Restaurant Review – The North Restaurant

This is the fanciest dining restaurant in Barrie and, yes, probably the most expensive. Naturally that made it irresistible to try, even in my financial position.  But I justify it in that I hardly ever eat out so, when I do, I can spend more on that dining experience.  In fact, over my stay in Barrie, I ate twice at the North, and I think the differences between the two experiences, as well as what was common to both events, say something about the restaurant.

I ate at the North at the end of last December, and again in mid-April, as I was getting ready to leave Barrie.  On both occasions I opted for the 7-course tasting menu as, in a high-end restaurant with a top-caliber chef, the tasting menu is the best way to see what a chef truly has to offer and to try the most variety off the menu.  As far as I can tell, the North is the only Barrie restaurant with a true tasting menu.  Other places may have something they call a tasting menu, but is usually a “table d’hote”, a fixed price specials menu, that is often lower priced than the a la carte menu.  The price, at $70, may be steep for a restaurant meal for one but is actually quite a reasonable price for a 7-course menu, as long as the food is sufficiently elevated and the portions are of appropriate size.  In Toronto, you would expect to pay quite a bit more for a chef’s tasting menu.  The two tasting menus I tried of course were different, as the menu changes seasonally and a tasting menu changes often on a nightly basis.

The first menu, in late December, could be best characterized by (almost) flawless execution, excellent flavours, but lacking in cohesion, both within each course, and in the flow of courses.  The first course was bits of beef tenderloin with asparagus.  It was somewhat of an odd choice as a first course and, while good, was not especially memorable.  Next came a trio of carpaccios.  I believe the meats involved were kangaroo (?), bison and kobe beef.  The kangaroo, if that is what it was (it has been a while) was the best and very well suited to both the carpaccio preparation and the garnishes, with the kobe unfortunately being the weakest element.  The third course was a trio of shrimp, each with their own sauce.  The only one that sticks out for me today was the one with a coconut milk and lemongrass sauce, probably the best single bite of the entire evening.  All the shrimp were perfectly cooked, but only that one was accompanied with a truly great sauce.  Up to this point, all courses were very small – only a few bites.  Now tasting menu portions should always be small since you have more of them (we’ll talk more about this later), but to have not increased portion size slightly by the third course is a bit problematic.  The fourth course though certainly was a bit larger.  This was at least the size of a full appetizer (if not a bit larger) and was a sea bass rolled around shrimp and lobster puree, served on lobster risotto.  The bass was very nice and the skin was especially tasty.  I’m not sure the lobster was necessary here, as the shrimp overpowered it, but everything was correctly cooked and was very flavourful. 

 The fifth course was the intermezzo, a small palate cleanser, most often a sorbet, that prepares you for the main course.  In this case it was an apricot sorbet, which I am pretty sure was made on premises.  It was an extremely good sorbet, but not sure it was the most appropriate for the purpose.  Having chunks of fruit in a sorbet is great for a sorbet served for dessert and makes the overall product much better, but may not be the best choice for cleansing ones palate.  Finally the main course was a full size main course, which was necessary given the small size of most of the other plates.  This was beef tenderloin with veal sweetbreads.  The beef was cut a bit strangely, which did not make for the most even cooking, but the sweetbreads were good and the sauce was very tasty.  Finally the dessert was actually quite memorable.  This was banana sushi.  Yes, banana sushi.  This was a cold preparation with nori wrapped rice with banana in it.  There was also a thick chocolate sauce smearing the plate which was a good match, but what made the dish was a small sprinkling of sesame seeds, which reinforced the sushi aspect and actually did match with the chocolate and banana (a classic pairing on its own).  

 This was a Sunday night the day before New Year’s Eve, so the chef was off that night and the sous-chef was in charge.  I did get a chance to meet the sous-chef and talk with him for a bit.  I discussed my impressions of the menu and mentioned in particular the apparent lack of a clear progression to the meal – there should be a logical flow from course to course that makes the entire tasting menu a cohesive meal.  Another issue I had with the entire meal was a noticeable overuse of reduced balsamic vinegar.  This intense sweet and sour syrup made by boiling down balsamic vinegar and (usually) adding sugar is meant to be an inexpensive substitute for true aged balsamic, which ages for decades and reduces naturally through evaporation.  Since the taste can liven up many things, and it looks striking when squiggled on a plate, chefs have been known to overuse the stuff.  This had clearly happened here.  It showed up in places it had no business being, like the carpaccio dish, even a few dots on the plate on that shrimp dish.  And in a dish where it was appropriate, like the main course, they used a substantial amount, probably too much.  This was another issue I discussed with the sous-chef.

If I were to have written the review based on this dining experience alone, I’m pretty sure the impression I would have left would be somewhat negative, which is unfair as I actually did like the food very much.  By most standards this is an excellent, sophisticated restaurant with exceptional food.  However, since they offer a full tasting menu, I judge them by considerably higher standards, as they are now placing themselves in direct comparison with top restaurants in Montreal and Toronto.  So on my last evening in Barrie before coming back home, I returned to the North.  This was a Saturday night in April, and both the chef and sous-chef were in the kitchen.  This time the experience was quite different.  These descriptions will be more detailed as this was more recent.  Starting with the first course, right away the portions were larger.  While I did feel the portions last time were slightly small, they may have gone too far in the other direction. 

 The first course was prosciutto-wrapped shrimp with pesto and a napa cabbage slaw, which worked very well, especially considering wrapping seafood in prosciutto can make it difficult to eat, but that was not the case here.  Like my previous visit, very well executed – but this time there was something noticeably lacking from my earlier visit: a logical progression to the meal.  Lighter courses were served before heavier ones.  I do not recall precisely the second course (possibly scallops? – I took pictures throughout this meal.  They have served nicely as a memory aid after all this time but I forgot to take a picture of this one). 

Prosciutto-wrapped shrimp with napa slaw

 The third course was something I feel is almost an essential for a top tasting menu – seared foie gras.  Foie gras is often paired with something sweet, like dried fruit.  The pairing this time was a bit more unusual but still very effective.  It was served on a base of lobster risotto and topped with caramelized onions.  A little excessive to be pairing rich with rich but somehow it worked.  The peas in the risotto were especially helpful providing that necessary sweet element.  Next came the fish course, sea bass served over citrusy lentils, with asparagus.  Once again, the bass was expertly cooked, but the citrus flavours actually made the lentils the star of the dish, playing perfectly off the fish. 

