Here’s some food for thought for today…

• Are we going hysterical over listeria? People across the country are eschewing all brands of cold cuts and deli meats out of fear that they’re contaminated.
• But hey… maybe that’s a good thing, given all the nitrates in processed meat.
• It might even get some people to consider going vegetarian.
• And the listeria outbreak is just the beginning of the food paranoia and wackiness, from honey to plastics.
• Meanwhile, anyone rallying for the government to ease up on unpasteurized cheese restrictions should stop holding their breath.
• Appropriately, this is the weekend Slow Foodies take over San Fransisco to celebrate good, clean, fair food. Betcha they won’t be eating any processed meat.
• At Serious Eats, Ed Levine sends an open letter to the Slow Food Nation participants to step up and help save artisanal food purveyors across the US.
• And to end the week with something a bit more lighthearted - photos from La Tomatina, and look! children really do come from cabbage patches.

Cornerstone
537 College street
647-430-7111
Lunch for two, with all taxes, tip and beer: $42

Last Friday, being one of the hotter days this summer (finally), was a perfect day for a light lunch. I had heard from reliable sources that a new pub on College served a decent ploughman’s lunch with stilton and Branston pickle.

Not much to build a review on but as it happened the recent listeria outbreak put a temporary stop to such things as ploughman’s lunches. (As an aside, years ago one of my favourite Halifax pubs had to change the name of the familiar plate of cheese, meat, pickles and bread under threat of a student boycott of the premises. I refused to order the “ploughperson’s lunch” on the grounds that such gender neutrality is only for university students and old Marxists).

Despite the provisional withdrawal of the desired cold plate I carried on.

Continue reading New Pub Opens! Serves Pub Food! »

While there are officially still three weeks to go, most people consider Labour Day to be the last weekend of summer, and it’s definitely going out with a bang - quite literally if you’re unlucky enough to live in Parkdale, where we’ll be spending the weekend listening to low-flying jets from the stupid fucking International Air Show at the Ex.

If you’re looking to avoid the smell and taste of jet fuel exhaust, your options this weekend include the Ashkenaz Festival of Jewish Culture at Harbourfront, the Hispanic Fiesta at Mel Lastman Square, the Fiera Street Festival in Little Italy, and the monthly Pedestrian Sundays event in Kensington Market.

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.

Photo from Little Italy in Toronto website.

Continue reading T.O. Events for August 29th-September 4th »

Here’s some food for thought for today…

• Confused by the labelling on French wine? Turns out, so are the French, and some wine makers in that country want changes.
• Oil and water don’t mix, and the world’s demand for the heart-healthy oil is causing droughts in parts of Europe as more and more water is required to grow more and more olive trees.
• Despite all of the recent concerns about processed food in this country, companies continue to switch to lesser quality ingredients to save money.
• Nevermind the supposed health benefits of raw milk - let’s just legalize it based on the fact that it tastes better.
• More US citizens are worried about the safety of their food than about the war in Iraq or global warming.
• And finally, more proof that the government tends to pick on the little guy when they should be looking at large-scale food operations - Cheese Magic in Kensington market was forced to removed their unrefrigerated cheese counter or risk being shut down.

Oh, look, it’s film festival time again, when otherwise sane and logical people whip themselves into a frenzy to get a glimpse of some celebrity who could not care less about them. Good times. At NOW, Steven Davey provides your annual stalker guide with a list of restaurants where celebrities are most likely to be seen (or not, now that they’ve been warned the hoi polloi will be hanging out there too). Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll see that pouty-lipped gal with all the babies dribble salad dressing down her chin. The fun never stops during TIFF, does it? And the fun expands to Leslieville this year as Joy Bistro becomes an official TIFF “hospitality partner”. Davey gives it 3 Ns which means it’s decent but not fabulous, but who cares, because OMG, celebrities!!!!! Graham Duncan’s got info on the Grapes For Humanity event.

At Eye, Alan A. Vernon and Sean Kelly Keenan channel their inner 60s ad men, with a review of Steak. Makes you want a martini and a cigar.

More inspectors good… irradiation bad. Metro announces that the Federal government plans to hire more inspectors but also wants to allow irradiation of processed meat products, a procedure that generally allows processors to slack off in terms of sanitation requirements in their factories.

