Tastes of the 49th parallel

Verses Restaurant had previously done an “around the world in 20 plates” dinner; this time they offered a mere 13 dishes—one per Canadian province and territory. The event was conveniently timed around Jean’s birthday.

We arrived around 6:00 and were greeted with a cocktail built around maple-infused rye liqueur, nicely balanced by less-sweet ingredients. After about a half hour, we were seated. We were only three people at the last multi-course extravaganza; this time, we were a group of eight:

This is the menu we were working our way through. It’s definitely the cod tongue that caused the most chatter; Jean and I were the only who’d ever had it before. But more on that later…

The wine was handled the same way as at the 20-course dinner; no wine matching per se, just as much of the selected red or white as we wanted. The wines selected were Canadian (natch), from a winery called Sprucewood Shores. The unoaked Chardonnay was very crisp and citrusy; I wouldn’t have guessed it was Chardonnay at all. The red was a blend of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, and was pretty easy drinking. Both were suitably food-friendly.

First course was a crispy oyster from PEI, in a chow-chow sauce. We all had the same thought: “That was delicious. Sure could use some more.”

We weren’t moving through the country geographically, though, so our next stop was Saskatchewan. It consisted of squab on saskatoon berry sauce, with greens and wild rice. Despite being informed (by me) that squab was just a foodie word for pigeon, everybody dug in and enjoyed it.

The Nova Scotia item was listed ambiguously on the menu as “street food”. We tried to figure out what that might be, with some opinion that it must be some sort of sausage. I can’t remember who guessed “lobster” (wasn’t me), but that person was spot on. We got a lobster roll on coleslaw, served in a paper container! Quite tasty.

Jumping west again, the Manitoba offering of duck prosciutto, bison jerky, blueberries, and hemp chips proved to the favorite of many, albeit with some debate over whether the duck or the bison was the best part. (I’d go duck, myself, but would probably be outvoted on the whole.)

From the North now, Nunavut (misspelled on the menu, the many writers at the table noted), was a hearty caribou stew with bannock.

The home-grown offering (Ontario) was trout with corn and Jerusalem artichokes (solving the mystery of what j chokes meant on the menu). As typical with Verses, the fish was properly cooked, meaning not too much, so it wasn’t dried out. But at the end of this course, I started to realize I had a problem: We weren’t even halfway through the meal yet, and I was starting to get full.

The next item might as well have been designed exactly for Jean: A poutine of foie gras and Sauvagine, a Québec cheese that may be his favorite. The foie gras was really the jus for the dish, which I also found quite nice (unlike typical poutine), and blessedly pretty small (despite the picture making it look pretty big).

Moving to New Brunswick, we were offered rabbit dumplings with wildflower honey. It’s getting boring to say, but this was really good, too! Though I had to start leaving some on my plate by this point, knowing more was on the way.

The Yukon offering included two of my favorite things, crab and wild mushrooms.

And now, the infamous cod tongues! These ones were larger and a little chewier than the ones I’d recalled having in Newfoundland, though one might guess they were a bit fresher there. I still didn’t mind them; I think they basically taste like cod. This remained the most controversial dish of the evening, though.

And we don’t seem to have a photo of the Northwest Territories item! Elk and beans, that was.

Then, from Alberta, lamb chops with a side of barley. At this point, quite a few people, including us, requested a doggie bag. They were delicious the next day, too.

Dessert was from BC, featuring a gourmet Nainaimo bar and “hay” ice cream. Somehow, that dish managed to “slide down between the crevices”.

Deb from Verses then spoke to everyone, explaining the challenge of finding ingredients from across Canada at this time of year! The kitchen all joined us as well, for a well-deserved round of applause.

The final item was familiar to those of from the “more North” of Canada: Tire on snow, complete with log. That was great fun.

All that was left after was decaf coffees and teas, along with settling the bill, which was $150 a person all in, including tip.

Of course, with that much wine, nobody was taking a chance on driving home. (Well, except one, who took her “no alcohol with cold medication” advice very seriously indeed, and just drank water all evening!) Another group took a cab, but we decided to try the Over the Limit service, where two people come out to where you are, and one drives your car home while the other follows, counting kilometres. That worked out quite well, despite some glitches with their website booking. It costs slightly more than taking a cab, but nice not to have to go back for your car the next day.

Oyster night at Cork

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.

Me and oysters — Malpeques on ice, with Sauvignon Blanc

Me and pork main course — Oysters are good but not filling, so… Pork three ways

Post-New Year dinner

The companion, I suppose, to our pre-Christmas celebration is our post-New Year dinner. New Year’s Eve we go out to a restaurant; early in the new year, we make ourselves a gourmet dinner. Normally this happens much closer to January 1, but with Jan 1 being a Tuesday this year with back to work occurring on Wednesday, we put it off until the following weekend.

I actually pondered inviting other people over for it this time. But what happened is what usually does when I think of having people over for dinner: I over-think myself out of the whole idea. How much will my gluten-free friend manage to eat? (I remain fuzzy on exactly what does and doesn’t contain gluten.) Do my friends who don’t eat red meat consider lamb red meat? Does my friend who only eats read meat consider lamb red meat? Does anyone have a shellfish allergy?

Perhaps I need less complicated friends. At any rate, it was just the two of us, again. And maybe it just as well, as it turned the menu would have left my imaginary guests entertaining themselves for semi-long stretches while we were in the kitchen cooking, because very little of the meal could be prepared in advance.

Partly because I had been thinking of having guests, and you’re not supposed to try new recipes on them (not that it’s stopped me before), all of this year’s items were ones we’d made previously, though never combined in this way. While in some ways it seemed unfortunate not to try new stuff, the fact is we rarely make these gourmet items any other time of year. So why not repeat some of the greatest hits of the past?

First up: Mussels and clams, steamed in white wine flavored with lemon grass and green curry paste, then finished with cream and coconut sauce. I don’t know what it was this time, as the recipe involved virtually no added salt, but the broth tasted almost too salty. Almost, but not. Maybe from the mussels and clams themselves? The mussels were just great, though. Lovely texture, almost as if we didn’t live very far from the ocean.

I was going to serve this with the Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc it cooked in, but we ran out (the bottle had been opened before), so we had Ice Cuvee with it, which I think was better. That’s a mix of sparkling wine with just a bit of ice wine, and that slight sweetness nicely offset the salt. The playlist accompanying this course was The Beautiful Ones (that is, lovely-sounding songs).

The main course featured lamb loin chops with sides of Brussels spouts and wasabi mashed potatoes. Everything was simple to do, but the two of us having to manage timing and coordinating the three items was moderately challenging. Mostly fun, though, actually.

The lamb just had to be seared on each side in olive oil, then baked at 400. Then in the same pan, I prepared a jus of red wine and beef broth (organic). The mashed potatoes were your basic red potatoes, diced (skin left on) and boiled, then when tender, mashed with light sour cream, low-sodium chicken broth, some butter, and yes, wasabi paste (as in, the green stuff they serve with sushi). The Brussels sprouts were steamed slightly, then cut in half (Jean did much exclaiming about burnt fingers), and pan-fried in olive oil. Those were then topped with more olive oil, fleur de sel, and fresh lemon juice.

Man, this all turned out really well. The lamb was maybe a bit overdone, but still had some pink, and tasted amazing. Ms Paltrow is right, and this is a good way to prepare Brussels sprouts. And fresh mashed potatoes are great with a little zing!

We served this with a very easy-drinking 2009 Chateauneuf-du-pape. And listened to the Thoughtful playlist—songs with smarts.

Dessert was the one item that I could prepare in advance: A chocolate souffle recipe from the Epicurious website. (We still don’t own ramekins, though, so they still ended up in an assortment of custard dishes, corningware, and whatnot.) It’s basically melting chocolate, mixing it with milk, then with egg yolks, then beating whites and folding those in. And, sugar is involved as well. Then everything is placed in the ramekin substitutes in the fridge, awaiting later baking. While preparing I listed to my “Long ago and far away” playlist of songs I hadn’t played in the past year—that is, songs I didn’t listen to in 2012. New year, new songs.

The later baking produced ooey-gooey good molten chocolate warm dessert, served with port. Playlist for the eating: Love, the sweetest thing: romantic songs.

Pre-Christmas

My husband and I generally have our own little Christmas celebration the weekend before the actual day, when we join in the craziness of celebrating with the large extended family. This year my husband was on call that weekend, so we had to work around that, but that’s quite a bit easier when you’re only dealing with two people.

