The LTD – Day 3
March 9
Breakfast
Decaf coffee with soya milk and honey
Lunch
Salad with grilled chicken – dressing on the side
Snack
Gluten and Wheat free cookie
Half cup of decaf coffee
Dinner
Grilled halibut filet with quinoa (made batch to last me 5 days)
Snack
Rice bread with almond hazelnut butter
Almonds and dried apricot
Boneta Loves You….a bit
Boneta is one of the fine dining gems of Gastown. When it opened, it won many accolades and is still getting positive reviews. After a rainy Olympic day, we decided to hightail it from crowded overpriced Yaletown to Gastown.
Boneta is a spacious restaurant with an open kitchen, a welcoming sophisticated bar, and a 20 foot mirrored ceilings. When we got there in our reds and whites, it was bustling and busy with beautiful people. As we munched on the soft bread, we quickly scanned the scrumptious menu and picked a few things to share. To offset the beaver tails & donut holes we inhaled earlier, we started with the beet salad.
The Beet Salad (Baby Spinach, Goat Cheese Panna Cotta, Apple, Pecans, Lemon Vinaigrette) was light and had great textures with the mix of fruit and nuts in it. And probably one of the most nicely plated salads I’ve ever seen.
To satisfy the carnivorous cravings, we went for the lamb shank.
The Braised Lamb Shank served with Soft Polenta, Haricots Vert, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Nicoise Olive Lamb Jus was delicious. The meat just fell off the bone and melted in your mouth. But I do recall though that the portion at Glowbal was more ginormous. With the polenta, it was indeed high end comfort food to ease the chill of that night.
Sharing 2 plates between two very hungry people didn’t seem quite enough…so what does one do in this dire situation? One orders dessert.
My eyes zoomed straight for the Lemon Tarte, Toasted Marshmallow, Citrus Marmalade. The lemon custard/meringue was nice and tart..which I like. The toasted marshmallow helps cut through the citrus and adds another touch of sweetness to it.
Overall the service, per usual, was friendly and attentive….the food great. I didn’t feel the love though when earlier in the night the waitress told us about the auto-gratuity. I appreciate that they forewarned the customers about the 17% auto gratuity but I was (and still am) against this practice. I was pretty disappointed especially since I do like this restaurant and respect the management team. Hopefully, it was just for the Olympics and not a long-term business decision.
Boneta
1 W Cordova St
The LTD – Day 1 & 2
I’ve been complaining (more like whining) that I’m on this prescribed restricted diet 3 week program because of low thyroid. After the 3 weeks, the docs will see if and how my body has adjusted.
I will try to document my meals (and cheats) as I go. What I found is that doing such a diet is EXPENSIVE.
My limitations are:
No Wheat
No Gluten
No Refine sugar
No Dairy
No Shellfish
No Beef and Pork
No Caffeine
oh this is going to be fun
Day 1 – March 7
Breakfast:
Coffee with Almond milk (yep I already cheated)
Granola cereal
Lunch
Rye crackers with Hummus
Vegetable Soup
Snack
More Rye crackers and Hummus
Dinner
Quinoa with chicken and vegetables
Day 2 – March 8
Breakfast
Decaf coffee with honey
Banana
Lunch
Quinoa with homemade stewed vegetables
Snack
Kashi granola bar
Terra Chips
Dinner
Brown Rice cereal with mixed fruits & nuts and soy milk
Super dinner by Secret Chef at Secret Location
It was a highly anticipated night for me. It was my first time attending a highly coveted ‘underground’ dinner. I knew it was going to be a fun time as I was going with a good group of friends like Vancouver Social Spot and Liv. And it was extra special as also in attendance were 2 highly respected food professionals. Since it was such a secretive night, I won’t disclose the names of these well known industry folks.
Steve is the mastermind and master chef behind NFA (No Fixed Address). You don’t know the location until the day before and what the menu is until the day of. The espionage nature of ‘underground’ fine dining added another level to the experience.
