profile – Page 3 – Sheryl Kirby

Creating a Delicious Thing

A couple months back I had great fun writing a piece on cupcakes in Toronto, comparing a variety of the pretty little cakes from different bakeries and shops across the city. The result of that taste test determined that the vanilla cupcake from Circles and Squares bakery topped our list, winning as both our favourite vanilla cupcake and our favourite overall.

It turns out that the bakery is just a few minutes from my house and when owner David Baxter invited me to stop by, I certainly wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.

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The Cheese Is Fine, I Walk the Line

Thin Blue Line
93B Roncesvalles Avenue
416-840-6966

The old saying goes that “good things come in small packages”. Nowhere is that more true than the tiny little cheese boutique that opened on Roncesvalles Avenue last fall. Taking up half of a standard storefront and with maybe 100 square feet of space for customers, it’s a tiny little jewel box of carefully chosen items.

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C5 and the Food Studio – Hungry at the ROM

First of all, apologies to Royal Ontario Museum CEO William Thorsell, architect Daniel Libeskind and Michael Lee-Chin whose name is on the place, but I just can’t bring myself to like the new Crystal addition. I’m one of those silly people who really like old buildings, and standing both outside and inside the lobby of the addition, I get an odd sense of uneasiness and vertigo, and feel very much like I’m in some sort of 1960s spy movie. I kept expecting Bond villain Ernst Blofeld and that cat to come strolling around a corner.

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A Bag of Magic Beans

Merchants of Green Coffee
2 Matilda Street
416-741-5369

Coffee. Where would we be without it? It wakes us up, keeps us going and fuels social gatherings. But how many people actually think about where their coffee comes from? Or how fresh it is?

For people who grew up on (and possibly still drink) supermarket coffee, there’s a distinct possibility that they’ve never had a truly fresh cup. That becomes less likely every time a new ethical, fair trade roaster opens up a café in a busy neighbourhood, but there’s still a definite difference in terms of freshness.

A truly fresh coffee is one roasted to perfection, then ground and brewed immediately. Of course, to facilitate this process, it helps to have a source of green coffee beans.

I discovered Merchants of Green Coffee in 2002 and have never looked back. Roasting my own beans has completely changed how I both drink and think about coffee. Continue reading “A Bag of Magic Beans”

What Do You Want… A Cookie?

Ah, the cookie. A simple treat that brings delight to millions. The cookie is the choice companion to cups of tea, the pacifier of boo-boos, the financial means for Girl Guides everywhere, and the choice prize handed out by the snarkily sarcastic. But for people with food allergies, finding tasty cookies and treats that won’t make them swell up and fall down can be a difficult task, as most mainstream brands include eggs, dairy, nuts, definitely wheat, and sometimes even animal fat. What’s an allergic vegan to do?

These days, folks once deprived of the joy of simple baked goods have found new hope in Eden Hertzog’s New Moon Kitchen. This gourmet bakery started in 1997 offers a range of six types of cookies and four loaf-style cakes that are entirely nut, egg, dairy, wheat, cholesterol and preservative free. Whew! They’re also made without the use of trans-fats, and all items are certified Kosher and vegan. And the best part is – they’re all really good!

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Plates From Brazil

Cajú
922 Queen Street West
416-532-2550

The word authentic gets bandied about a lot these days – to the point where I wonder if some writers know what it actually means, especially when it comes to food. In our cultural mosaic of a city, where so many cultures have their traditional foods on offer, it’s easy to confuse authentic with watered down versions made to appeal to Caucasians.

Ironically, at Cajú, where they’re upfront about the fact that their dishes have been modified to make a “Canadian” dish, Chef Mario Cassini is more respectful of the foodways of his native Brazil than most places claiming to serve only authentic cuisine.

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Flour, Sugar and Art at the Queen of Tarts

The Queen of Tarts
283 Roncesvalles Avenue
416-651-3009

Not many people can count watching Martha Stewart bite her own leg off as a hi-light of their culinary career, but for Stephanie Pick, proprietor of The Queen of Tarts bakery on Roncesvalles Avenue, it was an event that garnered her already popular shop international attention.

Someone at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia got hold of some of Pick’s gingerbread cookies decorated to look like Martha’s famous getting-out-of jail poncho, and very quickly Pick was invited to appear on the show where Martha happily bit off the gingerbread likeness of her ankle, complete with royal icing ankle monitor.

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Restaurant Profile – Indus Junction

Indus Junction
811 Queen Street West
647-428-7119

If I say “let’s go for Indian food,” to any of my friends, their first thought is going to be buffet, where we all fill our plates over and over again with passable but not especially memorable food. Sure, there are some upscale Indian restaurants in Toronto, but even there, the focus is on traditional, with the compartmentalized plates reminiscent of a cafeteria. Like so many ethnic cuisines that are now part of the culture of our city, we have this idea that Indian food must be traditional. But India as a culture has embraced the 21st century, and there’s no reason why Indian food can’t be modernized as well.

Enter Alka and Poonam Dhir, whose month-old Queen Street restaurant Indus Junction serves up beautiful Indian food, laced with authentic flavours and techniques, but with a modern twist. It is the junction where east meets west, old meets new, and the traditionally male-dominated industry gets a feminine touch that is as breath-taking as a jewelled sari.

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