The exchanging of “stuff”

Aiming to give each other anything major as Christmas gifts seemed sort of ridiculous as we’re currently honing in new TV and sound system already. This not long after getting the new computer, some clothes… You get the idea. So we just did “stocking stuffer” kind of things, which, as Jean said, is way more fun! The amusement of each having bought each the same wine accessory… The silly but cute gadgets from those catalogs… Chocolates and wine (which needs to be replenished constantly, anyway)… The fact he actually listened when I said I needed a new closet thingie for storing my jewelry in…

Bra on jewelry holder

So, the black thing in this photo is a dress-shaped thingie with a hanger top that has loops in the back for hanging necklaces, and pouches in front for holding earrings and bracelets and such. It will be perfect, but it’s empty at the moment (since I just got it), and therefore seemed in need of some adornment. That takes the form of a VSC bra, which—though I ordered it myself, for myself—was still something of a Christmas surprise.

First, it arrived in record time, despite my not having paid for fast shipping. (Thanks, Canada Post.) Second, I bought it mainly because I thought my current strapless wasn’t pretty enough to wear under a dress. (Which basically makes no sense, since the point of a strapless is that no one sees it. But never mind that.) The pleasant surprise was that it was even prettier than I’d expected, with its little sparkles and lacing details. I almost felt it should be seen. So here it is! (I ignored Jean’s suggestion that I model it. This isn’t that kind of blog.)

Pre-Christmas dinn-ah

I went for pretty simple-to-prepare, traditional-ish food, in quantities suitable for two.

This was Rock Cornish hens, prepared by sticking a mustard/rosemary paste under the skin, then baking it at 425. This produced nice crisp skin (which the diet recipe said to discard, but I poo-pooed that suggestion) and tasty, moist meat. The “gravy” was a mix of the juice with red wine, chicken broth, and seasoning.

I served this with mixed roasted vegetables—red potatoes, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots—in olive oil, white wine, and seasoning, baked at the same temperature as the meat, and a homemade cranberry sauce (cranberries, apple cider, sugar). As Jean had to limit all alcohol while on duty, we served it with a nice but not spectacular Cotes du Rhone.

Dessert stayed on the homey theme: A cinnamon apple crisp, with raisins, served with vanilla yogurt and port.

A capital time

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 Ottawa — Long view of Parliament

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.

Native sculpture at Museum of Civilization — 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.

Dining at Murray Street — 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.

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.)

Oysters at Whalesbone — 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.

More photos in the SmugMug Gallery.

Trippin’ in Elora

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.

Town crier in Elora

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.)

Cork Restaurant

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

Elora Mill

Elora waterway

Cool look of the water here

Ontario autumn

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.

Lunch at Cork

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)

I think we’ll be back.

Enjoying the harvest at Solé

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.

Prosciutto and Fig

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.

Salmon Gravlax

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.

Roasted quail

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.

Zabaglione

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).

I believe this menu is available until the end of September, with the Blackshop in Cambridge offering another take on the same idea.

Around the world in 20 plates

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.

Bubbly on the patio

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.

Foie gras with figs

Halibut was up next, proving that fresh really matters when it comes to fish. This was on forbidden rice with red pepper coulis.

Halibut with rice

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.

Tiny pizza

The single seared jumbo shrimp on sugar cane was just fabulous.

Shrimp on sugar cane

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.

Lime and chili cotton candy

For an infusion of veg, we next got an edamame shooter. There were whole edamame included. Love that veg. (Artistic shot of it follows.)

Edamame shooter

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.

Wild mushroom risotto

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.

Escargot and squid ink pasta

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.)

Beet, carrot, ginger sorbet

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.)

Waygu tartare and quail egg

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.

Squab on potato

Beet and goat cheese featured caramelized goat cheese over red beets, with yellow beets surrounding. Yummy.

Beet and goat cheese

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.

Duck confit spring roll

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.

Bison with cherries and beans

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.

Unusual dessert

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.

Blue cheese ice cream

And finally… Chocolate palette with banana cream on top. Also a lighter-style, and quite good.

Chocolate and banana

The cooking staff came out at the end, and were given a standing ovation.

Standing ovation at Verses

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!

Full gallery here: http://jean-cathy.smugmug.com/Food/Around-the-World-in-20-Plates (Jean’s comments are amusing)

Liking to cook

Watching her partner prepare dinner, an acquaintance of mine said, “I don’t know how you can find any aspect of cooking fun.” She, needless to say, did not particularly enjoy cooking.

This did get me to thinking, though—why do I like cooking?

Because there are definitely cooking tasks I’m not particularly fond of. I have a friend who adores all the meticulous aspects, like chopping things finely and removing meat from bones. Exactly the sort of fiddly or slightly disgusting tasks I don’t care for. I also don’t like the super-boring ones, like stirring something “constantly” for 10 minutes or more.

