Great: sugar is toxic

By Jessica Allen - Friday, February 3, 2012 at 6:05 PM - 0 Comments

Seth Perlman/AP

Yesterday, the National Post ran a story about a report in Nature that suggests sugar is toxic. It’s so bad, says the research journal, that the government might want to restrict the sale of soda pop to those who are at 17-years-old. That would put sugar in the same latitude of evil as alcohol and tobacco. And like those other two harbingers of depravity, sugar is everywhere: from sweet, colourful cereals to candy, fast food and sports drinks. But the real target of the report seems to be soda pop.

Continue…

I am the 20 per cent tipper and I bet you are, too

By Jessica Allen - Friday, January 27, 2012 at 2:48 PM - 0 Comments

The 17th edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette, which dates to 2004, says that, “In New York, San Francisco, Boston, and other major cities, fifteen to twenty percent is standard.” So, eight years ago tipping 15 to 20 per cent was considered the norm in big cities.  Toronto is a big city, no? And it’s 2012. That’s eight years after 2004.

I’m telling you this to help explain why I’m so flabbergasted over how a Toronto Star story published last week on tipping 20 per cent being “the new normal” still has legs, and the gams won’t stop growing! If you haven’t been following it, here’s a brief summary: Amy Pataki reviewed both The Westerly and The Ace, two new restaurants on Roncesvalles Ave. in Toronto’s west end, for the Toronto Star. A few days later, Pataki wrote another piece in the Star reporting that both of these places have two options on their debit machines for customers to leave either a 20 per cent tip or to choose another amount. The headline read, “Standard tip in Toronto restaurants now 20 per cent.” That same day, the story was picked up by Toronto Life on their daily Dish blog and, the next day, the National Post reported the story on the paper’s front page. The Star did a follow-up piece the day after that, and since then countless blogs and websites , including Yahoo and BlogTO, have continued to report on it. Continue…

Is Starbucks pushing their Blonde on the Tim Hortons crowd?

By Jessica Allen - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 6:46 PM - 0 Comments

You know how Tim Hortons decided to make “lattes” in an effort to woo some of the sophisticated sorts from Starbucks? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that not long after Starbucks began advertising how their drinks are “handcrafted beverages” rather than, say, from a machine that dispenses a drink with a push of a button. Now Starbucks is releasing a “Blonde” roast that promises to be “lighter, mellower and more subtle” than their bold and medium blends. You know what that sounds like? It sounds a lot like an attempt to compete with Tim’s black water roast, if you ask me. Continue…

Pass the spinach dip and other antiquated holiday favourites, please

By Jessica Allen - Friday, December 30, 2011 at 3:22 PM - 0 Comments

The night before she flew home to Truro, Nova Scotia, my friend Erinn came over for a pre-holiday meal. We got to talking about what sort of Christmas treats we were both in store for at our mutual family gatherings and as we listed off all sorts of delights a few common denominators were observed. First, most of the recipes that our mothers and aunts make during the holidays come courtesy of old issues of Chatelaine, Canadian Living, Family Circle and newspaper clippings. Second, the other recipes may be marked “from Debbie” or “Linda’s” but they too are, in fact, magazine recipes that have been adapted as “Lynn’s” own. Third, they all contain either cream cheese, instant soup mix, sweetened condensed milk, or some other canned good. And fourth, we two 30-something-year-old gals, who enjoy leafing through the occasional issue of Gastronomica and eating tacos and gnudi at Toronto’s latest restaurant hot spots, couldn’t wait to eat them, along with the water-logged shrimp from the shrimp rings and cruddy milk chocolates stuffed with weird nougats.

“The first thing I’ll do when I get home tomorrow,” explained Erinn, “is open up the fridge, where I’ll find about ten of those Philly cream cheese bricks, and get started on making the dip.” The dip is actually called Pepper Spread, which is odd, since “it is neither spreadable and peppers don’t feature any more than any other ingredient.” And those other ingredients include margarine, sugar, vinegar, eggs and–of course–the brick of cream cheese. Apparently it’s wonderful with “veggies”.

Two things that inevitably show up at my mom’s family’s holiday gatherings are that spinach dip thing–the one where you hollow out a loaf of pumpernickel and fill it with frozen spinach, sour cream, mayonnaise and a package of Knorr vegetable soup mix–and my Aunt Sandy’s shrimp dip, which, as it turns out, is actually Sandy’s friend Carole’s shrimp dip, but Sandy’s been making it every Christmas for the last 15 years, which entitles her to the copyright in our family. It’s supposed to be made in a mold and then turned out onto a festive platter. But Sandy simply serves it in a plastic container. Why go to all the trouble of a mold when 20 or so hungry relatives will pile crackers inches high with the stuff and deplete the precious stock within minutes of it being put out?

How is it that all these jellies, molds and dips, that most wouldn’t dream of serving at a dinner party, are perennially featured in holiday spreads?  Maybe it just comes down to tradition. “The new magazines are what my mom goes to for inspiration throughout the year,” says Erinn, “but at Christmas she leans on tried and true recipes from a bygone era.”

