Black Pearl Oyster Bar

We ate twice at the Black Pearl. It's a cute/cheesey place right across from the water in Penticton. I say it's cheesy because of stuff like this:



And this:



They also had a massive Johnny Depp-looking mural, but we completely forgot to take a picture of it. Mainly because we were drinking this:




It was so damn good, I have no idea what it was. It tasted like coconut and I giggled like an idiot all night.

Pictures we remembered to take:


Stone Crab Claws with mustard sauce.


Tuna Tartar


Tomatoes Boccancini.

Then no more pictures, the food was just too good. Highlights of this and the other meal: Beef Carpaccio (I was frightened of it at first, but it was good), oysters, fried asiago cheese, and the worlds hottest thai chicken and noodle dish. Medium spicy my ass.

The view:

Cherries

A conversation after dinner tonight

Scott: We ate hours ago, but I can feel the garlic coming out of my skin.
Me: I only put 2 cloves in the sauce.
Scott: Well, don't you think that's a lot?
Me: No, not really...

Greek Salad

Cucumber, sliced
Tomato, chopped
Red Pepper, chopped
Onion, chopped
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Feta cheese, diced
Mix together. Add some oregano and a couple of splashes each of lemon juice and olive oil.

My Tomato Plant

We didn't get the garden in this year...hoping it will happen next year. BUT! See my pretty little tomato plant with 5 tomatos! Once they ripen up they'll go great with the basil on the front steps.

Gouda Tomato and Basil Pizza

A few weeks ago at Millarville Farmers Market we had a food sample from a stall that sells frozen pizza. It was pretty good, and Scott wanted to buy one for dinner. We decided on a Gouda cheese and basil pizza that had a whole wheat crust. It wasn't cheap, but it sounded good. When we cooked it that night we threw some chopped tomatoes on it, and it was a really good pizza.

Fast forward to Friday - pulled a whole wheat pizza shell out of the freezer. Topped it with sauce, basil, tomatoes and gouda. So good, and so much better tasting (and better for you!) than a pizza from a delivery place.

Tango Restaurant

Another really great meal we had that has no pictures was at Tango Restaurant in Kamloops, BC. It's a tapas restaurant in the industrial area of the city. We drove by it about 5 times in the days before we went there and I never noticed it. It's a dark narrow restaurant with an open kitchen so you can see all the action. They have 10 or so tables, a long bar with stools and a beautiful patio with tons of flowers and fountains.

There were four of us for dinner - our hosts had been there before. We decided to get 4 appetizers and then see how hungry we were. I chose the "Pollo ajo", pieces of chicken breast simmered in "a rich garlic sauce". This was definitely the poorest dish of the evening. I won't say it was bad; it wasn't. It just didn't live up to our expectations. When you see that something is simmered in garlic, you expect to taste the garlic, don't you? Enough said. We also had the "Satay Sampler" which was a skewer each of spicy mint chicken, bbq duck, teriyaki salmon and adobo pork, served with a citrus herb raita dip. This was pretty good, although the duck was my least favorite. We tried the "Tomato salad" of tomatos, bocconcini and basil. But my very favorite was the "Bruschetta" of chorizo, scallops and chimichurri sauce on bread topped with Parmesan. Words can not describe how good it was. Big slices of tender scallop, spicy chorizo. Wow.

You'd think that that would have been enough food, but no, we got some more. We shared the "Prawnology" which was a huge plate of prawns done 4 ways - some wrapped in prosciutto, some battered in tempura, some wrapped in a sweet potato dough, and some broiled with a lemon sauce. All were mighty fine. We also shared the "Asian Platter" that had sweet potato patties, sweet chili wings, tempura prawns, spring rolls, 5 spiced duck breast, and stir fried bok choy and pineapple.

It was a great dinner and also a very reasonable one - I didn't pay the bill, but all that food was only in the $80.00 range. I look forward to the next time I am in Kamloops - I will be right back at Tango as soon as I can.

Glazed New Potatoes by Rob Feenie

I was watching New Classics with Rob Feenie a couple of weeks ago, and he made this gorgeous potato dish - Glazed New Potatoes. That weekend I bought a bag of new potatoes from the Millarville Farmers Market.

Here's all the ingredients ready to go into the oven:

Here they are after about 45 minutes in the oven:

Ugly picture alert! Here they are again after I have reduced the liquid. I could have reduced it more, but we were getting hungry. They were very good - the highlight of the meal.

Hooded Merganser

See the pretty building on the pretty lake? That is the Hooded Merganser restaurant in Penticton. It's right next to the Penticton Lakeside Resort and is fairly new, I believe it opened in the Spring of 2005.

We walked by it a couple of days before deciding to go for dinner. It's a very nice looking restaurant, right on the water, with three walls made up of windows. We started at a table outside, but had to move inside when the wind picked up. I didn't take our camera out with us that night and it is really too bad. I could have taken some great pictures.

We decided to start with an appetizer and wait to order our dinner to see how hungry we were after that.

We chose the Three Tapas served with fresh bread. You pick 3 tapas from a list - one each from dips, salads and finger food. We chose Sun dried tomato and olive tapenade from the dips, White bean and Chorizo salad from the salads, and Candied Walnuts and Prosciutto from the finger foods. When it came to the table I moaned some more about forgetting the camera. 3 square bowls on a plate with bread. It was gorgeous. And tasty. The tapenade was nice and salty. The salad was the best looking and tasting. Beautiful white beans drizzled in olive oil, some a little pinky-orange from the diced chorizo that was tossed in. So good.

It was a pretty large appetizer, especially with the bread, so we both decided just to have a sandwich. Scott had the Seafood Club - tiger prawns, crab and salmon with bacon lettuce and tomato. Really nice, but huge. He could only get through half even with my help. I wanted the pulled pork bun, but they were out. Doesn't it drive you crazy when your waiter doesn't tell you what they are out of? I had the Grilled Gouda and Mango Salad sandwich instead. It was really nice; my only complaint was the mango salad was a bit too juicy and made the sandwich soggy quickly. This is something I would make at home for sure.

All in all, a very good meal, even without pictures. Time didn't permit us to go back again, but on another trip I definitely would.

Recipe Archive

I have pinched a great idea from the likes of Nic at Baking Sheet and Molly at Orangette and others I'm sure.

I have made a recipe archive, listing all the recipes I have posted here. Check it out, on the right hand side, under "some stuff".

Or click here.

Funny

Scroll down to the third entry. The folks at Tvgasm are making fun of Giada from Everyday Italian on the Food channel.