| Fresh Food | Membrillo, Mas Chichet, Tomatillo Salsa, |
More (Archives + Search) * Contact * Please Subscribe (it's free) * About Us * Wine Agents * NEW: Gremoblog | ||
| Fresh Food | Membrillo, Mas Chichet, Tomatillo Salsa, |
More (Archives + Search) * Contact * Please Subscribe (it's free) * About Us * Wine Agents * NEW: Gremoblog | ||
| Browse or Search All of Gremolata  Gremolata; gremolada: [greh-moh-LAH-tah] A garnish made of minced parsley, lemon peel and garlic. It's sprinkled over osso buco and other dishes to add a fresh, sprightly flavour. (Source: Food Network Encyclopaedia) More Gremolata... The Cheese
How Yellow Tail World's Most Thank you for reading
| Membrillo con Manchego As all things Spanish continue to lead culinary trends in the English-speaking world, the country's famous sheep's milk cheese, Manchego, continues to enjoy increasing popularity. But do all these new manchego munchers know the true and proper way to enjoy the cheese in the classic tapas manner? It took one of Canada's most high-powered publishers to show us what we were missing: membrillo. Membrillo is a paste made of quince and the traditional tapas accompaniment to Manchego...[more]. | Gremolata's Classic Summer Cookbook List: Lulu's Provençal River Cafe Easy The Cooking The Harry's Bar Cookbook And bear Two Towns Garlic and Gremolata's
Escape to Please contact Gremolata with story ideas, questions or comments. We welcome enquiries for hard to find products, meats and vegetables. If we don't know where to find it, we'll find someone who does. Contact us anytime. | |
Rare Swiss at the Cheese Boutique This July the Cheese Boutique will be featuring a number of rare (at least, rare in this part of the world) cheeses from Switzerland. Featured cheeses include Le Marechal, Le Tonneau, Tête-de-Moine and specialty, raw milk, cave-aged Gruyeres and Emmenthals, like Alpine Lace. Every Saturday there will be top chefs serving samples of dishes made with the cheeses, along with Swiss-related door prizes. Gremolata has partnered with the Cheese Boutique (who in turn is presenting the program with Switzerland cheese Marketing Inc.) to promote this series of July weekend events...[more]. | |||
Mas Chichet Wine writer Alan Kerr's tasting notes for the 2004 Mas Chichet Rosé (LCBO# 319376) are as creative and accurate as Gremolata could ever imagine: "pretty aromas of rose petal, candy floss and fruit Kool Aid." This could well be the ultimate hot July patio night wine. At $12.95 it's a good square deal, if not an outright bargain, and the Midi wine easily competes with Provencal rosées that retail closer to $20 or more. Also, there's still a several hundred bottles of it around since it was released on June 25. Look for it in larger Vintages sections throughout the province, or find the store that carries it nearest to you at the LCBO's website by clicking here. NEW: Visit Gremolata's Summer Wine Page for our collection of articles on wines available at the LCBO and local wineries that have run in Gremolata Updates over the spring and summer of 2005. Click here. | |||
Tomatillo Salsa Even the most dedicated foodies have to buy toilet paper once and awhile, so next time you find yourself in a store with a parking lot bigger than a schoolyard, head for the Mexican section and look for the little 210g cans of Herdez "Green Sauce" - they usually retail for about 99¢.The ingredients are simply listed as green tomatoes, onions, serrano pepper, salt and coriander, but "green tomato" is an off translation: it's really made with the more exotic tomatillo. Wonderfully tart, with a sharp bite - perfect for salty tortilla chips. | Toronto's Chef Database Can't remember the name of the first restaurant Susur Lee worked in? Want to know who was the chef at Centro in 1990? Then checkout the Toronto Chef and Restaurant Database. When IT professional Brian Will started the Chef DB as a hobby a few years ago he had no idea it would grow to include 3,000 names and 2,000 restaurants. Now his father George helps manage the site, which is sure to conclusively end any Hogtown culinary argument. Visit www.chefdb.com. * * * | ||
| Ontario Produce Alert! This week, Gremolata received a new update from Farmer Dave Perkins at his Niagara farm, Wyndym. He writes:
Visit Wyndym's Website to find out how you can enjoy Farmer Dave's produce at home. | |||
David Wood's Cheese Odyssey David Wood’s name is familiar to Toronto foodies who harken back to the pioneering gourmet shop he opened in 1984, and which dominated the larders of the city’s carriage trade for most of that decade. In the early 90s, Wood and his family fled the Big Smoke to the pastoral paradise of Salt Spring Island, where they started a new life making what is widely hailed as some of the best goat's milk cheese in Canada. But, things were not so easy fifteen or so years ago in the world of handmade cheese. Gremolata's Malcolm Jolley recently spoke to Wood about his Cheese Odyssey and how he became one of the nation's top producers…[more]. | |||
Featherstone Estate Winery Gremolata's roving Canadian wine correspondent, Chris Willsher, returns this week with a look at another boutique winery from Niagara: Featherstone Estate. Established in 1998 by the husband and wife team of David Johnson and Louise Engels, Chris reports that this Vineland winery's holistic approach to winemaking sets them apart from many contemporaries in the region and has led to significant success over a short period of time. Chris recently set out to Ontario wine country to see where the award winning wines come from up close...[more]. | |||
