For many years, I've been hearing other people's account of great experiences at the famed Eigensinn Farm. With a stroke of good fortune, I got myself a reservation for our group of six at short notice. It was a night of great food, great wine, and great company. Between our gracious host Nobuyo's hospitality and chef Michael Stadtlander's cooking, it was indeed a very memorable experience. I'll write more about our meal in the next couple of days. For now, I'm going to sleep with a belly full of delicious food and happy memories of a wonderful evening.
Technorati: Eigensinn Farm
My favourite store has got to be Wisla Delicatessen. This is a mini grocery store with a very nice pastry and bakery section (BHD told me that their bread and pastries are purchased from wholesaler). They have a couple different types of poppyseed strudel that I wanted to try. The huge meat counter is filled to the bream with smoked meat, sausages, and smoked fish. I was very tempted to get a variety for a choucroute garnie dinner. However, I am most impressed by their grocery selection. They have european imported butter available at very reasonable price, with no less than four different brands to choose from! The selection of jams and preserves is mindboggling. I'm a huge fan of griottes (sour cherries). As you can see from the picture, I purchased a bottle of pitted griottes in syrup and a very nice bottle of all-natural 
On the right is a small bottle of banana white chocolate spread made by 
These cheesecakes are very different from the NY-style cheesecakes. They are actually not made with cream cheese. I think it's either quark cheese or bakers' cheese though I'm leaning towards the latter. Without the tanginess of the cream cheese, these cakes are not overly sweet nor dense. In fact, the texture is rather smooth yet crumbly. It's quite similar to the cheesecake I had at 
After all the shopping, BHD and I stopped for lunch at the corner restaurant. This place has a hot table of their lunch specials. For $6, I got the liver & onion half-portion lunch served with mash potato with gravy and a salad. Since they ran out of the radicchio salad, the ladies there let me chose a second salad as well. I found the liver and onion lacked a bit of salt but this hearty fare tasted like homecook meal. Not such a bad thing for a midday lunch. 
BHD had a crepe filled with cheese/cream and blueberry compote. The portion was HUGE!!! However, the crepe looked like it had a very nice texture.
Today, I'm giddy, I'm Canadian, and I'm high on sugar. For many years, I've been meaning to attend one of the many maple syrup festivals held in spring but somehow never quite made it for one reason or another. After reading a feature on sugaring-off in our local paper a few days ago, I found myself browsing the website of 
Located just 5 hours from Toronto, La Sucrerie sits on top of Mont-Rigaud, reachable by a tree-lined winding road. Today must be one of their busiest day of the year because there were line-ups everywhere from parking to ticket booth to getting seated in the 100 year-old barn for the feast. However, since the weather was so warm and sunny, I didn't really mind the wait...more time to relax in the sun after a few months of winter! 
Once we were seated at a long pine wooden table completed with wooden benches, I had time to take a look around. The dining hall was bubbling with boisterous spirit buoyed by the energetic live folk music playing on stage. Table after table were filled with diners eager to dig into the plates of food brought on by the busy but friendly waitstaff. There were various Canadiana knick-knacks hanging around the wall and a big fireplace facing opposite the tiny stage anchoring both ends of the room. Midway through a song, a staff was handing out wooden spoons to the diners. One of the musician showed us how to make neat clapping sound by tapping the pair of spoons against your hands or your thighs. Before you knew it, everyone was tapping along to the music. Though a little cheesy (at times I thought I've stepped into a CBC television special), the atmosphere was so infectious that I was having a blast.
Menu
T and I were very hungry after the long drive and found this hearty food quite satisfying. I particularly liked the baked beans and tourtière. T said that the homemade meatballs were delicious. However, the best part of the meal got to be the 
Each table has a large glass bottle filled with the gorgeously amber liquid, glistening in the sunlight. Of course maple syrup is a mandatory topping to pancakes but as far as I (and many other diners) was concerned, it was an universal condiments in this meal. I discovered for the first time that maple syrup pairs very well with eggs, sausages, ham, baked beans, and of course, coffee. After such a big meal, a nice cup of coffee would be the perfect ending. I looked at the packets of sugar and the bottle of maple syrup...the choice was clear. Even without milk or cream, coffee sweetened with maple syrup was simply marvelous. I am now a convert.
Despite all the hustle and bustle of tourist attraction, La Sucrecrie is essentially a working maple grove. The site consists of acres of maple trees, each having at least one bucket dangling off the trunk to collect all the maple sap. The picture on the left shows a drop of sap flowing out of the spout into the bucket. It's tempting to catching the sap and have a taste. 
However, as you may already know, it takes about 40L of sap to make 1L of syrup. This means the sap really doesn't have a strong taste. We peeked inside the sugar shack to see a huge boiling cauldron (well, not really, it's a very modern stainless steel vat) steaming away. As the water evaporated, the sap became more concentrated to eventually turn into syrup. It's amazing to think of this traditional Canadian delicacy being made hundreds of years ago using essentially the same principal by the pioneers.
Before we concluded our little field trip, we stopped by the general store to purchase some maple syrup and fudge made with maple sugar. We met the owner of La Sucrecrie, Pierre Faucher, sitting on the porch. He had been pretty much everywhere the whole afternoon, chatting with guests, clapping to the music, and making sure everything ran smoothly. His larger-than-life presence at La Sucrerie really made this experience memorable. M. Foucher, thank you for such a wonderful afternoon!
I tried the fruit and nut lentil salad made with pineapple, apricots, raisins, lentils of different colour, and almond. It's a very unusual salad that has a great balance of sweet tart flavour and texture. It reminds me of ambrosia salad except that it is not cloyingly sweet. The lentils also made it much healthier too. Based on this salad alone, I would love to go back and try some of their main courses. Besides, all of their staff are very helpful, knowledgeable, not to mention handsome!
This store has been around since 1978. Judging by the non-stop stream of customers stopping by for their freshly baked phyllo pastries and loukoumades, I have a feeling that Athens will be around for many more years to come. We sampled some spanakopita (fresh spinach and feta cheese wrapped in phyllo), tyropita (feta and ricotta cheese wrapped in phyllo), bougatsa (custard of semolina and milk wrapped in phyllo), and loukoumades (deep-fried dough balls dipped in honey syrup). The phyllo pastries were very flaky as expected and I enjoyed the spanakopita very much...spinanch and feta are so great together. However, I must say the loukoumades made my stop at Athens memorable. They were not at all greasy but the best part was when I bit through the crunchy exterior, the soft centre bursted with honey syrup. Deelish.
The theme for this month's 
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