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Tag Archives: Nancy

Qsine – Celebrity Silhouette

02 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by petervisima in Food, Travel

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Tags

Blu, Celebrity Silhouette, cruise, Eastern Caribbean, food, Hugh, ipad, Murano, Nancy, Nikon 1 V1, Qsine, restaurant, Shanna, Tuscan Grille

Nancy and I recently cruised on the Celebrity Silhouette with our dear friends Hugh and Shanna from Chilliwack, British Columbia. The Silhouette is one of Celebrity’s Solstice class ships and has a passenger capacity of 2,886 passengers. I will be doing a separate blogpost about our cruise, but I would like to focus this one on an amazing eating experience in one of Celebrity’s specialty restaurants—Qsine.February_20__95_2013-02-20_15-44-14_DSC_9642

Qsine is one of four specialty restaurants on board the Silhouette, the others being Blu, Murano and the Tuscan Grille.

Blu

Blu

Murano
Murano

Tuscan Grille
Tuscan Grille

Dining in the Oceanview Café and the main dining room on the ship is free. There is, however, a surcharge for eating in the specialty restaurants. For Qsine we paid $40 per person not including wine. We decided on Qsine based on a recommendation from friends of ours who are seasoned expert cruisers. They have dined in all the specialty restaurants and said that Qsine was a must-visit experience, so we made a reservation on our first day aboard the Silhouette.February_17__66_2013-02-17_14-16-06_DSC_9187

February_17__67_2013-02-17_14-16-21_DSC_9188

The tagline for the restaurant is “Uniquely Unordinary,” and I can truly say this was an eating experience unlike anything that we have ever experienced. Our reservation was for 7 p.m. and we received a reminder card in our stateroom about our reservation—attention to small details such as this is what sets the Celebrity line apart from many others.

Our waiter explained what was about to happen. He asked us about our general food likes/dislikes and then he made some suggestions for us while we perused the menu and wine list, which were presented to each guest on their own iPad:February_20__4_2013-02-20_18-00-39_DSC_9742

I asked for a printed copy of the menu so that I could remember and describe all the dishes that we were about to enjoy:February_20__16_2013-02-28_14-13-50_DSC_8049

There was no limit to the number of items we could order, and all dishes were intended to be shared by the table. As it turned out, we ordered just the right amount of food and although there were many other tasty treats to sample, we were pleasantly filled by the end of our meal! The dishes were small—almost tapas style, which meant for a leisurely dinner. There was no time limit and at no point did we ever feel rushed.

Our first dish was Lava Crab—Alaskan King Crab with sweet yellow corn and scallions, wrapped in Kataifi, which is a Middle Eastern pastry made from shredded phyllo dough, sitting in Old Bay lobster sauce. Our waiter turned the balls of lava crab in the sauce to get the Kataifi nicely coated. We each had half of a ball:February_20__8_2013-02-20_18-24-22_DSC_9746

I’m not going to describe the taste of each dish with all the standard descriptions of “delicious, scrumptious, wonderful,” etc. Let’s just say that every single one was unique and we experienced so many different flavours, tastes and aromas that my writing skills would be lacking in trying to accurately describe everything.

Keeping with a seafood theme, our next dish was Lobster Escargot—fritters with parsley-garlic butter sauce:February_20__11_2013-02-20_18-30-35_DSC_9749

To help mop up the sauce, we were given cones of bread that had been baked in a banana leaf:February_20__17_2013-02-20_18-32-37_DSC_9755

Still with our seafood theme, we next had Disco Shrimp—bouillon-poached tiger shrimp, avocado, tomato and celery with cocktail aioli and crunchy toppings. The shrimps were in glasses that had flashing lights in them, hence the disco connotation:February_20__21_2013-02-20_18-33-05_DSC_9759

The presentation of each dish continued to amaze and amuse us and then came something very unusual. Called M’s Favourites, it was described as a Mediterranean dollhouse:February_20__32_2013-02-20_18-48-16_DSC_9770This was a granite case with a handle on top and 12 compartments, each containing a Mediterranean dish, including patlican salata, mixed olives, tzatziki, eggplant imam biyaldi, tabbouleh, hummus, chicken kofta, zathaar lamb chops, kibbeh, Mediterranean chili, falafel and goat cheese cigars! Since there were two chicken skewers and two lamb chops, they brought us an extra plate of chicken and lamb so that we each had one. The lamb was outstanding and even Nancy liked it although she is not usually a fan of lamb:February_20__30_2013-02-20_18-48-04_DSC_9768

