Make way for the Groovy grape

4:39 pm

AN AUSTRIAN SOMMELIER in New York habitually asks his diners, “What would you like to drink — red, white or green?” He’s not offering them a St. Patrick’s Day special. He’s trying to introduce them to his country’s flagship grape, Grüner Veltliner. This wine is shouldering its way on to North American wine lists at a gratifyingly fast pace. And it’s not because of any environmental considerations about drinking green. The only thing that is slowing sales is the inability of Anglo-Saxons to get their tongues around the name, but the Austrians don’t mind us calling it Groovy or GV. If you want to sound like a connoisseur, rhyme it with “crooner felt leaner.”

Never tasted it? Well, you’re in for a surprise because this chameleon of a wine can be all things to all wine lovers. The Austrians claim that it’s the most versatile grape variety in the world — not styles that winemakers can produce from it but in the assortment of dishes it can accompany.

Grüner Veltliner can be produced as a sparkling wine or a light, dry, easy drinking wine or as a rich, spicy, full-bodied wine with every degree of sweetness from Kabinett and Spätlese quality up to dessert wines such as Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein. Today this extraordinary grape accounts for 36 per cent of all varieties planted throughout Austria. Contemporary DNA testing suggests that it is the offspring of the mother plant, Traminer (which would account for its spiciness) and an unknown father. Twenty years ago Grüner Veltliner was a jug wine you could buy on the local market in twolitre bottles. Then some of the more prescient producers began cutting back yields for more intensity of flavour (spicy peach and apricot), giving the wine oak ageing and generally treating it like a fine wine. The ugly duckling became a swan, especially when grown in the regions of Wachau, Kamptal and Kremstal where Riesling also flourishes on terraced vineyards overlooking the Danube.

GIVE THESE GRÜNERS A GO!

WINZER KREMS GRÜNER VELTLINER 2008 • $10.95
LAURENZ UND SOPHIE SINGING GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 • $18.85
WEINGUT BRÜDLMAYER GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 • $21.95
SCHLOSS GOEBLSBURG KAMMERNER GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 • $29
RABL GRÜNER VELTLINER 2006 • $29.95

The classic style of Grüner Veltliner is produced in stainless steel, which emphasizes its peppery, stone fruit and citrus flavours with a characteristic thread of minerality. You can serve this unwooded style with a range of dishes including Wiener schnitzel, chicken and other white meats, raw and cured fish and goat cheese. The traditional style (oak fermented or oak aged in large casks) delivers a more mouthfilling, creamy wine that works well with richer, fleshier fish dishes such as lobster, crab, monkfish and scallops.

Austria’s signature grape began flexing its muscles on the international scene after it won a series of blind tastings against other established white wines from Burgundy and California. At Crush Wine Bar, recently, I had a bottle of Rabl Grüner Veltliner “Kaferberg” 2006 with grilled mackerel. It was a match made in heaven. Next time you’re dining out, and you’re tired of the same old Chardonnay, check the wine list for Grüner Veltliner.

You’ll be happy you did.

Post City Magazines’ wine columnist, Tony Aspler, has written 14 books on wine and food. Tony also created the Ontario Wine Awards. He can be heard on 680News.

New LRTs to make traffic worse

4:39 pm

TAKE HEED. ALL that traffic you find yourself stuck in is going to get worse. There is a plan discreetly hidden in the mayor’s agenda to increase congestion. It is part of the antiautomobile ideology that the mayor is preaching. One councillor recently complained that all the “suburban people” that come downtown to “his ward” on the weekend by car make it terrible.

Aren’t we one city? Doesn’t everyone have a right to use a public roadway? We want to move people across this city, not create gridlock and not increase pollution with idling cars and buses stuck in traffic congestion.

Have you looked closely at the mayor’s Transit City plan? Simply put, construct LRTs along Finch Avenue, Don Mills Road and Sheppard Avenue East and take two lanes off these roadways to build dedicated streetcar lanes.

In principal, it sounds good. But LRTs create traffic congestion, which starts during construction and continues when operational. No more buses and no more bus stops. For example, the Don Mills line between Finch and Steeles Avenues, which has eight bus stops, will be reduced to four LRT stops — doubling the walking distance between stops.

