Foodprint Toronto!

Food Print Toronto is just around the corner and starts tomorrow, Saturday July 31st at 12:30pm. It seems to be quite the event with many local panelists that will be discussing what shapes Toronto's food and how we can continue to feed the city in the future. And of course, the exciting part is that an event talking about food has food for attenders to munch on! There will be refreshments and snacks from Not Far From The Tree, beer from Steam Whistle, smoked fish from Akiwenzie’s Fish, healthy snacks from the Ontario Natural Food Co-op, and others. For those interested more info can be found here:http://www.foodprintproject.com/toronto/  
And, for those that won't be able to attend this event, you can catch it through live streaming! 

Another worthwhile book that I got recently from the library is this book titled: The Edible City  -Toronto's food from farm to fork, edited by Christina Palassio & Alana Wilcox. It's essentially a series of essays and short stories discussing how one city eats and the perceptions of each author about food. The book as a whole brings together the bigger picture of how a city can successfully sustain itself.

Well, I'll let you know how Foodprint Toronto goes tomorrow. Meanwhile check out their website and the book. 

St.Lawrence Market - Good Variety of Food

Took a nice walk down to Toronto's St. Lawrence Market today. The weather in Toronto has been fairly warm lately, but with a nice breeze the 20 minute walk down to the market was thankfully not too tiring. Plus, a nice bonus was the free Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich and Grace coconut juice being given out as I passed by Union Station. After a quick walk east of Union station, I approached St. Lawrence Market. 

St. Lawrence Market is rich with - well you guessed it food and lots of it! All the usual suspects are available. There's fresh salmon to buy, meat, cheese from every part of the world, olives (yes, even the stuffed ones), baked goods, tea and coffee. 

I was on a mission to find a bottle of balsamic vinegar - something that I could use everyday. I entered Scheffler's Deli, hoping to find something. Plus I figured I couldn't go too wrong as their sign indicated that they had been around since 1955. While in the condiment section I approached an associate, who was busy eating a salad, so I figured I would ask him. Pictured below, is the bottle of balsamic he directed me to. Not too highly priced ($5.99), and would be suitable for everyday use. Too bad they couldn't find the bottle of balsamic he was actually using in his salad! 

Now walking down to St. Lawrence Market turned out to be an easy one, but the walk back, was a different story! However, once home I quickly set to making a light dinner. Since I had just bought some cheese and the bottle of balsamic vinegar, I decided on a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with two types of cheese (English Stilton & Smoked Gruyere) accompanied with a romaine lettuce salad topped with herbed feta, tomato, and a home-made vinaigrette. Delicious! :) 

Salad dressing (for 2 -3 salads)
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tbs olive oil
1-2 tbs honey (depends how sweet you want it)
mix well in a small bowl or salad dressing dispenser and serve
*note* for this meal I used 1 tbs of Verry Berry Black Raspberry Honey 


St. Lawrence Market
92 Front Street. East.
Toronto, ON
http://www.stlawrencemarket.com/

The Dish - a taste of Edmonton's comfort food?

In light of my previous post on comfort food in Vancouver, I would say that The Dish Bistro could very well be a good choice for comfort food in Edmonton. Dan and I brought our friends to The Dish one saturday evening as they wanted to walk down the 'food' side of Edmonton and experience a place with great food. They were not to be disappointed.

We started with an appetizer based on the recommendation of Edmonton's Avenue magazine article "25 Best Things to Eat in Edmonton 2010" - pear and cambozola triangles.

True to it description, the oven baked flatbread was crispy, aesthetically pleasing with its toppings of sweet carmelized red onions, sautéed sliced fresh pears, thyme, and melted cambozola cheese. However, it was quickly finished as there was only one piece per person. We also found it difficult to taste the pear as we felt that the onion and cheese overpowered any fruit taste the pear was to provide. Nevertheless, it may have been adequate that the appetizer was portioned smaller, as our main courses turned out to be fairly heavy.

Dan and my friend S ordered the Spanakopita with the house soup. He found that the crispy phyllo pastry with its accompanying yogurt sauce (reminiscent of tsatsiki) to be excellent. Crispy, flavourful with a hint of dill. The house soup, on the other hand, that D ordered was slightly on the interesting side. It reminded us of an asian beef stew, with a hit of spice for good measure. S' husband ordered the Sheppard pie with an accompanying side of fresh greens (perhaps the healthier order of the night). S and I both had the creamy tomato soup topped with croutons and heavy cream as a garnish. My soup worked nicely with my multi-layer quiche, jammed packed with cheese. This of course, was probably not a wise decision for me since I've found that I can be lactose intolerant at times. But, I cannot say 'no' to cheese! Especially cheese in my soup and in my quiche. Admittedly, the cream and cheese combination in mine and S' tomato soup was found to be on the heavy side. Added with the cheese in the quiche, I was fastly approaching cheese overload. On the other side of the table, I suspect S' husband thoroughly enjoyed his Sheppard's pie (also topped with baked cheese) as he had a big grin on his face throughout the meal.

After such a filling meal, I'm not sure what warranted our desire to have two orders of dessert. I'm banking on the fact that the dessert presentation was too irresistible to ignore (dessert options are presented on a dessert tray). Thankfully, we didn't commit dessert gluttony and order our original plan of four desserts. Sharing their warm toffee cake topped with vanilla ice cream, and a slice of carrot cake with a scoop of blackberry gelato (the gelato was my slight tweak in their dessert presentation as I really wanted a fruit gelato and not whipped cream) was probably the best way to end our meal at The Dish.

