Returnby Watchco

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Last Saturday Lindsay and I and our friend Sarah, after drinks at our place, made an impromptu trip up the street to Ruby Watchco. We hadn’t been in quite a while, and my last experience there wasn’t the best, but we were hungry and the menu looked good and Lindsay could limp there, so.

Stupidly I forgot to write down what we ate, and it was of course gone from the website the next day, so to the best of my memory here’s what we had:

  • cocktails
  • a salad that I can’t really remember at all
  • smoked trout rillette
    • rosé, which I think was the 2018 ‘Beausoleil’ St. John’s from Languedoc
  • Thai lemongrass-marinated steak
  • butternut squash & ricotta dumplings
    • uh, some red…honestly, I can’t remember what for the life of me
  • Ontario cheddar
    • Chardonnay, which I’m relatively sure was the 2016 Rickshaw from Santa Barbara
  • Panna Cotta
    • Cantina Formigine Pedemontana ‘Tramontino’ NV Lambrusco

It should be noted that my lack of memory does not represent a lack of quality. It was an amazing meal.

Bonus: surprise Trinette sighting.

Thursday at The Wednesday

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Today I got back from a quick 36-hour work trip to Calgary, with a little side trip to Banff.

I flew in late Wednesday night, crashed at the Calgary airport Marriott, then early Thursday morning drove out to Banff to speak at a partner’s event. It was my first time out to the mountains in a lot of years, and the mountains made me feel as calm and peaceful as ever, even if I was only there for a couple of hours. This was the view from the Rimrock, where the event was held:

Later that day, after another work event back in Calgary, I had dinner at The Wednesday Room. The upstairs had a Shining theme; the downstairs was like eating in a 1970s basement rumpus room. The food & drink was pretty solid though:

  • cocktail: Fall Fashioned (pecan-infused bourbon blend, corn syrup, orange twist, 5 spice bitter)
  • starter: tuna tartare (albacore tuna, avocado, plantain, ancho aioli, sesame, tajin toasted nori)
    • Trimbach Pinot Blanc, Alsace
  • main: grilled ribeye (14oz cold smoked all-natural Alberta beef, jus gras, fried onions, stewed tomato, spanish olive oil)
  • side: jerk broccoli (w/ refried beans, puffed rice, chillies)
    • Chateau de Ferrand St. Emilion Grand Cru, Bordeaux
  • dessert: 20 year old Port

Leafy birthday

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Yesterday was Lindsay’s birthday, the first time in a couple of years we haven’t spent it in Europe. It was a much more low-key day, but had a seriously delicious ending. We went back to Maple Leaf Tavern for the first time since we went for my birthday last year and, frankly, we killed it.

  • bread (red fife, sourdough, potato Focaccia) and butter
    • cocktails
  • whole Ontario Burrata (virgin canola oil, Baco Noir balsamic, seasonal garnish, toast)
  • risotto (pumpkin, duck, and sage butter)
    • Domaine Baud Pere & Fils ‘Brut Sauvage’ Cremant de Jura
  • 7oz Wagyu flat iron w/ tarragon butter
  • 20oz ribeye w/ red wine sauce
  • honey & cumin glazed carrots w/ parsley yoghurt
  • Hasselback potato w/ truffle butter, chilled foie gras
  • broccoli w/ chili, anchovies
    • La Lecciaia Sassarello 2012 ‘Super Tuscan’
  • sticky toffee pudding w/ caramelized white chocolate, birch syrup, vanilla cream
    • 12 year old Graham’s port
    • Stratus ice wine
    • The bartender brought over some Tokaj he thought about putting on the menu
Cover photo from Mike Tinnion via Unsplash

Cobbling gobble

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This was never going to be a normal Thanksgiving weekend. I had a big — very big — work thing scheduled this weekend, which was going to run from Friday night through at least Sunday, and maybe Monday, to the point where it didn’t make sense to plan much at all.

The work stuff started Friday night and kept me awake for most of it. Saturday I managed to get a hundred things done in between calls, and we even ducked out to White Lily for dinner. We both got the hot turkey sandwich, so…check off one Thanksgiving tradition.

On Sunday I went to the office, and since there were dozens of us working onsite, the team brought food in. I was actually stuffed all day, but still couldn’t resist a piece of pumpkin pie, which the coordinator thoughtfully added to the menu, since everyone was giving up their holiday Sunday. Check a second Thanksgiving tradition.

I don’t want to jinx it, but it went well yesterday, such that I actually got home in time for dinner with Lindsay. I forgot that I didn’t have any Champagne in the house to celebrate with, but a bottle of Lightfoot & Wolfville 2012 Blanc de Blancs filled in nicely.

So yeah: no turkey, but no biggie. A huge work thing seems to have gone well. Lindsay and I might finally have a semi-relaxing day. Our families are good. Kramer’s good. Check check check.

.:.

