Medal Ceremony and After Parties

So by some bizarre twist of fate I was nominated (I did not self-nominate) for a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal.  According to the Governor General the medal "is a tangible way for Canada to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country. At the same time, it serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians".  Yeah, that's right ... the Queen loves me!

So you may be asking what significant contribution and achievement did I make/do? ...Yeah.  I was asking myself that too.  I did my job.  I guess that's what I did.  And thanks to a really amazing boss ... who has since left for Ottawa for the glory and prestige of Regina (yeah ... Regina ... I don't get it either) who vouched for me having done a good job -- I somehow was a selected recipient of the medal. 

Luckily, the medal ceremony coincided with my birthday so Emma was able to come for the the birthday weekend and stay for the medal ceremony, which was great. I was so happy she could come ... it made getting the medal worthwhile!

Official photograph ... Doug and I

 

This was a very serious affair in the parade with the uniforms getting all sorts of instructions on marching, saluting, how long to shake the Assistant Commissioner's hand, etc.  And us civilians ... we were told to "just walk normally".  What a challenge.  Despite the formality, pomp and circumstance I had full intentions of having fun with this thing.  And I was pretty sure I could nail the walk ... hopefully I wouldn't trip down the stairs with my fab-u-lus new purple shoes!

 

As well as Emma, my dear dear friends Marlene, Stacey and Sherrylynn all attended the ceremony.  And they took my lead to have fun with the ceremony too.

 

waiting for the guest of honour ... oh yeah

that's me!!!

 

 

It would be inappropriate to repeat the commentary that was taking place as some others were receiving their medals, but suffice it to say ... we had some good laughs during the presentations!  There was no way we were not going to enjoy this ... I mean how often is the Queen gonna choose me for anything?

 

FunBobby pretending she doesn't see me walking

down the aisle to get my award ...!

 

Luckily, I was the last one to go ... so I also took the opportunity to smile and wave to my fans!  After the ceremony, I asked the Sergeant Major if he thought us civilians did ok with our 'normal' walking?!  He was laughing and said he thought I was pretty funny when I was walking up to meet Doug.  For a guy who had to organize and coordinate a very serious and formal event, I was glad that he appreciated me having fun with it and didn't think that I was being disrespectful to the pomp and ceremony.  After all this was my big moment too (sort of ...) I should be allowed to enjoy it!

After the ceremony, there was time for socializing with guests and to get more photos.  And have some Tim Horton's coffee and tim bits.  Ahhhhh ... cops and their Timmies.

  

Great friends like this make it all worthwhile!

 

Kiss the medal!  Ahahahaha

Ok ... I know my eyes are closed but this is such a great

pic of Emma I chose it instead of one with my eyes open.

 

After the reception ... the real celebrations began! Stacey had to head back to the office for a bit but she was planning to rendez-vous with us in few hours for dinner.  Emma and I started off with some beers at the Preston Street Heart & Crown ... an excellent choice for a Monday afternoon at about 2pm.  Can't go wrong with that.

"Winston" (as we named the medal -- you know after the house of Windsor) enjoyed a pint and the other beers were not even jealous because he was very fun and generous!  He was not even pretentious or anything!

 

Since we were practically the only people in the bar, we had almost the full and uninterrupted attention of the bartender.  Although his attention was periodically drawn away from the glory of the medal and our gorgeousness to watch coverage of Super-Storm Sandy on TV.  I guess that's ok - it was a pretty spectacular storm after all.

 

After a couple of pints we headed home to change and relax for a few minutes before heading out to Table 40 to meet back up with Stacey for dinner.  Table 40 is the communal dining restaurant attached to, and run by Ross and Simon Fraser, the owners of Fraser's Cafe in Beechwood.  It is only open for special events and the "Monday Dinners" (how fortuitous that my medal ceremony was on a Monday!).  It is a set menu, that is posted on-line a short time in advance of the upcoming Monday.

 

Here's Winston checking out the menu -- since the rest of us had

already seen it on-line and knew what we were going to be having!

 

We got a cozy table up front in the corner. It seated six but it wasn't until after we were finished eating that another couple was seated at the other end of our table. There are about 3 or 4 tables for six and one huge table that probably seats about 20 people I would guess. The decor is funky with lots of wood mixed with modern fixtures.

