Category: Food / drink

Cover photo from the Roselle website

“Squirrel! Where’d you hide your nuts?”

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In the week or so that we’ve been back from Berlin we’ve eaten out a lot, due in large part to our near-complete lack of groceries. New-found patio weather’s had something to do with it too. Needless to say, coming hot on the heels of the meat-and-beer frenzy that was Berlin, this has been a problem.

On Wednesday I met friends at Caren’s. I don’t remember eating much; it was all about the wine. Too much of it, probably. And it was too cold to sit on the back patio. More’s the pity.

On Friday Nellie and I met near my work to try out the new new-and-improved Jester On Yonge. Rumour had it they’d replaced many of their beer taps with local craft, and they did…but with more or less the most pedestrian offerings from each. I mean, I’d drink the Collective Arts Rhyme & Reason, Black Oak Nut Brown Ale, Side Launch Wheat, or Oast House Barnraiser all day long, but after that it’s a collection of middling beers like the Double Trouble Brewing Prison Break Pilsner, Flying Monkey Hoptical Illusion, Cameron’s Cream Ale, Steam Whistle, 5 different Amsterdams, 4 different Mill Streets, and so on. Not bad beers by any stretch…but if you’re going to carry 24 craft taps, pick a few adventurous ones. Plus, our server literally forgot my beer for 10 minutes until the chef (!) reminded her. Not so improved after all.

After the Jester we needed a comeback, so we turned to an old standby: Wine Bar. Great food (especially the duck slider) and outstanding wine. It never disappoints.

On Saturday I tried one of the new coffee additions to our neighbourhood: Sam James. I’ve visited the location in the PATH many times and very much enjoy their coffee. I can’t see myself switching from Fahrenheit — they taught me to appreciate coffee, after all — but it’s nice to have another great option so close.

Later that day, when I realized just how nice it was outside, we took a break from work and cooking to share a flight of wheat beers on the Bier Markt patio, then walk to G for Gelato for some…uh, gelato. Nellie had blueberry lavender; I had salted caramel peanut butter. We sat in St. James Park and ate it on a perfect spring day.

On our way between beer and gelato we walked past all the new restaurants on Market Street, and decided to try one of them for lunch on Sunday. We ended up trying Pastizza, which apart from a nice patio was pretty disappointing. Making up for it, though, were the pastries we picked up at Roselle for dessert. Nellie got a lemon tart and I got something called a Turtle tart, which was spectacular.

Oh, and we watched American Sniper (imdb | rotten tomatoes). Pretty good. Not great though.

.:.

Cover photo from the Roselle website

Cover photo from Rose & Sons site

Rose & Sons

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Last Monday we met our friends Kaylea & Steph at Rose & Sons, a place that’s been on my must-hit list forever. It did not disappoint. We started with this fantastic chili oil & maple syrup cornbread, then the grilled romaine caesar salad and east coast squid fry.

For the mains we ordered two plates of the Monday special: five small pieces of fried chicken, with four-cheese mac+cheese and dill cucumbers. It was all freaking amazing. The mac+cheese was especially great, and I HATE mac+cheese. We threw some onion rings in there too, each of which was the size of a hula hoop. We had a good chat with our server about the wine selection too, which was small but well-thought-out.

The fullness (and pre-dinner wine sampling) got the better of Steph and she bailed. Kaylea, Nellie, and I walked through the back to Big Crow, their bbq joint, for one more drink. We listened to endless 90s music and made a mental note to get our asses back there in the summer when the grill is going and the roof is open.

.:.

Cover photo from Rose & Sons site

Cover photo by marc falaradeau, used under Creative Commons license

“Full Bloom” might have been a bit ambitious, since it’s supposed to snow tomorrow.

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Last Wednesday we reconvened with our friends Kaylea & Matt at “Full Bloom”, a Wine Society of Ontario event at Caren’s in Yorkville. In the crowded upstairs we sampled from three local wineries: Vineland Estates, Henry of Pelham, and Closson Chase.

