Review: Village Creperie (with a side of history)

Oh and I changed my whole menu last night due to our conversations and made crepes. I had a creamed steak and broccoli and roasted garlic and pepper crepe and a scallop with ginger and green onion and peppers with the Mango, ginger, jalopeno sauce crepe served with a salad. Everyone enjoyed it! So thanks for the inspiration!


This, I think (excerpted from a recent e-mail with my Mom; I recounted the awesome pre-V-Day dinner that M and I enjoyed at the Village Creperie to her, and she completely rerouted the family dinner that night as a result) is a big part of why I'm a fledgling foodie. ^_~ It could be said that we breathe food, a little, in my family.

I love you, Mom. Never change. ♥


That said, I've been waiting to try the Village Creperie since arriving in KW in August, and it lived up to my expectations! Nestled in Belmont Village behind an unprepossessing storefront (though I covet the quirky vintage font used in the signage), we opened the door that night to a bit of Brittany brought to the Tricities.

The ambience is charming and romantic; tealights and overhead lights cast a soft glow over the twelve or so tables and long bar, and the hostess and servers were amiable and welcoming.

I would happily return for my crepe - a special, featuring slow-roasted chicken cooked in a Riesling wine sauce with mushrooms, onions, and topped with peas. The side salad of baby greens and tomatoes added crunch and variety, and left space for dessert! M's eye was caught by the smokey Texas chili galette (buckwheat crepe) stuffed with beef, garlic, chipotles, kidney beans, peppers, and aged cheddar, and the bite I was able to negotiate away from him was delicious.

We lingered over our wine (a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon and an Italian Pinot Grigio) as we narrowed down dessert options; M's smile grew impossibly once his dessert crepe with ice cream and chocolate sauce descended, and I'm sure mine mirrored his as I took in the sight of my fresh fruit and dulce du leche crepe, topped with more fruit and toasted pecans. My crepe was tasty (I never even had a chance with M's) but I'll be back for it in the summertime to see if the fruit selection changes; the grapes and citrus fruits were a bright counterpoint to the richness of the dulce du leche, but the grapes were somewhat unwieldly. I'm thinking strawberries and raspberries (and peaches, yum) will be much more amenable. M ordered an Americano with his crepe, and he praised its flavour and aroma highly (and bounced most of the way home.)

As we ordered and received our dessert, the restaurant filled up quickly; I recommend calling in advance for reservations, especially on weekends.

Bon appetit!

Review: Watami Sushi & Sake Bar

There is nothing sadder than having two plates of gorgeous maki arrive at your table and realizing your camera's memory card is still tucked into your laptop. As it is, I'll do my best to paint a mental picture of the sushi artistry that Watami creates.

After enjoying the gorgeous dance scenes and creeping madness of Black Swan at the Princess Twin, a friend and I turned our feet down King in search of eats. I'd been eying Watami since "Opening Soon" signs showed up in Charbries' darkened windows, and suggested it as we passed by.

We ducked in, and were shown to a table between the crackling fireplace and a brightly-lit fishtank; both features, along with the artwork, created a comfortable and mildly upscale ambience that hinted at the attention to detail to come with our food. Watami's decorative palette is bold - warm reds, browns, and blacks - but the lighting makes it welcoming, not overwhelming.

The menu is detailed, clear, and honestly massive - particularly as the "a la carte" options include sashimi, sushi, maki, or hand-roll styles (choose one of nineteen varieties of seafood/fish, then choose your prep method). I plan to come back for that, and sit by the chefs and watch them work their magic. It was one of my favorite things to do when I was eating out in Japan, although my absolute favorite chef was the main ramen cook at this tiny diner literally called "Ramen Stand" in my hometown. He never stopped moving, and to this day, I've never found ramen to match his.

Digressions aside, although the Ginger Wasabi roll (fresh salmon with ginger and wasabi) and Kansai Sushi ("fresh fish on top of Kansai style box sushi" - sounding a lot like a blend between Kansai (Osaka-Kyoto region) and Tokyo-style chirashizushi) caught my eye, and we puzzled over the Tex Mex roll (diced tomatoes with fresh tuna and avocado on top of a California roll? Fusion, sometimes you break my brain) - we decided on the Spider Roll and Watami on King.

