Keriwa Café - Aboriginal, Local, Seasonal

We went to Keriwa Café to experience what I can only describe as aboriginal haute cuisine. We were pleasantly surprised with how delicious an experience it was, on par with some of the best restaurants in town.

The first thing you notice when you enter Keriwa Café is that it's one relatively small room with a full view of the bustling kitchen directly across from you, with a small bar on the far left. It's definitely not white linen, and if you just accidentally stumbled upon it you wouldn't know that it was a fine dining establishment. That subtlety, along with some discreet aboriginal decor and birch bark on a part of the wall, made it feel very inviting and very accessible.

The wait staff was somewhat informal, but very friendly and quite knowledgeable about the dishes and the ingredients that went into them.



I don't know if it was the fedora'd pumpkin on the bar or the word maple that enticed me to order a Maple Old Fashioned ( bourbon, maple, black walnut bitters ). Despite it falling into our "old man drink" classification ( i.e. Stacey won't drink it ),  I thought that in keeping with our local theme for the night, I should give it a shot. It was good for what it was, but as with a Manhattan and other whisky based cocktails, its particular notes of musty cigar smoke filled bookshelf lined piano bar, causes one to see everything in sepia and want to shuck oysters and smoke Montecristos, while a tuxedoed waiter whips up a table-side Caesar salad... but I digress.

While waiting for our appetizer we nibbled on some good bread with creamy organic butter and a drizzle of salt... and some strangely bright orange coloured and very yummy spread that turned out to be seasoned, whipped Berkshire pork fat.

We started with a succulent and generously portioned Confit Pork Belly app. That was a ridiculously good appetizer if your definition of appetizer is something that makes your mouth water. The tender meat fell apart in my mouth whilst oozing all that salty fatty goodness. A little Asian fusion going on here with the cilantro balanced the richness of the pork nicely. The roasted red pepper and spiced popcorn added other layers of texture.


Confit Pork Belly, peach, red pepper, fennel, creme fraiche


For mains, we had the Bison Skirt Steak and the Lamb Shoulder. The bison looked incredible festive with tender, mildly gamey meat topped with bullberries, and nuts. The tart bitterness of the bulberries and and the crunchy nuts complimented the meat well and provided a good textural contrast to the decadent and juicy bison ravioli underneath. The actual fresh pasta wasn't so thrilling, but the filling and everything else more than made up for it.


Bison skirt steak, Bullberry, Almond, Kale, parsley, pemmican


My first thought upon seeing the lamb shoulder was "that's kind'a small," but as it turns out big taste can come from small packages. Often I mill around the periphery of dishes and taste its layers in isolation before going for that synergistic bite of everything together. I started with the smeared cauliflower purée and was pleasantly bewildered at how something can taste so light and rich at the same time, airy and creamy, a neutral yet powerful canvass. But even more delightful was the sauce on one side of the lamb, which seemed like a less viscous but jacked-up, fat-infused refrito.

The lamb was so tender that it easily fell apart with the slightest prodding and was so densely packed with flavour and wholesomeness that it's apparent small size seemed like an optical illusion.


Lamb Shoulder, Cauliflower, broccoli, white bean, nasturtium


Often we find that the dessert menus at restaurants are thematically disconnected from the rest of the food, much like an afterthought rather than an integrated part of the dining expereience. Keriwa's desserts are a very welcome exception, keeping up with the local motif, infused with flavours and textures that on a whole can be considered very Canadian.

I usually grab a cappuccino with desert, but since part of our dessert include a cheeseboard, I chose to go with some port this time around. I'm glad I did. The very delicious Saskatoon & Sea Buckthorn Semifreddo with nut brittle was absolutely transformed and infinitely better with port.


Saskatoon & Sea Buckthorn Semifreddo (cilantro, nasturtium)


Dessert number 2 was a trio of refreshing sorbet quenelles: Peach Buttermilk, Wild Grape, and Crab Apple, in that order with our favourite first.


Sorbet - (clockwise from left) Crab Apple, Peach Buttermilk, and Wild Grape



Cheeseboard - Spiced nuts, Saskatoon Jelly, Red Fife Cracker


To cap things off, we had a cheeseboard where we could choose to have 2 of 4 available cheeses. Our first cheese was "14 Arpents," a nutty tasting,  soft paste cow milk cheese from Quebec. Our second choice also from Quebec, was "Grey Owl,"  a goat's milk cheese with an ash covered rind. It was characterized by a white, firm, dense paste that crumbles in your mouth, with a sharp taste.

The cheeses where heavenly together with the spiced nuts, Saskatoon jelly and apple jam, washed down with some port. Cheese, particularly the more pungent and flavourful ones, just doesn't taste the same without an accompanying wine to release all those locked-in nuanced notes.



Keriwa Café totally blew us away with the calibre of its cuisine. My only beef with the place was that it was incredibly smokey and you'd totally perish if you happened to be wearing contact lenses. The woodsmoke smell totally gets into everything, and you end up smelling like a campfire, which if you want to be authentic may appeal to some. Ah the small price to pay to for such good food.

Sadly, the day we were there was one of the last ones for this restaurant's à la carte menu. Keriwa will be serving tasting menus on selected evenings of the month, and become a private dining and special events centre. You can contact the restaurant to be put on a list for these special tasting events.


1690 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M6R 1B3
(416) 533-2552 ‎
keriwacafe.ca


 Posted by: Mark Rodas

The End of a Season: Avenue and Studio Café

The new Four Seasons Toronto just opened, the 90th in the chain's 51 year history. It features an upscale restaurant by Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud. The new hotel is quite a necessary reboot of the old location just down the street, but as with all things shiny and new, sometimes we reflect upon what came before it. Often in nostalgic haze, we long for the comfort and coziness of things that aren't up to more exacting current standards, but at the same time don't feel as precise nor as rushed. Some people still like vinyl...

AVENUE

As I was dining at Avenue in the Four Seasons hotel,  I felt a pining for a past that had not yet occurred. During the course of my meal, I was informed that both of the two remaining restaurants in the hotel, Avenue and Studio Café, would serve their final meals that Sunday, the 25th of March. The other restaurant, Truffles, one of the more popular dining establishments of its time and scene of many a kiboshed Summer and Winterlicious reservation, had closed a long time ago.

To be seated in a dated hotel restaurant and be handed a newspaper by the attentive but unhurried staff while I take time to look out the window as I contemplate what dishes to explore is a rare treat in a bustling metropolis like Toronto. I'd imagine that as I tasted each item in my private little space that I'd be transported into the past, both my own and extrapolated other selves, à la Proust eating his madeleine. Except that Proust was probably sickly, in cramped quarters, and not very much enjoying his day off.


Elderflower Blossom

I'm not quite certain how I ended up ordering the Elderflower Blossom, a decidedly unmanly drink. Was it all the times I went to Ikea for Swedish meatballs, where I found Elderflower drinks in various forms, leading my subconscious to associate Northern European culinary traditions with 80s 4-star hotel dining? As a kid I had imagined the cool grown-ups smoking menthol cigarettes, flying Pan-Am to their yachting getaways, drinking classic Martinis of Tanqueray with a splash of vermouth and a couple of olives, and of course eating fondue, head cheese, and gravlax. Was it that not too long ago I was served an Elderflower cocktail in Cirque du Soleil's VIP tent, and the saliency of that memory guided my finger down the drink menu?

More likely it was my penchant for complicated highly engineered things that led me to that decision. I mean, on a scale of sublime complexity it topped the list in front of me, with its sake, Grey Goose, Elderflower, and white cranberry. A close runner-up was the Lychee Martini, with Grey Goose, lychee juice, and pitted lychees. But since I grew up on lychees, the novelty of this drink ran thin with me.

There were other Martinis, or colloquially Martinis, that I could never really mention without doing a mental pause. I'm somewhat of a purist in that I like my Martini (there is only one kind) in the aforementioned classic variant, using only gin, not vodka, and most importantly stirred, not shaken, contra to how Bond would have us believe it more sophisticated.


