I grew up in a restaurant family.
While other kids got to have play dates and scheduled outings with their moms and dads, I enjoyed an absentee relationship with mine; 2 of 3 being terminally addicted to their kitchens. In the years that my parents were together I barely saw my mom because she’d leave for work while I was still at pre-school and not return until 2 or 3 in the morning. After my parents separated, my mom and stepdad were too busy chasing their restaurant dreams to worry about things like family all that much, so I lived with my dad and only saw them a couple times a year.
Despite many wonderful things I learned and was inspired by during my time in their restaurants, the one thing that continues to irk me to this day is the overly critical nature that they’ve imbued in me. It was never more evident in them than on the rare occasions when we would go out to eat as a family. Rather than enjoying the brief time we had together, they would categorically pick apart whatever we were eating, regardless of whether it was a cheap trattoria or a fancy French bistro. They’d then move on to analyzing whether they could make a particular dish better, and consequently discuss how to do so.
It drove me nuts. Had I been older it probably would have driven me to drink, but at that young age all I could muster was a withering roll of the eyes. I didn’t see them often, so all I wanted was to make the most of our time, but they never let up. For years I vowed I would never be like them, determined to be happy with whatever was set before me, instead.
But, over the last few years I’ve found their somewhat unsavoury trait rearing its ugly head more and more in my demeanour.
Between working in their kitchens and stints at culinary school I’ve had plenty of time to develop an overly picky palate. In a lot of ways it’s been for the best; I’ve gained a certain level of disdain for junk, fast and pre-packaged food-like substances in favour of slow (or what I like to call real) food. On the flip side, it also makes friends and lovers (unnecessarily) nervous wrecks when feeding me, and coworkers assume I’m some sort of snob because I choose not to eat their hydrogenated oil filled crap or corn syrup laden goodies. Even though I’m relatively quiet about my beliefs and standpoints on food (preferring to internalize rather than proselytize) most people assume I’m some sort of elitist crank or cow hugging moon maiden, anyhow. That I don’t care what anyone thinks of me or my habits seems to stymie them all the more.
I often try to rationalize that I’ve only taken on the best parts of this annoying habit from my parents. Instead of critiquing things for how bad they might be, I strive to only indulge in tastes of ridiculously good food because I think it satisfies your body, soul and cravings more. Of course, that’s a mantra that’s easier said than done…
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Tags: Cowbell, Eigensinn Farm, family, Grant Van Gameren, Jonathan Gushue, Langdon Hall, Mark Cutrara, Michael Stadtlander, ramblings, Restaurants, Splendido, The Black Hoof, Victor Barry
Posted in Nonsense, Restaurants | 1 Comment »
When I was growing up I wasn’t exposed to much in the way of game meat. Aside from the occasional curried goat roti (a nod to my mother’s Caribbean heritage) or a festive Cornish rock hen (often my father’s answer to preparing holiday meals for 2) I didn’t really develop a taste for wilder fare until I was in my early 20’s.
Without a doubt, the one meat I’ve been an exceptionally slow adopter to is rabbit. This is partly because the skinned carcass of a whole rabbit too closely resembles that of the small felines that share my home. I make no bones about eating cute, fuzzy animals if they taste good, but the possibility of questionable provenance has held me back in the past.
It’s taken a few years, but I’ve gradually warmed to the idea of rabbit. It may have started during a meal at Cowbell or perhaps tasting a terrine from The Black Hoof, I’m not quite sure. While we were in Quebec City in the fall I enjoyed shredded rabbit confit linguine at Le Lapin Saute, and for our anniversary I consumed a similar dish at Splendido. I’m still not a fan of rabbit rilettes, but I think I’ve made substantial leaps and bounds (har har!) towards getting over my mental distaste for it.
Recently, I even went so far as to buy a saddle of rabbit at Fiesta Farms, a place I know I can steadfastly trust not to sell me skinned kittens. But for several days the packet of rabbit sat on the bottom shelf of the fridge, taunting me.
At first I’d considered using the Ratio app to make another batch of dough for tagliatelle, but pasta seemed an awful lot of work, and also not very far outside of my past 2 rabbit experiences. I briefly toyed with confit as well, until I realized the duck fat was frozen. (more…)
Tags: Cooking, Cowbell, Fiesta Farms, grainy mustard, Grant Van Gameren, Le Lapin Saute, Mark Cutrara, Michael Ruhlman, New Projects, Purveyors, rabbit, Recipes, Restaurants, Splendido, The Black Hoof, Victor Barry
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It’s early still, but I’m thinking of dubbing this the year of the olive (for me, anyway). Although truth be told, I think the Everyman has unofficially gone ahead and done it for me already.
