Category: Food / drink

I sprained something this morning, so kneeling will be difficult

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Dinner at Fieramosca again last night. Superduper as always, if way too much food and way too much Limoncello. Made it kind of tough to get out of bed this morning.

.:.

However, get out of bed we did and made it down to the Paramount Scotiabank theatre to see 300 (imdb | rotten tomatoes) in IMAX. A note on IMAX: it’s a great movie-going experience, but jeebus, do they ever need to get rid of the cheesy pre-film laser & sound show. Anyway, on to the main event: 300 was just slightly better than I expected it to be, and I expected it to be pretty good. This wasn’t classic, traditional cinema, but it was clearly a compelling story, and was skilfully, even artfully done.

Yes, it’s covered in blood and completely lacks nuance, but is it really any more mindless or formulaic than Music & Lyrics, which was playing across the hall? Or does it simply trade in male fantasy instead of female? In any case, the visuals of 300 — which are stunning — put it a step above most films solely in terms of craft. My biggest complaint: in a couple of scenes the “long moving scene as a female soloist sings something in latin” disease which infects so many epic movies flared up.

300 did $70 million at the box office, and broke the March opening weekend record, but it’ll fade quickly as all the fanboys would likely go in the first weekend.

.:.

After the film we decided to walk a bit and enjoy the weather, so we took the subway to Museum station and picked up a few things at Whole Foods. On the way out I checked Hero Burgers to see if they have veggie burgers; they do, and they’re quite tasty. Walked home from there, enjoying the sunshine & near-spring temperature, picking up a few things here and there. Caught up on some reading, watched the Selection Sunday show and am now trying to avoid reading another chapter of my %#@& textbook.

.:.

While Facebook’s been around for quite a while, it finally appears to be replacing MySpace as the preferred social networking site, just as MySpace replaced Friendster. Personally I find them all boring; unless you’re a teenager (or a musician, in the case of MySpace) I just don’t get the attraction. Then again I have a blog, so perhaps I just have a different strain of the disease. I guess I just find the friend-count popularity contest on those sites a little sad.

[tags]fieramosca, limoncello, 300, whole foods, hero burgers, facebook, myspace[/tags]

What's not to like?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We just had dinner with my brother at Jump; he had a 16-hour stopover on his way back from Chicago. It’s too bad his job forces him to travel so much, but on the plus side we get to see him every few months as he flies to/from somewhere in the midwestern US.

Food review: Cragganmore: good*; spinach salad: good; ricotta ravioli: good; bottle of zinfandel: good; Lindt molten chocolate cake: gooooooood.

* when I say “good” you have to imagine Joey from Friends, specifically the trifle episode

[tags]jump cafe[/tags]

You don't understand…I need chocolate chip zucchini loaf

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Met CBGB for a bite to eat tonight. After dinner we tried to get some chocolate-y goodness at the Chocolate Heaven Cafe a few blocks away, but it closes at 6:00 (!?) on Sun-Wed.

.:.

Condo stuff is coming to a head now: we have our inspection next week, take possession April 9th, and move in two weeks after that. That gives us plenty of time to paint, move our stuff over, clean the old place, etc.

Getting the cats from one place to the next should be fun as well. Remember the opening scene from Jurassic Park? You know…”Shoot her!! Shoot her!!” It’ll be something like that.

[tags]chocolate heaven cafe, moving day[/tags]

Which reminds me: Le Gourmand is selling whisky-filled chocolate now…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Guinness Marmite? My brother is going to lose his mind.

.:.

Bought three DVDs today. Well, I didn’t really buy them; I sort of won them, kinda-like. Anyway, here’s what I picked up:

  • Brick
  • The Departed
  • Heat (special edition)

Between the special edition sound level and my fancy-pants stereo, I can actually hear what the hell Jon Voight’s saying in this movie. Speaking of Heat, every time I watch it I’m amazed by how many good actors are in it: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Natalie Portman, Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer!), Amy Brenneman (Judge Amy!), Ashley Judd, Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill!), Mykelti Williamson (Bubba!), Wes Studi (Magua!), Diane Venora, Danny Trejo…plus Jeremy Piven (Ari!), William Fichtner, Hank Azaria (Moe!), Henry Rollins, Tone Loc and Xander Berkeley (Mason!) in bit parts. Amazin’.

[tags]guinness, marmite, brick, the departed, heat[/tags]

CBGB & a CBB

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I slept for 11 hours last night. That’s about 4 hours more than I usually sleep, even on weekends. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m getting sick; I feel like ass today, all stuffed up and headachy. My back isn’t bothering me yet, but it was pretty bad last night. This weekend could be a boring one as I really want to get this healed up.

.:.

Last night we went to C’est What with some friends, caught up, had some food and a drink or two, took a stroll by the new condo,  and went up to the Danforth for some dessert. Not that I needed any after the chocolate brownie bomb I had earlier in the day, but I soldiered on for the sake of comraderie.

[tags]c’est what, le gourmand, chocolate brownie bomb[/tags]

Giant little animals

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Working from home today so that the pulled muscle in my back can heal. The chairs at work just seem to reverse any healing progress it makes at night, so I’m giving it a day off. So far so good.