Navy bean and chorizo soup

The soup of the day was navy bean and chorizo. Light and healthy, it brought back memories of Christmases past, and of a far more decadent and likely heart-stoppping dish. Chorizo de Bilbao was something I would only see around the holidays when my grandmother would make Callos, a traditional Filipino/Spanish dish of tripe and bovine knuckles with chorizo and garbanzos stewed in a rich tomato base, eaten with garlic-buttered toasted baguettes and slices of aged Edam cheese.



Sweet chili tuna tartare - avocado, ponzu dressing

After my soup I had a small serving of the tuna tartare. Okay maybe I should retract that earlier lychee statement, not all things oriental fall flat with me. I could never get tired of raw tuna. I suppose a proper hotel would not only serve haute continental cuisine but reach out into fusion i.e. East-meets-West. But I guess even if they did add ponzu to it, tartare is hardly a Japanese word. The word "tartare" is whimsically thought to have been inspired by the Tartar or Tatar people of Central Asia as they apparently ate raw chopped meat (no tuna in the steppes). So I guess it is fusion since it looks like beef tartare, only with ponzu... and no raw egg, anyway.


Steak and salad - romaine hearts, fried onions, Ontario blue cheese dressing

The steak was definitely retro: pale looking greens, thin fried onions, and the practice of cutting into a piece of meat that has not adequately rested, whilst serving it on a white dish dusted with paprika, which was promptly washed away by a stream of juices, depriving the huge medium-rare steak of any prospect of succulence.


Vanilla Corn Pudding - maple brown butter caramel, goat cheese ice cream

Dessert was a rich and gamey affair rather than they typical parade of sweetness. The vanilla corn pudding felt like a Southern and tropical hybrid, with the mellow hint of Madagascar vanilla infusing its velvety base. The accompanying goat cheese ice cream was a little tart, a little refreshing, and lots of tasty punch.

Studio Café 

Studio Café was a little less less formal than Avenue, and offered prix fixe menus for lunch and dinner. Lunch was priced at $19.61in honour of the Four Season's founding year. We had the 3-course "Yorkville Prix Fixe" $49 dinner menu which included 2 glasses of wine each.

The food was good, and I shall list what we had below. But rather than dwell on the gustatory characteristics of the cuisine in this other Four Seasons restaurant (I'm pretty sure I've talked enough about food above) I shall expound on why for me at least this place will be sorely missed.

I came of age in the late 80s with all the Keith Haring art, Fido Dido, Duran Duran, Max Headroom et. al. Stepping into Studio Café was like a blast from the past, with all the colourful glasswork, the spartan yet modern furnishing, and the feeling of being in the space where the establishment once lunched. 

That decade was also the zenith of plating dishes as if they were wall art, with geometric shapes and streaks of colour. The decadence of the those years past immortalized by the infamous characters of Gordon Gekko and Patrick Bateman still lingered in that quiet, vibrant, and contemplative space. 

Ironically, the same reasons why I enjoyed my time at the two restaurants above are the very same reasons that they no longer exist. They were relics that were stylistically and economically untenable. Most people would think them subpar, but some will surely miss them. Why is Instagram so popular and emotive? -- not because of fidelity and quality, but because of associations of memory and abstractions of the soul.




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Our meal consisted of:

Beef tartare - poppy seed brioche, truffled frisée salad
Olive oil poached sablefish - edamame, meyer lemon, pea greens, miso vinaigrette

Seared sea scallops - black trumpet mushrooms, cauliflower purée, hazelnuts, brown butter
Thyme roasted duck breast - rutabaga and bacon, mustard greens, rhubarb vanilla compote

Black forest cake - brandied cherries
Carrot cake cheesecake - carrot confit





Posted by: Mark Rodas

Expand your home cooking repertoire: Get to know quinoa!

