Wandering: Boccalone Salumeria

Boccalone sells, as it says above the door, "tasty salted pig parts" - which may be enough to convince you to visit in and of itself! It definitely piqued my curiosity, but moreover, whether stopping by for a fantastic sandwich (the Mess Piggy and Italian sausage are favorites) or picking up ingredients, their team is always welcoming and helpful, so I've been loyally returning every couple of weeks to their storefront in the Ferry Building to try something new.

The refridgerated wall of in-house salumi can be daunting, but every time I've visited, one of the staff have been able to answer all of my questions and suggest recipe ideas to match each of their products. It's dangerous shopping to do on an empty stomach (I never leave empty-handed), but for the opportunity to learn about and try delicious treats like guanciale and nduja, it's worth it.

Guanciale, I learned, has been largely usurped by pancetta or bacon in carbonara pastas, but was the original cut of meat paired with that dish.  I've always steered away from making carbonara, a little nervous that the raw egg in the sauce wouldn't cook well enough when mixed with the cooked noodles, but am happy to report that my first foray was successful.  Conversely, the nduja, a soft, cured salami was crumbled on to a homemade pizza at the last minute to great effect. My only caution (as I learned two nights later when making pasta) is that a little nduja goes a long way! Its flavour is intense, and can overwhelm other elements in the dish if too much is used.

Wandering - Tartine (SF)

I found Tartine just before noon on a Wednesday morning; like so many popular places in SF, it eschews notable signage, displaying a plain black sign with no lettering over tall windows. It was by chance I found it (well, chance and a nearby bus stop, en route to yet another apartment viewing) but I'm very glad I did.

Though the pastries were tempting, reminding me a little of the jewel-toned and rich chocolate desserts I first became acquainted with at Edmonton's Duchess Bake Shop, I snapped up a slice of the ham and cheese quiche, and was very happy with my choice. The quiche was delicious. Balanced, texture and flavour-wise, the ham added a salty undertone that fit, but which didn't overwhelm the other flavours. When I make quiche at home, it's often too soft (my baking curse continues!) but Tartine's doesn't suffer a similar fate. It's fluffy but not inconsequential, and made for a tasty, light lunch as I sat outside at one of their patio tables and watched the world slip past Guerrero and 18th.

Even mid-week, there were lines to contend with, but the staff were friendly and helpful, and the line moved pretty quickly. I'll be happy to return, and maybe indulge my sweet tooth the next time around!

Gastronavigation: Prince Edward County

Because he knows me well, part of M's Christmas gift to me was a completists' tour of Prince Edward County, a developing wine region in Southern Ontario. Our knowledge was limited to the Wine Country Ontario map, which offers a great highlight of nine of the area's thirty-odd wineries (hence why we thought we could tackle this region in a weekend!)

Scoring a shoulder-season deal to stay at Huff Estates garnered us a wine tour with their sommelier, Brian, whose quick wit and wide breadth of knowledge gave us a better idea of which grapes grow well in PEC, and how the various soils align to better grapes. We learned that the sweeter dessert wines grow best in the South Bay area, that the process of burying the vines in dirt over the winter is referred to as 'plutage,' and that we should never refer to a full-bodied wine as "heavy" within Brian's hearing! (Fortunately, this was an anecdote, not learned first-hand.)

Zero de Gris (at left) is one of the wines we tried at Huff; the pun in its name made me smile, as did the wine itself.  It's a late harvest Frontenac Gris (something completely new for me.) It tasted of honey, and oddly enough, of lemon meringue pie, reflecting a good balance of acidity and sweetness.  This grape species is a hybrid, first observed in Minnesota as a cross between a French varietal (Landot) and the widespread North American Frost Grape, or Vitis riparia. Perhaps in part due to its hardiness, this varietal is much more visible in PEC compared to the warmer Niagara region.

Closson Chase was one of our first stops, and even in overcast light, the soft purple on the renovated barn is striking. It's on one of the oldest homesteads in the region, and the winery's bold Chardonnays definitely made a good impression!

Naming conventions in PEC entertain me greatly. Closson Chase's name sounds as if it has a tale to spin, and while I'm sure it does, it's also simply located on the corner of roads named Closson and Chase. (East and Main restaurant and 66 Gilead Distillery are more examples of this trend.)

