Bin 790 - A Mommy Review

So let's talk about something other than the babies. Well, kinda.  Because the only reason I even tasted Bin 790 food is because we had babysitters for the night - our first night out without the babies - and we wanted a nearby restaurant to hit, which in fact was plan B, since I am still dying to see Harry Potter, but the damn thing isn't playing on the weekends anymore. Boo.

But I digress. Bin 790, from a Mommy's perspective?  Great get away night restaurant. Fabulous ambiance. Small intimate tables (not great for large groups - in fact, impossible with so few tables). Okay, well, this Mommy had a tough time finding room on her table for the requisite iPhone display area!

Some cool things about the restaurant are that it is a Spanish Tapas restaurant, it has a good wine list and even a selection of wine flights (although no Spanish flights - I would have liked to see that).  They had an excellent Spanish Tempranillo/Cab Sauv blend that I ordered by the glass, and they accomodated that even though it wasn't offered by the glass. And, they even had one of my fave desserts - sticky toffee pudding - on offer!

The service was excellent, the prices tolerable (not cheap or overly expensive) and this particular Mom managed to occasional talk about something other than her babies. 

However she did NOT succeed in keeping her photos of the babies to herself...the waiter we had has now seen quite a few of them...

So.  I give this restaurant 4.5 out of 5 soothers. They lost points only on the slightly uncomfortable seats, a bit of a draft from the door where we sat, and because their Spanish wine list was a little lacking.

For the record, we had the following dishes:
Zambuca shrimp - yummy, creamy, sweet. 5 large shrimp
Bacon wrapped beef tenderloin - sooo good. 4 little bites with a bit of salad on the side
Green curry mussels - good portion size, very buttery and garlicy sauce, but in my books, that's great
Pulled pork areta - one of the best items on the menu; excellent
Ham croquetas - two of them, and delish!
And of course, the 790 antipasto platter.  Very frustrated that I forgot to get the names of the cheeses and one of the meats they served us.  Wanted to be able to look for them for our own presentation some day. May still ask...

In writing this post, I found this blog...looks to be an awesome source of recipes and info about tapas...

Although we loved our meal, and even had dessert, we were home within 2 hours, and when I took my daughter Alex into my arms, she promptly fell alseep, all cuddly-like. Tapa-what?

Twitterspheric Pressure - Careful what you say about the new info-sharing world out there in tweetland!

By now, a lot of people I know have heard about and read this post. When you are as high profile as The New Yorker staff writer George Packer is, you KNOW you are going to inspire comment if you criticize arguably the most influential social media engagement tool in 2010.  We tweeps are a passionate bunch. Just look at some of the reactions to the article and you will see that we have a LOT to say in defence of our twittersphere!

My two cents:

1. Yes, I am an information addict. It's what I do. I'm a communicator and it is my job to learn, grow, study, intellectualize (where it makes sense) and communicate what I know.  If you don't learn, you don't have anything new to offer...What is it you do again, George?

2. I still consider myself relatively new to Twitter, and so at the moment, I haven't figured out my boundaries.  I do spend too much time here, but when necessary, I will find a more manageable rhythm and calm it all down a bit. After all, I need time to digest the information and then do something with that information to fit it into my current profession and deliverables.  I'm getting there, but George...here's where our approaches differ - I'm not afraid to go swimming. I like to just dive in. I find it's a good approach to learning how to swim, but hey...maybe that doesn't work for you.

3. Related to this - I'm learning how to navigate these waters (a.k.a. filter).  Rather than bitch about how jumping into the stream is frightening and out of control - how about you offer some solutions to launch successfully onto this 'raging river' instead of making people feel they will all drown if they jump in.  I'm following quite a few people who are managing to sail brilliantly through these waters, and I am learning from them!

Love the spark that caused this fire.  I thank Mr. Packer for raising this topic. It makes for good reading. There's a lot I could say, but what do you have to say on the topic? I'm interested...

Want an amazing Chardonnay? Look in our back yards...

okay.  it's not the cheaptest wine you will ever have, but if you want a seriously lovely, buttery, toasty, nutty, balanced, fresh citrus peel, yummy yummy yummy chardonnay, you only have to go 2.5 hours from Ottawa and about 1.5 hours from Toronto to hit Prince Edward County and Huff Estates.  I can't say enough about how goooood this wine, the 2007 South Bay vintage, is.  It's LOVELY.

