ottawa foodies

Hello!

I recently ate lunch at CANOE in Toronto. I remember this restaurant being mentioned previously, and foodies displaying interest to report back. Well, my Mom, Aunt and I had a delicious meal! Even though it was raining outside, the view was still incredible, (it is on the 54th floor of the Toronto - Dominion Building). As it was a Friday, my party and I were out of place since we were not in business suits and I was pulling out my camera for every meal haha!
Once we had ordered the server brought out a white bread and a walnut bread, (still warm!) with a black bean + pea puree with truffle oil. Bread is bread to me but this was pretty good, and the puree was lick the bowl worthy.

I ordered the wild mushroom soup to start, fresh thyme + truffle oil (no cream or butter). It was very light and I could really taste the truffle oil.

Both my Aunt and Mother chose the;

Grilled Provimi Calf's Liver
Applewood Smoked Bacon, Sunflower Blossom and Green Pea Fritters.

They grew up eating liver so were pretty excited to see it on the menu. They both said it was delicious but were not fans of the pea fritters.

For my main I chose the meat special of the day or in my opinion the WINNER!

It was a Cumbrae farms beef burger on crostini, topped with a carrot slaw served on top of Dino Kale and mushrooms (cannot remember the type) all in a red wine and truffle foam.

Egad. This was the best burger of my life. it was soooo good. The burger was so tender and juicy, I didn't know a burger could taste like that! I wanted my Mom to taste it but didn't want to give any up. You should have seen the miserable little portion I reluctantly offered her! I am not a fan of cilantro which was in the Dino Kale but I ate it anyways. I feel like cilantro is such a strong flavour, servers should warn patrons if it's in the dish. I still cook with it sometimes because I think I really want myself to like it. Maybe one day.

For the three entrees, one appetizer and sparkling water, price came to $ 95 + tip. For a special occasion, this is worth it to me. I can't wait to have an excuse to come back here. I might try to convince someone to go with me, sit at the bar and order 1 or 2 appetizers because the view/atmosphere was great!

Nice pics Martha.

I work for TD and I've been lucky enough to attend a few events at Canoe. In fact, I was just there a few weeks ago for a meeting in the 54th floor boardroom! It certainly is spectacular, isn't it?

Delicious. I went to Canoe for dinner a couple of years ago as part of Summerlicious, and I was quite impressed. Great to hear that it's still as good as I remember. Thanks for the report!

Martha - Thanks for sharing... great story, and wonderful pics.

Monty - Geez am I ever jealous! ;-)

Now I absolutely must get to Canoe on my next long weekend visit to TO.

Don't feel forced to like cilantro! There's actually a genetic component that makes it taste disgusting to some.

That being said, even if one is unfortunate enough to possess the combination of genes that make cilantro less than appealing, I think it's possible to overcome. From what I've read, I'm pretty sure that I've got those genes, but I've still managed to develop a taste for cilantro over the years.

Yeah, I absolutely hated cilantro when I first tried it -- thought it tasted like dirt! I used to pick it out of my pho. But now I love it and it's one of the few herbs I routinely buy fresh. Thank goodness for changing tastes.

I saw a tv show awhile ago (think it was on the Discovery Channel) about people who are considered "super tasters" they either have over active sweet, sour, salty or bitter sensations. These individuals are highly sought after (as there are so few of them) by the food industry... and in particular by winemakers. Fascinating.

And yes our tastebuds do change over the span of our lifetime. As Fresh Foodie said thank goodness for that... otherwise we'd all still be hooked on a diet of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches or hotdogs.
;-)