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Food Food & Drink

Trends you can eat

Bone broth

Everyone’s talking about bone broth. More concentrated than stock, bone broth has become a morning drink consumed in mugs like coffee, with fans claiming it’s anti-inflammatory (kind of like how chicken soup is the go-to cure for colds). 

Bone broth pop-ups have yet to hit Toronto – head to New York for that – but you can easily make your own by sautéing carrots, onion and celery and then adding animal bones and lots of water. Boil for 12 hours or more. 

If you don’t have animal bones kicking around, head to your local butcher. The Healthy Butcher

(565 Queen West 298 Eglinton, 416-674-2642, thehealthybutcher.com, @healthybutcher), for example, has organic chicken bones for $12.45/5 lbs and marrow bones (from the cow’s shank) for $5.49/lb.


Toast

Californians popularized steamed baos and Korean tacos, and their latest craze is toast. Not BLTs or club sandwiches stacked high, but simple buttered toast. 

We’re not ready to tell you to go out for toast, so here’s a great way to make your own. Head up to Bakery Nakamura in J-Town (3160 Steeles East, 905-752-1355), the Japanese food mecca in Markham, for a loaf of their preservative- and additive-free white sandwich bread ($7.25). It’s pricier than the average loaf, but it’s unlike any Western-style sandwich bread – airier and chewier, with a slight tanginess. 

Have the bakers slice it thick, and toast it to a golden brown. Top with a nice butter, sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon, or do it Hong Kong-style with condensed milk on top.


Bitter

I agree with chefs Curt Martin and Cory Vitiello that bitter foods are making strong headway. Toronto cookbook author Jennifer McLagan released a book called Bitter last fall, paying tribute to this much-maligned flavour. 

We’ve already covered greens, but there are so many other bitter flavours out there: coffee, aperitifs like aperol and Campari, olive oil, IPAs and of course, chocolate. 

Choco-mecca Soma (32 Tank House, 416-815-7662 443 King West, 416-599-7662, somachocolate.com, @somachocolate) has a huge selection of bars using beans sourced from around the world. Our pick: the Arcana bar ($5.50) made of four kinds of cacao beans and free of additional flavourings or sugar emulsifiers. It’s 100 per cent chocolate, so proceed with caution. 

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