Christmas came early to the Thompson Landry Cooperage Gallery in the Distillery District with a holiday themed three-course meal by Celebrity Chef Rob Rossi, Top Chef Canada, Season One finalist, restaurateur and Chef of Bestellen.
Michelle Mawby, interior design expert on The Marilyn Denis Show, and founder of Lucid Interior Design Inc., furnished the Christmas themed decor.
Chef Rossi used Oikos Greek Yogurt to add a new twist to a traditional holiday meal.
Curried Lentil and Yogurt Soup
Harissa and Yogurt, Marinated "Yorkshire Valley Farms" Organic Chicken, Spiced Sweet Potato Mash
Cider Poached Pears, Candied Walnuts & Yogurt
As you can see, Oikos Greek Yogurt can be quite a versatile cooking ingredient, not to mention a tasty and nutritious snack.
We went to MoRoCo Chocolat in Yorkville for the Night of Delight soirée by Krups and All-Clad. Amid the bubbly, chocolate fountains, macarons and s'mores, we got to check out All-Clad's latest cookware and the highly engineered marvels from Krups.
These two luxurious brands don't just look good, they are also technologically advanced instruments that cater to a more discerning clientele. We tried some coffee from the Krups Barista EA9000, which won't be out until 2013. It's equipped with its own burr grinder and digital controls. It's the only fully automatic one-touch-cappuccino machine with automatic rinsing. Pretty fancy. The video below better illustrates the point:
All-Clad specializes in bonding dissimilar metals to take advantage of various thermal and magnetic properties to create its advanced cookware. Depending on which line of cookware you choose, they either have aluminum, copper, or stainless steel cores in up to five layers. Some even have enhanced magnetic outside layers for induction cooking.
Piola is an Italian pizzeria chain established in 1986 in Treviso, Italy, with branches the world over.
Their menu features astipasti, pizzas, pastas, and Italian desserts. We really enjoyed their Cinghiale & Cipolle pizza, featuring brie and braised wild boar. The boar was sweet, juicy and gamey.
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On Sunday, August 19, at 3PM, Piola will be holding a gnocchi eating contest with the 1st prize being the Birra Morreti Vintage 63 Vespa shown below. Hosted by professional food eater, Furious Pete. Piola will be offering food & drink specials, and they’ll be prizes awarded to audience members as well.
From August 1st-12th, Mr. Greenjeans will celebrate its 32nd anniversary with a special menu of old school classics at 1980s prices! As an added promo, diners who come in from August 1-12th dressed as their favourite 1980s icon will receive an appetizer or a dessert gratis with the purchase of a lunch or dinner main. Mr. Greenjeans opened on May 10, 1980 at the Eaton Centre and has since served 15 million guests at the same location. Amazing!
Enjoy an “Old Faithful” – 8oz USDA chuck burger served up 80s style with a basket of their signature Buffalo chips for only $4.95. Add a Caesar salad for a mere $0.99! Creamy milk shakes are only $2.95, and the “Here Comes the Fudge” sundae, topped with fudge chunks, mounds of chocolate ice cream, and whipped cream is only $3.95.
I just realized that I've been going to Mr. Greenjeans for the better part of the last two decades. With all the constant changes in the food landscape, and even on Yonge Street and the Eaton Centre itself, sometimes an old standby can be quite comforting indeed.
Yorkville is known for its poshness, with celebrity studded dinners at Sassafraz or people watching at Remy’s patio. Before the Lamborghinis and Ferraris line Cumberland St. for happy hour, are there any workaday eats and treats for the locals? We set out to find out. Here’s a handful of eats and treats to occupy those summer lunchtime hours.
Caffe di Portici
At the corner of Scollard and Yonge, across from the Masonic Temple now MTV, Caffe di Portici’s patio and its adjacent park gives a little extra sense of space so rare downtown. Yes, I do realize the area was once called Uptown, but sprawl keeps moving these lines up.
We started with an Insalata di Pasta -- tri-colour fusilli, artichoke, grilled vegetables, red onion, balsamic vinaigrette. It tasted really fresh and healthy, a pleasant surprise for a starter the we almost considered an afterthought.
The real reason we’re here is the scrumptious pizza. They have an excellent crust at Caffe di Portici. Not quite Neapolitan, in that it’s not really elastic, but it has excellent firmness and chewiness. What I do love about their pizza the most is the option to add 2 eggs. Having runny yolks from eggs baked into your toppings is amazing. And the rest of the toppings are kind’a unique too.
