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Archive for the ‘Life in General’ Category

Beard on a Wire

23 Dec

   I saw him fifty years ago, through the window of my father’s car, with the dirty London rain pouring down upon the crowds along the Charing Cross Road. I remember the soporific rhythm of the windshield wipers, the soft leather seats that smelt faintly of tobacco, and my father’s handsome, impassive profile, as he sat silently beside me, thinking his own thoughts.

   The evening traffic was particularly heavy. We would crawl along for a hundred yards and then stop, while people with umbrellas and Christmas shopping swayed around the car, their faces distorted by the film of water on my window. But Santa Claus had no umbrella. He was standing on the corner outside Foyle’s bookshop, dishevelled and sagging, held up by two policemen. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead and he had lost his beard; one half of his face was smeared with mud. His head was lolling and his mouth was twisted into an idiotic grin.

   My breath fogged the window and I quickly wiped it away with my hand. Perhaps he thought I was waving, for he suddenly looked up and stared at me with exhausted eyes. The grin began to fade away. His arms were pinned too tightly in the policemen’s grip, but I saw his right hand stiffen towards the car and move from side to side.

   To this day I do not know what to make of that small gesture. It seemed to say don’t worry – pay no attention to all this. It might have been a dismissal, or a benediction.

   Then the traffic edged us on and I lost sight of him. It was a while before I realised that my father had seen him too.

   “Just a drunk in a red ulster,” he murmured as we turned onto Oxford Street.

 
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Four pre-Christmas treats and one post-

19 Dec

Liquored salmon belly at Starfish Oyster Bed: is Patrick McMurray a genius or what?

STARFISH liquored salmon belly. My wife chose Starfish for her birthday dinner over the weekend and the ever-hospitable owner and oyster-genius Patrick McMurray surprised us with his latest invention – liquored salmon belly. He was thinking about the salmon he gets – organic Irish salmon of the highest calibre – and what to do with it… Cure it? But how? With some kind of brine… And what is the purest brine – and always available at Starfish? The ocean water trapped inside the shell of each living oyster. He had some gorgeous Welsh oysters from Anglesey to hand – grown in almost the same water in which that Irish salmon swam when it was pink and carefree in the glory of its youth. Salmo salar! The leaper! The selfsame fish whose avatar once dwelt in a secluded pool on Ireland’s River Boyne, nourished by the hazelnuts of knowledge as they plopped into the water from the tree of wisdom until that salmon was the wisest of all creatures. Alas, not smart enough to elude Patrick McMurray. He opens the deep shell of a Welsh Menai Straits oyster, removes the oyster without losing the brine and lies two slices of the fish’s fatty belly into the viscous, salt-thickened water caught in the empty shell. He poses it on a coupe of crushed ice and sets the oyster itself beside it, still alive but beached on the other flatter half of its shell. The brine starts to cure the salmon – even a moment or two is enough to begin to turn that coral-coloured flesh pale and opaque. It tastes amazing! The soft, buttery salmon belly with that hit of ocean salt… The oyster fat and creamy with a cucumber, minerally finish… A very good reason to go to Starfish asap.

Interesting trivia fact: almost all British oystermen now have a bed or two dedicated to Pacific species! Why? Because their season lasts all year long. Indigenous British flats have distinct seasons and are periodically unavailable.

 

SOMA chocolatemaker Green Tangerine 66%. Proprietor-chocolatier David Castelan has an unerring sense of what constitutes the most delectable chocolate in the world. With this slender bar he blends sharp, fruity Madagascar Trinitario and Criollo beans, rendering a chocolate of 66% cacao content and flavouring it with essence of green tangerine. The chocolate is intense and fruitily acidic to begin with – but not as bitter as it would have been at, say, 70%. The green tangerine aroma/flavour is perfectly pitched – a citrus fruit that is more interesting than lemon or orange or grapefruit but less floral than yuzu or kumquat – the ideal chocolate corollary. I tried to make my dainty little 80-gram slab last until nightfall. Yeah right…

 

ALIMENTO is the new Italian gourmet emporium at 522 King Street West that took forever to open but is now up and running. Judging by the empty aisles and the empty chairs in the attractive mozzarella bar, it is still a well-kept secret but we went down and checked it out last weekend. There’s a charming décor of old wooden floors and extravagant displays of imported (and a few local) Italian treats. Great strengths: the salumi bar featuring dozens of fab Italian and Canadian meats, plus real Spanish Iberico ham at a very reasonable price. An impressive cheese selection. A predictably strong wall of Italian olive oils. Decent canned items, antipasti and pastries. Lots more… We ended up going home and cooking up a lunch from what we bought, built around a spectacularly good dried angel-hair egg noodle, Spinosini 2000. It cooks in two minutes and has a gorgeous grainy flavour. Our sauce was simplicity itself – sliced cremini mushrooms sautéed with finely chopped shallot, dried porcini reconstituted in chicken stock, pepper, plenty of cream and a tablespoonful of President’s Choice black truffle aioli. This last is a product that had been sitting in my fridge for a while, waiting to learn what its fate might be. I wasn’t sure whether it would have that rank, locker-room aroma that some truffle-flavoured products lend to a dish so I had hesitated to use it. As things turned out, it was surprisingly subtle, pleasing and just the ticket for our mushroom sauce – the sort of thing that disappears texturally in a sauce or dressing but leaves a ripe and poignant memory of truffle in the air.