I can relate. For Christmas dinner this year I tried a Bon Appétit recipe for glazed carrots that were gussied up with fresh tarragon, sherry and clementine. They were great, but I’ll be honest: those fancy time carrots didn’t come close to Marg’s carrot casserole, which came courtesy of “Diane.”  It’s a dish that requires a half pound of processed cheese slices, among other things. Enough said, no?

Tim Hortons lasagna: just like Mom never made

By Jessica Allen - Friday, December 9, 2011 at 4:32 PM - 0 Comments

I adore lasagna; all kinds of lasagna. I love the sort my mom used to make with canned mushrooms, slices of processed mozzarella and ground beef flavoured with garlic powder and onion; I love the classic Canadian version that other mothers used to make (the one with cottage cheese smothered between layers of noodles, a tomato-dense meat sauce and grated mozzarella from a plastic bag); I love President’s Choice and No Name frozen lasagnas, even though they take, like, forever to cook in the oven; and I love the quintessential lasagna alla Bolognese that comes courtesy of the Italians in Emilia-Romagna, a north-eastern region famous for producing Ferraris, Fellini and food.

They’re so crazy about food in Bologna, the region’s capital and arguably the gastronomical capital of the country, that they even codify classic recipes, for posterity’s sake. Like lasagna alla Bolognese. How does this version differ from what many Canadians grew up eating? Continue…

The NYT’s annual food and drink issue is here!

By Jessica Allen - Monday, October 3, 2011 at 3:58 PM - 4 Comments

Sometimes I flinch when I shell out $8.40 for a copy of the Sunday New York Times. But not yesterday! Inside was the fourth annual food and drink issue and it was chock full of  ”mysteries, riddles and impertinent questions” answered by some of the Times’ most beloved contributors, including Mark Bittman, Sam Sifton, Amander Hesser and Eric Asimov. Despite having so much to do yesterday, I ended up reading the entire thing cover to cover. It took me all morning. Several cups of coffee were consumed. And even though I forget most of the really good ideas that were born as a result of my labours, I have no regrets. (Just a bit of gut rot.)

There are some really great spreads, like Mark Bittman’s Dinner Party Matrix—a guide that promises to deliver stress-free dinner parties. Continue…

Bored with balsamic

By Jessica Allen - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 10:27 AM - 1 Comment

Ewan Munro/Flickr

I received a press release last week with the title, “Balsamic reduction in cocktails? Who would have thought?”  Not me. But on second thought, it might be the perfect calling for that sticky sweet stuff. Remember when it was being drizzled on everything—from steak to strawberries—in restaurants? I do, and I loved it! One of my most memorable meals was at a restaurant in Florence called Aqua al 2, where I had a steak smothered in it. I thought it was the height of sophistication. But that was about twelve years ago. Now, the thought of a fine piece of meat covered in saccharine goo seems gauche, like unitards with snaps in the crotch part.

These days, I find the taste of balsamic vinegar intrusive. I don’t want it in olive oil for dipping bread and I never think of putting it in salad dressing, although there was a time when I wouldn’t make a salad without it (now, my go-to vinegar is of the white wine variety.) Come to think of it, I bought a bottle of balsamic over a year ago, thinking I had to at least have it in my pantry, but it still hasn’t been cracked open. Continue…

Leave tiramisu alone!

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 11:59 AM - 2 Comments

Stijn Nieuwendijk/Flickr

Florence Fabricant wrote about a disturbing new food trend in the New York Times dining section recently: people are messing around with traditional tiramisu by adding new stuff, like lemon and berries, to it.

I know. I’m panicking too. Fabricant reports that a new specialty shop that serves six variations of the classic Venetian dessert has just opened up on Christopher Street in Manhattan. And get this: a similar-themed spot also opened up not too long ago in the motherland itself (Milan, specifically). Continue…

Tonight’s special: nostalgia, with a side of authenticity

By Jessica Allen - Friday, August 26, 2011 at 5:14 PM - 1 Comment

While I was trying to think of a food-related idea to pitch for Maclean’s upcoming innovation issue, something occurred to me: there aren’t any, unless you count nostalgia as an innovation. Think about it: Denmark’s Noma, voted the best restaurant in the world last year, fashions most of its dishes from ingredients that have been foraged from the woods. Plus, it’s practically mandatory for all new restaurants to display homemade jars and cans of preserves on (ideally wooden) shelves, just like grandma had. (You’ll also find preserves in the pantries of any self-respecting 30-something food hound, myself included.) And the farm-to-table trend, not to mention the desire to find the most authentic of everything—from pizza to pasta to Peking duck—is so widespread it deserves parody. Continue…

Lunch box lunacy

By Jessica Allen - Monday, August 15, 2011 at 6:32 PM - 27 Comments

Newsflash: the contents of kids’ lunch pails are potentially poisonous! Or at least that’s what a study released last Monday in the journal Pediatrics (and reported on by Reuters, the Toronto Star and our own website) suggests. Apparently, 90 per cent of the perishable contents in more than 700 preschoolers’ packed lunches weren’t cold enough and could therefore leading to food poisoning on account of harmful bacteria multiplying. One of the doctoral students who worked on the study told Reuters that, “[It’s] an eye opener more than anything else.  It shows there is a problem.”

