Love Food Fest 2014

Kid Food for Grown-Ups! There is a new food festival in town on Oct. 7, 2014 at Wychwood Barns. Food festivals took over summer in Toronto summer and food lovers can continue the fun at “Love Food Fest”! The event is being put on by Action Against Hunger Canada and the goal is clear: raise money to help put an end to child deaths from hunger. It looks to be a fun night, as the theme of the food will be “childhood classics.” I am expecting some unique twists on foods we loved as kids, although a giant tub of Nutella + Spoon often takes me back to my childhood.

The best part is that many of Toronto’s top chefs will be cooking up their own interpretations of these childhood classics, with a grown-up twist. The chefs and restaurants are actually competing for a trip to Peru, so food can be expected to be top notch. The winning dish will be selected by a panel of Judges with the help of Love Food Fest guests. A panel of children judges would be fitting. Thirsty? Fuel up on delicious local wines, craft beer and fine spirits! 

Tickets for Love Food Fest are on sale now ($125/ Ticket) if you want to support a great cause, and indulge in a night of delicious food and drink from some of Toronto’s brightest food creators! With the ticket, you’ll receive unlimited access to the event, sampling items from over 20 chefs plus 20 boutique wine, beer and food vendors (full list of participants here). 

Love Food Fest
Date and Time: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 6:00 – 9:30 p.m. 
Venue and Address: Artscape Wychwood Barns 601 Christie St, Toronto 
Tickets: $125 A portion is tax receiptable. Ticket gives you unlimited access to the event, sampling items from over 20 chefs plus 20 boutique wine, beer and food vendors. 

Here is a list of the Chefs and Restaurants that will be competing to make the best “Kid Food for Grown-Ups!” 

Ayse Aydemir (Anatolia) 
Matt Basile (Fidel Gastro / Lisa Marie) 
Matt Blondin (Junk Bar) 
Rodney Bowers (Hey Meatball on College) 
JP Challet 
Howard Dubrovsky (Fonda Lola) 
Alexandra Feswick (The Drake Hotel) 
Claudia Gaviria (Cruda Café) 
Trish Gill (The Dock Ellis) 
Brook Kavangh (La Palette) 
Sang Kim (Sushi Making for the Soul) 
Yumiko Kobayashi (Wind up Bird Cafe) 
Shahir Massoud (Levetto Restaurant) 
Josh Molot 
Jacob Sharkey Pearce (Ursa) 
Tyson Porcellato (Rasa) 
Ivan Tarazona (Celestin) 
Eric Wood (Port) 
Shinji Yamaguchi (Gushi) 
Vanessa Yeung (Aphrodite Cooks)

Chatime- New Annex Location

Chatime recently opened another location in the Annex and I went with my friend Janice aka @bluntfoodreview to celebrate the launch of their new store! In Toronto, there's basically a bubble tea shop everywhere you look. What really sets Chatime apart from all the other bubble tea shops is its strong tea taste, creamy milk teas and the ability to customize the sugar and ice levels (like Starbucks, but for bubble tea!). If you have ever experienced the line ups at other Chatime locations, it is clear that bubble tea is alive and well in Toronto after all these years.
Chatime is a global franchise chain of tea shops with locations around the world.  The first Toronto location at Bay and Dundas was opened ~3 years ago by Kenton Chan. Kenton grew up in Toronto, when the bubble tea trend first hit over a decade ago.  He first experienced Chatime in Sydney, Australia a few years ago and saw an opportunity to get in to the bubble tea game in Toronto. Fast forward to today, where he and his business partner, Thomas Wong, now lead the entire Chatime Ontario team, with 8 locations in Ontario and more on the way.
We sampled about 13 different drinks from their menu, ranging from the most popular drinks to hidden gems that people tend not to order. Like everyone else waiting in those Chatime lines, I usually order grass jelly roasted milk tea 99.5% of the time! The owners made it a point to highlight some of the other delicious drinks Chatime carries. The highlight for me were the red bean milk tea and the tea espressos, which actually have no espresso in it but are brewed to order in a speciality espresso machine. I also really enjoyed the Wintermelon Milk Tea with Mousse.  The Wintermelon tea is refreshing and goes surprisingly well with the savoury Mousse that covers the top 1/3 of the drink. Don't mistake the mousse for regular foam, as it is a delicious sweet and savoury treat on its own.
What's better than a regular Chatime bubble tea?  A GIANT Chatime bubble tea cake. The best part of the afternoon was having a bite of that giant Chatime cake!! It was a deliciously moist chocolate cake with green tea buttercream. 
The Chatime Annex location is now open for business.  It is located near St. George station, so it can be expected that hordes of students from U of T will be getting their bubble tea fix in between classes!

