We have done some preservation, though, and we’re excited about it. Seeing as California strawberries taste more like cardboard than strawberries – and considering they’re trucked across the continent from a place that can’t sustain its agriculture – we only buy Ontario strawberries. Which are divine. Only problem is that some growers are planting the California variety, which makes for a fresher tasting but still bland strawberry. Anyhow, we have a good bag full still in the freezer, likely waiting to get made into another of rIAm’s signature desserts.

We also have a bunch of rhubarb, and it seems likely its fate will be to find its way into the same dessert as the strawberries. If we were smarter we’d probably have frozen smaller quantities of the berries – in known measures – but that’ll have to wait until next year. We also visited The Cutting Veg, an organic farm in Brampton, and the source of many of our summer vegetables. Daniel is a joy to talk to and he hosts volunteer workers on Sunday mornings. He also grows 10,000+ garlic plants, which means a mountain of garlic scapes. We picked all we could fit in our bag and I chopped ‘em up and put it all in the freezer so we have local, organic, delicious garlic all winter. We’ll get cured bulbs from him in the next few weeks.

Perhaps most exciting for us was the pickling we did last weekend. We love pickles. So naturally we bought a bunch of pickles, dill and pickling salt – almost on a whim – and got busy. We also did carrots, which apparently rIAm LOVES. Those are now “curing,” and we’ll see how long those jars last us (’cause if they’re half as good as I’m hoping, I’ll be happy to devour them!).

Plus, of course, we’re big fans of Michael Pollan and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, plus books like Fast Food Nation. So it should come as no surprise to readers of this blog that I think everybody should go see Food, Inc and then read the book. I’ve only been able to see the trailer, but I can already tell I’ll like what it has to say. But regardless, people need to think more about where their food is coming from and what we should be eating and this movie will go a long way to educating the dialog.

In addition to good produce we also only buy non-factory farmed meat. It’s not always organic, but it’s some form of naturally raised. I eat way less beef than ever, too. Eventually I’ll cut all factory farmed meat from my diet, but that’s a larger challenge.

In the meantime, rIAm and I are going to keep on cooking and eating and preserving, inspired not so much by a country (except maybe Mexico!) or a cuisine, but by the season, what’s fresh and what we can get locally, preferably organically and as much as possible, from local farmers at our markets.

In the above photo (larger version on flickr) are all the ingredients (except for the pasta and olive oil) we used yesterday. This dish can be done with just spinach or just swiss chard, but we had a nice mix of fresh things that we decided to combine and I think it’s the best version we’ve made yet.

But the ingredients. In the lower left is green garlic. This is basically just a young garlic plant, although it’s getting a bit late in the season for it so this particular one was already starting to form individual cloves and had a tough woody interior stalk I had to cut out. Green garlic kind of looks like green onion (but on steroids) and has a wonderful garlic flavour that isn’t super intense. You use it like green onion, although since this one was more mature the white part we added like we would garlic.

In the upper left is sea asparagus or salicornia. This breaks the 100 mile part of the diet, but it was harvested wild this week and brought to Toronto (albeit by unknown means, not very eco-minded of us) but has a wonderful saltiness from the sea. It’s nice to crunch on raw but also gave us nice flavour and all the salt we needed in the final dish. It’s also super sustainable as you basically can’t over-harvest – it keeps coming back.

In the top right, slightly out of focus (and, in focus, right of centre), is organic spinach grown right in the GTA, harvested last Sunday or Monday morning. It has the tenderness of baby spinach from California but is the size of regular spinach. The flavour is mild but more pronounced than the stuff from California and never leaves that weird cooked spinach feeling in the mouth that I find the California stuff yields.

In the middle-right and looking kind of like an oak leaf is “baby” kale. It’s not really baby and it’s a particular variety I don’t remember, but it’s grown right in Etobicoke in what amounts to backyard gardens and is harvested young and super tender. It can be eaten raw or lightly cooked. Obviously, we lightly cooked it.

Last, in the lower right (and middle) is swiss chard, which was grown in the GTA and harvested last Monday morning. It has such a wonderful fresh and crisp flavour and is much more tender after cooking than the regular supermarket stuff.

And you thought this was a recipe? Well, it is. It’s just ridiculously easy is all so I talked about our nice ingredients first.

Ingredients:
Pasta (we just use a whole package)
Greens (however much you like)
Garlic (again, as you like it)
Chili peppers (fresh or dried flakes, to taste)
Ricotta Cheese
Pine nuts (preferably toasted)
Olive oil (extra virgin folks, the rest ain’t worth having)

1. Set water to boil for pasta.

2. Rough chop the greens. They’ll wilt some so don’t try to make them too small, but long pieces of greens are less fun to eat. Peel regular garlic cloves and either cut ‘em small or have your garlic press ready.

3. Add pasta to boiling, salted water. A third to halfway through cooking time set olive oil over medium heat (or slightly less than that) in a large pot (like a wok) that you can add pasta to. Add garlic to oil as it’s heating, once it sizzles add chili flakes if you’re using them.

4. Once the pasta is nearly done add swiss chard stems and/or any other parts of the greens that need a little extra time to cook. Drain the pasta.

