HUG ME………A BRITISH researcher with a doctorate in watercress, is advising other salad fans to stroke their lettuces to make them taste nicer.
“I’m completely passionate about creating the best possible salad” says Steve Rothwell, a farmer and self-declared “leaf boffin” in the Daily Express.
The salad-crazy doctor, who got his unusual PhD from Bath University, said stroking growing lettuceleaves makes them bigger and tastier and glossier.
Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef and host of the Travel Channel’s very popular “No Reservations” on the latest nannystate initative — weaning people off SALT
“It’s what makes food taste good,” he says In TIME. “Traditional, intelligent and skilled used of salt has become confused in the minds of nanny-state nitwits with the sneaking of salt into processed convenience foods. Nothing else encapsulates the mission of the food ideologues better than this latest intrusion: they desire a world without flavor.”
The President’s Cancer Panel published online last Thursday claims that the proportion of cancer cases caused by environmental exposures has been “grossly underestimated.” It warns of “grievous harm” from chemicals and other hazards, and cites “a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer.”
Immediately, the American Cancer Society challenged the so called findings.
Dr. Michael Thun, an epidemiologist from the cancer society, challenged the “implication that pollution is a major cause of cancer” and and had presented an unproven theory — that environmentally caused cases are grossly underestimated — as if it were a fact.
The cancer society estimates that about 6 percent of all cancers in the United States — 34,000 cases a year — are related to environmental causes (4 percent from occupational exposures, 2 percent from the community or other settings).
“This is an evenhanded approach, and an evenhanded report,” said the chairman of the president’s panel, Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall Jr. of Howard University, adding that it was impossible to specify just how many cancers were environmentally caused, because not enough research had been done, but he said he was confident that when the research was done, it would confirm the panel’s assertion that the problem had been grossly underestimated.
Call it Cancergate like Climategate or just junk science.
I’m embedded in a Mediterranean fish war. For more than thirty years, the Dalmatian Joso’s at Av/Dav has commanded the Avenue Road strait. But now there’s a challenger. The new Ionian Malena is just a couple of blocks South. It’s the ingredient that counts here.The battle is on for the freshest fish — weapon of choice is the grill.
Let the flames begin.
Malena is a charming clubby makeover of the old Pink Pearl, polished wood with a stunning silver wall and an inviting windowside ar. It is designed by Sam Kalogiros and David Minicucci who also own the neighbouring youthquake L’ Unita. Malena however is for adults, affluent Annex, low music, low lights, friendly service personified by Raffaele, the maitre d’. who’ s dressed down in jeans. The menu is concise if not quite Greek, but it’s the spirit which counts. Oysters from Rodney’s, Stone Crab claw from Florida – and a soft shell crab, $20, the seasonal queen of East coast crustaceans $20.There are several ways to cook these squashy leggy creatures and Chef Doug Niegel goes half-tempura, light crisp crust on wonderfully fresh crab which still has its tasty tomalley (yellow pancreas). Lucky because that’s sometimes removed for health reasons.
And now for an authentic tang of the Med: two little flat barges of marinated fresh sardines $13 carry shredded romaine topped by the crunch of pancetta with a dab of roaste d garlic cream. We are now sipping appreciatively a $45 bottle of lemony alberino (Via Latina). Malena’ s wine list starts very reasonably.
From the daily fish selection, we pick a hefty snapper $33 fragrantly grilled – a squeeze of lemon brings out every cell of taste. We’re not so lucky with Spot Prawn risotto $29, a dish from which taste actually recedes. The advertised cumin is hard to recognize and the spot prawn, demure compared to the big Gulfs with their algae driven iodine, is puzzlingly paired with another shy food, the subtle artichoke.
Dessert (all $8) is showgirl time – an astringent blood orange icecream draped in fennel marshmallow is terrific. The lemon phyllo tart is dazzling and too sweet. A sad shake of the head to walnut bread pudding, much too stodgy to accompany the truffle- infused sheep’s milk cheese.
Overall, we think, this is the kind of elegant metrosexual place that Alan Bates would have loved before he fell into the unbuttoned world of Zorba the Greek aka Anthony Quinn.
