An Asparagus Tour

It was a tour to beat all tours; an asparagus farm tour. Yes, it’s asparagus season. Our cool spring slowed things down a bit but then we had a few warm days and wow! Asparagus is one of those plants that grows so fast, you can almost see it growing right before your eyes; tall, slender, green and irresistible.

The Fruit Shack on Niagara Stone Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake has a small asparagus patch behind the retail store. The store is only open on the weekends until the season picks up and then they’ll be open 7 days a week, but for now, they had a few minutes to tour a small group of eager foodies around the farm.

We walked into the cherry orchard in full bloom. The trees were in full bloom and filled the air with the floral aromas of sweet, delicate blossoms; then we past the plot of garlic before arriving at the asparagus patch.

Asparagus patches are pretty drab and unexciting to look at. The brown earth is interrupted only with a straight line of drab green spears; no leaves, no bright colour. But as soon as we focused on the row of spears standing straight like a line of soldiers, we could hardly wait.

The Fruit Shack is a family run farm and Frank and Steve Pohorly, father and son, were on hand to teach us a bit about asparagus. Steve took a knife and began cutting the spears and placing them in a basket as he talked about the high demand he has for his crop that was originally just suppose to be enough to feed him and his family. But an asparagus patch is not something you can keep secret for long and now everyone is hungry for their just picked asparagus.

Steve was neat and tidy in his picking, you could tell these were his prize possessions, but I bent down and snapped a spear off at the base and popped it into my mouth. I knew what to expect, I’d done this before. The juicy spear exploded in my mouth with the ultra sweet flavours of fresh sugar peas and the freshness of cold, pure spring water. It was full of life and crunch; who could not become addicted to the ultra fresh and uber delicious flavour of asparagus just seconds from harvest!

Others in the group followed and moans of delight began to ring through the crowd like a symphony of joy. No I’m not exaggerating, picking and eating asparagus in the patch is one of life’s greatest joys. Those who never liked asparagus were astonished at how good it was and others delighted in the discovery of the freshest flavours they’d ever eaten. It was like a feeding frienzy in the field.

We left The Fruit Shack and took our just picked asparagus to Escabeche Restaurant at Queens Landing Inn. The chef prepared them simply with lots of sweet, creamy butter. In the centre of the table was more fresh asparagus (raw) standing straight up in a flower vase. We feasted on the buttery asparagus and the fresh. It was an amazing lunch.

My Sage Tumbleweed

It uprooted my sage bush. The fierce windstorm we had last week didn’t spare my yard. In the sandy, damp soil, my beautiful sage bush that I have been nurturing for years simply uprooted and rolled down the street like a tumbleweed. Sage is one of my favourite herbs not only because it livens up an otherwise boring chicken, but I like to deep fry them. Sage chips are yummy and I use them for garnish on fancy dishes. Oh, who am I kidding, I love to munch on sage chips just as they are, a big bowl of them – they’re delicious! My beautiful big bush gave me enough sage leaves that I could indulge in sage chips whenever I wanted, but that’s not all.

We had a beautiful old tree at the back of the house. It was taller than the house and spread out to shade our deck, especially the area around the patio table and chairs. On any hot summers day we could sit and enjoy lunch or dinner under the cool, comfort of that big tree. It was so big it also provided shade on our upper deck; a favourite place for morning coffee that usually ended up in long, Sunday afternoon conversations – a great tradition.

But with a shaking of the ground it simply fell over and with it, it took another 2 smaller trees. One was a wild dogwood that my neighbours friend brought over one day in a cut down orange juice carton. That was over 20 years ago and that dogwood, while it took a few years to establish itself, was a blaze of beautiful big white saucer-like flowers every spring. It’s a pity it won’t get a chance to bloom this year. It’s just buried under the massive trunk and mound of branches that is sprawled across the yard, over the hedge and into the neighbours.