Seared Foie Gras with lobster risotto

Sea Bass with citrusy lentils

 As before, the fifth course was the intermezzo, that same beautifully made apricot sorbet, this time served on a plate drizzled with fruit coulis topped with dusted cocoa powder.  While fruit coulis would not normally be smart for an intermezzo (too sweet) the bitterness of the cocoa powder cancelled that and actually contributed to cleansing the palate.  The one improvement would have been if the earlier courses were a little smaller.  As you can see, this fish course was pretty much a full serving.  The result was that, by the time the main course arrived, I was pretty much full.  This was quite unfortunate as the main was, for me, a real prize.  This was a wagyu beef striploin steak (wagyu is the breed of cattle used to produce kobe beef – the difference is these cattle are raised in North America and do not get quite the same over-the-top treatment as in Japan.  And in keeping with the large portions this was a full main course size.  As one would expect, this steak had a lot of fat in it, but the beauty of this type of beef is that it doesn’t taste like you’re eating fat; it tastes like an explosion of juices and richness.  If I had not been as full, I would have been able to finish it all at this perfect state of doneness.  Still, I was able to take it home and it made quite the decadent breakfast the next day.   

Wagyu striploin - so good!

After taking some time, I was however able to finish dessert, though I didn’t think I would be able to.  This was helped somewhat by the fact the dessert was on the lighter side, mostly mousse and custard based.  There was a mini banana cream pie (they like bananas here!) served in a crispy phyllo cup topped with bruleed banana (very good).  In the middle was their version of tiramisu.  The coffee-infused whipped cream was very nice but overall that did not quite work in its miniature format.  But the biggest problem with this element was the pulled sugar garnish.  Sugar decorations should be delicate and brittle, but this had the texture almost of taffy – it had probably been sitting around in the humid kitchen for some time after being made, reintroducing moisture.    Though somewhat heavier, the best of all was a spiced fudge cake.  Very rich and smooth with the spice provided a much needed lift.

left to right:  fudge cake, tiramisu, banana cream pie

Once again, execution was again very close to perfect and the flavour combinations were well thought out, exciting and bold.  I was also impressed to see the use of the previously ubiquitous balsamic reduction was much more restrained; it was only used on those dishes that could genuinely benefit from its presence.  The same sous-chef was there again that evening but, this being a Saturday night, the chef/owner was there as well, though he was not in the kitchen the whole time.  He spent part of the time entertaining some friends and/or colleagues and part of the time supervising the kitchen staff.  His presence likely meant he had set the tasting menu, whereas it was probably up to the sous-chef last time, and the difference showed in the thoughtfulness of the progression.

Though the food is the centre of the dining experience here, the other aspects should be addressed as well.  When dining alone, I often sit at the bar.  This is what most restaurants prefer as any of the tables can accommodate at least two people and seating a single diner there represents loss of revenue.  I like to do this anyway as it allows for more observation of the service, since ordering stations are often in the area and servers have to go to the bar to get their drink orders.  At the North there is an additional benefit, as the bar is next to the kitchen, which is open on the side adjoining the bar, so I have not just a view into the kitchen but also an unobstructed view to the line, the actual cooking space.  

 The overall ambience is refined and very nice as well.  It used to have a corner lot in a somewhat bad area of town.  They had recently moved (though only to next door) onto the intersecting residential street into what probably used to be a (possibly) historic house.  Their old premises are still standing and I think they use it for storage and it is clear the atmosphere there was less refined than their current surroundings.  Even the move of just a hundred metres or so took them off the main street and thus reducing the perception of a “bad area”.  A refined restaurant must have refined service.  On my first visit service was very friendly but slightly lacking in polish, especially on the part of the bussers (the person who most often brings the plate to your table – if it is not your server it is not a waiter at all).  Yes this was a tasting menu which changes daily and it was a slow night, but the busser could not fully explain the elements on the plate, a must for complicated presentations with unusual combinations.  I even asked what fish was used on the fish course (the primary item on the plate) and she had to go back to the kitchen to ask.  She was probably inexperienced and, since I had no such issues on the second visit, this was either an isolated instance, or an issue that has since been resolved.  The wine list is fairly good with a reasonably wide selection of wines by the glass, both imported and local (by which I mean from Niagara.  There are no vineyards in the Barrie area).

While I have discussed many things that could be improved and found fault with several things, I want to stress that overall I was very pleased with my experience and would recommend this restaurant without hesitation.  It is just that this is a high end restaurant which, for me, comes with some more demanding expectations.  And given that they come close to the quality of a big-city restaurant tasting menu, $70 is exceptional value for money, especially in a menu that features foie gras and wagyu steak.  Also, I shared my criticisms with the kitchen on my first visit and noticed a marked improvement on the return visit, so likely they will continue to improve and already great restaurant over time.

Beer Can Chicken

A long time ago I wrote a post about how to roast chicken.  Click here to find that post.  It was a general post that explained what I termed the best way to roast any form of poultry.  Well, in the summer you don’t really want to use the oven very much.  Fortunately there is an even better way to roast chicken, this time on the barbecue.  Though this is cooked on a barbecue, it has a taste less like the typical BBQ chicken, and more like a rotisserie chicken with some smoke flavour.  This is actually a very easy method and even easier than the roasting method I described before.

Beer can chicken is a chicken cooked slowly on a barbecue standing up perched over a can of beer.  While this sounds like some bizarre hillbilly cooking experiment, this is actually a very sound culinary technique that actually roasts better than in an oven.  The first reason is that this allows the bird to be cooked standing up, so all sides receive the same amount of heat, assuring even cooking.  And the can of beer performs an absolutely critical role; providing a constant source of moisture inside the chicken throughout the cooking process.  So this avoids the ever-present problem of dry breast meat, which I addressed in that earlier post.  And finally, cooking chicken on a barbecue will provide some smoke flavour to the chicken.  Like in my previous roast chicken post, this technique will also work with other birds, however your barbecue will need enough clearance underneath the lid to be able to cook larger birds.

1 medium chicken, about 1.7 kilos

smoked paprika

paprika

granulated garlic

salt

pepper

cayenne

olive oil

1 can dark beer

Set up your barbecue for indirect cooking.  This procedure will vary depending on what type of grill you are using.  When I posted about BBQ brisket I described how this is done for a charcoal grill and suggested that a gas grill might be more troublesome.  For this application, a gas grill will work just as well and the set up would be easier.  Since the cooking time is shorter you shouldn’t need to worry about running out of gas and a gas grill has the added benefit of being easier to control the amount and location of heat.  For a charcoal grill, set up coals on the outsides of the grill and place a drip pan in the centre, underneath where the chickens will sit.  You will most likely not need to add another batch of coals as they should last to some degree for the entire cooking time needed.  But you should still keep an eye on things because conditions can always vary when using charcoal.  On a gas grill, put a drip pan under where the chicken will go, and do not light that section of the grill.  Usually you will only need to turn on one section of the grill to generate sufficient heat (though this may vary depending on your specific grill).  On a gas grill, remember that there are often small racks above the main cooking surface - these will need to be removed.