At this point we were definitely slowing down, but more courses were on their way. Next up were two different kinds of Spring Rolls—baby back pork spring rolls with chipotle coleslaw and white truffle BBQ sauce; vegetable mélange spring rolls with cilantro, chipotle coleslaw and sweet and sour sauce:February_20__24_2013-02-20_18-42-32_DSC_9762

And our last dish was the Painter’s Mignon—a perfectly cooked medium-rare filet mignon for each of us along with five different accompaniments served in what looked like a painter’s palette dish:February_20__37_2013-02-20_19-12-05_DSC_9775This included mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and mushrooms as well as a wine reduction sauce that was so outstanding I wanted to take a gallon of it home with me!February_20__39_2013-02-20_19-14-46_DSC_9777

And we were not finished yet—dessert was next. Our waiter came out with a silver-domed tray revealing our dessert menus:February_20__57_2013-02-20_19-33-56_DSC_9795

On the tray were four multi-sided cubes. Opening and turning a cube revealed the different dessert choices including doughnuts, cupcakes, cake, ice cream and even a surprise dessert. Three of us went for the Silver Bullet, which held three different flavours of ice cream, and my friend Hugh went for the cupcakes. Here is the Silver Bullet:February_20__61_2013-02-20_19-52-46_DSC_9799

The cupcakes were presented in a lunch box complete with four cupcakes, sprinkles and a piping bag for applying the icing:February_20__65_2013-02-20_19-52-59_DSC_9803February_20__73_2013-02-20_19-53-31_DSC_9811February_20__71_2013-02-20_19-53-22_DSC_9809February_20__69_2013-02-20_19-53-17_DSC_9807

Here is a short video showing the Disco Shrimp in action plus our dessert menus and Hugh’s cupcake decorating skills: Qsine video

And just when we thought we were done, out came “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Here’s our waiter with chocolate-covered strawberries planted in a field of real grass:February_20__77_2013-02-20_20-06-46_DSC_9815

Everything about Qsine was fun and lighthearted. We all had some great laughs and the presentation of the various dishes was so creative. Even the lighting in the restaurant was done with whimsy with lamps bolted to the ceiling:February_20__56_2013-02-20_19-31-31_DSC_9794

Was this meal worth the $40 per person surcharge? Absolutely! Would we attend another specialty dining event on Celebrity again? Without a doubt!

Kudos to Celebrity for delivering this thank you card to our stateroom the following day:February_20__13_2013-02-28_14-13-30_DSC_8046February_20__22_2013-02-28_14-14-24_DSC_8055

This was without a doubt one of the best culinary experiences of my life.

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Stratford, Ontario

09 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by petervisima in Travel

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Tags

Avon River, ducks, Hugh, Nancy, Ontario, Peter, Shanna, Sputnik, Stratford, The Church Restaurant, Totally Spoked

In my previous post I described our September 6th trip to Stratford that included a stop at the Monforte Dairy. We enjoyed a great cheese tasting and had a peek into the windows to see the various cheese storage/processing areas.

We then ventured into the town of Stratford which is a picturesque and beautiful little town:

http://www.welcometostratford.com/

It is world famous for its theatre featuring the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, its fine dining and it is the birthplace of many famous Canadians.

There are endless dining choices but a friend suggested we try “The Church Restaurant.”

http://www.churchrestaurant.com/

They stop serving lunch at 1:30 in order to give their guests time to get to the various afternoon theatre presentations. But since we were not attending the theatre, we had time to enjoy a leisurely lunch. I happen to love liver, and whenever I see it on a menu, I order it. It was perfect and so were the meals enjoyed by my wife and our friends Hugh and Shanna from B.C.

