Per Se Foods
563 Queen Street West
416-594-0303

Ilene Fattore spent last Thursday trying to recover from the big Queen West fire.

The fire that wiped out most of a city block indirectly affected businesses further along the strip as far as Augusta. The hydro was out, freezers were off, food had to go. So the staff at Per Se Foods spent the day taking care of stock and refilling the ready-to-go counter from scratch. “We just opened up and every hour we’re closed counts,” Ilene said.

Continue reading Not that Per Se »

If you live in Toronto and work in the food and hospitality industry, chances are you’re going to be even busier than usual over the next few days.

On Sunday through Tuesday, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association is bringing together two top trade shows - the Canadian Food & Beverage Show and HostEx - for the first time ever, and the massive result will be taking over the entire Direct Energy Centre complex at Exhibition Place. There will be hundreds of exhibitors from every corner of the food and food-service industry showing off their wares, and demos and workshops throughout the weekend featuring a stellar line-up of chefs and experts including Lynn Crawford, Stephen Beaumont, Massimo Capra, Mark McEwan, Michael Stadtlander (pictured) and many more.

Overlapping with the final day of the CRFA show on Tuesday will be Terroir: Celebrating Gastronomic Diversity, a symposium for chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers, food writers, and other fine dining industry insiders. As noted in our preview article posted earlier this week, the day will feature expert speakers, discussion panels, food demos and more.

The full list of happenings for the next week follows below, and as always, our Events page has more information on these and many other upcoming events in Toronto and area.

Continue reading T.O. Events for February 29th-March 6th »

What is with all these Best Of articles? Eye’s got their annual reader poll results this week, and a full list of Best Ofs for various categories. And while there seems to be a category for “Best Hungarian”, I can’t see anything for Italian or Pizza. How odd. In the regular restaurant review section, Alan Vernon and Sean Keenan Kelly visit Eleven where the food is good, but the portions are small.

The numbers game continues at NOW Magazine where Steven Davey drops by One and finds it much improved from the reviews it got after its September opening in time for the film festival. Davey’s also got a Fresh Dish column in which he reveals the supposed address of Donna Dooher’s new restaurant. The address being bandied about is 85 Hanna Avenue, putting it across the street from the Academy of Spherical Arts (presumably between the LCBO and the fitness club), not across the Dominion parking lot as Davey suggests. But I’ve also heard some other addresses on Hanna Avenue mentioned in various reports, and the wackiness of the renamed streets in Liberty Village (part of Hanna Avenue is now called Snooker Street, and the Dominion is actually on Lynn Williams Street) still makes it a bit of a guessing game. Graham Duncan is building up his resistance for St. Paddy’s Day with a bottle of Connemara Cask Strength Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey in his Drink Up column.

At Metro, Billy Munnelly is finishing his local wine round up and reveals his love for Ontario Baco Noir. Meanwhile, Rick McGinnis hops on the fondue train and tries a couple versions of the big pot o’ cheese at Bier Markt. Marcy Cornblum adores the Tassimo hot beverage-making thing-a-ma-jigger, although it looks a little too Star Trek for me. Coffee shouldn’t come from a push-button machine. And this week’s foodie interview is Gilson Lubin, whose Grandma can outcook the world’s top chefs.

Picnic
2411 Yonge Street
416-487-8609
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and cocktails: $85

In a neighbourhood full of foodies and the restaurants that woo them, it is rare to find a place that thrives on high-concept kitsch, void of haughty ambition. Picnic, occupying the small room formerly known as Meating near Yonge and Eglinton, succeeds in its mission to make food fun, and does so with a menu that displays a maturity and complexity beyond the red checkered decor.

Continue reading A Walk in the Park »

It used to be that the area around the Science Centre was a no-man’s land in terms of food. But Jennifer Bain of the Toronto Star reports that Thorncliffe Village now boasts a multi-cultural selection of food shops and restaurants to accommodate the very multi-cultural community. Bain also tries some chia cereal (not just for pets), and to keep with the grain theme, reviews The Complete Whole Grains Cookbook: 150 Recipes for Healthy Living by Judith Finlayson.

Also at the Star, Tamsyn Burgmann reviews Agora, a new cafe in the Junction that focuses on organic, local and fair trade products, while In Store features bread with a lot of stuff added to it (Omega 3 this time around) and a Canadian soy butter. Josh Rubin sips some engine oil, Harviestoun Old Engine Oil, that is; a tasty stout.