Combine the spices to make the rub.  Again, I am not really giving you any proportions, but paprika should make up a large component.  Lightly coat the chicken with olive oil, then coat with most of the rub, leaving about a teaspoon aside.  Massage the rub into the chicken on all sides and some inside the cavity.  Then take the dark beer (in most cases, darker beers are better for cooking as they have a lot more flavour to impart) and empty half the can (what you do with that half is up to you!)  Then add the reserved teaspoon of the rub to the half-full beer can.   It will foam up a bit but that’s OK, it will subside.  Then, when the coals are ready, add a foil-wrapped packet of soaked wood chips (on a charcoal grill, split the wood chips into two packets and add one to each side) and prepare the grill for cooking.  Then insert the beer can into the cavity of the bird and stand it up on the grill over the drip pan.  You will need to push the legs forward so the two legs and the base of the can form a tripod that will allow the chicken to remain upright.  Then close the lid and leave it alone for about 1hour and 15 minutes.  For a chicken of the size called for, this should be enough time to cook the bird through.  Carefully remove the chicken to a platter, still standing up, tent with foil and all the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes.  Then, using tongs, remove the can.  The liquid that remains in the can makes a nice gravy for this dish, though it may be a little thin for some tastes.  Carve the chicken (check my roast chicken post for instructions) and serve with a side dish of your choice and the gravy.

Local Food Fest

Guelph is a city that takes environmental stewardship seriously.  Guelph often takes the lead in green innovations to waste management and champions local food producers.  I think part of this is because the University of Guelph is home to an agricultural college, a veterinary college, and a food science department.  There are many farm and garden co-ops in Guelph and nearby and several festivals that celebrate local food.  Back on June 24, I attended the Local Food Fest, held on the grounds of the Ignatius Jesuit Retreat.  This is quite an interesting institution right on the north edge of Guelph that does a wide variety of things.  First it is a religious retreat, where people can get away and take part in spiritual workshops and other activities.  The Ignatius centre is also a farm that grows a wide array of crops, mostly on a small scale.  It is also a Community Shared Agriculture co-operative, where people can buy shares in the farm and receive a regular basket of the various foods grown there.  They also have many plots devoted to community gardens, where local residents can cultivate a small garden plot with whatever they wish.  There are also various community initiatives that the centre undertakes, mostly involving the environment and community service.

Part of the Ignatius property.  The garden plots are community garden plots (click to enlarge)

One thing that impresses me about the Ignatius centre is that, while they obviously have a particular set of religious beliefs and this is meant to be a religious and spiritual centre, they do not seek to impose their beliefs on anyone, even those who attend the spiritual retreats.  They claim to welcome people of all religions and beliefs and from what little I was able to see, they live up to that.  The most obvious values and purposes they seem to espouse are not so much their religious principles, but more the concepts of environmental stewardship and responsible, sustainable agriculture.  Everything they do reflects on being environmentally aware.  So it is a natural that this is the location for the Local Food Fest.

While this was not a particularly huge event, there were many different things going on.  One aspect was like a one-day farmer’s market, with local food purveyors selling their product. As this was late June in southwestern Ontario, there were strawberries, some lettuce, radishes, green onions and only a few other things that were fresh from the ground.  Also many restaurants set up booths, and provided various good lunch and snack options.  There were other stalls selling bread, honey, preserves and other stuff.  There was even a local kitchenware store represented.

The tents for the market stalls

There were also workshops where people could learn how to start up various gardening-related projects.  I sat in on part of a workshop about growing your own food on a small plot, designed for urban dwellers with only a small backyard to use.  Other workshops included raising backyard chickens, hobbyist beekeeping, building and maintaining organic soils, and other things.  There were also several cooking demos throughout the day.  Two that I watched were making kimchi and making sourdough, in which I was particularly interested.  This past winter I have started experimenting with making sourdough bread, and was definitely interested in picking up some more pointers.  The presenter was from a local bakery I like very much and sells at the local farmer’s market and he gave some interesting advice and gave some useful tips on maintaining a sourdough starter and how certain details in the breadmaking process affect the finished product.  It gave me some valuable insight and some strategies for the next time I do baking.

The two white tents were for the musical acts and the cooking demos

There were also tours of Ignatius farm available.  There were wagon tours and you could also walk their network of trails on your own.  There was also information about the programs run by the Ignatius centre.  Finally, there were also several live musical acts and play areas for the kids.

One aspect I like about this, and about any event that is supposed to be for the public good, there was no set admission fee.  Like foodstock last year, this was a pay-what-you-can event, with the suggested donation set at $2, which I think was sensible given what was offered.  The wagon tours carried an additional suggested donation of $2 and, of course, the farm and restaurant booths set their own prices for their products.  You could still get to this event, located on the edge of the city, even if you did not have a car.  The local airport limousine service partnered with the event and offered a free shuttle from downtown and a community centre.  I was thinking of using this myself but, since the weather was unsettled and I thought I might want to leave at a different time than the shuttle was scheduled, I did take the car and found there was plenty of parking.

I can certainly see why this centre is a spiritual and meditative retreat.  It is just on the very edge of the city so, even though it is quite easy to get to and close to many people’s homes, it is such a peaceful area on a large expanse of land.  There are hiking trails through their large property, including one through a wetland and another past ruins of historical significance.  Seeing the property for the first time gave me a great deal of perspective on a local furor over a development issue several years ago.  I might write a post about this, but several years ago, Wal-Mart decided they wanted to open a store near here and the way everything went down is one of the reasons I refuse in all circumstances to shop at Wal-Mart.

Anyway, it was quite the enjoyable day and a celebration of Guelph’s agriculture and environmental awareness.

My Passover Story

While I don’t necessarily observe all the Jewish holidays, Passover (or Pesach) is one that is always important to me and I try to always celebrate it with my family (yes I realize that Passover ended over a week ago, but now is when my post was finished, so here it is).  Even when I was living away from home I would usually try to get home for at least the Passover Seder, which is on the first night (well technically there are two but we’ll get back to that).  We are not an especially traditional family and, though we have altered some of the ritual practices to find a tradition that works for us, we do keep more of the traditions here than at other times.