Cover photo from Mike Tinnion via Unsplash

Yo, Mr. White

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Lindsay started watching Breaking Bad, and I’ve jumped on board. I almost forgot how good it was. All these scenes. All these characters. We recently met Saul. Then Gus. Then Mike. And I keep thinking ahead to all the scenes yet to come, and getting giddy.

Anyway, we’re trying to blaze through it quickly so El Camino (imdb | rotten tomatoes) doesn’t get spoiled. But not too quickly.

Cover photo from hiddenbench.com

La Brunante

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We were overdue for a wine-vertical-hangout with Laura like the one we did in February. This time we moved just down the road from Thirty Bench to Hidden Bench, and three vintages of their top-end Bordeaux blend: La Brunante.

The 2010 (33% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Franc, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Malbec) got better in the glass as we drank it, but was just beginning to give over to vegetal characteristics.

The 2012 (80% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec) packed a wallop. I’d have sworn there was more Cab Sauv in there, but Laura called the blend early. It tasted like chocolate fudge cake, though the fruit still showed through. Merlot, you’re slowly but surely changing my mind.

It was probably too early to open the 2015 (50% Merlot, 26% Malbec, 21% Cabernet Franc, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon) as it just didn’t have the depth or power of the other two, but you can sense it coming, with the flavour bubbling under the structure. Here’s hoping, anyway.

So the star of the show was the 2012, with the 2015 showing lots of promise. Luckily I have another bottle of each stashed away.

.:.

Cover photo from hiddenbench.com

Cover photo by SciTechTrend, used under Creative Commons license

Mumbai gets it

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Back when Lindsay was confined to the loft (she’s much better now, thanks!) we invested in some board games to break the indoor monotony. Neither of us are up on newer board or strategy games, having grown up with some classics, so some research was in order. We did buy a classic (Scrabble) but also bought a ten-year-old game we’d never heard of: Pandemic. And we’re hooked.

Basically you save the world from virus outbreaks, and we lose as often as we win, even on the medium-difficulty setting. Which just makes us want to play it more.

.:.

Cover photo by SciTechTrend, used under Creative Commons license

Cover photo from Aloette's website

Aloette

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Last week, before her final work-related art event (she’d completely handed off her duties at this point, accelerated by la cheville fracturée) Lindsay and I had dinner at Aloette. Linds had been before; I had not.

I was impressed, but not surprised; I’ve been upstairs to Alo enough times to know this place wouldn’t be fucking around. The food was as expected, but there were little touches that just made the experience — the service, design elements like the under-the-seat cubbies for bags and water bottles, automated shades to keep us from roasting in the late-day sun. Just…touches.

But yes, the food:

  • Cocktails
    • “Sour Cover-Up” (Tanqueray gin, strawberry apéritif, coriander, Bellwoods Jelly King sour beer)
    • “Five-Ten Fizz” (Rangpur gin, sherried apricot, citrus, egg white, Peychauds)
  • Apps
    • cheddar brioche buns
    • Stracciatella cheese on sourdough w/ burnt honey, piquillo pepper, pine nut
    • torched Hamachi w/ green goddess, coconut, avocado, lemon balm
    • glasses of 2016 J.M Sohler sparkling Pinot Blanc
  • Mains
    • Dan: Aloette burger (Beaufort cheese, onion, lettuce, pickle) & fries / 2016 Thymiopoulous Xinomavro
    • Lindsay: spinach agnolotti w/ braised veal, Gremolata, lemon / 2017 Masseria Li Veli Negroamaro

We then walked to the event and proceeded to stare dumbly at plate after plate of delicious hors d’oeuvres, so full we couldn’t eat a single bite.

.:.

Cover photo from Aloette’s website

TIFF19 #2

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I’m pretty late getting to this one, seeing as how TIFF wrapped up almost a week ago. After skipping The Obituary Of Tunde Johnson (tiffr) Saturday I took my solitary self to see There’s Something In The Water (imdb | tiffr), the new documentary from Ian Daniel and Ellen Page about how Nova Scotia — Page’s home province, and mine — isn’t doing enough to protect its water. It was inspired by the book There’s Something In The Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous & Black Communities by Dalhousie professor Ingrid Waldron. [link]

Stories about dump chemicals seeping into the water in the south end of Shelburne, where descendants of black loyalists live, were new to me, but I was more than familiar with the setting for the second story — Pictou Landing, where the local pulp mill pumps chemicals into Boat Harbour. I was there thirteen years ago, and smelled the chemicals from a few miles away when the wind shifted — I seriously can’t imagine what it’s like up close. You could see Page almost gagging in the documentary when she got near it.

The third site was another body of water I know well — the Shubenacadie  river, which runs through central NS and over/along which I’ve driven countless times. More importantly, it flows into the Minas Basin where I swam as a kid, and where my family members continue to swim today. A natural gas company wants to hollow out storage caverns for its natural gas, pumping the brine into the Shubenacadie. A group of local Mi’kmaq women is working to stop them, but needs help. You can learn more here, and donate to their legal fund here.

All in all, a straightforward and effective documentary, but first and foremost an important documentary.

.:.

Cover photo from the TIFF website