5th Elementt Christmas Party

Ian thought of a brilliant opening line for this blog, but on further wikipedia research by me, the line seems to have fallen apart.

Here it is:

"The 5th elementt supplements the usual 4 elements - earth, water, wind and fire with mediocrity"

But it does appear that people besides the classic greeks (namely Asian people), consider additional elements for a total of 5.

Regardless, we will ignore fact and stick with the mediocrity theme.

Ian finally has a job and with any job, this means Christmas Party! The company has enough people and guests to rent the restaurant out & require supplemental plastic chairs.

Drinks started somewhat poorly, with $7 a hit for a rum and coke and $3 for my cranberry juice. If we had known juice was not free, Ian could have hooked me up with free beverage from work.

Appetizers were yummy with plentiful chicken korma chunks on toothpicks. Ian had about 5 of these and at one time remarked "it's looks like a whole chicken per appetizer platter". Too bad chicken korma at local Indian buffets does not have chicken chunks this big floating around in the sauce. A+

Then came bruschetta with chicken. The chicken did not add anything and in fact detracted from an otherwise decent appetizer. Wikipedia does not recommend chicken and we all know this website is an authority on food... C+

In short supply were decent, although greasy, spring rolls, veggie/sun dried tomato pinwheel pasty and a goat cheese pasty. B

Then came the wait...from sitting down to bread & wine we waited about 40 minutes. Clearly this party overwhelmed the kitchen & wait staff. But I guess what restaurant owner in their right mind would turn down a packed house and lots of liquor sales on a weeknight.

When bread finally arrived, it was a nice herb bread with olive oil & balsamic. Perhaps not enough for our table of 8 though. No refills arrived.

House wine was poured - Jackson Triggs cabernet sauvignon. Our table were non-drinkers, so Ian and I enjoyed for the rest of the table.

Plated appetizers were the star of the night. Ian enjoyed some pan sauteed black cod with white beet. This was an incredibly large appetizer with a whole large fillet of fish on the plate. A bit bland, but pleasant overall. My salad of lettuce, Asian pear and mango was delightful & light. Others as the table enjoyed pork something...again a dinner sized portion. B-.

Main courses started a sharp decline. Huge chunks of pesto coated Chilean sea bass suffered from a rubbery texture and lack of flavor. The luke-warm (at best) temperature of the meal really was a detriment to the fish & sides (mashed potato & spinach). I could not stomach about more than 1/3 of the fish. D+.

Not very many positive comments on lamb. Chicken with rice seemed to be the best choice of the night.

Dessert was a bit of a fiasco. We were unfortunately one of the last tables served, so this meant no chocolate mousse for Ian. It seems as though the waiters let people change their mind at the event thus resulting in not enough mousse by the time they got to us. If they were that tight on dessert, why let people switch from their original order they made a few weeks in advance?

In the end, we both ended up with gateaux mango & lychee. Fairly pleasent, but Ian was still a bit grouchy about the whole experience. C+.