Chocolate as a Food Group!

In the tiny (almost a crossroads) hamlet of Marshville, down in the Niagara region, the Easter bunny has been very hard at work!  Marshville Chocolates have a local reputation for some of the best, most delicious, and traditional Easter candy.  The chocolate molds are hand filled and wrapped with the most decorative ribbons.  It's worth a detour from the celebrated Niagara wine route!  

$5000 per tray please

Just did a signing at the Cheese Boutique in Toronto  - a hidden gem of a place tucked away near the South Kingsway.   It's a repository for upscale, exotic ingredients from around the world...and the price tags are not for the faint of heart.  Run by the Pristine family who've been in 'the business' for three generations, it's a place to go to see what extraordinary possibilities exist for our own producers and processors.  While I was busy signing, Afrim Pristine arrived at the desk, smiling broadly.  His treasure?  A small wooden tray of precious black truffles...so pungent and rich in aroma that they need only be shaved onto a dish.  

Food and "Soft" Adventure

Sounds like a perfect combination...right? But first there was the small issue of the frozen waterfall...which I rappelled down, muttering expletives most of the way



......and then...into the Charlevoix.....

and later, one of the simplest, most delicious cheese dishes I've ever tasted.


The fabulous Fleurmier cheese from Laiterie Charlevoix is made with milk from Canadienne cows...the offspring of those that Champlain brought to the New World in 1608. It's richness oozes into warmed honey when it's broiled for a minute or two.

Eat it with crusty bread and a glass of beer as I did at Le Saint Pub in Baie St. Paul or a glass of fruit wine! DELICIOUS!