Construction of the LRT rightof- way eliminates left turns. You will have to drive to the next intersection and wait for a signal to let you turn to go back to your street. Try this on Don Mills now at rush hour. To be a world-class city, you have to think worldclass. New York, Chicago and London all have extensive public transit systems and maintain road capacity for cars and buses.

It’s happening: the $60 vehicle tax, elimination of free parking at TTC lots, converting more vehicle lanes into bike lanes and taking down the Gardiner Expressway.

The plan to reduce road capacity ignores the needs of the majority of people. Your taxes are welcome, but your car is not.

Economy means more go hungry

4:39 pm

DAVE OTTY DOESN’T need the newspaper to track the course of the recession.

“We started seeing an increase in November,” says the director of the Lansing Emergency Food Program, “and each month since then we’ve seen more people coming through the door.”

This is a difficult time for the program, which began at Lansing United Church 25 years ago. “With this recession, we’re serving 600 families a month,” Otty says.

Many of those depending on the food bank have recently lost their jobs or had their part-time hours cut back. Twenty per cent of the clients are children under the age of 12, who, without the food bank, would go hungry.

That the program has survived is a tribute to the dedication of the Lansing parishioners who contribute time, food and money. There are 10 other Willowdale churches contributing food, and neighbours donate generously.

Earlier this month, employees of Cadbury, whose head office is nearby, spearheaded a large neighbourhood drive and collected more than 4,000 pounds of food for Lansing. But the food bank needs more regular donations to meet its current need. Food donations currently make up only 35 per cent of the demand, and $4,000 needs to be raised each month to supplement that.

Food can be dropped off any weekday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Lansing Church office at 49 Bogert Ave. Healthy canned food and packaged foods are easy to store. Later in the summer, some local residents will be bringing in vegetables from local gardens.

“With the population we have in North York,” says Otty, “if everybody donated just one can of food, it would go a long way.” To find out more, visit lansingchurch.com.

Alternative therapy

4:16 pm

I AM A believer in holistic medicine — treating the body, mind and spirit as a whole. I also believe that any treatment that does no harm and has the potential to be of benefit is worth investigating. That said, in my mind, the word "alternative" is a misnomer. If alternative treatments were as successful as reported, they would be mainstream.

In Canada, close to $4 billion is spent annually on alternative medicine and natural heath products. Studies worldwide have shown that up to 35 per cent of children have visited a practitioner of alternative medicine. The question is why?

One issue is communication. In North America, doctors receive no formal training in communication. This sometimes leads to misunderstandings and patients who are not completely satisfied. Doctors are overburdened and busy and may leave patients feeling rushed. Patients may be frustrated when a specific diagnosis is not made (even if one is not available). Lab tests seem to be ordered indiscriminately, and there are often a long wait times for test results, investigations and referrals.

Practitioners of alternative medicines, alternately, do receive communications training. They spend more time with their patients. They are better listeners. They nearly always give a specific diagnosis and a plausible and understandable plan of treatment. They are reassuring, and giving hope of improved heath leads to trust. Patients who are convinced that they will benefit may also will themselves well.

When considering alternative medicine for your children, you should know that naturopathic therapies are often based on one or more combinations of just a few diagnoses, and the same "cure-all" treatment is often prescribed for a multitude of conditions, many of which are unrelated. Common diagnoses include the immune system being either overactive or underactive; food allergies, too much or too little of a substance in the body, the bowel or genital micro-organism flora being out of whack; something in the skeletal system, the magnetic aura or the electrical field in or around the body being out of alignment; the body containing toxins or being infested with candida (monilia).

The truth is that most naturopathic studies have not stood up to scientific scrutiny. Herbal remedies are not regulated and may vary in quality and quantity of agent. They may be contaminated.

Cross-reaction with other medications is a concern. Naturopathic care can be expensive, and treatment can take a long time. Finally, turning to alternative medicine may delay another diagnosis with life-threatening consequences, and practitioners of alternative medicine may discourage routine childhood immunizations, which is, in my view, a most serious mistake. The expertise of any health provider is determined in large part by the amount of experience he or she has in any given illness or age group. The number of children a naturopathic practitioner deals with is small compared to a family practitioner or pediatrician. Therefore, when it comes to dealing with childhood problems, most alternative practitioners have little experience.