Chatime Annex
337 Bloor Street West
Toronto, M5S 1W7
416-901-5660
www.chatime.com

Hanging Out with Susur Lee: The Veggielicious 101 Experience!

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to attend the Veggielicious 101 workshop at Bent Restaurant with the legendary Chef Susur Lee. I had witnessed his skills on TV and now I was super excited to meet the legend in person. We had a chance to taste the New Veggielicious Tasting Menu that is being featured NOW (Sept 9-20, 2014) at Bent! Here’s a quick timeline of how the awesome experience went down...

12:45PM I headed over to Bent Restaurant with my 2 friends Clara (@foodsisterhood and thefoodsisterhood.com) and Alex (@al3xxxx). Hyped!!!

1:00PM Arrived at Bent. We were the first of the bloggers to arrive and we were met at the door by the legend himself! Susur Lee shook my hand and I was star struck by this Food Network Star. All I could say was.. “wow...Susur Lee!” Susur laughed and told me to feel welcomed as he considers the restaurant his “home.”

1:10PM Champagne was served! (champagne time is all the time!) as around 15-20 bloggers walked around the restaurant taking pictures of the restaurant

1:20PM Let the feast begin! Before the Veggielicious workshop began, we get to sample some of Bent’s signature items including the Crispy Chicken Dumpling + Vegetarian Goat Cheese Tacos! YUM! Everyone stops to take pictures, flashes go off for 5 minutes.... time to dig in!

1:25PM Susur gave us a brief talk about Bent and the flavours his restaurants are known for. 

1:30PM “Fresh ingredients are key!” Susur says. He’s wasn’t joking! He took the entire group for a quick walk outside to his neighbour’s house. His neighbour is also a long time friend who grows the freshest veggies that Susur often uses at the restaurant. Cameras continued to snap pictures as we soaked in more culinary knowledge from Chef Lee. 

1:40PM We headed back into the restaurant and we were given a quick rundown about the Veggielicious tasting menu from bent. This was a 100% vegetarian tasting menu by Susur Lee that I was about to indulge in, so yummy!

1:45PM The main part of this event was a workshop on how to make French Meringues infused with Golden Licorice! This is actually the dessert featured on Bent’s Veggielicious Tasting Menu available Sept 9-20! 

1:50PM Making the meringues! Susur did all the work. Like a pro, he spoke thoroughly about the ingredients and pastry techniques. He encouraged us to get hands-on with the piping of the meringue, and everyone joined in on the fun! We scribbled our initials on the parchment paper before popping them in the oven, so we could see who had the best (or worst) meringue piping skills!

2:00PM Meringues go into the oven! Ready for more food! We were surprised with another dish: Chef Susur Lee’s Singaporean Slaw! It was a delicious salad with 19 ingredients of epic textures and flavours. This dish is also known as “Lo Hei” in Chinese and it was cool to learn of the influences that led to one of the most colorful and tasty dishes! Chef Susur Lee, Kai Bent-Lee (Susur’s Son) and Christian (Manager of Bent) put on a show for us as they tossed and mixed up the 19 ingredient salad in front of us, the same way it is done when served to customers at Lee or Bent. 9999999 pictures were taken by the bloggers- see instagram! HAHA

2:10PM First course of the Veggielicious menu was “Dip Three Ways.” Got to try some delicious fusion dips with chips! 1. Hummus of Romano Beans w/ Salted Chilis & Sherry Vinegar, with roasted olives on top. 2. Indian Spicy Mustard Seed Tomato Stew w/ walnut and curry leaf. 3. Carribean Eggplant Babaganoush w/ Cilantro. The Carribean Babaganoush was out of this world, with strong hints of tropical fruits (next level babaganoush!)

2:20PM The event moves over to the bar, where Bent bartender Manuel showed us how to make one of their signature cocktails, the Karate Kid 2! This was a sake based cocktail with jasmine tea infused gin, yuzu, egg white and coriander! So good I snagged the sample glass for myself as everyone was busy taking pictures of the next dish.

2:30PM Second Course was the Tingly Chilled Soba. Another beautiful dish with a mountain of different ingredients including a shiitake, shiso leaf, nori crisps and a spicy Taiwanese vinaigrette! Susur expertly mixed up the ingredients for us before we feasted. Wait.....gotta take pictures of the dish first! 

2:45PM A dish that looked kind of like fancy fried chicken was brought out. This was a vegetarian tasting menu though! Turns out it was a Chickpea Tempura Tofu. So many delicious flavours were in the air as the dish sat there and everyone took more pictures (#foodporn). The chickpea tofu was topped with pickled brassica, fish mint, shisito peppers, Korean sweet chili sauce and braised burdock root! aka The whole damn garden! 