 

As soon as we sat down we were served a fresh, home baked loaf of bread which was yummy and delicious.  More recently than this dinner I've been out a number of times and it seems that bread being served to start a meal is just not happening so much anymore ... and I say bring back the bread dammit!  You can't beat delicious fresh bread to start off a nice meal.

 

Winston checking out the bread and waiting for his soup

while Stacey reads up on the "All Time Favourite Casserole Recipes"

from the 1977 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

 

 

We started with French onion soup with Swiss cheese mustard toast.  The soup comes to the table in the pot, steaming hot and you serve yourself.  The soup was absolutely delicious.  It was smooth and velvety and the onions were sweet and cooked perfectly.  It was also nice that the Swiss cheese mustard toast was served on the side because Emma is not a big fan of traditional French onion soup which can sometimes be overloaded with cheese.  Serving the toast on the side also kept it nice and crispy rather than soggy from absorbing all the broth.  It was a Dijon mustard so it added some zing to the flavour.  I decided that I was going to try making this toast at home some time it was so good.

 

Winston checking out the soup and you can see the Swiss cheese

mustard toast on the side

 

As I mentioned wood features prominently in the decor at Table 40.  You can see here all the food is served on a variety of sized, thick slaps of wood - which is cool and fun for the customers and definitely adds to the home-y, comforting communal dining feel -- but as our waitress mentioned, they are not the easiest to pick up off the table and can become quite heavy when laden with food.  You definitely need muscles to work here!

 

Awaiting our next course, we had some time to enjoy some wine, and Winston was chatting up all the ladies.

 

 

The main course was described on the menu as Braised beef and oxtail ragout pasta, tomato sauce, broccoli and Carrot salad with walnuts, parsley, cumin and yoghurt (their spelling) dressing.  From the description we thought the ragout had the pasta, tomato sauce and broccoli in it but these were three separate dishes.  The sauce on the ragout was outstanding - but for the fact that it was too thick, I would have just poured it down my throat!  The flavour was very good but we all found the one of the meats was dry (while we could clearly distinguish that there were two kinds of meat in the dish, we just could not tell which one was which).

 

 We've already dug in to all of the dishes but Winston

remains poised for any falling bits of food. 

 

The pasta was fresh made, and as a general rule I don't always love home-made pasta.  I often find it dough-y.  This pasta was perfect.  It was light and soft - I think you would call it 'pappardelle'; it was basically long, thick strips in shape.  The tomato sauce had lots of fresh tomatoes and a nice amount of cheese.  It was excellent.  And the broccoli was broccoli.  It was cooked well; but was just steamed broccoli.  I could have done without it.

 

You should also notice the massive wood plank (essentially a 2-inch thick slab of tree trunk!) and some yummy delicious salty olives strategically placed all over the plank.  As the waitress came to remove the plank when we were finished with our main course I noticed there were still a couple of olives hiding on the far side of the dishes so I had to snag those before she took them away.

 

 

The best thing I can say about the carrot salad was that it was incredibly beautiful.  It was totally not what we were expecting - it was a frisee salad with some beautiful heirloom carrot curls on top.  The entire salad was very fresh and crisp.  Sadly, we found the cumin and yoghurt dressing quite bland.  It had so much potential but we all felt it fell sort of flat.  Oh, and those tongs were useless for serving the salad.

 

Finally, to finish off the meal:  Poached pear tart for dessert.  Now I've already talked about how often last fall poached pears kept popping up everywhere I was out eating.  What's up with that?

 

In keeping with the family style dining theme, three pieces of poached pear tart were served on a wooden plank.  The plank was first drizzled with a maple caramel which was delicious.  The tart was fine.  It was not overly sweet, so the maple caramel really added to the flavour.  Overall it was tasty but not my favourite thing ... but then again, unless its chocolate, dessert is never going to win out over good savoury dishes for me.

 

Finishing off the last bite!

 

Clearly ... it wasn't bad since we finished off the whole thing and scraped the maple caramel off the wooden plank.  I loved the experience of the family-style communal dining theme and I really love the atmosphere/ambiance of Table 40.  It is a really great, unique dining experience.  There was a birthday party at the big table and we really felt like everyone in the restaurant was a part of the party.

