I was recently invited to visit Kenora and attend their Winter Bites (an understatement this year) Event. All throughout the month of February, with the exception of Valentine’s Day, 10 local restaurants will be offering up three course menus for the fixed price of $25.  This will give locals and out-of-towners alike, an opportunity to sample the best of what the city’s culinary scene has to offer.  Unfortunately, “winter bites” to such an extent that we have already planned on being somewhere far warmer this February, but I still perused the menus, deciding where I would dine, if I had the chance to go.  Many of the items looked terrific, but my eye was caught by these offerings:

Stuffed Walleye – an 8oz portion of Walleye wrapped around a wild rice and cream cheese and walnut filling, baked to perfection and topped with a lemon blueberry butter.

OR

Kenora Etoufee – Chorizo sausage and walleye in a Creole style sauce on top of a Shoal Lake wild rice pilaf.

I am crazy about this local fish and love the imaginative spins that the local chef’s would put on it.  I always assumed that the fish was called pickerel in Canada and wall-eye in the US but I am obviously incorrect.  Unless of course, Kenora is so infiltrated by American tourists that they have decided to adapt the US moniker for the fish.

Many Winnipeggers make Kenora and the Lake of the Woods area their summer and weekend homes and I am sure that many head to their “camps” to enjoy cross-country skiing, snow-boarding and skidooing.  This tourism event creates another excuse to head east and you don’t have to pack up as many cottage supplies if you are dining out at least one evening.

In the mean time though, if you are content to stay put in the city, Winnipeg of course has its own culinary event.  Laurie Hughes who is the co-founder and publisher of Ciao Magazine has co-ordinated and promoted Dine About for as long as I can remember, but each year finds a longer and more unusual list of restaurants to participate, with such clever offerings.

We intend to go to Café Dario as we have not had an excuse to dine there in a couple of years.  For $28. their menu includes:

APPETIZER
Rum soaked prawns and scallops with guava, chayote, chilangua  and squash salpicon baked with puff pastry
or
Green Mango Carpaccio with smoked arctic char in annato aioli and plantain chips
or
Crispy Panamanian style sweet potato carimanola dumpling filled with a mix of boiled egg, olives, onion, garlic and lemon
or
House made tamales with pulled turkey and corn, garnished with mole poblano with cocoa and almonds
or
Escargots el diablo topped with cheese.

MAIN
Lamb ossobucco with three cereal risotto and sun dried gooseberries
or
Tea pot of seafood delicacies with manioc, plantains, Creole potatoes on trout and saffron consommé
or
10 oz Long horn free range New York striploin with a caper chimichurri sauce
or
Matambre style wild boar cutlet filled with olives, spinach and egg with wild mushrooms and chorizo reduction.
or
Grilled chicken breast topped with hearts of palm, basil, hogao sauce and three cheeses

DESSERT
Churros with hot cocoa and cinnamon

D and I will order different appetizers and mains and then share all the food from the each other’s plates.  This  is how we love to dine the best, ensuring that we savour the widest variety of little tastes possible.

Here is a complete list of the participating restaurants:

$28 Menus: The Beachcomber, Bombolini, Café Dario, Corrientes Argentine Pizzeria, The Loft, The Melting Pot, Nicolino’s, Resto Gare, Rudy’s Eat and Drink, Tapastry and Sensi Wine Lounge.

$36 Menus: 296 York, Amici, Bailey’s, Bellisimo, Café Carlo, Carnavale, fusion grill, Hermanoes Restaurant & Wine Bar, Mise, Peasant Cookery, Prairie 360,  Resto Gare, Sensi Wine Bar, Steve’s Bistro, Sydney’s at the Forks and last but certainly not least Terrace in the Park.

Offerings are already on line at Ciao, (if you can keep your mouth from watering all over your computer).  Oh so many restaurants and only three meals in a day…

Kath’s quote: “Dine, v: to eat a good dinner in good company, and eat it slow. In dining, as distinguished from mere feeding, the palate and stomach never ask the hand, ‘What are you giving us?'”-Ambrose Bierce

Love-that is all.

