Friday, October 18, 2019

Planet in Focus - Food on Film



The 20th year of the Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival is on this weekend until October 20th, 2019.

I was able to preview 3 of the 4 Food Related Documentaries showing at the festival this year.

I have a soft spot for these documentaries because of my love of all things food and my interest in the sustainability of the food for future generations.

These films are all different but similar in the fact that there is a goal surrounded by what is best for the food industry and the people that are fed by them.



Artifishal
by Josh Murphy
G+ | United States | English | 2019 | 75min | Documentary

This documentary was visually stunning and mezmerizing to watch but also very thought provoking.  It is hard to reconcile the benefits of doing what is good for the environment with feeding people in the future and the battle between the fishermen who know what the costs are to the science and political figures who make the decisions that affect the fishermen and the public.


Setting the Bar: A Craft Chocolate Origin Story
by Tim Shephard
Rated G+/Mexico/English, Spanish/2019/85 min/Documentary

I wasn't able to see this film but I am really looking forward to it because of course anything related to chocolate will be interesting of course.


When Tomatoes Met Wagner
by Marianna Economou
G+ | Greece | English, French, Greek | 2019 | 72min | Documentary

This documentary was a little slower paced on the journey of a small community of people who are trying to produce a product that they want to spread to other countries.  They believed that music affects the quality of their products and they believe their product is superior to others because of the nature of the territory it comes from.  They are very proud of their accomplishment with a few mature women and a determined man with a vision.



SOYALISM
by Enrico Parenti, Stefano Liberti
PG+ | Italy | English, Chinese, Portuguese | 2018 | 65min | Documentary


This film speaks to the fight between large scale production and small scale farming practices and what it costs the communities surrounding the areas that take over large scale farming practices have to deal with on a daily basis.  This film makes you think that there must be a better way of communicating the importance of good practices that are sustainable and beneficial to everyone now and for generations to come.  It's very sad at the destruction caused by greed of people who are only concerned with the money that can be made in the Pork industry.


THE GAME CHANGERS
by Louie Psihoyos
PG+ | United States | English | 2018 | 88min | Documentary

I highly recommend this film.  I saw it over a year ago and was blown away by it.  If you are a meat eater and hate your veggies and think that you need protein to be strong then you need to watch this film because it will change your opinion on what a plant based diet can do for someone's body.
The film is smart, funny and informative and there are many surprises that you will love in this gem of a documentary.

check out Planet in Focus this weekend.   You will be entertained and Inspired.   wWW.PlanetinFocus.org

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Starving Foodie guide to best places to eat during TIFF19

Guide to good eats near TIFF theatres.

This will be my 19th year doing Tiff and between my festival experience and my foodie life I have picked up a few fav picks for eats close to the festival.  I have been trying to do this list for the past few years and it changes every year especially since King Street West has changed so much because of the King Street Project.  Most of my choices are based on proximity and the food being tried and true.  Most are fairly reasonable and quick because sometimes you just don't have a lot of time to eat between films and sometimes you might have time to kill and want to catch up on the films you like over a decent meal, for myself I start craving a good meal after the first weekend because that's the busiest time.  These places aren't chosen for celeb spotting but more on where me and my fellow film lovers would actually go.

1. TIFF Bell Lightbox
350 King St. W,

Pizzaolo on John Street at Adelaide $5 for a cheap and quick slice
A&W on John Street south of King St. always has special deals so a meal under $10
Luma at the Lightbox 2nd floor- Great place for drinks and an appy between films
Montecito - lots of money and time to kill and get a great meal.  Director Ivan Reitman is one of the owners so you will find Ghostbusters items and lots of photos near the washrooms.


2. Scotiabank Theatre
259 Richmond Street West

Melt 300 Richmond St. W, - Want a grab and go hand held bite?  It takes a few min for the grilled cheese but it's worth it.
Blaze Pizza - Open less than a year but this franchise is spreading around the city.  You can get whatever you want for around $10.



3. Princess of Wales
300 King Street West-
PAI-18 Duncan St. - This place is really popular so there may even be a line to get in.  This Thai resto is a hot spot for foodies in the know in Toronto.
FIGO 295 Adelaide St W -  This place is lovely and has the best zucchini fritti. This is a linger with some wine kind of place.
Montecito - lots of money and time to kill and get a great meal.

4. Roy Thompson Hall
60 Simcoe Street

Ritz Carlton -181 Wellington St.W..   This is where industry meetings happen and a lot of people watching.  I really like the Truffle fries on the back patio.
Elephant & Castle -212 King St. West -  Consistency is key to this long standing successful resto.  This is where you might find my entourage team having dinner while a film is happening at Roy Thompson Hall because the food is good, reasonable and hits the spot.