 

We had such a great time at the ceremony and the after parties.  I was so blessed to have such wonderful friends around to share the experience with me.  After all, it's not every day that the Queen picks you to get a medal and it would have meant nothing if I wouldn't have been able to spend the party with my friends.  Thanks to all of you!

 

Birthday 2012 ... BDT

My birthday this year ... number 46 ... was bittersweet.  The Saturday two days after my actual birthday was the day I planned my party.  It was also the morning we said goodbye to my Jakey.  I had been up almost the whole night beforehand and made the decision around 3am.  What a terrible choice to have to make about someone you love so much.  I know it was the right thing to do and he's in a much better place but I'm still so sad and continue to miss him everyday.

Thoughtfully, several of my friends coming to the party offered to postpone to another night when I was feeling better but I thought the best thing to do was to go on with the party.  Jakey, always one for a party (i.e. eating), would have wanted it that way!

I had a terrible time trying to find a place to go.  My initial thought was to organize a gourmet dinner at The Urban Element or Table 40.  Turns out October is an extremely busy month for birthdays and weddings.  I could not find a date that worked for me.  And while I still love this idea and might pursue it for a future birthday, it can be quite expensive.  My next idea was just to plan a dinner for a bunch of us ... again a challenge since the places I wanted to go to either do not take reservations on Saturday night (even for a group of 20 people) or they were all booked up for large groups.  I finally managed to confirm at Brasseurs du Temps (BDT) on the Gatineau side for a group of 15.  That was the most they could accommodate even though I was planning about two weeks in advance!

As you know, if you've read my previous posts I have had both good and mediocre experiences at BDT.  The place is great, the beer is awesome, but there have been some misses on the food and service.  Generally I thought it was a good choice with a good variety of food and the brewery right on site, a bit unfortunate about having to go over to the Quebec side but, really ... at this point I had no choice if I wanted to have a birthday par-tay!

We had a great location right in the centre of the main room - almost with a view of the beer vats.  There were no other tables close to us which was nice.  I won't go into all the food -- frankly I'm not even sure what I had ... I think I had ribs but I'm not positive.  I know several of us started with the goat cheese salad which was really really good -- and huge.  It is a dinner sized salad with ... guess what?  poached pears.  As I mentioned in my post about Burnt Butter, this fall I was inundated with poached pears everywhere.  The goat cheese salad also led to a heated discussion between Jack and I ... disagreeing whether there was horseradish in the dressing.

There was.  I won.

 

I don't know for sure what everyone ordered.  I know that the three women sitting closest to me (Stacey, FunBobby and Caitlyn I'm looking at you) ordered the mussels.  I gave Caitlyn a pass on my ultimatum that that she not order mussels anymore when we go out only because there were other people having them too.  Everyone who had the mussels said they were awesome.

 

Emma started with the bison tartare.  She loved it ... and to her great surprise I tried it.  She never expected me to try it since it grosses me out everytime she tells me about the fab-u-lus steak tartare she gets at a resto that she goes to in London.  I can assure you ... the bison tartare was excellent.  You just have to be able to get over the fact that you are eating raw meat ... it's worth trying.  Obviously, this was before Emma went vegan!

 

 

I also can vouch for the fact that the french onion soup smelled amazing!  Bonnie ordered it as a starter and she assured me it was really good.  Also there were a couple of people who ordered the poutine with smoked meat and it also smelled amazing.  Next time I'm at BDT I'm definitely going to try that -- Caitlyn, Yves-Etienne and Ivana all said it was really really good too.

We had a great time.  I'm glad that I had a designated-driver so I was able to sample all the beers.  And some bosoms too ... FunBobby nestled me in her ample boobies.

 Special birthday treat for me!

 

and to think I insisted I didn't want any birthday presents ...!

It was lots of laughs and fun all around.  When you get Chicklit laughing this much you know it's gotta be a good time, and/or she she's had much more booze than usual!

 

Stacey got a little treat from Emma too ... at the end of the night with a little whipped cream delight.

