Peter.Food.Travel.Musings

brunch at Havana Restaurant

2010-01-02T17:04:00.000-06:00

It was very late yesterday morning when we got up. Those who know me well will scoff. Late for me usually means 6:30. Oh no, not yesterday. I think it was about 10 when we made it over to Safari Cafe for a quick one, and I was not even remotely hungry following such a big meal the night before.

Still, brunch plans were afoot, and we wanted to see Giuseppe. Despite pouring rain, we got in the car and headed for Commercial Drive. Destination: Havana Restaurant.

Giuseppe was a bit late - who can blame anyone yesterday - but he did bring along a friend who was new to us. I hope I remember the name, but I could swear it was Jonathan. The French Canadian accent and the Repentigny roots give me pause on that name, but no matter - he was also excellent brunch company.

We tucked into tostones all together, and I opted for shrimp and avocado eggs Benedict with salad only. It's been 4 and a half years since our only meal at Havana, and it is back on our radar now, happily.

Meanwhile, brunch conversation flowed all over, easily.
It's always a treat to see Giuseppe, after all.

Brunch done and no other set plans to undertake, Conrad and I set out for a bit of a drive around Stanley Park. It was unusual weather - normally rain in Vancouver seems light but constant. Yesterday it was heavy, insistent. We paused and took quick photos from the car, rolling up the windows before we could get too wet. But then, partway around the park and over near a view of Lions Gate Bridge, we saw a rainbow falling onto the North Shore
. And wait, a patch of blue. For a minute or two, we thought it might turn out to be a lovely end of the afternoon.

Well, no. In fact, it's wet and grey again this morning. Of course. I was delighted, however, to see that the weather did not seem to dim enthusiasm for yesterday's Polar Bear swim in English Bay.

We drove past as people were leaving, though a few brave/foolhardy souls still hooted and splashed in the brisk ocean water.

lamb to start the year

2010-01-02T10:43:00.014-06:00

Todd, for one, will be dismayed or horrified or even resigned to all this by now: tender baby animal for a nice dinner at our place. Easy to cook, tasty to eat. Sorry TK. Everyone else, here's the meal:

I originally had it in mind that I would braise lamb shanks for dinner, then instead of cooking a couple of veg and reducing the braising liquid, I would degrease the liquid and use it as a rich broth for a soup-like serving in which the shank would rest. A fine idea, I think (and bread would have helped a lot), but one key thing got in the way. Marie, beloved sister, has no big soup bowls that would fit the serving. Not so far as I could tell from rooting around in her cupboard.

Small change of plan.

:-)

Not a big deal, in the end. I went back to the notion of reducing the liquid and serving some veg, but tweaked it some. For starters, I cooked pasta for the first time in aeons, making a small pot of Israeli couscous and cooking it in the braising liquid. Then, instead of cooking veggies separately and seasoning them differently, I tossed carrots, leek, and Brussels sprouts into the strained braise, then once done, removed them and kept them warm in a covered casserole dish
with the lamb shanks. Only then did I reduce the liquid
to a sauce that I spooned over the vegetables and meat.

We ate a Marie's new table, the meat and veg in the middle for us to serve ourselves from, family style,
sipping a light-bodied BC Pinot Noir and moving on to some locally made chocolates for dessert. More Ab Fab - a continuation of sorts from the night before - entertained us. The three of us had quite a pleasant dinner all in all, and I think the lamb, for all the little changes of plan, ended up a better meal than the salmon the night before.

NYE dinner with Chris

2010-01-01T18:51:00.010-06:00

I think, friends, I am still recovering. I also think, friends, that I need to get my lardy butt back to the gym and pool and try to recover some semblance of good shape and physical health.

Ah, but where are my manners? Happy New Year, one and all!

Niceties out of the way, let's settle down to blogging the dinner last night. Some good things, some less successful. Lots of food. Not too much booze (for me). Plenty of Ab Fab. Ready?

The good:

Conrad. He did many dishes throughout the night and at the end, and he remains as cute in 2010 as ever he was in 2009.

Conrad's martinis. Wetter than usual (2:1 gin to vermouth ratio), but very very tasty.

Oysters. We ate a bit of cheese and some nuts with the martinis, and then, after a while, launched into the first course I cooked. Cornmeal crusted oysters which, if anyone from the restaurant days reads this, will be recognizable as a dimly recollected re-creation of a recipe from the first Bobby Flay cookbook. Tasty, and a simple presentation that turned out well - I put this plate on a lazy Susan in the middle of the table, and the three of us served ourselves from that communal dish.

Chris. Awesome company. Go read his blog already - it's a hoot!

