Yours Truly Restaurant, Toronto

I apologize as I am behind with my posts because of a lot of business traveling. This menu is representative of an experience at this restaurant, where there is no menu of courses, but a list of seasonal and other items included in the dishes of the day.

This evening's menu is the restaurants "carte blanche" presentation, a menu which changes depending on product availability and the chef's whims. Chef Jeff Claudio has an inspiring resume, having staged at Alinea in Chicago, Noma in Copenhagen and Rockpool in Sydney. Staging is an opportunity for an ambitious chef to be inspired and to learn special techniques. It is then up to the chef to incorporate that learning into his own oevre.

Acorn squash soup with cream and shaved cloves. Obscured flavours.

Pork crackling with smoked salt.

Salt cod with potato puree, in a potato chip sandwich. A good snack.

Chicken liver filled potato beignets with cranberry gelee and sprinkled with beet powder.

Popcorn dusted with seaweed powder and sumac. This dish did nothing for me.

Truffled felafel, as traditional, buried in rice.

Bread service, house made, crunchy crusted bread, laced with caraway, with butter. This bread and the butter were so good, it deserved to be a course.

Barely cooked egg, cooked at 60 degrees in it's shell, for 32 minutes, placed on aged cheddar and potato foam on top, accompanied by borage, salt and vinegar truffle crumble and onion consomme. Really enjoyed this dish.

Sirloin tartar with shallot, chives, anchovy and a sour chive egg yolk. A pleasing rendition.

Torched mackerel on compressed spinach leaf, apple gel and wasabe.

Bannock fried bread with rhubarb, cardamom powder and salted foie gras.

Pan seared and smoked sturgeon, cherry puree, raw and confit parsnip, pickled nasturtium, brown butter emulsion, truffle vinaigrette.

House made gougere stuffed with taramasalata mullet roe and potato.

 A palate cleanser of freezees made with juniper and grape juice.

Chantecler rouge chicken thigh, buttermilk fried drumstick, date puree, crispy kale, brown butter emulsion, glazed turnips and tamarind powder. Chantecler rouge chicken, cooked properly, combined with most anything, is a chicken lover's delight.

Pomegranate peanut brittle and panna cotta. A pleasant palate cleansing finish.

Hoof Raw Bar: Brunch resurrected

After closing the Hoof Cafe, about 1 year ago, where brunch was served on the weekend, The Hoof Raw Bar now does weekend brunch. If you have a hearty apetite and you are a meat lover, you will love this brunch.

 Very crunchy, ungreasy, tasty hash browns made from shredded potato.

Tongue  benny topped with hollandaise all on toast.

Sliced, very tender beef heart, topped with salsa verde, sided with scrambled eggs mixed with bone marrow, all sided with rye toast. This dish alone would satisfy most hearty appetites!.

 The presentation of the blood sausage mcmuffin.

 The blood sausage mcmuffin.

 Inside the mcmuffin.

Bombay hash with smoked mackerel, a fried egg, butter chicken sauce and chat massala flavoured fried potatoes.

Breakfast cassoulet with beans, tomato sauce, pork sausage, roasted pearl onions, pancetta bacon, a duck egg and toast.

Staff Reminisces from Eshun Mott

     Working at The Cookbook Store was like an oasis of calm after the chaos and heat of restaurant kitchens.  I was downright excited to get up at the same time as my partner and go off to work when sidewalks were being swept and the city was getting moving.  The orderly nature of the basic work balanced perfectly against ever-changing interactions with customers and trying to intuit just which book might work for them.  I felt like I held so many books in my head in those days and loved being able to solve the puzzle of  "I heard something on the radio about a muffin book?" Though Jennifer always amazed me with her ability to continue conversations with customers she hadn't seen in months or even years.

