Fredericton reminded me of Saskatoon; both cities seem to be roughly
the same size, are home to a large university and are traversed by a river.
Yup, that is the extent of my insight after 113 days on the road. So, on to
where and what I drank and ate (because that is basically what these posts are
about, aren't they? Man, I'm in a
blogging rut...)
- Picaroon's is a darn good craft brewer operating out of
Fredericton. They do not have a brew pub but do have a store on Queen Street.
Their products are also on tap in local bars and restaurants; however, their
bottled beer tastes much better than their draft. In particular, the 'Dark and
Stormy Night', a dark wheat beer (which I think I saw at the LCBO at some
point) and the 'Yippee' IPA are superior beers, both subtle and eminently
drinkable.
- The Lunar Rogue pub has 400+ whiskies (mostly single malt
scotches). Strangely, I did not notice
anybody drinking any. Wait staff also ignored me for well over an hour after
one of them handed me their whisky list (a fairly thick and nicely detailed
binder). My guess? Some owner is really
proud of himself for owning a bar that has amassed such a collection; he wants
to make sure none of his bottles ever get emptied so he can keep adding to the
tally. Either that or the staff (except
for the funny, exuberant, experienced waitress who served me until her shift
ended at 8) are all incompetent idiots. What a lunar farce.
- The Blue Door (Regent Street) was one of the restaurants featured
in MacLean's laughable 'Top 50' issue last year; I figured I had to check them
out. The menu offers a mix of seafood
and, well, land food (why is that not a real expression?), many prepared with a
Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Indian influence. Other than incorporating spices and dishes
from these cuisines, there is no real overarching theme to the menu. For example, I had lamb kibbeh as an entrée
and tamarind chili Arctic char as an entrée.
I was intrigued by that entrée; I am a big fan of char, and had never
seen it served ‘spiced up’ before, given that it is a rich, fatty fish with a
strong enough taste on its own. Well,
the Blue Door, in over-preparing it, succeeded in making char boring; this
could have been simply been salmon all decked out in tamarind and chili, and
then oven baked (I am guessing). The
natural taste of the char was completely sublimated.
On the bright side, there was a pretty decent selection of rock
music playing, from Gloria by Patti Smith, to Young Americans by Bowie, with
some Clash and White Stripes thrown in.
I am not sure if this was emanating from the kitchen, just meant to be
played in the small bar area or was supposed to be piped into the overall
restaurant, but, hey, I enjoyed it.
- The Beaverbrook Gallery (OK, neither drinkable nor edible; I
figured I would throw you off a bit) had an interesting temporary exhibition by
photographer John Ward entitled 'Meditation/Transition'. It mostly focussed on
Ward's pictures of leaves: close-ups with various bright colour treatments,
some enlarged to wall-size. The over-all effect hints at different realities
hidden in a re-interpretation of the complexity of a familiar object.
Random observation:
- I went to the Saturday morning Farmers' Market because, well,
Fredericton. I was more than pleasantly surprised at some of the products from
the area. I tasted some extremely good goat's cheese and some farm-produced
pâtés, headcheese and boudin that I wish I could have bought.
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