May 29, 2010

FRIDAY NIGHT ON THE TOWN!

Watermelon, ice cream, cupcake, beer, pizza and a tea latte.

That's all the food I consumed within a four-hour period, so it probably comes as no surprise that my stomach is no fan of me this morning. Add to that combination a Tylenol Extra Strength, because I had a mondo headache after work, and well, someone was a little "funny" after dinner last night.

I always forget that you cannot combine Tylenol with alcohol. The thing is that I rarely drink because a) I don't drink wine--ever and b) I'm picky about my beer. So the chances that you'll find me drinking are pretty slim-to-none but Sean and I found ourselves in a quaint part of town and when the restaurant we chose (based solely on their thin crust pizzas with awesome sounding toppings) had beer selections including those from Mill Street Brewery, I had to go for it! But alas, I'm hoping the two or three times I've accidentally mixed these two ingredients together does not lead to serious liver damage or failure.

Let's back up a bit though. Sean waited for me for 30 minutes while I had to work late and after that we headed back to my house so I could change. I grabbed some watermelon for me and my dad's beef curry with rice for Sean. I don't do curries in the wintertime with no air conditioning. It's just plain wrong. Yes, I'm VERY tempermental in the summertime, springtime, whatever.

After that we headed to the mall to find shorts that I actually fit me but stopped by Coldstone Creamery where I got the Banana Caramel Crunch and Sean got the Cookie Minster. We decided to get the "Like It" (small) size this time around but at only 50 cents less, I felt like it was kind of a rip off. We should have gotten the larger size but I know it would have been too much ice cream.

An hour later I came out of the mall with a top and three pairs of shorts. Go me! I was actually previously wearing shorts that were two sizes too big--oops! After that we headed to one part of town's Main St. and came across the Unionville Pizza Co. and it looked promising. Sean suggested we check out the menu but before we did, I couldn't take my eyes off the store front of the Old Firehall Confectionery. Against the dark sky, the old firehall was radiating with light and people buzzing in and out of the shop. I told Sean we had to check it out.

We stepped inside part of my dream-come-true. The shop has everything a die-hard sweet tooth could dream of: ice cream (from Kawartha Dairy), fudge, chocolate-covered anything (pretzels, strawberries, cookies), cakes, cookies, cupcakes and the most artistic and interesting truffles I've seen in-person (chocolate lavender anyone?). After a look around, Sean and I settled on a single cupcake: vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. What better way to test a shop's worthy-ness than to review the most basic of cupcakes. It's pretty much my MO for any cupcake shop I enter. At $2.89 plus tax for a small (and $3.99 for a large with ganache filling), these were the priciest cupcakes I've ever purchased. They weren't even advertised as all-natural (a la Dufflet) or the best I've ever seen. They were square however. Yep, that's right, square cupcakes and this is what they look like:

Excuse the shite photo. You'll notice the lack of photos from this post because I didn't have my camera with me (blogger nightmare) and the iPhone's abilities to take photos at night are horrid at best.

Our first bites were not pleasant ones. There was something a little bit "off" about the consistency of both the buttercream icing and the cupcake itself. I found the cake to taste artificial; like that of cake mix but as light and fluffy. Sean said it tasted artificial and mealy and he was right. It was definitely mealy. There was a really weird consistency to the cake. We then cleaned out our palettes with water (thanks to the refilled Evian bottle I carry with me everywhere) and tasted the icing and cake by themselves. The icing. Ugh. Where do I even begin. It was hot, almost melting and do I dare say that it tasted like nothing? It was just butter that was a few degrees past room temperature iced onto a cake. It had the slightest taste of vanilla but certainly not one that was pure. It was nice to eat a cupcake that wasn't too sweet but this icing could have used more powdered sugar. It was literally like eating a cake with piped butter and sprinkles on top. At $3 for one small square cupcake, this is definitely not a re-purchase.

