Let me tell you about more of our recent trip to Stratford (Part I can be found here)...
Aside from Savour Stratford, we got to experience a small piece of Stratford during our mother-daughter
We learned our lesson the hard way when going to Prince Edward County a couple of years ago -- book well ahead of time during food festivals (otherwise you end up in a chain hotel in Belleville). We stayed at Duggan Place, a charming Victorian B&B owned by Laura and Tony.
Since Giz is the type of person to make friends with complete strangers, breakfast at this B&B was totally in her element. Tony keeps everyone chatting while serving Laura's delicious breakfast creations. I am not so much of a morning person (and may have been a bit hung over from previous day's wine), I would have been content to eat in silence.
The meal was great! I really loved the attention to detail.
The scones were very nice. I'm going to look for a scone recipe with raisins and cranberries. (Giz says: Watch for my upcoming post on scones)
The fruit was really refreshing and well put together, but dainty -- I would have loved even more of it.
The main plate was an egg souffle of some sort, over latke-type hash brown. It's the type of dish you start to miss as soon as you put your cutlery down.
After recuperating from the chocolate and wine tasting, we went out to Foster's for dinner. The space is nice (maybe a bit cold by the front window), colourful but simple with a partially visible kitchen. The service was attentive and down to earth. The food was mixed. We ordered the "asian sampler, a combination of shrimp dumplings, pork potstickers and a vegetable spring roll, served with pickled ginger, a peanut sauce and nuoc cham".
I quite liked the potstickers, but found the dumplings overcooked and the spring roll too bready.
We had heard that Foster's was known for its steak. So, we both ordered it, mine medium rare and Giz's medium. My steak was nicely grilled. I quite enjoyed the sauce options (e.g., bbq, chimichurri, etc.) they offer to add on to the plate.
Even before Giz cut into the steak, I wanted to compare the feel of a medium and medium rare steak. When I pushed down on it with the back of my fork, I remarked how much harder it was than my steak. I'm surprised the chef let it leave the kitchen. Even the waitress was surprised how cooked it was. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was just an anomaly.
They happily redid the steak. But, a nice dinner out isn't the same when your steak comes 10 minutes after the rest of your plate is finished. Plus, it was quite awkward when they took the main plates away and brought Giz's steak back on its own on a little appetizer-sized plate. I don't know what to really expect in that sort of situation, but it's irritating to have such a disjointed meal, yet pay full price.
After dinner, we quickly made our way to the theatre to see Kiss Me Kate. You can watch clips from the show here:
I thought the voices of the leads were generally strong. Some secondary characters were hard to hear. Overall, not my cup of tea. Personally, I found it simultaneously overstimulating and boring. But, I think theatre reviews are a very individual thing -- Tony (the B&B owner) emphatically disagreed with our lackluster review of the show. So, go check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
The next day, before the main tasting event, we walked around the city centre. Since my more recent knitting project is coming to a close (there's optimism for ya), I decided to go check out the knitting store (Close Knit Quality Yarns) in Stratford.
There's something so calming and mesmerising about a wall full of wool. If you're into knitting, check out their website, they have a variety of free patterns.
I decided to go with another baby pattern, since it seems (among my friends) that babies are the "new black".
1 comment:
I am enjoying your continuing saga of your trip to Stratford. Mom and dad were there just last week since they go often.I love Bed & Breakfasts!
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