Food Trends

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

Now that the "eat local" mantra has permeated just about every household in North America (yes, we are behind the times compared to Europe and other parts of the world!), there’s nothing better than making good food yourself- EVEN sausages!

As a kid, I used to watch my mum and dad make their own Colombian style Chorizo and Morcilla (the latter of which is the Colombian blood sausage and as I kid, I loved them until I figured out why they were so dark! But that’s another story for another day). Once filled, they would turn our little kitchen in Hamilton, Ontario into a makeshift charcuterie shop- using wooden poles to string up the links and let them air dry in the room's cool confines. I used to stare in wonder as I got home from school and watch my parents ritualistically check the curing process of the chorizo especially. It was fascinating to me.

Unfortunately, I never learned the intricacies of making chorizo- but luckily, Latin American food specialist, chef and caterer Carlos Fuenmayor did! With his expert advice and well-planned Chorizo recipe, you too can create your own deluxe “charcuterie” plate this fall or winter, replete with house made chorizo- Sabrosito style! (Sabrosito is not only Chef Carlos’ catering company name, it also means “mmmmm! That’s good!” in Spanish).

Click here for the recipe and Chef Carlos’ tips- you won’t be sorry!

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

I’ve always longed to visit India - that land where the intoxicating aroma of roasting spices magically transforms into some sumptuous dish with layers of flavours and lingering complexity that make food enthusiasts like me swoon. And yes, I’ve heard all about the perils of eating there- the visiting cricket teams that get “Delhi Belly” and the like. But sheer bravado aside (I did after all survive a particularly nasty bout with a “rod like parasite” that I picked up in Colombia), it’s the lush landscapes and glorious regional dishes that call to me ever so invitingly.

As if to whet my already healthy appetite, I was invited by the formidable duo of Preena and her mother Arvinda Chauhan for a walking tour of Toronto’s Little India. I figure this is the next best thing to catching a flight, so on a rainy summer Sunday, our group meets at the incomparable Udupi Palace on Gerrard Street East for what I can sense will be a fascinating glimpse into this community’s hub. Udupi Palace is, according to Preena, “just like the restaurants in southern India. It’s as if I was there,” which suits me fine as we’re here and I’m looking to get as close to there as I can. We ate, walked, tasted, talked and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon full of entertaining and enlightening company. I even got to try my hand at making a paper dosa (an Indian crepe )- and a fair job I did too given I’m not as deft as Udupi Palace’s practiced chefs!

Join me this week for a run down of our walking tour and some of the day's flavourful highlights. It’s ALMOST as good as going to India and just as delicious - of that I can assure you!

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

Some of you have asked me when I'd get my own website together - an online portfolio of sorts that can give you a good look into the inner-workings of a dedicated food enthusiast (I especially ♥ Latin American fare), writer, researcher, global explorer and Food TV producer. So, I finally bit the bullet and persuasively asked Ryan Wale of Evol designs in Johannesburg, South Africa to help me out with the graphics side of things (he's Mario's best friend and one of those artist savant types that is equal parts inspiring and infuriating all at once). Hence the citrus (which I love as much as almonds) inspired look on the site that Ryan so beautifully crafted.



Then it was all about finding someone that would build it for me and with me- Mario to the rescue again and off we went to webhoster.ca – a Toronto-based outfit that Mario is acquainted with. In short, webhoster does good work. They were easy to communicate with and had the patience to explain why many of my hare-brained ideas would or wouldn’t work. So, if you care to take a gander at what I’m up to, what I’ve done, to read some other writing samples or just to get a flavour of what other pots I have cooking in the kitchen, feel free to stop by and say hello!

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

The conversation started off something like this: “I’ve got Roger Mittag coming to Nella next week- it’s his food and beer pairing class,” said Joanne Lusted- the effervescent Director and resident Chef at Toronto’s Nella Cucina cooking school/event space. I reply- “Roger Mittag- who’s that?” to which Joanne says, “The Professor of Beer. You’ve got to come- you’ll love it.” And so off I went to thoroughly enjoy some unchartered sudsy terrain.

Mittag is indeed a knowledgeable and friendly guy who just so happens to love teaching beer-neophytes like me about what makes a good brew. He’s been doing just that since 1997 and even developed his own business around beer appreciation called “Thirst for Knowledge.” Not bad for a guy who used to be in beer sales before deciding that his future lay in enlightening us all on the differences between a lager and an ale (for starters).