Passover celebrates the freedom of the ancient Israelites (the forerunners to present day Jews) from slavery in Egypt.  It also serves as a holiday to welcome the arrival of spring and, in ancient times, even served as the start of the Jewish Year (though now the accepted New Year is Rosh Hashanah which occurs in the fall).  While the exact timing will always vary, Passover is often close in time to Easter, and this is no coincidence.  It is generally accepted by biblical scholars that the “last supper” of Jesus and his disciples was actually the Passover Seder.

The Passover Seder itself is a ceremonial meal replete with symbols representing the story of Passover and the purpose of its existence is to tell the story of Passover to the next generation.  Most often, we read from the Haggadah, a book that sets out the specific order in which things are done and which prayers are said at what time.  Now my dad is definitely not into prayers so, although we used a traditional text for some time in my early years, we switched to something more progressive many years ago.  From about the age of 10 until my Bar Mitzvah I received my Jewish education with a Toronto-based organization that billed itself a Secular Jewish Association.  What this essentially meant, is that while they kept a Jewish identity and some traditions, there was pretty much no discussion of God and almost no purely religious aspect.  It was with this group that I had my Bar Mitzvah which would really be more accurately described as a school graduation ceremony. First it was a group event.   No Torah readings, no prayers but plenty about what we have learned about Judaism and being Jewish.  I must say that I really needed that school at that point in my life, as I really didn’t understand what it meant to be Jewish; all I really comprehended was that I was not Christian like everyone else at school (hmm, knowing I’m different but not knowing how - it seems this pattern keeps coming up through my life!!)  But this experience taught me to have pride in my background and allowed me to define myself not by what I’m not, but by what I am (again, great practice for coming out - it just took me a really long time to see it).

So where were we?  Oh, that’s right, Passover.  Before I got off on that tangent, I was going to explain that when we joined that organization, they had produced their own Haggadah and the content seemed to reflect our values very well and that is the version we use to this day.  The point I’m trying to make by telling you this is that sometimes we can get bogged down by the old traditions that we do just because we are supposed to do them and this can obscure the intended objective of that tradition.  I have a guess that this is one reason I am meeting so many people who still claim to have a spiritual side but have pretty much abandoned established religion.  I think that learning about Jewish traditions and history has taught me that letting go of that identity has imperiled the survival of the Jewish people so, even if I do not accept some tenets of the faith or some of the ritual practices, I am and will always be Jewish.  I might suggest that an alternative to just declaring oneself non-religious might be to take a closer look at your faith and do some cherry-picking; making your own traditions by keeping what works and either eliminating what doesn’t or changing it so that it does.  In fact, a family member shared something recently from a rabbi that advocates doing exactly that, albeit with a starting viewpoint quite a bit different than my own.  I will provide the link here though you should be warned that those of you who do not know much about Judaism and all the traditions associated with Passover will likely be lost.  There are even some things in there that I don’t understand.  But the basic point he is making is that we should be examining the Seder traditions and, for it to be meaningful, we cannot get stuck in an endlessly repeating pattern but instead we should be fulfilling the goal of retelling the story of the Exodus from Egypt by making sure we do not turn it into a bore or a meaningless rite, but make it a time for learning and truly examining the lessons of not just this holiday, but all our religious practices.  To read the article click here

It seems this post just does NOT want to be about the Seder itself.  Oh, well I bet this is more interesting anyway.  Still, I wanted to share a bit about the Seder itself because Passover is about telling the story and explaining the meaning of everything that is done.  Very briefly, it is the story of the Book of Exodus: the Israelites were enslaved by Egypt in the days of the Pharaoh and it came to be that Pharaoh wanted to keep this slave population from growing.  Then Moses received a command from God to lead his people and demand their freedom from Pharaoh (this part is not really mentioned in our Haggadah, but reference is only made to the people being oppressed and demanding release).  The story goes that, when Pharaoh refused, 10 plagues beset the Egyptians and Pharaoh relented.  All the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry.  But then Pharaoh reconsidered and pursued the escaping Hebrews to the Sea of Reeds (or possibly the Red Sea - there is a certain vagary in the translation and in reconciling with a physical location).  Then, miraculously, the waters parted allowing the Israelites to cross then, while the Egyptians were crossing, the waters came back drowning the pursuers. 

Because they departed in a hurry, the story is that they had no time to wait for their bread to rise before baking it to have food for the journey, which is why we do not eat any leavened products (especially bread) throughout Passover, eating matzah instead.  There is also no baking or cooking with flour or most other grains, and no grain-based alcohol.  For some sections of the Jewish community, rice and legumes are also proscribed.  Despite these difficulties I actually enjoy baking on Passover, particularly because of those very interesting challenges.  But, yes you can bake cake on Passover.  Since no leavening agents are permitted, sponge cake is the method of choice, as the only leavening present in such a cake is beaten egg white.  As flour cannot be used, the substitute is a blend of matzah cake meal (which is matzah ground to meal, then ground further and sifted to make a very fine powder) and potato starch.  Ground nuts are also very commonly used, most often walnuts or almonds.

The matzah is one of three elements of the Seder that are considered especially important to be explained, the others being the pesach and the maror.  Pesach, which is also one of the names of the holiday, refers to the lamb that was sacrificed on the eve of the final plague on the Egyptians.  The Angel of Death was to come and kill all the first born sons of Egypt and the Israelites would sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on the doors of their homes as a sign for the plague to pass over their homes (hence the other name).  In the days of the Great Temple in Jerusalem, animal offerings were made at the temple, and a lamb was offered on Passover.   Finally the maror is bitter herbs, the eating of something bitter at the Seder.  The obvious symbolism is to remember that the lives of the slaves were bitter so we must remember that by tasting the bitterness ourselves.  Different families use different items to represent bitterness, but the most common these days is probably horseradish.  Now the interesting thing is that I don’t consider horseradish to be particularly bitter.  It certainly is very pungent and sharp and it can be painful to eat but the bitterness is not at the forefront.  However, what my family has done (this does go back to previous generations) is to take a whole root and soak it in water at room temperature for at least a couple weeks before Passover, until it begins to sprout.  The germination and growing of sprouts does in fact make the horseradish more distinctly bitter and maybe a little stronger too.  Other possibilities for maror include endive, radicchio or a similar bitter lettuce.  A long time ago, I heard at some point some Jewish families would use romaine as their bitter herb.  Now who really considers romaine lettuce bitter?  I think this was part of a trend to not have anything eaten at the Seder to be the slightest bit unpleasant to eat, particularly for the kids.  But the most important part of Passover is teaching the kids and I think it is a worthwhile lesson that the lives of the Hebrew slaves were bitter and quite unpleasant.  The maror should not be a joy to eat - it is supposed to be reminiscent of the bitterness of slavery.

