While we’re busy teaching our kids to tend school gardens, they’re failing provincial tests in reading, writing and math. The folly of the new enviro-propaganda

(Illustration: Tavis Coburn)

This fall, hundreds of Toronto students are harvesting beets and zucchini from their school gardens. I say: nice photo op, bad idea. The argument for school gardens assumes that by grubbing in the dirt, kids will learn to love eating vegetables. They won’t think chickens hatch into this world as deep-fried nuggets. And they’ll develop a respect for nature.

Here’s the counter-argument: our students shouldn’t be out scrabbling in the hot sun when one in five can’t pass the Grade 10 literacy test administered by the provincially funded Education Quality and Accountability Office. And while Canadian students score high internationally in reading, mathematics and the sciences, Statistics Canada says our relative ranking is declining due to improved performance by other countries. In this era of global competition, we can’t afford to let other nations nip at our heels.

Half of Toronto’s population was born outside Canada, and it’s a safe bet many of them came here for a better life, including a good education for their offspring. A lot of immigrants originate from agrarian regions of countries such as India, Pakistan, China and the Philippines. The last thing these newcomers need is a morality crusade about carrots. Yet more than 200 of Toronto’s nearly 600 public schools now have gardens, and an army of well-meaning parents, volunteers, activists and advocacy organizations with a social agenda is successfully lobbying for more.

The schools I’ve visited tell me that growing your own food is worthy, wholesome and educational. That’s what Chairman Mao said when he shipped millions of Chinese youth to the countryside—and abandoned them there. I know whereof I speak. I moved to China in 1972, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. As a third-generation Canadian, I didn’t speak Chinese. I knew only what my profs at McGill University had taught me: that China was a revolutionary utopia.

At Beijing University, where I studied Mandarin and Chinese history, I enthusiastically embraced Maoism, including the precept that students must “reform” their wayward thinking through physical labour. It was, to put it delicately, horticultural hell. My classmates and I harvested wheat and hauled pig manure and dug ditches. At one point, we marched 20 kilometres to a farm, where we tilled the land for nearly a year. It being the silly ’70s, McGill gave me full credit toward my Asian history degree, and I graduated on schedule. Intensive farm work, however, vaporized my Chinese classmates’ one precious chance at an education. Today, they’re called China’s Lost Generation.

Mao’s agrarian fantasy and the Cultural Revolution sputtered to an end with the Great Helmsman’s death in 1976. China immediately relaunched its vaunted education system, with rigour. This past year, Shanghai beat the rest of the world in reading, math and science in standardized tests managed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

So it’s alarmingly déjà vu to see the gardening campaign underway at so many Toronto schools, both public and private, even if it’s a far more touchy-feely version. Toronto Waldorf School, where tuition and fees exceed $16,000 a year in the higher grades, is an enthusiastic proponent of whole-earth education. It has a chicken coop, a few goats and a $150,000 organic greenhouse that recycles grey water. A farming and gardening program, centered on its three-acre teaching garden, is an integrated part of the curriculum from Grade 3 through Grade 9. Ninth graders spend three weeks living and working on organic farms, some as far away as Europe.

(Image: Suzanne Long)

Fears are spreading throughout the Toronto Farmers’ Market Network that participants at city markets might soon be on the receiving end of a large user fee increase from the city. Anne Freeman of the Dufferin Grove market and Carolyn Wong of Trinity Bellwoods are just two of the market organizers who have been circulating a petition in an attempt to head off the hike. “You don’t attack your food source,” a frustrated Wong told The Dish.

The concerns were sparked after a little birdie alerted market organizers that the special events permit fees that markets pay may be on the rise in a big way this fall. Currently, the fees are subject to a three per cent annual increase, but the rumour mill suggests that a much larger one may be on the horizon. If that happens, organizers warn it could mark the end of local markets as we know them.

According to the TFMN, farmers who drive into town are already struggling, with many bringing in only enough revenue to cover insurance and gas. What keeps them coming back is the direct interaction with patrons and the promotional value of immersing themselves in local communities. Many have linked up with community-supported agriculture programs or have teams to hit various markets at once to make it worth the trip to the big city. Freeman and the TFMN are using the petition—which can be signed at most markets and online—as advance leverage for the fall, when the fee increase proposal is expected.

