If I remember correctly. we put Cheerios in some plastic eggs for Pace’s first Easter when he wasn’t quite one year old…

When I was in Montreal for a conference in 2009, I got to have the very cool experience of dining at “O Noir”, a restaurant where you eat your entire meal completely in the dark.

Because of the unique nature of restaurants like this, you tend to only encounter them in larger cities that can support them as an ongoing venture – Montreal has one as do Vancouver and Toronto (and I’ve heard of some other larger cities across North America and around the world that do as well.)

So I was very excited when I saw that one of Regina’s top local restaurants, The Willow on Wascana, would be offering a “Dining in the Dark” event, based on this concept, every Monday in March.

When we originally called to book our reservation for the start of March, the first evening was already booked solid.  But in hindsight, we were probably better off changing our reservation to the end of the month as that gave them a few weeks to work out any kinks that would probably arise doing an event of this type (for instance, when we booked our reservation, the person on the phone said “It’s probably crazy to do this in a restaurant that’s basically made of floor to ceiling glass windows. But I’ve always wanted to do something like this, so why not?” and I wondered if they made any tweaks to their light-blocking system from week-to-week?)

Shea and I headed out last night at 6pm, stopping at a local brewery for a quick pint. Doors for the event were at 6:30pm and the meal was at 7pm.  When we arrived, we were greeted in the entranceway briefly then led through a dark curtain and, after confirming our reservation, were taken to our seats.

Intentionally or not, this start time worked out really well as the room (with windows taped over with dark paper) still had enough faint light coming in which allowed you to get your bearings before the sun went down and it got fully dark.

The price for the meal was $50 per person and a flight of wine to accompany each of the four courses was an additional $25. We had debated whether to have the wine flight but we each ordered it and were glad we did as it added a lot to the meal – both because the wine went really well with each course but also because, after each course, Dave, who is The Willow’s managing partner (and resident “wine guy”) and Tim, who is the Chef would come out and, still in the darkened room, explain to everyone what we had just ate and drank.

That was one of the main differences I noticed between O Noir who do this as a regular restaurant and The Willow who did this as a special series.  At O Noir, we ate a three course meal but we picked each course from a menu before going into the darkened restaurant.  Each course offered one “Mystery Choice” as well as some standards (the salad could be garden or caesar or a mystery choice; the entree could be beef or chicken or a mystery choice.) At The Willow, everyone was being served the same thing (unless of course you’d specified a dietary restriction) and every course was a surprise.

If you’re a picky eater or had some nervousness about certain foods, this could be a bad thing (and the odd joke from Dave about whether we enjoyed the “calf brains” or not may have frightened some guests even more!) but Shea and I truly enjoyed each and every course, even when we weren’t 100% sure what we were eating until after they gave their explanation.

I can’t remember exactly what we had but the first course was leeks, the second course was duck breast with African spices and chickpeas, the third course was bison tenderloin and the final dessert course was a mixture of banana/chocolate/toffee (and I am in no way doing justice to what these foods actually were or how good they tasted – imagine reading a high end foodie magazine and then adding words such as “slow roasted ginger sauce” and “charred kale with balsamic reduction” and you’ll have a better idea of what type of food was on the menu.)  ;-)

(Oh, on that note, I asked the waiter and he said they have been changing the menu from week-to-week although there have also been some common elements.  Good to know for anyone planning to go multiple times.)

What else?  There were only a couple minor accidents – someone tipped over a water pitcher on their table and the table beside us had one wine glass knocked over which broke on the floor.  (In Montreal, in their housekeeping intro before we went into the darkened room, they suggested we always keep our glasses at the top right of our plates so we could always “find” them but we didn’t get a similar instruction at The Willow and that’s perhaps why these accidents happened.  On the other hand, a table near us that ordered multiple rounds of drinks plus the wine flight never knocked over a thing – I think they might’ve been culinary professionals themselves!)

