Vincent

In lieu of coming up to watch the Tony Awards show with Fred and Roger tonight, Conrad and I went out to dinner with them last night, trying a place new to us all up in Andersonville, Vincent. And really, given that Conrad and I have been to one play in ten years of being together, a dinner out makes more sense. Any reader of this blog knows where our interests and sympathies lie.

Vincent features Dutch or Dutch-inspired cuisine. I'm not at all familiar with Dutch food beyond having had gouda and a beer or two, so I can't say for sure whether it was authentic or inspired. What it was, though, was fairly tasty. Rich - a good amount of mayonnaise or frying or dairy. Salty. That last one sticks with me - I like salt (too much for my own good, I am certain), so I tend not to mind its presence, its dominance, in the food I eat. This skirted to the edge at times, though, and if it does that for me, then I wonder how others perceive it.

I don't count that as a negative, though. What I might say works against the restaurant are the acoustics. One customer at another table had a voice that somehow cut through the general din, rose above it. Consequently, everyone else tried to keep up. We struggled until that person left (about the time we ordered, so blessedly early) to hear each other.

Many good things, though. A good waiter. I am embarrassed not to recall his name, but I thought he steered us well with menu and wine choices (an inexpensive white Bordeaux for the table, then a glass of a perfectly fine Spanish red for me with my meal). He was friendly, he wasn't overly familiar. If/when we go back, I hope he takes care of our table again.

The menu options are a good price, especially the three-course dinner Roger opted for. I'm still keeping red meats out of my diet as much as I can, but there were a number of options for me, too. I was tempted by the mussels, but went a different direction.

Soup to start: zaansemosterdsoep. Dutch mustard soup, but the base is carrot with chicken stock apparently. The waiter couldn't describe it to us, and I understand why. The tarragon pesto was notable without overwhelming, and the rest of it all just, well, made sense. Sweet, savoury, a bit of tang, the hint of the cheese in it. I couldn't pin it down. I simply liked it.

Conrad opted for an enormous piece of haddock atop pea soup so thick that it was moundable as his dinner option while I went for the Cornish game hen. I liked the bird. I preferred the go-alongs: fingerling potatoes, cheesy watercress, pea shoots. The salt was there (more so on the hen), but it all tasted great together. The bird itself reminded me of hot dogs in flavour. I don't mean that scornfully, though by the end I was wishing it reminded me more of hen. Again, I liked it, but I might choose the mussels on a future visit.

No photos of dessert, sorry. Be assured, it was good. Two rounds of chocolate cake sandwiching peanut butter mousse. Atop it? Other than a chocolate glaze, a sprinkling of sea salt.

I wonder what the Dutch word for salt is.

;-)

A good meal, a good time, and a place we need to get back to. And now to get ready for another fine meal tonight!

Peter and Conrad go out

A night out for me and for Conrad invariably involves food, often wine and/or cocktails, and usually ends early. We're old marrieds. Forgive us.

This past weekend was exceptional, however. Two nights in a row - not just one night in isolation - we ventured out to live entertainment. And though we have struggled to catch up on sleep since, boy, was it fun! No, really. We'll have to venture out again.

Saturday: dinner with CG at Bistro Zinc. Our hope then was to head to River East 21 and get Conrad to his first movie of the year, Inception. Conrad and I hopped on the bus downtown
and shopped a bit, then headed to the restaurant and parked at the bar where we chatted with the hilarious bartender. CG showed up, we stayed at the bar, and enjoyed a casual (though not as cheap as we might like) dinner. Charcuterie and snails to share to start with. Quail on lentils for me for dinner. I've come to like Bistro Zinc a lot - great neighbourhood place, just not in my neighbourhood.

Then off to the theater (me, walking gingerly to the cab thanks to a 21-mile run that morning). Get there, get to the ticket machine. Inception - sold out. WHAT? Really? Apparently it's still a popular movie all these weeks later. Wow. Out onto the curb with us, and while CG and Conrad debated where to go for more wine, I secured us tickets for Comedy Sportz.

Off to Eno at the Intercontinental for a glass of wine each (and why did that waiter assume Conrad wanted the Malbec while CG and I were each having Pinot Meunier - she was having the Malbec, in fact), and a cab up to Boystown for the comedy show.





I'm very fond of improv comedy. I never get to live theatre in Chicago (or elsewhere), and it doesn't interest me hugely, to be honest. But comedy shows are fun, and I've enjoyed them in Chicago, Vancouver, and Montreal. Best thing that night? During one team's game at a point where they had to perform in the style of a Western, a member of the opposing team rolled across the stage in imitation of tumbleweed. Sometimes it's the small things.

Sunday morning we got up late.