• A Message From The Toronto Farmers’ Market Network: Your Support Is Needed [TFMN]

(Image: Carlo Mendoza)

Game Fish Farmers’ market

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(Image: Joel Kimmel)

Being a locavore doesn’t come cheap. While buying in bulk can help, not everyone has a minivan and a deep-freeze big enough for a side of beef. The solution? Meat boxes, delivered monthly from the farm. The deal is similar to veggie programs: subscribers buy in for a few months and farmers divvy up the ethically raised animals among them. Deliveries bring expertly butchered cuts wrapped for the freezer. Here, three programs for keeping your ’cue stocked with virtuous steaks and burgers all summer long.

West Side Beef Co., westsidebeef.com.
One-fifteenth of a cow from Dingo Farms, a GMO-free farm near Bradford. Boxes include ground beef, steaks, sausages, lard and stock. $150 for approximately 20 lbs. Orders are on a cow-by-cow basis. Pickup only.

Stoddart Family Farm, 705-786-7705, stoddart.ca.
Naturally raised beef, lamb, pork and chicken from a farm in the Kawarthas. Boxes bring ground beef, steaks, sausages, chops, stew and roasts. $495 for 10 lbs. per month for six months.

Twin Creeks Organic Farm and Garden, 519-538-4704, twincreeksfarm.ca.
Grass-fed beef and lamb and naturally raised pork. Cuts include steaks, sausages, chops and stew. $335 for 6 to 7 lbs. per month for six months.

The Sausage Partners: Lorraine, Lilly and Kyle Deming (Image: Signe Langford)

First there was the Leslieville Cheese Market, then the Foodist Market, then Hooked, and now Sausage Partners. Leslieville is rapidly becoming the east end’s go-to ’hood for gourmet food shopping, and with many of these places being run by pro chefs, it’s easy to see why. This new meat shop will open in June in the former Inspired Cook space, with Kyle Deming (head chef at Starfish and Ceili Cottage) and his wife Lorraine at the helm. “We’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time,” explains Lorraine, “but we really got the push about two years ago when we made sausages for Patrick [McMurray]’s 40th birthday. Everyone was asking, ‘Where can we buy these?’ So we just kept thinking about it and it feels like the right time now.”

The couple will be working closely with Kawartha Ecological Growers (K.E.G.), buying whole animals from the collective’s farmers and butchering them into prime cuts and sausages with clever names (Naked Pig, Smoked Naked Pig, and, for the one with offal, the Organ Grinder). “We’re not adding a ton of spices. We just want to show off the flavour of the meat,” says Lorraine. Chef Deming, who intends to keep his day jobs, will be experimenting with Mark Trealout of K.E.G. on pre-seasoning the animals. “I’m hoping to feed one pig huge amounts of Kernal Ontario peanuts and see if that enhances the flavour of the pork.”

The shop won’t just be a sausage party, however. Kyle plans to house-smoke salmon and bacon over Ontario and Newfoundland peat, as well as make haggis (the recipe a gift from Stravaigin restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland) and bake Scottish meat pies based on his grandmother’s recipe. Lorraine will be busy stocking shelves with her preserves and pickles—jams made from K.E.G. fruit and her famous Brampton Pickle, a play on the classic British Branston Pickle—many of which are already on the menu at Ceili Cottage.

The pair are also promising a fish counter selling Purdy’s Ontario lake fish, Jim Giggie’s Ocean Wise trout and sustainably farmed halibut from Nova Scotia. Game meats from Ontario Harvest, local veggies and, yes, Deming’s famous sticky toffee pudding will also be on offer.

Sausage Partners, 1378 Queen St East, 647-227-0031, sausagepartners.com.

Tam Ngoc Tran had a comfortable life in his native Vietnam. He was an electrical engineer with a decent income, enough to support his wife and three kids. But, like so many immigrants, he was seduced by the promise of a better future in Canada, and in 1989, at age 41, he moved his family to Toronto. Once here, the best job Tran could find was as a labourer with a company that made marble tabletops. His wife, Lien Thi Pham, worked double shifts in a factory. After several years, they managed to scrape together enough money and cashed in an RRSP to make a down payment on a house—a $220,000 semi at 96 Driftwood Avenue, in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Tran, Pham and the children, who were then 20, 15 and 10, moved in in 1997.

