Plant #001

This is growing in a raised bed along our front walkway. Grows low to the ground and flowers are dime- to nickel-sized.

Plant #002

Four of these foot-high shrubs are growing in the shade by our front door.  The tiny, clumping blooms are crimson. They’re even more vivid in real life.

I dub this creation Mommy Loves Kaitlin Straw-berry Much Pie. Sing along with me, won’t you?

Baby don’t you cry

Gonna make a pie

Gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle

Baby don’t be blue

Gonna make for you

Gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle

Gonna be a pie from heaven above

Gonna be filled with strawberry love

Baby don’t you cry

Gonna make a pie

And hold you forever in the middle of my heart.

And now, on to the recipe.

Ingredients

You could skip making the pastry dough and use a store-bought shell, but where’s the fun in that? We used a 50/50 combo of butter and leaf lard that Eagranie had rendered herself. I’m now a firm believer in the magic that melted pork works into pastries.

Pastry dough

I usually double this recipe each time I make it. Half goes into the pie I’m baking that day; the other half gets shelved in the freezer for emergency pastry needs.

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour, refrigerator cold
• 1/3 cup sugar, refrigerator cold
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 lb unsalted butter, refrigerator cold
• 1/2 lb (leaf) lard, refrigerator cold
• Up to 3/4 cup ice-cold water

Filling

• 3-4 cups of (fresh) strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 – 1 1/2 cups sugar, to taste
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• A few shavings of lemon zest
• 1 tsp minute tapioca (optional)

Specialty equipment

• Rolling pin
• (Pyrex) pie plate
• cooling rack

Directions

Pastry dough

In a large bowl, thoroughly blend flour, salt, and sugar.

Working as quickly as possible so as to not warm the butter, use a knife to section off large chunks of butter into the large bowl. Throw flour blend over the butter chunks until well coated. Cut butter into your flour blend with your hands or with a pastry cutter. Repeat this process with the (leaf) lard.

Eagranie taught me that a pastry crust gets a superior flake when the clusters of fat are not the same size — a state difficult to achieve with a pastry cutter. Says she:

When you’re incorporating the fat into flour, do it gently. Whether you’re using a pastry cutter or your hands (my preferred tools), you’re aiming for a sandy looking texture. There should be some pea-sized chunks, some smaller chunks, and some even smaller bits. The mixture should still be loose. Trust me, it’ll all come together in the end.

Have your ice-cold water at hand in a liquid measuring cup. Pour a trickle of water in to the mixing bowl and incorporate into the flour with your hand in a circular motion, taking some loose flour from the bottom and centre of the bowl with each pass. Clench some of the mix in your hand. At this point, the mix should fall back into the bowl like powder. Repeat until the mix changes texture, from gritty to on the verge of sticking together. Near the end, stick your hand in the cup and sprinkle a few drops of water in at a time. You don’t want to add too much water…just enough for everything to suddenly hold together.

Once it does hold, take out of the mixing bowl and form the dough into 1 or more balls the size of a hamburger or kaiser bun, which should be enough to roll out into a circle for your pie plate. Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes (60 minutes is ideal). This cools the fats back down, relaxes the gluten you’ve developed, and makes the rolling process much easier.

Filling

Fit the strawberries in the pie plate before slicing. You can fill it flat or mound it up 1-2″. The typical pie plate has room for 3-4 cups of whole fruit.

Slice then taste the strawberry batch you have. How sweet is it? If it’s quite sweet, measure off 1/4 cup of sugar and mix it in. Taste it again. Sweet enough? You can stop there. If it needs more, keep adding 1/4 cup of sugar and mixing it in until the sweetness is to your taste. Try to cap it at 1 1/2 cups.

Mix in the salt, nutmeg, flour, and lemon zest.

Strawberries hold a lot of water, so a filling made with strawberries would water-log the bottom pie crust long before the pie is cooked. Adding flour to the filling mix helps, but adding too much will make it taste too starchy. Eagranie’s trick was to add a teaspoon of minute tapioca. The tapioca absorbs any excess liquid after the flour absorbs all it can. It also adds a subtle chew to the overall filling.

Time your steps so that the filling sits together for about 20 minutes before assembly.

Assembly

Once your dough has rested, roll out two circles approximately 1/8″-1/4″ thick, sized 1-2″ larger than the circumference of your pie plate.  Position the first circle into the pie plate, using gravity to drape the outer edges into the inside rim such that there is little to no space for air bubbles to form between your plate and the crust. The dough should hang over the upper edge of the pie plate by about an inch.

