I’m not sure how I feel about Jamie Kennedy these days. He will forever be the arbiter of local food, lending his presence and his bed head hair to Greenbelt gatherings in the name of sustainability. No one can deny him this title. However, at the Gardiner Museum’s recent lecture, From the Ground Up: Nurturing the Art of Sustainable Living, nothing sounded new. Was I growing tired of his refrain?

The Gardiner Museum has never struck me as local food’s chief advocate. Ceramics, clay, delicate and pretty things just don’t mesh with the gritty, earthbound perspective of farmers, though the erudite moderator Lori Stahlbrand, founder and president of Local Food Plus, was quick to quash my initial hesitation with the simple remark that clay is part of the soil in which food grows. Oh. Ok.

Continue reading Green is the New Little Black Dress OR It Takes A Village to Make a Meal »

There’s an endless and overwhelming amount of hype about the new and returning shows on the regular networks, so it’s easy to not notice that new seasons are starting on the smaller niche channels as well.

This includes Food Network Canada, where they’re launching their fall season this coming week with new episodes of old favourites like Restaurant Makeover, plus eight new (or newly imported shows), including The Main with Anthony Sedlak (pictured above), winner of last year’s edition of Superstar Chef Challenge.

Descriptions and premiere dates for the seven new shows follow after the cut.

Continue reading Fall Season on Food Network »

Federick’s Restaurant
1920 Ellesmere Road
416-439-9234
Dinner for two, with all taxes and tip: $40

There are a few important things that every Indian expatriate in Toronto and its suburbs will know: one of them is where to buy chapatis in bulk quantities, and the other, where to source the best Hakka this side of the Atlantic.

Indian Hakka cooking is legendary – amongst those of the Indo-Chinese Diaspora. The highly educated self-titled Hakka people of China are part of the earliest diasporic movements in the world. After centuries of migration from northern China to the southern provinces, millions of Hakka people left the south by sea and settled on coasts around the world, including the port cities of Bombay and Calcutta. Reflecting their transcultural adaptability, the Hakka people living in India created a unique cuisine that melded Indian spices with their own simple cooking styles. A far cry from the signature, simply spiced dishes of their ancestors, Indian Hakka food is a scorching ride for the palate.

Continue reading Chinese Food, Indian Flavour »

It’s only been a couple of months since Cluck, Grunt & Low opened, but that’s like an eternity in “hot today, not tomorrow” restaurant scene. So it’s almost a blast from the past to see them reviewed in the Globe & Mail today, although the delay can be chalked up to the fact that Joanne Kates was on hiatus back when they opened.

As far as the food goes, Kates is generally impressed. However, she seems to have a hard time understanding why a classically trained chef like Marc Thuet would be spending his time in a BBQ joint, and she uses some seriously tenuous logic to try and make sense of it:

I question the very premise of Cluck, Grunt & Low. A restaurant dedicated to meat? On Bloor Street West in the heart of the student ghetto where progressive values hold sway? How come? We know Marc Thuet has a love affair with matters carnivorous, but Chef Thuet is such a consummate cook that he hardly needs to limit himself to flesh.

The prospect of a classic French chef like Marc Thuet doing southern barbecue is not as surprising as it sounds. Thuet is Alsatian; Alsace is the part of France that most resembles Germany, and Germans love meat. Southern barbecue and Alsace go together like pulled pork and buns.

Uh… sure, Joanne, whatever you say.

Continue reading In The Papers - Saturday September 29th »

Somethin’s Fishy
213 Augusta Avenue
416-260-7493
Dinner for two, with all taxes and tip: $25

It’s okay for a new restaurant to run out of items. When they first open they’re hemorrhaging money. To the consumer, a new stop for noshing has just opened. For the small business owner, a brutal period of negotiation, money borrowing, and DIY renovation (all of which has taken 2 or 3 times longer than expected) is at an end. And their lifetime of servitude is just beginning. So once they flip the open sign it’s a good idea not to overstock perishable items that they don’t yet have the clientèle to maintain.

Even without the seafood, deep fryer oil will begin to smell fishy after about five pounds of potatoes pass through it at 350 degrees. With the halibut, salmon, cod, haddock, tilapia and shrimp wafting out the door of Somethin’s Fishy, Augusta Avenue begins to hype the chip shop’s name. Why not? The four Portuguese fishmongers on Baldwin already have half the block locked down on some coastal odour.

Continue reading Fish (singular) and Chips »

To start us off this week, Catherine at Sugar and Ink has a review of the Eat the Food show at MOCCA Gallery. Although not part of Alphabet City’s Food Festival, it is one of many food-related gallery shows this month that run concurrent with the festival.

At Blog From Our Kitchen, Elizabeth has a post about hunger, including some startling statistics and ways to help.

Meena from Hooked on Heat admits to being a snack-a-holic and offers up a recipe for tasty potato parcels.

The new Morimoto cookbook is out and Maria at Garlicster gives it a glowing review, even if there’s not a lot of garlic-specific recipes.

And at Cream Puffs in Venice, Ivonne is back to school and gives us a roll-by-roll description of her pastry-making efforts. Accompanied by her typical drool-inducing photos as always.

For the past couple of weeks, it’s been hard to avoid reading or hearing about Nuit Blanche, the “free all-night contemporary art thing” that’s taking place at around 200 different venues throughout the city this weekend from 7:03pm on Saturday to sunrise on Sunday. While it’s a pretty cool and impressive event that is expected to entertain hundreds of thousands of people, we haven’t given it much (well… any) coverage on Taste T.O., mainly due to the fact that there’s not a lot of food and/or drink related activity happening as part of the festivities.

However, there are three installations/exhibits/happenings that do feature food in some context, and we thought we’d list them just so we’re not the only media outlet in the city that doesn’t give Nuit Blanche at least a passing mention.

