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{ Monthly Archives } March 2008

What did Earth Hour do for us?

I’ve heard a lot of criticism of Earth Hour over the past few days, mainly that it was a token public effort by people who aren’t really committed to any permanent change. Whether that’s true or not can’t be determined from last night’s behaviour alone, although I have read that some local businesses were using this as a test for how they can reduce their energy consumption on a regular basis while still maintaining safety standards.

In looking at last night’s behaviour specifically, consider the expected power demand curve for today (Sunday) in Ontario: pretty low at 8am when I grabbed these from the Ontario Wholesale Electricity Demand and Price Information site, expected to climb before noon as people start to make lunch and do laundry, then increase to a peak around 8pm when the sun has just set, the dishwasher is on after dinner, and people settle down to the TV or computer for a couple of hours. The green curve is actual demand, the darker step graph is the projected demand, and these guys are usually pretty accurate.

Projected Ontario power consumption

Now here’s what happened yesterday, which included Earth Hour at 8pm (20 on the horizontal axis):

Ontario power consumption during Earth Hour

I wished that I had captured the projected demand curve earlier in the day for comparison, but I suspect that the expected curve would have been much like today’s graph shown at the top. We see a higher demand midday than today, due to more businesses open on Saturday than Sunday, but then an interesting phenomenon: long before Earth Hour starts at 8pm, power consumption drops off, and stays well below the midday peak for the remainder of the evening, even after Earth Hour completed at 9pm.

So what’s the story here? This is only my hypothesis, but I think that businesses and individuals started lowering their power consumption much earlier in the day (around 3pm, when the usual evening demand would normally start to build) and maintained the lower power levels longer than the designated hour (until 10:30, when the usual evening demand would normally start to drop off) because of the awareness that Earth Hour raised; in other words, Earth Hour actually had an impact seven to eight times longer than planned.

During the actual hour of 8-9pm, a lot of us were sitting around in the dark or out on the street gawking at the lack of lights in some of the buildings, but what were we doing all afternoon until 8pm, and after 9pm, that also made a difference? Obviously, we were all going about our normal Saturday lives, but somehow using much less energy than usual. That gives me hope that this isn’t just a placebo, and we can reduce energy consumption if we take yesterday’s lessons to heart.

2008 03 30 toronto Comments (0)

What’s the Difference?

Damir and I recently volunteered for a video project with my talented photographer friend Rannie (who also did my headshots) for SXSW called 20 x 2. We just sat on the couch, he did all the work.


20 x 2 : What’s The Difference? from photojunkie on Vimeo.

Rannie was looking for 10 straight and 10 gay couples; when I asked Damir if he wanted to participate, he said “we’d be one of the straight couples, right?” :)

2008 03 11 photography Comments (2)

Amuse Bouche redux

After my last visit to Amuse Bouche, I commented on how Damir referred to the chef’s tasting menu as the "Fear Factor" menu, and how the time before, we had to stop at the pub on the way home for him to have more to eat, so this time I decided to go with two women who both love to cook rather than one hungry man who is quite happy with the burger and beer special.

It was my friend Pat’s birthday, and my sister Betty and I treated her to dinner at Amuse Bouche, which neither of them had visited before. We quickly decided on the 7-course chef’s tasting menu, and asked for complementary wines to accompany each course.

First, we were served an amuse bouche (not one of the 7 courses) of a smoked white chocolate and lobster bisque-like mouthful, charmingly presented in an espresso cup. Creamy and sweet, a great start on a cold winter night.

The first of four appetizers was horse carpaccio (that’s thinly-sliced raw horsemeat for those of you unfamiliar with the fine points of eating Black Beauty), topped with dots of sheep and cows milk cheese and truffle oil. Once I moved past the psychological barrier of eating horse — which I was surprised to find lurking in my psyche — it was delicious: the meat is very dark red, like game, very lean yet quite mild in flavour.

Appetizer #2 was smoked trout chopped into tiny cubes, and served with equal-sized cubes of tomato and croutons. At one end of the plate was a peeled cherry tomato; at the other was a similar-sized ball of what turned out to be deep-fried mayonnaise in crust — quite delicious, and an interesting contrast to the other flavours and textures on the plate.

