OLA: Of Latin America - celebrates the Day of the Dead

Tasting Toronto was invited to a sneak peak of OLA: Of Latin America, featuring 7 of Toronto's top Latin chefs. In celebration of the Day of the Dead, OLA will be a 7 course epicurean adventure as well as a charitable event with all proceeds going to Youth Link, in support of vulnerable youth and their parents or caregivers living in the GTA.


OLA will showcase a cross section of Latin American comfort dishes elevated to haute cuisine from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela paired with complementary Spanish, Chilean, and Argentinian wines selected by sommelier Drew Innes of George Brown College.


The featured chefs are:


Mario Cassini - owner/chef of Caju
Marina Queirolo - owner of Surkl Empanadas
Luis Valenzuela - chef at Torito Tapas Bar
Carlos Fuenmayor - owner of Sabrosito Catering
Steven Gonzalez - owner of Latino 5 Spice Catering
Jose Hadad - owner/chef of Frida Restaurant & Bar
Elizabeth Rumebe - owner of Alpine Bakery


To start off, we tickled our taste buds with Brazil's national cocktail, the Caipirinha. This blend of organic Porto Morretes White Cachaca, lime, sugar and ice trumps the mojito any day. Cachaca is rum produced directly from cane juice, which differs from most rum that is made from molasses. Oddly enough for a classy tasting drink, caipirinha translates into "hillbilly."

To go with our cocktails we had some Bolinhos de Bacalhau, cod balls. This was the best fishball I've had... ever! It was salty and flavourful. The cod's soft and flaky consistency complemented the crust's delicate crunch.

The next app to be served was Pao de Queijo, cheese puff balls made with cassava flour. Who doesn't like cheese-bread? These were comforting little morsels with a waxy cheese filling.

And then came the elegant looking Moqueca Shrimp Shooter. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and perfectly spiced. This hearty, savory shooter was just what you needed on a dreary fall day.

The mini empanadas were delightful. They had a very thin yet sturdy crust that held their exquisite contents well. My favourite was the one on the far right, which was infused with a concentrated corn flavour via corn husk.

On to tales of the sea for our main course, Octopus salad with artichokes, Ontario fingerling potatoes, and a spicy citrus dressing with baby cilantro. Wow! That was the best octopus. The meat was soft and delicious. Not gummy at all, and yet it still possessed the textural contrast between the inner flesh and the light snap of the tentacle's exterior. The artichokes were soft and packed a tart zing. Citrus and seafood go hand-in-hand. And the presentation... you can hang that portrait up your wall.





La Pausa, to cleanse our palates for the next course, a Granita of Lulo a.k.a. Naranjilla, essentially a citrus snow cone with simple syrup.

The wine pairings were wonderful, from syrahs to strawberry infused bubbly.

It feels like we're starting a whole new meal: Oxtail Sancocho - a Colombian inspired consommé with plantain ravioli, lime and bananito. Squeeze the lime into the warm soup and you get a light yet fulfilling treat. The plantain ravioli's faint sweetness goes well with the consommé's citrus notes.

For another main we had Frida's famous mole. Cornish Hen in Mole Poblano with rice, frijoles refritos and toasted sesame seeds. The mole was great on the cornish hen, giving some low-level, full-bodied heat, with hints of cinnamon and chocolate in a complex flavour medley. The refried beans were a little too salty for me, but this was an outstanding dish overall.

I have never seen cheese this way. For dessert we had what the chef likened to baklava, a Plantain Terrine. It was a beautiful work of art with precisely positioned plantains between sheets of queso fresco, with honey, pistachios, and wild flowers.

For our second dessert a Tres Leches cake, with an intricate icing-made orange marigold. The OLA logo was made of chocolate.


Kudos to the chefs for such an amazing spread!

We leave with bellies full... a chocolate skull for the Day of the Dead...

And a smile on our faces.

OLA will be on the 26th of October at Caju. See http://www.caju.ca/ for more event information.

Posted by: Mark Rodas

The "F" Word and a Nipple-licious Bellini: Joey Don Mills Restaurant Opening and Interview with Chef Chris Mills

Mark and I headed out to the opening party for Joey Don Mills this past week. I must start by saying The Shops at Don Mills are pretty neat - it was my first time there. I'll be back to check out McEwan's new supermarket soon... but I digress. Okay, so here's the view of the restaurant from the outside.

