Tag: food

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.)

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.

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…

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.

And another thing…

Not to turn this into the coffee blog, but I was honestly surprised, after watching Food Detectives yesterday, to find out that coffee does not, in fact, stain your teeth.

So I don’t know why my dental hygienist keeps asking how much coffee I drink while commenting on teeth stains. Appears that beverage is not factor at all.

What is? Well, tea and coke both had pretty nasty effects. But the very worst? Red wine. Sigh. (Don’t want this to turn into the “coffee good / wine bad” blog either…)

Most people probably don’t drink enough coffee

Hey, it’s not me saying it. It’s Gary Arendash, University of South Florida in Tampa, in the highly respected Nutrition Action Healthletter.

Those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day in middle age had a lower risk of Alzheimer’s or other dementia 21 years later than those who drank less.

“Caffeine is anti-inflammatory, and Alzheimer’s is a disease of inflammation in the brain.”

People who drink regular coffee also have a lower risk of Parkinson’s, and regular or decaf may help prevent diabetes. [Also, I’ve read in certain other articles, seems to help reduce the incidence of certain cancers.]

“Caffeine is the most prevalent psychoactive drug taken in by humans. It’s safe and inexpensive. It’s as effective as anything that pharmaceutical companies have devised.”

“Unless you are pregnant, I would absolutely recommend caffeine.”

“For the vast majority, it’s entirely safe and it’s a no-brainer [interesting choice of adjective] to protect against diseases of aging like diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s.”

Dark chocolate, nuts, now coffee… all health foods.

Now if they could just stop pointing out the link between wine and breast cancer, nearly all my nutritional vices will have become virtues.

18 random things about our trip to Provence

This post also lives at https://culturearchive.ca/18-random-things-about-our-trip-to-provence/

Thought I’d post this in advance of the big website extravaganza…

1. Provence has more and better Roman artifacts than Rome

This was a surprise. It shouldn’t have been, as our tour itinerary said we’d be seeing all these Roman artifacts, but we were still surprised. Huge, intact coliseums and theatres. Enormous aqueducts. Huge cenotaphs. Sculptures. Romanesque churches. Enormous Pope’s Palace (yes, the pope lived in Provence rather than Rome for a time). We almost got to be blasé about it; oh, another day, another coliseum!

2. Provence may be the best place in the world in which to eat

Oh my, the food. Every meal was good, everything properly prepared. Duck, salmon, quail, osso bucco, shrimp, lamb—all creatures cooked just to the right point and nicely seasoned. Creative starters—stuffed ravioli, softened goat cheese with sesame, foie gras (and more foie gras, and it didn’t cost any more than anything else), pumpkin soup. Cheese courses with soft and semi-firm choices. And desserts—chocolate caramel mousse, molten chocolate cake, gelato ice cream, tarte tatin. And, for Europe, all at pretty reasonable prices. The consistently good quality was really amazing.

Continue reading “18 random things about our trip to Provence” →

New year, new gourmet dinner

Some years ago, DH and I started cooking a gourmet dinner on New Year’s Eve—yes, just for the two of us. (Everyone seems to find that odd, but believe me, when your friends all start having babies… You start doing a lot of things just the two of you!)

Last year, that dinner didn’t quite land on New Year’s Eve itself, and this year it was even later. DH had call duty over New Year’s weekend, so we picked the weekend after for our dinner. That way, there could be wine.

First course: Mushroom and cappuccino velouté

Source: The ever-cheery sounding Cooking with Foods That Fight Cancer

Wine: Stoneleigh 2006 Pinot Noir (New Zealand)

Green mug with foamy white stuff and a bit mushroom soup poking through; bottle of Stoneleigh Pinot.

Certainly the healthiest item of the meal, the soup was also very easy to make: Sauté mushrooms, garlic, and shallots in olive oil, add good-quality chicken stock and let simmer, add fresh basil and blend, season with sesame, then froth milk and put on top. We don’t have a proper “milk frother”, though, so that wasn’t as foamy as it might have been.

But since shitake mushrooms are delicious, the soup was delicious. The wine was also very nice, living up to its reputation as a really good Pinot Noir for less than $20 a bottle. Fruity but subtle, complementing the earthiness of the mushrooms nicely.

Second course: Squash Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce

Source: LCBO—Squash ravioli, Sage butter sauce

Wine: Chateau des Charmes St. David’s Bench Chardonnay (Ontario)

Ravioli on a white plate; Chateau des Charmes bottle.

I’d been wanting to try making ravioli for a while, and had these two LCBO recipes on hand. What we made was a bit of a combination of both.

I had my doubts when the roasted squash ended up a bit overcooked, with burnt edges; was the whole thing going to end up tasting charcoal-y? Plus, one squash didn’t seem to provide quite enough material, so we supplemented with can pumpkin.

Actually stuffing the things, which I had been dreading, was actually much easier than expected. And amazingly (to me), almost none came apart in cooking, and the won ton wrappers, which seemed so doughy when raw, turned very light after cooking.

The butter sauce was also cause for some concern enroute. (And can I say, that was a shocking amount of butter! Not how I usually cook!) It was supposed to get light brown; it kind of went beyond that, to a darker colour. Was it going to taste all charcoal-y?

But everything was delicious. No charcoal accents at all. And the detail of crisping the sage leaves in olive oil added a really cool texture to the whole thing.

