I love happy endings. Even though I am not absolutely certain that this is the case with the story of the married couple who met at Cordon Bleu cooking school. I feel that I have had a glimpse of their joy and their “happy ending”.

We were leaving Seattle after a wonderful weekend with the Iflands.  Rebecca had declared a couple of evenings earlier, whilst at their dining table “If only we had more time, I would have loved to have taken you to “The Fat Hen””. She then shared the story of a Seattlite who’s mother was a graduate of the prestigious Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris and how her daughter also attended the school and met her Italian husband Maximo while there.

Fast forward to this morning, Maximo was in the tiny café kitchen where he whipped up the most decadent and rich breakfasts for D and I. His wife had baked all the pastries that were featured in the restaurant including the perfectly bubble filled baguette that I used to sop up every single bite of my delectable sauce.

Rebecca who hails from our province in the middle of Canada had declared that even though she would not normally indulge in a Benedict, the Fat Hen’s version was the best she had ever tasted with its heavenly hollandaise sauce. Since we were in seafood territory, D chose the Benedict with wild Alaskan smoked salmon. The petite roasted new potatoes were a delectable accompaniment.

I needed help with my baked eggs alla boscaiola where two eggs had been plunged into a bubbling solea tomato sauce with sausage, mushrooms and mozzarella, to finish the cooking process. At least, this is how we guessed the dish had been prepared. The more quickly you broke into the egg, the softer the yolk was that had been poaching in the hearty sauce. By my last bite the egg was fully cooked.

We spotted Maximo as he efficiently let down a counter to cover the doorway to the kitchen to lovingly plate and complete his delicious fare. He was obviously the handsome Italian chef that had smitten his fellow culinary student. He was shy (and busy) but came out for a moment to shake our hands in greeting. His wife was home with their children. They are open from 8-3 Tues to Sunday, a schedule which seems to perfectly suit their regular customers as the place was chock full at 10 am on a Tuesday morning. From what we guess, their timetable also supports their young family and this is where the happy ending comes in. Living a life where you can love what you do but at the same time have the freedom to do so around life’s most important things, like family.

Kath’s quote: “Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.”-Marcel Boulestin

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

Are you familiar with the saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same”? Driving past Kent Lunch at the corner of Kent and Nairn, a couple of years ago, I noticed that the building that they had long inhabited had gone through a major overhaul. Upon inquiry, I also discovered that the original owners had sold to new ones.

I distinctly remember chomping into a meatloaf sandwich in the “olden” days and was hoping to resurrect that memory when I spontaneously stopped in. Sadly, I was informed that my favourite sandwich must have been a thing of the past. Undaunted, I scanned through the menu and spied a clubhouse sandwich, another of my favourites.

The essence of a superior clubhouse sandwich is, in my humble opinion, the quality of the chicken or turkey. It must be oven roasted and not a manufactured substitute; and so it is at Kent Lunch. But the from-scratch cooks of the popular spot, go one step further and offer the double decker sandwich with just-roasted beef!

Hand cut fries accompany the sandwich. I tried to resist these but ate enough to comment that they were very tasty. The cup of homemade chicken soup was another highlight. The surprisingly clear chicken broth supported tender pieces of celery and carrot as they floated about. Hearty pieces of chicken and white onion had sunk to the bottom of the bowl creating a tasty reward after my veggies were dutifully eaten.

Owner Grace Kim is an absolute delight, obviously proud of the cheerful atmosphere that she and her parents have created in the breakfast and lunch stop. She warmly greets her many regulars with familiar conversation. For those dining alone, she has positioned a TV to keep them company. With some daily specials under $5, I suspect she sees many solo diners from the neighbourhood.

Kath’s quote: “When I was a boy there were only three kinds of sandwiches in common use – the ham, the chicken and the Swiss cheese. Others, to be sure, existed, but it was only as oddities.  Even the club sandwich was a rarity, and in most eating-houses it was unobtainable. The great majority of people stuck to the ham and the Swiss cheese, with the chicken for feast days and the anniversaries of historic battles.”-H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

The next day we returned to the Lakeside Brewing Company for a beer and a couple games of pool.

