Normalcy returns to the food pages of the Saturday papers this weekend, as Amy Pataki and Joanne Kates are back from their breaks, each of them covering one of the most buzz-worthy restaurants to open over the summer, while Gina Mallet checks out an old stand-by that she hasn’t been to in “yonks”.

First up, Pataki heaps much praise on Cowbell in the Toronto Star, noting how chef Mark Cutrara doesn’t let anything go to waste in the kitchen:

The trout, farmed in chilly artesian waters near Owen Sound, can be had lightly smoked and profoundly buttery. The trimmings are used in an intense puréed fish soup that’s like bouillabaisse on steroids.

Nor does much go to waste when it comes to larger animals. A pork salad might feature nuggets of smoked ham, a slice of tender tongue and – here’s what gets my vote on Variety Meat Idol – fried pig’s ear, crunchy and creamy all at once. More ears, this time in jellied ribbons, drape the accompanying greens. The vinegary gelatin wobbling in the centre of the plate supplies a much-needed counterpoint to the richness.

Comments on the food aside, I’m very curious about Pataki’s observation elsewhere in the review that “occupying every last chair are Parkdale’s gay, straight and chatty inhabitants.” I guess she must have taken a poll of the other customers to find out (A) where their home is located; and (B) what they were planning to do with their naughty bits when they returned there after dinner.

Also in the Star:

• Gordon Stimmell makes Miles proud with his picks of five fine pinots from the latest Vintages release.
• Mitch Potter profiles Myron Spolsky, a Torontonian of Ukrainian heritage who moved to his ancestral homeland in 1990 and has since become the pizza king of Kyiv.

Over in the Globe & Mail, Joanne Kates returns with a rave review of C5 at the ROM:

[Chef Teddy] Corrado’s main courses are loyal to the flavours he learned from his mentors. His lamb is superb - big ruby chops, fork-tender, generously crusted with duxelles (mushroom/onion sauté) - and the scent of the earth in morel jus. He gilds my lily atop black cod with bright yellow, thick, buttery hollandaise sauce with a rich lobster undercurrent. For the final kill, he adds sweet lobster and lentil salad and his trademark “stained white asparagus,” meaning it has been cooked with balsamic vinegar.

Also in the Globe:

• Lucy Waverman recommends some recipes for Rosh Hashanah that have an interesting Mediterranean influence.
• Sasha Chapman explains why some imported cheeses become scarce in the latter part of the year, and suggests Ontario’s own Thunder Oak gouda as a locally made substitute.
• Anthony Reinhart reports on the return from retirement of Ida Angelini, who has re-opened her legendary Italian restaurant Angelini’s after the failure of its replacement, Gooderham House.
• Bill Spurr visits Trout Point Lodge, an isolated vacation spot in the middle of Nova Scotia that attracts foodies from far and wide with their seafood cooking school weekends.
• Marina Strauss profiles Rick Martens, the president and CFO of Country Style, who is following the lead of rival Tim Hortons and giving the coffee and donut chain a modern makeover.

In the National Post, Gina Mallet makes a long-overdue return visit to Boba, where she likes pretty much everything, although her highest marks go to the dessert, a quartet of layered treats called verrines:

[Co-owner & chef] Barbara [Gordon] appears with four glasses that shimmer in the candlelight. I take a scoop of minty fresh pineapple, ginger cake and pineapple panna cotta topped with pineapple sorbet with a dash of pomegranate syrup and little sable cookies –a knockout. The Bon Vivant eats all of an unctuous chocolate and espresso tiramisu and half of the next one, apricots, vanilla cake, blackberries, blueberries and yogourt cream. Finally, my fave — spiced white peaches, meringue with pistachios, raspberry compote, Champagne jelly, with a topping of lemon verbena ice cream made with lemon verbena from the Bermanns’ Cabbagetown garden (they are pioneer chef gardeners).

Also in the Post:

• Bonnie Stern recommends some recipes for Rosh Hashanah that have an interesting Mediterranean influence. (Whoa, deja vu!)
• Jason Chow grills up some mackerel.
• A. Brouwer and A. Wilson host a hot dog showdown.
• Sondra Gotlieb, wife of former Canadian ambassador to the US Allan Gotlieb, revisits some of frightening dishes from dinner parties and official functions they attended in the ’60s and ’70s.
• Mason Wright tells everyone what those of us who live in Parkdale already knew: despite the claims of owner Catherine Thai that she wants to cater to the locals, the bottle service, bouncers and ear-splittingly loud Top 40 dance music makes her Parkdale Drink just a slightly lower-rent version of a Clubland meat market.