Sunday, October 10, 2010

Monk's Table - Beer Tasting Mondays

If you would like to try an assortment of exotic beers from around Europe, the Monk's Table is the place to go. Located on Yonge St just north of the Summerhill subway station, it is a pub on the first floor and restaurant on the second floor. You can order from an extremely wide selection of beers and have them described to you in detail by waiters who seem to double as beer sommeliers.

On many Monday evenings, they offer a 5 course beer tasting and food pairing menu for about $50-60. Each course comes with a tasting size of food and a generous amount of beer, considering you would eventually get 5 of them. With each course, the beer sommelier described the nature of the food and the beer, and the reason behind the pairing. Non-beer drinkers like myself could just partake in the food for a discounted price.

Our tasting began with savory blue cheese, pecan and apricot tarts paired with a Twisted Thistle from Scotland. The beer was described as an India Pale Ale which was orange amber colour, with hops prominent in its aroma and flavour. The blue cheese pairing was supposed to bring out the flavour in both the beer and the cheese. Since I was not drinking the beer, I took his word for this and soon stopped paying attention the descriptions after this. In retrospect, I guess Rich should really be writing this article so he could attest first hand whether these descriptions were accurate.

This was followed by a spicy piece of chicken pierced by a cinnamon stick on top of a fig sauce. This came with a glass of Saint Martin Blond from Belgium, which the Internet describes as a hazy gold beer with a creamy white head with a yeasty, slightly spicy and fruity flavour.

The next course was my favourite both from a taste and presentation perspective. It was a called "smoke salmon lollipops" with tuna carpaccio where the lollipops were rolled up balls of smoked salmon and cream cheese and the "stick" of the lollipop consisted of enoki mushrooms. This came with a glass of Hacker-Pschorr Dunkel Weisse from Germany which is a mild hazy brown beer with a malty, nutty aroma. I found it interesting that each beer came with its own shaped glass and coaster that was designed specifically for it. Also each beer so far has varied in taste, colour, and country of origin.

The main course was an apricot stuffed meat loaf with a red-wine infused mash potato and steamed rapini (another course with apricots - must have been on sale that day!). This came with an Abbot Ale from England that has been described to have a toffee or caramel taste to it. Before a dispute amongst the owners led to a change, the original name of this bar was "Abbot on the Hill". I wonder if it was named after this beer?

The final dessert course was a grapefruit pavlova, which was a grapefruit flavoured meringue with whipping cream and an orange slice on top. The beer was La Trappe Quadruple from Amsterdam described as light and fruity with a hint of spice.

It was a good experience for Rich to try so many different types of beers and was fun for him to listen to the server describe each one of them. For me, the food was only average for this tasting - I've actually had better food here just ordering off the regular menu which includes some very traditional British/Scottish fare like the Scotch Egg. But then I guess the beer was supposed to be the highlight of the evening for this tasting menu and the food probably went much better with the beer. All in all, it was a fun night and a different experience and luckily it was only a short stroll afterwards as I guided a slightly tipsy Rich back home.

1276 Yonge Street
416 920-9074

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Rio 40 Degrees - Brazilian/Portuguese Dining

I'm not sure if this is true for all Brazilian restaurants or just this one, but I learned one thing at Rio 40 Degrees on St. Clair West - the portions are huge! When Rich and I dine out, we usually like to each have an appetizer prior to our main course. Many times I find the appetizer is the most innovative and tasty part of the menu, and the course of my meal that I enjoy the most.

So for our starters, I chose Iscas de peixe - breaded fish fingers ($10) and Rich chose the Picanha com mandicoca - strips of rump steak with fried onions and cassava ($13). I thought that we could also share a small house salad as well, just to give us some vegetables - it only cost $3 so how big could it be?? Well, we soon found out that each of our "appetizers" were enough to feed a family of 4. The salad you see on both those plates are from the same "small" salad! It was an amazing salad too, with lettuce, tomato, olives, cucumber and artichoke (my new go-to vegetable). The fish fingers came as a huge plate of large chunks of white fish, lightly coated with breading and accompanied with a delicious mayo-based rose dipping sauce. And then came the equally gigantic plate of tender rump steak strips with a heaping side of fried onions and roasted cassava, which is a potato-like root vegetable with a unique flavour.

Needless to say, we were stuffed after the appetizers (which we could not finish!) and still had the mains to come. For the main, we each ordered the Moqueca de peixe - halibut cooked in palm oil, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, coconut milk, baby shrimp, coriander leaaves and spices, served with rice and cassva route flour puree ($17). Again, we didn't realize that this course came as a enormous pot of stew that could feed a small army. Luckily, the waitress had taken pity on us (or could not believe we meant what we asked for) and only wrote down one order of the main. Even so, we only took a few bites of it and then decided to pack up the table full of food to take home and eat tomorrow. The thought of dessert did not even cross our minds as we hefted our doggy-bagged load and waddled out of the restaurant.

In hindsight, as usual we enjoyed the appetizer courses more than the main, partly because we were stuffed by then and partly because we found the main a bit bland and soupy. So next time we come back, we might just eat appetizers as the whole dinner... or maybe only 1 or 2 appetizers instead of 3! Rio 40 Degrees is great value for the money and was full of Brazilian/Portuguese clientele, so I think the food is the real deal.

1256 St Clair Avenue West, Toronto, ON M6E 1B9
Telephone : 416-651-1476

Friday, October 01, 2010

Grilled Cheese - Kensington Market

Tucked away on a little side street off the main drag of Kensington Market is a little restaurant called "Grilled Cheese" that sells gourmet variations on the grilled cheese sandwich, for prices ranging from $6 to $10. Served on a choice of breads, you can try sandwiches such as Mushroom madness (Cheddar & portabello), Pizza Grill (Basil Pesto, provalone, spinach, peopperoni and bacon), The Beast (Jalepeno, Monteray Jack, Baccon, Turkey, Onion, Tomato and so forth.

When Rich and I found this place, we had actually just finished eating a light dinner around the corner and were going for a stroll to walk off the meal. With chagrin, we went in to inspect the options and told the server regretfully that we had already eaten, so maybe next time. We walked out of the restaurant and almost got to the curb before we simultaneously decided that it would not kill us to split one small little grilled cheese sandwich as "dessert". Back in we went and sheepishly ordered the "Grilled Motzy", which had mozzerella, basil pesto, sundried tomato and arugula, on rye bread. The sandwich came with a pickle and some potato chips. While the sandwich was tasty and having veggies in my grilled cheese made me feel healthier, what I love is the concept! This is something that even the amateur cook could make at home, given the proper ingredients.

The grilled cheese sandwich seems to be quite in vogue these days and there have even been grilled cheese recipe contests. In fact, our niece Lindsay placed second with her winning recipe of gorgonzola, chevre noir, and sliced pears on german white bread with a sweetened horseradish ... yum!

66 1/2 Nassau St
(647) 347-7062