At O Noir and similar restaurants, one of the cool things is that all the waiting staff are also visually impaired so they are employing a group that has one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada.  At The Willow, they used their regular staff (as you’d expect) but that meant it was more of a challenge for staff than customers in many ways since staff were constantly moving between the bright lights of the kitchen and total darkness of the dining room.

Staff did have not-too-bright glow bands on their wrists to help prevent collisions and they’d also marked the walkways and some corner chairs with a small piece of glow-in-the-dark tape as well, also to help both staff and customers with navigation.

(Side note: I made my way to the washroom once before the light was totally gone – washrooms were mildly illuminated with tea lights that were strategically placed which was much appreciated but I still had to take a second after coming out of the washroom to the near darkness of the dining room for my eyes to adjust.)

It helped that The Willow was a restaurant I’d been to before so I knew the general layout of the room (and, as mentioned, there was enough light when we first arrived that you’d get a sense of the room, even if you’d never been before.)  When we went to O Noir, it was much more disorienting as you had no idea how big the room was, how close other tables were or pretty much anything else you’d normally pick up visually.

What else?  I think that’s the gist of it – “Dining in the Dark” has obviously been very popular as they’ve extended the idea into April (but on Tuesday nights rather than Mondays) so if you haven’t gone, I’d encourage you to give it a try.

It was a fun evening – great food, amazing experience and the type of thing that you normally have to travel to a much bigger city to enjoy so why not take advantage of something like this so close to home?

Some interesting ideas on how to “hack” the menus of various chain restaurants.

Sasha’s third birthday is this weekend.

How time flies…it feels like it was only yesterday that we were having Pace’s third birthday party…

And no, it wasn’t me!

But it’s got me thinking about what a full project this could be!   (This guy was more focused on consumption but I think it’d be more interesting/useful to track what you drink as as well as how much!)

(via r/dataisbeautiful)

One highlight of working at a gas station as a teenager was getting to see all the different kinds of chips that rotated in and out – Hostess especially came out with some pretty strange (at the time) flavours including Hamburger, French Fries, Roast Chicken and Pizza.

So it was no surprise to see a BuzzFeed listicle explaining Canadians’ obsession with different flavours and kinds of potato chips.

So, to celebrate the first day of school, we decided to take Pace to McDonalds for supper.

I’d forgotten that Regina’s Rochdale McDonalds location (and perhaps others in the city?) have installed the new “Build Your Taste” machines which are like giant iPad-like, self-serve touchscreen machines.

I’m sure we could’ve figured it out but a staff member was over quickly to help us out and show us the basics of using the machine – adding, deleting, scrolling – things to our order.

We ordered a couple standard Happy Meals for Pace and Sasha but then Shea and I both went for the “Create Your Taste” option to try it out.

Thoughts?

