Woodlot Restaurant: Intensely Flavoured Comfort Food

Walking into Woodlot Restaurant, one is greeted by an open kitchen with a wood burning oven and a humble but cozy small 2 story very informal interior for sitting patrons. We were seated upstairs. The only problem is that if other patrons in this area are very noisy (and there was a group of 14 having a celebratory gathering), the noise made it impossible to hear your friends speak, even when they raised their voices. I must be frank by saying better soundproofing in that area is in order as the din takes a great deal of pleasure from the meal, which overall, we found most satisfying and in some ways, quite exceptional. We were particularly pleased with the very polite and accommodating wait staff and truly delighted by the attention forthcoming by the co-owner chef, who was so attentive to our requests about the elements in some of dishes and personally came upstairs to explain each one with such pride and passion. We could see and experience the love he put into the cuisine.

As we were awaiting our food, we were brought Red Fife bread that was just made in the wood burning oven, along with some house churned butter. Well, we could have made a meal just out of that tasty, crunchy, wonderfully wholesome and satisfying experience. It was so good, we all purchased some extra bread to take home.

Our first course was wood oven roasted pulled lamb tart with dandelion greens, a béchamel like cauliflower cream and sprinkled with grated parmesan. This tart was so exceptionally satisfying (you will keep reading this word which was such regular and fulfilling part of Woodlot's restaurant experience). The flavours and textures went so well together and the crust was so wonderfully light and flakey.

Our next dish was perfectly cooked papardelli with a very rich, again, wonderfully flavoured and intensely satisfying wild boar ragu, flavoured with cinnamon, star anise, thyme and rosemary.

My favourite dish was the braised duck cabbage rolls, the best stuffed cabbage roll experience i have had in a long time. The savoury savoy cabbage was stuffed with pulled duck, wild rice, chestnuts and prunes, a blend of such complementary flavours and textures.

I ordered the the roasted fingerling potatoes with duck fat and herbs to go with the stuffed cabbage rolls. All 4 of us at the table couldn't keep our forks away from these crispy, addictive potatoes, so another side of the potatoes was ordered.

A beautifully presented venison game pie was the only disappointment....but still possessed a very flakey crust, good but not so complex or interesting flavours, and the pieces of venison were a bit dense and tough. What was needed here, in my opinion, were pieces of venison selected that could be cooked slowly like beef short ribs or brisket so that the venison would easily fall apart when being chewed.

We finished with one of the best tasting tart tatins in the city. As you van see in the picture, the aroma drove us to dive right in before the photo so you are viewing the partially eaten tart. Very good pastry, cooked slowly in the wood burring oven, producing lovely complex and alluring, caramelized flavours in the dark apple topping.

As I have said several times, a wonderful, flavourful, highly satisfying meal experience overall.

WOODLOT Restaurant
293 Palmerston Ave (at College)
647-342-6307

My Visit to Fabbrica Restaurant

Fabbrica has been open for a while. I had visited to see about the new Mark Macewan's restaurant experience.

I tried a few apps and started with the the bruschetta with bone marrow and horseradish gremolata. I must say I was expecting a piece of bone marrow on toast, so I was disappointed because I really did not read the menu carefully as it stated that this was a bone marrow butter spread and not what I envisioned. But, if it had a piece of bone marrow on toast, what an appealing concept for me.

I also enjoyed the wood burning oven cooked pizza with lamb sausage, caramelized fennel and mozzarella, which was good, but, I would have preferred a thinner and a crispier crust. I tried the meatball appetizer with tomato sauce, basil and parmesan. I loved that dish, the rich tomato sauce with pine nuts, basil and raisons was a very tasty complement for the meatball, which had a nice moderately coarse texture, I found quite enjoyable.

Wonderful steak, of course, is a Macewan "specialty" and I was not disappointed. This steak was well aged and had a nice complex flavour, was very juicy and perfectly cooked.

We finished with a Meyer lemon and ricotta cheesecake with a blueberry preserve. Service was very attentive and professional.

FABBRICA
49 Karl Fraser Road (Lawrence Ave E. at Don Mills)
Toronto
416-391-0307

A Purveyors Steak Tasting Event, The Best of the Best, and THE WORLD'S BEST BURGER

Together with a group of experienced beef lovers, I helped to organize a tasting of the best beef supplied by what most consider the best beef purveyors in Toronto, Cumbrae's Meats and Olliffe's. I chose the best of what the 2 purveyors supplied. From Olliffe's, I chose pasture raised, dry aged about 8 weeks, Prince Edward Island, prime grade beef; pasture raised Ontario graded prime beef, dry aged about 8 weeks. Both of these 2 pasture raised cattle were finished on a mix of grains and corn. Olliffe's also supplied feedlot raised, dry aged U.S. prime and wet aged, feedlot raised Australian wagyu beef. Cumbrae's supplied their own pasture and feedlot raised ontario grade prime angus cross beef as well as their own dry aged pasture and feedlot raised wagyu beef. All Cumbrae's beef is raised hormone free and finished on their own proprietary mix of feed. Unfortunately, Cumbrae's owner mis-timed our event and his wagyu beef was only dry aged about 3 weeks, when normally it would have had at least 6 to 8 weeks of dry aging. 

