E-mail from Charlie

From : “charlie”

CHARLIE’S BURGERS
The Anti-Restaurant
www.charliesburgers.ca

The Anti-Restaurant is about the food experience first. It is not-for-profit, so the costs involved resume their proper place as something simply incidental to the event.

WHEN?
At random intervals.

WHERE?
At random locations.

WHO’S COOKING?
A Chef who CAN and still loves to – someone whose love of a kickass meal has not been dulled by soul-crushing food and beverage managers and bean counters – someone creative, innovative and fun. We’ve got a long list here in Toronto but more suggestions are welcome.

HOW MUCH?
Total cost of food divided by number of attendees – our goal is to keep it around $75 – $150 per person.

WINE?
Paired appropriately.

DRESS CODE?
No, but we don’t want your chest hair in the salad, got it?

WHO?
FOOD LOVERS. No screwing around. If you can’t/won’t eat certain things, this is probably not for you. Chef rules. This isn’t “Fear Factor” – but there will be meat, seafood, raw stuff, and occasionally something from outside the mainstream experience. Duh, that’s the point of the Anti-Restaurant.

HOW DO I GET IN?
Pay attention.

Email us back with your answers to the questions below. If you are for real, we put you on the potential invitee’s list

When an event is set up, we send out an e-vite, those who RSVP first get in, another small group will get stand-by status. You will be able to RSVP for you +1. If you want to get 15 of friends in, you can’t- they’ll have to go through the process… Just like your doing now…

We will email the chef’s name, the location and menu a week before the event – this is your chance to opt-out – your space goes to a stand-by, you do not choose who takes your place

IMPORTANT! NO-SHOWS will NOT be tolerated. If you can’t make it, contact us in advance so we can give it to a stand-by. Failure to show this sort of basic decency gets you on the blacklist – seriously, no more burgers for you.

Show up. Eat, drink, pay your share, go home and dream about the next one.

Q & A

Name (first and last) & email (again)& best number to reach you to reconfirm the day of the event

What is your occupation?

Where did you hear about us?

What are your 3 favourite restaurants in Toronto?

What would your last meal on earth be?

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself? Common don’t be shy…

If you know anyone who loves food and eating well please refer them to www.charliesburgers.ca

NOTE: Please check your junk mail folder as sometimes our correspondences get filtered out.

CB Team

Charlie’s Burgers

The anti-restaurant.

You may have read about this in the Toronto Star recently…it’s the place that’s ‘not’ a restaurant…but more a covert culinary mission, of sorts.

A mystery dinner.

I was curious, so I went to the website and added my e-mail so that I could fill out their survey.

I hope to be invited to dinner……but of course, if I do get invited, you can’t hear about it.

Frugal Fare #1: CJ Lunch Box

“Frugal Fare” is going to be a new feature on Foodhogger, where we’ll cover the more affordable places to dine for lunch/dinner in Toronto and still get great food & service.

CJ Lunch Box (but everyone refers to it as ”Lunch Box”) is one such place. 

Location:

409 Richmond St., W, Toronto (Spadina/Richmond)

Cost: under $10 (cash only)

There used to be something else in it’s place, but I can’t recall what it was (anyone remember?) and now it’s very clear what’s there. 

 

Lunch Box is a small lunch time spot serving little containers of sushi, deep fried chicken, noodles, edamame and dumplings…for as little as $3 – $5!  What a steal (and tasty too)!  These days business is booming and it’s our first in Foodhogger’s : Frugal Fare.

Salmon sushi with chicken combo $5.97 (with free miso soup)

Veggie Dumplings: $3 – a bit on the greasy side, but it makes a good side or snack.

Although Lunch Box has started increasing their prices (almost everything is one or two dollars more than before), the raised cost hasn’t seemed to deter the crowd.  The line-ups are almost always curled around the counter in the tiny restaurant, where in cafeteria-like fashion you pick your boxes.  

Chicken? $4.

The staff are cheery and highly efficient (one at the cash register, one packing your lunch, one making the sushi, one warming the dumplings; there’s at least 6-7 people behind the counter).  Not to mention that the turn-over is so high, the food’s fresh.  In fact, if you don’t see any more sushi of your desire, they’ll roll it up for you in 2 min!  (Sushi connoisseurs  [of which, I am not one] beware: it’s not gourmet sushi, but it’s great for lunch)

Salmon sushi $4

There are also a handful of tables if you wish to dine there, with a newly added flat-screen TV playing concerts by different artists everyday (last time it was Celine Dion and before that Beyonce) to keep you entertained. 

Also, I hear that with every purchase you get a free miso soup but I will have to confirm this (as I found out only after my purchase, sans soup) and this should be relatively easy considering I’ll most likely be back there next week!

They’re open from 11am to 5pm on weekdays only – so if you wanted some chicken or noodles to take home after work, you’re out of luck.  I think they would do well to stay open for dinner, but then it would have to be called CJ Lunch/Dinner Box…which doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Future Bakery & Cafe

Location:

483 Bloor St. W., Toronto

Cost: $10-15

Speaking of cake…

Future Bakery’s Kahlua Truffle Cake is to die for….or to share with friends.

