The Earth didn’t Move.………There is such a thing as being horribly good. Take the tale of Bertha, the little girl who was so good that she won medals for goodness which she always wore pinned to her dress. So good, wrote Saki, the Englishman who limned absurdity with a black crayon, that the Prince invited her to play in his park – where she was eaten by a wolf drawn to her by the sound of  the medal for obedience clinking against the medals for good conduct and punctuality.

This little morality tale comes spontaneously to mind when I read the latest bulletins about the innate goodness of eating fresh’n’local. FnL proselytizers tend to  bathe themselves in a saintly glow, to project the notion that they are creating goodness, supporting farms, saving the planet etc, some even maintain that the higher cost of FnL is a good thing in an obese society. Sometimes FnL sounds like self-righteous elitism.

Anyway, the proof of the doctrine/ pudding is in the eating.  How good is the cook?

To find out, I am going to Earth ( think global, eat local) newly opened at 1055 Yonge at Roxborough. Right away I’m impressed. Ed Ho, the owner of Globe Bistro, is putting the power of FnL on line: can goodness conquer a space that is the deathstar in the city’s restoscape. In the eighties, the posh pasta place Cibo was a hit. Since then, 1055 has routinely ambushed every culinary comer.

We walk into night. Earth is mostly black with crystal bubbles for lights. Even the staff wears black but they’re very cheerful. A discreet track of James Brown is playing. There is a small huddle at the bar which may fill the gap caused by the recent demise of Lakes as Rosedale’s chosen hang. A dusting of locals are observed drinking dry martinis. “Very upper east side” says my companion drawing on years in Manhattan.

First thing on the menu that catches my eye  is “From the local butcher.” Locally sourced meat, Cumbrae’s dry aged tenderloin, Haldimand County lamb rack, may be cut to order, bought by the ounce. What a great idea for those, like me, who prefer small steaks.

The menu is pocked with nuggets. Warm herbed biscuits come first to the table. We give a fist bump to crisp Ewenity goat cheese curds dunked in smoked tomato ketchup, and another to white fish fritters, both $5.  Elk  Tartare $12 lacks bracing spice and the cooked quail’s egg does nothing for it.

Now to the main event, a suckling pig slow roasted in the wood oven. $25.( That should be “sucking pig” incidentally. A piglet sucks, a mother suckles).   A wonderful smell precedes it to the table.. But one look at the pale maturing meat prompts the question – how large is this pig? The kitchen says 30 lbs. 30 lbs! Why that’s a teenager. A true sucking pig is ideally 9 lbs, 20 at a stretch. When I had my sucking pig adventure, the smallest pig I could find at the St.Lawrence Market was 16 pounds. Roasted, the meat fell on the plate in pale pink fragrant petals. Even so, tonight’s overaged piglet is delectable, if slightly overcooked, and with ok crackling. The black sausage is blessedly light, the “local” beans are well, dried cranberry beans. The star of the plate is a smoked cherry tomato.

Alas, there are no stars to be handed out to the Yarmouth lobster stew. $25. Minuscule bite of lobster in a sea of more “local”  white beans with watery “bisque” sauce.

Startled by the assumption of virtue in “local” dried beans – is our gastronomic winter to be measured out in local dried beans ?, we turn to the $6 sides for something more truly FnL. Wood roasted mushrooms are pleasant enough but the Yukon frites don’t have the advertised “smoked salt.”  The only other veg are baby spinach and carrots – What, no timely roots like parsnips or black salsify?

We think Ed Ho is dicing with more than a blighted locale. A slogan does not a good restaurant make. Where for example is the chef?  I enjoyed Kevin McKenna’s winterlicious menu last year at the Globe. Now I learn he’s still at the Globe and only comes here on busy nights. But without McKenna’s presence, will there be busy nights?

** Earth, Think Global Eat Local 1055 Yonge St 416-551-9890

Wheelchair Access. Dinner for two, food plus tax: $95

Cinq 01 defines the decade

As the first decade of the 21^st century ends, I celebrate by going to a restaurant that defines eating out in the noughties – the resto-lounge. A resto-lounge is the anti-restaurant: It’s a rejection of formal dining and of intimate bistros, a play for the young and the restless (millennials, echoboomers, Y gen) who want to play as they eat. The style is metrosexual fashionista. The resto lounge must be designed to startle and amuse – a cross between an amusement arcade and a theatrical production. The music must be loud. The cocktails custom made. The food must be luxe and cosmopolitan, preferred delivery is the shared plate.