Like many of you, I love the Christmas season and especially the excuse to get together for special parties, lunches and dinners.  For me there is sometimes a little bit of a let down when the season is over, especially if I am working hard at keeping my New Year’s resolutions.  One of my suppliers must feel this way too because she invited me out for a Christmas lunch that we celebrated just yesterday-perfect timing.

529 is often heralded as being one of the more exclusive restaurants in the city.  Indeed, it does feel as if you are dining on someone’s estate or at their private club.  The lunch time menu is very accessible, offering everything that you might imagine from burgers and sandwiches to steaks and seafood.  What the public often chatters about is that 529’s menu is entirely a la carte but at a time of year when I am turning away anything deep fried or carb heavy, this is very much appreciated.  Why pay for fries when they are only going to tempt me and make me feel as if I am wasting food (I scorn food being needlessly wasted).

As it were, one of the guests at our table never has to worry about over indulging.  He indicates the he has a very high metabolism, eats whatever he wishes and remains perfectly slim.  He went for the burger special which on this day was adorned with brie and apple jam.  I watched as he took his first bite (perhaps a bit too longingly), with meat juices bursting forth and luckily landing on the plate below.  I know that 529’s fries are exceptional as I have taste them before, and I was tempted to reach across the table and nab a couple of his.  Somehow I restrained myself.

Our host is a careful eater each an every day and a real inspiration to me.  She selected the salmon and spinach salad.  At first glance she was concerned that the fillet was on the small side but it was a very thick wedge which ensured that it could be perfectly cooked.  She managed to portion the salmon so she that she could have a piece with every taste of spinach and was well pleased.

I order mussels every chance I get.  Our helpful server relayed a message to the kitchen to go heavy on the white wine and easy on the butter.  The result was light but satisfying.  The huge mussels assembled at the bottom of the bowl had benefitted from extra marinating and were exploding with perfumed flavors from the wine and briny ones from the sea.  I was able to enjoy each dollop of sauce with the toast triangles which gilded the plate. We all glanced at the dessert menu and determined what we “would” have had, were we to be ordering and then happily departed ways without experiencing any regrets.

Kath’s quotes: “I’m strong to the finach, ‘cuz I eats me spinach”-Popeye

Love-that is all.

I believe that Winnipeg is a wonderful place to raise a family an was not surprised when I heard the story of Chew Restaurant owners Kristen Chemerika an Kyle Lew and their desire to select an alternate lifestyle for their family than the one that Toronto provides.  I was also not astonished by the quality of their offerings once I read of their culinary pedigrees.  Chew is an excellent addition to Winnipeg’s vibrant culinary scene.

Upon entering the inauspicious storefront, contained in a little retail strip at 532 Waterloo St. (at Corydon), I was immediately struck by the warm but simple décor.  Our servers were equally warm and accommodated us for a quick dinner even though they were chock full with reservations.

Immediately, a basket of just plucked from the oven bread was placed in front of us with a ramekin of marrow butter alongside. The bread was yeasty and delicious on its own, perfection when smeared with the butter.

Two enormous seared sea scallops subsequently arrived with a saffron infused cauliflower puree and crispy beet chips for crunch.  The scallop was crusty on the outside and just barely cooked in the middle, which is just the way I like them.  Sister #3 would have appreciated them more had they been left in the searing pan for slightly longer.

Moving from tastes of the sea, to deep an earthy flavours from the land, next up were roasted mushrooms.  The wild mushrooms were made rich and creamy when the poached egg yolk that was perched on top seeped through the bounty from the forest.

Total unnecessary, but a delight just the same, were the truffle fries that we indulged in as well.  The hint of precious truffle oil elevated the already memorable fries to a whole new level.  When we return and I am somewhat braver, I may try the other fries on the compact menu, made from slivers of pig’s ear.

