Posted by Greg Clow in in the papers, news and media on June 23, 2007 at 6:46 pm

Vegetarians and the squeamish, beware: Gina Mallet's review of a pig roast at Far Niente in today's National Post features a photo of the poor porker that is either gruesome or mouthwatering depending on your perspective. Being an unrepentant carnivore, Mallet falls decidedly into the latter camp, and she dives into her porcine platter with gusto:

Heaping plates of roasted pig arrive. A chunk of loin and slices of leg, tender as silk and tasting of sweet acorns. The meat is faintly pink, leaking fatty jus and cuts like the proverbial butter. The accompaniments are a complementary riff on the traditional English accompaniments -- Granny Smith apple compote, pommery mustard juice and a trio of roasted vegetables, fingerlings, carrots and big shallots.

It's a religious moment --only the sound of eating and drinking can be heard. Someone speaks for us all: "I haven't eaten so much meat in a long time."

There's also a very interesting preface to Michael Vaughan's wine review column this week. It seems that the LCBO is artificially raising the prices on some wines in the Vintages releases - and in turn, raising their profits - by strongly suggesting that suppliers bump up their prices and then funnel the extra revenue back into advertising in the LCBO's in-house magazine, Food & Drink, and other agency-led marketing programs. So much for the repeated claims that the vast buying power of the monopolistic LCBO leads to the lowest possible prices for Ontario consumers.

Also in the Post:

• Suburban foodies Jon Bricker and Kate Swoger take a culinary trip around the world at the multicultural food court in the Downsview Park Merchants' Market.
• Brianna Goldberg previews Scarborough Taste, a Summerlicious-like event that city councillor Michael Walker is hoping will spin-off into a larger event across all of Toronto's inner suburbs.
• Sarah Lazarovic pops by Unit, a small neighbourhood bar nestled next to the Gladstone Hotel.
• Zenya Sirant visits Ed's Real Scoop, a popular East End ice cream and sweets parlour.
• Bonnie Stern suggests a great menu for a summer barbecue, and also gives some tips to make the day as eco-friendly as possible.
• Sticking with the green theme, Vivian Vassos gives a list of pointers on eating in nature without harming it. For some reason, the column is split into two parts online - part one and part two.
• Two beer-related travel features, as Jane Mundy goes out on a real ale pub crawl in York, England, and Paul Brent checks out the inaugural edition of the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival.

Over in the Toronto Star, Amy Pataki has mixed feelings on Foxley Bistro, Tom Thai's popular small plates place on Ossington. She zigs and zags on the food, finding some dishes great and others not-so-much, and unlike those who have praised the staff who have been with Thai since his days at Tempo, she finds the service somewhat lackadaisical:

One night, the waitress walks away in the middle of taking our order. Another night, the server deposits a crumple of aluminum foil with the departing shot of, "Enjoy it, guys."

What is it? It looks like someone's leftovers, delivered to the wrong table. Turns out it's the steamed black cod ($21), cooked en papillote with dried seaweed, mushrooms and greens. It's also straight from a 375F oven and blisters the mouth with the first bite. Thanks for the warning.

Also in the Star:

• Gordon Stimmell tries the new Dan Aykroyd branded Chardonnay and Cabernet Merlot with the man himself, and finds them to be much less plonky than one usually expects from celebrity wines. He also reviews five California wines from today's Vintages release, but once again, the online version only includes his introduction. Someone in the web department at the Star really should look into that...
• Marion Kane has dinner with Irish magazine publisher, restaurant critic, and bon vivant Trevor White, and presents a recipe for White's favourite dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding.
• Susan Sampson tests some microfibre kitchen cloths, and then segues clumsily into a recipe for fried rice by suggesting that you "grab a cloth to clean up the mess after preparing" the dish.
• In the Travel section, Richard Ouzounian visits some of the 400+ Asian restaurants in Richmond, BC.

In the Globe & Mail, Joanne Kates is taking the summer off, with her spot being filled until September by a review column called Cheap Eats - aka Reviews Of Places Where Real People Can Actually Afford To Dine. The summer column will also at least partially reflect their claim of being "Canada's National Newspaper", as it will be rotating between writers and restaurants in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. This week, Alexandra Gill chows down at Rangoli, the less formal and considerably cheaper sibling to Vancouver's acclaimed nouveau-Indian hot spot Vij's.

Also in the Globe:

• Beppi Crosariol reviews several Israeli wines from today's Vintages release.
• Cicily Ross reports that Laura Secord has finally jumped on the dark chocolate bandwagon.
• Peter Meehan looks at the rising trend (in NYC, natch) of pastry chefs going out on their own to open dessert-themed restaurants. Since it's from a wire service, it's a paper-only story for the Globe, but the full article from which the Globe piece is excerpted is up on the New York Times website.
• Lucy Waverman shows us that salads need not be boring.
• Nadja Sayej profiles the Youth Green Squad, a group of high school students and volunteers are who are running a community vegetable garden in Parkdale, with the harvest destined for food banks and other non-profit organisations.
• Sasha Chapman makes sheep's milk ricotta with Ruth Klahsen at Monforte Dairy.