Emily Schultz is a writer living in Toronto’s Parkdale. Her novel, Joyland, released last spring, and was called “mesmerizing” by the Globe and Mail. Her newest release is a book of poems called Songs for the Dancing Chicken, partly inspired by films.

You’ve got $10 to buy lunch - where do you go?

Mother India (1456 Queen Street West) is my new favourite. It’s in my neighbourhood, and I like to support local. What Ghandi (554 Queen Street West) is to Queen West, Mother India is to Queen West West. The butter chicken roti is especially satisfying on a rainy day. It’s maybe a dollar or two more, but there’s enough to share with a friend.

Continue reading Tasting T.O. with Emily Schultz »

Tomorrow is the first Friday of the month, which means Taste T.O. will be presenting a segment on Take 5, the morning show on CIUT 89.5 FM, as part of their daily feature This Month Has 22 Experts.

This month, we’ll be talking with host Andy Frank (and whichever rotating co-host happens to be in the other chair) about farmers markets, Amnesty International’s Taste for Justice campaign, and if we have time, our restaurant review of the month.

Take 5 can be heard on CIUT every weekday from 8:30 to 10:00 AM. If you’re outside of the radio listening range, you can listen online, or on Rogers Digital Cable (channel 946) or Star Choice (channel 826). This Month Has 22 Experts appears on the program at 9:26 AM each day.

It’s the hot summer guide in NOW this week and they’ve got some great hot summer tips for foodies, such as the Royal York running tours and teas all summer for the great price of $19.07. Steven Davey also compares some of Toronto’s favourite ice cream spots, dishes up the latest in restaurant news, and takes a trip around the globe to Globe Bistro. Graham Duncan offers up some picks of wine and beer that go great with barbeque.

There’s also talk of grilling over at Eye with their cool summer guide (get it? Because at NOW, it’s a “hot” summer guide?), where Kathryn Borel offers up advice and recipes on how to cook a bunch of things you’d never expect on the barbeque - like an omelette - which seems like more trouble than it’s worth, to be honest.

As an apartment-dwelling vegetarian, all this talk of what to grill is starting to overwhelm me, but it’s to the Barbie again at Metro where Billy Munnelly recommends Merlot to go with your hunk of cooked cow.

Continue reading Rag Round-Up - Thursday, May 31st »

La Tea Da
2305 Queen Street East
416-686-5787
Afternoon tea for two, all taxes and tip: $35

Have you ever glanced at people’s food as you walked by a restaurant window? Has your glance ever turned into a gaze? Has your gaze turned into a stare as you stopped walking in order to scrutinize the diners’ meals? And did you then press yourself against the restaurant window until your face was transformed into a grotesque mask of hunger and desperation? Did the management of the restaurant have to go outside and confront you? Did a fierce physical contest ensue?

No? Well, nothing like that has happened to me, not lately anyway, and not in front of La Tea Da, a tea room on Queen Street East. That would be most uncouth. No, after one quick look at its charming exterior, I was inside its equally charming interior and seated with my family for a genteel afternoon tea. And it was the gentility of a tea room I sought- a soothing, linen draped sanctuary from the coarseness of everyday life.

Continue reading A Tea Room with a View »

The Toronto Star’s Jennifer Bain has two articles this week about topics that are dear to our hearts here at TasteTO. The first is about Farmer’s Markets and the two new certified markets launched in the GTA this week. Bain’s second article is an interview with councillor John Filion about his push for more varied street food. Filion did a press conference this morning at Nathan Phillips Square where the Rubino brothers from Rain served frog’s leg congee. And yep, here’s me with the theme song from The Triplets of Belleville in my head for the rest of the day, because that’s the first thing I associate with frog’s legs.

Also in the Star, Josh Rubin is not wowed by Creemore Springs Traditional Pilsner, and Gordon Stimmell offers some wine picks for patio sipping.

There’s also a recipe for traditional oatcakes, a nifty bit of info about a 24 course meal at L’Enclume in Britain that runs 5 hours, and a review of a cookery book of street food. Just in case that frog’s legs congee isn’t up your alley.

Continue reading What’s Cooking - Wednesday, May 30th »

While it’ll likely be a while yet before we see food vendors on downtown street corners selling anything besides hot dogs and sausages, the city moved one step closer to having better and healthier street eats today with the announcement of the Toronto Street Treats Fair.

