Great Canadian Pie Company

The perfect way to start the day. They have all sort of sweet and savory pies that come in a 4" or 9". Fruit pies also come by the slice. Prices range from $5.50/ slice to 27.00/ 11" cream pies.

In addition to the pies, they also have a menu consisting of panini, schnitzels and breakfast staples.

My favorite part of a pie is the crust, and man they do it well here. Flakey and buttery it compliments the filling well. I had the three cheese and mushroom pie, which wasn't as cheesy as it sounds but just as tasty.

It's a small place so I wouldn't recommend bi family meals here, but come in and get some pies for take out, it's delicious.

Gilead Cafe

Braised short ribs on potatoes au gratin. Boneless, flavourful tender meat off the bone in a savoury reduced meat sauce. SO good. A decadent lunch time treat, because everyone deserves a bit of fancy to break up their day.

QMP

Queen Margherita Pizza located in Lesliville (Queen & Woodfield) is one of the two pizzerias in Toronto that boasts authentic Neapolitan pizza adhering to the Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) standards. That means they only use very  specific ingredients (down to what type of yeast to use) and cook their pizzas in an ultra high heat, wood burning oven from Naples. The VPN website lists all the pizzerias in the world who are certified by them. When I last checked, QMP isn't listed on their site yet, but giving them the benefit of the doubt that things are slow moving on that side of the world.

Whatever the case, they make some darn good pizzas.

They offer a $25 three course menu that let's you pick from a list of ever changing starter and main and dessert choices or you can get just the pizza (a recent change from their pri fix only option after customer grumblings). Don't expect anything fancy by way of toppings here, they stick to a fairly traditional combination of meats, cheeses and tomato sauce.

I started with the antipasto plate that consisted of salumi, porsciutto, house pickled zucchini which was crunchy and delightful without being overly sour. My favorite item on the plate were the warm olives. So simple yet so perfect in this flavor combo.

 

The hubs had prosciutto on crostini with figs and piave cheese drizzled with balsamic reduction. Prosciutto and cheese - can you do any wrong? No.

The pizzas:

I love me some spice so I went for the Roberto - porchetta, caramelized onions, fior di latte and hot peppers. The porchetta was perfectly salty and tender while the onions could have spent a tad more time in the pan caramelizing. The cheese was delicious and plenty and crust was a good consistency, thing in the middle and fluffy on the edges.

The hubs got a simple Capicollo - tomato sauce, hot capicollo, fior di latte and grated asiago. Simple and delicious. The saltiness of the capicollo blended well with the tomato sauce and cheese. 

For dessert, we both got the chocolate lava cake. It was your run of the mill, rich chocolate cake filled with warm oozing chocolate sauce. You can't go wrong, really.

We went mid week for dinner and found it bustling with no wait time, but a near full house. Downstairs by the bar (pictured above) is small with just a few tables, but walk upstairs into the massive loft space and you've got a party waiting to happen. With exposed brick and soaring ceilings, this place would be great for a large group because pizza lends itself well to sharing, and the big open upper area could seat big groups without being cramped.  

Guu Izakaya

First off thank you Adam and Alice for taking me to Guu for my birthday :)

I think I've been to Guu at least 7 times in 4 months and never been disappointed. Hit the time limit a few times and only had to line up once. Guu is about having a good time. The best way to enjoy Guu is order in waves. If you order all the food at once it's overwhelming. The staff is very attentive and ordering a few dishes at a time allows you to savor each bite. I've eaten 16 dishes within the 2 hour time limit with the assistance of my fellow "porker."

The loud atmosphere isn't for everyone but I love the shouting, face stuffing and beer drinking crowd. This is not a first date type place but the girl will enjoy the food. Maybe if you stuff her enough she'll surrender. If she likes cheese the Deep Fried Brie will give her a euphoric head rush. Make sure she soaks up the mango and blueberry sauces.

Finish her off with the infamous Black Cod. "It's like butter baby"

Now that I got the important date information. This restaurant has tons of options for everyone. I personally indulge in the deep fried items. Deep Fried Soy Chicken with garlic mayo... OMG!

Other personal favorites...

I would recommend Guu to everyone. It's a great place to go as a small group and have a great time. Not a first date environment but a good place for a casual date. Deep Fried Oysters, Grilled Oyster, Deep Fried Brie and the Black Cod. Those are the keys to her pants. Questions about the menu? Post a comment I've tried pretty much everything there.

Hoof Cafe Brunch

The most decadent brunch I've had to date, by far was had today at the Hoof Cafe (and most expensive at $80 for 2 with no booze). It was attempt number two for the hubs and me - with our first try ending in empty stomachs and furrowed brows. Given that they will be closing as of next week, I was determined to make this visit a successful one. 

The plan was to arrive just before 10am to avoid the hour long line ups - fail. A night out at Ame the night before lead to four young women stumbling down Wellington trying to hail a cab. Needless to say, all I wanted to do at 9am was roll over.

Around 10am, sheer determination to get my hands on a tongue grilled cheese set in and I finally willed myself up. Thank all things good that I did. 


Despite of the horizontally blowing snow and the hour long wait (in our car since all near by coffee shops were full of Hoof Cafe queuers), it was magnificent.

We started with the tongue grilled cheese - a sandwich like no other. Thinly sliced smoked beef tongue layered on perfectly grilled, evenly buttered dense bread with a mild, creamy brie.

Then I had the suckling pig benny which, after the grilled cheese was just good. I imagine if I wasn't hung over and didn't have the grilled cheese first, this would have been a dream benny. The suckling pork was sweet, saucy and perfectly cooked.