Some day, alternative and western medicine will more closely ally themselves for the betterment of patient care. In the meantime, it is your body, your child’s body, your penny and your choice. Be informed. If a pot of gold is promised, beware. Try chicken soup!

Happily spending a day in detox

4:16 pm

IT TURNS OUT that it’s not just my body that needs a good detox. As I soon found out, so does my (very underused) kitchen and my TV-infested bedroom! Who knew? No wonder my life is in shambles!

When I meet with Dr. Natasha Turner, a leading naturopathic doctor and authority on hormonal and digestive concerns and the author of The Hormone Diet: Lose Fat. Gain Strength. Live Younger Longer, I was expecting the usual healthy lifestyle rant about eating a ton of vegetables, drinking water and less Diet Coke, stopping buying and eating processed everything.

Instead, I leave Dr. Turner’s wellness boutique, Clear Medicine, with a wrinkle-free forehead, a bottle of fish oil, some vitamins and a better understanding of how my hormones control my health and stress level. Best of all, I feel more rejuvenated then I felt coming back from my last beach vacation. A visit with Dr. Turner provides so much more than your average naturopathic visit. In Dr. Turner’s more than 10 years as a naturopathic doctor, she has never had to advertise her services. (She works six days a week at Clear Medicine and is booked for almost three months in advance.) Finding her in Toronto is akin to winning a car in Tim Hortons’s Roll Up the Rim. A miracle!

Located in a modern townhouse at Avenue and Dupont, Clear Medicine offers naturopathic nutrition and weight-loss programs and suggestions but also yoga, Pilates, weight training, stress management coaching, foot specialists, even career counselling. The petite Dr. Turner is one of those people who, even sleep deprived, is cheerier than the average happy person.

“I didn’t have the best sleep last night,” she admits, with a broad smile. (Even her mutt, Walter, who comes to the office, is friendly as can be.) At 38, Dr. Turner could pass for a decade younger.

“I had always wanted to be a doctor,” she says. “One day, I went for a massage, and the therapist suggested that I look into naturopathy, and that was it. I was hooked.”

First, we chat. Dr. Turner tells all her patients who want to detox to first detox their bedrooms and kitchens (I know! Interesting right?) “I tell people to turn their bedrooms into ‘dens of darkness,’” she says. “Alarm clocks should not be within three feet of the bed.

There should be no TV in the bedroom,” she says. (She notices my look of horror! ) “Your body should be cooling down at night, so no heavy blankets.”

After a health assessment, which includes body composition testing, urine tests for bowel toxicity and adrenal stress, a pH balance and blood testing, she has clients detox their kitchens by removing all harmful foods and plastics that contain chemicals that disrupt hormones.

She’ll also give out an anti-inflammatory, hypoallergenic diet. Most people can detox in two or three sessions, over a few weeks, she says. But along with having a body composition and assessment test, there’s also some fun stuff a body detox offers.

I tried the infrared sauna, located in a small room on the upper floor. “This will be great for you because you’re holding onto a little too much water,” she explains. The individual-sized sauna is relaxing to say the least, and while you don’t get as hot as your usual sauna, you sweat out a ton more. “It’s been proven to detoxify, give relief to chronic pain, help in weight loss, improve skin tone,” Dr. Turner lists off.

After, I do feel like I’ve been in the sun (without the tan) but feel glowing, rejuvenated but not drained. Patients can call ahead to see if the sauna is available and pop in for a 30- to 45-minute infrared session. (And, yes, there’s a nice shower for later!)

Next I try the acupuncture facial. “One of our patients who also lost weight here did a series of facial acupunctures, and even our receptionist said she looked 10 years younger,” says Dr. Turner. “It’s amazing for wrinkles.”

I ask her if an acupuncture facial has the same results as Botox and she says yes. “And if you have Botox, the facial acupuncture will help it last longer,” she says. She notices my bare feet.

“Your skin is dry. Do you take fish oils?” she asks. There’s nothing Dr. Turner doesn’t seem to notice. I tell her I need a very simple routine and can’t keep track of taking different vitamins with different meals. She listens and says, “OK,” and makes it as simple as can be. She understands that people are busy (and forgetful.)

