My food find for the week is Poplar Grove’s Tiger Blue cheese. Gitta Sutherland is making this creamy blue at Poplar Grove Cheese in Penticton, BC. I visited her while in the Okanagan Valley last week and have posted pictures of her operation. I saw Tiger Blue all through the area as well as in Vancouver’s delis and restaurants. A distributor has picked up this artisan cheese so look for it in Ontario as well. Better yet, have it at Poplar Grove when you are there and you can pair it with a glass of yummy Monster Merlot from their vineyard!

Here are pictures of Gitta and her cheese.

Tiger Blue is the wedge

(more…)

Bocuse D’or is the original iron chef competition. Started in 1987, every two years international chefs from around the 24 countries are chosen to compete in Lyon for the coveted title. The chefs are chosen three years before the competition, have mentor chef to work with and an apprentice that trains with and assist the chef. The current team is gearing up for competition in January 2009 in Lyon France. Our homegrown contender is David Wong of Vancouver. (more…)

Spot Prawns have a six to eight week season starting in May on Canada’s west coast. The annual Spot Prawn Festival in Vancouver celebrates the local bounty of this fresh, sustainable, affordable and delicious alternative to frozen tiger or gulf shrimp. The festival helps to encourage the development of Vancouver’s day-boat fishery delivering high quality spot prawns directly to the local community.

Lasting for the duration of the season, the six to eight week Spot Prawn Festival will kick off on (more…)

The foodie conoscienti spent Friday night sampling Anita Stewart’s foodie finds from across Canada interpreted by Canoe’s executive chef Anthony Walsh. Her book launch took place at Canoe on the top of the Toronto Dominion Building overlooking the urban landscape. Surrounded by jars of home preserves and woodsy mushroom arrangements; the venue, decor and food of the evening reflected the complexity of the Canadian culinary tradition as does Stewart’s book. (more…)

Here is a picture of the Canadian Living’s beautiful kitchen stage designed by our decor editor Karen Kirk. I just wanted to say a thank you to everyone who came to the Canadian Living stage at the Good Food Festival to see my how to ice a Chocolate Layer Cake and Kids Oatmeal Cookie demonstrations on the weekend – it was fun to meet viewers face to face and get feed back about the things that you all find interesting. I especially liked seeing how engaged the kids in the audience were and the great questions they had for me afterward. There were a number of exhibitors that were focused on healthy eating for children – I thought the Gimme 5 stage was excellent and really engaged their young audience. The kids went away with remembering the 5 colours of the healthy fruits and vegetables as well as a healthy lasagna they made with their own hands.

Keep posting those comments – I still have more aprons to give away!

(more…)

I am starting a new monthly feature here at the Foodie-file called “Foodie Finds Friday”. The regional and local way of eating has really taken off and people across our giant nation know their own best food finds but if you are outside the geographical area you are out of the loop. I want to celebrate food from coast to coast so from now on Fridays will be the day to showcase a region, city, or foodie-event. Hopefully I will get a lot of participation and we can all learn about the best dishes, fruits, drinks or specialties from downtown Vancouver, BC to Elora, Ontario.

To launch the first friday: A GIVE AWAY! (more…)

I will be at the Good Food Festival this weekend with the whole Canadian Living Test Kitchen team where we will be demonstrating our “Tested Till Perfect” recipes and techniques on stage and interacting with our readers. Saturday afternoon I’ll be at the Canadian Living Stage making good use of my years of pastry training by showing the audience how to mask a cake and use a pastry bag. I will be giving away prizes but you need to come to the show to find out how to win! (more…)

I wanted wine recommendations for our Passover menus this month so I called up Anne Martin, our new wine writer, to ask her the dreaded question – know any good Kosher wines? Turns out, that’s not the loaded question it once was. Not only did she come up with three decent picks but it turns out Canada has three certified Kosher wineries Rodrigues in Newfoundland, Rush Creek in Ontario, Munro Meadery also in Ontario (who really make mead which is wine made from honey and is classified as a fruit wine. (more…)

This is a call to all foodies to look for your local M&M Meat Shop, buy a burger for $2.50 and help to fund research for Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC). This is a debilitating disease that greatly hinders the ability of the people who suffer from it to enjoy food of any kind. Every year M&M Meat Shop fire’s up the grill and cooks for a cure. Saturday, May 10th, 2008 celebrates its 20th Anniversary Charity BBQ Day at more than 465 store locations across Canada. Franchisees and volunteers will be flipping burgers and hot dogs and accepting donations to reach this year’s goal of raising $2 million for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC). (more…)

Friday night was the first Brewers Plate event in Toronto celebrating local eating and local craft breweries. Arriving a bit late, we found ourselves celebrating more brewing then eating so in fairness I feel compelled to stick to the beer aspect of the event rather than the food. But not to worry - there is plenty to share on the beer front. Thank goodness I ran into Troy Burtch from Great Canadian Pubs and Beer who pointed me right away in the direction of the gems to be had on tap. (more…)