Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - White Gold (and a missed opportunity?)

White Gold (and a missed opportunity?

What is whitish, mottled, lumpy, pungent, and might generally be qualified as visually underwhelming and unattractive, yet is a luxury food that normally costs in the range of $7 - 8,000 per Kilo?

My wife and I had the opportunity to find out just before Christmas at a $60 per plate event held at Konoba, the Croatian restaurant and lounge in Hess Village. The answer is of course a sought-after seasonal delicacy Tuber magnatum Pico. That’s white truffle to you and me, and no, we’re not talking the chocolate kind. Rather we were sampling the elusive fungus hunted with dogs (really – there are lots of videos on YouTube) in the Motovun forest in Istria, Croatia.

The white truffle is truly a luxury item available in the fall through to December. They are tasty (more on that below) and aromatic beyond belief, which is why dogs (and pigs) can be trained to find them where they grow in the wild. The most highly prized are from Italy and Croatia and, according to Wikipedia, stratospheric prices in the range of hundreds of thousand dollars have been paid for large specimens of a kilo or so.

We were among a small group of enthusiastic guests that joined Konoba’s Chef and co-owner, Vedran
Sostaric, his wife and partner, Sabina Bokarica, and two delightful and knowledgeable women from Toronto, Croatian wine specialist, Tamara Oswald and the Truffle lady, Wanda Srdoc, for an evening of tasting and learning.

Chef Vedran, who learned to cook from his grandmother, designed the menu to help showcase the truffles and wine. Each of the five courses featured truffles in some shape or form and there were suggested wine matches for each.

For example we started with mushroom soup with truffle oil and crispy prosciutto, and followed that with a salad with white truffle vinaigrette and black truffle bruschetta. Shell-shaped pasta came with a creamy truffle sauce and for an additional $15 a goodly portion of fresh white truffle was shaved over it.

I’ve used truffle oil, so was familiar with the base flavour, but had never tasted the fresh product. The marbled flakes of the actual fungus were way more intense than the oil, yet complex, subtle and, yes, luxurious. So, how did it taste? Well, it tasted of truffles, which is a way of saying that there is nothing else like it. It was earthy in a good way, and when I asked my wife for her impression she said “you’d be hard-pressed to describe the taste of a banana as anything but banana. It’s like that.”

Wanda Srdoc, who numbers many of the GTA’s top chefs among her clientele, was an enthusiastic fount of knowledge about truffles and truffle lore. One of the highlights of the evening was watching the expressions of guests as they got to smell a plate of whole tubers – harvested and/or sourced by her family in Istria – as they were passed around. Rapturous comes to mind. A host of truffle products from oil and butter to salt, honey and pâté and are available via her website along with gift packs and special truffle shavers.

Tamara Oswald, founder of Croatian wine importers Mirus Wines and Spirits spoke about the various wines available during the evening. She told us most Croatian wines are sold in Europe so there is little marketing done in North America. I got to try a few (kindly comped by Sabina and Tamara) and was surprised by the reasonable pricing and variety on offer. A Chardonnay-coloured 2010 Zilavka from Citluk winery in Herzegovina was fruity and a fine pairing with our early courses.

On the red side a 2008 Zlatan Plavac Barrique (2008), cellared at 70 meters below sea level and a cousin of Zinfandel, had good colour, nice nose and a bit of tannin. It paired well with the delicious Porcini-White Truffle rubbed steak that preceded a hazelnut bombe torte with shaved truffle chocolate. I also got to try a white 2012 Zlahtina, imported by Treamici wines. It came from the rocky Adriatic island of Krk and, reminiscent of a dry Riesling, would be a good match for seafood.

Frankly we were lucky to have entrepreneurs like Vedran and Sabina organize this sort of high-calibre, yet relatively modestly-priced event in Hamilton; Torontonians flock to them at double the price point. I can understand Chef’s disappointment that more people did not come out. (And bring on the criticism about this being too highfalutin for Hamilton: I don’t believe it for a moment and continue to believe our region is poised for culinary greatness.)

During an interview, Sostaric re-iterated his comments made when I first met him in early 2013, saying despite its safety he thinks people continue to be wary of coming to dine in the Village, given its past reputation. That, coupled with an evident, continuing frustration in dealing with the City (a refrain I have heard from other Chefs in Hamilton) has him and Sabina re-considering their investment in Hamilton.

Given the limited number of days Konoba is currently open (Thurs-Sat 5-10 pm) I fear that the owners may further retrench to concentrate on their other (Toronto) establishments (Rakia Bar). That would be Hamilton’s loss. But, in the interim – and perhaps to help tip the balance – check out their website and drop by or attend one of their events.

At worst, the GO Train service to TO is now every half hour…

For 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.