The other Maui dinners

I know I’ve already commented on and given photos of Pacific’O and David Paul’s Lahaina Grill, so no need to go back over that ground here. I talked of the terrific breakfasts at the Inn already as well. We didn’t snack much (though we thought our one experience of shave ice pretty lame, and we concede we should have hunted around for the best option) and lunch was usually food grabbed on the fly. The NBF (who spent at least some of his formative years in Hawaii) exhorted us to try out some of the non-gourmet Hawaiian cuisine, but we didn’t. Sorry Jeph. That leaves me with a few Maui dinner reviews.

Mama’s Fish House. This North Shore restaurant was where we ate at the end of the looooong drive. The location is delightful, with its own little cove of beachfront, palm trees waving. The décor is just the right side of cheesy, and the place is huge. We showed up at about 4:15 hoping to get a table easily for the start of dinner at 5. Well, it’s a popular place, and we ended up in a bar area by 4:30. Not a problem. Our waitress Heidi was very good, very friendly, and I mean to send a note to the restaurant just to tell them so. As for food and drink, well, better than anywhere else on Maui, though the prices may cause sticker shock to some. Coffee for $8 after dinner? $15 for a cocktail? I guess that’s Maui. It was good, as I said. We shared beef satay (looking quite fine in a grilled half-papaya), shrimp wontons, and a tasty salad of island tomatoes and onions. Francis opted for duck for dinner, whereas the other three of us all ordered the ahi tuna speared and cooked on sugar cane. The sides that included a green papaya salad provided some delightful heat to go with the sweetly glazed fish. This entrée may have been the best that I had while on Maui.

Gerards. Sorry to say, but though we loved the hotel, we weren’t wowed by the restaurant. All hotel guests get a very good discount at this French eatery, and it is a delightful setting with the hotel verandah and garden set aside for the tables. But the food was only okay when it should have been outstanding. Moreover, the plating was not always that attractive. They may have been trying for bistro, but the effect came across as something about what most of us can put on a plate with just a hint of ambition. Appetizers for us ranged from puff pastry with mushrooms (Kim), to foie gras (FXK) to escargot (Conrad) to seafood consommé with shrimp (me). I think Kim quite liked hers, but no one else raved. For dinner, Francis had a pork dish that came with condiments and sides galore, Conrad had a fish that he enjoyed, Kim had some mess of a gratin that looked like a sloppy crust of baked-on potatoes around a soup of cream and chunks of seafood, and I had some disappointing sweetbreads. The three chunks of meat on my plate were not too large (fine, it’s rich organ meat, I know), looked like fish from fish and chips, were not especially rich or tender or melting in my mouth, and came with a nondescript sauce and a plain salad. It wasn’t bad, no, but it was disappointingly plain. I had some wonderful sweetbreads at Bayona back in June, and these were nowhere near as good. A real pity. Dessert salvaged the evening for me – a banana tart tatin. Kim liked her crème brûlée. I think Conrad and Francis had some reasonable ice creams, but again. Ah well. Our wine was a Sancerre; our waiter was very nice.

Kobe. Yeah, you’re all thinking, "Um, Peter, not your usual gourmet place." Thanks, I know. So what? I’m really not a food snob the way people think I am. I have great appreciation for home cooking, though friends seem disturbingly intimidated to cook for me. Feh. I turn out crap from my kitchen more often than I’d like, so I’m not going to set myself above any home cook. I do have high standards for restaurants, though. Surprisingly, fun is one of them. I mean, come on, why not go to a place where they cook your food to order in front of you and dish out very very corny jokes and routines? I’m on holiday, you know! So there I was, gathered around the flattop, awaiting my dinner. Some steak and scallops, rice and some veggies. Was it incredible food? Nah. It was fine. I like the way the scallops sear, and the steak was reasonable. A few too many mushrooms involved for my liking, ah well. Conrad’s salmon was woeful, I also have to say. But it was a hoot, and I enjoyed it because it was meant to be enjoyed.

There was also much consumption of fruity cocktails at the beach and one night at Kimo's. I'm going through mai tai withdrawal right now....