I never did try HoP’s Baco Noir, but their Cuvée Catherine sparkling rosé is always top-notch. Vineland’s Riesling was drier than most but still too sweet for me — I think I’m just over Riesling now — but their Cab blend is as good as I remember. The real winner for me, though, was Closson Chase. Always one of our favourites from Prince Edward County, their CCV Chardonnay and KJ Watson Pinot were the standouts.

After the event wrapped up a few of us walked over to Fieramosca for a late dinner. It’s been too long since we dropped by, now that we no longer live or work in the area. It was nice to see everyone again. Plus: delicious.

.:.

Cover photo by marc falaradeau, used under Creative Commons license

Heluva Good dip weekend

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Last week our friends Kaylea & Matt offered to have us up to the cottage. We accepted; I needed a weekend off, and Nellie really needed a weekend off.

We dashed out of work and caught a Go Train to Barrie, where Kaylea picked us up and brought us to their place. We celebrated by breaking out some sparkling:

We had reservations at the Local Gastropub and, after some taxi qualms, took our seats in a booth by the bar. I had the battered cod n’ chips; Nellie had the triple smoked ontario bacon mac n’ cheese. We were in the mood for apostrophes apparently. I drank a Wellington brown ale and a Side Launch dark lager. We cabbed home and all fell asleep in front of the TV. It had been a long day.

The next day Kaylea had to work so Matt, Nellie, and I went for breakfast at the Midway Diner, which is exactly as authentic as it sounds. Nellie and I had full-on greasy breakfast: sausage (bacon for her), eggs, hash browns, toast, OJ, coffee/tea. It was goddamn delicious, and it more or less held us over until dinner.

Once Kaylea got back we loaded up the car, made a stop at Barnstormer for some beer, and drove to the cottage. We relaxed for a bit with some Barnstormers and then two amazing bottles of sparkling — a Benjamin Bridge 2008 Estate Brut which had just arrived in our mailbox that day, and a Two Sisters “Lush” sparkling rosé — until it was nearly dinner time, and Matt began prepping the meal.

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And quel meal it was:

  • roasted red pepper soup with shrimp and cumin (Creekside 2012 Reserve Viognier)
  • salmon in beurre blanc (Pentage 2012 Sauv Blanc / Semillon)
  • pappardelle with sausage and tomato (Niagara Teaching College 2011 “Dean’s List Desicatto” Cabernet Franc)
  • grilled ribeye (Black Hills 2013 Nota Bené bordeaux blend)
  • Pilliteri 2008 merlot icewine

We did our best to absorb all that, and eventually all fell asleep from the effort.

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The next morning we all slept in, except for when Kaylea’s phone alarm went off and it sounded like a jaunty police chase. Once we finally woke up Matt and Nellie prepared another big greasy breakfast (plenty of bacon, eggs, toast, Caesars, etc.) and we generally lay about for the whole day. Well, Matt and Nellie went for a walk, and I did some work, and we all watched many hours of news, but other than that: layabouts.

Finally we had to pack up the car, load up on Tim Horton’s, drop Matt off back in Barrie, and drive down to Toronto. The remaining trio of us ordered pizza, settled in to watch The Walking Dead, and went directly into pyjama mode.

Good weekend. Great weekend. But I’m going to pay for it this week.

Cover photo by Swire, used under Creative Commons license

But…but we want two pizzas

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In between working, watching March Madness, and picking up some art this weekend, we’ve tried some decent new(ish) food joints.

First, after a stop at Bellwoods and before visiting Telegramme yesterday, we had lunch at Beer & Quality Meats. Honestly, I have no idea how I haven’t tried this place yet with a name like that. Anyway, we had burgers: the Hawaiian (pineapple, smoky chipotle aioli, jalapeno, mozzarella, bacon) for me and sliders doused in Sriracha for Nellie. They have a solid beer selection too; Nellie had a Steam Whistle while I had a can of Nickel Brook Headstock IPA.