The Dish Bistro

12417 Stony Plain Rd.

Edmonton, AB

(780) 488-6641

http://www.thedishandspoon.com/

Burgoo Bistro - Comfort food in Vancouver

Ah, it's been a while! I apologize for the lack of updates as other things have been keeping me quite busy in Toronto. However, a big chunk of my time for planning some personal things are now completed and I now have plenty of time on my hands! Soon, I will post up some photos of Toronto eats. Meanwhile, here are more pictures from my trip back in May to Vancouver.


Comfort Food
It was a rainy day (of course!) in Vancouver and we were very hungry! We had originally wanted to go to a Anton's Pasta Bar  but the line up was almost down the block with a wait time of almost 2 hours! Even take-out was no better at 45 minutes. So, with no luck at the pasta bar we checked our extensive list of restaurants (kindly provided by a friend) and ended up at Burgoo. It was raining fairly steadily by the time we reached the bistro, but we managed to squeeze our way into the small waiting area and prop ourselves on a small bench. At first we were told that the wait would be 20-30 minutes as all their tables were full. We agreed, partly because it was too wet to go outside anymore, and mostly because we lacked energy to travel elsewhere. As luck would have it, within 5 minutes, staff offered us bar seating as three spots were open. The bar also served everything on the menu.  

The menu that night included a prix fixe for $18 (+tax). There were four choices for appetizers (two soups, two salads), 'mainstays' (ratatouille provencale, chicken dijonnaise and beef bourguignon) and two choices of dessert (chocolate banana bread pudding & baby banana sundae). We ended up choosing three of their soups and a salad, everyone got the beef bourguignon (partly due to the wet and cold weather), and we all finished dinner with warm banana bread pudding accompanied with vanilla icecream. 

By the time we reached dessert, my companions and I were certain that Burgoo lives up to its claim. It truly is comfort food at its best! The carrot soup was noted to have the taste of carrots with a hint of cream, while the caesar was fresh and crunchy and Dan found his tomato soup tart and refreshing (almost as if there were 30 tomatoes in his soup!). So, perhaps not for those that aren't a fan of tomatoes! Continuing with the trend of enjoyable comfort food, the beef bourguignon was soft and was accompanied with enough sauce to eat with the mashed potatoes. Perhaps it was the weather outside that allowed the food combined with the atmosphere to make a memorable tasting experience for all involved. I'm certain we will come back again! 


Oh and when we go next, we will have to try the Mac 'n Cheese as we saw two versions of it leave the kitchen during our meal. It looked visually appealing, filled to the brim and topped with aged white Cheddar and oven baked. 
Burgoo Bistro
4434 West 10 Avenue.
Vancouver, British Columbia
(604) 221-7839
limited reservations
11am-10pm
http://www.burgoo.ca/                         

Sweet Mango - Vietnamese Food

One rainy Friday, my colleagues and I made reservations at Sweet Mango for lunch. Sweet Mango is actually located in a tiny strip mall, on the north side of Whyte Ave right beside a veterinarian clinic. Upon arriving at the restaurant, parking proved to be a slight issue as there was limited parking in the lot and on Whyte Ave.  Regardless, I managed to parallel park into a tight spot on Whyte Ave despite medium traffic flow. 

Upon entering the restaurant, I was greeted with reddish and brown wall tones. Dark tables and heavy set chairs with a moderate number of tables. There were also a few big groups in the restaurant, ourselves included - most likely because it was a Friday. Despite the fact that we had approximately 14 people and counting, service was accommodating and they made every attempt to seat us at the same long table; even adding in an additional square table. By all accounts, service this day was good. They were able to make some dishes faster as some colleagues had limited time for lunch, while others had special preferences. The menu at Sweet Mango is definitely extensive. With over 100 dishes, there were quite a few dishes to choose from. The dish below was by far the most popular dish ordered at our table this visit. Priced at $13 or so, I felt that it was a bit pricier than its fellow counterparts at similar restaurants. However, since there is no other competition for several blocks (closest being Maki Maki) Sweet Mango is probably able to maintain a higher price point for this dish. The dish still tasted great, the fish sauce was not watered down, and my bean sprouts still had a nice & crunchy texture to it (I had asked them to be cooked).     

Grilled pork, sliced chicken, and spring rolls on a bed of thin vermicelli, sliced carrots, cucumbers and bean sprouts. Served with fish sauce on the side.  

This dish that one of my colleagues got was likely the one dish everyone wished they got. When food arrives on a sizzling hot plate, how can you suddenly desire it? Chicken curry with mixed vegetables and served with coconut rice on the side, the diner thought it was delicious (not at all spicy!) and everyone envied her dish!

This last dish was also a popular one at our table. Also a vermicelli, but this one was topped with grilled pork, sliced chicken and a salad roll (Gỏi cuốn).  

  

Sweet Mango also has take-out for those that live in the area or if you pass the restaurant on your way home from work. It seems good for lunch during the work week, but speed of service can vary depending on the day. So, if you're in a slight rush, it may be better to tell your waiter that you would appreciate your food coming out as soon as possible. As for me, in my books this place will be a good lunch option once in a while, as dishes were often priced on the higher side.  

Sweet Mango
9120 82 Avenue Northwest
Edmonton, AB
(780) 462-8929
they also have a facebook page!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Edmonton-AB/Sweet-Mango/10364510758