Sunday evening it was over to CG's for dinner - she cooked a pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables, I baked a raspberry and almond brown butter tart, and we enjoyed wine that Conrad and I brought. Dinner done, we made our way to the 10:00 performance at Lincoln Hall. Never been there before, and when I saw Laura Veirs was playing the next night, I found myself thinking, "Can I make it 3 nights in a row?" (NO) Alex Church Brown of Sea Wolf was playing a solo acoustic set.
I hadn't heard of him before, but I gladly bought a Sea Wolf CD on Tuesday. I liked his singing, I liked the songs. I wish he'd bantered more. I wish the guy sitting at the end of the balcony with his girlfriend was something less of an obnoxiously enthusiastic fan.

What's up next for us? I don't know. Back to dining out and such, but I tell you, we will see more movies or live entertainment. It's fun, and I'm glad we had a weekend to remind us of this.

this week on the balcony

Readers - all three of you - I am lazy. It has been said before, and I have just restated it. And here: I am lazy.

Summer brings it out in my. That's my excuse this week. OK to stick with it until October and the start of Christmas music season?

How lazy? Monday I prevailed on Conrad to pick up sushi for us. Tuesday? Cornish game hens.




Yesterday was a one pot/one bowl dish: mussels. I made a salty, peppery, saffron-y tomato and fennel broth and cooked the mussels and some vegetables in that. We had a bottle of a Portuguese white wine, and followed it all with mixed nuts for dessert.
Lovely lovely evening outside.

Tonight? Also simple. I sliced up pre-made chicken (turkey? Wow, I really am getting absent-minded) sausage and tossed it with tomato, fennel, shallots, red pepper, seasonings. Baked it all at a high temperature in a parcel of parchment (secured with foil). Served it with a bit of corn and very simple salad.

Martinis to sip. Heaven out on the balcony, though a little cold.

Dessert? Swedish fish that TK sent to Conrad.

;-)

Saturday night will be date night at home, and I will try harder then, I swear. Let's hope the weather holds out well enough for another evening on the balcony!

old stand-bys

One of my many dirty little secrets is that I have not really had any new recipes for years. Instead, I keep foisting recipes from my restaurant days on people and rely on them never having been all the way to Terrace ever to keep the recipes "fresh" and "new".

It worked again this past weekend.

Chris and Sherri came over. There's a nice core group of Vancouver friends we enjoy seeing each time, and those two - not a couple! - are firmly within that group. Always good to see them even if it is just for one evening.

Plus, I like to be able to get better acquainted with my Vancouver kitchen three years after purchase of the condo. What did I learn this time? SLOW oven. Merde!

Anyway, they came over around 7ish. Sherri brought cheese and other snacks and wine, though it was Marie's sparkling wine and lavender cocktails that we started out with. In all, we had a healthy (ahem!) amount of wine that night, but plenty of food to go with.

Half Cornish game hens with a pea and bacon puree plus some veggies and a drizzle of truffle oil.





The standby - dessert: rhubarb anise crisp.
I winged it without the original Coyote Cafe recipe, and it was fine. Marie had barely enough sugar, though, and I ended up folding brown sugar into unsweetened whipped cream. Worked like a charm!





A very nice night with our friends, but really, I can't help but chuckle to myself that some of the food I make I've been making for years. The benefits of Don Diego's live on and on and on...

dinner at L'Espalier

Before I really start flagging, badly, let me try to get a blog entry up. And then crash. Ah insomnia. I need to keep an emergency supply of sleep aids on hand, perhaps, though I dislike the idea of drugging myself to sleep.

In any case, let's talk dinner, and a very good meal (I've had a couple, in fact) in Boston. Last night it was L'Espalier. I wish I had brought a far better camera.

Dinner last night was a return to my tradition of dining out at conference with RAD, and a further return to dining with Mary Augusta and her husband George. RAD, Mary Augusta, and I had all served on a particular committee together, and it was through that and running into each other at nicer restaurants that we first decided - in DC - to dine together. A fine meal in Alexandria that time. I'm the only one of the three of us on that committee now, though, and with the change to the scheduling of the conferences, we have had to shift from a Tuesday night meal to earlier in the extended weekend. Sunday it was, and while it meant missing a social, it also meant a very very very good time and food.

A side note - only an iPhone with me to take photos, and low restaurant lighting. Not that I'd change that. It's a remarkable room, and the entry by elevator was really sleek. Also (TK!): a coat check!

Alright then, a glass of Champagne in front of me, and after a little gougere and a smoked salmon stack as a pre-amuse bouche, out came the amuse bouche, a witty little seafood salad.Why witty? It had elbow macaroni in it, an homage to the tuna casseroles and salads we all grew up with.

And then there was another amuse. George had been kind of keen on a particular menu item because of the shrimp potstickers that came with it. He then decided on a different dish, but lo, a plate of potstickers came by. Well alright then, you're earning a good tip!

We were having the winter prix fixe, so three courses. Up first for me was breakfast. Really, it was. A coddled egg, slow cooked for hours (!!) and served atop a toast and that atop a hash of Indian spiced pork and potatoes. Oh, I was tempted by the sweetbreads, but the egg sounded so offbeat and fun. I went for it. The sommelier, meanwhile, had recommended an interesting white wine to pair with our appetizers, the L'Oustal Blanc Naick 6 from the south of France. Fragrant, sweet-scented, but soft, subtle, not acidic. I loved it, and I loved it with my food.

