Jan-chan’s Tidbits

Earlier this month on our anniversary Al took me to the C Restaurant. I’ve always wanted to go there because I heard they have very good seafood. The weather was perfect for dining outdoor, so we ordered a couple of drinks and enjoyed the beautiful view of Grandville Island and the sunset while waiting for our food.

For appetizer, I ordered the scallop tataki. I love scallop and whenever it’s on the menu I usually order it. This is probably one of the most interesting scallop dishes I’ve ever had. The jelly fish and the seaweed along with the thinnly sliced scallop really brought the taste of the ocean to my tastebuds.

Scallop Tataki

Al ordered the lobster bisque. It was very rich but slightly on the salty side.

Lobster Bisque

I ordered a scallop dish for main course too. The potato crusted scallops which came with root veggies and spot prawn were really tasty. I really liked the turnip and the scallops were cooked just right. (Sorry photo is a bit dark as the sun was hiding behind the bridge while I was taking the photo.)

Potato Crusted Scallops

I don’t remember what was the fish that Al had but it was very yummy.

Some fish dish [sorry forgot the name...

For dessert we shared the roasted apples and flower. I picked it because it sounded interested and it was very good. The floral flavored cream filled cookies were actually very light and I love the presentation.

Roasted Apple and Flower

I had a great time dining at C Restaurant. There were also two tasters and some interesting bread served at the beginning of the meal. Here are some more photos.

Oh look! It's spork!

This last photo is an inside joke. Please ignore my silliness.

The menu cover.

To celebrate a pair of birthdays we went to A Kettle of Fish for dinner. Its our first time there and I heard from several people that the food there is pretty good. They had a special three course menu that night but since I’m more of a shellfish person I got jumbo prawns for mains with pulled pork as my appetizer.

Kurobuta Pulled Pork Rillettes

Wild Jumbo Prawn Pappardelle

Before the start of our meals they offered us a little treat. It was a shrimp ravioli in shrimp broth. It was so good that we were tempted to ask if it could be our main dish. Here are more pictures of the food. I ordered cheesecake since I haven’t had any in ages.

This week the twin’s parents are away on a cruise trip so it’s time to play “Jan’s Kitchen” at their house. The challenge is to have food on the table in about an hour or so after we get home from work. I’m a very slow chopper, so it seems to takes twice as long to prepare the food.

My solution to a quick meal is one pot dinners. Well ok, that’s not exactly true. It’s actually two if you count the rice cooker as a pot. On Monday night I made a chicken and sausage stew with tomatoes served with rice. I found a recipe on Rachael Ray’s website and modified it. It turned out pretty well and I’ve made enough to last for next day’s meal also.

Yesterday was pasta night. I didn’t want to make tomato sauce because we already had the it for the stew for two nights. So it was pretty much a basic toss pasta with veggies and sausages. Just throw everything in a huge pot and toss. Again it turned out better than I thought considering the fact that I didn’t have a recipe to work with.

Wild sockeye salmon were on sale this week (2 for 1!) so we got two fillets which I’m planning on pan searing tonight. It should be enough for tomorrow’s dinner as well unless the twins decided to eat it for midnight snacks. Will update on how it turned out later.