Food for Thought with Alex Bielak- Sips and bites July 2013

Cornerstone Winery - Jerry and Nina Kopanski

Sips and Bites - July 2013  A great deal is going on and while I present some highlights here, I’d invite readers to mention other events in the comments section.

The July 18-24, 2013 edition of Hamilton’s View Magazine is their annual “Best of Food 2013” Edition and you can see the winners (located in both Hamilton and Burlington) on the website or simply extract the double fold ratings from the print edition for future reference. While there are some well-deserved victors, I’m frankly surprised at who’s missing from the list, but who am I to argue with the voters?

I’m always astonished at the number of categories people get to vote in, and thankful the ratings here are simple (gold, silver) rather than the confusing categorizations I’ve seen elsewhere and which I suspect are made up to further maximise advertising revenue. (Do we really need four sandwich categories over and above subs and pitas? Who knows if Platinum trumps Gold but not Diamond?)

A possible future contender when it opens in late summer (Sept?) may be the 28 Lister Chophouse Grill
which is slowly taking form at 28 James Street North in the iconic Lister Block. It promises “a 1920s-inspired New York-style chophouse menu with a patio, bar area and chef’s table.” Visit their nascent website to sign up for updates and the chance to win one of two hefty gift certificates. The restaurant will also showcase the works from local artists and is already partnering with Lister Arts – owned and run by artists Brendon Coulter and Valerie Cousens – to do so.

Taste of Burlington begins this weekend through August 5th: Attended by over 300, the launch event was apparently a great event, and the organizers kindly provided pictures of the winning dishes as adjudged by the public and a panel of celebrity judges. (You can see those via the photo link at the end of this article.) I’ve mentioned this excellent prix fixe promotion before, and would encourage readers to get out and give a new place a try. For instance the Persian eatery Rayhoon is on the list of 24 participating restaurants, and my family had a very pleasant supper there recently, experiencing some unfamiliar, but tasty, flavour profiles. I’m personally looking forward to trying the $15 lunch at Amaya Express: This new addition to our restaurant scene is an outpost of the well-reputed Amaya group which has several locations in Toronto.

The 5th Niagara Egg Fest is slated for August 11th. Organized by the visionaries at Stoney Creek-based Lakeshore Living it is a celebration of the Big Green Egg. This amazing grilling and smoking apparatus (it’s an oven too) has a near-fanatical following, including myself. To experience first-hand some of the amazing things Egg-heads can whip up (OK maybe smoke overnight), sign up for the event which will be held at Hernder Estates Winery in Saint Catharines. Incidentally, I was delighted to bump into Tim Brown, a BGE rep, at Weeks Home Hardware in Waterdown a couple of weeks ago where I learned Home Hardware has just begun to carry the Eggs, a full range of accessories and spice rubs.

My last column, about Vinexx, a Hamilton wine business, ran long and I was not able to cram in a mention of a new fave wine. Cornerstone Estate’s 2010 barrel-aged Gewurtz (17$) has the fragrant, rosaceous nose associated with the varietal, but also interesting depth and body as a result of ten months barrel ageing. I wish I had more space to relate my recent visit there with friends from Ottawa (cheers Rick and Kunthi!), and our informative chat with the owner Jerry Kopanski and his lovely daughter Nina. To mention just one tidbit, since 2012 all their red and white wines are naturally fermented…

I had also wanted to mention that wine writer Natalie Maclean (a link to her site features on the Vinexx web pages) wrote to me after a recent column saying she enjoyed it, and to let me know the results were in for “The Great Canadian Wine Match” she had organised. She wryly observed “the web truly is the wild west of opinion” and I’d have to agree: I would not have thought that Nova Scotian wines would have featured so prominently among the winners (two of six) of this Maclean reader-driven ranking, and I was interested, but not surprised, to learn that my old greengrocer from when I lived in Halifax, the inimitable Pete Luckett of Pete’s Frootique, now also operates his own winery! I do have friends out east (Hi Linda and Rob) who swear by at least some NS wines so, if you can source them, give them a shot. Only one Niagara wine was among the winners: Le Clos Jordanne’s 2007 Le Grand Clos Chardonnay (the 2009 vintage is available at the LCBO: 34561 for $65) was declared Canada’s Best Wine with Chicken.

Once again I’ve run out of space. I meant to describe my meeting with two wonderful innovators at the Innovation Factory’s Innovation Night Showdown this week. Look for a profile of Growing Green Hamilton’s Dean Hale, and Menusonly.com’s Marie Pavone in an upcoming column.

But, before I sign off, a shameless plug. I have my first-ever short piece about what makes for a great sushi restaurant appearing in the new summer print edition of Hamilton Magazine. (It’s based on the wisdom of Sushi Master Simon Wong of Matsuri Sushi, as featured in FFT014). In the same issue Barbara Ramsay Orr has one of her regular, excellent articles about  Korean BBQ.

Bon appetit. 

To see more pictures, click here. 

Alex (Alex can be reached at fft@thehamiltonian.info ) or on twitter @AlexBielak

Food for Thought logo, designed and kindly donated by Ninka Bielak. Ninka can be reached at ninka.bielak@gmail.com.