After our great lunch it was time to enjoy a nice walk along the Avon River which has some fabulous homes backing right onto the river:

The river freezes over in winter and you can find all kinds of people enjoying the game of hockey. There were a tremendous number of ducks enjoying themselves both in the river and along the banks of the river:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ERIDUkG7MrY

I really liked the sentiment on this dedication plaque which was on a park bench beside the Avon River:

By this point we were all ready for a nice cup of coffee. A friend suggested we try Sputnik Espresso Bar and we had an excellent Mocha. Sputnik was decorated in late 1950’s, early 1960s decor. Yes, I know the photo is backwards since I shot the logo from inside the store:

On the way back to our car we came across a really cool bicycle shop called Totally Spoke’d:

http://www.totallyspoked.ca/

They featured some unusual brands that I was not familiar with. In particular there were a couple of gorgeous bikes from a manufacturer called the Electra Bicycle Company:

http://www.electrabike.com/

We were going to stop at the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market on the way home, but it was already 3:30 and we wanted to avoid some of the Toronto rush-hour traffic. As it happened there was a 4-car collision on Hwy 427 leading to the QEW/Gardiner Eastbound which backed us up quite a bit on the 427.

We had a great day, great food and great weather for our outing to Stratford.

Monforte Dairy – Stratford

06 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by petervisima in Food

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Tags

cheese, Daniel, Hugh, Monforte Dairy, Nancy, Peter, Ruth Klahsen, Shanna, Stratford

On Thursday, September 6th we decided to do a road trip to Stratford, Ontario. Stratford is a charming little town about 2-hours away from Toronto. It is home to many festivals and is world famous for its theatre company, music, restaurants and Victorian architecture. I will be doing a separate post about Stratford.

The other reason we had for visiting Stratford was to visit the Monforte Dairy. If you have been following my farmers’ markets posts, you will certainly know that I am a big fan of the Monforte Dairy products. Monforte is doing an amazing job of getting their products known all around the GTA. They regularly attend farmers’ markets in East York, Leslieville, Nathan Phillips Square (Toronto City Hall) and numerous other markets all over the city including the famous St. Lawrence Market on Saturdays (north building).

Over the past several months I have had the pleasure of meeting Monforte’s staff including Rachel, Constance, Tina and Naomi. At every market they are anxious to provide you with samples of any of their product line.

Monforte Dairy is owned and operated by Ruth Klahsen. Ruth is obviously passionate about creating wonderful artisanal cheese products. Her product line includes cheeses made from sheep, goat, cow and water buffalo milk:

http://www.monfortedairy.com/monforte-our-product.html

At the Monforte Dairy in Stratford they have a retail store located at 49 Griffith Road. Tours of the dairy are not available due to restrictions and regulations associated with any food preparation facility. But Ruth encouraged us to walk around the facility to peek in the windows to see the various cheese preparation and packaging rooms. Photography through glass windows is always a challenge but I managed to get these photographs:

Ruth is a big fan of graffiti and she brought in some gifted artists to give the Monforte Dairy a unique character:

We had a great cheese tasting which was provided to us by Ruth’s oldest son Daniel who can be seen on Saturdays at St. Lawrence Market (north building).

If you love cheese, you owe it to yourself to discover and support our local hard-working cheese-makers! Many thanks to Ruth and Daniel for their hospitality on a wonderful sunny day in Stratford.

September 5th Little Italy Culinary Adventure

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by petervisima in Food

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Tags

Café Diplomatico, Chef Scott, Clinton Street, College Street, Culinary Adventure Company, hapa izakaya, Hugh, Italian Walk of Fame, Johnny Lombardi, Little Italy, Nancy, Peter, Phil Esposito, Savoie, Shanna

Through some of my new “foodie” friends I have discovered Chef Scott Savoie and his Culinary Adventure Company. I looked over many of the tours that Chef Scott offers and one in particular looked like something fun and exciting to take part in: Escape the City…Canoe and Beach Dining Adventure. Here is a video:

http://vimeo.com/26770352#at=0

http://culinaryadventureco.com/culinary-adventures.html

The adventure consists of Chef Scott taking people onto a canoe at the foot of Rees Street (Queens Quay) and then paddling across the lake over to Centre Island. Once on the island, Chef Scott and his team prepare a gourmet meal for the guests. You paddle back to Toronto around 10:30 pm while enjoying the amazing night-time skyline of Toronto.

But on September 4th, Mother Nature had something up her sleeve called rain. And it rained all day with some thunderstorms thrown in for good measure. But Chef Scott was right on top of his game and he called me early to say the Canoe Adventure had been cancelled, but he provided us with options: re-book the Canoe Adventure for another date or take his Chef’s Tour of “Little Italy.”

Since we had booked the Canoe Adventure to include our friends Hugh and Shanna from Chilliwack B.C., re-booking the Adventure for another date was not possible since our friends are scheduled to leave Toronto by this weekend. So we opted to join the tour of Little Italy on September 5th.