 

mmmmm whipped cream and wine

 

We really had a great time at the restaurant.  The guys were good enough to head out and let me and my girls finish off the night together on our own.  Stacey got a gorgeous set of beer glasses and then we headed back to my place for another little cocktail.  We had tossed around the idea of heading of to a Gatineau club but we didn't think any of us had enough of a fake tan and bleached blond hairs to fit in.  And, it really had been a very long day for me and I appreciated soooooo much all my dear friends hanging out with me to celebrate my birthday and to comfort me in such a difficult time.  Love you all.

Arancini - The Obsession Continues

I've mentioned my obsession with arancini (rice balls) several times now.  In October I finally got around to trying to make some myself.  It can't be that hard right?  I've googled several recipes and after having eaten a few different versions (see my posts from my weekend in Toronto:  Part 2 at Table 17 and  Part Trois at Gusto) I figured I could basically recreate the mushroom/fontina ones that we had had at Table 17.

First, you have to make the mushroom risotto.  I have a G-R-E-A-T mushroom risotto recipe that comes from the LCBO's Food & Drink magazine (Lucy Waverman's mushroom risotto) and I've made it several times and it has turned out great every time.  In fact, it seems Lucy Waverman liked it so much she first published it in the Autumn 2001 edition and then repeated it in the Autumn 2003 edition of Food & Drink.  I see all these cooking competition shows where risotto is the death of contestants but this one is seriously reliably good.  There are a number of steps involved but it's not overly complicated or time-consuming.  I won't replicate the entire recipe here, since you can look it up in Food & Drink but I will show you how I made it.

 

First rehydrate dried mushrooms (I used a mixed variety pack) in 1 cup of boiling water.  Set aside.  Chop fresh mushrooms (I use white and cremini) - about 1.5 - 2 cups.  Sauté the fresh mushrooms in olive oil and butter until the mushrooms are soft and all the liquid has been released.  Season with salt, pepper, parsley and I usually add some thyme.

 

 

Next, heat olive oil and butter in a sauce pan.  Add onions and arborio rice and coat well with oil/butter.  Add white wine and cook until all the liquid has been absorbed.  Add the mushroom soaking liquid and the rehydrated mushrooms (I strain the liquid and give the mushrooms a bit of a finer chop as the rehydrated dried mushrooms can sometimes be a bit rubbery so you don't want a big bite of one).  Continue to cook and stir until all the liquid has again been absorbed.

 

 

 Then add stock in one-cup increments adding more after the last cup has been absorbed.  Now I know you are supposed to add warm stock ... sometimes I heat the stock in the microwave so it is warm when I add it to the rice; other times I've added the stock at room temperature -  this recipe is very forgiving.  I've also been known to add more white wine than the recipe calls for, as well as to have a little glass or two for drinking while I'm cooking -- hey the bottle is already opened and you don't need the whole thing for the risotto.  Don't judge. 

 

This whole process should take about 20 minutes or so.  The rice should still have a bit of firmness in the centre (I think those chefy types say the rice has a bit of a bite).  Add the sautéd mushrooms and stir well.  Remove from heat and add parmesan cheese.  Stir till well combined.

 

 

Now you have to let the risotto cool before you can move on to actually making the arancini.  I put it in the fridge and took the dogs for a walk.  It still wasn't cool enough so I had to watch some tv till it was cool enough to work with.  This recipe is ideal if you were using left-over risotto or were able to chill it overnight.

 

First chop the fontina cheese into small cubes.  I cut them into about 1.5cm to 2cm squares and as I was stuffing the rice I realized the smaller ones actually worked a bit better.  Then form the risotto into balls approximately 2 tablespoons or slightly larger in size.  Use your thumb to create a hole in the rice ball and insert the cube of fontina.  Close up the ball to cover the cheese with rice.

 

 

Set up a two-stage breading station with beaten egg and bread crumbs (I used the seasoned Italian bread crumbs).  Roll each ball in the egg then into the bread crumbs.  Continue with this process until all your balls are rolled.  Ahahahahaha!!!

