Celebrate World Food Day with Pulses

Date:  October 14, 2016
Event: World Food Day #WFD2016
Location:  Planta Toronto - Yorkville
Host:  Chef Michael Smith & Pulse Canada

Special Guests:
Nick Saul, CEO, Community Food Centres Canada
Dr. David Jenkins, Founder of Glycemic Index
Chris Martinageli, Director, of Pulse Canada
Dr. Joyce Boye, Special Ambassador for International Year of Pulses
Lee Moats, Chair Pulse Canada, Pulse Farmer Denis Tremorin, Director Pulse Canada

In Honour of World Food Day I was invited to a great private event at the new Plant Based Restaurant - Planta in Yorkville at the former Pangea Restaurant space on Bay Street, for cocktails and a little bit of information about what Pulses can do for the World.  Pulses are Peas, Beans, Lentils and Chickpeas.  2016 is the International Year of Pulses.

Chef Michael Smith who is a strong supporter of using more Pulses to feed people everyday was the Host of the event.  He did a whole series for Pulse Canada on the use of Pulses around the world.  We produce more pulses than anyone and export more than anyone.  I bet if you visit India you will be eating Canadian Pulses.

The event took place at the highly anticipated Plant-based Restaurant called PLANTA in Yorkville.  I think it's the perfect spot for this restaurant and the perfect time where the trends have been crazy but at the same time I think people are getting tired of eating food that is bad for them and the planet.  I heard about this restaurant not long ago and it was on my radar for places to check out because I love vegetables when prepared properly.  Most vegetarian/vegan restaurants really don't make the food that exciting.  Yeah we all know about Kale salad but what else can you do.  Enter Chef David Lee who has adopted a plant based diet in his own life so naturally it made sense for him to have it crossover into his professional life. In partnership with the Chase Group who is well established they scooped up the prime location in Yorkville and I don't think they did too much to renovate the space but the menu is nothing like anything else in the city.

Although I am not a vegan or even a vegetarian I eat far less meat than I used to and actually enjoy a wide range of vegetables and I have been looking for more ways to introduce pulses to my diet because I have always had vegetables because of my parents European background but less so the pulses,  I had them less often as my mother's knowledge about what to do with them was limited as it is for most people.  This is where Food Education in schools could be used to really make a change.  If kids were taught simple recipes in schools and the nutritional value of cooking with pulses, I am sure it would be shared for generations.

*Pulses are good for so many things.

• For farmers they are great because they are a sustainable crop that actually enrich the soil instead of depleting it.
• Good Source of protein
• Iron rich - one serving of lentils contains 1.5 times as much iron as 3 oz. serving of steak.
• Good source of potassium
• Excellent source of folate - chickpeas contain 3x more folate than a serving of kale
• And fibre - all pulses have 4x more fibre than brown rice.
• Gluten free
• Sodium free
• Trans Fat-free
• Crops are Drought-tolerant
• Produce a low carbon footprint
• Pulses require 19L of water to produce 1gram of protein compared to Meat which requires 68L of water to produce 1 gram of protein

* source Pulse Canada

The Cost per serving of lentils is $0.16 Canadian compared to:
Beef - $1.36, Pork - $0.92 and Chicken $0.55

Lentils and peas take not longer to cook than pasta or rice.

The guest speakers:

• Nick Saul, CEO, Community Food Centres
• Lee Moats, Chair, Pulse Canada Pulse Farmer
• Denis Tremorin, Director, Sustainability Pulse Canada
• Dr. David Jenkins, Canadian Research Chair in Nutrition & Metabolism and Founder of the Glycemic Index
• not pictured:  Chris Marinageli, Director, Nutrition Science and Regulatory Affairs, Pulse Canada
• and Dr. Joyce Boye, my photo wasn't good enough to post.. she is FAO Special Ambassador for the IYP for North America, Director, Research, Development and Technology Transfer Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada

Nick Saul, CEO of Community Food Centres who said, "the act of cooking is political", that stuck with me because you choose what you want our governments and corporations to do by what you choose to buy and eat and it contributes to what happens around the world.

