Posted by Sheryl Kirby in in the papers, news and media on February 9, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Greg is Montreal on a beer geek guy's weekend, leaving me at home to do his work. Nice huh? ;)
At the Toronto Star this week, Amy Pataki forgoes her regular review and instead offers an interesting piece on the politics of how to get a great table. Gordon Stimmell recommends some interesting red wines for Valentine's Day, and it looks like Mark Bittman's wire service pieces are a regular now, with a recipe for French walnut tart as an alternative to pecan pie.
In the Ideas section of the Star, Tanya Talaga and Laurie Monsebraaten look at the war on poverty and a discussion paper by Toronto's Medical Officer of Health Dr. David McKeown called The State of Toronto's Food.
At the National Post, Bonnie Stern has a couple of recipes that two people can make together without killing each other. Clearly Bonnie Stern has never tried to work in my tiny kitchen with my non-kitchen friendly husband. And Gina Mallet braves the Winterlicious prix fixes crowds, potentially crap service, and an automatically included tip to find that Pangaea is one of the few places offering up a decent meal during this semi-annual event.
Also in the Post, Dave McGinn interviews chocolatier Bernard Callebaut, Jason Chow enjoys some Green Bass from T&T supermarket and Patricia Noonan reports on the Almost Famous Regional Chef competition that took place at George Brown College last weekend.
Joanne Kates of The Globe and Mail turns ski-bunny for the weekend with reviews of three different restaurants in the Collingwood ski resort area. Lucy Waverman suggests getting some Valentine's lovin' by lacing your cooking with chocolate and chilis.
In the Toronto section, Sasha Chapman skates around the issue of ethical fish purchasing. This is a subscriber-only piece, but the jist of it is, don't buy skate, it's almost extinct! If you're concerned about purchasing over-fished species, check out Seafood Watch for a list of good, okay, and bad choices. Meanwhile Mark Schatzker travels to Tokyo for some culinary tourism.
Also in the Globe, Jennifer Wells reports on the "loss of romance" at Starbucks.
The communiqué was meant to convey the hallmarks of the Starbucks ethos. Intimacy. Authenticity. A sense of belonging. Starbucks, after all, had famously created the "Third Place" in the psyche of the consumer. One has one's home, and one's place of work. Starbucks was designed to be a home away from home, the Third Place, redolent with the aroma of a latte, the hiss and steam of a freshly tapped espresso, a big comfy chair for a chilly afternoon's embrace.
Yeah... no. Home away from home? Really? How sad.
Meanwhile for those who consider their own home to be home, the US recession means a lot more home-cooking, and a lot more leftovers. Which is good news for for Tupperware ladies around the world.
And finally, another subscriber-only article, Evan Solomon interviews chef Robert Irvine about life, philosophy and world hunger.
