RCI Gala
Steve and I had the joy of attending the Royal Canadian Institute Gala dinner last Thursday. It was particularly fantastic for a few reasons: the dinner was great, I got to see the inside of MaRS Discovery Centre, dinner was bloody fantastic, and the conversation was incredibly uplifting and intelligent. Tickets were also $250 each …
The appetizer that I tried was a red grape wrapped in Roquefort cheese and rolled in crushed walnut. It was cut in half and slightly separated for presentation. Wow!! Likely easy to make but will definitely impress dinner guests.
Dinner started with Cream of Asparagus Soup with a spatter of roasted tomato and olive salsa. The soup itself was good but tasted more like pea than asparagus. Neither of us liked the salsa but I braved it; Steve left his. The main meal was Braised Lamb Shank with Gremolata (a combination of lemon zest, garlic, parsley, and olive oil), arugula mashed potatoes and sautéed snow peas, green beans and two cherry tomatoes. Wow again! It was an incredible leg of lamb where the meat just fell away from the bone. It was so filling that I had to leave some of mine behind. Mind you the potatoes were also incredibly delicious, but I have an affinity for garlic-mash. Note to self: the wine was sponsered by Peninsula Ridge Estate Winery. We had both the white and red and they were palatable. It would be good for dinner as a table wine.
Dessert was an oval shaped Tiramisu Mousse (which was still partly frozen) with a mini biscotti, a spatter of fresh fruit (one each: strawberry, blackberry and persimmon), and a drizzle on the plate of coffee creme Anglaise. I wasn’t impressed but Steve liked it. We also received a thank you truffle when leaving flavoured with Cointreau – we had opposite opinions on the chocolate 🙂
Each of the 25 tables had a themed topic for discussion. Ours was “The Science Program of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN”. We had both the director of ATLAS as the distinguished guest and one of the RCI councillors at our table. There was also a lovely gentleman beside me who used to work with my Dad (around the time of my birth lol) and a grad student who’s dad he had also worked with. Oh the small world of nuclear physics. It was so nice to be encouraged to have an in depth discussion around particle physics. It is something often frowned upon during normal conversation because its not inclusive for people who don’t understand quantum mechanics or nuclear physics. It was so uplifting – right up there with the “normal” steak … which came about at an etiquette dinner we attended a few years ago. Normal refers to the bell curve and in the case of steak it is a little more pink in the middle than on the edges. I also learned BMW at that dinner – how to remember which glass is yours – bread, meal and water/wine from left to right.
Great night. We plan to attend one of their Sunday public lectures »