One of the most interesting aspects of this naturopathic program is the personal training. “We have this specific way of training that hormones respond to for optimal results,” she says. “Most people, even those who exercise regularly, aren’t exercising correctly. There are so many people who don’t get results.”

Of course, I ask for a shot of vitamin B 12 before I leave. (They do that too!) Back home, I feel not only pampered, but also accomplished. And, left wondering: does my bathroom need a detox, too? For more info, go to www.thehormonediet.com.

Tantrums are traumatizing, but kids need to hear ‘no’

4:16 pm

WE ALL KNOW this scene. There is a cute, chubby-cheeked toddler in the supermarket shopping cart, which is brimming with diapers, juice, carrots, potatoes, canned tomatoes, milk, eggs, family-size cereal and about three dozen other things that will fuel a family for a week. Wheeling the cart is a tired and slightly harried looking mom (Sorry dads, data show it’s still mostly moms.). They’re third in line at the checkout: Toddler sees chocolate bar. Toddler asks for chocolate bar. Mom says no.

Toddler asks again.
Mom says no again.
Toddler persists.
Intensity and volume increase.
Mom holds the line.
Onlookers start to watch.
This is better than TV.
Mom looks embarrassed.
Mom is getting rattled.
Toddler escalates to screaming.
Mom gives in.
Toddler smiles through tears. Mom sighs with relief. Peace at last. But at what price?

In toddler-think, the child is learning this: “Mom doesn’t listen very well when I ask nicely for something. I have to ask about seven times, and it helps if I scream.” The toddler’s resistance behaviour (i.e., the screaming) has been reinforced, teaching that boundaries are permeable.

The supermarket is not unlike the dinner table. A small child refuses to eat the prepared meal, so parents cook custom food. The dinner table morphs into a restaurant. Once again, the lesson of the permeable boundaries has been taught.

And what about chores? We can nag till the cows come home, but if our children don’t obey, we’re in a pickle. The garbage starts to stink, and the dishes pile up until we give in and do the chore ourselves, teaching our children, again, that boundaries don’t matter.

All three situations — the supermarket, the dinner table and the chore challenge — share a central dynamic. They all look like power struggles, but under the surface, the core parenting issue is: how do we raise children who are responsible, resourceful and flexible people?

The first step is to accept that, when you go head-to-head with a child, you enter an unwinnable battle. Kids can scream louder and longer than you. They can refuse to eat dinner. They can tolerate stinking garbage and piled up dishes. You can’t.

The toddler in the supermarket desperately needs you to say no to the chocolate bar — and stick to it. Even when he or she screams, even (or perhaps most especially) when a small crowd gathers to see if you’ve got the balls for this, your toddler needs you to teach him or her that no means no.

This is powerful parenting because learning to hear and respect no lays the foundation for a built-in internal compass that will help kids to say no when they’re older. It will help them make good choices.

Saying no in the supermarket will teach your child to take no for an answer. Saying no to custom food at the dinner table will result in kids who are flexible eaters.

(Some non-eating might result along the way, but don’t worry. All kids will eat when they’re hungry enough.) Create logical consequences for undone chores, and your children will learn to help out or suffer the consequences. It’s that simple.

That said, none of this is easy. Social workers call it giving yourself “permission to parent.” The older our kids get, the harder it is to give ourselves permission to parent, because parenting often results in our children acting as if they dislike us, and that hurts. But it’s not about us. We need thick skins in order to grow good kids.

The Jesuits used to say: “Give me a child till he is six years old and he is mine forever.” Your child is that malleable. Give your child the gift of no, and you give the world a gift of a person with a strong moral compass.

We need more of them.

Parenting columnist Joanne Kates is the director of Camp Arowhon in Algonquin Park where she teaches 150 staff to parent effectively and acts as “mom” to 300 kids at a time, every summer.