Apart from the new house, good fortune eluded Tran. He suffered a series of strokes in his 50s and lost his job. His marriage, which had grown rocky, ended when Pham moved out with the elder daughter. The two younger children didn’t want to leave their schools and stayed with their father. Although the couple divorced, Pham returned regularly to 96 Driftwood, sometimes staying overnight, to check on the kids and to monitor the many medications prescribed to her former husband. For a short while, Tran accepted welfare payments to take care of the bills, but he didn’t want to rely permanently on social assistance. He told his family he was embarrassed to be unable to support himself.

One morning in the spring of 2006, Tran met a friend for a regular coffee date at the Jane-Finch Mall Tim Hortons. They discussed Tran’s money problems, and the friend suggested a marijuana grow op could be the solution. Tran was interested and soon was introduced to two men in the pot trade. They sold Tran 300 marijuana seedlings and supplied grow op equipment, which they installed in his basement. The setup was slick and professional, with Mylar on the walls to reflect light back on the plants, several fans for brisk circulation, and an intricate arrangement of shields and lights. The start-up payments came to $3,000, which Tran covered with the last of his savings. The men, as well as providing equipment and basic growing instructions, would deliver Tran’s grown marijuana into a dealer’s hands and pay Tran a one-third share of the profits—the usual cut for grow op farmers.

The crown seized Tam Ngoc Tran’s Driftwood Avenue house after he was found growing 490 pot plants in his basement (Image: Stephen Brookbank; Illustration by Robin Cameron)

Unfortunately for Tran, he proved to be a clueless grower. With his first crop, he neglected to weed out the male plants, which are good for little except pollen. Inevitably, they degraded Tran’s female plants, which yield the high-potency marijuana, and he was left without a single usable plant. Tran showed marginally better farming skills on the second crop over the following two or three months, and it brought him $2,100—an encouraging sum, though not enough to pay off his original investment. By the third attempt, Tran had found the knack and was on the way to a robust harvest, but he would never get the chance to cash in on it.

Tran was betrayed by his electricity bills. Staff at Toronto Hydro noticed his house was using five times the power of others on the street and notified the cops. Officers from the drug squad arrived with a search warrant at 11 p.m. one day in late January 2007 and found what they considered an impressive grow op. They counted 490 plants, which, they calculated, were capable of producing 500 pounds of marijuana with a street value of more than $500,000.

Tran was charged with producing marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Since Pham had been spending the night at the house, wakened in her nightgown when the cops banged on the door, she was charged with the same offences.

Tran and Pham’s friends encouraged them to hire a criminal lawyer named Peter Zaduk. Zaduk’s reputation spread among Toronto’s Vietnamese marijuana growers in the early 1990s after he won acquittals for a Vietnamese-Canadian underworld figure in 10 separate trials for offences ranging from fraud to assault. Attracted by these triumphs, Vietnamese-Canadian clients flocked to Zaduk, who estimates that he has now represented well over 300 Vietnamese individuals accused of running grow ops.

We prefer to pass the holiday season by eating our way through it and forcing loved ones to do the same. So we’ve come up with 13 inventive edible gifts (and not a mini-muffin basket in sight).

See our foodie gift guide now >>

See our other gift guides:

• 33 gifts under $30 >>

• 33 gifts under $100 >>

• 34 gifts over $100 >>

• 25 gifts you can buy on-line >>

We know that the future isn’t how it was supposed to be—it’s 2010, and we have neither jet packs nor flying cars (iPads don’t make up for their absence)—but today we learned that the future might be bleaker still, as the maw of humanity gobbles down the last of the world’s chocolate. According to a piece in the U.K.’s Independent, chocolate’s days are numbered:

In the future, chocoholics might have to work quite a bit harder to pay for their fix. The world could run out of affordable chocolate within 20 years as farmers abandon their crops in the global cocoa basket of West Africa, industry experts claim.

“Galaxy, Creme Eggs, every kind of £1 chocolate bar will be a thing of the past,” warns London chocolatier Marc Demarquette, who believes a bar at £7, or its future equivalent, will be more like it. And Demarquette, who worked as an advisor for a recent BBC Panorama documentary on the troubled West African cocoa fields, is not alone. John Mason, executive director and founder of the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council, has forecast that shortages in bulk production in Africa will have a devastating effect: “In 20 years chocolate will be like caviar. It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won’t be able to afford it.”