In a lunchtime press conference at Nathan Philips Square, Councillor John Filion and brothers Guy and Michael Rubino from Rain Restaurant announced that the Fair will take place in the Square on Friday, July 13th from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. Along with the Rubinos, a slew of Toronto’s top chefs will be on hand to dish up some street-friendly fare, including Chris McDonald (Cava), Claudio Aprile (Colborne Lane), Didier Leroy (Didier), Irene Morales (Jumbo Empanada), Pat Riley (Perigee), Amanda Bent (Kali’s Crepes), Carole Ferrari (Local Cafe), and more to be announced.

Continue reading Toronto Street Treats Fair Announced »

Café Green Tea
3160 Steeles Avenue East, Markham
905-470-0758
Lunch for 2 and snack (with tax, no tip required) $21

Every time I go pick up some Japanese groceries, I always make sure I have time for lunch. Next to the market is a small food court and the Café Green Tea. It isn’t really just any regular cafeteria food; to me, it is a trip down memory lane. Ever since I returned from teaching in Japan, I’ve had a tough time finding a place that can help me get in touch with Japanese food and culture.

The staff at the café are all Japanese and they understand both Japanese and English so there are no worries of communication problems. And to make life easier, since few of the items have names that reveal anything much about the dish, their menu is all in pictures hanging proudly above the cash register so you know what to expect. Armed with my wooden block number, I have enough time to do a quick stroll at the supermarket section and buy a drink before I settle into a seat and wait patiently for my meal to be brought over by one of the soft spoken and polite Japanese ladies.

Continue reading Japanese Oasis »

It was the first week of the market at Liberty Village this past Sunday. The Liberty Village market is affiliated with MyMarket, a group that promotes certified local farmers. That is, all products are certified to be both local and grown/created by the farmers selling them. Some vendors at other markets resell imported produce and MyMarket aims to ensure customers are getting a certified Farmers’ Market, featuring real farmers, selling only what they produce.

The official grand opening of the Liberty Village market is June 10th, but they will be open for business next Sunday as well. There are also a number of special events scheduled throughout the season, including a strawberries and cake day on July 1st, a Community Corn Fest on August 5th, a peach day on August 19th, Applemania on September 16th and a Pumpkinfest on October 28th.

Since everything is local and seasonal, there were actually only a few vendors out with wares, and among them, only two with produce.

There were a few plant and flower vendors, but as we live in an apartment with no balcony and two ferocious plant-eating cats, sadly we didn’t pay a lot of attention to that side of the market, other than to snap some photos.

Continue reading Market Basket - Wednesday, May 30th »

Given the nature of this weekly column, it’s probably obvious that I’m not the type of beer drinker who sticks with a single favourite brand. I usually have a bottle each of a dozen or so different beers in the fridge at any given time, and another box or two of others stashed in the closet. Even when I go out, I rarely have the same beer twice in a night, unless I’m at a pub where there’s only one beer that I like on tap.

As a result, I often find myself giving short shrift to some beers that I really enjoy, but generally pass up in favour of grabbing something new. This is especially true of local beers that I tend to take for granted, figuring that they’ll always be available, while this new seasonal release or import may only be around for a limited time.

I was recently reminded of this bad habit of mine while listening to the first episode of Bar Towel Radio, a new podcast produced and hosted by Cass Enright, owner of the local beer website The Bar Towel. The episode featured an interview with Ken Woods of Oakville’s Black Oak Brewery, who mentioned that their Black Oak Pale Ale would be featured in a special Ontario Craft Brewers promotion at the LCBO this summer, and this made me realize that it had been months since I’d had one.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Black Oak Pale Ale »

For those folks following the ongoing issues surrounding Amato pizza, the saga continues. We wrote last week of new locations opening up, despite the fact that many of the older locations had been shut down for non-payment of rent, and a lack of funds that included stiffing employees and more.