After declaring that they may have stole the property for my cupcake shop, I still make better cupcakes and Sean agreed with me. We then headed back across the street for dinner and with hopes that it would turn out to be better than the cupcake. It turns out that the Unionville Pizza Company has been around for three years, though previously known as the Harvest Wine Bar. I remember Harvest Wine Bar. I remember never venturing inside for a very specific reason, though now that reason escapes me. Sean and I opted to sit inside (everyone else was out on the dimly lit patio) and I took a quick glance at the drink menu. My eyes opened wide when I saw Mill St. on tap and in bottles. Seriously, really? Organic beer offerings in a restaurant in my town!? Oh I was giddy with excitement. And not only Mill. St but another option too! I couldn't choose. Faced with so many beer offerings, I asked Sean about the difference between pilsners and ales and whatnot and finally settled on a Nickel Brook cream ale. It's brewed in Burlington (not too far from here) and entirely organic, even carbonated naturally. I was super amped to try Mill St. for the first "real" time (I had previously only had a sip but this completely organic beer got to me. Sean got a German beer that I can't remember the name of but I love it when Sean talks with a German accent so I made him say it three times. His beer was served with a lemon wedge and he was the beer winner of the night. I loved my beer (I finished it all and it's actually rare for me to finish a beer by myself--again, I'm picky) but Sean's was totally awesome. I have to find out what the name of it was from him.

Sean and I opted to split the roast duck pizza and it was great. Not as awesome as the anchovy pizza in New York City (that pizza was to-die-for) but this was good for my town. The dough was made from organic flour and thin as thin could be--just the way I like my crust! Our toppings include roast duck, tomato sauce, mushrooms, goat cheese and arugula piled on top. I thought that there was a little bit too much cheese but Sean didn't seem to mind ;)

Unfortunately the menu on the UPC's website isn't quite up-to-date (items have been updated, prices increased) but if you're in the area, it's definitely worth it to stop by for a meal. They also have some great appetizers including arancini, beet root carpaccio salad and corn chips with fresh guacamole. They also have some great burger options include a turkey, lamb, buffalo, veggie and kobe burger.

After dinner we decided to walk along Main St. and I grabbed a tall black tea latte from Starbucks. I was a little shocked when the barista told me the price: $3.57. Seriously? That's how much I've paid in the past for tea and hot milk with foam on top? I couldn't believe it. I had to borrow a dollar from Sean to pay for my latte. Suffice it to say, there will not be a lot of tea lattes in my future but oh, it was kind of worth it. That's probably the best tea latte I've had in a long time. Sometimes they don't put the sugar syrup (which is fine by me) or sometimes they put too much (blech!) but this one was perfect. Kudos to the barista who made that one. So eventually it got cold and I needed to use the washroom and when I came back from the washroom Sean mentioned that my eyes were red ("you look baked") and I couldn't stop laughing. But eventually I became really sleepy and could barely keep my eyes open so Sean suggested I go lie down in his car while he listened to Bowie. That's when the trouble started. I couldn't walk down the stairs properly and that's when Sean mentioned something and when it hit me, I had a Tylenol earlier (!!) and then I had alcohol. Oops! Anyway, lesson learned; it's never a good idea to mix medication with alcohol.

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Just to make sure that I was not being completely biased, I made my dad eat the cupcake as well and give me his thoughts on it. After his first taste (I wish I had videotaped it, he was tasting it like a person tasting wine), he asked if it contained cornmeal. See, my thoughts exactly...a mealy consistency. I asked him if it was stale or just plain bad and he said it was a combination of both; that it was just sugar with no flavour. After dad's taste-testing, this is what's left of the cupcake:

I'm now at a loss as to what to do with the cupcake. Do I toss it or do I finish it? I'd hate to toss any baked item but I also try to follow my diet of "if I'm not in love with the taste, I won't eat it." According to my rules, I should toss it but I also hate to waste food--though I'll happily throw out all kinds of pre-packaged and processed crap that I find in my house.

1 comment:

RudePrincess said...

LMAO. This cupcake dilemma is way too hilarious. You may have chosen a bad item or it may have been too warm out and therefore the icing melted. I have had some chocolate from there (for the life of me, I can't remember what I got now) and it tasted mighty fine to me. The place looks so heavenly. I think we should offer to make their cupcakes! We could set up a little cart in the corner!