We couldn’t help but order the remaining Winter Bites menu item- the quesadilla. A 12” tortilla filled with house blend cheese, red and green peppers, green onion, red onion, and your choice of mexi-beef or grilled chicken with a side of fries. Every order of fries comes with a choice of 3 house made seasoning salts – Lemon and Chili, Garlic and Parmesan and Brewhouse. We decided to do a very comprehensive taste test  and the Brewhouse seasoning came out the winner, although all 3 were incredibly enjoyable.

After a short siesta at our hotel – the Lakeside Inn, we returned to the brewery for dinner. Ok, ok, now before you accuse us of being obsessed with this place…..no you’re right, we’re obsessed. Our dinner started with the beer battered, sarsaparilla BBQ Almost Famous Chicken Wings. These were perfectly cooked and fabulously saucy.

Next up was The Best Damn Chicken Sand’ – open faced, grilled chicken breast, goat cheese, drunken beer pear, prosciutto, sarsaparilla BBQ sauce, hammer and sickle sauce and arugula with cheesy jalapeno fries. This was a similar offering to the pulled pork sandwich and had the same “Wow!” factor.

Our final taste at the brewery was the Rookie Nacho Platter Topped with Deputy Chief’s Chili. To be honest only a couple of bites were consumed that night because we were entirely stuffed from our feast, but they were hearty and delicious. The suggestion of the Chili addition to our nachos was suggested by our server and we were told is a favorite of the owner of the establishment.

In addition to feasting, our night was spent playing crib which is a favorite activity of ours and reminded us of lazy nights spent at the cabin. There were a plethora of games that the brewery had put out for patrons to engage in as their tribute to ‘Family Day’ which was the holiday in Ontario this day. We thought this was a lovely idea and our night couldn’t have been more enjoyable. Fabulous food, fantastic service and the beer-oh the beer.

Kath’s quote: “He was a wise man who invented beer.”-Plato (Greek philosopher) 428- 347 BC

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

D and I often decide to have progressive dinners especially when we are traveling. We don’t often have a meal that lasts all day long as we did recently on our last full day in Seattle.  In spite of being almost directly next door to the world’s original Starbucks, we stopped for a photo and seeing that there was no place available to sit, we found a croissant and coffee spot when we could map out our strategy of covering off Pike Market most efficiently.

After taking in the original fish tossing counter, browsing the beautiful crafts, photographing artisan produce and tasting the offered slices of pears and apples, we met at the lunch counter in the back of the 3 Sisters Bakery.

Knowing that this was THE place to taste a meatloaf sandwich, we forgot our own pledge to only eat seafood all that day. The sandwich though was worth the deviation with its homemade brown bread, soft textured and savoury meatloaf, mayo, Dijon and meatloaf sauce (ketchup, brown sugar and Tabasco).

When a respectable time arrived for D’s first beer of the day, he guided me towards The Pike Brewing Company where he chose a whit beer worthy of attention.

A couple of hours later we plunked down at the back counter of another Pike’s icon-Jack’s Fish Spot boasting the world’s most fabulous, famous, freshest and …..  Sitting next to us was a student from Vancouver and next to him another one from Calgary. One was originally from Beijing and the other from South Korea.  They tried to find a common Asian language between them but ended up conversing in English. They had both ordered Jack’s fish chowder in a hollowed out loaf of bread. They took pictures of eating the unknown phenomena. We enjoyed the enjoyed the same silky chowder in a paper cup topped with oyster crackers. The bacon, potato, onion and plentiful seafood chowder was picture worthy indeed.

Next up was a shared order of scallops so delicately fried that the flesh had just begun to transform from translucent to opaque. With a squeeze of lemon and a horseradishy cocktail sauce, they were one of the eating highlights of this quick jaunt. I won’t even mention that they were nestled upon the most delectable fries.

I purposely did not want to go into details on the fries even though they were worthy of extensive narration because later that afternoon D had researched our spot for an early dinner. You see, food isn’t our only motivation when selecting a dining spot. J1 tasked D with tasting the largest variety of beer possible which suited D just fine as J’s beer passion is also becoming D’s.

Irony was not lost upon us here. We kept track of the score of the Winnipeg Jets game being played in Calgary, the day before we would see them in person in Vancouver at Brouwer’s, a Belgian brew house in Seattle where we ordered….wait for it ….poutine!  Professed to have Seattle’s best Belgian pommes frites, we couldn’t resist (but should have). Not because the Belgian take, with beer cheese sauce, Belgian quad demi and fresh cheese curds and Berkshire pork belly wasn’t delicious in itself. but because we could have saved some of money and ordered the happy hour order for $3 instead of the $15 that we spent and still had room to go out for another shared seafood dinner, which we had to forgo.