     I have so many memories of my time there:  endless wrong numbers (I think it was Interlog internet provider who had nearly the same phone number as us); staff excitement over the new good books and our adventures in using them - lots of samples to share; the quantity of Battenburg cakes that went into Alison's freezer (and after trying to make one once, I can see the appeal of the frozen!) when Marks & Spencer closed their Bloor Street storefront; conversations about the pros and cons of taking over the empty storefront to the south (if they had a kitchen would they have to sell coffee - considering Alison & Jennifer didn't even like the smell?); being on the phone with longtime customer, our honorary grandmother, Mrs Rice; the excitement of meeting Julia Child; the silliness of an Easy-bake-oven cook-off, and Alison's help in first connecting me with Lucy Waverman, and then tolerance of me juggling my work in the store with my newfound career path as a recipe tester.

     I also remember the day a customer walked in with a baby and my eyes welled up with tears.  My hormones were telling me something I didn't think I was ready to hear. I don't remember how much time elapsed between that incident and becoming pregnant myself.  But I do remember how awful and tired I felt during that pregnancy;  going upstairs to package books for mailing and finding myself sitting in the dusty sunny chair up there for "just a few minutes," and customer predictions over whether I would have a boy or girl.  It was a natural extension for me to want to develop recipes that would work best for my growing family, which led, of course to writing a cookbook (Whining & Dinning with Emma Waverman) and my work at Today's Parent and Chatelaine today.  

    You never know where your career path is going to take you, but my time at The Cookbook Store left quite a mark, as I suspect it has on many others.  Happy Anniversary to you - and here's to many more years to come!

Eshun Mott

Currently Food editor at Today's Parent and Assoc Food Editor at Chatelaine magazines. Also co-authored the cookbook Whining & Dining with Emma Waverman

Friday Lunch at Capitano

You can get other things to eat on Yonge Street between Bloor and Wellesley, but really it is noodle or shwarma lover's heaven along that strip.  Thus it is with some excitement that we spied Capitano, featuring hamburgers and gelato.

Rather than our usual trek via the Toronto Transit Commission to some far flung culinary outpost, Capitano is a hop, skip, and jump down the street. Despite this, the fries are well and truly steamed by the time we dip into them.  Although we cannot tell if they were once crispy, we do register their spiciness. It is, a co-worker reports, rather like the spice mix used by Arby's.  This becomes something of a theme. The sauces used on the burgers are also reminiscent of some big brand sauces only better.

The Banquet Burger

The Banquet Burger features barbecue sauce--the brand savvy co-worker says it is like Bull's Eye.  Besides the ubiquitous onion(red), lettuce, and tomato, this burger features a generous heap of sliced sweet pickles, excellent bacon but a really mingy bit of cheddar. The meat is a little too compacted and over-seasoned, more like meatloaf than a burger. The made-on-site bun, a nicely glazed better than Wonder Bread number sprinkled with sesame seeds is tasty although it collapses a little. Overall, it is an acceptable, but not great, burger.

Banquet Burger (left), Capitano Burger (right)

Our second burger, the Capitano, is a winner.  The texture is a perfect example of a homemade barbecued burger featuring meat that is neither too dense nor too loose. On the outside it is browned well, while, unusual for a fast-food establishment, the meat retains a semblance of pink on the inside. It too has the usual toppings.  They were somewhat more generous with the cheese.  The sauce here is in the the Thousand Island/ secret sauce more--but better. 

Ice cream, sorbet, gelato, one of our number loves them all. Alas, the salted caramel and lemon gelati failed to enthrall. There was a distinct lack of either salt or caramel from the former. Instead there was a sort of a coconut-fueled imitation flavour.  Although the lemon gelato did have a citrusy tang, it was just a little too sweet to truly satisfy.

Lemon and Salted Caramel Gelato

While somewhat disappointing overall, the Capitano burger will draw us back to 645 Yonge Street.  It is a welcome break from the all Asian/all Mediterranean all the time norm on this stretch of Yonge.

Price: $25.82 for two burgers and two gelati.