My eyes just widened when I saw the 6 course menu scribbled on the chalkboard. I wondered how my stomach would be able to handle it (especially since I’m cheating on my low thyroid diet). Starting off the course was the simply named Thai Beef Salad which had complex layers of garlic chips, medium rare cooked beef, and parsley on top of onion cake. The light sweet tangy sauce complemented the dish well and didn’t overwhelm the fresh ingredients.
Next came scalloped served 3 ways: Scallop with miso dressing, leek and apple; Scallop ceviche; and Scallop with watercress, leek and apple. All were so good but I think the consensus was the ceviche was our favourite. Next came the third Course which was the slow cooked Lamb Shank with lentil pilaf and cumin honey. The lamb shank was tender and not gamey tasting. It was my first time having lamb as is and not in some stew or doused with sauce.
After all that protein and rich tasting dishes, we had a nice grapefruit sorbet topped candied ginger to cleanse our palette for the next duck dish.
The seared duck with fenugrek chilli-soy sauce and steam bak choy was nicely done too. I did find the tangy sweet sauce was a bit much and overwhelmed the flavour of the duck. The seared duck itself was delicately cooked and not chewy at all. General comment…I like to see some other chinese vegetable used to pair with dishes like give siu choy or gai lan a try.
And then came my favourite dish of the dinner….dessert. If I could I would have dessert for dinner, I would.
The Berry Bread Pudding was surprisingly light. I’m use to eating dense sweet bread pudding but I like Steve’s version. It was topped with a brandy or Grand Marnier soaked blueberries (forgot which one) with a light sweet cream sauce. We were all full at this time but we managed to finish it.
Our table had a great night of conversations ranging from food to blogging to facebook to cooking mishaps to horses…you just had to be there. These underground dinners are more than just about good food…it’s really about the experience of having these personal dishes refined, cooked, and served by the chef. In a restaurant, the ingenuity and individuality of a meal seems lost in the big room. But within the comforts of home, you could taste the originality, thought and hard work that goes into each plate.
Raw deal at Raw Canvas
It was a nice gorgeous day during the Olympics so my good coworker and I felt adventurous and wanted to try a different restaurant. We learned that Raw Canvas is now open for lunch and looked like it had a good simple menu of charcuterie, soups and sandwiches.
Raw Canvas seems more fitted in area like SOMA. It is a concept restaurant where its focus is to combine socializing, art, and food. It definitely has that artsy bohemian feel where back half the place is an art studio setup. So you can come in and pay for a piece of canvas to unleash your creative side and/or sit at one of the tables to chill and eat.
My coworker and I both ordered the grilled cheese and soup. And this is when the SOMA reference to comes in. The girls who were working there were very nice but not very keen. It was quite awhile before they came by to take our orders. I was very unimpressed that it took nearly 15 minutes before 1 of the orders came to our table. I don’t remember my taking that long to make grilled cheese. My coworker picked the curry squash soup which was a nice thick hearty soup.
So here I am watching my coworker eat while still waiting for mine’s to come. It was another 5 minutes before the waitress comes by again and explains to us some panini grill fiasco happened so they would have to retry again. Instead they brought my soup out first which was a sun-dried tomato and chicken soup. I actually liked the spicy flavourful tangyness of it…and it would have been better if I had my grilled cheese to dip in it with.
So I’m done with my soup, and they barely check on our table and to apologize for messing up my order. The waitress comes by again another 10 minutes later to explain that their newbie cook just ruined another grilled cheese. But there was some redemption at this point as she said I got to pick any item on the menu and it’d be on the house. I just ordered their meat and cheese tasting plate.
So for 2 grilled cheese sandwich and soup…we were there for over an hour. If you need to have quick-lunch, this is probably not the place to do a ‘grab and go’. But if you want to go somewhere casual and fun for a date, you may want to check out Raw Canvas.
Raw Canvas
1046 Hamilton St
