Category: Food / drink

Wrapping up the trip

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The fruits (ha ha) of our labours
The fruits (ha ha) of our labours

In the twenty-four hours since my last blog post we:

  • Watched Taken (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was both highly entertaining and patently absurd;
  • Had dinner at Seven Wine Bar with many Halifax friends, followed by drinks at Durty Nelly’s and yet another stop at Pizza Corner;
  • Awoke, arose and had breakfast with T-Bone and The Sof (who had an earlier flight) and were joined briefly by Marney and Amy;
  • Got to the airport early so we could catch a bite, where our friends were still waiting (their incoming flight was diverted) and who eventually took off after us, despite being on a flight meant to leave three hours earlier;
  • Arrived home to find some happy, happy cats.

By the way, here’re the wineries we visited Thursday. I couldn’t be bothered to find all the sites before:

None of the samples really blew us away, but we found enough interesting ones to buy nine bottles. I think the one we’re looking forward to the most is the Alchemy from L’Acadie, which we couldn’t sample but has drawn some fanfare.

The locals don't go there. Which, in this case, is a good sign.

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The coma continued yesterday. Mainly just sitting around and reading and napping. We did go for a bit of a drive up into the sugar woods and then around the farm a bit, but nothing serious. Last night we piled everybody up and went to the Bare Bones cafe in Parrsboro.

I’ve never been to a restaurant in Parrsboro with actual edible food, so this actually felt a little weird. My buffalo and warm rocket starter was quite tasty, my chicken wasn’t bad and my warm chocolate cake & white russian milk shake dessert was interesting. Certainly not going to knock Splendido or Canoe out of my mental top ten list or anything, but just miles ahead of anything else I’ve ever eaten in that town. The service was a little slow, perhaps because our table of eleven might’ve been throwing them off their game, and one of the servers seemed quite young and fairly new. One person’s appetizer arrived minutes after the rest, and then we all waited while another person’s entree showed up several minutes after the others.

I showed T-Bone and The Sof a little more of the town, including the site of my perpetual agony (the school) and the theatre and the pier to see the tides. We got home, chilled, beat my dad at crib (at least, I did) and were about 3/4 through The Princess Bride when the power went out. That’s pretty weird…I’ve only known that to happen in the winter. Anyway, we decided to just go to bed. So now we’re up, getting packed, finding some breakfast and getting ready to hit the road.

Next stop: the Annapolis Valley.

"I don't dance with naked soldiers."

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Though Thursday and Friday were supposed to be a short vacation, we actually used them as get-shit-done days. Here’s what we’ve managed so far, the major points anyway:

  • Got my driver’s license and health card renewed in what must surely be the most efficient government-related service experience ever. Ten minutes after entering the Service Ontario office at Bay & College I’d completed both renewals and was on my way home. I was actually a little shocked, and left wondering if I’d done something wrong.
  • Watched all four Wimbledon semi-final matches, or at least parts of them.
  • Went to the distillery district with Nellie (who left work at noon) in search of a hopside down glass (since I broke one) but to no avail. We had a bite to eat and a couple of cold ones at the Mill Street brew pub, and managed to get home without being rained on.
  • Went for a run. Good one too.
  • Watched Passchendaele (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which I had really hoped would be good, but it wasn’t. At all. It could have been, but when a movie called Passchendaele spends the majority of its time in Calgary it wastes whatever potential it has.
  • Walked along the waterfront, checked out the new wave deck at the foot of Simcoe, despaired at the putrid wasteland that Queens Quay becomes east of Yonge.
  • Visited the LCBO to pick up some wine for tonight (simple, tasty Cab Sauv from J. Lohr) and a few bottles of the Innis & Gunn Canadian Cask, as recommended on the always-helpful Great Canadian Pubs & Beer blog.
  • Bought a new camera bag for the SX10 at Henry’s.
  • Finished off (more or less) some rearranging we started last weekend. Lots more room now, junk recycled, shelves put up. Time to finally hang that diploma I got last fall.
  • Picked up the new bench for our balcony at Andrew Richard Designs.

Now we’re getting ready to grill some Rowe Farms steaks, maybe watch a movie. It actually feels more like Sunday than Friday…I have to keep reminding myself that we have two more days off!

Since there're three of them, they can probably spare one while he learns some new recipes

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Nothing much to do on this shitty wet morning other than tell everyone about the latest beer/food adventure: The 3 Brewers. A French brewpub chain (which is actually named Les 3 Brasseurs…I guess they registered under a new name in Ontario) which also has a presence in Montreal, they just opened a new location at Yonge & Dundas earlier this week. Since Y&D is almost entirely devoid of worthy places to eat we thought we’d give it a try. We were both a little wiped from the week so we were looking for low-key anyway.

