August 29th, 2010 by Dawn Becker

When you hear someone say menudo do you think of hot, young Latin men in a famous singing group that launched Ricky Martin’s career? Or are you like me, and immediately start drooling, not because of Ricky Martin but instead, envisioning a large steaming bowl of a traditional Mexican soup made with tripe, laced with chile peppers, hominy (a large dried corn kernel but not as sweet as the peaches and cream corn we’re used to) and topped with cilantro and a fresh squeeze of lime juice.   Above a closer look at a piece of soft tripe after it’s been simmered till tender on the stove top. Not at all as frightening as one would suspect when thinking about having a piece of stewed beef stomach. Sometimes the broth is clear and other times it’s red from the type of chile used in the soup, making a version known as menudo rojo.

Anecdotally thought to be a hangover cure, menudo is delicious anytime, even for breakfast. It can be served with warmed tortillas used to scoop the tender tripe and then topped with pico de gallo made of chopped fresh tomato, onion and jalapeno (or whatever chile is preferred) marinated in salt and lime juice. While it’s hard to find menudo on restaurant menus in Toronto – it’s a home-style dish more commonly reserved for family meals – you can find the Salvadoran version of menudo, called pancita, regularly at Tacos El Asador.

But why not make it at home, the way millions of Mexican families do, simmering a pot of menudo slowly on the stove. It is surprisingly simple to make. I would start with a trip to T&T Supermarket where they have a fairly large selection of offal including tripe. Just look for “Assorted Guts”. Only in a Chinese market can you see signage for assorted guts posted indiscriminately and without the slightest bit of humour intended. Tripe can also be found in many other Asian grocery stores and sometimes in European (read Italian or Portuguese) butcher shops.

I’ve made menudo using whatever tripe is on hand whether it’s rumen (pictured below), reticulum (which has the larger honeycomb shape), or omasum which is often seen in dim sum dishes or Vietnamese pho. Rumen has the best texture for menudo but as long as you simmer the version of tripe you have long enough so that it is meltingly tender then it’s really no matter in the end.  The most important part of making menudo is ensuring the tripe is clean. Tripe is typically sold in packages pre-cleaned where it will appear imcomprehensibly white. The problem with this is that it’s been cleaned with a portion of bleach that will leave an odour in your soup if you don’t get rid of it by first boiling it in a pot of water with a tablespoon of Kosher salt for 5 or 10 minutes.

Alternatively you can soak it in clean water for an hour. Discard any water used in the bleach removal process. The best test to ensure that you’ve soaked or boiled your tripe long enough so the ungainly chlorine scent won’t taint your final product is simple: Smell it. If there’s even a lingering hint of a swimming pool you need to boil it longer or if soaking, drain the water and re-soak in clean water.

You will also need a calf’s foot which you should also be able to get from the same Asian market. Ask the butcher at the counter to cut the calf’s foot in half for you. And finally, the last major ingredient is a can of hominy which you can get where they sell Latin American products.

If you’re in Kensington Market, stop by Perola Supermarket or Emporium Latino to choose from a variety of canned hominy. You can pick up your chile peppers, cilantro and limes near by too.

Mexican Menudo (Tripe Soup)

1 package of tripe (about 1 1/2 lb) preferably rumen (honeycomb tripe is also fine)

6 cups of water (more, if bleach removal process is required)

1 Tbsp canola oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. Kosher salt (plus 1 Tbsp, if bleach removal process is required)

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1 calf’s foot, cut in half

1 15 oz (425 g) can of hominy

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 limes, cut into wedges

1 jalapeno, sliced thin (or your choice of hot chile pepper)

6 soft tortilla shells

Wash tripe. If there is a strong bleach odour, boil in water with 1 Tbsp of salt until no odour remains about 5 or 10 minutes. Remove tripe, cut into 1” x 2” pieces and set aside. Discard boiled water.

In a clean pot, heat oil on medium high heat. Add onions and sautee until nearly translucent about 3 minutes. Add garlic, salt and oregano. Return the tripe pieces to the pot. Add the calf’s foot and cover with water. Simmer, covered for about 3 hours or until the tripe and calf’s foot is very tender. Add the undrained can of hominy. Cover and simmer another 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with chopped cilantro, lime wedges, jalapeno slices and warmed tortilla shells. Serves 6.

