Some weeks are quiet, and others, you have something on every night. This past week was the latter.
Monday night we were out for ballroom dance practice, and there isn’t much more to say about that.
Tuesday night I had book club meeting (and Jean braved the grocery store all by hisself!), to discuss Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. It was definitely a quick and interesting read, an account of how a 24-year-old suddenly gradually became more psychotic, to the point of spending a month in such a state of delirium that, to this day, she cannot remember that time. Yet most testing showed nothing wrong with her; a medical mystery. To write the book, she had to rely on eye witness accounts by her family, friends, and boyfriend, along with medical records and some hospital video footage.
So it made for some good discussion. Two of us had only the eBook version, and we both reacted the same way to seeing the physical hardcover: Picking it up in fascination at its surprising “heft” in “real life”. “I feel like I’ve brought in an ancient artifact,” friend-with-actual-book remarked.
Wednesday night we were off to see Jeans’n’Classics / KW Symphony rendition of “The Music of Annie Lennox”. But before that, we went out for dinner to Niko Niko Roll & Sushi. The level of service was a little weak, and the lack of a wine list a bit disappointing, but the food was pretty good. Not quite up to Watami Sushi level, but better than most “all you can eat” places. And, for the first time I can recall, we were actually at Centre in the Square a full half hour before concert start! That speed of service was much appreciated.
(I was told my speed of walking may have contributed, too. It was chilly out!)
The concert itself was very enjoyable. They had six different female singers covering the various Eurythmics and Annie Lennox solo songs, so you got to hear them interpreted through a variety of voices and singing styles. They all wore dresses in the first half, and men’s wear in the second, in tribute to Annie Lennox’s own range of fashion.
Thursday, we had a Jean work event at the Culinary Studio, to celebrate some achievements (that this isn’t the place to describe). Children and spouses were welcome to join. What we did was move from workstation to workstation, preparing a different appetizer at each: soup, spanakopita, crepes, spring rolls, and bruschetta. (The kids made chocolate chip cookies.) It was a lot of fun—and I’ve learned I’ve been chopping vegetables incorrectly for 25 years. (Gonna be a hard habit to break.)
We learned how to make spring rolls much like these
Then, we all ate what we had made. It was surprising how filling a small number of appetizers (and cookies) can be!
Friday we stayed home and watched a movie called Secret Things. There will be a separate post on that.
And Saturday we were out for a very special dinner, which will also merit its own post.
A conference Jean was attending happened to fall on my birthday weekend; hence, we went to Toronto for my birthday. Jean had to be there Friday morning. He didn’t find the prospect of driving himself in too appealing, but train service from Kitchener has gone from bad to worse. So he took the Greyhound. I did the same after work. It went well for both of us (though mine had the inevitable rush hour clog at points), and return bus tickets for two was likely less than parking and gas would have been.
We had fun texting each other on my bus ride over, until his phone died at an inopportune time; just as we were trying to meet at the station. Happily we managed to find each other before too long, even without the tech.
Jean was staying at the conference, the Metropolitan, which has a well-regarded restaurant: Lai Wah Heen. So we just ate there the first night. Basically, they offer high-end Chinese food: It’s a beautiful room with white linens, with a menu of stir-fries, soups, dumplings, and fried rice. So there isn’t a whole lot of creativity in the dishes, per se, but everything is impeccably prepared, and the service is very good. And you can get a few premium ingredients, such as foie gras and duck in the fried rice.
Nicely prepared scallops, with glass of Cave Spring Riesling
Jean had to continue conferencing the next morning, so after a Starbucks breakfast, I walked over to the St Lawrence Market. Similar idea to the Waterloo one, really, but more international. I came back with some olive oil, cheese, and blackcurrant honey.
After a quickie Thai lunch, we did some more walking around Toronto, including the near-mandatory stop at Mountain Equipment Coop. I bought a dress (since I can’t seem to resist buying dresses…).