While my sage bush took the brunt of the force, my entire herb garden looks like it barely survived a stamped of elephants; so the clean up begins. The best way to revive an injured herb garden is to begin snipping and trimming away so it begins to grow back.

Herbs are the first garden harvest each year. Almost all food and herb pairings such as dill with pickles or oregano on pizza are international transplants from one European country or another. While I may eat bowls of crispy herbs, I’ve noticed that even with the culinary revolution focusing on fresh-from-the-earth ingredients, there still seems to be a certain hesitation regarding the liberal use of herbs. In my opinion, using herbs sparingly is like not using any herbs at all.

As a general rule, basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage and tarragon are the more dominant herbs that require frequent tasting before increasing amounts. Often times they don’t mix well together but don’t shy away from blending strong and subtle herbs because work very well together. A bit of basil, marjoram, oregano and parsley livens up a traditional tomato sauce for pasta.

For myself and others whose yard was ravaged by the force of Mother Nature, the clean up begins. Friends and neighbours gather to help each other as the unmistakable symphony of chain saws buzz in the neighbourhood and the aromas of good meals seasoned with plenty of herbs float through the air.

Thuet's hands did not touch my quiche

This morning I slept in. The Royal York Hotel is such a spectacular hotel, who wouldn’t want to take advantage of the beautiful surroundings. I snuggled under the pouffy duvet, the billowy pillow soft on my cheeks and ran my legs across the luxuriously silky sheets. Now this is heaven.

I lazily got up and went for a walk on the warm spring Sunday morning. I walked up Front, to Bay then King and decided to walk east. I had no idea where I was going but was hoping to find a great coffee house for breakfast. What I found was Petite Thuet.

It was an inviting little pâtisserie with painted concrete floors, small dark tables and soft, upholstered French chairs. Behind the pastry counter were piles of artisan bread. On the back wall were dozen of mason jars filled with preserves and other amazing ingredients.

The pastry counter was filled with dozens of mini tarts holding French custard and fruit. Everything was mini from the lemon meringue and apricot frangipane to the chocolate mirror tart and chocolate éclairs. There was succulent quiche, buttery warm croissant and many other French pastries such as millefeuille, brightly coloured meringues and Mama Thuet’s Alsatian apple and almond torte. There were Madeleines, macaroons and other things I didn’t recognize with layers of sweet cream, chocolate ganache and other sinfully delicious things.

It’s the kind of place that naturally inspires a face-plant right in the middle of it all. I’m secretly doing the face plant in my mind while trying to look like I’m still pondering my decision.

I smile at the young guy behind the counter who is trying not to look too out of place. He’s looking much more like a rough and tumble hockey player than a young preppy coffee barista. After a brief conversation with the hockey player, I opt for the quiche lorraine and – oh no, first strike, no chai latte. I ask for an herbal tea.

That’s when I notice a lone cookbook in a basket by the cash register and I recognize the face of celebrity chef Marc Thuet. It was his cookbook, French Food My Way. What’s the connection between Thuet and this pâtisserie I ask, knowing what the answer would be. I’m told this is Thuet’s pâtisserie and that he even made some of the pastries in the shop today. Wow, I thought, some of the delicious pastries I see could have actually been touched by Thuet. I ask which ones. The hockey player begins to stumble and quickly saves himself by telling me the quiche I ordered was made by Marc that morning.

Oh, yea right I thought. I took my tea that was served in a paper cup (oh, yuk) and my china plate with my microwaved quiche and a – what is this? A plastic fork! Aughhhhh. I asked if I could read the cookbook, took it to a small table and began to leaf through it while I ate my delicious breakfast. Halfway through I looked at the quiche. It was warm on the outside but stone cold on the inside. I know for certain the hockey player will only nuke the heck out of it so I eat on. I have to disagree with the hockey player, Thuet didn’t make this quiche. But someone did because it certainly wasn’t processed and it was delicious in spite of the temperature.

