The Rebel House (Toronto), 7/10

As I mentioned previously, I hadn't really planned anything food-wise for our trip to Toronto, but it is quite interesting how quickly you can pick up on 'local' dishes. I had noticed a dish called 'poutine' was on a number of menus and also being sold at the food carts in Toronto, so when I picked up a copy of a free Toronto magazine that included an article on a gastropub that had one of the best examples in town, it seemed like a suitable choice for Friday lunch. Add to that, the gastropub apparently had a great outdoor space, ideal for the now sunny weather, and it was only about 200 numbers away from our location on Yonge Street, it seemed like a good idea.

I've since learnt a couple of things. Firstly, Poutine is actually a Quebecois dish, so not particularly local and Yonge Street is the longest street in the world. Literally. It was in the Guiness Book of Records and stretches an incredible 1896km. So even though we were at about number 800 and our destination was 1068, it still took quite some time to get there.

Luckily, when we arrived, the pub was really cool. It wasn't very big, with perhaps seating for 20 inside and around 30 outside, but it was pretty full with a buzzy atmosphere. We snagged a seat in the courtyard, which was lovely and shady in the warm weather. The drinks menu comprised quite a few unusual beers and the Waupoos County cider - hard to go past, really, with a name like that. The cider was light, tart and very refreshing.

Only two days into the holiday and I was already starting to crave fresh food, so ordered the appetiser size spinach and apple salad with cajun chicken. Kyle chose the meatloaf sandwich and we shared a serving of the famous poutine. Poutine is essentially chips with gravy and fresh cheese curds. This example came with homemade kettle-style chips, homemade gravy, fresh cheddar curds and mozzarella cheese.

For an appetiser size, my salad was massive, but unfortunately quite bland. The colour of the cheese in Canada is a really quite disturbing yellow colour and the salad was covered in this. There was also supposed to be a creamy maple dressing, but it didn't really have a lot of flavour. The almonds provided a nice crunch and the pieces of apple were pleasantly crisp, but were cut too small to offer much flavour. Even the cajun chicken was somehow a little bland.

Kyle's meatloaf sandwich, however, was very good. The meatloaf was moist and flavoursome and the toasted French bread was a good vehicle for the meat. The only downside was the accompanying salad, which was served undressed.

And then there was the poutine. I'm not sure about this dish. To me, it looks like a heart attack on a plate! And that disturbing yellow cheese made another appearance. I'm told the best examples are in Quebec, so maybe benefit of the doubt?

Unfortunately, the food we ate at The Rebel House was a little disappointing, which is a shame because the pub was cool, the service was lovely and it was such beautiful warm weather, so I really wanted to love everything. Maybe we just chose badly . . .

Food: 6/10
Drinks: 8.5/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 7/10

The Rebel House
1068 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
MW4 2L4

The Red Tomato (Toronto), 8.5/10

It can be tricky turning up in a town and finding a decent place to eat without any prior research. As our visit to Toronto was around a wedding and there were other people from Australia there, we weren't quite sure of the plans and so hadn't really organised anything. However, we found ourselves looking for a suitable dinner spot after the day at Niagara Falls. I had amused myself on the drive back reading the tourist descriptions of the local restaurants ( My favourite: "And remember, if it tastes like yo mama's, it's Joe Mamas!") and had decided on a Creole restaurant called N'Awlins. When we got there, however, it was really quite expensive, so we wandered along the 'Entertainment strip' of restaurants and happened across The Red Tomato. It was offering two courses plus a drink for $24, the menu looked good and the restaurant looked cool and fairly busy, so we went in.

The restaurant is downstairs with a second restaurant on the ground floor. The Red Tomato part was very funky, with red booths and dim lighting from the funky lamps and wall lights. Our waitress came over immediately and was bright and cheerful (the service in Toronto was almost always incredibly bubbly, helpful and wonderful). The two course menu was a choice of 5 mains, followed by two desserts and a choice of wine, beer or martini. I opted for the Shiraz from the Niagara region, while Kyle chose the Steam Whistle pilsner.


The choice of mains was impressive, including lobster and seafood linguine. In the end, we negotiated to try the brisket and the veal chop and share. Usually when you do this, though, the meal that lands in front of you is so good, it can be hard to give up, which is what happened here. I ended up with the brisket, slow oven-roasted for six hours until it was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth tender. I haven't had brisket before (but it wouldn't be the last time on this trip!) and this was a revelation. The sauce was a rich, thick smoky barbecue, a little oily around the edges, but the brisket was so moist and tender, I was completely enraptured. And then I had to give it up halfway through. That was hard. I should mention that the brisket was served with a mushroom and spinach risotto, which was okay, but didn't really go with the brisket at all and seemed more like a standalone dish.