At first, resto lounges were not taken very seriously – and Oh, the noise. But as the food got better, they couldn’t be ignored by anyone who wanted to eat well. Roger Mooking at Nyood has a Mediterranean -inspired menu – rack of lamb with apricot fig glaze, violet artichokes, taro, tapenade- that is more alluring than many menus in more conventional dining spots.

Now RL culture is creeping up the food chain, breaking up traditional patterns, shaping new ones. Shared plates are today everywhere.  One of the first major chefs who  incorporated the RL rhythms was Claudio Aprile at Colborne Lane: the room glitters with Morticia’s menace, and his techno emotional cooking morphs smoothly into the later bar scene. Recently the Rubino Brothers opened Ame in a shimmering Shogun’s palace, replete with jujube cocktails.

As my emblematic RL, I pick the just opened Cinq O1, College west of Bathurst. The owner Toufik Sarwa is one of Toronto’s enduring players with the perennially successful Amber on Yorkville, a white on white subbasement that blossoms with a patio in the Summer.

Sarwa calls Cinq 01 a bistro, I call it second gen RL: a refinement of the format. It looks like a luxury dining railroad car, a long skinny space divided into bar and dining room. The lighting, part of Commute Home’s deceptively simple design, is so soft and glowing that it lures you in. A sexy joint. Just one or two quirky touches, some lights are encased in what looks like scarlet birdcages.

We arrive at 7, de rigueur if you wish to eat with pleasure at a resto lounge. After 8.30 the noise rises sharply. The room is almost empty at this early hour and we get fine and interested service.

The split pea soup $11 with ham, chestnuts, hazelnuts and seared sweetbreads is tempting, but we opt for a terrific pureed garlic soup $11, made with chicken broth, cream and garnished with a seared scallop. Grilled octopus $21 is a test – octopus is so often tough. But here the tentacles are chopped into tender morsels spiked with sherry vinegar, lemon and olive oil, chopped spring onions and capers.

The moment I see there’s a foie gras hot dog with onion confit and mango ketchup I must have it.  A goodsized sausage arrives and the first bite reveals the most unctuous mouthfeel, like 88% percent butter fat butter but even richer. However the aftertaste is a letdown -  the sausage meat/foie gras ratio is out of whack. What I’m eating is a creamy Bratwurst with only a fugitive flavour of foie gras. The bun is low rent housing for such a luxury dog, and the French fries don’t meet the McDonald’s standard.

Now the chef Jo Castrinos (formerly of Splendido) comes through with a superb dish, little pink lamb rib chops with Moroccan spices with a Provencal vegetable gratin , glazed potatoes, a zap of mint coriander chutney and creamy Lebanese taratur sauce. $33.  The fish of the day is Black Grouper, $39,  a handsome hunk and perfectly seared. It’s just that the grouper’s flavour is irresolute, perhaps because it’s a transgender fish. A bath is needed in something like the accompaniment of delicious spiced lentils and olives.

We didn’t plan on dessert but then Toufik’s trio of tarts arrived and we couldn’t resist white chocolate banana cream. A feathery croustade of armagnac laced apples and prunes with vanilla bean ice cream was even better.

We left around 10 as the room filled up and decibel levels rose. Now we notice the gym horse in the middle of the room. Perhaps bondage is planned later in the evening…..

** 1/2 two and a half stars Cinq 01 501 College St 416-964 1555. No wheelchair access. Dinner for two: food plus tax $150

TIFF Guide to Restaurants ( will be added to daily…)

Toronto restaurants will get their biggest boost of the year during TIFF which opens this week. Visitors should have no trouble distinguishing Toronto from Vancouver or Montreal, neither which city has anything like the variety or substance or sheer entertainment of Toronto, which is a true melting pot of food. But be warned eager eater, you need advice to know where to go and how much it’s gonna cost, and how easy it is to find….and so on….which are the show places, where the good deals, which restaurants are uniquely Toronto…..

The following list will be updated regularly….all opinions are my own, most taken from published reviews….

Prices $ – cheap. $$ entrée under 20 $$$ entrée over 20

New! Ame, 19 Mercer St. 416 599 7246. a block from the Bell Lightbox. The Rubino Brothers makeover of Rain (Ame) is a shogun’s palace with jujube cocktails, a eurotake on Japanese food, shared plates, great fish on the mellow robrata grill, $$(Reviewed Sept 12)

New!    Liberty Noodle 171 East Liberty St. 15 mins from downtown, south of King. cab it. 416.588.4100 Looks like a commissary a Chinese assembly line. Still soft opening, no liquor yet, lunch only.

