Globe Earth.

photo c/o foodpr0n.com

I’m starting a new job at the Ministry of Environment soon.  I get to look at water quality science on a provincial scale.  HI. Excited is a large understatement.   To celebrate, Cara and I went to Globe Earth in Rosedale.

Their ethos is local food (with a bit hypocrisy with many international wines, but I digress).  They source all ingredients from local suppliers, very responsible, bourgeois, Rosedalian but reasonable prices.  No complaints.

Here’s our rundown:

• Norman Hardie Prince Edward County white
• some of Rodney’s famous oysters
• Crispy ewenity curds (photo above) – deep fried cheese curds with house made ketchup.  Think of the best possible mozza stick fritter with some nice curd mouthfeel.  It’s all about the squeaky bouncy.
• Sunday roast special – lamb w chorizo, fingerling potato salad, tomato relish.
• Beef tenderloin with charred asparagus salad – whenever asparagus hits a grill, there is magic.
• Had some fruit ginger crumble with some amazing Niagara late harvest to finish it off.  The server made a mistake so it was on the house!  If you dislike ice wine or port, try late harvest. It’s the perfect happy medium.  Not too sweet, super delicious.

Bill wasn’t too damaging, especially for a nice place in Rosedale.  Great service, vibe a bit too modern but very comfortable.  Definitely will return.

Probably my favourite Kensington resto.

Cheap, reliable, east meets west, small plates, entertainment in the back, good beer selection, no split cheques.  Cause you know, you’re sharing.  Favourites at The Supermarket in Kensington are:

• Shrimp & crab wonton tacos with avocado and salsa verde
• Grilled Argentinian styled steak with chimichurri dressing and matchstick potatoes on roasted mushroom salad with a balsamic vinaigrette
• Dumplings: Crispy shrimp, pork and garlic chive dumplings served with a ginger-soy dip
• And of course their famous whiteperson accessibility Thai dish, Pad Thai.  They make a mean one.

We were just there last weekend.  On Sundays they are making Kensington streets pedestrian-only, and we had a fun funk band playing right outside the Supermarket with compulsory Kensington crazies dancing to their own drums.  It was fantastic.

I find I always go back to this part of Toronto to eat.  The Augusta/College vibes.  Torito, Grace, Sidecar, Caplansky’s, Burger Bar, Negroni, .  Now L.A.B. has just opened up to major buzz, as has Cinq 01 for the yuppie dates.  College is back.

Auberge de Pommier.

I was star-crossed to be able to go to Auberge de Pommier with C and some of her fam.  Owned by the Oliver and Bonacini empire (Canoe, Jump, Biff’s, etc.), this is the sort of restaurant where expectations and preparatory menu gawking accomplish very little.  This will not be a foodie freakout because guess what.  The evening was amazing, just as it should have been.

Tucked behind country club landscaping, adjacent to a gawdy evangelical temple and benign office buildings, Auberge is located in a simply weird spot north of Yonge and York Mills, a true island in the North York corridor.

Once you forget about the neighbours and walk up the entrance and head inside, you forget everything.  This is likely the nicest dining room in the city.  Massive cushy chairs, country home stone, undeniably beautiful.  Like a whitewashed Club Chasse et Peche but with more money and less adventure in interior design.

Service was perfect – warm, friendly but distant, almost classic French service just without the white gloves, thank goodness.  Massive white plates, precious presentations, tasteful portion sizes, lots of butter.  Classic haute cuisine stuff.  Maw.

Here’s a rundown of some choice selections we had at the table:

Apps

• Puréed mushroom and truffle soup with velvet shank cream and Parmesan biscuit.

• Escargots and wild mushrooms perfumed with brandy and thyme on Jerusalem artichoke velouté

• I had caramelized sea scallop and braised beef cheek with sweet peas, morels and summer truffle Champagne cream.  Never had beef cheek before, beautifully done, super tender, just like braised brisket.

This totally furthers my proof that apps are always better than mains.  Always.  Something other than protein/pureed starch/vegetable.  The highlights were definitely the appetizers.

