Jake

Thank goodness, no strike before the long weekend.....so, Marlene, are you going to return the extra you purchased???? Hee hee.

Indulged in a craving last night while the SO was away - cheese grits with shrimp, hot sauce on the side. Yummy, no picture, SO has the camera, and anyway, it's not a photographically beautiful meal!!

Thanks, Jake; it is easier for me to get to seafood places like City Fish, Diana's, or T&T (now that I know about it, L.C.,) or Toro's, or Glen Watford etc., than to contemplate downtown traffic, and parking in Chinatown or East Chinatown. ← Definitely try it then. I picked up a beautiful 3.5 lb red snapper and some langoustines on Friday that were perfect. This has become one of my usual go to places now, although it is NOT convenient for me. Staff are great too.

Last night, salt encrusted baked red snapper stuffed with lemon and herbs; black and mahogany rice, mango salad. Tonight, something with Lupini beans - ideas welcome as I just picked up some lovely fresh ones.....

Mussels are essentially a commodity now, especially the farmed product from P.E.I. Is there something special about Bill's? Like possibly a reliable, fresh wild mussel? ← Jay, I've tried Bill's and thought it was fairly good, some stuff better than others. If you don't already shop there may I suggest City Fish on Dufferin, south of Lawrence? Thier product is superb and they supply a number of professionals in the city. Based on your previous posts I think you'd enjoy them, as would anyone else.

Justin, thank you for taking the time to post another review....I do enjoy reading them and completely understand that you review them from a personal perspective only. A couple questions if you've a mind for them : Would you consider returning in perhaps 5 years and comparing reviews (for your own interest) based on your comments of being young and brash? What is your goal as a chef? Assuming the usual factors did not apply, what type of menu would you personally like to offer/create?

Medicinal? ← Not lately, but boy did I get hell from my dad when he came home from a business trip when I was in high school. Mom, on the other hand, had been watering it for a couple weeks saying "What a lovely fern, dear." I have little green roma and supersweet grape/cherry tomatos on the bushes as of yesterday! (And I just sold some oregano to the neighbour.. )

Only cooking at home now, but I SOOOOOO hated not having enough towels I turned one of the pot drawers closest to the stove into, A TOWEL DRAWER! Okay, it has a few other things underneath, but it is mostly towels. Heaven, even if my SO thinks I'm crazy....

Your children are beautiful!!!! The food looks great and I'm missing NC, haven't been down in about 7 years...ouch! Thanks for the great blog, looking forward to the rest.

Thanks, sadistick, I haven't seen those but will have a look. Pretty soon it won't matter, my tomato plants are taking over my garden. This is a good thing, it's the first time I've ever grown anything but herbs.....

Ann T, wonderful photos and meals -- welcome! Dinner tonight will be tapas style for 8 in honour of a friends birthday. (Why do I get voted to cook by her every year???? Especially on a beautiful sunny day when I'd rather not be stuck in a kitchen! Okay, I lie, my life has been spent in the kitchen) Menu: Chicken liver and port pate with crostini Cold shrimp and spinach spread bound with ricotta (a quick and easy fake terrine cause I got lazy last night) Baby bocc and grape tomato salad with basil from the garden Tiger shrimp on cucumber slices with wasabi creme fraiche and caviar Asparagus spears with Quebec goat cheese wrapped in 24 month parma proscuitto Chicken satay with garlic peanut sauce Pistachio crusted rack of lamb, frenched and served individually drizzled with a demi glace, wine, dijon reduction Black bean and mango salsa Grilled scallops with G-d know what yet... An odd menu that doesn't really all fit in my opinion, but these were the requests of the birthay girl. My other half is currently trying to come up with some wines for this.....I didn't make it easy.

Was in Ottawa this past weekend and had dinner Friday at Bekta. It was excellent, the bison (main course) was perfect. Our host was a friend of Stephen's and we enjoyed talking with him about the consulate dinner. I would definitely return for another meal.

Standby favourites: Serrano ham and manchego on crusty bread/roll Banh mi bacon,tomato and avocado on whole grain carmelized onion, roasted peppers and eggplant with pesto mayo on baguette

Oh Schwartz's I am so freaking jealous right about now!!!

Today's Globe didn't get delivered in most areas of Toronto! Anyway, back on topic, I'll look for them tomorrow and do a taste comparison at the weekend. I always have San Marzano in the pantry, so I'll come up with something,maybe a light sauce, it's far too nice to do anything heavy....suggestions welcome.

Gerald, you are my hero!!!! I will PM you now. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And yes, I too hope they're natural casing.

Kris, I haven't been to NF in years, but a friend recently moved down there, I'll ask her for some rec's for you -- she is a foodie, husband a chef and they have kids, so hopefully she'll have some ideas that would appeal to you. Doc's suggestion of Niagara on the Lake is a great one, it's beautiful there in the summer. PM me if your schedule will allow meeting up with a fellow eGer for a meal.

Cheese plate looks fabulous, Lucy. That, with a bit of bread and foie gras mousse will be my dinner tonight. Would you care to elaborate on the specific cheeses you have there? We will be having a Chaumes, a sheeps milk camembert-like cheese, and two others the SO brought home from the cheese shop that are not labled so I will be surprised when the wax paper is removed.

That's my pet peeve as well. And its cousin, the "You better hang on to that," as they give you back your dirty fork. ← Agreed. Even worse is the dirty looks I often get when I politely say "I'd prefer to have a new set of cutlery with the next course please." I don't do this all the time, it depends on the meal. However, I ALWAYS do this when my first course includes shellfish as my SO is deathly allergic and it would be easy to forget when sharing some of my second course. I loathe, loathe, loathe lousy service of any kind. I shall be polite and courteous to my server at all times and expect the same back. Good service will get me to return every time. We went to a new (to us) mid range place the other night, a bit out of our way. Service was good, for drinks and apps but there was a loooong pause after that. While I couldn't tell what was going on, it was clear (to me) from the managers actions and the servers harried looks that something was wrong. Our server appeared with two glasses of the wine we had been drinking with our apps, comped, apologized for the delay, said only that there was a problem and that our meal would be up in about 10 minutes. Inquired if that was acceptable to us or if we would prefer to return another evening. We assured him it was fine, thanked him for the wine, had a lovely enjoyable dinner. That is great service, the comped wine a nice extra. He handled their problem professionally and efficiently and I will return again. I did, of course, show my appreciation both in the tip and a word with the manager on the way out.

Opus, Perigee, Adega.....

Sorry, did I hear you right? You had a bottle of corked wine, re-corked it and took it back to LCBO and got a full refund? Didn't know you could do that. ← The LCBO is very, very good about refunding corked wine, flat beer, or any inferior product. I returned a cab last night -- it was effervescent. Estufarian is quite correct in both that, and the licence stipulations of the BYOB project.

Last night was a simple, easy dinner. Piri-piri marinated grilled chicken, grilled corn and green mango salad. I ate almost the whole bowl of salad as I'd been craving it for a couple days. It was actually a very nice complement to the chicken, call it a thai-portuguese fusion thing.

Nope, tried that. Even begged the good people at Nathan's to take pity on me. I shall look into your suggestion of trying Usinger's....even though as I mentioned upthread, until Nathan's I have never had a hot dog I liked - ever. cheers.

Indeed. If the bottle is recorked properly when you leave the restaurant, where do you think liability would come into it, or am I missing your point, nondoctor?

Yeah, well we went to the cottage. Saturday was nice, froze our butts off yesterday and it's no better in TO today. Brrrr. Absolutely no urge to bbq today.