The Spice Trader
805 Queen Street West
647-430-7085

To walk into The Spice Trader is an anomaly in the nicest of ways. Part Parisian emporium, part Moroccan bazaar, it is all earthy wooden shelves, warm shades of green and a black & white art deco floor wrapped up in the scents of far off places. Its contrasts work well though, this balance of exotic yet charming, creating the kind of scene where cell-wielding power suits can shop in blessed harmony beside hemp-clad hippies.

Continue reading The Spice of Life »

Selsi Salt Bar
92 Front Street East
St. Lawrence Market, Lower Level
416-854-9088

Food and Wine magazine hails St. Lawrence Market as one of the top 25 food markets of the world, and we Torontonians honour it as such. A jewel of our fair city, bursting to the weekday seams with students and construction workers indulging in the generously piled $5 veal sandwich, it is one floor meats, cheeses and fish mongers alike, over another floor of gourmet snacks, treasures and uncommon goods. The market is more than a food institution; it is our icon.

On the east side of the lower level, beside a walkout to the street, is a kiosk well stocked in both gourmet calibre and the exceptional find. Selsi Salt Bar isn’t unique in that it carries salt, but unmatched in that salt, with all its different colours, flavours and boundless varieties, is the main product.

Continue reading Our Lady of Salt »

The start of every New Year is associated with feeble attempts to make resolutions; vows that are often guaranteed to last no longer than a glorious scoop of Solferino’s (38 Wellington Street East) pistachio gelato under the hot summer sun. Of course this fact doesn’t excuse one from accepting challenges. There should still be a willingness to step outside of one’s comfort zone, especially if it involves good eats. A New Year means new beginnings, and what better way to approach 2008 than to do so with a ready stomach. Listed below are 10 food related tests to tantalize the taste buds and open the palate. It isn’t difficult considering that there are 12 months in a year. Really, that’s less than one feat to conquer per month. By the end of the year, the budding foodie residing within will truly be able to stake claims of having been there and done that.

Continue reading Daring Food Challenges for the New Year »

Indie Food Artisan - Arvinda’s

The number one most intimidating aspect of cooking Indian food is the spicing. Although every Indian family creates their own masalas for certain dishes, these recipes are often closely-guarded secrets, and for folks who didn’t grow up blending and grinding their family’s special recipe for curry or garam masala or chai, getting the proportions just right can be overwhelming enough to make them want to toss the whole thing and head to Gerrard Street instead.

One woman was confident enough to share her masalas with the world, however, and through her cooking school and a family-run business selling her spices, Arvinda Chauhan’s name has become synonomous with Indian food.

Continue reading Cooks of the World - Spice Up Your Life »

My first dinner in Toronto happened to be Hungarian. Hungarian cuisine is one of my European favourites so when our friend at whose place we were staying recited a list of 7-10 of his customary hang-outs, all within an easy 5 minutes walk from his apartment at Bloor and Brunswick, and when I barely heard the word Hungarian (it was mostly sushi and Indian and Thai before that - not that I don’t like those, but no surprises there), I jumped at the opportunity.

We were ravenous and it wasn’t bad, but one crucial thing was definitely lacking, and it was the most important one – paprika! Real paprika doesn’t give a pale reddish tinge to classic dishes such as goulash or paprikash (both meat stews, the latter a meat stew in a thick sour cream sauce) – it makes them fiery-red and full of flavour! Can you imagine classic Italian pastas or pizzas served with just a slight stingy hint of cheese? It’s no go!

So to give vent to my foodie frustration, I bought paprika at the first supermarket I saw it – and I was amazingly lucky, because the Superfresh supermarket with the right choice of spices was just a couple of minutes walk away. I liked the Red Club paprika on sight and when I opened it at home, there was the divine aroma that I remembered only paprika from Hungary used to have. Actually, in Hungary they use at least 8 types of paprika and this was the well-recognizable ‘edesnemes’ one.

Continue reading Paprika Meets Chipotle »

One fine summer’s afternoon, several hours before an impending dinner party, I found myself looking for a spot of green to fill an unusually bare corner of my otherwise cluttered apartment. As it happened, a rather large and fragrant rosemary shrub caught my eye. Firmly affixed in its new corner home, my attention reverted back from my gardening duties to the task of hastily throwing together a four course menu for 10. All was going well; in as much as whipping up 40 plates in a little over an hour can go (think Iron Chef with a much smaller kitchen!) Until, that is, it came time to prepare my dessert. These days, in the flurry of all things fusion, a raspberry poached pear with vanilla bean ice cream just seemed to lack that je ne sais quoi. Fortunately, serendipity and I have a healthy and ongoing relationship. Often in these last minute frantic cook-a-thons I find needed inspiration in my immediate surroundings. Thus was born, my now well loved standby, rosemary infused raspberry poached pears.

Like many pastry chefs, I take pride in coming up with new and often odd flavour combinations in my desserts. They are, as are their savoury counterparts, wholly dependant on what is ready available and market fresh. That said, herbs are a very effective means of spicing up most desserts all year round (and yes, pun fully intended).

Using herbs in desserts does require some thought. Rosemary, for example, has a pungent flavour that, understandably, doesn’t always lend itself well to sweet treats. To begin with, you must decide whether your herbs will compliment or contrast the central flavours of the dish. That done, you must then decide if are to play a major role, or simply add a subtle layer of flavour.

Ultimately, there is no all encompassing guide to follow. Like many fusion foods, herb infused desserts are often as much about trial and error as they are about thought out combinations. Some matches just work, and others, well, I think we’ve all tasted something at sometime that have sent us running to find our “happy place.”

Trying out new dishes should have a little uncertainly to it. After all, that’s what really makes cooking fun. Throw some of those leftover herbs into your next dessert. You might just find that your own new classic is closer than you think.