Happy Belated Birthday (to me!)

In between jobs and sleep I somehow found time to plan my birthday.  This year I decided to keep it simple by just going out for a lovely dinner with my sweetie, then having some friends over for a few drinks and some cake.

Oh and no birthday is complete without a Sweet 16 from Cupcakes!

This year’s birthday dinner took place at Brasserie L’ecole.  We tried to go last year but the wait list was an hour and a half long.  We managed to sneak some seats at the bar right at the start of the dinner hour this time.

French onion soup, mussels with fancy frites, warm lemon pudding cake, and perfect white wine chosen by the bartender for me.  It was all exactly what I wanted, and exactly as delicious as I had envisioned.

On Saturday night we invited some folks out to the ‘burbs, where we enjoyed too many appetizers, a homemade cake built almost entirely of buttercream, and my own personal bottle of pink bubbly.

My birthday prezzie to myself?  A fresh new do!  A little Autumn ombre to mix things up in my 37th year. 

Oh hello bangs.  Happy birthday to me! :)

Beerfest and Brunch

Another year, another Great Canadian Beer Festival.

This year I did things a little differently.  I opted to cancel my volunteer shift at the last minute and bought a ticket to attend Friday’s festivities instead of Saturday’s.  After a short survey of my friends on Facebook I came to the unsettling conclusion that 99% of my Beerfesting friends were going on Friday…and drinking somewhat alone on Saturday didn’t seem like much fun.

Laura and I spent the day sipping our way through pretty much all of the fruity beers in the park, and taste tested our favourite stouts and porters. 

This year’s highlight for me again came from Salt Spring Island Ales…they brought along a Gruit (say it with me…Scottish accent and all…GRRRRROOT!) that was delicious, herbacious and hop-free!  Almost as good as my favourite of theirs…the Heatherdale Ale….also hop-free. 

There were a few crazy letdowns this year too.  I think some of the brewers are trying too hard to create something ‘different’.  ‘Smoky’ seemed a theme amongst the dark beers and we didn’t enjoy any of them.  A beer that starts our smelling like a horse barn probably should go back to the drawing board.

I enjoyed attending on a Friday this time and may have to consider this the new way to do it.  :)

The next morning was the perfect opportunity for a carb-heavy brunch.  A few of us shook off our Beerfest headaches and headed to The Superior Cafe for good eats and chit-chat.

It was a toss up for me between the Chorizo Hash or the Breakfast Poutine, but Michael opted for the poutine so I went with the hash.

Both dishes were so flavourful, hearty, and a little something different.  In the end I was glad I got the hash because I loved the little kick from the chorizo and the over easy eggs broken over the fresh hash browns were just what my tummy wanted.

But I’d go back tomorrow for pulled pork poutine with poached eggs and hollandaise.  I see a #Pouteam mission in the making!

The best part about doing Beerfest on the Friday? 

Having the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday free! 

Do you Beerfest?

The Clay Pigeon

I have a new favourite eatery in Victoria.

Well, I call any place I want to go back and try everything on the menu my favourite.  But I would easily put this at the top of that list of favourites because even after two visits in two weeks I would gladly return tomorrow.

Any place that fits corned bison tongue, devilled eggs, and kale slaw on their daily menu is a candidate for a favourite restaurant in my books.  Especially since I now know they do all three of those things amazingly well.

Judging by the photos and the comments by my dinner companions The Clay Pigeon handles all of their comfort food options quite handily.  I’m sooooo getting that chicken pot pie next time.  Unless of course I get the lamb stew.  Um, or that freaking ridiculous Reuben sandwich again.  I’d do that.  I’d eat that sandwich over and over and over again.

On my first visit I thoroughly enjoyed the lunch special of yummy devilled tuna-egg sandwich with kale caesar salad.  A tuna-egg you say?  Yes, imagine a devilled egg with tuna salad instead of yolk stuffing!  Laid out a top perfectly chewy bun with fresh cukes and radishes.  Served with the zingiest, most garlicky, creamy kale caesar salad.  Must recreate!

On my second visit there, for our monthly girls’ dinner, I had already picked the Reuben out before we arrived.  Even once faced with all of the other delicious (and more dinner appropriate) meal choices I still knew I had to tackle that corned bison tongue and homemade grainy mustard.  And clearly I was not disappointed.

Soooo not disappointed.  The best part?  Half of it reheated and enjoyed in the comfort of my own home the next day.  If The Clay Pigeon wasn’t already a candidate for a new favourite eatery, the fact that one single sandwich filled my belly for two meals definitely found it a place on that list.

Fernwood Bites 2012

The only foodie thing I love more than a home cooked dinner party, or my monthly dinners out with my girlfriends, is a local food festival.  Victoria is an awesome place to live for this, as we are a food-loving bunch and there always seems to be someone planning an super yummy evening of fun eats. 