Mains

• I had grilled beef tenderloin on creamy cauliflower velouté with wild mushroom croquette, horseradish scented tomato confit and Bordelaise.  Arguably the best cut I’ve had, just would’ve liked a better sear.  Regardless, who wouldn’t be ecstatic over a beautiful Chateaubriand, cipollini onions, and croquettes.

• Butter poached lobster glazed under an aromatic, citrus and tarragon mousseline with braised endive and citrus salad.  Beautifully cooked lobster, but other things on the plate weren’t as impressive for us diners.  And butter butter butter.

Cara’s dad bought the envy of every wine freak’s dreams – Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2006 Reserve.

This isn’t  meant to be a gloaty post.  If you have a very special evening and you want to celebrate with the best vibe in the city and beautiful French food, you know where to go.  I was a lucky man to be able to go, definitely a big check mark on the Toronto restaurant canon.

New Year’s (when Gap was cool).

I’ve been singing these 30 seconds of this song for the past three days straight.  If commercials have to exist (have to), this is all I ever want in one.  I had never heard of Rufus when I saw this commercial – forgive me, it was 1998.  But I saw this 25 second performance and I wanted to be informal friends with this man.  What a beautiful and concise little performance.  Super rich voice, unique timbre, confident playing, great vintage song choice, great cut of song choice for a 30 second commercial.  When Gap was cool.  He sold out his hardcore folkie fans, but everyone sells out, right?

Cara and I celebrated our 10 year “togetherness” this New Year’s Eve.  Our first kiss happened during the Millennium fireworks in Kingston, ON (insert gooey “awwww”s here).  We decided on an exclusive coupletime NYE this year, we’ve never done that but it was great to reflect on 10 years together.  The word epic gets used too much in our vernacular, but that word fits for 27 year old geeks.

A beautiful dinner at Grace in Little Italy.  A lot of Toronto bloggermom foodies love to talk about how Little Italy is now a dead part of the restaurant community in Toronto.  They’re mostly right.  I think it will undergo a bigger renaissance soon, but don’t go to this part of town thinking there are too many great food options – it’s been filled with mediocre quasi-Italian for too long.  Then enter restaurants like Grace, Sidecar, and Negroni.  Slowly re-gentrifying bringing simple but beautifully done food to the fore.  C had a beautiful potato crusted halibut, I had the Beef Wellington.  Best Beef Wellington I’ve ever had, because of the chicken liver pate and oyster mushrooms between the puff pastry and the cow.

Hope you had a moderately exciting and fun NYE.  If it was better than that, well done.

Dinner.

[photo via dine.to]

Boy, oh boy Toronto.  You have a silly burger fetish.  Enter me sounding like an unfortunate restaurant industry pundit:

 

“During these tough economic times, people don’t want overly priced precious food.  They want reasonably priced comforting, soulful, filling food to take away from their daily stress.  Everyone loves cheeseburgers.”

 

Sounds like hot air, but what do I know.   Good food is good food.  What probably started with Mark McEwan’s Bymark burger, Toronto has been following the pursuit of the perfect gourmet burger for awhile now, and many shoppes from fast food to haute gourmet are popping up all over town.  Just this weekend, Oh Boy Burger Market took the meat crown in a recent Toronto Star article, Burger Bar in third.  This place has only been open for a month, and was originally Rice Bar right on Augusta in Kensington.  It was close to the venue so we decided to try it out.

Appetizers: Cheeseburger spring rolls and panko onion rings.  The idea of cheeseburger spring rolls is hilarious and could’ve been great, but it wasn’t.  Ground beef tasted subpar and dirty powder seasoned, beef fat made the mixture too liquid-fatty-orange-oil. Panko onion rings were delicious – well fried, light batter, and al dente onions.  Some may have wanted the onions cooked longer, but I liked it.  Still taste some real onion but not too sharp.

Mains: I had the organic certified banquet burger with a really nice thin slice of peameal and smoked provolone.  Eric went a bit exotic with a lamb burger with Danish blue, kimchi, and Dijon.  Ordered a nice arugula salad with garlic chips and cherry tomatoes.  Our burgers were gorgeous, what more can we say.  Maybe a too heavy on the blue cheese on Eric’s but still niiice.  My burger had some perfect bites.  You know, the perfect balance where you can taste everything, and it’s all glorious.   Appreciated that they cook them to (about) medium.  Naturally raised organic beef eases the guilt too.  At least they get to be real cows.

