Wednesday February 20, 12:23 p.m.
Been a while. Being away all those years, I still need to be reminded that, yes, there is an actual long weekend in February now....at least for 3 provinces in this country. And I think having the Family Day Weekend is a necessity during a time of year when Xmas is long past us and Winter has outgrown its welcome.
Certainly, this past Saturday gave us a good reminder why Ol' Man Winter needs to get going. Although, the weather on that day was not quite the big storm from a couple of weeks ago, the snow and winds made for some treacherous driving on the highways...which is why I felt a little badly that my old friends, CG and The Entrepreneur with respective families in tow, came to my neck of the woods for a brief dinner at a place called Congee Star in the Don Mills and Eglinton area. When we had made the plans to meet up, there wasn't too much of a sign of the nutso weather, but still, it was very good of them to trudge on up all the way from the West End of town. It was brief....about a couple of hours since the kids were still very young, but it was good to chat for a while over har gow and brisket. I'll definitely head over to Mississauga next time since the two of them have raved about this restaurant called Spoon and Fork.
Sunday was the official Family Day for my clan. We decided on doing The Keg up on Leslie. I made reservations which was the smartest thing to do since when we got there at 6 pm, there was a ton of folks waiting to get a table....and the parking was something reminiscent of Yorkdale Plaza on Xmas Eve. I don't think I've had a Keg steak in a few years....went for the Baseball Top Sirloin. I wasn't disappointed; my steak looked like a slab of beef with a thyroid condition. Definitely not the definition of a Kobe steak. It was thick, juicy and was seasoned quite well. Just the right amount of salt and pepper...which probably means that it was still too much. Thick steak isn't exactly popular with a number of Japanese....they like their beef thin and melt-in-your-mouth, kinda like sukiyaki. I've told my old students in the past that here in the Americas, chewing a bite for several seconds before swallowing is part of the pleasure of enjoying a good steak. I don't think I saw that many shrugs in one room before.
Then on the holiday Monday was the biweekly meeting with The Anime King. We just can't seem to catch a break with The Olde York Fish N' Chips place on Laird. It was closed for Family Day and it's closed regularly on Sundays. So instead it was off to one of our regular Dim Sum places up in Scarberia. Not surprisingly, it was pretty brisk business there. Afterwards, it was the usual mix of Second Cup, Timmies and a few hours of anime before dinner at Tako Sushi nearby. It was my second time there, and I guess because of the Family Day weekend, there was a lineup there to rival that of what I'd witnessed at The Keg. The King didn't make any reservations but it was just a 10-minute wait.
Couldn't get a place at any of the teppanyaki tables like last time, so the two of us settled for a regular booth and the entrees. The King went for his steak dinner while I opted for tonkatsu. Tako Sushi tonkatsu is frankly more thin wiener schnitzel than Japanese deep-fried pork cutlet....which may be why I got three flat wide slabs of the pork. Tonkatsu in Japan is pretty thick stuff with plenty of shredded cabbage; one slab for lunch is enough to keep you sated until dinner. But I'm not gonna get snobby about it since I enjoyed the dinner just the same.
The King and I had a talk about possibly getting as many of the Court together for a bigger dinner, perhaps as soon as early March. But again, a couple of our number are established family men so I have my doubts whether the entire group can get together but it'll still be nice to have a group outing that doesn't involve a Ribfest. Perhaps The Baton Rouge may be the venue.
Back in the regular work week. I actually got an assignment done for translation yesterday. And I sent the invoice to Cozy for the first of the annual financial statements. Was a bit disappointed that I didn't get too many more during the two weeks that I kept open for him, so I'm potentially gonna have to deal with both Cozy's requests and those of the translation company.