Lucien, 36 Wellington E. 416-504-9990, six blocks crosstown from BL. Elegant MOR with mild molecular influence, meat, veg sourced locally. Bar scene. Price $$$

Frank at Art Gallery of Ontario 317 Dundas Street W. 416-979-8888. Few blocks n. of BL. Eclectic menus emphasizing fresh/local  for weekend brunch, weekday lunch and dinner. $$$ Basement caff a downer.

C 5 at Royal Ontario Museum,100 Queen’s Park, 416-586-7928, ck website for hours. cab from BL. Green gastronomy, local sourcing, fusion twinge. $$$ Basement caff if you like sight of walking legs.

Sidecar Bar and Grill, 577 College, 416-536-7000.  cab from BL. Unpretentious  food, dinner, gt service.  Grilled steak,salmon, weekday prix fixe $24.plus cocktails. $

Mildred’s Temple Kitchen ,85 Hanna Ave 416-588-5695, ten min cab from BL. Space station feeling with all over the map menus, burgers to pork and beans and up..lunch, dinner, weekend brunch. E $$-$$$

Lakes restaurant and wine bar, 1112 Yonge. 416-966-0185. Cab or  Yonge subway to Rosedale, walk few blocks no. Pleasant Asian take on bistro faves $$

Trio ristorante and pizzeria, 3239 Yonge St 416-486-5786. Cab or Yonge subway to Lawrence, walk no 3 blocks. Naples in Toronto, the only authentic Neapolitan pizza, famous also for gnocchi. $

Le Gourmand, Hudson Bay food court (underneath store, by subway) LG3  32177 Yonge St. @ Eglinton  on Yonge subway.$ pastrymeister/panini in french cafe,  152Spadina (adelaide) 416-504-4499

Far Niente 187 Bay St (416) 214-9922.$$$ Glossy slick bay street broker destination with MOR menu delivered with flair.

Batifole Bistro 744 Gerrard Street East(416) 462-9965 $$ cab it. Excellent French cooking on modest scale.

Madeline’s, 601 King Street West (416) 603-2205 $$ 10  mins from Lightbox. Sophisticated Eurofusion on shared plates

Tiff Menu….Food is often the plat du jour in today’s movies. Now it’s time to match the movies to the real thing.

The Road, based on Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian novel, will send orthorexics, those who trash processed food and those who eat it, viral. All Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit-McPhee can glean from the apocalyptic devastation is canned food. A coke’s never looked so good. Nor will a big fat steak from Toronto’s finest, Harbour Sixty (60 Harbour St. 416 777 2111) Harbour Sixty Bone in Rib Steak $51.95. Starter: pan seared foie gras, mango, icewine reduction $38.95.

Cooking with Stella could be a food network show: Canadian diplomat /chef  Don McKellar gets cooking lessons in the complex art of Indian cooking from embassy housekeeper Seema Biswa. Taste buds will be activated full time so moviegoers are encouraged to make tracks for the fine Ayurveda cuisine at Curry Twist ( for 3034 Dundas W. 416-769-54600 – a bit of a hitch from downtown) for Baigan Bharta ,smoked mashed eggplant 9.95  Salmon in creamy masala sauce $13. house specials like Curry Twist Chicken.

Creation is a serious go at sexing up science, Charles Darwin as a human rather than an ape. On his deathbed, he allegedly reflected that sandwiches disproved evolution. So skip the food for thought and visit an oyster bar for fine array of mollusks from Malpeques to Galway Flats, Kumamotos, Belon– Rodney’s by Bay (56 Temperance, 416-703-5111) or Starfish Oyster Bed & Grill (100 Adelaide E 416-366 7827).

Capitalism – A Love Story. What agro artist Michael Moore got up his supersized sleeve. Take him seriously and book in advance at The Fifth Grill and Terrace (25 Richmond St. W 416-979-3005), Toronto’s ode to conspicuous consumption on top of Easy nightclub. Now offering a summer prix fixe  $39 for three courses, $49 for four, including filet mignon with bearnaise, asparagus risotto.

Jennifer’s Body is about a cheerleader (Megan Fox) turned cannibal, an insatiable Carrie with real teeth. Keep fright night going at  Blowfish(  668 King St W 416 –860-0606 ) music bouncing off the walls, with quick eats,  crispy crab, shrimp and scallop with lemon and tamari kewpie dips $10, roasted duck breast with fresh papaya, mango and honey pineapple sauce $22.

