We bought some of those coupons for Diablo’s BBQ in on St-Denis in Montreal a few months back. I got some for my dad for father’s day, and Soli and I got some for ourselves. The coupons we bought were a 3-course meal, valued at $33, and all we had to pay was $13. The coupon promised that we could use one for one person, so when we bought four, we had bought four 3-course meals.

Coupon details: You could choose one appetizer from a list of four, one main dish out of a list of five, and one dessert out of a list of two, and all of this would be covered by a coupon.

Well, when we got there, we were told that the rules had changed, and we had to take the normal menu and HAD to select enough food, PER PERSON, that equaled $33. Now, that is a lot of food. Not one of us at the table wanted to order $33 worth of food, EACH! But, if we ordered only $25, the coupon was considered invalid. Oh, and alcohol couldn’t be included, even though the coupon didn’t state that either. The restaurant decided just to make up its own rules all over the place.

We struggled for over 30 minutes, trying to figure out how to do this. Finally, we thought we had it. Soli and I decided to split a big platter that’s intended for two people…still weren’t at $33, so we had to order an oyster poyboy we didn’t even want. Well, at the end of the evening, the rather inept waitress informed us that we couldn’t each use a coupon, as we had split the platter. She knew we had coupons right from the beginning, so why she didn’t tell us this when we were ordering is beyond me. I guess money is more important than the customer’s satisfaction.

As for my parents, they were charged because my mother didn’t quite reach $33. So the coupon was invalid…we complained about that, had to wait over 30 minutes in the dark at the end of the meal, to get that charge removed. However, Soli and I were still only allowed to use one coupon, so we ended up paying $60 total, not including the original $13 pricetag of the coupon, for a meal that wasn’t very good. Had we known that would be the case, we would’ve spent our $60 in a restaurant we actually liked.

The waitress had gone to the chef, but too bad, so sad for us. The coupon we bought was not what we got at the restaurant, and the restaurant did nothing about it, except charge us. I still have a coupon left, but would rather lose my $13 on that coupon then step foot in Diablo’s again.

That complaint about the awful customer service aside, a brief review on the mediocre food we were served:

We started with a pitcher of this drink that had spruce beer in it. It was unremarkable. The bar had no spruce beer in stock, so someone had to run to the store, leaving us waiting for over 30 minutes for a drink. I couldn’t taste any alcohol in it, it was two sweet, and we couldn’t finish the pitcher, even among 5 people.

We ordered the smoked poutine (we were desperately trying to get up to that $33!), and this was probably the best thing there. The sauce was nice, and I enjoyed the sweet potato fries.

The oyster poyboy was bland, and there was too much bread, not enough oyster.

The mains had low points and okay points. The friend chicken was the best part, with a good, crunchy exterior. The pulled pork was mushy and too sweet, the ribs were forgettable, and the sauce was almost like straight up molasses. Each main comes with two “sides” – the corn salad was in a dish that was about 1 oz….hardly a side, but that was okay, as it tasted slightly rancid. The potatoes were bland.

The pecan pie tasted like an apple pie with pecans. Weird and kinda gross.

I hope this restaurant manages to improve its food, and work out its major customer satisfaction issues. I will never return though, and wouldn’t recommend this restaurant.

It’s been well over a year since our trip to Hawaii, and while cleaning up the site a little, I realized I had never finished my recap of the trip! I still remember it like it was yesterday, so let’s finish this up!

We set out early one morning to hike the Kalalau trail along the Napali Coast. The entire hike is 11 miles, and it rated a 9 by the Sierra Club – it can be quite strenuous and treacherous due to steep coast, crumbling rocks, muddy paths, etc. (not to mention, it is apparently difficult to get a permit to hike this and we did not have camping gear). Needless to say, we were not up for the whole thing, so we decided to do the 2-mile option, from Ke’e beach to Hanakapi’ai, which is already quite difficult.

The hike there was indeed a hard one, with lots of grappling down waterfalls and across slippery paths. A lot of it was a steep incline, and I needed lots of breaks and lots of water.

The views along the way were absolutely stunning though and worth every drop of sweat!