Decisions, decisions! Closson Chase focuses on growing and producing premier Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and the latter was good enough to pull M and I out of our (self-inflicted, post-Pinot-Affair-last-year) Pinot ennui!
Purchasing-wise, we wanted to focus on PEC-area (or VQA PEC) wines, so we brought home the Closson Chase Vineyard Chardonnay. (The winery also sources some grapes from the S. Kocsis vineyard in Niagara for some particularly lovely Chardonnays.)

M's declaratively more of a red wine fan, so it was great to see him try some of these bolder whites during our trip, especially at Closson - and emerge on the other side of the attempt a budding enthusiast.

The non-tasting room section of Closson Chase's barn is a seriously nifty space - a little drafty in early March, but I could see this being heaven in May, and very cool for shindigs, weddings, and other events.

I like how the stained glass's pattern on the far wall is echoed in Closson Chase's bottle design elsewhere around the winery.

This beautiful church (at left, above) is on part of Closson Chase's property; vineyards run for miles beyond it. The roof was resurfaced in the early 2000s with a design inspired by a church in Burgundy. Seeing it stopped M and I cold when we drove past (and sent us scrambling for our cameras.)  The friendly nature of the County was further revealed when the first car that drove past us slowed down as it passed and checked in on us to make sure we were all right. We waved our cameras and thanked them for checking with a smile.

Across the field was a wonderfully photogenic red barn. The County at this time of year dances a beautiful line between desolate and stunning that feels ineffably Canadian. (At least, it brings to mind all the CanLit I read in Uni that never really made sense until I moved East. That said, one day, I'll reconcile the fact that to Ontarians, Ontario is not East, it's Central, but I've enough prairie girl in me still to call it East.)

At right is one of the things that lured me to Prince Edward County in the first place - a Canadian take on port, both white and red, under Karlo Estates' Van Alstine label.  It was the last sample I tried in an array of delicious options. We started with an impressive Riesling (Lake on the Mountain) that was my trip favorite Riesling, then their Chardonnay CHOA, Cabernet Franc, and Quintus red blend (one of M's standouts, it weaves together Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Merlot.)

Though the Chardonnay CHOA was a little too bold for my palate at present, it had a complex blend of notes that will have me coming back on my next trip to see if my thoughts have changed. (CHOA stands for Cherry, Hickory, Oak, and Ash, the combination of County wood that goes into the barrels where this Chardonnay is aged, put together specially for Karlo at one of two cooperages in Canada, at the Carriage House Cooperage in Bloomfield.)  Compared to other varietals like the Riesling and Frontenac Gris Rose, it's not as easy-drinking, but I could see it becoming something I'll love in the future.

Wonderful as the wine was, we couldn't drink it all the time!  On our second day, M and I found ourselves at the Tall Poppy Cafe in Wellington for lunch. We loved it, and were I gifted with Carmen Sandiego's skill at purloining landmarks, I would leave the Golden Gate Bridge and steal the Tall Poppy instead! The people were friendly, the space was welcoming no matter one's age (people aged six to sixty sat around us, enjoying the fresh soups, sandwiches, and in my case, awesome Mediterranean platters of couscous, grilled halloumi cheese, hummus and pita, warm artichoke dip, and lots of fresh veggies and olives!  I was starving, and still walked away with a takeaway container for later.)

It's definitely worth the stop, if you find your feet taking you to PEC.

We rounded out our trip at Sandbanks Winery, and despite the chill in the air outside, it was easy to feel like summer was around the corner when leaning on the burnished copper countertop, enjoying the bright, abstract art that lines the tasting room walls, and learning that not all Baco Noir is created equally. M and I had a terrible experience with Baco Noir, once, but were slowly testing our luck with the varietal over the course of this trip. Sandbanks trumpet their Baco Noir VQA as their signature wine, so we suspected we would be in good hands.

After trying and enjoying both the regular and reserve releases, we decided to purchase a bottle of the reserve release - but not before I was ensnared by Love, Sandbanks' cassis aperitif, a blend of Canadian cassis liquor and white wine.

It was a perfectly sweet finish to a trip to vineyards that weren't afraid to see life through rose-coloured glasses - nearly every vineyard we visited prominently featured a rose wine or another offering in blushing hues, like Love.

One trip is never enough - there's a cooperage and distillery that have piqued my interest (but whom were closed on Sundays, at least in the early-March shoulder season when we visited!) not to mention twenty more wineries to wander through!

Some of the wineries are seasonal, closing until April's festivals begin and more visitors turn their eyes to camping and wine touring in the area, so I know we'll be back, perhaps spending some time (and enjoying some wine) in the brightly-coloured Muskoka chairs on Sandbanks' patio.

