Montreal - Restaurant L'Académie (Crescent St)

Since Restaurant l'académie had been recommended by a few friends we decided to eat there on our first night in Montreal. This also worked out well as we had planned on walking down St.Catherines street to do some shopping before heading to dinner. 

     There are actually several Restaurant l'académie in Montreal. We ended up eating at their popular Crescent street location, just off of Rue Sainte Catherine. The big drawing point at l'académie is that they have a relatively good price point for their food and that you can BYOB. There also doesn't seem to be a corking fee attached, so needless to say there were 

many patrons around us bringing not just one or two bottles of wine, but cases of them!

     A quick glance at their dinner menu indicated that they had a mix of French and Italian style dishes. They also had some dinner specials where you could choose from a soup or salad, a main, and a coffee or tea ranging in price from $20.95 (Italian sausage penne) to $33.95 (grilled fillet of beef with port sauce). We all decided on the soup of the day (lobster bisque) as we were all feeling a bit cold.

Lobster Bisque ($2.95)
notes: We were super excited about this soup originally as we craved something warm.
Unfortunately, this particular lobster bisque was super salty, to the point that we could not taste the lobster
or any seafood flavour at all. Luckily their fresh baguettes came in handy to help sop up the soup - but by this time we used it mainly to have something hot in our system.

Fettucinie Nastabe: Smoked Salmon, green onions in a cream sauce ($15.95)

Spaghetti Bolognese: tomatoes & viande ($14.95)

Linguine Vongole: clams in a tomato and white wine sauce ($15.95)

     Thankfully, the pastas tasted much better than our starters and were a decent portion size. I ended up eating most of my pasta as leftovers was not a viable option given that we were staying at a hotel with no fridge. Plus, we doubted that we would actually eat the leftovers when we got back to the hotel.

     Restaurant L'Académie @ Crescent street is arguably a decently nice restaurant with beautiful furnishings and decor. They're also able to successfully seat and serve a large number of patrons in their 3 story restaurant. It was evidently busy as we were seated quite next to their kitchen and could see servers moving back and forth while we were there. Service was prompt in the beginning, but began to dwindle off as the night got later and more patrons arrived - there was a second wave around 9pm. Nevertheless, a good place to go if you're looking for decent priced food, large portion sizes, and the ability to BYOB - just stay away from their lobster bisque.   

Restaurant L'Académie - Crescent Street location

2100 Crescent Street

Montreal, QC

(514)664-4455

http://www.lacademie.ca/ (check website for other locations)

Mon-Thu,Sun 11:30am-10pm

Fri-Sat 11:30am-10:30pm

also note: restaurants close early in Montreal!

Montreal - Le Westin, Olive & Gourmando

     This past weekend, I headed to Montreal for a girl's trip. We decided that the most economical, time saving, and relaxing way was to use Via Rail to travel there. This was definitely the best choice, since our Via rail itinerary had us leaving Toronto Union Station at 6:50am arriving in Montreal at 12:30pm. To make our trip extra relaxing, we ended up staying at the beautiful Le Westin Montreal ; partly because it was situated in the perfect place (with Old Montreal behind the hotel and new montreal in front), their heavenly beds & heavenly shower heads of course, and finally what made it much more affordable was their 'pay rates equal to your birth year' (i.e.paying regular price for the 1st night, and then the 'pay your age' for the 2nd night).
     Right after settling into our hotel, we set out to explore the city and to get ourselves some lunch; albeit a late one as finding our hotel, checking in and settling into our room took a bit of time. Since Olive & Gourmando was only 0.68 km from our hotel in Old Montreal we decided to head there. Upon arriving, there were quite a few people in the restaurant. Our wait was not too long - about 10 minutes and we were soon shown our table. Ordering at Olive & Gourmando reminds one of being in a Marche where a table is reserved for you, you`re handed a piece of paper and when you order you pass your paper over so she can write down your order. Once you`re done ordering, you sit down and wait for your food. Thankfully, my ability to read French although limited was not horrible so I was able to make out the various sandwiches and soups available for the day.

One of the only hot sandwiches left: goat cheese melt with
carmelized onions and ketchup for dipping 

pastries galore!

Tomatoes, cuban chicken, guacamole - this one had a
 slight kick to it after a few bites  

These very very delicious - a bit on the pricey side though for 3.25 each
Olive & Gourmando 
http://www.oliveetgourmando.com
351 St. Paul West
Old Montreal, QC
Tuesday - Sat: 8am-6pm


Le Westin Montreal
270 St. Antoine West
514-380-3333
closest to station Square-Victoria or Place d`armes
http://www.westinmontreal.com/ 

Vancouver Eats - Kintaro Ramen

Here is another delicious place to try out from my short trip to Vancouver. Since Dan needed to beef up on the carbs before his marathon the next day, Kintaro Ramen fit the bill perfectly. Their portions are positively huge! Typically, the wait for Kintaro is often long but we got there right before the rush around 6pm. The only thing about Kintaro is that they don't seat your party until everyone is present. Luckily all my dinnermates arrived promptly and we didn't lose out on the only big table available in the restaurant.  