 

ACE Christmas berry jam and fig bread. ACE bakery always does something special for the holidays. The berry jam is divine – like a rumtopf turned into jam with whole cranberries popping in a runny, spiced-up red-berry matrix. The fig bread is a tasty brown loaf with a good crunchy crust and great big dried figs in it. Slice it and toast it and your kitchen will smell like Christmas. The jam is great on the toasted bread – but so is a creamy blue cheese like Cambazola, spread quickly while the toast is still hot so that the cheese starts to soften and think about melting. Be merciful – scrunch – and put it out of its misery.

 

TOMMASI makes a single-vineyard Amarone Classico called Il Sestante (“The Sextant”) and it’s coming to Ontario in January, on the General List at around $39.95. It’s a beauty – old style amarone, which Tommasi does so well – complex and intense that will be perfectly delicious with a knob of parmiggiano reggiano or a well-hung grouse roasted and served with its own juices on toast or a firm slab of polenta. I was lucky enough to taste a preview bottle and I’m still smiling. It’s full of the sense of cold autumnal larch forests in the Italian pre-Alps, of liquorice and dark spicy honey, smoky firesides and cherries that have been spiced and preserved for months. The finish is all about dried figs and raisined grapes – sweet but dry, if you know what I mean – like a great amarone can be. Worth waiting for.

 
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The County General

14 Dec

Awesome fried chicken two ways with an array of garnishes

As Scrabble games go, it was an embarrassing blow-out – a Leafs versus Bruins game with my wife as Boston, creaming me by well over 200 points. It was over so quickly we found ourselves drained (emotionally and linguistically) by 5:00 p.m. – and hungry, too, since we ran out of those spicy, anchovy-spiked cheese straws from The Harbord Bakery (best cheese straws in the city) just about the time Wendy put down “parvenus,” her fourth seven-letter word. So we went out to dinner, early enough to find two seats at the bar of The County General, the casual new place opened by Splendido’s owners, chef Victor Barry and manager Carlo Catallo. Neither of them were there (I suppose they were at Splendido) but we were beautifully looked after by the two women behind the bar – smart, friendly service really stands out sometimes. I didn’t realize that one of them is Aja Sax, whose cocktails I have read about but have yet to try. Last night we were in more of a white wine mood and found a lovely Fielding Estates Viognier on the small but proudly all-Niagara wine list. Aja also does the music, apparently, which was right up my boomer-box tin pan alley – drifting along through Leonard Cohen to U2, Chris Isaak, the Stones, Derek and the Dominoes… and all at a reasonable and highly civilized level.

            The County General is small – just 14 seats plus another 10 at the bar – but it’s nicely put together. The decorative theme involves a large number of 2-by-1 planks, lining the walls, creating a dropped ceiling and forming the bartop. They play on this barn-like feel with occasional sculptures of chicken – which makes perfect sense when you see how often chicken appears on chef Garth Legree’s short menu. He is working with a fairly narrow palette of flavours – sort of Thai meets American barbecue – but the results are absolutely delightful.

winging it

            We started with a hearty soup full of chunks of tender, pale-as-pork ham, white beans and hunky croutons of Marc Thuet bread. The thickish broth was tangy with mustard and lemon juice, thyme and rosemary – just the way to start a winter evening. I had the daily special of wings which were easily the best wings I’ve ever had (okay I’ve only ordered wings three times in my life, but these were the best). Legree cooks them sous-vide then flash-fries them so they’re unbreaded, relatively lightweight and glazed with a sticky and delectable bbbq sauce that avoids over-sweetness and gains depth from a hint of espresso coffee. The wings are strewn with sliced up raw red chilies and a mass of fresh cilantro. Three condiments are presented separately – a creamy, smooth blue cheese dressing, a herbed mayo, and a fresh, tangy apple slaw. Being almost a virgin where wings are concerned I don’t know the protocol of these extra sauces. They were too good to waste, but I was enjoying the wings’ own flavours so much I didn’t want to mask them. In the end, I used the bones as dippers and had the best of both worlds.

            Another star dish is the trio of miniature steamed buns each of which contains a small quivering block of lightly smoked pork belly. Again changes are rung by a variety of condiments. In one bun it’s a crunchy, not-too-garlicky kim chi; in another, that green apple slaw; in a third, a dollop of oniony avocado chutney with a mittful of fresh cilantro. A runny green chili sauce is delivered in a miniature squeeze bottle.

            The main event of our dinner, however, was the fried chicken – a dish intended for two. Served on a wooden board, two substantial chicken breasts have been cooked sous vide and then differently treated – like twin sisters who have grown up in different parts of the world. One has a tamari glaze of great complexity – spicy-sweet and altogether delicious. The other has had a brush with a spice rub featuring allspice and chili and has then been battered and fried. It’s pretty well perfect fried chicken, juicy and flavourful, and ends up being the one we mess with, wrapping thick slices up in lettuce leaves with various combinations of the accompanying garnishes. You can see them in the opicture in their teeny metal bowls – cilantro, green onion, radish, pickled red onion, kim chi, grated fresh ginger, Thai chilies, avocado chutney with plenty of kaffir lime, bbq sauce, a squeeze bottle of red chili sauce. Awesome.

