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Olympic dreams dashed
I think I've mentioned before that we regularly go to a supper club of sorts in the city. Once a month at a specified restaurant and you learn about wine pairing with 6 different dishes. It's a blast, and I'd say 9 times out of 10 the food is excellent, the wine is perfect and we have a lot of fun.
Last night was one of those nights - the venue was chosen for that alone and the food was catered - so while I will show you the food, I wasn't overly impressed. But now on to the Olympics! When I was a kid, even though I was not overly athletically inclined, I thought I should compete in the Olympics. I never did much to foster these dreams though. I'd ride around the block on my 10-speed at breakneck speeds (for a 10 year old) and think I'd compete in bike racing. There was a faze where I thought perhaps I'd compete in soccer or something of the sort - although I'm not much for team sports. Back in 1988, the winter Olympics were held in Calgary and I diligently watched them from Vancouver where I was easily impressed at 12 years old that they were being held in my country. Calgary Olympic Park still has lots of sports you can try out if you aren't faint of heart. Bobsledding (which I'm going to take my goddaughter to do this winter) and ski jumping. Now I'm okay on a set of skis. I can make it down the bunny hill in one piece and I can sort of meander down the easy runs without breaking my neck. So when dinner was being held at the 90 metre ski jump I thought sweet! That always looked like fun too!  From the road it still looks like it would be not that bad of a drop (note how high up we will be eating).I mean, it can't be that bad!  Then we got to the top and S and I peered down the longest ski jump. Uh..........wow! There would be no way in hell I'd be strapping those boards to my feet and launching myself down that! Holy crap! Note where you jump too - that's a hell of a lot longer than I thought you'd have to jump. I'd probably get to the bottom and just tip off the end and into a snow bank.They also have a zip line you can go down in the summer....I am contemplating taking the goddaughter to do that NEXT summer :)  Keep in mind, Calgary is pretty flat. I grew up with mountains surrounding me, so it always amazes me when I get up high somewhere out here, how much you can actually see! Here's the downtown core of Calgary. And here's a view off into the prairies. It was quite interesting to watch the hail storm roll in while we were having supper. Blue skies one minute and then rolling black clouds the next. Now onto the food! Our first course was halibut ceviche with blood orange, radish and pea shoots served with a Riesling. Now, I have no problem eating ceviche, but was amazed how many people wouldn't try it once they knew how it was cooked. Now, that may have been my fault for telling S that they don't cook the fish, just let it "marinade" in lime and lemon juice and the acid cooks the fish over a period of time. Next up, yukon gold gnocchi with morel, spring asparagus, fava bean and white truffle cream. This was probably my favourite course of the night. I have never had fava beans and they were great - very much like a lima bean (my all time favourite veggie). And I'm a sucker for cream sauce with truffles. This was paired with a chardonnay. This dish I only looked at. Frisee salad with beets, gala apple and maytag blue cheese with a champagne hazelnut dressing, served with a Pinot Gris. Now, I'm not fond of beets (but I ate these), but I really can't eat blue cheese. It's a pity, I love the taste, but I have an awful allergic reaction to it (throat swells up, can't breathe, etc). I accidentally ate some last year and it resulted in a trip to the hospital. So S kept a watchful eye on me that I wouldn't try any and eventually moved my plate when he saw I was poking at them with my fork. This was the worst part of the meal - and I didn't get a very good picture at all. I had mashed it all around on my plate before I realized there was no picture. So while the composition of the picture looks kind of gross, I can tell you the ham hock terrine with chamomile jelly was rude. Blech. And the Pinot Noir served with it was more like a beaujolais - not my favourite. Now you can't live in the prairies without some sort of beef dish showing up on a catered menu. Fillet of Alberta Beef with pain perdu, glazed baby carrots and sauce bordelaise. Paired with a Cabernet/Carmenere blend, this was pretty tasty. And finally dessert. A chocolate brownie thing with vanilla bean ice cream paired with Port. The port was delicious, the dessert was kind of boring. I could eat a two-bite brownie and it would taste the same. A great break from studying last night..............and now I know I will never be an Olympic ski jumper! related searches : Olympic
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