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The seafood couscous at Mideastro (Image: Renée Suen)
With Toronto’s wet, sloppy winter weather setting in, it’s nice to be reminded of warmer climes. The five-month-old Yorkville location of Mideastro does just that with its sophisticated take on Mediterranean and Israeli cuisine. It’s a particularly good bet at lunchtime, when smaller versions of many favourites from the dinner menu are available at a fraction of the cost.
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Where to find it: The new sceney bistro La Société, 131 Bloor St. W., 416-551-9929.
What: The platter features catches by Toronto-based Allseas Fisheries. The raw, filleted salmon is organic, from Ireland. The sashimi is the highest grade yellow-tail tuna from Japan. The oyster selection changes every few weeks and includes Wellfleet from Long Island, Malpeques from P.E.I. or Kusshi from the West Coast. The wild Mexican shrimp is chemical-free. And the seafood salad (on the top) combines calamari, shrimp, scallops, mussels and brined salmon.
Pièce de résistance: A whole P.E.I. lobster (on the second tier). Read the rest of this entry »
It’s official: Mississauga has beaten Toronto to the punch. While city council here has been having a hard time banning shark fin products, Mississauga councillors unanimously adopted a bylaw this morning that prohibits the possession and sale of shark fins in the city, jurisdictional issues be damned. The move makes Mississauga the largest city in Canada to outlaw the controversial seafood. Brantford made a similar decision earlier this year, and Oakville banned shark fins back in July, effectively cornering the city of Toronto from the west (of course, more shark fins are probably served north of the city). Toronto city council meets tomorrow to address the issue. Mississauga councillor Pat Mullin told the Toronto Star she hopes the city’s move will create momentum for a ban in other cities across Canada. “I hope Toronto, tomorrow, uses Mississauga as an example,” she said, which we believe would officially turn this week into no-shark week. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Open only a couple weeks, Off the Hook already has a strong local following (Image: Daniel Barna)
A punning name seems to be obligatory for fish-and-chips shops these days. First there was The One That Got Away, which opened last fall on King Street West. Now Steven Karataglidis has opened Off the Hook on Broadview, which, in addition to succeeding Deep Blue as the Greektown’s only fish fry, might be Toronto’s first shop to fry its daily catch in gluten-free batter.
The fish basket at The One That Got Away (Image: Andrew Brudz)
Since it opened last November, The One That Got Away has been serving simple sandwiches, wraps and tacos (only available after 2 p.m. for now) to King West workers and nighttime revellers. The cafeteria-style dining room features the rustic wood and kitschy artifacts ubiquitous in new restaurants, but the classic fish ’n’ chips is hard to come by downtown.
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La Société serves up social cachet wrapped in sex appeal, and some decent French food, too (Image: Eugen Sakhnenko)
Four million dollars buys a lot of restaurant, even on Bloor Street, at the heart of the city’s richest retail mile. Charles Khabouth, the nightclub impresario behind La Société, the new, two-storey, 380-seat, more or less slavish recreation of a belle époque Paris bistro, brought in 29 tile workers, many of them from Montreal, to complete the spectacularly elaborate black, white and gold mosaic floors in the restaurant’s main bar and dining room. He and Alessandro Munge, of the Munge Leung design firm, commissioned a stained-glass ceiling for the bistro’s main space (which they’ve backlit, inexcusably, with sallow fluorescent lights), purchased their zinc bar top from France, outfitted the banquettes in brass and burgundy leather, and panelled the room in enough mahogany to deforest the best-endowed of banana republics. The rent, meantime, likely adds $2 million annually to Khabouth’s overhead. He’ll need to sell a lot of steak frites to cover that, but the man isn’t afraid to go big.
