Here I am again, back for more of Jamie Kennedy Thursdays at Durham College’s Bistro 67!
Tonight I am looking forward to the lamb osso bucco, being the only person from my family who eats lamb I don’t normally get a lot of lamb ?.
Tonight’s menu. ?
Tonight’s table setup is slightly different than last time’s.
This is what I am really trying to learn. The way how a table is set is determined by the food being served. It seems Bistro 67 is attempting a formal dining experience and that is something that I would like to perfect. Being Chinese, I grew up learning proper dinning etiquette for Chinese food. However, when it comes to western etiquette, the most I learned was whatever the British colonies are taught. Sadly, my post secondary education did not include dining etiquette or social manners, else I wouldn’t have to learn on the fly. However, being trained as a scientist, observation is a skill I had attained. So observe and learn from others is best.
Out comes the hors d’oeuvres.
Hot smoked whitefish canapé. The smoked fish is great and stood out in the after taste. The only problem I ran into was the bread was too soft. It nearly fell off when I was trying to pick it up.
Slow cooked pork belly on an apple crisp. The garlicky after taste is so good! I love garlic!
This time, the spread is a vegetarian spread that is very close to tomato. I am still trying to figure out what is in this spread. The only thing I can be sure of is that this is not a nutty spread and there are tomatoes in it.
This is my first quenelle. It is very interesting, it actually tasted more like egg than pickerels. The pickled vegetables were also great, I am now ready to eat more! The best thing is, the next dish is the lamb!
Viola, the Lamb osso bucco I have been looking forward to all night. The meat was good, it is very western like. As a Chinese who was born into the locality of Canton, I have to say this is not what I was expecting. The meat felt over cooked to the point where it is literally falling apart when I poke it with a fork. Of course, from a western food point of view, this is awesome. In fact, I have such a difficult time understanding why some of my colleagues love Swiss Chalet so much because of this. The curried lentils tasted familiar, the sauce it was cooked in tasted very similar to the coq au Pinot noir from last time. A side note is, I have to forego most of the lentils due to its high purine content. ?
We are now getting ready for desserts.?
Okay, this pear with cheese on blueberry purée is a small disaster. The pear was too stiff to be cut into by a dessert fork. Other tables around me have opted for requesting for a knife. I had to deconstruct the dish to eat it. There is a constant risk where the blueberry sauce would fall on clothing or drop from the pears itself. However, it tastes pretty good. The fact that we have melted cheese was good already, but to pour a sweet blueberry sauce on it, that’s a very interesting mixture of flavours which I didn’t expect.
This last dish is a real surprise. The menu indicates it as rhubarb soup with maple cannolo. I was thinking for the longest time on why is a soup the last thing on the menu. Well I got my answer. This ‘soup’ is sour! The shell of the connolo is a thin cookie and the filling is a very sweet maple based cream. When you eat the sour soup with a piece of the connolo and maple filling, it balanced out perfectly. When you focus on just the soup, it is sour. When you focus on the connolo, it is super sweet. This dish allowed the diner to enjoy the dessert at a sweetness level they prefer. ?
As I sit here sipping on my cup of earl grey, I am digesting the food prepared at yet another Jamie Kennedy Thursdays at Durham College’s Bistro 67. After observing other tables, it’d be great if I can invite someone to join me on this monthly adventure of food exploration.