Winterlicious: Scarpetta

Scarpetta

550 Wellington Street West

Toronto, ON M5V 2V8

Tel: (416) 601-3590

For our second Winterlicious dinner, we tried Scarpetta, a trendy restaurant in the Thompson Hotel (which we had the pleasure of visiting for a previous event). This was the Toronto location of the acclaimed Italian restaurant know for their signature spaghetti and polenta.

Scarpetta has their own entrance at the Hotel and we were greeted by friendly hostesses. Coats checked, they took our party of four to our table by the tall shelves of wine (which caused the customers beside us to shuffle out of their seats when the sommelier wanted to reach a certain wine behind them - ekks, not a great way to layout the restaurant).

Our waitress came by and asked if we wanted any drinks, we politely declined as we had just sat down and were debating what to order. I don't know about you, but we always look at food first, drinks (if we're in the mood) second. Here's the strange part, after she took our order and asked if we wanted a drink again, we said we would now take a look at the drink menu. But she took it away!

Regardless, our bread basket came out shortly and we found ourselves enjoying a delicious roll of pizza bread. At the moment, we also asked someone if we could see the drink menu. Seeing us looking through the menu, our waitress returned to take our order. We had a few in mind, but also asked for drink recommendations and she explained to us that she hadn't tried any so that she wouldn't be able to let us know which ones were good! We did end up trying a couple of drinks but felt that she could have done a better job explaining the items.

Let's move to the food, which was why we were there in the first place!

The guys at the table ordered the braised short ribs of beef with vegetables and farro risotto. No complaints here, they both agreed that it was very tasty.

The rest of us tried the spiced winter squash soup with goat cheese dumplings and farro. When it was set down on our place mats, this soup smelled amazing! It reminded us of a really good pho broth - which was very surprising, how does squash end up smelling like pho? If you're wondering, they soup did not taste like pho, but a very nicely composed squash soup. My only complaint would that I would have liked it to be hotter in temperature. But those goat cheese dumplings? So delicious and fun to eat!

While I was mocked and laughed at by Howard for ordering spaghetti, I was going to try their signature dish! It may look like a small pile of spaghetti, but even portioning off most of it to the rest of our group to try, it was really filling. Some parmesan cheese would have been a nice touch!

Howard went with the roasted chicken with cauliflower, cippolini (onions), and finger noodles served with a fegato sauce.

Our friend tried the striped bass with a parsnip purée, hedgehog mushrooms, and a brown butter froth.

This is probably a first that every main was ordered by our dinner party! The last one was the pancetta wrapped pork tenderloin with mustard seed braised lentils, butternut squash, and fresh guanciale (a pig's cheek bacon).

The same went for desserts, we tried all the items on the menu.

The Amedei chocolate cake with Baileys ice cream and an espresso sauce. The cake was incredibly rich and had a little bit of molten happening.

The cheesecake with carmelized port marinated berries. The cheesecake was nice and soft, didn't have an overpowering cheese flavour - a nice balance that I enjoy.

We had two of these at the table. A selection of ice cream and sorbet. That night's trio was an apple sorbet, cinnamon ice cream, and Baileys ice cream. From the shrieks of delight, the apple sorbet was the night's winner.

The verdict? While the food was good and service was acceptable, the four of us don't see a ourselves returning in the future. But it was great to have the opportunity to try it!

Summerlicious: Bymark

Bymark

66 Wellington Street West

Toronto, ON M5K 1J3

(416) 777-1144

Mark McEwan. Pretty much the reason why we picked Bymark to try during Summerlicious. He's the head judge for Top Chef Canada, so his grocery store and restaurants are pretty much featured for restaurant wars and shopping. Having tried Fabbrica, we thought we would take advantage of the prix fixe deal at one of his fancier restaurants.

Having walked by it in the underground PATH before, it was nice to finally go inside! Our party of four were greeted in the front and led to our table near the middle of the restaurant. I didn't realize how small the place was! The restaurant is dim and quiet before the dining room filled up - we felt like we had to whisper at first. =)

I felt really shy about taking my camera out during the appetizers. The room's ambiance was still hushed and I knew that the shutter sound would be unnerving to me. But regrets now, because the dishes were beautifully plated and delicious. I tried the Albacore Sashimi with shaved and pickled radish, snow peas, plums, and honey mustard yuzu (a citrus fruit). Howard tried the Beef Carpaccio with endive, Saint Agur (a type of blue cheese), herb croutons, and ranch dressing.

As the dining room filled up, our friends pointed out that lots of people had their cameras out. Sure enough, I look behind me and a group will serious camera gear were snapping away. At least my camera is still relatively small and I wasn't going to be out of my seat. . . .

I don't know, what's your take on this? I love taking photos of restaurants, dishes, and food products - but feel that some places, it doesn't seem proper to do so.

Above, Howard's main course was the BBQ Duck Confit and Seared Scallop with sweet peas, cauliflower, northwood mushrooms, passion fruit, and duck sauce. Howard was kind enough to give me a bite of the duck - it was very tasty! Sorry that the scallops are blocking the view in the photo!

I tried the Pan Seared White Fish with green curry lentils, prawns, and coriander scallion chutney. Comparing it to the duck confit, it just wasn't as good. We found the halibut a bit dry (more chutney would have helped) and bland. I should have ordered the duck!

For dessert, Howard's Tart Lemon Slice with honey lavender ice cream. I think he liked the ice cream more than the lemon tart!

I ended the night with a Double Chocolate Cake with minted white chocolate mousse. It looks like a fancy cupcake, doesn't it?

Little Red Car Chocolate Birthday Cake

This is turning out to be quite the birthday weekend. Here is a cake we made that is simple and full of decadence! Chocolate cake lightly iced in chocolate ganache. We really like the drop effect of the chocolate ganache on the sides. Brian is turning two and really like toy cars, so we made a little red car from fondant as a cake topper.

Happy Birthday Brian!

Fondant decorations drying on powdered sugar and wax paper.


Decadent chocolate ganache on chocolate cake.

Zoom!

Maple and Chocolate

So, was anyone wondering what happened to that 6-inch cake from our previous post on our Hedgehog Cupcakes? Well, after dinner last night with Howard's parents we met up with friends to watch a movie. Our meeting place? A Wal-Mart Superstore. So we couldn't help but pick up some baking ingredients and maple extract!

The afternoon sun wants the tip of our cake!

Maple Buttercream

(Makes about 1 cup)

1/2 a stick of butter

1 cup of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon of pure maple extract

1 1/2 teaspoons of water

1. Using a mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
2. Add in the sugar and mix until well blended.
3. Add the maple extract and mix until smooth and fluffy.
4. Slowly add each teaspoon of water until you achieve the consistency you like.
5. Scoop the buttercream into a piping bag and pipe out an even swirl to fill the cake. Leftover buttercream can be used on extra cupcakes!

Piping a giant swirl to fill the cake!

Chocolate Cupcake with Maple Buttercream

Yum! The cake and maple buttercream combination was delicious! It reminded us of maple glazed donuts from Tim Horton's! With a cup of hot tea, this is a great winter snack!