We were playing “May I” with my nephew the other day and in what can only be called a classic “Jason Moment” he excitedly laid his cards on the able, declaring that he hadn’t realised he’d had the 5 of clubs to make up his run and that it was now all good. It was all good except for the fact that the rest of his run was actually in spades and that even though he had the five, the other cards he had were 3, 4 and 7. So had the five actually even been of the right suit, he was still screwed!
Much mirth followed.
Jan 26, 2012
Dinner Date
We have just returned from our annual week at Aldinga with friends. One of the traditions that has developed in the time that we’ve been doing this is that once a week, each couple gets to abandon leave their children in the care of the other parents and head out for a nice dinner.
And so being something of a special occasion, or even just an excuse that we could, we ventured down to the cellar to investigate the highly rated collection that they supposedly had on offer. There was certainly plenty to choose from and after quite a bit of indecision, a ’94 Shiraz was elected for consumption and we returned to our table. They decanted the wine appropriately and we allowed it to sit for some time whilst waiting for our entrees which duly arrived.
Caroline had elected to have a salad; a pork and prawn salad, with a tantalising list of ingredients, whilst I’d gone for something more of a staple, the salt and pepper squid. After a bite or two of her salad, Caroline mentioned that it was a bit spicy. In fact, she didn’t say it was a bit spicy so much as it was bloody hot. I had a taste to see just how hot it rated, thinking “it’s a salad, how hot could it be,” and sure enough it didn’t really seem to be all that hot at all. I went on with my squid and Caroline went back to the salad. She made it about half way through before decided that it was simply too hot to continue. Being the valiant gentleman that I am, I offered to swap and let her finish my squid and I’d tackle the salad.
We swapped plates and I tucked into the salad, starting with a nice big leaf of lettuce. Nothing much can really go wrong with a nice leaf of lettuce can it? Apparently one can coat a lettuce leaf in quite a bit of chilli. I managed to eat my way through the salad and even enjoyed it mostly, but I have to say, one really doesn’t expect a salad to have a heat rating that would match a sturdy vindaloo!
Having survived the trial of the salad that in its list of enticing ingredients never ever mentioned anything about chilli or potentially being hot (must have been that gan sun sauce (that’s not what the sauce actually was, but it was something I’ve never heard of that didn’t hint at being hot))it was time to think about the wine. I had really been looking forward to it and so poured a small measure into each of our glasses that we might have a first taste and check that there was nothing wrong with it.
Raising it to have a nice big whiff, I was more than a little disappointed to detect aromas that reminded me more of mould and cork than a nice red wine and wasn’t particularly happy when the taste wasn’t any better. Letting Caroline try it as well, her impressions weren’t any better and so I sent it off to the bar letting them know that I wasn’t happy with it. The girl that took it from me had a smell and the look on her face was confirmed by the fact that she too stated that it didn’t smell too good. She referred it to her manager and I sat down to await his report.
He of course came back saying that there was nothing wrong with it, which left us in the decidedly uncomfortable position of having forked out for a bottle of wine that we simply didn’t want to drink. Fortunately, this turned out to be one of hospitality’s better moments and he didn’t force us to pay for it, nor drink it. We selected another bottle from the cellar that was substantially better and enjoyed it immensely. I only worried ever so slightly after Caroline had mentioned how hot the salad was (and the fact that nothing had been mentioned on the menu board) and we’d sent the wine back that our mains would come out with a nice saliva glaze, but they were up to the expected standard and we were more than happy with the remainder of the meal.
They must have really loved me when I went up to pay though and produced the coupon for a discount! Here’s hoping that the staff enjoyed the wine that the manager did admit in later conversation should have been drunk about 5 years prior!
And so being something of a special occasion, or even just an excuse that we could, we ventured down to the cellar to investigate the highly rated collection that they supposedly had on offer. There was certainly plenty to choose from and after quite a bit of indecision, a ’94 Shiraz was elected for consumption and we returned to our table. They decanted the wine appropriately and we allowed it to sit for some time whilst waiting for our entrees which duly arrived.
Caroline had elected to have a salad; a pork and prawn salad, with a tantalising list of ingredients, whilst I’d gone for something more of a staple, the salt and pepper squid. After a bite or two of her salad, Caroline mentioned that it was a bit spicy. In fact, she didn’t say it was a bit spicy so much as it was bloody hot. I had a taste to see just how hot it rated, thinking “it’s a salad, how hot could it be,” and sure enough it didn’t really seem to be all that hot at all. I went on with my squid and Caroline went back to the salad. She made it about half way through before decided that it was simply too hot to continue. Being the valiant gentleman that I am, I offered to swap and let her finish my squid and I’d tackle the salad.
We swapped plates and I tucked into the salad, starting with a nice big leaf of lettuce. Nothing much can really go wrong with a nice leaf of lettuce can it? Apparently one can coat a lettuce leaf in quite a bit of chilli. I managed to eat my way through the salad and even enjoyed it mostly, but I have to say, one really doesn’t expect a salad to have a heat rating that would match a sturdy vindaloo!
Having survived the trial of the salad that in its list of enticing ingredients never ever mentioned anything about chilli or potentially being hot (must have been that gan sun sauce (that’s not what the sauce actually was, but it was something I’ve never heard of that didn’t hint at being hot))it was time to think about the wine. I had really been looking forward to it and so poured a small measure into each of our glasses that we might have a first taste and check that there was nothing wrong with it.
Raising it to have a nice big whiff, I was more than a little disappointed to detect aromas that reminded me more of mould and cork than a nice red wine and wasn’t particularly happy when the taste wasn’t any better. Letting Caroline try it as well, her impressions weren’t any better and so I sent it off to the bar letting them know that I wasn’t happy with it. The girl that took it from me had a smell and the look on her face was confirmed by the fact that she too stated that it didn’t smell too good. She referred it to her manager and I sat down to await his report.
He of course came back saying that there was nothing wrong with it, which left us in the decidedly uncomfortable position of having forked out for a bottle of wine that we simply didn’t want to drink. Fortunately, this turned out to be one of hospitality’s better moments and he didn’t force us to pay for it, nor drink it. We selected another bottle from the cellar that was substantially better and enjoyed it immensely. I only worried ever so slightly after Caroline had mentioned how hot the salad was (and the fact that nothing had been mentioned on the menu board) and we’d sent the wine back that our mains would come out with a nice saliva glaze, but they were up to the expected standard and we were more than happy with the remainder of the meal.
They must have really loved me when I went up to pay though and produced the coupon for a discount! Here’s hoping that the staff enjoyed the wine that the manager did admit in later conversation should have been drunk about 5 years prior!
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