Add the pie filling to the plate. Roll out the second dough crust on top. Seal the crusts together using your favourite method. Brush top crust with milk (matte finish) or egg white (shinier finish) and sprinkle with sugar.

If you want to get snazzy about it, do a pie lattice or add dough ornaments instead of a solid top crust. For me, the choice largely depends on my strawberry content. If I mounded the filling 1-2″ above the top edge of the pie plate, I use a solid crust to keep it together. If the berries will make a relatively flat pie, I lattice the top.

Bake 20-25 minutes at 450F. Reduce to 375F and continue baking until the pie has been in the oven for about 60 minutes. You’ll know it’s time to eat when the top crust is flaky and golden and your home smells like an episode of Strawberry Shortcake.

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, whole fresh berries, or all of the above. I know you want all of the above.

And today, May 19th, is Food Revolution Day.

• Follow @foodrev
• Twitter hashtag: #foodrevolution
• Instagram your #realfood

Around the world, local volunteers and organizations are hosting events today to educate children and families about “real food”. There are 4 events in British Columbia that are listed as official Food Rev events:

OYW Eat Fresh, Eat Local
at Richmond Country Farms in Richmond

Haney Farmer’s Market Taste and Try
at Haney Farmers’ Market in Maple Ridge

Organic Fair Food Revolution Day
at Organic Fair Farm and Garden in Cobble Hill

Urban Ag Book Launch Garden Tour
at Maurer Art Studio in Naramata

Buying tickets to these events online will send your proceeds to the Food Revolution Day coffers. Your funds will be used to support the programs run by the Jamie Oliver Foundation, namely to kick-start the Food Education Box program in the US and the UK. Canadians and global supporters will also benefit from this program in August once the digital Food Education Boxes are published.

Donations are being collected till May 31, 2012.

 What am I doing for Food Revolution Day?

In honour of Food Revolution Day and the imminent strawberry season, I’ll illustrate a mother-daughter strawberry pie day from last season, when my daughter was 18 months old. Recipe, movie references, and pastry techniques from the amazing Eagranie Yuh. Watch for it at 10am.

Been meaning to check out Richmond Country Farms since we moved nearby, so I’ve got a hot date with my now 2-year-old toddler at the OYW Eat Fresh, Eat Local event this afternoon.

Post-nap, we’ll tend to our 3 vegetable gardens scattered throughout the Greater Vancouver area. The little one loves to help out.

Also downloaded the free Food Revolution “Home” e-book and donated $20 online.

What can you do for Food Revolution Day?

Here are just a few suggestions of the many ways you can have participate in the Food Revolution.

• Take your family to a Food Rev event (above)
• Host a dinner party in your neighbourhood
• Teach your kids a new recipe or make a meal together today
• Attend a cooking or gardening class with your loved ones and little ones
• Blog and/or share stories about real food and the Food Revolution online
• Download free Food Rev e-books and dinner party starter kits for more inspiration
• Make an online donation between now and May 31, 2012

I’d love to hear what you’re doing, so drop me a line to let me know. Thanks for getting involved.

Viva La Revolución!

Here’s what caught our attention.

#1 – EPIC KidZone

This is a model kids’ activity centre for the eco-conscious, food-loving family. Children are invited to plant one of 500 seedlings in raised garden beds. Representatives from Growing Chefs! were on hand to help my toddler plant a snap pea in a biodegradable pot to take home. We also got a packet of sunflower seeds to add to the garden. It’ll help us lure bees to the strawberry and blueberry plants that have just begun to flower.

Don’t forget to enter your name to win one of the 16 raised garden beds that are on display. I had forgotten, and now I’m tempted to return just to be in the ballot.

#2 – Abeego Food Storage

Beeswax is the new cling wrap. No, really.

Abeego is natural, reusable, eco-conscious food storage created with hemp/cotton fabric infused with a blend of beeswax and plant extracts. The fluid-resistant coating keeps food fresh and is easy to clean. Simply hand wash Abeego in COLD, soapy water and enjoy the long life of this breathable, plastic free innovation. Three styles to choose from: Abeego Wrap, Abeego Snack and Abeego Square.

Even Abeego’s cards were made out of the fabric. As I took one to go, I was told that it covers your opened wine bottles in a jiffy. Haven’t seen a business card this food-functional since Meat Cards.