So when it comes to that sort of thing, I have a few tactics to cope:

Don’t do it. Like, I don’t make risotto—it requires too much stirring—and I don’t peel and seed tomatoes, because hello? Who has that kind of time, and what’s wrong tomato peel and seeds anyway?
Buy it already done. Your boneless chicken, your deveined shrimp, your peeled and chopped squash, your frozen chopped onions.
Find a more efficient way to do it. The Cuisinart is one of my best friends for grating and chopping, and lot of things turn out to be easier to peel or skin after they’re cooked, so I wait and do it then.

But despite all these avoidance manoeuvre, I really do like cooking. I do all the cooking home, because I want to. I cook just for myself, too. (And I don’t mean a grilled cheese sandwich; I mean a proper full meal with all the food groups.) I just don’t relate to people who find it always tastes better “if someone else made it”.

I think I’ve nailed down why.

It’s all about control.

I am, possibly, a bit of a control freak. And cooking for myself is the very best way to ensure that I eat nothing but what I want to eat. And much as I love some forms of convenience, I don’t like that to go too far. I don’t like pre-seasoned, pre-assembled, pre-cooked stuff. I want to do that. My flavors, my combinations of ingredients, cooked as much as I think appropriate.

It’s relaxing.

Really, cooking is pretty zen—at least the way I do it. I crank up my tunes, I pull out the recipe or recipes of the day (all planned out in advance), I gather my ingredients (all purchased ahead), I make dinner. Sure, I may get the occasional stress bubble when the main course and both side dishes all need something done at the same time, or something isn’t quite working, but that isn’t typical.

It’s a mini-accomplishment every day.

I’m not curing cancer, but at least I’ve created something decent from scratch yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

I like to eat.

Back to only cooking what I want to eat: I’m usually looking forward to eating what I’m making. One of the many, many reasons I could not be a chef is that those guys (they are mostly guys) are cooking for others, and that would just not be motivating enough for me.

Finish it up, place everything nicely on a plate, pour a matching glass of wine… Eat. Instant gratification! How many other tasks that you do in day offer the same?

Haisai Tasting menu

Michael Stadtländer’s Haisai restaurant does not have (nor is intended to have) the cachet of his Eigensinn Farm, but this summer they are offering one aspect of that establishment: the “you shall eat what you are given” tasting menu (not published in advance). Only here you can do so for a mere $75, with optional $50 for matching wines. We tried it out this past Friday.

If you haven’t been here or to the farm before, the atmosphere can be a surprise:

Interior of Haisai

But even at these more manageable prices, the food remains some of the best on offer in the country.

The countdown on the four-course meal did not include the amuse bouche, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. It was a single oyster on one side, a fish roll on the other, and both lacking only in I would have liked to have had more.

Amuse of oysters and fish roll

All wines served were from the Ravine winery. First up was a nice dry rosé, meant to last through the amuse and the two appetizers.

The first of these was speck-wrapped Georgian Bay white fish (speck is a smoked pork—bacon-y), with braised cucumbers, peas, beets, and broad beans. All veggies were from the Eigensinn Farm, which is also where the pork was smoked. All the flavors “popped”, yet played nice together.

Appetizer of fish and speck

Appetizer the second was osso bucco ravioli, topped with cranberries, with a side of apple and radish. This proved to be the highlight of the meal, as the only thing better than just plain osso bucco, it turns out, is stuffing osso bucco into a perfect ravioli. The cranberries were a great accent.

Osso bucco ravioli

The main course wine was a meritage, that was very smooth, not excessively fruity. The main course itself was beef, asparagus, thyme polenta, and Swiss chard. We remain lesser fans of getting beef at gourmet dinners, but one must say that this free-range, grass-fed meat was really delicious, and literally was so tender it was cut with a butter knife. Polenta is another thing I usually don’t care for, but this was the best one I’ve had. The asparagus was good, of course, but the actual highlight? The Swiss chard! Delish.

Main course at Haisai

That left dessert, which was served with a Gewurtz that was slightly off-dry. There we split, with Jean opting for the three cheeses (all Canadian, and all meeting his approval) while I had the sweet stuff: Lemon tart, meringue on custard, and strawberry ice cream. All lovely, though the meringue was my favorite.

Three desserts

All photos taken with Blackberry or Android phones, as we forgot to bring a camera

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