Garrison Brewing Company

Klingon Warnog Roggen Dunkel Ale

Also picked this up at the Halifax airport. I totally didn't realize this was a Star Trek thing. I also read "Warnog" as "Warhog".  

I like the cap. :D 

First thoughts: what is this headless beer I am drinking? Dark and opaque, it looks like Asian hot pot plum juice. Tastes slightly fruity with a slightly bitter/clove aftertaste. It was okay, but I probably wouldn't get it again. 

I just wanted to know what victory tastes like. Spicy? I didn't notice that.

Upstreet Craft Brewing

Upstreet Craft Brewing (41 Allen St, Charlottetown, PEI)
902-894-0543
Hours: 12 - 12 daily.
cheers@upstreetcraftbrewing.com

What's a trip to the East coast without some craft beer? We walked into an empty place at around 10-something p.m. on a Sunday night. Our bartender was really chill in true Maritime fashion. 

Settled in with our flights of beer

I think Jo and I agreed that the favourite was the Rhuby Social. It was fruity? I can't remember now. I also liked the Top Stamp honey brown lager and the Barnone IPA. I thought it was pretty cool that they had a tap dedicated to featuring other brewery's beer. Craft beer seems like such a friendly scene.

Board games

That's a lot of Catan. Giant Jenga!

Would I return? Sure. None of the beers were amazing, but there was a couple I liked. The vibe is cool in that it seems real laid back, and there are things to entertain you e.g. board games, pinball machine. Our bartender seemed to have no problem with us playing Jenga at the bar. They also have pretty decent hours.

Total damage: approximately $24-something for two flights of beers.

North Brewing Company

Farmhouse Ale (Halifax Nova Scotia)
7.5% ABV

 Picked this up at the Halifax airport, and it is pretty delicious. Darker in colour than I thought it'd be, it tastes a whole lot less bitter than I imagined as well. The bitter comes a bit after, but not in abundance. I like the deep colour. Hold it up to the light, and you'll see the reddish glow that looks pretty nice. The head is quite pouffy.

There's an unexpected fruitiness to it as well. Goes down easy, and high alcohol content (not noticeable in taste) for a beer. It is a bit creamy-tasting. Ingredients are simple, and look at that: "fair traide organic raw sugar"! If that doesn't immediately make you feel better about drinking it, then you're not a hipster. 

Would I purchase again? Yes. It's quite nice overall with simple ingredients that are listed. High alcohol content is a plus for me. Good job, Halifax.

Total damage: Around $6-something for 650 mL? 

BOOZE

My first bourbon: Knob Creek straight bourbon whiskey.

Not as sweet as I thought it'd be. Also, I found it quite a bit harsher on the throat than the usual Canadian rye whisky that I'm used to. I drank it, but I might not get it again.

Jo's import from France: pear-flavoured Giffard eau de vie.

Water of life, indeed. How do they get the pear inside the bottle? Mysteries of life! Slightly sweet, subtly pear, it's a nice, clean spirit. I enjoy!

Alberta Premium Dark Horse

The colour is absolutely lovely, first off. Dark, liquid gold, I say.

It's sweet, and has a bit of a burnt wood taste to me. Initially purchased for its colour and 45% alcohol content (versus the usual 40% - hey, I'm all about value), I've been consistently turning to this for my whisky needs. Well, this and Wiser's hopped whisky, which I still believe is magic. Sometimes, I drink it on the rocks, sometimes I drink it neat; mostly, I drink it with sweetened green tea.

Han Ba Tang

Han Ba Tang (4862 Yonge Street, Willowdale)
Phone number(416) 546-8218

The inside signs are much clearer than the outside ones.

Drink list! Includes a variety of infused soju cocktails. I enjoy their beer selection, too, which included Innis & Gunn and Samuel Adams. On tap, there was also Rickard's Red. A few of my favs.

 Two clean cuts. Not both for me.

It's a bit sweeter than I expected it to be, but still pretty tasty.

Kalbi tacos

Not bad. We liked that there was 'stuff' in the taco shells.

 Creamy rice cakes. 

