Tagged: downtown restaurant
Bicycle Thief Steals My (Culinary) Heart
Beef tenderloin, rare. Peppercorn crusted. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Fries sprinkled with truffle oil and parmesan. Vegetables bursting with flavour, al dente. Flawless.
Housemade peanut butter gelato sundae. Distinct, bright peanut butter flavour. Hot fudge. Chocolate, rich, smooth, neither grainy nor overly sweet. Peanut butter brittle. Crunchy-crumbly. Flawless.
Service: “we have a nice shiraz that would go well with the beef” and that showed up on the bill as 21.00 for a stated 5.5 oz pour. Nice indeed. Nice to know in advance it was in the steeper range–21.00 for a GLASS of wine in Halifax is not a “nice shiraz”.
Bill presented before dessert was finished. A pet peeve of mine, and a lost opportunity for a specialty coffee sale. Both dinners on one bill without asking if it was together or separate. Another peeve.
Music–too loud, a complaint I’ve heard before about this restaurant; we ended up yelling at each other.
Nitpick: plate rims are pale blue. Possibly the most unappetizing colour ever seen on dishware. Purely personal preference though.
Final verdict? Flawless food, flawed service. Expensive. Which I probably would not have minded without the service missteps.
Halifax Dining, 25 years ago
I found this little gem among my cookbooks; I picked it up a few years ago in a used bookstore and had forgotten about it. “Some Good! City Food” (Judith Comfort) was published in 1987–25 years ago this year.
I’ve never cooked out of this book, the recipes are in italics and not especially easy to read. But there short ‘biographies’ of the key restaurants with up-close and personal information that gives a relatively unstable business a little bit of stability and serves as a glimpse into what the dining scene was like in Halifax a quarter of a century ago. How many do you remember?
dirty dining
A few years ago I wrote a Coast piece on the news that the Dept of Agriculture was putting Nova Scotia Food Establishment Inspection Reports online. Every now and then, I like to have a look and see who’s been naughty. Given that Halifax is a harbour town, it doesn’t surprise me that the occasional mouse in downtown restaurant report turns up; hard to build the little buggers out. Nor does it surprise me when independent fast food type places like pizza shops show infractions; volume, lack of sanitation training and unskilled workers doesn’t necessarily make the recipe for cleanliness. Chinese restaurants don’t shock me either–it’s a cultural thing and clear to anyone who’s ever been in a Chinese grocery store that sanitation, hygiene and cleanliness are not given the same weight in all countries.
But now and then, I spot a few that give me pause for thought. In the list of closures for the past 12 months, there are 6 restaurants: 4 non-major chair fast food spots, 1 Chinese place, and (gasp!) the Cellar in Bedford. Not exactly a high risk offender, and the types of infractions are surprising–not enough hot/cold running water and inadequate general maintenance. Ouch.
Hella’s Restaurant in Lwr Sackville is another one with a long list of naughty neglect, most of them based on cleanliness issues and lack of food safety training in staff.
The reports are telling from a statistical point of view. The food inspectors get around to eateries about twice a year (a concern for another column), so you’ve got some bad luck if this is the one day that your water was shut off for an hour.
But it’s not so much the restaurants that have a “one-of” type offense, it’s the ones with the long lists that I avoid.
What about you? Would reading a poor Food Safety Inspection report give you second thoughts about where you eat?
critic on the critics thursdays
Where to get ice cream is the foodie feature in the Coast. I already have a spot so I turn to HeraldSpurr, who trumpets the goodness of the Lower Deck. I haven’t been back to the Lower Deck since I almost died from being trapped on the stickiness of the bathroom floors, after spending a raucous evening shouting about some Privateers and being the last of.
Spurr mentions the homemade blueberry grunt and writes “which further proved my theory that you can throw around terms like cobbler, crisp, brown Betty and grunt without fear of correction”. Be afraid Bill! I’m going to put the fear of the cobbler into ya!
