Friday, August 30, 2013 at 6:40 PM
Traveled to Los Angeles #LAX with #Beastwich from @BeastRestaurant last week. #GoodEats
Sandwich: Braised Beef Brisket, Garlic Scape Salas, Iceburg Lettuce, Queso Fresca. Side: Black Beans. Dessert: Trail Mix Cookie
Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 12:55 PM From the team behind @la_carnita, @TastyNate lots of #GoodEats @theHOTB.
When I heard that the team behind La Carnita (one of my favourite restaurants in the city) was working on a new restaurant, I knew it was a place I had to check out! Timing was perfect as they had just opened up, and it was my friend's birthday, so what better than to head over for some good eats.
Portions are big, which is a good thing, but I wish they were a little smaller so we could have ordered everything on the menu. Oh well, just another reason to go back...not that I needed one! Really good food all around.
Highly recommend you check these guys out!
Crab Cake Summer Bean Salad $12
Crab cake with wax beans, cherry tomatoes, toasted hazelnuts, roased shallot dressing, and a beautiful poached egg. The second you break into that egg and the egg yolk oozes out and coats everything it touches...there's just something so sexy about it!
Smoked Pork Belly Sandwich $9
Smoked pork belly, with smoked pork shoulder, ranch cabbage coleslaw, and lemon zest. This sandwich might have been my favourite thing all night, I was tempted to order a second one (then again anything with pork belly is a winner). The lemon zest adds a nice touch to brighten up the dish.
The Romantic Atlantic (Lobster Roll) $10, $18, $27
Atlantic lobster with tartar mayo, lemon zest, and dill. This might just be the best lobster roll I've had in the city, my favourite still comes from Boston's Belle Isle Seafood. With the top-sliced bun and inspiration from New England, this lobster roll is simply done letter the lobster shine and having supporting elements. Again, I love the lemon zest and dill on there, just lovely.
Kentucky Fried Handshake Sandwich $13
Fried chicken, mayo, iceburg lettuce, Louisiana Hot Sauce. So good, so tender, just a damn good fried chicken sandwich. Those housemade buns are awesome!
Johnny Cake with Smoked Trout $14
Cornmeal griddle cake with savoury cream, smoked trout, maple syrup, and chives. I could probably eat this every day! I love the flaky smoked trout with the cream and maple syrup and the Johnny cake to soak up all those juices. My only criticism is that we found the Johnny cake to be a bit too big, if it were 2/3 the size, it would have been perfect!
Tater Tots
Crispy potatoes, cheese, gravy, herbs.
Swiss Chard and Beets
Chard, shallots, and garlic. Beets, lemon zest, dill, blackberry empire addle vinegar.
All 3 sides for $12, or $5 each. Highly recommend you get them, my friend who noramally doesn't like beets, really enjoyed these. There can never be enough dishes with lemon zest, just a perfect ingredient for almost everything.
Monday, August 26, 2013 at 9:20 PM An outstanding meal by @ChefHorne from @Oliver_Bonacini's Canoe. #GoodEats
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love berries. Berries are my favourite fruit, and my favourite thing to eat. You know that question "What would be your last meal"? I'll probably have a big bowl of berries. So it's no surprise that when I heard Chef Horne had developed a summer tasting menu featuring berries, I just had to go for it. The tasting was only available while the berries were in season, and I was lucky enough to catch it just before it ended.
To say each dish was delicious would be an understatement. This tasting easily tops my list of favourite meals of all time. Each of the components on every plate and wine pairings worked in harmony in a way that flavours and textures would build on each other to create a deceptively complex dish. It was also nice to see many of the ingredients we were introduced to from Canoe Wild show up on many of these dishes.
Here we go!
Eggplant purée with Red Fife Sourdough Bread
Amuse Bouche:
Fresh Tomato Water
Paired with Ontario Spring Water Sake Company Izumi Teion Sakura Sake.
Fresh tomato water with herloom carrots, cherry tomatoes, dill and foam, a nice way to start off the meal. Love the dill!
Course 1: Turbot Ceviche
Turbot Ceviche, Buffalo Yogurt, Clay Pepper Dust, Sea Buckthorn, Mountain Cranberries
Paired with a 2027 Cellars Wismer Vinyard Foxcraft Block Riesling Twenty Mile Bench Ontario 2012.
Thinly sliced wild Québec turbot marinated in a sea buckthorn mix consisting of sea buckthorn, wild leek, passion fruit, kabosu, and lime. Turbot is then layered in the bowl with buffalo yogurt dots for fattiness and creaminess and clay pepper for heat. Fried seaweed adds a welcomed change in texture along with some salt, and the mountain berries add acidity and sweetness to the dish to round it out.
Course 2: Tamworth Pork & Foie Gras Terrine
Tamworth Pork & Foie Gras Terrine, Blackberries, Pickled Field Strawberries, and Hazelnut Mascarpone.Paired with Malivoire Courtney Vineyard Gamay Beamsville Bench Ontario 2011.
Foie gras is layered between 2 sheets of pork rillette to form the terrine, which is marinated in a late harvest reisling, and then sliced, which sits on a bed of mascarpone mixed with toasted hazelnuts. Pickled green and red strawberries and blackberries add acidity and fruity to go with the rich terrine and mascarpone.
After the first bite I went into a "giddy laugh", as some have described it. Not many dishes make me do that, but when a dish is like this comes and it has all flavours that I love, I just go to my happy spot and nothing else matters. Also got a mad craving for hazelnut gelato!
Course 3: Pan Roasted Skate
Pan Roasted Skate with Beluga Lentil, Gai Lan, Verjus, Currant and Miso Marinated Octopus.
