The Four-Night Weekend, Part 2: Chopped Rainbow in Crystal Fold and Le Pin Up

Although I had only been lightly drunk at the height of last night, I realized this morning that I had been mixing my drinks too much. The combination of champagne, white wine, red wine and then mixed drinks gave me a splitting headache this morning.

Nonetheless, I managed to pull myself together, mix some breakfast, and then go about my day. I was a bit of a shut-in during the day, focusing on FINALLY catching up on my blogging from the previous weekend in Berlin. During a break in the intense blogging activity, I made an attempt to duplicate this dish that I’ve had a few times at Toronto-area Chinese restaurants, called “Chopped Rainbow in Crystal Fold.” Fantastic name, eh? The idea behind the dish is that you stir-fry some diced vegetables of bright and contrasting colors, toss in some spices and a bit of soy sauce, and then serve them warm on little wraps made out of lettuce leaves. The contrast of temperatures and texture had always delighted me, but I’ve never been able to find a similar dish in Chinese restaurants elsewhere.

So I improvised tonight with what I had. I chopped up a red onion, some carrots, some turnips, some potatoes, a bright red hot pepper and then sautéed them with a ton of garlic and ginger and a dash of dark soy sauce. Then, I dug out the red cabbage I had in the fridge and did my best to carefully pull out the exterior leaves intact. Although most of the leaves broke as I peeled them back, they were large enough that the fragments were the right size to fit in your hand and be wrapped around the filling. The results were pretty tasty, although the peppery taste of the raw red cabbage got to me after a while. It might be better with Napa cabbage or bok choy, although lettuce is certainly still an option.

Anyway, I headed out that night to Le Pin Up to see Fantômette spin at her monthly “Piscine” night. I had plans of leaving there a bit early and heading over to Djoon to check out Theo Parrish, since I still haven’t been to that club and I haven’t seen Parrish spin in years. Also, Bob (of Bob&Donna at PanoramaBar fame, see last weekend) was in town and planning to go out as well, so we said that we might find each other at Djoon later in the evening.

However, there was a big turnout at Le Pin Up that night, including lots of friends that I hadn’t seen in ages, so I stuck around and chatted with everyone. By the time I gave some thought to moving to Djoon, the métro had stopped running and I wasn’t too keen on biking all the way over to the Bibliothèque Mitterand area. Also, I had had several of the trademark “Bubble Pin Up” drinks, which involves champagne, vodka, and violet syrup, and which had hit me harder than I had expected…probably because my dinner had been nothing more than veggies.

Anyway, I stayed there and hung out with friends until the night ended at 4h00, and then I wandered down the street with a couple of friends and grabbed a Vélib bike and headed home.