ARTS & CULTURE
Monday, February 23, 2015 13
Winterlicious 2015
An evening of fine dining at Nota Bene
benjamin hognestad › staff writer
S
omewhat serendipitously, our venue
of choice for Winterlicious 2015 was just
down the street from Old Osgoode Hall.
David Lee’s award winning restaurant Nota
Bene sits just west of University Avenue, at the gateway to Queen West. We were greeted by several smiling faces at the front, and the free coat check, while
not exactly a surprise, was a nice touch. The decor
was definitely on the upscale side, but by no means
snobbish; a couple of students on a date didn’t feel
out of place. Our waitress was cheerful and sincere,
and didn’t treat us Winterlicious-ers as second class
patrons, despite our double tap water beverage order.
Not long after we had placed our orders, we were
treated to warm slices of house made sourdough with
a thick, crunchy crust and pillowy soft interior. The
bread came with a little carafe of nice olive oil, which
was cool and different, but in the end, we both agreed
that butter would have been better.
Erin’s appetizer was smoked Nova Scotia salmon
and pickled beets on a bed of arugula. The big arugula leaves proved a bit cumbersome to eat, but the
salad was delicious, particularly the beets which
were beautifully sweet and sour at the same time.
My appetizer was
a terrine made
from duck, foie
gras, and cherries, with a big
cracker on the
side, some crisp, bitter endive, apple puree, and pistachio granola. The dish was exceptionally well balanced; the rich, savoury terrine offset perfectly by the
other elements.
I should just quickly note, as some may know,
the topic of foie gras is somewhat controversial. The
practice of producing foie gras involves force feeding
ducks so the liver becomes larger and fattier. I have
done a bit of research into the process, and