I attended my first Fernwood Bites last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It’s smaller than some of the other local events…which on one hand makes it a bit squishier, but on the other hand makes it more fun!  I tried to talk myself into saving the price of a ticket this year and not going, but in the end I did some budget shuffling and decided to make it happen.

And I’m so glad I did!

Here’s a tip to avoid line-ups:  eat dessert first!  :)  When I got through the gate, my first mission was to get a beer sample (hello Hoyne Honey Hefe!) and find my friends.  I found everyone else was in line for the much talked about corn dog bites from The Superior booth so I waited for them while happily biting into an Ooh La La mini cupcake since no one else had headed for their sweet treat yet. 

After that I felt ready to take my time wandering, chatting, and popped into whatever line-up seemed the shortest.  By the end of the evening I’d only spent time in two short line-ups and both were worth it.  Who wouldn’t wait 5 minutes for the perfect little corned beef slider from the folks at Stage?

For me – and many folks I overhead chatting – the bite of the night was from Cook Culture.  Their Thai Green Curry Soup was so balanced and delicious.  I actually went back for a second cup, which I don’t normally do at these foodie events.  I couldn’t help it!  :)

After about two hours I’d managed to sample every little thing except for some wines and coffee (and apparently I missed out on something super yummy from Kulu) and was sufficiently full and happy.  I had my eye on a couple of silent auction items, but sadly they were popular items and I was outbid.

I toddled myself out of Fernwood with a warm belly and big grin and happily crashed on the couch with my sweetie for the rest of the evening.  A pretty perfect way to spend the first Sunday of the Summer I think.

Mixed Bag

First, a giant shout out and sincere *C*O*N*G*R*A*T*U*L*A*T*I*O*N*S* to my lovely, fit, fabulous blog friend Jess!  Many of you probably know she has literally been working her azz off this past year to audition for the next Booty Camp Fit DVD and today she found out she got the spot!  If you don’t follow her blog or YouTube channel, you should!  She is cute, funny, inspirational and supportive.  Yay Jess!!!

Congratulations Comments

** Have I ever told you guys about #Pouteam?  Yep, that is what you think it is.  A Poutine Team.  Formed on Twitter.  How very Canadian of us, eh?  I joined a little late, but I have now been on three poutine eating adventures with this group of Victorians and look forward to eventually tasting all of the poutine Victoria has to offer.

Today:  Ferris’ Grill for Pulled Pork Poutine with slow roasted pork shoulder, cheese curds, and rosemary whiskey gravy over their Chicago-style fries.  That is some delicious gravy.

Previously:  Sizzling Tandoor for Butter Chicken Poutine.  So amazing.  Yes, Butter Chicken and cheese curds do indeed go together.

Also: Lady Marmalade for Good Morning Poutine.  Breakfast hash browns with white cheddar and three choices of ‘gravy’.  My word.

Please note that some Victoria restaurants serve poutine in bowls the size of a baby bear’s head.  In those cases I have enlisted my friend Ingmarie to share the carbfest as well as a side salad.  Balance is the word. Word.

** Another #CanadianBloggerSeries post is up over on Heidi’s blog.  This week’s Canadian pride comes from Axel the Iron Rogue and he tells us about living healthy in the suburbs.  All of these patriotic posts make me want to do another cross-country road trip!

** No big Easter dinner for me this year (not all that unusual really) but we will be attending a family brunch and Easter Egg hunt with Michael’s family.  I offered to bake something and can’t decide between going with a basic tried and true favourite, or guinnea pigging the fam on some new real Easter creation.

[Pinterest]

Italian Easter Bread anyone?  What’s your go-to Easter baking favourite?

Thursday Things

Hellooooo everyone.  How has your week been going?  Things have been pretty quiet around here…just taking care of my back and trying to keep on top of the dishes!

Lots of fun things are going down in bloggie town right now…

• My guest post highlighting my Victoria Dine Around experience at The Bengal Lounge went up over at Victorian Food today.  Pop over and check it out!

• I have joined the Foodie Penpal movement being hosted by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean.  I read about it on Elizabeth’s blog and decided to get in on the action.  Hilariously, both of the penpals I’ve been set up with are from right here…one from Victoria and one from Salt Spring Island!
• Another fun post has gone up for our #CanadianBloggerSeries over on Heidi’s blog.  This time it’s from Stephanie at Fit Mom in Training and she shines a lovely light on Manitoba!

