Beerbistro

Went to Beerbistro... Although the appetizers and beers were awesome the food was not. I got Peanut Crusted Pork: slow roasted pork with crackling, mango salsa, banana onion jam, sweet potato mash... way too complicated and very poorly cooked pork. The pork was hard and tasted old. All the sauces over complicated the dish. Very dissapointing. B had the grilled chicken breast with polenta and although the first few bites were good the dish again was a bit too much and it got overwhelming very soon.

Our appetizers of fries and bacon wrapped shrimp were in fact delicious. The shrimp had a great combo of spicy and sweet.

The beers we tried were also amazing:

Weihenstephaner Hefe weissbier -A nice light and fragrant white beer.
Ephemere Cassis - Like Ephemere apple but with definite taste of cassis... much like ribena and beer. I loved it, B not so much.
Koningshoeven quadrupel - interesting spicy and sweet beer. I don't think I could drink a whole pint though!
Tillburg Dutch Brown Ale - nutty and bold... your classic beer.
Bitburger Premium Pils - light and refreshing.
fullers london porter - coffee and chocolate. Ok.
Kostritzer Schwarzbier - Interesting and not what you expect. Chocolate and fruit lighter tasting than most dark beers.


In conclusion, I think Beer Bistro is more of an appetizer and drinks place.

Oscars...

So we had the Oscar bash and I did indeed make flat bread pizzas. I had a bit of trouble finding flat breads at Metro, but they have them in abundance at Loblaws. We got a giant sesame one and one of those President's Choice cheese ones... both amazing.


Here's what I did:

Steak Flatbread

Steak - I bought the cheap marinating steak. Big mistake, it was too chewy. Next time I'll splurge an extra two dollars on a higher quality steak.
Gloucester and Stilton - All in one delicious cheese
Provolone
Onions

Mushrooms - I bought cute button mushrooms

Worcestershire sauce

Thyme

First I marinated the steak in wine, beef broth, thyme and steak spice (I just use a pepper blend). Then I sauteed the onions and mushrooms with a little salt, pepper, thyme and Worcestershire. I layered the provolone on one half of the giant flatbread, then put the sauteed veg on top. After that I seared the steak and cut it into thin strips. I placed the strips of steak on top of the veg then added the Gloucester and Stilton.




Gravy
Butter
Flour
red wine
beef broth
seasoning

I made a roux with the butter and flour - essentially just slow cooked flour with butter. When it was brown enough I added the wine and let that simmer. Then I added the beef broth until it was the desired consistency and finally I seasoned with salt and pepper, and a bit of thyme and rosemary.

I poured the Gravy on top of the steak flatbread when it was finished.

Apple and Blue Flatbread

Apple
Farm Blue
Old Cheddar - I got an Ontario 6 year old Cheddar
onions
fig jam



I slow cooked the onions with butter and added a fig jam nearing the end and let it melt into the onions. I put a layer of cheddar cheese on the other half of the flatbread. Then I added the onions, layers of apple and a very small and evenly distributed amount of (the very strong) farm blue. Then I added another layer of cheddar cheese.

I put the flat bread in the oven and baked at 375 until the edges just browned and then broiled for the last bit so the cheese got bubbly and beautiful.

Potato Flatbread

Potato
onion
mushroom
mozzarella
roasted garlic
olive oil
rosemary

This was on the cheese flatbread. I just microwaved the potatoes then thinly sliced them. I used olive oil and roasted garlic as the base and just smothered that evenly onto the surface of the flatbread. Then added some rosemary, mozzarella, potatoes, onions and mushrooms. Finishing with more mozzarella and salt and pepper. Baked at 375.

What everyone thought of the food:

Steak Flatbread: Well the steak was tough so it took away from that dish... the flavour was good but a smaller quantity of higher quality steak would have made it better. It was a bit too much.

Apple Flatbread: Delicious! This had the perfect amount of blue and the fig with the onion was so good... the cheddar was also an amazing addition. It was a great combo of sweet and savoury.

Potato Flatbread: I usually like this with a white sauce on the base but this turned out great. used one small clove of garlic and it was perfect... good balanced flavours and a nice amount of carbs for a wine-drinking night! The mushrooms were unnecessary though, next time I'll lose those.

The clear winner was the Apple and Blue flatbread.

What did we think of the wines:

All of the wines were around the $15 mark.




Pierre Sparr - Pinot Blanc
Buttery with crisp apple aftertaste.... first sip was very buttery and sweet. ended with a bit too much alcohol. Overall a good wine. I'd buy it again on a hot summer day!

Queen of Syrah - Rose
HONEY. As soon as you sip it it tastes like watered down honey... then it just tastes balanced. A dry rose with a definite honey flavour... but not at all fragrant. It was interesting but I wouldn't buy it again... there are better wines out there.

Chateau des Charmes - 2007 Riesling
Fragrant with notes of pear, citrus and oak... Sweet but not overly. Very nice wine and I would buy it again. This was an end of the night wine so I'd like to try it again.