The main reason for this looming catastrophe seems to be that the small farmers who grow most of the world’s cocoa aren’t getting paid enough to expand production. We’re not economists, but it seems like there’s a market for fair-trade chocolate to go with its successful coffee counterpart. Add some organic milk, and hopefully Toronto will still be able to get its mochaccino fix in 2030, even if it costs a bit more.  It’s either that or live in a world with no chocolate, and in that world we’re pretty sure the living would envy the dead.

• Chocolate: Worth its weight in gold? [The Independent]
• In Twenty Years Chocolate Will Be A Rare Delicacy [Popular Science]

(Image: Benson Kua)

The leaves may be changing and drunken freshmen may be stumbling around the streets again, but summer isn’t officially over until September 22. Instead of whinging about the inevitable end of the warm weather, make full use of the remaining lazy, hazy days with our list of 16 things to watch, eat, do, see and buy before it’s time to break out the scarves and jackets.

1. Go to Sugar Beach. The Claude Cormier–designed park is the newest addition to Toronto’s ongoing waterfront rejuvenation project, with quartz-speckled sand, pink umbrellas and grassy knolls. The beach is nestled between the slick Corus Entertainment building and the Redpath Sugar Factory, and the Muskoka chairs are a good vantage point from which to contemplate Toronto’s past and present or work on a late-summer tan. Jarvis slip, lower Jarvis St. and Queens Quay E.

2. Taste killer sorbet. The Drake Hotel’s ice cream and T-shirt shop, Scoops and Tees, will lose the ice cream come October. Go on a sweltering day and order the refreshing lemon–olive oil sorbet. 1150 Queen St. W., 416-531-5042.

Sugar Beach opened this August (Image: Carley Fortune)

3. Worm your way up to the Thompson rooftop. Sure, the 18th-floor patio is reserved for hotel guests and VIPs with access cards, but where there’s a will, there’s a cute doorman to sweet talk. We recommend going on a weeknight, when revellers aren’t jostling for a poolside perch. 550 Wellington St. W., 416-640-7778.

4. Watch The Last Exorcism at the 5 Drive-In in Oakville, where you can cringe and cower in the privacy of an air-conditioned sedan. 2332 9th Line, Oakville, 905-257-8272.

5. Eat at Enoteca Sociale. With its house-made pastas, laid-back attitude and pedigree (chef Rocco Agostino also heads up the kitchen at Pizzeria Libretto), the new Dundas Street West wine bar will be just as appealing in the fall. But we suggest going before the leaves drop: the small patio is shaded by leafy trees, making dinnertime lighting nicely dappled. Order the casarecce pasta with eggplant, heirloom cherry tomatoes and ricotta salata. 1288 Dundas St. W., 416-534-1200.

The bar at Parts and Labour (Image: Jon Sufrin)

6. Order a French 75 at Parts and Labour. The cocktail—gin, prosecco, lemon and simple syrup—is the ideal thirst-quenching drink for balmy September evenings: equal parts fizzy, tart and sweet. Plus, a bar stool provides the best view of the restaurant’s hot clientele and an opportunity to chat up Constantines drummer Doug MacGregor behind the counter. 1566 Queen St. W., 416-588-7750.

7. Hear The Wall. During the course of Roger Waters’ full performance of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, a 35-foot barrier will be constructed (and ultimately knocked down) between himself and the audience. There are three dates for the show (September 15, 16 and 18) at the Air Canada Centre. 416-870-8000.

8. Get lost in the foreboding cedar hedge maze on Centre Island. The dark, overgrown paths can be scary for kids, but it’s frustrating fun for adults.

Dufferin Grove's corn is delicious (Image: Tracy O)

9. Buy corn. This year’s late-summer crop of sweet Ontario corn at the Dufferin Grove farmers’ market is possibly the best we’ve eaten. Thursdays 3–7. 875 Dufferin St.

10. See Best Coast. Technically, the band’s September 25 Lee’s Palace concert date is in the fall, but listening to the indie surf-rock California trio is sure to extend the summertime buzz.

11. Swim at Sunnyside. The lakeside public pool has been closed most of the summer because of flood damage, but it reopened last week for the final weeks of the season. Weather permitting, Sunnyside will be open until two weeks after Labour Day, but brace for cooler-than-usual waters: save for a small propane unit, the heaters remain inoperable after the flood. Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Parkside Dr., 416-392-7929.

Marben's decadent ice cream sandwich (Image: Matthew Fox)

12. Sneak into a TIFF party. There’s more free booze and celeb sightings to be had in Toronto during the film festival (September 9 to 19) than at any other time of the year. Plus, it’s not that hard to get past the velvet rope. Sidle up to the doorman, talk on your cellphone and look bored. Wear something low-cut or bring a date who will.