The Informant! Matt Damon is the whistleblower at Archer Daniels Midland — which is charged with cornering corn, one of the cornerstones of our processed food diet. If you’re dining with an organichead, find meat that isn’t finished with corn – like the filet of horse at Osteria Ciceri e Tria (106 Victoria St. 416-955-0258) taken from a Chinese style menu where nothing is more than $15.

The Men who stare at Goats. George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges are new age warriors  with paranormal techniques. Among them, they stare at goats and kill them.  Can’t face meat, so visit Ichi Riki (120 Bloor E 416-923-2997) and be entertained by Riki, maestro and storyteller of the  raw fish narrative. Horse mackerel sashimi $9, yellow tail $13.

The Young Victoria. Early life of racy Empress of India glimpsed in demure Emily Blunt who’s getting it on with Rupert Friend. Only the place to be seen will do for afterwards. The terrace at One in the Hazelton Hotel (118 Yorkville 416 961 9600) for grilled Dover sole with orange and hazelnut brown butter – market price.

Dorian Gray, Colin Firth and Ben Barnes  now play the corrupter and corruptee in Oscar Wilde’s danse macabre, Dorian Gray. Right place is elegant French hang the $58 prix fixe at Didier (1496 Yonge 416 925-8588) eggs in ramekins, black truffle, foie gras, Madeira sauce, sea bass and Hollandaise, contre-filet and frites.

Atom Egoyan’s Chloe is a steamy triangulated tale of sexual jealousy starriing Juliannne Moore, Liam Neesom, Amanda Seyfried. Prepare for screening with breakfast at Union (72 Ossington Ave, 416-850-0093) in the city’s hot neighbourhood, the nearest thing to a Paris café, pastis, homemade baguette, or an  early lunch pork and shrimp burger topped with a fried egg $12.

The Invention of Lies posits that without lies, there is no fantasy or fiction. After writer Ricky Gervais tells his first lie, his world turns upside down.  Digest this wisdom at Splendido (88 Harbord St 929 7788) and celebrate with pappardelle, pulled rabbit, artichokes $17, and particularly the cheese plate featuring  Canadian winners like Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar, Fifth Town’s hard goat cheese, Quebec’s Grey owl and more at $7 a slice.

How You gonna keep Teo down on the farm now that he’s seen Paree?

A young chef, Teo Paul, spent  a decade in Paris, most of it cooking at an eclectic bar/grill SoMo and hanging out at his second home, Au Petit Fer à Cheval,a famous little café in the Marais, the old Jewish ghetto.  Then he came back to Toronto to recreate it.

Good for him.  Fer a Cheval –little horsehoe- boasts a horsehoe bar upfront of a tiny café  is in the warmest of Parisian traditions – everyone is welcome and the food is simple but good – atleast that was my impression years ago.

When I first heard of Teo Paul he was writing a blog for Toronto Life. It was August 2008 and he was about to open Union on Ossington’s burgeoning gastro-strip, just a few steps north of the men’s detox centre. But fall drifted into winter as Paul struggled to keep ahead of reno and red tape. He was in the weeds by spring. Still, he soldiered on, a superb marketer.

Now the chickens or rather tout Toronto have come home to roost. Paul finally opened Union in July and Joel Rebuchon himself couldn’t have made a bigger splash. When I get there,  the suits are texting, National Post scandalsleuth Shinan Govani  is activating his blackberry three times before the wine arrives. LG3 owner Milton Nunes is here for a second taste. Not to mention the locals chowing down at the bar or the chef’s bar by the open kitchen.

Union has the Ossington look – laid back, a shoebox tucked inside an old brick shell, the little horseshoe bar in the window, about thirty seats and an open kitchen, earth colours, a farmyard mural on one wall, green and white leafy upholstery on the chairs. Very welcoming.

It also has the organic rhythm of the all day Paris café opening at 9 for the first slug of Pastis and coffee and croissants, an egg dish, and Paul’s own baguette, made with an apple starter. The daytime menu is handwritten, just what the chef’s decided to cook. When I drop by for lunch, I bypass steak frites for a pork and shrimp burger on a perfect ring of rosti potatoes, for once properly cooked, crisp on top, creamy within, and topped with a fried egg , a little dash of Asian sauce, Mirin vinegar, ginger, sugar $12.  Such unapologetic simplicity seems very sophisticated. The glass of Gruner Veltliner Rudolph Rabi $8.50 is a mellow complement.

