• The Twitterati are buzzing that Kensington Market’s La Palette, known to many as “that place that serves horsemeat,” will be taking over Taro Grill’s vacated spot at Queen West and Denison Avenue.

• Martini Boys is reporting that Grinder Coffee Bar is slated to open its second location in Leslieville in May (Grinder originally opened on Main Street as a second outpost of Mercury Espresso). The funny thing is that it’s going to open at Gerrard Square and Marjory, just two streets north of Mercury.

• Always-busy King West is about to welcome the downtown version of Italian eatery Paese Ristorante (its first location is at Bathurst and Wilson). Executive chef Christopher Palik is blogging extensively about transforming the space formerly occupied by Bistro 333 (apparently there was a lot of competition for the real estate, and by the time the Paese people moved in, the space was a mess). Paese is scheduled to open April 1.

• Grinder, Toronto [Martini Boys]
• Paese King Street West [blog]

Everything must go, even the famous bar (Image: Say Yeah!)

Looks like the city’s restaurants are doing some major spring cleaning, with Brassaii, Centro and now Marben undergoing renovations. The dimly lit Wellington resto-lounge is closing for a month starting this Sunday, but it’s not going out without a bang. Tomorrow night, Marben will be hosting a farewell party with a $45 “greatest hits menu” from which diners can order the famous duck tacos one last time (chef Craig Alley will be retooling the menu for the reopening).

There will be a silent auction this Saturday, from noon to 4, at which bidders can pick up chandeliers, espresso machines, couches, art, tables and the famous glowing onyx bar. Compendium Daily reports that the new Marben will have a different layout, including a private dining room and wine cellar, with a focus on “neighbourhood dining” (whatever that is). Sarah Evans, formerly of Le Petit Castor, has been recruited to help with the project.

• Marben’s GoodBye Party Invite [Facebook]
• Opening Soon: Marben Restaurant [Compendium Daily]

• Celebrity chef Marc Thuet has new cookbook coming: French Food My Way [National Post]

A cart of problems: workers move one of the Toronto a la Cart stations from Nathan Phillips Square (Image: Anthony Easton)

Meet Nancy Senawong as she schleps her $30,000 cart through Mel Lastman Square, where she will serve city-approved, city-branded, multiculti street fare to passersby for the second summer in a row. It’s now been two years since the Toronto a la Cart scheme was launched, and Senawong is the ailing food program’s new poster girl. Though she remains in debt for the pricey cart, she is the “one success story” from 2009, according to John Filion, the health board chair who first championed the street food scheme. She and at least five of eight other indebted vendors attached to the program will spend the spring scraping together what they’ll need (anywhere from $7,500 to $14,500) to keep their stalls in line with stiff municipal regulations.

“The one thing the city messed up on was the carts,” Filion tells the Star, apparently without irony. He was referring to faulty parts and forgotten weather enclosures. Verity Crown, the manufacturer of the units, added that if it had not been forced to conform to the city’s 75-page specifications list, carts would have been lighter and half the price. “Our hands were tied,” says president Bill Verity.

To that blunder, we’d like to add strict rules governing marketing, photo use and the approval of menu changes, which together leave little room for the sort of entrepreneurial creativity that can yield decent margins.

So why hasn’t Toronto a la Cart become the bountiful program its plan foretold? Probably hasn’t been regulated enough.

• Food carts still stymied by red tape [Toronto Star]

• Certain Frontier Brand Seasonings and Spices May Contain Salmonella Bacteria [CFIA]
• Various Frontier Brand and Whole Foods Market Brand Seasonings and Spices ay Contain Salmonella Bacteria [CFIA]

Unclean? Unclear (Image: Monica Arellano-Ongpin)

The Post reports that as demand for olive oil grows around the world, producers are mixing different kinds of cheap oil and calling it extra-virgin to take advantage of customers. “Olive oil is a commodity that can easily be diluted or substituted with cheaper oil,” said a spokesperson for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency last summer. “The presence of other oils in olive oil cannot be detected by visual inspection, and therefore consumers rely on the labelling.”

