Dear reader,
I know why most Toronto kids hate spinach. It’s because they didn’t grow up eating the real thing. So much of our produce today comes from faraway places—genetically modified, packaged, frozen—resulting in flavour profiles fit for a hospital. Then there’s the obscene big-box practice of trashing perfectly good products that happen to have some innocuous bruises or blemishes. All of this deprives us of deliciousness.
My dad grew up on a Chinese vegetable farm in the Brampton village of Huttonville (more on that in another newsletter), and his neighbours were purveyors of some of Ontario’s best apples, berries, gourds and, of course, spinach. So, growing up, our house was always full of great produce—fruits and veggies that, to me, felt like different species from their grocery-store counterparts.
Table Talk’s top post this week is all about local: a menu tour of Ficoa, Little Italy’s newest temple to micro-seasonal produce. Chef Gerry Quintero isn’t interested in the traditional—instead, he concocts wild dishes like kombucha-pickled mushrooms and kimchi pears that turn the palate upside down. His experimentation represents the new Ontario food scene in full bloom.
Also in today’s newsletter: the best ways to buy wine beyond the LCBO. Plus, everything worth eating at Wolfie, the Commoner Bar Room’s revitalization. For all our food-and-drink coverage, visit torontolife.com or subscribe to our print edition.