Continue reading Blanche Mange »

We’re coming up to our favourite holiday here at TasteTO - Thanksgiving! It’s the very best holiday - no gift buying, no decorating, no church service, and in Canada, usually no travelling. It’s just all about the eating! Well, and the cooking.

Thanksgiving is traditionally poultry-related, and not having eaten turkey in a good many years, I’ll leave readers to their own devices in terms of procuring and cooking their bird, or other animal of choice, although we do highly recommend organic, free-range birds, because they at least got to live a passably happy life before they became dinner.

Continue reading Talking Turkey »

Here’s a summary of the food/drink and other community & cultural events taking place around town - and a few out-of-town events - in the next seven days. For full details on these and many future happenings, visit our Events page.

Friday September 28th

• Fall Festival of Craft Breweries - C’est What, 67 Front Street East
• Niagara Wine Festival (runs until Sep 30th) - various locations in the Niagara region
• Street Food Vending and Design (runs until Oct 16th) - Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street

Continue reading T.O. Events for September 28th-October 4th »

At NOW this week, TV chef Bob Blumer offers a heartfelt eulogy for everyone’s favourite brunch spot, Mimi’s on Bathurst. Mimi’s 22-year run ends this weekend, with three final days of service and a sell-off of the collectibles. Wayne Roberts looks at the Greenbelt as a provincial election issue. And Paul Terefenko reports that residents in the Bloor-Lansdowne neighbourhood forced out a Foodshare community garden because it was “very ugly” and “looked like a cattle pen.” The explanation given was that it would affect local property values, but you know what else affects local property values? Having a neighbour who makes a nuisance of themselves at every opportunity and stops any form of progress to an area.

Continue reading Rag Round-Up - Thursday, September 27th »

Julia Rogers is a Toronto-based cheese educator, event coordinator, retail consultant, and founder of Cheese Culture. She is active with the Ontario Cheese Society, la Societé des Fromages du Québec, the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, and Slow Food, participating in local and international events.

Her articles have appeared in Food and Drink, City Bites, Wine Express, and Slow Food Canada. Julia’s enjoyment of cheese is matched by an impressive love of the vine. She has completed the Wine and Spirit Education Trust’s Advanced Certificate, and is studying toward the WSET Diploma.

Her website, www.cheeseculture.ca provides recommendations and opportunities for learning, while her e-letter, The Wedge Issue is a source of news, lore and bite-sized reviews.

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

One favourite place Sarah’s Falafel and Shawarma (487 Bloor Street West) in the Annex. I usually end up there at least twice a week as my favourite sandwich, the “falafel combination”, is so tasty. It’s sort of good for you and bad for you at the same time. For less than $5, you get a wholewheat pita, packed with crispy, greasy fried eggplant, potato, cauliflower, and a single substantial falafel, garnished with pickled turnips, tomatoes and parsley, and filled to absolutely overflowing with tahini and vinegary hot sauce. After you’re done you want to lie down.

Continue reading Tasting T.O. with Julia Rogers »

I once met the food chemist who was responsible for developing fruit-flavoured potato chips in the 1970s. The chips were a historical marketing failure and he never quite recovered from the Canadian public’s rejection of his efforts. I understand that afterwards he spent many months in state of anxiety and depression, attempting to develop “booze-and-pain killer” flavoured chips.

The actual technique of seasoning potato chips was invented by small, family-run Irish company – Tayto – in the 1950s. Salt and Pepper and Cheese and Onion were the first flavours. Soon giant American companies were beating a path to the Old Sod to learn this innovative technique. Now, as snack food has become globalized, the humble potato chip contains the essences and aromas of countless different countries. In Japan, one can enjoy octopus dumpling chips; Argentinians devour Patagonia Lamb chips, and various curry-flavoured chips are the snack food of choice in India and Southeast Asia.

Continue reading Marmite Crisps »

In The Toronto Star this week, Susan Sampson explores one of my most hated childhood foods - salt cod. Popular around the world, I’m told by many people that the stuff can actually taste darn good. Those folks have never had my Grandmother’s fish and brewis. Eugh!

Also in the Star, Amy Pataki continues her quest for a decent pot pie, in the process revealing that not many people know a good one when they see it.

The beloved steak-and-kidney version was hardest to find. When I called Bloor Meat Market in the West End about the British classic, the response was, and I quote: “Eww.”

(Since the shop’s chicken pot pie was execrable, maybe people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw pies.)

Continue reading What’s Cooking - Wednesday, September 26th »

With the summer dwindling and autumn asserting itself through an explosion of bright yellow and brown leaves, Toronto’s Farmers’ markets are slowly starting to close up shop. However, there are still a few bustling markets around town, including the Markham Main Street Farmers’ Market. This smaller market is located, as one would guess, on Markham’s Main Street which is also called, crazily enough, Markham Road. It lies just northeast of Toronto, right above Scarborough and open every Saturday from 8am to 1pm.

Continue reading The Market Basket - Wednesday, September 26th »

Taste: The 4th Sense
375 Danforth Avenue
416-649-0024

The first time I went to talk to Gerry, he was too popular for me. Maybe it was my mistake for stopping in on a sunny Saturday; I should have known better. Even so, despite watching and waiting for an hour, he barely had a minute to spare. It’s apparent I am hardly the only one who get serious cravings for hot sauce. The place was positively teeming with people eager to scald their tastebuds. I had to come back on a cooler Sunday, and even then, customers wandered in and out. Some zeroed in on a bottle and made a beeline for the counter, clearly knowing precisely their poison. Others, perhaps newcomers, sampled a range of sauces and oils until they settled on two, oh and could they have just this one as well, and maybe one of those vinaigrettes, please.

Continue reading To Touch the Fire and Relish the Burn »