While it was hard to give up, at least the veal chop was quite good. We don't really eat much veal in London and haven't had veal chop in a couple of years, so it was at least different. The meat was a little dry but was rubbed with a mix of rosemary, thyme and pepper, which was quite tasty. The accompaniment to the veal was gnocchi with asparagus and red pepper in a brown butter sauce. Again, while good, as John from Masterchef would say, it wasn't really coming together as a dish.


Both of these meals were huge (that was the other thing about Canada - every meal was enormous), so when our berry shortcakes arrived, I really didn't think I'd be able to eat any. Unfortunately for me, it was delicious - light, fluffy sponge cake sandwiched with light whipped cream and topped with a blend of tart raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrents. I don't even like cake particularly, but this was an ideal light, fruity dessert that cut through the richness of the meaty main courses.

For a complete punt, I was hugely impressed with The Red Tomato. They offered a good fixed menu in a super-touristy area but backed it up with really lovely food. While there were some odd matches in the main courses, the individual components were consistently good and the service and atmosphere spot-on.

Food: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

The Red Tomato
321 King Street West
Toronto ON M5V 1JF

Wine tasting in Ontario, Canada

I have to admit, I know scarily little about Canada. I know it is big, there are lots of lakes and it gets very cold in Winter. Unfortunately, that is about it - a bit embarrassing really! We were heading to Toronto for my lovely friend Tenille's wedding, so spent a few days getting to know this fabulous town. One of the things we realised when planning the trip is that Toronto is very close to Niagara Falls, surely a tourist must-see! We hired a car and after some extensive faffing around (our luggage was delayed overnight in Chicago, but then turned out to have been delivered to the hotel already etc etc), we picked up our hire car and headed towards Niagara Falls.


One of the things I absolutely had not realised about Canada, is that they have quite a wine industry. I knew about Ice Wine, that complicated wine made when the grapes stay on the vines until they are frozen to around a temperature of -10 degrees, but had no idea at the extent of the industry. I picked up a wine map of the region and was shocked to see at least 100 wineries around the Niagara Falls area! Tenille had mentioned that her favourite is a winery called Thirty Bench, so with no other influencing factors, the decision was made.

We were greeted by the extremely effusive Janice. She started to tell us a little about the winery - small lot producer, hand-picked grapes, hand-made wines, Silver Award at the Riesling du Monde in France for the 2007 Triangle Riesling etc. She eventually drew in breath to say she was expecting some other guests for a 1pm tasting and would we mind waiting 10 minutes until then? We were happy to wait, sipping on a taste of the 2008 Winemaker's Riesling (light, refreshing, only slighty sweet, very drinkable) and wandering around the winery.

The winery itself is very beautiful, even in the unseasonable foggy cold weather we were experiencing. Apparently, on all but about 10 days a year (including the one we were there on), you can see Lake Ontario beyond the vineyards of the winery.



The other guests arrived and we commenced the wine tasting. The tasting cost $10 each for approximately 4-5 wines. Janice suggested we share the wines between the two of us, so we could taste the full range. The tasting lasted for about an hour, during which we tasted the winery's three remaining Rieslings - Triangle, Steel Post and Wood Post. I am not typically a fan of Riesling, still scared about the potential sweetness of the wines, but there was nothing sweet about these. They were incredibly light in colour, but packed a powerful citrus punch, in the case of the Steel Post, it was really too powerful, leaving a slightly unpleasant lime tang in the back of the throat.

We moved on to the Chardonnay, which Janice had us try out of both regular Riedel tasting glasses and then compared with Riedel Chardonnay glasses, which were squat, round and had a very open top. The difference was quite astonishing! The first one you would pass over as quite pleasant, if somewhat indifferent. In the correct glasses, the wine opened up in flavour, tasting buttery and yeasty, almost reminiscent of the flavours in Champagne.

We then tried the Thirty Bench Rose, which was a disturbing bright pink colour, but tasted better than it looked. It would have been the perfect picnic wine (with more appropriate picnic weather!). Next up was the Pinot Noir, which was probably my favourite of the still wines we tried - light in texture, but packed full of fruit flavour. We then tried the Merlot and two back vintage blended reds, both of which I thought were a little dusty in flavour.


