Top 10 dishes of 2015
Being a professional glutton is a tough job. Each year, I scarf my way through shameful amounts of food. By year's end my belts need extra holes and my cholesterol needs lowering. But it's not all bad news as I am privileged to have experienced some culinary inspiration not to mention tasted some mighty fine meals.Here are my picks for the best and most memorable dishes of 2015 (in no particular order):
Loka
620 Queen St W, Toronto ON M6J 1E4In-house cured charcuterie: A lardo's soft and silky pork back fat is fantastically rich and creamy; and a sophisticated and nicely chewy lamb prosciutto coupled with a magnificent mushroom parmesan salumi might just rival Bar Raval's own in-house curing program. And believe me that is saying something.
Café Boulud
60 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto ON M4W 0A4Poulet a la broche: Something as simple as a whole roast chicken is completely satisfying. After the theatrical presentation of the entire cooked bird stuffed with rosemary and rotisserie potatoes in a copper pot, it's swiftly whisked back to the kitchen for carving. Though the skin could have been crispier, these are the juiciest pieces of poultry you will ever taste. Sorry, Swiss Chalet. Grapefruit givre: Created by pastry chef Ghaya Oliveira from Boulud Sud in NYC, it is perhaps the most screamingly clever dessert ever. If the James Beard Foundation could give out a separate award just for dessert, this would be the one to get it. Composition alone makes it a medalist, but rarely if ever do you see such whimsical form and function coming together in such symbiotic sweetness. Served on a bed of ice with dried rose petals, yarns of sesame halva top a frozen fruit peel like a white toupee, concealing other delights like rose loukoum and a palate cleansing grapefruit sorbet. Le wow.
Antler
1454 Dundas St W, Toronto ON M6J 1Y6Jamaican venison patty: It may look like a snack food, but it's as important as any expert entree. Slipped into a white paper sleeve with the Antler logo stamped on the front (nice touch), it’s the best version of any meat patty I can recall. The house made dough is so fine it's almost translucent, making it easy to see the mound of ground meat within with as much flavour as a well-simmered stew. And the delicately spicy dipping sauce with scotch bonnet is not blow-your-head-off hot thanks to being blended mostly with red peppers. Make no mistake: this is not the meat patty you're used to seeing under a heat lamp at the corner convenience store.
Kanpai Snack Bar
252 Carlton St, Toronto ON M5A 2L1Fingers of the sea: How the kitchen got this dish to resemble your average plate of sweet potato fries is anyone's guess, but seasoned fish paste with a zesty Taiwanese tartar sauce is a real unexpected treat, not to mention a true original. It's mind boggling how food this inexpensive can have such culinary intrigue. All I can say is how did we do without it for so long?
Bar Raval
505 College St, Toronto ON M6G 1A5Sobrassada: If you think this is all meat, you'd be dead wrong. It's 75 per cent pork fat that cured in-house for at least two months, creating an original spread like a slightly spicy sausage sans the casing. Mark my words, this is the kind of influential food that will in time trickle down and appear on menu openers everywhere.
Barque Butcher Bar
287 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto ON M6R 2M3Chorizo ribs: Barque made its reputation on its smoked meats and Barque Butcher Bar is no different. Thickly cut and full of meat, these ribs haven't a gram of fat on them. Its pimento paste and garlic flavour is not only addictive, it mimics the spice signature of an actual chorizo sausage. Served in a warm, small, cast iron pan, with tangy ribbons of pickled vegetables, this dish, though pricey for the portion, is worth every penny.
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