            Other treats? Great frites, triple-fried to make them soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, with a ramekin of smokey, house-made ketchup. A slice of classic apple pie dusted with cinnamon. A flight of 4 top rums, part of a fulsome and very sophisticated program of brown spirits (mostly rums and bourbons) that Aja Sax has put together. It all costs far less than  it could. The only drawback is that you have to get there pretty early or pretty late if you want to find a table. Me, I’d rather sit at the bar.

            The County General is at 936 Queen Street West (on the corner of Shaw). 416 531 4447.

 
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BOM BOM bom bom bo bo bi bi

07 Dec

Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.

There is a sound within the walls of this old house. My wife and I have heard it for the better part of a year – longer perhaps. How to describe it…? I imagine a schoolboy, bored and weary, kept in for detention, alone in the classroom. He is slumped across his desk, his head on one outstretched arm. In his right hand is a small, hard rubber superball. He holds it two inches above the wooden desk then lets it fall. BOM BOM bom bom bo bo bi bi… As its bounces quicken, they lessen in volume. He gathers up the ball, waits a moment then repeats the movement exactly. Over and over again, finding some solace for his boredom in the perfect repetition. That is the sound we hear in our wall: only it is deeper by many octaves than a ball on a wooden desk.

The sound is often with us. We hear it only in two rooms – the bedroom and the bathroom, both built out from the rear of the house, unconnected to the neighbour’s property. We hear it when the wind blows and when the air is perfectly still. When it rains and when it doesn’t rain. By day or by night. Whether or not the furnace and the water heater are working. There is nothing to bang against the outside wall of the house. The sound does not reach the ground floor or the basement. Sometimes in the night it is loud enough to wake us. At other times, when I’m shaving, for instance, it is barely audible. Often it disappears for days on end.

This house is full of strange noises – the creaks and croaks and sudden reports of the hardwood floor, unexplained clicks and gurgles in the kitchen that can only be something to do with the fridge. But the sound in the wall is different. BOM BOM bom bom bo bo bi bi… Armitage – if you are reading this – and I know you are – pray keep your fevered, psychotic hypotheses to yourself. Anyone else, if you can shed some light onto this strange occurrence, we would be more than grateful.

 
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Easton’s charcuterie + Lillet Rouge = *

27 Nov

Easton's - a meaty new star in the Market

A new store opened in Kensington Market about six weeks ago – Easton’s Charcuterie and Prepared Foods. It’s the brainchild of Derek Easton, formerly one of the team at Sanagan’s Meat locker, just around the corner on Baldwin, and its purpose is to provide the neighbourhood with an impressive variety of local charcuterie, artisanal deli meats and a superior line of house-made prepared foods. A veteran cook who worked at Mistura and Auberge du Pommier before specializing in meats, Easton has exactly the personal connections to find smashing product and, judging by the line-up at the till this afternoon, he has also found an eager clientele.

What does he offer? A couple of dozen different kinds of charcuterie to begin with, including real Parma prosciutto, Spanish chorizo and real, spectacularly delicious, garnet-coloured Serrano ham, all at bargain prices. Other treats, including gently spiced soppressata, pungently salty smoked duck prosciutto, wild boar prosciutto and richly flavoured venison sausage, come from Seed to Sausage, a small company north of Kingston, together with a wide range of the excellent salumi from Romagna Mia restaurant right here in Toronto.

Today's charcuterie - click on the blackboard to read it

Easton also makes super sandwiches (a brisket melt looked awfully tempting) and his partner, Jade Kay Pollack, provides a range of ready made South East Asian curries plus invaluable basics such as duck fat, veal demi glace, vegetable stock, duck confit, and many other delights. Jars of Bumpercrop preserved vegetables and pickles from McClure, out of Detroit, will also pry the coin from your pocket.

And what should one drink with this array of carnivorous treasures? I stumbled upon a most successful pairing – Lillet Rouge on the rocks. Lillet, of course, is that vermouth-like elixir from Bordeaux, best known for its white version (a key component of the Vesper, James Bond’s original Martini from Casino Royale). The red is just as delicious, mildly herbal, verging on sweet, tasting of red fruits shot through with bitter orange and a hint of quinine.

Somehow it works remarkably well with the charcuterie, zeroing in on the spicing in the sausages while supporting the natural sweetness of the meats and using its citrus element to soothe the saltiness. Lovely stuff.

Easton’s is at 61 Kensington Avenue, 416 518 0051. Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday noon to 6 p.m., closed Mondays.

 
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Le Kensington Bistro

23 Nov

Burger Bar's lamb burger (not available at Le Kensington Bistro)

This is a picture of a fabulous lamb burger from Burger Bar on Augusta in Kensington Market. That’s all I’m going to say about it since I’m writing about Burger Bar for Zoomer magazine, where I have the signal honour to be the new restaurant critic (I urge you to invest in a subscription).

Instead, we will cross the street to Le Kensington Bistro, the new venture by front-of-house guru and sommelier Sylvain Brissonet and chef Jean-Charles Dupoire, who are also co-owners and operators of Loire on Harbord Street. Certainly, Loire is still doing well, and the two Tourangeaux are devoted to their firstborn. But they also tell a tale of how Loire slipped away from their original intention for the place, becoming a tad too posh and educated. Le Kensington is deliberately more “of the market.” So we see Brissonet in jeans (which merits a ! when we remember how proper he was during his years as maitre d’ of Langdon Hall) and Dupoire cooking in a sport shirt instead of chef’s whites (he was much more formal as the wunderkind chef of Epic in the Royal York hotel, once the tallest building in the British Empire).