'Til then, happy wandering! Have you discovered any knockout wines or wineries recently?

Review: Bread Heads

Cities are wonderful things. I studied them, a little, back in my undergrad days - ten stories up at the top of the Tory tower with a formidable prof and a class of whipsmart fellow Poli Sci students. It's fascinating to see some of what we talked about take effect in downtown Kitchener; as the Shops on Duke Street become an increasingly interesting place to eat out; as Holy Guacamole expands, Exclamation puts a new face on the corner of Frederick and Duke Streets, and Bread Heads opens.

 Bread Heads is the newest addition; after a coworker talked happily about a new place that served great wood-fired pizza right around the corner, what could I say but "next Tuesday?"
Wandering over, we raised our invisible caps in gratitude to the friendly young team that didn't slow down as they made our pizzas, despite the fact that the inside of the cafe had to be warmer than outside - and the air outside was sweltering. 

We snagged two of the bar stools and took in the space. It's warm (in more than one way), welcoming, quirky, and played right in to my love of always having reading material at hand. I liked that all the books were on-topic.

The small sketches & paintings tucked behind the potted plants on the bar counter were a sweet touch; one of the little (and not so little - like the 'baker's calculator' on the wall) details to enjoy. The cafe isn't a large space, mostly intended for take-out, but a couple of small parties could still fit in, provided the waiting lines aren't too long.

Pizzas are assembled and cooked to order; K omitted the caramelized onions from his Duke (mozza, cremini & baby bella mushrooms, & pepperoni on tomato sauce) and I nodded gleefully when the cashier/prep chef asked if I'd like extra balsamic on my Breadheadigan (cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, & parmesan with a balsamic reduction & olive oil base.)  The summer salad looked tempting: mandarins, blueberries, and goat cheese in spring mix? Yum. Next time, I'll ask about the breads and muffins on the tray below the menu, too. The muffins intrigued, but I was too focused on pizza - and watching the flames dance in the wood-fired oven while trying not to boil, myself - to ask.

At $8 even, tax included, for each pizza, it's an arguably more expensive lunch as quick food goes, but the toppings are fresh, tasty, and plentiful (and, according to the website, stocked locally and seasonally as much as possible.)

 I was more than happy with the mix of flavours and toppings on my pizza - it's hard to go wrong with cherry tomatoes, dark balsamic, and goat cheese, and the Breadheadigan gets it very right.  The pizza dough is great, too: pleasantly chewy with crispy bits around a couple of air bubbles and flavourful without being heavy. K was equally happy with his Duke (pictured left), and recommended I try one of the pizzas with a tomato sauce base next time.

...that said: see you Tuesday?

Cheers!

Review/Wandering: Rainbow Caribbean Cuisine

After returning twice in two weeks, I'm coming to terms with the fact that the chicken roti at Rainbow is both addictive and causes something like a Eureka moment. (Oh, you can't help but think upon first bite. That's why people love this place.)

Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" is playing over the stereo; a years-younger Barack Obama looks out over the oxtail and snapper trays from a poster with an optimistic smile - it's an interesting mix of old and new, but it's a good one. I brush my feet against the floor, sizing up the long bar of curries, rum cakes, and coconut desserts and wonder if Rainbow was the first tenant of this sunny spot in downtown Kitchener, scribbling absently about how kids-these-days might just grow up okay despite listening to Lady Gaga (next up on the stereo) sing about disco sticks if I (who is a self-professed lyrics girl) am only figuring out now how poignant some of my parents' favorite songs really were. Sometimes it takes time to listen differently; time and years. It took me 'til last week to discover that Tom Cochrane's "Big League" (a song - or, well, chorus - sung many a time as my family piled into our van to send my brother or sister off to an early-morning hockey game) is firmly rooted in tragedy.

I digress. Food and music, particularly their combination, can take you anywhere.

The roti I've ordered is massive; sweet-savoury and staining my fingers even as I carve it. It's too large to lift with anything resembling elegance, but this is a Very Good Thing - the roti wrap itself is pleasantly chewy without being dense, and it's packed with tender, slow-cooked chicken, potatoes, and onions. I can already tell I'll be taking the last third home for leftovers. Again! And I walked in starving. ...Now to guard the leftovers from M.

One day I'll make it to the goat curry; to the snapper dinner; to the Jamaican patties with their bright, flaky, egg-y pastry. I'm not usually the type to gravitate to a favorite and get stuck there, but there's a first time for everything.

