Italian Kitchen - Dine Out Vancouver 2011

Today I met with my Mentor and friend to attend Dine Out Vancouver 2011. We went to the Italian Kitchen on Alberni St. in Downtown Vancouver. The atmosphere was very nice when we first arrived at the restaurant, we arrived pretty early, but the restaurant quickly filled up and it got quite noisy. I suppose it makes sense when you are seated so close to other tables.

For those of you that don't know Dine Out Vancouver is an annual event where restaurants all across Vancouver create a 3-course menu for $18, $28, $38 to encourage tourism and Vancouverites to dine out at all the great restaurants that Vancouver has to offer.

So for the Italian Kitchen the meal was a 28$ meal, and I chose to have the Salmon and Dungenuss Crab Rotolo, lemon chive spumo. This was very good and it came with a nice arugula salad dressed in (I can't quite remember anymore) either truffle oil or olive oil. The wine pairing I had was the Mission Hill '5 Vineyards' Pinot Grigio which was quite nice. It was subtly sweet and not too dry, so I liked it.

The 2nd course I ordered was the Local Petrale Sole Picatta with Baby vegetables and capers. I love seafood, but I'm not very fond of fish especially when not properly cooked. However, this was cooked perfectly and I loved every bite of this dish, right down to all the vegetables. This entrée was delicious and the wine pairing of the Mission Hill '5 Vineyards' Sauvignon Blanc was nice too. I thought it tasted similar to the first wine, as I'm not very wine savvy. 

The dessert I had was a tiramisu, mocha anglaise which was delicious! I am personally not a fan of tiramisu, but this was light and fluffy and just melted in your mouth! The strawberries were fresh and perfectly ripe, also the biscotti was good, but not as good as the tiramisu. The wine pairing for this was a small glass of Mission Hill 'Late Harvest' Rieslin which is a super sweet wine, but I really liked it. The other two wines were fresh, but this wine was sweet and syrup like.

Overall the dinner was fantastic and I was completely happy with the meal. I was pleased with the service, but I would have like it if the restaurant was quieter. 

So that was my first Dine Out Experience of this year, and I will keep you updated on my other Dine Out adventures!

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

The past Sunday 23 January 2011, I went to the Vancouver Playhouse to watch a classical music performance by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The first piece played was a String Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello in D major, Opus 9, No.2 by Ludwig van Beethoven. I really enjoyed this piece, and the Cellist Andreas Brantelid was amazing. He was charismatic and played beautifully, not that the Violinist and Violist were not spectacular, because they were. Also, the piano quartet with Wu Han (pianist) was also brilliant and very lively in her playing. She was quite enjoyable to watch and her music was soothing to listen to.

This was my first performance of the Quartet series presented by the Friends of Chamber Music and I expect the remaining performances to be just as stupendous!