One99 Broadway

Suffice to say I had an enjoyable Christmas week with family and eating yummy food. I hope yours was also agreeable.



And...Happy 2007! Where 2006 got to is beyond me... *looks under the bed*



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For New Year's Eve, Aunt Rita and her friend Leslie, Aunt Eve and Uncle Tom, and Mum and I all went to One99 Broadway for a 7-Course dinner. None of my cousins would come because at $100 per head you don't want a picky eater...

We had expected my Dad to be here but he's coming at the end of the week instead, so Leslie jumped at the chance to join us. Apparently, One99 is the type of restaurant that many of the town's residents aspire to visit one day and others avoid at all costs (Orangeville, despite its suburbanite boom, retains its modest farming town roots.) The interesting name basically comes from the address, as Broadway is this town's Main Street.



Uncle Tom had driven us there as he did two years ago, but this time he stayed and it was clear this is not his milieu. He divvied up his courses between us ladies and when we got to the meat course, we donated 3 rare steaks to him and shared the rest, as by this time most of us were full. Mum was in charge of wines so she started us off with a zinfandel and then by the meat course and to finish off, we had a shiraz.



We were seated at the best table, a big round one that took up the wine room, surrounded by glass and overlooking the main restaurant below. And, we were mostly served by the owner. Swapping between upstairs and downstairs were a guitarist and an accordionist, playing softly pleasant tunes and singing some classic old songs and Italian ones too. Most of us knew them all and by the time the guitarist got to "Edelweiss" our table started humming, so he came over and we sang it together.



The courses were as follows:



1) Amuse: butternut squash mousse on a savoury shortbread topped with saffron - just a tiny morsel to amuse the mouth



2) Soup: morel mushroom puree garnished with truffles and foie gras - I found tiny pieces of diced apple in the puree, an interesting touch. And the most succulent slices of foccacia bread in a basket, with butter and a dash of pink salt.



3) Fish 1: wish I had taken a pic of this as it was the most artfully composed plate of them all. Sugar-cured and smoked salmon on confit potatoes, french beans, yuzu, creme fraiche, and caviar. The base layer was a slice of sugar-cured salmon which has the most interesting and indescribable flavour. I could taste the freshwater-ness of it; it was slightly chewy, and the end note is a hint of sweetness. On top of the salmon perpendicular was the small half potato of very creamy texture. Laid beside this were a few crispy green beans in a tangy creamy dressing, and propped against these was the slice of home-smoked salmon. I don't know where the yuzu was, possibly they used the powder for an unusual flavour in the bean dressing. And on either side of the whole ensemble, a little dollop of red and black caviar.



4) Fish 2: Champagne poached lobster tail on brioche toast with a blood orange hollandaise sauce and chervil jus. I may never want hollandaise sauce without orange in it again. And then I was full and the waitress caught me stifling a yawn and waggled her finger at me with an eyebrow raised.



5) Palate cleanser: fresh grape juice - pressed and unrefined, it tasted just like we were eating those sweet blush red grapes.



Then they brought a slab of slate on top of which was a smaller section, red hot, with a sizzling head of garlic on it just out of the oven and a few sprigs of rosemary. This was just for the aroma, but I sooooo wanted to eat it with bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar! Presumably to open our appetites for the next course:







6) Meat: Roasted organic beef tenderloin with potato and leek pie, baby rainbow carrots with sarawak pepper jus. Leslie (being Irish) kept asking where the pie was. It was the stacked "leaves" made up of potato and leek, like a tower of cards...



7) Dessert: Tiramisu - here I protest. It was all mascarpone and sponge, the lady fingers at the bottom were dry, there was no coffee or liqueur on them or anywhere else...all wrong.







Finished off with optional coffee.



For the toast we had Freixenet champagne, gold and silver noisemakers and hats or tiaras.







Most amazingly, when the owner brought us our bill, he said that two of the tabs had been taken care of earlier in the day - someone had paid for "the two babysitters". Aunty Eve runs a daycare. They were shocked because one of the parents had quit his job to become a student and as a result she reduced their fee.







Although Uncle Tom was the designated driver, he had been uncharacteristic and drank 3 tumblers of rum and coke. He put Aunty Eve, on 2-ish glasses of wine and two champagnes, in the driver's seat. Of the three sisters she holds the least alcohol and we had ribbed her a few times during dinner about what silly things she said to Uncle Tom on the drive home last time while calling him "shweedie"! Mum and I are affected the least, but there was no discussion of a subsitute driver and Uncle Tom took us home via the residential streets, all the while reminding her that she was about 10 feet from the curb. Mum and Aunty Rita alternated between laughter and exclamations.







Thankfully, during the day the ice had melted, the rainshowers had come and washed away the heavy fog, and the streets were drying by the time we left the restaurant. Uncle Tom said Dallas, Texas was colder than Toronto, Ontario that night.



When I woke up on the first morning of 2007 and stuck my head out into the backyard, I called Mum over and we enjoyed the watery sort of smell that reminded us of a cold winter morning in Houston.



More photos, regularly updated, are available on my Flickr pages.

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