David Topping of Torontoist has written a rant, published today, about his recent experience ordering from the chain…

The problems were not one big thing so much as an endless accumulation of them: we had to call the main phone number to get the new location’s phone number (as it wasn’t on their website), had to wait five minutes after I called the Dundas West number as the phone rang and rang and rang, had to call the main number back several times (it was busy for ten minutes) to make sure I had the right number for the Dundas West location, called the the new number again, waited two minutes, finally spoke to someone, was disconnected, had to call back. Though the deliveryman had my phone number to call if he got lost (which the company used to do), he didn’t bother, and we saw someone driving up and down our block before we called the location’s number back to find out what was going on. The food was thirty minutes late, our order was completely wrong (we got one dish we didn’t order, and were missing two salads that we did), and the deliverer didn’t give us (or show us) a receipt. When we called to get our missing food, we were told it would take ten minutes to get our food back. It took fifty. And the salads were about half the size of the salads of one year ago.

Personally, I’ve never ordered from Amato - I’ve either never been able to get through or have gotten stuck on endless hold any time I tried. So while I too will miss their tasty late-night slices on the way home from a club, it might really be time for the whole business to fold and make room for someone else.

Like, oh… Massimo’s.

Quote used with permission.

It was the promise of mangoes that lured me across town to Little India; sweet, juicy, luscious things available only for a few weeks each year. But since I was there and all, it didn’t hurt to pick up some other sweet tasty treats, like burfi.

Burfi or Barfi is an Indian sweet, similar in consistency to fudge. Also known as Indian cheesecake, it is made by boiling milk, usually condensed milk, along with sugar and flavourings and spices and then allowing it to cool.

Nuts are a common flavouring, particularly pistachios, but burfi can also contain cashews, mango, chocolate, coconut, rose and saffron, as well as spices such as cardamom.

Continue reading Gerrard Street Sweets »

Come join us!
TasteTO.com is looking for writers and bloggers to contribute weekly or bi-weekly.

If you have:
- an excellent knowledge of food
- strong writing skills, including spelling and grammar
- exceptional time-management skills (must be able to work on a deadline!)
- access to a digital camera and good to excellent photography skills, especially with food
- familiarity with blogging software and basic to great internet skills and knowledge

…please send an email telling us about yourself and why you’d like to write for us, as well as three samples (cut and paste or URLs only - please NO FILE ATTACHMENTS!) of your food-specific writing.

Note that we absolutely cannot consider any applications that do not include food-specific writing samples. Bloggers - please do not send a link to your whole blog - THREE specific samples only.

Serious inquiries only, please - send an email to sheryl@tasteto.com

Susur
601 King Street West
416-603-2205
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and four Salty Dogs: $300

My friend Max gently reminds me, as my birthday approaches, that I’d totally forgotten to get him a present last year. Never let it be said that I’m a welcher. But I am an opportunist. Inspired by the win/win theorizing of the comic-book villain Yellow Claw who once quipped, “perhaps the heads of two could fall with but a single stroke,” we find ourselves opening our wallets to a six-course tasting meal at Susur ($110) as a joint birthday present to each other.

Continue reading High-end Meal Earns High-end Price Tag »

They’ve revamped the restaurant section over at BlogTO, but right now, it’s only showing one post, Tanja’s review of the Big Ragu. There are more recent restaurant posts though, and because I’m dedicated over here, I’m scrolling, scrolling, scrolling back to collect them all. There’s also a review by Tim of The Fish Store, aaaannnddd… nope, that’s it.

Torontoist has some articles about stuff that, by the time I write this, has already happened, so let’s hope folks had fun at Harvey’s Free Burger Day, and the farmer’s market at the Brickworks. There’s another market next Saturday, but if you missed free burger day, you’re SOL. The do have a funny piece about Mayor Miller getting hit with some beef jerky, though.

Continue reading The Wide, Wide World of Web - Monday, May 28th »

If you’re eating out in the next couple of weeks and notice a table card with the beaming face of sexy TV chef Ricardo, you might think that you’ve become a victim of a new stealth marketing campaign for the Food Network.

But in fact, that card will indicate something much more positive. It will mean that the restaurant you’re dining at is participating in Taste For Justice, a fundraising event for Amnesty International for which Ricardo is a spokesperson.

From June 1st through 15th, restaurants across the country will be donating a portion of their proceeds to help support Amnesty International’s work to stop violence against women. Here in Toronto, there are 23 participating locations including Tinto, Oyster Boy, Dufflet Pastries and Chef Sasi Thai Cooking School, plus out-of-town locations in Alliston, Mount Albert and Windsor.

A full list of participating Ontario restaurants can be found on the Taste For Justice website.