I watched as people came in and out buying specialty pastries. It seems brownies are the most popular; but then again this was Toronto not the Thuet Boulangerie in Alsace.

If you happen to be in Toronto, I highly recommend Petite Thuet and buy lots of pastry to bring home (I did!).

Shopping With A Chef

Six in the morning is David Garcelon’s favourite time to shop at the St. Lawrence Farmers’ Market. David is executive chef of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto and today I was going shopping with him.

We met in the lobby and began our short walk to the market. Toronto seems to be alive no matter what time of day and the market was in full swing by the time we arrived. It’s customary to walk about with a cup of coffee so chef with his coffee and I with my tea made our first sighting. On one counter we found jars of Forbes Pickled Spruce Tips and Milkweed Pods. The chef chatted a bit about wild foods and we moved on.

We reached the meat section with lots of vendors competing for business. Chef, inspired by the ultra thick, glistening pork chops began his appreciation of Ontario pork. “It’s the best in the world,” he starts. Like a walking, talking billboard for Ontario Pork, his heart is in every word.

We moved on to the fish section and chef asked to see a large Lake Erie Pickerel on ice behind the glass. The fishmonger placed it on a sheet of brown wrapping paper and handed it over. “It’s really fresh when it has no smell, there’s still blood in the gills and the eyes are glistening,” explains chef as he examines it closely then holds it up for me to smell the fish that has no smell.

Someone from behind us yelled to the chef that fresh spring salmon should be in next week. I turned to see who it was when a sign caught my eye. It said, “We will not sell Chilean Seabass.” Hum, a fish monger with ethics – the appreciation is not lost on me.

Next stop was Golden Orchards Fine Foods where we met owner Murray Graziano. Murray worked with his mom in this shop since he was a small boy. He shows us information on the local farmers he’s working with and tells the chef he’ll soon have bags of local shelled sweet peas for him. “There are nights I don’t sleep,” says Murray. “If we don’t support local farmers today, they’ll all be factories tomorrow and it will be too late.”

All this talk of food is making the chef hungry and I follow him like a little puppy to Carousel Bakery where he buys two internationally famous, Peameal Bacon on a Soft Country Bun. He hands me a my sandwich wrapped in white paper and quickly runs off again. We end up at the Kozlik’s mustard stand where he pulls out 4 of his favourite mustards and asks me to pick one for my sandwich. We eat in the hustle and bustle of the market, washing the sandwich down with more tea.

With no time to waste, we’re off passing another meat place before he stops abruptly. He picks up a few bags of bones explaining, “these are the best deal in the market.” At $1.50 for a giant bag of bones, I agree. Then as if distracted by the calling of succulent slabs of savoury, fresh beef, chef begins to teach me all I need to know about buying the best quality beef. Like a good student I soak it all in studying the examples he points to as he talks.

Next we head across the street to the north market. Unlike the main building which is open all week, the north market is only open on Saturday. We meet John Rowe, founder of Rowe Farms who has partnered with Niagara grower Paul Moyer to growing red fyfe wheat. Together they mill it and make delicious pasta that he sells fresh at the market. John starts to talk about lessening our carbon footprint with farming when chef realizes he needs to get back to his kitchen. “Dinner, seven tonight, don’t be late,” he says as he leaves me at the market.

No, no I wasn’t dining with the chef, he’d be busy in the kitchen. Although I would have given anything to cook with him, but he was gone before I could ask.

The Royal York is a grand hotel and they offer a Shop With Chef package that anyone can book. The package is best taken from the time the Niagara orchards are bursting with their bounty to the fall harvest of Ontario’s fertile soil and through the holiday season when the best of free range poultry and festive meats are in demand. It’s a great opportunity to meet one on one with some of the people who produce the best food in Ontario. It includes an insider’s tour of the market with the chef, 2 nights accommodation, dinner in EPIC and a culinary tour of the market with historian Bruce Bell (1.800.441.1414, www.fairmont.com).