When I wrote this first, it was during the heart of Oktoberfest, and I think I'd ventured Downtown in search of a schnitzel, but I'm definitely glad my feet turned me this way.

In other fantastic news, I noticed as I left Rainbow that Niko Niko is once again open for business! (It had been closed for some time due to smoke damage from the fire down the block.)

Gastronavigation: Spring!

Spring is my favorite season.

It could be that I'm a spring baby, or the sunshine, or the flowers (it's probably all of the above) - these days, I think a big part of it is that life just seems to pick up again as the days grow longer.

Some quick shots:

Freshly foraged fiddleheads! The wonderful bourbonbaker hunted these down and passed some

to me. (Thank you!) I've never tried them (I don't think they're very common in Alberta) and am very excited to add them to tonight's dinner!

Fiddleheads, if I recall correctly, are the young shoots of the ostrich fern, and seem to be a culinary herald of spring in this area, along with ramps and asparagus. I know that fiddleheads can be blanched and tossed in with salads or pastas, but I think I'm going to keep it simple and saute them with some butter and maybe a pinch of black pepper and salt. (Other recommendations?)

This beauty is from Nick & Nat's Uptown 21 - not only did I win their Poutine Friday contest but lucked into finding my favorite flatbread in recent memory. It featured roasted pecans, curly endive, herbed goat(?) cheese, and a sweet-savoury squash puree that I would happily eat by the spoonful. I would inevitably regret eating said puree by the spoonful, but I would be blissful until that regret hit! The mix of flavours, the perfectly chewy crust... my leftovers were equally delicious cold, as well. Definitely one of my favorite dishes in KW. Woefully, I discovered this on the second-last week of N&N's lunch service - maybe it'll be back in the fall!

I'm trying to brave my fear of baking this year. I enjoy baking (both the eating and the preparing parts), but am sometimes too spontaneous for an art that requires precision and attention to the recipe. ^^;; ...I may also have set off fire alarms while baking things as elementary as cakes-from-a-box and puffed wheat squares in the past.

So, these pecan-apricot-orange-spice muffins, adapted from Food & Drink's Spring 2011 edition, were a good step forward. Handily, the original recipe is available online: Orange-Pistachio-Glazed Spiced Muffins.

Happy spring! I hope you're enjoying the sunshine.

Gastronavigation: Chianti, Sugarbowl (Edmonton)

I have to admit it: when I went back to Edmonton for Christmas, I had a food list.

I'm not saying that Culina's dark chocolate and blue cheese steak, or the Hardware Grill's lobster mac & cheese, or Da-De-O's sweet potato fries, or the Manor's spinach salad, or Duchess' macarons are the best in the city (though you won't steer wrong if you order them at all), but I missed them, just as I missed walking around the River Valley or trying to figure out (as I do yearly) whether I shoot left or right in my family's yearly road hockey games.

(For the record, I shoot left.)

Having my sister gift me with a "Sister Lunch" was a bonus! However, something we're known for, and should have expected going in, is what we tend to call "adventure" and what a more honest person might call "getting lost/distracted/detoured and ending up somewhere else altogether". We were headed to Hudson's on Whyte for bison burgers (bison being on my list) and to watch one of the World Junior hockey games (hockey games being, always, on my sister's list)... only to discover that said pub was closed for renovations!

So it was with hungry eyes that we turned our eyes westbound down Whyte, succumbing to the warmth and nostalgia (and $7.99 all-day pasta specials!) featured at Chianti.

Chianti is a Whyte institution, hosted in an old Post Office and easy to spot as it's capped by a green-roofed clocktower. It's one of the first restaurants that I remember visiting, so it was, in part, nostalgia that steered our steps. I've had family dinners and birthday dinners and first dates and breakups and hey-we're-just-friends lunches hosted under its tall ceilings, looking out onto the Ave or taking in the classical prints and neon printouts of upcoming concerts. I don't know if I've ever wandered off the pasta menu (there are a lot of options!) but while it's by no means haute cuisine, I've always left very happy and full!

After sharing a couple of laughs with our server (who was an old soccer teammate and friend of my brother's) I ordered the Fettuccine Fulminante: thick homemade noodles with baby shrimp, smoked salmon, onions, and black olives in a curry-cream sauce, and my sister, craving pesto, ordered the Penne alla Pollo with chicken, tomatoes, and peas.

