Month: November 2023

Post Lily

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I wanted this post to be about Leaning Post winery’s 10th anniversary party yesterday, about their delicious wines, and Ilya and Nadia and all the nice people who work there, and the amazing library wines (2013 Lowrey Pinot, 2013 Wismer Chardonnay, etc.), the yummy food, and so on. Unfortunately the drive there and back was a nightmare of traffic and we spent twice as long in the car as we did drinking wine. It’s hard to be enthusiastic about these events that are ostensibly under an hour away when you know your soul is going to be crushed by the Gardiner.

Still, it was fun to try that 2013 Pinot again. Pretty sure the last time I had it was eight years ago at Barque along with three other winemakers producing Pinot from the Lowrey fruit.

This morning’s activity was a little closer to home: breakfast at White Lily with Matt & Lisa on a crisp, sunny fall day. Makes me think this whole car thing is a scam.

Return to Grey Gardens

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Six years after my first (somewhat underwhelming) visit, I had dinner at Grey Gardens with a work friend. Much better this time ’round, I must say.

  • Food
    • side stripe shrimp ~ tomato xo, scapes, black olive
    • kampachi ~ cabbage, yuzu, kombu
    • smoked fish ~ chips n’ dip
    • cauliflower ~ maitake, dill, lemon
    • duck ~ turnips, sweet potato, mustard
    • bavette ~ potato, cipollini, bordelaise
  • Drinks
    • Ardoisières 2022 ‘Silice’ Savoie / Bourbon Old Fashioned to start
    • bottle of Chateau Phelan Ségur 2014 Saint-Estèphe with most of the food
    • glasses of Bodegas Toro Albala 1955 Don PX Convento Seleccion for dessert

Apart from how delicious virtually everything was, the other remarkable thing was the guest at the table next (but perpendicular) to ours who kept throwing her body backwards in fits of laughter and very nearly ending up in our food.

I continue to not get Kensington Market though. Never have. Probably never will.

Detroit + donair: a fusion I didn’t know I needed

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Once again I was back in Moncton this past week. Of note:

  • I sat next to someone I used to work with on the flight there, and another ex-colleague on the flight back. Last time I saw a former member of a past board of directors. I didn’t expect Moncton flights to be this kind of reunion hub.
  • Once I arrived I set out for my usual dinner plan: buy two bottles of wine at the Experience store, and get a baseball steak at The Keg. On the walk there I was a murmuration of Starlings just outside the hotel — I didn’t get video, but someone else did.
  • New places I tried this time: Cinta Ria (very tasty Malaysian), Taj Mahal (very good, even if I forgot to order rice), and the Tide & Boar brewpub, where I drank some very good beer and ate an extremely delicious (if far too big) Detroit-style donair pizza.
  • No family visits this time — it was a bit last-minute, and I was pretty heads-down whilst there — but there’ll be plenty more chances.

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Blue Ascari

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Two excellent meals in Toronto this week, the first at a familiar neighbourhood place, the second at a new (to me) steakhouse in my old neighbourhood.

First up was Ascari. We’ve eaten there many times, but this might have been the best visit yet.

  • Cocktails
    • Negroni
    • 2020 Pra Otto Soave
  • Appetizers
    • insalata di burrata w/ roast carrot / chestnut / radicchio / endive / orange / roasted garlic vinaigrette
    • zucca fritti w/ lemon thyme / spiced honey / amaretti
  • Mains
    • agnolotti di ricotta w/ carrot / yam / brown butter / pumpkin seed tuile
    • campanelle con salsiccia w/ pecorino and ramp sausage / broccolini / fresh chilli
    • 2020 Capezzana Barco Reale di Carmignano
  • Dessert
    • Amaro Nonino
    • Villa Marone Malvasia Passito

Everything was good, but the fall-inspired agnolotti and zucca fritti were both unbelievable. The zucca might as well have been dessert.

Later in the week I had a work dinner at Blue Blood, the new-ish steak house in Casa Loma. It was fun to take an uber back there, through my old neighbourhood (it occurred to me I moved there 25 years ago because I. Am. Old.) and atop the hill I used to run up most days.

I wasn’t doing most of the ordering, but as best I can remember here’s what we ate:

  • Appetizers
    • grilled octopus w/ chorizo sausage, scallion, cherry tomato, aged balsamic
    • chilled jumbo prawns w/ housemade lemon + gin cocktail sauce
    • oysters
    • table-side classic Caesar salads
    • Big Head Chenin Blanc, Niagara, Canada
  • Mains
    • 12oz canadian prime centre cut filet, aged 28 days from Green Bay, PEI
    • 18oz bone-in rib eye from Wichita, Kansas
    • Wagyu filet tasting: 4oz American Mishima reserve, 4oz Australian MB9+, 4oz Japanese Kagoshima A5
    • sautéed broccolini w/ mornay
    • creamed Welsh farm corn w/ corn nuts
    • sautéed hand-foraged woodland mushrooms
    • 2018 Mullineux ‘Schist’ Syrah, Swartland, South Africa
  • Dessert
    • coconut cream pie: butter graham crust, coconut bavarois, whipped cream w/ toasted coconut, pineapple coulis
    • royal cheesecake: west coast black raspberry, white chocolate
    • 2013 Château de Suduiraut Sauternes