All stories relating to dessert
Monday Must-Try: the inventive grapefruit givré dessert at Café Boulud
(Image: Emma McIntyre)
Café Boulud’s stunning grapefruit givré is the highlight of its dinner menu. It’s also an import from New York. Ghaya Oliveira, the young Tunisian-born executive pastry chef at Manhattan’s Bar Boulud, has been lauded for her refined and innovative desserts, but none more so than this one (you can even watch her make it with Daniel Boulud on YouTube).
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Flavour of the Year: five desserts with a delicious, savoury twist
Dessert has gone savoury with celery on ice cream, marrow in pudding and parsnips with pastry. Here, five salty-sweet ways to finish a meal.
Dear Urban Diplomat: Is it rude to order dessert when there’s a line of people waiting for a table?
(Image: www.justgrobio.com)
Dear Urban Diplomat, Read the rest of this entry »
My husband and I recently waited for two hours to get a table at a new restaurant at Dundas and Bathurst. While we ate, we could feel the people in line eyeing our table. After we finished our entrées, the server brought our bill without offering dessert, so we sent it back and ordered panna cotta and cappuccinos. As we did, someone in line let out an exasperated “C’mon!” which I found incredibly rude. But then I wondered if maybe we had violated some unwritten rule. Is it bad form to order dessert when there’s a big lineup?
—Just Desserts, Dufferin Grove
Raising the Bar: nine house-made chocolate bars, the ultimate fancified junk food
Chefs are taking artisanal junk food to a whole new level of twee with decadent house-made chocolate bars.
Introducing: Glory Hole Doughnuts, Ashley Jacot De Boinod’s new crowdfunded Parkdale shop
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Ashley Jacot De Boinod’s doughnut journey began about a year ago. Having worked as a pastry chef in some of the best spots in the city (including Buca and Scaramouche), Jacot De Boinod began selling her Glory Hole Doughnuts wholesale to shops like Thor Espresso Bar, Burger Bar and 416 Snack Bar to quite some acclaim. But “the eventual goal was to open a retail space,” she tells us. Despite setbacks in securing a location and finding startup capital for the project (she eventually turned to Indiegogo for crowdfunding), Glory Hole Doughnuts finally got itself a physical space in Parkdale a couple of weeks back.
Introducing: Moo Milk Bar, the Beach’s new spot for milk and cookies
(Image: Susan Keefe)
There are few ills in this world that can’t be ameliorated with a crisp, chewy cookie and a cold glass of milk. The Beach’s newest bakery, Moo Milk Bar (no relation to Momofuku Milk Bar), is hoping to capitalize on the widespread love of the classic dessert combo. Helmed by New York native Danielle Oron, the milk and cookie joint opened its doors earlier this month, and has been enjoying an enviable amount of foot traffic ever since.
Must-try: posh popsicles that taste like summer on a stick
At last year’s annual Roncesvalles block party, Janet Dimond lured foodies to a makeshift ice pop stand on the corner of Sorauren Street. She squeezed the juice by hand for a dozen flavours, added nothing more than a bit of sugar and some herbs, loaded up her deep freeze and sold 200 popsicles for $1 apiece. Since then, she has turned her one-day experiment into Augie’s Gourmet Ice Pops (named after her golden retriever), a bona fide cottage industry. She now sets up at farmers’ markets across the city.
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Summerlicious 2012: our food editor picks the top 10 offerings from this year’s Licious list
One of Colborne Lane’s innovative concoctions (Image: Renée Suen)
Ten years in, Toronto’s loved (and loathed) bacchanalia of affordable dining is larger than ever, with 181 restaurants offering three-course prix fixe menus for $25, $35 or $45 from July 6-22. Despite common complaints—packed rooms, harried dining and more salmon and chicken than a buffet wedding—an ineluctable truth remains: Summerlicious is a good opportunity to sample new restaurants on the cheap. To that end, we’ve sifted through the overwhelming list of participants to find the most interesting dishes and the very best value. Start making your reservations now.
Must-Try: an offbeat dessert (it has foie gras) that’s worth its $25 price tag, from The Black Hoof
Two toast toppers—one lowbrow, one luxurious—come together in the Foie and Nutella, The Black Hoof’s most inventive dessert to date. A seared, darkly caramelized three-ounce slab of duck liver arrives sparkling with Maldon salt. The liver is perched on a slice of banana bread that’s been baked in rich buttermilk custard until it’s as dense and creamy as bread pudding. The plate is streaked with Nutella, sprinkled with crumbled hazelnut shortbread cookies, dotted with sherry-rosemary gastrique and finished with peppery lovage cress. Rich, sweet, salty, sour, creamy and crunchy, the bizarre combination of ingredients is a revelation. $25. The Black Hoof, 928 Dundas St. W., 416-551-8854.
The Weekender: Kensington Market Sweets Tour, The Ting Tings and six other items on our to-do list
The Weekender: Portable Mosques, The Ting Tings and Kensington Market Sweets Tour
1. ANNUAL EASTER “EGG”STRAVAGANZA
Forget DIY Easter egg hunts, because once the chocolate eggs are gone, it’s all over, which is sad. Instead, head uptown to the zoo, which plays host to a weekend’s worth of fun activities, including visits with the animals and the daily “Beary-Bunny Easter Parade.” Join Explorer Bear, who will be dressed up as a beary-bunny, for a walk through the zoo’s “Spring Trail.” April 6 to 9. $13–$23. Toronto Zoo, 361A Old Finch Ave., 416-392-5929, torontozoo.com.
2. WORLD WAR I MINI FILM FESTIVAL Read the rest of this entry »
A Carlton Cinema/War Horse co-production, this mini film festival marks the April 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge. The skirmish, a defining moment in Canadian military history, saw Canadian soldiers capture the ridge from German forces. Each film takes a different perspective about the Great War: the CanCon-heavy Passchendaele (2008) is a tragic war romance; Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), a musical, uses popular songs of the early 1900s to tell the story of WWI; A Very Long Engagement (2004) is a drama about a young woman trying to find her fiancé—who may have been killed in the Battle of the Somme; and Gallipoli (1981), the film that set a young Mel Gibson on his path to superstardom, examines Australia’s role in the Gallipoli campaign. April 7. $5 suggested donation. Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton St., 416-598-5454, rainbowcinemas.ca/A/Carlton.
Must-Try: hot chocolate with sinfully good blowtorched marshmallows at Bobbette and Belle
Toboggans and cross-country skis, woolly sweaters and brisk sub-zero air call for piping hot chocolate. The Leslieville dessert shop Bobbette and Belle has taken the humble cup of cocoa to new, paroxysm-inducing heights. In the mug, extra-brut cocoa powder is blended with Swiss chocolate, full-fat milk and a bit of sugar. Then the house-made vanilla marshmallow on top is blowtorched to order until it’s cloaked in a crisp, bittersweet, golden brown shell that gives way to a gooey interior. It’s an irresistible hit of fancified nostalgia. $4.25. 1121 Queen St. E., 416-466-8800.
Roncesvalles staple Granowska’s Bakery to serve its last paczki at the end of the month
Granowska’s has presided over the corner of Roncesvalles and Fern for 39 years (Image: Joey deVilla)
On the morning of Thursday, June 13, 1972, after three straight days of baking, Elizabeth Klodas and her mother Maria opened the doors to Granowska’s Bakery on Roncesvalles, which they named after the family bakery they left behind in Poland. “That first day, we sold out in five hours,” she told us. “We were both so happy but then started crying when we realized we had to start baking all over again! We thought we had baked enough to last the weekend!” Now, after nearly 40 years in business, the bakery will be closing its doors for good at the end of the month.
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