But casual is the mood in the market, cheri! Behind the yellow façade, La Palette’s old premises have been cleaned and repainted a warm terra cotta but the floor is linoleum tiles, the tables are plain wood and the lighting something less than atmospheric. There are some odd touches that don’t work (Ignore the – I say ignore the kitch Foghorn Leghorn chicken signage and logo, for example) but Brissonet smooths over any cracks in the experience with his welcome and his charm. He’s also responsible for the tiny wine list, literally 13 bottles long – but they are all good wines and available by the glass.

Le Kensington's menu

That chicken logo, incidentally, is to remind the world that this is also a Rotisserie, with Dupoire roasting whole chickens (from St. Andrew Poultry) for only $32 – a take-home bargain since they come with sauce of the day and a lightweight summer ratatouille or succotash or frites.

Another speciality is charcuterie – delicious salami; creamy, smooth-as-satin chicken liver parfait; pork rillettes of a correct and delectable fatty weight and density; salty but exceptionally tender duck breast prosciutto; a sweetish, well-seasoned, slightly gelatinous terrine made from slow-braised oxtail with a nice prickle of horseradish. Boudin noir is a starter in it’s own right – a soft, loose-textured version that isn’t as spicy as, say, David Lee’s version at Nota Bene, but has a beguiling richness that is nicely cut by slices of baked apple and salt crystals.

And how lovely to come across really good skate wing meuniere – a classic version that has just enough walnut butter to make the dish’s point without swamping everything in fat. The juicy fish comes with a scrumptious heap of diced root vegetables, baby red potatoes and wilted spinach.

Desserts didn’t wow me. Poire Belle Hélène (yes, this menu would have seemed perfectl à propos in the 1980s) had fine chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream but the pear itself had a mealy texture. Crepes filled with apple compote and topped with caramel sauce needed more apple and caramel to be truly sinful.

Still – it’s a lovely addition to the Market and the street patio will be much in demand next summer. Prices are great ($22 for a striploin steak frites) and locals already love it.

Le Kensington Bistro and Rotisserie is at 246 Augusta Avenue (a short walk south from College Street), 416 792 9440. Open noon-10 pm, Wednesday to Sunday. www.lekensingtonbistro.com.

 

 
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Saskatchewan Gold Medal Plates 2011

07 Nov

Ecstasy on the podium in Saskatoon - thanks to CJ Katz for this image!

Sophomore years can sometimes feel like the morning after… Not in Saskatoon! Gold Medal Plates took over spacious Prairieland Park for our second-ever Saskatchewan event and it was a fabulous triumph any way you look at things – from the mind-boggling amount of money raised to the mood (very high energy but eagerly attentive) and the VIP reception – but especially to the excellent food. Chefs from Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert really lifted the bar high above last year’s mark and set the room abuzz with admiration. Speed-skating immortal Catriona Le May Doan was the MC, eliciting great stories from the pack of Olympic and Paralympic athletes who paraded onto stage. Excellent, get-up-and-dance music was provided by Jim Cuddy, Barney Bentall, Anne Lindsay and the inimitable Alan Doyle. And, once again, Hailey Pasemko, mixologist extraordinaire from Nita Lake Lodge in Whistler, produced her stunning cocktails. Her Victoria gin-based G.B.G.V. (Victoria gin, fresh grapefruit juice, fresh lemon juice, vanilla and basil) particularly caught the city’s fancy (the basil leaf and vanilla syrup really lift this cocktail to dizzying heights) but all three of her creations ended up as the talk of the town. A huge thankyou to Hailey for travelling with us, working so hard, squeezing a hundredweight of citrus in every city and generally thrilling the cities of Western Canada with her luxe textures and layered flavours.

Trevor Robertson's bronze medal dish

            This was indeed a night to remember for chef Trevor Robertson of the Radisson Hotel, Saskatoon, who won the bronze medal. He chose to prepare a “deconstructed osso bucco,” slow-braising the meat but leaving it juicy and rich as well as superbly tender, carefully removing the bone and then rebuilding the boneless shank inside a sheath of cawl fat. He removed the marrow from the bones, turned it into a creamy foam then piped it back into the bone which became a second element on the plate (somehow, “whipping” the marrow made it seem less heavy but every bit as rich). The third component was a crisply fried arancino ball of toothsomely textured Italian rice pressed around a spicy Italian sausage that was in turn filled with a heart of buffalo mozzarella. An asparagus mousse panna cotta with a rosemary cream sauce continued the Italian theme. The final touches were a dab of roasted red pepper paste and some cubes of an intense jelly made from the wine Chef Robertson picked. Tangy, fruity, big and delectable, it was the 2007 Nk’Mip Cellars Qwam Qwmt Syrah.

Ryan Marquis's delectable silver medal rabbit

            Our silver medal went to chef Ryan Marquis of the Delta Bessborough hotel, Saskatoon, who also won silver last year. His dish seemed to elevate the level of the competition when the food runners brought it to the judges (as we sat in our splendour in the centre of the great room, our round table spread with scarlet satin and Union Flags in honour of the coming Olympiad). Chef chose to cook rabbit saddle sous vide which left the truffle-scented meat very pale and interesting, juicy and yieldingly tender. Tucked in around the bunny were some perfect, pan-seared chanterelles (Saskatchewan has the best chanterelles in the world – and that’s official), streaks of red beet purée, a pool of intense truffled-balsamic reduction like some supercharged jus, and dots of a pungent green onion emulsion that made all the judges coo. As a kind of post-modernist component, a transparent plastic tetrahedron held a super-creamy cauliflower purée strewn with crimson beads made (by subtle molecular methods) from chef’s chosen wine. There was also a yummy rye and sesame cracker which I used as a spoon for getting the last of the cauliflower parfait out of its gaol. The plates were hot, the parfait chilled, the rabbit warm: Chef Marquis aced the textural component and also the wine match – the smooth, fruity 2008 Adieu Pinot Noir from Le Vieux Pin winery in the south Okanagan: it worked particularly well with the red beet.