As far as the Oscars, what can I say. Who cares? Hunger and Sam Rockwell in Moon were totally ignored. I wasn't really behind any of the films this year. I am glad Christoph Waltz won though, he did an amazing job. Watching stars in high def is amazing... it is so nice to see them look like humans. Oh and I won the little pool we did... So now everyone owes me a drink. Perhaps a nice Pinot Noir... I'll post about that one later ;)

Banu Kabob and Vodka bar

So for a friend's birthday festivities yesterday we found ourselves at Banu on Queen Street. This is an Iranian restaurant with a queen west-y feel... You know trendy, sleek etc. It was my first time trying Persian food, although it is very similar to many things I have had. They had some crazy vodka martinis and the food was fresh and very good. The food wasn't cheap but everything was organic, super-fresh and it was a fun sharing experience so was worth it.

We had:

Chai - this was with saffron and cardamom... Very different from Indian Chai with more delicate flavours. It was served with a small dish of cookies. They were great with cardamom and spicy flavours, yum!

Martinis - I had a cucumber, mint and basil martini. It was fresh and delicious but again very delicate. Don't expect your average bold martini. You can tell that they used high quality ingredients and at $13 they should! Others at our table tried martinis with pomegranate, sour cherry and even saffron all with that same fresh delicate flavour. We all had a sip of each others and I think we all agreed that the one with the cucumber was the best.

Nan o Paneer - barbari sesame bread with sheep’s milk cheese, walnuts, and fresh herbs
- This was delicious! The cheese was very creamy not overly flavourful but it was very good. It came with sour cherry preserves which were amazing with the cheese... In fact, I will buy some to go with my cheese platters in future.

Zeitun Parvardeh - green kalamata Olives mixed with pomegranate molasses, anjelica, garlic, and ground walnut
- Although others at the table loved this, I was not a fan. The sweetness and strange spice combined with the salty green olives was just too much for me. I'd pass next time.

Laboo - oven roasted beets on a bed of endive and sheep's milk cheese
- Good but not amazing. It tasted like beets.

Koobideh - 2 skewers of minced ground sirloin
- Amazing! This was tender and flavourful, my favourite dish of the night. All of the meats came on a share plate with a thin nan (like roti).

Torsh - pomegranate molasses and walnut crusted beef tenderloin
- We ordered this medium and it was perfect. Again, you could taste the quality. Everyone loved this. I again, wasn't sure about the overwhelming sweetness... but don't listen to me, I was alone! I did enjoy it but not as much at the Koobideh.

Murgh - grilled saffron citrus chicken breast .
- This was fantastic. Very fragrant and cooked perfectly

Everything came with fresh herbs mainly basil and tarragon. It was all fresh, flavourful and tasty.

There were 5 of us,we were all satisfied and the bill came to $185... just over $200 with tip. Would I go again? It was a fun place to try and go as a group but I don't see myself becoming a regular. My rating: Fun!

Oscar Party Preparation

So the oscars are on this Sunday and we have decided to have an impromptu get-together to watch, eat, drink and all that. Firstly, how sad are the oscars this year? I've watched all 10 of the films up for Best Picture and although I really liked "An Education", "UP" and "Inglourious Basterds" nothing seems best picture-worthy this year. AVATAR??? Come on!

Anyway, now to my second and most important point. What am I going to make? I bought an insane amount of steak last weekend, because it was on sale... when I see that big yellow sign in the grocery store I just can't resist. We had huge steaks and then the next day still had more... so I decided to make steak and mushroom pie. Well, that idea went out the window when we got a call from one of my fave people to come and watch the Olympic hockey match. I don't watch Hockey, but it was a fantastic experience... the yelling, the patriotism, the beer and high-fat foods (yum). Then when we won there were hoards of people on the streets screaming, yelling, blocking traffic... Yonge and Eglinton was insane! People were jumping on cars... fortunately not mine because we were stuck in traffic so long we decided to get onto side streets. Needless to say, I did not make steak and mushroom pie. Just more steak and now I have leftover beef broth that I MUST use this weekend so it doesn't go to waste.

I want to make something easy, delicious and it must go with wine. I'll take any opportunity to do a good wine pairing. I'm thinking of making flatbread pizza type things. No, I'm not going to make the flatbread from scratch. I'll probably be hungover from a Saturday night birthday event and of course amazing Efterklang show! So I'll buy some of those delicious flatbreads and several types of cheese. I also have apples that need using, so I'll add those into the mix. Here's what I'm thinking:

Wine:
Pierre Sparr - Alcace
- I have yet to buy this so I'm not sure which one. I have tried the Gewurztraminer and it is phenomenal!
Chateau Des Charmes - Chardonnay
- never tried it but it is supposed to be a great Canadian winemaker

I also have a few reds so I'm not sure which I will open.

Flatbread Pizzas:

Apple, cheddar and carmalized onions - maybe a bit of bacon too

Potato, bacon, cheddar and onion

braised beef, gorgonzola (or maybe a fantastic blue haze or this other smokey blue I tried last weekend), caramalized onions, provalone and mushrooms - I'm going to make a gravy (with the beef broth) that we can dip this into. This will sort of be like a deconstructed roast beef dip sandwich.

I'll come back to you with the actual wines, actual recipes and how this all goes over. Wish me luck!

I really hope I win my Oscar pool... doubtful though. I do also hope Christoph Waltz wins, he was amazing in IB. Also, FANTASTIC MR. FOX deserves something, it was such a beautiful film and Roald Dahl is amazing. Anyway, all this for another post.

HAPPY OSCAR WEEKEND!