Sheltered Girl Meets World

Eaten: Frozen Custard @ The Merry Dairy & Luv-It (Ottawa, ON & Las Vegas, NV)

Jimmies, pecans and  cherries - oh my!

While I'm on vacation I need ice cream.  In Italy I sampled various gelaterie's across the country, in Germany I tried scoops of ice cream layered with thick cherry liquor and in Las Vegas I tried frozen custard.  Frozen custard is similar to gelato except it's made with an egg yolk base and has a slightly higher milk fat percentage (gelato is 4-8%, frozen custard 10-12% and ice cream 14-18%).  It has less fat and sugar than ice cream and has a creamier, denser texture thanks to the eggs.  It also melts slower, which in the 40°C Las Vegas sun is very important.

In Las Vegas the locals get their frozen custard fix at Luv-It Frozen Custard, a small building located off the strip beside the Olympic Gardens Gentlemen's Club.  Perhaps not the best neighbourhood but that hasn't stopped tourists and regulars from visiting and indulging in sundaes, cones, shakes, malts and floats in over 30 different flavours since 1973.

I'd be merry too if I was dishing out cups and cones of creamy frozen custard.

In Ottawa the only way to get your frozen custard fix is by tracking The Merry Dairy truck (yes, I said truck) using the Google Latitude powered Track the Truck feature on the website.  Although owner Marlene Haley can't fit 30 flavours in the truck, she does offer a wonderfully creamy vanilla with jimmies, butterscotch and chocolate sauce to decorate.  We may not get the blistering heat that Las Vegas does but a cool cup of frozen custard sure tastes great on a muggy Ottawa afternoon.

Monday Distractions: A Pop-up Resto, Beer and Instagraming on Everest

Now imagine 120 of these chalk menus at the American Craft Beer Fest!

Links are a bit sparse this morning - I took the day off work!  If you know of an event and want to have it listed here please e-mail me the details.

Ottawa Events:

• Ian Capstick of MediaStyle and Chef Jason Laurin of Essence Catering are opening a pop-up restaurant at the MediaStyle office on Bank Street on June 1st at 7:00pm.  $125.00 gets you a seat at the limited First Harvest Dinner and wine pairings by a well-known Ottawa sommelier.  RSVP to the Two Loud Mouths' Supper Club.

Other Events:

• American Craft Beer Fest is just around the corner!  On June 1 and 2 over 120 breweries and 550 beers are invading the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston.  The $45 admission includes entry to the session and beer tastings.  I'll be there - I'm looking forward to trying new and exciting American beer!

Interesting Links:

• The 10 Coolest Underground Subways in the World.  I've been to three - Paris, New York City and Montreal - what about you?
• Training for Running with the Bulls.  One of the things I do want to do is run with the bulls.  Luckily there's an app to help me train to run for my life.
• On Everest, On Instagram.  I can't text from the garage but they can send a photo from the summit.

Drank: Coopers Sparkling Ale @ Brothers Beer Bistro (Ottawa, ON)

Prosecco or Coopers Brewery Sparkling Ale? SPARKLING ALE PLEASE!

I have been cyber stalking (twitter/facebook) the folks behind Brothers Beer Bistro since their former employer Steven Beckta (Beckta, Play Food and Wine and the upcoming Gezellig)  tweeted congratulations on signing their lease way back in February.  I guess they weren't creeped out by me or they didn't notice because they invited me and a few other Ottawa-area bloggers/media to sample the food and beer menu the night before their opening.

Drank: Noble Rot @ County in the City (Ottawa, ON)

A few of the bottles Karlo Estates were pouring.

It's been pointed out that I often leave out details about wine pairings or completely omit them when talking about meals with specific wine pairings.  It isn't that I don't like wine or that I disagree with the sommelier's wine pairings it's that I don't feel I know enough about wine to comment. Which is why I was very excited to be given the opportunity to attend Savvy Company's County in the City and learn more about the wines from Prince Edward County.

Initially attracted by the label art, I fell in love with Lighthall 2011 Progression Sparkling.

In unfamiliar territory I met up with Bethany, sommelier and blogger at Second Ferment, and followed her lead at the first few tasting tables.  She explained the basics of tasting wine: first looking at the colour against a white background then swirling the wine in the glass to get a good whiff of the aroma and then taking a sip, letting it linger in your mouth so you can taste the acidity, alcohol and tannins.  I struggled to keep up with her descriptions for the wines and while she scribbled long paragraphs in the provided notebook I scribbled 'yum' and 'super yum' beside the wines I enjoyed and odd comments like 'tastes like weak lemonaid' besides the ones I didn't.

Keint-He Vineyards 2008 Pineaux Sauvage - a pinot noir grape grown w/ botrytis cinerea creates a sweet wine known as 'Noble Rot'.

Besides writing obscure notes to myself I got to taste some really interesting wines from the dozen or so different Prince Edward County wineries represented.  I had several favourites of the evening and some wonderful wine discovery moments.  Lighthall Vineyard's 2011 Progression Sparkling won a 'super yum' ranking with its notes of pear and apple so refreshing I could see myself enjoying a bottle on a hot patio.  I also liked Karlo Estates 2010 Fifth Element (Petit Verdot) it smelled spicy and tasted spicy too!  I also had an opportunity to sample their Van Alstine and Van Alstine White, I can't tell you which I liked more so maybe they should be served as a pair from now on?  I also enjoyed tasting Stanners Cabernet Franc 2010 and 2011 side by side - my first time experiencing the difference a year makes in taste and what a difference it makes.  Scoring an 'intriguing yum' in my black book was Keint-He Vineyards 2008 Pineaux Sauvage, a sweeter wine that at first smelled faintly like scotch but kept changing and developing as it breathed.

I love Sandbanks Estate Winery's Baco Noir and Baco Reserve, but I think you already knew that.

I think I have a long way to go in learning about wine but County in the City really opened my eyes to the wine world and it let me buy some bottles that aren't on LCBO shelves.  Savvy Company is hosting a similar event at the National Arts Centre with wines from Niagara-on-the-Lake on May 30 - a great opportunity to learn more about wine from that region and discover your own likes and dislikes or 'yum' and 'super yum' in my case.