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Toronto Life - The Dish

The latest buzz on restaurants, chefs, bars, food shops and food events. Sign up for the Dish newsletter for weekly updates. Send tips to thedish@torontolife.com

Culinary Curiosities

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May 10, 2012 | 3:13 pm

Why whiskey could be the new bacon (parental discretion advised)

Remember your last bourbon sour? Well, we hope you savoured it, because the surge of brown spirit–based drinks might well be on its last legs. Why? Because that sometimes-smoky, slightly sweet flavour of whiskey has now been made into a sexual lubricant. It seems like only yesterday that people were gabbing about bacon lube, and now no one seems to be talking about those fatty strips of smoked pork with quite the same reverence. We fear the same may happen for the city’s bourbon intake. Should there be a dearth of whiskey in the city, don’t fret—you can purchase this ridiculous product in a six-pack for a $12 discount.

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April 26, 2012 | 5:14 pm

It’s all over folks: T.G.I. Friday’s starts serving Korean tacos

(Image: T.G.I. Friday’s)

The trend that started out in the food trucks of California and spread like hot gochujang to Toronto restaurants like Swish, JangBang and Banh Mi Boys is now officially over: that’s right, Korean tacos are now available at American casual dining chain T.G.I. Friday’s. Oh well—it was fun while it lasted, at least. [Eater]

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April 24, 2012 | 4:36 pm

VIDEO: Pizza Hut Middle East debuts pizza with cheeseburger crust (no, really)

We thought Pizza Hut was pushing the bounds of postmodernist pizza innovation with its Cheesy Bites pie. We were wrong. The lucky folks in the Middle East now have exclusive access to the cheeseburger Crown Crust pizza, a new creation whose crust is made up of, you guessed it, cheeseburgers. The whole thing is topped with lettuce, tomatoes and “special sauce,” and there’s also a version with chicken fillets for the beef-averse. What will they think up next? A pizza crusted with little tiny pizzas? [Eater]

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April 5, 2012 | 10:28 am

Starbucks to remove the red bug juice from its Frappuccinos

Starbucks Strawberries and Crème Frappuccinos will no longer contain the ground-up bodies of insects, and frapp-loving vegans everywhere have a crusading barista to thank. Back in March, vegans, along with everyone else who doesn’t like eating bugs, were shocked when the barista leaked the product’s ingredient list, which included a sauce made with cochineal extract (look it up). And while some argue that the dye is found in all kinds of products (like lipstick!), drinking bugs is unsettling to many, no matter how ubiquitous a product might be. Seizing the moment for a little bit of damage control, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz promised yesterday on CBS This Morning that the company would find a new way to give the drink its red hue (it starts at the 5:50 mark above). “We’re looking at everything,” Schultz said about potential alternatives to the dye. “We’re going to make the right decision.” (What a relief.) Oh, and he also talked about his plans to address America’s crippling unemployment or something. Read the entire story [CBS] »

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April 4, 2012 | 3:01 pm
Waving goodbye to the enviropigs 

The dream of a genetically engineered pig that produces pristine (okay, less phosphorous-laden) manure is, for the time being at least, dead. The New York Times reports that the University of Guelph’s “enviropig” project, which involved designing a pig better able to digest phosphorous, has lost its funding from Ontario Pork. The story is an interesting one, because it raises questions on the ethics and practicality of genetically engineering animals, but also because it’s the only story you’ll read today that describes someone as “co-inventor of the pig.” The main problem, the Times explains, is that the researchers weren’t able to find a company willing to bring the pig to market, which figures, since the animals were never approved for human consumption in the first place. Still, if you’re a supporter of the project, don’t despair. Just in case a company is one day willing to market the animals, their semen is being frozen—which we can only assume was the handiwork of some poor undergraduate looking for extra credit on his bio lab. Read the entire story [New York Times] »

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March 29, 2012 | 1:15 pm

Rogue vegan barista outs Starbucks for using ground-up bugs as a red dye

(Image: Starbucks)