The rolls offer a lot of selection, but are accessible to most levels of sushi enthusiast; several of the more complex rolls are elaborations on the shrimp tempura (Red/Black/Green Dragons; Ice&Fire) and California rolls (Rainbow/Watami/Tex Mex), and Watami also makes vegetarian and cooked rolls (Teriyaki Chicken or Beef.)

S and I watched the Sushi Lover Boat for Two sail past us, and almost changed our order (huge and gorgeous; come with an appetite) but we were definitely happy with our choices when they arrived.

Great attention was paid to plating; the Spider roll was plated over a spiderweb of sauce, and the cooked soft-shell crab wrapped up in a whirlwind of lettuce, tobiko, and sushi rice was delicious. I particularly liked how two of the crab legs spiked up from the rolls, giving them an extra sense of drama... and more seafood for us to enjoy.

The Watami on King rolls were a tasty multi-bite affair. Definitely not for purists, these California rolls are topped by a seafood salad turned pink by the mixture of mayo and tobiko that keeps it together. I will admit to raising an eyebrow (they reminded me of nothing quite so much as cupcakes in appearance) but restaurants usually don't attach their names to something questionable, so we grinned at each other and dug in. Yum. Like chirashizushi, this dish is a good way for chefs to use fish that might not be shaped perfectly for sashimi, and I caught tastes of salmon, tuna, crabstick, and hamachi as I ate through the salad to get to the California roll (to continue the metaphor, much like eating the icing first!)

We debated ordering a third roll to share, but decided to take a walk to give our stomachs room for dessert. With tax and tip (and tea, which I think was provided at no charge and speedily refilled by our excellent server), our bill was in the mid-twenties; definitely a solid late lunch.

One thing that caught my eye about Watami was that they almost always have a long table for 8-10 people set against the front window, and that this table is almost always full. I'm hoping to organize a dinner that will need that table - I think that it will make for a fun night out, and be a great chance to try a lot of sushi. Maybe by then they will have added umeshu, which is a Japanese plum wine, to their menu; a girl can hope!



Watami Sushi & Sake Bar
15 King Street N
Waterloo ON
ph: 519-747-1100

Review: Matter of Taste (Kitchener)

One of my resolutions for 2011 (say what you will) is to stop holding grudges.

In this case, to stop holding grudges with undeserving-of-said-grudge coffee shops. After surprisingly rude treatment by one of the employees at Uptown Waterloo's Matter of Taste on my first visit there, I'd steered clear of both locations until a blustery day steered our feet Downtown. M had a craving for an Americano, and I just wanted to feel my toes again. On our first trip past the storefront, M looked over with a hopeful smile, I made some sort of grumbly noise, and we trekked on.

But as luck (and Sunday hours) would have it, we ended up back in front of Kitchener's Matter of Taste. Neither of us had been to this location before, so I swallowed my fear of snarly baristas and followed M.

Said fear disappeared immediately. MoT offers an almost academic sensory overdose, not in the sense of rulers and pencils, but an offering of ideas and histories and flavours, if you're interested in digging deeper. I was distracted by the open baskets of coffee beans, the almost-abstract landscapes with graffiti overlay on the walls, the charts of coffee aromas and how to tie them all together, the (sadly occupied but definitely comfortable-looking) armchairs and couches... it took M ordering his Americano to bring me back to the menu. I requested a London Fog, and we snagged one of the tables after the young man at the counter told us he'd bring our drinks out (definitely a nice touch!)

Both drinks were what we needed - M needed the caffeine kick and enjoyed that the Americano's strong flavours broke through the haze a stubborn cold put on his sense of taste, and I enjoyed the vanilla kick and perfectly foamed milk of my Fog. According to their website, MoT actually holds latte art competitions, where baristas create artistic masterpieces on the surface of foamed milk.