Financial district of Toronto
Dinner reservations that night were for Nota Bene, which seems to be a bit of trendy place right now. It was busy, but we were seated in a reasonably quiet spot. We found the food a bit uneven. Jean’s appetizer of venison pate, while my lobster salad certainly wasn’t bad, but wasn’t greatly flavorful.
Lobster salad at Nota Bene
But my main course of rabbit mushroom pasta was really quite delicious, and I ate every bite. Jean, on the other hand, found that his scallops were overdone.
Must say the scallops *look* good, though
For dessert, most unusually, I didn’t particularly feel like the sweet stuff, and I suggested the cheese plate! Neither of us had complaints about that course.
Cheese platter
Sunday we breakfasted at the hotel (expensive but quite good), then headed to the AGO. They didn’t have any particular special exhibits on; just some photography by Patti Smith—small Polaroids that didn’t really impress Jean. But it’s always nice to look at the Canadian collection.
The AGO
We met up with my sister and brother-and-law there for lunch (or brunch) at Frank Restaurant. We all enjoyed that meal, and did some catching up.
Then back home together on the bus, which also went quite well.
We went to Cork, in Elora, for their $2 oyster, $2 off wines by the glass night last week. There isn’t a whole lot to say about it—nice room, all the food was quite good, it was an enjoyable evening. I recommend going if you’re in the area.
But I did think of some Jean’s photos were kind of cool.
Le bubbly waterMalpeques on ice, with Sauvignon BlancArty shot, eh?Oysters are good but not filling, so… Pork three ways
Last Thursday we braved the pre-storm (really, no big deal) to go out for dinner and a concert. The dinner plan had been to check out Imbibe, on The Museum premises. Only, they didn’t seem terribly interested in serving us. It was a while before anyone even told us we could sit anywhere, and as the minutes ticked by with no one offering drinks or a menu, we left. (I’m not sure they noticed.)
Fortunately, the reliable Peter Martin’s was across the street. We discovered that they seemed to have largely abandoned their “cheaper bistro” idea, going back to the pricier appetizer and entree approach. Everything very good, though. We shared mussels in cream sauce with smoked bacon to start, then I had the pork belly with excellent greens and sweet potato sides, while Jean enjoyed the lamb with side of gnochi.
Then, off to our Intersections concert across the street. This one focused on Indian music, and befitting that, some members of the orchestra—including conductor Edwin Outwater—were in Indian garb.
Not how members of the symphony were dressed, but a cool pic nonetheless
The guest performers did not play sitars. Highlighted on the first few pieces was the mrdangam, which is a type of drum. One side of it plays bass notes, the other higher-pitched rhythms. The performer, Trichy Sankaran, could play incredibly quickly.
He was joined by his daughter, Suba Sankaran, who clapped out rhythms during the instrumental numbers, but then also took over on vocals. One piece she presented was an reinterpretation of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire”. As befitting the title of this section, she did also present some songs from Bollywood movies, although with a twist: She sang lyrics from the somewhat humorous English translation, rather than the original Hindi. (No actual dancing, but we did some movie footage in the background.)
During a lovely piece called “Maya” it occurred to me that many of us had been trained in the sounds of Indian music by the British rock stars of the sixties: The Kinks with “See my Friends”, and of course, The Beatles. Fittingly, the last piece of the evening was a great version of George Harrison’s “Within You, Without You” from Sgt. Pepper.
The concert, performed without intermission, seemed to be over in a flash. Indeed, it was just about an hour long. Just enough to whet our palate.
Though the trip to Toronto was some time ago now (late November), I still wanted to add a few bits about it.
Dining at the legislature
Though I’ve had the full tour of Ottawa’s Parliament buildings before, I’m not sure I’d actually been to the Ontario Legislature before, but that’s where I met my sister for lunch. It’s a pretty quiet place these days, as a result of the controversial prorogation, but a very attractive old building—well worth seeing. We ate at the In Camera dining room, which has fairly luxurious atmosphere, and a varying menu with, appropriately, emphasis on local foods. All quite good at pretty reasonable prices.
