third weekend in February

An atypical weekend, somewhat, but not entirely.  And yes, I know the blogging has been sparse this month - a simple quiet life is all that underlies that.

We enjoyed an unseasonably mild Friday evening at Maestro by sitting outside for a change (and hooray!  Van joined me and Conrad) rather than at the bar. 

That was a nice change.  Nestor took care of us,

and we ordered a few things we haven't had in a while:  beet salad,

shrimp tacos,

carrot cake con leche. 

Nice dinner out!

Saturday morning was the usual.  A bit of a walk, Amara for breakfast. 

Familiar, comfortable, enjoyable.

Saturday evening we're usually over at Van's, but this time we were at The Arbour and without Van.  We're sad to say that Natasha is leaving us this week, moving to Seattle.  We'll miss her.  And so a small group of us comprising a semi-reunion of South America travelers what with Marina (and her husband, Nick, too) joining us along with Fiorella and Alessio visiting from Italy. 

The Pasadenans all ordered the same thing, the yellowtail tuna, a dish we've enjoyed before. 

A nice night, a bittersweet dinner.

Yesterday was a fairly easy day for us.  A jaunt for groceries in the morning, me in the kitchen in the afternoon.  I slow roasted a whole chicken for the three of us, and that made for a nice enough dinner.  Desert was individual souffles, using my base recipe. 

For the fruit puree to fold in, I worked with blueberries.  That was, well, interesting.  Blueberries have a lot of pectin, and from when I made the puree to when I pulled it out of the fridge to use, it had set up.  Whisking it helped, but it was still weirdly lumpy when folded into the egg whites.  It came across a little gritty in texture overall even though I had passed the puree through a sieve.  The liquid from the puree precipitated out during baking.  The flavour was a little subdued as well - I wanted more punch.  Nice colour when baked, and nice aroma to the souffles, but I won't try that one again.

Van and Olive headed home, Conrad and I cleaned up the kitchen, and that was the weekend done!

dinner at The Arbour

We have favourites.  Oh yes, we do.  There is our trinity:  Maestro, Mama M, and Amara.  But we're happy to wander over to Union, Perle, or Agnes.  And that's just the Pasadena places.

Dinner tonight was at another: 

The Arbour.  I am embarrassed to say it's been a while, and I can't remember offhand the last time we wandered over there, likely with Natasha.  Van had never gone there, though, and with his sister Cathy in town, we thought it was prime time.

It's a great location - not close to us exactly - not too far to walk, but we don't always want to walk that far.  I like the bar and the cozy interior.  We find the food reliable and the cocktails good.  I was happy that we could finally get Van there.

It was, in fact, tasty food.  I enjoyed my cocktail - The Impressionist, a martini flavoured with a chamomile tea and lavender - a goodly bit, though I had wine with dinner.  The salads were fine.  My sea bass?  Lovely!  Nicely seasoned, well cooked.  I did steal some crispy rice cake from Conrad, though, and I preferred it to the polenta cake on my plate.  Deserts were fine - I went with a dark chocolate mousse as a concession to sharing with Conrad.  The savoury courses were the highlights, though.

Service lagged.  I won't lie.  It felt like ages just to get water then to get drinks ordered (it was ages - about a half hour).  The place was busy, and I was happy to see that.  And it's not like we weren't enjoying each other's company.  We all noticed the lag, but I think we would all be happy to be back again before too long nonetheless.