Gold for Anthony McCarthy's dish

            Our gold medallist pipped the silver by only a couple of percentage points – though Vancouver has taught us that that can be a substantial margin. Chef Anthony McCarthy from the Saskatoon Club won bronze last year; this time he vaulted over Ryan Marquis to bring home the bacon – or, more precisely, the foie. Chef McCarthy had been planning this dish for the best part of a year, so when the morels were in season last spring he bought a thousand of the biggest and best and froze them with all the care and precision afforded to Walt Disney’s head. He thawed them for us and filled them with foie gras and a brunoise of black winter truffle and coated them in a superfine grinding of last summer’s corn before cooking them off. I loved the texture and the flavour of the morels and the way the molten foie gras squirted out into my mouth. Beside this superlative treat was a sort of agnolotti made with a dense gnocchi-like pasta and filled with slow-braised organic beef, oozed through with some creamy, sweetly blue cambazola cheese that had melted into the forked meat. There was a swipe of supersmooth squash purèe and a token salad-moment of embryonic broccoli and radish microgreens, a stripe of finely minced parsley in oil and a classic demiglace so perfect it would have made Escoffier reach down from heaven and pat Chef McCarthy on the toque, had he been wearing one. The wine was an unusual blend of Cabernet Franc and Syrah from Nichol Vineyards in Naramata – a wine I really enjoyed, especially since it scored a bull’s eye matching with the braised beef and the demiglace. Great work.

            So thank you, Saskatoon! Once again you came to play and to party and to support GMP and our wonderful athletes. Having now eaten my way across Western Canada, I can say that the standards have risen for our competition in every province. I’ve noticed a radical commitment to sourcing local, seasonal and sustainable ingredients, to interpreting those ingredients within every imaginable cultural idiom, to an ever-increasing awareness that wine or beer or a cocktail can be a part of the work of art rather than some kind of front-of-house afterthought. Which leads us, coincidentally, I assure you, into the report about the wines that showed up at our party in Saskatoon. In the words of Gold Medal Plates National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason, it was

 A  B.C. Wine Showcase

The chefs of Saskatchewan presented one of the most stylistically diverse menus of the campaign, so it was no surprise that a broad range of wine styles emerged as well; with all but one being from B.C.  Unfortunately no winemakers were on hand for the pouring, but they were represented by the staff of Cava Wines and Spirits, the only private wine store in Saskatoon, who were well versed in the particular wines they poured.

            For the judging of Best of Show Wine I was joined by Cava owner Cameron Rizos, who acted as an invaluable liaison in getting many of the wines “imported” into Saskatchewan.  And as fate would have it, Cameron was hosting an Australian winemaker Shane McLaughlin who volunteered to judge as well.  No stranger to Canada or international sport, Shane was on Australia’s national rowing team in the nineties, and competed in the Commonwealth games in Canada in 1994. He now makes wine at Canonbah Bridge in New South Wales.

            There was no unanimous decision on the best wine of show but the bright peachy and honeyed Orofino 2010 Riesling from the Simikameen Valley placed in the top three by all three judges. The runner up was Nichol Vineyard 2008 Cabernet Franc Syrah, a stylish, subtle and complex blend that faithfully showed its varietal and regional roots. Third place went Le Vieux Pin 2008 Adieu Pinot Noir, a firm, complex pinot named Adieu because it will be the last vintage – with the vineyard in the south Okanagan being replanted to reds more suitable to the sandy soils and hot climate.

            Other wines donated to the chefs pairings included Tantalus 2009 Riesling, See Ya Later 2010 Gewurztraminer, Laughing Stock 2009 Blind Trust, Haywire 2010 Pinot Gris, Nk’Mip 2007 Syrah, Ganton & Larsen Prospect 2008 Pinot Noir, and finally, the only Ontario wine, Peninsula Ridge 2010 Cabernet Franc Rose.  Le VieuxPin 2008 P’tit Rouge was poured to all during the Celebration and Awards portion of the evening.

 

 
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Edmonton Gold Medal Plates 2011

04 Nov

Edmonton gold medallist Jan Trittenbach of Packrat Louie, positively beaming!

If it’s Thursday, it must be Edmonton – and look over there: the Gold Medal Plates touring team is standing in Edmonton airport by the special carousel for large and fragile items. Jim Cuddy, Barnie Bentall and Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea are waiting for various guitar cases (Anne Lindsay already has her violin case slung onto her back). David Lawrason and I are looking at eight huge and heavy boxes of very fine wines destined for the silent auction. All of us are looking forward to an evening of fun and games in the friendly but always spectacular confines of the Shaw Conference Centre. Gold Medal Plates has a special place in this city’s heart and the crowd of 730 highly enthusiastic connoisseurs were totally involved in the proceedings. Marnie McBean was our MC, chatting on stage with dozens of inspiring Olympian and Paralympian athletes before handing over to the fast-talking local auctioneer and then the musicians. Energy levels were through the roof!