Overall, I would go back to Burger Bar.  Still thinking about that burger, so that’s gotta be a good thing.  By 7:30 the dining room was about half full on a Monday night.  Service was perfectly relaxed and friendly, and gladly so since there were 3 tables when we got there.  My only (not going to say beef) hesitation is that the meal was not worth the price tag, regardless of its greatness.  Burger + cheese + bacon + big arugula salad = $20.  $35 with beers/tax/tip.  Not insanely steep by any stretch, but if I wanted economy I should have gone down the street to Caplansky’s (and gotten the fatty instead of the medium).

Harbord Room.

I just got a job, working as an Environmental Scientist consultant for an engineering firm.  It will be solid.  So C and I went to celebrate at Harbord Room last night for their second seating.  This place has been riding the wave of buzz for the past year plus.  EnRoute Magazine calls it one of Canada’s best restaurants, Toronto Life loves it, gets a lot of praise from the foodie community, and is hipster and restaurant-industry-folk central.  Unlike many places in the city, it can chameleonize from a restaurant to a lounge, especially when those cooler-than-you front of house staff get off their shift.  Was surprised to see how small the room is – about 30 covers inside, and supposedly 30 more outside when the weather is nice.

The breakdown:

Cocktails – I had an original cocktail to start, hilariously called “Autumn Whisper”.  Granny smith apple, vodka, lime, maple syrup.  Delicious.  C keeps the Bombay patronage alive, and was happy with the generous 3 lime wedge provisions.

Appetizers – I ordered the chestnut and chorizo soup, C got diver scallops w crispy pig’s ear, pear, and bacon vinaigrette.  I had the pig portion of Cara’s meal too.  A great start.  My soup was complex, smoky and spicy from the chorizo, nice hearty hits.  Cara’s app was great too.  Scallops were perfectly cooked, pig’s ear was a bit disappointing (just salty slightly porky fried pork rinds) but still tasty. And good to have some crunch, especially if they were going to waste anyway.

Mains – Whenever I see lamb on a menu, I am automatically drawn.  I want to know how the chef prepares a hearty, somewhat forgiving protein.  Lamb can also be seasoned and spiced a million different ways, and this can tell you a ton about a chef’s personality – traditional (mint or goat cheese), slightly exotic (Moroccan spiced with dried fruit, cinnamon or cloves), experimental (earwax), whatever.   They presented lamb three ways (another common way to present an ingredient) : a loin, lamb sausage, and a cool shepherd’s pie-like derivative with al dente scalloped potatoes on top.  Mixed in with some wilted spiced kale for some greenery.  Rich, forgiving, well-executed staples.

Cara had my favourite dish of the evening – the comfort food elegy.  Duck confit gnocchi with pumpkin, pine nuts, soft cheese, and fried sage.  Talk about November cold night comfort food caressing your cheeks… right in the face !  So rich, so umami, so satisfying, and the gnocchi were perfect – big and pillowy, heavy but light tasting. My main criticism throughout the meal was that the chefs have a very heavy hand with salt.  Too much salt makes a dish feel too much like imminent cardiac arrest.  When I reach for a few extra glasses of water that night and many more the next day, you really know it was oversalted.

All in all, the Harbord Room is worth the trip and a 9:30 second seating and the cash.  The service was a bit too aloof and pretentious, but still courteous enough.  I do not think it’s worth all of the hype – some classic and well done dishes, but nothing avant garde.   For me, nowhere near as eventful as Nota Bene (nor should it be given the price tag), but much more soul and heart than corporate-class places like Jump.  I feel like the chefs at Harbord Room think they own this city – its food culture, its fellow food groupies and colleagues.  It’s great to be good at what you do, but it’s still food.  Food is as much everything as it is nothing, don’t take yourself too seriously boys.  Thanks for a fun night.

Cava.

Had an amazing dinner with C and Rochelle.  Cava is located just north of St. Clair on Yonge in the Delisle arcade.  It mainly does Spanish food, mostly tapas but some bigger dishes as well.  3 minute walks to quality – grateful.

Fried chili/manchego/white bean and weirdly textured salmon/avocado (fixed sic).