 

Then deep fry.  I don't have a deep fryer and just use vegetable oil in a large sauce pan on the stove.  The first batch I cooked I had the oil a bit too hot and they cooked too quickly so the cheese in the middle didn't melt and get all ooey-gooey like it should have.  After that I got the temperature of the oil regulated a bit better (you can use a candy/deep fry thermometer if you have one ... if I recall correctly I think it was best to not have the oil over 300*F). 

 

 

They don't take long to cook about 5-8 minutes (I flipped mine in the pot while frying since they were not immersed in oil).  They should be golden brown all over.  Remove from oil onto a paper towel.  Serve hot with tomato sauce.

 

 

 

Since I had made a full batch of risotto I had a lot of arancini.  I breaded them all and put half of them uncooked in the fridge and then just fried them up the next day.  I also took some of the fully cooked ones to work for my lunch for the next few days (hey ... I had about 15 rice balls) and they heated up in the microwave really nicely too.

 

All in all it is fairly time consuming with having to make the risotto first.  For me it was totally worth it and and they were totally delicious.  They are super crispy on the outside and the gooey cheesy goodness on the inside is really yummy.  If you are thinking of trying them out I would suggest planning on making them on a weekend where you can do things in stages.

Burnt Butter

It had been quite some time since I had seen Marlene so we finally worked out an evening to get together.  I chose Burnt Butter as the resto for us to pass our night together.  Burnt Butter is located on Wellington Street directly across the street from my very favourite burger joint (and the best burger in Ottawa .. not only as stated by me, as voted for 2012 in the Ottawa Citizen).  But I digress ... as so easily happens when I think of/talk about Hintonburger.

Anyway ... Burnt Butter.  I mentioned it previously in my post on the Hintonburg Foodies Walking Tour even though it wasn't an official tour stop.  I've heard great things about it and as an extra special bonus for me ... $5 house martinis on Tuesdays!  Yay.  The menu changes frequently -- so much so that they just write it on the chalk board!  Since it was early September when Mar and I were meeting there, they had just recently updated their menu with some Fall specialties.

We got a primo seat right at the open to Wellington Street window so we could see and be-seen which is what Marlene and I like.  Really -- pretty much all the tables open on to the street-side windows so that is really nice for a warm late summer dinner.

I started with the specialty "bruschetta" which was a crusty baguette covered in goat cheese, caramelized onions and poached pear.  It seemed at the time, everywhere I turned poached pears were all the rage!  I love pears, but frankly I'm not convinced of the purpose of poaching them.

The bruschetta was really good but I could have done without the poached pear.  The bread was perfectly crusty and warm there was lots of goat cheese and the caramelized onions added enough sweetness and contrast to the salty goat cheese that the pear was not necessary for me.  Its not like it added an element of crunch since it was poached!

And then for our mains Marlene chose some kind of fish.  I don't like fish or seafood so I really don't know what kind of fish it was.  Maybe if you zoom in on the menu behind Mar's head you can read it for yourself!

 

The plate arrived and I have to say I was impressed.  It was absolutely beautiful as you can see.  Colours so beautiful it looked like a work of art.  But can you even pick out the fish?  Unfortunately, Marlene told me (later ... she didn't say anything when we were having dinner because she didn't want to ruin my meal) that the texture of the fish was somewhat rubbery and off-putting.  Which is too bad because it looked like it was going to be so good that I thought I might even like it!

 

I ordered the linguine with spicy tomato sauce, red pepper and bacon.  Let me tell you I was not disappointed.  I think there must have been a full pound of bacon in my pasta.  It arrived at the table and Marlene commented that she could smell the smokiness from the bacon!

 

 

The tomato sauce was deliciously flavourful and spicy but not overwhelming and all that bacon.  Oh god it was soooooo good.  How can you go wrong with bacon?  You can't!  This was a h-u-g-e plate of pasta -- far too much for one person but it was soooo damn good I powered through and ate the whole thing.  I loved it so much I didn't even want to save it to take home ... I HAD to eat it all there.

 

I was disappointed that Marlene's meal was not as good as mine but we had a great evening (as always).  While we were eating a table of two young women were seated beside us and they ordered a bunch of the appies to share which was good for us as we had been having difficulty deciding between several starters and we got to see what they looked like.  At some point there was something that they didn't like and they asked the waiter for ketchup.  His shock and horror that they should dare ask for ketchup was priceless and kept Mar and I laughing for some time!  He deigned to go and check and see if there was a bottle in the back, but he never returned with one so I guess he either could not find it or could not bring himself to be serving a table with a bottle of ketchup on it.  Hilarious.