• In the past, I’ve never asked if they’ll do this when you order at the counter like usual.  But these machines have an option for “lettuce wrap” instead of a bun right up front which is useful for the low-carb crowd.
• We picked “Create Your Own” but I think they also had some pre-loaded options for various combos – “Sweet Thai Angus Burger” and “Spicy Sriracha Chicken” or whatever.
• It felt a bit sneaky that they don’t tell you which add-ons are free (pickles) and which cost extra (bacon) until you click to add them.  You can always remove them but that seemed somewhat misleading.
• We did luck out though that they were having a promotion (not sure when it started or for how long) that if you tried the “Create Your Taste” option, they’d give you a free side and drink (maybe a $2 value each?) as an incentive for people to try this new technology out.
• Our burgers came to about $8/each which is about what I’d pay for a full meal regularly (Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with fries and drink).  So the free side/drink helped but overall, you’re going to pay a couple bucks more for the pleasure of customizing your own order.
• The screen had lots of unusual options by McDonald’s standards as the chain tries to be a bit more upscale – dijon mustard or tomato pesto on your burger, your highness?
• We were also a bit surprised to hear this new option meant we could either pick-up our order at the front counter when it was ready or have…table service.  (What???)
• Being the high class family that we are, we opted for table service.  We were given one of those table number things, similar to what you get at say, Red Lobster (also classy!), when you’re at the bar waiting to hear that your table is ready.
• One employee excitedly told us that our fries would “even come in a basket”.
• Our food was brought eventually but it seemed much slower to come out than it would if we’d just ordered at the counter and wait for a couple seconds for them to move it onto our plastic tray from the hot lights like we’ve done McDonalds for 100 years.
• Also, maybe because it was supper rush and we weren’t the only parents with the brilliant idea to take our kids to McDonalds after the first day of school but our food came out in two sets quite far apart – first Shea’s burger and one Happy Meal then my burger and another Happy Meal.  (If anyone from McDonalds is reading this, here’s a pro tip – if you have a group of two adults and two kids in your establishment, *always* bring out the kids’ food first.  And if both kids order the same thing and you only bring one Happy Meal, do not set it between them as your server may lose an arm, not unlike someone being a bit stupidbrave reaching outside a shark cage with a piece of fresh meat!)
• Finally, we’d both ordered side salads but Shea’s arrived with fries.  To their credit, the staff caught this before we even mentioned it to them and mine came out with a salad as requested and they also brought one for Shea.  Plus we got to keep the fries – bonus!
• Speaking of tips, having table service while sitting in the gaudy plastic environs of McDonald’s left me a bit confused about whether I should tip my server or not.  I did (and quite generously all things considered – as far as I can tell, this one person was responsible for table service for the whole restaurant) but I also spent a lot of time thinking about the impact of automation on the workforce and the notion of “Shadow Work”
• Again, the line was blurry between “fast food self serve” and “table service” but I did go to the fountain machine to get refills at one point rather than asking our server to do it.
• She handed us a small business card with her name and a web site URL and we’re supposed to review our experience – not sure if it’s about her or the new technology or the food or a bit of all of the above?
• McDonalds missed a huge opportunity by not installing the somewhat similar self-serve, touchscreen Coke Freestyle machines to go with the new approach to ordering.  (I heard about these being in the US a while back but only just encountered them recently at a local Cineplex when Shea and I were out for a movie night.)
• Pace and I went up to get dessert and this time, I didn’t seem to get an option to ask for table service (is that only for “main” courses?) so I was told (er, my receipt told me) to go to the counter to pick up my cookies and ice cream treat.
• But when I got to the counter, I noticed a log jam of people waiting.  It appears they’d redesigned their front counter so where there used to be 2 or 3 tills where you could place an order, there was only one.  And now, everyone, whether they’d used the machines or had ordered directly at the counter, was waiting to pick up their food at this one busy pick-up counter.  In the previous set-up, if I’d order cookies and ice cream, I’d have paid and had them on my tray in about a minute, tops.  This way left me waiting for probably 5-10 minutes before I got my order (not sure if this was also partly due to their ice cream machine being down but humans actually tell you that when you’re ordering whereas machines still don’t. So I also had to do an extra dance to get a refund of the ice cream treat I’d ordered on top of everything.)

Overall, it was an interesting experience but it also left me somewhat anxious for the future.  In one way, it’s cool to have a lot more control and choice and to see how technology is changing how we interact with companies and other organizations.

But it feels like there are a lot of kinks to work out and the technology still has a long ways to go before it can replace the intelligence, anticipation and smiles of a human face!

Here’s a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the new Mosaic Stadium with some video footage of the day from CJME NewsTalk 980…

The debate is tomorrow night and the actual election is only three weeks away – get planning your Election Party Menu now!

• Risotto – using recipe of Clinton campaign chair person, John Podestra, as found in an e-mail leaked by Wikileaks
• Tacos – preferably directly from a taco truck since the “Latinos for Trump” group chair claimed that unfettered immigration would lead to a “taco truck on every corner“
• ¡Jeb! Guacamole – an oldie but a goldie from the start of this never-ending campaign
• KFC – what every billionaire eats on his private jet (but with silverware because “finger lickin’ good” is for the plebs)
• Skittles – the only way Skittles will actually kill you is if you’re diabetic and you eat a bazillion
• Tic Tacs – actually, you might want to skip a breath mint now linked to making unwanted sexual advances

  …and last but not least, popcorn.  Because what food will these guys wreck next?

