When I was a wee lass in a funny chef’s hat (okay, maybe not so wee), one of the perks to my education was a visit to the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) Canadian Food and Beverage Show. It was held down at the CNE at the time (well before the new Trade Centre had been finished) and was an event that I consider one of the highlights of my training (as opposed to the day I scrubbed the fingerprints off my hand after deboning 20 stinky lamb shoulders). So it is with much envy that I perused Rita DeMontis’ column in The Sun this week about attending this year’s Food and Beverage Show.

Geared towards the foodservice industry and not open to the public, the show features new products as well as added-value products that restaurateurs can take advantage of. Based on the exhibits at the show, DeMontis predicts some food trends for the upcoming year:

Continue reading What’s Cooking - Wednesday, February 28th »

Japango Sushi & Noodle Restaurant
122 Elizabeth Street
416-599-5557
dinner for two with beverage, tax & tip: $100

Click. The lid of the slim wooden box slides shut and the contents make a small flourish across colourful rows as their owner plucks a selection and deftly pops it into their mouth. Similar motions play out on the other side of the table but I am stalled. My fingers loosen their grip around my disposable twigs, I am distracted by the smooth and brightly tipped chopsticks these diners are using. Questioning their existence throughout the meal, I watch as they’re cleaned and placed gingerly back into their case to be passed to a server whom lines it up along the wall behind the cramped sushi bar with others. Coveting another table’s food isn’t unfamiliar territory, but utensils?

Perks often come with being a regular, but at Japango you can have your own little part of the restaurant. The price of this novelty comes at approximately three meals a week, a frequency I have gladly attempted after dining under the masterful hands of Bruce Bu and his small team of chefs.

Continue reading Earning Your Chopsticks »

To most North American drinkers, mention of a beer with a 3% to 4% alcohol level will undoubtedly bring to mind fizzy yellow light/lite lagers that taste even less of beer than their 5% kin. But fans of UK-style ales will more likely think of Mild Ale, a style that was once on the brink of extinction but that has been gaining popularity thanks to the efforts of CAMRA and other real ale supporters.

Brewed since the 1600s, if not earlier, the definition of Mild Ale has varied a bit over the years, but it has typically referred to malty ales that are darker in colour and have a lower alcohol content than Bitters and Pale Ales. Back when ales were generally stronger across the board, Milds would vary in strength from 5% to 7%, but most modern interpretations sit somewhere in the 3% to 4% range.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - C’est What Mild Brown Ale »

Esplanade Bier Markt
58 The Esplanade
(416) 535-8089
dinner for two with beer, tax & tip: $125

I like good food. I like good beer. I really like good food and good beer together. So applying accepted scientific principles, it would seem that I should just love Esplanade Bier Markt. Before beerbistro and other so-called gastropubs came along, the Markt was the first place in Toronto that attempted to show that beer can be paired with good quality food just as well as wine. They had a beer list that was at the time rivalled only Smokeless Joe, and they served a solid line-up of bistro-inspired dishes. All in all, it was a seemingly perfect place for me.

For a number of reasons, though, I’ve never really enjoyed myself there. The ambience suffers from a severe case of split personality, and while beer is obviously the Bier Markt’s main raison d’être, it sometimes feels as if it’s not given the attention it deserves. But before getting too negative, I should focus on some of the good things about the Bier Markt. As noted above, the food has always been great, and remains so under executive chef Michael Cipollo.

Continue reading Esplanade Bier Markt »

I’ve had a craving for the pastries from Yung Sing Bakery on Baldwin Street for weeks now, and the folks at Torontoist have just reminded me that I need to get my fix. Victoria Kent got to hang out with Food Network Canada’s The Food Jammers as they worked their way through a selection of buns and sesame balls.

At BlogUT, they’ve got a post perfect for university students heading into the end of the semester - how to eat well with five cheap ingredients.