Bruce shares stories enthusiastically on the buildings previous incarnations. Once town hall only to be repurposed many times until what we see today as the St. Lawrence Farmers’ Market. It’s a captivating and brilliantly executed tour (www.brucebelltours.ca).

Not How, but What to do with Social Media

Scott Stratten has over 50,000 twitter followers and had more than 60 million hits on on his video nooooooooooooooo.com. Scott recently spoke at the Travel Media Association of Canada's annual conference in Ottawa and here are just a few of the things I found so great, I just have to share.

Stop marketing in the same old ways we've done it for decades - it's too hypocritical and customers know it.
Marketing is not a task - marketing is. It just is. It's a way of being. Everything we do from smiling at a stranger we pass on the street to a phone conversation to talking to customers - everything we do and say is always increasing or decreasing our impression to others. We are our front line to our customers/followers/friends. So, what is your brand impression?

Am I talking about on-line or in person? Both. In fact, we tend to be passive in person and aggressive on-line - think about it, there is a false sense of privacy when you can't see a person face to face, but the marketing power is still the same. Not to worry though, Scott explains, "To be great at customer service you just have to be average." Which means there are too many people not paying attention to customers, if you do, you win.

It's all about, Know - Like - Trust

With social media you can get to know and trust people, but with that comes some caution. Social media is not the place to flog crappy advertising. I you use the same concept as tele-marketing on social media, people will tune you out and you loose the trust. That means no pop-ups, commercials or anything that will get in people face. It also means - don't post your events or commercial messages on other peoples facebook!!! For all those who post on my wall and I've always found it annoying, now's my validation to tell you - stop it!

So what do we do? Well, ask yourself what you do every day to get people to like and trust you? - you talk! and talking is tweeting. But another caution - don't tweet about garbage! Who cares if you had tuna for lunch? Well, now I'm feeling bad because I shared my lunch experience with all my friends yesterday, but - in my defense I can say that I certainly wasn't expecting a meal on a VIA Rail train to be right up there with deLuca's Restaurant or On The Twenty or other fine dining eateries. I think my meal was awesome! And that's what your suppose to tweet about - only the awesome! SPRED THE AWESOME! You don't have to change what you talk to people about - just the way you talk to them.

So if you would not normally tell anyone you had tuna for lunch - DON'T TWEET IT! If you don't want your words to appear on a Billboard, don't tweet it!

If you tweet about awesome, people will retweet and share your tweet.

So how much time should you spend on social media? Well, how about only when you have something awesome to say? That's how you get people to trust you and want to follow you. Don't have a strategy of frequency because you end up saying stuff people don't really care about and you become one of those people at a party that no one wants to talk to.

So what media platform should you use? Connect them all together. It's not your job to tell people how to consumer your messages, it's only important that they do. Everyone is different so you'll get some who follow you on twitter, some on your blog, others on facebook, etc. Connect them so you're available to the largest audience. Now mobilize yourself with something like wetouch or wptouch (didn't hear very well). It's a free program, just download it and you'll be mobilized to reach a greater audience.

Did you know about TROLLS. they're not complainers, they spread hate. Don't reply to them, you're time is far too valuable building great relationships than to try to win someone over that has no interest than to spread hate. Make it your business to build good relationships.

Remember, people thrive on interaction but only the kind that makes them happy. Don't make them fill out a form with any personal info at all - you'll loose them. I know this because when faced with a stupid form - even if it is to send a simple email from a website - I refuse and go to another website. I know collecting demographics sounds like something you might like to do but remember what I said in the beginning - Stop marketing in the same old ways we've done it for decades. Social media is about trust and relationships.

So build your platform in what ever way you want, say only awesome things and build it one person at a time. Those that have thousands of followers started with one and don't believe them if they say it didn't take time and patience. If you want to get something out of this, you need to put something into it. Social media doesn't change the fact that relationships take time.

