Friday, May 30, 2008

Sterling Steakhouse


You wouldn't know it by our more recent posts, but I swear, we do eat meals and not just cakes and cupcakes. This Wilton course has created a (couple of) monster(s) and now I'm just looking for recipes that will allow me to use my new-found cake decorating skills.

The other part of shying away from cooking (in place of baking) is probably the warm weather. I'm trying to get out an enjoy the warm weather and everything that comes along with it.



You wouldn't believe the flack I got for asking my friend to hold the ice cream while taking a picture of it. Plus, a man walking by was so curious about my multiple photos of the ice cream, he asked "Is this your first ice cream of the year?", to which my friend responded "I think it's her first ice cream ever". Oh the taunting I go through to share my food with the blogging world.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, R and I went out for an anniversary dinner at Sterling Restaurant. It was our 7th anniversary. We basically consider the day we moved in together to be our anniversary because we pretty much became a couple when we committed to sharing a room together in a 3 bedroom flat in London. I was mid-way through my undergraduate degree and decided that I wanted to go off on my own and experience more of the world. R, who is from a smallish city a province away from me pretty much had the same idea. Things could have worked out terribly. We tried to safeguard against this by making a rule that no one could come home to a sock on the doorknob. Thankfully, this never became an issue and luckily, the living together thing stuck because 7 years later, we're together and happy. Ok...enough of the mushy stuff. Let's get to the food.

I'm always on the look out for a good steakhouse. Growing up Hy's was one of my favorite restaurants. Today, I'm less enthusiastic about them, although they do make a good steak. This time, I took the recommendation of a colleague and checked out a steakhouse across the river from me.





The decor was very nice with a bronze ceiling, basic table decor, and crisp linens



It's the first time I've been to a restaurant where they actually show you your piece of meat before they cook it. I'm not really sure what to look for in a good cut of meat - tips? I had the New York Strip, R had the Filet Mignon. I looked at the meat, noted that it did, in fact, look like meat and nodded my head to the waiter indicating that I was in support of him cooking said piece of meat.

We also both ordered a caeser salad, which I was very happy with.



It's probably the best presentation for a caesar salad that I've ever seen.

The steak was quite good, but I think that they were more true to the medium rare that I ordered than I had originally anticipated. I usually like my steak pink inside, but this one was more on the blue side inside. As long as I didn't look at the colour, it was still good.



We also ordered a half bottle of this wine in anticipation of our upcoming trip to France.



R left today to start an intensive course (as part of his MBA) in France and I'll be joining him in a couple of weeks. We'll be spending time in a couple of different areas but will mainly vacation in the Bordeaux and Dordogne region. If anyone has been there and has any suggestions, please please please pass them on!

Sterling Restaurant on Urbanspoon

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Apologies to Cakelaw for being so slow on recognizing the award she passed on to us.



This award is a special one and took a little thinking (that's always dangerous) because to say "you made my day" means that in some way, maybe we made a difference. We think that's a special thing and want to share it with others who have given us the same in kind. I know everybody says this but truly, there are so many who make our day in one way or another - either with some wisdom, some laughter or kindness or all of the above. This time round, here are our picks for this award:

1. Peter at Kolafagus who on a daily basis teaches us more about Greek food and culture in a way that is both a great learning and often a pretty good laugh.

2. Ben at What's Cooking always brings a smile to our faces. We've affectionately named him Mango Man for his ability to create such a variety of mango main ingredient dishes. Ben always has a thoughtful and kind thing to say on the blogs he visits and is generally an overall nice guy.

3. Brentwood Kitchen Shopper who keeps us posted on the latest and most interesting gadgets for the kitchen cook. If you're into aprons, she's got some pretty cool ones on the blog right now.

4. Next award goes to Recipe Girl. Her recipes all look so good. When visiting Giz a couple of weekends ago, I noticed that both she and I had printed off this recipe. Definitely check out her blog.

5. Last, but not least is Cooking with Anne. Anne's blog includes some great recipes and product reviews. I had to laugh when looking at Anne's blog the other day - she has a picture of her 7 kids looking happy. Most of the pictures of Actorboy and me required some sort of bribe or warning to get us to not fight with each other. That Anne can get all 7 of her kids to look happy in a picture is impressive. StumbleUpon

18 comments:

Ruth Strong said...

I have no idea how to judge meat either... the butcher was showing me some cuts and I just went for the middle one, I've really no idea.

Congrats on your anniversary! Sounds like you celebrated in style!

Enjoy your holiday! It seems like a very well deserved one!

Anonymous said...

Oh how lovely...what a great evening and Happy, Happy Anniversary!

Elle said...

What a lovely vacation you'll be having! And Happy Anniversary!

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh! What a fabulous dinner1 Looks like an awesome time!

glamah16 said...

Your friends have to adopt to blog stuff like posing with food, the right light,sttealing props etc.The whole cake thing is addictive but i cant decide if I'M a baker or a cook yet.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! My honey and I do the same thing: one "anniversary" is the day we met; the other the day we moved in, which gives us 2 fancy dinners a year! Enjoy your holiday--lucky you!

(PS Is the steakhouse a secret, or will you share the name?)

That Girl said...

You don't even want to know where we count our Anniversary from.....

Anne Coleman said...

Your anniversary dinner looks like it was fab!

I'm chuckling at your thoughts of my getting the kids all to smile. It's rare to have them all together and at once CLEAN, let alone smiling. If I recall correctly, they were threated with life and limb if they refused to do my bidding.

It worked. :)
Thank you!

Vicarious Foodie said...

Wow--I've never had someone show me my meat before cooking it. What a fancy dinner. How nice for you! Happy anniversary!!

RecipeGirl said...

Ah, you are so sweet to give me an award :) I'm crazy busy right now, but I'll plan to pass it along eventually!

Happy, happy anniversary!

OhioMom said...

...."I looked at the meat, noted that it did, in fact, look like meat and nodded my head to the waiter indicating that I was in support of him cooking said piece of meat"

OMG, DH thinks I have finally lost it, when I read the above line I roared!

Happy Anniversary !!

KJ said...

How odd. I wouldn't know what to do either if confronted with an uncooked steak. I guess I might object if it was tinged green or something.

grace said...

oh, you could've had such fun with that waiter--looking at the slab of meat from all angles, perhaps smelling it or poking it with your finger. you took the mature way out. :)

happy anniversary!

Rosie said...

Happy Anniversary and sounds like you had a great time!!

Enjoy your holiday!

Rosie x

Peter M said...

I want to thank you for your kind words and comments throughout my blog, ever encouraging, humorous and a joy to read.

I enjoy your senses of humour, your honest approach to food and it's infectious...keep on spreadin' the luv.

Bon vacances!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I was 18 when I was last in France...a long....long...time ago. Enjoy!!!!

Cakelaw said...

Happy anniversary!!

You have passed the award on to some very worthy recipients, some of whom are new to me, so I will check their blogs out.

Melissa said...

Happy 7th Anniversary!

I looked at the meat, noted that it did, in fact, look like meat and nodded my head to the waiter indicating that I was in support of him cooking said piece of meat.

That made me giggle. Hell, I have no idea what I would be looking for.

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