Retama Restaurant – One Star Michelin 2022

Retama Restaurant: “Where each bite and each sip tells a story” (excerpt from the website)

Our last days in Spain came quicker than we could have imagined. We were away for seven weeks and I would have thought that I would be looking forward to getting home but my feelings were mixed. Yes, I looked forward to the amenities we have in our home, but I was also very sad to leave such a beautiful country. The produce was delicious and I knew I would miss that, the prices were definitely cheaper than Toronto, even converting to Euros. Our favourite house wine was 3.95 Euros! Going out for a meal was usually less than 40 Euros, including a bottle of wine! But the temperatures were on the rise, often reaching 30° C (86° F) so I was looking forward to leaving that behind.

One of our last and most memorable meals was at Retama Restaurant, a One-Star Michelin in La Caminera Hotel. We chose the Traditional Menu (mainly because they didn’t have rabbit on it) and it was delicious. Each course had a story relating back to the terroir of the region, La Mancha.

The reception

The inner courtyard

 

The Lobby

The Introduction

This wonderful meal tells the story of the terroir of the La Mancha region. Olive, olive wood, garlic are prominent on the landscape and the first bites lead you into this narrative. We began with little savoury meringues, made with garlic and olive oil. They were very strongly flavoured with garlic and we worried that it would scar the rest of the meal, but the chef created a small vile of olive soup, made with the juice of actual olives, which totally negated the strong garlic flavour and there was no lingering garlic aftertaste.

Amuse 1: Tomatoes are a huge part of the Spanish landscape and the La Mancha region is no different. This course of Amuses consisted of a tomato powder cookie (foreground), a spool of tomato spaghetti (left) and local eggplant with Manchegan Ratatouille. All delicious, wonderful textures with strong tomato flavours without being too acidic.

House-made sourdough bread

Bread course: Homemade sourdough bread with goat butter and a local, award winning olive oil. It was difficult not to scarf this down but we knew we had to save room in our bellies!

Pickled Partridge

The next main was a pickled partridge in a smoky tomato broth with edible flowers, tomato jelly (centre) and unknown foam (you know how I feel about foam!) Partridges run wild in fields around the restaurant.
In the background is a almond crisp with a partridge foie gras mouse, absolutely delicious.

Sous Vide Egg Yolk

The next course was a sous vide egg yolk of a local black chicken with a red crest, it wasn’t liquid but it was definitely rich and creamy served on a bed of foie cream, roast corn and honey jelly. A super-rich dish but extremely moreish. I will try to replicate this one. (Note that apparently, the Spanish make foie gras without force-feeding the ducks)

Cod with tomato, bread and garlic soup

The second last protein was a sous vide cod with cilantro sauce served in a bed of Castilian soup (a local bread and garlic soup, not at all overwhelming, think bouillabaisse).
This was also served with a La Mancha specialty called an Atascaburras ball (top left-ish) made with salted cod and potatoes. It is baked and not deep-fried. It was outstanding, I am trying to track down a recipe.

Sous vide lamb

The final meat course was sous vide lamb, it was seared and served with black garlic from Las Pedroñeras garnished with medium-dry tomatoes. The lamb was mildly gamey and extremely rich, I could only eat a couple of bites, at this point we were getting pretty full. I believe the glass-like garnish was a saffron tuille.

Dessert #1

There are almonds grown in this region as well, so it was expected as an ingredient. This was an almond praline base with cardamon chai tea ice cream, and it was outstanding!

Dessert #2

As lemons are also part of the La Mancha region landscape, they had to be part of a dessert. It was called Lemon Extravaganza! The base was a lemon sabayon with candied citrus peel, on top of almond “earth” and meringue shards. Best dessert, bar none! But we love lemon!

The coffee course

Unfortunately, we don’t drink coffee after twelve so they served this course as a third dessert. We are absolutely stuffed at this point but we managed to get it down, fortunately, they were small bites. They called them Petit fours, there were mini lavender macarons, anise beignets, chocolate hazelnut discs and a wonderful chocolate olive oil dome. A beautiful end to a memorable evening.

La cuenta

The accounting (la cuenta) is served up in this adorable little chest.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you are passing through the region. It was extremely good value (it was 68 Euros if memory serves). I loved the stories linked to each dish and the beautiful way they were presented. Service was spot on and extremely professional as you would expect. Our server spoke fluent English and was extremely easy to understand.