The dinner menu is printed, about ten standard dishes and also a soup du jour, plat du jour and fish of the day. Again, the emphasis is on informality. Eat how and what you like.  Paul has the  French  respect for the egg as an A I ingredient and not just for breakfast. I can’t pass up  the Truffle Fonduto $9, a shimmery poached egg slipped into a musty sauce, ground truffles and a mild cheese, and served with soldiers, the English nursery name for little logs of toast.  Seared Rabbit Terrine $8 is mild and smooth with chive clotted cream and a spark of jalapeno salsa,  while the Elk Sliders, mini burgers, are rare and juicy with an Asian glaze of mirin and galangal (a lemony ginger), bracketed by slices of sweet challah bread, spiked by a little pickle.

Three big sticky ribs on a long plate with crisp pork belly $17 are meaty finger food and the sauce isn’t too sweet. Roast chicken’s just come out of the oven, $55 for the whole thing, $18 for a quarter. Perfectly cooked, skin crackling, the meat tender, sweet barnyard smell of cooked fowl, and we have a dish of vegetables, the Swiss chard is particularly good, crunchy and a little bitter. The frites falter, they’re bronzed enough but soft. Desserts? The honey and lavender icecream is fragrant but the fruit crumble and bread pudding lack commitment, ie , Paul can’t have a sweet tooth.

No doubt about it, Paul has raised the bar for Ossington food. He’s an excellent cook with few pretensions. Exotica is perfectly controlled as an accent, otherwise the emphasis is on the basic ingredients.

Service is laid back, much more agreeable than the usual Ossington je ne sais quoi.  But the noise! Paris cafes are noisy of course but Union adds the boom box beat. I understand. In Paris, the café has longtime habitués. In Toronto, music is the lure.  Just hope it doesn’t deep six the food.

** 1/2 Union
72 Ossington Ave, 416-850-0093 No wheelchair access. Very noisy. Food for two plus tax:$100

Read JULIE and JULIA’s Fallen Souffle on ginamallet.com

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I drank Liquid Plumber and survived!

I had a lot of work to do in the past week – wrapping my head around the idea of raw cuisine – the experience of eating only LIVE foods unprocessed and organic, no salt or sugar.  I’m not interested in the controversy over the health benefits of raw food versus cooked food. All I want to do is  find out  whether an omnivore, raised on butter, eggs, steak, lobster, can eat raw with gusto.

LIVE seems the right place to go: a popular raw food place on Dupont – bright orange chairs inside, a simple patio with pretty Indian decorations and heat shielding umbrellas. A freight train rumbles by providing an interesting sound effect. The clientele is young and in campus grunge, sandals, jeans, tee shirts. Wielding chopsticks, they eat large bowls of food which appear to contain grains and veg.

I feel I’ve entered a time warp. Sixties redux. Only thing missing – Bob Dylan singing Blowin in the wind.

The menu is splendid, a virtual bible of alternate eating ingredients and their benefits. Apart from the raw dishes, LIVE also serves food cooked according to Macrobiotic and Ajurvedic principles, and it has two pages of drinks, from organic wine and beer to smoothies, boosters and tinctures. Getting into the moment, I order an elixir Liquid Plumber $7.25, which contains kale, cucumber, celery, dandelion, lemon, skipping the the detoxifying Milk Thistle.

OMG they’ve given me the real thing! I feel like Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby choking on a big sinisterly bitter draught.

To take away the taste I order an Aloe Agave Tango cocktail $ 6.25, fruits and one oz organic green hemp vodka, a tiny foamy glass of unspecified taste.

Now to the raw food. On two visits, I rate highest the soft tacos filled with ground walnuts, salsa verde and guacamole with cashew aioli on the side. Satisfying mouthful. The tacos themselves are made from raw corn mixed with dried tomatoes, among other things. Two of them make a very large starter $12.75.

There’s a lotta food too on the $18 combo plate of three entrees. A Portobello mushroom is served with mashed nuts, cashew and almond, onions, with a brisk kale salad $15. Not bad if a bit gooey.

But why invite invidious comparison by calling it Steak and Potatoes? The comparison doesn’t favour raw food. Ditto Spaghetti and Neatballs.  Veggie neatball was pleasing, and I suspect the whole dish would have been more so if it hadn’t been forced into a comparison with the far juicier, spicier real thing.

As for almond “parmesan” – aw c’mon rawfooders.  You’re sitting on your message.

