Toronto, the delicious

It’s back to business at The National Nosh, which means me yammering on and on about what I’ve done and eaten lately, and in this post in particular, why I love Toronto so much.

Let’s take yesterday as an example. I had some afternoon errands to run so hopped on my bike with my little list. First stop was Ezra’s Pound for a quick pick-me-up, and sitting on that sunny patio sipping the city’s best coffee put me in the perfect frame of mind.

Then off I went to Lululemon to use up a gift card (scored a gorgeous sweater, complete with holes for my thumbs), some antihistamines from Shopper’s, stopped for a snack of dumplings at the semi-new food stalls at Scadding Court, then headed over to Kensington Market to pick up some spinach and ginger (I’m testing a paneer recipe), and za’atar. I’m heading to Vancouver next week to spend Rosh Hashanah with my best bud Natasha, and I’ll be cooking up two Middle Eastern feasts for somewhere in the range of 20-60 people, and Natasha says you can’t buy za’atar in Vancouver. (Note: Though Tash is an amazing friend, wife, mother, daughter and doctor, she’s also a compulsive liar.)

So let’s tally up my hour spent tooling around downtown: Free-trade coffee, Japanese dumplings, fresh veg and exotic spices, and then a bunch of us went for dinner in Koreatown. In other words, a typical day in Toronto.

What else am I excited about lately? Well, you should know that I’m entering week two of a major home renovation (the dust from which being the primary reason for the aforementioned antihistamines). My kitchen will be growing from about 4x4” to at least quadruple that size, and I simply cannot wait. Designed by my talented colleague at House & Home magazine, Mr. Cameron MacNeil, it’s going to be so gorgeous that I may even start giving cooking lessons, just so that strangers can see it and become enraged with jealously.

The return of the Nosh?

Is the National Nosh back in business, or am I merely dipping my big toe back in to test the waters? I honestly can't decide. On the one hand, I really want to tell you all about the rest of my summer -- August was a doozie. I went bloodworming in Yarmouth, snorkelled with belugas in Churchill, ate smushies in Copenhagen and dined my way through Anchorage as their early autumn set in (pictured here).

Too many incredible experiences to share in one post, but in case you didn't know, the world is full of nice people and great things to eat -- and a surprising number of rainbows. So if you have the chance to travel, take it.

But getting back to my original point, does the Interweb really need another food blog? I'll let you decide.

If I get 10 comments at this site saying yes from 10 different people within the next week, I will continue the National Nosh for the foreseeable future. Otherwise we'll call it a day, and you can always keep up with me in the newspapers and magazines or via "new media".

Either way, it's been a slice.

Summer break

Hello people of the Internet.

Just a quick 'hey' to say I've decided it's too hot and too summery to be cooking or sitting at a computer (when I'm not cooking or sitting at a computer for work.)

Instead, I'm going to go swimming and eat more ice cream, and I'll see you back here around Labour Day, unless something really big happens that I want to tell you about.

So until then, keep up with me at my blog at House & Home magazine, my weekly column at the National Post, etc.

And until then, have a sweet and shvitzy rest of your summer!

The 5lb question

Just curious: Is it possible to gain five pounds in two days? Because I’m not even kidding, I think that just happened to me.

Maybe I should lay off the deep fried Snickers bars and blooming onions? Perhaps I should take a pass next time someone offers me homemade breadsticks, or hand-made doughnuts?

Possibly, I should start drinking less wine and root beer, and more water? Nahh.

I think the better plan, right after I get back from my weekend trip to Yarmouth, where I’ll be judging a chowder contest and then eating my weight in lobster and oysters – yes, right after that, maybe I’ll start working on my cardio.

But until then, I'll continue to eat my face off. After all, I can always lose these extra pounds, but summer comes but once a year.

Stampede, y'all

A short posting today because I've got to catch my fight to Calgary in a few minutes as I'm heading off to see the Greatest Show on Earth. It may be the first time I'll be taking in the Stampede, but it won't be my first time eating some tasty Alberta vittles. I'm going to be checking out the Chuckwagon Races and the Stampede Rodeo, and I'll even have a behind-the-scenes Chute Tour of the bucking chutes, which sounds awesome even though I'm not really sure what it means, (though I figure bucking is involved.)

And you can get bet your bottom dollar that I'll be eating lots. I'll be eating Alberta beef and oysters and especially midway food (check out the National Post next weekend for my photographic deep-fried journey.)

The bottom line is, I'm hitting Calgary for a weekend of rootin' tootin' cowboy fun.

Not your everyday food festival

It’s the name of the event that first grabbed me: Right Some Good. So evocative of Canada’s East Coast. So full of tasty promise.

Tickets are now on sale for 10 days worth of delicious adventures on Cape Breton Island; the new food festival runs from August 25^th to September 4^th.

The plan is, a number of global Michelin-starred chefs – such as Chef Atul Kochhar of London, the first Indian chef to ever receive a Michelin Star rating, and Chef Javier Vargas Guimaray of Peru, who has won the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest ceviche -- will prepare gourmet feasts using steadfastly sustainable good old Cape Breton ingredients.

Each meal will involve a star chef and skilled team, including an aspiring junior chef selected from applications across the country. Dinner guests will also experience some down home Cape Breton musical talent and hospitality at each unique venue across the island.

While toe-tapping and whiskey sipping, diners will dive into dishes like rhubarb glazed Bras d’Or pork rack, Mira Bay lobster stuffed with shellfish butter, and maple apple dumplings.

All 10 custom menus will focus on ingredients from the sea, forests and fields of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, so you know it’s going to be a good old time -- with some right good food.

