What's For Dinner #98 - the Pumpkin-Freaking-Everything! Edition - September 2023

Interesting. I see different spellings/pronunciations of Korean food items all the time and it doesn’t bother me one bit.

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Crispy seasoned Ritz cracker crumb baked sea scallops. Baked @ 400* for 15 minutes. I thought they were a little underdone but maybe it’s just me. Green beans (frozen) with sautéed onion, bacon and a splash of balsamic. A quickly microwaved potato turned into a twice baked potato with butter, sour cream and cheddar mix.

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Vegetarian rice-stuffed vegetables, roast oregano lemon lamb (not pictured ), and a Waldorf.




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Using up the bits and bobs. Tarbais beans and pasta in a roasted tomato sauce, with kale and a leftover kielbasa. Plenty of parm.

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A Waldorf! Yum.:slightly_smiling_face:

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Miso-glazed eggplant, oyster mushrooms and shrimp. Balcony kale salad. Maybe should’ve pulled back a little on the soy sauce and ramped up the vinegar, but not bad, not bad.

dinner

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Honey and spice roasted chicken and carrots. Basmati rice, onion, garlic, red bell sauteed in oo and cooked in chicken broth, Italian seasoning. Another orange, fennel salad, I forgot the fronds. Sangria. Dessert was a fig and date syrup milk shake.

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My kinda Waldorf!

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Toasted pearl couscous with chicken thighs, carrots, chickpeas, onions, parsley, bay leaves, cumin, allspice and pomegranate molasses.

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Dinner mostly courtesy of HMart. Scallion pancake, kimchi pancake, and soon dubu. Also, spicy daikon pickle, not shown. Frozen grapes for dessert and a Smog City Pilsner

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So funny, I was thinking of Korean g/k and u/oo and Turkish c/ç/j when I read the first comment :joy:

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Yeah. People are different.

That’s how I am when I see various English transliterations of Greek dishes.

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This one was toasted slivered almonds, Zante currants, dried cherries, honey crisp, home-grown celery, mayo, sour cream, with a little lemon and vinegar.

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Thank you for the interesting article. I love all things language related. I’ve bookmarked the website for future reference.

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Here it is on our local resto’s menu:

The Thai chef/owner, Sujitra Chubthaisong, trained at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, Thailand. One of 400 of 40,000 applicants selected. Pretty cool story.

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Yes. It’s on menus everywhere. Best not show my buddy :wink:

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“ GEORGE RESTAURANT “ - An impeccable dining venue for our annual ‘ joint man-only ‘ birthday bash!

Ever since I moved from Calgary to Toronto almost 3 decades ago. Due to the close proximity of our birthdays, my brother-in-law and I had been holding regular, annual ‘Joint men-only ‘ birthday bash for the past 20+ years. To celebrate this special occasion, we tried to select a new and different venue each year. Our only selection criteria was that the candidate destination must offer tasting menus with wine pairing. To date, we have eaten in, now-defunct stars, like Avalon, Perigee, Senses, Splendido and Truffles…., to ageless wonders like George, Scaramouche, Auberge du Pommier…. and to newer kids on the block like Alo and Frilu …etc. To add variety and intrigue, we have even driven all the way out west to Langdon Hall as well as way out east to Treadwell in NOTL!

Tonight, we picked up our tradition after a three year hiatus caused by the pandemic. For celebration this year, we have also decided to depart from our previous ‘no repetitive venue‘ criteria and picked ‘George‘ as our birthday venue, again!

Rationale for this ‘no-brainer‘ decision was based on our last visit a couple of months ago. During that occasion, we received from Chef Lorenzo and his team, the most friendly and generous hospitality plus some wondrous food. As I frequently alluded to, when dining out, it is the ‘complete total package‘ that counts. In George’s case, all these criteria of ‘ food, service, wine, decor, ambience, value… .etc ’ were easily met and more.

This evening, braving bumper to bumper traffic, the result of a sudden thunderstorm, we slowly, I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y, made our way downtown from way up north!

As usual, we chose an ‘ Omakase ‘ multi-course chef’s tasting menu, letting Chef Lorenzo and his talented team decide on our evening’s culinary fate. Our only requisite being that, if possible, a game meat be featured as our main meat course. Furthermore, since we’ll be driving after dark in inclement weather, we also decided to lower our alcohol consumption by just having a glass of Prosecco and an off-dry Riesling in lieu of our regular full wine pairing routine.

The following dishes made up our 7 courses +… offering:

  • Roasted Carrot and Toasted Quinoa Gazpacho

  • Jumbo Diver Scallop and Cucumber Ceviche

  • House Cured ‘Gravlax Style’ Wild Ocean Trout, Heirloom Tomatoes

  • Broiled Octopus with Fava Beans

  • Seared Foie Gras and Crispy Sweetbread

  • Roasted Venison Loin with Red Wine Reduction and Crispy Potato Galette

  • Cheese course of Quebec Sheep’s Cheese and Ontario Cow’s Cheese

  • Palette cleanser: Lemon and Basil Sorbet

  • Dessert : White Chocolate Panna Cotta

George’s 20th Anniversary Beignet with Molten Chocolate Centre

Visually, the meal composition adopted a beautiful and eye-pleasing ‘ Pastel ‘ theme. Main ingredients were expertly cooked and executed, accompanied by some very creative and intriguing supporting condiments and tasty sauces. The tender, nicely charred Octopus, the seared Foie Gras and crispy Sweetbread plus the tender, sweet, perfectly seared and gloriously rare interior pieces of Venison were true thumbs-up standouts. During the course of our dinner, the chef also brought out a couple of really enjoyable complimentary surprises…… .a freshly baked, hot, crispy, flaky, fluffy, light, ultra-buttery Croissant and a couple of piping hot ‘20th anniversary‘ Molten Chocolate center Beignets. The former, so good, it can easily rub shoulders with some of Paris’ best! The latter, tough to beat even in New Orleans!!

Sadly the evening did have a couple of miniscule downsides. Firstly, the service was less warm compared to our last visit, though the amount of attention was about the same. As well, the quality of wine recommended was a bit disappointing. The overly acidic Charles Barker Riesling from Niagara was one dimensional, lacking in both depth and complexity.

Still, overall, the meal was a most memorable and enjoyable one!















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Wow. those are some stunning pics!

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