Why isn’t the raw food served simply so it can be enjoyed for just what it is?

I know I know, the descriptions may be monotonous, veggies, nuts, nuts, veggies but if that’s what the food is, so be it.

While I gnawed the bricklike buckwheat crust of Pizza M’on topped with curry “cheese” $13, I found myself longing for the invigorating spicing of Indian vegetarian curries. But of course, Indian curry is cooked. Now I wonder if the cooked food here is going to be better.

Yes, the avocado  tempura $6.50 eaten with Korean kimchi (pickled cabbage) has real chops, texture and taste. Although forget the word tempura as it’s generally known. The two avocado halves have a skin of browned millet.  And my first taste of Tempeh “Crab Cakes” $14 almost had me fooled. The consistency is close to lump crabmeat and when garnished with chipotle aioli was surprisingly lively. But it’s poised on a Vesuvius of a plate that erupts with veggies, brown rice, only mildly seasoned, and a distressingly anemic sweet potato puree.

My companion asks for iced tea. “We don’t have iced tea” replies the waiter. Actually they do– they have lots of tea which if they were willing, could be instantly iced. The ‘tude is a turn off.

Overall, the experiment is disappointing. Omnivores and Raw fooders are a different species and I don’t think crossover is possible. The chief drawback is the lack of spice notably the greatest – salt – which is taboo.

Of course, the help could be more helpful but questions about the food and ingredients are met with impatience. There is no interest in reaching out to anyone who isn’t already in the cult.

*LIVE Organic Food Bar 264 Dupont 416-515 2002
No Wheelchair Access. Not noisy. Food for two plus tax: $48

Is Peking Duck the best sandwich in the world?

Crisp bronzed skin wrapped in delicate crepes stuffed with spring onion and cucumber, anointed with Hoisin , a Chinese mother sauce, sweet soy with a  hint of garlic, peppers,  processed into a spicy glutinous glop. Then, another sandwich, iceberg lettuce leaf folded around the chopped duck meat. The finale is duck soup.

Now I,like many others, have tried to reproduce Peking Duck at home but it’s never tasted the same. The magic duck is best eaten out. But where?

I used to love Champion House on Dundas – where a gong was banged as the duck rolled off the assembly line. But since Champion House shuttered, the best ducks have reportedly migrated to Toronto’s new territories.

So I Bing Peking Duck on my GPS (internet) to track  ‘em down. There isn’t much debate among foodies. Chung King in Markham,Ambassador in Richmond Hill and Pekin Man, Steeles and Leslie top the list.

A Peking duck feeds atleast four. I assemble fans for a marathon, three Ducks in a single night. Perfect Palate has come along because she has the extra taste buds needed to identify the fugitive flavours of the Chinese cuisine.

Local critics warn against the deep fried duck – now as widespread as it is in New York where Michael Chow of Mr. Chow charges most chefs cheat and deep fry. “Of course that makes them crisp, but that’s not the way they should be done, or the way we do it.”

We depart from St. Clair and Yonge at 5 pm and arrive at Peking Man within 30 minutes. Very bright and jolly.  $36 for the bird, $7 more for the lettuce leaf/stirfry. It will take twenty minutes.

The duck is not presented, but we have a ringside seat as the waiter shaves the crackling skin with élan, piling up little shiny wings. The sliced spring onions and English cucumber take a little longer to arrive..

Deep fried cries Perfect Palate. She’s right. The duck has been roasted and then deep fried for crisp to the max.

Is this why some of the skin has a thin line of fat underneath?

Now where are the crepes? It says a lot about the magic duck that it’s irresistible even when the  skins are wrapped in crepes with the consistency of  damp Kleenex.

The juicy stirfry, wrapped in lettuce leaf, is excellent, sweet carrots, veg, surely pork?, and those delectable deep fried glass noodles.

We get to Chung King in Markham Market Village just after 7. The manager indicates a table and drops menus  on us. The room is dominated by a large party enjoying a feast.

Chung King has the real thing  – Beijing Duck with all three courses. ($37.95). The duck  arrives within twenty five minutes sparkling skin piled on a platter. The steamed 6-inch crepes are  dry, the perfect complement for skins that crackle in the mouth, nary a shred of fat and a little gamy duck meat.

Is the duck the deep fried? The manager, now beaming, is crisp. “The duck is roasted” It’s hung in an oven like so, and she sketches in the air  the rack from which the duck hangs. For how long? “It’s a secret” she beams some more.