There are other symbols on the Seder plate too.  Haroset is a mildly sweet paste made of apples, nuts, wine and a bit of sugar and cinnamon (there are other variations too) that represents the mortar used by the Israelites to build monuments for Pharaoh.  It is eaten together with matzah and maror.  There is the z’roah, a roasted shank bone, ideally of lamb, that represents the pesach sacrifice.  Baytzah, an egg, represents new life and rebirth of springtime.  Karpas is a green herb that represents springtime and the new growth.  The Karpas is dipped in salt water when eaten, the water representing tears cried by the slaves.

The Seder Plate - Clockwise from top:  Karpas, Baytzah, Maror, Z'roah, Haroset

There are so many more details regarding the Seder, from the four cups of wine, to the cup for the prophet Elijah, to the afikoman, to the story of the four sons and so much more, some of which varies by family or regional origin.  But for our family, we complete the Seder by following along in the Haggadah, which includes various stories, quotations and songs, some drawing parallels to modern day issues as well.  More traditional Haggadot (that is the plural of Haggadah) would have more of a focus on prayers.  Then we eat boiled eggs also with the salt water.  Next comes chicken soup.  This is quite commonly served with matzah balls, but mostly we just have the soup with crumbled bits of matzah.  Then comes the main course.  Some of the most frequent meals we have are either roast chicken or a pot roast brisket (of course I have recipes now on this blog for either one)


As you can see, I could go on and on for pages and pages about what Passover and the Seder are about and what lessons can be learned.  But since this is getting quite long, and I think I mentioned the most important things, I will simply finish by saying that perhaps the ultimate lesson is to not take our freedom for granted but rather to celebrate our freedom and to work towards a day when everyone can be free.

Oh, wait a minute!  It seems I said I’d come back to the part about there being two Seders.  Yes, tradition does dictate that a Seder be held on each of the first two nights of Pesach.  Now this makes sense if you have a large extended family living reasonably close by so one Seder would be at one house and the second at another house, quite likely with different guests (this is definitely a holiday where hospitality and inviting guests is encouraged).  That does not really apply to our family and doing the same Seder with only the three of us on consecutive days really makes no sense.  So we only have the one.

Beef Paprikash

5 lbs beef bottom blade (or other stewing meat)
3 onions, diced
1 lb parsnips, peeled and cut large on the bias
3-4 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
olive oil
½ head garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup good quality hungarian paprika
½ Tbsp cumin
1 Tsp cayenne
6 thyme sprigs
1 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup red wine
2 cups tomato sauce or canned tomatoes
1 ½ cups sour cream

This is another braised meat dish so it follows the general theme of my post about How To Make a Stew. But this meal is a classic in my family so I feel it deserves its own post. There are also a few modifications of the basic technique. Paprikash is a traditional Hungarian dish typically made with veal, although beef chicken or pork are often used as well. As this dish is named after the primary spice, it is important to use good quality paprika. This is not a place for smoked paprika and I would generally advise against using Spanish paprika, as it is generally of inferior quality to Hungarian. Hungarian paprika is sold in two variations, hot and sweet. The “hot” in hot paprika shouldn’t normally refer to the heat associated with chili burn, but more to the pungency. Hot Hungarian paprika is the ideal form of paprika to use for this dish. Sweet paprika will work as well, though you may want to increase slightly the quantity of cumin and (maybe) the cayenne to compensate for the relative delicacy of the sweet paprika. Of course this will all depend on the actual quality of the product. Sometimes the hot paprika can be quite spicy, though it is not supposed to be. In this case reduce (or even eliminate) the cayenne so it doesn’t get too spicy.

First brown the slices of parsnip and set aside, then brown the meat and set it aside, as described in my stew post.




Then add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until soft, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then add the tomato paste and paprika and cook, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes to open up the aromas of the paprika. Do not let it burn. Then add more oil and stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for about a minute. Then add the wine, then the tomatoes and the salt, pepper and other herbs and spices. Add the meat and parsnips back to the pot, bring to a boil and cook in a 275 degree oven for about 3 hours or until the meat is very tender.

Before adding the sour cream

After the sour cream

When the stew is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Make sure it is no longer boiling. Then stir in the sour cream, one or two dollops at a time. At this point, if you bring the paprikash back to a boil, the sauce will separate and appear curdled. This won’t affect the taste but when done properly you will get a very smooth texture that boiling will undo. However, when frozen and reheated, the damage is actually not as bad as one might think, as the sour cream stays more or less emulsified. We serve this over egg noodles or another broad pasta, such as pappardelle. Other pasta will work as well, or any other starch you would normally serve with a stew.

BBQ Brisket

While a post roast is rather flexible in that either fatty or lean brisket will work quite well, a fattier piece of brisket will work much better on the BBQ. If you can find it, the ultimate cut of meat for this is Wagyu brisket. Wagyu is a hybrid of the breed used in Japan for the famous Kobe Beef. This meat has far more marbling than other beef and that quality will serve well for the dry heat of the barbeque. Failing that, look for a fatty piece of ordinary brisket.

The cooking process and cooking time will depend somewhat on what equipment you have for barbeque. If you have a true southern style pit smoker, well... I wish I were you!! If you have such an elaborate piece of equipment, I assume you would know a little something about barbeque, so simply put on a good rub, like the one below, and cook it on a nice slow heat for many hours (the time will depend on the size of your brisket but at least 4-6 hours - I am not so familiar with the time frames for this). If you have another type of barbeque, there is still a way to get a result very close to true barbeque. The problem is that most household BBQ’s are designed for hot and fast cooking, which is exactly the opposite of what you want for brisket. A charcoal grill will work better for this purpose than gas, especially because running a gas grill for 2-3 hours puts you at high risk of running out of propane part-way through. But the basic idea is that the coals will burning at the sides of the grill with the meat in the middle, so it is not directly over the heat. It will be subjected to a somewhat higher temperature than is ideal, but I find it works extremely well, especially if there is a lot of fat.

Dry Rub
1 Tbsp Herbes de Provence or other blend of dried herbs
2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp coriander
2 ancho chiles, seeded and ground
1-2 pasilla chiles, seeded and ground
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp coarse sea salt
2 tsp demerara sugar
1 Tbsp smoked paprika

Mop
½ cup sherry vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup dark beer
1 Tbsp dry rub
1-2 tsp soy sauce
black pepper

Barbeque Sauce

½ cup steak sauce (from July28, 2010 post)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp dry rub

Again, all the amounts and proportions for the dry rub are very approximate, I do all this by eye and taste, and it will also depend on the size of your brisket. You will need enough rub to coat the brisket, with two tablespoons left over to add into the mop and the barbeque sauce.