Dining at Ki
Ki Restaurant has become my destination of choice for pre-concert dining, because of its highly convenient location (close to both Air Canada and Sony Centres), reliably delicious food, and excellent service. It does have a downside, though, in its large bar area being a destination of choice for the young and beautiful professionals to meet after work. It doesn’t bother us that we’re therefore seated at the back to not bring down the atmosphere, but it does make for pretty noisy dining. Something that bothers Jean in particular.
Still, at least the eating itself remained enjoyable. At Ki you order five or six small plates (for two people, that is). A bit of a challenge to pick all that out from the fairly sizable menu, but with practice we’re getting better at it. (And the wait staff are always helpful.) I no longer remember everything we had, but I do know that the seared fresh scallop with mushrooms and edamame was one of the highlights.
We also had a number of sushi and tempura inspired items, including the tempura butterfish of Alaskan king crab, salmon, butterfish, avocado, cucumber + tobiko with a tempura crust.
But the highlight, unpictured, was the creamy miso chowder drizzled with truffle oil. Just an astonishing combination of flavors.
Toronto sights
The predicted weather for this trip was terrible, but the actuality was much better: less cold, less rain than anticipated. Only late Saturday did it get pretty unpleasant, with a temperature and wind. (So then we went went home. 🙂 )
Before, though, we did have some time to amble and get some photos.
We got the above photo on the walk back from The Who concert.
And while our supposed 4-star “official Grey Cup” hotel wasn’t particularly spectacular, we were way up high and did have a beautiful view of the city outside. I love this shot.
I did occasion to wear a couple of the newly purchased dresses recently. First this one, to a dinner at Verses (photo taken after, faded makeup and all):
Dinner there was great, of course. First time with their new winter menu.
And actually, I also wore that dress to work one day, with camisole underneath, to cover up the cleave…
The purple one I did wear to a Christmas party, as planned. I was the only one in that colour! (Red seems popular this year. Black always is, of course.)
Thing is, the only photo I have showing the entire dress, I don’t really like. So instead, here’s a couple of just the top of the dress. You’ll have to just imagine the rest of it.
(Her I’m with someone Jean works with. An important someone.)
The blue one has yet to have an outing, but I’m sure its day will come.
Our fall trip was cut down from its usual week to a couple days (four with the weekend), but we made the most of it by leaving Friday afternoon, and staying in Ottawa until Tuesday afternoon. On both trips, we stopped for dinner in the Toronto-ish area around rush hour time, thereby successfully avoiding traffic tie-ups. The worst we experienced was just trying to get out of Kitchener Friday afternoon!
In Ottawa, we did our usuals of enjoying some of the city’s finer restaurants, visiting museums, walking around the parks, and shopping in the Market and other areas. But two things made this year’s trip specially special. The first was that we followed up on an idea from last year’s high school reunion and met up with friends there! And that was a total hoot.
The second I’ll get back to later.
When we first arrived in Ottawa, it was just the two of us for lunch. We were staying in a hotel right by the Market, so that’s where we headed. Jean recalled that we had really enjoyed Play Food and Wine last time we were in Ottawa, so we found that place again. They offer small plates, each optionally matched with a 3 or 6 oz glass of wine—two things we love (the small plates and the wine matching, that is).
I started with a nice pumpkin salad with goat cheese and cinnamon tempura (!), served with a really good red blend from Organized Crime winery (want to seek that wine out), while Jean had excellent seared trout, served with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. My next course, pictured, was pasta with littleneck clams, served with a Gruner Veltliner (from Austria, of course). Jean had the gnochi served with sage and mushrooms, accompanied by a New Zealond Pinot Noir (Appleby Lane).
And we finished by sharing a cheese plate, me with a French muscat, while Jean had an Ontario late harvest. Everything was very good. We sat upstairs this time, and still found the atmosphere quite nice, with good service.
It had been sunny when we arrived, but started to cloud over in the afternoon. It was still pretty nice, though, so we walked around, and Jean took some photos.
