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TERRIFIC
TAKE-AWAY
From Now Toronto
HOT TAKEOUT SPOTS CATER TO YOUR EVERY CULINARY NEED
BY STEVEN DAVEY
VERY GOOD FOOD (1193 St. Clair West, at Dufferin, 416-656-2928)
This stylish café run by the Picheca sisters – Christine
is the former pastry chef at Agora in the AGO – offers upscale
soups ’n’ sandwiches to eat in, prepared salads and
mains to go and pan-global gourmet catering. Complete catered meals
from $15 per person, including all taxes and tip. Open Tuesday to
Friday 11 am to 6 pm, Saturday 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Sunday, Monday
and holidays. Unlicensed.
Access: barrier-free, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNN
holiday entertaining doesn’t have to be a hassle. And your
menu doesn’t have be a clichéd lineup of pigs-in-blankets,
shortbread cookies and the nog of the egg. You can just sit back,
relax and let the caterer do the work
One of the newest arrivals on the St. Clair West scene is Very Good
Food, a charming, modish café with a lineup of tasty takeout.
After a stint at Mildred Pierce and as pastry chef at Agora in the
AGO, Christine Picheca opened this gourmet storefront with her sister
Donna last summer. Quite simply, Very Good is very good.
Picheca’s prowess with pastry exhibits itself in chicken pot
pie ($6), a beautifully crusted single serving rich with roasted
chicken, onion, spuds and squash swimming in gravy. Equally lovely
to look at, poached, sushi-grade, very-rare-centred salmon ($6)
with lemon aioli over watercress tastes even better, topped with
“flowers” made of pink pickled onion and tissue-thin
cucumber.
Salads, too, demonstrate a strong graphic sensibility. What could
be more brilliantly festive than red roasted pear and pomegranate
salad ($3), especially when paired with ruby-veined green Swiss
chard, red leaf lettuce and arugula dressed in sweet cider and Dijon
vinaigrette? Or al dente orzo and wild rice ($5) with celery and
scallion crunch in light walnut oil amplified with smashed walnut
pieces?
If you’re planning a cocktail party and only need nibbles,
risotto croquettes stuffed with soft fontina cheese, curried beef
in phyllo cigars with delicious chili-spiked mango jam, and smoked
chicken ’n’ quince chutney in dim sum-style phyllo bundles
($1.50 each) are sure to impress.
For those insisting on the whole sit-down deal, Very Good’s
all-inclusive holiday special ($13 per dinner, 8-person minimum)
includes chicken breast with cranberry apple chutney, two salads
(as well as the magnificent pear and pomegranate, there’s
butternut squash with chickpeas and arugula), buttermilk rolls,
disposable plates and cutlery. Alcohol and annoying relatives optional.
artful artuso
MARKETTA ARTUSO (1860 Queen East, at Rainford, 416-693-4614) Complete
catered Cal-Ital meals from $15 per person, including all taxes.
Open Monday to Friday 11 am to 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday 10 am to
6 pm. Closed holidays. Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free, washrooms
in basement. Rating: NNN
the queen east block just west of Woodbine is another food magnet
– French bistro Sauvignon, tony patisserie Tournayre and gourmet
groceteria Marketta Artuso all call it home. Marketta’s known
as the only outlet in the city that sells La Paloma’s spectular
gelato, but it also offers superb pre-cooked entrées and
salads that make throwing a bash a breeze.
Unless you’re partying with Neanderthals this season, slow-cooked
fall-from-the-bone lamb shank in white wine and sage ($7.99) makes
clumsy finger food. But pancetta-wrapped chicken breast stuffed
with chèvre and sun-dried tomato and spicy eggplant penne
(both $4.99) with thick pulpy sauce and a healthy dash of superior
olive oil are buffet highlights.
Not just a buncha noodles in bland sauce, Artuso’s veggie
lasagna ($4.99) finds multiple layers of ripe tomato, zucchini and
eggplant topped with salty shavings of Reggiano and astringent basil
leaf. One of the best in town.
super citron
CITRON RETAIL (811 Queen West, at Manning, 416-504-2647) Complete
catered Mediterranean-style meals from $15 per person, including
all taxes. Open Monday to Friday 8 am to 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday
10 am to 8 pm. Unlicensed. Access: one step at door, no washrooms.