Combine all dry rub ingredients. Rub a small amount of olive oil on the brisket then thoroughly coat the brisket with the rub, massaging the spices into the meat. Refrigerate at least overnight, 24-48 hours would be even better.





When ready to cook, set up the barbeque. Pile the charcoal on either side of the grill and light. Make sure there is plenty of excess coals for later as they will die out before the brisket is done. Now our barbeque is set up with hinges at each side of the grate so they can be lifted up to add more coals without removing the entire grate. There are also dividers that can keep coals on the sides so they do not fall into the centre of the grill. You will still be able to do the recipe without these aids, it will simply be a little less convenient.

When the coals are ready, place a foil drip pan in the centre of the barbeque, then put on the grate and place the brisket over the drip pan and put the cover on. A 4-lb piece will likely take at least 3 hours, and each batch of coals will last about 1 hour. If you have a chimney starter you can light the coals before adding them to the barbeque, but this is not necessary as long as the coals are not fully burned out. Just add the fresh charcoal to the still glowing coals and the new ones will catch.

Make both the mop and the barbeque sauce. Simply combine all the ingredients for both the mop and the sauce.

After the first hour of cooking, begin using the mop. This mop is almost more of a vinaigrette and will add back much needed moisture, as well as cool down the cooking brisket, so it doesn’t burn. Baste the brisket with the mop every half hour after the first hour of cooking. Cook until the brisket feels very soft and yielding. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes then slice against the grain and serve with barbeque sauce ON THE SIDE ONLY and coleslaw. This reminds me that in the previous post I failed to mention that brisket should always be sliced against the grain, including for the pot roast.

In Praise Of Brisket

Brisket is one of my favourite cuts of beef. It may not be the most familiar to many and even to those who know it, it can seem intimidating. There are a few reasons for this. First it can be a very tough cut and requires a very long cooking time to be edible. Also the uneven fat marbling throughout a single piece can be very difficult to manage, being either impossibly fatty or bone dry. And finally, unlike other stewing meat, brisket is usually sold in larger single pieces. But it has so many different uses and such an amazing flavour and texture, it is actually one of the most versatile, if you know how to use it.

Probably the easiest and most common use of brisket is in a pot roast. Pot roasting is a cooking technique similar to stewing and braising with only a few key differences. In a stew, the meat is cut into pieces and cooked in liquid for a few hours until tender, at which point it is ready. With a pot roast, a single large piece of meat is cooked in a similar liquid for a few hours until tender, but then there is an additional step. At this point, the meat is removed from the sauce, cut into thick slices, and returned to the pot and cooked for an additional period of time. Later in this post there will be a recipe. Pot roast is very much a European peasant dish. The poor people would only get tough cuts of meat to use as roasts, so the only way to make such roasts tender is to braise them. Brisket is a cut very well suited to pot roasting as the fat is distributed unevenly, which means the lean pieces could be dry inside. The slicing and additional cooking once braised will allow the meat to moisten after it has tenderized. Brisket is very prominent in Jewish cooking for two reasons. First, Eastern European Jews were definitely peasants so all they had were cheap cuts of meat. Also Jewish dietary laws only allowed the use of cuts of beef from the front half of the cow. Brisket is a large cut (so it could feed a lot of people) from the front half of the cow (it is actually at the very front of the stomach just behind the front shoulders) that, because it is tough and so difficult to cook, was not very expensive. Therefore brisket became a Jewish specialty.

Brisket Pot Roast

Brisket is also found in Texas barbeque. While most Southern barbeque is centred on pork (ribs, shoulder, whole hog), in Texas beef is and always will be king. While I greatly enjoy beef ribs, the favoured cut for Texas barbeque has got to be brisket. Here, brisket’s greatest advantages are the large fat cap and the thick veins of fat found within the meat. This allows the meat to baste itself as it is cooked on low, dry heat for hours on end. The standard method is to apply a dry rub to an entire brisket and put it in a pit-style smoker for many hours. For most people, this is not practical to make at home, but a little creativity can get you a reasonable result at home.

Dry-rubbed brisket ready for the barbeque

For another great use of brisket we return to Jewish cuisine. Jewish delis in Montreal have a marvellous creation that is Montreal-style Smoked Meat. Other deli staples featuring brisket include corned beef and pastrami, but smoked meat is the best of the best (to the New Yorkers who claim otherwise, as is the case with bagels I merely suggest you come to Montreal and have the real thing). To make smoked meat, briskets are cured with various spices and curing salt for several days then smoked, and finally cooked by steaming. Many of the key elements of the procedure use industrial equipment and others are kept secret, so I don’t really know how one would make this at home. Even worse, you really cannot find proper smoked meat outside of Montreal, what is available elsewhere is a poor imitation. The best way to experience it is take a trip to Montreal and eat at Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. You can also buy a full piece of fully cooked smoked meat in a vacuum-sealed bag that can be reheated and sliced at home by placing it on a rack in a roasting pan with water at the bottom and reheat covered in the oven. Maybe in a future post I will post an old review of Schwartz’s I started but never finished.

The Smoked Meat Plate at Schwartz's

Brisket Pot Roast

1 piece of brisket - try to find a piece that is at least 4 lbs
olive oil
3 onions, cut in large chunks
5 carrots
2 ribs celery
½ head of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp flour
1 can tinned tomatoes or equal amount of homemade tomato sauce
1 Tbsp beef stock concentrate or 2 cups beef or veal stock
½ bottle red wine
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp cayenne
salt & pepper

Most of this recipe follows the procedure for making a stew I posted back on December 13, 2010. In short, first season the brisket on all sides with salt and pepper then heat the widest pan you can find with some oil and sear the entire piece on all sides, then set the meat aside. Saute the vegetables and the tomato paste, add more oil and flour and, after cooking a minute or two, add the liquids and boil to reduce slightly, then add the seasonings. Put the meat and sauce together in an ovenproof pot and put in a 275 degree oven for about 4 hours, or until fairly tender. Then take the brisket out, slice it into ½ inch thick slices and return the meat to the pot, making sure to submerge them in sauce. Return to the oven and cook for 30 minutes more then serve with potatoes or something else that will absorb liquid.

slice the brisket when it is pretty much fully tender

This post will be continued in a day or two with a recipe for barbeque brisket that can be made at home with reasonably common household equipment.

