Sheryl Kirby

I Drink Roses

I am a sucker for a pretty bottle. Marketing folks in the perfume industry know I am not alone, and the bottle design on a new fragrance can make or break the product. Think of Thierry Mugler’s Angel star, or Jean Paul Gaultier’s corset bottle. I am also a sucker for all things pink. So when I walked past an organic food store in my neighbourhood last month, I was instantly drawn to the display of bottles filled with pretty pink liquid.

Except this wasn’t perfume. This was a beverage.

Sence Nectar is made from “rare” Bulgarian roses. It’s essentially rose petal juice, sweetened slightly and available in a regular and “silver” version with 1/3 sugar. Think something of a cross between rose water and a thicker sweetened rose syrup.

Unfortunately, the guy at the health food store was better at selling it than the Sence website, which appears to be geared toward marketing it as a cocktail mix with a variety of drink recipes, and testimonials from bartenders, fashion designers and media. In fact, like rosehips which make great tea, Sence is high in Vitamin C, and is actually quite refreshing, if you’re into flowery flavours.

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Not So Many Fish in the Sea

seachoiceoysters

There’s an old cliché that goes “there are plenty of fish in the sea”. This is meant to convey options and opportunities, but nowadays, it’s not a particularly apt analogy. Because fish stocks are dwindling due to poor husbandry and overfishing, and there aren’t a lot of fish in the sea anymore.

SeaChoice is a program by Sustainable Seafood Canada designed to mobilize consumers and industry to buy sustainable seafood, which is caught or farmed with consideration for the ocean’s ecological balance and the long-term viability of the fish. SeaChoice offers guidance to restaurants and consumers on what to buy and what to avoid.

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Sunday Brunch – The Irish Embassy

Irish Embassy Pub & Grill
49 Yonge Street
416-815-7562
Brunch for two with all taxes, tip and beer: $56

They call it the breakfast of champions, and there was a point when a glass of stout, such as Guinness, was touted as a healthy start to the day. I don’t know if I could do that every morning, but when settling in for brunch at the Irish Embassy, it seemed wrong not to be sipping a glass of Ireland’s favourite beer.

Normally the domain of Bay Street brokers and executives, on an early Sunday, the sun streams through the high south-facing windows of this former bank and the light bounces off the architectural details of the arched ceiling. Never having been to Ireland, I’m not sure if all the locals there are this impressive, but the Irish Embassy is surely one of the most ethereal places I’ve eaten brunch. That may be because it’s not especially busy. This is an odd state and apparently not the norm, but explains why the sharply-dressed and aproned servers outnumber the customers by about 2-to-1.

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The Good Kind of Loud

Allen’s
143 Danforth Avenue
416-463-3086
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and beer: $90

The hot new thing for restaurant critics these days is to complain about the volume at the places they’re reviewing. Having to scream across the table to be heard is never a good thing, and the more, um, mature, our ears get, the harder it is to like a place that makes us work so hard. Not so at Allen’s. Yes, on the night we were there for the A Taste For Life fundraiser for Fife house, the place was packed and loud, but it’s the first restaurant I’ve been to where the loud volume added to the atmosphere.

Allen’s website states that “Allen’s stands as owner John Maxwell’s loving tribute to the Irish-American saloons of his native New York.” He’s made a homey, comfortable place with blue-checked tablecloths, a tin ceiling and warm oak floors. The tables are arranged so there is actually space between them – the volume is not because the place is over-packed, but from customers actually having a good time.

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Around the World at Local 4

Local 4
4 Dundonald Street
416-915-0113
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and beer: $85

When Local 4 first opened a few years back, we tried on a number of occasions to check it out, only to find it closed each time we stopped by. As a believer in the theory that the world offers us messages at every turn, those failed visits should have been a warning to head elsewhere and stay away. Finally making it for dinner at this pub-style restaurant, we realized we should have taken fate’s warning messages to heart.

Already faced with a barrier of many stairs and little tiled hallways to get into the place, diners also encounter an odd atmosphere. The entryway makes me think too much of the kind of place first year university students would frequent until they gained some knowledge of the city and found someplace more sophisticated. The room itself is cozy enough with dark walls, candlelit tables and a long bar that seems to be the gathering spot for the locals who were there the evening of our visit. A couple of other tables had diners when we arrived but they cleared out quickly and most of the activity seemed to happen at the bar.

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Sunday Brunch – Oyster Boy

Oyster Boy
872 Queen Street West
416-534-3432
Brunch for two with all taxes, tip and coffee: $55

Walking along Queen West on a sunny morning heading to Oyster Boy, a car passed us blaring a tune that was predominantly accordion music. We couldn’t really tell if it was a Newfoundland jig or some “welcome to the swamp” zydeco music, but fittingly enough, it set the theme of our brunch visit.

Oyster Boy offers a Maritime Pub Lunch on Saturdays and Sundays with a selection of items that are available all day such as fish and chips ($14.95), fish cakes ($11.95), or chowder of the day ($6.95). They also have lunch-specific specials from noon – 4pm with the likes of little jig’s dinner ($14.95) – aka corned beef and cabbage, and omelettes ($10.50).