Plantation Inn

I thought it might be good to separate out the hotel experience itself in case anyone is at all looking at this with an eye to a Maui trip.

Plainly put, we liked the Inn. Conrad and I had a ground floor room with a lanai (jeepers but that makes me sound so Golden Girls!) that opened on to the pool. FXK and Kim had a second floor room on a corner that overlooked the pool and the small side parking. The rooms were a nice size each, while the lanai was a bonus seating area.

There was a family at the hotel when we arrived, including three girls all enjoying the pool. We never saw them after that. Mostly it was couples, mostly in their 30s to 50s, some European couples, some gay couples other than us. In practice, this meant that there never seemed to be "competition" for the pool and hot tub, and that the chairs by the deck were often free. Some couples were friendly and also chatted, others kept to themselves. We like to think we were in the former category.

Breakfast was included with all rooms, and it was served by the pool. Coffee, juice, and fruit were provided, and we had a choice from among poached eggs Basque-style, a soufflé-like French toast, granola with yogurt, or bagel with cream cheese and even smoked salmon. I mostly had the eggs, and they were quite good.

Parking was convenient, the staff was entirely friendly. Best of all, perhaps, was that we were such a short walk from the shops, restaurants, bars, and attractions in town without having to hear any of the Front Street hubbub. We loved being able to walk to dinner so easily, and it was great to window shop and browse in the stores.

As for Gerard’s the restaurant at the hotel, well, it wasn’t what it could have been, but more on that in another post.

Should we return to Maui, the Plantation Inn will be an option we’ll strongly consider.

Conrad's birthday (long overdue photos)

So here we sit in a handsome lounge at the Mark Hopkins, avoiding drinking far too much of the wine left out for us, avoiding snacking on too many of the good food also available. Sometimes the extra perks of booking a club floor room can be worth it. On the other hand, it's the last special dinner for Conrad tonight, so we're trying to behave.

Before our 8:30 reservation at Rue LePic, some overdue photos from Conrad's birthday party.

A late Friday night dinner for about 28 of us (Conrad's treat!) was his choice of celebration. And it HAD to be at Yoshi's, Conrad's home away from home. Glad we were, too - Yoshi and his crew provided us with a secluded area of the restaurant, good service, and excellent food. Guests were treated to some nibblies while they had cocktails. From there they moved on to an appetizer sampler (I'm embarrassed not to have the menu in front of me, but I really liked the simplicity of the aspargus wrapped in bacon!). A choice of beef tenderloin with a fantastic smoked red wine sauce or fish with a guajillo chile sauce and swiss chard was the main course. I opted for fish since I LOVE my greens! A cake came out for dessert, and by this point I think we were all a bit loopy. The night ended with a small cluster of us toasting Michael's birthday (right after midnight), anniversaries (me and Conrad, FXK and Kim), Rachel's new job, and anything else we could think of.

Photos, then....

Ron

Frank

Courtney and Kenn

Laura and Michael

Scott

Me and Scott

Me and Rachel

Appetizers

Rachel, in awe of the tenderloin

Fish

Conrad and Kim

Chuck

Kim and York

Lisa and Ian

Ed and Kim

Ian and Sheila



Rachel, Carrie, Ron, Frank, Daniel

Deborah and Harry

Harry and Laura



Allan and Conrad

Dan, Conrad, and Jim

Rachel, sweetie, put those things away!

Best darn $19 sammich ever!

A bit of a break from the onslaught of Hawaii postings to offer a photo or two of the sandwich I had for lunch today. Some might snort with derision at the notion of paying almost $19 for a sandwich, but let's set it in context: it was in a gorgeous room (the restaurant at the Four Seasons with a view over Market Street) and it went down well with a glass of a California Chardonnay. The sandwich was chockful of Dungeness crab - no skimping, and not much beyond some tarragon adulterating it - avocado, crispy pancetta, butter lettuce, and tomato. The bread was pillowy soft and a little rich. On the side were some simple leafy greens, kettle chips, and bread and butter pickles. Honestly? I felt like it was a real steal!

