Two weeks ago Mac and I drove up to Toronto to visit Julie (our previous, beloved studio manager) and her husband. We packed a lot of great food, wine and laughter into three days.
We’d plotted a weekend of culinary adventure, cooking from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking!! From the moment I walked into Julie’s apartment, I was put to work skinning tiny cipolini onions and scraping perfect champignons!! We were about to undertake the famous Boeuf Bourguignon!! Now infamous as the dish that Julie Powell incinerated in the movie Julie and Julia! We braised onions and carefully fried mushrooms. We carefully seared the boeuf and tipped a lot of wine into the pot. Following the recipe to the letter and keeping ourselves in fits of laughter doing very bad impressions of Julia Child. Vive la Julia!!
Unlike Julie P or Julia C, while the Boeuf Bourguignoned itself, we shot off to the rooftop terrace at Panorama Lounge, 51 stories above Toronto, drinking wine while the sun set over the Islands, New York state just a hazy smudge across Lake Ontario. Much later we served our Boeuf with tiny potatoes, peas and plenty of red wine just as suggested in the book. Delish!
The following day after a brisk stroll at Cherry Beach, we bought lobsters from a fab Chinese market. That night we steamed 6 of them à la Julia Child in wine and herbs. Divine. Who knew steamed lobsters were so much more succulent?
Toronto has a fabulous historic covered Food Market, The St Lawrence Market where we ate breakfast in the diner after our walk. Later that day we had an hilarious trip up the CN Tower bravely walking on the glass floor and reveling in the 360 degree views of this modern city and the Toronto Islands. A snow cloud rolled past dropping white flakes upon the cherry blossom 1122 feet below us at street level! The city has a European feel in many areas, Bloor-Yorkville is the upscale shopping village, lots of glam hotels, stores and restaurants. My fav was the very gorgeous Teatro Verde , a super eclectic house and flower boutique. Holt Renfrew the designer department store is famous for its great windows. A drive through the very English university grounds nearby made me a little homesick as did the Union Jack covered sofa at Teatro Verde!
After another lakeside stroll along the downtown boardwalk the next day, we lunched at the Rosedale Diner in Summerhill, a cute old diner in a rather posh part of town where leafy lanes are studded with lovely old brick and stone houses.
Needless to say, food and wine kept flowing until we left on Monday for the long drive home, both ready for a week of water and salad. No butter please!!