Day 49: Kasmiri Tea from Lahore Tikka

A light tea that was served at the table, with crushed pistachios and almonds added in, giving it a nice crunch as you drank it. A pinkish colour, and a yogurty flavour, and a hint of rose water and cardamom. Pretty awesome.

On Kashmiri tea (from ellenskitchen.com)

Kashmiris make two or three types of tea using special equipment, called a "samovar", and many say good kashmiri tea has to be made in a samovar.

One type of tea is called shi:r' cha:y or shirchai. This type is made with a slightly fermented tea such as an oolong. It is brewed with bicarbonate of soda, salt, whole milk, and cream (mala:y), spices and pistachios. It has a very pleasant pinkish or peachy color. Shi:r' cha:y also is a typically Kashmiri tea, but not every visitor likes it. Salt tea is served at evry breakfast and in the afternoon. It resembles the butter tea of Tibet. Kashmiri folk say the salt is refreshing in the heat; in Mongolia and Tibet, tea is salted to resist the cold!

Kashmiri tea is best enjoyed in a Kashmiri kho:s (cup): it used to be served in bronze Cups by Pandits or handleless porcelain Bowls, (K -'Chin Pyala'.) by Muslims.

Day 48: Mushroom Antipasto from Loblaw

You can find this antipasto in the self serve section, in the same stall as you find olives. It has the pickly sourness, the carrots and celery add nice textural contrast. A good mix of button, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms. Red peppers and add colour, and artichoke/onions and some flavours.

But all in all, the dish is fairly flavourless, and that is the result of over-pickling which is used to extend shelf-life, but comes at the expense of everything else.

Day 47: Macaroni and Cheese - Homemade

Mac and Cheese is one of my all-time favourite dishes. And the best way to do it (as you can probably anticipate), is to do it yourself. A bit of bechamel sauce, some bacon, freshly grated cheese, ground pepper and some hot chillies. If you're feeling good about yourself, add a breadcrumb mixture on top and brown it in the oven.

You get the creaminess of the bechamel, the smoky bacon taste, and the texture of it also. The macaroni are just the perfect vehicle to cling onto the sauce,and hold clumps of it inside it. Total comfort food.

Day 46: Swordfish Burger from St. Lawrence Market

If you like seafood, Buster's Cove at St. Lawrence Market is a great place to go, to get it done really fresh. They don't use top quality ingredients, that's for sure, but it's made right to order, and it pretty much goes straight from the grill/fryer/pan to your dish, and into your hands. The swordfish burger was nice. A nice grilled bread, but would have preferred it softer - I personally just like soft breads on sandwiches because it makes it easier to eat and makes the meat the focus of the dish. I put some of the coleslaw into it, which gave it a bit of crunch - just something I like to do. At $8.95, you can't expect a fantastic cut and you don't get a great cut, or a thick piece that permits a medium-rareish quality. Instead you get swordfish overcooked. But I can expect satisfying - with hot meat, fresh ingredients, and nicely grilled bun, this was damn satisfying.

Day 45: "Ice Pressed" Olive Oil from McEwan's

This is the private label brand (kind of like the "President's Choice" of McEwan's) of Olive Oil. I was lucky enough to meet the farmer and processor of the oil who was in store that day, and sampled it, and talked a bit about the process.

A really fresh, refreshing flavour, with that grassy, earthy flavour that is a bit of an acquired taste, especially if, like me, you're more used to lighter tasting olive oils. The bottle shown costs about $18. A doubly sized President's Choice bottle would cost around $8.

I've never bought into the whole hype about olive oils. I like a fresh olive oil - so I buy labels that look like they move a lot of volume. I don't sit and taste olive oil the way I do a wine. I put it on food to give it flavour, and freshen up the texture a little bit, but that's it. Or I cook with it. Plus, an expensive olive oil that sits on the shelf for a long time, exposed to light, and temperature changes, is not going to be worth what you pay for it. For cooking, I wouldn't usually use extra virgin (unlike what the foodtv chefs recommend), because it's a total waste of money.

So I like the olive oil, but it's a total ripoff at that price point.

About Ice Pressed Olive Oil:

According to the farmer, it keeps the olives at a temperature of below 5 degrees while processing, so that you maintain that fresh olive flavour. "Cold Pressed" olive oil, despite its names, apparently goes to tempertures of over 20 degrees while processing. According to the McEwan website: "Enjoy the intense, rich flavour of this early harvest olive oil. It’s ice pressed, unfiltered and has an acidity of just 0.1%. Not a cooking oil, this variety adds exceptional flavour to your favourite dishes after they have been prepared."

Day 44: Wheat beer from Dieu du Ciel

Brutal. The first taste is a bit soapy. The strong flavour sits on the center of the tongue. It has the citrus-note as it is a wheat ale, but it also has a cough-syrup "note". You also get that rose water flavour, which honestly tastes better on baklava than in beer.

The colour of pink just throws you off.

From the company website:

Rosée d’Hibiscus is a soft spoken wheat beer. The rose colour comes from the hibiscus flowers added during the brewing process. The aromas and flavour of this tropical flower are very prominent in the beer, giving it a slight acidity and a very agreeable fragrance. It is the perfect thirst quencher on a hot summer day.

This beer won a gold medal (fifth place amongst 10 gold medal winners) at the adjudicated "MBeer" contest during the Mondial de la Bière in Montréal in 2007, and a silver medal in the 2008 Popular Beer Contest during the Mondial de la Bière in Montréal.

Day 43: Plantain Chips (Chifle) from Golden Banana

This is one of the best quick snacks. It's not sweet (unlike banana chips), and has a hardcore crunch. I prefer when it's super thinly sliced (like "golden banana" brand). When it's too thick, it feels too filling. And goes awesome with light beers.

I buy them from the Toronto subway stops for $1.35 per bag.

On Chifle:

Chifle is a side dish, snack food, or finger food of Peru and Ecuador,[1] consisting of fried slices (chips or crisps) of green or ripe plantain.

It consists of fried slices or strips of either ripe or green plantains seasoned with salt to taste. In the region of Piura, chifle is traditionally fried in wood-burning stoves with wood of the algorrobo blanco (a species of mesquite tree), which gives chifle a special aroma and taste. Depending on the type of plantain (ripe or green) the flavor can be sweet or savory. Sometimes it is served with cancha serrana (pan-roasted maize) or shredded cecina (pork jerky).

Every tropical country where the plantain is in high consumption has its local version of this snack. It is known as chipilo in Bolivia; plataninas in Guatemala; mariquitas (English: lady bugs) in Cuba; in Puerto Rico platanutres.