Great little cafe in the Annex, to hang out with the people you love until the wee hours of the morning…or until 2am, when they close

Zucchini Chocolate Orange Cake

I made this cake for a work potluck, recently.  It’s a super easy recipe (considering it was baked at nearly 1am) with an extremely (if I do say so, myself!) yummy result!  

I found this on Allrecipes.com, which seriously makes you wonder:  do people even bother with cookbooks anymore?  What I love about Allrecipes are the ‘reviews/modifications’ by other users…very helpful!

For this recipe, since I LOVE orange chocolate, I decided to go with what one person said on the site about doubling the orange zest (from 1 tbsp to 2) and found it really did up the orange flavour.  I also made some other modifications, which are indicated (in blue) below.

Overall, it’s a fantastic and easy recipe!  The cake turns our very moist and sweet.  It keeps very well too (that is, if there’s any left after it comes out of the oven!)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk (I used 1/4 cup milk + 1/4 cup OJ)
• 3 cups grated zucchini (I had 2 cups; you can also wring out some of the excess water)
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (I used 2 tbsps)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I didn’t have walnuts)
• 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour Bundt pan (I used 2 different sized pans).
2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla and milk to the butter mixture. Stir in dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Fold in zucchini, orange zest and nuts.
4. Pour into a greased and floured Bundt cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50 to 60 minutes (I baked for 50 minutes exactly), or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Allow to cool, then drizzle with glaze.
5. To make the glaze: In a small bowl mix together sugar, orange juice and vanilla. Invert cake onto serving dish, then pour glaze over.

 

Nazareth

Location:

969 Bloor St West, Toronto

Cost: approx $8 per person incl drink, tax & tip!

Although a table of 5 is a tight squeeze in this tiny establishment, the generous portions and tasty home-cooked flavour more than make up for it.

The girls and I decided to dine at Nazareth after hearing much about it (one such recommendation coming from a commentator on this blog – thanks Anna!). We ordered an orange & mango juice, a diet Coke and a Heineken for drinks. To eat, a veggie platter (for the vegetarian) and a chicken and beef platter. I think it must have slipped our minds that it would all arrive on the same platter! Oops…we should have been clearer. We ordered a separate veggie platter.

All of it arrived swiftly – generously portioned and absolutely succulent in flavours. Our request for hot sauce resulted in a little dish of cajun pepper, which we found a bit odd. Still, it was certainly the best Ethiopian I’ve ever had!

It’s clear we were not the only ones who like the place, people were lined up and at the bar, waiting. In fact, when we were done and it was clear we weren’t going to order dessert (vegan blueberry and chocolate cheesecake – without eggs or dairy) because we were so stuffed, we were politely asked if our table could be cleared for the customers waiting.

It was not rude or unkind, but simply like being told to get ready for bed by our Mother. And it’s understandable of course – at these low costs (where else can you get dinner for $8?!), Nazareth has to do what she has to do.

It’s impressively a one-woman show! Kudos to Nazareth for running a wonderful, little gem in the city.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

True to my word, here’s a RECIPE (from the Toronto Star) for Chocolate Guinness Cake!

I can’t wait to try it!

Sláinte! Have a Safe & Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

-FH

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

1/3 cup Guinness draught stout

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

5 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Syrup:

1/4 cup Guinness draught stout

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ganache:

3/4 cup heavy cream

6 oz (170 g) semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS

For cake, liberally grease and lightly flour 9-inch cake pan. If desired, line bottom with parchment circle, as cake tends to stick.

In small pan, whisk together stout and cocoa powder on medium-low heat until smooth. Cool. Stir in buttermilk.

Sift flour, baking soda, powder and salt into medium bowl.

In large bowl, beat butter until creamy with electric mixer on medium-low speed. Gradually beat in sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one a time, until blended. Beat in vanilla.

With mixer on medium-low, add third of flour mixture until moistened. Beat in half of stout mixture until blended. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture until moistened. Beat in remaining stout mixture until blended. Beat in remaining flour mixture until moistened. Scrape bowl. Beat just to blend.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated 350F oven about 30 minutes, until cake starts to pull away from sides of pan and tester comes out clean.

Set wire rack over sheet of waxed paper. Cool pan on rack 10 minutes. Slide blunt knife around edge of pan. Invert to release cake onto rack. Cool.

For syrup, whisk ingredients in small pan over low heat until smooth and warm, at least 5 minutes.

If you used parchment, peel it off cake. Use fork or toothpick to poke holes in bottom of cake. Pour three-quarters of syrup over cake, spread with bottom of spoon and let it seep in, at least 5 minutes.

Invert cake onto serving platter. Poke holes in top. Spoon remaining syrup over top and let it seep in for 5 minutes. Reserve syrup pan.

For ganache, pour cream into syrup pan. Bring to simmer on medium heat. Remove from burner. Stir in chocolate until smooth and creamy. Cool briefly, until thickened but still pourable.

Pour ganache gradually onto centre of cake, smoothing with offset spatula until it runs down sides. (You will have some left over.) Cool cake until ganache sets.