Dinner. I had no idea mine would be the one with the full production. I felt rather spoiled, happily so. A bowl was set in front of me. In it were lentils du Puy and baby turnip halves, each topped with a slice of black truffle. Then the server removed pieces of Guinea hen from a hot pot he carried, adorning the meat with the juices. Oh wow, this was good. The wine, meanwhile? Another excellent recommendation. Well, that and a treat. You see, I had noted a modestly priced Otago Pinot, the Mt. Difficulty Roaring Meg, and mentioned it. It wasn't where the sommelier was leaning, but she offered to bring the bottle, pour us each a little so the others could taste it. And she sold us on the French red. The Roaring Meg was delicious, certainly. The French wine (I wish I could remember it) was a better match. No complaints from me.

Ah, but there's more. Dessert. How about this for an interesting sounding one: Barley and tea creamy custard with mango croquant and lime hibiscus; red bean ice cream. Very. Good. the plating of the long strips and curls was really something as well. Ah, heaven. A cup of decaf, and I had one of the little sweets offered after that (blood orange gelee atop a milk gelee).

At the end of the meal, the sommelier shook all of our hands and asked our names. She and the other staff were an incredible enhancement to the evening, and I am very sorry I didn't have Conrad along. Well, another time. I hope.

Tuesday: hen

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...

Chinatown walking tour

Yes, I'm back.

A couple of, well, busy and not entirely easy weeks behind me. Nevermind, let's get back to food and travel and musings.

We're in Vancouver for the long weekend, and of course it's gorgeous weather. Nary a cloud. Warm without being hot. Conrad must be in town - he is a good luck charm when it comes to west coast weather. Thus we needed sunscreen yesterday, and caps, and water: walking for hours in Chinatown necessitated protection for my pale, pasty, white skin.

We've had the condo for two years now, and it shames us that we've never really explored (or shopped in) Chinatown despite our proximity to that neighbourhood. Yesterday we rectified that by taking part in a walking tour offered by Edible BC. It's a great store we've shopped in and ordered from and even done the Chefs in the Market dinners at. Highly highly recommended. And add the tours to that recommendation.

Conrad, Marie, and I met chef Dora Ho and three other tour participants in front of the Chinese Cultural Center on Pender. From there it was a short stroll up the street to Jade Dynasty for dim sum. Ever had that? Stodgy, lukewarm things served from a cart? This was better - no carts. Things came hot from the kitchen, and any feared stodginess was not in evidence. Instead it was all light and fresh and utterly tasty. We all three (and the others) especially liked the pepper salt squid - spicy, crispy, good.

Dora took us through the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden,

explaining some of the history of the neighbourhood, and then got us to the food stores. And what an array there is to be seen there. This may sound odd to people who know me and food, but I've not shopped much in Chinatown because, not knowing the names of everything let along the preparation methods, I simply didn't have the confidence to shop there. Well, I have some small knowledge now. Expect to see a few things pop up in future blog posts from here.

Up first, veggies. Dora pointed out some things and explained how they might be used (she did give us some recipes) and even whether they were known for heating or cooling properties. I had my eye on the abundance of greens that can be steamed simply, but the winter melon fascinated us all.

Next up, baked goods. This was tough because we were still rather sated from the dim sum. Dora bought some meat and vegetable buns - just made and nicely warm inside - and some sweet buns filled with a coconut, peanut, and sugar mixture. The variety of traditional style things (mochi-like treats, anyone?) and Western adaptations (mini wiener buns) was a delight.

More produce, this time with a focus on fruit The stall had the infamous durian (which we didn't try though we were all jarred to see that within the enormous fruit it was only some custardy yellow segments that get eaten). Dora bought us some rambutan (looks cool, pretty much a fancy lychee, nice) and mangosteen. I'd always wondered how to eat those things. Now I know. Another fruit with edible segments within, and these were very tasty. Dora gave us the great idea to serve some of these fruit quite simply as a dessert - leave them whole in a bowl for how lovely they are and let guests enjoy them unadorned. I think this is a terrific idea.

We didn't linger in the fish shop too long, just long enough to gawk a bit.

Nothing to taste on the fly there! ;-)

There are a number of dried goods stores (and it seems that they also provide herbalist consultations and remedies) Dora explained how much of what we saw would be used for broths and teas. The geckos, too? Yep, the geckos, too.

On to her preferred butcher. Sausages hanging throughout and even pressed ducks. Dora bought us some BBQ pork, some suckling pork, and some sausage. I loved the suckling most of all, but I can assure you that the greedy fingers of all 6 of us on the tour dug in eagerly.

Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was that we had a nice little group with 6 of us willing to try things and all of us liking food greatly. It certainly was a credit to Dora, the tour. We got four hours of wandering a not too huge area, but Conrad and I were thoroughly exhausted at the end of it (and well fed). Home wasn't far away, which meant a well-deserved nap for us both.