Paramount Fine Foods Serves up NEW Brunch Menu

NEW BREAKFAST MENU AT PARAMOUNT

It's my friend's birthday this week but she will be in hopefully nice weather in Jamaica on her birthday, so I invited her to join me at the New Paramount on Front Street beside St. Lawrence Market for Breakfast or I guess Brunch since it was about Noon when we were there. We sampled some of new breakfast items on their menu.

Paramount Fine Foods just launched a special Breakfast campaign, highlighting Middle Eastern specialties and shining the light on their delicious breakfast menu.  Paramount wants to share their delicious fresh new breakfast/brunch with you and your family. 

We tried the Omelette and my friend ordered the Paramount Special drink which was loaded with fruit and fruit juices and even almonds and pistacios.  A stand out drink as you can see.

Stop by any Paramount Fine Foods and swap your bagel for a Manakeesh, a classic middle eastern brunch dish, Manakeesh is dough baked and topped with thyme, cheese or meat. Traditionally, women would bake dough in a communal oven in the morning, to provide their family with their daily bread needs, and would prepare smaller portions of dough with different toppings for breakfast.and enjoy an authentic Middle Eastern breakfast!

Some of the other breakfast items include:

Manakeesh; a Middle Eastern staple made of dough, often served with toppings such as cheese or zaatar. Manakeesh is a traditional Middle Eastern breakfast item.

Eggs with Sausage; a traditional Canadian breakfast! Two eggs served with sausage and vegetables.

Omelet; A two egg omelet with bell peppers, onions, parsley & sausage served with a side of vegetables.

We ordered this fantastic FATTEH dish with Chicken with Labnah and I had the Beef Shwarma.  It's a mix of hummus, chickpeas, pita bread and topped parsley and the optional meat.  It's a meal in itself.

Don't forget about their great freshly baked and steaming hot Pita Bread.  It's a dough pillow.

Enjoy breakfast with your family on the weekend, where kids (age 12 and under) eat for free from 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM (select menu items).

All guests who order a full breakfast entree any day of the week will enjoy a fresh brewed coffee, on the house!  FREE

We visited the Front Street location at 85 Front Street East just west of St. Lawrence Market in the former Spring Rolls space.  You can find this new menu at all of their locations.

For more information:  Paramount Fine Foods

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ParamountFineFoods

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParamountFoods

Don't forget to tag your breakfast pics so they can see what you enjoyed.

#ParamountFreshness 

#ParamountMorning

**Promotion is on from October 24th to December 5th

St. Patrick's Day Green Eggs

I got a little creative with my breakfast this morning this St. Patrick's Day.

I was feeling Green today so I decided to make some Green eggs and ham my way.


It started with what was in my fridge. I had some leftover egg whites that I wanted to use so I decided to make scrambled eggs and then thought maybe I can make them green too.  So here's what I did so you can make it too.

INGREDIENTS:

2 egg whites
1 whole egg
1 cup of fresh baby spinach
2 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper
1 green onion
Prosciutto

DIRECTIONS:

In a blender add the cup of spinach the garlic clove, salt, pepper and the olive oil. Add half of the green onion and reserve the other half for garnish.  Blend until it breaks down into a liquid.  You can add water or oil if it doesn't blend.  Add the egg and blend to combine.

In a frying pan on medium heat add a tsp of oil coat the pan and add prosciutto and cook until crisp.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Before adding the eggs put your bread into the toaster so that it's ready when the eggs are ready.

Pour the spinach and egg mixture into the frying pan using residual oil and stir with a spatula and cook until curds form it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

You can get fancy with your plating but I just went basic to show you what I did.

Sprinkle the rest of the green onions on top of the eggs for garnish.

Since it's breakfast I made some Green Tea to go with it.  But if breakfast starts at noon for you feel free to have some Green Beer if you like.  This Breakfast can be eaten at any time of the day.

Sweet Heart Chocolate Chip Scones

Chocolate Chip Heart Shaped Scones

Why not make a simple but thoughtful breakfast for yourself or for someone else this Valentine's Day.  Skip the expensive dinner and start your day with a sweet little touch of goodness.

I was thinking about making some chocolate chip scones and since tomorrow is Valentine's Day I was inspired to make some heart shaped Chocolate Chip scones.  I have to say that they turned out to be the best scones that I ever made.  Almost like a light cookie.  I didn't want to make them into rock scones so I was very careful not to over work them.