Third was fois gras, which I predicted as soon as the waiter brought us the wines, a muscat with a wonderful blend of acidity and sweetness. There was a cube of pear gelee on the plate, a nice complement to the fois gras, and a third food that I can’t even recall, I was so blown away by the perfect crispy finish on the fois gras that remained pink inside. Actually, I think the third one was crispy onions of some sort, but seriously, the fois gras just dominated that course for me.

Fourth was a square of haddock and one perfect little clam; I could have eaten a bowl of those clams without blinking.

We had a pause before the main course, and a palate cleanser of a tiny ball of passion fruit ice, sweet and tart in just the right balance.

The main was lamb, a loin cut I believe, roasted rare and served on an eggplant puree. It was accompanied by a prune stuffed with chopped hazelnuts and Cabrales (a Spanish blue cheese), something that I will definitely be attempting to replicate at home as hors d’oeuvres. Also with it was a tiny perfect white turnip, about the size of a small radish. The perfect amount of meat after four appetizers (and knowing that we still had a cheese course and dessert to go), although I could have used a touch more veg on the plate.

The cheese course was a savory panna cotta, and although I don’t know what cheese was used in it, it was delicious: served in a small funnel shaped glass, I turned my spoon around and used the small handle to dig the last bits of it out of the bottom (which I felt was infinitely classier than using my finger).

Lastly was dessert, the only course where the three of us were served different selections: a rum and raisin creme brulee, a chocolate marizipan mousse with espresso ice cream, and a passion fruit and meringue tart. All three were delicious.

I remember none of the wines by name except the Cave Springs "Dolomite" Riesling that we were served with the second appetizer, but I do recall that they were a good match for each course. I just checked their wine list online, and none of the wines look familiar, including the Cave Spring which I know that we had, so it might not be completely up to date. They have a nice selection from a number of countries, with a good representation from Canada including some from Thirty Bench, a great little winery in the Niagara region that sends me cases of wine on subscription.

My overall recommendation: this remains a great "special occasion" restaurant, and I highly recommend the chef’s tasting menu with the matching wines. The service is very good but not at all intrusive, although we had trouble hearing one of the waiters when he described the dish that he brought to our table and had to ask him to repeat it. We spent over 3 hours at dinner, and never felt either rushed or like we were waiting around, although I’m glad that we were about to start our main course when a party of 10 — which fills half the restaurant — showed up, since I’m sure that their orders swamped the kitchen after that. By then, however, we were on to the cheese and dessert, both of which require minimal preparation.

2008 03 02 food & wine Comments (0)

Vintages release for February 2nd

I’m a bit late for this, but the wine only gets better with aging, right? Especially considering the focus of the release, which in honour of the 30th anniversary of Robert Parker’s 100-point wine scoring system, included a great selection of wines with a score of 90+.

I receive the winecurrent.com reviews of the Vintages releases and highly recommend subscribing, even in the face of my slight rant yesterday about preferring blog posts over email newsletters; their type of review of the current Vintage release does lend itself nicely to an email format. I haven’t tried any of these 90+ wines yet, but there’s a few that I want to check out in the under-$20 range (which is my "buy a bunch and keep around for casual drinking" price point):

  • Stella Bella Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc 2006, Margaret River, Australia. $18.85, LCBO #48546.
  • Pillar Box Red 2005, Padthaway, South Australia. $17.40, LCBO #685941
  • Lieu-Dit ‘Les Poyeux’ Saumur Champigny 2005, AOC Saumur Champigny. $16.85, LCBO #52639
  • Armand Riesling Kabinett 2005, QmP Pfalz. $16.85, LCBO #60905
  • Cyan 12 Meses 2003, DO Toro. $16.75, LCBO #66936

There are many others in the $20-30 range, and several well above that. Definitely worth checking out both the wines, and winecurrent.com’s newsletter, that always arrives a day or two in advance of the Vintages release.

2008 03 01 food & wine Comments (0)