5. Elgin/Wintergarden
189 Yonge Street

Richmond Station - Richmond St. W. if you have some $ and time this is a great bet for a great meal. Get the burger.
Pusateris - 176 Yonge Street. - Inside the Saks at the Bay is a great place to grab a roast beef sandwich by the inch or my fav Poke bowl or a freshly tossed salad and Greenhouse juice.  You may spot an incognito celeb even because of the Bay and Eaton Centre shopping there.
Sud Forno - 132 Yonge Street. - This is a fancy Italian eat in or take out place.  Not just a slice of pizza but a decent variety of salads and sandwiches and sweets.

6.  AGO - Jackman Hall
317 Dundas St, W.

Pizzaiolo - 289 Dundas St. West.  - I listed this twice because it's fast and cheap.
Village by the Grange Food Court - 109 McCaul St. -Mean Bao, Helene's  Magic Kitchen, Jerk King - a great variety of fast food kiosks.  I eat there during the week a lot.  This is a daytime place though.


7.  Ryerson Theatre
43 Gerrard St. E.

Banh Mi Boys 399 Yonge Street - They have the best $5 fried chicken Bao. and the Banh mi sandwiches are great too.
Hot Star Fried Chicken - 374A Yonge Street - Craving a big hunk of KFC that you can walk down the street or stand in a rush line at Ryerson and eat.  This is a good deal for that but sometimes it takes some time to wait.
Salad King- 340 Yonge Street - This is a Ryerson Student favourite.  Eat in or take out.  












Saturday, August 10, 2019

Asparabus farm tour

ASPARABUS TOUR


I have been trying to find the time to write this blog post for a while and regret that I couldn't find the time to post it while Asparagus season was in it's peak but I wanted to make sure I let you know how great this incredibly short season is.  Asparagus like strawberries has a very short 6 week peak season in the spring/summer.  I love this time of year because the weather is fantastic and my favourite foods are at their best.

I had the pleasure of getting invited to join the #AsparabusTour in June, hosted by the https://foodiesonfoot.ca/.  They are a great team of people that have been hosting this invite only Asparagus Tour.  It's a full day of all things asparagus that begins with hopping on a tour bus in downtown Toronto and on this tour we headed to Welsh Brothers Farms and Bonnieheath Estate Winery and Lavendar Farm.  

The Foodies Group have been doing these tours for the past 5 years and my blogger friends that have gone have told me how much fun they are so I was really excited to get invited this year.

I have been on other farm tours before and they are a lot of fun.  I have also been to Bonnieheath Estate before but it was nice to return and explore a little more.


We began our tour at Welsh Brothers Farms where we got to see the farm workers picking the Asparagus right out of the ground with this large tractor vehicles.  It still looks like back breaking work even though there are now large scale machinery to assist.  I was surprised to see how sparse the asparagus fields were and to find out that it is a large investment in time to produce asparagus.  It's not a yearly harvest but takes many years to get a good harvest of great asparagus.




My blogger buddies and I really enjoyed picking the asparagus right out of the ground and eating it.  You really don't have to cook it to eat them.  It's amazing how sweet they are when they are that fresh.  Some of my friends seemed surprised at how the asparagus grows from the ground.  I guess you never think about it when you pick up a perfect bunch of asparagus from the grocery store but there is a whole lot of work that goes into that perfect little green bunch of spears.

We had a chance to check out their processing plant.  There aren't that many steps but probably more than you would thing to get the bundles of asparagus ready.  The ends need to be chopped, they are sorted and packed into bundles and then wrapped with elastics and of course washed and packed in large boxes for shipping to the food terminal or grocery stores.




After our visit to Welsh Brothers Farms we headed to Bonnieheath Estate Winery where chef Tracey Winkworth who I have seen many times making Chef Chuck Hughes look good at trade show food demos.  Chef Tracey along with Liason College students whipped up an unbelievable spread of Asparagus focused dishes.  It was so amazing and we got to eat it outside at the back of the Bonnieheath Estate with a view of the lavendar fields.


I think my favourite dish was these Asparagus fries.  Crunchy goodness.


The dessert didn't have any asparagus but it had some lavendar wine in it as a nod to the Lavendar estate.  It was a berry bread pudding with the lavendar wine ice cream.


After lunch we did some food trivia and my team won a great prize and we checked out their little market store for some wine and cider sampling and to purchase some goodies.




We had the best day.  I got to hang out with my favourite blogger buddies and enjoy the farm tour and incredible local food and a beautiful day.

You should visit Bonnieheath estate during their lavendar season.  It's so beautiful there.

It may be late in the season and I am sorry I couldn't post this sooner to remind you to pick up local asparagus but I hope that you can still get some at your local farmers markets and also looking at these food pics and take a different look at your asparagus and prepare them in new ways instead of just steaming them because there are so many things you can do with them from the asparagus fries to a creamy soup.

