Friday Lunch from Harvest Wagon

A legend in Toronto for its pristine fetal vegetables, and high prices, Harvest Wagon is one of the Summerhill businesses collectively known as the "Five Thieves." Since reopening in a larger space, Harvest Wagon is now selling prepared foods. The Designated Courier is dispatched up the hill to investigate.

Eschewing the large chunks of meat, he comes back with that lunchtime staple: tuna salad.  To make our own tuna salad sandwiches, he picked up Ace Bakery's francese loaf from Harvest Wagon's next door neighbour, All the Best Fine Food. The bread is a great foundation for a sandwich with a chewy interior and crust that is just crispy enough without threatening the teeth or roof of the mouth.The tuna salad is a little salty and rather watery, as though the tuna was not drained well enough.  However, both texture and flavor are rescued by the generous addition of chopped red onion, celery, bell pepper, herbs, along with a squirt of lemon juice for freshness.

The citrus poached seafood salad represents a good mix of both inexpensive and luxury ingredients.  The DC is rewarded for his labors when he scores an oyster in his share.  We also discover shrimp, mussels, bay scallops, calamari, and octopus. To enhance the seafood, the cook has blended a dressing with capers, herbs, lemon, pepper and a higher quality olive oil than is usual in a purchased seafood salad.

So yes, as it is for its produce, Harvest Wagon prices are high for two containers of food - but the quality justifies the price.

Price: $21.51
Location:  1103 Yonge Street, across the square from the Summerhill LCBO
Phone: 416-923-7542

Ici Restaurant, Toronto

Ici is a very small intimate boite but very comfortable and not too noisy. This latest effort by well known Toronto chef, J P Challet and his partner, chef Jennifer Decorate, is a comfort food haven. Jennifer is also one of the best front of house "greeters" in the city and with her generous smile and warm welcome, she makes one feel right at home!

We began with the house amuse that day, samor cheese with lighly fried potato gnocchi and merguez sausage all with dijon mayo.

Then attacked before the photo could be taken, the steak tartar, which had a nice flavour, but was a bit overworked. This was accompanied by fried potato croquette.

Mediterranean fish soup with shrimp frite. This is a fish soup as good as it gets, rich tasting complex flavours served with baguette toast spread with rouille and shaved cheese. I would have preferred more rouille.

My main was duo of beef bordelais, a small entrecote properly cooked rare as requested, tender braised short rib and a split roasted marrow bone. This was accompanied by frites, red carrots and beans.

We shared 3 desserts and began with the lemon trio, lemon tart, lemon custard and lemon ice. A refreshing dessert.

Next, we enjoyed the trio apple trio, a thin french style pancake filled with cinnamon flavoured diced apple, apple flavoured ice and a mini caramelized apple tatin.

Finally, the chocolate trio.

ICI RESTAURANT
538 Manning Ave. (at Harbord Ave)

Toronto M6G 2V9 - (416) 536-0079

Didier Restaurant, Toronto

For the best classical French food in Toronto, there is nothing quite like Didier's. The Chevaliers du Tastevin (the Burgundy Wine Society) chose Didier's for their annual member and guest event.

Dinner began with a fine gateau du loup de mer au beurre blanc. The creamy textured gateau was nicely favoured with chopped green scallion leaves; the fish cooked perfectly and all the flavours were well bound by the rich butter sauce. A classic! With this dish we enjoyed Meursault Perrieres, Premier cru 2000 by Comtes Lafon and a lovely Chevaliers Montrachet des Demoiselles, Grand Cru 2002 by Louis Jadot.

The next course, another classic, was beef tartar, of course hand cut. The beef was perfectly flavoured with a very slight bite and the texture was perfect, slightly coarse and smooth. For me, this is perhaps the best beef tartar in Toronto! The wine for this course was Nuits-Saint-Georges les Chaognots, Premier Cru 1995 by Robert Chevillon.