Dr. David Jenkins talked about how we need to switch to eating more pulses to sustain the environment because we are losing species because we can't sustain the food system.  He basically spoke about the benefit to the world in the environment and health.

Dr. Joyce Boye spoke about how the population will increase in the next 20 years.  We are already having problems feeding everyone in the world and if we don't start making changes we won't be able to feed the increasing population around the globe.

Farmer Lee Moats spoke about how growing pulses is great for the economy because of the amount we export and how it is the best crop for farmers to grow because it uses less water and yields the best soil for crop rotation.

As you can see it's a Win Win thing.  Families can be fed for little money using pulses and improve their health by getting plant proteins instead of meat proteins which have other health risks with increased allergies and all of the antibiotics and other issues that come from eating meat.  While i still love the taste of meat I think it really makes sense to limit the consumption and switch to more consumption of pulses instead.

As you can see there is a lot of information about this subject.  It really is a domino effect,  eating pulses will not only sustain the environment it will lower the cost of health care in the future with a tiny adjustment in what we plant and eat.

Now let's talk about the taste of the food.  It always comes back to that.

I wish I had better and more photos of the food we sampled because it was amazing.  You really didn't miss the fact that there was no meat in it because it was full of flavour and had the mouth feel or Umami that you crave and get from all the fat, sugar, salt etc in less healthy food.

We tried:

• Chickpea Fries with za'atar and lemon aioli
• Queso Dip, black beans, pickled vegetables, cashew crema on tortilla chips
• Cauliflower Tots, truffle parmesan, lemon aioli

We also had a carrot cake smoothie.  All the appetizers were perfectly seasoned with spices to enhance the flavour.  I am the Queen of Spice and really that makes the biggest difference when making vegetables go from boring to fantastic.  What's a tomato without basil?

Yes this is a long post but the statistics are incredible and I am only skimming the surface of this subject.

For more information:

Pulse Canada's website:  http://www.pulsecanada.com/

Planta Toronto:  http://www.plantatoronto.com/ 

Chef Michael Smith recipes: http://chefmichaelsmith.com/

Hashtags #lovepulses

                #WFD2016

                #pulsepledge

Support Community Food Centres Canada at:  http://cfccanada.ca/

Hawaiian Poke comes North

 The new trend hitting Toronto is Poke Bowls.  They are popping up everywhere.  The latest Poke spot is NORTH POKE in Kensington Market.  I was invited to sample some of their authentic Hawaiian Poke Bowls.  I entered the tiny shop on Baldwin and was greeted by the owner also named Linda, who wanted to create an true Poke shop and more of a fish market place.  They receive their fish daily and prepare everything fresh and in limited quantities.  Fresh Tuna is very expensive so it makes sense to order only enough for the day to keep the costs down and the fish fresh.

North Poke owner Linda

 It's a tiny shop so a small group of bloggers and foodies were invited to try 3 different poke bowls and Musubi which is a Spam Sushi type of thing.

We sampled 3 poke bowls:

1. The Big Wave - Albacore Tuna, charred Jalapeno citrus dressing, black garlic, shallots and mayo.

2.  Hawaii Classic - Ahi Tuna, shoyu dressing, cucumber, onions, nori, toasted sesame, fried shallots, avocado, macadamia nuts, house aoili, green onions and seaweed salad.

3.  Waimea -  Salmon, togarashi aoili, avocado, edamame, pickled onion, seaweed salad and fried shallots.

I think this is also the order of my preference.  The Big Wave was light and creamy and a nice balance of flavours.

The great thing about North Poke is that it comes in 3 sizes.  A snack size, the regular size and the large size.  The prices range from just over $5 to about $15.

This is a great fast fresh lunch on the run.  Grab a bowl and go.  It's the perfect fast food.  They do all the chopping and assembling and you just eat and go.

The shop is tiny but very cute with little kitchy touches like ukelele's on the wall and Hawaiian inspired art.  This shop fits perfectly in the Kensington market area with diverse original foods that have a lot of whimsy in the spaces.  It's the cutest Poke shop that I have seen so far.