Her dish was tasty - although peas strike me as unconventional, they added a sweet note to the savoury flavours of the tomatoes and basil pesto - but the Fulminante is an old favorite and I dug into it with gusto. There's something awesome about the rich, smoky combination of the olives and salmon combined with the yellow curry sauce (something that I probably should have figured out how to cook by now, but there's also something to be said about going out!) Defeated after eating about two-thirds of the generous serving, I declared myself too full for a shared order of Da-De-O's cajun sweet potato fries (we'd toyed with the idea pre-lunch), and trekked across the river so I could introduce my sister to Duchess Bake Shop.

Strike two - the bakery was closed between the 1st and 10th of January - but I did get an interesting photo of their gingerbread Notre Dame!

Not to be fazed by this setback, we rallied and turned even further west to Vi's for Pies, whose tasty soups and knockout desserts I discovered far too late in my days in Edmonton. Unfortunately, they were also closed for the holidays!

Fortunately, the Sugarbowl welcomed us warmly, and a square of banana cream pie and a massive serving of bread pudding were soon in front of us. The banana pie was smooth and tasty, and was probably the wiser choice given that we'd just eaten pasta - but I hadn't had bread pudding in ages and couldn't resist. I'll return and defeat it, one day, or share it with a friend: delicious and formidable, topped with soft, real whipped cream and peppered with raisins, banana, and caramel, it's a great decadence for a cold day, and effectively added itself to my Food List for future trips.

While the Sugarbowl's hard seats don't look like you could spend hours in them over coffee, portabella burgers, or exotic lagers without losing feeling, they are oddly comfortable, and service is quirky, quick, and personable. With its proximity to the University, most diners were either students or professors, but it shouldn't be dismissed, with its awe-inspiring beer list (it's even longer in real life), exposed brick and wood walls, and casually stylish staff as for-hipsters-only. The Sugarbowl has been around since the '40s and has been a "Belgian-style cafe" since the late 80s, serving up microbrews and unique ales far prior to the current fascination for beers beyond Bud. It's definitely worth a visit.

This day, complete with detours, was a perfect gift - a chance to literally gastronavigate for a few hours and take someone awesome along with me.

Review: Hometown Eatery

I should say that I've been to Hometown Eatery before - it was the first restaurant that I visited upon moving to the KW area - but when dining out, it's inevitable that certain things on the menu will catch your eye.

And so it was with Yukiko's lemon poppyseed slaw and the Polenta Lasagna; though happily distracted by the burger selection (which has got great variety and taste), something told me that these would be worth trying.

So, book in hand, I wandered back. I was on the late side of lunch, but the cafe was bustling with friends and coworkers out for dessert or a more substantial meal. I enjoy eating out on my own every so often (it's a great way to people-watch and to get in some writing) and it's always interesting to see how servers/hostesses treat you upon realizing your singledom. Props to the server at Hometown, who smiled genuinely with her "for one?" and bustled me over to my choice of two tables.

Hometown Eatery, or Yukiko's, as some locals still call it, is bright and whimsical; well-lit with a mix of abstract canvas art and pop-art-esque depictions of food nestled beside chalkboard lists of beer on tap (considerable; lots of in-province breweries) and daily specials. I was disappointed to see a lack of Ontario wines on the winelist, but think that this has more to do with liquor laws than Hometown's interest in having them on the list. Plus, although it was 5:00 somewhere, I stuck to water.

My lemon poppyseed slaw arrived first; the dressing was crisp and refreshing with lots of poppyseeds, and while the slaw was crisp and not pre-packaged, I couldn't help but wish for a bit more of a punch in flavour and texture (sliced almonds? red cabbage?) Still, it was enjoyable, and a good precursor to...

Lasagna! It's one of my favorite comfort foods, and appeared in an oblong baked-pasta bowl with two slices of in-house rosemary bread (YUM). The bread was handy for soaking up the pasta sauce, and the lasagna itself was a yummy twist on the traditional version. The veggies (mushrooms, cauliflower, zucchini, onions, and peppers) and generous amount of melted mozzarella made a tasty counterpoint to the discs of polenta; I'm not certain I've been fully seduced away from the traditional combination of noodles/mozza/meat, but this was a delicious alternative!

...It's not necessarily lighter, though - I was still pretty full at dinner.

Service at Hometown can be uneven (read: slow, although always friendly) but today my server was excellent, even though she was doubling as hostess. With tax and tip, my bill was close to $20, which is on the expensive side, but with most of the dishes, a side is included, and the polenta's one of the more expensive items. I'd save it for dinner in future, but I'm sure I'll be back.