Not your granny’s chamomile
1 Comment
Degan Beley
August 23, 2009
Sometimes my granny puts whiskey in my tea when I’m sick, but that’s the closest I’ve come to mixing tea and alcohol until last week when I tried J.Witty’s Chamomile liqueur. A friend brought it back from Portland but she wouldn’t tell us what it was and we were at a loss to guess. It tasted vaguely medicinal, with floral and spicy notes, not unlike a flowery gin, but the caramel colour was a problem.
There was a bit of an aha! moment when we were told the secret ingredient, and now I’m wondering what other tea-alcohols would be good. Rooibos and rum? Matcha vodka? So much for the stereotypes about tea drinkers! Looking around the internet, I discovered Qi Sprits, who make an orange white-tea liqueur and a smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea liqueur that I’m dying to try.
And then, as always, is the problem with mix. J. Witty has some recipe suggestions for the chamomile liqueur that sound intriguing. I particularly like the Cherry Blossom:
2 oz. gold rum
1 oz. J. Witty Chamomile
½ oz. Cherry Heering
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Stir ingredients with cracked ice. Strain into an ice-filled old fashioned glass.
I’d be interested to see what Lauren at the Refinery would do with it, but first I’m going to have to go to Portland to get some, since it’s not available in Canada.
Categories: Beyond Vancouver, Downtown, Food, Yummy Products
A tale of two Daniel Boulud cities
1 Comment Karen HamiltonJuly 26, 2009
How often does one get the chance to try the cuisine of a celebrated chef in two different cities in North America?
I imagine that it doesn’t happen often – not unless, like me, you happen to live in one of them and your husband is in love with the glamour of the other.
Here’s our take on the two Daniel Boulud outfits in our hometown of Vancouver and our weekend getaway of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Daniel Boulud Brasserie (Las Vegas)
It was our first night in Sin City and my first day ever in this town of gambling and glitz when we strolled into the plush Wynn for our 6pm seating at DB Brasserie.
The ostentatious luxury that the Wynn oozed was certainly present in this restaurant. We were ushered to a patio table that overlooked a vast pond and an even more expansive waterfall, where we were told by our server, Paco, was the site of a light show and froggy song-and-dance as the evening waned. Puzzled by this description, we shrugged and looked at the menu.
Prices were sky high as to be expected of this town and of a restaurant of this reputation. My husband decided on the 3-course prix fixe. It was affordable at under $40 USD, but the quantities sounded enormous. I opted for 1 dish: a duo of beef containing Boulud’s signature slow-braised short ribs. That alone exceeded Kurt’s order by nearly $10, but I could at least expect to minimize food waste.
I should have just ordered a soup, because the kitchen adorned us with amuses and petit fours anyhow. However, I am incredibly glad that I had ordered the duo, because the short ribs were unbelievably spectacular. Worth every penny that we paid; I only wish it hadn’t been paired with a tenderloin. While clearly of good quality, it was so overwhelmed by the goodness of the short ribs that it somehow detracted from the discovery.
By the time dessert came round, the American portions had gotten to both of us, and Kurt declined the dessert that came with his meal. Paco, perhaps concerned that we weren’t enjoying our food, may have had something to do with the kitchen finding out about Kurt’s 30th birthday and sent him a molten ganache cake with a special message written on the plate. They threw something in for me since I was just sitting there…and then came the petit fours!
Combined with the show on the pond, meeting Chef, and the tremendous customer service of Paco and the rest of the front of the house, we had ourselves a good time indeed.
DB Bistro Moderne (Vancouver)
It was with this extreme experience in our short-term memory that we found ourselves at the Daniel Boulud restaurant in Kitsilano less than 3 weeks later, this time to celebrate our 3-year wedding anniversary in style. [Hmm - that's a lot of 3's.]
Incredibly, DB Bistro held up to its glamourous Vegas counterpart. No crazy hotel or giant pond frog with the voice of Louis Armstrong, but each dish exuded the same quality of taste that we first had in Nevada.
Each dish was again sized for American tastes: much too large for the smaller, multi-course portioning we are accustomed to in the West Coast. For the second time, Kurt declined the dessert that came with his prix fixe menu. For the second time, our server conveyed to the kitchen that we were celebrating our anniversary, adding also that we had homemade pie waiting for us at home.
You’d think that it would cause the kitchen to take a hint and simply send us off with a small plate of petit fours… instead, they chose the lightest of their desserts, wrote “Happy Anniversary” on the plate, and watched as we ate every last bite and thanked them for their thoughtfulness.
One thing’s for sure – if you are in a Daniel Boulud city and you celebrate a special occasion with them, make sure they know of it, because they’ll treat you like royalty.
Categories: Beyond Vancouver, Blogathon 2009, Blogging for Social Change, Food, Kitsilano, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Travel, USA
Rogers’ Chocolates Soda Shoppe and days of yore
1 Comment Bruce NguyenJuly 25, 2009
Located in prime tourist real estate at the base of Government Street, approaching Victoria’s Inner Harbour, Roger’s Chocolate Soda Shoppe has set up shop.
The layout is split into two physically separated areas, soft serve ice-cream sundaes in the larger corner space, and hard, scooped ice cream in the smaller adjoining space. Also served are ice cream floats, malts, cookie ice cream sandwiches, splits, and a host of other related treats.
The store sign itself promotes “Olde Fashioned Ice Cream Concoctions” and I haven’t quite made up my mind whether the interior décor is ironic, an avant garde take on retro, or just confused. Old time charm is attempted to be blended with modern design ethics; LCD screen menus are side-by-side with stained glass light fixtures and signs in “Olde English” at the same time that wooden accents merge into bold granite fixtures. Although I have to admit, I am a fan of the uniforms. It’s the hat that does it, really.
I tried one of the more conservative sundaes on their menu. Yes, the drooling beast in the image below would be considered conservative in terms of number of toppings – vanilla soft serve ice cream rimmed with nuts, a Rogers’ chocolate medalion, and finished with caramel, whipped cream, and a marachino cherry.
My favourite part of the sundae was actually the nuts. But I’m an odd fellow who claims his tongue is abnormally full of too many sweet receptors. It wasn’t until after I was happily crunching on my sundae toppings that I noticed a sign advertising cookie ice cream sandwiches. That’s one childhood indulgence that has stayed with me all these years.
Looks like I’m going to have to make another trip to ye olde soda shoppe sooneth.
Rogers’ Chocolates Soda Shoppe
801 Government Street | Victoria
(250) 382-4249
Official Facebook Page
Categories: Beyond Vancouver, Blogathon 2009, Blogging for Social Change, Dessert, Food, Restaurants, Sweet, Vancouver Island, Victoria
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Articles by Karen Hamilton
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