Paris 2009: Re-living the last hours, last meal

It's been weeks since we returned from Paris, seems like a lifetime away that we were enjoying the food and sights of France. The great thing about vacation is that you can choose to do things and live the way you dream of, but not may be feasible in everyday life. To sleep in til noon and have amazing French meals everyday was a dream come true for us.

On our last day, we made our way into a museum after all - none other than the Louvre. I think it was our most visited place this trip, through the gardens, the courtyard, and finally a fast look inside as well (not to worry travelers, we have been before!). We did the speed tour to start: Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus de Milo, seeing favourites along the way such as the Wedding at Cana. We eventually made our way to the Rubens Room, an amazing exhibit of21 paintings commissioned by Marie de'Medici, wife of King Henry IV of France. We stopped for lunch at Cafe Marly, as recommended by our friend Stella. We were saving it for our "last meal" because we wanted to make sure we left Paris with an amazing meal to remember. Cafe Marly did not disappoint - sitting under the elevated arches of the Louvre and facing the pyramids. In the cool fall weather, the experience was sublime. We started with a king crab guacamole salad - the king crab was meaty and fresh and tasted like it was just cracked out of the shell. For mains, I had a delicious prawn risotto and Tony had steak. Before this trip, I did not know that prawn risotto was such an amazing French dish, from our delicious first meal at Coup d'Etat, to this last meal at Cafe Marly, the prawns were delicious and like nothing I have tasted before. The steak was not extraordinary, but the bernaise sauce was amazing...heart stopping, but amazing. We left with our bellies full and happy. We managed to sneak in another couple rooms at the Louvre before it was time to leave.

The Louvre is possibly the most beautiful building in the world, housing the most amazing collection of art and history, plus an delicious meal...not a bad way to say good bye to the City of Lights.

Gastronomic heaven at Colborne Lane

We've had many amazing food experiences in Toronto, from affordable cultural fare to phenomenal fine dining. One of our favourite places to splurge is Colborne Lane; in fact, it's not nearly as expensive as say Susur or Rain ever was, but the food is truly outstanding. We had decided to stop in last year after reading about it in Toronto Life's best new restaurant list, an excellent source for foodies for any of you who don't follow/subscribe but live in the city!

Colborne Street itself is a quaint location, almost secretly tucked near King and Church, a cute brick strip with oldish charm. On one of our first visits, we saw a wedding party doing photos outside - I can definitely see the attraction. We've had nothing but great service at Colborne Lane, and luckily, we've also walked in and taken a seat at the bar before - does not take away from the amazing food experience at all. On a previous visit with my friend Surina, we were spoiled with delicious food, drinks and even some complementary ice wine as we waited for our dessert (apparently it was a slightly long wait, but our dessert actually arrived as the wine did). Tony says it's a benefit reserved for ladies dining out - whatever the case, I appreciated the effort!

All the food at Colborne Lane is complemented with clean and simple sauces/drizzles - while these are typically visual embellishments, sauces here are a critical part of the meal. We would try to maximize the different accompaniments on each small morsel of food. We had 4 tapas to start, with our favourites being a delicious scallop with a selection of light sweet sauces and fruit that I can't name but can still taste in my mouth. We also tried the prawn ceviche, much better than we expected and accompanied by dabs of butternut squash/roasted red pepper/black squid ink sauce.

For mains, we had miso glazed black cod with sesame panna cotta. On the weekend, I had not-so-eloquently described to Amber that panna cotta was "a white custard-like thing"....not quite right and doesn't do it justice; but truly, I have had different iterations of panna cotta at different restaurants so I really couldn't say for sure how it would be served! The point here is that the sesame panna cotta was delicious - and the best I have had - uniquely served as a part of the main course! It sort of looked like tofu, but a fairly firm texture, and not overpowering in taste, and of course very complementary to the black cod. The lamb loin was no less amazing, exceptionally tender and served with quinoa. We were ecstatic about our all our savoury dishes so far, but more was to come!

The highlight of the night was dessert: warm doughnut + nitro creme fraiche + pineapple. The experience started with the manager bringing a giant mixing bowl table-side flowing with liquid nitrogen (really!) . Next, he mixed in fresh made cream with no preservatives or even eggs and other blenders. We couldn't see what was going on IN the bowl, but as the liquid nitrogen evaporated we eventually saw the cream start to turn into ice cream, looked something like cookie dough. He invited us to dig our spoons in - it was SOO AMAZING! I'm not even one to typically like whipped cream, cookie dough etc, but THIS...heavenly! It was light and fresh, truly a taste like no other. The dessert is delicate and time sensitive - a warm doughnut (think fluffy fried sugar doughnut ball) was the main served with the ice cream, which quickly started to melt as it cools to room temperature. Not to worry, we didn't waste anytime inhaling the doughnut and the cream! This was a splurge worth every penny!

Colborne Lane is on both our top 3 lists in Toronto. Tonight we were out on a mini celebration, so I couldn't have been happier to make a visit. Looking back at the pictures, I wish the restaurant had more light so I could have fully appreciated how beautiful the food was!