Really? Am I the only one that made it through primary, elementary and high school without ever having refrigerated my packed lunch? It wasn’t even an option. I called my mom last night to make sure I was remembering things correctly:

Me: Did it ever cross your mind that the lunches you packed me when I was a kid weren’t being refrigerated at school?

Mom: What’s going on?

Me: Well, there was this report released last Monday and—

Mom: Oh I saw that on the news and thought it was some sort of joke report.

Me: What do you mean, a joke?

Mom: You know how they do a joke news report on April Fool’s Day or track Santa on Christmas Eve? I thought it was one of those things. I mean, who the hell ever died of a packed lunch?

Me:  Did you ever think about putting in an ice pack in my lunch?

Mom: Of course not!

Me: Well, this report said that nearly half of the tested lunches had ice packs in them and 12 per cent were kept in refrigerators and they still came out in the red zone.

Mom: When I was a schoolgirl I took a lunch every day in a little square metal box.  I had egg salad sandwiches, or Prem and mustard sandwiches—

Me: What in the hell is Prem?

Mom: It’s like Spam. Or we had salmon sandwiches—all perishable stuff. I never once got sick. Do you remember the time that the health nurse was asking kids dietary questions and you had just been home sick the day before with a cold and so I made you Lipton’s chicken noodle soup for lunch and then you insisted on having it for dinner and then you wanted what was left over for breakfast the next day? When the nurse asked you what you’d had for your last three meals, you answered chicken noodle soup for all three. I was devastated.

Me: I don’t remember that but—

Mom: Or the time you told your grade one class for show and tell that I’d eaten an entire box of vanilla half moons?

I don’t recall that one either. But I do know that I was the go-to kid for lunch box trades: along with my bologna sandwich and piece of fruit, I usually had a packaged sweet, like a half moon (if my mom didn’t devour them all), a Joe Louis, or those Vachon chocolate caramel cakes. I’d trade that straight up for one of those cheese and cracker packs—the ones that had the little red plastic stick for smearing the orange spread. Once I even scored some sort of yogurt thing in a tube.

Regardless, until a study is able to link the instances of food poisoning with lukewarm lunch box offerings, no child is safe.

The farm-to-table dining trend’s inevitable conclusion

By Jessica Allen - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 4:09 PM - 7 Comments

As imagined by Jessica Allen

Welcome to Traditional & Authentic—the restaurant that takes farm to table eating seriously, finally.  Please be sure to arrive for your three-month-old reservation at 3:30 am.  At 3:45 am, you’ll meet with our executive chef—the one who trained in New York, Dubai, Paris, Copenhagen and wherever El Bulli was—and together you’ll customize a menu that perfectly reflects who you are.

Afterwards, you’ll be outfitted in authentic overalls (made from Japanese denim) and rain boots, and be driven in the back of a traditional tractor-trailer to the barn for some one-on-one time with Darla. Continue…

This is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 3:47 PM - 12 Comments

Iceberg lettuce: so underrated!

When I was a kid I thought there were two types of salad dressing, Ranch and Zesty Italian, and only one variety of lettuce: iceberg. I remember the first time my mom brought home a head of romaine (when Caesar salads made a comeback in the ’90s) and being blown the f–k away. What was this exotic, dark leafy green? From there on in, iceberg lettuce was dead to me. And never mind romaine when there’s arugula, spinach and kale to be had.

Delicious salad: iceberg lettuce, edamame, sweet corn and tomatoes

I wonder if the demise of iceberg lettuce was all Alice Waters’ fault: it was Chez Panisse that popularized mesclun mix to such a degree that today you can spot those clear clamshell packages stuffed with lifeless and limp varieties of greens in every grocery store.

When’s the last time you sliced a head of iceberg lettuce into cool and crispy wedges and drizzled it with a creamy dressing? 1980? ME TOO! I don’t care how gauche it is: I’ve found myself  longing for it lately. Maybe it’s only nostalgia, but the crunch makes it ideal for lunchtime salads—like the one I brought today with edamame, sweet corn, and a chopped up field tomato (added to the mix at room temperature, of course) all tossed in a parsley and garlic white wine vinaigrette (I make a week’s worth in a food processor.)

I believe I may have heard a colleague snicker at my lunch’s iceberg lettuce component, but no matter: I predict it’s going to make a comeback, along with hot dogs, chopped salads and jellied moulds. Just you wait and see.

The summer strawberry showdown: local vs. Californian

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 5:33 PM - 32 Comments

I think my strawberry obsession has gone too far.  Let me explain: there’s a green grocer right at the end of my street in the west end of Toronto that sells the plastic packs of California berries side by side with the local pints. Continue…