A Taste of History with Glenfiddich at the Spoke Club (via Good Food Revolution)

One doesn’t simply walk into a liquor store with a fist full of cash looking for an expensive hobby.  Scotch lovers are a refined, passionate bunch who are serious about their drink. I felt extremely fortunate to join the world famous Ian Millar (Global Brand Ambassador for Glenfiddich) and Ian MacDonald (Head Cooper, Glenfiddich) at the Spoke Club for a master’s class tasting of single malt scotch. Getting right down to business we started with … Read More

via Good Food Revolution

Food and Workers of Brickworks Slowfood Picnic 2010 – A Photo Essay (via Good Food Revolution)

Ivy Knight and I put together a photo essay for the Brickworks last weekend.

Photos by Kristina Groeger, words by Ivy Knight Smoked trout from Milford Bay with fresh horseradish from Red’s Chef Mike Steh and Poissonier Matthew Simpson. This salad was responsible for making the sun come out. -Ivy Knight The queen of local sustainability and biodynamics Lauren Wilton, served a mean minestrone soup from Enoteca Sociale.  Unfortunately for you, her outfit was not see-through or animal print.  – Kristina Groeger Ivy poses with … Read More

via Good Food Revolution

BrewDog’s 55% Beer Strongest and Most Expensive in History

55% Beer, inside a taxedermied rodent in a tuxedo for a very high price.

This 55% beer should be drank in small servings whilst exuding an endearing pseudo vigilance and reverence for Mr Stoat. This is to be enjoyed with a weather eye on the horizon for inflatable alcohol industry Nazis, judgemental washed up neo-prohibitionists or any grandiloquent, ostentatious foxes.

The End of History: The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fukuyama this was the end point of man’s political evolution and consequently the end of history. The beer is the last high abv beer we are going to brew, the end point of our research into how far the can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.

*Update* The End of History is now sold out. But you can still buy some of our other limited edition, crazy high ABV beers. Buy the 32% Tactical Nuclear Penguin and the 41% (yes 41%) Sink the Bismarck! here: http://www.brewdog.com/product.php?id=47

The End of History from BrewDog on Vimeo.

CRFA Show 2010

Ah, the CRFA show.

In a nutshell, it’s a packed showroom with everything relating to the restaurant world that you can imagine. Food competitions, tilt skillet retailers, kangaroo meat companies, snow cone makers, popcorn machines, banquette resellers. The list goes on and on.

The best part of course, were the beer “samples”. “Can I have one, oh and one for my friend?”. Thanks to Amsterdam and Mill Street Breweries. The sad and tired looks on your faces didn’t go unnoticed, despite our coming back to your booths two hundred times.  If a person could get a liquor license in that joint I am certain they would make a fortune. Everyone was lining up for alcohol thinking it was the %#@ food and wine show!

Lauren and I got up on the stage with Rob Montgomery to receive a lesson on mixing a perfect whiskey sour.  Kevin Brauch and his rosy cheeks had left earlier to proceed onto another event.

We saw Chef Lynn Crawford do a demo on Berkshire pork from Black Bow Farms Inc.  What lovely people.

Here are some photos from the event:

Wine: Single Tasting Tubes

For those of us who can’t afford a ten year-old bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a company called Wineside is offering fancy wines in a 0.01 liter package.

Coming in a small, slender vile a controlled atmosphere filling guarantees spoiling or alteration of the original wine.  “The taste is trapped inside ready to be released into your mouth!”

You can even mix and match.  Available are: Pessac Léognan, Saint Emilion Grand Cru, Pomerol, Châteauneuf du Pape, Médoc, Côtes de Bourg, Blaye, Sauternes, Bandol, Banyuls, Maury, Muscat de Rivesaltes, Rivesaltes Ambré, Bas Armagnacs XO, to name a few.

Alcohol Pills

Remember watching the Jetsons when you were a kid and thinking how neat it was when they ate their meals in pill form?

Welcome to 2009.  We now have alcohol pills!

Considering there is no taste or satiation in a pill, theoretically it could be quite dull.  The only advantage I can see is not having to cart around heavy cases of beer.

The (g)astrophysicists are going to go ape for this, I’m sure.

“Russian professor Evgeny Moskalev of Saint Petersburg Technological University has evolved a technique that allows turning alcohol into powder and packing it in pills. The new technique can solidify any kind of alcohol, including whisky, cognac, wine and beer.

“Dry” vodka can be wrapped in paper and carried around in a pocket or a bag. Vodka in form of a pill would come handy at parties when “consumers” would be able to calculate their exact required dosage.”

Via: Times of India

Gourmet Food and Wine Show, 2009, Toronto

Ah, alcohol samplers.  What an amazing time we had.

We sampled wine from China, Turnip flavoured Greek tree sap liqueur, 20 year old port and cognac.  The best value was the TAG booth in which you could have a full glass of beer for one ticket.

I think we should just delete the word food from the event.  I think the only thing I ate here was a deep-fried, vermicelli wrapped prawn. Whenever I attempted to access some food, a wall of drunken people stopped me.  I was more interested in maintaining my buzz.

This night was also my first time at the Black Hoof (I know, finally).  Yes, it’s as good as they say.  I had the peanut butter and jelly foie gras.  I’m glad after all that alcohol that I can remember the dish.  It takes a lot of deliciousness to poke through the cloud of memory loss that is the Gourmet Food and Wine Show.

Photos:

Bourbon Soaked Pork Chops with Roasted Parsley Parsnips and Ontario Peach Compote

I had a hankering for pork yesterday, so I got out my imaginary pork sword and threw together this dish.

Since I was having a very bourbon-y night, I took a less than stellar iPhone pic.

Recipes:

Apple Jacks / Bourbon

Let me tell you something.

I’ve been on a wild search for a new cocktail. Believe-you-me I’ve found it.

After modifying a recipe for bourbon soaked pork I decided to try out a drink called an “apple jack”.

You can use Jack Daniels, but I decided to try this new bourbon from the LCBO:

Apple Jacks:

Fill glass with ice.
1 oz bourbon/whiskey
8 oz apple juice

Enjoy!

Yee HAWWW

*** Update:
After the second or third drink we decided that it was better to fill the glass full of ice, half with apple juice and the rest soda water.  The apple juice was too sweet after a while.

Gazela, Vinho Verde

This little semi-carbonated treasure was introduced to me by my friend Max.

Brought to you from Portugal from Charton Hobbs, it goes down easy. “Gazela is a light, fresh, young and floral wine. Serve chilled at 6 – 8ºC, as an aperitif, with salads, fish or seafood.”

Considering it’s under 9$ in the LCBO, what do you have to lose?

Thanks, Max!