the refined taste sensation that the meal on his farm was—it was still pretty darn good. And very creative.

We managed to get a rare copy of the menu. Here we go.

Amuse: Harriston farms Rabbit Confit with Wellesley apple butter jam. Served with icewine from the Icehouse. [The confit approach gave the rabbit quite intense flavor. It was odd but good starting a meal with ice wine.]

Soiled Reputation [this is a Stratford area farm] sun choked bisque with crispy sun choked chips. [Jerusalem artichoke soup with crunchy bits in it. Really good.]

Fresh port Stanley pickerel on beetroot risotto with chive oil drizzle. Served with a Riesling—maybe Inniskillin. [Fish nicely cooked, beets very delicious.]

Palette cleanser: Trius Carbernet Sauvignon and carrot ice shooter. [One of the most interesting items of the evening—a veggie sorbet flavoured with good wine.]

Braised Berkeshire pork belly, slow roasted Cumbae Farms beef tenderloin and short ribs with Reif Cabernet Merlot demi. Served with Jackson Triggs Meritage. [Red meat three ways. All amazing—and I’m usually not that bowled over by the red meat thing. No problem with overdone beef here. The ribs were all crispy delicious fat.]

Soiled Reputation baby leaves, Baco Noir wine vinaigrette, Flax seed crisp topped with Niagara Gold cheese and Mario Pingue prosciutto. [Now there’s a salad course.]

Wild flower honey and Harmony Dairy double cream brie cheesecake with maple poached apple chips and spiced plum compote from our courtyard. Served with a different ice wine—one with a less apple taste than the first. [Ok, this was some strong cheese in that cake. Not like anything I’ve tasted. You really needed the ice wine to manage it. Then it all balanced out well.]

Biggest problem with the evening? The service. Well, in particular, the weirdly long wait between when the course served and finally getting the wine that went with it. Not cool when wine matching is part of the whole experience. At one point we actually grabbed a bottle and started serving ourselves…

Open ear-ed

Open Ears is a Kitchener Festival of Music and Sound, the goal of which is hearing new things, or old things in new ways. This year’s theme is environments.

The KW Symphony is a major sponsor, and the first Open Ears event we attended was indeed a Symphony concert at Centre in the Square. Called “Sound Explorations,” the first half featured R. Murray Schafer’s “The Darkly Splendid Earth: The Lonely Traveller,” with concert master Stephen Sitarski walking to different parts of the stage to play his various moody solos. It ended with Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” a very lively tour through every instrument in the symphony. And in between, we got John Cage’s 4’33”. That would be four minutes and thirty-three seconds of the various sections of the orchestra raising their instruments, yet none of them ever playing a note.

So, yeah, that was different. But not that different. And certainly not in a different environment.

So this weekend, we explored. We went out to downtown Kitchener for a 10:30 PM concert by a band called The Books, at a club called The Gig. The Books’ thing is sampling sound, and films, and writing songs around them, but on acoustic instruments. Their entire show had visuals, from home movies, old films, TV clips, whatever. The songs they come up with range from the quite lovely and touching to the completely confounding and dissonant. It’s a lot to take in, actually. So the hour or so they played was about right.

But though done with The Books, we weren’t done, not quite yet—even though it was now approaching midnight. Instead we went on to a Blue Dot event at The Tannery. We were even less sure what this was supposed to be (the brochure said an experiential metaphor. Gee, thanks, that’s helpful), or what The Tannery was, exactly.

Turns out that The Tannery is an old warehouse, converted to a nightclub kind of thing. The whole place was somewhat dimly lit. Blue light adorned one section, art slides were projected on one wall, a film loop of something like an Olympic gymnast was projected on another wall, and various physical art pieces were on display. A DJ played electronica. The crowd was Bohemian and, we were guessing, mostly in their 20s. So it was certainly an intriguing atmosphere. We went to the upper level to take it in.