My hunt for those elusive Cerignolas last week led me to The Spice Trader, but only after I’d already picked up an overpriced jar of Lucques olives (that barely resembled them) while I was out procuring supplies for New Years Eve dinner at the Leslieville Cheese Market; this was prior to Carlo Catallo contacting me with their name.
Once I arrived home and received his reply, I began a) kicking myself for not using my iPhone as nature intended (to check email while away and thus circumventing this problem) and b) wracking my brain for possible sellers of the Cerignola olive that would be open on the day before New Years Eve. Terroni and The Olive Pit (sister store of The Spice Trader) immediately sprang to mind, both of which auspiciously happened to be in my neighbourhood…
Heading back out into the cold, I wandered down the street to The Spice Trader, half convincing myself that in my sickly state I should just turn around and go back the next morning, but for whatever inane reason I pressed on. It was a good thing I did, too, because once I got there I found a holiday hours sign pasted to the door advising me that the 30th was the last day they were open until the new year. Fortuitously, they also happened to be having a 25% off sale.
Of course, once I got inside I couldn’t help browsing to see what was new and interesting in herbs and spices. In the basement of The Olive Pit, I found my precious Cerignolas, plus an intriguing bottle of pear vinegar that I decided to bring home.
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Tags: Books, Carlo Catallo, Jeffery Alford, Leslieville Cheese Market, Mangoes And Curry Leaves, Naomi Duguid, New Projects, Purveyors, Restaurants, Splendido, Terroni, The Olive Pit, The Spice Trader, Victor Barry
Posted in Books, New Projects, Purveyors, Restaurants | 1 Comment »
To commemorate 4 years spent not killing each other, the Everyman and I visited Splendido for our anniversary on Monday night.
It was a blustery night, full of fierce winds and drifting snow, but once we entered the dining room the outside world was forgotten, until the table next to us (a mother and son) began kvetching about all manner of nonsense at a fairly audible level. We were lucky that they left before we were halfway through dinner, because they certainly made quite the racket and distraction to our romantic intentions.
To keep things interesting, shortly after we arrived Conviction chef Marc Thuet and his wife sat down at the table behind us, ushered in on a cloud of stale cigarette smoke and dour French arrogance. They seemed to enjoy the food but every time I glanced over, they certainly looked miserable. Such is the life of a minor celebrity, I guess…
At our table, the lovely meal began with a proffering of bread, grissini and hummus, as well as a finger bowl of olives. The Everyman enthusiastically consumed the hummus, while I tentatively nibbled an olive.
Now normally I don’t care for olives at all, but I always make a point of trying them when they are presented to me because as I’ve learned many times before, you just never know when your tastes are bound to change. As it happens, my aversion to olives took a flying leap that evening as I greedily sucked on the briny, meaty flesh. Even the small black olives that accompanied the massive egg-shaped green ones were appealing to me and before I knew it, the tiny teaser plate of house-cured beauties was gone.
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Tags: Carlo Catallo, cerignola, Conviction, David Lee, Marc Thuet, olives, Purveyors, Restaurants, Reviews, Splendido, The Spice Trader, Victor Barry
Posted in Purveyors, Restaurants, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Over the weekend, the Everyman and I visited the annual Gourmet Food & Wine Expo here in Toronto.
This year I was fortunate enough to have free admission courtesy of my editor Sheryl, so all that stood between us and deliciousness were those pesky strips of sample tickets.
And even though every year we leave the Expo lamenting how there is way more booze than food, every year without fail we also go in with many more sample tickets than we’ll possibly need. This year, we went in with 100 tickets between the 2 of us, which I could tell was probably too much, but we were both looking forward to hitting up the fancy wine room and trying a few expensive wines like we did last year.
I’d also wanted to see Grant’s presentation on the Food Network Stage which happened to be the first of the day, so we ended up getting there just as the show opened. The unfortunate thing about arriving so early is that most booths aren’t quite ready for service yet, and since we’d decided not to have breakfast beforehand, we were absolutely famished and starving for options.
In order to push back the lightheadedness, we stopped at the first booth that was open, which in this case happened to be Sassafraz. The Everyman helped himself to a pulled meat mini sandwich, while I grabbed what they were hyping as the world’s best brownie. The sandwich was decently textured, but super bland without a generous helping of the various condiments that were available. The brownie was tasty too, but much too sweet to be considered the best of the best.