I have to be honest: Before receiving 500 Best Quinoa Recipes to review, I had never used quinoa in my home cooking. But I had heard a lot about it, and my interest was piqued, so the timing to try out a few recipes was perfect.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) was first cultivated by the Incas. It's considered a seed, but is more specifically classified as a "pseudocereal" meaning that, while it is not technically a grass (true cereals are grasses), it can be used in the same way cereals are. It can be bought in various forms, including seeds, flakes, flour and pasta. While I've never had them before, you can eat the leaves of the quinoa plant - apparently they are good in a salad. Quinoa is closely related to spinach, chard and beets. This mighty plant yields a near-perfect balance of protein, carbohydrates and dietary fibre - for this reason, it is important to incorporate quinoa into vegetarian diets. It's also gluten-free - Celiacs, rejoice!

I chose two recipes to try, starting with a stew made mainly of green olives, shredded chicken, tomatoes, and chickpeas. The stew has officially become a regular part of our meal repertoire - I have already made it twice and plan to make it often, especially as winter approaches. We absolutely adore it - it is healthy, hearty and flavourful. It uses dried cilantro and a number of other aromatics along with reduced-sodium broth (I use less broth and add some water because it is already such a flavourful dish and I'm trying to keep it as healthy as possible). While the quinoa blends nicely into a stew, the green olives are my favourite part - despite the Mediterranean influences in the dish, black olives just wouldn't taste right. I used big plump green ones that still had their pits. And the best part: It's easy to transport leftovers to work for lunch!



The next recipe we tried was a salad with a horseradish dressing, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas and seared skirt steak. Condo living isn't the most conducive to searing a nice steak... This whole place turns smokey! But it was worth opening all the windows and the door to try this out. The colours just popped. I think I still need to perfect the horseradish dressing though - I found it a bit strong (didn't help that the only horseradish I came across was extra hot). The stew is still my favourite though, and. I think the salad is more a "once-in-a-while" recipe.

There are so many other items to try - I've only made two out of 500 recipes! There are a few breakfast ones I want to attempt. Later this week I'll be trying out a third recipe: crustless quiches starring quinoa and roasted red peppers. Yum!

I think every home cook should try expanding his/her at-home cooking repertoire, especially to find dishes that are healthy and tasty. For me it was all about getting comfortable with quinoa seeds. Next I may move onto using flour or flakes. Or I may try different methods of preparing it, like toasting it rather than using the pasta method to cook it. These recipes really make quinoa the star of the show. It's a good place to start and to get you comfortable with incorporating quinoa into your diet.

Yours in food,
-Stacey

Spirit of the Balkans at Rakia Bar

Last week we had a rakia tasting at Rakia Bar in Leslieville. Dušan Varga the bar's proprietor, started with a Rakia Bar in Belgrade, Serbia, and has now brought this relaxed Balkan fruit brandy experience to Toronto.


( David Gulyas, with a perfect bartender moustache )

The bar is decorated with bright upholstery, contrasting nicely with grey walls and a mural of that famous Serbian, Nikola Tesla. They even use Tesla inspired old-school long filament bulbs for lighting.





We had a "flight" or sampler of rakia served in special glassware that encouraged sipping and discouraged shooting. The rakias were accompanied by mezes or appetizers that complemented the unique flavour profiles of each sample of spirit.



First of the six rakias we tried was quince. It had quite the bite like grappa, with the subtle flavour of quince. We were told that it took 25 kg of quince to extract a litre of spirit and that it's tricky to distil because it burns easily. This was paired with quince jam sandwiched between two slices of Kashkaval (medium aged sheep's milk cheese).



Pear rakia was next, made from American pears from Oregon. It must've been some gustatory-olfactory illusion, but I swear I could feel that gritty pear texture in my mouth, even though I knew it was perfectly clear and 80 proof pure. Unlike the quince that used traditional batch distillation, the pear rakia used a continuous distillation process where a specific fraction of the volatile compounds is continuously separated. The pear rakia was paired with a prosciutto wrap with walnuts and Bulgarian feta.



Apricot rakia was next paired with dried apricot, suckling pig, mayo, chives, and pork crackling. The apricot rakia goes particularly well with sweet fruits.