Hard to believe that just over a year ago, we were celebrating New Year’s Eve in Cuba!

1. Ryan Meili won the byelection in Saskatoon Meewasin and was sworn into the Legislature yesterday.
2. In completely unrelated news, Brad Wall had a press conference today about wanting to cut public sector salaries by 3.5% while sounding like someone who knew he’s stuck around for one election too long and was about to tarnish what was otherwise looking like a very good legacy.
3. Shea and I picked the wrong week to come back from holidays.  Blizzard conditions and wind cuts to 80kph!
4. A great Reddit comment about cooking on a budget.
5. I may have posted this before but a great article looking at the behind-the-scenes of the Facebook News Feed algorithm.
6. You keep thinking Trump can’t get any worse and yet, completely unfounded, he accuses Obama of wiretapping – apparently without realising that Presidents can’t implement a wiretap of this type and they’re only approved when intelligence agencies have proof of dealings with foreign powers.
7. Wrestlemania 33 is coming up fast and the card is taking shape.
8. It’s fairly academic and also includes a lot of British terminology but if you can get past that, an interesting look at the economics of all-inclusive resorts.
9. E-Book sales fall below sales of hardcovers for the first time since 2012.
10. And coming out right after our recent trip to Mexico with daily dips in the pool, a U of S study that looks at the amount of urine in public pools.  (Spoiler Alert: These were regular Canadian pools being tested, not those with swim-up bars either!)

It’s still pending approval on Trip Advisor but I thought I might as well post my review of Sandos Caracol Eco-Resort, the all-inclusive we just stayed at here as well (with bonus photos, external links, and a few other edits/additions)…

[Edit: This might not end up being my Trip Advisor review after all.  I got a message that they weren’t publishing it because they have a rule against “commercial links”.  As far as I can tell, it’s because I included the web site of Pack For A Purpose – a charity. I hate stupid, petty shit like that so will have to think about whether I want to make this, admittedly, small edit or just leave it as it is and keep the review here instead.  My long-standing analogy of the “big” sites being like apartments with lots of information/noise/neighbours and my blog being like a private acreage in the country holds and part of me isn’t too concerned about adding to the noise on Trip Advisor and would prefer to leave this info here for those “deep diggers” who seek it out!]

—

If you’re like me, you prefer trying a different all-inclusive every time you go on vacation rather than returning to same one over and over again.

But even if you do that, you’ll eventually have the realization of the dirty secret of all-inclusive resorts – at their base, they’re all essentially the same. All will have pools and an ocean, all will have buffets and a la cartes, all will have daytime activities and evening shows, and so on.

So then, the only thing that makes them different is how well they do in each of these areas.

And you don’t have to read very many Trip Advisor reviews to realise that this is, ultimately, a matter of personal opinion. Even the highest rated all-inclusive will have people who hate it and even the lowest rated will have people who find something to love.

So why this long preamble?

When my family, including my wife, two kids aged 9 and 3 plus my retired parents, visited Sandos Caracol during the last week of February 2017, I realised we found the rarest of rarities among all-inclusive resorts – a truly unique experience.

Yes, Sandos has ocean and pools, buffets and a la cartes, activities and shows. But they have truly embraced their commitment to being an eco-resort with a focus on Mayan culture and history, which results in all sorts of additional features that are rare or non-existent at most resorts.


These include:
* animals in their natural habitat (including monkeys which we spotted daily and couldn’t get enough of watching!)