The second course is on the dull side, the duck seems dry and there are no deep fried glass noodles.

A fine finale arrives with a big bowl of an clear but intense duck broth

We get to Ambassador in West Beaver Creek Mall just after 9.

Ambassador is posh Chinese, a large dazzling room which tonight is a quarter full. Welcome is warm. We order Peking Duck, two courses $39. Duck comes in twenty minutes, then, using brisk brutal strokes, the waiter slices it up. The waitress prepares a couple of exquisite crepes, skin, fixins, leaving us to add the Hoisin.

The Hoisin sauce is an interesting house version, slightly sour. As for the duck it is deep fried first and then finished in the oven. Skin is clear of fat, meat is moist.

The second course is remarkable for the juiciness of the stir fried duck and pork with key carrots and deep fried glass noodles.

My fortune cookie advises me that expectations are being met. Love it.

All restaurants open 7/7, wheelchair accessible, noisy if full.
***Chung King 4394 Steeles Ave E 905 513 8788
** 1/2 Ambassador, 280 West Beaver Creek Road 905 731 5570
** Peking Man1100 Sheppard E. 416-223-5151

Wednesday’s chef is full of Woe

Was it a mistake to go out to dine on a Wednesday? News out of California  suggests that Wednesday, not Monday, is now the preferred day for suicide. Was this what drove me to reserve a table at Truffles in the Four Seasons Hotel on a Wednesday?

I made the date in all innocence. Truffles is a gilt- edged brand which should mean that while chefs may come and go, the restaurant will always deliver a  good if expensive dinner.

But – pity the poor trusting customer – this is no longer certain. The resto as reliable institution is no more.  Back in 1996 when I started reviewing restaurants, I never mentioned a chef unless he was a visiting fireman like Anton Mossiman – billed as Prince Charles’ favourite chef.  I see that as late as 1997, the New York Times’ Ruth Reichl reviewed La Grenouille, queen of the frog pond, and never even mentioned the chef’s name. Must have been one of the last times because by then the Food Network had begun its baleful trajectory spinning out stars like Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse, celebrities who drove restaurants to success. Today a resto rises and falls with the name of the chef.  Often the chef makes the headline.

Which brings me back to Truffles. A few years ago Truffles boasted Lynn Crawford, Iron Chef who wuz robbed of victory in the Peanut Battle with Bobby Flay. She was followed by Lora Kirk from London’s  haute Connaught Hotel who presented austerity du jour.  Now a new chef, Laurie Bandur.

Truffles projects a retro formality which suits the suits who dine there. Bon Vivant dresses up with a demure suede jacket and I wear my red rimmed Raybans. We are served enthusiastically which hasn’t always been the case at Truffles where waiters have been known to limp across the finish line.

Tough times call for deals, and Truffles has joined the choir: two courses for $39, three for $49.  We go for three courses.

I opt for veal sweetbreads, always a tossup, because their delicacy demands just the right counterpoint. ($21*)This time, the sautéed sweetbread sits alone and dry on a big square plate decorated with vegetables. “A mystery bag of groceries” cries Bon Vivant.  I crunch a radish and admire a streak of red pepper, but when I bite into the parsley root, a warning bell goes off. It is bitter.

Sour is one thing, it is a spurt of acid. But bitter is a hostile food: it lingers long after you’ve eaten the ingredient. Used carefully it can be a sharp complement to sweet – ironically, the sweetbread would have gained flavour from a trace of bitterness in the mustardy vinaigrette.

More bitterness! Chilled lovage and celery soup ($18*) is pleasant until the bitter aftertaste kicks in despite the emollient mascarpone panna cotta and “laughing bird shrimps”. These are “sustainable” shrimp compared to rock shrimp. FYI, rock shrimp are better.

I can’t believe it: more bitterness, the celery in  the clam chowder which washes overcooked halibut, garnished with undercooked pearl onions.

Little discs of grilled Atlantic lobster ($ 43* or $9 supplement on prix fixe) are elegant if chewy but the accompanying warm salad of violet artichokes, green beans , crispy duck with foiegras sauce is very good indeed.

Truffles is the kind of restaurant that calls for a soufflé.  What I get is a grand marnier cupcake with a glass of ice wine gelee and ruby grapefruit granita – OMG it’s  as bitter as Fernet Branca, the fave Italian herbal cure for hangovers.  The pistachio crème and cherry compote went down nicely with an almond biscuit.