Dolphins and turtles

Blame this one on FXK (than you FXK, thank you): a morning spent with the Pacific Whale Foundation folk on one of their vessels. Dolphin-watching by Lanai and snorkeling were on the agenda; it was an early morning departure for us!

Actually, I have to confess that early mornings were not a problem on this vacation. We got up with the sun somewhat, and it was certainly pleasant to grab a coffee and then enjoy the early breakfast seating. The corollary is that we went to bed mighty early. In fact, we joked – sort of – about having to force ourselves to stay awake until 9:00! Amateurs, all of us.

Anyway, about 40 passengers all together gathered at the banyan tree by the old courthouse to take part in the sail. It promised to be a good day again, and, indeed, I think it was the hottest in our experience on Maui (it felt hotter yesterday early in the afternoon down in Waikiki). Dolphins were up first, and no ma’am – as one woman had to be told – they were not guaranteed! But they were there, a pod of spinner dolphins off Lanai. Did I say that we frolicked in the Pacific the day before? Well, the sleek creatures truly did, coming up close to the boat and all around it. No one could have been disappointed with our encounter.

Back across the channel to Maui from there. The early sighting had bought us extra time for snorkeling, and rather than cross a choppier channel as it usually is at midday, the crew thought we’d best do our snorkeling close to home while the crossing was relatively smooth. So it was that Conrad and I had our first encounter with snorkeling gear, and all turned out fairly well. Again, how could we complain? Oh, maybe a more colourful reef with a greater array of multi-hued fish. Maybe. But when you have a big sea turtle all of 4 feet away, surfacing and then slowly swirling back down to some place in the reef, you gotta admit it rocks. The guides had shown us some fish photos on the boat, so I was also delighted to recognize a butterfly fish down below. Another cool thing: getting to hold onto a sea urchin brought up from the reef by one of the guides as he explained to a small group of us some things about the animal.

I don’t know how the comforts of the Pacific Whale Foundation boat compare to others, or whether the locations compare favourably. The Foundation does some good works, though, so that counts for something. Yes, we’d have liked more comfortable seating and shade, but there were other times when it was glorious being out in the sun with a mai tai in hand after snorkeling. They fed us some lunch and breakfast items, and while not gourmet, we didn’t go hungry by far. We thought the guides were quite friendly, and we got to chatting with a few of the other passengers as well. In other words, a great suggestion by Francis, and a recommended experience for others.

As for our afternoon, well, a long nap and some postcards, plus what turned out to be a last dip in the hotel pool.

Back to the beach

Conrad and I are not unlike many other people in that we lead busy lives in general, and this spills over into vacations. The point of visiting new places is, after all, to see and explore and do. Right? Right! Well, maybe….

Having spent a long day on the road the day before, none of us were especially inclined to do so again all in order to see yet more waterfalls, coastlines, or lush vegetation. Sorry Maui. No, we’d had such a marvelous day last Sunday up at Ka’anapali Beach, it was a no-brainer to head back. As I recall, Conrad, FXK, and I strolled over to Starbucks with another hotel guest, Deb, and then enjoyed the tranquility of early morning Lahaina. After some breakfast and some souvenir shopping on my part, though, we packed up and headed north.

There’s not too much to write – if you read the earlier beach entry, then you know what we did: frolicked in the Pacific, drank plenty of mai tais (and beer for Francis), relaxed and read. I made some good progress into The Rebel Angels (I’m typing this on the plane to San Francisco to be uploaded later, taking a break from What’s Bred in the Bone, the second part of the Cornish Trilogy. Good to get reacquainted with Robertson Davies on holiday!). The water was just as great a temperature again, though a little more pounding. We’ll all be getting sand out of our ears and belly buttons for days to come!

That’s about it for that oh-so-not-hectic day. Not so difficult to manage, I would say!

Highway to Hana

4:26 in the (Friday) morning here in Honolulu as I start writing; our flight is at 7, so we'll be off to the airport in about 45 minutes. Everything is ready to go, but we were up before the alarm, so a bit of blogging comes your way.

