The Friday evening was D’s birthday and even though I had plenty of other celebrations planned, we couldn’t let the night pass without a dinner out together.  We had decided upon another Corydon restaurant but were so turned off by the harried server that wanted to rush us to a table and then leave us there until more staff came in, so we kept walking and decided that Mise Bistro would be a far better choice.

 When we arrived it was still happy hour and we were delighted by the choices of glasses of wine that were on special. When it came time to order our dinner, we had a difficult time making our minds up because so many dishes caught out eye.  So, instead we decided to take advantage of a three course offering for the special price of $38.  Recipes are modified to grazing portions and were just our cuppa tea.

Our first taste was of cornmeal crusted pickerel with roasted peppers and potatoes and tomato concasse.  Strictly speaking, concasse is a French term describing a peeled and seeded tomato that has been chopped to uniform dimensions.  Perhaps because of the mini portion, the tomato was not as described but the overall impact of the flavour combinations was sublime.  Mind you, we love local pickerel so much that as long as you don’t do anything to overcook it, we are content. 

 Our second nibbles were of this grilled prawn and chicken breast on a bed of  jasmine rice, snap peas, mango chutney and raw cashews, topped with a spring of cilantro.  Mango, cilantro and cashews are all favourites of ours.

Lastly, these prawns were sauteed in brown butter and came with delicate gnocchi, broccoli, crispy pancetta, toasted almonds and shards of Parmesan.  Distinctive from the previous dishes, we were more than content.

It was a birthday celebration after all and so we also ordered dessert.  Consistent with the small plates that we enjoyed throughout our dinner, we chose the Dessert Trio for the conclusion of a fabulous dinner.  We each got a taste of apple and goat cheese strudel with cinnamon creme fraiche (my favourite), Grand Marnier creme brulee and a chocolate brownie with burnt almond toffee ice cream.  This and every dessert offering come in at $8.  Everything on the menu was well-priced but the dessert trio, especially so.

Michael was our waiter that evening.  He was cordial, efficient and obviously loves his work and the offerings at Mise.  We spotted this table by the window, and think that we will request it on our next visit because we will definitely be back. 

 Kath’s quote: “The French approach to food is characteristic; they bring to their consideration of the table the same appreciation, respect, intelligence and lively interest that they have for the other arts, for painting, for literature, and for the theatre. We foreigners living in France respect and appreciate this point of view but deplore their too strict observance of a tradition which will not admit the slightest deviation in a seasoning or the suppression of a single ingredient. Restrictions aroused our American ingenuity, we found combinations and replacements which pointed in new directions and created a fresh and absorbing interest in everything pertaining to the kitchen.”-Alice B. Toklas

I have shared with you, my new favourite author and promised some more excerpts from her writings.  This is first of many from “Delicious” which is the story of three generations of  Italian women and the old kitchen in Campania which binds then together.

“Food was what she loved.  Shopping for it at the market stalls piled with glossy, purple-coated aubergines, dirt-dusted field mushrooms, ripe red peppers and artichokes with their hard green leaves tightly clasping their hearts.  She loved unpacking her bounty and imagining the extra life she could bring to it with a lashing of chili sauce or a sizzle in oil over high heat.  But most of all she loved eating it, greedily tasting as she cooked , licking her fingers and the backs of spoons, piling it onto plates and bowls, or sometimes eating more than good for her right out of the pan.  Marketing strategies and leveraging opportunities were all very well but she could hardly be blamed if they didn’t fill her with the same passion as a tray of slow-roasted tomatoes bathed in balsamic vinegar or a slab of beef braised with red wine and onions until the meat fell softly from the bone….

She was clever with food, always had been.  As a child she helped her mother, Maria, in the kitchen almost from the moment she could walk.  First she’d been allowed to stand on a chair and stir the gravy for the Sunday roast to stop it sticking and then she’d graduated to rolling out the pastry when her mother made a pie, stealing the off-cuts for jam tarts and turn overs.

When she looked back over those years, it was the tastes and smells of the meals they’d made together that stoked Chiara’s memory more than any particular event or moment.  Still vivid in her mind were winter dishes of pork sausages wrinkled from simmering in thick brown gravy, huge comforting helpings of shepherd’s pie with a crispy crust of cheddar, or plates filled with oven-roasted cod and fat crinkle cut chips that they could never resist wrapping in over-buttered soft white bread and devouring as the heat of the fried potato melted the butter which ran down their hands.”

You can see that Chiara has not embraced her Italian heritage at this stage and those delicious chapters are yet to come.

Kath’s quote: “It is impossible to read English novels without realizing how important a part food plays in the mental as in the physical life of the Englishman.”-Elisabeth Luther Cary (1867-1936)