Fromage: my Winterlicious excursions to date

Hubby and I tend to shy away from cheese and by that I mean Valentine’s (and year-round) cheese. Nothing against profession of love, we just choose to keep such things private. That’s just us. Don’t get me wrong, we do celebrate Valentine’s. We just do it a few days earlier-- at Winterlicious where we can get prix fixe dinners at fine dining restos.

For Winterlicious 2006 we went to La Maquette at King St. We had our first anniversary dinner there and enjoyed it so much we had to go back. Twice. I love sirloin steak. So, sirloin steak it was. Yes, yes, while I am adventurous, there are times when I cannot resist going back to food I love to eat. Do not get me started on Buffalo Wings.

Winterlicious 2007 was not so exciting. I can barely remember what we ate at Richlee’s at Eglington. It had good reviews but the mussels failed to impress.

Winterlicious 2008 took us to Café Maroc (The bar at Sultan’s Tent ) at Front St. They had good-sized portions and was good value for money. You would not get one piece of shrimp on a big white plate with fancy sauce painted around it. Instead, we got Maftoul to start with. These are rolled pastry shaped like Moroccan cigars filled with a mixture of spicy beef and some veggies. Served warm and crispy, it was an absolute delight! Main course was tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone beef short rib braised with Moroccan spices. Hubby had braised lamb on couscous. Equally good and wonderful comfort food on a snowy night. Traditional Moroccan cookies capped our dinner.

Winterlicious 2009 was at North 44. The Ahi tuna was a refreshing starter. It was delicately seared outside and freshly pink inside.  This was followed by a wonderful, wonderful salmon that was quite tasty. The only complaint I had was that the skin lay on top of the sauce. So while in the beginning it was all nice and crispy, by the time I was done savouring my dish, it had gone soggy. I figured it was alright to have the rich and creamy Crème brulee for dessert. After all, I had been eating healthy fish, right?

For Winterlicious 2010 we went with another Mark McEwan classic--Bymark. I chose fish all the way again starting with a sesame-crusted Yellow Fin tuna sashimi. It went exquisitely well with the apple and miso sauce. Pan-seared black cod was up next. The fish was fresh and perfectly paired with roasted garlic. And for dessert...how do I start describing the Crisp Apple Tarte Tatin? It was heavenly. I can still taste the caramelized apple with cream and fried apple sticks on top of crunchy phyllo. Yum!

We went to Pangaea in Yorkville for Winterlicious 2011. Crispy and perfectly cooked Calamari and just-the-right spice aioli starters were good. Tender, tasty Striploin was better. But what I will always remember was how good the Callebaut hot chocolate with orange and almond biscotti was. It was so heavenly I wanted to have seconds and thirds! The exquisite hot chocolate was from Bernard Callebaut’s chocolaterie . It was oh so smooth, rich and just plain heavenly. The vanilla bean marshmallow floating on the hot choco made it even more divine.

Winterlicious 2012. I pretty much decide where we will go every year, mainly because I enjoy doing this! Once in a while, I do let hubby surprise me and book our date with constant reviews being emailed to him, haha!  When I was deciding where to go this year, I caught a re-run of the Iron Chef bacon battle between Bobby Flay and Susur Lee. It ended in a draw. Now that’s my sign. Lee’s it will be this time. Chef Lee trained his staff well and each dish was presented with a very enticing description. Lee’s pot stickers were, well, pot stickers. The sauce had just the right amount of tang and went really well with the dish.  Hubby regrets not having the ginger and onion crusted Mahi Mahi. It was well worth the need to gargle with mouthwash soon after the meal! The croquette was a good side to this very tasty dish. A nice glass of Gewurtzraminer would have completed the meal. Dessert was a wonderful mound of hot banana chocolate cake with home-made (should I say, restaurant-made?) vanilla ice cream. Handshakes to Chef Lee marked our compliments to the chef.

We do not let summer pass without going to Summerlicious either. I will always have an occasion handy for summer, an excuse to have a fancy dinner. But that line-up will be saved for another time.

Those are our Winterlicious adventures to date. And no, we will not have cheese with that, thanks.