The final dish before the cheese course was pan fried venison, perfectly rare, with pepper sauce, accompanied by an apple compote, potatoes almondine and a puree of celery root. But the sauce!!! Didier's sauces are a clear, intense, silken reduction of pure flavour. Another remarkable experience to be enjoyed at Didier's. The wonderful wines for this course were Chambolle Musigny Les Cras, Premier Cru 1996 by Georges Roumier and Chambertin Clos de Beze, Grand Cru 1996 by Domaine Prieure Roch.

Grands Echezeaux, Grand Cru 1996 by Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret was presented with the cheese. However, it is my preference to not drink red wine with cheese so I enjoyed the wine and then the cheese.

DIDIER 

1496 Yonge Street (just north of St. Clair)
Toronto, ON M4T 1Z6
(416) 925-8588

Frank's Kitchen, Toronto

Chef Frank Parhizgar is very proud that all of his food is from select regional farmers and that everything served is absolutely prepared from scratch, each day. Justifiably so, from my perspective.

After being seated, we were presented with a variety of very tasty, warm, house made breads, a wonderful experience if you love bread, all accompanied by an olive tapenade and an intensely flavoured tomato puree all in a bit of olive oil.

A plate of amuses followed, spicy tuna belly taco, warm creamy cauliflower veloute and crisp fried goat cheese croquette with chopped tomato and cucumber salsa.

Another amuse followed of silky textured raw lamb charcuterie, presented with sliced pickled beets, pickled lotus root, extra large green olives as well as small Nicoise black olives. 

Next, a picture perfect, classically done oyster's Rockefeller with a nicely lemony hollandaise sauce and wilted spinach.

We then ordered fois gras torchon over a diced green bean salad all topped with a frisee endive “salad” accompanied by seared quail leg and seared fois gras on Jerusalem artichoke puree. The textures and flavours of the frisee endive and the crunchy chopped bean salad went very well with the richly flavoured and smoothly textured torchon.

A brightly intense calamanci lime sorbet topped with a piece of basil arrived and worked so well to refresh our palates.

Lamb rack, loin and shoulder arrived with a ratatouiile of julienned veg and also some micro veg all surrounded with a cabernet flavoured jus. The lamb was perfectly done rare as ordered and a very nice contrast with the texture and taste of the lovely slow cooked shoulder.

Apple strudel with a very good mincemeat like tasting filling was accompanied by a cinnamon flavoured scoop of creamy ice cream.  

Plum tart tatin arrived fabulously caramelized with a richly flavoured, very creamy vanilla ice cream scoop.

The only disappointment of the evening, a chocolate volcano cake flavoured with cherries, tasted of powdered chocolate.

When the bill came we were presented with small cubes of intensely rich dark chocolate truffles. And by the way, Frank’s Kitchen has a brief but well selected, very reasonably priced wine list, such a rarity in the city.

FRANK'S KITCHEN
588 College St., (at Clinton)
Toronto
416-516-5861

Big Bone BBQ, Newmarket, Ontario

Big Bone BBQ is a long way from downtown Toronto. Is it worth the drive for an experienced BBQ lover who has been all over North America for good BBQ? Probably not unless you live in the area, although it was certainly good. This style was somewhat similar to the Memphis style, with wet bbq treatment for the pulled pork, brisket and ribs. The sauce was good and on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 best) it was a 7. The rib meat fell readily off the bone and although quite juicy, from my perspective,  a bit over cooked because with no effort at all, the meat slid right off the bone. The Brisket meat was not smokey enough. It was sliced a bit too thin for my preference and because it was drenched in bbq sauce and sliced so thin, it was difficult to determine how juicy the meat really was. Nevertheless, I am sure that brisket meat and sauce would be good in a sandwich. The pulled pork was good and drenched in the bbq sauce, would make a good sandwich. Again, for me, the pork was not quite smokey enough and this pulled pork was not as good as Paul and Sandy's BBQ'd pulled pork (the only thing I really liked there), in the west side of Toronto. The picture below is the ribs and pulled pork.

The fries were crisp. The beans were good, mostly because of the sauce, but no smokey flavour. But, it was all good value. The portions were on the large side and fed 4 people. The full rack of ribs, order of pulled pork (the eaters could not be prevented from grabbing some of the pork and ribs before the photo was taken), the order of brisket, all of the sides and with 3 bottles of water, the bill was $51.70. 