The Star is also reporting that City of Toronto board of health wants to ban food advertising to kids. As predicted, the Association of Canadian Advertisers think this is a really bad idea. But since “The Association of Canadian Advertisers Incorporated (ACA) is a national, not-for-profit association exclusively dedicated to serving the interests of companies that market and advertise their products and services in Canada,” they might be just the teensiest bit biased.

Continue reading What’s Cooking - Wednesday, February 27th »

It’s time to wax poetic about one of my favourite pastimes. There is no greater sense of excitement for a snacker than to scour the supermarket shelves for scrumptious treats; this is even more thrilling when those items are from SE Asian snack vendors or supermarkets. From cookies to candies, chocolates, nuts and pastries, to crackers and chips, or even dried fruit, vegetable and protein matter, these pre-packaged delights may bring comfort to those familiar with the flavours or have others question their inventive origins. Perhaps it’s time to take another trip to the stores lining Spadina, those that dot the insides of Market Village and Pacific Mall, or are a beehive of activity for grocery shoppers (T&T Supermarket). Take a quick look at what can be found in the aisles!

Continue reading Got the Munchies? Head for the Aisles SE Asian Style »

As any brewmaster or beer drinker can tell you, “sour” and “beer” are two words that generally don’t go together. Whether it’s a nasty funk caused by an infected yeast strain, or off-flavours in a cask ale that’s been tapped for too long, sourness is not a welcome characteristic in the flavour profile of most beers.

But that’s not to say that all sour beers are bad. There are some beer styles, in fact, where sourness isn’t just allowed, but actually expected. The most well known of these are the lambics of Belgium, beers that are brewed in a centuries-old traditional fashion where the wort (essentially a barley soup that is made at the beginning of the brewing process) is left in open fermentation tanks and exposed to wild yeasts rather that using the stable cultivated cultures used in most beer. The inoculated liquid is then transferred to oak barrels where it ferments and ages for 2 years or more, with the end result being a bracingly sour and acidic beer which is usually mixed with a younger partially fermented lambic to produce a blend called gueuze, or with various fruit flavours (cherry and raspberry being the most common) to create a tart but slightly more palatable refresher.

Further north in the Flemish region of the country, the sibling ale styles Oud Bruin (”Old Brown”) and Flanders Red also wave the sour beer flag, although the sourness is developed using controlled yeast strains and ageing techniques, making the tartness more balanced and not quite as funky or “barnyardy” as that found in lambics. Of the two, Flanders Red tends to be the more sour, with notes of dark fruits and sour berries in both the aroma and flavour, and some vinegar-like notes that can range from mild to strong. Both styles are undoubtedly an acquired taste, but once you get that taste, the Reds in particular can become quite addictive.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Grand River Ploegers Vlaams Rood »

Four
187 Bay Street, Commerce Court South, concourse level
416-368-1444

Fine dining and healthy eating have never exactly gone together. Luxurious sauces, marbled steaks and decadent desserts are a far cry from the salads without dressing and those awful “diet plates” of cottage cheese and melba toast that we tend to think of as low calorie meals. And pious health food restaurants serve up hefty portions of morality but the food at those places has never been known for being especially tasty.

Four aims to change that.

Continue reading Four Scores With Delicious, Healthy Dishes »

I thought we had finished with Best Of and Top Ten season when we rang in the new year, but over at BlogTO, they’ve been running posts all week with their best of lists for brunch, vegetarian restaurants and chocolate. There’s also reviews of Yitz’s Deli and La Merceria.

Elsewhere, Julie Reitsma of Torontoist compares white teas, Mehreen of Spotlight Toronto learns that Sunday is not a great day for sushi (weekends and Monday in general, actually, since it’s all been sitting there since Friday at least), and Carl of Metroblogging Toronto checks out Crepes A Go Go. Eric Vellend of Menumental tracks down guanciale (cured, air-dried pig’s cheek).

At Gremolata, Nancy Hinton writes about falling in and out of love with foods, Konrad Ejbich’s Pick of the Month is Pillitteri 2004 Vidal Sparkling Icewine, Malcolm Jolley re-runs a older column on turnips, and there’s a travel piece on Tampa.

James Chatto of Toronto Life previews the updated menu at Senses, which sounds absolutely astounding (note - we’ll have coverage of this next week), and David Lawrason recommends some non-wimpy cabernets to get us through the February blahs.