Some of us were in town to work, however. Our roster of judges performed as valiantly as ever. A huge thank you to Senior Judge, Chef Instructor Clayton Folkers; wine, food and travel writer, Mary Bailey; gastronomic consultant and educator, Gail Hall; food writer and style guru Liane Faulder; chef and gastronome Chris Wood; and last year’s Edmonton GMP champion, chef Andrew Fung (who provided an awesome take on Scotch eggs for the VIP reception – miniature pucks of beautifully seasoned duck sausage topped by a slice of hard boiled quail egg over a tangy slaw).

Our bronze dish from Paul Campbell of Cafe de Ville

The quality and imagination of the dishes the chefs offer in Edmonton has grown with every passing year. Last night, with five out of ten of our competitors new to the show, the city once again surpassed itself. The scores were very close between the top four. Taking the bronze medal was Paul Campbell of Café de Ville who worked with Alberta lamb shoulder, braising the meat for eight hours in duck fat then forking it apart, adding basil and rosemary then rolling it in bacon before slow-baking it again. It ended up as a savoury, lamby, densely textured drum folded in the bacon, set over an incredibly smooth, velvety parsnip purée. Perfect little sage and porcini gnocchi hid under a porcini crisp (if Chef Campbell ever decided to mass-produce and market those chips he would be a millionaire) and the sauce was a rich glace de viande reduced from lamb, chicken and beef stocks. The wine match was one of the evening’s most successful – a bold red called Night, vintage 2007, from Ex Nihilo winery in the Okanagan.

Silver for Deependra Singh of Guru

Our silver medallist was Deependra Singh from Guru Restaurant & Bar. South Asian cuisine has taken Edmonton by storm in recent years and the quality of the restaurants is very high – perhaps the best in the country. Chef Singh presented a trio of delights on his plate, starting with a juicy, tender prawn dusted with a subtle clove-and-cardamom garam masala spice mix then lightly battered in chickpea batter and swiftly fried. Beside that was a tiny skewer of exceptionally tender beef tenderloin and sweet pepper, invisibly spiced but beautifully judged so that a tongue-tingling heat slowly grew on the palate. The third element was a bulging little purse of crisp, unexpectedly light pastry, dyed green with spinach, that held gorgeous, finely chopped butter chicken, set in a pool of rich, buttery, tangy makhni sauce. The judges admired the distinct variety and deft levels of spicing, the several textures, the fact that the butter chicken “potli” was served hot. Chef Singh paired his dish with a 2008 Pinot Rosé from Little Straw Vineyards in the Okanagan, a merry mouthful of off-dry fruit that made its own contribution to the experience.

 

Jan Trittenbach's gold medal dish

 

Our gold medallist was a chef who has competed at Gold Medal Plates several times in the past and always impressed. Last night he aced it – Jan Trittenbach from Packrat Louie. Meat was front and centre on his dish. He began by braising beef chuck flat in red wine for four hours until the meat was so tender and juicy it could be pulled apart at the touch of a fork. Then he used this beef as a filling for a rolled venison tenderloin, cooked for an hour sous vide to leave it deep crimson and delectably moist and tender. Small purple pools of blackberry gastrique and beet purée were perfect condiments as were tiny mounds of shaved purple and green cauliflower, a refreshing watercress salad in a lemon vinaigrette and a fried sage leaf. The other major presence on the plate was a super little canoli – as crisp as could be – filled with a rich cream of smoked goat cheese and berries with a hint of dark chocolate. It was a bold idea, serving the main course alongside the dessert, as one judge opined, but it worked! So did the wine match – a very small production of 2007 Private Reserve Syrah from Peller Estates in the Okanagan, a wine that reached out to the berries and chocolate but had the structure to flatter the heavenly venison.

So we have another worthy champion to send to Kelowna in February for the Canadian Culinary Championship! Tonight, Vancouver awaits…

And now, as an added bonus for diligent readers who have got this far, here is the wine report from Gold Medal Plates National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason:

Edmonton 2011 Wine Report – Night of the Big B.C. Reds

The three-cities-in-three days western leg of Gold Medal Plates touched down at the massive, terraced Shaw Centre in Edmonton, in a city that came out to play, and drink some great red wines. In the previous three cities the chefs had overwhelmingly gone for white wines and brews, but in Edmonton it seems any season is red wine season.

For the Best of Show Wine Award I was joined by two local pillars of the wine community. Gurvinder Bhatia is a wine columnist for The Edmonton Journal, a Canadian Wine Awards judge and manager of Vinomania, leading Edmonton wnie shop.  William Bincoletto is another wine institution in Edmonton, the chief wine consultant at Vines Wine Merchant (a long time supporter of Gold Medal Plates) and instructor of the Independent Wine Education Guild programs in the city.

The winner was a shoe-in with two first place votes and a second place vote: the beautifully constructed, firm and cellar worthy Le Vieux Pin 2007 Merlot from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley. Second place went to new, creative and very successful layered and fine Road 13 2009 Merlot Syrah.  Third spot went to another iconic B.C. red: Laughing Stock’s 2008 Portfolio – the second time this complex, layered and reserved cellaring red has shown up in the winner’s circle this year.