While you are on the site, take a quick look around.  They really get what they are supposed to be about down there.  My husband and I went and stayed there for their wine futures weekend, on a special package deal that included discounts on advance order wines and a tour and some barrel tastings with their very suave winemaker, Frederic Picard. Combine that with a great dinner deal that came with the package, home-cooked hot breakfast included, etc. etc., it was a really lovely, romantic weekend getaway.  Highly recommend.

Wine pairings:  This would go great with buttery lobster and any number of other meals, but our pairing tonight was with a blackened cajun chicken on a bed of white wine and cream linguini with peppers, garlic and onion.  Damn fine meal.

Here's to a great weekend - hope you all had some good times, great food and some time to relax.

Tapas time out - La Casona, Friday night, and a less than $10 price tag

ROCK ON - it's Friday night.

I arrived home and was met with plans for a night of Tapas - Serrano ham, chirozo sausage, a smoked roasted red pepper sausage on the Big Green Egg, with a selection of cheeses, fresh baguette and salad as a side. If I haven't mentioned it lately, I have a great husband. I had to do nothing.

So. Perfect, unplanned evening fare to go perfectly with our final wine in the Top 10 under $10 series from the LCBO; La Casona Monsatrell 2007 from Yecla, Spain.


So, admittedly, after a VERY long week at work, I opened this wine with breakneck speed and, giving it a perfunctory sniff, dove right in. Yes, I got some cassis on the nose, and deep cherry and all that stuff, but for all that, it was just good, rounded, plump and juicy wine. WINE. oh, yeah....wiiiiiine.

This one has some nice tannins, and nice finish. This is a GREAT value for $8.95. If it was a blind tasting, I probably would have been able to peg it as Spanish...it just has that slightly gritty, earthy, round and yet fruity characteristics. Would I have been able to pick out that it was the monastrell grape on not a tempranillo? No...

Hey. Sorry. A little break. Just saw that Toronto is eating what Washington is dishing and it tastes like 1-6... ha!

So yes. Great value wine. of the 5 wines I have tried, it's number 3 on the list, I think.

So here's my ranking folks, after all that:

#1 is the Portugese Pedras do Monte Castelao 2007
#2 is the The Castillo de Monseran Garnacha Spainish treat (so unique)
#3 is tonight's La Casona 2007 from Yecla Spain - it's as good as any $15 I have tried
#4 has to be the Mezzomondo staple from Italy that I have been drinking for a while when looking for a bargain deal.
And last on the list was the Italian Casal Thaulero - not bad at all, but it was the only one on the list that had that slightly sulphery 'cheapy' kind of layer to the tongue. I have no idea how else to describe that 'element', but it is something I can both smell and taste. Maybe something that happens with the sulphites in cheaper wines? Not sure.

Okay folks. Now you have the scoop, or at least my interpretation of the wines I most wanted to try from that list. It was fun to do, and I hope you all don't go out and buy up all the damn Pedras bottles, 'cause I want them, dammnit!

And...the Caps "steamrolled" the Leafs tonight. Happy Friday everyone!

What's behind door number three? Part 3 of the 10 Under $10 reviews

Okay. Before I go any further than this, and in the interest of transparency (and just in case you haven't guessed, laughing at my musings on what I am tasting and fully disagreeing with me), I am NOT a wine expert. I am a wine 'souse' to use I term my Mamma would use. I LOVE it. I have a 'bit' of a nose for it, but no formal training. And...I simply know what I like, people!

Without further ado...The Castillo de Monseran Garnacha from Spain! Only $8.95 folks! And Spanish - some of my favourite wines are coming from Spain these days.

Big. Long. Pour. Tonight. Work was a drag today and it won't be better tomorrow.

Okay. When I first stuck my cute little delicate nose into this glass tonight (it's kinda crooked, actually, and not really all that cute, but...you don't know that, so...) the first thing I got was, I thought, raspberry, but then I swirled it and wow strawberry! I purposefully didn't look at the notes on the article again, and guess what? I was right! Yay me!

Then, the taste. BOY is this fruity! Almost sweet. A very different, unique tasting Garnacha, which I am more accustomed to being more gritty, with more aggressive tannins. This is a cooooool tasting wine, man! I can see this thing actually going with a myriad of dishes - I bet you could even have this with a wilted spinach, goat cheese, strawberry and toasted walnut salad or something. Very interesting. Certainly a nice, light, sipper, but don't expect and long, lingering finish. It dies out quick on the tongue. But then...I want more almost right away, so...(maybe my work day is affecting my appetite for it?)