Other fun things…

• The other day I got a rather mediocre Chai Tea Latte at Teaopia.  It was lukewarm and I couldn’t drink it so I brought it home and put it in the fridge.  Thanks to a smartypants idea from a friend I turned it into oatmeal this morning.  So yum!
• I already mentioned this on Facebook, but the most recent instalment of My Drunk Kitchen is about MRE’s and reminded me of the time Arron and I had an IMP tasting party! 

• Remember that awesome KitchenAid food processor I got with my Airmiles?  I’m thinking about selling it.  Turns out it is WAY bigger than I need.  I’m like Goldilocks.  My first one was too small, this one is too big.  Apparently I am in need of one that is jussssst riiiiight. 
• The grocery list for Bacon Cinnamon Roll ingredients is on my iPhone and ready to rock.  Excited much?!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Tweetup Meatup

So yeah.  I think I’ve said about a dozen times now to anyone that would listen that I wanted to try to get away from restaurant reviews.  No real reason other than that I was starting to feel obligated to say nice things, drag my camera everywhere, and annoy my friends and dates by getting pictures before anyone touched their meals.  It’s cumbersome you know!

But here’s the thing.  Sometimes restaurant adventures are definitely worth mentioning.  If it’s particularly delicious, or especially fun, or something a little different it might warrant dragging my bigass camera out for the night.

Case in point: a Tweetup of food loving Victorians at a newly reopened local BBQ joint.  Smoken Bones Cookshack.

I’m pretty sure the rest of the world thinks Victoria is full of West Coast hippies that eat a lot of granola, and kale, and fresh fish…but oddly enough our little city has become home to a wide variety of barbecue these last few years.  We have multiple places to get our hands on pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and macaroni and cheese. 

Smoken Bones has recently moved from their suburban home in a strip mall to a spacious new location downtown in The Hudson building…and has taken to social media in a grand fashion.  All it took was a handful of tweets and overnight a Tweetup for Meat was born.

Here’s a tip.  You want great service and special attention at a local eatery?  Arrange a party with 25 other food lovers who like to tweet and blog their faces off.  Scott and his staff looked after us like we were rock stars.

He arranged a few pre-dinner snackies for us and brought us a round of bacon cocktail shots.  Yep, bacon cocktails.  They make their own bacon vodka, mix it with roasted pineapple puree and a weeeee bit of serrano pepper and call it a margarita.  The C’moniwannaleia.  And it’s delicious. 

He also took us for a tour of the rest of the construction zone under The Hudson and told us a lovely rumour that next to the new 2% Jazz Coffee there just might be a local bakery going in. 

And then we dove into dinner. 

This ain’t no dainty dinner spot.  Bring your short sleeved shirt, your ponytail, and your appetite.  You are going to have BBQ sauce on your nose and meat stuck in your teeth.  And you are going to love that.  I opted for the pulled pork sandwich because that’s my favourite barbecue joint meal to try…and for something completely different I ordered up the pan-fried cabbage as my side.

That sammich was LOADED.  Pulled pork was falling out from every side…to the point where I was eating up the meat with a fork.  Then I rolled up my sleeves and dove in for the first greasy bite and was whisked off to juicy, flavour heaven.  I’d call it the second best pulled pork I’ve ever had.

And that cabbage.  It created a mess of butter in my dish and made me feel guilty for eating my vegetable this way but it’s a fun and tasty option for sure. 

As for portion and pricing I thought this meal was just right.  My basket was $10, it wasn’t ridiculously overfilling, nor did I feel like I could eat more.  Paired with a beer it’s a good meal.  Sure, it’s not healthy but if your are heading to the Cookshack I suspect you weren’t hoping for kale salad and quinoa now were ya?! 

While we stuffed our faces we also kept our fingers clean and tweeting during a round of #Cookshack BBQ Trivia.  Scott posted rounds of questions for us to answer and the player with the most points won a gift certificate to the restaurant.  Second runner up got themselves a pair of tickets to a Victoria Royals hockey game.

Of course, no restaurant tasting would be complete without trying out dessert.  Especially when the dessert is what got us all talking about going to Smoken Bones in the first place.  Bacon Ice Cream.  WHAT?  You thought the Bacon Cocktail was the crazy item on the night’s menu didn’t you?

Caramelized bacon wrapped around vanilla based ice cream.  I think my friend Jen described it best when she said the bacon reminded her of that almost-burnt-marshmallow-taste.  You know, when it’s thisclose to overcooked and damn near perfect?  That was the bacon.  Smoky, candied, super fun.

So yeah.  Now you can see why I just had to haul James Dean with me and report back to you all on this particular restaurant.  A great time was had by all, the staff looked after us well, the food was delicious, and the cocktail is worth a second visit.

Note:  The Tweetups will likely become monthly events so if you missed this one, follow @smokenbones411 on Twitter and watch out for the next one.