#3 – SpiceWorks’ butter chicken mix

I can’t be bothered to custom-blend Indian spices now that I’m running around after a toddler, but I’ve been reluctant to invest in a mix from a grocery without knowing what it tastes like first. There were other exhibitors peddling butter chicken and its kin. SpiceWorks won the taste test by a green mile.

Happy that the list of ingredients reads like a page from a recipe book, as opposed to a chem lab. Bonus: no MSG and gluten-free.

We are so making this for dinner this weekend.

#4 – 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Program

Whole Foods Market has committed to rating all their chicken, beef, and pork suppliers against the respective standards developed by Global Animal Partnership. It’s like the SeaChoice of livestock: each supplier is rated between Step 1 and Step 5+, with Step 5+ being the most “animal centered”.

Every chicken, beef, and pork product sold at Whole Foods carries a minimum rating of Step 1.

It’s another positive step (heh) towards transparency in our food systems.

#5 – Lunapads

If beeswax is the new cling wrap, then cloth menstrual pads are the new cloth diapers. While Lunapads does not at all fit under the All Things Food theme, I just had to include them in my highlight reel. It was the only EPIC exhibitor I was planning to throw dollars at before I even showed up. Got 2 maxi pads with liner at the show, with $14 worth of enclosed coupons for use at London Drugs ($2 off) or their online store ($5 off when you spend $30+).

I sincerely hope that it’ll be easy to surpass the mental block of what washing these items entails, because I am sick of having single-use plastic against my lady parts!

Visitor Info for EPIC Sustainable Living Expo 2012

Take the time this weekend to check out this great showcase of sustainable products, services, and initiatives. Buy online instead of at the door to save yourselves a few bucks, too.

EPIC Sustainable Living Expo
Vancouver Convention Centre West
Friday, May 11: 1pm – 8pm
Saturday, May 12: 11am – 7pm
Sunday, May 13: 11am – 5pm

My favourite time to be outdoors in Vancouver is when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Our new neighbourhood is lined with aged blossoming trees, shaped with an artist’s precision by city stewards. The avenue that we frequent the most, from a distance, looks as if a guard of bonsais had been trained to rain pink and white petals on Marpole denizens.

The sakura zensen, or cherry blossom front, is an official weather pattern in Japan, where citizens emerge from their homes in droves during the fleeting Ohanami season. Ways to reflect upon and admire the sakura are numerous, but for many, it begins with a picnic under the blooms, often enjoyed with treats and tea. Celebrations can also linger beyond dusk, getting tipsy as the night goes on.

You can approximate this Japanese tradition in Vancouver if you know where to go. My top picks, in no particular order:

Nitobe Memorial Garden (UBC)

My shutter finger goes wild at this beautiful Japanese garden retreat in UBC. This year, one of the trees is laden with tags that people write on with messages to loved ones. It’s said that the well wishes will spread as the petals scatter in the wind.

Bike the Blossoms – April 28, 2012

Got bike? Follow the flowers with your cyclist brethren on the 28th. Your route will be lined with petalled trees, and vendors that you pass will sometimes have goodies for you to enjoy when you pause.

If you’re bereft of bicycle or not free that day, find your own viewing spot using these resources from the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival:

• Map of the most popular Vancouver viewing spots
• List of the viewing spots in bloom right now

The Urban Tea Merchant

The Urban Tea Merchant remains unrivalled as my afternoon tea service of choice, much of it due to its rotating collection of top-tier teas and the seasonality of its tea services. Their courtyard on Alberni is canopied by cherry blossom trees each spring.

The courtyard blossoms have already come and gone this year, but their Ohanami tea service, featuring several items infused with cherry blossoms, is still being served until April 30th. This menu ranks as my favourite high tea food pairing to date–it is not to be missed.

Sakura West Coast Tea Service

$30 per person (minimum 2 persons; 90 minute seating)

to begin
Tea Sommelier’s choice of chilled white tea

sweets
tea-infused macaron, chevron strawberry, chocolate truffle
edible spring flowers, Sakura! Sakura! tea-infused jelly, sous vide vanilla watermelon, green tea-infused melon ** LOVED THIS! **

savouries
open-faced smoked salmon & wasabi aioli with in-house ponzu jelly
miso-maple glazed sable fish wrapped in butter lettuce ** LOVED THIS! **
spring rice roll with honey & balsamic, shiitake mushroom and crisp vegetables
Japanese fish crackers, crisp soba noodles with tangy seaweed salad and sesame crumble ** LOVED THIS! **

My seasonal tea pairing picks for the Sakura service

Both of The Urban Tea Merchant’s Ohanami tea features pair beautifully with the Japanese-fusion menu.