Sister #3 returned for lunch the very next day and shared three items with her lunch companion.  Here’s what she had to say: “Our salad was amazing.  Fresh purple beets along with pickeled yellow beets. The fig vinaigrette off-set the sweetness of the beets and stood up to the saltiness of the halloumi cheese.

Our sandwich was guanciale, baby greens, marinated tomato and herb aioli but our waitress described it well as an Italian version of a BLT.  The tomatoes looked like hierlooms to me and were bright with flavor and very juicy. Guanciale is an italian bacon which was delicate but delicious.

I was glad that we ordered a side of pecan smoked bacon as it added even more yummy bacon flavor to our lunch.  I had thought there might be a sweetness to the bacon but there wasn’t.  It was thick cut and obviously cooked a long time over pecan flames, making it crispy and full of flavour.  K said it reminded her of farm bacon. ”

Chew places a banana muffin alongside your bill instead of the typical after dinner mints.  I think that the little treat is so thoughtful, kind of like receiving a goodie bag when you were little and left a birthday party.

Kath’s quote: “But I will place this carefully fed pig Within the crackling oven; and, I pray, What nicer dish can e’er be given to man.” –Aeschylus, ancient Greek poet

Love-that is all.

I was given a very thoughtful gift this Christmas.  It was a basket of Manitoba food products.  The one that I was most excited about was the organic wild rice from Horseshoe Lake.  The lake is located in an isolated area in central Eastern Manitoba in the pre-Cambrian shield.  We used to holiday at Nutimik Lake in the Whiteshell, so the rugged rocky landscape and the pristine lakes are familiar to me.  I learned that the company has been a family run business for over 50 years and that owner Gus Carlson built one of the very first Manitoba wild rice processing plants.

Wild rice is low in calories and fat, and high in protein and natural fibre.  It also contains a wide variety of minerals and vitamins such as riboflavin and niacin.  I decided to punch up the protein even more by adding quinoa to the recipe and was very happy with the results.  The texture of the rice and therefore the cake is firm and chewy and the rice retains a nutty quality.  When mixed with celery, green onions and minced ginger the result is a complex combination of flavours.  If you think that the ginger might be too much of a surprise, try switching in out with lots of chopped garlic.

Kath’s quote: “rice is the best, the most nutritive and unquestionably the most widespread staple in the world.” –Escoffier

Love-that is all.

A week has past since my New Year’s Confessional and I thought that an update was in order.  I’ve been out walking more frequently, started Zumba again and cooked and cooked and cooked.  I  have cooked up some successes and some flops.  I go to extremes.  It is probably enough that I am consuming only what I have made from scratch.  I have filled the larder with whole grains, beans, lentils and nuts, eliminated white flour, white rice and white pasta. Where I have gone over-board is that I have attempted to also reduce sugar and fat.  This is where some of my flops come in.  Moderation would do the trick.

The hits:

Baked Potato with Tuna Salad and Lemon Mayonaise

Salmon Fillets in Rice Paper Wrappers, Carrot Salad with Moroccan Dressing

Ingredients for Oatmeal Banana Muffins

Wheat Berry and Grilled Corn Salad

Other hits (with no photos): Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies, Five-Grain Muffins, Low Fat/Low Salt Nuts & Bolts

The flops:

Nick Malgieri’s Fudge Brownies (ingredients above)-I replaced the sugar with Monk Fruit in the Raw, yuck.

Asiago Drop Biscuits -don’t think my oven had pre-heated and they spread all over the pan.

I plan on focusing on what I have gained instead of my usual doomed missions regarding what I have lost.  I have gained energy and am sleeping well.  I am not as winded as I bundle up and lug the dog along for his walks.  My appetite has shrunk but I am still craving salty snacks. I have enjoyed being alone this past week and only fixing a small something as my appetite dictates. One week down, 51 to go!

Let me know if you want any of the recipes mentioned above.

Kath’s quote: “Without wishing in the slightest degree to disparage the skill and labour of breadmakers by trade, truth compels us to assert our conviction of the superior wholesomeness of bread made in our own
homes.”-Eliza Acton

Love-that is all.