NEW SHAY CHEESE BOX FOR MAY'05
 Gremolata's Greatest Hits Myth of the Mediterranean Diet
Andy Shay on Cheese
World's Most
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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 Encyclopedia) |  Matthew Christian is a freelance writer based in Toronto. As an 8-year-old, he handed a confused Sunday-school teacher a dull brown crayon scribble captioned "I thank God for hamburger stroganoff." The career in divinity, or as Turner-prize-winning artist never materialized, but he has been writing and eating (and writing about eating) ever since. Read his previous pieces for Gremolata: Len Deighton's Action Cookbook and Where's My Chicken Bob Gainey.
Gremolata Day Trip: Guelph
Unfortunately handicapped by its onomatopoeic name, the city of Guelph sits at one corner of Southwestern Ontario's not-so-famous "Golden Triangle" (the other two being Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge). Penetrate the soulless subdivisions that stretch towards the 401 and you will discover a charming stone-built downtown core with a strong bohemian influence, and more than enough to engage the most food-obsessed traveller. The Guelph Farmer’s Market
Gordon St. at Waterloo Ave.
Open Saturdays 7am to 12 noon
Guelph's status as capital of Wellington County and location of the Ontario Agricultural College ensured that it became the commercial capital of the once-agrarian region. The Guelph Farmer's Market—a 170-odd year-old institution—is one of the more visible remnant of this past. Located in a low-slung building overshadowed by a CN railway bridge, the Farmer's Market bustles on Saturday mornings with Old Order Mennonites selling home baking and hooked rugs, Hungarian butchers hawking smoked sausages, Latin American cantinas serving up empanadas, and farmers selling locally-raised Elk, fruit, vegetables and those staples of old Ontario—chili sauce and zucchini relish. Organic food is an increasing emphasis of the Guelph Farmer's Market, and the Guelph Organic Conference held from January 20th to the 23rd of this year, is an example of the continuing influence of the OAC and the University of Guelph on the life of the city. With stalls such as Greenfields Organic Farm, Fourfold Farm Organic Baked Goods and Blue Haven Farm, locally-grown organic food is very much in evidence and at such reasonable prices ($2.50 for a pound of organic Jerusalem Artichokes—available October to April) that the trip could almost pay for itself. Doug’s Place
6 Carden St.; 519.821.8540
Open Tuesday to Friday 8am to 3pm; Saturdays 7am to 3pm
There is no better table in Guelph at which to set down your basket and rest after the market than Doug's. A short block north at the corner of Carden and Wilson streets, Doug's Place has been a fixture on Guelph's restaurant scene since 1970. It would be hard to overstate the loyalty of Doug and Audrey Maclean's patrons for whom the narrow dining room is often a second home (and first choice lunch table). Open for breakfast and lunch, the real draw is Audrey's real simple good cooking. Order the cheeseburger platter and the house-made patty comes on a bun that she cooked that morning. Likewise the bread nestled under the bowl of soup, which more than stands up to the comparison (the mushroom and the tomato-basil soups are particularly outstanding). Other lunch specials might include a roast beef or Thai chicken salad, cheese quesadillas, or an egg salad sandwich and no-one has ever sat down to a breakfast of Western Omelette and home fries and left unhappy—at least no-one I know. Finish your lunch with a tasting plate of 3 mini desserts—lemon tart, chocolate pot-de-crème and a brownie—and beg Doug and Audrey to shelve their plans of retirement in Australia for one more year. With the Grain
Corner of London & Woolwich Sts.; 519.827.0008
Monday–Friday 8am-6pm; Saturday 8am-5pm; Sunday 10am-4pm
Opened in 1999 and located in a corner house on the northern edge of Guelph’s downtown core, With the Grain is a bakery and café that epitomises the bohemian aesthetic of the University-influenced parts of town. Baking different breads every day of the week—buttermilk cornmeal on Tuesdays, for example; red onion & black olive on Thursdays; baguettes most days—With the Grain provides the city with artisanal breads of the highest quality (call to reserve your favourite loaf). A café attached to the bakery serves up one of the city’s most sought-after weekend lunches. The Bookshelf Café
41 Quebec St.; 519.821.3311
Monday–Friday 8.30am-10pm; Saturday 9am-10pm; Closed Sunday
www.bookshelf.ca
When The Bookshelf opened its doors it was just that: a bookstore. Now expanded to include a second-run theatre, a lounge, and a café, the venerable Bookshelf could engage an arts-loving visitor for a whole day. Accessible from the street and from the bookstore (turn right and head toward the magazines), the café offers three menus: one for lunch, one for dinner, and one for in-between. Each menu features a selection of the kitchen’s excellent pizzas and includes a good selection of salads. Meats are from Wellington County’s outstanding Rowe Farms, which Torontonians can find at the north building of St. Lawrence Market on Saturdays. If you feel inspired, write an ode to the Grilled Rowe Farms strip loin on your napkin and enter it in nest year’s Bookshelf’s poetry contest (this year’s deadline was April 7th). Cox Creek Cellars
Hwy #6 North; 519.767.3253
Tastings year round; tours available seasonally on Saturdays and Sunday
www.coxcreekcellars.on.ca
The wines might not be VQA but the owners of Cox Creek Cellars can boast an oenological pedigree that spans almost 200 years. The Trocta family's great passion is for fruit wines, and their trophy cabinet boasts a number of impressive medals. Travel along Highway 6 in the direction of Fergus and Elora, don’t hesitate to try the Cox Creek White (a Seyval Blanc), and support the spread of winemaking outside the Niagara Peninsula.
| Gremolata Books: 
Pam Reiss' Soup
Anthony Boudain's
Les Halles Cookbook
Trout Point Lodge Cookbook
Last Chance to Eat
Top 10 of 2004
|
