I met up with my peeps at Inner City Brewing. The three of us are all in the same boat at our workplace, so we wanted to get together to share our optimism on the changing environment. For this post, let’s listen to “E.I.” by Nelly.
All the servers were new and eager to help us navigate through the beer menu to find something that would complement the oysters. I picked the Hub and Spoke – a Vienna Lager ($7.50), Pedals ordered a Brick work English Dark Mild Ale ($7.50), and Lethbridge ordered a Sassy Kate ($11). Library is the healthiest one of us and he stuck to water.
Pedals loves oysters even more than I do, so he was excited to try the Two Buck a Shuck Thursday special. Inner City gets Malpeque oysters harvested the day before from PEI. The oysters were delicious – bright and briny. I could taste the freshness of the oysters. We were all impressed with all three mignonettes – a classic shallot, an Asian soy and shallot and a creamy horseradish.
Years ago, Library won a hot wing eating contest at Hudson’s Pub, claiming the ultimate prize of free wings for a year. So of course, he wanted to order the wings ($14.25) at Inner City. I was pleasantly surprised. Lately, my wing experience at other pubs have been subpar. Inner City does a great batch – the wings arrived sizzling hot and nicely crisp. There was at least three plump mouthfuls of meat on each drumstick. The flavour was on point too. The ginger beef was saucy with a nice spice to it. The salt and pepper was my favourite. I love that combination of salty, hot crackling skin and cold ranch dip. I would order this again.
For dessert, we shared an order of churros. The warm chocolate dipping sauce was a nice touch. The churros were hot and a little chewy in the middle.
I would happily come back for more beers, oysters and especially those wings. If you visit on Wednesday, a pound will set you back six bucks if you also purchase a 16 oz beer. Appetizers, including the wings, are half off between Monday and Friday from 2-5:00 p.m.
We enjoyed our camaraderie so much; we already planned our next event. I’m hosting a dinner at my house. Lethbridge and Library love Chinese food. I plan to order from Emerald Garden. I was told by a friend that there is a new chef at Emerald Garden who previously worked at Signature Palace and Silver City. Some of the dishes that were recommended for me are the greens with duck and black egg, shrimp paste stuffed treasures (green pepper, eggplant, tofu), bitter melon fried egg (similar to fried oysters), beef brisket and tendon casserole, shredded cold chicken with jellyfish, fresh grouper, and dried scallop and egg white fried rice. To accommodate L, Library and especially Lethbridge, I’ll add some ginger beef to the mix. To be continued.
Hitting the Sauce 