For more info check out these links:


#Asparabus
Asparagus Farmers of Ontario
T @onasparagus
I: @ontarioasparagus
onasparagus.on.ca

Welsh Brothers Farm
T: @WelshBros
welshbros.ca

Bonnieheath Estate lavendar  & Winery
T: @bonnieheathfarm
I: @bonnieheathestate
bonnieheathestate.ca

Liason College Southcoast
T: @SouthCoastLC
I: liasoncollege
liasonsouthcoast.com

The Foodies Group
T: @thefoodiesgroup
I: @thefoodiesgroup
foodiesonfoot.ca




Sunday, June 30, 2019

Canada Day Party quick and easy


July 1st is Canada Day and you can celebrate it Big or Small.  I have a few tips to have a small get together on a dollar store budget.   A couple of years ago we blew the budget at work but this year was scaled way back and it still worked out.


First thing to do is scope out your local Dollar store and pick up anything you can find with Canadian Flags on it or Maple Leafs or even Beavers or Moose if you like.


Must have:

Plates- If you can find Canada Day plates great, but if not just get red and white or just red even.
Cups - I found Maple Leaf cups at Party City
Cutlery - Just get clear or white to keep it simple.
Tablecloth *optional - you can use a Canadian Flag or just use a white tablecloth and add a big paper Maple Leaf on it if you like.



Food and Drinks:  There are lots of options including these things:

  • Coffee Crisp chocolates
  • Maple Leaf Cookies
  • Tim Horton's coffee and donuts
  • Crush drink
  • Caesar drinks are Canadian
  • Canadian Flag Cake
  • Ketchup Chips
  • Butter Tarts
  • Canadian Craft Beer
  • Wine from the Niagara Region


Make a simple dessert in a snap with fresh local strawberries and whipped cream by layering them in little mason jars.  Who doesn't love strawberries in cream when the berries are at their peak at the end of June.  Recipe for the butter tarts is in a previous Canada Day blog post.


Props and Decor:

This is where the budget goes from small to big.  You can go nuts on props and decor and here are some ideas if you can't think of what to get.

  • Canadian Flag,  large, small, medium, hand held
  • Hats with Canadian flags, from caps to headbands
  • Signs,  you can use a lightbox or a DIY bristol board sign that says Happy Canada Day
  • Canadian symbols,  you can get things like statues or stuffed toys of Moose, beaver.
  • Canadian pillows with whatever designs inspire a Canadian Vibe.  I have a Sorry Pillow from Colin and Justin designs
  • Maple syrup bottles.
Games:
  • Canadian Trivia - Music, Famous People, Geography
  • Word Search games
  • Jeopardy like questions, someone can be Alex Trebek who is Canadian.
  • Justin Bieber or Drake Trivia, that could take a while.
  • Basketball games because now that we are the Champions and the Basket was invented in Canada it's the perfect game.

Music:  Pick your vibe, 80's, country, current, chill etc.

  • Shania Twain
  • Justin Bieber
  • Drake
  • Michael Buble
  • Sarah McLaughlin
  • Tragically Hip
  • Honeymoon Suite
  • Loverboy
  • Platinum Blonde
  • Glass Tiger
  • Jann Arden
  • on an on .... you get the picture.

Whether you have a party or just get together with friends you can still celebrate Canada Day in little and big ways or however you choose to do it.

Here are some past Canada Day fun with friends.


HAPPY CANADA DAY!!






Saturday, June 22, 2019

Farm Food Care Tour - Dairy and Mill

I love it when I get invited to Farm tours by Farm Food Care.  They are always fun and educational.  This was my 3rd time doing the Farm Tours.  I broke my lucky streak of good weather this time and I blame the Vaughan Centre station for that.  Every time I have to meet someone at Vaughan Centre Station it pours.  This was the 3rd time that happened but at least I had a fairly easy way to connect up with the bus this time.  I say fairly easy because I poured just as we got there and the bus was about 15 minutes late so we all huddled inside the TTC entrance.

A bit of info about Farm Food Care first,  they are a coalition of various businesses in the food production industry who do consumer research, promotion and program education about the agriculture industry.  These farm tours are run by the energetic and organized Jennifer MacKenzie who is a food writer, cook book author and excellent tour organizer.

As I briefly mentioned we started our day by hopping on a tour bus in Vaughan at 8:30am and were given a little bag full of goodies which I unfortunately forgot on the bus because I had too much stuff to carry home.  I will get to that in a bit.  Jennifer makes home baked treats for the drive to the farms and we had coffee too.

Our first stop was the very popular Sheldon creek Dairy  located at 316 RR#2 5th Concession in Loretto, Ontario  

We had a great tour through the bottling area and where the cows were and saw the whole process from start to finish.