The wine, recommended by LCBO, did match the food very nicely. It took on a completely different, fuller character, compared with drinking it alone.

Main course: Macademia-Crusted Lamb with Celery Root-Fennel Mash and Coconut Mango Chutney

Source: LCBO again, their Holiday 2004 issue.

Wine: Clos des Brusquières 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape (France)

Lamb chops with mashed root and chutney on another white plate; Chateauneuf du Pape bottle.

This recipe was a last-minute substitution when we weren’t able to get our hands on sushi-grade tuna. The idea was accompanying honey-encrusted French-cut lamb chops with a fairly subtle-flavored mash and a very strongly flavored chutney.

None of this was hard to make, but it did take a while. DH handled the mash, which involved a couple of vegetables we don’t cook with very often: the ugly celery root and a fennel bulb (with some other flavorings, like garlic and sea salt). The result was very pleasant-tasting.

The chutney was all strong flavors: sugar, vinegar, chili, ginger, mango, cinnamon, coconut, mint, raisins, lime. It seemed like such a hodge-podge, and the color ended up so odd (brownish), that I was actually surprised how good it tasted!

The main event lamb, by comparison, was a master of simplicity. And it all worked together with the wine, which was very nice, as those tend to be. (And yes, we were feeling a little tipsy at this point, though by no means getting close to finishing any of the bottles!)

Dessert: Pumpkin-Wild Blueberry Pie

Source: Michael Stadtlander’s The Heaven on Earth Project

Wine: Cave Spring’s 2006 Late Harvest Riesling (Ontario)

Blueberry and pumpkin pie with whipped cream; Cave Spring bottle.

Michael Stadtlander is considered one of the best chefs in the world. He runs a restaurant out of his own home. It’s extremely difficult to get reservations there now, but many years, we were able to. (We just had to book four months in advance. Seriously.) And it was, indeed, a sublime experience.

We bought his book a few months ago and—guess what?—a lot of the recipes are really hard to make. But this pie was approachable, and this seemed a good time to try it.

I didn’t compromise on it too much. I used can pumpkin instead of cooking my own, and the blueberry glaze seemed to require the sacrifice of too many delicious wild blueberries for too little input on the pie. But I did follow pastry recipe, and was pleased how easy it was to mix. Rolling got a bit sticky (the crust had sugar and vanilla in it), but adding flour made that work. No amounts were given for the various spices in the pumpkin pie, so I just threw in what seemed like a reasonable amount of each.

So if not entire Statlander-esque in the end, it still turned out very good. Pumpkin and wild blueberry (frozen after we bought them up North this summer) is a good combination. And the Riesling had about the right amount of sweetness to match.

Pie was even better the next day when it had had a chance to chill longer.

Living the 100-mile diet… At least for one meal

The “One Book, One Community” choice for Waterloo region this year is “The 100-Mile Diet”, an account of a BC couple’s attempt to restrict their diet to food produced within 100 miles of their home, for one year. In that spirit was the Region of Waterloo Chef Association President’s Dinner, in celebration of Earth Day. By combining with Foodlink Waterloo Region, they wanted to show that even in April, when local produce options are limited at best, a fine meal was possible.

The evening began with a “Champagne reception”, featuring a nice, Inniskillin sparkling wine. Jean and I debated how “environmental” our presence at this event was—certainly it supported the producers and the idea; on the other hand, we did drive there.

Issue unresolved, we found that seating was in tables at eight, so we randomly selected one that had two spots available. While at first it looked like everyone was only going to talk to those they already knew, a gentleman from Wellesley suggested we all introduce each other, and things got rolling.

It was an interesting group. One couple owned Lyndon Fish Hatcheries—and also happened to have 10 children. The main focus of their business is growing fish to feed other fish hatcheries, but they do a small sideline in smoked arctic char. More on that later. They were there with another couple. He worked for Laidlaw and was frequently consulting his Blackberry; apparently he frequently had to fly out to various offices on short notice. But he wasn’t the type you’re probably picturing now from that description—he was much more down to earth.

The Wellesley couple owned a small food shop in that town. She was noticeably younger than him, with a thick Ukranian accent, but they’d met in New York City. Apparently he decided on the first day that they’d end up married, and proceeded to woo. She expressed perfect satisfaction with life in Wellesley, despite spending her teenage years in Manhattan.

So amid the lively conversation, we got some pretty nice food. First course (earth) was a nice celeriac and potato soup. Second course (water) proved the highlight—the smoked char on greens and tomatoes (greenhouse, if you’re wondering about that one), with a side of brie. Great fish! And we had it first hand that it had all been smoked the night before. Third course (air) featured pheasant and chicken. Then there was a lovely sorbet of apple and chardonnay from the Breadalbane Inn (which I think we need to try). Fourth course (land) was black Angus filet mignon, potatoes, and green beans (definitely a surprise this time of year). Dessert was a nice trio of tiny crepes with apple butter, delicious double brie ice cream, and equally delicious maple syrup tart.

Despite a few moans and groans, everyone at the table seemed to manage to eat everything. Oh, and there were also wine pairings: a nice white meritage from Jackson-Triggs, a good Pinot from Inniskillin, and a bigger red—Cabernet?—to go with the beef.

The evening ended with an auction for a personal chef’s dinner (we dropped out after the first price point) and some door prizes, one of which we won! Dinner for four at Conestega College. All in all a good evening out, whether or not the earth thanks us for it.