Had to get the charcuterie plate.  Wanted to get the prized Iberico ham, but will one day when I feel rich and special.  All meats aged/made in house.  Thuringer sausage, the best chorizo of the life, duck terrine, and duck bresaola (dry-aged/spiced duck breast).

Wild mushroom tamale and quail w pork belly and a corn/zucchini salsa.

Great birthday meal, probably the best.  Cava rocked, will definitely go again when feeling that aforementioned feel.

Jump.

Cara’s papa came to visit us and we had a schmance dinner at Jump, part of the Oliver and Bonacini empire.  It’s pretty much Mark McEwan and these guys that own frou frou dining in Toronto.

Had a solid prix fixe – a mediocre shrimp and avocado salad app, a main of duck leg confit w fingerlings and seared grapes, and a chocolate semifreddo.  Chefs can never resist duck + fruit.

We also had a phyllo wrapped cheesecake.  Hooo-leeee.  Wrap everything in phyllo, that’s my new motto.

I think the best thing we tried was Craig’s truffle gnocchi.  Now that was flavourtown.  Overall, great meal but not worth the price tag.  My prix fixe was $35 which is actually quite good, but the other regular menu item dishes were too steep.  The setting although modern and sleek just reeks of power lunches.  It’s right at Yonge and Wellington in the main floor of an office tower, looking out onto a corporate courtyard.  What would one expect?  Good for financiers, slightly weird for foodies.

Nota Bene.

They got game, check the trophy case.   It felt like the dining room at the end of Mrs. Doubtfire, felt good. Me top 5er everer, Cara top 3er.  I guess it’s mainly mediterranean vibes, but they have a good mix of old school and new school techniques/ingredients.

Had a board stiff cocktail (I Mad Men’d like a boob and got an Old Fashioned) and ordered a bottle of  Rosé (because we’re 2009 like that) and enjoyed some powerhousing.  I’m glad there are photos of what we had online, cause even I have enough shame to not take awful flash photos of your food at a schmancy restaurant.  True.

A cool mix of Mediterranean and Thai flavours.  Crispy duck, cold vermicelli salad with cilantro, mint, lime, chili, cashew.

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Cara had seared scallops with jicama, pineapple, peas.

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Now for the insanity.  I had pulled suckling pig tart with maple smoked bacon, boudin noir, and arugula.  Oh yes, and the fun pork rinds that were delicious/funnyfood.  Almost always points for humour in food.  Probably the richest dish of the life. mmmyeah.

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A flourless molten chocolate cake with dulce de leche ice cream.  Couldn’t have been any more perfect.  Main competition of top spots provided by Club de Chasse et Peche, Chao Phraya, and Curry Original.  And I still go nuts over a Lone Star chicken fajita.

Happy people time !  And Mo got an amazing job after one interview.  No Duh Magazine: July Edition: Headline:  Cara owns.

Summerlicious.

I was fortunate enough to go to a couple of places this weekend for Summerliciousesque fixed price menus at The Rosebud (Saturday) and Pizzeria Libretto (Sunday).  An amazing Toronto food cherry pop.

Rosebud man Rodney Bowers made some sublime comfort food.  I had a simple mussels with tomato broth dish with beautiful fresh bread for dipping for first course.  Second course was my first foray into the trendiest cut of meat around – braised beef short ribs, with polenta and green beans.  Ribs were sublime, so so good.  Polenta tasted great but pretty gluey.  Jus was amazing, nice firm veg.  I wasn’t expecting a great dessert, but had a great rhubarb cobbler with brown butter anglaise.  Successes.

Sunday was a go for Toronto’s “most authentic” pizza at Pizzeria Libretto on Ossington.  I checked out the website, and their attitude towards pizza is really regimented.  Cara and I snobbily have some decent experience with real Neapolitan pizza, but it was awhile ago.  So we were curious to see how it compared.

It brought it all back… summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. It’s all about that carbony char and freshness and the best.  This is what Montreal is missing.  West West hipster employees, but great service and a great deal for a $25 prix fixe.  Caprese salad, proscuitto pizza, panna cotta w wild blueberries and an upsold accompanying Martini D’asti sparkling wine.  Upsell success.