Strict vegans and others who prefer not to eat ground-up insects were upset to learn that a sauce used in certain Starbucks drinks contains, well, ground-up insects. The Seattle Times reports that Starbucks Strawberries and Crème Frappuccinos are made with a sauce that contains cochineal extract, “made from the bodies of ground-up insects indigenous to Latin America.” The paper broke the bad news after a vegan barista did the passive-aggressive right thing and sent the sauce’s ingredient list to a vegetarian blog. The extract is used in other Starbucks products, including their “red velvet whoopie pie.” And it’s not just vegans who are upset. The Center for Science in the Public Interest thinks that, at the very least, companies should have to disclose that their products contain insect derivatives—if the FDA isn’t going to nix the colorants altogether. But how could Starbucks achieve that lovely red hue without the bodies of insects, you ask? How about something like vegan-friendly beet juice? Or, um, strawberries? Read the entire story [Seattle Times] »

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February 27, 2012 | 12:05 pm
Ben and Jerry’s finds a new ethnic stereotype to project onto Jeremy Lin 

Sure, most people thought the media frenzy surrounding basketball phenom Jeremy Lin hit rock bottom with ESPN’s already-infamous “chink in the armor” headline, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped the folks at Ben and Jerry’s from grabbing their own shovel and doing some digging. When the company decided to make a new, limited-release flavour to honour Lin, they settled on a mix of vanilla frozen yogurt, lychee honey swirls and crumbled-up fortune cookies. Yes, fortune cookies, that staple of North American Chinese food that, it seems, is practically unknown in China. (The company has since opted to include a waffle cookie instead, since customers apparently complained the cookies got soggy.) For the record, the Toronto Star’s Cathal Kelly is offended that you’re offended, arguing that some of the controversy surrounding Lin, like that ESPN headline, has been more stupid than outright racist. If anything, though, Lin should be upset that Ben and Jerry’s reductionist approach to devising ice cream flavours led to something that seems pretty gross. After all, they were able to honour Stephen Colbert without resorting to, say, hot dog and beer–flavoured ice cream. Read the entire story [Boston Globe] »

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February 21, 2012 | 5:08 pm

The world’s first lab-grown burger could be ready by October

Burger 2.0?

According to Mark Post, the head of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, all that stands between you and a juicy lab-grown hamburger are $315,000 and celebrity status. Post says that by October, his team will be ready to put their £200,000 creation before a real live celebrity taste-tester. The burger would be the result of a project funded by an anonymous donor that involves taking stem cells from cows and growing them in a culture with fetal calf serum, according to the Guardian. Post believes lab-grown meat could drastically reduce the number of cows at factory farms, which would mean fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less animal suffering.

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January 24, 2012 | 4:03 pm

In a fit of hot dog hubris, Vancouver resto launches $100 bratwurst

The beast itself, all $100 of it (Image: Courtesy DougieDog)

Vancouver restaurant DougieDog Hot Dogs put out a press release this morning (which got picked up by the Canadian Press) announcing the latest in fast food extravagance: the world’s first $100 hot dog. The so-called Dragon Dog—a foot-long bratwurst steeped in 100-year-old cognac and topped with Kobe beef, lobster (!) and truffle oil—is a publicity stunt double-whammy: it arrives right on the heels of the Year of the Dragon, and it acts as a bit of promotion for the titular Dougie’s upcoming appearance on tomorrow’s Dragon’s Den (in this clip, Robert Herjavec lauds his “hot girls and hot dogs”). Owner DougieLuv tells us the attention has been nonstop since his announcement and warns that 12 hours advanced notice is required for an order, presumably to allow the Louis XIII to fully soak in. Of course, given what happened the last time someone attempted a novelty, $100 fast food item (we’re looking at you, M:brgr), we’re a bit worried that this operation might prove too big not to fail. Our fingers are crossed for Dougie.

