I spent last weekend in Nova Scotia, at the family farm, to celebrate my mom’s 75th birthday. Brother #1 & progeny drove down for the day as well. We had a big Chinese feast and chocolate cake and then we surprised mom with her birthday present (to come in a few months).
Saturday I re-lived my youth and went to a pancake breakfast down the road at the local fire hall / community centre. That day, and Sunday, I was able to help a tiny bit with the very end of maple season. [UPDATE: I have been informed that the season in fact continued all week. I’d swear it was wrapping up last Sunday, but what do I know? I’m a city boy now.]
I worked in Moncton Monday and Tuesday, dosing my co-workers with maple sugar, then flew home early Wednesday morning. It was a few days of all-out sprint for us both, but we had enough in the tank to eat a delicious meal last night at Ricky + Olivia:
- Cocktails
- White Negroni (Dillon’s gin, Elora elderflower liqueur, gentian)
- Mr. Christie’s Old Fashioned (Brown butter washed rye, Dillon’s chocolate liqueur, sea salt, vanilla, orange bitters, chocolate chip cookie)
- Food
- Grilled kofta of chicken + duck w/ rhubarb, yoghurt sauce, goat feta, endive, fingerling chips
- Turnip cakes w/ purple daikon, chilli crisp, marinated tofu, mushrooms, black radish
- Perth pork shank w/ daikon “pineapple” rings, Niagara cherry, maple + mustard
- Special: spicy carrots, bacon, and burrata
- Bottle of Big Head RAW Malbec
- Dessert
- Chicken liver mousse w/ Parallel Brothers’ beet tahini, Rosewood Estates wildflower honey, VQA red wine gummies, sour cream bundt cake doughnuts (seriously)
- Glasses of Paradise Grapevine fortified Gewurztraminer and Southbrook The Anniversary
It was all fantastic, but the pork shank and chickenduck were the showstoppers for me. How lucky are we to have that place in our neighbourhood?
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 