From Italy with love & linguine

4:16 pm

FOR THE LAST 15 years, Nino Ciuffi has been travelling back and forth between Sorrento, Italy, and Toronto in an awe-inspiring, long-distance relationship. With a restaurant in a tourist district, Ciuffi says he closed the place down during the off-season. But all that is changing with the opening of his own Toronto restaurant, Sorrento, in the Yonge-Lawrence neighbourhood. “My wife is from here, and we met at my place while she was on vacation, and I’ve been back and forth for 15 years,” says Ciuffi. “I finally found a place that reminded me of the area I’m from.”

Formerly the location of 101 Ristorante, Ciuffi says he’s totally revamped the space, where he will offer traditional Neapolitan cuisine.

“It is very casual, homemade pastas and pizzas, tasting menu,” Ciuffi explains. “We’ll have a small menu, and we’ll make our specials daily.”

Sorrento Ristorante is located at 3265 Yonge St., 647-351-0761

Burger joint for one and all

For decades, Jody Ortved ran a successful chain of hamburger restaurants called Toby’s Good Eats. After the 12-store chain shut down in 1996, Ortved thought his time in the restaurant game was at an end. But after he noticed a dearth of family-style, dine-in burger joints, he got to business seeking out the perfect location for his comeback. And Bamburger was born.

Located in Davisville Village, the restaurant features, well, burgers: pork, turkey, beef, veggie. In addition, there is a slew of gourmet fixin’s as well as other options such as hot dogs, a club sandwich, grilled portabello mushroom sandwich and salads. The restaurant had a soft opening last month as they gear up for the busy summer season. “We live in the area, and we’ve been looking for a Yonge and Eglinton location for two years,” says Ortved. “We are different from the other burger places opening up, in that we are sitdown. People can stay a while. We wanted to appeal to everyone in the neighbourhood.”

Bamburger is located at 2112 Yonge St., 416-487-2420.

Have macaroon will travel

La Bamboche is doing a booming business at their tiny patisserie at 4 Manor Road in North Toronto. The locals are loving the culinary creations of pastry chef Stephen Nason that the owners decided to open a second location on Avenue Road this summer.

“We’ve actually been looking for a spot on Avenue for over a year,” says Michael Firanski, coowner of La Bamboche. “We’ve wanted to expand for quite some time.”

The new location will enable La Bamboche to offer new products and add more variety to their existing line, including the popular French macaroon.

“The macaroons have taken off like crazy,” says Firanski.

The location at 1712 Avenue Rd. should be open in July.

The Dean of Dooney’s back in the restaurant game

When legendary Annex eatery Dooney’s closed down after more than two decades in operation, it was the end of an era. But, Dooney’s owner Graziano Marchese still had the business in his blood, so he packed up his recipe book and moved a block away and to open another restaurant, Annex Live.

Daniel Laurent, acting manager at Annex Live, says the restaurant features Mediterranean cuisine, and although the focus is food and coffee, Annex Live also has live music — everything from rock to jazz and classical, even comedy.

According to Laurent, the 3,000-square-foot restaurant, formerly the Poor Alex Theatre, was completely redone over the past two years and includes a patio, and there are plans for further expansion. Even the Dooney’s locals have started to find their way to Annex Live.

“We’ve noticed an exodus,” says Laurent, who says there are a few Dooney’s specialties to be found on the Annex Live menu.

Annex Live is located at 296 Brunswick Ave., 416-929-3999.

No North Toronto diner finer

Tony Xavier already runs one of the busiest restaurants on the Yonge and Lawrence strip, Chega, but a hankering for some bacon and eggs prompted him to open his own diner, conveniently located a few doors north.

“The joke is that I have too much spare time,” says Xavier.

“But, seriously I just saw the need for this style of restaurant.”

Hazel’s Diner, opened in a converted jewellery store, is already going gangbusters only a week after opening.

“It is fantastic,” says Xavier. “We’re doing an average of 100 to 120 people every breakfast.” The restaurant is notable for its recession-friendly pricing, with 90 per cent of its menu at less than $10.

“It is a great time to open this type of restaurant,” says Xavier, who acknowledges a drop in business at the upscale Chega.

“There are a lot of kids and young families in the area, and we’ve geared the menu to them.”

Hazel’s Diner is open Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Sunday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is located at 3401 Yonge St., 416-850-0121.