Enchanted Beauty Tea: ”Sophisticated oolong tea leaves are handcrafted into a bouquet with amaranth and orange lily. This TWG Tea composition will bloom in the teacup.”

Sakura! Sakura! Tea: “An ode to spring, this fragrant TWG blend evokes Kyoto’s most celebrated season. A scattering of cherry blossoms and green tea yields a most aromatic and elegant fragrance.”

Where will you go for your cherry blossom celebration?

I’ve been emailing with course instructors Karen Ageson and Tessa Wetherill over the past few weeks (pictured above, centre and left). They’ve been kind enough to accommodate my barrage of questions about the course curriculum, so allow me to share their answers with you.

Where’s the instructional garden located?

The George Pearson Centre is a long-term care facility on 57th Avenue just west of Cambie. It’s home to 120 residents living with physical disabilities.In 2009, Jen Rashleigh (pictured above, right) founded Farmers on 57th, fundraising and negotiating with Pearson to cultivate some of their land into community-integrated gardens in exchange for programming with their residents. After that was all set up, she put out a call for urban farmers, and that’s when Tessa and I got involved.

View Larger Map

How big are the plots that the students will work in?

There will be 12 instructional plots on the southernmost end of the market garden. Plots will be 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, which is a bed width that will allow students to reach into the middle of the bed standing from either side.

What will students be growing this season?

We’ll be providing students with seeds for things that we grow in the market garden. There’s a list of these crops on our website.

There’s a whole host of reasons why we grow these crops and not others. We like having a good a mix of very dependable crops well adapted to our climate like lettuce, kale, and beets, plus some more difficult-to-grow, heat-loving plants that don’t like getting wet, such as tomatoes.

How much produce can each student expect to harvest?

The amount of produce coming out of each plot will totally depend on what each student decides to grow.

Can a student bring in seeds/transplants and grow something that’s not on the list?

Definitely. If someone wants to grow eggplant–another hot-weather crop–they should do that! There’s someone registered for the class that wants to grow burdock, which is a plant widely cultivated in Japan for its long root. We don’t grow it for market but I’m excited to see someone else grow it!

How do I register for the Organic Gardening Course?

We’re taking online registrations through the Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre. Email us directly with registration questions or payment plan options.

Organic Gardening Course

• Class meets at 6pm on every second Wednesday from April 4 – September 5, 2012
• $300 for plot, supplies, instruction, and season-long access to the garden

REGISTER ONLINE >>

[ED: As of this posting, only 4 spaces remain. Sign up soon!]

Where does the produce grown by Farmers on 57th go?

Most of our produce goes to members of our CSA. There is space available for this year. We give some of the extras to the farmers and apprentices, as well.

Every month, we donate produce to Community Kitchen, which is a program largely run by volunteers. They cook homestyle for residents of George Pearson who otherwise eat hospital food. There was also a juicing program last year, getting more fresh food into Pearson resident diets.

Last year, we sold produce to the Growing Eden project. Participating families sat down every Friday in the garden for  a communal lunch, which is cooked with our produce. It’s a beautiful sight to see! And each Growing Eden family takes home a box of groceries, including our freshly grown goods, when available.

Would you consider supplementing the CSA program with an on-site public market?

We don’t have a market stand on site. We are considering taking extra produce to market in a shared urban farmer stand at one of Vancouver’s Farmer’s Markets (Kerrisdale would be the closest).

Learn more about Farmers on 57th

Farmers on 57th runs a variety of programs besides the ones described above. I’m in awe of the care they provide to residents of Pearson and the Marpole-Oakridge community. Cannot wait to learn from their master gardeners and see how I can give back after the course ends.

Are you interested, too? Visit their site, follow their social feeds, and get involved.

• Farmers on 57th website
• Email Farmers on 57th
• Like Farmers on 57th on Facebook
• Follow Farmers on 57th on Twitter

Moving from our 28th-floor Yaletown apartment to a duplex in Marpole has its perks. Immediate access to the outdoors. A lack of white noise from sirens, construction, drunken Granville Street revelers, or party-loving neighbours. A huge patio basking in the sun instead of a shady, windswept balcony.