Tasted like alfredo sauce on rice cakes. Sounds like something I'd concoct if I were out of pasta. Julie mentioned this being a different taste for her, thus making it her favourite dish of the night. 

Lobster tacos.

I like lobster! 

Pork belly and tofu.

Phoebe said it tasted really Asian. It was okay, but since I split one, I didn't get the tomato to see if that would've tasted weird.

 Scoop pizza.

Jenny said all she tasted was cheese. I actually didn't get that much cheese, so much as potato. It's a sweet potato base, but subtly sweet. I think this might've been my least favourite dish.

Spicy seafood soup.

It didn't taste like the usual Korean soup flavours that I was introduced to in Korea. It wasn't bad, just a lot more black pepper, and a lot less Korean red sauce taste.  

Crispy king prawns.

This was my favourite dish of the night. Shrimp was tasty, crispy sticks of sweet potato was awesomely salty. 

Would I return? I might. Now that I know which food items I prefer, I wouldn't mind trying their other stuff, and that drinks menu looked pretty interesting. Cocktails are $7 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Total damage: Approximately $15.50 per person (6 people), minus drinks, and minus the prawns which were on a different bill. 

Whisky Beer

Okay. Innis and Gunn original and J. P. Wiser's hopped whisky are both awesome products on their own, but combined... well, shit. It's magic. Innis & Gunn has this strong vanilla flavour and Wiser's hopped whisky has this chocolate taste that intensifies when mixed with other things. So magic is the product. That's the math I'm going for. And when I love two things separately, and they come together, the result is simply DAMN AWESOME! 

I heart whisky. I heart beer. I super heart whisky beer! 

This is dangerously delicious. Like, get me drunk every day dangerously delicious. I might just be tipsy right now.

Wine

I don't always drink wine, but when I do, it's picked out by my friends and delicious.

This Italian brand moscato tastes like sweet juice, in the best kind of way. 

This pinot gris is imported all the way from Sonoma. It's quite nice. Is not too dry for me, and tastes light. I'm not even at level novice for wine, so all that I can say is that I'd drink it again.

Cheers to Steph for introducing the moscato and to Casey for the Sonoma import! And cheers to classing up family time with wine!

Innis & Gunn White Oak Wheat Beer

Because I am brand loyal, I had to try this.

It's a bit sweet, kind of nutty (like cashews?),  a sort of orange peel taste, not very hoppy, and I think it's pretty delicious. I like it better than the toasted oak. 

Innis & Gunn Toasted Oak IPA

I got this because I am brand loyal. And it was on sale. Anyway, hoppy/bitter, but not disgustingly so. Toasted? Can't really taste it. Faint citrus taste. 

Would I get this again? Probably not. It was just to try. I'm trying my fourth bottle now. There's nothing amazing about this. Innis & Gunn Original is still my favourite. 

J. P. Wiser's Hopped Whisky

I'm in trouble. They've made whisky taste like chocolate. LIKE FREAKIN' CHOCOLATE! 

I was freaking out when I realized what was going on after sipping on this. I expected a bit of beer or bitterness taste from the advertised 'hopped' part, but all I can taste is chocolate. Something like rich, dark, delicious, alcoholic chocolate. This is so nice. So, so nice. I need to go buy many more bottles of this STAT because DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE WHISKY. 

Shit.

P. S. No burn.

Portland Beer

High off our Maine Brew Bus tour, we decided to grab a random collection of beer to try back at our hotel. We paired our beer with blue cheese and buffalo wing XX popcorn from Coastal Maine Popcorn Co. 

Ballast Point grapefruit sculpin: Thought it'd be sweet, but it was kind of bitter, and too hoppy. 

Allagash Saison: I do not remember, but I guess it was okay if I made no bad notes about it? 

Hitachino Nest Japanese classic ale: Very woody taste, and enhanced the blue cheese flavoured popcorn greatly. 

Ram Island iced Tea Mead from Maine Mead Works: Sweet, but has that very American iced tea taste. Enhanced the spiciness of the Buffalo XX popcorn. We enjoyed this very much, as we all agreed to buy and share it when we had tried it at the brewery. 

As for the popcorn from Coastal Maine Popcorn Co., it's flavoured popcorn; what can go wrong? It was pretty fun seeing which beers would bring out which popcorn flavour. 