As usual I just cook a lot by feel so I will try and approximate the ingredients that I put into these scones.  I will give you all the ingredients but you may have to just work with it to get it to the right consistency to get it right.

Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk
1/2 lemon juiced
1tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of cubed cold butter

Topping
1 egg beaten
2 tbsp Turbonado sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 400F.

In a large bowl add the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.  Whisk until all the ingredients are distributed throughout.

In a measuring cup add the milk and add the juice of half a lemon.  Set aside.

Cut the cold butter into small cubes and add them to the flour mixture.  With your hands or a pastry cutter mix the butter and flour between your fingers until the mixture is a sandy texture.  You can add butter or flour until you get the right consistency.  When you squeeze some in your hand it should stick together like when you make sand castles.

Add the chocolate chips and mix throughout the flour mixture.

Add the vanilla to the milk mixture and stir.   Then pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients a little at a time and mix until the mixture comes together and away from the bowl.   I left my dough fairly loose.  Make sure you don't over mix it.  You just want it to come together to be able to have them hold to roll out.

Dump the mixture onto a lightly floured board.  I didn't roll the dough I just patted it down to a 1/2 inch thickness.  You can roll it to get a smoother top finish.   For me the less tools I have to wash the better.  Use your hands.. that way you put some love into them.  Yes it makes a difference.

I used 2 different sized heart shaped cookie cutters mostly because I wanted to see which came out better and also so that I didn't have to re work the leftover scraps much.

Place the cut out scones on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
Brush the tops with the egg wash and then sprinkle turbonado sugar on top.  I suppose you could use colored sugar to be fancy too but consider the color of the chocolate chips.  It might not look that great.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until brown on the bottom and slightly golden on top.   Keep checking your oven because it may take more or less time.

Use this as a guideline but I basically just dumped and stirred and didn't measure anything exactly.  This is grandmother cooking.. even though my grandmother and my mother never made scones I still learned how to guestimate some baking from my mom.  I think she only measured a few recipes and then winged the rest.   Learn to wing it so that you can get creative with your recipes.   I added cinnamon and vanilla to boost the chocolate flavour.   Also cinnamon regulates blood sugar so it's a good thing when you bake.

My batch turned out great and I hope if you try them you will like them as much as I did.

Oh and I had them with Cherry Blossom Lemon Lilly Tea from Postal Teas.  The hint of cherry was a nice pairing with the chocolate chips.

Brunch Blues in North York

BRUNCH BLUES in North York 

I haven't been blogging in a couple of weeks because I have been busy working 2 jobs for the past month.  I just finished a temp job so I will have a bit more time now but I am moving on to working for a Film Festival.

While I was doing my temp job I was working on what is known as Hospital Row on University Ave, north of Dundas.  It's not a great area for a foodie to spend time in.  A lot of mediocre lunch or hospital food in the are.  The bright spot was the weekly farmer's market at Sick Kids Hospital.

I woke up this morning with a free day but after a few weeks of crazy weather / transit and working a couple of jobs I am tired.  I woke up feeling hungry and in the mood for a decent breakfast but not in the mood to spend an hour in the kitchen whipping up a great breakfast and then another hour cleaning it all up.   I felt like having a saturday brunch meal but didn't want to have to go all the way downtown just to get breakfast/brunch but it seems as though North York/ Willowdale isn't big on being creative with their breakfast menus.   I had a copy of the current Issue of Now magazine with their Brunch restaurant list.  Nothing in North York.  After searching online I realized that there really weren't very many great brunch places in this whole area.

This is what we have:

1. Moxie's Grill
2. Milestone's
3. Cafe Mirage (has now closed)
4. Eggsmart
5. Wimpy's Diner

Not much for condo land is it?  And they are all either chains or very generic or average.

Since I was tired and hungry I chose Cafe Mirage (now closed) in the mall beside where I live.  As you can see from this photo that I took when I walked in at 10:30am, it's not exactly a happening place on a saturday morning.   As I sat there in the restaurant by myself I thought what would it take to pack this place on a consistent basis.     What I thought immediately is to brighten it up.  It looks like a night club lounge so it's not really a wake up and have some brunch kind of environment.  I don't think it would take a whole lot to convert this place to a place people from north of 7 and south of Bloor might consider coming to.