The beer was quite good. It tastes fresh, as it’s brewed in-house and unpasteurized. We had the wheat to start, and both enjoyed it. I got a sampler next, and Nellie settled on the red. I thought the red was decent (I normally have no time for reds/ambers), the blond was good and the brown seemed ok…a little on the heavy side, but it might’ve just felt that way because I was full. Full of what, you ask? A crap pulled pork sandwich, that’s what. It’s advertised as coming with onions, but in fact the onions were mixed in with the meat and it turned out to be more onion than pork. Disappointing. The fries were wooden, but I don’t really eat fries anyway. Nellie got the poutine, even though she wasn’t that hungry; not really sure what the verdict was there.

I liked the decor at first — very clean, wooden beams, exposed brick, huge kettles in the middle of the space, stretched across three floors — but it does feel a little too scrubbed. Clean I have no problem with, mind you; it just seemed…I dunno, mass-produced. Nellie described it as Milestones made to look like a pub, which felt about right. Oh, and the music was both bad (“Scrubs” by TLC? Really?) and really loud, so a definite downside. I think that, if we’re to return, it’ll be for drinks on the main floor: big open windows facing the sidewalk, sane music level and fresh beer.

The Great Canadian Pubs blog has a more thorough review and video of the inside. They also had a peek inside a new pub which opened just around the corner a few days later, The Queen And Beaver Public House. Toronto Life took a look as well. It sounds like the complete opposite of The 3 Brewers. Looking forward to it.

Look at it.

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What a brootiful day in the neighbourhood. First I slept in (a little, anyway), then my brother sent me one of the funniest pictures I’ve ever seen and I laughed myself stupid. Then Nellie and I went out (I wore my new shirt) to procure meat, veggies and cheese from St. Lawrence Market for tonight.

Then off to Andrew Richard Designs where we bought a small bench for the balcony before discovering an awesome new place in which to get full & silly: Betty’s. I’m not sure how we’ve missed it in the two years we’ve been living down here: it has a pretty good beer list (e.g., Hacker-Pschorr, Blanche de Chambly, Mill Street Tank House), decent food and a nice big back patio. We’ll be going back. We might actually go back tomorrow.

OK, guests have arrived, I’m off.

"I have just met you, and I love you."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Well, I’ve had an enjoyable forty-ish hours. It started Friday night when we walked down to Front Street to see this year’s criterium. I have no real interest in cycling, but it’s fun to watch racing on a downtown street. Plus, it gave me a chance to test out our new camera: a Canon SX10 IS. We used to have an S3 but sold it when Nellie got her Nikon SLR. I still have a little Canon S230, which is fine for carrying around in my pocket if we’re out with friends, but it turns out there was too big a gap between that and the D40. This SX10 feels familiar (it’s basically just the update of the S3 we had before), is a pretty good mix of convenience and quality, and the 20x zoom will come in handy. For example:

These guys were way down Front Street when I took that. Anyway, we couldn’t stay long as we had dinner reservations at Canoe with Nellie’s mom, so home we went to get all gussied up. Canoe was magnificent, as one would expect, and lives so comfortably in their place atop the Toronto restaurant pile (according to Toronto Life, anyway). Nellie and her mom started with the chevre with rosemary brioche, I had the prawn & asparagus chowder with tarragon butter, and we shared a bottle of 2007 Fielding viognier. For our mains I had the caribou (which was amazing), Nellie and her mom had the prime ribeye and we took a 2006 a bottle of Domaine Gardies Mas Les Cabes. No dessert, just dessert wine for Nellie and I and a glass of white for her mom. Oh, and at some point the afore-mentioned mom took off her shoes and went for a stroll through the restaurant. Don’t ask.

The next day, after dropping Nellie’s mom off at the airport we went to see Up (imdb | rotten tomatoes) at Yonge & Dundas. I’m not a big animation fan, and while I did like the last two Pixar releases (Ratatouille and wall-e) I didn’t bother to see them in the theatre. However, a screaming 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and a lot of advance critical praise made this one my top movie theatre priority this weekend. And it was good. Really, really good. It was sweet, funny, entertaining and (of course) spectacularly animated. Fun story, too, like Raiders Of The Lost Ark if Indy were an octagenarian. In the end I think it might have actually been a mistake to see it in the theatre, since the kid and mother behind me who talked often — and loudly — occasionally “pulled me” out of the film. But I’m still glad I saw it yesterday.