We stayed for a second round; M grabbed a coffee and I ventured to the tea shelf and "smell tested" the sample vials of the black and green teas (completely missing the shelf of herbal, white, and rooibos), and chose the green Cinnamon Sibu. (YUM.)

Toes warmed and well-caffeinated, we headed out into the chill - but we'll be back.

Gastronavigation: Chianti, Sugarbowl (Edmonton)

I have to admit it: when I went back to Edmonton for Christmas, I had a food list.

I'm not saying that Culina's dark chocolate and blue cheese steak, or the Hardware Grill's lobster mac & cheese, or Da-De-O's sweet potato fries, or the Manor's spinach salad, or Duchess' macarons are the best in the city (though you won't steer wrong if you order them at all), but I missed them, just as I missed walking around the River Valley or trying to figure out (as I do yearly) whether I shoot left or right in my family's yearly road hockey games.

(For the record, I shoot left.)

Having my sister gift me with a "Sister Lunch" was a bonus! However, something we're known for, and should have expected going in, is what we tend to call "adventure" and what a more honest person might call "getting lost/distracted/detoured and ending up somewhere else altogether". We were headed to Hudson's on Whyte for bison burgers (bison being on my list) and to watch one of the World Junior hockey games (hockey games being, always, on my sister's list)... only to discover that said pub was closed for renovations!

So it was with hungry eyes that we turned our eyes westbound down Whyte, succumbing to the warmth and nostalgia (and $7.99 all-day pasta specials!) featured at Chianti.

Chianti is a Whyte institution, hosted in an old Post Office and easy to spot as it's capped by a green-roofed clocktower. It's one of the first restaurants that I remember visiting, so it was, in part, nostalgia that steered our steps. I've had family dinners and birthday dinners and first dates and breakups and hey-we're-just-friends lunches hosted under its tall ceilings, looking out onto the Ave or taking in the classical prints and neon printouts of upcoming concerts. I don't know if I've ever wandered off the pasta menu (there are a lot of options!) but while it's by no means haute cuisine, I've always left very happy and full!

After sharing a couple of laughs with our server (who was an old soccer teammate and friend of my brother's) I ordered the Fettuccine Fulminante: thick homemade noodles with baby shrimp, smoked salmon, onions, and black olives in a curry-cream sauce, and my sister, craving pesto, ordered the Penne alla Pollo with chicken, tomatoes, and peas.

Her dish was tasty - although peas strike me as unconventional, they added a sweet note to the savoury flavours of the tomatoes and basil pesto - but the Fulminante is an old favorite and I dug into it with gusto. There's something awesome about the rich, smoky combination of the olives and salmon combined with the yellow curry sauce (something that I probably should have figured out how to cook by now, but there's also something to be said about going out!) Defeated after eating about two-thirds of the generous serving, I declared myself too full for a shared order of Da-De-O's cajun sweet potato fries (we'd toyed with the idea pre-lunch), and trekked across the river so I could introduce my sister to Duchess Bake Shop.

Strike two - the bakery was closed between the 1st and 10th of January - but I did get an interesting photo of their gingerbread Notre Dame!

Not to be fazed by this setback, we rallied and turned even further west to Vi's for Pies, whose tasty soups and knockout desserts I discovered far too late in my days in Edmonton. Unfortunately, they were also closed for the holidays!

Fortunately, the Sugarbowl welcomed us warmly, and a square of banana cream pie and a massive serving of bread pudding were soon in front of us. The banana pie was smooth and tasty, and was probably the wiser choice given that we'd just eaten pasta - but I hadn't had bread pudding in ages and couldn't resist. I'll return and defeat it, one day, or share it with a friend: delicious and formidable, topped with soft, real whipped cream and peppered with raisins, banana, and caramel, it's a great decadence for a cold day, and effectively added itself to my Food List for future trips.

While the Sugarbowl's hard seats don't look like you could spend hours in them over coffee, portabella burgers, or exotic lagers without losing feeling, they are oddly comfortable, and service is quirky, quick, and personable. With its proximity to the University, most diners were either students or professors, but it shouldn't be dismissed, with its awe-inspiring beer list (it's even longer in real life), exposed brick and wood walls, and casually stylish staff as for-hipsters-only. The Sugarbowl has been around since the '40s and has been a "Belgian-style cafe" since the late 80s, serving up microbrews and unique ales far prior to the current fascination for beers beyond Bud. It's definitely worth a visit.