Check it out at:

North Poke
179 Baldwin Street,
Toronto, ON
info@northpoke.com
Twitter @NorthPokeTO
Instagram @NorthPoke

Jamie Oliver energizes Toronto

Jamie Oliver & Linda Matarasso

Did you ever do something for so long and felt like nothing was happening and then you start to wonder why you did it in the first place?  Well, lately I have been feeling that way.  Over 5 years ago I became a Food Revolution Ambassador to represent Jamie Oliver's vision to make people live healthier happier lives by eating better food.  I was originally inspired by his school lunch campaigns and work in the UK and USA so I joined.   But for the past few years I have been spending a lot of my time shouting to whoever will listen on social media about what he and myself and the rest of the Ambassadors were trying to do.  I kind of felt like I was in the ocean in a little boat waving for help and nobody could hear me.  I spent 5 years trying to host events and write about Food Revolution but had never actually met Jamie in person even though I had seen him at television shows and appearances in Toronto a few times.  This time was different though.

I finally got to meet Chef/Activist Jamie Oliver, the person that inspired me to join Food Revolution 5 years ago and representing his Food Revolution campaign.  Jamie was in town to do many things.  He was promoting his 2 restaurants at Yorkdale and Square One in Mississauga and also his new cookbook Super Food Family Classics and he did lots of media interviews a Press Conference Panel and a chat with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Ambassadors around Toronto were invited to go to Jamie's relatively new restaurant Jamie's Italian at Yorkdale for a dinner and Q&A for media and other influencers.  They set aside a very long table for a sit down dinner after Jamie's chat with the media and we were given loads of food.  We were told he would pop by to say hi but as we got through our dinner we didn't think that was going to happen and then someone spoke to Jamie and he came over finally.

He sat down with us and listened to what we have been doing and what we wanted him to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his chat with him the next day.

He had a very long day and was probably extremely jet lagged but he was still full of passion and energy when speaking about what he wanted to do for his Childhood Obesity campaign.

Jamie Oliver and Senator Nancy Green Reine

He invited us to attend a Press Conference panel discussion that was held at the Evergreen Brickworks the next morning with some very important people who were all involved in creating change in the area of Childhood Obesity.  Nick Saul the CEO of Community Food Centres Canada was the moderator.

Members of the panel included:

• Dr. Jan Jux, Chief Sciences Officer, Canadian Diabetes Association
• Dr. Tom Warshawski, Pediatrician and Chair of the Childhood Obesity Foundation
• Geoff Craig, Chief Marketing Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• Honourable Senator Nancy Greene Raine
• Nathan Sing, Student at Ryerson University

They discussed some statistics about sugar consumption, rates of childhood obesity, and many other health concerns that will increase if changes aren't made now.

Jamie has so much energy and passion and he captivated the room as he stood up in his Canadian Tuxedo to discuss his plan to support changes in Canada through new policies that the Prime Minister makes.

I think the Ambassadors took up half of the small gathering of people.  We all got re-energized from Jamie's passion and enthusiasm.

After the Press Conference and his one on one interviews with the media he set aside time with us to do a Facebook Live with all of us.  We all tried to get our 2 cents in as Jamie shared his thoughts to the Facebook World.  It was so fun.  He asked us to tweet a message at 3pm that would get attention before his meeting with Justin Trudeau at 4pm.

We added the hashtag #JamieSpeaks4FoodRev so if you check that on twitter you can see all of our messages.

And after much love, food and attention for a couple of days then he was gone but left us all fired up ready to do whatever we can to help people lead healthier better lives.

We finally got acknowledged and thanked for our efforts and it really helped to legitimize what we have been doing individually on our own.

After spending a couple of days listening to him speak I remembered why I got inspired to join in the first place.  I agree with everything he says about food and health.  It's all about balance and education.  People need the knowledge to make the right choices and they also need access to fresh food and water to be able to live their lives fully and have a fighting chance to reach their potential.

Jamie's energy is contagious and we all got energized from his presence.
Let's see what the Toronto Team can do this year.  One of the Super Ambassadors from the Netherlands said it crossed the pond to her too.

JOIN THE REVOLUTION 

www.foodrevolution.org

Visit Jamie's 2 Jamie's Italian Restaurants in Canada at Yorkdale and Square One.

Jamie's Italian