Showing posts with label lamb shoulder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lamb shoulder. Show all posts

Bourbon dinner at Jump (Toronto)


If whiskey helps to ‘grow hair on your chest’, than bourbon is a nice one to begin with as I find it sweeter and more palatable than the Scottish and Irish cousins. When Toronto Life contacted their Insiders’ group about a bourbon dinner Jump was throwing, my friend and I leapt to get tickets. This would be a great opportunity for me to expand my knowledge about the spirit, especially in a situation where it’s paired with food.

Walking into the curtained off private dining area, the tables were already set up with gleaming glasses of the caramel coloured liquor. It takes will power to not slug them back before the food arrives. Luckily, everyone’s presented with a mug of Tom Collins made with Jim Beam and the table is set up with nibbles to tie us over: tasty terrine on crostini, a passable honey tarte with caviar, and a big plateful of crunchy chicharrón (its salty fattiness is cut nicely by the sweet bourbon).

Surprisingly, the meal started off with a lobster roll, not a typical item to pair with a strong spirit. While the lobster filling was delicious, the black garlic aioli was way too powerful for seafood. I get it, they wanted something that could hold up against the bourbon and the sweet smokiness of the black garlic can, but the condiment didn’t compliment the lobster. Keep it simple, I say, the bourbon green apple & celery slaw and fish roe would have been more than enough.


There’s no fear of overindulging in drinks at this dinner, as each course is more substantial than the last. Jump’s fried chicken showed restraint, a 3-bite crispy moist chicken drumstick, but then it’s served with sweet potato lasagna. Admittedly, it’s a surprisingly tasty side where the potato’s sweetness is balanced by cheese and the spud sliced so thinly that each layer does taste like pasta.


The dish just didn’t necessarily pair well with bourbon. Perhaps it’s just the spirit itself, so strong that it’s really hard to compliment food. Personally, I find bourbon is best when it’s sipped on plain or paired with dessert. For dinner, I’d imagine you’d need something luscious and creamy to coat the tongue to really meld with the bourbon.

A dish like the lamb shoulder worked well. If anything, it’s just a really good dish in general and Jump should add it to the menu. Pieces of tender lamb are wrapped in collard greens and sit in a tomato and okra stew that has a fantastic punchy gravy, which is of coursed spiked with the alcohol. If I weren't so full, I would have wiped up the sauce with bread.


In terms of dessert, how best to celebrate bourbon than with a flaming baked Alaska? The caramelized banana ice cream inside was absolutely delicious but the actual meringue simply too alcoholic tasting. Perhaps it’s due to the flame extinguishing while the dessert was brought over; the alcohol wasn't burning off and the meringue didn’t build that lovely crust. Nonetheless, on paper, it sounded like a good choice and the flavours did go nicely with the strongest drink, the Booker’s Kentucky straight bourbon, of the evening. It’s one the certainly needs the sweetness.



If anything, the dinner was an eye opening experience. Firstly, to learn that Jump has such a huge bourbon selection and to morph the typical corporate feeling restaurant to an intimate affair. Moreover, Ray Daniel was such a great host – indeed, he’s knowledgeable, but funny and warm as well. It was a night of laughs and so many interesting stories about bourbon and the Beam Suntory Corporation (the history and its founders). I won’t give away all the secrets, in case you bring a bourbon connoisseur to their next one. 

Overall mark - 7 out of 10

Want to become a Toronto Life Member? If this event sounded great, don't miss out on the fun. Toronto Life is providing Gastro World readers a $25 off discount code to become a member!

Just use discount code GASTROWORLD at the Toronto Life Member checkout and the discount will be automatically applied.
Email me if you join and let me know the next event you'll be attending. Maybe we can meet in person!

How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 18 Wellington Street West

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  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!


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Oretta (Toronto)


A scroll through Oretta’s Instagram tags and you’ll see it’s a beautiful restaurant with a lavish dining room. Sure, it’s gorgeous, but there’s also something eerily familiar about it. Looking around, there’s the airy high ceilings and blush pink colour scheme of Figo, the art deco brass accents from La Banane, and in the centre of the room, a huge round bar that also sits in Lena. 

Indeed, there’s nothing wrong with having elements similar to other restaurants, but the sense of déjà vu kept sneaking in as I sipped on the tasty a la nonna ($13), a spiced pear puree and Prosecco cocktail, that could replace a mimosa any day. 

As I thought about the meal, I couldn’t help but see how the experience followed the popular “hamburger method” of providing feedback – start positive, give the hard meaty truth, then end positive. To begin, the fried parsnip polenta ($5) was fantastic with the ultra-crispy golden crust, creamy interior, and sprinkles of thyme and honey. A small slip may be how the cook sprinkles on salt, likely after the sticks are intricately stacked, as I found the ones on the bottom didn’t have quite enough seasoning leaving the last bite not nearly as good as the first.


Torontonians are spoiled with the quality of Italian establishments in the city. All the sudden, serving freshly made pasta is just table stakes for most restaurants. Oretta’s tagliatelle ($19) arrives as a large mound of pasta tossed in Nonna Lea’s ragu and a generous sprinkling of parmigiano. All in all, it’s a pasta Nonna Lea can likely stand behind, the red sauce was really hearty and meaty. If only there was more of the tasty ragu, as I did find it a tad sticky and difficult to untangle the long strands of pasta.


In lieu of the traditional creamy liquid rice dish, the risotto al salto ($22) pan fries a squash risotto pancake to create crispy exterior. With plenty of castelmagno fonduta incorporated into the rice, the dish is fairly cheesy, so it almost tastes like deep fried mac ‘n’ cheese balls with a creamy plump mushroom sauce over top. Overall, it’s a good dish, but works better as a shared appetizer. As a main, it’s a bit heavy and not quite satisfying on its own. 


From the moment the spalla d'agnello ($28) arrived I knew the lamb shoulder was overcooked … looking like slices of thick pork chop, there wasn’t an ounce of fat, let alone pinkness in the meat. One bite into the lamb confirmed my suspicions, it was tough and the well seared crust so hard it was scratchy on the way down. Even the medley of creamy baby potato pieces, salty lamb bacon, and crunchy cauliflower didn’t help. Sure, these would have been good as a side, but not nearly saucy enough to save the terribly dry lamb.


Thankfully, the chef’s selection of sweets in the assaggi dolci ($16) saved the meal from a dreadful ending. It included the freshest cannoli I’ve ever tasted - the shell presumably freshly fried as it was still extremely crispy and distinct from the creamy ricotta filling. Even the pistachios were left in larger chunks, so there was an intense crunchiness to the cannoli, which finished much too quickly.


Make sure you dig into the rich dark chocolate cake while it’s still hot and gives off a lovely cocoa aroma. Although the ice cold vanilla gelato would pair with the cake, it’s equally enjoyable on its own since it arrives on a bed of chocolate cookie crumbs, which when mixed into the ice cream gave it a lovely cookies and cream taste. What a great selection of desserts including wonderfully thin and nutty peanut brittle dipped in dark and white chocolate, sweet stick-to-your-teeth honeycomb candy (the honey toffee inside a Crunchie bar), and moist squares of almond cake.

All in all, another decent, but not excellent Italian restaurant has joined the fold. My parting thoughts of the restaurant: a pretty but dry hamburger.

Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 633 King Street West
 Website: http://oretta.to/

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!


Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:


Oretta Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato