The Grove Revisited
When we traveled to Ireland this past spring, we came to understand the essential importance of the neighbourhood pub. If you define a pub in Canadian terms, it equates to something far different from what a pub is to an Irishman. The Grove is the closest facsimile to a real pub in my mind. For one, it is located on the street which borders ours, albeit significantly east of our locale. For two, we could walk there, although when it is -47 with the wind chill, we chose not to on this day. For three, there is familiarity-the owner waving at J1 as he arrived at work on this afternoon. And then there is the rest of the package: personable staff, a wide selection of cold drawn and bottled beer and simple, yet wonderfully prepared food.
We were celebrating a family birthday. That is, we have a celebratory meal together when it is a family member’s birthday. The format does not change very much: the birthday boy/girl gets to choose whether we will slow roast a batch of ribs, plant ourselves on a patio for the afternoon or try a new restaurant together. In this case, D wanted to ensure that he was sitting in his favourite chair in front of the big screen TV for NFL conference finals, by kick off time, so lunch it was.
When we arrived, there was a note on the door declaring that due to a mechanical issue (our guess was that something froze in the extreme cold), the menu would be limited. We were undeterred and found all kinds of delicious choices.
Of course fish and chips were ordered and J1 and J2 remarked that the fish was very lightly breaded and that the haddock fillet itself was a hearty portion, more like a fish steak. J1 would have loved to have had a burger which he declares is the city’s best but was pleased with this alternative.
Daughter #1 loves her Butter Chicken and found this recipe to her liking, that is to say: flavourful but not too firey.
The Frenchman sampled the lamb stew and was delighted.
I had been celebrating D’s birthday with indulgent food since the night before, so I decided to make a healthy choice and had the quinoa salad: sour cherry and pistachio crumble, cucumber, red onion, red pepper, tomato, carrot & mint, dressed in lemon garlic vinaigrette.
D had been dreaming about The Grove’s pan-seared scallops and knew that he had to savour them again.
Our cordial server brought out the German Chocolate cake that we had brought ourselves (D’s favourite cake) with a knife, plates, napkins and forks and we concluded our pub lunch in this way.
Kath’s quote: “Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.”-Samuel Johnson
Love-that is all.