While I work I’m listening to a mix I made last night of my favourite 20 songs from last year. Well, sort of…I spent about 20 minutes figuring out which songs should be on there, and it might change slightly if I took more time with it, but cost/benefit and all that. I also kept it to one song per artist; otherwise Regina Spektor and Band Of Horses would’ve had multiple entries.

Here ’tis:

  • amy millan . “hard hearted (ode to thoreau)”
  • and you will know us by the trail of dead . “wasted state of mind”
  • asobi seksu . “red sea”
  • band of horses . “monsters”
  • camera obscura . “razzle dazzle rose”
  • cold war kids . “hospital beds”
  • heartless bastards . “blue day”
  • hidden cameras . “awoo”
  • jeremy enigk . “damien dreams”
  • ladyhawk . “war”
  • mates of state . “fraud in the 80’s”
  • mercers . “use for abuse”
  • mogwai . “we’re no here”
  • neko case . “john saw that number”
  • raising the fawn . “carbon paper”
  • regina spektor . “field below”
  • swan lake . “all fires”
  • tv on the radio . “wolf like me”
  • viva voce . “we do not fuck around”
  • yeah yeah yeahs . “cheated hearts”

.:.

We’ve opted out of our organic delivery service. There was nothing wrong with the food, but we just weren’t eating our money’s worth. I guess I’m not a very good vegetarian yet…

[tags]best songs of 2006, green earth organics[/tags]

Argh

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Apparently my last post got sucked into the wrong series of Internet tubes, so here’s the point-form version:

Dang.

[tags]eggstasy, moosewood, rebar, the queen, wordpress[/tags]

Birthday decadence, part II

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Well…so, that dinner last night was pretty amazing. Yeah, it cost a lot, but we’ve never had a dining experience like that before. Besides, Nellie only turns 31 once.

CBGB, Nellie and I arrived at Splendido first, with T-Bone joining us shortly after. From the second we arrived we knew the service would be expert in every possible sense of the word. Once we settled in and the ladies had set their purses on the padded bag stools (no, I’m not making that up) we ordered drinks: the ladies chose from the champagne trolley (no, I’m not making that up either) while GB and I each had a cocktail called a Cape Bretoner (Glen Breton whisky, maple syrup, ginger and blood orange), which I quite liked. From there the fun began. The service buzzed in and out constantly, clearing plates and placing new dishes, never bothering us except to describe the dishes and accompanying wines, pulling out chairs for the ladies and folding napkins before you’d even made it five steps from the table. Even the physical placement of the dishes was something I hadn’t seen before: perfect coordination by the three servers with one issuing hand signals to the others to ensure the timing was right. The meal took four hours, but the food was incredible, the service impeccable and the company — of course — perfect.

As it turns out, friends of ours happened to be having dinner there that night; today, thinking about it, I realize we hadn’t seen them since this time last year when they had us over for dinner. Perhaps we only congregate around food. To that end, I made plans to meet up with him for lunch soon.

Anyway, back to Splendido: they were nice enough to write down the entire menu for me (they don’t normally write out the vegetarian tasting menu since it’s prepared, according to our server, a la minute) so I can recount it for you here*:

  • 3 canapes (which they didn’t write down, so I’m kind of going on memory here): cauliflower soup, a crispy wafer with rapini and a cheese & onion tartlet
  • comfit beet carpaccio, fennel, arugula, parmagiano salad
  • shallow friend bean curd and dried soy bean, chili oil, sesame oil, coriander
  • Cookstown vegetables in a truffle broth, herbs, ovile oil
  • potato wrapped courgette carrot galette, cumin scented Hawaiian papaya, coriander yogurt
  • house made linguini in a woodland mushroom sauce
  • cheese plate: Stilton, Selles-sur-Cher goat cheese, Cru de Clocher Quebec cheddar
  • Grand Marnier Soufflé, chocolate infused whip cream, chocolate sauce
  • peanut butter & chocolate truffle

* The standard (read: meaty) tasting menu is on their website. There was an amuse bouche in there as well, which wasn’t written down…it was julienned vegetables in a nori paper wrap, but I don’t like nori paper, so I just ate the vegetables. They were tasty.

After four hours we finally wrapped up the meal and decided to go for a drink. Our server hailed us cabs; when I say hailed, I mean was standing in the middle of Spadina waving them over; needless to say his tip was well-deserved. We stopped in at Panorama, where the great view doesn’t quite make up for the cover charge (wtf?!) and overpriced drinks, before saying goodbye at the subway. We walked home, another birthday done, and by all accounts a good one. If Nellie ever wrote in her blog these days you could hear it from her. 😛

.:.

Halifax has probably set the new record for the world’s largest pub crawl. The story made me think of how it must’ve been at Pizza Corner last night; I assume it was like that scene from The Simpsons where Bart’s elephant is charging the peanut factory and the plant manager starts to give a speech about how “this is the day we’ve all been preparing for” before the elephant smashes through the wall.

.:.

Looks like the 60-story condo planned for the southeast corner of Yonge & Bloor might finally go ahead. While I’m glad I won’t be around for all that construction, I’m happy the corner will finally get a facelift. That intersection deserves better.

.:.

Dumbassedness of the day: a theatre in Florida, faced with complaints about the title of a popular play, is now set to present “The Hoohah Monologues” instead.

[via Boing Boing]

[tags]spendido, panorama, halifax pub crawl, pizza corner, yonge bloor condo, hoohah monologues[/tags]