Three Canadian importers and distributors—Emma, Casa Italia and Cortina Foods—were convicted last year of selling olive oil that was diluted with a high percentage of cheap sunflower oil. Under Canadian legislation, extra-virgin olive oil has to be made entirely from the oil of olives harvested from olive trees. To qualify for extra-virgin status, the fat content and acidity levels are measured. The taste, smell, colour and texture are also tested by a panel of experts. The same is true in the EU, where food purity and certification are taken very seriously.

Before rummaging through our pantry in search of unchaste oil, we may have to submit an application to be an EU EVOO taster.

• Just how pure is that extra-virgin olive oil in your kitchen? [National Post]

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency already recalled five Siena products: salami, cooked ham, coppa and two types of prosciuttini. Siena, a Toronto-based food company, has ceased production and stopped shipment of all its products. This, of course, comes less than two years after Maple Leaf’s listeriosis outbreak, which caused the deaths of 22 people across the country.

• Ontario listeria deaths unrelated to Siena recall [Globe and Mail]

Don't have a cow, man (Image: FotoosVanRobin)

With all the fuss over students struggling to buy food using OSAP funds, it’s easy to miss other victims of Toronto’s high cost of living: expat European investment bankers. One individual has bravely blown the lid off of their plight. On the U.K.-based financial services Web site hereisthecity.com, next to an article called “My Bonus Isn’t Big Enough,” we found (with the help of the Post) Polar Roller’s scathing missive: “The Canadian Rip-Off.” In it, he discusses his horror at having to spend more than $10 for lunch here and takes umbrage at his maid’s paycheque, which, by his reckoning, is a full 20 per cent more than he pays his cleaner back home.

The greatest consternation for the poor banker, who valiantly survived the credit crunch of last year, was the whopping $30 his wife spent for some cuts of organic, grass-fed beef. “Surprising, also,” he writes, “how the absence of medication increases the price of a product.”

We wonder what whine went best with that beef.

• The Great Canadian Rip-Off [Hereisthecity.com]

Five years ago, this might have piqued the interest only of chefs and the Addams Family, but with the snout-to-tail philosophy gaining wide acceptance among diners over the past two years and “industrial” making a comeback among interior designers, don’t be surprised to see this hanging on the wall of a friend’s kitchen or an art student’s dorm.

$35 at the Cookbook Store, 850 Yonge St., 416-920-2665, cook-book.com.

(Image: Danielle Scott)

Last week, the Toronto Star’s Garnet Fraser joined the ranks of late-night television junkies hoping to slap their troubles away. The writer recently succumbed (“I’m stupid that way”) to the ads and purchased a Slap Chop, the infamous kitchen gizmo hawked by deranged infomercial god Vince Offer of ShamWow fame. Fraser’s test of the product revealed that—surprise, surprise—it’s less revolutionary than Offer would have us believe. Tomatoes have to be pre-chopped before they’ll fit into the device, thereby undoing the few precious seconds that Slap Chop promises to add to the day. Not only that, but onion skin ends up jamming the Slap Chop’s blades.

Did the Slap Chop put Fraser in a “good mood all day” as promised? Judging from the jovial tone of his article, the answer is yes—but largely due to the joys of self-deprecation.

The world’s full of rip-offs—how’s that time share working out for you?—and I have gotten some dark, violent laughs out of this one. If you’re the sort who will take a moment to dice onions, who holds themselves to thorough bourgeois standards, or who just doesn’t like to toss $25 on a lark, it’s not for you.

Good advice. We’ll hold off on the Slap Chop for now, saving our pennies for a Magic Bullet (the power-assisted Slap Chop). In the meantime, we’ll content ourselves with this remix of the Slap Chop infomercial. Hey, it costs a lot less than $25.

• Couch potato succumbs to Slap Chop schtick [Toronto Star]

• Scaramouche Staying Put Until At Least 2016 [TasteTO]

(Images: Renée Suen)

The place: Bloor-facing windows flood the room with light and make this a perfect spot for people-watching while sipping on cocktails. The long, loungey room oozes modern chic, with soft greys and bright splashes of red from leather chairs.

The crowd: Couples on cozy couches, Yorkville ladies flanked by pink Holts bags and suits discussing the mayoral race.

The deal: The day’s fish and chips special is popular, but we go for the signature tartines ($15 each)—open-faced sandwiches, made with the famed Poilâne bread that Holts flies in from Paris three times a week.