Ab Fab. What better way for three gay men to pass the night than with food, booze, and 7 episodes of Ab Fab on DVD. I hope we watch a few more tonight!

The less successful:

The salmon. In fact, I think the coho worked better than the sockeye I used at Christmas. Also, the pastry turned out better. Also, I preferred the dill and mustard butter I used in place of the currant and candied ginger butter from the first time. Heck, it tasted great. But I served it too large (and now I think I should try making individual salmon pastry packages), the lentils were kinda meh, and the red chard didn't get tender enough.

The sad:

Christmas. It's over. The tree is still up here, and sometime around our dinner of oven-braised lamb shanks we will open a few last presents. But, it's all done, and now we must wait about 275 more days until it's appropriate to play the Christmas music again. Small wonder the heavy downpour here today fit my mood. Ah well.

return to the Motherland

2009-12-30T10:23:00.005-06:00

OK, I admit, it's not Conrad's motherland, though he is from The UP, so he may as well be Canadian, or so I occasionally tease him. And he does have Canadian residency status, so it's sort of the Motherland for him that way.

In any case, we're in Vancouver, set to ring in the New Year here. Wet, cool. Typical Vancouver. Good to be back.

And better still, by happy chance we timed our visit for after Adam, the owner/operator of our favourite independent coffee shop, came back from a week away on vacation. Hooray. The man makes great coffee - reminiscent of the flat whites we enjoyed often on the New Zealand trips - and he spoils us further by making us variations on egg sandwiches and omelets. We could sit here for hours (and the free wireless doesn't hurt either).

But, eventually, we'll get our real day going with an appointment downtown, then meeting up with family members who are coming down from the Sunshine Coast, then dinner at the home of friends. A last hurrah for 2009, successfully underway!

Christmas meals at home

2009-12-28T11:26:00.021-06:00

This Christmas marked only the second one that Conrad and I had together in our home, and the first where we were all alone to ourselves. Deliberately so, in fact. Oh, we'd mulled the idea of Christmas brunch or dinner at a good hotel restaurant, but ultimately rejected those thoughts. Our Christmas, our home, ourselves. It worked out well.

Three meals that day, though the way things were spaced out, we might think of them as four meals or more. Which is fine, really. By the time we went to bed, we felt contented, not overfed or over-wined. A good feeling.

The meals sort of started on Christmas Eve. Sort of in the sense that we set a bunch of things up: the dining table for dinner
(complete with crackers, of course!) and the kitchen table for breakfast. Some holiday colours in among the Fiestaware added to the spirit of it all.

Breakfast. I'm not a breakfast cook, I have decided. I need more practice with eggs, but mostly it's that I don't want elaborate breakfasts. Poached eggs on dry toast are my ideal morning meal; cereal with yogurt is my usual. Christmas morning, then, it was a tasty enough but perfunctory meal of bacon, scrambled eggs (Conrad's preferred way of having them), scones gently reheated, and coffee we brewed ourselves.
We ate somewhere around 9:30, I think.

Then came stockings. A stroll in the neighbourhood (despite the rain). A nap.

Lunch took place after the nap and some phone calls. I think it was around 2:30ish. No cooking, just a plate with a bit of a goat cheese coated in herbs, some jamon serrano, a bit of bread, some nuts. And a half bottle of a rose Champagne. We ate and sipped in no great haste at all, and while we did so, we opened presents.

More phone calls. Listening to music. A bit of tidying. Somewhere around 5, the first dinner course came out of the kitchen: a Dungeness crab salad.
We sat down at the dining table, opened the crackers, put on our crowns, and dug in. Our plan was to have with dinner a bottle of a 2003 Burgundy that Kenn and Cliff had given us some time back, so we opened that and poured a bit to breathe. Luscious, perhaps too much so for the crab. Happily, there was a partially consumed bottle of a Beaujolais Nouveau hanging around, so we poured a glass each of that lighter wine and sipped it.

Then into the kitchen with me again. For years I've been dying to try a recipe in a British magazine for salmon baked in pastry. This was the year to do it. It's a rich dish - I won't say how much butter is in it, but between the pastry and the flavoured butter (currants and crystallized ginger in it) that is slathered between the layered salmon fillets, there's a goodly amount. For a first effort at it, I was pleased with how it looked coming out of the oven.

While the fish baked, I made the sauce messine recommended to go along with it. Wow, whipping cream. More richness. I didn't sauce the meal too heavily, and I made the simplest and lightest of side dishes: steamed red chard.
Smart move.

