Dinner at Whalesbone

On Sunday Jeff took me to Whalesbone for my birthday dinner. We had never been (embarrassing since it is the only cool fish/seafood restaurant in this city) and it was awesome! My only disappointments were that they do not have A/C so we were HOT. So very hot. We sat at the back right in front of the kitchen (cool spot though) so my silk Rick Owens shorts started sticking to my legs.

Thankfully my sister warned us about the temperature situation and since it was 35 degrees out I wore the lightest outfit I had. Another bummer was there were no cocktails. I am a sucker for a funky cocktail. I had beer instead. Anyhoo, minor details. I highly recommend this place. Here is what we had...

 

I started with the special - a tomato salad that isn't on the menu I brought home so I don't remember ingredients. Fab!

Jeff started with 1 lb mussels / coconut / lime leaf  / chili / garlic / peanuts / thai basil (the sauce was divine!)

 My main was the mackerel / eggplant / smoked tomato puree / putanesca / basil

Jeff's main was the steelhead trout / carrot / cauliflower / burnt honey / apple / fennel / dukkah

I always make room for dessert - banana cream pie. OH YESSSSSSS.

Jeff got the churros with chocolate sauce. YUMMY. 

Material Consequences

Arantza is a textile designer and artist who sent us an email recently about a project she is involved in during London Design Festival:
Material Consequences is an exhibition and pop-up shop (Sept 10-15) that will be launched at Nancy Victor Gallery in the heart of Fitzrovia during the London Design Festival. We are four designers behind the event presenting collections across interiors, fashion and art. Such gorgeous pieces!!

Pinaki Editions by Arantza Vilas

Karen Henriksen

Stephanie Ray

Katherine Pogson

Lurvely

We received an email from Lashem of Mossy Tree Mercantile and I had to feature her beautiful art created from nature. Now this is bringing the outside in. These ones are the prettiest IMHO.

Anniversary dinner at Navarra

Thursday was my 4th wedding anniversary so I suggested to the hubs that we try Navarra. There are a TON of restaurants on my to-try list (this city has an unbelievable amount of awesome restaurants) and I thought Navarra was perfect for this speical night. The chef/owner is Rene Rodriguez who won this past season of Top Chef Canada....so we assumed he knew what he was doing. And we were SO right. I had read several bad reviews on Urban Spoon and was worried but I frankly have no idea what the hell those people were talking about. We loved it, ate tons, drank lots, laughed with staff and other patrons and had a great time. (And it turns out the girl at the bar above is my sister's friend Crystal LOL). 

Jeff ordered a Tequila Sour and I had a Mojito. Both awesome, especially Jeff's drink. For whatever reason that foam rocked. 

The menu consists of tapas/starters and then mains. We opted to each have a starter and then a main. This was my starter. AMAZING. Parmesan Custard - BC crab, fried shallots, pickled kumato relish, black truffle salt. I should have asked for a spoon so I could scrape every bit out of the bowl.

Jeff's start was Chimichurri mushrooms - with fried organic mushrooms, onion sofrito, grana padano and nitro spicy popcorn. He went nuts over the chimichurri sauce. He gave me a piece of potato to try (I detest mushrooms) and I can see why. 

I had a glass of yummy red sangria. I also ate all the fruit on and in it. :)

My main was Pan Roasted Rainbow Trout - potato chip crust, tarragon mayo, chantilly beets, rye and radishes. This was divine. Our server told me the crust was Miss Vickie's salt & vinegar chips. YEAH, and it was GOOD. I smashed this. 

Jeff's main was Chef's Signature smoked, confit and roasted Quebec Pig Cheek - achiote reduction, brussel sprouts, burnt onion relish, pickled pineapple, cilantro. He smashed this too. 

My dessert was Lemon Curd - almond granola, fresh berries, min. I am a big fan of fruity deserts and this was simple but fantastic. 

Jeff only eats chocolate desserts so he of course ordered the Dark Chocolate Coulant - Self-saucing caramel center, nitro almond-rosemary granola, strawberry ice-cream, sea salt. Those little crusty rectangles are Captain Crunch cereal! The plate was placed on the table then a shot of Baileys poured over it and the cereal sprinkled on top. I believe Jeff's response to the server about this one was "HOLY SHITBALLS". 

So an awesome anniversary dinner thanks to Rene and his crew. I would love to go back and try the Carbonara Pasta because the sweet old dude next to us nearly had a coronary over it. He told the server he wanted to lick the plate so the server brought him a piece of bread. To note: be prepared to spend a bit of $ if you eat and drink as much as we do, and they have a cute little patio too that looked very inviting if the weather is decent. 

Au Prints

LOVE THESE!!!!

Au is the chemical symbol for gold. Au Prints is a set of art prints with gold ink manually applied in 220gsm white Fabriano Rosaspina paper.
All prints are reproductions of Teresa Esgaio original drawings that represent moments that really happened in the past. All of them are limited to 100 copies and each piece is signed, numbered and stamped.