Headlining our plans for this space is a fruit and vegetable container garden. Regrettably, I have zero skill in the sphere of caring for plants. Friends who have seen my black thumb in action might even laugh aloud at the idea of me cultivating an entire garden plot. But I am determined to educate my family and I on the rewards of a backyard harvest, and perhaps to save a few grocery bucks in the long run.

Supplementing our container harvest is an organic vegetable plot with Farmers on 57th. I signed up for the Organic Gardening Course that they’ll run every Wednesday evening from April 4th to September 5th. While the upfront cost is $300 per plot, it works out to about $25/week for the plot, instruction, supplies, plants, plus your harvest over the course of six months. There are only 12 plots available but there’s still space. Hope you sign up, too.

I really should have stopped there, but I couldn’t help myself with this last one. We’ve been driving by the traffic circle at Heather and 64th Ave since we moved into Marpole, and one day, a sign was posted on it about Green Streets. Drove home, hopped onto the website, and volunteered to be the garden steward for this traffic circle. I’ll just be maintaining what’s already there for now, but over the season, I intend to identify the plants that I’m dealing with–maybe with your help–and see if I can find a couple of colourful lavenders to brighten up the set.

What are you tending this year in your green spaces?

I’m excited to check out this year’s Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival! 3 months’ gestation is not going to stop me from furthering my wine education, though my tasting notes will mostly be secondhand or drawn from the archives.

Watch this space for spotlights on the Chilean winemakers present at the Festival. Tell me what you want to ask them via comments here, on Facebook, or on Twitter, and I’ll make sure to pass your questions along.

To help you navigate this week-long affair, I’ve compiled and will continue to update my favourite Festival reports and resources below.

Official Festival resources

• Website: playhousewinefest.com
• Buy tickets online: http://tickets.vancouverplayhouse.com/winefest/calendar.aspx
• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/PlayhouseWinefest
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Playhousewine
• Twitter: @PlayhouseWine, or follow the official hashtag, #VPIWF

If you’re attending Festival events, consider downloading the official app to your iPhone to take notes and favourite the wineries that appeal to you in the tasting room.

Festival tips and etiquette

• Video: Anthony Gismondi’s 2012 guide to the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival [Vancouver Sun]
• Navigating the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival [BC Living]
• Who to meet and what to taste at the 2012 Festival [Daenna Van Mulligan, Wine Diva / Wine Scores]
• Printable list of what to taste at the 2012 Festival (3-pager) [Daenna Van Mulligan, Wine Diva / Wine Scores]

Festival highlights

• Video: 2012 festival preview with Anthony Gismondi [Vancouver Sun]
• Video: Executive Director Harry Hertscheg launches the 2012 festival [Playhouse YouTube Channel]
• 2012 festival launch tasting notes from The Wine Thief [Wine Thief]

Reports on Chile – 2012 Feature Region

• Chile cultivates a new image [Vancouver Sun]
• 15 great Chilean bottles [Wine Diva]
• Spotlight on Chilean Wineries [Wines of Chile press release]
• Chilean wines sparkle at week-long Vancouver festival [Globe & Mail]
• Best Chilean Carmeneres at the Fest [Vancouver Sun]
• From the Tiny Bites Archives: Wines of Chile Supertasting
• From the Tiny Bites Archives: Wines of Chile 2009 photo gallery

Reports on Cabernet – 2012 Global Focus

• 10 Cabernet Sauvignon Picks for Playhouse [Wine Access]
• Best Cabernets, the Festival’s Featured Grape [Vancouver Sun]

Wineries and Wine Media

Follow these personalities on Twitter  for live commentary during the week.

Festival Reps

• @PlayhouseWine – official Twitter channel
• Harry Hertscheg – Executive Director, Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival
• #VPIWF – official hashtag
• #Chile2012 – Wines of Chile’s festival hashtag

Wineries

• Wines of Chile
• Wines of Chile [Western Canada]
• Anakena Wines [Chile]
• Viña Caliterra [Chile]
• Viña Canepa [Chile]
• Carmen Wines [Chile]
• Clos du Soleil [BC]
• Cono Sur Vineyards & Winery [Chile]
• Hahn Family Wines [CA, USA]
• Hester Creek Estate Winery [BC]
• Kim Crawford Wines [NZ]
• Nk’Mip Cellars [BC]
• Road 13 Vineyards [BC]
• Viña Santa Carolina [Chile]
• Sumac Ridge Winery [BC]
• Tinhorn Creek [BC]