In the end, the wine and salmon were a fine match though not an outstanding one. This is a small quibble. We ate dinner around 7:30 and continued sipping wine for a while. It was a delight, sitting with only the candlelight and the glow of the tree nearby.

Ah, but there's a little more to come: dessert! Christmas means steamed pudding to me, though I hardly wanted to make up a real Christmas pudding with hard sauce. Keep it simple. Instead, I found a recipe for an orange pudding, and though it took a little extra encouragement to escape the mold once it was cooked, it was a good idea. In fact, I've snacked on some leftover pudding, cold, this morning. It might have been more festive to add custard sauce or whipped cream, but in truth, we only wanted a little something by this point. A small piece each with a bit of dark chocolate quickly shaved over it. Just right!

It's all too easy for us, with our love of finer foods and the like, to go overboard at Christmas. Timing was one key here, but I think I made smart food/wine choices. Our first Christmas alone together, and really, it was a lovely one through and through.

time off over the holidays

2009-12-28T08:50:00.000-06:00

A brief note to warn you: blogging ahead. I've been derelict in maintaining this blog in recent months, I know, and I will compensate heavily over the next week or so. No work for me until January 4, so stay tuned as I catch y'all (all four or so of y'all that actually read this!) on things that have happened, upcoming time in Vancouver, food I cook, and food I eat. And good hair days and outfits I like!

So, pour a glass, settle back, and check in from time to time.

the pretty things of the holiday season

2009-12-27T21:56:00.000-06:00

White winters. Snowflakes falling. Candy canes. Holly and poinsettias. Christmas lights. It's a wonderful season because of the immense range of lovely sights to see. Truly, I love this season. So many pretty things.

For example, there's me, dressed to go out for dinner a couple of different times.

OK, that's a little vain. But, as you can see, both CG (at Blackbird) and Conrad (at Yoshi's) look adorable.

Joking aside, I did take a few shots of some favourite ornaments.

When Conrad and I first were dating, I didn't like his tree. I grew up with a tree that had things that coordinated in colour or shape or style or theme. I've come to love the hodgepodge on our tree, however, because there's a lot that I know the stories behind, or have been part of the stories. Also, we can sit and hold each other and just look at the tree, eyes catching on a different ornament each time. And every year, a few new ones make it on to the tree, too!

Reasons to love Frontera #4782

2009-12-27T18:29:00.012-06:00

We love Frontera Grill for many reasons (Jill, for example), but not least because it's so darn convenient to the downtown shopping. Pop on over there, as we did yesterday, in among all the Boxing Day sales, and get reinvigorated. A stint at the bar
with some tortilla soup worked wonders, but then getting to sit and chat with Bob as he celebrated his birthday?

Well, that's just a lovely bonus!

Songs of the decade challenge

2009-12-20T16:56:00.003-06:00

Allison and I often e-mail back and forth about new music discoveries and musical guilty pleasures. I saw Supergrass with her, Placebo, Travis, Coldplay. Blur, even, if you count standing outside the Musique Plus studios while the band was inside, playing and being interviewed. We've shared a lot through music.

As 2009 winds down, she has challenged me, and I have challenged her in turn, to come up with our top 100 tracks of the decade. Tough job to do. If I look at the music I played most, well, Kate Bush's Aerial and Patricia Barber's Mythologies would eat up a quarter of the list between them. And that, friends, is unacceptable – there are just too many fun one-off singles to accommodate as well as terrific album tracks. Funnily enough, however, there are two Kate Bush cover versions on the list.

A painful process. I cut out many many many songs I liked a lot then a still like a lot now. Heck, the "short list" was 303 songs, so you can imagine the difficulty I had to get to 100.

I think I counted right. We'll see. I've divided them up year by year (according to iTunes/Wikipedia – yes, I know that Moving by Supergrass came out in 1999 in the UK, but not until 2000 in North America). Within each year, they are alphabetical. Enjoy, and if you will, I hope you find something new.

2000

Lovely Head. Goldfrapp
Moving. Supergrass
Once Around The Block. Badly Drawn Boy
Trouble. Coldplay

2001

Alcoholic. Starsailor
Brûlé la mèche. Lo'Jo
Can't Get You Out Of My Head. Kylie Minogue
Clint Eastwood. Gorillaz
Crystal. New Order
Family Affair. Mary J. Blige
Have A Nice Day. Stereophonics
Pagan Poetry. Björk
Shining Light. Ash
We Come 1. Faithless

