The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 3)

[Anna N]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Standard practice in China. Either a box of tissues or little packs of tissues bearing the restaurant's name and address.

 And I thought I knew everything.    I admit that I had never really thought about it but simply assumed that napkins, either paper or cloth, were de rigueur all over Canada and the world.  I am so very often brought up short by my assumptions.   Thank you so much for enlightening me on this one.    

[chromedome]

LOL Don't you mean "serviettes"?

[Anna N]

19 minutes ago, chromedome said:

LOL Don't you mean "serviettes"?

 You say tomato I say tomato. I’m comfortable with napkins.

[chromedome]

When I was a kid I only saw the word "napkin" in conjunction with the word "sanitary," so that was a bit of an adjustment for me when I got older and moved away from Atlantic Canada.

[liuzhou]

14 minutes ago, chromedome said:

When I was a kid I only saw the word "napkin" in conjunction with the word "sanitary," so that was a bit of an adjustment for me when I got older and moved away from Atlantic Canada.

 

Serviette can also refer to sanitary products in French, but the primary translation in most dictionaries is “napkin“.

 

 

[chromedome]

Yeah, I know. It felt weird at the time, is all.

 

This sort of thing is fading, along with many other regional distinctions in vocabulary and usage, but it was still common when I was growing up. Now it's mostly something one brings up in fun (that was the original intent of this little digression), usually in conversation with Americans like my late wife. She was amused by "serviette" and "settee" and various other anachronisms I don't recall off the top of my head.

[Anna N]

 Well I have certainly heard paper napkins called serviettes but I have never heard a linen table napkin called that.  I have a mixed linguistic heritage —  English in many iterations. 😂

   

[chromedome]

Just at cross purposes, I suspect. We got off on that tangent because you'd spoken of having a box of tissues on the table in lieu of napkins, so mentally I extrapolated that to paper napkins specifically (since tissues would be a more intuitive replacement for the paper kind than the linen kind).

 

It was a flippant throw-away remark in the first place, which I perhaps might not have made if the blood level had been a bit lower in my caffeine system.

[Anna N]

 Yesterday my daughter and I had lunch together at a restaurant that had been hiding in plain sight about a kilometre from my house.  I had noticed the Bamboo Legend in a mall where I used to shop.  I had never been there nor had I ever heard of anyone who had been there.   But my daughter and her friends had discovered it.   It just celebrated its 12th anniversary! 

 

 My normal habit is to have lunch with @Kerry Beal who’s responsibility it is to make sure there are photographs taken. Without Kerry things went to hell in a hand basket.

 

 We were each served a very beautiful salad before our main dishes were brought  but these were eaten before I remembered about the photographs. There were also drinks. My daughter had ginger tea and I just had water which arrived in one of those handled Mason jars (which I hate). 

 

Perhaps it was the sight  of the hated Mason jar that jogged my memory about photographs. 

 

 

My daughter had the Creamy Coconut Curry with beef.

 

 

I had the Drunken Noodles with beef.

 

My dish was very tasty but I could only manage less than half of the noodles before I was too full to move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

As @Kerry Bealand I curse and rage against this interminable winter, we embraced the warmth of both the welcome and the ambience of The Bombay Grill for our lunch today. 

 

 

Chai for Kerry. 

 

 

A new (to and for me) beer. This is brewed in nearby London, Ontario. 

 

 

Appetizer platter. 

 

 

Chicken curry and dhansak lamb. 

 

 

 Their  always amazing basmati rice. 

 

 

 Their  are even more amazing naan. 

 

 Of course there was far more food than we could possibly eat and I was the lucky one to take home the doggie bag. 

[Anna N]

 Yesterday, @Kerry Bealand I found ourselves too near to Kenzo to resist the siren call of good ramen. 

 

 

Takoyaki. 

 

 

King shoyu ramen for Kerry. 

 

 

Tonkotsu ramen for me. 

 

 

[heidih]

Gotta love those dancing bonito shavings. 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

Gotta love those dancing bonito shavings. 

 And these really danced!   I think they were all wearing tutus.

[kayb]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 And these really danced!   I think they were all wearing tutus.

Quite entranced with the notion of bonito shavings in tutus.

 

[blue_dolphin]

I went out to lunch today with a few ladies to a pub style place, White Harte Pub.  

Two of us had the fish & chips and we both chose the salad as our optional side:

I had a 21st Amendment Blood Orange IPA, which was neither red nor orange in color and didn't particularly taste of orange but was an excellent partner to the fish & chips.  My friend had a Harp Lager.