We originally ordered pure pasture raised beef from 2 suppliers but one supplier cancelled at the last minute because we were advised by the owner that he did not consider the beef that we had preordered months prior, good enough for the comparison tasting. Farmer, Mathew Von Teichman was kind enough to supply us with his beef that was only pasture raised and in the last it's 60 days of it's life, also fed a diet of apples, starting with a few a day and working up to 60 apples a day at the end of term. This beef was dry aged about 6 weeks.

All steaks from from each purveyor were bone-in rib steaks cut to a weight of about 22 to 24 oz. Six steaks of each varietal were prepared for the tasting event, 3 for each tasting flight and 3 as a back up for the flight comparing the winners. All beef was tasted blind. the beef was delivered to the restaurant and the chef sorted the beef and was responsible for cooking the beef between medium rare and rare, slicing and assembling the beef on the plate in the kitchen in 2 1/2 oz pieces and the beef arrayed on the plate in positions, depending on the number of pieces, like a clock, ie, 4 pieces would be arranged at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions. All beef was assessed using the following standard criteria used by our different professional and serious beef amateurs at other tastings over the past 9 years. These criteria are taste, texture and juiciness. The ratings range from 1 to 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.

Flight #1 consisted of tasting the Cumbrae's Ontario prime, the Ollliffe Ontario prime, the Prince Edward Island prime and the Von Teichman pasture raised beef. In this flight the steak voted #1, by a very small margin, was Olliffe's Ontario prime; close #2 was the Cumbrae's prime; the #3 and again fairly close was the PEI prime. We all agreed, if tasted on their own, all 4 varieties of steaks would be considered very good, but the best were truly an experience!

Flight #2 consisted of the Olliffe supplied U.S. prime, Australian wagyu and the Cumbae's wagyu. This comparison was extremely close all around with the differences in fractions! The #1 steak was the U.S. prime by a very small margin, the #2 steak, the Australian prime, again by a very small margin and the #3 steak the Cumbrae's wagyu, again, by a very small margin. It was my expressed opinion that, having tasted the Cumbrae's wagyu at it's best on several occasions, that this steak would certainly have either tied for first or second place if aged fully.

Flight #3 was the taste off of the best of the best: the Ontario prime and the U.S prime and we  were all very surprised by the result. The Olliffe prime beat out the U.S. prime by a significant margin. I attributed this difference primarily to the wonderful nutty complexity (layers of flavour) that proper and adequate dry aging lends to the taste of beef that is adequately marbled.

We had a lot of left over steaks that did not make the final taste off, so, I took them all back to one of the butchers who removed the bone, and here it is, my personal recipe for the best hamburger patty you will ever eat, as some butcher's know it, "Josh's prime burgers" (of course the best starts with the best, properly aged and absolutely prime beef). All beef is trimmed of every visible bit of cap fat or extramuscular fat of any kind. The only fat used is the beautiful intramuscular fat (the fine fat between the fibers of perfectly prime grade or "super" prime beef). No extra fat is added to the grind. All beef is coarsely ground and only put through the grinder once. The beef was cooked between medium rare to rare, on the rare side (this is my preference) and specially ordered brioche hamburger buns are requested from my face baker are requested slightly denser than usual brioche. Another "must": when the burgers are grilled, they are only salted and they are generously salted, but only on each silence formed. Do not muss around with the ground beef. Handle the beef as little as possible. Remove it from the package in clumps that will allow you to directly form a 6 oz burger patty. Ravida Sicilian sea salt is preferred for seasoning. We have tried the burgers with different condiments such as ketchup, mustard, onions, relish etc and we all preferred the burgers with NO condiments or extras.

Now you serious beef lovers can find the best beef, do your own tastings and remember, beef is not like sheet steel which can have perfect quality control of material. Beef can never be perfect and possess the same taste, texture and juiciness each and every time because of animal variability for the most part, but also seasonal feed variability as well as the feed mix itself. If you like to experiment try adding about 25% prime and well aged ground skirt or hanger steak (or both) to your mix, for even more flavour. And now, you have the makings for some fabulous tasting juicy burgers with great texture. Please do not use previously frozen beef.