2002

A Sorta Fairytale. Tori Amos
Action. Saint Etienne
All The Things She Said. t.A.T.u.
Cartwheels. The Reindeer Section
Do You Realize??. The Flaming Lips
Groove Jet (If This Ain't Love) [Ultimix Remix]. DJ Spiller
Running Up That Hill. Kiki & Herb
Silent Sigh. Badly Drawn Boy
The Rhythm Thief. Sparks

2003

Being Nobody. Richard X vs Liberty X
Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair (Jaffa Remix). Nina Simone & Jaffa
Comfortably Numb. Scissor Sisters
Emerge. Fischerspooner
Hey Ya!. Outkast
Milkshake (Radio Edit). Kelis
Re-Offender. Travis
Strict Machine. Goldfrapp
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight. The Postal Service
The Hardest Button to Button. The White Stripes

2004

1980 (Radio Edit). Estelle
Alone Again Or. Calexico
Can't Stand Me Now. The Libertines
Collide. Howie Day
Crabbuckit. K-Os
Desired Constellation. Björk
Hounds of Love (New Mix). The Futureheads
Irish Blood, English Heart. Morrissey
L.S.F (Lost Souls Forever). Kasabian
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out). The Arcade Fire
No Heaven. Champion
Shining. Kristian Leontiou
Sick & Tired. Anastacia
Simplesmente. Bebel Gilberto
Take Me Out. Franz Ferdinand

2005

88 aka Come Down On Me. Lemon Jelly
Avalon . Juliet
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree (Radio Version). KT Tunstall
Feel Good Inc. Gorillaz
From Paris to Berlin (Radio Edit). Infernal
Hung Up. Madonna
Mrs. Bartolozzi. Kate Bush
Nocturn. Kate Bush
On My Way To Town. Nana Mouskouri (song is in English, video is in Greek)
One Evening. Feist
Secret Someones. Laura Veirs
Sunset. Kate Bush
When the Day Is Short. Martha Wainwright
You Are My Sister. Antony & The Johnsons

2006

Crazy. Gnarls Barkley
Herculean. The Good, the Bad and the Queen
Icarus. Patricia Barber
Irreplaceable. Beyoncé
New Day. Kate Havnevik
Say It Right. Nelly Furtado
Set the Fire to the Third Bar. Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright
The Hours. Patricia Barber
Tonight and the Rest of My Life. Nina Gordon
Travelin' Thru. Dolly Parton
Young Folks (Featuring Victoria Bergsman). Peter, Bjorn and John & Victoria Bergsman

2007

D.A.N.C.E.. Justice
Don't Stop the Music. Rihanna
Grace Kelly. MIKA
Kids. MGMT
Uninvited (Radio Edit Remix). Freemasons

2008

American Boy (feat. Kanye West). Estelle
Black & Gold (Marcussen Album Version). Sam Sparro
Blind. Hercules and Love Affair
Collapsing at Your Doorstep. Air France
Hercules Theme. Hercules And Love Affair
Hometown Glory (Radio Edit). ADELE
I Decided (Freemasons Radio). Solange
Money Note. Camille
Paris Is Burning. Ladyhawke
Shut Up and Let Me Go. The Ting Tings
Spiralling (Radio Edit). Keane
The Rip. Portishead
Viva la Vida. Coldplay
White Winter Hymnal. Fleet Foxes
Winter Song. Sara Bareilles

2009

I'm Not Alone (Deadmau5 Mix). Calvin Harris
Papillon. Editors
Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up). Florence + The Machine
Robots. Dan Mangan
The Fear. Lily Allen
The Girl and the Robot. Röyksopp
We Are the People. Empire of the Sun

redirect (for now)

2009-12-13T20:56:00.003-06:00

It's the most busiest time of the year!

Just back from a weekend with Conrad's family in the UP, and as expected, it was a terrific visit coupled with a long drive. We skipped Yoshi's tonight, and I cooked us salmon.

Christmas prep and the like has me on the go, and this blog becomes a low priority. Instead, I focus my efforts on the easy stuff like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. So, while I should post about the weekend, I will instead redirect you to the photos for tonight with apologies. The post-Christmas trip to Vancouver should give me good opportunity to catch up.

Enjoy the photos!

Awwwww... See? HE is smiling!

BC from on high (photos from an airplane window)

2009-12-01T13:32:00.019-06:00

So here I sit in a Maple Leaf Lounge, happy enough with the coffee machine latte, soon grabbing a glass of wine to have with soup and salad. Home to Chicago much later today. Long day, but not a bad one. After all, it is gloriously sunny and bright out. Southern BC is having a good start to December.

I have much to catch up (as usual) with this blog, but for now, at least, some photos I took from seat 2F as the plane left Kelowna, flying over the city and then the mountains in a half-hour hop over to Vancouver.