 

The lady to my left ordered bangers & mash which came with a side of garden peas that didn't make it into the photo. She chose a Strongbow Hard Apple Cider.

 

The lady to my right ordered the 1/2 lb White Harte Burger with sweet potato fries, accompanied by a glass of Austerity Cellars Monterey Pinot Noir. She declared this the best burger she'd ever had.

 

The last member of our group ordered the Windsor Scramble from the breakfast side of the menu.  No photo but it included scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, smoked ham, potatoes, toast and roasted tomatoes.  

[Anna N]

  Bear with me. I will get there.

 There are many ways in which Kerry and I decide where we shall have lunch.   Today, it went this way.

 

Kerry showed up at my house and we spent a few minutes just catching up.   Kerry outlined the errands she needed to accomplish and I said that I needed my weekly lottery tickets. All of these things could be accomplished without venturing much further than Burlington. We quickly came around to the major question of the day, “Where shall we have lunch?”

 

Kerry suggested Lemongrass, a favourite, but I noted that it’s a little far from Burlington and perhaps we should consider something closer. 

Kerry pointed out that we could get to the restaurant easily using the Red Hill Highway.  And that is where we went off the rails.

 

You see the Red Hill Highway  was in the news headlines locally this morning.  And that is about all it takes to send Kerry and me down the rabbit hole chasing one another.   By the time we emerged into daylight again we both knew all too much about the Red Hill Highway 

What has this to do with lunch you ask? Not much really except that we might have stayed down the rabbit hole and missed lunch! Somehow we climbed back out of that rabbit hole and left the house. 

 

Once in the car I checked my list of restaurants that we want to try and suggested that we stay in Burlington and check out Barque—The Refined BBQ Company.  Kerry quite enjoys a barbecue (as understood by our American friends). I am not so much of a fan but assured Kerry that I could cosy up to some ribs.  And the icing on the cake – – it would be something new to tell you about.

 

So our lunch plans had solidified nicely.  We accomplished our errands and still had time to wander through two thrift stores. At noon we headed towards our chosen restaurant.

 

Foiled.   The place is closed.   Done. Kaput. No more. Damn. We should have done as Kerry suggested and taken the Red Hill, not down the Google rabbit hole, but over to Lemongrass.

 

Right next-door to the no-longer-operational Barque is another favourite, Sakai. There we received a warm welcome and quickly got over our disappointment (although I could practically taste those smoky ribs).

 

 We both toyed with lunch and dinner menus and then Kerry suggested that we just order appetizers.   I am always a fan of that.

 

 

 Warm sake for me. Tea for Kerry.

 

 

 Beef sashimi.

 

 

 Rock shrimp. These are so good. They are cooked to perfection. Very unusual in a restaurant.  Most restaurants tend to over cook shrimp.

 

 

 Takoyaki.   Not quite up to the standards of Kenzo.  These are a little short on the condiments and not quite as creamy as those at Kenzo but we managed to polish them off nevertheless. 

 

 

 Seafood okonomiyaki. 

 

 

Shrimp and vegetable tempura.

 

By the time I had finished, all thoughts of ribs had vanished. 

 

 If I had not already bored you to tears getting you this far I could bore you to tears talking about our “nazi” server who was taking great pleasure in training a new server. 😂

 

[heidih]

I'd be in a food  coma - how does the woman drive after that - or is there lots of leftover packing? 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

I'd be in a food  coma - how does the woman drive after that - or is there lots of leftover packing? 

We ate every last scrap!

 

Most days we have leftovers - not today.

[ElsieD]

We went to a Korean restaurant today that we both like.  We both had the same thing - Spicy Dak Gang Jung or boneless chicken with sweet and spicy sauce with corn cheese and pickled daikon.  Half of mine came home with me.  I don't normally like leftovers but I make an exception for Korean food.😋

[Anna N]

This week, Lemongrass (the restaurant), lost out again. Though we had business in Hamilton, we decided that a change was always good. We turned to Siri for recommendations. When he/she/they (Kerry’s digital PA is vocally female and mine is male) suggested Earth to Table, Kerry recalled that it had been recommended by someone she knew. We checked the menu and decided that it sounded like a good option.

 

After we wandered through a few thrift stores, we headed over to Locke Street and lunch. 