The climb down to the beach at the end of the two miles was across giant rocks, but we had already made it that far – no turning back here!

The beach at the end of the 2-mile leg has a lot of warnings, as rip currents can be quite strong and drownings occur regularly. The waves were big, but we were unable to resist swimming in the ocean. In fact, we spent so much time and so much energy in there that we got nervous about being able to make the hike back!

We did, however, make it back, and packed up our stuff in the apartment. We had spent the previous night trying to find a place on Kauai to stay for the next seven days, as we had decided in Hilo that there was no way we were leaving after just a week (our original plan when we left was to spend the last week driving the California coast). In Kauai, we called the airline, switched our flight for one a week later, and used Hotwire to find a “resort” on Kauai to stay at. We had no idea what we were getting, and the first room we got was awful. After a lot of complaining on our part, we got placed in a better room with a much better view (of the pool and of the ocean). We are on the eastern side of Kauai, right in the middle of the north and south shore, which was a great place to be, as it took no time to travel anywhere we wanted.

We spent a few days exploring the island, checking out beaches and just relaxing. Polihale beach was amazing – it took a long drive and a long empty road to get to this deserted beach.

We were lucky to see a monk seal sunning himself on Poipu beach.

And then there were palm trees, waterfalls, lighthouses and mountains. We had BBQs in the wind and the dark.

We also ate wonderful, wonderful food! This included shave ice, ramen and the best burgers in the world, the ono burger from Duane’s, packed with fresh pineapple and avocado.

The last two days on Kauai were spent doing those big-ticket things that one should do while on Kauai. The most exciting thing, and the most beautiful thing, was the helicopter ride over Waimea Canyon and the Napali coast. Just flying in a helicopter was exciting enough, especially a helicopter with no doors. Add the magical and awesome views, and it became the highlight of our trip!

We also flew into Mount Waialeale, which is the wettest place on earth, and it was damp, scary, dark and cold.

Finally, on our last full day, we took a boat ride around the Napali coast, so we ended up seeing the coast on foot, by air, and by sea. On the way in, I had a great time. The boat stopped near the Forbidden Island so that we could go snorkeling and eat lunch. On the way back, the boat went through a whole lot of waves, and I ended up massively seasick. I spent the whole trip back holding back vomit, with my eyes closed, and even passed out a few times. Not quite sure the view was worth it, but it was mostly fun.

Our flight to San Francisco was in the afternoon, so on our last day, we packed up the jeep and spent the morning at Ke’e beach, saying goodbye to our favourite spot and to our time in Hawaii.

Read the other Hawaii posts:
Big Island, Day 1 (Puako)
Big Island, Day 2 (Puako to Captain Cook)
Big Island, Days 3 & 4 (Kona to Hilo)
Big Island, Days 5 & 6 (Volcano and Mauna Kea)
Kauai and Waimea Canyon
Kauai and Getting to Hanalei
Kauai – The Last Week
And here’s our two days in San Francisco!

During the hot months of summer, I made sure to put our berries to good use, one of which was this berry-packed bundt cake. It’s one of those perfect cakes, where there’s actually more berry than cake, the cake itself is moist and flavourful, thanks to all the lemon zest, and where the glaze adds a punch of tart sweetness. This cake can be used with any fruit, but I used a combo of cherries and blueberries.
Not much else to say about this one…it’s a great bundt, and versatile and easy!

Blueberry-Cherry Buttermilk Bundt
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

CAKE
2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
3-4 cups mixed berries (I used cherries and blueberries this time)

GLAZE
2 cups (240 grams) powdered or confections’ sugar
Juice of 1-2 lemons
1 tablespoon (15 grams) unsalted butter, very, very soft
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10-cup Bundt pan, either with butter or a nonstick spray. Set aside.

1. In a medium bowl, mix 2 1/2 cups flour (leaving 2 tablespoons back), baking powder and salt together and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingers, until it becomes fragrant. Add the butter to the sugar and cream together until it is light and fluffy (between 3 and 5 minutes)

3. Turn the mixer down to low and add the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the bowl after each egg addition. Beat in the vanilla.

4. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the batter, beating only until just combined. Add half of the buttermilk, and then another 1/3 of the flour mixture, and then the remaining buttermilk and the remaining flour mixture.

5. Toss the berries in a bowl with the 2 tablespoons of flour. Gently fold the berries into the cake batter.

6. Spread cake batter into the prepared baking pan.

7. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a test comes out clean.

8. Set cake pan on a wire rack and cool for 30 minutes. Remove cake from pan and cool completely.

9. Once cool, whisk together the powdered sugar and butter. Add lemon juice slowly, until it reaches the consistency you like (it can go from a glaze to a straight up frosting, whatever you prefer!) Spread or pour over top of cake and serve.

After attending Martin Picard’s Au Pied de Cochon cabane a sucre the past three season it has run, I was absolutely thrilled when I first heard that there would be an “apple season” at the cabane in 2012. I emailed them for reservations as soon as they started accepting them, and this Sunday, we were there for the opening weekend. The menu has been posted on their tumblr; I am will only say a little about the experience and let the menu and the photos speak for themselves. It did not disappoint!!

It was strange arriving to the cabane on a sunny and hot afternoon; we are used to heading over there on cold, icy evenings, in the dark. We had to 2pm seating, which was the ideal time, and we spent some time admiring the fat pumpkins and squash in the big green garden right in front of the restaurant.

We wandered in and started the afternoon with some of the apple cocktails being offered. Almost everyone at the table enjoyed an alcoholic apple slush kind of drink, which was sweet, tart, and way too easy to drink quickly.

Every table had three jars: marinated eggplant, a corn relish and pickled cauliflowers and pickles. My favourite was the corn relish, but others at the table preferred the marinated eggplant. I loved the eggplant’s texture, but the corn was so bright that is perked up many of the rather heavy dishes to come our way.

The service was slightly different from the cabane a sucre’s style of serving – the dishes came out in what seemed like three courses, so instead of having one dish at a time served, we were served three or four dishes all at once. One of the star dishes is one I couldn’t get a photo for, sadly. It was a big pot of cream of squash soup, garnished with crumbles of Amaretti, apples, and heavily au gratin with emmantal cheese. The soup was thick, thick, thick, loaded with cream and butter. The thinly sliced apples and the Amaretti were marvelous. We ended up bringing some of this soup home, and made a creamy mashed potatoes with it, using that instead of butter. It made amazing potatoes.

Also served at this time was the house-cured ham, draped over a skull, and topped with some pickled onions. Light and flavourful, not very salty.

We also got a fresh, creamy, light goat cheese topped with honeycomb, slivers of foie gras and thin, crispy grilled bread that had been rubbed with a healthy dose of garlic and rosemary. The honey made this dish.

The absolute star of the meal was also served at this time…ravioli stuffed with chicken liver gelee, and cavatelli apple sauce accompanied with a confit of foie gras, which was all combined in a massive Parmesean wheel at the table. It was so so so so good! The sauce was sweet, with hints of savoury, the pasta slightly dense and chewy, the pillows of confit foie gras meltingly, achingly good. I would’ve come just for that pasta.

Salmon “en papillotte” (in newspaper!) with escargots and apple cider sauce, apple slices and basil. This was a big hunk of salmon, very fresh, wonderfully cooked. Also one of my favs. It was served alongside salty eggplant pancakes, a dish of creamy clams, a massive saucepan of apple-glazed roast beef, carrots and warm oysters, some heavily hazelnut-crusted broccoli and a somewhat bizarre bowl of lettuce. Together, it all worked. But really, I just wanted more pasta.

This time, I actually had enough room to enjoy dessert. The warm apple pie’s crust was a heavenly. An ice cream and an apple sorbert was served in a cream carton, topped with apple cotton candy. There was a warm sticky apple-toffee pudding that was popped out of a can and drenched in a caramel sauce, and we all dug into an apple and chocolate soufflé.

Without drinks and with tax, this meal cost $57/person. That is pretty unbelievable, and so completely worth it. I wish I was going back, or at least, sneaking in for some more of that pasta.

Cabane 2010

Cabane 2011

Cabane 2012