Let's go waaaaaaaaaaaaay back to Monday when Kim and Francis loaded us all into their convertible and drove the road to Hana and back. The drive is a wild and scenic one on Maui's North Shore. The turns are sharp and numerous. The bridges are one-lane and numerous. Sitting in the back seat was already something of a nail-biter, and I'm am greatly impressed that Kim and Francis managed the drive so smoothly because let me tell you, some of the others on that road were a little too fast and careless for my liking! Oh, you didn't know I was a little old lady at heart? Sorry.

We didn't leave the hotel as early as the guidebooks suggested, but we didn't encounter bad traffic either. We'd been told the day before that the earthquake had knocked out a bridge somewhere after Hana, so that solved the issue of whether to risk taking the rental car over the at-times poor road arond the south of the island.

A beach just east of Pa'ia was our first stop, watching the surfers and surf-casting fishermen, oohing and aahing as a few large sea turtles poked their heads up just offshore. A glorious start.

The road then started its torturous course. It wasn't without its rewards: the many waterfalls along the way are lovely stopping points as were some of the shoreline viewpoints. It rained some, especially as we got higher up. But then, that's what keeps everything so lush and green. We passed through bamboo forest (I think) and saw some lovely blooms in places. At the Halfway to Hana Stand (a misnomer) we stopped for some warm and sweet banana bread and mostly avoided using the utterly disgusting portable restrooms.

Hana? Not much to it. If you were doing a drive around the island or had a lot of time, it would be a relaxing, remote place to stay a night or two. As a destination on the drive, though, it was a little anticlimactic, and the food choices were severely limited. We quickly turned round.

Shortly outside Hana on the way back we drove down to near the water through the settlement of Nahiku. This was a worthwhile diversion as the play of waves on the rocks and shore was remarkable. It might have been the best scenery all trip.

By 4:15 we were back near Pa'ia, so we stopped for dinner at Mama's Fish House. I'll blog food separately, I think, so skipping the dinner there, it was a sunset drive back to Lahaina. We'd actually had sun for the most part that day; the rain was the only bit we encountered while here (and FXK and I had fretted over rain in the forecast for every day while there!!!). Back at the inn, we relaxed in and around the pool with some beverages before turning in - early as always!

As for the hat, it really did look better on Kim....

Honolulu minute

What's that, Conrad? Where? Food photos are over there?

Alas, another short post until I have some nice long time to spend with a wireless connection and no obligations. From San Francisco, perhaps? No matter. Before we head to bed (a very early flight out tomorrow morning!), one of the only shots that worked out well from tonight's fantastic dinner at Alan Wong's. I'll post blurrier shots and explanation another time, but for now content yourselves with the New Wave banana Split: mochi wrapped hawaiian vanila and banana ice cream, caramelized bananas, and trio of house made ice creams. Lei and Doug treated us most generously at dinner tonight!

More glimpses of Maui

We're in Honolulu now after some wonderful days on Maui. There's much to catch people on here, and many moroe photos to come, but right now I think I want to kick back, read a little, shower, then go for the gret dinner we have planned. So, a few assorted photos with no explanations simply to whet (I hope) your appetites for more at a later time!

Missed this beach photo yesterday

No, not other blindingly white photo of me, but a great shot of Francis who looks good in swim gear!

Off to Hana after breakfast....

Day two in Maui: food shots

You'd think we'd moved here at the rate that I'm taking photos (well, we ALL are) and blogging it. And it's not all about the food either. Plenty of Mai Tais and some wine, plus Conrad and I have a few more Hawaiian shirts each! Ahhhh, loving it.

But food is important, so let's go with some of that. Dinner last night was at Pacific'O, tonight at David Paul's Lahaina Grill. Tonight kicked some butt on last night, and last night wasn't at all bad!

Francis' lamb at Pacific'O.

My Hapa Hapa Tempura at Pacific'O.

Gay much Peter? Drinking a Lava Flow at Pacific'O.