The movies weren’t done there. We freed up a little more room on the PVR by watching Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which I kind of liked (bizarre mismatched music notwithstanding) but I felt it would have made a better short film than feature. There were so many repeated scenes and long tracking shots that nine minutes likely would’ve done it.

We also finally got around to watching the pilot of Glee (fox | onion a.v. club), which I found fairly funny, but if the singing keeps up like this I may struggle to keep watching. I can only take so much Amy Winehouse and Journey. While we watched that a killer rainstorm passed over Toronto, followed quickly by a brilliant rainbow (and another faint cousin):

Also, at some point this weekend I finished reading The Blind Side (amazon) by Michael Lewis. Only about a quarter of the book was what I expected it to be — an historic and financial look at the left tackle position in football. Instead it focused on a kid named Michael Oher, and told a very engaging story about his life. There is, in fact, a movie being adapted from it but with Sandra Bullock cast as one of the leads I don’t hold out much hope for it not sucking.

With that book done I’ve taken the advice given to me over the years by several friends, including those who’d just finished with my copy, and begun reading The Long Walk To Freedom.

Unfortunately it’s a bit too chilly out today to enjoy the sun the way we’d like, but that gives us a good excuse to tackle yet another chunk of the PVR’s hard drive.

"Hey Dye, rumour is you suck!"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Yesterday was all kinds of great. I got up early and ran three miles. I went to my first Jays game ever, and a pretty good one at that. Rookie pitcher Robert Ray looked like he was going to take a 1-0 loss to the White Sox, but the Jays scored two in the bottom of the 8th and won it for him. It was fun, especially since we were clearly sitting in the rowdy section, taunting poor Jermaine Dye half to death. The low point was when some sadist decided to play a dance version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and send all the 30-somethings into fits of righteous indignation. High point: ballpark dog. Yum.

After a quick stop back at home to freshen up, we were off to meet CBGB and assorted family members, first for a drink at the Duke of York (where there was some unfortunate karaoke) followed by dinner at Fieramosca. I’ve had countless great meals there, but this one goes in the hall of fame. All three apps (gamberi, antipasti and prosciutto) were great, all the mains got rave reviews (especially the ones featuring pancetta…including mine), the desserts that showed up were wonderful as always, and the wine went perfectly. The service was, of course, wonderful. We all left feeling very full and very happy.

Unless Nellie buys the ~$49 million lottery ticket while she’s out, I think today’s gonna be a letdown.

"It's important that you feel through this."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

What a great weekend. Not because we did anything particularly dramatic or new, but because it was just so damn enjoyable. With work being the way it has lately (though it’s let up a bit for me in recent weeks, Nellie’s still hard at it) we’re usually happy just to relax and not feel guilty/worried about not working on the weekend.

Yesterday — easily the nicest day of the year so far — was a day to get out, stroll around, do some shopping at the market and visit friends. On the way over to see CBGB we spotted this little guy hanging out in a tree.

CBGB just got a new back patio and we helped them celebrate by taking advantage of their hospitality. They grilled burgers, served amazing cheeses (note to self: cranberry raincoast crisps + creamy applewood smoked cheddar = amazing), threw some beer in ice and welcomed us under the shade of the umbrella. The weather was perfect for sitting, drinking, laughing, eating and even hanging out with little LB, who was determined to get himself some beer. The oncoming rain forced us to wrap up, but not before we’d finished eating anyway. Inside we had more drinks and some delicious gelato — spiced chili chocolate mixed with blood orange, the latter being more of a sorbeto, really — before retiring once LB got his crank on a little bit. Awesome, awesome Saturday afternoon. I’ve been waiting for a day like that since, oh, October give or take.

Today wasn’t nearly as nice — cold, windy, grey — and started out a bit odd. The old gent next to us at breakfast seemed to be having his own one-man coot-off, yelling to his wife about how young people can’t do simple math anymore, and so on. No matter, it’s been more than satisfactory since then. We caught up on some TV. We got groceries and did laundry. We talked to our parents. We watched Snow Angels (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which, as with most David Gordon Green movies, was an excellent and textured slow burn leading to a few moments of raw violence. We lazed about and read. Nellie made pizza. Good, good day to cap off an excellent weekend.

Should work let up for both of us at once it’ll be nice to actually do something outside the city, or even explore something within it, but for now we’ll take these kinds of weekends no questions asked.