Paired with a Five Rows Pinot Gris St. David's Bench Ontario 2011.
The cartilage in the wing of east coast skate is removed then compressed back together and cooked sous vide and pan fried to finish. The octopus is marinated with black or red currants and miso over night, and then is steamed until tender. Beluga lentils are warmed in a Verjus parsley vinaigrette which is then foamed over the dish with gai lan. The Verjus adds much needed acid to the dish to cut the richness from the butter that was used to cook the skate.
Verjus might just be my favourite new ingredient. I had no idea what it was until this meal, and taste like it would be a fantastic addition to any meal where you're looking for a touch of acid. Verjus is the pressed juice from a unripe grape. While acidic, it has a gentler flavour than vinegar, with a sweet-tart taste.
Raspberry Intermezzo
Raspberry Intermezzo
Raspberry soda with yogurt foam, topped with olive oil and salt.
Course 5: Prairies Venison
Prairies Venison with Tongue Tortellini, White Garlic Purée, Tamarack & Saskatoon Berry MostardaPaired with Tawse Syrah Niagara Peninsula Ontario 2010.
Prairies venison is rubbed with green alder and sits on top a white garlic purée, which is blanched twice to remove the pungent garlic flavour. The tongue is brined, confited in duck fat, then smoked and dusted with pepper, cut up and folded into tortelini's. Being a very rich dish, the Saskatoon berry and tamarack mustarda cuts nicely though the richness and adds a new level of world flavours rounding out the dish nicely. The mustarda consists of maple vinegar, port, wasabi, wild mustard, and tamarack cooked in a simple syrup then blitzed. Served with a vanilla sherry jus.
Dessert: Fromage Blanc
Fromage Blanc with Wild Strawberries, Pistachio, and Basil.
Paired with Benjamin Bridge Nova Seven Annapolic Valley Nova Scotia 2012.
Wid strawberries from Nova Scotia are little, almost like a miniature strawberry, but are pack with flavour. The vanilla cake sucks up the strawberry juices. Fromage Blanc, also known as fresh cheese, is made of whole milk which brings the a perfect amount of acidity to play with the sweetness of the strawberries, making this a perfect way to end the meal.
Yet another dessert I absolutely loved. There was just the right amount of sweet and balance with the wild strawberry liquid, strawberry fruit paper, and of course the basil.
Petit Fours
Rounding out the meal with more delicious pastry. Of all the things on the dish, I really like the garnish! The red currants and lemon balm were just a nice touch.
This entire meal, not just a plate or two, but the whole thing was perfect, well almost. If you noticed, there aren't any blueberries as a component of any dish. Why? Blueberries are by far my favorite berries of them all. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, they would be blueberries! This was the one disappointment I had of the meal, I meal really, no blueberries? Well I was wrong, I drew my conclusions too soon. At the end of the meal, each guest that particiapaed in Taste Berry received a small jar of house made blueberry, lemon, and thyme jam! This was something unexpected, but one of my favorite things. Blueberries + Lemons = Perfection!
If I were to have a last meal, this would be it. Perfect.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at 4:50 PM #Beastwich from @BeastRestaurant gets better every week, this is my new favourite! #GoodEats
Sandwich: BBQ Pork, Memphis Style BBQ Sauce, Pickles. Side: Coleslaw. Dessert: Walnut & Bourbon Brownie.
Friday, August 16, 2013 at 11:10 AM Lovely #Beastwich lastweek @BeastRestaurant ft. Bangkok #BKK. Go down and get this week's now!
Sandwich: Thai Fish Cake, Sweet Chili Salad, Cucumber, and Cilantro. Side: Spicy Eggplant & Zucchini Salad. Dessert: Mango Sticky Rice.
Thursday, August 8, 2013 at 5:05 PM Might just be the best chicken I've ever had! #Beastwich last week @BeastRestaurant. #GoodEats
Nassau #NAS
Sandwich: Chicken Souse - Braised Chicken Thigh, Potato, Cucumber, and Greens. Side: Okra Rice. Dessert: Coconut Square.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013 at 5:20 PM Something new from @la_carnita! A very delicious tostada to add to the menu. #GoodEats
Wild Crab Tostada with Tomatilo Salsa and Charred Arbol Dressing.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 5:40 PM Easily one of my favorite cookbooks, @jbchang brings Flour Too to Toronto/Canada!
I've been visiting Boston once a year for the past couple of years, there's just something about that city I love. This year, before my trip I came across Joanne Chang's Myers+Chang restaurant, as well as, her Flour Bakery empire. I stay at my friend's apartment in Back Bay and a new Flour location had just opened up there, I knew I had to check out.
After stuffing my face with all the treats and good eats that the bakery/cafe had to offer, I instantly grew a fondness for the food. It was simple, tasty, and just made you smile with each bite. The second I got back, I ordered Flour, I'm not much of a baker but I was still able to grasp the recipes and and bake my way through the book over the next couple of months.
Since then, I heard about Flour, too, the next cookbook from Joanne featuring the savoury side of Flour. Without a doubt in my mind I immediately put this book on pre-order. Anyways, long story short I got the new book, and started cooking my way through it. I'm about 80% done the entire book, easy when almost every meal you cook comes from that book!
If you're looking for a couple of new recipes to add to your collection, I highly recommend checking out Flour, too.
Friday, August 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM Santiago de Cuba #SCU #Beastwich from @BeastRestaurant. #GoodEats
Sandwich: Ropa Vieja (Beef Brisket) with Onions, Peppers, Lettuce & Mayo. Side: Black Beans & Rice. Dessert: Bunuelos.