 

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Restaurant Review: Gusto and some words on my new profession!

Hello everyone! I am so sorry I was not able to post last week but I was booked the entire week for food styling assisting! I can’t believe it has taken off so well; of course, I take nothing for granted and keep pounding the pavement for my next job. Many of you have been interested in what this new position for me entails, well let me tell you. I met with the food stylist on Monday morning and we went over the recipes and shopping list. Of course, being the type of person I am, I had asked him to send me the list the week before because I wanted to prepare myself and practice if need be. Well, there was a need, BIG TIME! Of all the things to be prepping that week was CANDY! Now I’ve had some experience with candy making, but few and far between. I know some of the basic rules but I haven’t made a lot of candy. But the prepping wasn’t all of it, there was shopping to be done.

I had touched on shopping in a previous post so I’ll keep it brief this time; it’s gruelling. It’s about buying the most beautiful fruit/vegetable when it isn’t even in season! Next time you’re at the market, take a look at off season fruits/vegetables, the pickings are slim and what’s there isn’t even pretty. So it’s dragging your butt all over the city to buy the perfect beet is exhausting. But I do love grocery stores, so it’s not as bad as it sounds.

The shoot last week was on location, which for this particular situation meant it was at a home. Sounds like fun? Think again. The downtown home is chosen for the shot, and nothing else, particularly not the kitchen. Small, unknown (appliances); it’s a challenge. And then there was the parking issue — there was NO parking, hence the $30 ticket kindly left on my windshield by some thoughtful parking police person (thank you by the way)! But it went well and we’ll all see the results next year.

I also wanted to thank you for your kind wishes and your encouragement, it’s not easy starting out something new, but to do it at my age is even scarier; your encouragement and kind words have been paramount in my confidence and I can’t thank you enough. I would also like to thank you for not ostracizing me for failing to comment recently, I’ve been swamped and I’m just trying to get my balance back. I’m reading your blogs, I just haven’t been able to comment on my phone (usually reading in the middle of the night!), so I thank you.

Now back to the usual programming…

We were finally able to get into Gusto, a very popular restaurant on Portland in Toronto, but just. We decided that waiting in line for dinner was not our bag so we thought lunch might be more forgiving. We scored the last table on a recent visit with my niece (a newly graduated lawyer) and her botanist beau! You may recall that I got a bit ahead of myself and made their famous Kale Salad site unseen or palate tested! It turned out that I had it pretty close but their version was a tad sweeter — I have modified my recipe.

The restaurant itself is a very cool, contemporary warehouse design. Lots of super hard surfaces makes it very noisy and I suspect I wouldn’t like it as well at night because it was reasonably noisy at brunch when there isn’t as much boozing. Our server was friendly and attentive without being over bearing and was knowledgeable about the food. The courses were brought out with reasonable timing which made it an event instead of a rushed meal that some places offer. There was absolutely no attempt to rush us from our table and the place was packed.

I was happy to see that the salad was served in a similar Christmas tree shape that I served our’s in as so many of you commented. 🙂

I thought I had taken photos of the other dishes we all ordered, but sadly they are no where to be found so I shall review only the Kale Salad which we ordered for the table and the Popilo which was my lunch dish.

The Kavolo Nero ($13.95)  was macerated with lemon juice and honey decorated with toasted pine nuts (the short Italian kind), Pecorino cheese and currents. Since I’ve tasted the real thing I have increased the honey a touch in my recipe and have switched up the currents for either dried cranberries or dried sour cherries. Parmesan can also be substituted for the Pecornino.

Tender Grilled Octapus

The Polipo ($14.50) was a char-grilled octopus with an olive tapinade and a celery root cream with baby zucchini, chorizo all harmonized with a delightful sherry smoked paprika vinaigrette. It was wonderful and my mouth is still watering as I type this review. It was a decent portion as were all the other dishes at our table.

Overall rating of Gusto 101 (in my opinion): Decor 3.5/5, service 4/5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 1.75/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

Gusto 101

101 Portland Street, Toronto
eat@gusto101.com
General inquiries: 416-504-9669

Mon: 11:30 am – 10:00 pm
Tue: 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Wed: 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Thu: 11:30 am – 1:00 am
Fri: 11:30 am – 1:00 am
Sat: 11:00 am – 1:00 am
Sun: 11:00 am – 10:00 pm

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Restaurant Review: The Rectory Café, Toronto Island and Chicagoland bloggers unite!

