Adega

Tuesday 11 November
Remembrance Day
A lovely day in Toronto: A trip to the Royal Ontario Museum to see dinosaurs, diamonds, and Chinese art. Then a nice dinner at a kind and comforting Portuguese restaurant, Adega.
We were a tad pressed for time, but the waitstaff were very accommodating, so we went straight for the main dishes o' fishes. The special was dorado (sea bream): very crispy skin, kept crisp by being served poised on top of clams and a few scallops projecting like zen rocks from the sea of a very rich and tasty broth.
The house specialty is tender octopuses (octopi, octopodes, o heck: a mess o' tentacles), dotted with a sort of Mediterranean confetti of finely diced tomatoes, red onion, parsley, parsley oil, and capers
Then a wonderful Entführung in a gussy theatre with gilded everything. A beautiful and intimate set using turquoise and other Turkish motifs (which had the added effect of moving the action forward and forming a chamber for what is, after all, a chamber opera). A couple of good voices (I'm very fond of Abduction, cuz the bass gets a beefy, very low role), some rather silly dances added so that all the dancers would have something to do, and best of all, an aisle seat with no one and nothing in front of me. I think I'd go to see anything there, if I can just have those seats. Well, may not Avril Lavigne in Concert, but you know what I mean.