Anhalt brothers open up shop

Milagro’s new uptown location in the Yonge and Lawrence neighbourhood opened up for business last month in the former location of the restaurant Herbs. Arturo and Andrés Anhalt opened the first Milagro two years ago on Mercer Street in downtown Toronto, and it features one of the few authentic takes on fine Mexican cuisine in the city.

Milagro is located at 3187 Yonge St., 416-487-2855.

Scuttlebutt

Marc Thuet has renamed his King West restaurant Bite Me!. Now dubbed Conviction, the restaurant will reportedly employ 13 reformed ex-convicts in the kitchen and the front of the house.

“It’s not rocket science,” says Thuet, announcing the restaurant on his website (bitemerestaurant.com). “People with steady jobs and a steady income are less likely to wind up back in jail.”And, yes, it is for a reality TV show. Why not?

Spice Room & Chutney Bar in Yorkville’s Hazelton Lanes is without chef and co-owner Greg Couillard.

The self-taught chef with a bad-boy reputation is reportedly on sabbatical in a small Mexican town.

An insider’s guide to Little India

4:16 pm

I’M ON GERRARD street east in the heart of Little India, dazzled by the sights, sounds and smells of this vibrant east end shopping district.

Corner grocers offer ripe mangoes heaped next to traditional South Asian sweets; eye-catching window displays reveal the latest in stylish saris; and local restaurants tempt me with the mouthwatering aroma of spicy curries.

As I walk, I’m accompanied by the beats of popular Hindi songs echoing between the storefronts. My guide to all things Little India is Little Mosque on the Prairie’s Sitara Hewitt, who has offered to show me her favourite area haunts.

We meet at Lahore Tikka House (1365 Gerrard St. E.), famous for its Pakistani and North Indian cuisine, and settle in to talk about the neighbourhood, the upcoming fourth season of her hit CBC show and food, of course. “This place has the best Indian food,” she enthuses. “The butter chicken here is the most amazing dish in the world, and it comes on a sizzling frying pan — you just have to try it.”

The restaurant is decorated with swaths of fabrics draped on the walls, and lit with festive strands of lights that zigzag across the ceiling. Manager Rohit Verma says that the secret to the location’s continuing success is a diverse clientele, with customers from all over the city returning regularly for their signature lamb curry and kebabs.

“When we started it, it was just a 20-seat restaurant,” he says. “Now we’ve become so popular that we are opening a brand new restaurant building next door for 1,000 to 1,200 people.” As for Hewitt, she’s busy with preparations for Little Mosque’s new season and looking forward to reuniting with her onscreen family.

“It’s the best place to go back to work,” she says. “It seems to be one of those shows that just has a really good chemistry. There’s not one department that lacks. You go to work there and it’s like, ‘OK, this is my dream job.’”

She says that she is honoured to keep playing Dr. Rayyan Hamoud, the half Lebanese, half Canadian Muslim, feminist doctor character living in the fictional prairie town of Mercy. It’s a role that has had a positive impact on viewers and beena strong role model to women and young girls.

“I get a lot of fan mail from Muslim women saying, ‘Thank you for portraying this character,’ and a lot of girls saying, ‘Your character makes me feel that it’s okay to be me,’” she says. “It’s a really cool thing to be part of.” The first seed of this lively Toronto area was planted in the early 1970s, after entrepreneur Gian Naaz decided to convert the then-idle Eastwood Theatre into a go-to Indian film destination. The theatre took off, and soon people from across the province were lining up to watch Bollywood flicks at the revived venue. Today, the sixblock stretch between Coxwell and Greenwood Avenues houses more than 100 shops and restaurants, which sprang up to cater to the influx of movie-goers.

We walk east to Maharani Fashions (1417 Gerrard St. E.), a one-stop shop for saris, Punjabi suits and textiles while also being home to one of the best selections of costume jewellery on the street. I find an entire wall of glittering bangles in every colour of the rainbow, intricately beaded necklaces and delicate, bejewelled earrings.

“I used to come here to buy all my jewellery,” says Hewitt. “I’d bring my girlfriends and we’d all buy armfuls of bangles.”