Big Bone BBQ
207 Eagle Street
Newmarket, ON
(905) 853-9888

Pork Inspired Extravaganza at The Gilead Cafe, Toronto

Jamie Kennedy deserves another medal for his inspired, highly creative heirloom pork themed menu, a degustation of pork put together for a group of wine and food lovers. With the passionate participation of one of the country’s best producers and purveyors of fine beef, pork and lamb, Cumbrae’s own Steve Alexander, the event may have been one of the finest for experiencing a rustic but sophisticated take on regionally sourced pork products of different breeds.

We began with apps, tortiere strudel, a clove, and onion flavoured ground pork and potato mix. The tortiere was topped with tangy mustard pickle, a perfect complement.  

Then, we were presented with crispy skinned, panko crusted blood sausage croquettes that were topped with a small slice of lemon and a caper. The creamy centre was flavoured with onion, nutmeg and black pepper.

Our final app, crispy confit of wild boar topped with cider mignonette, was sitting on an apple chip. Even the fat of this incredibly flavoured breed had such a delightful flavour and texture.

Lentil soup followed, and was topped with grilled, sliced Berkshire pork sausage flavoured with fennel. The flavours of the fennel and pork just bloomed on your palate. The soup was spiced with caraway, lemon zest, garlic and dill. Can you imagine how these wonderful flavours all came together!

Next, a humble sounding Yorkshire Landrace breed pork burger came stuffed with a layer of head cheese and was accompanied by simmered, sliced root vegetables. When sliced, this was an exceptionally juicy pork patty and when tasted, was a miracle of delectable flavours!

Piglet was deboned and rolled, spiced with rosemary and black pepper, slow poached, then fried to a crispy skinned doneness. This process intensely concentrated the pig and rosemary flavours. The piglet roll was presented on sliced mushrooms and potato, pommes Anna. Another highly successful presentation of pork.

We were then presented with the piece de resistance: Crown roast of St Canut suckling pig (porcelait de lait) (weaned from it’s mother and only fed 22% fat cream in last 8 weeks of it's life). The roast was brought to us with burning rosemary branches.  What an incredible, mouth watering aroma of the burning rosemary and roasted pork, just from the oven!

The chop from the crown roast was presented med rare, with a sauce of the juices, vermouth and garlic scraped from the outside of the roasted pork. Delectable!!

Finally, tarte tatin with maple candied bacon and maple syrup ice cream. What an exceptional tasting dessert. The flavours and textures of this dish were addictive! The dessert was perfectly paired with an 1989 Chateau Doisy Vedrines sauternes.

Despite having just returned from Europe after just experiencing dinner at Heston Blumenthal's new resto "Dinner" and lunch the following day at his famed resto, The Fat Duck, followed by dinner, later that week at the "world's #1 resto, Noma, in Copenhagen, I could not rave enough about the experiences of this meal. Once again Chef Kennedy's imaginative, grass roots, artisanal touch meets with incredible success.

New York Restaurants: Lincoln, Maialino (brunch;dinner), Hill Country Fried Chicken, Casa Mono and Ilili

Lincoln, Lincoln Centre

Walking into the restaurant, up the stairs, one is greeted by a very large, long open kitchen, apparently well organized and truly bustling. The room is quite fabulous, open and airy with floor to ceiling windows, cozy dark booths and open tables.

Opening the menu, I was not overly inspired by the selections of this former executive chef of Per Se restaurant, Jonathan Benno. We are offered house made, crispy grissini with chili flakes and rosemary; crispy thin flatbread (carte da musica) with sesame seeds, oregano, rosemary, sea salt and olive oil. A very nice beginning and both selections were very good. House made bread with lardo was also offered with chick pea puree and crisp agnolotti filled with braised greens, mushrooms and fontina cheese. The agnolotti had a tasty, flakey crust, but the filling flavour was muddled and the only obvious flavour was mushroom. 