Some fog in the Fraser Valley as we approached Vancouver, but it looks as though today would have been a fine one for bumming around the big city.

Ah well.

Two more hours until boarding...

Scones for Smelts

2009-11-21T12:35:00.003-06:00

I seem to have a program underway of feeding some of my teammates each Saturday. I rise well before practice and get one or two batches of scones in the oven, and come 8:45 outside the pool, I am disbursing baggies filled with two or three fresh baked goods.

I think it's a popular program thus far.

This morning it was up and out the door by 6:20, getting buttermilk from Jewel. Once home, I was to work. First batch: milk chocolate, toasted almond, and orange zest. The second batch, not shown, were studded with currants.

Despite an overcrowded pool that forced me to stay on deck coaching, it's been a lovely start to the day. A stroll early in the morning, baking, brunch at the Center on Halsted with teammates, and now a glorious sunny day. We'll do what we can to whip this mess of an apartment into shape.

Wednesday: lamb

2009-11-21T08:22:00.000-06:00

The second of two midweek dinners, and this one was a little more involved. Daniel and Steve came over, and I had high hopes for a fine meal. While their company certainly was terrific, I think I fell down a little on the food. Not bad, but not my best. Ah well. Let's debrief:

Steve was over earlier than Daniel, and Conrad and I offered him a Moscow Mule. We'd had them at Jim and Dan's before, and I should have asked for the recipe. Ours weren't nearly so good, and we ended up switching to martinis before dinner before opening wine with dinner. Disappointing, and all the more so because Dave, in Palm Springs, had sent us this incredible gift of the most fragrant limes you can imagine. When they arrived, we had barely opened the package when the perfume started teasing us, insistently. Wow. Beautiful. And we used a bunch for juice in the cocktails. Now I feel like we wasted the gift a little. Next time we'll get our recipe right.

Anyway, cocktail crisis over, we moved on through some snacks before I brought dinner to the table. Lamb shanks, braised in the oven with dried porcini mushrooms, served with a parsnip and leek puree, mustard-sauced Brussels sprouts, and a reduction of the braising liquid. And you know what? It was fine, but not special. I'm a harsh critic of my own food, perhaps, but I ate it thinking what I should have done differently.

Ah well.

I was a little happier with dessert. Daniel doesn't care for chocolate, and I didn't want to make a cake or cookies. I did have a few mangoes that needed using, however, so I called on an old restaurant standby and, with the addition of some pistachios, turned the (not as sweet/juicy as I'd like) fruit into a brown butter mango tart.
And it was fine, too. Not superlative, but I was happier with it than the meal.

And with that, my week of entertaining is done, I think. Simple dinners for us at home the rest of the week, and thank goodness. The team banquet on Sunday night will be another large dining experience, I'm sure!

red curry mussels

2009-11-20T20:11:00.004-06:00

While the handsome other guy handles the dishes (not too many, so no sympathy for him!), a quick Friday night note. We've been having a nice dinner:

gin martinis
salted mixed nuts
mussels steamed in a red curry sauce
Oregon Pinot Blanc
brown butter mango tart

You know, I really do cook well once in a while. The mussels were wonderful. The only improvement would have been a bit of bread or white rice. Yum Good stuff.

A short post - we're cracking ourselves up with season 2 of Big Bang Theory. Night!

Tuesday: hen

2009-11-20T16:15:00.000-06:00

Two small dinner parties on back to back midweek evenings this week has me utterly knackered. The night after the second of those dinners, I put a bunch of veg with some chicken sausage into a parchment and foil package and baked it until it was fragrant. No mess to deal with after. Easy.

But guests deserve far better, and I hope I delivered. Tuesday night was dinner with CG in the kitchen, and through a bottle of a sparkling rose and a couple of bottles of Pinot Noir, we had ourselves a lovely evening catching up with her.

I had been able to work at home Tuesday, which gave me an opportunity to start a key part of dinner prep early: brining the Cornish game hens. It's a good technique for birds, though I've learned to reduce the salt in the brine recipe considerably (by half). A nice long while in the oven, basted at intervals with butter, and we had ourselves a tasty plate each.

Of course, we had to play with iPhone cameras before dining...

autumn? really?

2009-11-20T10:41:00.000-06:00

Chicago defies my expectations this year. A summer that was hardly a summer (I think my hometown in northern Canada recorded a hotter spell this year than Chicago did) and now an autumn that isn't exactly autumnal.