There’s a seafood theme over at BlogTO, where Michelle reviews Hua Sang’s Lobster Specialty, and Blue Zen sushi. Frank opts for pork instead (people, just because it’s the Year of the Pig doesn’t mean you have to eat lots of bacon!) and tries the pork sandwich at Chinese Traditional Buns on Dundas West.

Suresh offers up a primer on buying and eating mangosteens over at Spotlight Toronto. I could never get into mangosteens - they seem like a lot of money and effort for something that isn’t particularly flavourful, but after reading his post, I might give them another shot. He also reviews the brunch at Carole’s Cheesecake Cafe in Yorkville and makes it sound divine.

At many pizza joints in Toronto, you’ll often see panzerotti or calzone on the menu. While the names are often used interchangeably, tradition usually dictates that calzone are baked while panzerotti are deep-fried, but even that will vary from place to place. Either way, they are generally like a pizza turnover, with cheese, sauce and other fillings cooked into a sealed dough pocket, making it a popular and portable lunch-on-the-go option.

A less-common variation on this folded pizza theme is the stromboli. Theories on the origin of this calzone cousin vary, with some claiming it was first made in Philadelphia (apparently, creating the Philly cheese steak wasn’t enough for them!), while others say it has the more likely sounding birthplace of the Italian island of Stromboli.

Continue reading Stromboli: The Other Pizza Pocket »

Check out that plate of dolmas over at All Things Dolce as Sands writes about Lebanese friends and the great feast they’ve prepared. She also makes some “esplanade” lasagna, pimps TasteTO (thanks very much!), and talks about a water-themed photo project she’ll be taking part in.

James Chatto of Toronto Life titles his entry for the week Many Small Treats, as he talks about single-estate beef, chef Anne Yarymowich’s ginger cookies and Tony Aspler’s Grapes for Humanity fund-raiser dinner. In the wine world, David Lawrason of Toronto Life scopes out some awesome chablis.

Jasmine at Confessions of a Cardamom Addict had her hands full this week with the final round-up of this month’s “Sugar High Friday”. Holy crap, that’s a lot of entries - 59, to be exact. With a theme of “sweet seduction”, maybe it really is true that most women would rather eat chocolate than have sex.

Continue reading Blog-A-Log - Sunday, February 25th »

I suppose its a pretty good indication you’re a coffee fanatic when you get a Bodum for your 14th birthday. Coffee has been a daily part of my environment since I was a kid. At the time, my often rowdy brothers and I were under the gentle guidance of a British au pair named Sue. Sue was about as cool a person as any kid could imagine. She was young, hip and had an accent. Naturally, everything she did was fair game for imitation. This included Sue’s particular eating habits. In the years that Sue lived with us, she existed, as far as I or any in my family could tell, exclusively on coffee – seriously, I never saw her eat a single thing. That devotion to coffee was something that stuck with me. And, its a tradition that I have taken on and kept to this day (of course I also eat A LOT of food).

Despite drinking upwards of 8 cups a day in university – thank you very much philosophy – it wasn’t until culinary school that I was able to really see coffee as the sophisticated drink that it is. Coffee is a chemically complex, versatile, and malleable product. In many ways coffee is like a vintage of wine, and having the right person brew your cup is like having a sommelier pour that perfect glass to go with dinner.

In today’s National Post, Gina Mallet comes out swinging in her second week on the job and rips into Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner:

Bill has winter vegetable and wild rice soup, which tastes of herbal water. I go out on a limb with hopper with curried lentils and carrots. A hopper is a Sinhalese mother food. I don’t think I’ll be taking a culinary tour of Sri Lanka soon. Can’t taste a trace of curry in the lentils, chopped carrots or Brussels sprouts. The sambals are delectable, crispy shallots, mango pickle, raita, roasted eggplant are delectable — on their own. I tried the fiery pickle with a Brussels sprout — excruciating! Bitter and sour, one of the most unpleasant taste combinations I’ve ever experienced.