* rescue and various other animals you can interact with, either in the wild or in captivity

* numerous things that would be a paid excursion at any other resort – cenote swimming, authentic Mayan ruins, waterslides, bike riding

* there is decent snorkeling right off shore
* a river you can swim in that runs through the mangrove forest
* a romantic river boat ride
* really high quality theatre shows but also a rotation of three outdoor shows that are educational and entertaining.
* numerous other activities that highlight and educate about the Mayan culture
* a great authentic Mexican meal before the amazing “Fire of Life” show on Saturday night
* a full waterpark with slides tiered by height for very small, young, and older kids
* herb and botanical gardens

That’s not to say this is a perfect resort. We knew going in from Trip Advisor reviews that the ocean was rocky and not great for swimming but this turned out to be more of a negative than we thought it would be. Luckily, a ~$25 USD one way cab ride took us to sister resort, Sandos Playacar, which has perhaps the best beach I’ve ever seen in my life. We enjoyed Playacar’s beach so much, we went twice during our one week stay at Caracol!

I also wasn’t a fan of the layout of the main pool which is rather small and stretches to another connected pool via a long “river” but which means many of the seats are quite far from the pool bar and main areas of activity (although obviously some will prefer that.) The quieter pool by the Mexican restaurant was small too but more like the type of pool I was hoping for – less crowded but still fun for swimming.

A few other thoughts…

GOOD
* did I mention how much we liked seeing the monkeys every day? The rules say “Don’t feed the animals” and we followed that important guideline. But they didn’t say anything about watching others feed the animals which gave us many close-up views. (If you do this – and you shouldn’t – but if you do, watch your kids closely. We saw a coati bite a girl’s finger drawing blood.)

* the standard rooms aren’t supposed to have Internet at all but we got inconsistent signal in our room (#4821) which seemed to work best early in the morning or late at night.  The lobby also had decent Internet and I read that the pool areas do too though I never took an Internet-enabled device with me to find out.

* this resort has been rated the best resort near Playa Del Carmen for families and I agree – so much for kids and families to do!

NOT SO GOOD
* We had asked for adjoining rooms with my parents three times (when they booked then a month out by e-mail and then a week out by e-mail) but still ended up in separate (but nearby) buildings. Not the end of the world and we got upgraded to Standard Deluxe which gave us a giant jetted tub in our room that I don’t think we would’ve had otherwise.

* There were some very minor issues with the room – the switch for the bathroom light/fan had to be held for a couple seconds before it would flip on, the fan stopped rotating once but we were able to get it going again by giving it a “jump start”, one corner of our bed had a piece of plastic cover loose and sticking out that could’ve scratched the leg of someone walking by.   (Unlike many reviewers, we understood why – and appreciated – that we might end up with geckos in our room!)

* The various soft ice cream machines, both in restaurants and outdoors, were often out which was disappointing.

* All resorts divide you in certain ways – adults-only sections, Elite/Gold/Privilege member, Regular/Standard guest – but some do a better job at “hiding” these divisions than others (especially if you’re in the regular category.) I felt like Sandos Caracol made those lines a bit more obvious to us as Standard Guests – our balcony was tiny with hard chairs, no coffee maker in the room, not even a full-length mirror.

TIPS, SUGGESTIONS & OTHER THOUGHTS
* You can change money at the front desk. (Side note: I never knew this before but my local branch had small amounts of various currencies including pesos that I could walk in and buy without having to go to our main branch or order them in advance.)

* They give you pool cards but aren’t too concerned (we were able to get additional towels from an unstaffed room in the waterpark without giving our pool cards)

* I liked that they used plastic, reusable cups at pretty much every bar. We’ve been to other resorts where they give everyone, even small children, real glasses at certain bars and it always made me nervous these would get dropped or broken

* they have lots of bacon on the buffets!

* Take a decent-sized stroller if you have a little one. We were going to take a small umbrella stroller but were happy we took a bigger one that had storage underneath, a zippered pocket and drink holders plus lots of places to hang our towels, Bubba Cups, snorkel masks and so on.

* I like that they partner with Pack For A Purpose and have bins where you can leave any gifts or donations. At other resorts, it’s often unclear about the best way to ensure any gifts or donations you take end up in the right hands.