Long view of ParliamentOutside the War MuseumCity art
That night, for dinner, was our first occasion for meeting up with friends. Sylvie and Paul had driven up from Timmins that day. They had suggested we try Sidedoor. Saturday ended up being the only night that worked for that, and we couldn’t get reservations until 8:30 pm!
This turned out to be another “small plate” kind of place, but not with wine matching this time. We ordered a variety of items for sharing: fried tofu with veggies, buttered lobster tacos, tuna sashimi, sockeye salmon seviche with coconut, shrimp dumplings, pan-roasted duck, chicken in chili sauce. And steamed rice. We went with a bottle of Spanish tempranillo for the lot, and that worked pretty well.
Not sure what the drunken angle is about, but does indicate the variety of dishes being shared…
The food was, in general, very nice. Sylvie and Paul voted for the salmon and tofu as their faves; Jean and I were more inclined to the tuna and dumplings. But it was all worth eating. We didn’t order dessert, but we did all have ports to finish.
The place was… lively. It was reasonably sedate when we first arrived, but not long after, an entire wedding party showed up, and in no time, every seat in the place was filled. Mostly with people younger than us, which tends to be unusual, for your higher-end dining places. It made for conversation at our table a bit challenging; I had to fill Jean in after on some of the items Sylvie and I had discussed.
Sunday started out drizzly and was predicted to just get more rainy, so we decided this would be a good day to use our pre-purchased tickets to the Museum of Civilization. Jean had been there before, and I thought I had as well, but I soon concluded it was my first visit. It was quite interesting, especially the Canada Pavilion, where you are really immersed into Canadian history, east to west, old to new.
Part of the Native display at the museum (and cool photo)
We had lunch at the museum, and that was pretty good. I convinced Jean that a one-course lunch would suffice; I had fish, he had duck, with the matching wines (where available). And we concluded with cappuccino.
Though we had considered walking to the museum, we finally chose to drive. This proved a good decision as it was raining harder by the time we were ready to leave. So we took the car to some more distant driving locations, such as MEC, and did some shopping there before returning to the hotel.
Dinner that night was at Murray Street. We were meeting with Sylvie and Paul again, but also with MJ and Michel. (We were also supposed to meet with Jacinthe, but she had to back out due to a badly timed asthma flare up.) Where we had seen Sylvie and Paul semi-regularly over the years, this was our first extended visit with MJ and Michel in a long time. We had a great evening! Though a pretty casual spot, the sound level at Murray Street made conversation much easier than at Sidedoor, and there was much merriment over our plates and individual glasses of wine or beer.
We’re back to drunken angles…
Despite the one-course lunch, given that Murray Street has pretty hearty food, I decided to go with two appetizers as my meal: A Po Boy of fried oysters (don’t always like cooked oysters, but these worked), with a sparkling Ontario wine; and a B, B, and J: Beets, butter and… I don’t know what the J is, actually, but it came with fried cheese. I had a red with that. Jean had an appetizer—I don’t remember what—then, as shown in the photo foreground, the duck leg confit with lentils.
I was the only one with room left enough for dessert, which was a take-off on s’mores, with graham, chocolate mousse, and marshmallow. Very good! And, most of us had port to finish. (Apparently Jean and I are quite the port pushers.)
Monday cleared up some again. We were meeting Sylvie and Paul for lunch, so we did some walking in the morning, and Jean got a few more photos.
The Unknown Soldier
Lunch was at Whalesbone, on Bank. It is a seafood place in general, but especially known for oysters. It’s small, with a really cool, casual atmosphere. A good place for our final “with friends” meal.
We’d had breakfast at Dunn’s Deli again, where it’s hard to get a really small breakfast, so we weren’t starved for our 12 noon lunch. Jean decided to have just the 18 oysters, but with willingness to share with me. I went for the Nicoise salad, which Jean also helped me with. We had a half liter of a white wine he recommend, that was really good with oysters—but I can’t remember what it was. But I do remember there were three types of oysters, one from BC (the biggest and meatiest; our favorite) and two types from the East Coast. They also had a variety of dipping sauces available, including Scotch! (We still don’t like Scotch.)
