| Cindy Fuller |
The SO and I spent Memorial Day weekend over on Vancouver Island, our
first road trip since the Vancouver-Spuzzum-Okanagan Valley-North
Cascades run of last August. Alas, the weekend was tarnished by the
food poisoning I got in Anacortes Friday night. The water was
absolutely calm on the ferry ride over, but my innards were convinced we
were on roiling seas. I managed to have some pho ga for lunch in
downtown Victoria. We had dinner at the Med Grill. What little I ate
was excellent. I had pork tenderloin, SO had lamb.
Sunday we headed up the west coast of the island to Port Renfrew. This
is serious logging country. It was raining most of the morning, but the
sun came out in the afternoon. Lunch was at the Point No Point, a small
restaurant within a rustic resort right on the ocean. It's the sort of
place where one could finish writing a novel without having to deal with
emails or phone calls. Both of us had penne with pesto sauce. We
walked around the grounds and got some nice pictures of the shore and
some of the plants clinging to the salt-sprayed rocks. SO, sneaky devil
that he is, had made dinner reservations at a resort/restaurant called
the Aerie north of Victoria. He'd remarked as I was packing on
Thursday, "You might want to bring something nice to wear. A dress,
maybe." I should have known something was afoot when he brought a dress
shirt and sports jacket along with him. (This is very atypical
behavior--usually when on vacation we wind up at fancy joints right
after a sweaty death march in the wilderness without a change of
clothes.) The Aerie has three fancy-schmancy prix fixe tasting menus.
SO opted for the seafood one; OTOH, my innards were still a bit touchy
and I ordered the vegetarian one. The food was good, the location was
stunning (we watched the valley below get dark), and I was happy he
footed the bill. The exchange rate is not as good as it was last year.
The ferry ride back to the mainland was fairly uncrowded until we picked
up the masses from Friday Harbor. They had to shoehorn the cars and
SUV's on the lower deck. The Washington State Ferries do not have food
service on board other than vending machines, so I bought a small
Nanaimo bar at the snack bar in Sidney as a souvenir to nibble on.
HOOBOY, those suckers will put a pancreas into overdrive! I wanted no
part of eating in Anacortes after Friday's debacle, so we had an early
dinner at a microbrewery in Mount Vernon (home of the Skagit Valley
Tulip Festival in April). The BBQ brisket was good, but SO's chicken
was beyond done. The waiter was nice enough to substitute ribs and take
the charge off the menu.
Now that I've finally recovered, it's back to cooking and tending the
herbs.
Cindy
--
C.J. Fuller
Delete the obvious to email me
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| Rona Yuthasastrakosol |
"Cindy Fuller" <cjfullerSPAMORAMA@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:cjfullerSPAMORAMA-640AC5.10172505062004@news3.west.earthlink.net...
<snip>
>SO, sneaky devil
> that he is, had made dinner reservations at a resort/restaurant called
> the Aerie north of Victoria. He'd remarked as I was packing on
> Thursday, "You might want to bring something nice to wear. A dress,
> maybe." I should have known something was afoot when he brought a dress
> shirt and sports jacket along with him. (This is very atypical
> behavior--usually when on vacation we wind up at fancy joints right
> after a sweaty death march in the wilderness without a change of
> clothes.) The Aerie has three fancy-schmancy prix fixe tasting menus.
> SO opted for the seafood one; OTOH, my innards were still a bit touchy
> and I ordered the vegetarian one. The food was good, the location was
> stunning (we watched the valley below get dark), and I was happy he
> footed the bill. The exchange rate is not as good as it was last year.
>
The Aerie!? Holy smokes! He really went all out! Any pictures of the
food?
rona
--
***For e-mail, replace .com with .ca Sorry for the inconvenience!***
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| alzelt |
Cindy Fuller wrote:
> The SO and I spent Memorial Day weekend over on Vancouver Island, our
> first road trip since the Vancouver-Spuzzum-Okanagan Valley-North
> Cascades run of last August. Alas, the weekend was tarnished by the
> food poisoning I got in Anacortes Friday night. The water was
> absolutely calm on the ferry ride over, but my innards were convinced we
> were on roiling seas. I managed to have some pho ga for lunch in
> downtown Victoria. We had dinner at the Med Grill. What little I ate
> was excellent. I had pork tenderloin, SO had lamb.
>
> Sunday we headed up the west coast of the island to Port Renfrew. This
> is serious logging country. It was raining most of the morning, but the
> sun came out in the afternoon. Lunch was at the Point No Point, a small
> restaurant within a rustic resort right on the ocean. It's the sort of
> place where one could finish writing a novel without having to deal with
> emails or phone calls. Both of us had penne with pesto sauce. We
> walked around the grounds and got some nice pictures of the shore and
> some of the plants clinging to the salt-sprayed rocks. SO, sneaky devil
> that he is, had made dinner reservations at a resort/restaurant called
> the Aerie north of Victoria. He'd remarked as I was packing on
> Thursday, "You might want to bring something nice to wear. A dress,
> maybe." I should have known something was afoot when he brought a dress
> shirt and sports jacket along with him. (This is very atypical
> behavior--usually when on vacation we wind up at fancy joints right
> after a sweaty death march in the wilderness without a change of
> clothes.) The Aerie has three fancy-schmancy prix fixe tasting menus.