The Plum rakia was the first of two we tried that were oaked. That definitely gave a single malt like character that's sure to confuse your Scotch loving friends. The plum rakia was my favourite for its more complex flavour and mouth feel. This was paired with a duck-neck sausage with a blackberry and cheese.



The next oaked rakia was juniper. This rakia was double distilled, first from plums and second with juniper. It's like an ephemeral whisky-gin hybrid. The juniper rakia was paired with a delightful sour cherry stuffed with a pralined chocolate raisin.



The last rakia on our tasting flight was honey, made with acacia honey in plum brandy. Often called the ice wine of rakia, this was Stacey's favourite. It's a great dessert drink and goes well with fruit preserves. We also felt that this was one of the more delightfully dangerous rakias since it went down really smoothly without you feeling that 38% alcohol in it. A honey rakia will hopefully be available at the LCBO soon.



We had the honey rakia with a preserved kiwi topped with an amazing piece of candied ginger.



We also tried a few cocktails: one with sour cherry, one with egg whites and ginger, and a mojito. All rakia based and all very very good.



To round out the evening, we were entertained by the Balkan-gypsy-party-punk "Lemon Bucket Orkestra."






Rakia Bar. 
1402B Queen St. E. (near Greenwood). 
11 a.m.-2 a.m. every day except Monday, 5:30 p.m.-2 a.m.
416-778-8800


Posted by: Mark Rodas

An Sibin Pub

A new Irish Pub, An Sibin (pronounced "An Shebeen") just opened its doors at the former "The Real Jerk" spot on the southeast corner of Queen and Broadview. Owners Rick Auiler and Scott Brockington offer a combined 15-year history of managing successful Irish destinations in Toronto, including St. Jame's Gate, The Irish Embassy, PJ O'Brien and Quinn's Steakhouse & Irish Bar.









An Sibin Pub
709 Queen St. E.
p. 647.748.2111



Posted by: Mark Rodas

Stay Awake with chocolate

We got this box of Awake caffeinated chocolate sent to us and I was debating whether or not an average tasting chocolate bar was worth writing about. But since it combined 2 of my daily food groups, Chocolate and Caffeine, I figured it's a notable product thinking "why didn't anyone come up with this before?"



Awake has 101 mg of caffeine in every bar. That's as much as a 20 oz coffee or 250 ml energy drink!

You might think "great, just what we need, another way to jack everyone up." Indeed the convenience store shelves are already busting out with caffeine delivery systems, but let's face it, there's a huge desire or need for these products in the market, and a caffeinated chocolate bar addresses a particular niche of that market.

I can think of a lot of uses for this. Sometimes too much coffee can be harsh on your stomach, with fizzy drinks even more so. You can't put a drink in your pocket, say when riding your bike, nor in the glove compartment of your car late at night. You might not need that much liquid anyway if you're trying to avoid frequent rest stops. As an aphrodisiac, well...

Awake plans to make a huge marketing push on college and university campuses, and the chocolate bars are already widely available. They use an owl named Nevile as their mascot and you can follow him on Twitter. Focusing on a cute mascot more than the product is an interesting approach like Porter's raccoon or the Geico gecko... there's even a Pinterest board with nothing but cute owls if you like cute owls.



About the product itself: It works.... very well! Don't scarf it down, and keep it away from your kids. Too much caffeine can make you anxious and irritable, but we know all of that already. I won't be consuming this too much, but I know there are a lot of caffeine fiends out there who need it for all-nighters either doing homework or writing reports, when hitting a brick wall at 3 in the afternoon, or just playing video games all night long. To all you folks, here's another arrow in your quiver... get it quiver :)


Posted by: Mark Rodas

Savouring the summer at Square One PLUS win a $100 gift card!

SPONSORED BLOG POST
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We've noticed something lately: Shopping centres across the GTA are starting to up their food game. We're seeing updated food courts and a number of classier adjoined restaurants opening up that are a step above the typical fare we used to find around malls 10 years ago.