An inspiring presentation of roasted beet salad with Sicilian pistachios, red watercress, cucumber slices and mint on a smeared bed of thick yogurt like labneh, with dill. A beautifully presented dish of lovely flavours was much enhanced by the roasted crunchy texture and flavour of the pistachios.

Linguine with peeky toed crab, Maine sea urchin, meyer lemon and green onion was very pleasant but for me I would have preferred more sea urchin in the somewhat bland sauce.

Orchiette with duck and pork ragu, with parsnips and savoy cabbage, was a dish with earthy flavours, the parsnip providing some sweetness, but the dish was a touch over salted.

Octopus and pork belly terrine with marinated veg and caramelized lemon vinaigrette came with shaved carrots, curly endive and shaved radish. Great flavours and the fat of the belly a good complement for the octopus but I found it's strong flavour slightly overwhelming.  The citrus vinaigrette helped to balance all of the flavours.

Capellini came with ruby red shrimp scampi. The scampi were barely cooked and had an absolutely perfect texture, one that made me want to eat more, the taste redolent of sweet butter and the sea. The pasta was properly cooked as well and had a nice springy trexture.

A side of sauteed spinach with oil, garlic and lemon arrived perfectly cooked, but a touch over salted.

A completely uninteresting dessert menu was presented, so I actually did not order dessert.

Maialino

Maialino has a very informal, rustic decor in keeping with the theme of the menu. 

We began with fried artichokes accompanied by an anchovy bread sauce. The pieces of artichoke were a bit too greasy and not crispy enough. Anchovy sauce a bit overwhelmed the flavour of the artichokes, but was terrific with bread for dipping

Next, tonnarelli with pecorino and black pepper (cacio et pepe). The pasta was good but there was not quite enough cheese for me and the sauce seemed to lack the creaminess that I remembered from my  recent visit to Rome.

Stracciatella alla romana followed, chicken broth egg and grano. This soup had a wonderful intense chicken stock flavour with just the right complement of lemon. I very highly reccommend this dish. Perhaps the best version of this dish that I have ever tasted.

"Maialino" roast suckling pig, accompanied by roasted potatoes, was my main. It was very tasty, with great crackling (!!) but the meat was a bit dry.

A side of stewed beans and pig skin with the juice from the pig had wonderful flavours well absorbed by the beans. Loved this dish.

My dessert was olive oil cake with vanilla bean mascarpone. The cake was very moist, with a complementary orange flavour that was well rounded off by the rich, thick, creamy

vanilla mascarpone.

I enjoyed sides of gellato. The pear gelato was perfect, a creamy textured, intense pear flavour.

Brunch at Maialino

My main was tripe in a mildly spicy tomato sauce, topped with a fried egg. What a wonderful combination of textures and flavours for me, although one must acquire a taste for tripe.

I also ordered sides of sauteed potatoes, which were rather non-descript and really not worth ordering; bacon, which arrived as a thick slab, nicely cooked, slightly crisp but what a wonderful addictive flavour; sausage which most of us at the table thought was the hit of the meal, very juicy, with wonderfully complex flavours and an enjoyable coarse texture . It seemed to have been either steamed or poached and then finished in the oven; a very nice side of slices of suckling pig.

I enjoyed this hearty brunch very much.

Hill Country Fried Chicken

I heard a lot about this well known spot and chose to go for lunch.

Fries have a crunchy skin, soft interior and are remarkably ungreasy and quite tasty. It seemed like they were baked not fried, but they were fried.

A side of a biscuit was classic, buttery, crumbly melt in the mouth with good texture.

"Hill country classic fried chicken" is brined in buttermilk and fresh herbs, double coated in seasoned flour and finished with a dusting of the signature shake (the proprietary mix of dried spices). The chicken perfectly cooked, juicy, with minimal, thin batter. The skin and coating were moderately crispy and coated with a mix of the proprietary mixed spice seasoning. This crust was not quite as enjoyable as classic fried chicken when cooked properly. But overall I still rated this fried chicken as "good".

A nice selection of pies (6) were available, but I did not indulge despite their seductive appearance! One must watch calories somewhere!

