I spent the day in Jordan, Ontario with my friend Kelly Nemeth who owns a phenomenal chocolate store called Toute Sweet www.toute-sweet.ca. Kelly is my food mentor; she introduces me to food I’ve never eaten, and I love her for it.

It was a day of firsts for me.

Eating molecular gastronomy was like eating something from a science experiment. Chefs manipulate the texture, consistency and chemistry of food to create, something weird.  Served in a Chinese spoon, the orange coloured gooey blob was meant to cleanse my palette. The blob sat on my tongue like jello. When I pierced it with my teeth, it oozed a refreshing apricot taste.

Another first: Brunello wine. When I told a friend –who has spent time in Italy — about drinking Barbi 2001 Brunello di’Montalcino, he gasped. “You’re shitting me? That’s one of the nicest reds in Italy.” Turns out he’s right: located in a mountainous region in Tuscany, the wine is one of Italy’s most respected reds for its perfect balance of tannins and robust flavour. As one of only 2,000 wines in the world to recieve a distinction called the Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG), when the designation (ruled by strick guidelines) was introduced in 1980, only five, that’s right, five wines made the cut.

We had lunch at Peninsula Ridge’s revamped restaurant, The Kitchen House. (www.peninsularidge.com) Ross
Midgley, the head chef, moved over from Zee’s in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The old Victoria red brick, which sits on the hill, is quite the same inside — the walls have been painted purple, and there’s new
white material chairs, but it still feels like you’re inside someone’s cramped dining room. But, who gives a flying F!@k cause the food is amazing. I had a eggs benny with prosciutto. But the real treat was the wine: Peninsula Ridge Dubois Vineyards, Inox Reserve Chardonnay–a smooth white with a tad of butter after tones. I did find it odd that the wine list didn’t serve a single bottle from any other winery in the region. No wine for you, says the wine Nazi!

Walking back to the parking lot, I notice four Porches: two grey, one black and a deep navy blue. I drive a Toyota Echo — grey. Take that.

We then head to a suburban house in Beamsville. I heard about this winery a few years ago because his mom would serve pie at the kitchen table. How quaint. How sweet. I wish I met her. Daniel of DANIEL LENKO ESTATE WINERY served us taste after taste — Kelly wanted to go just to buy a case of his ChardonnGAY. A dollar from every bottle goes to AIDS research.

Our next stop, Foreign Affair (www.foreginaffairwinery.com).  Owners Marisa and Len, who work in Toronto all week the hoof it out here to serve wine all weekend, talked about their love affair with all things Italian. As expats in Italy for a time, the couple fell in love with amarone — an Italian wine whereby the grapes are dried before production. The wine tastes concentrated and stronger than ordinary wine: more sugar and more alcohol also, about 14% to 16% a bottle (most wine is 12%). All the labels have a quintessential Canadian animal, with an Italian flaire: the beaver, says ciao; the bear says abbraccio (hug in Italian). We had a Cabernet Franc 2006 that was 100% amerone. Tastes like raisins!

Finishing off the day of hedonism and girly talk, Kelly and I went to Italy, well, as close to Italy as one can get without flying eight hours –Casa Mia in Niagara Falls; I once heard that outside of Italy, Niagara Falls has the largest community of Italians in the world.  www.casamiaristorante.com.

The restaurant was abuzz…a giant dining table seated an entire Italian family celebrating a kid’s birthday. The kid couldn’t have been older than two.  “They celebrate when kids have a poop in Italy!” laughs Kelly. So true.

We began with Bresoala — a plate of local prosciutto cured by a man in the Falls named Pingue. Dollops of balsamic reduction on the side soaked into the salty meat, which was finished off with arugula (Italian for sure) and topped with sliced of thin Parmesan. Next, I moaned my way through risotto with slivers of asparagus and beef juice. Fresh and salty. Finally, we sipped our Brunello with a hunk of lamb and beet gnocchi made by Lucia, the mother hen of the Italian family restaurant. Her husband Luciana Mollica arrived from Italy decades ago and today his son Claudio is adding his touch:  “I make everything Lucia taught me but with twists.”I met the tiny short couple in the kitchen. Lucia kissed me on the cheek, twice. Luciana kissed me closer to the lips. Gotta love Italian men. Gusto even at his age.

On June 7th, Casa Mia is celebrating their 25th anniversary. Start decanting that Brunello now.

Ciao,

Melanie

Back from Sardinia, cycling the Transardinia.

First Canadian to ever do the trek; I feel like a mini celeb. It was certainly the hardest — and longest — ride of its kind I’ve ever done. To give you sense of how remote it was, I saw a calf being born. Yup, saw the little legs sticking out and everything.

I was also the only woman on the eight day ride. Six Italians, one Norwegian, and me! Thank goodness for Bjorn, the Norwegian–he was the only one that spoke English. Whef.

I’m in the midst of sending out a query to a magazine right now. Hard to capture the ride in few hundred words, so I will post some pictures. Also, to see some gems, visit a photographer’s site who was on the trip:

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http://www.pierpaoloperra.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=9

I will post more when I hear back from the magazine!

Melanie