maxwellsmart's Profile
DNA Menus, Kitchen Table?
We are planning to visit DNA for the first time when we are in Montreal in late February. Their website doesn't include a menu and I gather that the menus must be set daily based on the best available ingredients. What are their tasting menus like and what is generally the cost? Are the wine pairings a good value? Is it fun to sit at the Kitchen Table?
Eating in the Minervois?
Thanks for the recommendations. We are now back from Caunes and greatly enjoyed the area. Our favourite restaurants were Auberge Cote Jardin in Conilhac-Corbieres and Parfums de Garrigues in Maraussan, near Beziers. We did visit the Restaurant D'Alibert and enjoyed the food and also meeting Frederic. Next time we will try some of your other recommendations.
P.S. If anyone is visiting the area, there are many fascinating wineries to visit - I'd especially recommend Borie de Maurel.
Eating in the Minervois?
We will be staying for two weeks in Caunes-Minervois and would love to hear recommendations for restaurants in the local area. We do know about the D'Alibert right in Caunes and if anyone has been, would you recommend it?
Vegetarian Dish to Serve with White Beans?
I'm having a dinner party next week and am serving wine-braised leg of lamb with white beans (with tomatoes and spinach). I have one vegetarian guest and would like to make a vegetarian main course dish to accompany the beans. Any suggestions? Maybe an eggplant/zucchini/tomato tian?
Portland, ME
Bobbert, would you elaborate a bit on what you mean by "interesting choice" for 555? I've chosen it over Bresca for an upcoming dinner and am wondering if I've made the wrong choice. Your thoughts?
-----
Bresca
111 Middle Street, Portland, ME 04101
Priorat Wineries and Restaurants?
We just returned from Barcelona and visited Priorat last week while we were there. We took a taxi from the Marca-Falset train station to Gratallops, the small village where many of the wineries are located. We visited the Buil & Gine winery and I would highly recommend it. It is a modern winery but they make their wine with care and craft. We had a personal 1.5 hour tour of the winery followed by a tasting of four of their wines, accompanied by local olives and sausage. Our guide, Jeffrey, was extremely personable and informative. We then had a very pleasant lunch in their restaurant. After lunch and some shopping (olive oil, almonds as well as wine) we walked to the village (approx. 2.5 km, but all downhill) and found that most all the shops and restaurants were closed at that time. Although I haven't been, I have heard that the restaurant Irreductibles is excellent - it is in the village and looks very nice. They have a set menu which I believe was 39E.
The scenery in Priorat is absolutely spectacular and the people very friendly. Catalan is the primary language but we got by in English with a bit of Spanish.
Definitely worth a visit and somewhere I plan to return.
Have fun and please report back on your experiences.
Visiting Priorat Wineries?
Thanks Whiner. Am not having any luck finding any info about organized wine tours to the Priorat region. Do you have any tips for visitng the region?
Visiting Priorat Wineries?
We will be visiting Barcelona in May and would like to make a side trip to the Priorat wine region. Any recommendations for wineries to visit, or perhaps a town to visit where the wines can be experienced/purchased? Any tips would be welcome.
What is Barcelona good at?
Hello, I'm also from Toronto and will be visiting Barcelona in May. Approx. how much did your dinner at Cinq Sentis cost? Their website looks great but no prices are posted. Also, my travel companion is a vegetarian - would you say it's veggie-friendly?
L'Utopie closed
Bsilver, you really should add Toast to your top pick list. In the last couple of years, Toast has really come to the fore and now equals or surpasses the spots you mention (in fairness I've never eaten at L'Utopie although that seems moot now).
LG Electric Range?
We ended up going with a Bosch, which I'm quite happy with so far. The quality seems very good and the convection oven is very quiet compared to our old Frigidaire which sounded like a plane was taking off. I know what you mean about keeping the smooth top clean, but on balance I find it much easier than trying to keep burners clean. Thanks for the feedback about the LG - we'll keep it in mind for future appliance purchases (although I do like their styling).
Saturday dinner - casual - downtown
Beerbistro, if you and your guest like trying different beers with quite good food. Excellent Belgian-style fries. It's at King and Yonge.
L'Echaude?
I do agree with you about staying in the lower town. Most years we never even venture up the hill. There is plenty to keep us well-fed and amused in the lower town and much less touristy.
Suggestions for a vegetarian entree to go with Bœuf bourguignon
Thank you Mellicita. Although I didn't see your post this morning, I made this dish in much the same manner as the recipe over the weekend (all the same elements as boeuf bourgignon but without the meat or beef stock). It turned out delicious - very deeply flavourful and a nice deep brown colour. I will be proud to serve this Mushroom Bourgignon to my vegetarian friend alongside the Boeuf version for my other guests.
Suggestions for a vegetarian entree to go with Bœuf bourguignon
I'm also planning to serve boeuf bourgignon at a dinner soon and would like to find a recipe for a vegetarian option for one guest. I was thinking of a mushroom and pearl onion ragout - saute the mushrooms and onions first, then deglaze with cognac and braise in red wine with thyme. Same basic idea as the beef. Both could be served on buttered, parsleyed egg noodles. Has anyone tried anything similar and how did it turn out?
L'Echaude?
We will be making our annual visit to Quebec City between Christmas and New Years. Two of our dinners are decided - L'Initiale and Toast. For the third dinner we would like something a little less formal and quite frankly, less expensive! We were considering L'Echaude. From its website/menu, it looks like a classic bistro. Any opinions would be welcome. We're aiming to spend approx. $150 including house wine. Thank you!