Wheat Sheaf Tavern
665 King Street West
416-504-9912
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and beer: $50

I’ve got a soft spot for pubs. Living and travelling in Asia for five years, I chased them like a mirage in the desert. This may seem strange to some, but after being repeatedly assaulted by lost in translation western food like sweet mayonnaise taking precedence over cheese on pizza, or sugary pork patties in cheeseburgers, finding decent pub grub holds more meaning. In many cases, sports bars, likely opened by homesick Ex-pats, usually provided that ilk. Now back in Toronto, I still appreciate pubs as reassuring beacons of comfort. So, when someone tells me the wings at the Wheat Sheaf, which are half priced from Sunday to Tuesday evenings, are some of the best in town, I’m so there.

Continue reading Wheat Sheaf Weaknesses »

Blog name?
Fear and Loathing in the Kitchen

When did you start your blog?
June, 2006

How did you come up with the name?
It had been floating around in my head for a few months as a book title, but decided to use it for my blog instead. At the time, I was battling what I thought was food addiction, so fear and loathing pretty much summed up how I was feeling about food and eating.

Does your blog have a specific focus or area of coverage?
It started out as an outlet for my frustration with trying to lose weight and my seeming addiction to food (all starchy carbs). Then I read about low-carbing and discovered I was gluten-intolerant, possibly celiac. Once I stopped eating gluten grains, all my addictive eating tendencies vanished – totally vanished (along with a host of other health issues that I’d thought were “normal”). Since then, the focus has been on low-carb/paleo and/or gluten-free eating, local eating, and the misinformation we’ve all been spoon-fed by mainstream media and, in many cases, the scientific community, about food and nutrition. Bashing the low-fat myth is not only fun but, since Gary Taubes’ book came out, it’s getting downright trendy! About time, too.

Continue reading Food Blogger Profile - Fear and Loathing in the Kitchen »

As previously and often noted here on Taste T.O. and elsewhere, 2007 was in many ways a watershed year for Toronto’s food scene. Slow, local and organic food exploded into the public conciousness; the mainstream media latched on to everything from the politics of street food to the increasing number of farmers’ markets in the city; and connections formed and strengthened between individuals and organisations from every facet of our culinary landscape.

While it would be impossible to pinpoint a single event that triggered this tsunami of activity, much of the momentum can be traced back to a pair of gatherings that took place at Hart House last winter. One was Building the Green Link, a discussion and networking session sponsored by Slow Food Toronto. The other was a unique symposium which brought together chefs, restaurant owners, sommeliers, food and drink writers, wine makers, food artisans and other culinary professionals and hobbyists alike under the title Terroir: A Sense of Place.

A success on all levels, the first Terroir conference was barely finished when the folks behind it started laying the groundwork for a follow-up. Those plans will come to fruition next week with Terroir: Celebrating Gastronomic Diversity, a sequel that promises to be even better than the original (and which Taste T.O. is proud to be partnered with as a media sponsor).

Continue reading A Second Taste of Terroir »

In the National Post today, Gina Mallet reviews Zee Grill & Oyster Bar, which she claims to be the “longest-running seafood place in the city“. And in her typical tangential fashion, it takes her two-thirds of the column until she talks about the restaurant, and the main courses don’t get a mention until the final paragraph:

The carnivore goes for a very fancy fish and chips: panko-crusted halibut with fries and remoulade sauce, with only a single blip — “What is panko?” — until he tastes the crunchy Japanese bread-crumbs. He cleans his plate with a big smile. Fish isn’t so bad after all, and think of the Omega-3s coursing through his arteries. The poached wild striped seabass is a classic, irreproachable with a dab of shiitake Dijon-lemon sauce and al dente beans and carrots. I swear I feel thinner as I eat it. I can see the food cops smiling with approval.

Continue reading In the Papers - Saturday February 23rd »

More great posts this week from Toronto food bloggers, offering up lots of “food” for thought.

To start us off, Catherine of Sugar and Ink looks at recent events and wonders if the obsession with food might be out of place compared to the fire on Queen Street West, or the resignation of Fidel Castro, but a quote from M. F. K. Fisher sets things right.

At Fear and Loathing in the Kitchen, Tracey looks at the food of other cultures, and the issues surrounding eating animals we Westerners consider to be pets.

And speaking of dubious things to put in yer bellah, Rob of Hungry in Hogtown opens up about his favourite junk foods.

Continue reading Blog-A-Log - Saturday, February 23rd »

The Bake Shop
195 Harbord Street
416-850-8039

The first time I walked into the Bake Shop I did a double take. For a brief moment I wondered if by accident I had walked into someone’s home kitchen. The set up of this quaint bakery is not typical of a shop. There is no store front, no back of house, and no divide between customer and shop keeper. Indeed, it does look like a home.

Continue reading Baked With Love at the Bake Shop »