Appetizers at the Lahaina Grill: Francis' duck quesadilla.

Conrad's ahi tuna and foie gras.

Kim's "cake walk": cakes of lobster, shrimp, and tuna.

My chile relleno filled with a shimp and scallop mixture with cheese.

Kim's opakapaka entree.

The salmon that Conrad and Francis each had.

My lion's paw scallops.

quick photos from 24 hours on Maui

low wireless connection here at the hotel, but a wireless connection nonetheless. Let's see if I can get a few photos posted as a teaser of what's gone on so far....

The view on Saturday from Laihana to Lana'i. Impressive storm clouds that hit some areas but passed us by.
Conrad and Kim down on the Lahaina waterfront.
We're not going hungry. My entree on our first night, dinner at Pacific'O.
Francis bares much and hams it up on Kana'apali Beach.
I can't believe it's a shirtless photo of me. Try not to go blind.
Rest assured, we used sunscreen and took advantage of abundant shade in our six plus hours on the beach!
And another one. Am I suddenly vain?

Birthday party (a couple of photos)

We're scrambling to get the last few things packed and get to the airport, but I had enough time to post a few quick photos from Conrad's jubilant birthday celebration at Yoshi's last night:

Anniversary dinner

Yesterday marked five years for me and Conrad as a couple. Five. Each day I move deeper and deeper into uncharted territory - I'd not dated anyone before him for more than six months. Happily, it's not a scary venture, not at all.

Two things I will not do in this posting:

1. Rhapsodize about my love for the man and all the good things he embodies. Assume both, please.


2. Discuss the quantity of wine we consumed last night.

So, let's talk of food. Though we stopped in to Yoshi's for dessert and to finalize plans for tonight's dinner, we decided to finally take advantage of a gift certificate to Tsuki. It's been a couple of years since our first visit there - one drawback to all the fine dining in Chicago is that if a place is not incredibly convenient or anything less than deeply cherished, we don't always remember to go there more often - and the gift certificate was soon to expire otherwise. We like sushi anyway, so what the heck?

We ordered a bottle of Conundrum and opted for the chef's course. Curiously for us, we devoured the first course (slices of yellowtail topped with ceviche sauce and cilantro and with citrus obha sauce) without thinking to photograph it. Fortunately for all of you, we took photos of the rest!

Oyster shooters and shots (fresh oyster in a ponzu shooter with a shot of Ginjyo sake).

Horse mackerel served three ways.

The same horse mackerel skeleton that had been skewered on the sashimi plate, cut, deep fried, and salted.

Botan Ebi (sweet shrimp), smoked duck, Chu-Toro (medium fatty tuna, from the cheeks, I believe), and Tobiko Wasabi (flying fish roe tinted and flavoured with wasabi). Not photographed were the deep-fried shrimp heads presented to us after this course.

Tako spicy tuna (marinated octopus maki topped with crunchy spicy tuna and drizzled with wasabi mayonnaise) and spicy pine nut tuna (spicy tuna maki with pine nuts, pistachios, and rosemary, topped with with white tuna and giner paste).

Favourites? Tough question. I admit to loving the fried ones - the mackerel head and bones as well as the shrimp head. I am a huge fan of the sweet shrimp as well ever since I first tried it at a restaurant in Victoria some 3 years back. I would also laud the spicy pine nut tuna for really conveying the meatiness of the tuna. With the rosemary and nuts mixed in, the tuna almost seemed like pork or some other meat.

Conrad is having a good long morning in bed, which is fair because we didn't go to bed until after midnight. I think he liked the bunnies I got him for his anniversary, too. Given how wound up and overworked he's been lately, I was so relieved and delighted that we were able to have a mellow evening of good food and wine. He's 50 today, you know. Quite a weekend of celebration for him!

To close this entry, a blurry shot taken in the cab over to Yoshi's....

Last night's rabbit dinner

Jeepers, I think I may actually be feeling the effects of a big, rich dinner with plenty of wine. Light, moderate, non-alcohol dining today for me!