We started by sharing a serving of clams steamed in white wine with roasted garlic and tomatoes ($14.95). More typical of steamed mussels, this flavour combination actually worked quite well, despite the lack of seawater and a big stretch of beach. A basket of fresh bread came in handy for sopping up the broth left behind after we had devoured the sweet juicy clams.

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The Brewer’s Plate – Delicious Local Food – Plus Beer!

What does local food look like in April? When the larders are getting bare and the first bright shoots of asparagus and lettuce are still just a twinkle in the farmer’s eye? Would it even be possible to put on an event and feed 300+ people on local food at this time of the year?

Turns out it’s not just possible, but really quite fabulous. The result was a delicious evening of not just local food but local beer, as the first annual Brewer’s Plate event paired some of Toronto’s top chefs with local craft breweries to come up with a dish that paired with and incorporated the selected beers.

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My Invisible Children

There’s nothing more disconcerting than to be flipping through a glossy print magazine while riding the streetcar across town and to come across your own name mentioned in an article where you’d never expect to see yourself included.

In this month’s Toronto Life, writer Katrina Onstad looks at the issue of hipsters with babies. About halfway through the article, I come across this…

Sheryl Kirby, the editor of foodie web site Taste T.O., has kids herself, but even she’s posted about “self-involved” parents in restaurants. “I was at a brunch place recently where a toddler made it out the door and onto the front sidewalk because his parents and their dining companions were too busy comparing tattoos to keep an eye on him.”

Nevermind that that’s NOT the exact quote, which, best as I can tell was lifted and rearranged from a brunch review I did of a place in my neighbourhood. But the writer never bothered to contact me. Not to get a quote, and not to confirm whether or not I had kids.

Dear Toronto Life,

It’s a good thing my mother doesn’t read your magazine, otherwise I would be inundated with phone calls as she demanded to see her non-existant grandchildren.

While I found Katrina Onstad’s article on hipsters with babies to be informative, interesting and well-balanced, I must admit to wondering where she got her information.

While I greatly appreciate the mention of my website Taste T.O. in her article, and recognize the quote she uses as part of a review I did recently on Parkdale restaurant Mitzi’s Sister, she is incorrect in stating that I have children of my own. I am, in fact, QUITE adamantly child-free.

What I don’t understand is why Onstad or a Toronto Life fact-checker didn’t contact me personally to confirm the information included in the article. It’s not as if it’s difficult to contact me online.

If my relatives track down a copy of your magazine and start sending me booties, onesies, and Tickle-Me-Elmo dolls, it’s on all of your heads.

Regards,
Sheryl Kirby
Editor, TasteTO.com

Dunno if that will do any good, at best it will get published in the letters section or garner a retraction. But sheesh – people complain about bloggers not checking facts – how about the high-profile, high-paid journalists?

UPDATE – Apparently the fact-checker at Toronto Life misread some comments on a post to TasteTO and blended my comment with that of a previous poster who mentioned having 4 kids. Apologies were offered, but both Greg and I are now getting emails from friends and acquaintances who “never knew you guys had kids”. I suspect this will go on long past the point of being funny. In the meantime, we plan to enjoy our status as new parents and have named the four invisible children Larry, Curly, Mo and Shemp. We are excitedly looking forward to the birth of their little brother Joe.

Sunday Sips – Archibald’s Estate Wineries

Fruit wine has long been overlooked when it comes to alcoholic beverages. For most folks, wine equals grapes. The LCBO does little to rectify this situation, with only a handful of fruit wine options available on their shelves. Which is too bad, because Ontario has many great fruit wineries offering wines ranging from dry to super-sweet, made from apples, berries, currants and more.

I had the opportunity to sample a selection of products from Archibald Orchards Estate Winery a couple of nights ago at the Locavore Unconference held at Montgomery’s Inn. In addition to the dinner of baked beans, coleslaw, maple ice cream and fresh baked bread, guests could sample a number of fruit wines from Archibald’s selection.

This fourth-generation farm is now run by grower and winemaker Fred Archibald and his wife Sandy. Many of their fruit wines place regularly in the top 3 at the annual National Fruit Wineries of Canada Competition, with the Spiced Winter Apple and Canadian Maple dessert wines placing Top of Category for 2004.

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Standing in the Dark

I’m a sucker for dark chocolate of just about any type, but I tend to avoid the stuff found in supermarket aisles or drugstore shelves. One of the only brands I will buy is Lindt, and then usually only when I know my stash of high-end stuff is getting low and I won’t have a chance to stock up any time soon.

I was in a drugstore last week and was lured to the fancy chocolate bar section where I grabbed a Lindt Creation 70% Caramel. Lindt’s Excellence Toffee Crunch milk chocolate bar with the toffee pieces is one of the few milk chocolates I’ll eat, so I figured the dark bar was probably just as good.

One shelf down was another display of dark chocolate bars; a selection of Nestlé Noir. I had heard good things about the Nestlé bars, but hadn’t thought of purchasing any myself, as I try to avoid Nestlé products whenever possible, just out of principle. But just for the hell of it, I grabbed the Nestlé Noir Eclat Caramel.

First of all, it wasn’t a real comparison, as the Lindt bar had more of a soft caramel filling, whereas the Nestlé bar was chunks of hard caramel, very similar to the Lindt milk chocolate bar.

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