You must be PRESENT on social media and CONSISTENT. Reply immediately, if it takes longer to reply than to mail a letter you're not doing it well.

If you are your authentic self on social media, you will have no competition!

There's a Twitter Guide Book free on-line - get it! Read it!

Another Day in the Big City

So I seem to be in Toronto an awful lot these days. Don’t mind it, for someone who works from their home, these trips seem like the only time ‘off’ from work – or at least it separates me from my work, so they’re very welcomed.

This time my son Jordan had a concert to go to at The Opera House. It started early and ended late so Jon and I had plenty of time to relax in the big city.

First we took the kids to Chinatown for lunch and a bit of shopping. Lunch at Pho Hung on Spadina was really bad. The food came out dry and we were given giant bottles of cheap processed sauce that was watered down. I don’t recommend it at all. We did a bit of shopping, mostly for the boys. From Chinatown to Honest Eds to Sonic Boom.

Dropped the kids off at the concert and Jon and I went to the Riviera Bakery on College for a rest, coffee and decadent pastry. We had a window seat to people watch and had a Zeppola.

Zeppola are the Easter pastry or the pastry Italians eat to celebrate S Giuseppe. It looks like a giant donut sliced horizontally and filled with luscious whipped cream and topped with a cherry or two. For those who know it better, it's feather light egg dough, deep fried and dredged in sugar, stuffed with whipped cream and decorated with special Italian preserved cherries - beyond delicious!

I asked why they’re making Zeppoles so early and the owner said there is such a frienzy a few weeks before Easter – people were lined up down the street and they just couldn’t manage the onslaught of business around that time. Now they start making Zeppole a few months early and that has helped as people now come in early for the favourite Easter treat.

It was early evening, we went to the Manulife Building and shopped in Chapters for a while. This is probably the largest Chapters anywhere and it was opened until 11 pm on Sunday. Decided to go up to the Panorama for a drink. The Panarama is a beautiful, sultry bar on the 51st floor of the Manulife. We sipped on wine and watched the lights of the city come on.

On our way up to the Panorama we noticed the cinemas. We wanted to see the King’s Speech but were too early for the late show and too late for the early show. But there was a showing in between at the VIP theatre. We’d be out in time to pick up the kids.

VIP is a much smaller theatre (probably holds 36 people) with larger, plush, very comfortable seats that rock and have plenty of leg room. There are small coffee tables on ether side of a pair of chairs and it’s a licenced theatre with full service. You can order wine, beer, popcorn, anything the theatre offers. The concept was great so we paid the extra $5 per ticket.

When we arrived the theatre was dirty; popcorn scattered everywhere and we had to pick the clean seats as many of them had sticky pop over them. We found 2 good seats and sat back; this was nice. We ordered popcorn and it came in it’s traditional paper bag – not very VIPish at all.

For service you need to be in your seats 10 minutes before the show and that was doable, but waiting for a movie is like watching paint dry, it’s simply not convenient.

The movie was fantastic, but the VIP theatre concept needs a bit of rethinking to get it right. Don’t think it’s worth the extra money unless it’s a clean space, popcorn comes in a bowl and the movie starts when you’re ready.

I love impromptu trips into Toronto, not everything works as you'd like or expect but it's a break for the ordinary and it's all good.

A Foodie Weekend in Toronto

Had a wonderful weekend in Toronto – it was a last minute thing to escape – just too much going on and don’t feel like I’ve recuperated from the holidays. So Jon and I ran away. Saturday morning, we got up early and went to yoga at White Oaks – if you’ve never been, I think it’s Niagara’s best fitness club, it’s certainly the most luxurious.

After yoga we headed up to Toronto and checked into the Hyatt Regency on King St. I book this the night before because of the rate. They were giving away rooms at $119 per night. I almost didn’t book it, thinking it was going to be a bad experience, but the Hyatt has a great reputation so I took a chance. We checked in and it was beautiful! Our room was very contemporary – just the way we like it and our stay was fantastic.

