Weekend Roundup Part I
So, the weekend was big fun. Tim and Warren were in town, and we managed to go out Friday night to Catch – one of the fanciest restaurants in town. Except we didn't know it was one of the fanciest. Which is where the fun begins.
So the three of us show up late, two of us wearing jeans. We immediately realize that we aren't dressed as well as we should be, but it's too late. The nice thing is that Tim knows one of the chefs, so we walk in, are greeted by the hostess and are shown to a table right away.
The funny part about that is that (by utter coincidence) my dad, in fancy dinner jacket and everything, had been waiting for half an hour in the bar for a table he's had reserved for a week. We were seated before him. This was a coup unheard of in our time. The boys and I were pretty smug for the rest of the night.
The food was insanely good. We didn't order anything – they just kept pushing food and wine in front of us for most of the night. I do not think I will ever eat that well again.
We even got to make our own desserts, though messrs Oxenford and Code seemed to get away easy. They ordered stuff that could be taken out of the fridge. I ordered a soufflé, which is significantly more work. After being cheered on by most of the restaurant in my whisking endeavors, the soufflé actually rose. I am not shy about saying that this may be the greatest achievement of my culinary career, though it came at the expense of my right arm, which will never be the same again.
the guy who owns the place is the guy who is the chef of diva at the met hotel here. also, he is the only canadian to have appeared on iron chef.
a little cooking trivia for you there.
i sure hope i get an adventure like this when timO comes to visit me^H^Hus.
arg. that ^H^H bit is such a slashdotism. i will smack anyone who posts a comment about how somebody "gets it" or doesn't "get it" with "get it" in quotes. other than this illustrative example, i mean. but if it makes you feel better, i'll give myself a smack so you can see that i am serious.
Posted by: ben on November 4, 2002 01:22 PMCan you share what the hell it means for those of us that avoid Slashdot these days and don't get it? Unless, of course, that's a smackable offense.
Posted by: sav on November 4, 2002 01:50 PMwhich? the ^H thing is, like, you typed something and then backspaced it out, but oops, your backspace key is misconfigured and it just printed Ctrl-H instead and oops, you didn't mean for people to actually see what you were trying to erase. ha ha ha.
the latter is something slashdot people are always saying, usually in reference to government approval or disapproval of free software. i just don't like their smug fucking tone.
Posted by: ben on November 4, 2002 02:00 PMbut yeah, really, i am a drawing attraction for timO. i was all like, we haven't seen you in a while, what is up with that?
and then he was all like, hey i'm coming to vancouver.
and clearly, it was me saying, hey, you should come here that did it. not a trip that was in the works for a while.
clearly.
If you came to visit me in Edmonton, we could do this kind of thing all the time.
And yes, Chef Michael Noble is in fact the only Canadian to appear on Iron Chef. The theme ingredient was something strange like potatoes. I meant to congratulate him on that, but was so drunk on fine wine that I forgot.
For all the Food Network Canada fans out there, Michael Smith was also at Catch recently for their "Sea to Sea" ("get it"?) culinary event.
Posted by: tim on November 4, 2002 05:33 PMyou're taunting me in completely the wrong way.
Posted by: ben on November 4, 2002 05:50 PMa plain message for ben. no smilies, slashdot-isms or chat-speak.
... can't... hold ... it in...
:) :) wtf!!!11 ^_^ d00d^H^H^H^H kthxbye.
Ben, are you hitting on me?
Posted by: tim on November 4, 2002 06:57 PMyes.
Posted by: ben on November 4, 2002 08:19 PMsince there is no statute of limitations on comments, i would like to chide macrosav for promoting this shameless course of events.
for shame, mike, for shame.
to follow up on Beth and Tim's comments on Catch Restaurant -- YEAH, the place gets more and more off the hook every time. Check out the oyster bar, where they've been running a festival for a while that apparently will climax with a provincial shuck-off in March, and no less than the world shucking champion (a Canadian, believe it or not, from Toronto) will be a special guest at the event. And an interesting addition to the Catch plate is a weekly oyster seminar in the oyster bar, Saturday afternoons, kind of an Oysters 101 thing. Catch's lead oyster guy is crazy (my friends have mentioned seeing this monster in action, all flying shells and intensity), so the seminars must be a hoot -- I'm definitely going soon.
Posted by: Adam on February 28, 2003 02:24 AM