There is indeed a difference in all of these things:
brown betty–fruit pudding topped with bread crumbs
cobbler–fruit pudding topped with biscuit dough
grunt–stewed fruit topped with biscuit dough
crisp–baked fruit topped with oatmeal/brown sugar mixture
It’s really all in the topping. Here in Atlantic Canada, we tend to use cobbler/grunt interchangeably; except for the technicality of how the fruit is prepared, they are practically the same thing. Brown betties are American creations, rarely seen in these parts in it’s true form.
Crisp is, well, crispy on top. The brown sugar/butter/oatmeal mixture that tops the fruit is almost like a struesel topping–crisp (well, d’uh).
My sister used to make the best apple crisp ever, until she tried to make it for her (then new) boyfriend and it was not so best. He’s a straight shooter and made no effort to hide his feelings about it. They’re still together but alas, the apple crisp magic is gone.
If anyone has a fabulous apple crisp recipe they’d like to share, I’d love to hear it!
top chef canada week 7
Back after a break to deal with some family business. And just my luck, Michael Smith is the guest judge for the Quickfire. Remember his downtown Halifax restaurant Maple?
The secret ingredient is All Bran cereal–and they have to create an inspired dish with it. I suspect product placement. Can there BE more boxes of Kellogg’s All Bran?
Todd made moose poutine last week (sorry I missed that) and once more he pull out a NL ingredient–salt cod.
All Bran pureed! All Bran gnocchi! All Bran fishcakes! All Bran crepes! All Bran crusts! All Bran, all the time! The rest of this recap will be No Bran, free of All Bran (all bran, get it?)
Bottom: Patrick/Francois/Robert
Top: Daryl/Todd 
/Andrea (I am rooting for Andrea because she looks my dog walker, who I would adopt and keep forever if she would let me–got a puppy who needs exercise? Let me know and I’ll hook you up)
Does Michael Smith ever speak naturally, or does he always sound as though every word out of his mouth is scripted? Scripted, with a hint of condescension. I’m sure he’s a very nice man, but not on TV.
Winner–Todd and his brandade! GO TODD! Todd gets immunity. I love Todd. He’s surprised that he won. Did I mention I love Todd?
Elimination challenge–part of a menu at a Milestones restaurant. A chain, how lovely. I’d be so proud to have my dish on a chain menu. I’m not tooting my own horn here, but I don’t think I could cook unimaginatively or poorly enough to score a prize like that.
So this challenge involves using familar ingredient with a twist to create a 3 course menu for a couple celebrating their anniversary (must be true love if they’re at the Milestones and not, say, the TGIF’s or Applebees) –3 ppl drew knives for dessert, 3 for mains, 3 for apps.
Patrick, who looks like Popeye, is a comfortably twisted romantic at heart–love that description of him. He is adorable.
On the other hand, every time Dale opens his mouth he proves what a nob he is.
Drinking and smoking ensues! That’s all there is to do! They’re playing that “What’s your porn star name?” game. Funny! Funny stuff.
Oh, there’s more than one couple celebrating. Good thing, that’s a lot of food.
Here come the judges, seating at a nondescript table in a nondescript restaurant.
Apps: Todd/Connie/Andrea (Connie worries about her onion rings, but that’s haute cuisine for these diners)
Todd: nori wrapped salmon–salmon too rare for average diner, too big for app, not easy to share
Connie: pork croquettes w/onion rings–feels like milestones, perfect bar food, winner dish (they look fab)
Andrea: goat cheese ravioli–bit dry, bit granular, not good 
the black garlic doesn’t go with the goat cheese, looks dirty
2 walk ins create a crises–much swearing as all the app mise en place is gone off the line
Imagine, the nerve of people to just walk in. It’s a restaurant! Andrea has “balls the size of watermelons” No wonder she’s unhappy behind the line, that must be painful.