Road Trip to Rochester and Barry Manilow

That's right.  Barry Manilow.  I love Barry.  I grew up listening to him with my Mom, so when Stacey suggested we take a road trip to go see him I was totally up for it.  He was playing in Rochester so we decided to make a long weekend of it heading to the concert on Friday night then doubling back for shopping in Syracuse on the way home on Saturday.   We loaded up the Barry CDs and headed off.

The concert was right downtown Rochester at the Blue Cross Centre and we were staying within walking distance of the arena.  But it turns out there is virtually NOTHING else in the downtown Rochester area.  It's a business district with nothing but corporate offices ... no shopping and no restaurants except for the sports pub in the hotel.  When asked for a recommendation the clerk immediately told us about Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (famous from being on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) but neither of us was really feeling that.  Luckily we asked for a few more questions and when she realized we didn't mind a short walk, the clerk recommended a trendy new area right along the Genessee River where we would find a few funky places to eat.  So off we went.

Now this area is really really nice.  It is totally being gentrified and there are lots of nice restaurants, a wine store with an upscale wine bar, an Indian place and a few shops.  There are condos along the river and a nice walking/biking trail.

The only problem? The neighbourhood is called: Corn Hill Landing... which is just like the WORST name for a neighbourhood ever.  Still ... it's a nice area name notwithstanding.  After strolling along the waterfront and snapping a few pictures and buying some wine (for later), we decided on a cool new restaurant called the "Tap and Table" which has a huge patio right along the waterfront. 

  

Luckily we got there just in time - we were the first ones to grab a table on the patio and within one hour, there were no tables left.  The waitress, a sweet and attentive young woman, told us that the owners are the same people who own the 'blah blah blah' burger restaurant ... seemingly a well-known place for Rochester-ites? Rochestans? Rochesteronians?  whatever.  And in any case, we obviously didn't know the place.  The Tap and Table focuses on fresh local ingredients and they create seasonal menus.

It was gorgeous September afternoon with a nice breeze coming off the river and we had lots of time to relax, eat and drink before we had to get back for the concert.  When we looked at the menu we were super excited but also in a dilemma ... there were soooo many things that sounded absolutely incredible.  We decided that we were going to order a bunch of small things and share everything ... but of course to start off, a cocktail.

Stacey had some red wine and I got my margarita on.  The waitress also brought us a carafe of water with three thin cucumber slices in it.  I was surprised that I could absolutely taste the cucumber in it .  Stacey did not believe me and thought there was no way you could taste it with those three thin measly little slices of cuke (she hadn't yet had a glass of water).  But, once she had a glass she too agreed that you could taste it.  Now this story is not that interesting on its own but there was a table beside us that added to the hilarity of this conversation.

This old man had been sitting at a table by himself for a long time before his companions arrived ... two Asian women who we were sure were a mother and her adult daughter.  We were also pretty sure that the mom was a mail-order bride (or for very sure an internet hook up).  This guy was obnoxious beyond belief ... he was such a know-it-all and was talking to both women in such a paternalistic and condescending tone.  And he informed them that cucumber quenches your thirst ... hence adding the cuke to the water.  And, really, I don't know if that is true or not but to be certain you would have to eat the cucumber in order for it to quench your thirst.  Dick.

Stace and I also had trouble controlling our laughter when I was trying to snap this picture of the guy.  I was pretending to take pictures of the waterfront but then had to just nonchalantly turn the camera towards them.  I'm sure the old guy caught on to what we were doing but we just kept laughing away!

Anyway ... you probably want to know about the food at Tap and Table.  We started with a trio of dips with warm pita breads.  There was roasted mushroom and goat cheese (mmmmm -- my favourite -- it was warm and gooey with rich earthy flavour -- I would go back for this dip alone), eggplant carponata (a sweet and spicy thick pureed dip which was Stacey's favourite) and hummus which was good but not extra special.  In fact, I can't even remember what it was like.  I LUVED the roasted mushroom and goat cheese one though.  I sure remember it.