Who is this embittered chef, Laurie Bandur? She graduated from the George Brown Culinary Arts Program and “has been perfecting her culinary skills over the past number of years” -no mention  of her being a line cook. She looks dishy, ripe for the Food Network. But looks don’t count at Truffles where it’s the cooking that  matters.

*Truffles, Four Seasons Hotel 21 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 2G1 Tel. 1 (416) 964-0411. Wheelchair Accessible. Not noisy. Prix Fixe for Two plus tax: $111 (*regular price)

The Other Great Entertainer

Fleeing the michaeljacksonmainstreammedia, I ducked into Ichiriki on Bloor East hoping to regain a measure of serenity.

And then I met the Other Entertainer.

His name is Riki. He’s the puckish fast-talking owner of Ichiriki who presides over the sushi bar.

Now I’d always thought a sushi chef was a monk dedicated to a lifetime calling. But then I’m a novice, preferring crunchy sushi (deep fried soft shell crab and Kewpie (mayo(.

Only when I decided to cut down on carbs was my consciousness raised about the culture of raw fish.

I was getting waterlogged by cold fish as I ate my way round the tourist nexus of Yonge and Bloor. Then I I hit on Ichiriki’s fifteen buck sashmi plate and Immediately recognized superior quality: salmon, tuna, scallop – fresh and clean tasting.

I wanted to know more, I needed a Yoda to take me further. Spotting Riki entertaining customers at the bar, I knew I’d found him.

Next time I went straight to the bar. Riki was absorbed. His hands were hovering like butterflies over a minute piece of pink fish which was subsequently shaved into a curl by his samurai sword of a knife.

I have to know his provenance. Yes, he’s Japanese. “Did you know there are 700 sushi bars in Toronto and only FIVE Japanese chefs.” He’s a 28 year veteran, trained with the master Kaji (Sushi Kaji 860 The Queensway).

Finally is the fish fresh or frozen?

It’s a loaded question because most fish is flash frozen at sea and connoissieurs say flash freezing diminishes the taste. Some sushi chefs tell me all their fish is fresh even though it often doesn’t taste like it.

But once I taste Riki’s Big Eye from Hawaii I believe it’s fresh. Its glossy and rich, springs back from the prod of the chopstick. No Bluefin ,superfatty Toro however. Too pricey at $75 a lb. He doesn’t have Red Snapper either. Again, too pricey.

Riki riffs on about the fish. Later I learn from Max, my Japanophile friend, that this is sushi protocol. “Sushi chefs are 40 % cooking and 60% talking.”

The fish is a slippery customer. The sushi chef doesn’t always know what’s going to be available so he must weave a story about what he has now and what he may have later, why the Bonito is sometimes a mackerel and sometimes a skipjack tuna. Max gets quite carried away about the poetic quality of raw fish and begins to sound like Riki.

I get the picture. Eating raw fish isn’t logical, it’s a romance. And you’ve got to trust your chef.

Riki hums on about the sea bream sometimes called sea bass. He chuckles at the vagaries of fish naming. I pick up a little slice find it delightfully delicious.

I’m distracted by the amazing spiciness of the ginger. Same goes for the Wasabi which Riki squeezes from a bag imported from Japan.

This evening he expects new fish, horse mackerel, perhaps herring.

I return later and find two fans from New York sitting at the bar laughing along with Riki and letting him dictate their dinner. Best place in Toronto, they say. Riki prepares a plate of horse mackerel, little pink curls with chopped spring onions $9 for 4 pieces. But I thought mackerel had to be preserved in vinegar because it goes off so quickly. No, that’s the other mackerel which is dun coloured and thickset. Good too. ($8)

Better still Riki drops a squiggle of yellow chrome pigment on the plate. It’s fresh sea urchin ($13) from Chile and melts in the mouth. Chopped Giant Clam ($14) is chewy cartilege. Finally, two sublime big eye tuna sushi ($6) draped over the softest rice, the kind you can actually cut with your teeth.

I invite Max for my last dinner at Ichiriki. He is at first skeptical. Once again, two fans are at the bar cheering Riki’s nuanced narrative. They come here every week because they trust Riki.

We eat big sardines ($8) lightly vinegared, meaty yellowtail ($13), big eye tuna, ($11) more sea urchins. After a duet in Japanese with Riki, Max says this is the best sashimi/sushi he’s eaten in Toronto.

A great eating week and I didn’t put on a pound.

***Ichiriki I120 Bloor St. E. (at Church St.) 416-923-2997. Wheel chair accessible. Not noisy. Food for two plus tax: $60