Also in the Post’s Toronto Magazine:

• Sumaira Shaikh reports on the problems being faced by local pizza chain Amato, including yellow-carded food inspections and disgruntled ex-employees.
• Sarah Treleaven feels the guilt at Karma Co-op.
• Jason Chow recommends that you try karela (aka Indian bitter melon).
• Michael Vaughan previews next weekend’s Cuvee Gala in Niagara Falls, where Ontario winemakers judge the work of their peers.

And on the Food pages of the Weekend Post section, there’s a he vs. she kitchen battle; a bit about popcorn; and some ubiquitous Oscar-themed recipes from Bonnie Stern.

Continue reading In The Papers - Saturday, Febrary 24 »

One of the greatest Burgundian wine-makers Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy admonishes us not to look for any external aromas and flavours when describing a wine: “Pah, ça sent de raisin, c’est tout!” Most of the time I can’t agree with this (we need these ‘exotic fruit’ etc. similes because sometimes they help us to formulate our wine ideas, and besides how many of us had the chance to smell a ripe Chardonnay or Pinot Noir fresh from the vine?), but in case of Inniskillin Niagara Peninsula Chardonnay ($15.15/750 mL, LCBO 317768), I do agree whole-heartedly.

This Black Label Inniskillin production is a pronounced varietal wine that smells and tastes - surprise! - uniquely of Chardonnay with a particular “warm” finish that I find is characteristic of many Chardonnays world-wide. No luxuriant green apples, figs or buttery touches at all (as promised by wine-makers), but a recognizable Chardonnay bouquet, although rather slim and toned-down.

Continue reading Saturday Wine Ruminations - Inniskillin Chardonnay 2004 »

In this week’s edition of Gremolata:

• Ivy Knight smokes some meat.
• Konrad Ejbich recommends a very interesting dessert wine, Henry of Pelham 2005 Botrytis-Affected Riesling.
• Eric Vellend goes shopping for asafoetida, a pungent dried resin used in some Indian recipes.
• Malcom Jolley praises the humble turnip.

Shopping in Kensington for whole foods can be tricky. Sure there is fruit and veggies as far as the eye can see, but are they fresh? Most of the food stands are peddling GMO-ed, well-traveled produce that is cheap for a reason. This used to be the only option. Thank goodness, the market is now becoming a great place to buy whole and organic at fairly cheap prices. The key to fresh, whole, organic shopping in the market is knowing where to get what, and being prepared to make several stops. It’s there if you know where to go.

4 Life Natural Foods
257 Augusta Avenue
416-591-6800

A great place to buy organic produce. In the winter, find a great selection of apples and seasonal veggies, some of which are local. In the summer there’s a wide selection of fresh and often local fruits and veggies spilling out onto the street. If you can’t make it to a farmers market then you can shop here and still feel like you’re making the effort. They also have a good selection of Canadian whole grain flours in large bags and the fridge is well stocked with Harmony Organic dairy products. The prices aren’t too bad and are getting better now that they are more established.

Tutti Frutti Famous Foods
64 Kensington Avenue
416-593-9281

I love this store! This is the place for bulk items like organic rolled oats, raw almonds and other nuts and seeds at the cheapest price in the market. They also have a great selection of loose herbs like organic milk thistle, a great liver detoxifier.

Continue reading Organic in the Market »

We’ve got a couple of additions to our rag-round up this week.

While CBC Radio’s Metro Morning is most definitely not made of paper, Catherine Jheon’s Beyond Burgers spot runs on Thursday and offers up a weekly restaurant review. And of course, a print version can be found on the CBC website. This week, Jheon visits Chocolate Heaven Dessert Company, a homey down-to-earth dessert place on the Danforth.

We’ve also added the Thursday food articles from the daily Metro paper, where they’re preparing for Oscar-night parties with related cocktails.

The weekly rags both seem to have a bit of a brunch theme going on. At Eye, Kathryn Borel drags herself out to the earnestly vegetarian Sadie’s Diner.