The pita bread was super fresh and nice and soft with a smoky flavour from the grill. We ate the first round of pita, ordered more and kept on eating.  Then we moved on to the grilled leek and marscapone risotto.  OMG this was sooooo freakin good.  I had a tiny hesitation when we ordered because marscapone is not my favourite cheese but it was absolutely perfect in the risotto.  The rice was perfectly cooked, creamy and rich.  Absolutely deee-lish!

Next course was the grilled watermelon salad which was served with mixed greens, candied red onions, balsamic drizzle and topped with goat cheese.  This was my first experience with grilled watermelon and it was awesome.  You get the smoky flavour from having been grilled, as well as the contrast of hot and cold temperature.  The watermelon was firm and juicy - I was worried that grilling would make it mushy but this was definitely not the case.  Most assuredly it would have to be only on the grill for only a few moments.  The goat cheese added a creamy texture and perfectly salty flavour contrast with the sweetness of the watermelon and the bitterness of the greens.  As well there was an Asian flavour in the balsamic dressing but I couldn't quite put my taste buds on it.  I asked the waitress what it was but she wasn't sure either.  No matter what it was, it was delicious.

The waitress told us the grilled watermelon salad was one of her favourite things on the menu and it was so good I didn't want to stop eating but we had one more dish to try.  The 'special' flatbread of the day:  a sweet potato puree with mushroom, pancetta and arugula.  Of all the dishes, this was probably my least favourite.  Not that there was anything wrong with it - it was good ... I just didn't think it was as good as some of the other food we had that night.

I thought the sweet potato puree was slightly bland and with no sauce or cheese I thought the flatbread was slightly dry and didn't have a lot of flavour.  It wasn't bad, but in comparison to the other outrageously delicious courses we had we could have skipped this one.

Ultimately we had WAY too much food and had to brown bag a bunch of it back to the hotel room for later.  We didn't bother taking home the grilled watermelon salad since we didn't think it would travel and hold over very well.  We continued with a couple more drinks and then realized we had to boot it back to the hotel to make it to Barry's concert on time.

No worries.  We made it to the concert on time.  Barry played from 7:45 to 9:10 (perfect for the kiddies and the oldsters in the crowd) and it was great.  He played all the old songs (really that's all he's got) the whole crowd was singing along to everything.  And the concert was over early enough for Stacey and I to head back to the hotel and get our seriously intense 'drank-on' at the sports bar.

The bar was filled with patrons who were either at the Barry concert or were rubbies who drink in that bar all day every day.  We met this super fun couple:  Marilyn and ??? who had been to see Barry three or four times before.  We got talking to them because their table was filled with beer bottle empties whereas Stacey & I had to keep returning our empty glasses after we finished a round of cosmos because the sports bar only had 4 martini glasses so they had to wash two while we were drinking out of the other two.  In any case, we (especially me) had waaayyy too much to drink.  We had a good time and lots of laughs.  A huge group of women who had been at the concert came in, played Barry Manilow songs repeatedly on the juke box and virtually everyone in the bar was singing along.

After all the drinking we ended up scarfing down our left overs from the Tap and Table to soak up some of the booze.  I was chewing on dry tasteless flatbread sitting on the floor in the hallway whereas Stacey was eating risotto in bed with her fingers.  Gong Show. 

I was SERIOUSLY under the weather on Saturday when it was time to get up and head back to Syracuse.  Meanwhile Stacey was picking pieces of rice out of her comforter!  The weather had turned absolutely nasty over night; it was pouring rain and really cold and I was a wreck:  chills, nausea, the whole bit.  Stacey was way too thoughtful and understanding about me being an idiot and doing this to myself.  Eventually I got myself mobile, we got some fast food into our systems and then hit the road to Syracuse.

Overall we had an amazing weekend.  It's always great to road trip and va-ca with Stacey because she's always so laid back and chill but has great ideas for fun stuff to do, places to go and she laughs easily.  Oh, and she loves good food and wine ... which is perfect for hanging out with me!  This was the perfect girls' weekend get away and we will definitely do this again.