 

We both immediately noticed two unfortunate things. The chairs dug into the underside of our thighs and the chair backs were so ramrod straight they threatened to shave millimetres from our age-compromised vertebrae if we overstayed our welcome. And the tables were crammed so closely together that when the neighbouring table received their quinoa burgers we could count the endosperm.  

 

No matter. We were here to enjoy lunch and enjoy lunch we would. 

 

We were given a warm welcome and our server placed a carafe of water and two glasses on the table. But again I was faced with two questions, both quite philosophical.  The carafe weighed at least a few kilograms. I prefer to conserve my strength to wield my cutlery. No worries. After we each poured a glass, thus lightening the carafe considerably, a server would pop up out of thin air every few minutes and pour more water into our glasses. I detected a level of redundancy here. 

 

The restaurant had an interesting beer list drawing mostly from local breweries. I opted for a half pint of the Fairweather Rotational Tap.  It was a lovely refreshing hoppy beer.  But when we visited the  brewery after lunch for some to take home, the staff could not identify it.  They suggested that it was merely the restaurant’s daily offering of draft beer.  But if you look at the restaurant’s menu you will see it is offered both in bottles and as a specific choice of a draft beer.  It’s a puzzlement. Or perhaps my understanding of a rotational beer (a beer brewed in small quantities to allow rotation of many different beers) differs from theirs. It’s comforting to think we all speak the same language.

 

 

 A beer by any other name...

 

 

Grilled octopus with potatoes, yogurt, chilies, lemon olive oil, and smoked paprika. This was  definitely the most tender, the most succulent octopus I have ever eaten.  Kerry suggested it was probably cooked sous vide before being grilled and I have to concur. We should have asked but it slipped our minds.

 

 

 Loaded fries. Today these came with what was called green goddess dressing and cheddar cheese.   There really is nothing wrong with the lighting in the photograph.  It’s the green that seems to be missing.   Nevertheless these were moreish and we finished every last one.

 

 

 The Butcher’s Board  which is described as fine cheese, pickles and cured meats, before we burrowed beneath the bread. 

 

 

 The same board after excavation.

There is no evidence here of any fine cheese.  The only offering is a blue of questionable parentage and even more questionable presentation.  We made fairly good inroads into the meat selection.

 

 As always we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch. I don’t expect this particular restaurant will show up on our rotation more than once a decade and I don’t expect it will last quite that long. We have been in that same building when it was a completely different restaurant.  But for now it seems to be the in place to go for the ladies who lunch.  The ladies outnumbered any other sex by quite a large percentage. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

@Anna N I can't remember when I have laughed so much reading a post.  That chair paragraph is priceless.

[Smithy]

Hilarious, indeed! But the food looked good...well, except for the cheese.  The "loaded fries" looked interesting, too. I'd try that, if I could.

 

I seem to be seeing a lot more variants of poutine / chili fries (depending on which side of the Canada / US border one is on) than I used to. The "dirty fries" I saw at a restaurant recently included chili, cheese, jalapenos and perhaps something else. The "garlic fries" I had around New Year's included parmesan and parsley. Is this variation on a theme a new trend, or am I just slow to spot it?

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Hilarious, indeed! But the food looked good...well, except for the cheese.  The "loaded fries" looked interesting, too. I'd try that, if I could.

 

I seem to be seeing a lot more variants of poutine / chili fries (depending on which side of the Canada / US border one is on) than I used to. The "dirty fries" I saw at a restaurant recently included chili, cheese, jalapenos and perhaps something else. The "garlic fries" I had around New Year's included parmesan and parsley. Is this variation on a theme a new trend, or am I just slow to spot it?

 It is definitely a thing!  I also, mentally, read “loaded fries” as just another version of poutine. But it would be shameful to water down the meaning of “real” poutine.  Not that anyone will give me a say in the matter. I just think there should be dressed fries and poutine (the latter being always chips that have some heft, beefy gravy, and squeaky cheese curds).  Anything that fails to meet those criteria, might be innovative, could be tasty, might even change your life, but it won’t be poutine.  Therefore I can live with garlic fries, dirty fries, loaded fries and any other variation so long as it’s not called poutine.

[chromedome]

I remember loaded fries being a "thing" long before I ever saw my first poutine. Might just have been an accident of timing and geography, mind you.

[caroled]

That cheese looks like someone was trying to warm it in their hands before presentation!, the other components look pretty tasty.  I've been craving Green Goddess dressing for a while now. Must get the stuff to make some.