Kath’s quote: “Scallops are expensive, so they should be treated with some class. But then, I suppose that every creature that gives his life for our table should be treated with class.”-Jeff Smith

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

I believe it is apparent how much we enjoyed our stay in Kenora and all of the amazing culinary experiences we encountered. It is soon to be apparent which was our absolute favorite!

June 29th 2013 marked the opening of the first brewery in Kenora for 59 years. The quality of the beer that is coming out of the Lake of the Woods Brewing Company is incredible. We were taken on a tour of the brewing facility and through the brewing process from grains to glass. For the sake of time though, we will focus today on the food that we encountered with a small sprinkling of beer here and there.

We were able to have absolutely everything that the brewery had to offer on the Winter Bites menu and then some. The very first thing that we enjoyed on our first day in town was the Pulled Pork Sandwich. Tender pulled pork with sarsaparilla BBQ sauce, drunken beer pear, goat cheese, hammer and sickle sauce and arugula in a filone bun.

This sandwich is the real deal! It set the tone for all the food that we were going to enjoy over the next few days and I can’t even put into words how much we enjoyed this offering. Sweet, flavourful, hearty, and more.

After this lunch, we took some time exploring Kenora as a town and imagining what it would be to live there year round as well as having it be a home destination for cabin life. We were only out of the brewery for a few hours before we returned for dinner. The amazing part of how the Winter Bites menu is put together is that as a couple (or two people dining that don’t mind sharing plates) you can experience everything they offer for only $50 total!

The two apps that started the dinner off were…
Beer Battered Shrimp – Golden fried beer battered shrimp with house made zesty cocktail sauce.

Goat cheese Bruschetta – Grilled garlic focaccia with goat cheese, tomatoes, onions and herbs topped with three cheese blend and baked hot.

The bruschetta was amazing bursting with layers of flavours. The shrimp really took the cake though. Beer battered shrimp will never truly surprise you due to the simplicity of the dish. Shrimp, batter, sauce… simple right? These shrimp somehow found a way to be very dynamic with such a simple nature. The sauce has a beautiful kick that some establishments will not try to develop anymore seeing as though you can succeed with a dipping sauce using just ketchup and horseradish. The sauce was exactly what was needed to add to the malty sweet crunch that the batter brought to the table.
The dinner came out next which only added to our amazement of the menu.

Number one was the Meat loaf. House made bacon wrapped meatloaf drizzled with sarsaparilla BBQ sauce, served with twin skewers of new potatoes, with house vegetables, roasted garlic and beer gravy.

Number two, the Pork Schnitzel. Bread crumb encrusted pork loin grilled crispy, served with smashed potato, beer caramelized red and green cabbage, roasted garlic, side of beer gravy and dill sour cream.

Obviously when you are eating at a brewery, you expect the menu to incorporate beer into the items which sometimes can find its way into items in an unbalanced way. Sauces and caramelizing are very easy ways to bring beer into a meal where they will not overpower in any way, but will naturally enhance the diversity of the flavours. The Meat Loaf was juicy, and very well seasoned with the ‘can’t wait to swallow so I can have another bite’ kind of effect. The Schnitzel was an amazing dish with so many different ways to eat it with the sides and sauces it seemed like every bite was different. Perfectly executed, and an item I will personally have again.

Finally, we found ourselves at the dessert part of the meal with the Firehouse Beer Chocolate Cake and Gluten free Turtle Cheesecake

I (J1) have never been the sweet tooth type of person. I believe I got this from my mom, but I will more likely have another helping of fries, or another dinner roll, or something crunchy and salty for dessert than a sweet. That being said, the brewery might find themselves with a bakery attachment in the future based on popular demand. These desserts were out of bounds. The use of beer in the cake is again such a smart way of incorporating the presence of malty sweetness, and it didn’t dry out the cake like can sometimes happen when introduced. Turtles cheesecake… need I say more?

Kath’s quote: “Happy and successful cooking doesn’t rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life.”-Georges Blanc

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.