Rating: NNN
over on the west side, citron is one of the nabe’s most popular
eateries. It’s just opened a take-away right next door –
Citron Retail, not so oddly enough – offering Mediterranean-inspired
dishes that can constitute a quickly assembled spread. Many Onion
Soup ($4.95) finds scallions, shallots, leeks, Vidalia and Spanish
varieties in a hearty vegetarian broth, while sandwiches on Fred’s
baguettes, like chicken breast in medium-strength Tunisian harissa
hot sauce ($5.95), can be cut up into delectable hors d’oeuvres.
Eggy triangles of challah tossed with cubed ham and melted cheese,
garnished with rosemary, make Savoury Bread Pudding ($4.95) a cross
between silky frittata and a grilled cheese sandwich. Delish. Call
fabulous Potato Shiitake Lasagna ($5.95) with oodles of gooey Gruyère
and basil pesto “Fabulous Scalloped Potatoes” and be
closer to the mark. And don’t miss cumin- and chili-heavy
Emperor Tomato Ketchup ($4.95), soon to be as much a Citron signature
as its divine coriander pesto ($3.75).
yours truly
NATURALLY YOURS (First Canadian Place food court, King and Bay,
416-368-0100; Commerce Court food court, Bay and Wellington, 416-364-7401;
and 919 Kingston Road at Beech, 416-691-7055) Complete catered vegetarian
meals with many dairy- and wheat-free options from $12 per person,
including all taxes. Open Monday to Friday 8 am to 6:30 pm (Kingston
Road: Monday to Thursday 10 am to 5 pm). Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free.
Rating: NNN
year round, naturally yours is the tastiest takeout in the downtown
underground PATH system. But especially at this time of year, its
vegetarian vittles readily combine to make an alternative and festive
feast – toothsome cabbage rolls ($3.99), zucchini lasagna
($4.49), latkes (finely shredded potato, yam and root veg, $1.69
each/$17.99 dozen) and lactose- and wheat-free vegan pizza with
nutty basil pesto and sun-dried tomato on crisp unleavened flatbread
($2.79/slice). No cheese, chilies or garlic, naturally, but very
flavourful nevertheless.
Many will be surprised by the taste intensity of scary-sounding
seaweed salad – slippery hijiki, crunchy almonds, red pepper,
celery, black beans and sweet bell pepper in a zesty dressing spiked
with wasabi, soy and turbinado sugar. Couscous Carnival packs both
crunch and punch – finely diced mango, apple, Technicolour
peppers and dried cranberries over grains in a wonderful apple cider
vinaigrette. Super-grain quinoa comes mixed with cubes of meaty
tofu in garlicky honey Dijon balsamic (all $1.69/100 grams). Count
me converted.
I later learn there’d been a spicing mix-up in the kitchen,
which explains why vegetarian tourtiere ($12.99) looks exactly like
the Quebecois Christmas pork pie but is so overloaded with cloves
– cloves!? – that a slice could cure a toothache. Nice
gothic touch: a cross in the top crust formed in fork prints.
On the dessert front, gluten- and dairy-free cheesecake topped with
blueberries ($19.99) tastes almost as rich as the real thing. According
to the fine print on the packaging, Cool Hemp organic non-dairy
dessert ($5.95/500 ml) – think fake chocolate ice cream –
is cholesterol-free. It also contains zero THC. (Damn.)
For more vegan and veggie-friendly options, check out the info-packed
Web site (www.naturallyyours.ca) that allows you to arrange catering
online.
vienna cakes
VIENNA HOME BAKERY (626 Queen West, at Markham, 416-703-7278) Charming,
old-school diner with stellar baked goods. Complete meals from $10
per person, including all taxes and tip. Open Wednesday to Saturday
10 am to 7 pm. Closed Sunday to Tuesday. Unlicensed. Cash only.
Access: barrier-free but narrow room, washrooms in basement. Rating:
NNNN
not the puritanical boozeless doorstops of Christmases past, dark
fruit cakes ($13.50/pound) baked by Vienna Home Bakery’s Gay
Couillard feature fresh citrus juice and zest instead of preservative-laden
candied fruit. And she adds a healthy pour of rum. Each November
Couillard bakes over 500 pounds of these irregular rounds that also
include her own homemade plum jam and house-dried cranberries. Did
we mention plenty of rum? |
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