Open kitchen with bar seating around. 

Miso Ramen - bean sprouts, onion, menma, corn & bbq pork ($7.95)
notes: Very filling! The entire bowl was filled to the brim with noodles and soup stock.

Ramen - blend of soybean paste, 12 spices from 4 different regions.
note: on the spicy side. Again, super filling and filled to the brim.

Shoyu Ramen a - bean sprouts, menma, nori and BBQ pork ($7.25)

Miso Ramen again - but with green onions

Gyoza - $3.75 for 5 pieces

Overall, the food at Kintaro Ramen was great. The noodles were fresh and had a nice firmness to it as you bit into the noodles (not soggy, or undercooked). Clearly, a great way to fill up on carbs. Just remember to go early before the rush, or you'll be stuck outside staring hungrily at the patrons downing their gigantic bowls of ramen. 

 Kintaro Ramen

788 Denman St.

Vancouver, BC

(604) 682-7568

Go Fish Ocean Emporium in Vancouver

At my last trip out to Vancouver, my friends and I went to the much talked about Go Fish - located by the docks a short walk from Granville Island. The day was beautiful, sunny, and perfect for outside eating. Unfortunately, since it was such a beautiful day and a saturday, the wait for our order was rather lengthy. Go Fish is known for their fish tacones, scallop burgers, fish & chips and everything is very fresh. Here's what we got after a considerably long wait. 

Much talked about scallop burgers. Super fresh & yummy. 
Can't tell you much about the texture of the scallops since I 
was so hungry from the waiting, that I didn't notice. 
Coleslaw, had a sesame-asian flair to it.  

Fish Tacones. Moist, juicy goodness. Lemons on the side for extra flavour.

Fish chowder. 

So, I must say that though the food was incredibly tasty and the view while eating was amazing, the wait for the food was somewhat too long. However, if you're a tourist like I was that day I'm certain that you will want to check out Go Fish at least once! Just try to go at odd hours of the day, call in your order or go when the day isn't sunny and warm so the lineups will be less.


Go Fish
1501 1 Ave. West
Vancouver, BC
(604) 730-5040

Wholesome Goodness - Oatmeal Chocolate & Raisin Cookies

After waking up from a rather long nap Sunday afternoon, I decided that I wanted a warm chocolate cookie. So, I set about to make this one chocolate cookie and ended up making a whole batch of them! And then I made whole new batch today as there was a request for plain oatmeal raisin ones.  Here's half a batch of those cookies jam-packed (as you can see) with oatmeal and raisins. 

Except, I couldn't resist and ended up making a small batch of oatmeal-raisin and chocolate ones too. We didn't have any chocolate-chips, but a couple bars of Ikea dark chocolate. I chopped half a bar up and sprinkled them into the batter- which seemed to do the trick! 

Oatmeal - chocolate raisin 

Plate of oatmeal raisin cookies waiting to be devoured

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 to 1 cup butter (the recipe asks for 1 cup, but you can do with much less!)

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 Large eggs

2 tbsp. milk

2 tbsp. vanilla extract (try to use the real one)

2 cups. Flour (I used whole wheat in this one)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups oats

1 cup raisins

1-2 cups chocolate chip (depends on your preference)

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Mix softened butter and sugars

3. Mix in eggs, milk, vanilla extract

4. In separate bowl stir together flour, baking soda & salt

5. Beat flour into wet mixture, slowly

6. Stir in Oats, raisins & chocolate chips/chunks

Bake: 10-15 minutes or until golden brown (check underneath cookie for brown tinges) 

baker's suggestion: enjoy with a cup of cold milk or hot coffee! 

Sen5es @ the Soho Met - Summerlicious 2010

     Coming back home to Toronto in July also means checking out the amazing Summerlicious Fix Prix menus from some of Toronto's hottest restaurants for lunch or dinner. Restaurants that you've always wanted to try are now mildly affordable with a 3 course meal for the entire month of July. Of course this depends on which restaurant you dine at. So, when the opportunity arose to check out the well known Sen5es located in the equally grande Soho Metropolitan Hotel, I had to go. That, and head chef Patrick Lin, our family friend was on hand to personally oversee dinner.
    When we were shown our private dining room at Senses, my dinner companions had a glimpse towards what life as a VIP would feel. The room had a beautiful elegance to it as you can see below.

 

Before dinner began, Chef Patrick Lin offered us each a canape consisting of a scallop, capers, tomatoes, and microherbs. 

Look at the smoothness in that scallop! 

