Lucky Dip – Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Congratulations to my friend, colleague and mentor Jennifer Bain, for winning the Best Newspaper Food Column in the Association of Food Journalists Awards Competition. A well-deserved win by an outstanding writer. [Toronto Star]

Those vegetables in your dinner may have been harvested by a child. Don’t believe me? Watch the trailer for this new documentary. [Village Voice: Fork in the Road]

Don’t shit where you eat – and by that I mean don’t treat restaurant servers poorly. And if you just can’t help yourself, then at least remember to pay cash before you steal the tip jar and tell the waitress she’s fat, since if you use a credit card, you just might find your personal info plastered all over the intarwebs. [Globe and Mail]

Dear marketing companies – can we please get past this idea of products like beer and soda being for “girls” or “boys” only? Leaving aside all of the issues with diet soda in general, a product marketed just to men is as lame-ass and douchey as that shitty pink beer meant for women. As consumers, we’re above it. This little “girls stink/boys are dumb” game you’ve got going is insulting to everyone – and isn’t making you look particularly brilliant, either. [Toronto Star]

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Why are bartenders waging war on vodka? Because it’s for people who can’t handle the taste of real, better spirits. And if that makes me a booze snob, then I’m okay with that. [Globe and Mail]

Are you so obsessed with food that you need to think about it while playing board games? Have at it, kids – board games for foodies. [Bon Appetit]

The Boston molasses disaster? You never learn about the cool stuff in history class, do you? [Smithsonian.com: Food & Think]

“Virgin rape oil” – is not actually a bad thing, it’s just a really lovely type of organic canola (once known as rapeseed). [Globe and Mail]

You know what the sad thing about the “maggot melt” is? It’s probably made with some crap plastic cheese instead of a nice stinky raw cheese that is supposed to have maggots in it. (Also, those really look a lot more like mealworms than any maggots I’ve ever seen.) [CNN: Eatocracy]

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Lucky Dip – Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Is there a difference between grocery carts fitted with iPads and a handwritten list? Will the iPads make for too much distraction and accidents or is it just an easier way to get the shopping done? [Globe and Mail]

Food snobs will finally get the chance to really compare Ladurée macarons with ones made in North America. The French pastry shop has opened a location in NYC, with the iconic cookies being imported from Paris. [New York Times]

Easy cheesy – Toronto chefs are getting into making their own cheese. [Toronto Star]

This is what happens when you don’t let your kids have junk food occasionally – they become obsessed over things like cereal fun packs. [Serious Eats]

Do you have an inner vegan? Sure you do – eat some nuts and take baby steps. [National Post: The Appetizer]

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Lucky Dip – Monday, August 29th, 2011

“First you get the sugar, then you get the money…” I once passed up the opportunity to ride from Toronto to New Orleans on a molasses barge. Should have done it. Life aboard a boat full of sugar sounds pretty sweet. [National Post]

The hipster barista takes himself very, very seriously. Especially when you turn him into a meme. [Eater]

Just when you had your coffee to sugar to cream ration perfect – Tim’s goes and changes the cup sizes. Rather, they’re getting rid of the small 8 oz cup and adding a 24 oz cup. You people and your huge things of coffee freak my shit right out. Seriously. [Toronto Sun]

Remember the mess that was “new Coke”? Twinings is set to do the same with a “more wonderful” Earl Grey tea. Nobody is amused. [Telegraph]

Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s Golden Tap Awards. [Canadian Beer News]

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Lucky Dip – Monday, August 1st, 2011

If you’re one of the millions of people who tried to get a reservation at El Bulli and never could, looks like you’re outta luck. The current incarnation of Ferran Adria’s restaurant is now closed. [Toronto Star]

No dogs on chairs! Marco Pierre White has been buying up pubs across the UK with plans to turn them into authentic ale and cider houses. The locals of one such pub, in business since 1420, are unimpressed by his move to stop selling Strongbow and Foster’s. Among the other things he’s banned – swearing, tattoos and dogs on chairs, making “down pub” right boring innit? [Caterer Search]

Does your server know enough (and by that, I mean “anything”) about beer? [Toronto Sun]

More on kids being banned from certain restaurants – seems the trend is spreading. Other things I’d like to see banned from restaurants: guys who don’t remove their hats indoors; large groups of shrieking women; hipsters. [Bites]

A lot of folks are calling foul on McDonald’s addition of apple slices to all Happy Meals. But you know who thinks it’s a great move? Apple growers. [Chicago Tribune]