* We read lots about aggressive timeshare approaches but didn’t have this ourselves at check-in – just a phone call later in the week about a “free gift” which was likely a pitch to buy a membership or something and which we ignored.

* I’m pretty sure they said guests can take out hobie cats by themselves but it’s $30 USD for a guide, something that’s always been included for free at any other resort we’ve visited.

* It was a great idea to have various concert videos playing before the theatre shows started (Katy Perry, Santana, U2) but perhaps turn down the volume a bit so this is more of a background effect and people can still visit before the main show starts?

* We had really great service from all staff but I have to specifically mention Jesus on the romantic river ride and Moses when was our guide for the Jade River swim and let us slide into a Cenote Swim even though we hadn’t pre-registered. He was incredibly good with both my daughter and son in each respective activity.

* We went to four a la cartes and would rate them like this:

1) Mediterranean (great view, especially if you show up early)
2) Steak House (best meal – slightly confusing as it’s in the Royal Elite area so we weren’t sure if we could go or not at first)
3) Japanese – we’ve been to a few in other resorts and in our home city and this was the best show we’ve seen. So much food too!
4) Vegan – wanted to try it as something very different from what we’d normally try. It was okay but not as good as we hoped. (But going back to my original point – most resorts have the same mix of a la cartes but how many even have a Vegetarian – well, actually it was even Vegan! – restaurant?)

AND ONE LAST SUGGESTION
* I understand why they don’t have a full bar at the waterpark – both because they don’t want the water filled with spilled sticky drinks and/or parents getting drunk. But it’d be nice to at least have cerveza on tap to enjoy while sitting in the sun watching the kids.

(And one last photo of a couple of monkeys…)

How expensive it is.

Cleaned out our basement store room the other day and found this cool gift we got for our wedding from a relative who works as a graphic designer.

Hard to believe that next March will be our 15th wedding anniversary and we’ll once again be back in the Mayan Riviera to celebrate.  Might even have to try to re-create this photo!

I’ve never been a big fan of tequila.

In fact, Shea and I have a bottle we brought back from one of our earliest Mexico trips around fifteen years ago that we had never cracked.

Never cracked, that is, until, after a summer that ended with a bunch of tequila shots plus knowing we were going to Mexico again this winter…we decided to finally open recently.

Now to figure out what to do with it!

I stumbled across this YouTube series and am completely hooked.

The conceit is that a hot sauce company challenges various “B” level celebrities to eat wings with a variety of ever-increasing hot sauces on them while also conducting an interview.

I haven’t watched them all but here are some of my favourite interviews so far…

Ready for Ribs

It was one of this year’s hottest Black Friday items online and the Instant Pot ™ combination pressure cooker/slow cooker, invented by a group of former Nortel engineers in Ottawa, has been compared to a cult for its fanatical following.

What’s the appeal?  It quickly cooks food that’s tasty, healthy and, compared to the 1970’s pressure cookers, a lot safer too!  People are also calling it the first “viral appliance” and there’s little doubt that numerous posts on social media about whether people should buy one or looking for recipe ideas have helped propel sales.

Shea actually beat the rush and got hers on Black Friday *last year* (which was already busy enough) and we’ve used it regularly throughout the year but more frequently lately.

(In fact, I was inspired to write this post as I’m literally eating leftover Thai curry she made in our Instant Pot as I type this!)

Reddit’s Instant Pot sub-Reddit has more information, recipes and articles all related to this amazing gadget!

Stumbled across this video on Reddit but thought it was an appropriate post as Shea informs me her and her parents are buying some farm-direct beef from her uncle.

Yum!

Shea made us a very tasty Christmas-themed drink this past weekend featuring peppermint vodka, toffee cream liqueur and chocolate-flavoured whiskey along with a rimmer of melted After 8 peppermint chocolates and crushed candy cane.

We didn’t name the drink but I’m going to suggest “Christmas Star” since it certainly was a star of our weekend.

Yum!