Tasting menus and submarine sandwiches
My two food experiences this weekend couldn’t have been farther apart, but equally tasty and famous in their own right.
The first, Violas subs, is located across the road from the Outlet Mall on Military Road in Niagara Falls, NY. From the plastic menu, I order a capicola (Italian pork shoulder) with tomatoes. Behind the counter, the owner is frying up meat that isn’t generic luncheon sandwich meat. The cash register is an upright clunker circa 1960, when the place opened. When the hoarse sounding woman asks if I want it hot or cold, I make the mistake of asking if they have whole wheat buns. She looks at me as if I have two heads. White. Bread. Only. I feel like a huge food snob.
But, don’t get me wrong. It was hands down one of the best sub creations I’ve ever had–take that Subway. Sandwich artists my ass.
That night, we decide on the Tasting Menu at the Peninsula Ridge Winery’s newly managed The Kitchen House Restaurant: peninsularidge.com. Chef Ross Midgley (a Maritimer so you know he’s a good guy) and his wife Wendy, a sommelier, work together–she in front of the kitchen, he in the back.
The dining room is located in a red brick Victorian home overlooking the acres of vineyards on the Beamsville Bench–a land of perfect grape growing soil in the Niagara Escarpment. The air sweeps across Lake Ontario, picking up warm air, and then it hits the wall of the escarpment and drops it back down. This cycle continues and means this area in Ontario has a longer growing season than the rest of Canada. www.escarpment.org
That’s why so many of the restaurants in the area can offer a seasonal menu–you won’t see a strawberry on a menu in December! A tasting menu is a series of dishes paired with wine, but not just any wine, the chef has chosen wine that brings out the flavours of the food. And, instead of a full glass, servings are about two ounces; it’s just enough to swish around your mouth.
For three hours, Nancy and I moved through five, yes, FIVE different plates…here’s a virtual taste of my favourite. Caramelized goat cheese with arugula (a bitter tasting green) and beets served with Peninsula Ridge’s Wisner Sauvignon Blanc.
Ok, I’m skipping right to dessert! Ross says that he’s tried to take this off the menu a few times –change it up a bit–but that guests keep asking for it. Sophisticated smores. Ross has taken the traditional graham cracker, melted marshmallow and chocolate that Canadians love to make while camping and made it elegant: the melted marshmellow is soaked in icewine and sits on top of chocolate ganache and the cracker. It’s served with a vidal ice wine, which is equally as decadent.
Gatta run. Literally. With the amount of calories I consumed this weekend, I’ll be cycling, running, jumping, swimming….dog sledding…rope jumping…