Posted by Greg Clow in in the papers, news and media on July 5, 2008 at 5:23 pm

Pop quiz: Who owns The Beer Store?

According to the majority of the population - 60% based on a recent survey - it's the government of Ontario. But if you went with the majority, you'd be wrong.

In fact, the Beer Store is owned by Labatt, Molson and Sleeman, who are each in turn owned by a different foreign corporation. The implications of this foreign-owned virtual monopoly on Ontario's beer industry is the focus of "Big Brew", a three-day series of articles appearing in the Toronto Star today through Monday. Today's instalment features two articles by business reporter Dana Flavelle, one looking at the impact the ownership structure has on beer prices in Ontario, and the other comparing our system to Quebec, where big brand beer is not only cheaper, but can be purchased at grocery and corner stores. Pretty sobering stuff (no pun intended).

As for the usual Saturday food stuff, Corey Mintz pays a pair of visits to Perigee, and declares it to be just as stellar under recently promoted head chef Chris Brown as it was under original chef Pat Riley. And unlike many fine dining restaurants, they don't give short shrift to vegetarians:

Perigee has embraced the fiscal reality that there are plenty of cats with deep pockets who don't eat meat. Brown's five-course vegetarian tasting menu ($65) might peel back the eyes of those who've spent years dining on $10 salads in the ghetto of Toronto's vegetarian food scene.

Wafers of eggplant are stacked with caponata. Pickled avocado sauce surrounds poblano-packed tamales. A psychedelia of vibrant, razor-thin asparagus cross-sections float in a clear, white asparagus consumé, stopping me dead in my tracks. And that is even without the balancing beam of flatbread housing a quenelle of tomato tartar, soft as a lower lip.

Also in the Star:

• Gord Stimmell suggests that women are better tasters than men.
• Mark Bittman creates his own versions of some classic cocktails.
• Gale Beeby reports on a £95 hamburger (that's about $190) available at a single London location of Burger King (no, seriously!).
• Richard Ouzounian has six meals in Stratford.
• As part of the Star's "Hungry For Answers" series, Stuart Laidlaw looks into what science is doing to fight the global food crisis.

In the Globe & Mail, Chris Nuttall-Smith checks out Table 17, and happily finds it to be a big contrast to the owners' previous restaurant:

I have to admit that I pretty much loathed Sinopoli and Joyal's last venture, a big, bloated, soulless affair called Izakaya that pretended to be a Japanese gastropub.

What, then, is with Table 17's diver scallops? They're diver scallops, first of all, as opposed to the inferior, environmentally dubious trawled ones that most city chefs seem content to serve. They're perfectly seared to golden on either side, set atop a zingy citrus béchamel and scattered with fresh al dente peas and a round of salty, fatty, delicious guanciale, the Roman bacon made from pigs' cheeks. They're delicious.

Also in the Globe:

• Lucy Waverman enjoys the first cherries of the season.
• Elizabeth Renzetti reports from London on the return of wartime-style food thriftiness.
• Margo Varadi goes iceberg hunting with chef Tak Ishiwata in Newfoundland.
• Sasha Chapman is joyous about the revival of real yogurt, as well as the arrival of the season's first sweet peas.
• Lisa Carver (who I remember from way back when she used to call herself Lisa Suckdog) reviews Sex & Bacon, a book about... well, sex & bacon (and other food) by former sex worker Sarah Katherine Lewis.

In the National Post, Gina Mallet returns to Colborne Lane some 16 months after her first visit. While her fellow food critic Joanne Kates went from loving to disliking the place after a similar revisitation, Mallet has quite the opposite reaction, and even gets over her initial aversion to chef Claudio Aprile's flirtations with molecular gastronomy:

As we order, we see that while Aprile uses many molecular cooking techniques, he isn't just another wannabe Adria. He configures his plates like jigsaw puzzles, influences drawn from everywhere.

We all like the beef crudo puzzle with artichokes, piave cheese and pickled mushrooms, but I have a little trouble finding the pieces of raw tuna salad -- only the yuzu semifreddo, a citrusy icy cream stood out among the ginger, sesame, smoked roe and shiso. The beet gallimaufry, rounds of deep earthy-flavoured beets with a lovely grainy texture, gets high fives, particularly the little goat cheese beignet and a sweet beety sponge cake.

Also in the Post:

• Margaret Swaine recommends some warm weather reds.
• Bonnie Stern offers some quick recipes using pre-cooked chicken strips.
• Simon Stenekes, executive chef at Glen Abbey Golf Club, gives his top 10 tips on how to cook for a crowd.

In the Toronto Sun, Anne Marie Males heads out to Kitchener to dine at Verses, a restaurant in a former church where the food lives up to the heavenly surroundings:

Every restaurateur has a poultry dish on his or her menu, and it's often just there to accommodate unadventurous eaters who won't order much else, which is why I usually give it a wide berth. But on this night, for some reason, I find myself ordering the guinea fowl ($28) before I even realize what's coming out of my mouth.

Here, it's a pan seared supreme stuffed with scallion, Asian pear and water chestnuts, served with a reduced pan jus. It's tender and flavourful, and I find myself unexpectedly savouring every last bite. Anyone who can elevate simple poultry to this level of deliciousness knows his away around a kitchen, that's for sure.

Also in the Sun:

• Rick Vansickle rounds up some Niagara region whites that are perfect for summer sipping.