Andrea the Gastronaut

This past Wednesday I attended Harvest Wednesdays at the Gladstone Hotel, which this week was part of Taste T.O.’s “Dining With TasteTO” series. I’ve met TasteTO‘s super duo of  Sheryl Kirby and Greg Clow once before and we’ve been familiar with each other online for awhile. Also at the table was Pantry’s Greg Bolton, whom I first mentioned in this blog after meeting him at the inaugural Foodie Tweetup in May. Food blogger Joel of Get the Foodie 411 was Greg’s “+1″ (I’ve never seen Greg and his wife Liz in the same place at the same time because business and family priorities rule). I sat next to writer/blogger Sarah B. Hood and across from Gina of The Cookbook Store (also a pastry student at George Brown College) and her significant other, whose name escapes me (Gina’s escaped me too, but one of the Gregs mentioned it in a tweet).

Being budget conscious I resisted temptation to order the “Fixed Flight of Ontario VQA Wines”, a flight of 3 oz pairings + 1 oz of Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Riesling for dessert. $19 was steep – although I’m sure it was worth it. I’m a fan of Henry of Pelham and their Riesling and a couple of friends who know the family that owns and operates the winery have gotten me into their wine and their story (I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel Speck at last year’s Picnic at the Brickworks when my friend Kerri introduced us).

I ordered a glass of the Flat Rock Chardonnay 2007. It tasted nice and clean with hints of vanilla and apple and went really well with the amuse bouche – although I sipped it slowly to savour through all courses. I’m also a fan of Flat Rock’s line of “Twisted” wines.

The menu:

A bread basket of red fife whole wheat biscuits, petits pains, multi-grain rotis and butter rosettes.

Amuse Bouche: Ruby Beet, Swiss Chard and Goat Cheese Roulade with potato “hay” and pea tendrils.

Appetizer: Summer minestrone soup topped with arugula pesto.

Mains: Choice or “pork or pepper” [Imagine hearing the waitress ask that to each of 8 individuals sitting around the table. It reminded me of a game of "duck duck goose".] The pork: Roast Berkshire Port Loin– Caramelized shallot and apple cider jus. The pepper: Stuffed Red Peppers– Quinoa, pine nuts, apricots and chickpeas, baked with honey and balsamic vinegar, dusted with smoked almond Dukkah.

Sides: All mains were accompanied by crisp potato rosti and “Tian” of zucchini, tomato and herbs.

Dessert: Fresh Blueberry Tart with lemon cream and an edible flower garnish.

Amused:

The potato “hay” on the amuse bouche were crispy potatoes, lightly salted. Reminded me almost of a potato latke flavour. As far as I’m concerned there’s never anything wrong with crispy potatoes. The beet was moist and juicy, sweet, slightly tart from what I think was treatment with vinegar. The swiss chard was wonderfully earthy.

Souped:

The minestrone was a mixture of a tomato base with tomatoes, broccoli, onion, potato, cauliflower, carrots and green beans  topped with arugula pesto and a shredded mild cheese that I couldn’t identify. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Pepper, Pepper, Pepper, Pepper, PORK!

(In retrospect I should have gotten a photo of the pork. Maybe Sarah or Greg C. or Sheryl got one.)

I was lax on the notes here. I was the only one taking notes (how do the others do it when they blog about meals?) and was getting into the rhythm of conversation, a conversation that included the book and film Julie and Julia (Sheryl, as she’s posted many times, is not a fan of the book), cooking vs. watching cooking shows, the reality of cooking dishes from cookbooks written by current celebrity chefs, the place of the Food Network and Giada De Laurentiis’s rack (well, I’d have referred to it as a “rack” but Sheryl beat me to it with a similar comment while I was waiting my turn). Occasionally non-food topics arose. Foodie 411 at the end of the table was fairly quiet except for a couple of comments about farmer’s markets.

“Crunchy on top” was all I wrote in my notes and Sheryl and I discussed Dukkah. In the last couple of days I’d read reference to it in a post about almonds (I think on Serious Eats: Talk, someone questioning what to do with an abundance of almonds) but I didn’t know what Dukkah was (nor did I really know until right now when I grabbed the link). The dish was quite nice but I wasn’t in love with the potato rosti. There was a flavour that I couldn’t identify nor was pleased with. The vegetables were fresh and flavourful. I pushed aside the green stuff.

Homer was right: Purple IS a fruit… but it’s also a flower

Sarah said that I got the best flower

I liked the light, crispy crust with a slight chewiness and just a hint of oil.

Look at those berries!

Look at those luscious berries! They were juicy and plump. I was reminded of Violet Beauregarde of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

I got a lovely surprise when I bit into a piece of lemon zest and found that it was candied.  Crisp and sweet-tart!

The lemon cream was light and fluffy and the texture played well with the juicy berries and crispy crust but wasn’t the highlight and without it the dessert would have been just as good.

A good time was had. All the dishes were great, with most having some components that I liked better than others. The conversation was enjoyable. There were laughs and smiles and a toast. It was a really nice, comfortable evening.

I will go back for more. I’d been for their opening party where I got to speak with farmers and producers and had a lovely chat about food photography with one of the guys from Forbes Wild Foods (I thought that I blogged it and put photos on Flickr, but can’t find either). It’s worth regular visits to see what the chef will do next, and possibly get some inspiration. I’d really like to check out more tastings. The challenge of course, is overcoming the mental barrier of spending the money. Heck, if I’m going to indulge in anything, it will be food. (My comic book graphic novel habit never took off due to financial priority.)

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About Harvest Wednesdays

Harvest Wednesdays is a weekly event at the Gladstone Hotel. Some weeks offer a three course dinner (+ amuse bouche), some weeks is more of a cocktail party with hors d’oeuvres. Regardless, each week between July and October chef Marc Breton serves up fare made with the contents of that week’s fresh produce harvested and distributed by Chick-a-Biddy Acres CSA. As well, local meats, cheeses, wines and beers are used.Local ingredients are used in the meal as much as possible. To find out more, see the schedule and past menus and buy tickets go to the Gladstone Hotel’s website.

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