Entrees:
Boys are moving the chits around and Francois is losing his cool. Arguments over running the pass. Oh, boys. Do you not all work lines? Don’t you know first chit in first out? Get it together!
Francois:roasted sablefish and gnocchi (he made gnocchi for the quickfire too) lots of love for Francois (ooops, I mean “amour”)
Rob: sirloin w/goat cheese pave-contemporary for this restaurant, beef is a disaster and nothing to recommend in this dish
Patrick:pork tenderloin (some diners’ pork was raw) presentation terrible, too many flavours, too much, badly constructed, nothing a home run, cafeteria food
Desserts:
Dale:pavlova with cherries and basil cream–fail. Way too precious, complicated and wrong for chain. Let me add it’s wrong for anything–he’s piped the meringues out in little sausages and it looks disgusting.
Daryl:chocolate fondant-no twist, molten cake’s been done better but suitable for milestones (mediocre and suitable for milestones, go figure)
Dustin:his girlfriends shortcake (she a pastry chef, so that might be a good thing)–looks great and has lemon curd for the twist(yum). Execution/presentation a hit. Strawberry love! Home run!
Judges Table
Connie, Francois, Dustin (these are obviously the top 3) are called to the table.
Congratulations! You’ll have your dishes featured at Milestones! MS is giving them all 2K!
Much adulation from the judges–and their dishes did indeed look the best. When are we getting scratch and sniff tv? And will lick and taste tv be far behind?
Dustin’s the winner! Yeah Dustin’s girlfriend!
Cue serious music for bad news:
Dale, Patrick and Andrea
Andrea’s dish–temperature an issue, filling grainy, off colour, cold food inexcuseable
Patrick’s–aerial drop onto the plate, too rare/raw/dry, sloppy, saffron twist a flop, looked like slop in a cafeteria, fusion/confusion
Dale’s–like bringing a 12 gauge shotgun to a quail hunt (think he means overdone, no?), disappointing, not a pavlova, he completed ignored the challenge and was a failure
And who sucked the most?
Iron Chef commercial! Chairman! He’s Wo Fat in the Hawaii Five-O reboot!
But he did not suck the most.
Patrick gets the boot and he’s really sad, and so am I. His dish was bad but his attitude is great. Good bye Patrick! Go home to your husband and back to having fun with your food–we love you!
Next time: Restaurant Wars!
calling baton rouge: preview
The sign said “Opening Soon: Baton Rouge”. Looks like the Morse’s Tea Building was finally getting a tenant. Baton Rouge, sounds good, I thought. I love Cajun-Creole cooking. There used to be such a restaurant in Halifax at one time, I vaguely remember–was it called Cindy’s, maybe? My thoughts drifted to jambalaya, cornbread, dirty rice, and jazz. From somewhere in the back of my mind, a niggling doubt, a growing awareness that all is not as it seemed. Baton Rouge…Baton Rouge…Baton Rouge…I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. Damn! Baton Rouge is a chain. A Canadian chain of generic, bland, cookie cutter restaurants with not an ounce of atmosphere, and even less creativity on the menu. I’m not averse to chain restaurants altogether. They have their place–in shopping centres and scattered among big box stores on the outskirts of town. But not in downtown Halifax. The historic downtown, fighting for survival as the heritage mavens wrestle with the future seekers. How the hell did this even get approved?
Check out Baton Rouge’s menu. I see so-so food, shipped in already mixed, diced, seasoned and vacuum packed, ready to do little more than provide fuel for downtown tourists–certainly not an enjoyable dining experience.
The menu could be at TGIFridays, Montana’s, Applebee’s, or any one of a number of like chains. There’s a decided lack of Louisiana identity–call chicken fingers Baton Rouge chicken tenders all you want, they’re still chicken fingers.
I don’t know the business plan or financial details of the backers, but I don’t expect Baton Rouge to last. Of course, Applebee’s is still open, so I could be wrong. I’ll go back to cooking my Cajun-Creole food for myself.