For Hewitt, who moved to Toronto at 19 from small-town Ontario, visiting Little India at that time was a revelation. “I remember moving here from Elora where the only time I could get curry was if my mom cooked it or if we went to Pakistan,” she says. “And here — I’d never seen anything like it before — people were speaking Urdu and Hindi on the street and there was Bollywood music blasting everywhere.”

We move on to next door’s Maharani Emporium (technically also at 1417 Gerrard St. E.), a store packed to the rafters with giftware, garlands, religious items and vivid silk paintings. We weave between the shelves of carefully arranged statues, carvings and musical instruments, as Hewitt searches for the perfect incense burner.

“I love these,” she says as she leafs through a stack of bright posters depicting Hindu gods and goddesses. “The colours are just amazing.”

At local fashion house Nucreation (1414 Gerrard St. E.) we meet a troop of dozens of mannequins modelling elaborately embroidered silk wedding costumes and chic saris created by in-house designers. Shelves and tables of bright, bold fabrics in blues, oranges, reds and pinks line the outer walls.

We end our tour with a stop at Lahore Chaat and Paan House (1386 Gerrard St. E.), a cozy café that holds a special place in Hewitt’s heart as the first she ever visited in Little India. Inside, you can find a wide variety of savoury snacks like bhel poori (puffed rice with potatoes and tamarind sauce) and chaat papri (fried dough wafers with chick peas, chilis and yogourt).

“It’s run by this really lovely couple,” Hewitt says. “I got to practise my Urdu here for the first time with the wife, and my mom and I have a tradition of coming here for their Kashmiri tea.”

Though she now divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles, Hewitt says she often returns to the area to visit her parents and the neighbourhood she fell in love with as a teen. “I felt like here I found a community a half a world away from it’s origin, and the culture is being celebrated every single day.”

Area resident behind musical mentorship program

4:16 pm

Every week for the past 23 years Bayview resident Dan Blachford has had a standing date with the Encore Symphonic Concert Band. Here, he donates his time and talent playing clarinet with the non-profit organization of retired musicians who mentor young music students and raise money through their concerts for local churches, hospitals and charitable organizations.

But don’t call this 91-year-old retired teacher a “hero.” “I want to stay away from what they call ‘the limelight,’” Blachford says humbly. “The hero here is our whole band and our conductor, John Liddle.”

Started in 1986 by a group of Toronto Musicians’ Association members, Encore is a traditional concert band with woodwinds, brass, percussion and string bass.

Today the band has approximately 55 members, and around 35 turn out regularly for their weekly practice. Though Blachford prefers to remain behind the scenes, his passion for music making is clear. He has been with Encore since its inception and is now the oldest member of the diverse group of players, who boast an average age of 74.

“I was there from the beginning, and I am the eldest by about two years,” says Blachford. “We sounded pretty awful in the beginning, when it was just a collection of happy guys. But as the word got around, we had some very talented people come our way.”

Blachford says that over the years the band has played dozens of fundraising concerts for local charities as well as four tribute concerts to honour Canadian music personalities Howard Cable, Johnny Cowell, Bobby Herriot and Ed Graf.

“In all those years we’ve played, we’ve never really had a bad concert,” says Blachford. “We play a whole range of music, and we’re good with jazz — what they call the big band jazz. We’re very happy doing it, and our main reason for playing is just to have fun and entertain our audiences.”

With no signs of slowing down, Blachford says the band is open to invitations to play at local community events, and as each year passes, he relishes the opportunity to continue making music and spending time with his talented bandmates.

“My best friends really are in this group, and there’s not a sourpuss in the bunch,” he says. “I know it will go on long after I’m gone. They say nothing is forever, but it’s going to go on. It’s wonderful, absolutely.

The Post salutes Dan Blachford and all the Encore band members for making a difference in the lives of local students.

Catch of the day

4:16 pm

In the summer, I love to get away from my oven and out to the barbecue, but lately, we’ve been reading about the dangers of a diet containing excess meat. Some studies show a link between eating a high meat-based diet and chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and certain cancers. With that in mind, summer is the perfect time to introduce more fish into your diet. It’s low in calories and cholesterol, and fattier fish contain omega-3 fatty acids that improve our cardiovascular health by controlling cholesterol and reducing blood pressure. Fish is also a good source of protein and vitamins. Here, some great finned grill options.