Options: If you prefer to have your menudo spicy right out of the pot, you can add the jalapeno slices when you add the hominy. You can also squeeze the juice of half a lime directly into the pot at the end and serve with extra lime wedges as a garnish, if you prefer to cut the tripe soup with more acidity. I also enjoy stirring in 1/2 of the chopped cilantro leaves into the pot at the end when you take the soup off the heat. Doing this creates a beautifully fresh burst of green cilantro aroma in the air. Be sure to serve extra cilantro on the side.

August 10th, 2010 by Dawn Becker

When I went to Tokyo I became addicted to onigiri the very first time I tried it. Onigiri is a ball or triangle-shape of Japanese rice wrapped in nori (roasted seaweed sheets) stuffed with fillings like spicy tuna, umeboshi (pickled plum), and other savouries. You could find these tasty gems almost anywhere including convenience stores like 7-Eleven. It was at Ueno Station that I had my first onigiri and it was filled with fresh ikura or salmon roe. Biting through the crunchy seaweed and discovering that the divinely tender rice housed a healthy spoonful of salty bulging salmon eggs was sheer delight and my first delicious food memory of Japan.

In Toronto, we are fortunate to be able to get our hands on onigiri at a few places. My favourite by far are the ones you can find at Sanko, the Japanese food and gift shop located at Claremont and Queen Street West. Pictured above is a small sample of the variety that are available. My favourite isn’t shown – the organic eggplant – because that version never makes it all the way home. More than likely I’ll be trying to drive and shift gears while I undo the cello wrapper with my teeth all without breaking the nori sheet. As soon as the cello is off, I have to eat the onigiri right away while the seaweed is still crunchy.

Here is a close up view of the instructions for removing the cello. Done this way, the nori sheet stays intact, folding around the rice so your hands don’t get messy. Essentially, Step 1 is to peel back the tab at the top and pull it completely around the onigiri and off. Step 2, while holding the onigiri with your left hand pull the right side of the cello off. And finally, Step 3, remove the remaining cello wrapper completely and then take a bite. Think about doing that while driving with one hand and using your teeth. It’s doable.

You can also find the Korean version of onigiri, called gimbap or kimbap, at P.A.T. Central in the Bloor Street Koreatown. Next to Sanko, these onigiri are a pretty good runner up. Julian is fond of the kimchi beef and Cole likes the spicy chicken. Korean gimbap is usually made with laver which are roasted seaweed sheets that have been seasoned.

If you’re at P.A.T. Central and they’re sold out of gimbap, you might want to pick up what you need to make your own at home. All you need is some short grain Japanese rice (or even easier, buy some pre-cooked takeaway rice from a nearby restaurant), a plastic holder that you can use to pat the rice into a triangle shape available in the kitchen utensils aisle, pre-packaged seaweed in cello sheets, shown below, and whatever filling you like. I would then probably make a second stop at the St. Lawrence Market to pick up a jar of salmon roe or sushi-grade fish for the filling.

Manpuku and their new restaurant, Harapeko, located at 160 Baldwin Street, both have onigiri on the menu. The version at Manpuku is usually served while the rice is still warm and they only seem to offer what tastes like a mild tuna salad. Still it hits the spot and the rice is always perfectly tender. There were a couple more choices at Harapeko, such as mentaiko or salted cod roe shown below, but primarily Harapeko is all about the Japanese sandwich pocket so their onigiri suffers a little in quality.

Tokyo Kitchen also has onigiri on it’s menu but they make a version that only uses a thin strip of nori wrapped around the rice as an accent. To me, I need the crunch of the full sheet of fresh nori so I’d skip that and choose one of the other mouth-watering choices on the menu if I was there.

At T&T Supermarket, they offer a two-pack of onigiri for a steal at $2.99 per pack pictured above. I am usually a big fan of T&T but here you really get what you pay for. The T&T onigiri is one item YOU CAN AND SHOULD SKIP. I took one bite of the spicy salmon onigiri and immediately spit it out. The spicy salmon mixture was sour but worst of all the rice was hard. It definitely seems to be an attempt to use up old salmon and stale rice and it doesn’t work.

If you’ve had the misfortune of trying onigiri at T&T Supermarket I hope you will give onigiri another try at a different place. They can be amazing and if people start eating them regularly and asking for interesting fillings, we are sure to see more and better options offered elsewhere in Toronto.