The summer night we all met up with Roger, some 30 of us started off with a little beer primer (more on that later), and then settled into groups of 5 or so with trained chef leaders in the kitchen to whip up a batch of dishes each featuring a different style of beer. I have to say my group’s soft polenta with beer and Parmigiano was a highlight of the nightfor me, as was the amber beer poached pear with mascarpone dessert. The caramel surrounding the pears was incredible- I would have licked my plate clean if I wasn’t in polite company, but I digress.

Join me for a little beer and food pairing 101 a la Professor Beer – you may even pick up a tip or two to take with you to the pub on your next night out.

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

Chef Jason Bangerter isn't just a talented cook, he's also smart enough to know that the yearly Summerlicious and Winterlicious dining events in Toronto are an opportunity to flaunt your culinary chops. That several participating restaurants don't get this concept mystifies- pedestrian pasta dishes anyone? It’s a shame because here’s an opportunity to get curious diners through the door, wow them, and then ensure they’ll be back thanks to a terrific meal and experience.

At Auberge du Pommier, their Sumemrlicious menu gets you three well-conceived courses starting with a refreshing heirloom tomato and melon soup or a crisp seasonal salad with a picture-perfect peach honey dressing, fresh cheese and olive oil from Arles. The mains include a Tournedos de Boeuf (seared beef tenderloin with glazed pearl onions, local mushrooms and a wonderful potato puree), a Loup de Mer (my fave of the night- baked white sea bass with young leeks, saffron aioli and a bouillabaisse broth), or a roast chicken with Provencal bread salad, olive tapenade and golden pepper velouté. I finished off with the Rhubarb Consommé for dessert – a cold rhubarb nage with sweet Ontario strawberries and crispy lavender meringues. My sister enjoyed the pave of chocolate with cocoa crumble, maple syrup and birch beer foam.

If I didn’t know and admire Chef Bangerter’s work, this meal would have made me a card-carrying fan (in a non whacky sort of way- I’m no chef stalker). My sister and her husband are Bangerter converts; of their own volition I might add. My husband almost got misty when Chef brought out his interpretation of Canada on a Plate- locally foraged mushrooms flash fried with a light-as-air batter, served with marinated spruce tips, a spruce gelee, and for our benefit, shaved truffles. Magnificent. Summerlicious runs July 4-20 around Toronto.

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

On my recent adventure in China, our group met up with Kelley Lee, a former Angelino who one fine day decided that her corporate gig just wasn't feeding her soul. So off went Kelley to Paris to study at the Cordon Bleu before deciding to relocate to the land of her ancestors, China. The girl's got an adventurous spirit and an entrepreneurial one too- plus it doesn't hurt that she speaks fluent Mandarin (makes doing business in China a WHOLE lot easier!).

It was in Shanghai that Kelley met Texan born and bred award-winning Brew Master Gary Heyne (he won the 1996 GABF Gold in Denver, Colorado for his Midland's Mild beer) and together, they created the Boxing Cat Brewery, named after the late great feline named Louie- more later on the legendary boxing cat himself.

The savvy duo have located themselves in the heart of expat central- a suburb of Shanghai called Minhang where Americans, Brits, Aussies, Canadians and everyone else under the English-speaking proverbial sun gathers for some of Kelley's dressed up "Modern American Comfort Food" as she calls it. There, you can have some of the best deep fried cornmeal crusted okra or sliders that are just about worth the flight to Shanghai. For expats looking for a flavour of home, or if as my husband Mario would say, you're experiencing "chopstick fatigue," then the Boxing Cat is an oasis of sorts.

Catch my upcoming interview with Kelley and Gary as they pull up a chair and pour a pint about their brewery and how the micro-brewed beer trend is starting to catch on in China. Oh and we'll unravel the mystery behind boxing cat Louie.

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

When I saw that the dining craze known as "Dinner in the Sky" (which was started in Belgium by a creative entrepreneur) was coming to Toronto - I signed up ASAP! I'd seen incredible photographs of the Dinner in the Sky event held in Cape Town, South Africa via the Internet (three inbox messages from different people around the world no less!)- ah the power of viral marketing at it's best because I can tell you, I'm intrigued!

Toronto may not have ocean and a rugged coastline to brag about, but we do have our own sparkling city lights to hold our attention. This Wednesday, I'll be joining other dinner companions as we're lifted by crane in the downtown core at Dundas Square to enjoy the culinary delights of some of our city's best chefs.

The details so far: it will be a one hour experience (so yes, going to the bathroom before hand is essential), we'll savour three courses in the sky, and I believe shoes that strap on (no sling backs) are du rigeur should you loose a mule in mid-meal. I have few precious details right now but will be reporting back on how the whole experience played out and what the food was like of course (one of the biggest draws for me, no matter where I'm eating!).