Which is what we do next. On a sunny Monday, we saunter over to Joso’s and avoiding the Rabelaisian ribaldry inside, settle for a table on the patio. Joso’ s has an effulgent menu well suited to its flamboyant personality. The classic tomato and mozzarella $14 is so fresh – who said you can’t find a good tomato this time of year? We follow that with Joso’ s famous inky spaghettini made with cuttle fish and squid ($15-24).
The main event. The waitress brings out the Fish Platter, a dozen raw fish from oyster to sea bream. After havering – we should eat Med – we say this is Toronto and order the Dover Sole from Holland. It’ s huge and a mere fifty bucks. A steal, but we know it’s the real thing because Fatima, the chef, shows me how the eyes are placed on the right of its flat head like the top of Herman Munster’s head.
Presentation is splendid, the fish deboned and laid out as two fine filets for us. The sole is burnished, tinctured with olive oil, and has a nicely chewy texture and it even has the hard roe, a treat from my childhood. It isn’ t the fault of the clams, shrimp and mussels that follow in a tomatoey sauce that they seem good but anti- climactic. The Big Fin always wins.
We are replete but our meal is not complete. We have an inspiriting Zorba moment. We’re joined by a wedding party. Happiness invades the patio now basking in sunshine. The couple are toasted with Ouzo, Prosecco is poured, the two waitresses bring out platters of shrimp, ink risotto, giant salads from the kitchen. We wonder when everyone will get up and dance and shall we join in? Slow Fade to Mediterranean sunset on the beach…
2 1/2 ** Malena, 120 Avenue Rd. 416.964.0606.No wheelchair access. Dinner for two: food plus tax $125 *** Joso’s 202 Davenport 416-925-1903. No wheelchair access. Food plus tax $137
Last Thursday I called Malena, the new place on Av/Dav where the Pink Pearl used to be, and asked for a Friday dinner reservation. One minute said the responder who then came back and said we have space at 6.30. Practically tea time. Gosh it must be busy I think. “How about 7?” I ask. If I’d like to sit at the bar. And I’m expected to leave by 9. Or I could come at 8.30. .
I opt for early.
When we get there the place is almost empty. A family and children. The dinner, which I’ve reviewed this week in the Post, and the service are fine, and it’s nice to be able to talk without being jangled by loud music. Still, an almost empty restaurant isn’t very jolly. I dine out for the entertainment as well as the food. But people don’t start drifting in until 7.30, the place is about half full when we leave at 8.
So why couldn’t we eat at 7.30 I wondered.
Malena’s not alone. I’ve hit the weekend wall before. I understand that restaurants want to squeeze in two sittings on popular nights. If a place is packed from 6.30 on, I’d be less put off by the policy. Last time i was in London, I could only get a 7 reservation at the Michelin one star L’Autre Pied and the maitre d’ was apologetic about adding that we must leave by 9. But the place was packed and they couldn’t chuck us out because we hadn’t finished our dinner by nine — the service was that slow.
I’m still trying to work out how long the 7.30 diners at Malena were allowed to stay….
Had to happen. The Dutch have come up with the STRAMATO, a strawberry, well sort of, shaped hydroponic tomato with a distinct if faint strawberry flavour…and sweeter than the grape varieties…Now stramatos are growing in Canada’s hydroponic capital, Leamington….available at Whole Foods $3.99
Comes from Zimbabwe but who knows for how long as the plantation is owned by whites….
Dark Roast is rich and mellow when ground coarse. Available in Sobey stores…For more information google Ashanti
These excellent tomatoes, an outsize cherry, the same size as the popular Camparis, come from Quebec.They taste crisp, juicy and fresh. The beauty of hydroponic growing is that the grower can adjust the taste and in Quebec, they add salt to the water. $3.99 at Whole Foods
England’s most likeable chef Heston Blumenthal has embarked on the kindest of crusades — he’s signed up with the NHS to try and improve the food for old patients. finding ways to improve the food in old age homes.