We had the Chorizo Pizza -- chorizo, green onions, potatoes, cheddar on tomato sauce + of course 2 eggs. I love potatoes on my pizza. These weren’t your common scalloped potatoes, but nicely seasoned soft chunks. And the chorizo tasted pretty authentic too, with great seasoning and a good bite.
Yoco Froyo
Yet another Frozen Yogurt place you may ask? Well yeah! The quality of froyo at Yoco doesn’t even approach Menchie’s, but location, location, location. If you happen to be chillin’ in the park right by former mayor Barbara Hall’s giant $250,000 rock, you’d be more inclined to cross the street than ride the 2 or 3 subway stops to the Annex.
Yoco has kind of an Asian twist, as you can also order smoothies and bubble tea. There’s a lot of fruity yogurt flavours as well, and even a green tea flavour. My advice is stick to the fruity flavours, avoid the normal flavours like chocolate or cappuccino as the base yogurt has a more sour note than typical froyo. The mango and green apple flavours were decent though.
Maybe they should’ve spent less money on the fancy Sony LEDs above the yogurt dispensers and a little more on the ingredients.
Metropolis Bake Shop
The oddly named “bake shop” is actually a Korean lunch spot where you can get your filling yet healthy meal on the cheap. For $7 you can get bibimbap -- rice, glass noodles, beef, carrots, bean sprouts, mushrooms, spinach and a a fried egg + a side soup and kimchi. For the same price you can get a hot soup instead.
The photos below are of pork bone soup, and a spicy beef soup. The soups come with lots of veggies + a bowl of steamed rice and some sides that randomly change from kimchi, to pickled potatoes, to tofu. The pork bone soup actually has tons of meat in it if you’re not squeamish about breaking a pig’s spine apart and picking in between the joints. An excellent flu season meal. The soups are also very hot as they are served in the pot they’re cooked in and vigorously boil for minutes after they arrive at your table.
Metropolis is in the Cumberland Terrace, on the ground floor by the Bay Street entrance. It’s a relatively quiet spot right beside high glass windows that let a lot of light in from Cumberland St.
Crème Brasserie
Crème is tucked away in the Renaissance Courtyard, a little alley joining Cumberland St. and Yorkville Ave., right beside the old Four Seasons hotel. It has a great secluded patio that is bright and airy yet shielded from direct sunlight most of the time.
We had a Cappellini with a more than ample amount of fresh mussels, lobster, and calamari. We also had the best salmon dish. It had a very decadently creamy and rich sauce with a lot of buttery and woodsy mushroom taste. The salmon was stuffed with spinach and sat on a bed of perfectly cooked potatoes and asparagus, topped with a juicy slice of tomato. That was a yummy weekday lunch!
To end our Yorkville lunch adventures we have some authentic gelato.
.Gelato Simply Italian
I don’t know if I want to call it Simply Italian, .Gelato, or just that gelato place. Either way, they have some of the best gelato I’ve ever tasted. Certainly as good as anything I've had in Florence, though there are specific spots in Toronto that do particular flavours better than others. It’s located in this little nondescript spot under a parking structure beside Hemingway’s that used to be a sandwich shop. Looking at the pictures you can only imagine how good everything tastes. I order with my eyes coz all the flavours are in Italian. I mean I have a rough idea of what things are, but since you can see chunks of the fresh ingredients, visuals are a pretty safe guide.
My favourite flavour thus far is Bruttomabuono, which is essentially Ferrero Rocher in gelato form, with tons of crunchy hazelnuts and globs of chocolate hazelnut ribbons in a chocolate base. The vanilla strawberry is also a good bet with loads of fresh strawberries. The hazelnut gelato is also really good. One time they had a balsamic flavoured gelato which was tasty but excessively sweet. There are also heavier frozen custards and lighter sorbets. A good and bad thing about this place is that the flavours always change. It’s good in that you can try different things, it’s bad in that the next time you drop by for something you love, it might not be there any more.
So that’s a brief sampling of Yorkville food in daytime. A little French, a little Korean, a little Italian. It’s a great neighborhood to walk around, with an eclectic mix of shops and places to eat.
Last night we checked out Trevor Kitchen and Bar. Situated along a strip of restaurants on Wellington beside the iconic flatiron building, with its basement location, Trevor might be easy to miss. One could easily walk past it not knowing that it's a worthwhile destination for a foie gras rich meal or a romantic evening.