The coolest picture of oysters ever!
The salad Nicoise was also very nice. Paul had that as well. Sylvie went for the fish and chips, and reported that was good. Certainly looked like it.
Monday afternoon we did a bit more Market-ing. We had an early, fairly light (and wine-less!) dinner at a Thai restaurant across from Murray Street that was perfectly fine.
And then we were off to the Bob Geldof concert. Which was the second thing that made this trip special. But I’ll report on that part separately.
Not sure what was going on, but everybody and their brother seemed to be in the small town of Elora last weekend. We were there to take part in the Culinary Walking Tour, which itself seemed to have been overbooked with 19 people. During the $15 tour, you visit 7 food-related establishments for samplings, and get some history of Elora and its buildings on the way.
Greeted by the Elora town crier
Each establishment our large group went to this day, however, seemed to be run off its feet by higher paying customers, making it difficult for them to give the tour group the normal amount of attention. This, despite the tour taking place from 2 to 4, so not exactly at peak dining hours.
Nevertheless, it was pretty enjoyable. It was a beautiful day, and we got to learn about a number of establishments we weren’t previous familiar with. This was the run down:
Olive oil and vinegar tasting at the Village Olive Grove. This was one we were quite familiar with, having twice before done tastings here. Still, it was good, with both the olive oil and vinegar (which you taste via sugar cube) being impressive, and this particular host not phased by the large group or the busyness of his shop.
Macaroons at the Mill Street Bakery and Bistro, another place we’ve actually eaten before. Macaroons were tasty, but we had to eat them standing up in the lobby while getting an abbreviated history of the building.
Bocconcini salad at the Cellar Pub and Grill. We had to wait outside here a while before they were ready for us, but that did give us time to admire their fantastic patio we’d never before noticed. The usual host for the tour was away, so the bartender did his best to introduce the place. The salad was fine, but again, we didn’t get to sit, and no one seemed to think to tell us about their menu.
E&G Fine Pastry and Cake was one place that wasn’t crowded with people, and it was a really interesting shop, full of occult books and medieval supplies along with delicious pastries. The owners didn’t say much–I don’t think English was their first language–but the mocha cake was very good.
Cork was full, so we sat out their outdoor patio. The hostess and chef still tried to give a good overview of the place as we eat a sampling of grilled salmon with side vegetable. This was on the one that intrigued us the most—more on it later (plus photo below).
At the Shepherd’s Pub, we got a small glass of MacLeans micro-brewed beer (not that they said that’s what it was, but that”s what the website says). As beer goes, it was fine, and the place seemed like your typical pub.
Finally, they managed to squeeze us in at tables Cafe Creperie and talk about that place while we sampled a piece of smoked salmon, roasted tomato, and apple crepe. They were all really good; I would recommend this place if you were in those parts and in the mood for crepes.
Our tour group was from various parts of Ontario—Toronto, London, northern Ontario—further afield than I’d expected. (I somehow thought everyone would be semi-local, like us.) And there were a couple there from Australia!
In anticipation of this, we’d skipped lunch, which maybe wasn’t the best idea, because then all the samplings seemed too small. We were actually thinking of going out for a meal by the end. But we finally nixed that idea, instead heading and just having an earlier dinner.
So in retrospect, the better idea would have been snacking before the tour. (A whole lunch might have been sampling everything difficult.)
The exterior of Cork
This weekend Jean invited me back to Elora, where he wanted to take some pictures, then try lunch at Cork. Elora was back to its sleepy self yesterday, with just the normal number of tourists milling about. Jean wasn’t super pleased with the results of his photography (his own assessment, not mine), but post some shots anyway.