5. Add greens to pan and toss. After no more than a minute add the pasta and toss well. Add more oil if it seems too dry. Add a pinch of salt to taste (ideally kosher or sea salt).

6. Serve. Each individual should add ricotta and pine nuts to taste (or do it for them for attractive presentation).

7. Eat, enjoy, etc.

We made this yesterday with an integrale organic pasta that was super delicious with the greens and used a 6% ricotta that was quite nice, but would have been nicer with either more fat or perhaps made by an artisan and not a big (Ontario) dairy, but we used what we had. Any fresh cheese would be nice, btw, so give things like queso fresco a chance if you’re not a ricotta person.

OK, so that’s the recipe and our delicious new pasta.

Well the meal was amazing, from beginning to end. The conversation, the service, and oh, the food, it was top notch. Well it became clear pretty early on I should do a review, so I took lots of pictures. Then we met the chef, Rocco Agostino, who is actually from the neighbouring village to rIAm’s dad, and in his own right is a very cool guy.

So I had the idea, why not do a profile of Rocco, which can serve to introduce the review of Silver Spoon? They could all launch together on blogTO.

And so they did. Check out the profile and review. And hop over to my author page to see recent articles that I didn’t mention in this space, including the Obama speech watching party in town.

He offered this list as the starting point for a game, along the following rules:
1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (I’ve added a few annotations in italics)
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Optional extra: post a comment on Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

My list follows; I am missing 31 items, really all of which I’d be willing to try, although I’ve struck out the ones that I know would require some prodding. Two years ago my list would’ve looked rather different.

Even if you don’t have a blog, play along. My thoughts about the list are below.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea (I’ve had lots of other herbal/medicinal teas, though)
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (I can’t say this would be on my 100)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho (It makes me very happy that Toronto has some Pho that rivals that in Vietnam)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (As a Chicago guy, I say this should be from a cart or stand, but I’ve had both)
16. Epoisses (although I’ve had other pungent and/or unpasteurized cheeses)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (Most recently, I had some from Vijay, who replied “It says, but does not contain” when I asked if the transliteration from Hindi on the container meant pistachio)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (any kind will do quite nicely, but there’s a yellow variety the size and shape of Roma tomatoes we are growing this year that’s super yummy)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (for some reason this has always turned me off)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (I don’t have anything against raw peppers, though, and I would put money on having eaten a hotter pepper raw in India. It was SUPER small and SUPER hot. Although I was ready for hot, I was not ready for the longevity or increasing intensity. Thai chiles are awfully hot too.)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (ahh, memories of Sete)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (The Italian in-laws aren’t from Piedmonte)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I’ll pass on the bread bowl, though)
33. Salted lassi (I’ve had seemingly every variety of sweet lassi, and salted buttermilk, so I can imagine.)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float (I have a real soft spot for these, but I haven’t had one in years)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I won’t smoke. Anything. Period.)
37. Clotted cream tea (I’ll take chai – true Indian style – over this anytime, though)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (I especially like the ice wine jelly my mother-in-law sometimes makes)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (Not sure I can use the plural or not, but there was at least one cricket in Thailand)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (Although not straight. But it was straight from the goat into the pan, cooked over a fire with the tea and sugar and served to me fresh)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (I don’t think it has to be malt whiskey. I’ve had some premium liquor, although I’m not sure any was to this price level)
46. Fugu (Realistically, not every omnivore will have the chance to eat this one.)
47. Chicken tikka masala (I usually prefer it without the masala)
48. Eel (Unagi!)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (But not for a long, long time)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (I’m pretty sure, at least. I’m a vodka guy.)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (I’m pretty sure, anyway. I know I’ve had 8% at any rate.)
59. Poutine (This is on a short list of things to eat. Especially now that I’m in Canada. I’ve been holding out for some good stuff to initiate me, though.)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (This may be on the shorter list of things I’d like to try.)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian(The second bite was pretty darn good)
66. Frogs’ legs (I believe frogs are now endangered in France thanks to rIAm’s relatives and the ginormous pile of them foisted upon me to eat).
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (This is not on my short list)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (I’ve had roe, but not “caviar.”)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (I can’t say this really is appealing)
76. Baijiu (The Thai and Lao rice whiskey should count)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (bleh)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini (but Kir Royale is nice)
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Oh, but which one!)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse (I had been hoping to try horse in France, but it never happened)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (Based on similar things I’ve had, I think I would like this an awful lot.)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano (mmmmm)
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor (This is a good example of the arbitrary-ness of the list)
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (I’ll stick to tea)
100. Snake (Once, and probably only once)

The list is as fair as any other would be, I’m sure, but there do seem to be some odd choices. I think a good omnivore should be willing to try a great many things, so in that way, the list makes sense. But I’d probably say toro sashimi over Fugu and I’d make room for fresh sweet corn on the cob. I might have said 100% blue agave tequila instead of cognac, or perhaps a grand cru from Bordeaux (or, for that matter, any grape wine!). I might have also included duck or bison, or perhaps chicken feet or tripe.

I’d also include som tam, although tom yum is good too. Or kesar mangoes. Blueberry pancakes. ceviche or Italian seafood salad. Fresh young herring. Poi.

In any case, there’s my 100. Be sure to include a link to yours in the comments.

Continued on blogTO.