> SO opted for the seafood one; OTOH, my innards were still a bit touchy
> and I ordered the vegetarian one. The food was good, the location was
> stunning (we watched the valley below get dark), and I was happy he
> footed the bill. The exchange rate is not as good as it was last year.
>
> The ferry ride back to the mainland was fairly uncrowded until we picked
> up the masses from Friday Harbor. They had to shoehorn the cars and
> SUV's on the lower deck. The Washington State Ferries do not have food
> service on board other than vending machines, so I bought a small
> Nanaimo bar at the snack bar in Sidney as a souvenir to nibble on.
> HOOBOY, those suckers will put a pancreas into overdrive! I wanted no
> part of eating in Anacortes after Friday's debacle, so we had an early
> dinner at a microbrewery in Mount Vernon (home of the Skagit Valley
> Tulip Festival in April). The BBQ brisket was good, but SO's chicken
> was beyond done. The waiter was nice enough to substitute ribs and take
> the charge off the menu.
>
> Now that I've finally recovered, it's back to cooking and tending the
> herbs.
>
> Cindy
>
Our paths must have crossed. The SBF, MIL in from Helsinki and I headed
on up to Victoria on June 1. Knowing the WSF did not have foodservice, I
came prepared. I baked some oatmeal bisquits, filled up a cool box with
cut fresh fruit, sliced edam, some butter and sliced turkey, and packed
some OJ, coffee and tea. Boy did we get stares. I guess reading the
website prepared us.
We did Butchart Gardens, and then had dinner ( a good one at Pescatores
in Victoria). Took the BC ferry to Tawassen and drove up to Vancouver on
Wednesday. Had late lunch on the ferry. Good service.
Can't remember the name, but had very good sushi on Robson. Prior to
that we took the skytrain down to the big mall south of town. I am not
sure what is wrong with Seattle for dragging its collective butt, but
the Skytrain is fantastic. I spoke with a local who commutes to work on
it. Says it is always packed, and used very much on off hours as well.
On Thursday, we walked around Stanley Park (5 1/2 miles). And had some
lunch, again on Robson. After doing Sun Yat Sen's garden in China Town,
we drove on back down to Seattle.
--
Alan
"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and
avoid the people, you might better stay home."
--James Michener
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| Julian Vrieslander |
In article <40c27431$0$19849$44c9b20d@news2.asahi-net.or.jp>,
"Rona Yuthasastrakosol" <prasantrin@yahoo.com> wrote:
> The Aerie!? Holy smokes! He really went all out! Any pictures of the
> food?
No we didn't take pics of their food. Although if you search the web
for "Aerie Resort" you can probably find some photos. They seem to do a
good job of promoting themselves. And this is one of those places that
goes in for "architectural food", presented in carefully constructed
sculptures on plates three times larger than required. Personally, I
think this is silly.
But the Aerie is capable of some very high-level hash slinging. I
picked the seafood tasting menu, which on this evening included an
oyster cream, a salad with seaweed and pickled octopus, spice-encrusted
tuna, sauteed morels, and several other items that I can't recall. They
brought us a seemingly endless series of courses, in small portions.
But our waiter warned us to pace ourselves, since the sum of these
courses is a formidable meal. The only clunker for me was the last
seafood course, a piece of salmon in puff pastry on a bed of riced
potatoes, with sauce. This was just too rich, especially coming after
so much other food. I prefer salmon in a simple prep (by itself with
only a splash of lemon, a vinaigrette, or a light glaze of soy and
ginger).
Cindy and I very rarely visit glam dining establishments. This was a
splurge. Since we have so little experience with restaurants in this
league, it wouldn't mean much for us to give it any sort of rating.
Better than The Cheesecake Factory, yes. What I can say with certainty
is that the Aerie's location is certainly an eye-opener. Right near the
top of a mountain, with spectacular views.
--
Julian Vrieslander
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| Blair P. Houghton |
I had Dofino in Tofino.
--Blair
"You had to be there."
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| Rona Yuthasastrakosol |
"Julian Vrieslander" <julianvREMOVE_THIS_PART@mindspring.com> wrote in
message
news:julianvREMOVE_THIS_PART-918DE7.23063005062004@news6.west.earthlink.net...
>
> No we didn't take pics of their food. Although if you search the web
> for "Aerie Resort" you can probably find some photos.
Darn. It's not the same. I like to see what people actually ate.
>They seem to do a
> good job of promoting themselves. And this is one of those places that
> goes in for "architectural food", presented in carefully constructed
> sculptures on plates three times larger than required. Personally, I
> think this is silly.
>
I don't care for it much, either. Architectural food is generally messy to
eat and I hate food that's messy to eat.
> But the Aerie is capable of some very high-level hash slinging. I
> picked the seafood tasting menu, which on this evening included an
> oyster cream, a salad with seaweed and pickled octopus, spice-encrusted
> tuna, sauteed morels, and several other items that I can't recall.
See! That's why you needed pictures!! :-)
>They
> brought us a seemingly endless series of courses, in small portions.
> But our waiter warned us to pace ourselves, since the sum of these
> courses is a formidable meal.
I went out for teppanyaki last weekend and had several very small courses
(the beef served was also a small serving--only 80g). At first I thought,
"This is a rip off!" but by the end of the meal I was stuffed (and I
probably didn't have nearly as many courses as you did). Made me think of
why Japanese people are generally quite slender. They don't overstuff
themselves at every meal with huge portions as they do in North America.
rona
--
***For e-mail, replace .com with .ca Sorry for the inconvenience!***
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