About a half hour, maybe 45 minutes after we arrived, we were all ushered into another room for an art event. This turned out to be three guys—one of whom was hunky KW conductor Edwin Outwater—each standing on a podium thingie, each swinging a speaker, with a lights, from a rope, over their heads. Meanwhile, the artist adjusted the sound from this central console. At some points all the room lights went out, leaving only the illumination from the swinging speaker thingies, creating a kind of strobe effect.

It was pretty cool, actually. Though looked absolutely exhausting to participate in.

YouTube video of this performance—not from Kitchener, of course:

Then it was back to the big club room, as the music was to be playing all night.

Of course, we’re too old for that kind of thing, so we didn’t stay much longer, and therefore missed out on whatever other coolness ensued. But we certainly did experience new sounds in new environments.

Then this morning, CBC Radio gave me a new appreciation of disco music. But that’s a subject for another day.

Local dining my way to the poorhouse

I previously mentioned attending the Earth Day Gala dinner in support of local food producers.

I didn’t mention here (though many know) that this was actually our second multi-course gourmet dinner featuring local foods, in a week. We already had the Earth Day tickets when Verses announced a wine-matching dinner on a local food and wine and theme. Verses hadn’t done one of those in quite a while—we had to go that too. And fine that was. The featured vineyard was a relatively new one called Rosewood, and the food was, as always, impeccably prepared, and very well matched with each course.

(Generous servings, too. The 16% alcohol honey wine at the end really did me in. No, we didn’t drive home. Yes, I did go to work the next day. Yay, aspirin.)

And now…

We’re going to another one.

But it’s Michael Stadtländer! Our first and possibly best gourmet chef person! It’s been so hard getting into his Eigensenn Farm in recent years, we were kind of thinking we’d never eat his food again. But lo if he isn’t coming to the area, courtesy of the local chamber of commerce, and preparing a 7-course meal, local foods, some wine matching.

So yeah. We had to go to that, too.

We may end up poor, fat, and with mild liver damage, but hey. Isn’t it worth it to be surrounded by a healthy local food economy?

(Oh, and as to the rumours that Stadtländer is closing Eigensenn: True—but only to open a new, somewhat larger establishment…)

Earth Day gala dinner

Last year, J and I went alone (together), the event was sold out, prizes were drawn (and we won one), we sat with local food producers or sellers, and the food was quite good.

This year, we were with friends; the event was well-attended, but not quite sold out; there were no prize draws—just an auction; we sat an architect couple and a couple consultants (who weren’t a couple); and the food was quite good.

It’s interesting sitting to dine with strangers, and the conversation did range quite a bit, from the artistic merits of local development projects to favourite sci-fi programs to the best gay bashes each of us had ever attended. (I had little to report there.) At least nobody was bored.

And the food? Well, I kept the menu, so I can give a pretty darn good run-down. All wines were from Pelee Island winery.

Water: Smoked arctic char on green bean and mesclun salad. Served with Gewurztraminer reserve.
I loves me the local smoked arctic char, and the slightly sweet Gewurtz did nicely set off the acidity of the salad.

Earth: Goat cheese with marinated tomatoes, arugula, and beet essence. Served with Sauvignon Blanc.
Really nice goat cheese, and the tomatoes had so much flavor! It reminded me of summer. And the wine took on a totally different—and better—character with this food.

Air: Ravioli stuffed with duck confit, duck prosciutto, and saffron cream. Served with Pinot Noir.
My favourite course of the meal, rivalling the best duck raviolo we’ve ever had previously (which was in the Eastern Townships in Quebec). I think I have to try making this stuff myself sometime. And the Pinot did seem fruity enough to stand up to this.

Land: Lamb medallions, beef tenderloin, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Served with Carbernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot.
The meatatarian delight! Beef should have been cooked a little less, in my opinion, and overall, a bit of a downer after the duck. But we were pretty spoiled by this point. The wine was no Australian but stood up OK to the food.

Heaven: Gingered apple cake with apple coulis creme fraiche. Served with late harvest Vidal.
Nice little dessert, nice little dessert wine.

Managed to finish all courses despite the number of them. And glasses of wine were on the small side, so no headache the next day.

I’ll be looking out for this again next year.