toronto – Page 18 – Sheryl Kirby

Starting a Baking Business – It’s Not a Cakewalk

At least once a week we receive email here at TasteTO from someone wanting us to cover some small local food business. The majority of these appear to be bakery-type businesses selling cupcakes, cookies or custom-made cakes. The emails are often referrals from friends or customers, and sometimes come in the form of professionally-written press releases from the business owners themselves.

As we’re always looking to support local independent food artisans, we always check out these leads, and often find professionally-designed websites, gorgeous photos of even more beautiful products, and what appears to be really skillful bakers and artisans wanting to take their hobby to the next level. Unfortunately what we also almost always find is that these businesses are operating illegally out of a home kitchen.

That’s right, I said “illegally”. People who make food at home and sell it to the public are breaking the law, because it is completely and utterly illegal to sell food to the public that has been prepared in a home kitchen.

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Where Can I Find – Huitlacoche?

For all of our multi-cultural pride, Toronto has a really small Mexican community, and finding authentic Mexican ingredients, despite improvements over the past couple of years, can still be tough. And while fresh tortillas, or quesa fresca can now be found relatively easily, that Mexican delicacy huitlacoche is still hard to track down.

Huitlacoche (kweet-lah-KOH-chay), the Aztec term for “raven’s excrement” is also known as corn smut or Mexican truffle, and is a black fungus that infects individual kernels of corn. The result is a blackish grey, mushroom-like fungus that is cooked up with the fresh kernels and served as a filling for tortillas, tamales and crepes and as an ingredient in soups.

In Canada and the US, corn smut is considered a disease, and as our culture tends to find foods that have gone bad or become infected to be inedible, farmers work diligently to ensure that their crops do not become infected with this fungus because it makes their product unusable for its intended purpose.

In Mexico, the story is much different and crops there are often intentionally infected specifically to create corn smut for human consumption.

Tracking down the stuff as an ingredient was less of a wild goose chase than I figured it would be, but that’s in part because the options are pretty limited. As both Canada and the US work diligently to keep out products that are tainted and could potentially pass on infection to existing crops, fresh huitlacoche is almost unheard of at any time of the year. Despite many chefs singing its praises as a gourmet ingredient, to obtain it fresh would normally require smuggling it in illegally – although last summer’s rainy weather caused it to occur on corn crops here in Ontario and a few local chefs managed to get some to work with.

Canned versions can be found at a few Latin American groceries in Toronto, however, and Perola’s Supermarket (247 Augusta Avenue) would be my recommended first stop. If they’re out, check the Latin America Emporium (243 Augusta Avenue) a couple of doors down.

When it comes to restaurants serving huitlacoche, the only place I could confirm was El Trompo (277 Augusta Avenue) where they offer it as a filling for their corn quezadilla, although it’s possible it shows up occasionally at places like Rebezos (126 Rogers Road).

It’s not, to be fair, something that is in great demand, and while hardcore fans of Mexican food seem to love it, the account of the canned product on the popular blog Steve, Don’t Eat It! doesn’t make it seem especially appealing. Mind you, I’ve eaten tripe, headcheese and bull’s testicles, so to each their own.

Photo by Stu Spivack.

There Probably Is No Bus, Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Ride

I was gleeful at the news yesterday that the TTC had approved the atheist bus ads that have been running in the UK. And then less impressed by the response from both the media and the public.

How is it that when a Christian organization runs an ad on a bus, we’re all supposed to accept it as their right to free speech, yet when an ad runs supporting another belief system, it’s “disgusting”? The TTC has stated that it would be illegal for them to refuse the ads but added a caveat that they would consider removing them “if there are complaints”. And how long will it take before complaints are filed?

The group behind the ads, the Freethought Association of Canada, simply wants to open a dialogue, yet so many people have already come out with small-minded comments that preclude any kind of conversation.

Which, from a personal standpoint, is part of why I became an atheist in the first place. Because most organized religions seem unable to accept differing points of view, and have been brainwashed taught into thinking that only their version is the right one, that only the people who follow their doctrine will make it to the afterlife – without even knowing if an afterlife exists. They can’t all be right, can they? The logical conclusion then (and note I’m stressing the word logical here) is that the probably isn’t a God. And yet – the world hasn’t stopped spinning. Imagine that.

Prix Fixe Month – Southern Accent

Southern Accent
595 Markham Street
416-536-3211
Prix fixe dinner for two with all taxes and tip (without beverages): $65

It cannot be argued that New Orleans is a city known for its food. Cajun and Creole dishes with the addition of Spanish, Irish and even New England influences make the place a destination for visitors who love a good meal. My visit there is full of memories of shrimp po-boys, muffaletta, dirty rice and cocktails consumed sitting on a curb on Bourbon Street.

Toronto’s closest facsimile, however, left me with memories of US inauguration day as viewed from a television still sporting rabbit ears, and some heartburn that extended well into the next morning.

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Where Can I Find – Green Coffee Beans?

Sit for a moment and calculate – how much do you spend every month on coffee? $50? $100? $300? I know I’m not the only one getting tired of the references to tough economic times, but coffee is where many of us will draw the line at cutting back, even when times are bad. But instead of giving up coffee, how about rethinking how you buy the stuff? That cup or two a day habit from the local chain can end up costing $20 to $30 a week, and that’s if you stick to a plain cup of Joe. Since cooking at home is cool again, why not consider dusting off that coffee maker and brewing up a pot each morning?

