Food 10 - David's Bistro

This week's adventure in my search for interesting restaurant food photos took me to David's Bistro, another leading London restaurant.  Not surprisingly, and always refreshing, is a menu comprising items rarely found at other restaurants.  It is David's special touch, no doubt.  I chose the Chimichurri* glazed flat iron steak with potato, shallot and roasted pepper salad, and crispy taro root*.  The term 'flat iron steak' gave me pause and pleasantly surprised when the adequate amount of sliced steak arrived.  The term 'salad', correctly described, grammatically, as a mixture of small pieces of food was also misleading, nevertheless delicious.  Accompanied by a glass of rich Shiraz red wine.
 * Chimichurri is a South American uncooked sauce used for grilled meat.  It is made of finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and red wine vinegar.  The dominant flavours are parsley and garlic.
 * Taro root is a tropical plant grown primarily for its edible corms.  It is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants, and very rich in vitamins, especially B₆ and E.  It failed as part of this meal, being placed in the sauce and, thus, tasteless ... and not crispy.  I would suggest the use of cooked taro leaves in future (May be toxic uncooked, but vey rich in nutrients).

Chimichurri glazed flat iron steak with potato, shallot
and roasted pepper salad, crispy taro root.

The Demise of NATO

The following conversation appeared in a Comments section of a newspaper this morning and, as I was one of the antagonists (loosely speaking), I feel that it is acceptable to publish a slightly edited version here to permit, and extend, an anonymous Internet conversation.

Anonym A:  ”...over the past few decades, NATO’s primary focus was on peacekeeping operations in distant places, rather than on its core function of territorial defence...But this attitude changed in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and launched secretive military incursions into Eastern Ukraine."

Excuse me? What's changed? Annexation of Crimea was a local, albeit unexpected move by Russia - ask the Crimean population how they feel about finally being a part of Russia and it will be a 87% approval rate. Yes, a crime is a crime, but weren't Kyev's actions towards the Crimean population since Ukraine's independence totally unacceptable? So, this "reason" may be dismissed.

Eastern Ukraine had been suffering the same attitude from the Ukrainian state as Crimea, including the constantly diminishing status of the Russian language in this practically Russian part of Ukraine.And then Maidan (in 2014) declared a total ban on use of the Russian language as the second official language in the country. That was way too much!

Again, this conflict has nothing [to do] with the safety of other European states.

So, as it appears, all this drum beat is about money. Russia's actions are just a convenient excuse!

          Anonym B:  It goes without saying that the slow, measured, and deliberate invasion by the USSR into the region of Slav, Turkic, Greek Crimea, makes the 87% vote by the Russian population unsurprising.

Anonym C:  NATO is functionally dead. The U.S. is detaching itself from Europe, so Europe needs to learn to defend itself. As a start, it must (a) learn more about how Russian troll farms have infected European political discourse so that this menace can be effectively fought; (b) wean itself as quickly as possible from all Russian energy sources, so as to deprive Russia of valuable foreign exchange; and (c) separate itself from unhelpful U.S. influence as much as possible. The U.S. has become an enemy, not a friend.

          Anonym B:  (a) Goes without saying. (b) To "wean" is ungrammatical, but to reduce the influence of Russian energy sources is a sound idea, not withstanding the possibility that Russia could discover an alternate solution. (c) To describe the U.S. as an "enemy" based on the policies of the present President is another Liberalization ... simply put.

          Anonym C:  If by “functionally dead” you mean no longer dependable, you are spot on. Your 3-part plan, moving forward, I think is good, assuming that as Europe distances itself from the US, they likewise re-arm to fill that void. This is all unfortunately true. Putin has somehow (through illegal political funding - at a minimum) decapitated the GOP president and congressional leadership. Will the truth ever come out

          Anonym B:  It would be lacking foresight to "re-arm [sic] to fill that void". Russia's obvious tenacity regarding its desire to regain previous territory will make it quite possible to eventually cherry-pick the smaller nations regardless of their weaponization. The increasing Communism of Europe thus becomes a future threat to North America and ... the wheel turns once more.

Anonym B:  The Plan (if you have not realized it) is for our great-grandchildren to experience a North America with a brutal Red Bear on the Atlantic side, and an inhumane Red Dragon on the Pacific side.

Aerospace 19 - Airbus A220

At one time there was Canadair — then De Havilland (Canada) — both merged to become Bombardier Aerospace.  Then, the innovative CSeries airliner emerged to challenge the two giants Airbus and Boeing.  Unfortunately, Bombardier suffered from financial teething troubles coupled with new engine problems that was especially developed for the airframe by Pratt & Whitney, not to mention WTO threats from Boeing (Aerospace 17) .

Finally, Airbus SE stepped in to buy a 51% share of Bombardier’s CSeries division (Bombardier continuing with total control of other aircraft divisions, e.g., Q-400, and CRJ, etc.).

Now, under control of Airbus, the aircraft titles C-100 and C-300 have been changed to A220-100 and A220-300 respectively.

It is going to be an interesting time, from now onwards, to see if this will have an affect for future sales.  It is quite evident that the A319 will eventually concede to the superiority of the A220-100, a position with which it shares.  

Today, an MOU for 60 A220-300 aircraft was signed by a group of investors led by the CEO of JetBlue for a planned new airline, so far unnamed (The rumour says ‘Moxy’).

Food 9 - The Tasting Room

This restaurant is well known downtown in London (Ontario) and is conveniently located near to  the Grand Theatre.  I visited, recently, having planned (for some time) to experience the lunch menu of appetizers coupled with a ‘flight’ of wines.

There is an extensive variety of appetizers.  I chose the Shrimp & Pork Lettuce Wraps and the Duck Wings, each described by the server as ‘finger food’, something that I was about to regret later.

For wine, I selected the Sauvignon Blanc Flight comprising four 2 oz glasses of wines from South Africa, Chile, and New Zealand.

Duck Wings and Shrimp & Pork Lettuce Wraps

The Duck Wings, described as;  a confit, crisped and tossed with an Asian chili [sic] sauce (that removed any crispness) with meat that should have benefited with additional slow cooking … although duck would rarely be described as succulent, however cooked.  Firstly, I tried the Roojberg wine from South Africa, and found it basically tastless, or earthy, on both nose and palate, i.e., not “packed with … fruit flavours” as described.  I also tried the Chilensis wine from Chile, and just found it correctly described with having “citrus fruit” aromas.

Next, the Shrimp & Pork Lettuce Wraps, described as;  including charred corn, pickled onions, cilantro and piquillo pepper salsa wrapped in Boston bibb lettuce.  All together, these ‘wraps’ were absolutely delicious.  BUT, they were not wrapped (as one may expect spring or cabbage rolls to be wrapped) but open, which meant that the lettuce became salsa-saturated, limp, and incapable of holding anything … even with two hands.  The finger-dipping bowl hardly satisfied the continual need.  I suggest putting this on a children's menu.  I tried the Mount Fishtail wine from New Zealand here, correctly described with “lush tropical fruits … and a touch of sweetness.  I finished with a wonderful, fruity (expensive) Map Maker wine, also from New Zealand, making New Zealand the go-to country for Sauvignon Blanc wine … at the moment.

Finally, after washing my hands, I ordered a coffee.

Canada Day, Eh!

 ... and wannabe French Canadians flock around the nearest poutine vendor, eh!

 ... unless they're Greek Canadians, nai!