Gourmet Style: Huevos Rancheros

So you probably have heard of the Queen, heck if you’re Canadian; and I suspect that you may be; you might have even been required by-law to swear an Oath of Allegiance to Elizabeth II and her successors, as I twice have in the course of my attendance to the public governance. Now just because…

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So You Wanna: Drink Beer

Ah the ageless classic beverage known the world over; that bubbly, foamy golden gift of the gods that is beer. While it is still a staple of the working man, in recent years we have seen a renaissance of sorts with small-batch craft-brewers and exotic recipes abounding to the point that it is finally becoming…

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Gourmet Style: Cafe Canadiano

So it’s a cold, snowy winter’s day in February, in the Great White North. and as you slog through the whirling curtain of fluffy flakes you’d probably get to dreaming, for some it’s California Dreamin’; or so the song goes; but for me it’s a lust for the home of all warmth and fine-cigars, Cuba….

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Memoirs: Of Habanos and Varadero

My journey with the Leaf began in my youth in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of inner-city Toronto. It was in my sixteenth year that I asked my mother for a tobacco-pipe for Christmas. Despite the fact that my parents were non-smokers, and I was also underage I awoke on Christmas morn to an unsubtly wrapped, pipe-shaped…

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Gourmet Style: Stewed Lamb Shoulder Chop

South-East Asian Inspired Stewed Lamb Shoulder Chop with Mint Sauce Ok so this is the last installment of MasterChef practice dishes. I started with an inexpensive cut of lamb, blackened in a pan and slow cooked it in a eclectic south-east Asian inspired sauce until it literally fell off the bone. Chili and Lime, Curry…

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Gourmet Style: Pan-Seared Rib-eye

Pan-Seared Rib-eye with Braised Radicchio Gratin So maybe your tired of all the sweet, salty, and tart in today’s cuisine. Maybe it’s time to dust off your bitter buds and assail them with a gourmet ass-kicking. This dish is not for the faint of heart. If you like your greens so bitter that they screw…

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Gourmet Style: Chicken Apera

So you got 2 weeks to cram as much gourmet food knowledge into your head as possible. Week 1’s test dish…Chicken Breast with Sweet Sherry Sauce with Mushroom Risotto and Grilled Eggplant Wrapped Asparagus. This dish is inspired by Chicken Marsala, but with Fine Old Canadian Sherry in lieu of Marsala. Some mushrooms and onions…

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So You Wanna: Be a MasterChef

So you probably talk a lot of smack when you watch MasterChef. I mean really, you’ve probably been to all the hottest fine dining restaurants in the course of your business dealings. Maybe you’re even a real foodie. Even if you turn your nose up at the Foie Gras and order the inevitable steak you’ve…

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So You Wanna: Smoke Cuban Cigars

My personal favourite: Romeo y Julieta #2… If you are going to be a business man, you’d best learn a thing or two about cigars. ‘They smell bad, taste terrible, make you sick’ you’d say. I’d say that’s true but you should still learn to appreciate that others might find them enjoyable, and lets face…

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