Elora Mill
Cool look of the water here
Ontario autumn
And, we had lunch at Cork. We tried three samplers: a brie and pear flat bread (hard to go wrong with that, and they didn’t); scallops with smoky bacon and crip chips (nice combo, big scallops); and gnocchi in cream-based sauce with cheese (very rich, but great texture on the pasta). We had that with a half-litre of unoakced Chardonnay.
On this calmer day in Elora, we spoke to the hostess and got a better overview of their offerings, which include:
Half-price bottles of wine on Tuesday
All-you-can-eat tapas on Wednesday (Uptown 21 style, they will just keep bringing items until you declare yourself full)
$2 oysters on Thursday, with a minimum of 2 kinds on offer
Live jazz on Saturday
Something beef-related on Sunday (for those of you still eating beef. She did mention it was Ontario, not Alberta, beef)
Most of the weekend was spent prepping for a floor installation, which meant boxing items, moving furniture, rewiring networks, ripping up carpet, and such things. Not so much fun, really. So we decided to eat out on Saturday.
We’d really enjoyed Solé Restaurant’s Harvest of Ontario dinner last year, so decided to try it again. I think it was even better.
The place was just hopping, and despite our reservation, we did have to wait a bit at the bar before we could be seated. Not a big deal, though. Once seated, it was in their back room, which was a quieter spot, more amenable to conversation.
Course 1 was fresh fig, minted mascarpone, Niagara prosciutto, in a red wine reduction. That was served with a 2011 Pinot Grigio—all wines by Vineland Estates.
The prosciutto was amazing, wonderful texture, not dry and chewy as it can be. The cheese, fig, and mint all worked beautifully together and were a nice contrast to the salty meat. The wine wasn’t the greatest to drink on its own (not that it was bad), but it did suit the food well.
Course 2 featured pernod and dill-cured smoked salmon (not from Ontario!), potato blinis, lavender, and Niagara peach preserves. That was served with a 2011 unoaked chardonnay.
The Chardonnay was nicer drinking wine on its own. Being unoaked, it had a nice fruitiness. And the food was once again superlative. The blinis were a nice support to the salmon, contrasted by peaches. The lavender was subtle.
Main course featured Nipping Farms boneless quail, served with gnocchi, cipollini onions, fennel, mushrooms, and double smoked bacon jus. The wine was a 2011 Cabernet Merlot.
With that description, how can you go wrong? Jean worried a bit about the onions, but I think they were overwhelmed by the delicious bacon. The gnocchi had great texture, soft but not mushy. The quail was nicely done, not overcooked, and not having to deal with bones was nice.
The Cab Merlot was very young. Nothing to be offended with there, but it will probably be better in a year or two. Still, with quail you don’t want a big red, so it suited.
Dessert was zabagione with fresh seasonal berries, served with 2008 Cabernet ice wine.
One can quibble that these berries aren’t really seasonal anymore, but it was a tasty and light and somewhat healthy ending to the meal. And it’s always nice to get a red ice wine. We were left feeling quite satisfied, but not unpleasantly full.
The whole shebang was $60—$40 for food, $20 for the wines—which seemed like a deal to me. Service was perfectly fine, with wines being described as they arrived this year (something that didn’t quite happen last year).
Verses restaurant decided to try something new: An evening of 20 (twenty) tasting plates. We decided we would go.
The evening began on their patio with prosecco. The first course was served out there, of a single raw oyster topped with jellied Bloody Mary mix. Very nice.
We then headed inside, where everyone was seated. They explained that:
a) It was sold out, plus had a 45-person waiting list
b) It wasn’t feasible to wine match 20 different small plates, so they would be offering one Chilean Pinot Noir and one Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, for which we could request refills as we chose
c) They had no idea how long this would all take. (We started at 6:0o pm.)
There was a printed menu giving the essence of what was to come, and Jean was pretty excited about the next item: Foie gras. We predicted it would be cold rather than seared.
That proved correct, but it was still amazing. Among the best we’ve had of that style. It was served with figs and jellied ice wine, and topped with fleur de sel.
Halibut was up next, proving that fresh really matters when it comes to fish. This was on forbidden rice with red pepper coulis.