The dish: The tartine is brunch-like, with its layers of sautéed mushrooms, perfectly poached eggs, oven-roasted tomatoes and Kristapsons’ smoked salmon. The storied bread lives up to its reputation: the dense, butter-kissed crust has a hearty, smoky flavour. Crowned with a tumble of delicate mâche and served with a little tray of spices (Himalayan sea salt, Italian herbs and cracked pepper), this tartine is worth a walk up Bay Street. The grand finale lemon tart ($9) is delicate, tangy and excellent with a cup of Mariage Frères’ aromatic Marco Polo tea ($3).

The time: Without a reservation, our drop-in lunch totals 72 minutes, 15 of which are spent browsing Blahniks and Lanvins while waiting for a table.

The cost: $41, including taxes, tip and a bottle of Voss sparkling mineral water ($4).

Holts Café, mezzanine level, 50 Bloor St. W. (at Bay), 416-960-7817, official Web site.

Highway hell for locavores (Image: Grant Hutchins)

Canada’s highways can be hell for road-tripping locavores—all those thousands of kilometres of pavement, with nary a locally grown, non-processed food in sight. Luckily, the Globe has served up a few solutions. Three useful tips, after the jump.

Plan ahead. Arlene Stein of the Toronto chapter of Slow Food travels with snacks from home and a cooler for harvest goodies, which she and her family collect as they go. Also, a little research can literally go a long way. Travellers can mark farmers’ markets on fold-up maps and glean tips from Web sites like eatwellguide.org (for locavore-friendly market and restaurant listings) and greeneggstoronto.com (for a database of artisanal food in Ontario).

Get lost. Leaving behind the service stations has its perks, says Su Grimmer, a food and travel writer from Nanaimo. As the Globe reports, “By asking a couple in a grocery store where to find good bread on a recent trip in California, she discovered a place where a Mexican woman was turning masa harina into tortillas and stuffing them with pork raised on a local farm.”

Try the eggs. Sarah Elton, the author of the piece, who’s writing a book about the local food movement in Canada, suggests asking servers which items on the menu are made from scratch. If the restaurant’s breakfast options look suspicious, stick with the eggs.

• Travel like a locavore [Globe and Mail]

We'd tap that (Image: Jon Dawson)

The city has officially backed down from its stance on tapping inner-city trees for sap. A few weeks ago, we reported that the powers that be were turning down requests from environmentalists wishing to extract the gooey goodness from maple trees in local parks. Beth McEwen, the city’s forest and natural environment manager, even warned that people would have to pay a fine if they damaged a tree. But now, Laura Reinsborough’s Not Far From the Tree initiative has been given the green light, and several trees have already been tapped. The sap will be boiled over the weekend and served at a tasting event in Dufferin Grove Park on Sunday from 1 p.m to 4 p.m.

It’s hard not to applaud this sort of thing. After all, if the couches at city hall can bear witness to the joys of tapping, why can’t the average Torontonian?

The new dining room at Brassaii

This week marked the long-awaited reopening of King West institution Brassaii, and judging from the extensive menu redesign, the place is looking like more of an upscale dining spot than a Friday-night hangout for the mini-dress set.

The new one-page menus were designed by chef Bruce Woods, who left his five-year stint at Centro last year to join Brassaii, and seem to ensure that diners never need to leave the property: breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert and late-night snacks are all covered. Expect breakfast and brunch staples, as well as sandwiches and burgers for lunch. As for dinner, it’s continental fare with hints of Asian influence: miso cod ($29), spaghettini with kobe beef meatballs ($20), chicken with a panko crust ($25).

Expect to pay anywhere from $12 for mixed greens to $28 for tuna and $32 for grilled beef tenderloin or roasted ostrich, the most expensive items on the dinner menu. A traditional plate of two eggs, bacon, toast and home fries to start the weekday is a reasonable $8, and a sandwich and fries combo for lunch is around $15.

The space has also been revamped. The Design Agency—whose mixed bag of projects includes Cheval, Hart House and Lobby—unearthed an elevator shaft that was previously hidden and built a new bar made of limestone, glass and steel as a room divider. Jumping on the in-house gallery bandwagon, the place now showcases installations by local artists, which are juxtaposed by large antique wooden doors from Egypt.

Brassaii, 461 King St. W. (at Spadina), 416-598-4730, brassaii.com.