2:50PM I am a serious meat lover, but I was loving this all veggie menu so far! No meat, no problem. 

3:00PM Just as I was thinking about needing another drink, we headed back over to the bar. This time, Manuel made a bunch of “Asian Caesars”, another delicious signature cocktail from Bent! 

3:00PM The last course before dessert was the Wild Mushroom Quinoa Risotto. This smells of mushroom, cheese and butter literally made me melt! This was one of my favourites, and I did not realize quinoa could be made this tasty! 

3:00PM Our meringues were finally ready! Some looked super ugly. Some more similar to the ones pre made by the restaurant. We topped them with fresh fruits: lemon curd, wild blueberry, peaches, passionfruit syrup and raspberry coulis!

Golden Licorice infused Meringue with Fresh Fruits.

Susur made the nice one on the left I made the ugly one on the right!

3:05PM I wasn’t overly stuffed, but my taste buds had been fully satisfied. Susur Lee’s presence continued to captivate all the bloggers as everyone listened closely to the chef’s insight on his own dishes. More Pictures!

3:10PM Susur Lee is a super cool and down to earth dude. I was genuinely impressed to see him speak individually with each blogger to get to know each of us and also to hear about our opinions on the current Toronto food scene. The team behind Susur Lee and Bent, including his son Kai Bent-Lee look ready to take on whatever the dynamic food and restaurant landscape in Toronto has to offer! 

3:10-3:30PM Everyone wanted a pic with Susur! He took his time to take pictures with each and every blogger there. Chef Lee definitely knows how to have fun, as we all take funny/stupid pics around his restaurant! Overall, I had an awesome experience at the Veggielicious 101 event. It was a great preview of the Veggielicious 5 course Tasting Menu available at Bent from Sept 9-20 ($45/ person). 

Special Thanks to Chef Susur Lee, Kai Bent-Lee, Kelsea Knowles and Manuel for showing a meat lover how vegetarian food can be amazing!

Chef Susur Lee with Toronto Bloggers! Photo Credit: Mary Tang (Mary's Happy Belly)

Bent Restaurant

777 Dundas Street W 

Toronto, ON M6J 1V1

www.bentrestaurant.com

(647) 352-0092

Poutineville Open in Toronto

poutine... The delicious combination of fries, gravy and cheese curds is often known as Canada’s national food and this summer marks the opening of Poutineville’s first location in Toronto. Based out of Montreal, Poutineville has taken poutine concepts to another level! The menu consists of a variety of signature poutines with customizable toppings and their famous All You Can Eat Poutine deal! I was recently invited to preview their new location in the Annex near Bloor and Brunswick. When I first got there, I was surprised by how nice the restaurant itself was. Unlike the usual take out poutine joints, Poutineville offers a full service sit down dining experience focused on Poutines! They definitely know how to have a good time, as we were happily sharing shots and cocktails and stories with the owner, Kosta within minutes of entering the restaurant. We were then ready to eat some poutine!
I had a chance to try their signature “The Poutineville,” ($12+ tax) a poutine topped with five-hour braised beef, cheese curds, mozzarella and red wine gravy. One thing you immediately notice is that they use special crushed potatoes for this poutine, giving it a little more crisp. The “Filet Mignon Poutine” ($18+ tax) was another memorable one- fresh crispy home fries, topped with cubed tender AAA Filet Mignon, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, cheese curds, blue cheese and pepper sauce! The steak cubes were perfectly tender and juicy! “The Montrealer” ($12+ tax) was another amazing poutine with smoked meat and a giant fried pickle! We barely had room for more poutine and then they brought out “The Heart Attack" ($100+ tax).  2 of the servers were dressed in white doctors' coats and brought out this poutine mountain…a GIANT 15 LB POUTINE, easily the largest poutine in Toronto. It is also one of the most insane food challenges, as they offer the entire poutine for free if you can finish it in 1 Hour. It is a mountain of deliciousness, loaded with crispy potatoes, chicken, bacon, hot dogs, minced beef, ham, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese curds, mozzarella and gravy! “The Heart Attack” would be a challenge for even the craziest competitive eaters (1 person in Poutineville’s history has completed the challenge). If you and your friends love poutine, this could be shared with a group of 10-15 people!
It is a unique take on Poutine, as Poutineville focuses on giving Poutine lovers a fine dining experience in addition to epic Poutine concepts. They even welcome you to make a late night reservation (open til 4 am Fridays-Saturdays) to get your fix of poutine after a night of drinking! Poutineville already has 6 locations in Montreal, Quebec City and now Toronto.

Poutineville Toronto

296 Brunswick Ave.

Toronto, ON

M5S 2M7

647-349-2345