When I think autumn, I think crisp days when I can wear all the sweaters I love. Well, not all of them at once, but you get the idea. In any case, last Saturday, the weather, if anything improved on the already mild weeks we'd had. Temperatures in the mid-teens. I'm surprised we didn't see many flowers fooled into blooming again. We couldn't resist, therefore, hopping out of the cab down to the Art Institute a little short of our destination and instead wandering through Millennium Park, taking photos of the park and the city around.

Oh, look, autumn colours. Well, THAT settles it.

Things got gloomier later, admittedly. Not terribly cooler, no, just gloomy. We had wandered north on Michigan Avenue after lunch, and when we made our way out of Nordstrom with back in hand, we noted that it threatened rain. We made it home dry, no worries, and the gloom that had settled in didn't bring us down from the wonderful day it had been. But really, Chicago, might we see a frost soon at least?

Terzo Piano

2009-11-20T07:49:00.000-06:00

Conrad and I can be rather limited in dining out. Yoshi's. The Center on Halsted. Thai food ordered in from Ping Pong. Given our rather narrow tastes, it's something of a special treat to dine out some place new to us. And with the added excuse of a friend visiting from out of town, well, quite a treat indeed.

Holly had been in Chicago for a few days, attending a conference. We managed to catch up with her before she headed back Texas-ward. The three of us met up in Terzo Piano, the restaurant in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute. Mostly, it's open for lunch with Thursday dinners also available. Big open space, full of light. We had a table not far from the entrance, which gave me a view of the buzz of activity as people came in and gave Conrad and Holly a view of a dining room that filled up while we had a leisurely time of it.

A few things struck me early on in our time at the restaurant:

They loved cheese. Good sign - a cart with a number of handsome options. Yay.
The wine list does you favours if you order by the bottle, not so much by the glass. Funky cocktail list, too.
The menu is not cheap for lunch, but it promised a lot of fun.
The service was sweet and friendly - I think our server was named Jessica, and we were impressed (and grateful) that she thought to ask us about food allergies.

I'm sorry I didn't photograph the antipasti plate we had. Different items of charcuterie, a bit of cheese, some huge olives, pickled vegetables, a salty-spicy celery dish. We shared a modest but fine Italian white wine, and happily grabbed items from the platter.

Lunch: Holly and I each opted for the same thing, sesame-crusted whitefish with eggplant and a charmoula dressing. We both liked it a good deal, and I think it was a good match for the wine. Conrad, meanwhile, decided on a healthier course of things and chose a salad with avocado and chicken breast. Darn him. It did look good.

If we weren't with Holly, we might have had cheese (they looked so good, parked near us). Instead, I had a dessert while Holly had a cocktail and Conrad had a coffee. Five dessert selections to pick from, and four of them had "keywords", those ingredients you see listed and they just pique your interest something fierce. I went for the dessert that hit multiple keywords:

pomegranate
maple
beignet

Maple-cream filled sweet potato beignets with a pomegranate sorbet.
The beignets were light, not too sweet, and the sorbet was a jewel - taste and colour both.

So then, I think Conrad and I will be back. After all, as a member of the Art Institute, I get a 10% discount. Good reason to go and have a nice lunch right there, as if the food, wine, setting, and collections downstairs weren't enticement enough!

skate

2009-11-19T21:02:00.000-06:00

I think I want to head offline and not close my evening on the laptop as I so often do. So then, let me say good night, and leave you with a photo from last Sunday's dinner at Yoshi's: skate wing.

Very good, and all the more so with the bottle of Sancerre we had to drink (and a glass of a Cab to cap the evening). Cheers!

all we need is a partridge

2009-11-19T18:19:00.002-06:00

I was heading over to Starbucks a couple of days ago, and as I passed a courtyard building in the neighbourhood, this caught my eye.

Poor, forlorn, unpicked pears. I hate to see fruit left on trees (and I rather doubt the pears were being left to be bletted). On the other hand, the impending holiday season did spring to mind...

back in my kitchen

2009-11-13T20:52:00.004-06:00

Truly, friends (all two of you who read this), it is good to be home. My own kitchen. Everything in its place. Happiness.

I didn't want to do a big production tonight, so that meant something easy like pork tenderloin. I have lamb stew in mind for tomorrow, mind you, but today it was quick and simple:

Pork tenderloin, rubbed with seasonings and oil, seared, roasted.

Broccoli rabe, chopped and sauteed gently with shallots.

Parsnips glazed with balsamic vinegar (why do I almost cringe writing those two cliched words?) and soy sauce.

Plated, served with a Stone Paddock Pinot Noir. A nice evening in for sitting in the living room and catching up after a week apart. And a good way to return to my kitchen.