Now for the starters. Choices for starters included the following three options:

Tian of red tuna, salmon, and hamachi tartare with layers of avocado, tomato,
cucumber and aged balsamic vinegar & spicy mayo
Note: This is the one I had. The flavours in this dish worked perfectly together. As you ate through the layers of fish the avocado and cucumber gave the flavours some depth. So good!  

chilled tomato gazpacho with lobster medallions

thinly sliced roasted veal tenderloin with a tea smoked egg on a bed of
tuna fish sauce and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette 

grilled romaine lettuce heart, tofu, green & white asparagus,
portebello dressed with a yuzu truffle soy vinaigrette Dinner options:

prime beef tenderloin in natural jus with tempura prawn, accompanied with
wasabi mashed potatoes, and beans wrapped in bacon.
Note: This is what I ordered. The prime beef was done perfectly at medium rare. The star of the show was the wasabi mashed potatoes. There was a hit of wasabi at first bite, but then quickly went away to normal mash potatoes. The tempura prawn stayed surprisingly crispy until the end of the meal. 

Roasted Grand Marnier liquer duck breast in orange duck jus
with a duck leg confit lasagna sprinkled with bread crumbs
Note: Duck Confit Lasanga was great. Break crumbs offset the typical 'saltiness' of the duck confit. Certain that duck confit lovers will enjoy this dish!    

From L to R: Fried Oyster Fritter, dungeness crabmeat risotto, and
Mediterranean poached halibut fillet topped with sundried tomato and olive salsa
Notes: Risotta had chunks of Dungeness crab inside and was evidently made the correct way. Halibut seemed to lack a bit on the flavour side, as the other two players seemed to overpower the halibut.
Dessert!

warm peach tart (with an entire half a peach!) with lemon sorbetto

lemon-lavender-blueberry dome with chocolate arts and lemongrass vanilla sauce
Notes: admittedly a bit different for the palate, but worked well together in this case. The lavender flavour came more at the end of the bite. 

L to R: Cherry Jubilee, lemon sorbetto, and crepe suzette
notes: Cherry Jubilee was dark and rich, but a bit sour. The menu had indicated 'vanilla icecream', but the icecream we got was certainly lemon sorbetto, so the mix didn't seem to go so well with the already tart cherries and crepe suzette.

Sen5ses - Soho Metropolitan
328 Wellington Street West.
Toronto, ON. M5V 3T2
(416) 935-0400
Dining room: Tuesday-Saturday 6-10pm
Lounge daily from 5pm-1am
http://www.senses.ca/senses_restaurant.html