Today, before really locking in with my laptop, we walked down the street to the brand new One Pizza. It’s one of the new breed of ‘good food, but fast’ restaurants popping up, like b.good around the corner. It keeps things simple: all pizzas are one size, and one price. Pick your toppings and it’s ready in 3 minutes. Nellie and I each designed our own (she: salami & muchrooms; me: chorizo and rapini; both: olive oil and basil) and each got a pint of Beau’s (she: lugtread; me: Tom Green milk stout). They also have Vineland Estates wine on tap.

The pizzas were damn good. The crust was perfectly thin but soft. The toppings were fresh…really fresh, like the tomato sauce actually tasted weird because I’m not used to tomato sauce tasting fresh on pizzas. The sausage, the basil, the oil…there was plenty of flavour without it tasting artificial. I’m guess that’s what we paid for…though, $40 tax in for two pizzas and two draft beers is fine by me if it all tastes like that.

We couldn’t quite finish our pizzas so we brought half of it home; maybe for dinner we could kill one each, but the next time time we go back for lunch it would be enough to split one. Assuming we could ever settle on the same ingredients, of course.

.:.

Cover photo by Swire, used under Creative Commons license

“But he’s not even a very good Prime Minister.” “***WHO CARES HE’S FAMOUS OUTTA THE WAY LITTLE GIRL!!!!!!!!***”

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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I stared at this a lot last night. I mean, not this particular guy’s sweatpants-covered junk, but rather crowds of people all but standing on top of me.

See, Nellie and I went to the Raptors game last night. We hadn’t seen one in a while, and we decided to buy good tickets. After all, it was Andrew Wiggins’ first game in Canada, and against the T-Wolves the Raps were all but guaranteed a win. They did win, but it was closer than it should have been.

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Anyway, we discovered when we arrived (after it took us ten minutes just to walk the last 30 feet to our seats) that his gloriousness Stephen Harper was sitting across the aisle from us. That’s his head and torso (and, uh, son) in the bottom right of the picture. The crowds that were clogging up an entire section of the ACC weren’t his entourage, they were — and I still have a hard time even believing this — people lining up to have their picture taken with him.

*Sigh.*

Now, I’ll give the security guys credit: they actually tried to keep the aisle clear during play, as did the ushers. But the selfie-seekers are idiots, and would stand, gape-mouthed and blocking traffic, with Blackberries in hands until they could get a picture with that magnificent head of hair. As such we couldn’t see some of the game, and missed the entirety of the half-time show and on-court entertainment, including Raptor antics which, as everyone knows, are at least 15% of the reason to attend a game.

I actually felt a little bad for Harper…I think he just wanted to watch a basketball game with his kids. But then again, he decided to sit in a place which afforded maximum photo ops. Maybe he should have sat in a box where people wouldn’t bother him and where, oh I don’t know, crowds of people wouldn’t have trampled and blocked the thirty people nearest him who paid good money for their tickets.

The very best part? At some point in the evening he did a photo op with some actual players, and his social media lackey tagged the wrong player.

Oh, and the idiots next to us had a Wand of Narcissism, which just kind of capped off the evening.

11069260_10153062412070673_3175115648376994575_nMaybe the only thing salvaging the evening was meeting up with Kaylea, Jenna, and Jordan over some pizzas at Libretto. We used beer to wash away the distaste.

Cover photo by Kat N.L.M., used under Creative Commons license

XX

Dan Dickinson1 Comment

It’s a significant day. I mean yeah, it’s once-in-a-century pi day, but it’s also the day Nellie and I are celebrating a big milestone: this past Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of the day Nellie and I met.

We both had (separate) late nights last night, so tonight we took it easy and Nellie cooked a fancy meal. Usually she does this on Valentine’s day, but a month ago today we were packing for New Orleans. This anniversary filled in nicely though. This is what she made:

  • Dark chocolate from Nadège
  • Jumbo scallops with corn & arugula (w/ Benjamin Bridge 2011 sparkling rosé)
  • Magret de canard (w/ Pearl Morissette 2010 Cab Franc)
  • Filet Mignon with green beans (still with the PM cab franc)
  • Apple pie (obviously)

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.:.

Cover photo by Kat N.L.M., used under Creative Commons license