Last month when I did the AIDS Walk with Dan and Scott, we'd spent a lot of time gossipping about our teammates, of course, but also chatting about food, dining, and cooking. Somehow we got to talking about rabbit (perhaps in relation to their 2006 and ur 2004 travels in Spain), and I learned that the two of them are fans of the meat. So I suggested that I would cook up some for them soon.

Once I'd figured out a weekend, I also invited Paul and Michael from the team. They're another super couple - very friendly, open, sweet guys. We'd not had them over for dinner, though they'd been over for team parties, so an invitation to them was overdue. A small party of the six of us - nice and manageable!

Alas, things happen. Scott has been sick lately, and while he's (happily!) on the mend, he stayed home while Dan came over. Michael, meanwhile, is busy these days at work (he's a banquet waiter at the Four Seasons), so Paul also came alone. I am sorry the other two couldn't come, though I made sure to send some leftovers home to them.

The nature of the menu and the size of the party meant that Conrad and I had a not-too-overwhelming day of preparing. I started on Friday and was able to carry on through Saturday afternoon while juggling in a brief nap, a trip to the florist's, a stroll for a hot chocolate, and a shower. Conrad worked his usual miracles on the house, and I thought it looked lovely.

When the guys arrived, we started them on some olives, fig cake, Cabrales cheese, Marcona almonds, bread that I'd made that day, tomato wedges, and a bottle of Las Brisas 2004. We sat and chatted, then I got them all to the table for the first course: crepes filled with some asparagus and a bit of Cordobes Mitica sheep's milk cheese and topped with a tomato saffron sauce. I didn't get a good photo of them finished, alas, though I have some of the crepes before they were heated in the oven and topped with the sauce. Tasty. Making the crepes was the most relaxing part of the day, and I stood there at the stove that afternoon talking on the phone with a few people back in BC. I served the crepes with a bottle of the 2005Cune Rioja Rosado.

Dinner was rabbit, of course. I have a recipe that I LOVE, utterly: Penelope Casas' Conejo Aurora recipe. Rabbit stewed in a sauce of almond, olves, and garlic. So delicious, so fragrant. And easy - after you brown the rabbit and lightly saute the finely chopped onion, everything goes back into the pot and it gets left to simmer to tenderness. An excellent dish! Alongside the rabbit I passed a simple salad of mixed greens, tomato, and pine nuts tossed with non-fat yogurt, salt, and pepper. The wine was another Spanish one, a 2003 Bodegas Castaño Monastrell Yecla.

We took a break at that point to let the food settle some. I set out a bowl of chocolate covered candied rhubarb from Sweden, and we eased into talk of the fruit and fond ways of using it.

Dessert eventually rolled around, though, and you've seen the photos of the making of it. It was well-received, especially the hint of rosemary in it. I personally love the syrup soaked into the cake more than the fruit, I admit. Because it is a recipe from BC, I paired it with a BC dessert wine, the Red Rooster 2005 Minus Thirteen Pinot Blanc (special select late harvest). Conrad had picked it out on our 2005 vacation in BC, and I thought it a lovely choice to share.

The night ended with the packing of the leftovers and the saying of goodbyes. Most of the clean up is done, though a few more things await me in the kitchen. I'll tend to them when Conrad awakes. Now for a day of chicken broth, maybe a few days of chicken broth, just to feel restored and ready for a big holiday full o' food!

tired, time for bed, more pears

A full account of tonight's dinner will follow tomorrow. I think that for now a photo should suffice. I'm more than a little drained. Time for an EC and a good long night of sleep.

So, the pears, finished and served with some of the syrup as well as a wedge of a biscuit de savoie studded with Sauternes-soaked raisins.

Pears

Ah, pears. The fruit that, if weren't for me, Dominic would still not know the pleasure of. I sometimes wonder why they're not more popular, and then I bring one in with my lunch and end up having to clean pear skin and juice off of everything. Delicate when ripe! Stick with apples for lunches!