Also at Metro, Billy Munelly has a primer on Alsace wines, Barb Holland cooks with broccoli rabe (aka. rapini), and there’s a recipe from The Summertime Anytime Cookbook: Recipes from Shutters on the Beach.

When: Sunday, September 14th, 12pm - 4pm
Where: Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Avenue

Slow Food Toronto and Evergreen are hosting the second annual Picnic at Evergreen Brick Works. The picnic is a festival celebrating local food producers teaming up with award-winning chefs as they work side-by-side to offer the best locally sourced produce and artisanal products, as well as wine and beer.

Organizers need over 100 volunteers to ensure the success of this event.

They are currently looking for individuals to assist with the following responsibilities:

• Volunteer Coordinators to assist with managing other volunteers – (some event management experience required)
• Welcome hosts and registration attendants to help welcome in guests.
• Silent Auction Coordinators.
• Food and beverage personal to assist with chef stations.
• Individuals to assist with the set up and tear down of the event venue.
• Individuals with CPR and/or First Aid training to assist as emergency coordinators.
• Security attendants to assist with crowd management.
• Talent coordinators and individuals with audio visual experience.
• Traffic attendants and parking sales coordinators.

All volunteers will receive a free t-shirt as well as be able to enjoy cuisine provided by farmers and chefs during the event.

If you are interested in assisting with this event, please contact Arlene Stein (Arlene.stein@utoronto.ca) by Friday, August 29th.

Politica Resto Bar
127 Strachan Avenue
416-366-0990
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine: $100

The façade of Politica is simple and unassuming, blending into the background so well that driving by at night, it’s easy to miss it. It is only when walking through the doors that owner Nick Dominelli’s wish for good food, freshly made to share with friends in a laid back, comfortable atmosphere, comes to life.

Mediterranean was the vision, easily enough accomplished with the menu, modified to the North American style with a solid address and updated decor. Politica sits on the cusp of Liberty Village, a long way from Tuscany, but very much on Toronto’s geographical hot list. The ambiance is quite superb, in cooler tones of chocolate and cream by day, rendering into a sexy elegance by night with candles and red lighting. Fashionably contemporary, yet not disarmingly so, the mood easily swings from romance at table three to casual business at table six.

Continue reading Politica Correct »

Here’s some food for thought for today…

• Happy La Tomatila! It’s that day where they throw tomatoes at each other in Buñol, Spain.
• What exactly do you do with leftover coulis?
• Stretching the chicken. Why buying a better quality bird and getting four separate meals out of it makes more sense than buying the cheap stuff.
• Even though all the problems with our food system seem to come from large corporations, in the US the government seems to think putting pressure on small producers is the way to deal with the problem.
• They call them “pixifoods”, we call it “secret shame” - foods we loved as kids but can’t stand as grown-ups.
• And finally - maybe combining a tasty orange soda with ads that show anthropomorphized animals getting sex-ay isn’t the best marketing plan, hmmm? Yikes!

It’s Food section Wednesday in all the papers. Here’s the goods for this week…

The Toronto Star:

• Which heritage breed of pork is the tastiest? Keith Gordon compares piggies.
• Corey Mintz lives out a foodie fantasy and fills a cart with goodies from Japanese Emporium Sanko.
• Partying into the wee hours is so passé - caterers reveal that more and more people are throwing parties at midday or in the late afternoon.
• Josh Rubin reviews Brakspear Bitter.

The Toronto Sun:

• It’s peach season! Rita DeMontis offers tips and recipes.
• Elizabeth Baird has some long-weekend BBQ recipes to say good bye to summer.

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

The last week of August is always bittersweet. The smell of fall is in the air, the kids are getting ready to go back to school and Ontario produce is at its peak, with the abundance of the season available in farmers markets across the province.

For anyone who finds themselves at the Gladstone Hotel on a Wednesday night, the abundance of the season is also to be had in the ballroom café where Chef Marc Breton and his staff continue to serve up a seasonal 4-course prix fixe dinner featuring the best locally grown products that Ontario has to offer.

