A magical shift has occurred in my household recently: the girls just celebrated their 2nd and 4th birthdays, I’m not breastfeeding anyone, both are sleeping through the night and we have finally found a great babysitter in the area. For the first time in 4 years, Brett and I are being a couple and not just a couple of parents. Life is so much better for it.
Parenting (especially in these very young years) is all consuming and can be incredibly easy to get swept up in. For us, there never seemed to be an opportunity to do anything without baby on hip and on the few occasions we escaped for dinners out we would just end up talking about the kids anyhow. With this sudden sense of freedom, we are making up for lost time and exploring that balance as parents and as a couple. This week we made a trip into the city for oysters. Aphrodisiac or not, I am more in love with my husband today than ever before!
Rodney's is one of the more renowned oyster houses in Toronto. (rodneysoysterhouse.com/toronto)
We started with the lobster bisque: a silky broth with plump nuggets of claw meat standing centre stage. Delicious! Just when you think Brett can't get more handsome, they place a bowl of lobster bisque in front of him. 🙂
Bring on the oysters! Oysters may not be for everyone but Brett and I consider these our very special treat. When we were discussing having a 2nd child, I absolutely refused to go through another pregnancy until I feasted on oysters again. 9 months after our last "oyster date" Alice was born.
You are looking at a spread of east coast and west coast oysters, some Canadian some American. My favourite where from Raspberry Point in P.E.I. (east coast), they were a medium size, fresh, subtle flavour with a light saltiness. I was NOT a fan of the west coast options. I found the 2 types that we tried to be overwhelming with size and offered a fishy / earthy after-taste, a flavour similar to seaweed.
A happy moment.
My personal topping preference for a raw oyster would have to be a sprinkle of shredded horseradish, a squirt of lemon juice and a dash of a scotch bonnet hot sauce. Two chews and swallow.
Rodney's ladies washroom has a large selection of penis art to enjoy during your breaks. I just hope these aren't scorch marks.
Bellies full of wine and raw seafood, we were up for an adventure in our old neighbourhood. We took a nice post-dinner stroll and stumbled onto Toronto's only ping pong bar, Spin (461 King St. W., Toronto, On.).
Aside from 50 some ping pong tables and orange balls flying everywhere, Spin has a decent selection of draft available and a late night specialty menu to order from. I'm drinking an amber lager from a local brewery called Hop City (http://www.hopcity.com).
Not a drop spilled.
Maintaining the certain theme of our evening, we ordered the fish tacos. Meh, they were pretty forgettable.
So we gave the Spin kitchen a second chance with their pork tacos and these just pissed me off. The menu described this as pork belly with a citrus glaze and jalapeno mayo. Pork belly is meant to be succulent and juicy; this was tough, dry and crispy. I'll assume that it had been roasted earlier in the day, sliced and left to dry out. I wouldn't be so disappointed in my food from a ping pong bar if it weren't for the constant references to "Chef" on the menu.
We ended our date with some dancing in the rain, on the city streets.
Another successful date night proves that our love isn't bound by diapers. 🙂
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You guys are so cute! That looks like an awesome date night as well. I need to learn to embrace oysters. I have only had them a few times and the ones I had were really fishy and nasty. The ping pong bar looks like so much fun! I am impressed you didn’t spill…I do not have that kind of grace. Have fun on your next date night! 🙂