This day, complete with detours, was a perfect gift - a chance to literally gastronavigate for a few hours and take someone awesome along with me.

Review: Lion Brewery

Winter is definitely a key season for comfort food, and after just a few months in K-W, it's looking like schnitzel might become one of mine. To be fair, tonkatsu is more or less its Japanese equivalent, and I lived off of that for a while in Japan...

That said, the Lion Brewery's Schnitzel Parmesan was worth the stop: it's a lot of food, but leftovers are nothing to complain about! The side of applesauce puzzled me momentarily(I get that pork and apple products are commonly served together, but was it a dipping sauce? Mini dessert?) but it was ultimately enjoyed along with the other sides: tart wine sauerkraut and perfectly roasted potatoes. (The seasonal veggies were crisp and fresh, but when presented with this much food, a girl's got to have priorities!)

The schnitzel itself was perched on top of the sides, and topped with halved cherry tomatoes, tomato sauce, and parmesan & mozzarella cheese - yum. Definitely decadent, and happily not fried to a crisp.

Several menu items play off of leonine/safari themes: salads are "from the grassy plains", and the falafel is "ferocious" which led to a grin or two as M and a friend of ours ordered the Predator's Spare Ribs. The ribs were falling off the bones, and covered in a sweet-smoky barbecue sauce; I liked the mashed yams - a simple twist from the usual potato side - and the campfire beans had a hint of something that could have been molasses which made them more memorable.

Our friends ordered the Salmon Machungwa (Google tells me that Machungwa is Swahili for "orange") with braised leeks; it looked delicious and disappeared quickly, as did the Chicken Pub Pie, which was smaller than most offerings I've seen in pubs, but the side of fries or salad makes it a solid meal.

Somewhat blasphemously, none of us tried any of the beer (considering it's a brewery...) but I can vouch for their honey brown lager from past experience.

As an aside, if you're looking this place up and are new to the area, the brewery is in the basement of the Huether Hotel; Cafe 1842 occupies the main floor (mostly serving coffees, bagels, desserts, and ice cream) and Barley Works (fun pub atmosphere with a great summer patio) is on the top floor.

Review: 41

41 can't help but make a good first impression. From the stylish, warm interior characterized by exposed brick, high ceilings, plush booths and fresh alstroemeria on every table to the way the maitre d' put a commendable amount of work into finding my family a table (that said, dinner reservations are recommended!), it's easy to tell that this place was created as a labour of love.

41 is a revisioning of a classic kid on the block - it opened on April 15, 2010 - although head chef and proprietor Peter Martin stayed on board from when it was known as Peter Martin's 20 King. From a quick menu survey, 41 has kept 20 King's focus on gourmet dining featuring a variety of meats while expanding in the direction of "gourmet comfort food".

That said, while the food is delicious, the wine list solid (Dad was pleased to note a favorite Malbec), the fries addictive, and I wish I could adopt or learn the secrets of the person who makes their smoky, chipotle-tinged ketchup or spicy blueberry mustard (the latter sounds crazy but it is a thing of beauty) there is room for improvement.

Firstly, the website is in need of updating; most of the dinner menu entrees are listed on the website as anywhere from 1-4 dollars less than what we paid during our visit, and the dessert menu "singles" are around $7 (although a chocolate/vanilla cookie has been added). Prices go up; that's part of the business. But when they do, I believe it should be the restaurant's responsibility to let potential customers know what they're in for.

Service for the most part was solid, and everyone has their rushed days, but literally dropping a soup spoon on the table in front of my dad before rushing away without a word? Not so much. And at least tonight, 41 suffered from unattractive side plating and a minimal serving of sides on the Wild Boar Schnitzel (which three of us ordered; my siblings did much better with the buttermilk mashed potatoes and fries that came with their dishes.) Also, I'm naive enough (and visit St. Jacobs' market enough, where they're readily available and not that expensive) to expect that when a menu says a $25 entree is served with fingerling potatoes, there will be more than two or three, and they'll be plated attractively. The fennel and beets served with the potatoes were a sweet-sharp counterpoint, but I couldn't help but want a little more.