13. Hunt for the city’s best burger. We’ll point you in the right direction: the thick John’s Burger (made of braised short rib) at Marben comes on a just-baked bun with aged cheddar and Branston pickle. For a full-on coronary, finish the meal off with the decadent chocolate ice cream sandwich. 488 Wellington St. W., 416-979-1990.

14. Watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The Michael Cera summer blockbuster hasn’t exactly broken box-office records, but it’s a cute flick with enough Toronto references to keep people averse to comic book adaptations entertained. May we recommend our Scott Pilgrim drinking game?

15. Fire up the barbecue. Before outdoor grilling becomes a task for the most devoted toque-wearing carnivore, try making a batch of finger-licking pork ribs from Union chef Teo Paul’s recipe. We’ve got it right here.

16. Shop at Vaughan Mills. Until the end of September, the humongous shopping centre runs a free shuttle that leaves twice daily from Union Station. All the better to save pennies for purchases at Holt Renfrew Last Call. vaughanmills.shopping.ca.

On May 29, the opening day of the Brick Works farmers’ market, I pedalled past the savvy people who had parked their cars illegally outside the Mount Pleasant Ceme­tery’s southern gate, knowing there would be no parking spots below, and through the Moore Park ravine. The air was cool and moist, the trees still. Then, the vista of the Don Valley opened up: the sun was shining on the pretty quarry garden, burning away the morning clouds and reflecting off the wetland ponds. I couldn’t yet see the market, but I could hear it: at 8 a.m., the site was already alive with happy chatter and the slow strum of “You Are My Sunshine” on guitar.

(Image: Jeremy R. Jansen)

See a slideshow of the Brick Works, then and now »

I arrived to find bulrushes and Bugaboos framing the red brick buildings to the south of the quarry. It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic scene in Toronto, a city of mostly perfunctory landscapes, not known for its great beauty. In just three years, the organic market at the Brick Works has become the city’s largest, colonizing the once-abandoned factory of tumbled-down sheds and turning it into a utopian destination for a growing number of foodies. On this opening day, some 3,500 people came for the pastured eggs with marigold yolks, to sip organic fair-trade coffee and munch the city’s best GMO-free corn empanadas.

I wandered over to the native plant nursery, where a couple were debating the purchase of an apple tree, and bumped into an old friend who had come over from the Annex with his two kids. The boys were running circles around their dad, lobbying him for money to buy Belgian waffles. In a former industrial storage shed, dozens of vendors had set up tables, the farmers sprinkled in among the caterers and other producers. There wasn’t a lot of produce to buy (it was too early in the growing season), but there were plenty of other things on the tables. Ruth Klahsen of Monforte Dairy was selling her incomparable sheep’s milk cheese. At the other end of the shed, Jamie Kennedy’s son was tossing french fries in sea salt next to Andrew Hunter of Buddha Dog, who was selling his artisanal wieners. The organic farmer Ted Thorpe had lettuces at his table; sadly, no strawberries yet. You could get a 10-minute (and very public) massage if you were so inclined, or stock up on organic “muttballs”—chi-chi handmade dog food. But the wares almost seemed irrelevant. Not everyone was carrying bags on their way out; many were just there to catch up with friends and have their children’s faces painted by a volunteer. Elizabeth Harris, the market’s 67-year-old organizer, was sitting on a picnic bench serenely surveying the scene. She’d had a stroke earlier in the week and just got out of the hospital the day before, but she refused to miss opening day. Can you find Arcadia in a pint of raspberries, in a bouquet of organic lavender? The Birkenstocked mothers with their string bags seem to think so.

For decades, nobody knew what to do with the Brick Works, which sat forlorn and empty. There was something magnificent in the old, decommissioned brick buildings. In a city spectacularly unconcerned with its past, it was a spot to contemplate the ghosts of an earlier age.

Leaf fan: Matchbox Gardens grows rare and wonderful lettuces (Image: Jay Shuster)

The trendy Asian cuisine of the moment is at its most authentic when portions are big, salty-sweet and cheap. The $20 combo deal at this 24-hour spot brings one entrée, five domestic beers and a bottle opener. The onslaught of complimentary pan chan—soy beans both sweet and crunchy, mild kimchee, vinegary cucumbers and a block of tofu sauced with Korean chilies—is merely a prelude to a hefty bowl of wickedly addictive hot and sour pork.