Now before I talk about the event and the restaurant itself, let me start by saying Chris Mills, the Executive Chef of Joey Restaurant Group, was pretty fun to interview. I got to chat to him on the phone before the actual event and he fully embraced my weird request to have him answer our "You + Food: 10 Questions" thread on our Facebook group, where I've posted his answers on his behalf.

The long and short of it is that I like to see Canadians like Chef Mills doing great things. Joey Restaurant Group has 18 locations spread throughout B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, and even Washington in the U.S. Chef Mills has a global perspective and has done a lot of traveling, which heavily influences his cooking, but don't you dare drop the "F" bomb when trying to describe his signature style - he says what he does is certainly not "Fusion." He explained to me the word "Global" better describes his food.

I also think those of us who love food to the extent that it's creepy are always trying to pinpoint WHEN this love of food started. Was there a moment? Is it ridiculous to even try to pinpoint said moment? I have no idea when mine was, but Chef Mills remembers picking up one of his mother's cookbooks and baking bread when he was about 14 years old just to have the smell of freshly baked bread in the house. If there is such a thing as said pinpointable moment (yes, I said pinpointable, I make up words as I go), I'd say that sure sounds like his.

I met Chef Mills at the restaurant opening and he gave us the grand tour - men, don't miss the awesome "fireman shooting his hose" image above the urinals - I hope they have extra cleaning staff, as that picture could encourage some messy yet creative urination... We also saw what will be the patio by Spring 2010 - I think it'll be great once it is finished. They also had some great light fixtures which helped give a nice warm ambiance... All in all, the decor was what I expected - it was nice, though it felt a little suburban to me somehow as well, but who am I kidding - I'm not here to talk about decor, I'm here to talk about FOOD!

We visited a couple food stations where we tried the Panang Prawn Curry Bowl and the Bombay Butter Chicken (neither of which blew me away, though neither were "bad" by any means - they were just standard in my humble opinion). We also tried some of the samplers the waitresses were passing out. My favourite was the Ahi Tuna Taco, which had a square of lightly-seared sushi-grade tuna atop a sesame ginger coleslaw topped with wasabi-lime aioli. The taco was nice and crunchy - I liked the contrast it gave. The Lobster Grilled Cheese was my second favourite (a little on the greasy side, but if anything on this earth is allowed to be a little too far gone on the greasiness scale, it's grilled cheese).

As for drinks, Joey Don Mills has a really innovative wine serving system that preserves freshness and, as a result, gives them more flexibility to create paired tasting menus. We also had a few delicious bellinis at the bar - I think it was, in fact, the best bellini I have ever had. Sidenote: I don't have any reasonable explanation for why the bellini looks like a nipple... My goodness, with all the "F" bombs and nipples, this blog is getting a little X-rated...

And that, my friends, is my cue to call it a night!

Yours in food,
-Stacey

Toronto Ukrainian Festival

After the Miracle Fruit foodiemeet, we hopped on the subway to Jane station to check out the Toronto Ukrainian Festival at Bloor West Village, between Jane and Runnymede.







There were a variety of dance and musical acts on stage, a beer garden serving-up some Ukrainian brews, arts & crafts, as well as other displays of Ukrainian culture.

Now onto the food. We had a combo of sausage, perogies and sauerkraut, with a slice of rye bread, and sour cream on the side. That hit the spot. It felt healthy and comforting. It's a good thing the Miracle Fruit we had earlier had lost its effect. I wanted to taste all the flavour of the sauerkraut. I like perogies prepared this way, all moist and slippery, in contrast with fried and dry pub perogies. I would've liked to also check out the Polish Festival happening that same weekend on Roncesvalles, but this will have to be my perogie fix for now.

Walking east on Bloor, we spotted a sandwich board for Sweet Flour bake shop advertising muffin tops (yes you Seinfeld fans, they sell muffin tops in Toronto). We had to try one, as well as a Ukrainian sugar cookie with a smiley face on it. The muffin top tasted like a normal muffin, though I would've liked a little more crunch on the crust. The sugar cookie was really good.

Further down the street, I spotted my favourite of all Toronto festival food, Ecuadorian pulled pork and potato omelettes from La Fiesta Catering. Too bad I had no more room in my tummy for the day.

Wait, they're not Ukrainian... and neither is Bob's Bloomin Onions nor Tiny Tom Donuts further down. No matter, they all add to the wonderful festive summer street feel, along with the same midway rides they had at the Taste of the Danforth.

Another festival concluded... Welcome fall!

