Wine and Cheese Tasting Tour in Prince Edward County AND Demo Assistant

Saturday
Field Trip: The bus left school around 8:10am.  We were all excited for this free field trip.  Even I didn't sleep at all due to my dog's passing, I was energetic and happy to be around with classmates for this trip.  It took us about three hours to get to Prince Edward County.   The first place we visited was Black River Cheese Company Limited http://blackrivercheese.com in Milford, Ontario.  I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the process of making cheese.  Well, the owner did explained it to us, but it would be better to actually see it, especially after three hours ride...

I bought this 6 years aged cheddar cheese.

Then, we visited the first vinery called Waupoos Estates Winery in Picton, Ontario http://waupooswinery.com Honestly, I don't drink.  But it was a wine tasting tour.... I had a sip of each glass of wine they introduced, and I poured the rest into Tanvi's glass.  She LOVES alcohol.  We also got a complimentary lunch, I ordered the smoked salmon and seafood pasta.  Yummy... Free!

The second winery we visited was Huff Estates Winery in Bloomfield, Ontario http://huffestates.com I bought a bottle of Pinot Noir 2010 Vine Rouge, and a bottle of First Frost 2008 Vidal dessert wine for a friend.  Chef Jocelyn told us he liked this winery better than the others.  I agreed.

The third and final winery was Rosehall Run in Wellington, Ontario http://rosehallrun.com In Chef Jocelyn's and my opinions, this was the worse one we visited in terms of the wine.

Then it took us about three hours to get back to school, it was about 8:30pm.  Some of us were starving, so we ended up having dinner in a Korean restaurant.  And after that, I was exhausted.  I took my first bubble bath in this place, and then passed out on my bed.

Sunday
I got up around 10am, so that I could do laundry.  Tanvi was moving in the afternoon, Cynthia, Cindy, Jason and I are kindly enough to help her move.  Jason and Tanvi took the cab to the new place, the rest of us walked over there.  Now, she could start cooking Indian food for us in that big kitchen.  Can't wait! And a bonus picture for everyone.....

Fashion, eh? Yep, that's Tanvi..... looking good. LOL

Monday
Demo Assistant: I was assigned to be a demo assistant for basic cuisine class at 8am.  Lucky me, Chef Gilles Penot was the instructor...... I arrived early, and met Chef Gilles.  He didn't smile, just told me what I needed to do, like washing the tools, checking the soups and making sure they were not burned. Okay, so the class started with a quiz first.  Then they discussed the answers, there were so many French terms they needed to know.  Then the demo began, three kinds of soups were being made today.  At one point, Chef asked me to take out the fresh of the mussels.  Usually I was really good following instructions.  So I did what he told me to, then I had a bowl of mussel fresh, and a bowl of shells.  The good Lez went to throw away everything except for the mussel fresh.  About 5 minutes later, Chef asked me where I put the juice.  Ah, what do you mean juice? Hmm.... OH THE JUICE FROM THE MUSSELS!! Ah.... it's in the garbage pin.  There you go, humiliation in front of the whole "cuisine" class began.  "How do I cook mussel soup without the mussel juice?" I apologized.  Then Chef told me to get some mussels in the production kitchen.  I did, and brought up the mussels.  Chef said I was LUCKY!! Yeah, imagine if there was no mussels left..... no JUICE.... no SOUP.... I thank God for saving me some mussels.  Then he started cooking the mussels again.  He turned to me at one point saying "Patisserie, eh?" with a smile, evil smile.  Yep.  From then on, my performance was fine.  I stirred the cream soup for preventing it from sticking on the bottom the pot for about... 10 minutes.  After the class, he told me that for cuisine, they use everything.  Not like pastry class, we only use some cream, then throw away the rest.  Oh yeah, that's what he said.  I didn't know that we could just throw away the leftover after we scale the ingredients... hmm..... should I try? Anyway, the moral of the story: Never do more than what the Chef tell you to do! In my case, I should just take out the fresh of the mussels, then wait.  I shouldn't have tried to be clean and organized....... Good luck to all my pastry program folks, who will be assisting in cuisine class.  Thank God, I finished my duty working in the production kitchen and being a demo assistant.