Appropriately enough considering our Knights of the Old Republic addiction, we had dinner last night with an old friend from my WotC days who has been working at Bioware for the last couple of years. His wife and two month old baby joined Nik, Kate, and I at a Brazilian place on “the Ave” called Tempero do Brasil. I had found the place on the internet, as many of our usual haunts were closed for the holidays. Turned out to be a good choice. It’s small and family run, so it has a cozy feel. Three musicians provided some good tunes while the kitchen dished up the eats. I had feijoada, which the menu claimed was one of the favorite national dishes of Brazil. It was a black bean stew, with ham hock and sausage. Very hearty and quite tasty. The portion was big enough that I had it for dinner again tonight. We also sampled several appetizers, including crispy cod rolls and a delicious chicken croquette with a spicy green sauce. Of course, Nik and I also had to have caipirinhas . We discovered these in Vegas several years ago and never pass up an opportunity to hoist a few. They are made with a sugar cane liquor, lime juice, and sugar and go down far too easy. This place made a decent caipirinha, but they were nowhere near as huge as the ones at Samba in Vegas. I capped off the meal with Brazilian coffee and a regional variant of flan. I would certainly go back to Tempero do Brasil.

It was a fun dinner. I wished we could have spent more time with our friends, since we haven’t seen them in at least two years. It was good to catch up though, even for a couple of hours. Hopefully, we’ll see them again before two more years pass by (though the chances of us visiting Edmonton seem remote).