Beer and popcorn time antics with Jo post to come. 

Ginger Mead

Ginger Mead by Trafalgar Ales and Meads

I was introduced to mead on a brew tour, and it seemed pretty cool: alcohol derived from honey.

The ingredients in this particular mead I picked up seems so simple.

The taste is not as spicy as I thought it'd be, but there is a ginger taste. It sort of goes down like beer in bitterness, but finishes like wine, possibly because of the acidity. Beer grape juice comes to mind?! The honey is very light. I feel like it needs to be sweeter.

Pros: 8.5% alcohol/volume. Might go well in Coke.

Cons: Too much bitter without other flavours. Cork took me too much effort to remove; like hand-hurting effort. It's got nothing on the delicious iced tea mead I had in Boston.

Would I purchase this again? Probably not... I have to try everything else, and this ain't got nothing on my regular beer.

Boilermaker

Boilermaker. Yeah, I did. It's only Monday. Or maybe, because it's Monday...

Crown Royal and Sleeman's honey brown.

Honestly... I am not a huge fan of Crown Royal. I prefer my other whiskies... so I was trying to 'get rid' of it... by mixing it with beer. Turns out, whisky and beer is a thing - a thing called boilermaker. :)

Innis & Gunn

Innis & Gunn

I think this might be my favourite brand of beer. For a while, the LCBO was selling the rum finish and irish whiskey finish flavours, so I decided to try them before they stopped selling it.

Whiskey finish: manly, woody, not as sweet. There's a strong flavour, and a slight coffee taste. It has the highest alcohol content of the three at 7.4% ABV. It's okay, but not my favourite.

Rum finish: less sweet and a bit more alcoholic tasting than original. I might prefer it to the original since it is less sweet.

Original: vanilla hint, goes down easy. It is the most sweet-tasting of the three, and has a lighter colour. 

As I was drinking all three bottles simultaneously, I thought they went great with Cheetos. :D

Jack Daniel's Lynchburg Lemonade

Love love love the old-timey feel of the bottle. Makes me want to drink it while holding a parasol, sitting in an old school, all-steel car. From the font and the ridges in the glass, it's a fun package that makes me think of summertime in a different era.

It tastes like lemonade. I tasted no alcohol, but the alcohol percentage is pretty standard (5% alc./vol) for this type of drink. Very tasty. 

Would I buy it again? Yes. Good taste, great packaging.

Salad King

Salad King (340 Yonge Street, Toronto)

416-593-0333

Hours:

Mon - Thurs: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Fri: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Sat: 12 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Sun: 12 p.m. -9 p.m.

info@saladking.com

Margarita and Islamic noodles

Apparently, there is a 'secret' item that is not on the menu called islamic noodles. I got that since B mentioned seeing it on review sites. On paper, it sounds like the Siam noodles without the peanut part. It's been described as Pad Thai with creamy coconut sauce, which I think seems pretty accurate. It came out way more sauced up than the Siam noodle (far plate in the picture), and quite delicious. I got mine with chicken, but shrimp (and I think it was beef) was also an option. I'd definitely give it a recommendation. 

As for the margarita, it was very thick. I consumed most of mine with a spoon. I tasted minimal alcohol, and felt as much; however, two of my fellow diners turned red from their drinks, so I guess there was some alcohol in it. It had a nice, thick texture, but it was a bit flavourless (and not enough alcohol) for me. (Like snow?) I would've preferred a stronger citrus base, preferably that of orange liqueur. 

Would I return? Yeah. It's a pretty easy go-to restaurant that almost everyone can enjoy. The location is convenient, the atmosphere is casual enough, and the price is decent. I might just stick to beer as my beverage next time, though.

Feast

Dinner is served.

Innis & Gunn Rum Finish

Innis & Gunn

Tried this for the first time. It made the Dos Equis I had afterwards taste like ass. This beer tastes like whiskey in beer format. It is delicious! I would definitely drink it again.

Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Stout

Malty of malt!

So much malt flavour.

Super dark in colour, and easy to drink, I would go for this again. 

6.9% ABV. Cheers to Casey for bringing this across the border!