Tag: midfield

"If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't, so it doesn't."

Dan Dickinson2 Comments

I’ve noticed something: I only remember to blog about movies when I watch a good movie. Hence:

  • In Bruges (imdb | rotten tomatoes), something we’ve been meaning to see since it premiered at TIFF several years ago, was quite funny. Probably more so since we’ve actually been to Bruges and didn’t really care for it.
  • Retreat (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was better than I expected for a film I’d never heard of and found randomly on TMN. I like the Cillian Murphy almost as much as I dislike the Thandie Newton, so it was balanced up until Jamie Bell appeared. On the whole: pretty good.
  • I’ve never seen the original version of The Thing, but we had the remake (imdb | rotten tomatoes) recorded on the PVR and a couple of hours to kill, and so that happened. It was rubbish.

.:.

This weekend was broken up more or less by what we were drinking at the time:

Friday: Foreign Affair Riesling, Fielding Pinot Gris, Norm Hardie Pinot Noir, and Hamelin Bay Rampant Red (which made us regret not getting down to Hamelin Bay last fall whilst in the Margaret River) at REDS; Cattail Creek Four Mile Creek Riesling, Weingut Hirsch Gruner Veltliner, Argiolas Costera Cannonau, Ca del Monte Valpolicella Ripasso, Bilogia  Tempranillo, Indigena Garnaxta, and something else I don’t remember at Midfield

Saturday: Weihenstephaner Kristall, Beau’s Lugtread, Blanche de Chambly, La Trappe Tripel, and a sunburn at Against The Grain Urban Tavern; a bottle of Hidden Bench 2008 Terroir Caché with dinner (after which I felt like crap, though I don’t blame the wine)

Sunday: an ill-advised Rickard’s White on the temporary on-Yonge-Street patio at the Firkin on Yonge (!); bottles of Kacaba 2008 Syrah and Daniel Lenko 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay when our friend Kaylea dropped in for an impromptu visit; a bottle of Norm Hardie 2010 County Chardonnay with dinner.

 

Next on NBC: Crotch Mahogany & Sweetbreads McQueen

Dan Dickinson2 Comments

On Saturday, not two hours after returning the rental car that took us on our cottage excursion, we were off to Enoteca Sociale for dinner with some old university friends. Since there were eight of us we sat in their private room downstairs amongst the wine, and were served an amazing meal in the family style: several common plates shared among us. Using their menu and my fuzzy memory I think I can piece together roughly what we ate that night:

  • a 4-foot long board full of charcuterie and some very boozy pears
  • beef carpaccio
  • some kind of salad with dandelion in it
  • smoked sweetbreads w/ sweet pea & fava bean salad (note: this was my first team eating sweetbreads, and they were delicious)
  • whole roasted sea bream w/ linguica sausage & romesco
  • rigatoni w/ pork, tomato & pea
  • mussels
  • asparagus & ricotta ravioli w/ mint, hazelnut & parmigiano reggiano
  • PEI 20 oz grass fed striploin w/ roasted bone marrow & rosemary potatoes
  • sticky toffee pudding w/ homemade vanilla ice cream

We had to out of there by 9, so we walked a few blocks down the street to Midfield for some more wine. We just let Chris pick out a couple of bottles for us; I remember the Sigalas Assyrtiko; I don’t remember which Portuguese red he brought though.

Finally we retired back to a friend’s place, where we proceeded to drink his wine and beer and gin while sitting on his roof, admiring the view. We also admired his red Alexander McQueen pants with black splotches and his giant egg-shaped crotch mahogany whisky display case. And lest anyone think I’m making either one of those things up, here be proof:

Image by Jace XIII, under Creative Commons License

May and June appear set to come up Milhouse

Dan Dickinson3 Comments

It occurs to be that we have a surplus of awesomeness lined up for the rest of this month:

June isn’t looking too shabby either, what with a Picasso exhibit at the AGO, a long weekend in Prince Edward County, the Flaming Lips playing (free) at Dundas Square, Session 99 craft beer festival and a 5-day trip to New York.

Also: today was the first beer-on-patio day of the year!

Life? Good.

.:.

Image by Jace XIII, under Creative Commons License