There were actually many good wines in the room this night – my point spreads were not that far apart. The winning wine wine paired with Gold Medal Chef was Peller Estates 2007 Private Reserve Syrah. Other red candidates included Le Vieux Pin 2008 Pinot Noir, Le Vieux Pin 2008 P’tit Rouge, ExNihilo 2007 Night,  Township 7 2007 Merlot, Lake Breeze 2007 Seven Poplars Pinot Noir.  Other seelctions included the racy Little Straw 2010 Pinot Rose, La Stella 2010 Leggerio Unoaked Chardonnay and Sumac Ridge Steller’s Jay Brut.

 

 
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Winnipeg Gold Medal Plates

28 Oct

Champions past and present: Makoto Ono (left) and Michael Dacquisto (standing)

 

Gold Medal Plates started its 2011 campaign with a triumphant return to Winnipeg under a starlit prairie sky. We were last here in 2006 when Chef Makoto Ono won the event and went on to represent the city at the first ever Canadian Culinary Championship in Whistler. He won that, too, then headed over to Asia to open a restaurant in Beijing in time for the Olympics and two more in Hong Kong (they’re still going strong). Now he’s back in the Peg for a while and he joined us as an honourary judge last night as well as providing dazzling little dishes for the VIP reception to start our party. Chef Jeff Gill returned as Senior Judge while the rest of the high-powered panel consisted of chef, baker and educator Mary Jane Feeke, writer and broadcaster Arvel Gray and writer and journalist Christine Hanlon. We had our work cut out. All the competing chefs performed superbly and while we had a unanimous winner there were six chefs within a couple of percentage points who could have taken silver and bronze.

The party itself was a true celebration of Canadian excellence. This year, we’re introducing a new component honouring Canadian artisanal spirits, presented in our western cities by the brilliant mixologist Hailey Pasemko of Nita lake Lodge in Whistler. She created three cocktails to showcase Alberta Premium rye, Victoria gin and Iceberg vodka, working a British theme into the mix. I couldn’t resist the Lavender Lass, a luxe, silky liaison of rye whisky, lemon juice and honey syrup topped with lavender-infused cream and garnished with a sprinkle of dried lavender. It was delightfully aromatic and creamy but the lemon juice kept everything from venturing even close to after-dinner country. I’m saving her other two cocktails for other cities later in the campaign.

Another innovation, shining a bright light on the genius and generosity of the Canadian winemakers and brewers who contribute so much to Gold Medal Plates events, was our new award for Best in Show wine, beer or other beverage, judged by three local experts Ben MacPhee Sigurdson, Gary Hewitt and Domer Rafael. Their verdict: Grey Monk Pinot Gris 2010 VQA from the Okanagan.

Our emcee was none other than multiple Olympic medallist Marnie McBean who held the audience in the palm of her hand, chatting on stage with a galaxy of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Needless to say, the 2012 London Olympic games was a universal topic of conversation and the athletes were, as always, brimming with inspiring stories.

The entertainment also had a British timbre with Jim Cuddy, Anne Lindsay, Barney Bentall and Ed Robertson from Bare Naked Ladies playing some classic Brit rock showstoppers which brought more than one nostalgic tear to this reporter’s eye.

Michael Schafer's dish won bronze

For me, and for the other culinary judges, however, the main event was the splendid array of dishes created by our competing chefs – so much imagination and effort on parade!. In the end, we awarded the bronze medal to Michael Schafer of Sydney’s at the Forks. He had great fun with his idea – a play on the many flavours of crisps he used to enjoy in pubs when he lived in London. A spiral of crispy potato held potato chips upright as if they were tiny pieces of toast. Fried in duck fat, they were delicious in their own right. Beside them was a little drum of creamy pearl onion mousseline topped with a thick layer of gelatinous brawn (aka head cheese). As a garnish, Schafer had made three kinds of “caviar” – one from Worcestershire sauce, one from malt vinegar and a third from shrimp and rose sauce to imitate the flavour of “prawn cocktail flavour crisps.” He advised the judges to mash the brawn into the onion mousseline with the tangy beads and scoop up the result with our crisps. It was fun and delectable and worked very well with one of the three beers chosen last night – Russell’s Blood Alley Extra Special Bitter Ale.

Cameron Huley's dish took silver

Our silver medal was awarded to Cameron Huley of 12 Resto Bar for a dish of almost classical balance and tonal precision. At its heart was an impeccable piece of salmon rubbed in a star anise dry rub and then cooked sous vide (at 42 degrees) until the texture softened to extreme tenderness. The fish was surrounded by a bouquet of baby vegetables – crunchy yellow carrots that had bathed ever so briefly in pickling liquid, tiny golden beets that had more of a tang, a perfect, peeled cherry tomato, all sorts of baby sprouting leaves and seedlings. Serving as a sauce for the salmon and a dressing for the vegetables was a vibrant pea purée and, looming over the entire plate, a hoop of tissue-thin fried potato added scrunch and flavour while conjuring notions of the Olympic rings. The accompanying wine, Henry of Pelham’s 2007 Reserve Riesling VQA, was a fine choice, its fruity, petrolly notes unchallenged by the pickling vinegars.