Finally, we came to the grand conclusion - the Riesling Ice Wine and the Cabernet Ice Wine. Canada is the world's largest producer of Ice Wine and the region around Ontario is considered perfect - long warm Summers followed by very cold Winters. These wines were not cheap - $75 and $90 respectively (about £50 and £60) for 375ml bottles, but they are exceptional. Janice advised to hold the wine in your mouth for about 13 seconds 'until it changes'. That is actually reasonably difficult to do, but the wine did change in your mouth as it warmed up, becoming fuller and richer. To be honest, I didn't really like the Cabernet version (Kyle did), finding it a little too acidic, but the Riesling version was exceptional and like good tourists to Canada, we left with a bottle of this wine. Now we just have to work out an occasion good enough to open it for!

This area was absolutely stunning and the wines were impressive and varied. If you're ever in the area to see Niagara Falls, leave some time to visit a local winery, as I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and of course, the Falls were absolutely spectacular too!

Rabbit with petit pois, cider and lettuce

When I bought the pigeon breasts recently, I also bought a whole rabbit from the Manor Farm Game stall. I have cooked a whole rabbit once before but I bought it pre-jointed, so I must confess to being a little disturbed by the look of a whole rabbit when I took it out of the bag. Now, I do know that it is good for meat-eaters to understand that meat is really an animal and I agree with that. I'm not even adverse to it - I've been to an abattoir and a feedlot and I've jointed a chicken before, so you know . . . I'm not too bad. But this was a whole new level and probably one of the most unpleasant 'cooking' activities I have ever undertaken. I won't go into details, though.

It does, however, make the resulting meal even more disappointing. I chose this recipe for Rabbit with petit pois, cider and lettuce from Valentine Warner, author of What To Eat Now, thinking it sounded very French, very slow-cooked but reasonably summery for a casserole style dish. In reality, the rabbit was dry and tough and the sauce was fairly bland. I served it with ever-reliable Jersey Royals - they were good. Otherwise, this was far from successful. Very sad.

Now that's a kebab!

One of the best things about London is the seemingly endless, somewhat random events that pop up . . . well, randomly. We happened upon the Cultural Summer Fete in Clissold Park - not a particularly revealing name but it sounded like there might be some good food, so we dropped in for lunch.


The 'fete' was certainly odd - a Turkish themed gathering of second-hand clothes stalls, jewellery stalls and the occasional food seller. There were a few disturbing doner kebab stalls, but these were immediately overshadowed by the hog roast kebab. Kebabs don't normally sound like a good idea in the daylight hours (not even hungover!), but in theory, if the pitta bread is good and the salad is fresh, all they really need is some decent meat, which the hog roast absolutely was. The meat was soft, succulent and incredibly tasty. Now this is a kebab!


We followed it with some poppy seed and cinnamon rolls (bit too dry) and some baklava to take away (juicy and not sickly sweet).

I also bought some lovely looking spices and was convinced to try a walnut and grape juice log, which looks . . . interesting.

Despite the randomness of the Summer Cultural Fete, there were definitely a few culinary highlights!

Homemade Hash Browns

I would rarely do a full English breakfast, but we were heading to the races for the day and timing-wise, lunch was going to be a hassle, so a big breakfast seemed like a good compromise. Inspired by the sweet potato rosti I made to go with the pigeon breast recently, I decided to make hash browns as something a little different.

The recipe was quite simple, but probably took longer to cook than I would have anticipated (resulting in a bit of a last minute rush for the train to the races!), but the hash browns were really delicious and definitely added some variety to the standard cooked breakfast. With good smokey bacon, scrambled eggs and roasted vine tomatoes, this kept us going until about 6pm. Although, it may have been assisted by a few pints (!) of Pimms!

Homemade Hash Browns
Olive magazine - June 2009
Serves 6 (we made half)

800g waxy potatoes, peeled
onion, thinly sliced (I only had red onion, but I think a brown onion would be better)
clove garlic, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
4-5 tablespoons oil

Grate the potatoes. Tip into a tea towel, squeeze out any liquid (be careful - there is more liquid than you think! I managed to leak it all over the floor moving to the sink) and put in a bowl. Stir in the onion, garlic, egg and seasoning. Divide into six and shape into patties. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook each pattie over a low heat until golden. (This took about 20-25 minutes with the lid on for me).

Serve with the regular breakfast accompaniments.

