Dakama Chocolate
As an enthusiastic omnivore, I might seem the unlikely reviewer of vegan chocolate. But in the case of Dakama Chocolate, I was happy to make an exception.
Emily Marshall decided to make chocolate but without sugar during her COVID time off. Sweetness from dates was her answer. And she also wanted her products to be vegan and with a Sanskrit name—Kama meaning enjoyment or pleasure. Once she had the working formula she boldly quit her job, sold her house and Dakama was born.
Her Golden Salted Almond Caramel, like all of Dakama’s chocolate, is entirely sweetened with date powder. The taste is dominated by caramel, but with briny elements tinged with almond. I was curious about other vegan chocolate so I tried hers alongside a Swiss vegan chocolate with cashew sweetened with coconut blossom sugar. While the competitor was creamier It had a slightly tart length and overall leaner mouth feel. Dakama wins hands down.
The Cashew Mylk with crunchy crispy rice had a savoury creaminess with elements of date coming through. The crispy rice added an attractive texture. My next taste – the 68% Cacao Dark Chocolate presented a creamy, rich, rounded mouthfeel with date flavour which moderated the more assertive cacao notes. Compared to a similar Swiss chocolate bar, I noticed that hers was lower in carbohydrates and sugars. Again, ahead on points.
It would be wrong to make a direct comparison between traditional chocolate and vegan chocolate but I have to say, Dakama is excellent in its own right and offers a meaningful alternative for those keen to follow a vegan lifestyle.
dakamachocolate.com
Schefflers St. Lawrence Market
Schefflers is a fossicker’s dream and my go-to store in St. Lawrence Market every Friday. At first blush it’s all about cheese and cold meats, but look closer and there’s much more. Recently, Scheffler’s has moved into a more central store in the middle of the main floor of the market. The original store sign claims the deli was established in the mid 1950s but there is history.
Odysseas Gounalakis the current owner is a serial entrepreneur. He immigrated from Greece in 1982 and where his grounding as a troubleshooter for a chain of convenience stores led to him establishing a mini market in Ajax, which he sold. And, so the market journey began (In the meantime, he found time to marry and his wife Sandra a larger-than-life character in her own right, who is now an institution on the cash register at the Market shop).
Schefflers was originally a German deli selling sandwiches, cold cuts, including Black Forest Veal Bologna some cheese and bread but it’s grown to be a crown jewel of shop with antipasto, meats cheeses and a gallimaufry of fine mostly European products on its shelves and in its cooler.
On my recent trip I counted a dizzying selection of 22 salamis and 23 types of speciality meats including my, hang-the-expense, aged Spanish Iberico ham. But I also noticed a special on Parmigianino 96-month aged cheese. I’m torn, perhaps the raw milk Aged Emanthal. The agony of choice. But wait there’s Lavender syrup from France, a remarkable range of truffle products, including truffle cream, truffle sauce, truffle pate even white truffle honey. Not to mention the finest olive oils and aged balsamic. For the sweet of tooth there’s artisanal chocolates and Medicis dragees from Paris. Even fossickers can be overwhelmed.
416.364 2806 –
shefflersdeliandcheese@bell.net
Kanel Stockholm Lemon and Dill Seasoning
I wrote about Kanel before when they were just starting out. This Quebec brand has grown rapidly and for good reason – their excellent selection of herb and spice seasonings. I recently came across what has become for me a wonderful, almost all-purpose seasoning, their Stockholm Lemon and Dill. I use it virtually daily. Recently, I got to wondering about why it has become almost indispensable in my kitchen.
In addition to lemon zest and dill this is a blend that has chives, onion, garlic sea salt and black pepper. The Stockholm nomenclature is probably an easier way of conveying the idea of Nordic and Swedish well-established preferences for citrus and bright flavours. Think gravlax and pickled herrings and citrus with fish and potatoes. But the product also nods to chef techniques of adding a transformative, brightening splash of flavour and aroma just before serving.
It’s all down to some basic chemistry which makes me wish I had paid more attention at school. With lemon acidity and aroma intersect with the salt, fat and umami in food resulting in fresher livelier and more balanced flavours, particularly with creamy, fatty or earthy foods such as butter sauces, meats and lentils. This is a seasoning that can soften bitterness in Kale, garlic and onions. Its lemon zest contributes essential oils with aromatic compounds like Limone and Citral that activate olfactory receptors, enhancing flavour perception. Best yet, it does so without adding acidity which can be important with delicate foods such as fish.
Dill adds volatile oils imparting cleaner more refined, slightly citrusy taste. The addition of chives adds brightness and provide gentle sweet onion flavours without harshness or distracting bite. Coming together these three principal ingredients work harmoniously into an almost universal flavour enhancer with the added benefit of avoiding overuse of salt.
Kanel.com
Garlic Festival
“With enough garlic, you can eat the New York Times” according to Morley Safer former journalist at 60 Minutes.
At the Toronto Garlic Festival, near Castle Loma there were clearly hundreds who would agree with him. They’re suggesting garlic with everything from ice cream to spreads.
Prior to my visit, I thought garlic was, well, garlic. Not so. The cultivars are many and varied. And, it seems, different cultures have different preferences. Music is the most grown cultivar in North America. Despite its innocuous name, Music a type of hardneck, porcelain garlic has a very strong flavour that’s clean but hot. It turns sweet and mellow when cooked. That Music is very cold hardy makes it ideal for our winters. It’s also a chef favourite as it has large easy to peel cloves.
I learn that much of our supermarket garlic is Chinese Softneck White, emanating from Jinxiang in Shandong Province—often called the Garlic Capital of the World. Softneck White was bred for durability in transport, long shelf life and visual appeal. Its flavour is clean but simple.
My first stop at the Garlic Festival was a stall festooned with garlic, from bouquets, wreaths, to the bulbs themselves. Manned by a young couple Erica and Matt, festooned in garlic leis, who were selling their very first crop of 30,000 hand-planted and harvested bulbs of Music. Their garlic was grown in Dublin, Ontario just outside Stratford. Next year they plan to add the spicier German Red Garlic to their plantings. They ship and can be contacted at 519.301.0167 or find them on Instagram.
My next stop was to meet regenerative farmer Mike Neufeld. He told me he had been farming and growing garlic for 62 years. For the last 13 he’d been based in Ridgeway, in the south Niagara peninsula, on a farm with sheep, chickens, hogs and ducks. Neufeld refuses to import any off-farm nutrition so composted manure from his animals provides all that’s needed. As a small grower, he normally only sells in farmers markets in Port Colborne and Ridgeway. The farm’s business card hints at garlic’s medicinal philosophy using … ‘Our Farmacy’. Given that garlic has been used as medicine for over 3,000 years this is likely appropriate.
What if I wanted to try some garlic that would hit it out of the park? No problem, says Neufeld. As if looking for some special under-the-counter contraband, he pulled out what I wanted: Russian Red. Likely originating in Eastern Europe perhaps Ukraine this, like the German Red, is a hardneck variety with a fiery pungent and complex taste. It has shorter shelf life than Music or Chinese White but for me this is it. Garlic as its supposed to be. No prisoners taken.