This month we stopped by Earls Kitchen and Bar and Panera Bread at Square One to check out "Savour the Season", Square One's initiative to promote the shopping centre’s restaurant offerings. In addition to Earls and Panera Bread, summer-inspired dishes are also featured now until Sept. 3 at Alice Fazooli's, Canyon Creek Chophouse, Jack Astor's Bar and Grill, Moxie's Grill and Bar, and Open Kitchens by Richtree. And of course the nearby Whole Foods Market has a number of seasonal fruits and veggies, including the Ontario plums pictured at the end of this post, if you want to cook, bake or preserve some of your own seasonal treats.

Earls makes all their food in-house from scratch. I know - not what you'd expect at a mall - but a very pleasant surprise indeed! In keeping with a summery theme, I ordered the featured daily soup - that day it was a tomato-based tortilla soup with strips of tortilla, queso and avocado - and along with it I ordered the Dominical Fish Tacos (pro tip: if you get the main size of the tacos rather than the appetizer size, you can add the daily soup for just $1.00).

I highly recommend the tacos - the Valentina crema was a bit citrusy and also had a kick of warmth / spiciness to it, the fish was grilled perfectly, and the corn / mango / tomato / avocado salsa topped off the fish with a nice creaminess from the avocado, sweetness from the corn / mango and the acidity in the tomato that balanced the overall flavour out nicely. I loved the addition of julienne cabbage on the bottom of the taco coated in the Valentina crema - it added an excellent crunchy texture. The dish was inspired by food in Dominical, Costa Rica; Executive Chef Reuben Major and his chefs travel quite a bit to help inspire their dishes. I washed it down with a decidedly summery Pineapple Ginger Margarita. 

Mark had a classic steak with bourbon demi-glace, garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies - the zucchini (in season right now) was especially delicious. With that Mark tried the Whatchamacallit Merlot as it seemed a most fitting accompaniment to his steak.

And now for the best part of the meal: DESSERT! I can honestly say their seasonal berry dessert was among the best berry desserts we've ever had - we generally like more chocolate-y treats and don't usually go for the berry option, but with blueberries in season we figured it would be a good choice. The super-rich and decadent cream cheese mousse was sandwiched between discs of light, airy, crunchy almond-y perfection (almost like a cross between a meringue, a crumble and a cookie) with blueberries and strawberries dotting the plate.

 

To accompany the dessert, we had our first ever Blueberry Tea (this is not literally blueberry tea - rather it is Amaretto and Grand Marnier served in a brandy snifter that you add tea to - usually Orange Pekoe, but we had a common variation on it which is made with Earl Grey). When combined, the smell is quite fragrant and reminiscent of blueberries, hence the name. The two went very well together. Overall the meal was great value;  Earls makes for a nice pit stop during a shopping trip with your friends but is also a destination in its own right for a family get-together to squeeze in some summery fun before the season's done.

We had first enjoyed Panera Bread on a trip to Chicago a couple of years ago. We ate various souffles and other freshly-baked treats pretty much every other day for our breakfast - it was a great way to start our vacation days. Upon our return, we had wondered why we'd never been to one in Ontario. Well now we finally can say that we have! While we weren't there for breakfast and thus missed the souffles, we grabbed a Frozen Mango drink along with an orange scone and a pecan bun. The orange scone had orange zest in the glaze, which gave it a really fragrant smell and an extra kick of orange flavour; it all felt very tropical and summery as we sipped on the Frozen Mango drink (between the orange and the mango flavours, if I closed my eyes long enough I could almost dream I was on a beach...)! AND THEY SELL MUFFIN TOPS! How much fun is that?!

In terms of seasonal offerings, I always like to take a look at this handy chart of what's in season in Ontario - take a look next time you're out shopping or dining and want to find out what seasonal and local treats you can get your hands on.

CONTEST: ENTER TO WIN A $100 GIFT CARD!
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We want you to enjoy an experience like ours at  Square One, so we wanted to share that you could win a $100 gift card to your favourite Square One restaurant! Simply go here to enter. Best of luck to ya; tell us all about it if you're the big winner!

Yours in food,
-Stacey