 

This decadent, over the top foie gras french toast is like nothing I've ever tasted before. Thick cut challah toast was crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside - how everything should be. It was drizzled with warm maple syrup, peanuts and a sweet, vanilla sauce. The foie gras was thinner than I expected but added a rich deliciousness to each bite. Even if I did have pangs of guilt for the little duckies. 

Let's hope the Black Hoof & Co keeps brunch on their menu for the sake of the hundreds of us who would brave all kinds of craziness for a bite.

Enoteca Sociale

On a blustery cold Friday night, the comforts of a heaping bowl of pasta, great wine and amazing company can't be beat. Last night three of us made our way to Enotec Sociale, where the menu changes frequently, but always promises to be dishes you'd find at grandma's house. That is, if grandma was an old school Italian nonna.

We gave Gary, our knowledgeable server, the task of ordering for us.

He started us off with an arugula salad with blood oranges topped with candied pecans and fried risotto balls served on a bed of caramelized onions and more arugula. They were both tasty but not mind blowing. The salad could have used a bit more oranges and pecans. Thankfully, it got better.







The main dishes were three different wonderful pastas. The first, a plate full of ravioli stuffed with butternut squash with a hint of goat cheese and again with the candied pecans. The second a deliciously simple manacotta stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach in a clean tomato sauce. The third was our least favourite, a carbonara with panchetta. It was a little too heavy on the oil rather than being a creamy sauce.

Then came desserts. It was perfect to end the evening with. A chocolate ganache like pudding with sea salt and olive oil and a tiramisu cake.

The New Canoe

If you've had the pleasure of dining at Canoe on top of the TD Building, you know that people don't go there for the decor and you've probably also known that it closed its doors for a brief moment to go under the knife and get a face lift last month. A million dollars and a mere 31 days later, Canoe is reopened with Toronto Life exposing first photos of the nip and tucked space.

It's pretty, but not anything to really swoon over. Given that the O&B franchise has done a heck of a job with their rapidly expanding empire, I expected a tad more from the space. Perhaps they left the space comfortable and chic cottage feeling to allow for the food to shine. That said, Canoe never needed to make any exceptions for their food to shine. Dark wood accents and concrete floors modernizes the space and takes it from the pale drabness to a contemporary and generic chic.

Experimental Foodies will definitely be perching high atop the 54th floor soon. If you are interesting in joining us, drop a comment or email us with your contact info for more details.

Photos: Suresh Doss via Toronto Life

Black Hoof, Red Meat

So Steve, Vee and I were finally able to dedicate an evening to eating at the Black Hoof. It takes a full evening because getting a table there usually means spending about an hour in their holding tank, the Hoof Cafe to wait for your table and then another few hours eating everything on the menu.

Luckily, the Hoof Cafe makes some darn good cocktails and have their own finger lickin good menu so obviously we had a pre-meal there too. We started with the amuse bouche, a neat little fried cube of pork hoc terrine sitting on a truffle oil reduction topped with diced green apple.

Following that, we ordered five more dishes, trying to be mindful of our stomach space since we still planned on dining at the Black Hoof. The best dish that came out of the night was the buttermilk fried chicken. Juicy and tender on the insider, crispy and perfectly seasoned on the outside. The slaw it came with was also fantastic. A close second was the pork belly cooked sous vide, with champagne mustard and perfectly crispy brussel sprouts. In addition, we also tried the bone marrow served with bread (very fatty) and very fresh and tasty tuna crudo with diced cuccumber in a grapefruit jelly topped with candied peanuts.

Finally, over at the Black Hoof main event of the evening was the RAW horse meat sandwich. As if cold, red horse meat on bread wasn't enough rawness, it was served with a raw egg cracked on top and sprinkled with red onions.  A bit overwhelming so the three of us split it for our first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The meat was tasty and tender without being too gamey. The onions and spicy sauce topped it off perfectly, I could have done without the egg, though. I could see how eating the whole sandwich would be a bit too much, but in small doses, it was delicious. 

The Black Hoof and Hoof Cafe would be a great place to bring a small group of the very adventurous. Join us next time, won't you?

UPDATE: Since our visit to the Hoof Cafe, it was reported that the restaurant will close at the end of February and will turn into the Black Hoof & Co. Read about the changes HERE

Human Cheese

Breast milk cheese made by Chef Daniel Angerer from
his wife's breast milk. Photo: David Angerer via National Post

Intriguing that the Globe and Mail  and National Post both had articles today about cheese made from human milk. They profiled a restauranteur, Daniel Angerer and Miriam Simun, a cheese maker in New York who are making cheese out of human breast milk. Angerer from his wife's breast milk and Simun from women she found on the internet. Woman she found on the internet! That in itself is disturbing.

Sick or Sustainable was the Globe headline. So, what do you think? Is it sick to think that as adults, we are consuming an organic product of a stranger's bodily fluids, namely her breast? Or is it something perfectly logical since the milk products we currently eat/drink are meant for babies of a different species entirely, so why not use the milk that was actually meant for us.

It doesn't help the argument any when Simon is describing her cheeses as "imparting a complex funk, somewhere in between butter, yellow taxi cabs and wafting wavers of street cart smells."
mmmm.. NYC street funk. In addition to the squirm factor, some critics are going as far as likening eating the cheese to cannibalism.

The flip side to that is supporters consider labelling it as vegan and PETA considers it more humane.

Moral debate aside, we can't call ourselves Experimental Foodies if we didn't at least try it once. So, bring it on, I say. If/when a reputable restaurant puts it on their menu, I'd take a gander at it. Purchasing it from a woman who gathers her ingredients from people on the internet, however, is a little too crazy even for an experimentalist.