Happy civic holiday! in ontario, today is a day off!
We just got back from a wonderful road trip to Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, so I’m still catching up. We visited our lovely friends Paul and T’s wonderful Lake House on Delavan Lake. We drove down this time and decided to break the drive up into two days stopping over in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the afternoon and evening. It worked out very well, having a five hour trip to Grand Rapids and then a four and half hour trip to Wisconsin.

Grand Rapids is a fantasic city with a bustling down town; there are several things to do, but because we were there only the afternoon and evening, we only did The Frederick Meijer Gardens. It is a beautifully manicured sculpture garden and green houses; they even have a couple of Rodin’s and a Henry Moore, plus lots of other great sculptures. It’s a beautiful way to spend the afternoon. The next morning we got up bright and early and hopped into the car for the second leg of the journey, Delavan Wisconsin. In the interest of keeping this post a manageable length, I’ll do some other posts reviewing the various restaurants and touristy things we did.

Our fantastic little holiday culminated in Chicago where we met some more bloggers: Celi from The Kitchens Garden, Kristy and Mike from Eat Play Love, Our Family Food Adventures, and Chgo John From The Bartolini Kitchens. We all met at Rick Bayless’s casual Mexican dining room Fontera Grill. I was particularly excited to meet everyone. John graciously offered to pick up JT and I at 10am and give us the beautiful and now famous Bartolini Food Tour; we stopped at Sur La Table a wonderful kitchen gadget shop (which will be on my GO TO list here on in), his favourite Indian Spice/Grocery shop and his favourite Asian Spice/Grocery shop. I joked with John that I never get a cart or basket in these places because so often I come out empty handed (taking a cart at the very beginning is just bad luck), so I walk around the store, picking up this and that until my hands are totally full and someone brings me a cart. John so very kindly asked several times, but I just didn’t want to jinx it! Oh yes, I went to town! Not that I couldn’t get things in Toronto, we have little India and China Town and some great gadget shops, but it wouldn’t be the same — now when I use the cumin from the Indian Spice shop, I shall fondly think of our time with Chicago John. Thank you John, you are truly a gentleman and a wonderful host. We extend the invitation to you anytime you wish to see Toronto!

We had a great lunch at Fontera Grill and even better conversation. Thank you Celi, John, Kristy and Mike, it was a blast to meet you all and I hope to do it again soon. Please don’t hesitate to visit us in Toronto.

I took the day off for JT’s birthday back in June and although it wasn’t a super hot day, it was very lovely and sunny so we decided to spend the day at Toronto Islands. You may recall that we did this several years ago and enjoyed it very much, but we were at a fringe season and were not able to check out The Rectory Café so we decided to come back for the experience.

Funny little sandwich board where we got off the Ferry.

The Toronto Islands are made up of several islands and are accessible by Ferry at a number of points. There are residents of the islands who own their own homes but rent the land from the Government on which they stand (apparently it’s a 35 year waiting list!), a few social Yacht clubs, an amusement park, a petting zoo, several beaches (including a nude beach), a lighthouse, parkland fast food and restaurants. It’s quite a beautiful place to walk or ride your bike. It’s also the place where in 1914 Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run into the waters of Lake Ontario! Go figure!

We made it into a half day trip, walking and spending time outside.

We like to arrive at Hanlans Point and walk the 5+km (3+ miles) to Ward’s Island making little detours and stopping for a look along the way. Ward’s Island is where the Rectory Café is and it’s a nice way to finish of a 4+ hour day!

The Rectory Café has a wonderful open air patio, and we decided to sit outside even though it was rather chilly. We started with the Sun Blushed Tomato Hummus ($10) ccompanied by Kalamata olives and toasted flat breads. It’s a very nicely seasoned hummus with some tasty little flat breads. Quite reasonably priced too.

Hummus with flatbread

I then ordered the Char Grilled Calamari ($7 for one $13 to share) Marinated in a fifteen spice rub and served with a scallion thyme aioli and lemon olive oil, which was delicious and quite generous for the price.

Grill Calamari

JT ordered a sandwich which was also generous but I didn’t try it so it’s intentionally omitted.
Overall rating of The Rectory Café (in my opinion): Decor 4/5 (how could you go wrong sitting outside?), service 3/5, food 4/5, Value 4.5/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

The Rectory Café

102 Lakeshore Avenue

Toronto, ON M5J 1X9

(416) 203-2152

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