August 1st, 2010 by Dawn Becker

Sure you’ll hear some complaining about the heat and humidity we’ve been experiencing in the Tdot. We’re Canadians and we love to kvetch† about the weather. No matter which province you live in we are fortunate enough to get a sampling of all four seasons. Admittedly, each season doesn’t get its fair share of playtime across Canada. Here in Toronto, we’re definitely not used to such a long stretch of heat but I guarantee that we’ll be ankle deep in snow around the corner and complaining about that too.

For me, I love Canada for all of its seasons and specifically Ontario, which I think has the most beautiful fall — this coming from a born and raised Vancouverite. Cool, crisp Ontario air brings with it the changing colours of leaves that run the gamut of what you visualize when you hear the word “autumn”. Bright orange, earthy browns, shocking reds and deep purples paint a magnificent landscape in what feels too short for that time of year. Maybe those months are short because the fall is conference season when I’m staring at my computer most days working on the majority of events in my annual roster. Nonetheless, the fall is still a prize. Everything is at its peak and then it all begins to die. Everything outdoors must be picked or left to perish for the cycle will have no choice but to begin again. It sounds morbid but that cycle of life is why I love the fall. You can smell death gnawing in the air and I love that. Sure the plants may not but the birth of things new happens all over again in spring so don’t get depressed.Getting back on track, this heat has had a delicious side benefit — luscious, fat, heavenly vegetables and lots of them. Above is a shot of the restrained bounty I impulsively picked up at the Nathan Phillips Square Farmers’ Market this week. On Wednesdays until October 13, 2010, you’ll find tables set up there from 10AM to 2PM, easily accessible to city dwellers and workers in the core. Until August 25, you can even shop accompanied by on-stage entertainment over the lunch hour from noon till 2PM.

I couldn’t resist the vendors’ stalls all of whom wisely presented their wares in irresistible and seductive ways. The scent of bursting ripe plums, dripping chunks of cut tomatoes, corn leaping out of husks, the smell of fresh herbs (though it did lack a bit in selection), sharp headiness of hard neck garlic bulbs, and juiciest sweet peaches practically splitting out of eagerness to be eaten on the spot.

Please, sample this delectable morsel. How can one say no? I had to partake in this and I justified to myself that I was supporting sustainable local farming despite the fact that I would be mostly eating solo a pint of strawberries, a pint of sugar plums — Did I ever mention that I don’t eat fruit? — a significantly larger than ogre-sized handful of beans probably close to a pint as well, four healthy tomatoes, a pint of baby zucchinis, one onion and a head of baby cabbage. To be honest, I regret buying such a teensy cabbage. I could have made a quick batch of homemade sauerkraut to eat with sausages I have frozen here but the mini cabbage wouldn’t make much more than a serving and a half. Regrettable really.I talked about the Farmers’ Market at Evergreen Brickworks in my last post. This is just another one of many weekly outlets that provide fresh, from the farm to your table produce. Edible Toronto, a quarterly magazine that has a focus on promoting local food options provides an online list of Farmers’ Markets available in Ontario — a great resource if you’re looking for an at-a-glance schedule of local markets.

Full disclosure: I met the Publisher and Editor of Edible Toronto by chance when dining one night at Guu Izakaya. My friends and I happened to be seated at a communal table right beside Gail Gordon Oliver and her sister. I was, let’s say, highly “exuberant” that night and I failed to stop myself from sharing all of my thoughts about the menu choices with our neighbours. They took in my zealous food chatter in stride. Upon reflection, as an overactive thinker is wont to do, I know my comments were superfluous. Gail was a real charm for receiving me with my earnest intentions. You need only think of any Katherine Heigl movie for a vision of my over-the-top-ness. At the end of their meal, we did exchange cards and since then I have pleasantly seen her at a conference, while I hid my cringing memories. From the brief encounters, Gail was friendly and seemed quite down to earth. That being said, I share this Farmers’ Market list not because of that but simply because it’s a great list that I refer to. Bookmark it. You will need it one day.

†NOTE: I don’t know anyone who speaks Yiddish but I have always liked the word “kvetch” for its onomatopoeic quality. It’s what I hear when people complain making tiresome, polluting, infiltrating noise. Sounds like“kvetch-ing” to me. I pulled from another language. In turn, I will take no offence if you do that to my mother tongue. Go ahead and call that ludicrous random white guy insisting loudly on getting “cold tea” (a.k.a. beer innocently served in a tea kettle after hours but only available at certain Chiinese restaurants) a gwai lo. I’m good with that. Just say it properly, muttering under your breath, with a slight shake of your head like the elder, wiser Chinese would do. Again I digress, as I do so often…