The Irish Visit & Twin Birthday Bonanza

Once again, I question the sensibility of starting this blog. It was fine when I was between routines and had plenty of time to keep it updated but the last thing that I want to happen is for it to fall by the wayside (how tragic). This one will be a quick and quirky update and I hope to return to proper form after Christmas! A lot of what's been going on lately has been me settling into work and my new apartment but here's some of the other exciting things that happened when Tracy and Mike arrived in Toronto;

• Trip to the chalet. When Gillian pointed out that we were nearly there, I asked why we hadn't seen the lake yet. 'No, no, Helena. That's the cottage at Lake Muskoka. We're going to the chalet at Collingwood.' Thanks for clearing that up Gill!! Either way, the house was fabulous and the only worry was how many people we would fit in the hot tub and how to make sure that the good scotch was kept hidden. We managed to celebrate the Plummer twins birthday in style even without the good Scotch!!
• Party Play-Off. The game of the weekend. Basically, the aim of the game is to argue 2 topics against each other and hope that the topic you picked wins in the end. You start out with 32 topics and whittle it down until there is a winner declared. For example; one of the debates was whether it would be more surprising to find a wonderbra or a kitchen sink on Mars. You can see where hilarity would ensure with topics such as this. 
• Blue Mountain. I had heard a lot about this place. Not being a fan of skiing or snow in general, I was delighted to see that there was not a scrap of the white stuff anywhere to be seen! We had a stroll around, I got a delicious savoury beavertail and a pint in Windy O Neills. Yes, Canada is another country where you cannot spit without it landing within 20 feet of an Irish bar. 
• Footloose rave. This was a very random party that occurred out on the decking once I figured out the hot tub is not a good place for super super drunk people. I brought my teeny tiny MP3 player out and played Footloose at full blast (which wasn't very loud AT ALL). I'm still surprised that no one fell off the side of the decking in their crazy dancing.
• The Burl. I did figure that any place someone as cool as Claire Petch was from was bound to be pretty special. I was wrong. It's very ordinary although we did have a lovely breakfast at Cora's Restaurant which was absolutely delicious. It was my first skillet in nearly 3 years. Happy out.

• Niagara Falls. Obviously, the Falls is a must see for anyone heading to this part of the world. I get that. At first, I was a bit underwhelmed but after a while, it becomes quite mesmerising. I was disappointed that the Maid of the Mist wasn't running though. We did the 'Journey Behind the Falls' instead which is quite the waste of money - remember that if you ever find yourself there. We did go to visit Niagara on the Lake, which is the most quaint little place I have ever seen! Looking forward to heading back there in the summer. 
• Steam Whistle Brewery. Yes, I went again. And it was SOOOOOO much better than the first time! We had the most amazing guide called Francis who was too much fun. There was only 6 of us on the tour and Francis was obviously trying to get us shit-faced. Which we didn't have a problem with at all. 
• The Keg. What better way to celebrate an evening spent at a brewery than going to an almost swanky restaurant (it's in the very well to do financial district, there were tablecloths and everything!). I enjoyed a beautiful sirloin, medium rare with scallops. shrimp and a bearnaise sauce. It might well be the happiest I've been in Canada so far. 

Then it was time to say goodbye to my friends again and get myself ready to move into a new apartment and start my new job. They are whole blog posts of their own, believe me!

Moral of the Story - It's great having friends who will travel so far to see you. I can't wait for more people to come so that I can show them around my new home!!

My Birthday in Toronto

I wake up, yawn and stretch and realise 3 things in quick succession.

1. It's my birthday! I'm 26 now, better get my shit together and become a responsible adult.
2. My arm is asleep. I reach up to scratch my face and poke myself in the eye. Not nice.
3. Where the f#@k am I?

I was confused for about 12 solid minutes. I looked around and I spotted my suitcase on the floor and pictures of Gillian's twin on the walls. Oh right, I'm in Toronto in the Plummer family home with my one year working holiday visa to live and work in Canada for the year. But all of that serious stuff later. Let's get on with the birthday first! I had one card already from dear Helena and Brian (the new Mr & Mrs Byrne!) who had given me a card when I met them in New York. How sweet; on their honeymoon, they remembered to get ME a frickin birthday card. Super special people (in a good way, obviously).

I made my way to downtown Toronto to meet Gillian from her office before we headed off to St. Lawrence Market for lunch. There is so much there, my head was practically spinning. Gillian kept asking me what I wanted; I'm terribly indecisive when it comes to food choices, especially when there were so many delicious things to choose from! I ended up getting a veal sandwich (I think, I just ordered the same thing as Gillian). Looking forward to going back again and spending some time there and maybe actually buying some stuff for home cooking next time!