As the ranks of the wheat intolerant swell, a flood of gluten-free goodies has hit the market. Baking without traditional ingredients, however, requires a special kind of alchemy, and most gluten-free breads are near inedible—either Sahara dry and crumbly, or gummy and hockey puck dense. That’s why the breads from Yoshi’s Sweets are a revelation. Using a combination of seeds, bean and grape skin flours, Barry Horn makes six types, including a romano bean bread that could pass for wheat and a slightly sweet white bean with grape skin loaf that’s an ideal partner for raspberry jam. The crusts are crusty, the insides are fluffy, and, wonder of wonders, the loaves are delicious even without being toasted. The biggest compliment: non-celiacs willingly eat it, too. From $8.50 a loaf.

Rousong looks a little like candy floss, but that’s where the similarities end. A staple garnish in Chinese cooking, it’s made by braising pork tenderloin in soy sauce and sugar; the softened meat is pulled, strained, oven-dried and wok-fried until it becomes lighter and fluffier than pork has any right to be. At Asian Legend, rousong is served as part of a dish called Glutinous Rice Roll, which involves wrapping it in fried bread that’s in turn enclosed in an omelette and a layer of sticky rice. The entire thing is served, for mysterious reasons, in a plastic bag. One bite and the cottony fibres begin to dissolve, their sweet, salty porkiness takes hold, and you realize that the molecular gastronomy guys have nothing on Chinese line cooks. $5.

The humble date square—a specialty of this Distillery baker—proves that an old-fashioned Canadian recipe, perfectly executed, can rival ritzier confections. Rich, vanilla-infused date filling between two buttery layers of dense oatmeal crumble forms a brilliantly sticky sandwich, best enjoyed with an espresso (Balzac’s is a few doors down) or a scoop of vanilla gelato (Soma is around the corner). $3.

Seafood is the last frontier of high-minded foodies. Few fishmongers lose sleep over sustainability; not only is it difficult to keep track of what’s endangered, it’s also hard to make a profit without threatened cod, monkfish and bluefin tuna. Leave it to the Healthy Butcher to fill the void with a certified guilt-free selection of aquatic edibles, some farmed, some wild, from across the country. The thrice-weekly catch usually includes Arctic char, steelhead trout, tilapia and whitefish. The crispy skin and juicy white flesh of fresh Lake Huron pickerel is the real catch: sautéed in butter and olive oil, it ticks off all the ethical boxes without compromising quality. From $4 for a pickerel fillet.

Matchbox Gardens takes the 100-mile rule seriously: they grow their seedlings in greenhouses at Downsview Park and have a three-acre plot in Brampton. The company’s focus on heirloom greens means they always have wonderfully peculiar lettuces with tongue-tying names. The pick of the bunch is Italienischer, a rare oak leaf variety that grows like a weed. Each massive bunch contains dozens of long (up to 30 centimetres), curly leaves that spike out in all directions. It combines the crunch of romaine, the slight bitterness of a dandelion green and the mild sweetness of butter lettuce. When dressed with a simple olive oil vinaigrette, it makes the quintessential summer-fresh salad. In season July to September. $2.50 per bunch.

Jesus Martinez, the Veracruz-born owner of Kensington Market’s newest snack spot, serves the most authentic burrito in these parts. The sublime mole verde is our favourite: refried black beans, sour cream, rice, lettuce and soft shreds of chicken are elevated by a zingy, long-simmered, chili-laden sauce of creamy avocado, citrusy green tomatillos and puréed pumpkin seeds. $5

When summer’s swelter takes its toll and serious hydration is required, consider how they do it in Caracas. At Arepa, the easy-going Venezuelan restaurant on Queen West, they use a sugarcane syrup to lend the thirst-quenching citrus sipper a complex, full-bodied sweetness. The sugar cane gives the drink a warm caramel hue, gently rounds off the lemons’ zing and puts cloying white sugar concoctions to shame. $3.

The tangy, musty rind is reminiscent of camembert, and the nutty flavour hints at a Dutch origin, but Le 1608 is as Canadian as poutine. It’s made from the raw milk of rare Vache Canadienne cattle, and named after the year of Quebec City’s founding. When a cheese gets you excited about history, you know it’s good. (Plus, the giddy enthusiasm of the staff at this tiny shop is contagious.) $8 per 100 grams.

