Sake With Gushi
"Isn't it customary to never pour yourself your own sake?" I ask as I concentrate on filling four small cups up to the brim.
We're on our fourth bottle of sake and it's starting to have an effect on the accuracy of my pouring. Tonight, I'm drinking with Shinji Yamaguchi and his partner - in both life and business - Blessie Maturan.
Summertime Cocktails
It was a struggle to figure out how to fill an issue about dining al fresco in Toronto that wasn't just about booze and BBQ. But the reality is, that's exactly what we as Torontonians - no, as Canadians - do to cherish our impossibly short summers. So, rather than fight it, we went with the flow.
It's A Me And You Thing
Step inside the nomadic kitchen of the Me.n.u. Food Truck and experience the culture of Asian street food, re-imagined.
Day Drunk
It's a sunny Sunday afternoon and I've found a prime seat at one of the best places to drink in Toronto. The beer is cheap and free-flowing. The clientele, interestingly quirky. If I'm ever found holding an empty it is promptly taken away; what service! The catch is that I'm not at one of the trending patios in town. I'm in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, and it's time to get wasted.
But First, A Photo
"How difficult can it be to take a photo of a cup of coffee?"
I can hear the incredulous comments from a couple close to us. I agree, it's ridiculous. It's been more than five minutes since our drinks arrived and I've yet to touch one. In fact, it's quite impossible since we moved all of the necessary cutlery and accompaniments to a neighbouring table. A macabre roulette of orders has seemingly shifted each cup two seats down, then across. All in the name of taking the perfect picture. In this case, you could say I'm working; but how many people have had similar experiences when dining with friends?
The Many Roles of Food in Film
The sheer abundance of food documentaries and food series available on Netflix alone - a company that relies heavily on analytics to dictate its content - is an indication of the public’s obsession with food in visual media.
Inside Instagram
For the first time in my Toronto brunch career, I'm the first in line for weekend brunch. Well, nearly first. Already seated on the lone bench in front of the restaurant, Beast, is Ryan, Alex, and Kelly. Or, rather, the masterminds behind the food-centered Instagram accounts @eatfamous, @hypebelly, and @kellyforyou (respectively) are waiting for us. Beast puts out an impressive brunch spread - but the sheer pleasure of eating isn't the only draw. You could call it a working brunch, in a way: The 3 Spoons' first Insta-meet as a collective.
Food Styling 101
The pre-meal photo shoot has become a global, cross-cultural, cross-generational phenomenon. A cult-like ritual that begs the philosophical question: if there is no photo, did it really happen? Food itself is art, but it has also been the subject of art for millennia. From discoveries of caveman paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphs depicting food, to its central presence in Renaissance paintings, to modern representations; it’s in fact one of the first subjects of novice illustrators and painters. Social media is simply a new medium, accessible to the masses.
The Birth Of Clarke's Bread
It’s 1:00am on a Saturday night. Or is it early Sunday morning? Nick and I are waiting in a dark alley in North York. Cutting across the back parking lot of a weathered strip mall, we’re startled by what seems to be a motion-sensored light above an open door, leading to an empty lit staircase. Weird. There’s no one there. If you didn’t know us any better, you’d think that we were first-time buyers of a crooked drug deal.
In The Kitchen: Challah
Perhaps it's challah's intricate braiding that called us to it. Or the way its crust glows with tantalizing luster when it emerges from the oven. Or its softly yielding crumb, fluffy with just a hint of sweetness. Perhaps it's all of these things. Whatever the reason, we definitely didn't turn to baking this bread because we keep Kosher.
Toronto's Essential Artisan Bread Guide
There’s nothing like a piece of warm bread slathered in slowly melting butter.
Or a hearty crust softening as it bathes in the remains of a rich stew. Or a baguette being entirely devoured before you know it, one bite at a time, each morsel a faithful craft for the decadent cheeses and earthy pâtés carefully selected for your board. We are a bread-loving household, but we were also a bread-fearing one not long ago. For years, Nick was Paleo and I regarded bread as a treat, in the same way a triple chocolate cake is a treat. Eating bread was a guilty pleasure. But what were we guilty of, exactly?
The Art & Struggle of Sourdough
There's flour everywhere. It's pervasive. It's in my hair and smeared across my apron. There's a fine dusting of the stuff on every surface of my house - cooking space or not. But it's not this wheat invasion that's concerning me; it's the amorphous mass of flour and water in front of me, mocking me. I'm trying to make bread, and it's going horribly.