Dominique and Cindy Duby Spain has Ferran Adria's El Bulli, The UK has Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck, Chicago has Grant Achatz' Alinea, but where can you go in Canada to experience molecular gastronomy, the mad scientist cuisine that's taking the epicurean world by storm? Would you believe a Vancouver chocolate shop? Husband and Wife team, Dominique and Cindy Duby, were recently in Toronto explaining the revolutionary techniques behind their Wild Sweets line of confectionary, made with weird contraptions engineered at UBC (one is a kind of cross between a microwave and a centrifuge) and ingredients one would never associate with chocolate like wild rice or barley grain. Belgian born Dominique explains that the pioneering chocolates "view science and psychology as an integral part of a modern food experience." Visit their website at www.dcduby.com to learn more. (For links to the restaurants above, see our Celebrity Chef List.) | |||
Toronto by Table Four of Toronto's top restaurants, Splendido, Didier, The Fifth and Via Allegro have joined forces to create a new organisation called Toronto by Table. Gremolata contacted Splendido's co-owner Yannick Bigourdain this week to find out more about the project. Bigourdan explained that with each restaurant offering a mid-priced $65 tasting menu they hoped together to raise awareness of what's coming out of the city's upper tier kitchens among a broader audience. Bigourdan was adamant that Toronto by Table was in no way trying to compete with Summerliscious, which also offers discount menus at selected restaurants, although at a much lower price point (between $15 and $35). The group hopes to focus on seasonal and regional themes over the year. Their kick-off feature Canadian menus in honour of our delicious Dominion's birthday, but Bigourdan foresees future promotions focusing on farmstead cheeses, or truffles or other specialty items. The group also hopes to catch the attention of Tourism Toronto and partner in Culinary Tourism projects and expects to grow its membership beyond the four founding restaurants. For more information and to view Splendido's menu, click here. | |||
Jason Collett Jason Collett is probably the most in demand singer-songwriter in the Canadian music scene today. Organiser of Toronto's renown Radio Monday concerts, guitarist for indie-rock superstars Broken Social Scene and accomplished solo artist. Collett's new album Idols of Exiles has just been released to critical acclaim as varied as NOW Magazine and Maclean's. Gremolata caught up with Collett on a sun-dappled patio in Little Italy to talk about food, wine, the road and a rock'n'roll life...[more]. | |||
Little India Toronto's Little India neighbourhood, set along a strip of shops and restaurants on Gerrard Street East, holds some of the city's most delicious treats, for people who know where to go and what to get. Gremolata's Michele Chandler found a great guide in cooking school teacher Arvinda Chauhan. Chauhan, an accomplished cook, writer and recipe developer, barred no holds and their trip along Gerrard Street covered several regions on Indian food and just about every course...[more]. | |||
The Spice Trader The first of two new Queen West gourmet stores to share an address, The Spice Trader opened recently, featuring all organic or wild harvested spices. Neil Bougourd, who started the store with partner Alison Johnston, explained that he was tired of spending a lot of money on beautiful organic produce and meats and then throwing on spices that could have been made any way at all. Bougourd also told Gremolata that the volatile oils, which give dried spices their flavour are lost when exposed to light, which is why The Spice Trader's wares are packaged in opaque tins. The store also features certified organic sea salts, which may only be harvested in heritage reserves in three countries: New Zealand, Wales and France. 805 Queen St W, call 647 430 7085 or email info@thespicetrader.ca | |||
The Olive Pit The second of the two new Queen West stores to open recently is the Olive Pit, which carries 36 varieties of extra virgin, cold pressed, olive oils from nine different countries. Owner Shirley Bougourd (mother of Neil, see above) is particularly proud of her single estate oils from France, which feature single varietal pressings - very rare to find in this country. The Olive Pit also carries the fabled Minus 8 ice wine vinegar from Niagara and has three varieties of EVOO that can be purchased in bulk (you can bring your own container, if you like). These can always be tasted first, as can at least one of their flavoured oils (porcini when Gremolata visited recently). 805 Queen St W, call 647 430 7085. | |||
Copyright © Gremolata Media Group Inc. 2005.
It has been an interesting start to the season, with the weather being the big boss that it is: driest May in 71 yrs followed by the hottest June in 38 yrs. First season ever that we have not had lettuce! But that is changing as we get set up for our "anti-mesclun" assault on fine dining. We started harvesting baby vegetables this week: three kinds of beets, two kinds of kohlrabi, two kinds of turnip, tiny red and torpedo onions, baby fennel, braising greens and some other surprises. Our vegetables are now being picked by myself or an entremetier who is working part time here, so the consistency and size are where we like it to be. Plus other cooks are dropping by to help now. We all had a field snack of soramame the other day: soaked baby fava beans grilled for minutes on a wood fire and then salted and ate by hand. Very Shunju...or was it very Wyndym? Finally, We are excited to finally have a home for our stuff at ORO on Elm St in the T-dot. Dario Tomaselli is a talented, passionate chef and his insistence on "turning" vegetables properly and cooking to order à la minute made it a perfect fit.