Miracle Fruit

We went to the National Film Board this past Sunday to partake in a Miracle Fruit foodiemeet, organized by Andrea Chiu (@TOfoodie) and Suresh Doss (@spotlightcity). We saw a couple of familiar faces Jess Bennett (@jessbennett) and Nina Popovic (@popNina ), and were looking forward to finally finding out what this Miracle Fruit was all about.




We cleansed our palates with some Cave Spring Chenin Blanc, sparkling white, and couldn't wait to get started.

Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum), a.k.a. Miracle Berry is native to Ghana in West Africa. It was first documented in 1725 when explorers noticed the locals eating the berries before meals. Miracle Fruit contains a glycoprotein called Miraculin, that binds to taste receptors on the tounge and is activated by the presence of acids.

We were presented with thawed out berries, as the freezing prevents the Miraculin from degrading after the berries have been picked. We were instructed to place the berries in our mouthes for a couple of minutes scraping the flesh off the big seed in the middle of the berry without eating the seed. The berry's effects should last 30-45 minutes, so we started testing various foods and drinks.

The Miracle Fruit tasted and looked a bit like cranberries. For something that's supposed to shield us from sour tastes, it oddly enough tasted sour. However as we continued to roll the berries in our mouths the the sour taste began to dissipate, and we were left with a sensation akin to eating a lychee. That done, we rid ourselves of the seeds and started trying out sour foods starting with wedges of grapefruit and lemons.

The first bite into the lemon was a thrilling feeling. We could not taste a hint of sourness, yet our mouths watered and puckered-up. That was really weird! There was a sensational void, like stepping out of a noisy club into an empty alley... white noise for your tounge. It tasted like a sweet refreshing lemonade. The bite into the grapefruit was even more heavenly. That was the best citrus taste you'll ever have, I kid you not! The grapefruit was sweet, and had flavours exposed that were normally overshadowed by its sourness.

Next up was the real test: Shots of vinegar.

Gah! I let out a small cough as the white vinegar seared the back of my throat and crawled down like a gulp of bathtub moonshine. I'll get the hang of this yet. I found out that it's better sipped like a fine whiskey. That actually tasted good, sans the alcohol vapour. An even better swig was the apple cider vinegar. If the white was vodka, the cider was a single malt. Something tells me we'll pay for this later. Who drinks vinegar? Isn't it a household cleaner?

I thought we better start putting some solids into our stomachs to mop up all the acidic swill. We grabbed some chips and started munching. "Hmmm, tastes like regular chips. Wouldn't it be cool if they served us vinegar flavoured chips?," I mused. It turns out they were Miss Vickie's Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar chips. Ah silly me. Like I'd taste vinegar at that moment. There was also a BBQ flavoured chip, but that tasted quite normal.

We then had some vegetable cocktail to wash the chips down. That was quite nice and went down easily. Tomato juice seem to react well to Miracle Fruit.

I wonder what stout would taste like? We tried some Guinness... and voila... Guinness Lite. We couldn't believe that it would make one of the heaviest beers light and refreshing. Strange indeed. It was smooth and thirst quenching like an iced cafe Americano.



Better yet, how about some Rickard's Honey Brown. The ladies loved that one. It tasted caramelly, as if Skor made a soda.

Oh we missed the lime. Why not some of that, chased by a kiwi? That sounds odd, but it's an odd food event. The lime cut right through. Wow that didn't work. Maybe a little? The miracle fruit definietly reacted better to the other citrus fruits, not to mention the vinegar. The kiwi tasted like kiwi, but maybe a little sweeter.

And a pickle? Pickly... is that a word? Just a little saltier and blander, but not much different from a normal pickle.



Let's go Tabasco! What, slurping Tabasco after shots of vinegar?... not good. OK that wasn't any less hot! I love Tabasco. I drench my pizza in it all the time, but strip the sour from it and it's all burn. Where's that Rickard's? Lineup... let's just squeeze some lemons into a cup of water... mmm lemonade.


Haute cuisine plating below: before I tried the Tabasco again, but this time on goat cheese and a cracker. Not an advisable combination, but it was suggested to us as an experiment. The cheese extinguished the heat, but it didn't taste so good. The goat cheese alone on a cracker however was rich, creamy, and delectable.





My hors d'oeuvre creation below: Yummmmy!


The grape tomatoes tasted good, but they weren't that acidic to begin with.

The Miracle Fruit was wearing off. Might as well, we were getting full. There were a lot of items to try. It's intriguing how different foods react to Miracle Fruit. It neutralized most sour notes, except for the lime, and seemed to heighten, or at least uncover the sweetness hidden in many foods. It is indeed a miracle.