After a day of skiing with my family, I was excited to enjoy some real food. You see, where we usually go skiing, the only food they serve is fake stuff including hot dogs, chicken nuggets, french fries on styrofoam plates and disposable napkins and those awful ketchup packets (we pack our own lunch in our reusables!). The smell alone of this food when I walk in the building, makes me sick. At Hockley Valley, there are many restaurants to choose from with real chefs and real food too – I was excited.
My mom made sure before we went that they could serve us vegan meals and also be nut free for our family – she said they were so nice about it. We got a table at Restaurant 85 and could even watch people night skiing on the hill outside the window.
The first person who came over to our table, our waiter, filled our glasses with water and told us that Chef Alex would be over to introduce our special meal to us (because it was so busy, everyone else was having a buffet). Chef Alex came over and was so very nice and told me that he loved my blog and even had read the article on me in the National Post. He explained that he was going to create an antipasto board special for us with house marinated and grilled vegetables plus Monforte Toscano cheese – I knew it was going to be good (I love that cheese). It was served on a wooden board with really cute little 2 pronged serving forks. We also got bread from Spirit Tree with really great olive oil and 2 gorgeous bowls of salad. There were lots of different types of greens in it – light coloured spiky ones and yellowish, green and purple leaves with some yellow carrots in it too. My sister loved the dressing which was apparently just balsamic and olive oil! Sometimes simple can be the best.
The next person to come over to our table was Michael Potters, the executive chef from Cabin, another restaurant at Hockley Valley, and he also said how much he loved my blog. We both found out that we liked the same cheeses from Fifth Town and that he was even friends with the owner. He said that he was going to make us the “Earth” Platter, and he said it would be a surprise. Then he even took me on a quick tour of the kitchen and introduced me to a bunch of chefs which was so nice – except I was a little grossed out seeing one of the chefs cutting raw meat.
The Earth Platter had 5 things on it (I forget what they all were in detail, but it included red pepper and cabbage, barley and cranberry cabbage roll and more), but each was very beautiful (you can view picture). We all really liked it, except I didn’t like the parsnip, but I’ve never been a big fan of that root veggie. And my little brother was too busy on the ipod touch to notice – sometimes, it’s the only way to keep him occupied during our meals. We also had an awesome bowl of barley and mushrooms in mushroom broth topped with a big cabbage roll. This was the best course of the meal. I loved the flavour of it.
After we finished, we were all ready to leave when the waiter asked us if we wanted some french fries and housemade ketchup. Who can say no to that??? They were amazing and the housemade ketchup was one of the best ketchups that I have ever had. I also got to dip them into Kozlik’s Sweet and Smoky Mustard and some vinegar. Even my brother looked up for the french fries for a minute.
My conclusion is that these restaurants at Hockley Valley are way better than any ski cafeterias, and even many restaurants. I am going to drive back there someday (or get someone to take me).
