Category: Food / drink

Photo by Peter Kudlacz, used under Creative Commons license

“Mmmm. Gueuzy.”

Dan Dickinson1 Comment

Well, that was a beer-y weekend. It actually started Thursday night when Nellie and I found ourselves near Volo and stopped in for some Great Lakes drinks (Chill Winston for me, Audrey Hopburn for her) before some dinner at Mercatto. At that point we’d momentarily switched to wine, and decided to watch Red Obsession (imdb | rotten tomatoes) while we drank a bottle of the Tawse wine club T-Blend Red.

My Friday afternoon was spent on a boat cruising around Toronto harbour for a work event, during which I consumed quite a few bottles of Steam Whistle. We were dropped off a few minutes away from the Amsterdam Brewhouse, so a few of us secured a table until Nellie and our friends MLK arrived. The food was pretty decent and I kept to the lighter beers (until the one-off Boxer (10 Count) farmhouse ale with Brett) so I could remain more or less coherent. After dinner we retired back to ours where we shared a (spectacular) bottle of Five Rows Sauvignon Blanc.

We took it easy on Saturday, just lying about and running a few errands, before meeting our friends JP + Sue at Triple A for some barbecue. We ate our ribs and steak and brisket and sausage and drank Camerons California Sunshine APA (mostly), then made a quick stop at our place to share a bottle of St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition on our balcony before heading to C’est What for a few more. I’m glad I picked up a bottle of that gueuze before the LCBO ran dry.

And now…I need a nap.

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.:.

Photo by Peter Kudlacz, used under Creative Commons license

 

Mischief

Dan Dickinson2 Comments

Last weekend, by the grace of good friends Matt & Kaylea, we made our now-annual pilgrimage up to a cottage in the Kawarthas. We stopped in Barrie on the way up to pick up a passanger and to eat some pizza & charcuterie cured meat, cheese, and Peruvian olives. We made it to the cottage that night, and crashed shortly after.

The next morning I woke up to this:

…met a new friend:

…went for a swim:

…lay in a hammock:

…ate some lunch, with a very special bottle of wine: a Benjamin Bridge 2004 Brut Reserve:

…smoked a pork shoulder (well, watched Matt smoke it):

…and went for another swim:

See how calm the water is there? Yeah, so did the resident mosquito population, and they ate me alive. Could be worse though: I could have gotten as badly sunburned as Nellie.

Friday was a rapid-fire drive north through traffic, and Sunday didn’t amount to much other than rain and buttermilk pancakes, but Saturday…bacon, sunshine, swimming, sparkling wine, swimming, pulled pork, swimming, camp fire…Saturday was glorious.

Get the di taleggio

Dan Dickinson1 Comment

It’s been more than two years since we visited Prince Edward County, which was entirely too long. I almost forgot how much we love it there.

The love came rushing back to me pretty much as soon as we arrived at Norman Hardie‘s for some tastings and wood-fired oven pizza. The food and wine, the fresh air and green fields, the County camaraderie…it’s starting to feel like home out there. After Hardie we hit stops from our previous trips, including Rosehall Run, The Old Third (where there was a chocolate lab puppy so cute I wanted to just eat her like candy), Closson Chase, Hinterland (where they fed us pulled pork sandwiches outside), and Lighthall. We also hit a few new ones like Hubbs Creek, Broken Stone, and Trail. Hubbs Creek was really good — nice Pinot Gris, decent Pinot Noir, and a very interesting Sussreserve Gamay rosé.

We checked into our room at the Newsroom Suites, had a little nap (I’d sampled a lot of wine), and walked across the street for dinner at East & Main. It was, as always, terrific. Nellie had mushroom ravioli and the steak frites while I had the scallops and the duck special. Our server recommended a bottle of Karlo Estates Quintas to go with it, and it lived nicely indeed amongst our two mains.