We dropped off our bags and bundled up. We headed east on King stopped into Roy Thompson Hall to see what was playing – a Mozart concert! I love classical so we bought a couple of tickets and headed over to Queen for a bite to eat.

Queen street certainly has changed from my memory of it. No longer is it flooded with trendy restaurants, but more clothing shops have taken over and the restaurants are fewer and far between. We walked by one and it was packed with what seemed like locals, not tourists so we went in. It was the Queen Mother Café, the décor was very pubby, menu incredibly eclectic with healthy salads, Asian and Indian dishes. The food was great, the ambience bustling and noisy – perfect for big city dining – a great place with even better prices.

We walked the Toronto streets for a while going in and out of shops and found ourselves at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It was closing in less than an hour so we didn’t go in, but found the gift shop fantastic! This is where I’m doing my Christmas shopping this year.

We went back to the hotel, got out our iPads. I brought a bottle of Nyarai Cellars Sauvignon Blanc (it's my favourite these days!) (www.nyaraicellars.ca) so we poured a few glasses and headed downstairs. The hotel charges for internet service but Starbucks doesn’t so we picked a plush corner of the lobby close to Starbucks and sure enough, the internet worked. We sipped on wine and surfed the net in search of our next travel destination - dreaming of a warmer destination.

Still full from lunch, we headed to the concert – it was fantastic! No better than fantastic! Music Director Peter Oundjian did a great job and the symphony was stunning. I listen to classical all the time and don’t claim to know much about it except I like most of it, but listening to it live, it really takes you in and vibrates right down to your soul – amazing!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped into Oliver Bonnaccini’s new eatery O & B Canteen at the TIFF Bell LightBox Centre. The atmosphere is sleek and modern with a casual ambience. It was lively and while the menu was small, the choices great and the food delicious. I had the beet salad with salmon which was great but Jon had the steak which was a bit disappointing – a tough piece of overcooked meat even though we’d asked for medium rare. Oh well, all was still good.

The next morning we bundled up and headed over to Spadina for coffee. We stopped into a little place that I won’t mention. It was a bit dirty and their idea of Chai Latte and mine don’t really agree. We walked up to Chinatown and did some shopping in the many grocery stores that spill into the sidewalks with foods, flavours and smells as foreign to me as a trip to China. It’s an exciting discovery and we bought lots of stuff for Jordan, our vegetarian son including green papayas for one of our favourite salads.

Chinatown is getting ready for the Chinese New Year with all sorts or decorations and firecrackers. In the midst of the grocery stores I found Tap Phong Trading Company. It’s a giant store filled with kitchen utensils, dishes, pots and pans, machinery from toasters to restaurant quality mixers and ovens. We spent the better part of the afternoon just in Tap Phong’s and left with loads of new stuff for our kitchen. It’s really cheap too! – I mean dirt cheap!

We loaded the car and headed for new Longo’s on York street in Maple Leaf Square. Everyone in Niagara is talking about it so I just had to go. Parking is free if you spend more than $30 and if you’ve ever bought groceries, you know that’s no problem. The store really focuses on ready made foods, but Longo’s makes them themselves. They look wholesomely good and delicious. You can buy ready made take out or eat it in their cafe. The store is a little short on staple cleaning supplies, but that’s ok, we can shop at cheaper bulk stores for those items and shop here for fresh and delicious food. My only complaint is that I wished they’d offer more local foods. They also have a wine shop, kitchen for cooking demonstrations and a café.

But here in Niagara I’m loving my Commisso’s Food Store in Niagara Falls, it’s the closest thing to the new Longo’s with ready made foods. At Commisso’s they have in-house chefs that cook up delicious dishes all day and you can take them home or eat in their trendy, modern café.

Anyway, I’m home and in case you’re wondering where the pictures are – there aren’t any; my camera is still in for repair. A great foodie weekend!