Continue reading Harvest Wednesdays - Have You Been Yet? »

Here’s some food for thought for today…

• Unbearably hungry - to prevent bears from venturing into people’s back yards in search of tree fruit, a team in Denver is removing fruit from backyard trees and shipping it to a nearby bear sanctuary.
• A program in New York and some other states allows farmers markets to accept food stamps, resulting in increased profits for farmers and access to fresh local produce for food stamp users.
• Vegetarian cafe Mela wins over omnivores.
• And speaking of vegetarians - a group of vegans have taken great offence to Anthony Bourdain’s comments about vegans and have started a blog where they veganize traditionally meaty recipes. The “Bloody Bourdain” faux blood pudding looks kind of cool.
• Jamie Oliver is the latest British chef to despair over the state and reputation of British food.
• And finally - the instant ramen noodle turns 50 today - just in time for all the university students heading back to school to celebrate.

As a student at the University of Waterloo in 1987, I was lucky enough to hit the legal drinking age right in the heart of Ontario’s burgeoning craft beer movement. The Brick Brewery, located just a few blocks from my dorm, had been open for a couple of years, Wellington was a fairly new arrival down the road in Guelph, and during my second year, a guy named John Sleeman came out with something called a Cream Ale. So while I drank my fair share of Black Label and Molson Golden, I also started dabbling in some of the province’s earliest microbrews.

Imported beers, however, were relatively foreign to me (no pun intended), mainly because there weren’t that many around. I recall that a few big names like Heineken and Guinness were fairly common, and a couple of American lagers were starting to become popular (albeit in versions brewed here in Canada). So whether I was drinking beer from a big brewery or a small one, it was always a Canadian one.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Bass Pale Ale »

One of the great things about the blogosphere is that anyone with access to a computer can have their say on any topic they’re interested in. The downside to this is that opinions are often voiced without anything to back them up, and bloggers generally aren’t much interested in presenting both sides of the story. A couple of recent articles about the southern Italian restaurant Terroni spawned a lot of opinions and comments (some good, most critical) about the policies that restaurant chain has in place to ensure the authenticity of the food it serves. The blogger, and readers posting comments, ranted about being refused everything from cheese to butter to water. Yet, oddly, it didn’t look as if anyone had approached the management at Terroni to find out why these policies were in place.

Since I’m always interested in the back of house intricacies of the restaurant business – the whys and wherefores of service - I sat down recently with Terroni owner Cosimo Mammoliti to find out what all the fuss was about.

Continue reading No Substitutions! - Keeping it Real at Terroni »

Here’s some food for thought for today…

• You know that phrase “smug vegetarians”? Yeah, well given the mess at Maple Leaf Foods, wouldn’t you be?
• The European Food Standards Agency rejects a number of health claims on food items. Finally, someone is cluing in to and refusing to believe the marketing hype!
• The raw milk struggle continues in California - although their fight is to get the products into stores, not whether it should be allowed at all.
• Composting is old hat for us Torontonians (well, not for those of us in high-rises *sigh*), but it’s still new and exciting throughout most of the US.
• Oh look, another reason to stay on the couch - the Iron Chef America video game. At least it’s not encouraging players to shoot each other or blow stuff up, but wouldn’t it be more fun to actually go into the kitchen and cook for real?
• Well, maybe that explains the cheap prices along Bloor Street’s sushi row… in NYC, 25% of fish sold is mislabelled.
• And finally, a college town in Iowa is replacing some of its concrete sidewalks with rubber ones due to ongoing damage from dropped beer kegs along its main bar stretch. An additional bonus comes when the drunken college kids exit those same bars falling down drunk - they just bounce right back up!

East Lynn Park Farmers Market
East Lynn Park, Danforth Avenue at Woodbine Avenue
Thursdays, 3pm – 7pm
June 5th – October 30th

Another new market that has started up this year is the East Lynn Park Farmers Market. Located in East Lynn Park, which is just south of Danforth Avenue at Woodbine, this market takes place on Thursday afternoons, offering folks in the Danforth area the opportunity to stop by after work and pick up some fresh veggies, eggs and cheese for dinner.

Continue reading The Market Basket - East Lynn Park Farmers Market »