Then, tiny pizza, served with a bitty pizza paddle.
This had a sweet taste, thanks to tomato marmalade, and was topped with smoked gouda. Likely my first Verses pizza–very nice.
The single seared jumbo shrimp on sugar cane was just fabulous.
We were pretty curious what the “cotton candy” would be. Well, it turned out to be cotton candy. Like, on a stick. Only it was lime and chili flavored. Spicy! Really spicy! But couldn’t stop eating it anyway. (The one cone was for the table, not one per person.)
KF commented it was the first time she’d ever had cotton candy at a restaurant.
For an infusion of veg, we next got an edamame shooter. There were whole edamame included. Love that veg. (Artistic shot of it follows.)
We discussed risotto, the next course, which I don’t make because it seems too labor-intensive. KF says it turns out fine sans constant stirring.
I don’t know if this one was constantly stirred or not, but it did have great texture, and the wild mushrooms tasted amazing.
Verses always does a great job with scallops, and this evening’s was no exception. But the photographic proof didn’t turn out that well, so you just have to picture that course in your mind.
… And also the next one, the delectable “almond and bacon crusted suckling pork Sammie”, or what non-foodies might pulled pork. It was like a little pork sandwich, with bacon, and was just delicious.
But we did manage a shot of the escargot with squid ink pasta. With the color, squid ink pasta always looks so weird. But it was really good.
Time for more veg! Now it was beet, carrot, and ginger sorbets. Carrot was the best, beet was good as long as you like beets, and ginger really woke up the palette. (Also, Jean was a little drunk at this point, as reflected in the picture focus.)
We had really been intrigued by the listing Waygu tartare. What the heck was a Waygu? I was guessing some sort of fish. I was wrong. Turns out that’s like Kobe beef, only not from the Kobe region, so they can’t call it that.
So right, this was raw beef. A first for… All of us, I think. We all tried it. It was OK. I don’t think any of us need to have it again, though. (The quail egg was really good. Also, not raw.)
Hence was beginning another round of protein / meat items before dessert and we were starting to feel a little… full. Interestingly, Jean was proving to be the real lightweight at this point. We thought we might lose him.
But, onward. Next up was squab on potato. (Squab, of course, is the foodie word for pigeon.) Very good.
Beet and goat cheese featured caramelized goat cheese over red beets, with yellow beets surrounding. Yummy.
The duck confit turned out to be served spring roll. I adore duck confit (and generally like spring rolls, for that matter), but didn’t find the texture of mine quite right. Or maybe I was just too full of food.
The last of the savory courses was bison with green beans. The bison (which tastes somewhat beefy) was nice; the green beans were delicious. There were also cherries involved.
The first dessert combined sheep’s milk, rose water, and mead noir pearls. Odd, huh? It was very light, though, which welcome, and really good! Would prove to be the favorite dessert. It seemed to revive Jean, who managed to finish this, when he hadn’t been doing so well with previous courses.
Then we got blue cheese ice cream, which tasted a lot like a mild blue cheese. Wasn’t to KF’s taste, but Jean loved it and I liked it. It was surrounded by delicious little meringues and, I think,some form of beets again.
And finally… Chocolate palette with banana cream on top. Also a lighter-style, and quite good.
The cooking staff came out at the end, and were given a standing ovation.
The whole thing was $140 per person, including wine, tax, and tips.
It was a bit difficult sleep right after, as we didn’t get home until about midnight. So feeling a bit tired today, but not so bad. Didn’t have a very big breakfast, though!
Tuesday night I had book club meeting (and Jean braved the grocery store all by hisself!), to discuss Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. It was definitely a quick and interesting read, an account of how a 24-year-old suddenly gradually became more psychotic, to the point of spending a month in such a state of delirium that, to this day, she cannot remember that time. Yet most testing showed nothing wrong with her; a medical mystery. To write the book, she had to rely on eye witness accounts by her family, friends, and boyfriend, along with medical records and some hospital video footage.
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