Yes, I am still alive out her in Blogger Land

2009-11-12T08:49:00.002-06:00

I'm just horribly lazy.

Or something.

No, not lazy. A week in Vancouver (almost) taken up mostly with a conference and related activities. I've had a few good meals, rest assured, but not much inclination to photograph everything obsessively. Plus, I've been fighting a cold.

So this is just the latest in the wave of postings about why I'm not posting, and the latest promise to post more.

After all, you all do need to hear about the glories of deep-fried Mars Bars whenever possible.

celebration dinner: Topolobampo

2009-11-04T17:38:00.001-06:00

Two nights ago we celebrated. Conrad and I took Bob, my former department head, to a restaurant we all rather like to celebrate my achievement of tenure this year and to give Bob special thanks for his good mentorship and guidance. Plus, he's just plain good company over food and wine.

Topolobampo was our choice. Bob has long been a regular in Frontera Grill with forays over to the fine dining room, so it's a nice kick to see him interact so well with so many of the folks there. Topolobampo is a handsome, warm room, and we had an great table tucked in a corner near the kitchen with views of all the other diners. Well, Bob had the views, as guest of honour. Conrad had some, too. Me? I got to look in at the remarkably small kitchen, something I enjoyed very greatly.

A caveat here: we decided we didn't want to photograph the meal (a decision we nullified by the end). We wanted to enjoy dinner. We did. Rest assured, we did.

We started out with a cocktail each while deliberating at length over the menu. Eventually we had another cocktail, which is unusual and ambitious for us. Mine were these seasonal apple cocktails - not at all sweet, in fact. The little twist was a hint of cinnamon salt to kick up the flavour. Really good.

Anyway, we talked over the food with our waitress and with Jill, the sommelier (we love her, I can't say it enough - we had a bottle of wine for her we brought back from BC because it's fun to share these things along). Ultimately, we decided we would each have an item from the raw bar (seafood), an appetizer, and an entree. I took control of the wine and ordered a half bottle of Champagne to start with, then a New Zealand red for after that. so, a half bottle of wine each, if you think of it. On top of the cocktails. Still with me?

Anyway, Conrad asked for a specific raw bar item, and a specific entree, and every other choice we left up to staff. Surprise us, make it go with the wine. And that was that. Fun to do - they liked the challenge of it.

Jill brought the Champagne. The food began.

Conrad had a trio of ceviche: Ceviche Fronterizo (lime-marinated Hawaiian blue marlin with tomatoes, olives, cilantro, jcama and green chile); Ceviche Yucateco (steamed organic shrimp and calamari tossed with lime, orange, habanero, avocado, jcama and cilantro); Ceviche de Atun "Chamoy" (sashimi-quality Hawaiian ahi tuna tossed with crunchy jicama and tangy, fruity, spicy red chile-apricot chamoy salsa; almond crunch).

Bob ended up with smoked trout (I wish I had a better description, sorry).

I had "Tostadas" de Atun y Erizo – Hawaiian ahi tuna carpaccio and fresh Maine sea urchin with crispy tortillas, fresh lime and roasted garlic mojo. Fried leeks, avocado, sungold tomato.

Next course was a surprise to us all. Jill gifted us with a glass of wine paired with each - a different wine for each of us. Lovely. So add to the tally of wine! The food:

I had Tacos de Huitlacoche, Caldo de Jitomate – Crispy rolled tacos filled with Three Sister's Garden huitlacoche (corn mushroom). Roasted tomato broth, crunchy pickled vegetables, avocado, Bayless Garden microgreens.

Bob had Atun de Mole Negro – seared Hawaiian ahi tuna in Oaxacan black mole with plantain-filled tamal, grilled nopal salad, roasted knob onions, three nut crunch.

Conrad had Mollejas de Ternera, Mole Verde – "Popcorn" sweetbreads with green pumpkinseed mole. Roasted local turnip, fried plantain, Bayless Garden microgreens.

For dinner we had the bottle of the Black Ridge Pinot Noir, a Central Otago wine (really super). The food:

Conrad had scallops, a dish I cannot find a full description of - my apologies again.

Bob had Mole de Olla – Rich, red chile-and-epazote broth with 72-hour-braised Tallgrass short rib. Corn masa dumplings (chochoyotes), xoconostle (sour prickly pear) green peas, chayote.

I had Cochinita Pibil – overnight-braised Maple Creek Farm suckling pig "pibil" with crispy pig's foot, sour orange jellies, habanero-pickled onions, sunchoke pudding.

I came back from the bathroom after dinner and saw that we had three glasses of a dessert wine at the table, followed by a special dessert platter. These were compliments of Jill as well. She later came and sat and chatted a bit with us while Bob had a liqueur and I had a decaf cafe de olla.