It seems that this Dinner in the Sky concept is one of those dining trends that is still as popular as it was when I first read about it years ago. And who knows- maybe it will make a pit stop in your city next! Click here to read all about the lifting experience!

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

As a kid, I’d save up my allowance (and yes, even caroling money- I got entrepreneurial around Christmas!) and head over the corner store with neighbourhood pals. There, the three of us would buy what we could with our meager rations- back then “penny candy” really did exist. I often chose those sweet-tart “bottle caps,” or candy in the shape of a bottle cap in numerous soda pop flavours. Root beer was my first choice. If I worked really hard at it, I could make one sweet bottle cap last at least ten minutes- a life time for an eight year old!

This is my round-about way of telling you that upon first sip of Gale Gand’s artisanal quality root beer, I was instantly transported to a warm summer’s day when a bottle cap candy would first be placed on the tongue and all was right with the world. The bouquet is bottle cap vintage- sweet, molasses-y, and downright fun! The flavour wasn’t as ginger-based or cinnamon-inflected as I’d hoped- perhaps I was expected a more “mature” or sophisticated soft drink. What I did taste however was crisp, clean, sweet fun.

I’ll soon be enjoying a bottle or two with my nieces, in the requisite frosty mug that’s been chilling in the freezer overnight so that a little bit of icy foam forms around the edges. We might even drop a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream in there too, just to up the wow factor. And we’ll enjoy it as much as the boomer generation Gale primarily created this libation for- even if we’re decades apart!

If you want to catch my interview with the celebrity pastry chef turned root beer guru, click here.

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

I was recently reminded of how important farmers are to the integrity and enjoyment of the food we eat at restaurants and in our own homes. A three hour ride out to Central Illinois from Chicago gave me the opportunity to meet Marty Travis, his wife Kris and their teenaged son Will (maker of some fine maple syrup!). The family call themselves "stewards of the land;" land that was settled in 1830 by their fourth great-grandfather, Valentine Darnall.

Today, Spence Farm & Spence Farm Foundation provides some top notch eateries with seasonal produce including nettles, ramps and pawpaws. Of course other less "wild" items are grown on the farm, and the family keeps heritage breed cows and pigs on hand as well.

Spence Farm is the kind of place that reminds you that it's family owned and operated outfits like theirs that make eating locally and sustainably a wonderful thing. The Travis family supplies restaurants like Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill and Topolobampo with a spate of fresh goods, and they in turn make the most amazing wild nettle corn tamales I've ever savoured out of just one of their crops. Up next- radish seed pods that will be turning up in Frontera's salads and possibly as pickles. Fresh, spicy and so unexpectedly wonderful!

It was Edible Toronto's publisher Gail Gordon-Oliver that first opined that farmers and producers of artisanal foods are the next rock stars. After meeting the Travis family, I think she's spot on!

Posted by Mary Luz Mejia

I’ve been hilariously reminded about less “common” food stall choices in Shanghai. China is a country in which precious few edibles are wasted. So if that means you can marinate a pig’s snout in a soy and sesame sauce, braise it and serve it to happy, hungry customers, you will.

And our flavour-seeking crew comprising of Chef Shaun Anthony (who worked for Gordon Ramsay in the UK), Patrick McMurray of Starfish Oysterbed and Grill restaurant (he of world champion oyster shucking fame), host Rudy Guo, Chef Michael Blackie (of Ottawa’s Brookstreet Hotel) and sommeliers John and Zoltan Szabo (no relation- John is Canada's first Master Sommelier) tried it all.

In the words of Patrick McMurray (aka Dr. Seafood), “You forgot to add - if your pig’s snoot lands on the grimy old town Shanghai street, the 5 second rule still applies, but only if the food item is washed off with cold Tsing Tao beer!” And then Shaun Anthony wrote me to say, “How come you didn't add that Tsing Tao is an excellent disinfectant for any and all street food situations -say for example that you want to eat a boiled pig's snout and your mate drops it on the ground...” Good question- HOW could I forget? Maybe I inadvertently blocked it out of my mind’s eye.

But this adventurous lot also ate mystery, burnished brown little birds (beaks, brains and all), stinky tofu with hot sauce (oh the smell- this link had me laughing hysterically!), a clay-cooked chicken (brain and all- way to go Shaun) and a few questionable but I’m told delicious “pie” creations. And all in all, the boys fared well, not one of them (to my knowledge) spent serious face time with a toilet!