The Blue Pear, Edmonton, Alberta

Hmm, so i have been meaning to check this place out, i have heard nothing but great things.  We went all out and got the five course menu with five wines, each wine paired with each course, pretty cool.  This costs $144 per person...yikes, but it was fun, and a new experience for both of us. I started with mushroom salad, Asian salad of king and enoki mushrooms over cashew nut puree, with pickled sun chokes, Chinese sausage, radish, sliced pear and pea shoots. It was very cute and tasty. 
Joe had the quail, grilled semi boneless quail, potato ricotta dumpling, stinging nettle pesto & aged balsamic. I think that semi boneless is a bit difficult to eat, this isn't exactly a finger food kind of restaurant, so to cut out these tiny bones to get a morsel of meat is a bit tedious.

 Anywhoo, it was different and nicely presented.  They did give us an amuse of a cold carrot and ginger soup, it was quite bright and refreshing. Then we had a small espresso size lobster tomato bisque with milk foam and a yummy warm biscuit. Many thanks to "Bisque" being used in its proper manner :)  It was very flavorful, bit too salty. 

 For my main course i had Roast chicken breast, grilled prawn, garlic chive potato puree, mushroom ragout, chipolini onions and mushroom jus.  Tiny portions, but i guess thats how you can actually eat five courses, im not a big fan of the classic French style of tiny things for big dollars. It was alright, chicken was dry, the skin was well crisped, puree was definitely pureed almost to a liquid, and very green, and then the onions were onions and so on.

 Joe had Pork, grilled local Berkshire pork which i believe is British style raised in the fresh air and sunshine. It came with crispy braised pork, potato gratin, glazed rutabagas, wilted greens and pork sauce. The pork loin was very sad looking, it was flat and flimsy, a curious meal, thats for sure.  

I just remembered the the tasting plate before the main course, gravlax, with pickled beets, some mayo, and few bits and pieces all over the plate, half a cracker haha, some really sweet cheese........The salmon gravlax didn't taste very fresh.

So dessert, mine was a dark chocolate Boca Negra (Julia Child recipe)  cake, with coffee pudding, chocolate meringue, mousse, whipped caramel and chocolate pebbles, lots of whipped and air going on in this dessert, the presentation was kind of ploppy, hehe, it was different and good.

Joe had Medjool (the diamond of dates) date pudding with cotton candy, halva (middle eastern and asian sweet dense dessert) candied pistachios, sesame tuile, whipped date syrup, prickly pear sorbet, Pretty cool.

The wines were good, one did smell like formaldehyde, but hey new experiences are fun:D

We payed a hefty bill for what we got, but it was a new and interesting experience........ 

Natasha:)