Trevor offers free corkage with a limit of two 750 ml bottles per table on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We were tempted to bring a bottle to try it out, though not knowing what food we were going to pair it with, we opted to just have a glass of Stoneburn 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, and a glass of Domaine Brusset 2010 "laurent b." côtes du rhône.
We started off with a Kobe Carpaccio – with shrimp and bacon salad, pork crackling and dried black olives; and a Macaroni and Asiago cheese with seared foie gras.
There’s a separate section on the menu dedicated to foie gras appetizers. There’s even an option to add seared foie gras to an entrée for $15.
The Carpaccio was thinly sliced and had a nice hint of olive oil. The mild sweetness and cool taste of the shrimp and bacon salad contrasted deliciously with the salty crunch of the dried olives. The pork crackling added another level of texture and made the dish look more interesting, though as a Filipino well acquainted with Chicharon, it felt lacking in seasoning.
The mac & cheese with foie gras was out of this world! The rich creaminess of the macaroni with a golden cheesy crust alone would’ve been wonderful, but add to that a decadent hunk of seared foie gras that partially dissolved and mixed into the macaroni once you’ve started eating it, plus a swig of red wine, and you can just feel all the pleasure centres in your brain light up.
For mains we had the Buttermilk Fried Chicken with creamed corn & rapini in honey bourbon dressing and the Venison Rib Chop with red cabbage, spring vegetables & cloudberry jus.
The fried chicken tasted good with the creamed corn dressing with the sweetness of the honey bourbon, though I found the batter a tad salty. The venison was mildly gamey and a welcome change from eating beef, though the chef-recommended medium rare kind of looked medium if not medium well, with not much pink to find. That was a fairly substantial piece of red meat.
Another standout however was our chosen side: Truffled Goat Cheese Poutine! Not even a foot away from your nose and you are already fully immersed in the deep earthy aroma of truffles. That olfactory treat was then followed by the rich salty tang of goat cheese, making for one of the best side dishes out there.
Incidentally, the last time I was at this address, a long long time ago, the space was occupied by Bouchon, one of the only places save for Mr. Tasty Fries and Harvey’s where you could get a Poutine in Toronto. Bouchon served up what was pretty exotic back then… Poutine with foie gras!
Dessert was Chocolate & Peanut butter fondant with warm chocolate mousse & chocolate textures. Mmmm… peanut butter + chocolate, lots of chocolate. The textures, though they may not be, tasted like an assortment of chocolate-covered corn flakes and bits or coffee crisp. Sweet, crunchy and yummy.
Overall Trevor was good, with a slight dip in the mains. The apps and sides were unique and very tasty. The service was friendly and attentive.
Introducing one of the latest brands of wines to hit the LCBO, G. Marquis.
G. Marquis is all VQA, produced at the Niagara Stone Road vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The brand offers 2 lines, the Red Line and the Silver Line.
The Silver Line is 100% Ontario VQA, made from hand-harvested grapes and includes premium Icewines and single vineyard vintages.
The Red Line offers 100% Ontario VQA wines that are unoaked, and present a soft, fruit-forward profile.
I tried the 2009 Merlot with some of Stacey’s awesome lasagna! I must say the VQA really comes out. It was smooth and fruity, blanketing my tongue with mellow richness. It definitely goes well with hearty dishes laden with cheese and tomato sauce. Not quite as rich as a Cab, but substantial enough to go well with a good steak.
If you want to learn about fun things to do in Toronto, see Toronto Smarts. Learn about places to visit in Toronto, get concert information and sports info like when the Blue Jays play the Red Sox.
On an imported slab of heat-retention stone from Australia, you cook your own meal. Looks like fun! However it might be more about the experience than anything else - we heard some not-so-good reviews from a friend recently. We'll try anything once though!
¤Kultura (King East - Furniture District) Heard a lot about Roger Mooking's restaurants - think we're more obsessed with going there because of the fact that he used to be in Bass is Base!
¤ Cafe Gilead (King East - Furniture District) Jamie Kennedy's stuff is usually pretty good so we want to try it. ¤ Guu (Church St - The Gaybourhood) This place is trendy, so some people go there for that reason alone, but we'd be heading there to see what "Japanese tapas" is all about.
Follow a couple of foodies around the city as they discover the best (and worst) of what Toronto's culinary scene has to offer.
You can visit this site for some more info on the bloggers: http://www.tastingtoronto.ca/2009/06/so-who-is-behind-tasting-toronto.html
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