Place pan with remaining ganache on low heat. Stir until pourable. Drizzle zigzag or whirly lines across top using whisk or fork. Or pour ganache into zip-lock bag, snip off one corner and squeeze lines or design onto cake. Refrigerate to set before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

It’s a green, fresh, organic recession!

We’ve all heard the words GREEN, FRESH, ORGANIC and RECESSION used countless times in the last few months….I’ve just decided to put them all together in one sentence to get it out of the way.

With our economy having taken such a downturn as we’ve now come to accept, I would like to do some things differently around here.

As it is, I have a backlog of about 50 entries on restaurants that I’m still working on, but I will also be posting more RECIPES (I think home-cooking has an abundance of benefits vs. eating out) and plan on starting a ‘plant-your-own’ series where I will attempt to grow gardens of herbs/fruits/vegetables.  I think this is something we’ve all already maybe thought about doing or perhaps already started doing!  In any event, this is something I would like to take on and I invite you to hop on the recession bandwagon with me!

~FH

Penelope

Location:

225 King St. W. Toronto

Cost: approx $50 for two

http://www.peneloperestaurant.com/home.html 

I love Greek Food.  Sure, it’s just meat and potatoes…but that is precisely why I love it. There is something very comforting about Greek food.  How can it go wrong?

At Penelope, it doesn’t.

Around the King Street area, dinner options grow sparse the more times you dine out and very quickly the “Il Fornellos” and the “Urbans” of the downtown core give way to our very instinctual and basic needs.  Such as meat and potatoes.  Such was the case when we remembered Penelope, the only full-out Greek restaurant in the heart of the city.  Much like Penelope herself, we exercised patience and loyalty and reserved our hunger pangs (whilst making our way down King street past all the upscale dining venues with their Winterlicious sandwich boards) for the simplest dinner of them all: the chicken souvlaki dinner. 

Once there, we were allowed to be picky selective and were seated at a corner round table (even though there were just the two of us).

Our server and the manager (it seemed) were on hand to take our order and offer us drink choices.  The manager recommended the Greek beer, Keo, which we thoroughly enjoyed and I highly recommend it (I’m more of a Guinness person myself, but Keo was very refreshing.)

And we already know that there would be one chicken souvlaki dinner (with a side of pita bread…just ’cause) and then to mix things up, an item from their dinner specials that day:  swordfish. 

Both mains arrived at our table incredibly quickly.  My (usual) request for chilli flakes and/or hot sauce (which sually ends up being Tabasco, which I don’t really consider hot sauce) was greeted with hearty props from our server who has been working there for 7 years. 

As expected, the chicken, rice and potatoes were glorious.  The side of veggies bordered on frozen-then-over-cooked-and-greasy and I’d have preferred a side of Greek salad (this reminded me of the time The Healthy Greek didn’t have Greek salad !)

The swordfish was surprising good and a huge portion, at that!  This time, the Greek salad was in attendance and I couldn’t complain. 

There were some serious left overs for taking home and an overall feeling of wholesomeness that only Greek food can provide.

It’s nice to know that in a city full of restaurants with big attitudes, big plates and tiny, tottering portions, there are restorative places like Penelope.  It’s true then, for Penelope and for us, patience certainly was a virtue. 

 

 

Le Sélect Bistro

Location:

432 Wellington Street West, Toronto

Cost: Approx $130 for 2

Every once in a while, you come across a really outstanding dining experience. One where there is not a single thing out of place or out of line.

Le Sélect is that happy place.

Within minutes of me running in to check if they had any room for dinner (I know they like to take reservations for lunch and dinner and it looked like the place was already packed with the Friday dinner crowd) and getting the A-Okay, to parking the car, we were being seated in a cosy corner by the window (and the heater).

Our server, Aleah, was attentive, not in the least bit snooty, and catered to our menu-questions with honest insight. None of the “I absolutely love everything on the menu”… she actually didn’t care for some of the items, which was refreshing. Kudos to her.

We started with the antipasto (grilled eggplant, mushroom salad, artichoke, guacamole, and fingerling salad, $11.95) which was so flavourful I wanted to lick the plate!

Then we ordered the seared fillet of Pickerel with a red wine sauce lardons and chanterelles ($28.95) paired with a glass of Rhone wine ($12.25) (they have a gigantic wine list)

And the striped bass fillet “a la plancha”, olives, tomatoes, chickpeas and artichokes ($26.95) paired with a glass of Chateau Pesquie ($10.75).

Both of our mains were absolutely delicious. The bass was slightly more flavourful than the pickerel because of the olives and chickpeas, but both dishes were yummy.

For dessert we got the mousse au chocolat ($8.95), made with French dark chocolate

And because we really just wanted a taste of the lychee sorbet, we got a little helping of it on the side ($6.00).

Both were divine….the lychee sorbet is made fresh and I thought it would look really nice in martini glass, like the lychee martini.

I suspect Le Sélect Bistro is more french bistro than a bistro in France, and ’cause I’ve never been to France, I like it. I also suspect I’m not the only one.