Port Credit tagged posts

Weekly news tidbits too tasty not to share.

Restaurant News/Food Events:

The veal parmesan at Andiamo Pasta Plus is incredibly tender. Olive it! It’s on the special menu for Taste of Streetsville, which ends October 6th, 2013.

Sweet Notes:

While the Danish Pastry House is preparing to move to their new location in the Shops of Oakville South, they will need to have a few closings at their current Port Credit location to facilitate the move.  They will be closed October 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9^th 2013.  Read more here: www.danishpastryhouse.ca.

Grocery Store Finds:

Did you spot the Rustichella d’Abruzzo pasta shown in the Pantry Essentials article of the Food & Drink Autumn 2013 issue (page 26)? Extrusion through bronze molds gives this pasta a coarser texture that allows it to absorb any sauce better. I served the pappardelle the other night – my tomato sauce clung to every strand.

I found a wide range of Rustichella d’Abruzzo pasta at this gorgeous, tiny grocery store in downtown Oakville.

Oh, to be riding my bike to this little gem of a store! It’s filled with gourmet goodies, fresh fruits, and vegetables.

 
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Olive is on a mission. I would love to see a small-scale independent grocery store open up in the downtown core of the Village of Streetsville.

When I was growing up in Streetsville, there used to be two grocery stores downtown. One was the IGA (which is now Shoppers’ Drug Mart at Centre Plaza) and the other was Dominion (later Foodport, which is now the Portuguese Community Centre at Britannia and Queen).

I lived in Montréal for a period, where I could walk to a great fresh fruit and vegetable store,

a gourmet butcher, a baker, a full-service grocery store, and an ethnic grocery store (not to mention a handful of great restaurants!). And that was all within 4 blocks of my apartment. Streetsville villagers need a grocery store that we can walk or cycle to, on a short jaunt, to pick up fresh produce without making a car trip outside of the village.

I am so envious of the Mineola neighborhood in Port Credit, which has the fabulous, small-scale gourmet grocery store Cousin’s right in their neighborhood.

Todd Ladner, Chairman of the Streetsville Business Improvement Association would like to start a movement. He thinks the building currently occupied by the post office (at the southeast corner of Queen Street South and Kerr Street) would make a great location for a small-scale gourmet grocery store or co-op farmers’ market.  The post office at this location will be closing and then re-opening on a smaller scale in the former location of JOE LAD (on Queen Street South between Thomas Street and Pearl Street). So, this building will soon be vacant. The property will be sold by the federal government to a private owner. It has parking, a loading dock, and lots of space.

Imagine turning this

into something more like this,

or this,

or maybe even this. Olive The Apple Factory!

Todd would like to hear what you think. What kind of grocery store would you like to see in the Village of Streetsville? Please share your thoughts with us by commenting on this post. And forward this post to as many Streetsvillites as possible, so we can hear the voice of Streetsville loud and clear.

Long on my wish list, olive the idea of riding my bike (scarf in the wind) to a village gourmet grocery store to pick up a warm baguette, a block of fine cheese, some fresh produce, and some gourmet goodies. Let’s make it happen Streetsville! Cousins and The Apple Factory, I hope you are listening.

A tip from a reader has helped me unearth a real gem in Port Credit – The Danish Pastry House, home of a wide variety of beautifully handcrafted, authentic Danish pastries and desserts.

Throw out your disappointing grocery store danish. It isn’t worth the calories. Head on over to The Danish Pastry House and experience quality that is far superior.

I am so hungry right now that I can smell the cinnamon wafting up from this photo of a Snegl (Danish for “snail” but what we think of as “danish”).

The Danish Pastry House honours traditional recipes and uses fresh, pure ingredients like imported Danish marzipan and almond paste. Preservative and additive free, pastries are baked fresh daily and never sold as day-olds.

Though I visited The Danish Pastry House a few weeks ago, I am still pining over the pastry I ate. The Chocolate Snegl is my absolute favourite. The chocolate, cinnamon, and remonce (butter and sugar mixture) caramelizes in spots at the edges into chewy decadence. The pastry is flaky and flavoursome and the centre is a soft and luxurious pool of chocolate glaze – waiting for you to dive right in. Olive it!

Just look at the light and flaky layers of pastry, baked from fresh Danish dough with no less than 27 layers. Behold the Apricot Spandauer, filled with almond paste and apricot spread. I love the combination of almonds and apricots.

Unfortunately, one or two of the pastries I bought didn’t make it home for the photo shoot – blame me and my son. Ohhh, they were so good! My photos just don’t do them justice and the pastries got hungry-boy-handled a bit on the way home. Please visit their comprehensive website for great photos of an extensive product line at www.danishpastryhouse.ca  (not to be confused with the Danish Pastry House in Medford, Massachusetts on the .com site).

I had the pleasure of meeting the sunny-souled and highly accomplished 2013 Head Pastry Chef, Thea Reinholdt Hansen, who trained in Denmark and graduated with a distinguished Pastry Chef certification. Ms. Reinholdt Hansen has joined The Danish Pastry House for one year, while Owner/President Anita Lauritsen prepares to open their first retail bakery in 2013. What great news for Mississauga!

If I can have only one decadent treat a week, let an exquisite artisanal pastry from The Danish Pastry House be it. Well worth a week of hard training, I’d drive from anywhere in our region to get one. Opening hours are limited so check first before you go.

www.danishpastryhouse.ca