Forget the newfangled pulled pork pancakes, pulled pork pizza and pulled pork poutine that dominate Toronto’s menus. To experience true Southern-style pork shoulder, you want someone to smoke the living daylights out of it, douse it in kicky homemade sauce and pile it between two pieces of bread. Paul and Sandy Kocukov leave their pork for 10 to 12 hours in a custom-designed smoker behind their humble Etobicoke storefront. The result? Meat that’s tender, juicy and hickory licked. Call ahead, because they often run out before the day is done. $7 with one side.

Giovanna Alonzi, the chef at the Terroni group’s Osteria Ciceri e Tria, spends a lot of her time travelling in Italy in search of the sorts of rustic recipes that are the foundations of the mini-chain’s formula. Olive Ascolane, from Ascoli Piceno, near the Adriatic coast, has to be her greatest find. Alonzi stuffs large, mild olives with mortadella, pork, beef, pecorino and spices, then rolls them in bread crumbs and deep-fries them to an absurdly delicious golden green. They’re cheesy, meaty and salty little poppers, with a briny olive pucker. And they’re easily the best thing that’s ever happened to the humble fruit. $5.

When the coffee is as good as it is at this perfect little café, it feels blasphemous to talk about the herbal tea lattes. That is, of course, until you taste a Miami Haze, barista Jay Galbraith’s rosy take on a London Fog. He makes an infusion of nutty almond tea—a magical mix of dried apple, almonds, cinnamon and beetroot from the Trinity Bellwoods tea boutique Tea­lish—then adds a shot of organic vanilla extract and a cloud of steamed milk. An attention-grabbing pink and with an intoxicatingly fruity smell, this bauble of a beverage easily doubles as a dessert. $4.

There are a dozen butchers in town with excellent steaks, but Cumbrae’s Stephen Alexander still puts the most care into his succulent slabs. Alexander works with a loyal handful of Haldi­mand County farmers who raise Angus and Hereford cattle on red clover and alfalfa for deep flavour, and corn and barley for magnificent marbling. Then he ages his beef for an all-important six weeks. A few minutes on a searing charcoal grill is all it takes to unlock their unctuous juiciness. $25 a pound.

Every carton arrives from Stoddart’s free-range farm and is like an idiosyncratic collection of Easter eggs. Shells can be rutty or smooth, freckled, reddish or even pale turquoise (spotted on the menu at Nota Bene and Local Kitchen and Wine Bar, they come from rare South American Araucana chickens). On the inside, rich orange yolks and thick whites whip up into an uncommonly fluffy omelette. We also recommend serving them soft-boiled with the shell on for a brunch spread worthy of Martha Stewart. $7 per dozen.

Auf Wiedersehen, weird weiners: Roncey loses its Dog (Image: Joey DeVilla)

Amidst all the G20 brouhaha, it was easy to forget that one Roncesvalles’s more creative fooderies, Buddha Dog, is calling it quits after three years. Fans of the tiny hot dog shop, which was recommended in our Roncesvalles Guide, can still get their fill at the Evergreen Brick Works farmers’ market on Saturdays or up at the Picton location. A post from the owners on their Web site says that they’re focusing on “building more rural locations and developing our Buddha Foodha at Home line of products.” We’re not sure what to make of the rural locations part, but selling bottles of their Indian butter and red pepper jelly sounds like a good business plan to us.

See into the future: Church and Front Streets, c. 2014

St. Lawrence Market’s historic north building is getting a not-so-historic-looking facelift. Yesterday, David Miller and Councillor Pam McConnell announced that a winning design for the St. Lawrence Market North Building Design Competition has been chosen from the short list of five. By 2014, the building will be transformed into a hulking four-storey structure that will house market space on the ground floor, with courtrooms and administrative offices for Toronto Court Services occupying the upper floors. It will also feature a green roof and parking garage.

The new design, by Adamson Associates Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, features a glass atrium that will provide a clear view of street life on Front and Jarvis Streets, as well as views of the south market and St. Lawrence Hall to the north. According to press material, the airy space will make indoor shoppers feel like they are in a “fresh outdoor market.” It will probably also make shoppers feel like they’re in the future (which they will be, incidentally).

The current Saturday farmers’ market and Sunday antique market will move to a temporary location at 125 The Esplanade during construction.

(Images: toronto.ca)