The next day I got up early for breakfast at The Tall Poppy while Nellie slept in. Soon we were on our way again, checking in at Huff Estates and and TerraCello for early-morning tastings. TerraCello was a new stop for us; we liked that they’re doing very different wines there, like a straight Vidal and a De Chaunac. They also do wood-fired pizzas, though they weren’t quite up and running yet that morning due to an overnight power outage. No problem though; we just skipped back over to Norm Hardie’s for round 2. Bumped into an old colleague while there too, which was a pleasant surprise.

And with that, we were off back to Toronto. Here’s the motherlode we brought home:

  • Broken Stone 2013 Pinot2 (x2)
  • Closson Chase 2011 KJ Watson Pinot Noir (x2)
  • Closson Chase 2012 South Clos Chardonnay (x2)
  • Hinterland 2011 Sparkling Rosé
  • Hinterland 2013 Whitecap
  • Hinterland 2013 Borealis (x2)
  • Hinterland 2012 Lacus (x2)
  • Hubbs Creek 2013 Pinot Gris (x2)
  • Hubbs Creek 2011 Pinot Noir (x2)
  • Hubbs Creek 2013 Sussreserve Gamay Rosé (x2)
  • Huff Estates 2007 Cuvée Peter J. Huff Sparkling
  • Huff Estates 2011 South Bay Chardonnay
  • Huff Estates 2012 Cabernet Franc Rosé (x2)
  • Lighthall 2011 Muté White Port
  • Lighthall 2012 Mes Trois Fils Pinot Noir
  • Lighthall 2012 Gewurztraminer
  • Norman Hardie 2013 Calcaire (x2)
  • Norman Hardie 2012 County Chardonnay (x2)
  • Norman Hardie 2010 Pinot Noir (x2)
  • Old Third 2012 Pinot Noir Blanc (x2)
  • Old Third 2011 A La Volée Sparkling Pinot Noir (x2)
  • Old Third 2013 Golden Russet Cider (x2)
  • Rosehall Run 2012 Pixie
  • Rosehall Run 2011 The Swinger Syrah
  • Rosehall Run 2011 Pinot Noir
  • Rosehall Run 2012 Gamay
  • Rosehall Run 2012 Certain Ratio
  • Terracello 2013 Riesling
  • Terracello 2012 Vidal
  • Terracello 2013 De Chaunac
  • Trail 2013 Unoaked Chardonnay
  • Trail 2013 Sauvignon Blanc

À la prochaine, county.

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“Here’s to swimmin’ with bow-legged women.”

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I know Narragansett Lager doesn’t have a great rating, and I don’t think I can even buy it in Ontario, but I really want one now. From Fast Company:

From Spuds MacKenzie to Sam Adams, there have been many beer spokesmen over the years, but none of them can beat Quint, the Narragansett chugging shark hunter from Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws. Played by Robert Shaw, Quint was a survivor of the U.S.S. Indianapolis who watched hundreds of his fellow sailors eaten alive by sharks. For sheer manliness, Quint’s the kind of beer spokesperson that makes Dos Equis’s The Most Interesting Man Alive look like a milksop.

So to celebrate both the film’s 29th anniversary and the Fourth of July weekend (when all of Jaws‘s shark attacks happened), the company is re-releasing the beer with the now iconic 1975 can design.

Image from FastCoDesign.com

“Little shakin’, little tenderizin’, an’ down you go.”

Cover photo from sessiontoronto.com

Session V

Dan Dickinson2 Comments

Yesterday we attended the fifth annual Session beer festival, for our fourth straight year. This year it was in a significantly more convenient location for us: Yonge Dundas Square. More on that later.

First, the important stuff. Here’s what we tried:

  1. Brickworks Batch:1904 cider
  2. Oast House Bound To Your Own Weisses — collaboration with Cuff The Duke (both)
  3. Broadhead Long Shot White (him); Underdog Pale (her)
  4. Nickel Brook Berliner Weisse German sour (him); So Say We All session IPA (her)
  5. Lake Of Bays Lake Monster red wheat (him); Sarsaparilla Belgian wheat (her)
  6. Bell City session IPA (him); Lenoir Belgian ale (her)
  7. Sawdust City Always Take The Weatherman’s Ad-Weiss rhubarb dunkel weiss (him); Golden Beach pale (her)
  8. Central City Red Racer IPA (him); Steam Whistle Dark Sea Salt IPL — collaboration with The Darcys (her)
  9. Beau’s Maddaddamites Noobroo summer gruit — collaboration with Margaret Atwood (him); Flying Monkeys Citrus Mistress (her)
  10. Junction Columbus pale ale / Flying Monkeys Genius Of Suburbia session pale (him…dumped the Columbus after the first couple of sips and hurriedly replaced it with the Genius); Brakeman’s session ale (her)
  11. Spearhead Jamaican Fire coffee stout (him); India White ale (her)
  12. Wellington chocolate milk stout (him); Hillside Island Hopper pale ale — collaboration with the Hillside Festival (her)

For the second year in a row my favourite was a milk stout. Last year it was the Beau’s/Tom Green collaboration, and this year it was my final beer: the Wellington chocolate milk stout. Speaking of Tom Green, he made an appearance, still promoting (and drinking) said milk stout.

There were 18 other breweries that we didn’t hit, mostly because we’d either already tried everything they offered or the one-off produced for Session didn’t grab us. Or because we just didn’t want more cider. We did consume our annual Sassy Lamb cupcake though.

Overall, I enjoyed this year’s festival far more than last year…actually, it’s probably my favourite Session that we’ve been to overall. Last year’s location was further away, much more cramped, and it didn’t help that the weather was scorching. This year the weather was beautiful but temperate, and the bathroom situation was entirely civilized. The crowds were also much more reasonable..I think splitting it across two days allowed everyone to have some elbow room…you didn’t have to fight through a crowd to get another beer, and there were plenty of places to stand and drink. Well done, Session organizers.

We walked home after that last one, or rather, we walked straight to dinner at Triple A. A huge plate of nachos was exactly what we needed before heading home and splitting a bottle of — naturally — the Session Saison.

.:.

Cover photo from sessiontoronto.com

WOSA

Dan Dickinson1 Comment

This past Monday we attended a dinner at Parts & Labour, put on by WineAlign and WOSA Canada — the local PR arm of the South African wine industry. The focus of the evening was, obviously, South African wine. We were up for that, and for trying a new place, so boom. Done.

The evening certainly did nothing to dull the affection we gained for South African while visiting the country last fall. I agree with host David Lawrason: it may be the best value wine on the market right now. None of the wines we tried blew our minds, but they were very solid for bottles which (mostly) run $15 at the LCBO. The whites got too warm while we waited for our food so I’m not sure I got the full effect there.

Here’s what we drank:

  • Reception wines: Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc 2013; Nederburg Winemasters Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2013
  • Appetizer wines, served with grilled broccolini: Fleur Du Cap Chardonnay 2013, Ken Forrester Reserve Chenin Blanc 2012, The Wolftrap White 2013
  • Main wines, served with grilled flat iron steak: Fleur Du Cap Shiraz 2010, Nederburg Manor House Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, The Chocolate Block 2011

I’m not sure what the reception wines were paired with, because the seniors who made up 95% of the attendees would swarm any server with a tray before they got ten feet from the kitchen. Some of them were taking 3 or 4 hors d’oeuvres at a time. It was weird. The food was okay…good steak but otherwise nothing special. We felt a little underwhelmed by the evening and, frankly, in need of a proper full glass of wine. This event was okay, but it was no Tawse wine members dinner.

Just before we left I had a chance to meet Will Predhomme for the first time. He’d been sitting behind us at dinner, so I thanked him for co-making the delicious North Shore Project Syrah and talked Nova Scotia sparkling for a bit. After that we jumped on the streetcar, jumping off again at Yonge and hitting Richmond Station for a goddamn full pour. I had Norm Hardie cab franc; she had Tawse Pinot. When in South Africa, drink South African. When in Ontario…

Cover photo by Thomas Cizauskas, used under Creative Commons license

Crawl II

Dan Dickinson2 Comments

Three weeks after doing a mini craft beer pub crawl (Volo, Bellwoods, Bar Hop) with our friend Amanda, we did another yesterday with her visiting sister Becky. This time we hit Bryden’s, Indie Ale House, Bellwoods again, and Wvrst.