This is what I would do if I wanted to fill this place:

1. Change the tables and make them silver so that the light from the chandeliers lights up the room and makes it sparkle.  
2. Paint the walls in sections of contrasting colors to brighten up some areas.   It's a brown on brown room now....snooze fest..  You immediately want to take a nap after being there.
3. When I walked in the waitress looked both bored and depressed.  Not a good sign.
4. Then there is the smell.  Its smells tired and stale.  Some plants, fresh flowers, an open patio, something prepared fresh in the room like flavoured coffees ...cinnamon lattes... anything to wake up the senses.
5. The food..... It's ok but not great.  It looks like the plates are pre prepared with some lack luster salad greens and some cut fruit.  How about skipping the soggy lettuce and making a bowl of fresh fruit salad.  I had one recently with lemon and poppy seed that tasted great.   Not difficult and would be a lot more creative.    Add some new brunch items and change it up sometimes.  Add things like a grilled corn salsa on the side with caramelized onion scrambled eggs.  Again, not difficult but different from the pack of bland and tired breakfast specials.
6. Then there is the music.   While I love me some 80's music it doesn't really say "this restaurant is ahead of the curve"  it screams "we are old and tired and like it that way".
7. Since by the time I left there was only one other older lady so I had prompt although not very friendly or enthusiastic service so I was taken care of but I think the waitress would have preferred that I went to McDonald's across the street where I would get quick and friendly service.

I ordered the Eggs Benedict and for about $13 dollars with tax it was a big portion.  I probably only ate half the plate because I skipped the soggy boring lettuce and didn't eat the fruit.  Fruit and eggs don't really sit well together in my stomach and I doubt that it does in anyone else's either.
The eggs were ok but the ham was a bit on the tough side.  The potatoes were just deep fried with a bit of salt.   What would kick them up a bit would be to add smoked paprika to them.  The potatoes weren't greasy but a simple pinch of spice could have elevated them a little bit more.

I have been to this restaurant many times as it's beside where there used to be a movie theatre which has now moved up to North York Centre with everything else.   The service is never great.  Usually the waitresses disappear or seem like they would rather be someplace else.  Sometimes the food is eh.  Breakfast/Brunch is ok...  but I can honestly say it's not worth dragging your ass out of bed early on a saturday or sunday morning and driving to go there to get some.

That's what's missing in North York and especially the area between Yonge/Lawrence and Yonge/Finch.   A decent breakfast/brunch spot that is a neighbourhood joint that is totally creative and outside the regular box of bland breakfasts.   If you want Asian, Persian or junk food then this area is great for you.   But if you are a foodie like me that likes variety and creativity it's not a destination for you to put on your list unfortunately.

So I am posting this in the hopes that some Food Lover/Deep Pocket people will consider saving this gastro wasteland, condo glut of an area and encourage superstar chefs to consider opening up a little funky dive in the area.   Just remember that there will be a Whole Foods opening up at Yonge/Sheppard in 2014 so there will be good food lovers wandering around in the hood.

Here is the list that I compiled from the Now Magazine list and I added a couple others,  but as you can see Now magazine doesn't consider anything in North York to be worth of being a Best Brunch Spot in Toronto.  So can someone please find a way to make it happen.

BRUNCH SPOTS IN TORONTO (according to Now Magazine)