Media and Oenophiles

• Anthony Gismondi – Vancouver Sun
• Daenna Van Mulligen – The Wine Diva
• Terry David Mulligan – Tasting Room Radio, Hollywood & Vines
• Kurtis Kolt – Cherries and Clay
• Jake Skakun – Cherries and Clay
• Rhys Pender – Wine Plus
• Andrès Caballero – Winemaker for Viña Santa Carolina [Chile]
• Bradley Cooper – Winemaker for Black Cloud, Township 7
• Sandra Oldfield – Winemaker for Tinhorn Creek
• Korol Kuklo – Tinhorn Creek
• Lindsey White – Tinhorn Creek
• Andrew Moon – Tinhorn Creek
• Mark Butschler – Tinhorn Creek
• Wine Access Magazine

If there’s a tip, link, or channel that needs to be added, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

Drink well and be merry!

Perhaps this is sufficient reason for some of you to forgive me for the lack of food commentary of late. Morning sickness crested last week but I’m still reliant on Diclectin (you wonderful drug, you) to calm the waves of nausea. Meat’s tough to neighbour, let alone ingest. Doesn’t make for a very adventurous diner, but I’m optimistic that my appetite will be back in full force by the time we explore Chile at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival in two weeks.

On Eating for Two: Post-Script

Typically, pregnant women are advised to stay away from practically all foods of gourmet interest: unpasteurized dairy, sushi, raw or undercooked meats, caffeine, alcohol, and more. I was paranoid and obsessed with eating rules in those first few months. I’m thankful that the experience taught me many lessons on how to eat prenatally without paranoia. I will indulge in occasional sips of wine in my later trimesters, and I’ll relish the charcuterie, sashimi, and aged dairies that our local purveyors stand behind. We’ll also crack open our well-referenced book, The Panic-Free Pregnancy, which was instrumental in pinpointing the non-edible issues that one shouldn’t stress over.

Hope you enjoyed peeking at our little one.

One of the reasons I accepted Van Houtte’s invite to fly a Foodist to Montreal last month was so that I can see, first-hand, what the bagel fuss is all about. I came home armed with 2 dozen samples from St-Viateur, whose bagels are rumoured to be quintessentially Montrealesque.

Not convinced, I called Foodsters to pick up contenders at a couple of bagel shops for a good ol’ fashioned Bagel Smackdown.

We then served the remainder to our Foodists guests when we invited them chez nous for a Montreal-themed potluck. The results? Our local bagel purveyors stood up quite well to the benchmark from Montreal, to the point where our guests couldn’t identify the supposedly superlative ones from St-Viateur.

Here’s where to start if you’re looking for Montreal-style bagels in town.

Solly’s: eat ‘em au naturel

Look at the photo above and decide which you’d pick up first. We thought that the bagel in the upper-right corner satisfied the hunger in our eyes best, and our readers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagr.am heartily agreed. The cake-like interior was moist and springy; this translated to the most enjoyable chew before bagel met toaster. If you like to eat your bagel fresh from the shop and without dressings, head on over to Solly’s.

Siegel’s: lover of cream cheese

Siegel’s was our top pick for a toasty treat. The bagels were a little too bland and yeasty to eat straight out of the bag, but get them crispy and slathered with cream cheese and they couldn’t be beat. The smoked salmon cream cheese that you can grab at the shop was pretty memorable, too.

PHAT Deli: smoked meat and benny bagel delights

PHAT Deli wasn’t part of Bagel Smackdown but it gets honorary mention here. It’s the first place I wrote about when Tiny Bites began nearly 4 years ago, and it’s the first place that made me fall in love with the bagel. I’m still drawn in every now and then for an Everything bagel with freshly made dill cream cheese.

It’s is also the first place that comes to mind when I’m in the mood for a bagel-style Eggs Benedict. My favourite style of benny at PHAT is chock full of tomato and avocado. The replacement of bagel for biscuit makes this dish a lot more filling than usual, so split it with a friend if you’re a small eater like me.

Where do you go for a bagel fix?

From December 10-22nd, I’m a media sponsor for Foodsters’ 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive. Follow along as I share what my top 12 food and restaurant cravings are this season (with some poetic license to boot).