4 hours all told. Lots of wine and food. We were treated so very well, is it any wonder we love going there? The surprises were surprising - really, so many things on that menu appealed to me, but it was good that I got things I might not have thought to order (the tuna to start, the tacos). The others agreed.

Favourites? I liked my cocktails a lot. I loved my tuna carpaccio - it left a real burn in my mouth in a good way. I liked my tacos, definitely, but thought Bob's black mole was even better and thought that Conrad's sweetbreads were swoon-worthy. Loved them immensely. My pork was awesome. The pork and the sauce went soooooo well with the wine, and the serving was a good size.

I wish I could remember the dessert details exactly - there were three on the platter, and I had had a comfortable amount to drink by that point. What sticks with me was the coconut sorbet - I think it was coconut. It tasted (and I mean this in a very good way, bizarre as it sounds) like white jelly beans.

So, a great night, and small wonder I didn't have breakfast the next morning!

Thanks, then, to Bob for his good mentorship, and to Jill and Jessica and everyone at Topolobampo who created yet another very fine evening for us.

The vainest man you'll ever meet

2009-11-04T20:20:00.006-06:00

But seriously, though, that is a sharp tie on me, right? A Rixon Groove purchase. If only the iPhone took photos of better resolution.

Sorry, though, Conrad has me all sewn up. Try to get over your disappointment.

;-)

easy, satisfying day in the kitchen

2009-10-31T20:39:00.010-05:00

I'm at the tail end of a good Saturday with some nice work in the kitchen.

No, work is too much. This wasn't a hard day, a difficult day, in any way. I made some things, I was pleased with them, and all of them took relatively little effort.

(and once again excuse the rather poor quality of iPhone photos if you view them in larger size)

First "project": scones. Part of my joking Scones for Smelts program. Just a nice treat for various friends on the team when I see them at Saturday AM practice. Two batches, with a few kept for me and Conrad.
The first ones were simply currant scones. The second batch were dried sour cherry (from the awesome Lily's of Traunik store) and chopped walnuts. I think they turned out well.

After practice, before I did some housecleaning, I made some mixed spiced nuts. A simple and very good, reliable recipe from the Union Square Cafe cookbook - rosemary is the twist that makes them so appealing, I think. We'll have these to snack on, including when Conrad heads out of town in a handful of days.

Dinner tonight? I'm rather pleased with it. Two Saturdays in a row of producing nice meals. A little thought works. Here's what I did:

Marinated two pieces of halibut in fino sherry with olive oil, lemon zest, pepper, fennel seed, coarse salt, and saffron. Baked it at 450 degrees.
Lightly caramelized parsnip with some shallot, seasoned it with salt, pepper, and thyme, then cooked it tender-soft in chicken broth. Pureed it and strained it.
Blanched Brussels sprouts. Sauteed chopped thick-slab bacon, removed most of the rendered fat, added chopped onion. Mixed in the Brussels sprouts and set it all to bake in a small tin at 450 degrees as well.

All of this plated up nicely. We dined at the kitchen table,
and sipped some Conundrum white wine, a favourite.

And now Conrad has gone back to do some work he must get done in the days ahead. A lovely dinner, and a fine day all around in the kitchen for me, however. I feel a little inspired to perhaps tackle cookies tomorrow!

family celebration

2009-10-29T07:43:00.000-05:00

Another overdue post from the UP trip of earlier this month, this one to show off the family a little and spread some good cheer. You see, Conrad's birthday fell a few days after our trip up there, and so we had a get together with pizza, salad, and Conrad's cake.

Yes, Conrad's cake. I love this: Conrad, like me, had a special birthday cake while growing up. In my case, it was a chocolate-flavoured mayonnaise cake with green, mint-flavoured frosting. For Conrad, his Mom makes a white layer cake generous frosted with a chocolate fudge frosting.
And, because Hallowe'en is near, some seasonal candies for decoration.

Really, how can you not love it? And love it we did. We shared dinner in Conrad's Mom's kitchen. Karen was there (Terry was laid up with a dreadful cold). Justin and Tonna, too. Dan, Conrad's other nephew, was at a wedding that evening with his girlfriend, so no cake for him. Happily, he recently had a birthday and got his own special cake from Conrad's Mom.

After such a lovely evening, then, you'd think I'd let the birthday boy have a good night of rest. Sure. Mostly. Until around 7ish when I stuck the phone camera in his face and caught a little smile crossing his face. Poor guy, stuck with a morning person like me. Ah well. More cake makes everything better!