Cheese tasting classes
George Brown offers a Fromagier certificate. Check their Continuing Education catalogue.
LG Electric Range?
We're considering buying an LG electric range, smooth top with convection oven (exact model is LSC5683). Does anyone have any experience with LG stoves and what is your feedback? Thank you.
Lunch in Creemore?
Planning to visit Creemore on Saturday to check out the farmer's market and the brewery. Any recommendations for lunch? We would be interested in knowing about anyplace that serves high quality food (ideally with a local focus), regardless of style. Thank you!
Drive to Killarney - Anywhere good to eat along the way? Or in the Killarney area?
I worked at Killarney Mountain Lodge for the summer of 1981!! The food was excellent back then and I'm glad to hear it still is.
One Day (and Night!) in Portland, Maine
I highly recommend Bresca. This is a small, chef-owned restaurant which matches your stated preferences perfectly. In addition to seasonal, local, delicious food, they offer a huge selection of wines by the glass and will happily pair wines with the food upon request. Desserts are a special delight. We ate there in June when visiting Portland and would definitely return. You have many wonderful choices in Portland though so good luck choosing!
Cumbrae's Steak at $7/lb!
We had a bavette steak from Cumbrae's a couple of weeks ago. Grilled rare and then sliced against the grain, it had amazing beefy flavour and nice chewy texture. I would highly recommend it for a "bistro" style of steak - with oven fries.
Portland recs?
We were in Portland in mid-June (unfortunately only for one dinner) and chose Bresca after getting some great advice on this board. We were very happy with the choice. The ingredients were seasonal and fresh in the extreme. The restaurant is very small and intimate but comfortable. The staff is exceedingly knowledgeable and obviously passionate about food and wine. I was very impressed with the selection of wines by the glass, which was huge. The menu includes wine pairings for some of the dishes, and the wait staff will be happy to assist with other pairings. Cost was very reasonable too, for the quality. I would highly recommend Bresca.
Don't neglect to pick up some baked goods from Standard Baking Company. Their morning buns (sticky buns) with or withouth nuts are to die for.
Portland - Help in Choosing!
Thanks to everyone for the great responses. We have snagged a reservation at Bresca for one night and will play it by ear for the second night, maybe try the grazing approach you suggested, Mainegal.
Portland - Help in Choosing!
We'll be visiting Portland in mid-June and will be there for two dinners. Looking for help in choosing two of Fore Street, Bresca and Evangeline. How would you compare the three? We're looking for great ingredients, some local flavour, price no more than $200 including wine. All look great from their websites so we suspect we couldn't go wrong!
Manoir Hovey
Has anyone eaten at Manoir Hovey in North Hatley and if so, how was it? We are planning to visit in June and are wondering what to expect as far as food. Thank you!
Non-meat eater/meat eater in Vienna/Salzburg-help
Hi again, there is one thing I should mention. Not sure if smoking is allowed in restaurants where you live, but we're from Canada and restaurants have been non-smoking for many years. As a result, we were surprised that smoking is allowed in most restaurants in Vienna (even cigar smoking in one great restaurant we visited - Meinl am Graben). So make sure you ask for a non-smoking table if you don't smoke.
Visiting Vienna
Thanks to everyone for the recommendations. We just arrived back from our 4-day trip and loved everything about Vienna - the food, wine, atmosphere and people! Our splurge dinner was at Meinl am Graben and we found the quality of the food to be fantastic - we had the tasting menu with wine pairings. Unlike here in Canada, our waiter was incredibly generous with the wine - he topped up our glasses for each course several times - it actually got to be a little too much! Highlight of the meal was a clear onion soup - I also had a clear soup at Hansen and am now a convert (we don't see many soups of that style in Toronto). Lunch at Meierei was amazing - a cheese extravaganza called the "cheese surpise" consisting of 10 cheeses from Austria and France. A very pleasant setting overlooking the river in the Stadtpark. Not too expensive for the quality of the food and experience. I do have to mention one thing - we were taken aback by the smoking in restaurants - we are not longer accustomed to this in North America. At Meinl in particular, people were smoking cigars in the restaurant - it definitely detracted from our enjoyment of the meal.
Non-meat eater/meat eater in Vienna/Salzburg-help
We just spent four wonderful days in Vienna - just back today in fact. The first thing I will say is that we didn't have a single thing to eat there that wasn't great. In particular, the breads, wine and cheese were consistently excellent. And you will have no trouble getting by in English. All the restaurants we visited had English versions of their menus and waitstaff were generally bilingual as well as very gracious. Two places I would recommend:
Hansen - as mentioned by another poster. I would call this "new traditional" Austrian food of excellent quality. Not just meat. The setting is very pleasant.
Meirei - in the Stadtpark. I made a full meal (lunch) of cheese here - spectacular Austrian and French cheeses with great bread and gruner veltliner, followed by just out-of-the-oven appel strudel. Lots of other selections here also.
Can you tell I loved Vienna? Enjoy your trip!
Visiting Vienna
My first post!
We are excited to be visitng Vienna for the first time Feb. 16-19. Based on advice in previous posts and other reading, we have pretty well decided on 2 dinners:
Meinl am Graben - splurge dinner
Zum Finsteren Stern
Also think we will go for lunch at Meirei (rather than the full-fledged Steiereck) and Immervoll.
Do you think it's a mistake to pass up Steiereck for either lunch or dinner?
Also, would love to hear thoughts on the following places:
Artner
Vincent
Vestibul
Any other suggestions would be most welcome. Thank you!
