I’ve always thought of deli cooking as winter food. Peppery, extra-fatty pastrami, heavy dark rye bread, vinegary cabbage, kosher pickles and cherry cola strike me more as things to eat in January—not April. Maybe it’s that lately it feels like January, but as I was reading Toronto Life contributor David Sax’s blog, Save the Deli, this morning, I found myself fighting the urge to head north to Moe Pancer’s Deli.

Though Toronto’s got no shortage of “institutions,” Pancer’s is one of a dying breed: a true Jewish deli that’s still thriving. Sax says Pancer’s is a great place, up there with the best Jewish delis in North America. And if anybody knows, he does. He just returned from a two-month, 16,000-kilometre continental odyssey to research the state of North America’s Jewish delicatessens, for a book he’s sold to McClelland & Stewart. (It’s due out in fall 2008.) He went to New York, of course, even working behind the counter cutting meat for a spell at Katz’s, the iconic Lower East Side room. In L.A., he spoke with Mel Brooks about the director-comedian’s favourite place (which also happens to be Mr. T’s favourite Sax told me—he’s working on lining up an interview). He ate a bit of great deli food and a lot that was good. In between, along a deli-less stretch of interstate in Richmond, Virginia, Sax says he also ate a salad that came covered in chicken strips. He’s trying to persuade me—unsuccessfully so far—that this is a gastronomic innovation worthy of serious attention. Returning to Toronto, he was happy to see that Pancer’s held its own against the best. And the worst deli he found on his whole trip? As he writes on Save the Deli, it was one just four blocks from his home.

Event news: On April 30, five of Ontario’s best wineries—Flat Rock Cellars, Malivoire Wine Company, Norman Hardie Winery, Stratus Vineyards and Tawse Winery—will hold a special tasting in Toronto. (Details here.) There’s nothing quite like a tasting at which the winemaker is present; if the wine is good, as the ones from these wineries are, it’s a lot like attending a symphony with the composer explaining the music.

Michael Stadtländer and a bunch of the best chefs around will throw a multi-course festival on May 6 in honour of wild leeks. I can’t think of a better place for such an event; every spring, I’ve been told, the forests around Stadtländer’s farm are carpeted with acres and acres of mild, sweet Allium ampeloprasum. With the leeks in the hands of Stadtländer, Coca’s Nathan Isberg, Claudio Aprile of Colborne Lane, the Old Prune’s Bryan Steele and others, it should be an incredible day. Tickets are $150 each, with part of the proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity and the women’s shelters in Collingwood and Owen Sound. More details here.