Hosting an Oscars party is going to be tough this year. With 10 nominations for best picture, instead of the usual five, making movie-themed munchies will be twice as hard. To help Toronto hosts get their bearings, we suggest the following dishes from across the city, each inspired by the films hoping for the ultimate Academy prize.
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Posts Tagged ‘Sushi’
Pantry Raid
The latest food fashion is not a dish, but an elusive “fifth taste”
British chef-writer Laura Santtini has managed to get umami into a tube (Image: laurasanttini.com)
The Japanese have known about it for years, and researchers have confirmed its existence, but the Globe is just now declaring it fashionable. Umami is a taste (separate from sweet, sour, salty and bitter) first recognized by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda more than a century ago. Apparently Canadian chefs are clamouring to get it into their dishes. “I do think people are really capitalizing on the name,” Andrew Novak, owner of Toronto restaurant Umami Sushi, told the Globe. “Everyone has something that they’re referring to as umami.”
The so-called fifth taste is ubiquitous in Japanese fare: seafood, shiitake mushrooms and tomatoes, as well as fermented and cured products, such as soy sauce. The flavour’s ability to elude description—it has been variously described as meaty and savoury, or like the sweet flavour of barbecued salmon—has whet the appetite of a few cunning profiteers. The Food Channel recently listed it among its top 10 food trends of 2010 (yes, they realize it’s only March), and umami was the subject of a cook-off on The Next Iron Chef. Yet, as Novak himself says, the brilliant thing about a basic taste is that you don’t have to eat out to enjoy it: “Home cooks could combine their own ingredients to achieve the same effect.”
Culinary Curiosities
Jim Balsillie ate sushi at gold medal game
Jim Balsillie (Image: Balazs Gal)
Either it’s slim pickings in the gossip world or it’s a big deal that Jim Balsillie likes raw fish. Shinan’s latest column in the Post mentions that the RIM CEO was ordering sushi with “extra wasabi” (we’re not sure why that had to be put in quotes) at the men’s hockey finals on Sunday because he wanted something healthy to eat. Vince Vaughn was also at Canada Hockey Place (cheering for the other team, of course) and is getting flack from bloggers after unflattering photos of him eating a hot dog surfaced. To be fair, no one looks good while eating a hot dog. Celebrities: they eat just like us!
Restauran-TO
Just opened: Koko! brings casual Japanese and Korean fare to Yorkville
Unexpected ingredients add creativity to Aayama's menu (Photo by Signe Langford)
One of Yorkville’s newest residents is, surprisingly, a relaxed, sharing-style restaurant of unpretentious and affordable Japanese and Korean fare. Called Koko!, which is Japanese for “here,” the business is the brainchild of Sang Kim, who recruited Shin Aoyama as head chef (Aoyama studied under Hidekazu Tojo, one of Vancouver’s great sushi masters and the owner of Tojo’s).
Kim, whose impressive résumé as a restaurateur and consultant includes Ame, Ki, Edo, Lil’ Baci, Fellini’s Shoe, Tasty and Blowfish, admits that serving the food of his homeland is new, but he’s confident. “I have a top chef, and we’re not going to be pushing the envelope too much. We are going to be quality and accessibility driven. We’re not doing exotic modern Korean cuisine.”
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Weekly Lunch Pick
Where to eat lunch this week: Solo Sushi Bekkan
After the excellent donburi bowls at this tiny Yonge and College spot, we may never go back to the bento box
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Murder at New Generation Sushi, Kraft makes a move on Cadbury, portable tables for street food
New Generation Sushi on Bloor St. W. (Photo by Google)
• What began as a minor argument between two employees at New Generation, a popular stop along the Annex’s sushi strip, culminated in a murder. As many as 18 patrons were present at the restaurant on Saturday night when the nightmarish situation unfolded. Unfinished plates of food remained on tables on Sunday as investigators searched for clues. A 27-year-old employee was killed, and a 25-year-old co-worker was arrested at the scene. [Toronto Star]
• Good magazine has compiled a comparative infographic that looks at the national obesity rates and caloric intake of various countries around the world. As in so many other competitions, the U.S. reigns supreme, with 66.3 per cent of its citizens considered obese; the average daily caloric intake there is 3,767, with about 39 per cent of those calories coming from fats, oils and sugar. It’s no wonder, then, that the U.S. couldn’t make it into Forbes’ top 10 healthiest countries in the world. Canada came in eighth, with a still-shameful 23.1 per cent of its citizens overweight. [Good]
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Read All About It
Top five candies for Halloween nostalgia, collagen-infused coffee, Obama sushi
Unsurprisingly, Obama sushi is proving more popular than the bowl of miso broth that resembles Stephen Harper (Photo courtesy of Weird Asian News)
• Obamamania has invaded the Far East. A Japanese chef has come up with Obama-inspired sushi, complete with benevolent smile. Seeing the president’s face in maki form inspires almost as much hope as the real thing, because, a) it’s Obama, and b) the talent required to recreate such a likeness is remarkable. [Weird Asia News]
• Jumping fully onto the eco-bandwagon is the GreenBox, a new pizza box so dubbed because it’s made of recycled materials and eliminates the need for paper plates. The top of the box separates into four sections, and the bottom transforms into a receptacle for leftovers. A pizza shop owner called it “revolutionary,” and Ashton Kutcher deemed it “smart” in a Twitter post, guaranteeing its place in the annals of history. We just have one question: Pizza can be eaten from plates? [New York Daily News]
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In Print
The four most anticipated restaurant openings of the fall
(Photo by Vanessa Heins)
For our Best of Fall package, we name four new restaurants that inspire cravings for rabbit pancakes, soft-serve ice cream and kaiseki.
• See the full list here>>
• See the whole Best of Fall package>>
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The $168,873 bar tab, a new Toronto food craze, solving the jellyfish problem
Our tax dollars, hard at work (Photo by Beau B)
• As Canadian taxpayers were hunkering down for an era of frugality, they were also footing the bill for civil servants who spent $168,873 on booze for the 2008-09 fiscal year, according to documents tabled at the House of Commons. Also high on the list expenditures: golf balls, which racked up $30,053. [Winnipeg Sun]
• Canadians want to eat healthier food, but they’re placing the blame elsewhere when asked why they don’t. A national survey of low- and middle-income households found that cost is the biggest barrier to Canadian families in their attempts to eat healthy. Fifty-five per cent of families surveyed said healthy food is too expensive; other popular excuses included insufficient willpower, followed by a lack of availability (though last time we checked, most grocery stores had a produce section). [CBC]
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Toronto International Film Festival 2009
Demi Moore requests non-alcoholic beer and Ashton Kutcher plays a paparazzi prank at Ame
Ame bound: Demi and Ashton at The Joneses premiere (Photo by James Helmer)
When the Rubino brothers—owners of new sushi it-spot Ame (formerly Rain)—hosted a dinner party for the film premiere of The Joneses, they did not expect Demi Moore to request non-alcoholic beer, but ran to find some pronto. Young hubby Ashton Kutcher was A-OK with the ice wine martinis, but became vexed with the blur of flashing cameras. In his typical mischievous manner, Kutcher turned to the paparazzi and said, “I want to be the photographer!” After a quick tutorial, guests were greeted by an aggressive Kutcher behind the lens.
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