Sadie’s stumbles – ever so slightly – into the trap many vegetarian eateries do. It is earnest. Very earnest. If the buckwheat pancakes ($8, with either apple, banana, blueberries or maple syrup) were people, they’d be the honest, hardworking fellow who comes to clean out your gutters every spring. (“Hello, sir. Good day to you, ma’am.”) The trio tastes the way you expect a trio of buckwheat pancakes to taste: mildly nutty, a little chewy, well-leavened but not dramatically so, crispy-skinned but not aggressively so. On our order of flapjacks, a stoic little trio of nicely ripened bananas. Satisfying and without fanfare.

Borel also offers up four other choice brunch spots in a selection of online exclusive mini-reviews.

Continue reading Rag Round Up - Thursday, February 22nd »

The Rhino
1249 Queen Street West
(416) 535-8089

When I first moved to Parkdale around 13 years ago, well before the Drake Effect accelerated the westward creep of gentrification, The Rhino was pretty much the only place within a reasonable walking distance of my place to get a decent beer and food that was a step or two above typical greasy spoon fare. Not that they served anything fancy - it was your basic pub grub staples like burgers, sandwiches, pizza and pasta - but it was tasty (well, usually - more on that in a moment) and cheap, and there was a selection of microbrews available to wash it down. It’s a theme that they’ve stuck with ever since.

One big problem with The Rhino, however, has been the inconsistency of both the service and the quality of the food. The staff turnover seems to be quite high, so aside from the family members who run the place and occasionally wait tables, we’ve rarely been served by the same person more than once, and as a result, the service has ranged from friendly and attentive to indifferent and glacial. Once, my wife and I popped in for a beer and a quick bite. We sat down, got glasses of water, and waited fruitlessly for our waitress to return to take our order. After 30 minutes, we could only assume that she had either been kidnapped or simply chose to knock off early for the night, so we left.

Continue reading The Rhino - Parkdale’s Local »

As a vegetarian, one of my biggest complaints about flying is the food. Not on the flight (Air Canada, back when they still offered meals, actually had really delicious and creative vegetarian options) but in the airport itself. This week in The Toronto Star, Jennifer Bain takes a tour of the eating establishments at Pearson’s new Pier F, and finds that while all the available grub is from chains, there are actually some very healthy and reasonably priced options.

Pier F is blessedly free of McDonald’s and Burger King. Travellers have a multitude of burger options, though. Via Della Bici has bison, beef and veggie versions (with fries for $8.99 to $10.99), while Coyote’s Jack’s char-grills them plain for $3.99 and with cheese for $4.59.

People have funny notions about airport food. They gripe about the prices (but jack up their bills with booze, an expensive proposition at any time) and lament that they can’t find anything healthy to eat as they gorge on the aforementioned burgers and fries.

But here at Pier F, bananas or apples sell for about $1.26, fruit salads run around $3.99, and leafy green salads show up on most menus. In any given situation, you can make a healthy choice.

Elsewhere in the Star, Nelia Raposo writes about the trend toward gourmet take-out for busy commuters travelling home to the 905. It’s not the same as cooking it yourself, but for the time-pressed who are weary from work and travelling, it’s certainly better than hitting the drive-through.

Two spaghetti recipes are featured this week, with Amy Pataki offering up a version of the spaghetti with anchovies from Terroni, and Jennifer Bain featuring baby spinach and carrots.

Gordon Stimmell prevues Cuvée, an Ontario wine event featuring 160 of Ontario’s finest wines, while Josh Rubin reviews Brookyln Brewery’s lager.

Life’s a bowl of cherries over at The Sun where Rita DeMontis offers info on the health benefits and folklore of cherries, along with a recipe for cherry muffins. There’s also recipes for cherry clafouti, something called chunky beer blasters (which include chocolate and cherry kriek beer), and a cherry grunt (stewed cherries with sweet dumplings). And finally, Elizabeth Baird offers up a selection of soup recipes, perfect for taking to work in a Thermos as part of Lunch Money Day.