Amuse-Bouche

• Poutine: the National Dish of Canada?

  Posted in: Amuse-Bouche

  On Wednesday, April 21st, members of the Leacock Club and assorted VIP guests attended the 11th Annual Leacock Debate, which took place at the great Hall in Hart House at U of T.

  The Leacock Club was established in 1992 in order to give philanthropic Torontonians a way to contribute to civil society. The two main objectives of the Leacock Club are to celebrate wit and humour, and to raise funds for its associated charitable public foundation--the Stephen Leacock Foundation for Children. www.leacockfoundation.org

  This unique evening of wit and humour has earned a reputation as…
  
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• Vinegar That Tastes Like Wine

  Posted in: Amuse-Bouche

  

  We walk across the farmyard, avoiding contact with the region’s national birds, peacocks, pecking in the patches of grass, and head for a two story, weather-beaten wooden barn. Here in Modena, Italy, up a staircase to the second floor of this shabby building, twenty five, fifty and one hundred year old Balsamic vinegar is being nurtured. This thick elixer will be bottled in small glass containers sculpted by an Italian artist, and sold anywhere from $100 and up to gourmets around the world. I am lucky. I get an ambrosial taste from an eye dropper. My companion does not.…
  
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• The Pain and Pleasure of Pepper

  Posted in: Amuse-Bouche

  

  It’s there in Black and White. Lunching with names in the movie-tone news at a chic beach front restaurant on the Croisette in Cannes, I ask the waiter in my best high school French for fresh black pepper for my Salade Nicoise. “You want black pepper,” he snarls, “go to Africa.” Still, he grudgingly brings an ancient pepper mill.

  In restaurants all over the world, before I can put fork to lip, waiters are wielding pepper mills the size of Mark McGuire’s bat, grinding and twisting them at my table. I’ve become addicted to hot pepper: black,…
  
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• Oysters and Wine

  Posted in: Amuse-Bouche

  

  How do you pair oysters and wine? According to World Oyster Opening Champion, Patrick McMurry of Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill, “it all depends on your personal preference”. There are so many different varieties of oysters, and different types within those varietals, that to try to pinpoint one wine that goes well with each and every oyster would be in vain. Moreover, “wine changes by the year; oysters change by the week. Depending on that week’s weather—whether there was a lot of rain or not—the salinity in the water changes.” Therefore, McMurry suggests any of the “classic, traditional white…
  
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• My Love/Hate Relationship With Fat

  Posted in: Amuse-Bouche

  

  Guilt is good. It is an emotion that I savor with each blissful tablespoonful of Butter Pecan ice-cream straight from the carton; with each profoundly satisfying bite of crispy skin chicken; with each euphoric morsel of USDA Prime sirloin steak, marbled with rivulets of sizzling, juicy, flavorful fat. Oh, come on, we all love fat. Is there one among us who will speak for delicious fat while there is a witch-hunt going on? “Fat Police” and nutrition educators are plying us with information--instructing us on how to find hidden fat and flush it out before we swallow--pouring on the…
  
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