Acapulco Sunset - Acapulco gold from Michael Dacquisto

Our gold medal, a unanimous decision, went to Michael Dacquisto of Dacquisto, who named his dish “Acapulco Sunset.” It looked like an exuberant abstract painting full of bright colours from the squiggle of green avocado purée to the sunburst of red chili coulis to the clouds of tart passion fruit foam at the top of the plate. There were two principal elements, the first a ceviche of roughly chopped raw scallop with finely diced yellow pepper that had steeped in lemon, lime and orange juice spiked with cilantro and chili. Beside it was a mound of raw, soft, ruby-coloured tuna that had seen just enough of a pasilla pepper sauce to acquire some knowledge of the world. The tuna was topped with pumpkin seeds and crunchy little ribbons of cumin-accented tortilla. A lot going on! But it all made perfect sense in your mouth, each forkful different, the flavours hitting beautifully calibrated spikes of acidity and spicy heat, the textures very well judged. Dacquisto paired his dish with Grey Monk Riesling VQA from the Okanagan – a dry, rather butch Riesling that was unintimidated by the Sunset.

Congratulations to Chef Dacquisto, who now goes on to the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna next February. The Gold Medal Plates goes on to Calgary tonight, to do all this again. The fun never stops.

And now, as an added bonus for diligent readers who have got this far, here is the wine report from Gold Medal Plates National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason:

Winnipeg 2011 Wine Report – An Auspicious Debut

With the opening night of Gold Medal Plates 2011 Campaign split between Montreal and Winnipeg, my wine duties fell to Montreal (but given the state of my French I don’t quite understand the logic). Anyway, to do the duties in Winnipeg I enlisted the help of friend and fellow Canadian Wine Awards judge Ben McPhee-Sigurdson, wine columnist of the Winnipeg Free Press and a Canadian Wine Awards judge. He was joined by Gary Hewitt senior wine consultant and educator at Banville and Jones, a leading Winnipeg wine shop, and by Domer Rafael of the Manitoba Club, who recently earned his International Wine Education Guild Diploma.

The first ever Best of Show Award for wines, beers and spirits was handed out one hour prior to Montreal, with the top nod going to Gray Monk 2010 Pinot Gris (BC), a wine praised by the judges for its purity and balance. The runners up were virtually tied in the judges estimation, and indeed of very similar origin and style.  A pair of 2008 Rieslings took the honours: Cave Spring Niagara Peninsula, and Henry of Pelham Off dry.

The gold medal winning paired wine also went to Gray Monk, with their 2010 Riesling.  Other products donated to the chefs included Pelee Island 2010 Blanc de Blanc Vidal Riesling, Malivoire 2010 Gamay, and two beers: Picarroon’s Timber Hog Ale and Half Pints Bulldog Amber Ale.   And for the Celebration portion of the event guests were treated to a pair of Italian wines from a property owned by Tina Jones of Banville and Jones:  Quadri 2010 Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie and Tolaini 2006 Valdisanti, Toscana IGT, Italy

 

 
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Parties for wine lovers

26 Oct

Everyone knows how good Prince Edward County bubbly is getting. It’s a style that suits the terroir perfectly and it’s going to grow in importance with every passing vintage. How to keep up with the latest wines and enjoy them at their very best? Here’s a great opportunity that also supports Slow Food the County. More details below, courtesy of Peter C. Fleming, chair of Slow Food the County:

 

Slow Food the County has changed the format for its annual fundraising event and announces a beginning of winter celebration of Sparkling Wine. Local sparkling wine producers and area chefs will partner to produce an evening of delectable bites each paired with its perfect liquid partner. Proceeds will go to supporting our ongoing food education activities, including the Healthy Lunch program and to other County food charities.

The gala event will take place on Saturday 19 November from 6:30 to 10:30 at Highline Hall in Wellington and will feature an auction of wine, art and other unique items as well as a chance to bid on dinner prepared in your home by one of our fine chefs. The event will feature music from the Lenni Stewart Jazz Trio.

Sparkling wine is a growing sector of the County wine industry with 8-10 sparkling wines now being produced in a variety of styles including méthode champenoise, méthode ancestral, Charmat and Prosecco. The following wineries have confirmed their participation – Huff Estates, The Grange of Prince Edward, Hinterland Estates, 3660 Vineyard and County Cider. Our chef partners are Michael Hoy, Heinz Haas, Sebastien Schwab, Luis de Sousa, David Dee, Paula and Victoria from Pasta Tavola and apprentice chefs from the Loyalist College hospitality program.

Tickets are $75 per person and are only available in advance. They can be purchased online at County Tix http://www.countytix.ca/events?view=list.

 And…

 Ottawa wine-writer Natalie MacLean is coming to town, on tour with her new book, Unquenchable, A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. Natalie has so many devoted readers in print and online that she needs no endorsement from me but it’s rare to have a chance to meet her in person in Toronto. By way of a launch party, she’s hosting two events – the first being a multi-course gourmet dinner with matching wines at Grano Restaurant in Toronto on November 23. Anyone can go simply by buying a ticket and great food and wine, merriment and story-telling is guaranteed. More info can be found at http://bit.ly/GranoDinner. Call 416-361-0032 or email Ben McNally (ben@benmcnallybooks.com) to buy a ticket.
The day before, which would be November 22, according to my calculations, Natalie’s hosting a wine tasting in Niagara. More details on that at http://tktwb.tw/NiagaraWine.
Unquenchable is an excellent read, chronicling the travels of a perpetually curious and often thirsty wine writer, visiting great characters around the world and listening to their enthusiasms. Natalie’s writing is always vivid and entertaining so that one feels more like a travelling companion than a reader. For more information about the book and an amusing video trailer about it, please visit www.nataliemaclean.com/book.

 
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