Since my wife and I plus our friends from B.C. had all grown up in East York, we were not all that familiar with much of our city’s west end. And for the record, I consider the west end to mean anything west of Yonge Street! I thought that a tour of Little Italy would be a great way to get to know the area of College Street just west of Bathurst a little bit better.

We were told to meet at the corner of College and Clinton in front of Café Diplomatico at 7pm:

Our group consisted of my wife and I, our friends Hugh and Shanna from B.C.,  plus a husband and wife from Sydney, Nova Scotia plus another couple from Toronto but they originally hailed from Quebec and Australia. It is worth noting that the couple from Nova Scotia had done this tour before and loved it so much that they booked it for a second time!

Chef Scott was right on time and greeted us promptly at 7 pm. Our first stop was going to be at a secret member’s only club. Out of respect for future participants of this tour I will not divulge the location or name of this exclusive private club. An unmarked doorway leads to a steep staircase and you are thrown back into a bar resembling something from the prohibition era:

We were quickly presented with a refreshing cocktail consisting of sparkling wine and a few other ingredients that I did not catch the names of. We were also presented with some excellent bread and a salumi/charcuterie plate consisting of cornichons, salami, anchovies, olives and wild boar sausage.

A second cocktail arrived which resembled a Manhattan but used bourbon whiskey with a splash of red wine. It was absolutely delicious! Another tasting course of halibut cheeks in tempura and kimchi came next and these were devoured quickly by our group:

We were ready for our next stop on the tour. Chef Scott took us along College Street and pointed out some new establishments including “hapa izakaya” which was full of people having a great time:

We proceeded west on College Street until we came upon the Italian Walk of Fame which is located between Clinton and Grace Streets on the north side of College.

http://italianwalkoffame.com/inductees/

Johnny Lombardi was a famous Torontonian and established CHIN radio and the annual CHIN picnic:

Another famous Italian is hockey legend Phil Esposito:

As we ventured over to Grace Street we found a statue of Johnny Lombardi which you can see in the background of this photo along with an unusual gentleman sitting with Johnny:

Soon we found ourselves faithfully following Chef Scott down a back alley and into the rear entrance of a restaurant kitchen:

This turned out to be the Hogtown Pub and Oysters restaurant:

http://www.thehogtownpub.com/

Our server was phenomenal and she offered us red or white wine or beer. We sampled fresh oysters from the Pacific and from Nova Scotia. Both were delicious but I slightly favoured the ones from Nova Scotia:

Our next tasting was some very tasty steamed mussels presented in two variations consisting of a gorgonzola sauce and a white wine/garlic version:

Our third tasting was a truly unbelievable cheddar and bacon mac and cheese dish. This was hands down the best mac and cheese I have ever tasted:

I have to say that Hogtown is definitely a place that my wife and I will return to. I can’t think of a better dinner than having a serving of steamed mussels, some mac and cheese and an excellent Hogtown lager beer. My apologies for not getting the name of our hostess, but she was amazing. Here’s a photo of the hard-working and talented kitchen staff:

I love the subtle touches of decoration found along College Street:

Next up was Acadia restaurant on Clinton Street:

http://www.acadiarestaurant.com/#!

At Acadia we had a very unusual but very tasty cocktail called The Bloomer Remover:

And we also had an unusual combination of grits and shrimps which despite sounding like an odd pairing, were perfect:

By this time the cocktails we had consumed were certainly taking effect and we were all feeling quite satisfyingly full. But Chef Scott had more in store for us. Next stop was Taverniti’s Trattoria:

http://www.tavernitis.ca/

This is a family-run restaurant and the owner’s mother “Nona” makes the sauce and the lasagna from scratch every day. Our beautiful and lovely server Lisa looked after us and brought us three courses plus wine and a special treat. First we had Nona’s lasagna and gnocchi, followed by pizza:

And then the totally amazing Limoncello liqueur:

We were absolutely stuffed by this point. But we couldn’t finish off the evening before having some Gelato. Lucky for us, we only had to waddle next door to The Mad Italian:

The Gelato was a great finishing touch to a wonderful evening.

Chef Scott was a great host and regaled us with culinary stories and we covered many topics over the course of the evening and certainly had many laughs. It was great meeting new people and sharing some of our food adventure stories and travels from all around the world.

If you are looking for a Culinary Adventure, try the tour of “Little Italy.”

Thank you, Chef Scott!

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