After that, we took a stroll through Union Station and over to the Steam Whistle Brewery to take a tour. Can you think of many things that I would enjoy more than going to a brewery for my birthday? The tour was great, short enough so you don't get bored and the story of how the brewery started is really interesting. The brewery was started by 3 guys who were fired from their jobs working at another microbrewery in Ontario. They were initially going to call the company '3 Fired Guys' but later decided that this was not an ideal marketing tool. They went with the name 'Steam Whistle' as an homage to the 1950's when the blowing of a steamwhistle at 5pm signalled the end of the work day and meant that it was time for a nice cold beer. They still have the logo '3FG' on all of their bottles though! I could go on and on about the virtues of this amazing beer and the company's innovative green initiatives but you should check out the website for yourselves. Or better yet, just fly on over here and visit - I'd have no problem going again!
Because it was my birthday, they gave me a free bottle of delicious Steam Whistle beer (not that I needed it with the copious amounts of free samples that we were getting!) Invited the nice Scottish guy that we met and his Brazilian girlfriend along for dinner. He was all for it, she didn't seem so eager though. He argued with her about the fact that she wanted to go home and get changed first and said that they would meet us later. They seemed like good fun - unfortunately, the Brazilian chick must have won the argument as they never made an appearance :(

We went for dinner in Earls Restaurant with Gillian's twin Kate and a friend of theirs Amy (another Irish girl, surprise surprise). There was obviously only one thing that I was going to order - fillet steak with pepper sauce. Mmmmm. Cooked to perfection, served with crispy shoestring fries. I was happy. Henry was particularly happy when the sticky toffee pudding came out and Kate let him have some of it!

Moral of the Story - birthdays are fun in an international setting, especially when they're not fake birthdays (only had one or two of them in my life). Also, Steam Whistle beer = delicious!

Buenos Aires Grill review

With my departure date from Ireland creeping up faster than I would probably like, I am trying to squeeze in time with as many of my friends as possible just in case I do decide to stay away longer than intended. One such arrangement I had made was to purchase a fantastic Menupages Deal for the Buenos Aires Grill in order to treat my dear friend Michael for his birthday and give us a chance to spend some quality time together before I leave. The restaurant was fairly quiet which sometimes doesn't bode well but for the price we were getting our 3 course meal, I was happy enough either way!

Before I get the full review underway, I suppose I should mention a few minor 'faux pas' that occured, these are reasons why I shouldn't be let out in public too often. Especially not to nice places......

1. Choosing a table by the window. Floor to ceiling windows that gave everyone walking by the opportunity to gawk in at us. Luckily, the restaurant is on a street slightly out of the way and it was a relatively quiet Thursday night. I am not a fan of people watching me eat. At least we weren't on the raised platform......
2. Ordering a bottle of wine each. Now, in all fairness, a bottle of the house wine was only €3 more than the half bottle. In these recessionary times, we're all looking for more 'bang for our buck'. It was a good thing I wasn't in work the next day.
3. Lighting the candle on our table. While it seemed like a good idea at the time, creating some atmosphere and what not, when I called the waiter over to check what wasn't included in our meal deal with the voucher we had, I managed to set the voucher on fire. I was still able to use it which is the main thing ;)
4. As a result of Michael's hiccups and my wicked heartburn (after downing an entire bottle of red wine to myself), I demanded that the waiter bring us some bread soda and a glass of water. An old trick that my mother taught me to get rid of almost anything that is wrong with your digestive system. However, it must have looked a little strange when the waiter arrived back with a small ramekin full of white powder and placed it in the centre of the table.....

Despite all these hiccups (ah hiccups, literally! Just spotted this when reading back over, I love when I do things like that unintentionally), we managed to actually have a lovely meal. I had the scallops to start (a little surprised that they were included in the deal, surprised and delighted), he had the fish cakes. It almost fell into the trap of having too much rocket on the starter plates when it really doesn't need it. The scallops were cooked very well (always a fear of mine) and the buerre blanc sauce with them was a perfect accompaniment.  I did taste the fish cakes also and they were full of flavour with a couple of different fish tastes coming through. Onto the main event, which was obviously the steak. I went for the 8oz fillet, he went for the 12oz striploin. We both ordered our steak medium - unfortunately, my fillet was rather thick and slightly over-cooked for my liking around the outside but the flavour was fantastic and it was a really delicious cut of meat. His striploin was cooked absolutely perfectly. The chips were proper thick chinks of potato, although the side salad was a bit of a disappointment. I tried the Argentinean Chimichurri sauce which was a little oily for me but had good flavour. 

By the time we were ordering dessert, I don't think either of us were quite sure we really wanted it. But it was included and you never waste anything!! I chose the chocolate lava, he was boring and went for the ice cream. To be honest, we were both fairly well oiled at that stage, it wouldn't have mattered what we were served. I would have preferred the lava cake to be a little softer on the outside and should have ordered it with ice cream instead of cream. I don't even like cream!

Overall, the service was great, the food was delicious, the wine was flowing, the conversation was....well a little slurred by the end of it. We did manage to come up with a wonderful idea for what could become the best hostel in Dublin - Hostelle Mickelena. That is a subject for a post all of it's own....

Moral of the Story - don't order a whole bottle of wine with dinner. Either way, good company can make any mouthful of food taste better. Thanks Michael!! Check out the restaurant's website here also http://www.buenosairesgrill.ie/