Valentine's Day Dinner: A follow up

A friend asked me to post a follow up about our amazing dinner from Ezra so here it is! We literally ordered one of everything and it looked like this:

Our menu was amazing. I couldn't wait to dig in! You can see how excited I am in this photo:

You can also see Dan laughing at me. On to the food. That's what we're here for right? First course: Dan had truffled celery root soup with apple/crab salad and crispy shallots. I picked this for him because typically any time I've had something with truffle in it I've hated it. When I poured this out to heat it up for him I could smell the truffle and was glad I had picked the other started. But then, magic happened. The apple/crab salad balanced out the truffles perfectly and oh my god shallots have never tasted so good (and I like shallots!). I pretty much had to physically restrain myself from taking the bowl and running into the other room to polish it off. 

For my starter, I had boston, arugula and baby spinach salad with chive yogurt "queso fresco" and parmesan olive oil croutons. Mmmmmmm delicious! This is probably one of my favourite salads ever. It was light (albeit huge! You can see it on my plate in the photo above), fresh and the queso fresco added a really neat tang that I loved. And yes, I ate it and half of Dan's soup. 

Mains: Dan had red wine braised beef short rib and veal pot pie with cipollini onions, roasted squash and pickled baby vegetable salad. This was a perfect hearty winter meal that I knew Dan would enjoy. I have a rule against eating cute small furry animals so I passed on having this as my main. I did, however, try a bite (repeating it was only the short ribs I was eating in my head) and I ended up pounding the table with the fist a la When Harry Met Sally. 

The meat was melt in your mouth tender. Dan remarked on how Ezra made sure to tuck a piece of meat in each corner since that's where you start on the meal. You never ended up with a forkful of pastry and sauce. It was awesome! 

I had the lobster gratin with meyer lemon/almond crust, oyster mushrooms, leeks, fingerlings and lobster reduction. I'm not a seafood person. Again, Ezra has changed my world. What is with this man?! The lemon/almond crust was light with soft underlying flavours and added the most wonderful accent to the delicate lobster meat. The veggies underneath were amazing, so full of deep flavours that were rich and aromatic. Mmmmmmm! 

Last we had dessert. Dan and I are so different when it comes to dessert. I'm an absolute sugar fiend. You could give me a bowl of caramel doused in maple syrup with spoon and I'd be in heaven. Dan falls more to the savory side. Our two desserts were worlds apart but each was perfect for us and we didn't end up stabbing each other with our forks to get the last bite of the other's plate. Dan had Upper Canada's "Comfort Cream" cheese with brandy poached pears, pear gastrique and walnut bread. The cheese was a delicious brie texture and when it was all stacked up it made for a lovely little morsel of heaven! Dan was thrilled at the "non-sugar" option and it ended his meal off perfectly.

I embarked on sugar overload and was a very very very happy woman with my dessert! Warm callebaut chocolate bread pudding with chestnut-crusted marshmallows, spiced creme fraiche ice cream and blood orange salad graced my plate. It was topped off with some hot fudge. See above Meg Ryan clip for my reaction. A little of each on my fork and oh my gosh, again, heaven! I loved the combination of the chocolate bread pudding with the blood orange salad with a touch of ice cream. So amazing! 

Now that your mouth is watering, enjoy your next meal! Get a little creative and enjoy! Thanks again to Ezra for yet another inspiring and delicious meal!