food – Page 39 – Sheryl Kirby

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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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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Farm to Home

After the long hard winter we’re just now starting to see the back of, there were times when I almost believed that it wouldn’t end – that it would be perpetual winter forever. Fortunately Mother Nature takes care of things, and just like it has for every other year since the beginning of time, spring has arrived. Which turns the heads of farmers and gardeners to one thought – planting.

Since many of us city-dwellers don’t have access to a yard in which to grow our own vegetables, we rely on area farmers to keep us well-stocked with nature’s bounty. And as we become more in tune with the philosophy of eating locally and supporting local growers and producers, we city-dwellers need a quick and easy way to do that. While farmer’s markets are always a delight to visit, many people just don’t have the time, or else don’t have any way to haul their swag home.

Recently more and more smaller local farms have been setting up Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) programs in which customers can buy a share of the farm’s output for the year. Depending on the farm, customers can either pick up their weekly box of goodies at the farm, or else the farmer will make deliveries to a pre-set drop-off point a couple of times a week. But how are we city-folk who want to join a CSA supposed to find one? Drive around in the country, stopping at every farm we see?

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Butter Is Better

As a red-blooded Canuckistanian gal, I get the occasional craving for that wholly Canadian of treats, the butter tart. I used to make butter tarts fairly often as a kid because they were my Dad’s favourite treat, but I can’t actually recall making a batch since I moved out of my parents’ house in 1987. It’s not that they’re necessarily difficult to make, it’s just that, like most pastry items, I never really want a full batch. Generally I want one butter tart, maybe two, not twelve. So I tend to buy the things, preferably at bakeries where I can get a limited number and where they’re decently tasty.

My recent craving happened when I was nowhere near a decent bakery and a stroll through the bakery department of my admittedly low-end supermarket offered the option of a half-dozen of some pretty sad looking tarts, with an ingredient list that scared the beejeezus out of me.

At home, I realized that I don’t actually have a butter tart recipe. Not a one. I’ve got plenty of recipes for maple syrup pie/tarts, and I can drag out a number of books with southern-style pecan pie recipes, but none of those are butter tarts. So I turned to the intarwebs, but it got even more confusing.

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Sunday Brunch – By The Way Cafe

By the Way Café
400 Bloor Street West
416-967-4295
Brunch for two with all taxes, tip and coffee and juice: $43

Over the past twenty years, I’ve eaten at By the Way innumerable times, but have never made it to this Annex landmark for brunch. We arrived early on Easter Sunday to a sparsely populated room that over the course of the next hour filled up fast.

The brunch menu offers a fairly massive selection of items for such a tiny little open kitchen, and all the typical brunch favourites are represented. Omelettes ($7 – $8) come in a variety of options from veggie to smoked salmon or western. Poached eggs ($6 – $7) are offered up as Benedict, Charlotte (smoked salmon) or Florentine (spinach).

The heuvos menu (yes, a heuvos menu) offered items such as Rancheros, Divorciados and more ($9). And of course, the typical waffles and French toast were also available, as well as a selection of middle Eastern items such as hummus, tabouleh and falafel (all $5).

We started with coffee ($2) and a fruit salad ($8) to share. This large bowl of mostly out of season fruit was just okay. A selection of pale melon, plus grapes and chunks of banana were large in quantity but pretty bland in flavour. I’m not sure what could have been done to improve this dish, other than to jazz it up with local apples or even some (also out of season) berries.

The apples in my French toast sandwich ($10.95) were mighty fine, however. Sautéed lightly and sprinkled with cinnamon, they got paired with brie and became the filling between two slices of golden eggy challah bread. In retrospect, I should have ordered a side of bacon or ham to go with this for the full-on Paula Deen fry-up experience, especially because more of the same meh fruit salad came with the dish. The sandwich was really great, but bacon would have made it stellar.

Across the table, the husband was heartily enjoying the shakshuka special with poached eggs ($9). This traditional Israeli breakfast can be served scrambled or poached – with the scrambled version also offered on the regular menu. A thick and spicy tomato broth is used to cook the eggs, and then the whole thing is served with pita. Despite the eggs arriving hard-cooked instead of oozing and golden, this was comforting and exciting all at the same time, with slices of jalapeno emerging from the bottom of the bowl.

As the room filled up, we started to feel a bit cramped – my only real complaint about the space any time I’ve been there. The main room is small and when it’s busy, everyone feels a little jammed in. Speedy and friendly service makes up for this however, and our server kept the coffee coming and even got my Paula Deen reference.

With an opening time of 9am daily, plus a menu that includes not just the traditional brunch favourites but lots of really interesting and unique dishes, if I lived in the Annex, it would definitely be my go-to breakfast and brunch destination. I’ll have to settle for trying my hand at the shakshuka at home, and remembering that By the Way offers more than just lunch and dinner.

The Local Food Scene – Who Does What? Part 2

Last week we looked at the various consumer-oriented Toronto- and Ontario-based groups that advocate for local food. Today, in part 2, I’ve got info on regional groups in the GTA, Golden Horseshoe and beyond, as well as information on organic groups and organizations designed to serve the hospitality industry.

Regional Groups

Durham Farm Fresh – A guide to farmer’s markets, producers and growers as well as restaurants using local produce in Durham region.

Grown in Peel – Promotes local farms and produce in Peel region.

Hamilton Eat Local – A directory of local food information for folks in Hamilton. Includes info on community gardens, where to buy local produce and more.

Norfolk Farms – Promotional site for growers in Norfolk county, the top-producing area for produce in Ontario. Offers info on pick-your-own farms, seasonal produce and info for wholesalers looking to carry Ontario produce.

Northern Flavours – Culinary tourism site to promote northern Ontario, with a directory of local products and restaurants searchable by category or region.

Savour Muskoka – Promotes culinary tourism to the Muskoka region with information on chefs and restaurants, farms and locally-made products.

York Region Farm Fresh – Promoting local farms and produce in York region.

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