Pigeon breast with sweet potato rosti and red wine sauce

We recently went to the Foodies Festival at Hampton Court Palace as a poor substitute for the Taste Festival (we'll be in Toronto when Taste is on). While the weather was stunningly amazing, the festival was quite disappointing, mainly because there was nowhere to just sit and enjoy the food and drinks on offer - rather defeats the purpose, I would have thought.

Anyway, enough complaining! While I was there, I bought some pigeon breast from the Manor Farm Game stall. I have eaten pigeon before, but never cooked it and it seemed like a good opportunity to try a more unusual meat.

After a bit of internet searching, I decided to use this recipe for Pigeon Breast with Sweet Potato Rosti and a red wine sauce, but substituted baby spinach for the cabbage.

Unfortunately, I overcooked the pigeon slightly, but despite this, we enjoyed it. The meat is (obviously) very gamey and rich, so doesn't need a lot of strong flavours to accompany it. The red wine sauce just lifted it nicely, but with the downside that it made the rosti a little soggy. Overall, I would get pigeon breast again, but would probably try a different recipe.

The Chancery (8.5/10)

The Chancery was a last minute choice from TopTable on a Thursday night, to celebrate my promotion (yay!). It is located just off Chancery Lane (you may have guessed from the name), somewhat hidden on a side street of a side street. The restaurant was pleasantly busy, with most tables eventually filled, but the tables were nicely spaced so that the restaurant was full, but not crowded. The floor to ceiling windows also meant it was also lovely and light, perfect for the beautiful Summer weather we have been enjoying. I should also mention that as this was an unscheduled visit, the photos are from my camera phone, so a little blurry - apologies!


We started with some excellent bread and salted butter at perfect room temperature, before an amouse bouche of gazpacho. The cold tomato soup was ideal for the weather and packed with tomato and garlic flavour.


The TT deal was for three courses for £25, rather than the usual £34.50 (£24 for 2 courses). Of course, as per usual, I found it impossible to go past the foie gras, especially as it was served in my favourite way - a slab of foie pan fried in butter, so that it is smooth and creamy inside and slightly crispy without. Exquisite. The advertised salad of cranberries and hazelnuts also included, somewhat bizarrely, sweet corn and apple. The corn rather overwhelmed everything else, but despite the odd combination, was refreshing and tasty.

Kyle started with the seared scallops with aubergine pakora and curry spices. The scallops were excellent, well-cooked with lots of flavour. The pakora, however, was another odd addition, being rather remiscent of a bit of deep-fry from the local Indian takeaway. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it does seem a little inappropriate as an accompaniment to delicate scallops.

My main was the roast skate wing with fondant potato, cockles and watercress puree. I haven't had skate wing before, so was a little surprised by all the bones, but once I worked out how to eat it (scrape the meat off rather than try to cut through), it was very enjoyable. Very delicately flavoured, with a lovely brown butter crust. The highlight, though, was the amazingly intense sun-dried tomatoes scattered over the dish - yum!


Despite the summery temperatures, Kyle opted for the rather wintery traditional British dish of calves' liver and onions with smoked potato cream, but he enjoyed it. The roasted garlic cloves were a lovely surprise.

We also received a lovely little chocolate mousse as a pre-dessert, which was intensely chocolate-y, but fluffy and light. It almost made me regret that I had chosen the chocolate brownie dessert . . . until I had my first bite, that is.

Chocolate brownie always seems like such an easy, obvious choice, but so good. It was somehow simultaneously dense and light and came with a mint-chocolate sauce and mint ice-cream (I love mint!). The brief regret of double chocolate was forgotten instantly.


Unfortunately, Kyle finished with the most disappointing dish of the night. The cheese platter looked quite attractive and reasonable value, containing a blue cheese, goat's cheese, a cheddar and two soft cheeses as well as some toasted fruit bread and grapes. Across the board, the cheese was bland and too cold. Shame.

The night finished with petit fours (pretty average), some unnecessary excitement when the waitress knocked a candle into my handbag (took me quite some time so scrape the candlewax off later) and then more petit fours as an apology (we didn't enjoy them the first time). All in all, not a brilliant ending!

Despite this, I really enjoyed our evening at The Chancery. The service was generally very good and there was a perfect atmosphere - enough people to create an environment, but not so that it was too loud, busy or big. With the exception of the cheese plate, the food was also very good and quite good value with the TT deal.

Food: 8.5/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10

The Chancery
9 Cursitor Street
London EC4A 1LL