Meat on the Ossington

I just spent $$ on food and wine at what could possibly be the most mouth-watering gastronomical delight I’ve encountered in a very long time. Union opened up in July on the Ossington strip, adding to the growing number of fine-dining restaurants. It looks like the rest; long, narrow, with exposed brick, but the food is something else. When you’ve been eating mediocre meals for a while, suddenly slow cooked, locally raised and braised fresh food leaves your taste buds heightened and your appetite satiated in a way you didn't really know existed. Okay, well, maybe you eat much better than I do.

(Pics courtesy of their website.)

My party and I split the venue's sliders and Haddock cakes to start with. What made their sliders different? Elk meat! Elk bite-sized burgers, cooked medium-rare, peppery in flavour, sitting atop challah toast which was doused in some sort of sweet dressing. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of sliders (in descending order of goodness; Milestones, Pauper’s Pub, Burger Shoppe...), and I think I can never go back. As for the Haddock cake, I don't even really like fish, and this was scrumptious, served to us on a bed of greens, with a really zesty dijon mustard (yay mustard!) sitting on the side.

For the main course, which we shared, we chose the pasta special of the day: home-made gnocchi (I’ve never tasted any gnocchi like this, even in Italy), with braised beef short rib (so tender it melted into the sauce) amd baby bok choy, sitting in an almost-sweet beef broth. Have you ever thought to mix the two (gnocchi and braised beef!!?? Or bok choy??) It was with my first bite of gnocchi and braised beef combined when I realized that the meat in this restaurant must be all around spectacular, not only because of what was going on in my mouth at the time, but also because the couple next to us was salivating over their rare prime ribs for two. It’s sooo great to find great meat. I also had two different glasses of red off their different, but good, wine list. They were $$, but worth it. I'm afraid I don't remember what I ordered... and I didn't chat with the sommelier.

It didn't end with the good meat and wine. I chose the flourless chocolate cake for dessert, debating between that and their apple crumble, and folks, it was near organismic (I'm pretty sure I have intolerance to white flour/wheat/gluten or all of the above so this was quality). Seriously. I've never had such good cake before. And I love chocolate cake. And this wasn’t just my opinion; my date, a self-proclaimed foodie, was in earnest agreement.

So, before you go and check it out, appetizers were in the $10+ range, wine list $10+ range, entrees started from about $20 up. But it is worth the money. Treat yourself! It was a Tuesday night and it was pretty full all evening. Here's an added bonus - their food is all locally purchased (at least within the 100 mile diet range), and organic. 

Next on the meat agenda - the Black Hoof. Charcuterie and cheeses?? Sadly I can’t really digest the latter, so I’ll stay away but I’ll let you know how it goes either way. Tried to go there once, but it was closed for renos. It reopened though. Want to join??

S. 

PS. For a more inexpensive variety of meats -burgers to be exact -,good beer, a decent and eclectic wine list, within a non-pretentious setting (a rareity in the Ossington strip these days!), try the Burger Shoppe. Yum, Yum.

It's Canadian Music Week! Here's something American.

Hi! It's me, e! Did you have a good winter?

I'm back in Toronto (well, the suburbs anyway) and loving the crisp weather and wide open spaces. Hong Kong was great, but there's something about Toronto that puts a spring in my step and a twinkle in my eye (not unlike what show tunes do for NPH). Or maybe that's just the reflection off the snow. It didn't help that during the descent into YYZ the flight attendant announced that Canada had just won hockey gold. It was like a Molson Canadian commercial, but in the air. And without the beer. Eh?

So, real quick, I just wanted to share some tunes with you. I apologize that it's not Canadian. However, Ontarian Timber Timbre and Vancouverite Dan Mangan are playing this Thursday March 11 at the Great Hall. Check them out if you can, cuz they're great.

You might remember the morning benders from our previous posts. The boys' newest album, Big Echo, is out today, and they are all over the internet promoting it, from blogging to tweeting to appearances on major music blogs. Still relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, the band (more specifically, their new label Plus One) has embarked on an ambitious media blitz trying to promote their album release (like making it easy for people like me to embed their album on my blog, even though I don't really know how I even did that).

Here it is for you to stream. You can catch the guys at the Drake Hotel on April 14th (tickets available at Soundscapes and elsewhere). I'll be the one in the front, starry eyed, notepad in hand.

I'm partial to Excuses. What do you think?

e