Sheldon Creek are the first farm in Canada to produce A2 milk.  It is milk that comes from cows that naturally produce milk with A2 version of beta-casein.  Normally cows produce A1.  It is easier on the digestive system.  They likened it to the Red Head gene in humans.  The A2 protein is comparable to human breast milk or goat, sheep and buffalo milk which is easier to digest for dairy sensitive people.  As I have grown older I appreciate this a whole lot.


We learned a whole lot of things about their system including the fact that 4 degrees is the perfect temperature for milk.  They use a voluntary milking system for their cows in a system that is kind of like a cow car wash.  They walk up to a platform that allows the cows to be scanned by sensors and connected to the milking machine.  They have fitbit kind of tracking that tells their computer sensor which cow it is and tracks the quantity of milk that is milked at a time and how many times a day they milk as well as the milk breakdown so they can tell if there is any illness that may occur in the cows.  The cows are given a treat but they have it set up so that they can't keep going back just to get treats.  Very smart.  Cows are trying to out smart the machines but nope they can't do it.  The cows all have definite personalities.  It was obvious that there were selfie loving cows and ones that couldn't care less that there were a bunch of humans taking photos of them.  Obvious from the sounds of the food going in and out of the cows if you know what I mean?  We also fond out that they are feed a pickled hay concoction that inhibits bacteria growth and they lay in sand beds instead of hay beds or grass because it molds to their bodies making them more comfortable.


After learning about the dairy we all went crazy in their little store that stocks their fresh milk right from the back bottling area and they also sell local products.  I can tell you that I filled up a cooler bag and it was heavy.  I got one of their little bottles of heavy cream and coffee milk, chocolate milk and strawberry milk which is colored with beets. And I picked up some local gouda.  I wanted more but had to haul it home and as it turns out it's a good thing I didn't get more because I could barely carry everything home.  They were preparing to have an open house on the weekend and I wish I could have gone back to get more things.

After shopping like crazy and seeing the cows we trucked through the wet farm back to the bus to go for lunch at the Gibson Centre.   We were all very hungry and ready to get out of the rain by that time.  The Gibson Centre is a beautiful community centre that hosts food festivals and lots of weddings apparently. 

  Lunch was fantastic.  I shared a table with fellow food industry writers and friends Suzie from Just CrumbsFina the Healthy Italian and Mairlyn Smith the home economist and cookbook author and tv personality.  Such a delicious and fun lunch.  All of the food was from Ontario.  We had chicken with crispy chicken skin and gnocchi with peas, roasted radish and asparagus, rillette on brown bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  There was a pickled veg platter and everyone went crazy for the pickled brussel sprouts but I didn't have a chance to taste them.  There was a speaker from Saskatchewan Canola who were the lunch sponsors and there was also a speaker from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture talking about how the new tariffs are affecting farmers like Canola farmers. Farmers are at the mercy of the weather and things like tariffs and government regulations so it's a really tough business to make a decent living sadly.





After lunch we hopped back on the bus to go to K2 Milling in Beeton. Owner Mark Hayhoe has been in the industry for 28 years. I am not sure they were quite prepared for all the foodies looking for fresh new things.  Unlike the dairy everyone was looking to buy something to take home but they weren't really set up for grab and go sales as they normally sell to other businesses. 


They mill non traditional things like hemp, flax, spelt, quinoa, pea, amaranth, rice and lentils.  They also experiment with things like grapes and have a merlot flour and they have spices like turmeric and cinnamon. They also do unusual things like blueberry flour and cranberry flour using dried berries. Their motto is "grinding against the grain".  I opted to skip buying a bag of flour at this point because I already amassed a bag of stuff and a centrepiece and dairy products.


I couldn't hear everything about the milling process but I could tell they like to think outside of the norm of the traditional milled wheat.  We did learn about why things like ground oats aren't always the best thing to mill and different milled products react differently when baking which explains why gluten free products are never the same as wheat products.  Some flours gum up and can't hold the structure.  I think he said that spelt can't be over mixed or it breaks down. 


And just as we finished having a look at the mill and picking up some milled products it started to rain again so i dashed back onto the bus to head back to the Vaughan drop off location.  Back on the bus we were given surveys and then it was time for trivia and prizes.  I won the centre piece at lunch and one of the trivia question on the bus and got a silver travel cup and straw and an ice cream scoop.  I will use that for sure.
It was a super fun day even with the gloomy skies, muddy pathways and wind and rain.  Spending time with great food industry people and learning how our food is produced is always rewarding.


Visit a farm, meet the people that produce your food and thank them for the hard work they do to feed your families safe food products.  We have some of the highest food standards in Canada.  We do not allow milk to be sold with hormones and the pasturization process is strictly regulated.  I have visited some fantastic farms run by great people and you should do the same if you have the opportunity to do so.


Respect the food that is harvested so that we can continue to have this high quality food.

 www.farmfoodcare.org