Of course, grocery store coffee can be kind of yucky and preroasted beans are expensive (averaging $12 to $20 a pound). There’s also the question of freshness. Coffee purists insist that coffee must be consumed within five days after roasting, three hours of grinding, and fifteen minutes of brewing. When you also consider that much of the world’s coffee still comes from plantations where pesticide use is the norm and farmers don’t make a living wage, sourcing out organic fair trade products is also important.

The next logical step then, if you love coffee and care about how it is grown, and want to save cash – is to roast it yourself.

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Shocked

I walked along Queen Street yesterday, searching the sidewalks for hydro plates. They’re plentiful, but inconspicuous, one of those things you never even notice until you go looking for them, but then they’re everywhere. A 10-inch round metal disk, set into the outer third of the sidewalk about 4-5 feet from every hydro pole so workers can access wiring for each street light, they’re unavoidable as you walk down the street.

And Toronto has somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 of them, all of which they plan to check for what they’re calling “stray voltage” after a 2nd dog was electrocuted yesterday from stepping on one with wet feet.

As a dog owner, this scares the beejeezus out of me. Particularly in the fact that they call it “stray” voltage because it’s not always there to find. After the first dog was killed in November, all the poles and plates in the area were supposedly checked, but the spot where the dog was killed yesterday was across the street from where the first incident took place. That metal plate was checked and was found to be fine with no problems. So how can we trust that any of these plates are safe?

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Sunday Brunch – Cafe Du Lac

Café du Lac
2350 Lakeshore Boulevard West
416-848-7381
Brunch for two with all taxes, tip and coffee: $30

If Toronto wasn’t already known as a brunch town, just wait until people really start feeling the recession pinch. Already considered much more economical and family-friendly than dinner at a high-end restaurant or a business lunch, brunch is poised to be the main weekly meal out for many families. No matter how tough times get – there’s still not many people who can be bothered to poach eggs at home.

This brunch popularity is already evident at Café du Lac, where families filled almost every table during our visit last week. Unfortunately with but one server for the entire room, the smooth relaxed brunch mood was a bit lost in the confusion.

Things start well enough and we’re set up with coffee and water while our order is taken. The menu is short and to the point, with a selection of crepes, omlettes, and bagels as well as French toast, and we select a couple of dishes and sides that we think will best represent the Quebecois theme.

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Where Can I Find – Live Lobster

One of the big holiday food traditions in our house is a feed of lobster on Christmas Eve. We don’t get fancy – we just cover the table with newspaper and boil up the tasty crustaceans and serve them with melted butter and some potato salad.

While the season has ended in a number of places until spring, inshore lobster fishing is still taking place in southern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Lobster fishing is always legal offshore, although purists prefer lobsters sourced closer to land, which means there is still lobster to be had – inexpensively.

Economic woes, particularly in the US, have adversely affected the Atlantic lobster fishery, both in the US and Canada. This means a decent retail price for consumers (normally about $14.99 a pound, lobster prices over the holidays dropped as low as $6.99 per pound in Toronto), but not such a great deal for lobster fishers who have the same costs to cover even though their profit is less. In Halifax this past December, lobster fishers were being offered a wholesale rate of $3 per pound and many boycotted sales to mainstream stores in favour of that traditional Nova Scotian sales method – setting up by the side of the road and selling the things out of the back of a truck. This at least allowed the fishers to charge a still inexpensive $5 per pound and to recoup their operating costs and turn a small profit.

This is not a practical option for selling lobster in Toronto, however, and we have no choice but to hand some money over to the middlemen and buy our lobster at an actual store, but with prices like these, it’s an opportunity that might not come along again for some time.

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Number 5

I haven’t worn perfume for years. Nothing scented really, if I can help it, unless it’s of the all-natural essential oil variety. Allergies and chemical sensitivity see to it that pretty much anything with fragrance gives me a splitting headache.

I don’t mind this especially, as I think most people who wear scent wear far too much of it, but there are a few perfumes that I love and would love to be able to wear again.

At the top of this list would be Chanel No° 5.

I wore Chanel when I first moved to Toronto in the late 80s. Chanel was huge in the club scene then and the perfume was the closest I was ever going to get to a suit or a bag. It was a glamorous scent, not overwhelming, pretty but also mysterious.

I went through perfume phases and had a few favourites after I abandoned Chanel up until I had to stop wearing all fragrances or risk making myself sick. I hadn’t thought about that lovely square-cut bottle for years.

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Haute-Canadian Cuisine at Thirty Five Elm

Thirty Five Elm Restaurant
35 Elm Street
416-598-1766

The stretch of Yonge Street north of Dundas is an odd mix of family dining establishments, peppered with pizza and falafel joints. Turn the corner onto Elm Street and the restaurants are slightly more upscale, but predominantly Italian. And while Barbarian’s Steak House is a long-standing fixture on the block, most people wouldn’t know there’s a little gem of a space serving upscale seasonal and local cuisine just down the street.

Thirty-Five Elm fills the space on two floors of a 140-year-old Victorian mansion. The layout is mostly intact from the building’s original floor plan with a wide hall and massive staircase along with high-ceilinged rooms. The bar sits nestled in the front bay window with additional seating where a porch might have once existed. Through the dining room, guests can catch a glimpse of the pizza oven that was installed when the location was an Il Fornello franchise a few years back. Originally owned by Weir Ross of Barbarian’s fame, the restaurant is now run by his son, Chris, who wanted to turn it into something fun and cool.

That oven is both a blessing and a curse to Executive Chef Andrea Nicholson, who inherited not only the oven but a demand for Italian food from the restaurant’s clientèle, and who is trying to find a balance between the type of food that sells along this stretch and her fine dining background.

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