REST

Thurs 19 March
The blog has suffered from neglect (and it ain’t the only one).

After a terrific private tour laid on at Stratus on a day full of sunshine, we had a wander through the quaint of NOTL (Niagara on the Lake), a stop off to top up at Strewn, and when it got a tad chilly retreated to the Stone Road Grille.

We all shared the charcuterie plate, each little pickle and meat lovingly handmade. There was duck prosciutto, salame, mortadella, a tic-tac-toe plate of house-pickled vegetables. And a creamy chicken liver paté (for those who like that sort of thing).

We had a starters of lobster "triangolini" (stuffed with lobster, ricotta, and meyer lemon in a sauce of lobster bisque) and the Chef's Salad: bibb lettuce, bresaola (brazoul' in Barbara's Neapolitan dialect; this was also "house- cured" but mysteriously missing from the charcuterie), Niagara Gold cheese and a little duck confit with a qute quail egg, plus olives. Nothing exceeds like excess.

Then B&H had the citrus braised short ribs, which are sort of gigantic pillows of tender beef still loosely attached to the bone; the citrus was Meyer lemons (a signature flavor). Plus a crispy duck.

For desert, we all split, since we were just about to split, the profiterols, and our nice waitress persuaded the kitchen to give us 4 instead of 3, each on its own plate), so no ugly fights. As the menu says “With White Chocolate Chili Ice Cream Spiced Praline & Bourbon Caramel Sauce.” The chili was odd, but added a subtle buzz to the background.