Sunday, August 30, 2009

Gray Monk Latitude 50 White 2007

This offering from Gray Monk on Okanagan lake (http://www.graymonk.com/WinePortfolio.php?art=67) is our latest favorite value wine from BC. Actually, it's probably our only favorite value wine from BC, and to tell the truth, we never would have tried it on our own. It's below the price point where we typically find things we like, but someone served it to us at a recent party, and we were very pleasantly surprised.*

This is not a serious wine, but it is pretty delicious for something that is well under $15.00. Typical of Okanagan whites, this blend has lots of tropical fruit, and some acidity. It goes well with Asian-style food, but it's very pleasant served on its own.


*I know that not all good wines are expensive, nor are all expensive wines good. But in general, the two are fairly correlated, and we take fewer risks with lower priced wines than we used to. Thankfully, not all of our friends think the same way, and so we still get the chance to try wines like this one from time to time.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Maenam

Rather unsurprisingly, having a newborn has had a significant impact on our ability to go out for dinner. Luckily, however, grandmothers, when they are around, love to look after babies, and a recent visit gave us a welcome night out. After some discussion, we decided to use our limited freedom to try out a new restaurant in our neighborhood - Maenam (http://www.maenam.ca/).

Maenam is in the space previously occupied by Gastropod, and is run by the same people. I must say that we were both much happier with their new venture than their old. (I am not a big fan of molecular gastronomy as it is often practiced in North America. In Spain…now that’s another matter entirely.) The space is not much changed. Yes, the actual décor is different, but the layout is the same (at least to my eyes). And it still has the same feeling - formal enough to make you feel like you’re in for something special, but yet casual enough to be inviting.

Importantly, Maenam lives up to the impression; the food and service were both excellent, and the prices are remarkably low given the high caliber of both. We both actually remarked more than once at the degree of dissonance we felt between the ambiance (including the very professional service) and the prices.

The quality of ingredients and care of preparation are clear in every dish. We ordered roti, house made fermented thai sausages, pad thai, David Thompson’s 3 flavour fish, smoked duck red curry, and rice. The roti, sausage, and pad thai arrived first. The sausage was very tasty. We were both somewhat apprehensive about what exactly a fermented sausage would be like, but be assured, there was nothing funky about it, just great complex flavor. The server warned us about the chili inside, suggesting that we remove it prior to eating the sausage. I was very glad I heeded her warning, but I was also glad that the chili had been in the preparation, as it added a wonderful heat to the sausage. (If you eat whole habaneros, you could probably leave the chilis in, but otherwise, I agree that they are best removed before eating.) I have read reviews gushing about the pad thai, and while we both thought it was tasty, it was not the highlight of the meal for us. It was, what pad thai should be. (I suppose maybe we’ve been lucky in our previous pad thai experiences - I can’t relate to the stories of gloppy thick or dry flavorless noodles that seem to accompany rhapsodies about Maenam’s pad thai.) The roti, by contrast, was undercooked, rather like a sticky gluey paste that had been warmed. The flavour was pleasant enough, but the texture was not. While we were eating the pad thai and roti, the fish, duck, and rice arrived at our table. The fish was my choice and I was very very happy with my selection. The ling cod was perfectly cooked, still moist, but with ultra crispy skin. And the salty, sweet, and sour flavours are perfectly balanced, all present, none stealing the spotlight from the others. I was less taken by the smoked duck curry, but that is more about my tastes than the quality of the dish, which was quite apparent; the duck was quite tasty, and the sauce was very complex and well crafted, with great depth of flavour without being overbearing.

We were both very happy with our experience, and definitely plan to return, something not true of our visit to Gastropod. If it were as expensive as Gastropod was, we would not be so enthusiastic, but as it is, it is great value for money. We highly recommend it.

4 happy thumbs.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

BC Ferries...

No trip to British Columbia is complete without a visit to Vancouver Island, and for most people, that means taking a ferry. In the interests of public service, on a recent trip over to see relatives I decided to sample and report back on some of the food available. I should disclose that I am an island girl, and so have eaten many a meal on the ferries over the years. Thus, I have some nostalgia for the classics, in particular, the clam chowder. The clam chowder I remember was red, tangy, and nicely laced with chopped clams, and potato and carrot cubes. It is still red, but it seems less tangy, and a little less filled with goodies. More disappointing, however, was the new thickness of the chowder. It seems to contain a great deal of cornstarch now. Manhattan style chowder is not supposed to stick to your spoon, or so I thought. Also troubling, they were temporarily out of packets of saltines. One of my favorite things to do as a child on the ferry was to crush the cracker package, neatly breaking the crackers into bits which were then easily poured into the soup, a pleasure I was denied on this trip.

I also sampled the one of the new burgers. I say new because when I last traveled the ferries on a regular basis the burgers were typical institutional burgers, whereas now they are from Whitespot. This happy fact actually gave me some enthusiasm for my task - what child growing up in BC doesn't love Pirate Packs! Add to that the fact that one of my uncles appeared in a Whitespot TV ad in the 80's and I was ready to love my burger. I ordered a legendary burger with cheese combo, and upgraded to the sweet potato fries. Despite being the only person in line at the time, I had to wait several minutes for my burger. I was unperturbed, because at least that should mean it was fresh, or so I thought. As it turned out, the patty was so overcooked as to almost be burnt, and yet it was cold. The fries were piping hot, however, as was the chipotle mayo they were served with (spicy hot that is). Truth be told, however, the state of the hamburger patty didn't bother me tremendously (I have rather low expectations of ferry food), as the sauce on the burger was just as delicious I remembered it. There is something special about successfully reliving a happy childhood food memory, and the burger did that for me. And the sweet potato fries were actually pretty good for food prepared in a floating institutional kitchen - a little soggy, and the chipotle mayo was more heat than flavor, but they could have been much much worse.

Travel tip: If, like me, you are not a fan of Starbucks coffee, you might want to know that there is a Saltspring Island coffee stand in terminal at Tsawwassen. It's at the other end of the building from Starbucks.

2 thumbs up.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

2005 Laughing Stock Portfolio

We opened this last night to go with some fabulous aged rib-eye steaks that Chris grilled. They were simply seasoned with salt and pepper, and served with a vinegarette potato salad and fresh corn on the cob. Wonderful pairing. The wine was nicely structured and well balanced with soft tannins, good acidity, and what I call light fruit. We drink a lot of California Cabs and Meritages which have a tendency toward big, massive fruit. Not so the Portfolio. Although there were definite flavors of cherry and current, we were not overcome by the fruit. And as strange as this may sound to some, it was clear that this was something made from grapes. I rarely get any sense of grape in wine, and when I do, it tends to be a sweet, almost artificial grapeness. That was not the sensation I had drinking this wine. Rather, it was more of a ghost of grape, a subtle reminder of origins, rather than an actual flavor. (Clearly something hard for me to describe.) The wine had a surprising amount of sediment given that it was a 2005, so I would definitely recommend decanting.

http://www.laughingstock.ca/