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Lucky Dip – Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Would ketchup on steak be a deal-breaker in a new relationship? How about if they won’t eat blueberries? [Globe and Mail]

That brings a whole new meaning to “franks and beans” – a worker at a Heinz factory in the UK loses a finger in some machinery. [Food Manufacture UK]

Eat fruit, it’s good for you. [Globe and Mail]

Oh, no they didn’t… Cadbury UK (which is owned by Kraft, which is owned by cigarette manufacturer Phillip Morris) has run an ad that references model Naomi Campbell and compares her to chocolate. The ad has been pulled to avoid a racial backlash, but expect some lawsuits in the near future. [The Independent]

A history of whisky (part 1) in Toronto. [Toronto Standard]

Food prices will double by 2030. Before you start whining about the price of corn flakes, think about how this will affect the 44 million people who have been pushed into poverty just in the last year. [The Guardian]

Archaic liquor laws in Utah are hurting restaurants, where not every customer is Mormon, and some of them might want the occasional drink. [The Salt Lake Tribune]

Flowers and Chocolate

I actually came across these dark chocolate and floral bars well before Valentine’s Day, and if I had my act together, would have posted about them before now. The collection is by Belgian chocolatier Dolfin and is called The Parfums d’Eden. It features 4 different flowers (rose, violet, verviene [lemon verbena] and orange blossom), offered in 30g bars of 60% chocolate.

We found these at Aren’t We Sweet in St. Lawrence Market, but they should be available wherever Dolfin chocolate is sold.

All of the bars smelled and tasted strongly of the included flower, although I didn’t get a lot of lemon either on the nose or the tongue with the verveine. In fact, the dried flowers within the chocolate had an almost tobacco-like taste and smell. No sign of lemon whatsoever. I wasn’t familiar with verveine as a flower – didn’t know it was “verbena”, so imagine my surprise to discover that the flavour is meant to be lemony.

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Bounty Bar Cupcakes

Working on the theory that everything is better with coconut, I came up with these the other day. They’re meant to resemble an inside-out bounty bar. Flavourwise it works, but next time I’ll incorporate more coconut right into the buttercream frosting.

Bounty Bar Cupcakes

1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream butter and sugar until smooth then add egg and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Blend flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa in a separate bowl. In a measuring cup, mix milk and coconut milk together. Alternate small amounts of  the flour mixture and the milk until fully incorporated and smooth.

Line a cupcake pan with papers and fill each approximately 3/4 full. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

Coconut Buttercream

1/4 cup butter
2 cups icing sugar
coconut milk

Combine butter and icing sugar and enough coconut milk to create a thick but spreadable icing. Spread onto each cupcake and then sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Experimentation

The flavour combination of dark chocolate, dulce de leche and sea salt is not new. You might even say it’s a bit passé, but it could also be one of those things that become a classic, like chocolate and mint.

I had wanted thimble (aka. thumbprint) cookies, but I was also craving chocolate. And when my pal David at Circles and Squares Bakery tweeted about making dulce de leche brownies, the idea hit me.

This first batch is really a prototype – I made one pan and put the caramel into the thumbprints first, before baking, as you do when making the regular version with jam. This created a big oozing mess of melted caramel. Filling the prints as soon as the cookies come out of the oven works better – it melts just enough to smooth out, without creating too much of a river.

I also used 100% cacao chocolate, because that’s what I had on hand. It’s not readily available, but I don’t think I’d go below about 80% or the cookie will be way too sweet – otherwise the amount of sugar would have to be adjusted. And, I cheated and used dulce de leche from a jar, but the caramel is not hard to make.

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Proof of My Insanity

Go big or go home. Not my life’s philosophy, but apparently one I follow when baking.

See, I got a freezer, right? And not eating meat, I needed something to put in it. I filled it up somewhat with summer delights; fiddleheads and berries and pesto and tubs of peach chutney. But my original plan for the thing included cookies. I could start making Christmas cookies in September! Thus saving me from running around frantically in November to get everything done.

It was a great theory, but what actually happened was that I had all that extra time on my hands and so made more… much more. Ironically we found homes for most of it and now have a happy postman, building superintendent, co-workers, friends and relatives.

Cookies: clockwise from the top: chocolate coffee crinkles, zimsterne (a rolled meringue cookie with almonds and hazelnuts), white chocolate cranberry and pistachio biscotti, honey sand balls (a shortbread sweetened with honey and studded with walnuts), pfefferneusse, chocolate orange icebox cookies and eggnog shortbread squares. In the centre: zesty lime and coconut shortbread.

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