Tonight, though, it's pears. Rather, it's all for tomororw when a few friends come for dinner. I'm getting some prep out of the way today so that tomorrow will be easier to deal with. I have crepe batter in the fridge (and I may make those up before swimming) and a bowl of a tomato saffron sauce that is meant to go with the crepes. Bread, salad, the rabbit, a cake - all these will come tomorrow instead.

The main event tonight are my pears, however. Karen Barnaby has a a couple of recipes for poaching them in her Pacific Passions cookbook, and though I've made the ones poached in Riesling and served with basil crème anglaise (a great base for ice cream, by the way), I prefer the red wine poached pears.

Ahhhh, the scent even now is maddening. I've poached the pears, and now I'm boiling down the poaching liquid into a thick syrup. I'll keep the pears in it until dinner tomorrow, turning them, basting them, burnishing them. I have modified the recipe, I admit. The first time I made it I forgot to put in the whole cloves, just didn't see them listed. No matter. I've never bothered with them in subsequent instances. Instead, the red wine syrup is redolent of the fresh rosemary, cinnamon (the real stuff, curled up like parchment, a light citrusy scent), and black peppercorns. I make a simple cake to serve alongside because the poaching liquid/syrup deserves something to sop it up.

I'll try to take photos of the dinner tomorrow if things turn out. The syrup is almost done. I believe I shall get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight.

First signs of winter's approach

1. Flakes of snow. Not many. None stuck. But definitely snow.
2. Christmas music. Right now Oscar Peterson's version of Winter Wonderland is playing on my iTunes. You don't want to know how much Christmas music (and other shopping) I've done since the start of the month.
3. Chapped lips. Burt's Bees beeswax lip balm is now tingling all around my mouth.
4. Brussels sprouts. To me, they're a classic cold weather vegetable. Shown below is Conrad's dinner - he's not yet home from a veeeeeeery long day of work (poor guy!). I thought he might be home before I went to the pool, so I coated a pork tenderloin with a paste of rosemary, garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt, black pepper and raosted it at 400 for about 35 minutes. Meanwhile I trimmed and halved a bunch of the sprouts, cooked them until just tender in lightly salted water, then drained them and set them aside, covered. I cooked three slices of hickory smoked bacon in a pan, removed the bacon when crispy to drain, the added some sliced shallot to the pan to saute in the bacon grease. After the shallots had browned a little, I deglazed the pan with some wine and added some coarse grain mustard. Then came the Brussels sprouts, followed by the crumbled bacon. Okay, not the best for Conrad's cholesterol, but low in carbs!! The plate shown is presently warming in a low oven.

Alright then, we just had the BNL version of Do They Know It's Christmas, and up now is their rendition of Carol of the Bells. Wheee!

in a Vancouver mood for salmon

If you've read the previous two posts, you'll note that much food and even liquor was consumed on this very fine weekend. To be fair, I swam 4600 yards bloody hard yesterday! Just the same, though, we were a little "dined out" by this afternoon, so we decided to stay in and I would cook for us.

Vancouver has been much on my mind lately - I crave a return visit to BC, and I am already very very excited about getting CG to visit with me for her first time there come January. If all goes well, I will visit in December as well. If that fails to come to pass, I can still remind myself of the west coast in various ways.

Food, naturally, is one of them.

A few Christmases back my Mum gave me a decent little cookbook called Chefs in the Market Cookbook. The inspiration is the magnificent Granville Island Market (okay, so some will complain it's overpriced and touristy, but I will continue to visit it and love it), and the recipes come from the authors as well as from a number of Vancouver and BC chefs. The molten chocolate cakes with candied ginger were the first recipe I tried, but the one I keep coming back to is a gem in its simplicity:

Roasted salmon with yellow tomatoes, marjoram, and garlic (contributed by Janice Kariotakis of The Salmon Shop)

4 salmon fillets
2 large yellow or red tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp minced marjoram
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 400. Put the fillets on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Cover each fillet with the tomato slices, then sprinkle on the remaining ingredients. Bake 10 minutes.

Simple, right? I didn't have fresh marjoram on hand (and I'm not always fond of its floral notes), so I used some dried oregano. Plum tomatoes filled in for the yellow ones as well. And really, it was ten minutes. In the cooking time I was able to set the table, cut up some veggies to cook for a side, and heat the plates. Give it a try.