La Carnita

501 College, at Palmerston, 416-964-1555, lacarnita.com, @la_carnita

Julie's

202 Dovercourt, at Argyle, 416-532-7397, juliescuban.com

Tavoos

1120 College, at Dufferin, 647-352-7322

L'Ouvrier

791 Dundas W, at Palmerston, 416-901-9581, louvrier.ca, @louvrier

DT Bistro

154 Harbord, at Brunswick, 416-916-8155, dtbistro.com

Samuel J. Moore

1087 Queen W, at Dovercourt, 416-897-8348, @TheSamuelJMoore

Cafe Belong

550 Bayview, at Pottery Rd, 416-901-8234, cafebelong.ca

Catch

744 St Clair W, at Arlington, 416-658-0568, catchit.ca, @CATCH_TORONTO

Hammersmith's

807 Gerrard E, at Logan, 416-792-9043,hammersmithsbrunch.com, @_hammersmiths

Voodoo Child

388 College, at Borden, 647-748-1011, voodoochild.ca, @VoodooChildCafe

Federal Reserve

1438 Dundas W, at Dufferin, 647-352-9120, thefed.ca, @torontofederal

Camp

244 Jane, at Horshaw, 647-346-2267

Café Fiorentina

236 Danforth, at Playter, 416-855-4240, cafefiorentina.com, @cafe_fiorentina

Hawker Bar

164 Ossington, at Foxley, 647-343-4698, hawkerbar.ca, @HawkerBar

Bristol Yard

146 Christie, at Pendrith, 647-716-6583

Red Fish

890 College, at Delaware, 416-733-3474, redfishresto.com, @redfishresto

White Brick Kitchen

641 Bloor W, at Euclid, 647-347-9188, thewhitebrickkitchen.com, @thewhitebrick

Emma's Country Kitchen

1108 St Clair W, at Northcliffe, 416-652-3662, emmascountrykitchen.com, @emmacountrykitc

Lisa Marie

638 Queen W, at Palmerston, 647-748-6822, fidelgastro.ca, @fidelgastros

Grand Electric

1330 Queen W, at Elm Grove, 416-627-3459, grandelectricbar.com, @grandelectricTO

Edulis

169 Niagara, at Wellington W, 416-703-4222, edulisrestaurant.com, @EdulisToronto

Beast

96 Tecumseth, at Whitaker, 647-352-6000, thebeastrestaurant.com, @BeastRestaurant

Karelia Kitchen

1194 Bloor W, at Brock, 647-748-1194, kareliakitchen.com, @KareliaKitchen

Patria

480 King W, at Brant, 416-367-0505, patriatoronto.com, @PatriaTO

Ursa

924 Queen W, at Shaw, 416-536-8963, ursa-restaurant.com, @ursarestaurant

Stock

325 Bay, at Adelaide, 416-637-5550, stockrestaurant.com, @STOCKToronto

Toca

181 Wellington W, at John, 416-585-2500, tocarestaurant.com

Café Boulud

60 Yorkville, at Bay, 416-963-6000, cafeboulud.com/toronto, @CafeBouludTO

Splendido

88 Harbord, at Spadina, 416-929-7788, splendido.ca, @splendido_TO

Courtyard Cafe

18 St Thomas, at Bloor, 416-971-9666, windsorarmshotel.com, @windsorarms

Mildred’s Temple Kitchen

85 Hanna, at Snooker, 416-588-5695, templekitchen.com, @mildredstemple

Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder

699 St Clair W, at Christie, 416-658-9666, thestockyards.ca, @thestockyards

Black Metal Brunch @ Graffiti’s

170 Baldwin, at Kensington, 416-506-6699

Bonjour Brioche

812 Queen E, at Degrassi, 416-406-1250, bonjourbrioche.com

School

70 Fraser, at Liberty, 416-588-0005, schooltoronto.com, @schoolresto

Saving Grace

907 Dundas W, at Bellwoods, 416-703-7368

Aunties And Uncles

74 Lippincott, at College, 416-324-1375, auntiesanduncles.ca

Free Times Cafe

320 College, at Robert, 416-967-1078, freetimescafe.com, @FreeTimesCafe

Le Petit Dejeuner

191 King E, at George, 416-703-1560, petitdejeuner.ca, @petidejeuner

Bestellen

972 College at Rusholme 647-341-6769  www.bestellen.ca

Ceili Cottage

1301 Queen Street East at Alton 416-406-1301

Chococrepe

620 Queen W at Markham 416-855-5601 www.chococrepe.ca

Counter

51 Bathurst at Wellington W 416-601-3533

www.thompsonhotels.com/hotels/toronto/thompson-toronto/eat/the-counter

The Drake

1150 Queen Street West at Beaconsfield M6J 1J3 416-531-5042 www.thedrakehotel.ca

Fanny Chadwick's268

Howland at Dupont 416-944-1606 www.fannychadwicks.com

Harlem East Side

67 Richmond St. East at Church 416-368-1920 www.harlemrestaurant.com

Rose and Sons

176 dupont street (in the front) http://roseandsons.ca/

Lady Marmalade

898 Queen St East 647.351.7645 http://ladymarmalade.ca/  @ladymrestaurant