Very different for me, but yummy. I'll buy this again for sure!

So....I have other stuff to do tonight, but wanted to the the next 'instalment' out there. Last one, the La Casona, remains. I've been told by my closest wino pal that it's a great wine value, and so that is high praise indeed!

The Under $10 travels to Italy

Trip to a new LCBO today (I went right, husband went left to the Beer Store to prepare for a night of drunken guy stuff with his volleyball team) landing me three of the remaining 4 bottles to try that a recent e-newsletter claimed were the best LCBO values under $10.


Number two on the list was the Casal Thaulero Merlot/Cab Sauv blend, listed as only $6.95, but I guess the word is already out that this is a good wine, 'cause it was actually $7.45! EGAD, but that is soooooo pricey! I had to dig deep deeeeep into my little change purse for that. (Does anybody actually have a change purse anymore? I, as always, used plastic and claimed my Air Miles, thank you very much!)

So, on the nose, you won't get old world Italian. This is a bold wine, which is generally my preference. I'm certainly not an experienced wino, but I DO get the cedar - I feel like it's a kinda wet wood/cedar, actually. Yeah, a little black licorice, but not so sweet as that. Blackberries, but not fresh - blackberry jam, I'd say. The vanilla is there, but not prominent. It's not a bouquet that makes me salivate, like some are (like the Lucky Country Shiraz, by one of our favourite winemakers, Two Hands, for instance. SO GOOD.)


Finally, time to sip...Okay. This one has more fruit - it's more forward than the Portuguese from last night. That said, the balance is still not bad. It's got a tannic kick to it, and the finish lingers a little bit. Not as much as the Pedras Do Monte from earlier this week.

Is it good? Yah, it's pretty good. Is it great? Well...it's $7.45, so yeah...it's a bloody good deal people. What do you want for $7? Jeez!

I think...(another sip)...it may need just a little more depth, like a third, earthier varietal of grape to give it just a bit more oooomph!

Nevertheless...it'll be a nice wine to sip for the rest of this evening and into tomorrow.

I have to ask, though...what else is out there? Who thinks that THEY know the best value wine in the LCBO? Is it on this list? And if you've had these wines, what do YOU think of them? Would love to know.

Happy weekend, everyone. Hope it's a good one!

Wow..what a nose...bottle one of my under $10 traipse through the LCBO

Yesterday, I received a newsletter in my inbox from TorontoLife magazine. Now, I don't live in TO, but I often visit, and I like to know what's goin' on, where to eat, where to drink and what to do...okay...where to shop, really. This particular edition had a juicy title that simply jumped off the page.

Now, I will preface by saying that the Mezzomondo is one I already buy copiously. Great value wine. The others I am going to try, I need to find, first, since the Rideau Centre LCBO didn't have (or was sold out) of the cheap wines. Coincidence?...

I did find bottle one, though. Just opened it, actually. Highly appropriate, since it is hump day, and what I love buying these wines for is my Dr. Pam recommended "take one glass in long, slow sips each night" prescription throughout the work week.

But I digress. I just opened it. It is item number five on the list, the Pedras do Monte.
Wow. Boom Boom Pow on the nose, man! It has been a long time since I had a bouquet like this! So what am I getting? Well, for certain, I am getting the licorice mentioned - and realizing that THIS is truly licorice as opposed to anise, which has less sugar/sweet on the nose and is a bit more subtle. Ain't nuthin subtle here. Lots of rips wild blackberry on the nose - no pansy strawberry here (I disagree with the reference to vague blackberry...I think there is lots here). And on the nose, I am not getting all that much smoke, but a bit of fresh tobacco...sure.

Okay. I've let it breathe plenty. Yay...I get to sip now (and now, I never spit, sorry - that stuff is gold and meant to be swallowed, imbibed, enjoyed).

Okaaaaay! I would NEVER guess at the price of this wine! It's full bodied, a bit aggressive on the tannins, but then, I like those. I'm getting the vanilla from the oak, especially lingering on the palate - great finish. This is great. Hmm....I think I have a new fave cheapie.

Gosh...can't wait to taste the next 5 or 6 I have earmarked! Until then...cheers!