Eat here: Drake Summer School

The Drake Hotel is like that slightly smarter, more fashionable best friend: You love hanging with her but sometimes she makes you so jealous you could barf. Full of bright ideas and usually one step ahead of the best trends, the Drake has maintained its vision of being a hotbed for culture, always changing, never resting.

When it first launched (ideally in my neighbourhood), I liked the place but didn't love the food. We'd go for drinks, sometimes drinks would turn into so-so snacks, but in all these years I never once ate in the dining room.

Things took a dramatic turn for the better when Chef Anthony Rose was hired, his love of great ingredients and slightly upscale comfort food translating into a menu of things you want to eat.

Case in point: The brand new Drake Summer School Dining Hall, which launched this week and runs to September 4. Located in the dining room proper, the space has been designed as a cheeky ode to a sort of circa 1940s British boarding school -- think Hogwarts meets Hogtown. Basically, the walls are hung with all sorts of old school photos, trophies, textbooks and other crap, while communal tables look like retrofitted bowling alley lanes slung with comfy chairs and banquettes.

And then there's the food. Cocktails aim high but for me, fell short. Too much kitsch (eg. emptying out juice boxes and refilling them with dribbly sweet vodka-spiked lavender lemonade.) I love a solid theme, but hate sticky fingers. (Go to the bar to get a proper delicious Drake cocktail.)

The menu is a long list of both re-imagined school day favourites and retro classics, including a spectacular creamy tomato alphabet soup, Thousand Islands-kicked Shrimp Louis, buttery mushy peas and a gargantuan two-pound aged Cumbrae's rib steak (suitable for two feasters) that was incredibly cooked and boasted a whiff of smoke (teacher's lounge?)

You'll like Drake Summer School because it's hot, tasty fun, and it's just here during summertime, then it's gone.

Next up for the Drake's Dining Roadshow: Chinatown launches September 8th.

Snack of the Day: Popcorn, Indiana

Though I choose “sweet” over “salty” 85% of the time, there’s something about this Popcorn, Indiana white cheddar popcorn that hits me right in my happy place. Like the bag says, it’s crunchy, crispy, sharp and savoury, all at the same time. It’s the best bagged popcorn I’ve tried, and I cannot. Stop. Eating. It. (Help!)

I left my heart in San Antonio...

The recent launch of the stunning Pearl Brewery complex along San Antonio’s River Walk, anchored by the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) plus the school’s strong focus on the local Latino gastronomic aesthetic have helped give this rich and tasty American food culture the legitimacy it deserves.

Not that it needs a fancy culinary school to lend it legitimacy. But since over 80% of the kitchen workers in the southern states are of Latino descent, this gives them the opportunity to helm kitchens as head chefs with culinary degrees in their back pockets while cooking their own food.

In addition to the Latino-infused CIA, gourmet shops and restaurants like La Gloria (street foods of Mexico), there’s a Saturday Farmers Market in this River Walk extension, which together illustrate how Latin American food has become an important part of the larger American culinary cannon.

When I was speaking at a conference in San Antonio (or as I like to call it, Shvitzy Antonio) earlier this week, I was taken aback by bursts of colour and music everywhere, the kind people and the great food. From our waiter at Luke (star chef John Besh’s first restaurant outside of New Orlean’s), who joked about putting roofies in our French “75” cocktails, to the amazing receptions held at the famed Mi Tierra, and then the closing night event where a smiling group of Brazilian dancers conga lined us from the manicured lawns out onto our waiting river boats, the sweltering heat added even more exotica to this small but proud American city, where the tacos are great, but the margaritas are even better.

Surprise! Top Chef Canada Doesn’t Suck

I don’t know why I was taking it so personally, but I was wracked with worry in the days leading up to the premiere of Top Chef Canada. As a big fan of the American version (and as someone who met with the producer prior to casting to give him some ideas re potential chefs), I cannot believe how good it is. It totally doesn’t suck. No “The Trouble With Tracy” lighting. No canned laughter. Just a great group of mostly talented chefs.

The bigger shocker? A lot of them even have big personalities; showboating and smack-talk included. (How very un-Canadian.)

The hosts are nice facsimiles of their American counterparts, and most of the challenges have been even more interesting than the U.S. ones, including one that had the chefs traipsing around Toronto’s unique ethnic enclaves to learn and cook recipes from another’s culture.

I’ve enjoyed the food of a few of the chefs (in real life), including Connie DeSousa’s, who is truly doing women chefs proud.

I visited Calgary last summer and toured around the city for a day with Connie and her Charcut co-chef/owner John Jackson, and also had a fantastic meal at their restaurant, where they make everything from scratch. During summer the place becomes a veritable pickling and jamming factory, where they can more than 1,000 jars of everything from tuna to berries to peaches and cucumbers. And then they use some of that preserved fruit in their ever-changing, dead simple, crazy delicious, no-bake cheesecake. I wonder if Connie will break it out if there’s ever a quick-fire dessert challenge.

Charcut's no-bake cheesecake

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (175 mL) heavy cream

1/4 cup (50 mL) icing sugar

seeds from half a vanilla bean

1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups (300 mL) cream cheese

1/4 cup (50 mL) graham crackers (crumbs)

1/2 cup (125 mL) seasonal fruit, fresh or preserved

Method:

1. In a bowl, whip heavy cream, icing sugar, vanilla seeds and vanilla extract until thick, then put it in the fridge.

2. In another bowl, beat cream cheese using whip attachment, frequently scraping down bowl until there are no lumps. Then fold whipping cream mixture into cream cheese.

3. Layer jam jars with graham crumbs, cheesecake filling and fruit.