Jim loved your card so much, he ate it.
RIP, Mr, Sendak.
Chowlin represent, we are Food-Tang Clan.
We loves food.
We eats food.
We even makes food.
Food Rules Everything Around Me - get the yummy.
Carrot love.
Makes me feel fuzzy inside but I’m sure they are crunchy.
(Via grist via Farm Food Freedom Coalition)
Home-grown flava at the local farmer’s market
Hit up your local farmer’s market. Freshest organic produce, bar none.
Like these super delicate zucchini blossoms, which must be cooked within a day or two of harvest. Delicious stuffed, fried, or frittered:
Mini heirloom tomatoes have intense, juicy flavours. They are also adorable and good for you:
Sunflower sprouts are high in protein, rich in phosphorous and calcium. And they taste exactly like leafy sunflower seeds:
Purple carrots are naturally loaded with anthocyanin antioxyidants and a ton of beta-carotene:
(Our goods came from the Sunday Liberty Village Farmer’s Market in Toronto.)
Porchetta porkfection at Porchetta & Co
Yo B you gots to take a bite of this meat from Porchetta & Co, carved from a blistered mound of slow roasted, belly-and-prosciutto-wrapped pork shoulder. Moist, crispy, fatty, meaty, crunchy. JUICY. It’s fucking porkfect.
Porchetta Sandwich - porchetta, sourdough buns, rapini, truffle sauce, hot sauce, triple crunch grain mustard:
Even the seasonal specials are badass. Like this Soft-shell Crab Po’boy - fried soft-shell crab, creamy coleslaw, dill pickle, prosciutto bacon bits:
Kickin it old skool back to 1906: Next Restaurant puts on the Ritz
It was on a glorious midsummer’s night when the Clan, with super special inaugural Next tickets in hand, took the DeLorean out for a spin, pushed it past 88 and landed in Paris Ritz 1906 for a three hour repast. Haute French a la Escoffier with swagged out wine and juice pairings. Talk ‘bout the good ol’ days.
Phil Vettel, Julia Kramer, and many a blogs have dedicated pages and pages on the rich opulence that was the Paris menu (was because it is now Thai); on the ambitions of Chef Achatz; and ever more on the business concept and the exploratory ethos that is Next. Go read them there.
But, if there is one read you mustn’t miss, it is Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas’ own memoir Life, on the Line. That is why this meal and this restaurant is so, so special.
Hors d’Oeuvres (quail egg with anchovy, rabbit boudin, mushroom-stuffed leek, oeufs benedictine and black truffle, foie gras torchon and brioche) / Wine: Chateau d’Orschwir Cremant d’Alsace Brut / Juice: ginger, elderflower, pineapple:
Potage a la Tortue Claire (907) / Wine: Domaine de Montbourgeau i’Etoile ‘Cuvee Speciale’ Jura 2005 / Juice: blis elixir xo, sparkling apple cider:
Filet de Sole Daumont (950) - my favorite bite of the night / Wine: Olivier Merlin ‘La Roche Vineuse’ Macon 2009 / Juice: carrot, saffron, fennel:
Supremes de Poussin (3130) / Wine: Chateau de la Liquiere ‘Les Amandiers’ Faugeres 2009 / Juice: pomegranate, verjus, ti kuan yin:
Caneton Rouennais a la Presse (3476) + Gratin de Pommes de Terre a la Dauphinoise (4200) / Wine: Domaine Brusset ‘Les Travers’ Cairanne 2009 / Juice: cherry, lapsang souchong, sanbitter:
Salade Irma (3839):
Bombe Ceylan (4826) / Wine: Croft Fine Tawny Port / Juice: roasted banana tom and jerry - my favourite sip of the night:
Mignardises (beet jelly, pistachio nougat, salted caramel):
Enter the 36th Chamber: Molecular Libations at Barchef
Proceed with caution, students, Barchef is next level shit. Frankie Solarik’s cocktails so damn good you think you’re drinking liquid Gushers when you just downed like 10 shots of Absinthe.
Sailor’s Mojito - beach essence, sailor jerry rum, mint, fresh lime, vanilla syrup, mojito ravioli, fresh lime, vanilla air:
Hickory chips set ablaze to prepare the Vanilla Hickory Smoked Manhattan - premium Legacy Rye, in-house cherry vanilla bitter, hickory smoked syrup, vanilla cognac, smoked hickory, vanilla:
The Vanilla Hickory Smoked Manhattan inside a glass bell jar, infusing with the smoke of smouldering hickory embers:
… Leave that Patron, this is straight campfire ballin’ and for real.
Meathod Man Climbs Atop the Tower of Babel at Burger’s Priest
Gargantuan grub from the biblical era, this burger breaks more backs than Ken Patera.
The Tower of Babel from The Burger’s Priest secret menu… delicious, and CONQUERED:
Foodbox Feeds at Food Truck Eats
The posse landed an hour late and 12 hours hungry at Food Truck Eats, with lineups 3000 peeps deep between us and the food. But ain’t no thang - we divided, we conquered, we feasted!
Buddha Belly (pork belly-chili jam-cucumber-corriander in a steamed bun) from Niagara’s El Gastronomo Vagabundo:
Rubarb-Strawberry-Rose Petal Slushie, made by ex-Brockton General Chef Guy Rawlings and ex-Hoof Cafe Chef Geoff Hopgood (who also made my favourite bite of the day, Smoked Chicken Croquettes):
Shrimp Tamale from Cava:
Super velvety Cardamon Klufi with Strawberries from Chef Joshna Maharaj:
A bunch more great eats, but most were inhaled before we remembered to snap pics, or sold out before we could get our paws on em. Both signs of a kick ass event (shout out to Suresh Doss of Spotlight Toronto for making it happen)… and both signs that the City should really smarten up and overhaul its totally whack street vending program. STAT. Next Food Truck Eats is on Aug 20, don’t sleep!