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Tags: absinthe, Acqua, Canyon Creek Chophouse, Casa Noble, cassis, Eight Wine Bar, Embrujo Flamenco, Essence Of Niagara, Fully Loaded Tea, Gourmet Food And Wine Expo, Grant Van Gameren, jelly, LCBO, Lejay Cassis, Leslieville Cheese Market, Purveyors, Restaurants, Reviews, Sassafraz, Splendido, Taboo, tea, tequila, The Black Hoof, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, vinegar, wine
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Back from Winterpeg and none the worse for wear, the Everyman and I celebrated our third (mainly blissful) year together this past week. To kick off the festivities, I presented the Everyman with a gift for indulging his inner geekdom; a digital comics subscription. Judging from how much time the Everyman has spent with me since Sunday (next to none) and how much he’s been glued to the lappy (a whole lot more) methinks he digs his present.
For his part, the Everyman hit one out of the park this year too. It only took him 3 years to catch on, but the Everyman now seems to be aware how much all women love pretty, sparkly things. He picked out a beautiful, dainty woven bracelet that sparkles in the light like it was made out of diamonds for me. Strangely enough, it was those precious gems that friends assumed when I called to gush over the fact that he’d given me jewelry. As I told my sister, don’t hold your breath, it isn’t what you’re thinking. To which she retorted, will you tell him to get on that already? The fact of the matter is people having been telling him to get on that for years now, from family, to friends, to strange old men we met at a wedding. I’m pretty much convinced that he’s oblivious to all of these comments swirling around us, and I’ve given up on expecting anything from that arena.
Sourcing the meal to mark our special occasion turned out to be harder than I remembered it being in years past. Perhaps it was because this year it fell on a Sunday, the day notoriously known as the chef’s day off. This was also compounded by the fact that Christmas had only just past, and many restaurants have taken to closing during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Every time I found a menu that intrigued me, the restaurant in question was either regularly closed on Sundays and Mondays, or had chosen to close for the holiday week. My list of restaurants to visit in the new year has now ballooned to include Splendido, Nota Bene, Scaramouche, Celestin and The Harbord Room. But the gods finally smiled on us because we managed to find someplace that was not only open, but also had food that intrigued us. And as simple as that the Everyman and I had reservations at Chez Victor in Le Hotel Germain.
I had heard few things about Chez Victor since it opened. I knew that it used to be the Rubinos Italian pet project before that went horribly sour with hotel management, but other than that I had not seen much press one way or the other. Since I used to work just down the street from it, it surprises me that I hadn’t been in until now, but there is so little time and only so much food a person can eat, even though the Everyman and I tend to try to push the boundaries of that on a regular basis.
The first thing to point out is that Chez Victor was empty. During out whole 2 hour visit there were only 4 other tables occupied. Given that it is a restaurant within a boutique hotel that is not all that surprising, but it does become a point of concern later. The room itself is beautiful and dark, the perfect backdrop for a romantic evening with a loved one. We both had a pretty good idea about what we wanted to order from the time we spent perusing the menu at home. Buuuuuut, the restaurant did something that is becoming more and more of a pet peeve of mine lately; they pulled the bait and switch. Instead of offering the menu which was the reason we’d chosen to dine there, they had a “New Years Week” menu only, which was a prix fixe of 3-5 courses which could be paired with wines. I can appreciate that chefs can get bored cooking the same thing every night and like to add variety by preparing special occasion menus, but if you’re going to advertise your regular menu at the same time, then it should be available as well.
Anyhow, the Everyman and I both opted to do the 3 course prix fixe with wine pairings, and it was a very good thing that I decided to be cautious and only order the 3 course, because by the end I was so stuffed I would not have had room for another 2 dishes if I tried. Once our meals had been ordered the Everyman found one of his pet peeves brought to the table; cold butter for the bread. It is a maddening activity to attempt to butter your bread when the substance is ice cold from the walk in. All you end up with is chunks of butter mashed into the bread and a smashed, ruined texture. It is such a simple thing to provide room temperature butter that I cannot fathom why more people don’t do it. The bread also had a faint soapy quality to it, so we stopped nibbling at it and awaited our meals.
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Tags: Celestin, Chez Victor, David Chrystian, David Lee, Nota Bene, Pascal Ribreau, Restaurants, Reviews, Scaramouche, Splendido, The Harbord Room
Posted in Restaurants, Reviews | No Comments »