And no, I wasn't deliberately trying for U of I colours with those plates....

100: a walk and brunch

Odd to think that I've posted 100 times to this thing. How many photos of food? How many of Smelts? If you haven't firgured out the theme to this blog yet, there's not much hope you will!

A glorious October Sunday today, and no, not because Da Bears won. Given such sunny, warm weather, it would have been remiss of us not to take advantage of it. Around about 11, we did what a lot of the city seemed to have done and headed for the lakefront. Conrad and I enjoyed a nice casual stroll out by the lake, admiring boats, remarking over the enormous fish someone had caught, talking and walking and holding hands in the autumn sunshine.

Brunch then, and rather than do Yoshi's tonight (given last night's feast and the night before at Frontera Grill, especially) we decided to stop in for brunch and sit outside. Another smashing idea: we got to watch the world pass through the Halsted and Aldine intersection while dining on a smoked salmon salad (for Conrad), a fruit plate (me), a grilled chicken breast (Conrad), and scrambled eggs with brie on toasted brioche (me). And bacon on the side!

Meanwhile, we had a guide book to Maui with us, and we poured over the embryonic Christmas gift list. Things shape up well at that end.

Eventually we made it home where we've both been whiling away at a variety of tasks. Nonetheless, we had some outside time, and we've had one of our best weekends in a long time overall!

sushi at Dave's

Dear Blog:

No, I know, I haven't written in a while, but I do still think of you fondly. Truly. It's been one of those weeks: all my television shows on Wednesday night, Conrad out of town Thursday night while I spent over an hour in a dentist's office chair, dinner at the bar at Frontera Grill last night. Busy busy busy. Sorry.

Dave invited us over for dinner tonight. Very nice of him, and as Conrad and I have a rule of accepting as often as possible invitations to dine at the homes of friends, we gladly accepted. Sushi for dinner (despite the photo at the top of this posting, there was no ham at all served), and no, Dave is not a trained chef skilled in the arts of raw fish and sticky rice. He had food brought in, and fine it was.

Better still, he baked an apple pie for us.

Best of all? He shared the bottle of Quail's Gate Family Reserve Pinot Noir we'd given him for Christmas last year. What a fine friend!

It's been a brisk few days, but curiously, unlike the last meal there, it was fairly still and mild and in his back yard. The four of us (his friend Becky was there, too) sat out back, dining by candlelight as a fullish moon rose overhead. We went were into a fourth bottle of wine by the time Conrad and I bid them goodbye - tomorrow morning will be a late and easy one, made all the better for having done all our laundry today!

All in all, quite an enjoyable evening. We're altogether glad we were able to follow through on our policy!

shrimp and green stuff

Goodness, quite a storm blowing through right now. I was just at the window watching some of the lightning - not just flickers and flashes of light but bolts of it visible in the sky as well. The wind is driving rain about our breezy intersection. Not a good night to be out. It makes me glad to have come home from swimming well beforehand.

In to work early today, so home early enough to blanch some broccoli rabe and peas. I peeled shrimp, chopped garlic, and sliced some onions and squash. All this went into the fridge while we were at the pool, ready for combining in a quick dinner after practice.

The green stuff was easy. I gently sauteed garlic in olive oil with a bit of salt, then added the blanched vegetables. To spread the flavour through better, I also added some chicken broth, then turned up the heat to high. The rabe and peas quickly reheated and went into the center of heated plates.

The shrimp were just as simple. I had added some chile flakes and fennel seeds to the garlic and sauteed it with some salt as well. To this I added sliced white onion and some cut up yellow pattypan squash. Next came the shrimp, and I turned up the heat and covered the pan a short bit. Last came the cherry tomatoes I'd quartered, just long enough to soften without falling competely apart. Bob's your uncle, dinner made!

I'm tempted to sit at the window as long as the storm lasts and watch. Back home we seldom got storms like this, so I always find them impressive events.