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January 19, 2012 | 10:19 am

Meat grown in a lab could grace our plates by year’s end (but it probably won’t)

Could this be in our near future? (Probably not)

In vitro meat is one of those futuristic products that feels like it belongs to a future full of hovercraft, silver jumpsuits and Leonardo DiCaprio dropping into our dreams. Imagine our surprise, then, to see an article in the Daily Mail bearing the unapologetically emphatic headline “Artificial meat grown in a lab could become a reality THIS year.” The article suggests that 2012 could be the breakthrough year for lab-produced meat (which could help ease world hunger, animal suffering, climate change, etc.), and even contains an, ahem, scientific-looking infographic to show how the process works (it’s worth a click). If you ask us, that timeline feels mighty optimistic; researchers profiled in recent issues of The New Yorker and The Walrus indicated that we’re still some distance away from sitting down for a nice cut of vat-grown rib-eye (doesn’t that sound lovely?). Read the entire story [Daily Mail] »

(Images: steak, FotoosVanRobin; petri dish, JamesZ_Flickr)

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December 1, 2011 | 10:14 am

Digital pizza conjuring? There’s an app for that


It seems the once self-flagellating Domino’s Pizza is trying its darndest to put an end to home dough slinging with Pizza Hero, a devilishly clever iPad app. It starts as an innocent game, closer to Cooking Mama than Guitar Hero: using the touch screen, players select the toppings, slide the pizza into the oven, slice it and stuff it in a box for delivery (the central dough factory is notably absent). But hey, now that you’ve made the pizza, why not press a few buttons and have the real thing delivered to your home? Thankfully the app isn’t available in Canada yet, so Toronto’s children are safe…for now. [h/t Eater]

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November 18, 2011 | 10:37 am

VIDEO: Watch William Shatner show how deep-frying a turkey can go wrong

Noted safety expert William Shatner has teamed up with good neighbour State Farm Insurance to take up the annual tradition of warning Americans about the dangers of deep-fried turkey, just in time for next week’s U.S. Thanksgiving. This time around, they decided to go quasi–Terrence Malick, complete with portentous orchestral music, slow-panning shots and Shatner intoning as only Shatner can: “Fire, metal, oil and turkey are glorious when in harmony, but their power is unrelenting in careless hands.” Oh, and there are also some cheesy flame effects.

Culinary Curiosities

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November 15, 2011 | 5:12 pm

Is Rob Ford on the (hot) sauce? One crafty entrepreneur thinks so

(Image: Corbin Smith)

Our mayor’s sometimes-fiery antics have earned him immortality in culinary form: bottles of Rob Ford hot sauce were spotted at Blue Banana in Kensington Market two days ago (presumably Ford-brand gravy was a bit too obvious). Unfortunately, the condiment appears to be a pretty hot commodity—every bottle has been grabbed off the shelves, so at present we can’t tell you who manufactures it or what’s it’s made of (besides garlic and hot). We’d love to see it served at the next Ford Fest barbecue, but somehow we doubt that’ll happen—we’re not lawyers, but as far as we can tell, the sauce seems at least somewhat legally dicey. [h/t Torontoist]

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November 15, 2011 | 11:07 am

The bacon-everything trend reaches its tragedy and farce stage (parental discretion advised)

This morning, the world’s food editors, reporters and bloggers issued forth a collective shudder upon receiving the latest press release from J&D’s Foods. The Seattle-based company is famous for such creating novelty edibles as Bacon Salt, Baconnaise and, this year’s best April Fools’ joke (with us playing the role of the fool), BaconAir, a porky inhaler. But with their latest product, Baconlube, they’ve simply gone too far.

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October 31, 2011 | 4:51 pm

VIDEO: How to make some last-minute Halloween candy, molecular gastronomy–style

It’s 4:51 p.m. Do you have your Halloween candies in order? If not, perhaps the above video from the folks behind Modernist Cuisine will provide you with some inspiration. All you need are some Oreo cookies, isomalt, gum arabic, gelatin, olive oil and a fishing-lure mold. Oh, and an adorable little helper. (h/t Eater)

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