Category: Food / drink

86.3%

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For the second meal in a row, we couldn’t bear the thought of the cafeteria food (our choices were veal, lamb, fish and leek soup) so eight of us ordered pizza and just finished scarfing it down. They even brought us some free pop so I snagged a dp on my way out. Score. I’m just settling in to do some more pseudo-studying and listen to the Canadiens game on streaming radio.

.:.

The Modern Mod (or WineBoffin, as he’s sometimes known) points out Slingbox’s announcement that they’ll bring their product to Canada. Sweet.

80.7%

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A few of us couldn’t bear the thought of what we were offered for lunch, so we made a trip to Wendy’s. Now I’m all full and salty, but satisfied.

.:.

This afternoon’s gonna be very weird. I have little left to study, so I’m just going to review a few extra things and…I don’t know, relax I guess. Maybe catch up on some work or some emails. I guess I should be thankful that we’re getting it easy, but…I don’t know, I just feel like I’m being lazy. But we’re all in this boat.

Triomphant

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We just had our second amazing meal in as many nights. Triomphe, a newish restaurant next door to our hotel, was reaaallllllly good. Check out what I had:

  • Baby spinach salas w/ bacon lardoons, tomato, candied walnuts, stilton cheese and sherry vinaigrette
  • Maple glazed pepper crusted venison red leg with caramelized pears, sweet potato puree and brussel sprouts & mashed potatoes drizzled with truffle oil
  • Bittersweet chocolate truffle cake served with fresh whipped cream, berries and pomegranate molasses
  • A bottle of Jink’s Creek Shiraz (shared with Nellie, of course)

We made it home just in time to watch the Daily Show, which is surreal. 5 hours ago we were watching this live. Weird.

New York, day 1

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Our flight was delayed by about an hour, so we got to Newark airport around 8:00. Our cab driver, a very friendly Egyptian guy, got us through Jersey and the Lincoln tunnel in 15 minutes and we were checked into our midtown hotel 5 minutes later. Our hotel — The Sofitel — is very nice; clean, nice, friendly staff, good location, comfy bed. I can see why it’s rated #1 on TripAdvisor.

Our speedy cab ride also made it possible to keep our 9:00 reservation at Smith + Wollensky. We were so full of steak, cheesecake and Zinfandel at the end that it was painful to move. Why, I could barely finish my scotch in the hotel bar…

Hey Mr. cab driver, can you take a look at my leg?

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I’m encouraged by this story in the Globe about Stephen Harper’s intention to talk about credentials for recent immigrants. There are entirely too many skilled professionals in this country who’re caught in a quagmire of bureaucracy, unable to work in their field.

.:.

We tried Veda last night, the new Indian takeout place just up the street. Not very impressive at all; I tend to agree with Steven Davey’s review in Now. I mean, it’s pretty hard to mess up butter chicken, but it was pretty bad. Don’t think we’ll be going back. Trouble is, our local indian options are dropping off now that Banjara‘s closed up shop.

.:.

The Olympic closing ceremonies might be more painful to sit through than the Oscars. Yeesh. Still, pretty exciting to see Vancouver get the handoff and get ready for their day in the sun. Or snow, as it were.

The place is dead anyway

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Since Nellie’s sick, we’ve been laying low this weekend, which means we’ve watched lots of movies & recorded TV. Actually, because of her faux-OCD, Nellie’s holed up on the couch right now with the kleenex, her laptop and some downloaded Veronica Mars. But we’ve also watched:

  • XX/XY (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was something we’d never heard of, but IFC has been advertising it like mad. We both like Mark Ruffalo, so I recorded it. It wasn’t bad; a little whiny and self-interested maybe, but I’ve seen worse. I had to laugh at the tagline though: “There’s no room for honesty in a healthy relationship.”
  • Power & Terror: Noam Chomsky In Our Times (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a Japanese documentary that just featured a couple of lectures and interviews with Chomsky shortly after the 9/11 attacks. It was interesting to hear his take on things when feelings were still so raw…he asked for perspective (“The best way to stop the practice of terrorism around the world is to stop participating in it…”) but also contradicted those proclaiming imminent doom by saying that, all in all, the world is a much better place than it was even 50 years ago, and *far* better than it was two centuries ago.
  • But I’m A Cheerleader (imdb | rotten tomatoes) started off as a pretty smart and biting satire about sexual mores, religion and politics, but ended up degenerating into a plain old girl-meets-girl love story. Meh.