And how he’s going to do it? “Umami is a great way to …improve the flavour in the mouth” he says. Remind me, what is Umami?The Fifth taste,a kind of vague savouriness to go along with sweet, sour, bitter, salty…. Unami foods include shitake mushrooms, anchovies, parmesan, worcester sauce. He seems to have missed out on the mightiest source of Umami, the TOMATO not to mention TOMATO KETCHUP. Ronald Reagan was jeered for saying so — but he was right, tomato ketchup is an important food.
Not so in Toronto where controversy rages over Caplansky’s version of smoked meat. It seems you either love or hate it.
Among the lovers is home-smoker Stephen Temkin writing in City Bites, who defines Caplansky’s as uniquely Toronto and rates it over Montreal’s acclaimed Schwartz’s smoked meat: “ It’s more fragrantly cured, tends to be less dry, and the presence of real smoke fulfills the promise of its billing.”
The haters are all over the blogs. A typical comment on my blog comes from Larry Tanebaum “I’ve been there three times, each time worse than the other. The smoked meat is downright horrible and don’t get me started on the poutine….oy vey.”
The passion is infectious. Jewish gastronomes are fighting to keep alive one of their most potent cultural memories. In comparison, most of us are wusses. True, the French have asked the UN to make their cuisine a cultural heritage site, and the Italians have specs for authentic pizza but, unlike the French and Champagne, they haven’t passed a law decreeing “pizza” may only be used for Italian-made pizzas.
What would pizza be called here?Cheezywheezy?
This sends me out to check my passion for my potent cultural food memory – fish and chips.
We kids ate them before the movies. We biked into our market town and picked them up from the chipper – hot,vinegary and tinctured with lead leached from the hot type of the tabloid newspaper in which they came wrapped. While we developed a palate for Ch. Haut Brion, which has that same irresistible lead pencil flavour, we sucked up the headlines. “Footballer strangled by 18 year old Tabby”, “Bride dies in underwater tryst” which were more sensational than the movie, our cinema alas wasn’t on the Paramount circuit.
Word of mouth guides us to Kingsway Fish and Chips, Royal York and Bloor W. This is an old Anglo neighbourhood and the place is packed on a Friday night. Atmosphere exudes friendliness. The staff, like our waiter Jackie, are buoyant lifers. We order a single fish and chip plate $9.89. A beautiful golden bubble of fish arrives, the fragile pastry flaking, then melting in the mouth. Divine. Firm but tender, fresh wild halibut cooked just right. I don’t remember any fish so good. We send for another order of fish $7.49 stat.
The homemade tartar sauce is creamy, spiked with pickle, the chips charged with malt vinegar are crisp, perhaps the Caesar salad has too many coarse romaine leaves but the coleslaw is crunchy sweet and sour. From a list of other fish dishes, we pick ten grilled fat shrimps on a skewer $ 12.99. V.good. There’s beer, and the highest price for wines by the glass is $6.49 for an Oz Chardonnay.
Bowled over, I ask the owner Gary Blokhuis how he’s made a British tradition even better.
Turns out he’s Dutch!. Proof again that Toronto IS fusion. Gary’s family came from a seaside village. He says “They knew good fish.” After settling in Toronto, Gary’s father got an offer he couldn’t refuse. The St. Lawrence Fish Market, which preceded the present market, wanted to move a glut of halibut and helped new immigrants get bank loans to open chippers. Gary enthusiastically followed his father, opening his first chipper in 1968. Since 1971, he’s been in Etobicoke. “This is my third shop. I outgrew the first two locations.” Now he’s passed the baton to his son Gord and Gord’s wife Rachel – just taking it back on Fridays to keep his hand in.
***Kingsway Fish and Chips 3060 Bloor W. 416 –233-3355
Wheelchair access. Dinner, food plus tax – under $30
Toronto Loosens Its Corsets, New Breed Chefs Scuttle the Staid is how Food Arts Magazine headlines my story about Toronto restaurants in its April issue – now available at the Cook Book Store 850 Yonge St. 416- 920-2665. Did you know that Toronto, so many miles from any ocean, is the best place to eat oysters in all of North America?
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