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Before I finish this post, I need to make note of a sad passing within the blogging community. For those of you familiar with Amar's World may know about CJ, a fellow blogger who gave great advice and assistance to Amar and created Amar's Brotherhood, of which I am proud to consider myself a member. Well, CJ passed away on Tuesday from a brain tumour. CJ was a man of great humour with a big heart and I got the chance to chat with him on occasion in various places over the last couple years. We will all miss him.

Restaurant Review - Smoke's Poutinerie

A little while ago I wrote a partial review of this establishment and now I am ready to give a full review. This is also the first review I am posting of a Guelph restaurant, mainly because I do not eat at many restaurants here. It will also be something of an analysis of poutine - what it is and what makes a good one.

Most of the reviews I have posted so far are for upscale or mid-range eateries; fast food is not something I would generally consider worthy of review. And not only would this sort of food be considered fast food, but this is also a chain restaurant, with several locations in Toronto and has outlets in several other cities in Ontario and 3 other provinces. But to me, Smoke’s is different, as they specialize in one food item - poutine - and they use quality fresh ingredients.


Smoke’s Poutinerie Guelph is located in the heart of downtown on Wyndham street. The area is the closest Guelph has to a sketchy inner-city area (the storefront on the right is a shelter and employment centre). But more important for this establishment it is only a few doors down from MacDonell street, which has most of the city’s bars and clubs. As poutine is considered ideal late night food for those who are drunk and/or stoned, Smoke’s is perfectly positioned to make a fortune, especially since they stay open until 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. I had already told you how, when I was there at 2:30am during Nuit Blanche, there were huge lines filling the restaurant and it was a madhouse inside. I went back recently at a much saner time and found no lineup at all but there were several customers there even at 3pm, not a typical time for people to be eating something as substantial as poutine. While on my previous visit, I stuck to the basic, traditional poutine, this time I chose from their extensive list of more elaborate topped offerings. I ordered the double pork, which uses a green peppercorn sauce and is topped with chipotle pulled pork and double-smoked bacon. These meats are also part of several other possible combinations, along with ground beef, shaved roast beef, sausage, grilled chicken, chili and even Montreal Smoked Meat. There was also a cheese sauce used on some of the dishes.

I’m not sure that there really is a perfect poutine. I say this because it was originally intended to be a sloppy, utilitarian food, and also there are inherent contradictions within the structure of the dish that seem to deter excellence. Obviously the ultimate sign of quality in a deep fried item such as fries is to be golden and crispy on the outside and properly cooked on the inside. Now the fastest way to turn fried food into a soggy mess is to smother it with a sauce or anything else wet. So in principle, gravy on fries should be a bad idea. While some restauranteurs have attempted to elevate the poutine through the use of high end ingredients such as foie gras (I’m looking at you Martin Picard!), this is a food of humble origins - a workingman’s food - so being too fancy and meticulous seems at odds with what the poutine is supposed to be. The paragon of poutine excellence is supposedly found at Montreal fast food joints and places you could only call dives. I’m guessing they don’t use fresh ingredients or make their sauce from scratch. So, can poutine fit in with attention to quality?

Let’s get back to Smoke’s. I found mostly positives with some negatives in both poutines I tried, and what I found seems to reveal something about what a poutine is, should be, and can be. First the traditional poutine was quite easy to judge as there are only three elements: fries, gravy and cheese curds. The fries were absolute perfection. Soft and tender inside, and the very first fries I could taste before the gravy soaked in were golden and crispy. It is abundantly clear they double fry using fresh-cut, not frozen, potatoes. The cheese curds were quite tasty and at just the right temperature, somewhere between melted and still intact and squeaking. The gravy was not quite what I was used to and perhaps a little too herbed and peppery, but this gave me the idea that the sauce was maybe better suited to the more elaborate choices.

The double pork poutine was quite interesting. With this version, all the meat is topping the poutine, so you don’t get any crispy fries as they are all underneath. But the advantage is the flavour of the meat soaks into the fries and creates a more balanced flavour. The pulled pork was delicious. By itself it would maybe be a little too sweet, but mixed into the poutine and combined with the double-smoked bacon, it worked perfectly. Here the gravy became a peppercorn gravy. It seemed to be the same gravy as on the traditional with green peppercorns added. But where the gravy didn’t seem to fit so well with the standard poutine, it was perfectly matched for this meat-filled version. Which was just as I thought; their recipes are geared toward the more elaborate, topped poutines. Some of the other options on the menu scared me a bit, such as the smoked meat poutine which had Montreal smoked meat, pickle and yellow mustard and nacho poutines with cheese sauce, others with chilli and so on. But this seems to be their focus, so I believe that those should be good too.

The double pork poutine

I think what I can conclude from this is that poutine is not really an example of fine cuisine, but more a greasy and comfortable mess of food that will soak up the excess alcohol (or the after affects thereof) from a night of excess. At its best poutine would not be too fancy but we can see it is certainly possible to use well sourced and fresh, local ingredients to make the poutine quite close to real food. It can be simple or baroque. In general, I tend to prefer the simple, but Smoke’s has designed their menu to highlight the more complex offerings, so there I do prefer the more elaborate choices.

Regular poutines range from about 6 to 10 dollars, with large (trust me, nobody needs to eat a large poutine) a couple dollars more. They have not only ordinary soft drinks, but some natural, locally bottled beverages as well. This is also a chain restaurant with several locations in Toronto and across Ontario and some other provinces. And I have found out that this winter they will open a location in the ultimate poutine battleground - downtown Montreal right in the middle of the city’s biggest bar scene. Overall, a fast food restaurant with a quality level quite a bit higher than usual for fast food.

A Day At Foodstock

I’m sure you are eager for news of how Foodstock turned out (at least some of you are), so here is my report and review of the event.

We planned to arrive around about a half hour after the official opening time of 11am, so we left Guelph at 10am, planning for about a 90 minute drive though the countryside. As it turned out we got within a couple miles of the farm in only an hour and 10 minutes - then came the first clue as to how popular this event was to be. All of a sudden, we hit total gridlock. When we eventually got to 20th sideroad and made the left turn I was able to really see how far back the line of cars continued down county rd 124. The volunteers did their best to let people know where the parking was and guided people in fairly well but, due to them lineups, it took about 50 minutes to get to the field being used as the main parking lot - a distance of maybe a few miles, if that. Seeing all the cars already parked there, in another full parking lot, and along the sides of a few sideroads as well as all the cars still on the road behind us, it was clear that many thousands of people were attending. Add that to the several buses that were bringing people from Toronto, Guelph, Collingwood and other places and this makes for massive attendance. I was wondering how many people would show up, as the forecast had been calling for rain most of the week and that day’s forecast was calling for mix of sun and cloud with a chance of rain. Driving up, it was raining in Guelph but closer to the event the weather was beautiful. Later in the day, the weather was more mixed, with intermittent showers, and a cold wind by mid-afternoon. The great thing, though is it didn’t seem to bother too many of the attendees. They came prepared and committed; perfectly willing to accept a little discomfort for a great experience.