Most pictures courtesy of Philip Yan

Foodprint Toronto notes - July 31

          Attending Foodprint Toronto on July 31st was invigorating to say the least. Hopefully people who attended or caught any of their live stream will find a renewed interest in what food sustainability is, urban agriculture, and how we can play our part in the future of our food & the city- wherever we live. The first ever Foodprint Toronto was held at the Artscape Wychwood Barns. Some small tidbits about this space that Foodprint used. It was once used by the TTC to repair their streetcars, and today it is a multi-use complex housing several sustainable projects, community partnerships, the art community, and has  gardens and greenhouses managed by The Stop Community Food Centre. 
     During the session, I managed to take a few notes and twittered a few tidbits about what was happening. To catch-up on the twitter updates search up #foodprintTO on twitter. Meanwhile, here's a rundown of what happened.
     First up were panelists Jessica Duffin Wolfe (Arts & Book Editor), Barbara Emmanuel (senior policy advisor at Toronto Board of Health & author of the city's new food strategy), Pat Pessotto (VP or Longos - Toronto based grocery store) and Lola Sheppard (partner of an architecture firm). The topic Zoning Diet was admittedly a tad slow for the crowd to jumpstart the discussion. However, it was saved by the discussion between Lola and Pat. At one point, Pat indicated securing land from farmers is something that should be initiated. Lola wondered if that is something that the farmers even wanted. Panelists also discussed how to bring more new players to the food diet and to use the current information. They discussed how they could have a more sustainable food system while navigating the current zoning rules. One panelist wondered how the Ontario Food Terminal (the largest food & distribution terminal located inside T.O which allows farmers to wholesale their food to retailers to be distributed to the farmer markets and to other places) could be used in a 'think outside of the box way'. There was talk about the potential of the OFT, perhaps to even use the OFT for food justice, a way to navigate the system, and perhaps a way to get hold of the compost that comes from the OFT. 
     Next up was the topic on Culinary Cartography - What can we learn when we map Toronto using food as the metric with panelists Mike Fram (with an article from the Edible City), Chis Hardwicke (involved in city building projects e.g. Lawrence Heights Development Plan, Taiwan Waterfront), Laurel Atkinson (from Not Far from the Tree), and Darren O'Donnell (novelists, writer, director and more). This talk about Culinary Cartography started off much more upbeat as panelists were asked by moderator Sarah Rich to give a visual of how to map Toronto within their various areas of expertise and experiences. Laurel Atkinson, in order to explain to everyone how their program worked, asked everyone to 'put their fruit goggles' to view the city. Essentially, there are lots of people that volunteer their time to pick fruit on homeowner's land, in public and private places that would often go to waste. That, and last year they saved about nine thousand pounds of fruit! Mike Fram asked everyone to imagine a city growing not as 'peanut butter, but as chunky peanut butter'. Chris indicated that we need to look at how all the systems overlap and Darren talked about how he connected the city between and within different generations by organizing dinners. This, he explained helped to break down the barriers between groups using food. Chris also mentioned that most of the discussions are at a grassroot discussion and has not even reach the policy level. When asked by the moderator how they could change people minds want change now all four indicated that you had to 'occupy the space', to go with it, to not wait for policy to catch up but instead to just start a garden under the hydro lines, to provide people with the means (e.g. providing free childcare, handing out free food) and as Chris O'Donnell suggests, to consider food as an infrastructure in itself. If food was a physical thing, that is giant and has an artistic scope to it, people will want change. 
    The third session discussed Edible Archeology. Panelists in this group included Rebecca O'neil (PhD @ UT), Robert Wright (professor), Shawn Micallef (senior editor of Spacing), and Natasha & Andrew Akiwenzie (owners of Akiwenzie's Fish). Andrew was asked to describe a bit about his company and the process they used. As the discussion began, it quickly became clear to the audience that Andrew & Natasha's method of fishing, preparation, smoking and selling is probably the best way to have fresh fish! Most of us will likely not go back to eating fish from other sellers again! Andrew uses the traditional methods of fishing and sells his produce at local farmer markets rather than selling his fish wholesale. This is because wholesale fish is often 'sold' for 5 days. Once the fish cannot be sold and is getting soft, they are then put into a brime. Andrew's product is extremely fresh and is sold the day after the fish is caught. If the fish is not sold that day it is immediately frozen or placed into a brime. Shawn, an architecture by trade talked about how ethnicity affects restaurant designs. He pointed out the example of Spring Rolls  a pan-asian cuisine in Toronto where each and every single Spring Rolls is unique, but yet designed in such a way that you know you're in a Spring Roll. Rebecca discussed her thesis 'brain food' and how food helps children excel academically. She discussed the school lunch programs versus having lunch in a cafe. She talked about the difference between a lunch box, which is designed to equip children for the day (a sort of daily, comfort food) whereas a lunch program is often for children that need sufficient food, the right food and is a way to help educate parents. She mentioned that the ways family think about food is very different from the way a school thinks about it. Robert Wright concluded that food education involves people having a relationship with their food and to know how food is made.   
    During the break we were treated to range of delicious farmer's market produce (cheese), pitas, and smoked fish from the Akiwenzie's. This fish was so good, many participants had several pieces!

   Finally, the last session was on Feast, Famine and other Scenarios. This last session proved to be the most lively and interesting of the sessions with Evan Fraser (professor at Guelph, author & blogger), John Knechtel (editor of Air, Water, Food, Fuel & Trash), Kathryn Scharf (program director at The Stop Community Food Centre), and Michael Wolfson (Food and Beverage Sector Specialist with the City of Toronto). Kathryn was asked how The Stop (a locally based program with its own greenhouses that serves the community with local and sustainable food in their food centre) could be replicated in various parts of the city. The panelists were asked how we could redesign the infrastructure to redesign the future. Kathryn indicated that it wasn't so much knowing the problems since we all know the list of problems with a city's infrastructure & policy. However, Kathryn said, the answer can't simply end at the farmer's markets! Since, really as great as they are, they are not a viable means to feed an entire city. "There is a lot of poetry and romance on it right now", says Scharf, "but just not enough 'science'....No one has the desire to do it". Evan Fraser reminded the audience that we need start thinking about food insurance in the likely event that the 'good years' will end. A chilling  worst-case scenario Fraser said would be mass migration and and political destabilization of fragile global hotspots. He reminded all that in the end food prices are linked to everything from gas prices, to security. So, food for thought: How much food locally do we need to have in food reserve to guarantee food insurance?      
     All in all, there didn't seem to be too many solutions brought to the table during these sessions, but rather discussions. Hopefully these discussions will jump start the process towards change in not only the select few that are passionate and interested, but to pockets of the city, and eventually to the public.
For more information and to catch-up to the talks click the archived video feed here, the official Foodprint Toronto page with details about each speaker. Pictures of the event from Nicola Twilley can be found here (Can you find me?). Below are some pics from the Farmer's market that I snapped that morning prior to Foodprinto TO@ Wychwood Barns (from 8am -12pm).