toronto – Page 28 – Sheryl Kirby

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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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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Last One in is a Rotten Egg

I sort of wish I had used the video function for this. This is a huge puddle created by a blocked storm drain on a side street off Queen Street West. It doesn’t seem warm enough for bathing, but these pigeons didn’t seem to care. The funniest was when they’d all flutter their wings and duck their heads in the water in unison. Unfortunately the water had a greasy mucky crust on the top, so nobody here was actually getting clean. But it sure looks like fun.

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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Sunday Sips – Lailey Vineyard 2006 Syrah VQA

I first tried the Lailey Vineyard Syrah on a visit to the vineyard back in January. We had gone to the Niagara icewine festival with the folks from iYellow Wine Club (who, by the way, got some great coverage in last week’s Wine Confidential documentary on the CBC. Congrats Ange and Pax!)

Lailey is one of Niagara’s smaller vineyards with only 23 acres of grapes. Their crop is hand-harvested and herbicide-free, making their product fairly labour-intensive. We tried a selection of their offerings when visiting the winery and while many in our tour walked away with bottles of their Merlot, I have a soft spot for Syrahs.

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The Local Food Scene – Who Does What? Part 1

Although asparagus season is actually still at least a few weeks (okay, months) off, I keep trying to convince myself that any day now, I’ll run up to that display in my local supermarket’s produce section and the tag will say “Product of Ontario” instead of “Product of Peru”. Of course, when local asparagus becomes available, we’ll all know it – so many local organizations have popped up over the past few years to advocate for local food that they’ll be fighting to tell us all who has the first, best and cheapest asparagus around.

Despite working with and writing about many of the various regional food advocacy groups over the past couple of years, I still have a hard time remembering who does what. Which means that the average consumer in the Toronto area is probably even more bewildered than I am. Here then, is a brief primer, separated by category, of the various organizations, what they do, and where you can find them.

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That Day

Torontonians are like hibernating groundhogs. All winter, we stay holed up in our burrows, occasionally sticking our noses out for a sniff. Then, on the first nice day, that one day where it’s possible to believe that yes, spring will indeed come, we emerge en masse to frolic.

Queen Street West was packed solid yesterday – like the business district at 5pm when the office workers emerge and flow to Union Station to get their trains back to the ‘burbs. We walked home from Queen and Bathurst, and on the sunny north side of the street, the sidewalk was at a crawl, so packed with people still bound by dirty snowbanks that passing the slowpokes was all but impossible.

Hipsters, dog walking, stroller pushing, cellphone talking, adult coffee-sippy-cup drinking, trendy rubber boots and cute scarf-wearing… they were all represented. The frantic energy of a glorious day and the sight of the sun was palpable. I almost expected everyone to stop, face south and throw open their coats to warm their bellies like meercats.

As we trekked through the puddles, the dry rotting snowbanks turning into piles of dirt and cigarette butts, it felt good to share the collective brain; to get out and soak up some sun after a long arduous winter, to celebrate “that day” with a promenade along the sidewalk.