My favorite main course was the chicken Kiev - a great mix of flavours and the chicken was perfectly cooked; as well, the sarsaparilla short ribs had the best plating and melted off the bone (yum to the root beer jus; another unlikely mix that turned out deliciously!) The wild boar schnitzel was good and filling, but pounded thin enough that it was hard to discern any boary flavour; M enjoyed it, but he noted quietly that "it could have been anything."

(We're coming back for the 20Kinger burgers and fries - we watched way too many emerge from the kitchen to not give them a try!)

And the evening ended on a positive note: dessert!

My sister's sweet tooth is legendary, and she closed in on the creme brulee; rich, creamy, and with a smooth, strong vanilla flavour... I almost kept it upon my chance to try it. I chose the lemon tart, which was a knockout too, nicely contrasted by a small bowl of raspberry sorbet. M was the only guy at our table to join us in dessert, and chose the triple chocolate tower with Bailey's cream on the side; I'm not much of a chocolate dessert girl, but with a white, milk, and dark chocolate layer, it was beautifully presented and not too heavy (key, as schnitzel is sneaky; it doesn't look like a lot, but we were both very full at the end of the night!)

Having awesome desserts swayed me, in the end; 41 has a ton of potential, and there's something to be said for supporting locally owned and operated businesses, too. I just hope they update their website between now and then.

Review: Hometown Eatery

I should say that I've been to Hometown Eatery before - it was the first restaurant that I visited upon moving to the KW area - but when dining out, it's inevitable that certain things on the menu will catch your eye.

And so it was with Yukiko's lemon poppyseed slaw and the Polenta Lasagna; though happily distracted by the burger selection (which has got great variety and taste), something told me that these would be worth trying.

So, book in hand, I wandered back. I was on the late side of lunch, but the cafe was bustling with friends and coworkers out for dessert or a more substantial meal. I enjoy eating out on my own every so often (it's a great way to people-watch and to get in some writing) and it's always interesting to see how servers/hostesses treat you upon realizing your singledom. Props to the server at Hometown, who smiled genuinely with her "for one?" and bustled me over to my choice of two tables.

Hometown Eatery, or Yukiko's, as some locals still call it, is bright and whimsical; well-lit with a mix of abstract canvas art and pop-art-esque depictions of food nestled beside chalkboard lists of beer on tap (considerable; lots of in-province breweries) and daily specials. I was disappointed to see a lack of Ontario wines on the winelist, but think that this has more to do with liquor laws than Hometown's interest in having them on the list. Plus, although it was 5:00 somewhere, I stuck to water.

My lemon poppyseed slaw arrived first; the dressing was crisp and refreshing with lots of poppyseeds, and while the slaw was crisp and not pre-packaged, I couldn't help but wish for a bit more of a punch in flavour and texture (sliced almonds? red cabbage?) Still, it was enjoyable, and a good precursor to...

Lasagna! It's one of my favorite comfort foods, and appeared in an oblong baked-pasta bowl with two slices of in-house rosemary bread (YUM). The bread was handy for soaking up the pasta sauce, and the lasagna itself was a yummy twist on the traditional version. The veggies (mushrooms, cauliflower, zucchini, onions, and peppers) and generous amount of melted mozzarella made a tasty counterpoint to the discs of polenta; I'm not certain I've been fully seduced away from the traditional combination of noodles/mozza/meat, but this was a delicious alternative!

...It's not necessarily lighter, though - I was still pretty full at dinner.

Service at Hometown can be uneven (read: slow, although always friendly) but today my server was excellent, even though she was doubling as hostess. With tax and tip, my bill was close to $20, which is on the expensive side, but with most of the dishes, a side is included, and the polenta's one of the more expensive items. I'd save it for dinner in future, but I'm sure I'll be back.