There were close to 100 chefs at the event, from restaurants in Toronto, Collingwood, Niagara, the local area and many other places in Ontario and two from outside the province. Each booth was spread along a network of paths leading through a forested area and around the outside of that area. The paths were quite muddy, but people were warned to bring boots.  At each booth, the chefs served up tasting portions of a dish prepared especially for the event. There were rather long lineups at most, if not all, of the stations, which meant a good deal of time was spent waiting in line. Also there was no place to sit, but these two things kind of worked together; you would get one bit of food and you would eat that while you waited in the next line. I did not even get to half of the booths, especially since by the afternoon many were starting to run out of food. Still I must have had at least 20-25 different tastes, possibly more.




All the food was of high quality and as there were so many different things I can not even remember all of them. Many offerings featured potatoes, as this is a potato farm. Also, given the weather and number of people to feed, it was not at all surprising that there were a great many soups and stews on offer. An early standout was a Jerusalem artichoke soup with brown butter. They heated the soup on a campfire and suspended the pot rather than placing it on a grate.



Another standout establishment was Café Belong, a new restaurant in Toronto owned by celebrity chef Brad Long who has made multiple appearances on Food Network. Long was there himself, shucking and serving oysters. They also featured a vegetarian stew that was quite tasty and enhanced to spectacular effect by a chutney (don't remember what it was though). And the freshly shucked Malpeque oysters were among the best oysters I have ever had - juicy and very pleasantly briny. My mom has never really liked oysters but tried one and loved it - much to her surprise.

Later came two very good fish dishes: a smoked whitefish mousse with local potato chips (not sure if they were made commercially or in-house but they were phenomenal), then arctic char hot-smoked over a bed of hay and served on a thin slice of daikon with some sliced onion.




There was a very good apple and pumpkin cake that really got some nice juiciness from the apple.  Then was what I think was the best bite of the day - Le Select Bistro offered mustard-braised rabbit on a white corn polenta with dandelion greens, topped with julienned apple and pea shoots.  This was one of the more elaborate and composed dishes, yet still warm and comforting with a stunning  flavour.

Caplansky’s food truck, the only food truck operating in the Toronto area (though they are still not allowed to operate downtown) was at Foodstock as well, and offered smoked turkey on a beet-flavoured goat cheese. Maybe not one of the best items but still very good.

By this time we were in the area closer to the main stage where the musical performances would take place and the lines were even longer. There were some very good apple crullers dusted with maple sugar and served with an apple caramel. Then we entered what we thought was the line for the next booth but it was in fact a line that continued past several booths in a steady flow. First was pulled pork on an apple slice. Then was the George Brown college chef school which had several offerings: a squash soup with candied pecans, an excellent antipasto on fresh bread, and apricots preserved in an icewine syrup. Then was celebrated chef Jamie Kennedy’s booth. He was serving french fries.   No kidding. Of course he used potatoes from farms in the township and they were absolutely perfect.  It was raining when we were served, but the fries stayed crispy and they had some nice herb seasoning. They came with a choice of two mayonnaise-based dipping sauces, a chilli mayo or a cider vinegar mayo which was very tasty. There was also a good smoked pork sausage with an apple compote. Then finally came Michael Statdlander's booth, occupying the ultimate prime location right next to the main stage. That was only appropriate as he was the organizer of this entire group of chefs. He was serving a potato, pumpkin and cabbage soup with smoked bacon, which he ladled out of a giant pumpkin.  One booth I regret not stopping at was one that had bison prosciutto which the chefs were carving as they went.

Chef Stadtlander with his "No" Pumpkin

Yes, that is a leg of bison, cured like a prosciutto

We left a little after 3:30. The wind had picked up, it was getting a bit cold, and most of the food had run out.  There were many big name musical performances yet to come on the main stage, but that wasn't really the reason I was there. But for those that stayed on, the final hour and a half of the event featured performances from the Barenaked Ladies, Jim Cuddy and Sarah Harmer, among others. 

It was very hard to gauge exactly how many people showed up at Foodstock but the numbers were clearly massive. Based on a quick view of how many cars were parked in the field, it seemed quite likely there were at least 5,000 to 10,000 attendees, and of course the buses likely brought many more. Some of the preliminary estimates are suggesting there were as many as 28,000 -30,000 people on this one farm on that one day. That amounts to half the population of the entire county and was most likely the most attended event ever held in Dufferin County. Up to 30,000 people were willing to drive a good way to visit this beautiful bit of farmland and make a statement that this land must be kept as a potato farm, and a mega quarry is a very bad use of this land. There are also some  suggestions that the organizers may do this again next year. Now that an environmental assessment has been ordered, there will not be any final decision on approval of a quarry for several years, which will mean that the quarry opponents will have a long fight ahead of them with plenty of legal expenses to pay for. Proceeds from Foodstock and donations to the NDACT will pay for legal costs and advocacy work to make sure that the environmental assessment is done properly and addresses all of the potential risks. There was also some worry in previous weeks about what effect the provincial election might have had, as the opposition Conservative party is very pro big business and seems to be against environmental concerns (they are very much like the US Republicans) and if they had won it was very likely they would overturn the call for the assessment. As it happened though, the Liberals barely won re-election so what was agreed to before will continue. No decision will be made as to approving the quarry for years. Still that does not mean there is no risk, since many environmentally damaging projects still receive a go-ahead despite such concerns.  I am glad many of you care about this issue; while aggregate is always needed for building projects, it is not acceptable to take Ontario's most fertile land and take it out of food production, especially when there is also a real risk of damaging so many important watersheds.

For more information on the fight against the mega-quarry and for the latest news and updates on the fight, visit the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce (NDACT) at www.ndact.com Those of you from Canada are also encouraged to contact your local members of federal and provincial parliament to make your views known. NDACT has petitions that can be signed and sent in (the government needs original signatures so an online petition is not available). There are also links to related media articles and you can also follow no mega quarry on facebook and twitter.