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Backyard sommeliers bored with the usual summer reds (merlot, shiraz, zinfandel) should try fruity garnacha. It is more commonly known by its French name, grenache, but it originated in Spain and thrives in the hot, arid Mediterranean. Despite once being the world’s most widely planted red grape, it was usually considered unfit for fine wine on its own. Its tannin and acidity are low and its alcohol quite high, so it’s most often blended with syrah, mourvèdre and carignan, or torn out of the ground altogether to make way for merlot and cabernet vines. In recent years, however, such leading winemakers as Alvaro Palacios, Hugh Ryman and Norrel Robertson are reviving derelict garnacha vineyards in Spain. The old, gnarled, low-yielding vines make richly fruity, even creamy reds that are dense enough to match red meat textures, smooth enough to drink without aging, and ripe and peppery enough to handle any barbecue sauce yet invented. If you crave something light, garnacha is the base for dry Spanish and French rosés, and there is even a handful of whites made with garnacha blanca. It’s also affordable, so you can mix a case of different styles to keep your deck and dock guests happy all summer long.
The bar at La Société (Image: Gizelle Lau)
La Société, Charles Khabouth and Danny Soberano’s new upscale bistro, opened last week to just the chic red-carpet reception one would expect, with guests like “jersey boys” Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Greta Constantine, media mogul Moses Znaimer, Canadian Read the rest of this entry »musician music manager and producer Jake Gold and Food Network Canada host Kevin Brauch (no RPattz sighting, though). We first scoped out the dining room’s impressive stained-glass ceiling shortly after it was installed, and returned last week to see how everything turned out.
Detail from the Guardian visualization (Image: David McCandless)
We’ve been hearing for years about the depletion in fish stocks and the necessity of more sustainable seafood options. But you know what they say about pictures and (thousands of) words. Over on the Guardian’s Datablog, data-visualization whiz David McCandless has put together a sobering map comparing the biomass of popularly eaten fish in 1900 versus 2000. Check it out »
Three-item combo at Taste of Orient (Image: Renée Suen)
A food court gem located in the newly renovated Richmond Adelaide Centre, Taste of Orient serves heaping plates of simple but flavourful Cantonese food at the right price and the right pace for local lunch-goers with a schedule to keep. Less than $8 delivers three items from the heated countertop display with rice or noodles. On our visit, the curry-stained Singapore-style noodles, stir-fried with cabbage, carrot and onion are surprisingly light, while the green beans and chicken is, unlike most fast food counters, neither greasy nor sitting in a pool of congealed sauce. The coconut shrimp is encased in a thin, crisp batter and coated with a sweet mayonnaise dressing. Finally, four large sole fillets come slicked with a faint oyster-based sauce and delicately steamed with ginger and green onion. Altogether, a great value for surprisingly well-executed food.
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Scenes from a never-ending party
2:45 a.m., Cobra
“Let’s get drunk and fuck! Let’s get drunk and fuck!”
I’m at Cobra, a King West club in a sprawling basement underneath a 19th-century warehouse. In this neighbourhood, the best parties are either deep underground or high above in a rooftop bar. Cobra is decorated like a gothic funhouse, with a wall of glowing skulls and lots of black. The get-drunk-and-fuck directive bleats from a techno remix as coloured lights, inducing a kind of electric synesthesia, pulsate on the basement ceiling. To my left, two girls make out and topple over, knocking down their bottle service glassware. Guys eagerly watch from the sidelines, plotting how to make their move. My teeth chatter from the vibrating bass. I down a shot that’s half Sour Puss and half vodka, proffered by a human Barbie doll bartender. Read the rest of this entry »
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Although locally and organically raised meat has become much more common in recent years, the pickings for sustainably caught fish are still pretty slim. That’s about to change with the opening of Hooked, a new sustainable seafood market in Leslieville.
WHITE
BIG HOUSE WHITE 2009
(California, U.S.)
A sharply reduced price makes one of California’s most amusing whites—a fresh, perfumed, multi-grape blend—a no-brainer for parties (The cost of this wine has increased to over $10 since this article was published.). LBCO 173286
CASAL THAULERO 2009 OSCO PINOT GRIGIO Read the rest of this entry »
(Abruzzi, Italy)
Casal Thaulero’s flavourful and refreshing pinot grigio blows away the rest of the Italian competition. LCBO 73163
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