Bryden’s was unremarkable, except in that it introduced the ladies to the Local 7 Session Saison. Bellwoods was fairly disappointing this time; my Wizard Wolf was fine but the No Rest For The Wicked sour stout just wasn’t enjoyable. And Wvrst was great, both for the sausage and for our drinks — I had a Silversmith Funzover Dunkel and a Péché Mortel, which Becky also tried and loved.

But the real star of the day was Indie Ale House. Somehow Nellie and I had never been, despite its reputation. It certainly lived up to the rep, and more: the beer was fantastic (especially the Fallen Idol Belgian sour), our food (especially the fried chicken) was outstanding, and we loved the feel and décor of the place. If we lived closer this place would be our new local. We’ll need to find an excuse to return to the Junction, I guess.

.:.

Cover photo by Thomas Cizauskas, used under Creative Commons license

Miami

Dan Dickinson2 Comments

I was in Miami for a few days earlier this week, for work. Rough job, I know. To be honest, I’d been unofficially trying to go my whole life without ever setting foot in Florida, what with it being…you know, fucked. Still, I was invited to a conference, so I went.

I wasn’t really staying in Miami, at least not the Miami most of us think about. The conference was out in Doral at the Trump Hotel. There were no signs of it being a douchey Trump property, except that when you turned on the TV it would auto-play a random Trump speech. So I got to know the location of the mute button on the remote real quick.

Still, the weather was nice and they had a bar by the pool, so I spent a fair amount of off-conference time hanging out there and drinking Cigar City Jai Alai IPAs with friends. Related: our server didn’t know what Jai Alai is, or how to pronounce it, so I had to teach her. Related to related: I am old.

One other highlight: a vendor took a bunch of us out to dinner in South Beach, at Bazaar in the SLS hotel. We had a private room (which people kept sneaking up to, thinking there were celebrities inside…once they saw it was just a bunch of nerds they looked disappointed and slunk away) for dinner, which was pretty damn great. A quick scan of the menu produced some of the tapas dishes we shared, but not all: chinese buns w/ pork belly; cones full of salmon roe and dill cream cheese; hamachi w/ pickled onions, sour orange; dragon fruit ceviche w/ tuna, pecans, lime, hibiscus; brussels sprouts w/ “lemon air”; bone marrow w/ Caribbean white truffles, florida citrus, capers; Cuban coffee-rubbed churrasco; endives w/ goat cheese, oranges, marcona almonds, orange dressing; sautéed shrimp w/ garlic, parsley, lemon, guindilla pepper; croquetas de pollo; tacos made of jamón ibérico and caviar; and for dessert, some amazing churros with peanut butter.

The night was marred only by the fact that our transportation from the hotel to the restaurant was a Ford Hummer Killer, an enormous stretch SUV limo, which poisoned my very soul. I also got into it a bit with a Republican (or, more likely, Tea Partier) on the drive home re: the relative merits of socialized healthcare. Or, in my more aggressive moments, the “fucking travesty” of the US healthcare system. So, there was that. Oh, and Jamie Foxx ate dinner at the restaurant just as we were leaving, so people were all agog and agape.

All in all, though, it was a good trip. Though I am in no way attractive enough to hang out in South Beach, I’d be willing to visit Miami again. Not the rest of Florida though; that state is messed up.

Please, Molson and Labatt and Sleeman: save us from ourselves

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Oh, for the love of Pete.

For those who don’t live in Ontario, here’s the background: the Beer Store, a foreign-owned monopoly on beer sales (outside of the provincially regulated LCBO) is worried that public sentiment has turned against them and toward a more open market for alcohol sales. One of the proposals has been to allow booze in convenience stores, as in several other provinces. So this ad is what their marketing geniuses has produced. Not surprisingly, the predominant reaction to the ad has been strong criticism and even outright mocking.

I believe the technical term for this kind of flailing is “death throes”.