.:.

I don’t get companies who treat their email address like a fax line. It’s not something you just check once a week, people. It’s a personal communication channel. You know, like a tel-e-phone? Catch up.

.:.

CBGB called us tonight from the pub around the corner and asked us to join. Since we hadn’t gotten off our asses all day, and since Nellie was feeling better, we did. They’d just left a chocolate-making class we gave CB for her birthday, and had loads of their own handiwork with them. We had chocolate-covered strawberries and truffles over pints of beer and nachos. Somehow it came up that they’d never seen Swingers (money, baby!) so we came back here to watch it. Then CB spilled tea on herself and we made her watch Family Business, which scandalized her. So not a good night for her.

.:.

And now: the NBA all-star skills competition. God bless the PVR.

15/70 = 21.4%

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I despise Plaxo. It was a bad idea when it was called Infotriever, and it’s still a bad idea.

.:.

The difference between chocolate with 70% cocoa and chocolate with 85% cocoa is substantial. And not just math-wise. 85% tastes…powdery. 70% tastes smooth. Ladies and gentlemen, I think I’ve found the sweet spot. So to speak.

Wild boar & pork belly. Who knew?

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Yup, my baby’s 30. We celebrated the milestone in fine style last night, having dinner with CBGB at Luce and spending the night in luxury upstairs at the Hotel Le Germain. Quel decadence.

First of all, the hotel: Le Germain is known as one of the best boutique hotels in Toronto, and it definitely lived up to our expectations. The hotel is gorgeous, from lobby to rooms…far nicer than the Soho Metropolitan. The decor, the raindrop showerhead, the king bed, the high-tech desk chair…the entire room was just perfect. It made for a pretty nice pre-dinner lounge and post-dinner slumber.

And, of course, there was dinner downstairs at Luce. Nellie and I had a drink at the bar while we waited for CBGB to arrive, and once they’d arrived at 7:30 we all sat down to eat. We had a quick look at the menu, but within a few minutes we all agreed that the best option was the tasting menu. And manoman, was that ever the right choice. We tried food that we would’ve never ordered on our own, but hey, what better time to try a whole bunch of new stuff than on a milestone birthday? At the end of the night they were nice enough to print up a quick list of the food (and matching wines) that we were served; it’s incomplete, but I’ll do my best to remember everything we had.

  • amuse bouche: quail egg on a salted potato fingerling.
  • zuppa: Vanilla scented lobster bisque with a scallop on cornbread. The wine was a 2004 Rallo Carta d’Oro from Sicily.
  • antipasti: Cannoli with asparagus, provolone & asparagus pesto, pappardelle with sea urchin and bison steak on a bed of barley and oyster mushrooms. The wine was a Majolini Franciacorta from Lombardia.
  • pasta: lobster-filled ravioli in squid ink with calamari, and quail with linguini pepperincino. Wine was 2003 Cocci Grifoni offida pecorino.
  • pesce: Cod with cod mash and pancetta paired with pork belly, and grouper with radicchio. Wine was a 2004 La Tunella Tibolla Gialla from Friuli.
  • carne: wild boar paired with something polenta-y, and rack of agnello. The wine was 1999 Villa Marianna Salice Salentino Riserva from Puglia.
  • formaggio: something that looked like brie but wasn’t, and a citrus sorbet.
  • dolce: four small blocks of baked chocolate mousse, and ‘Happy Birthday’ written out on the plate in chocolate.

It was easily one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten, and I think the others shared my opinion. I would have never guessed that I’d enjoy lobster bisque or lobster ravioli in squid ink, let alone something called “cod mash”, but enjoy it I did.

The service was fantastic: plates and utensils being placed and whisked in a flash, napkins folded the moment you stepped away from the table, background on each wine from the sommelier. There was a weird mixup with a cheese plate — it was placed on our table, then taken away a few seconds later — after we’d had a few bites — and taken to another table (!) despite our warnings. The servers had a brief but panic attack; we thought it was funny, but I’m not sure that other table would’ve thought so. It certainly weren’t cheap — I’m sure my father felt a chill go down his spine when I signed the bill — but how many times do you get to eat a meal that’s amazingly delicious and completely adventurous at the same time?

The meal had lasted three and a half hours. A final drink at the bar — CBGB stayed out late on a school night just for Nellie’s 30th…thanks guys! — and we retired to that beautiful room.

Pretty sweet.