Casa Mono

Casa Mono is a very small resto, with 14 counter seats and only 7 tables and by virtue of it’s size quite noisy.

I began with crispy, corn meal breaded, deep fried, Chopitos (baby squids) with melted onions and baby bok choy in a squid ink vinaigrette. The squids were terrific, a great snack or starter, but the accompaniments seemed extraneous and really added nothing to the dish.

My next dish was fideos (a very thin vermicelli like noodle) with chopped chorizo and clams. The mildly spicy, broken fideos completely covered the clams. The smoky chorizo and lots of thin slices of garlic gave a great flavour punch to this dish.

Duck hearts with fabada (beans) followed. Spanish guandilla peppers, sliced garlic and horseradish provided lively contrasting flavours much needed with the beans and duck hearts.

We kept going: Cod cheeks pil pil (slices of mildly hot peppers) with striped bass.  This dish was perhaps my favourite, perfectly cooked, melt in mouth tender fish with sauce of butter and garlic and I love the texture of the cod cheeks.

Next, bone marrow arrived with tomato rubbed toast (Spanish style) with chopped tomato and salt and pickled radishes. This dish was way over salted, but the concept was a terrific.

The following course was oxtail stuffed pequillo peppers. The very rich sauce, went well with the sharp taste for the peppers and lots of sliced garlic.

Finally, we enjoyed chick peas and tripe with house made blood sausage, smoky spicy chorizo and croutons. This was a very hearty dish and tied for my fave.

Dessert was almond cake with apples and cinnamon whipped cream.  The cake had an orange flavour, but was a bit dry, very crunchy and firm, not at all what I expected.

Ilili Lebanese Restaurant

When we were seated we were immediately served labneh with crispy flatbread and olives.

We began with the old standard, babaganoush with tahini and olive oil. This dish was disappointing. Not enough smokiness and it was too tart.

Next, fattoush garden salad with mint, parsely, chopped lettuce, cucumber, red and green pepper, cherry tomatoes, radish, toasted pita pieces with sumac and lemon vinaigrette, This dish had wonderful textures and the light vinaigrette was a perfect complement for the veg flavours.

Kibbeh, steak tartar, followed. This was made with bhurgul (cracked wheat), and was accompanied by chopped onion, mint and sliced hot peppers. The tartar had a very good flavour but, as typically, the texture was a bit pasty.

A very disappointing, very soft flat bread covered with finely ground lamb was tasted but mostly left over.

Next we enjoyed crisp, tasty falafel balls made with chick peas and fava beans. This was sided with a dish of tahini.

A surprise was duck shawarma, rotisserie duck breast, fig puree, green onion, and whipped garlic all wrapped in a thin pita. This was the best dish of all. Tender, flavourful, juicy duck with some crispy skin, all in all, so much better than any boring beef or lamb shawarma.

We then enjoyed bone marrow, sour cherry tabbouleh with pita pillows. This was also a favorite dish. The combo of the tabbouleh and cherries with the marrow was amazingly perfect, the tartness breaking the fatty marrow.

Next, Freekeh ( a grain) risotto (style) with winter veg, mushrooms and parmesan cheese, nice and creamy. Another terrific dish and I may prefer the grainy quality of the freekeh over rice.

Finally, desserts: warm ground pistachio filled cookie with licorice rose water flavoured soft marshmallow, dusted with cinnamon. This was addictive if you love warm, slightly molten marshmallow.

Our other dessert was napoleon of kataifi (like warm crisp shredded wheat but better) and ashta (lebanese clotted cream) topped with simple rose water flavoured orange blossom syrup. Both desserts terrific.

Lincoln at Lincoln Center
142 West 65th Street
New York, NY 10023

(212) 359-6500

Maialino (at Gramercy Park)

2 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10010-5405

(212) 777-2410

Hill Country Fried Chicken 

Ste 1116, 1123 Broadway
New York, NY 10010-2156
(646) 398-9027

Casa Mono
125 E 17th St # 1
New York, NY 10003-3447

(212) 253-2773

Ilili Restaurant

236 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
(212) 683-2929