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malcolmjolley

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Posts posted by malcolmjolley

  1. All right, ok: I repent! Mea culpa maxima.

    All this hot dog bashing made me cranky.

    OF COURSE, more good food is good, no matter what.

    Let's just hope it's not Pizza Hut carts and Whopper-cycles.

    John Fillion's doing another one of those demos tomorrow at City Hall.

    Here's the press release:

    Please join us for Toronto Street Treats Main Course Event

    Where: Nathan Phillips Square

    When: Friday, July 13, 2007

    11:30 a.m. News conference

    Noon to 2 p.m.Vendors selling examples of new Toronto street food to the public

    Hosts: Councillor John Filion and Chefs from some of Toronto’s best restaurants, including:

    * Chris McDonald, Cava

    * Claudio Aprile, Colborne Lane

    * Didier Leroy, Didier

    * Food Share

    * Golden Turtle Restaurant

    * Indian Rice Factory

    * Izakaya Restaurant

    * Jamie Kennedy

    * Jumbo Empanada

    * Lemon Heaven

    * Pappas Grill

    * Guy Rubino, Rain Restaurant

    * Sunshine Shakes

    * Carole Ferrari, The Local Cafe

    * Viva Tastings

  2. My 2 cents:

    1) What's wrong with street meat? I love a spicy sausage with sauerkraut, hot peppers, dill pickle, onion and ball park. Damn tasty.

    2) It's not like it's hard to get diverse, cheap and good food anywhere in Toronto. Or to take it out of the restaurant if you're dying to eat something on the side walk. How is this going to change what anyone eats? We're already eating well.

    I think the whole thing is really silly/non-news.

  3. I had an absolutely perfect espresso at Ezra's Pound, beside the LCBO at Dupont & St. George, yesterday. Ezra made it and it was sublime. Go there! (I want to keep him in business, as it's close to where I live.)

  4. Am heading for 4 nights in SF with the Mrs. and another couple who are dear friends and like to eat.

    Friday is Range, Saturday is Gary Danko and Monday is Chez Panisse. Sunday is open.

    I harbour a fantasy of a neighbourhood bistro off the beat and track, but somwhere in SF proper. A relaxed Sunday night dinner with elbows on the table, I think.

    In any event, I am completely open minded, and welcome any and all suggestions that lead to a good meal.

    Help, SVP.

    [edited for spilling]

  5. Which Cheese Boutique are we comparing? The one on Mount Pleasant at Eglinton or the original?

    Mark

    You're thinking of "The Cheese Emporium" at Mt. Pleasant and Bayview. It has nothing to do with The Cheese Boutique and the Pristine family who run the latter.

    I am wholeheartedly biased towards the CB, but they are advertisers on my site and treat v. well, so I can't be objective. I will say I specifically sought them out as advertisers because I thought the quality of the fare was exceptional. I don't know where else you can get truffles regularly throughout the season.

    Sasha Chapman had a great profile on the family and store in Toronto Life a few issues back. See: http://www.torontolife.com/features/big-cheese/

    Check out there site, too: .

    http://www.cheeseboutique.com/

    If you go during the week between 11 and 3 or 4, there's a good chance you'll run into one of the city's top chefs.

  6. About 2 years ago, someone in the provincial government in Ontario decided to ban "fresh sushi". The mere notion of this caused bourgeois gastronomes like me to go apoplectic and start organising petitions, we went hard after media, got our stories heard, mobilised, got noticed and it went away quickly.

    And we're CANADIANS for &^%$$ sake!

    Come on America, fight back! You are the nation of Fisher, Beard and Child. What the &^%#@? Is Bourdain the only one willing to stand up for civillity?

    Get mad. Get really mad. And then go DO something. They've already got Chicago. Enough is enough.

  7. There's an espresso bar at Rosedale, On Yonge street across from the starbucks.  I dont know the name, but you'll see alot of people on the patio.

    Cafe Doria, and it's a perfectly good espresso.

    I wonder if there isn't any place on St. Clair West?

  8. The Brits, Spanish and French dominate any news we get about what's happening in Europe. But surely there must be interesting things going on in the continent's biggest country.

    What's making news? Are there any particular German trends? Is there a celebrity chef culture? What's going on?

  9. Wow. Great thread. Thanks for all the response.

    MarketStEl, re: your quote below: have they been making balsamic since 1912? Or just in business? Can you maneion the name of the producer? Or PM me?

    One of the leading Italian manufacturers of industrial-grade balsamic vinegar has been in business since 1912, which suggests to me that there must have been some upsurge in demand for or knowledge of a product somewhat resembling true balsamic vinegar in Italy around the turn of the last century.
  10. There are now fast food restaurants that have plastic pouches of "balsamic" dressing to give away with their salads. But 20-5 years ago, few outside of Modena would have known what this was. (Not that the industrial stuff bears any relation to the real stuff.)

    I'm working on a project that is looking at how speciality foods come into the mainstream, and we're trying to figure out what pushed balsamic vinegar into middle class consciousness, at least in North America, Britain, Australia, etc.

    One story, which we suspect is apocryphal, has the condiment’s popularity rise with Modena's other big export of the 1980s, Luciano Pavarotti. Any truth to this?

    Others have suggested it simply rode the coat tails of olive oil's emergence as a healthy fat, and the whole Med-Italo-food revolution of this time.

    Any ideas and/or leads would be very welcome.

    Malcolm

  11. In an act of utterly shameless self-promotion, I would like to draw attention to Ivy Ethier's piece in this week's Gremolata on PEI Moonshine.

    Apparently the islanders have not abandoned this noble pursuit, and I was actually privileged enough to try some at a tasting, the details of which are recounted in Ivy's article.

    Outside of Appalachia, I am not aware of any other North American hot beds of traditional home brew. But I'm probably just ignorant, so it would be cool to find out if there's anywhere else where they continue to fire up the still.

    Cheers,

    Malcolm

  12. Great notes. Reminded me that it's a pleasure to read them when they're relaxed and not too concerned with picking up every note on the palate.

    Coincidentally, I met Alvaro Palacios today at a tasting in Toronto, where his Bierzo was poured among others. Good stuff, indeed.

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