Location: 645 Yonge Street

Phone:(416)917-7348

The Noodle Bar: Momofuko in Toronto

There is a lot of talk about the Momofuku restaurants. This visit was to the Noodle Bar.

Shiitake bun with hoisin, scallion and cucumber, delicious.

Peameal bun with sauerkraut, mustard, scrambled eggs and pickled shallots.

Momofuku ramen with pork belly and shoulder, nori, chopped scallions, fish cake, napa cabbage and poached egg. The texture of the noodles was terrific, but the broth rather thin. This might be personal taste as I prefer the "rich" broth at Kinton Ramen.

Fried chicken (12 pieces, legs and thighs (the best parts for me) for $40.00) with Korean BBQ sauce, sesame and chopped scallions. Not what I expected, but the chicken was perfectly cooked a pointe, so juicy, and very tasty. I would return just for these legs.

Japanese yam with shaved katsuobushi (dried, fermented and smoked tuna), chopped scallion and mayo. My partner loved this dish (it was good) and she would return especially for this.

Pig's tails with a chili glaze accompanied by dill pickle and fermented carrot. The tails were perfectly cooked and juicy. 

Smoked chicken wings with pickled, garlic and chopped scallions. This is another dish to return for, very tasty, especially with the added touch of smoke, and cooked properly.

Sticky date, brown butter and sugar chocolate pudding. If you have real sweet tooth, you might like this. Not for me, but my partner quite cared for it.

TEST DRIVE by Julia Aitken

MEASURING UP
 

   I’ve always thought that Mother’s Day gifts should be endearing and somewhat useless (well, mine to my mother always were) so these measuring cups from Abbott caught my eye. Prettily pink with charming scalloped edges, their cute quotient is undeniable. Alas, those frilly rims preclude using them for baking because the dip-and-sweep method of measuring dry ingredients just won’t work. 

However, fill them to the marked line with anything else and they’re perfectly accurate, and will add a touch of whimsy to your (or your mom’s) batterie de cuisine. ($17.99/set of four; visit http://hosted.where2getit.com/abbott/ for retailers.)

HAVE YOUR CAKE

   Gluten seems to be public enemy number one these days. Celiac disease aside, I don’t get the antipathy, but gluten-free appears to have become the new grail. Many gluten-free baked goods are as dry and heavy as Proust (madeleines notwithstanding) but you can’t say that for the new line of gluten-free goodies from Toronto’s own Dufflet Rosenberg. Launched earlier this year, the range includes a chocolate-dipped coconut macaroon and a chocolate-chunk brownie, but my faves are Dufflet’s gluten-free carrot and chocolate Cakelets.

   The carrot cake, rich and moist from coconut and with a nice hit of spice, has a fluffy cream-cheese icing, while the chocolate would satisfy the fussiest chocoholic with its layers of devil’s food chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream and shiny glaze. Each 5 ½- x 3 ½-inch (13 x 9 cm) cake cuts into about eight slices so they’re just the ticket for a Mother’s Day afternoon tea. ($16.99 each; Dufflet retail stores—www.dufflet.com/html/retail—Longo’s, Fiesta Farms or Summerhill Market.)

BOARD GAMES

   I’m not big on “gadgety” cutting boards—let’s call them boards with benefits—preferring my plain, utilitarian versions. But, Trudeau’s Chop ’n’ Clear Cutting Board is making me rethink my stance. Rubber feet mean the polypropylene board doesn’t slip (no more need for a damp tea towel!) and the two nifty slide-out trays let you sweep any trimmings into one and your chopped ingredients into the other, ready for adding to the pot. A channel round the edge directs any liquids into the drawers. Neat. ($24.99; visit www.trudeaucorp.com for retailers.)

Julia Aitken is a Canadian freelance food writer and editor who contributes to The Cookbook Store blog with her insightful column Test Drive on what's new for the kitchen. Julia can be found at http://julia.aitken.com