Haddock with Bell Pepper Sauce

Salmon & Avocado Salsa

Pesto Shrimp Kabobs

Rose’s tip: Keep the seas sustainable

Fishing practices worldwide are damaging our oceans, depleting fish populations, destroying habitats and polluting the water. Informed consumers can help put a stop to this situation and restore the environment by choosing sustainable seafood. Seafood that is sustainable comes from fishing and farming practices that can continue to exist without compromising species’ survival or the health of the surrounding ecosystem. You can go to www.seachoice.org to get your guide for sustainable fish choices. It will provide you with best picks, good alternatives and lists of fish to avoid.

Post City Magazines’ culinary columnist, Rose Reisman, is author of 17 cookbooks, a TV and radio personality and a health and wellness expert. Visit Rose at www.rosereisman.com.

TORONTO'S DESIGN DIVA

1:15 pm

THE POLICE OFFICER approaching in the rearview mirror does not appear amused. Sarah Richardson and crew have been filming on a country road some undisclosed number of miles north of Toronto, and apparently driving on the wrong side of the road with a camera strapped to the hood of the car isn’t in keeping with the local rules and regulations.

Just as the siren starts to blare, Richardson pulls over, hops out and bounds toward the officer. Since standard procedure just about anywhere in the world is for the offending driver to stay in the vehicle with two hands visible, the officer might be justified in pulling his weapon. But celebrity has its benefits. "Sarah!" the man in uniform exclaims. "Can I take a picture? My wife is a big fan!"

She’s not the only one. If workload is a reliable gauge, Richardson, 37, is among the most popular of the many interior designers plying their trade on TV. Sarah’s Cottage, which played all through May, was Richardson’s fifth television series. Room Service, design inc., Sarah’s House and Sarah’s House 2 came before that, and she’s already in talks for a sixth series. Richardson also writes a frequent column for the Globe’s Style section, co-owns her production company and designs furniture under her eponymous brand.

When she’s not exciting the rural police force, Richardson is at home in her midtown neighbourhood with her husband and two girls. "I love the trees, I love the quiet of the neighbourhood," she says. "There’s lots of weekends where I park my car on Friday after work and don’t get back in it until the next Monday."

As a business owner, Richardson appreciates the extent to which local independent businesses rely on the neighbourhood to stay afloat, especially given the tumult of the current economic climate. She makes an effort to shop at Midtown shops whenever possible.

Richardson’s own business fortunes might appear similarly tenuous. Among the various home makeover shows, from Trading Spaces to Extreme Home Makeover and While You Were Out, hers is the most vanilla in concept: She overhauls a house, room by room, then sells it. That’s about it. No swapping homes with wacky neighbours, no hurried revamping while the spouse is out golfing, no arbitrary dollar limit.

That she has now completed 220 episodes over nine years ("That’s a lot of paint, I gotta tell you," she says) speaks to the force of personality at the heart of the enterprise.

Indeed, there’s no mistaking who’s in charge here: on just about every product and operation she’s got. But she’s fully aware of the risks of making her business and identity one and the same. "My name’s on the door, it’s my show, it’s my reputation on the line, and I’m also a co-owner of the production, so the stakes are pretty high," she says.

A pretty big gamble for someone who isn’t even formally trained as an interior designer. But then again, in a way she’s been prepping for the biz her entire life. As a kid growing up in Toronto, whenever she was sent to her room (which wasn’t that often, she points out), "I would just rearrange my furniture," she says.

After graduating from Havergal College, those instincts led her to the University of Western Ontario where she received a BA in visual art, with a focus on studio art and history of art.

As luck would have it, after graduation, Richardson received a call from a university acquaintance asking if Richardson would work as a prop stylist on her show. The reason? "[She] remembered that I always had really nice apartments in university and enjoyed throwing dinner parties and making my apartment nice more than I enjoyed school work," says Richardson.

The job gave her the behindthe- scenes knowledge that’s so vital to her job today, she says.

Not long after, National Post columnist and childhood friend Amoryn Engel, who was working as a segment producer for a design show called Real Life on the Life Network, came calling with a desperate request. She needed an engaging, energetic personality to lead a craft design segment. Richardson had never been on camera, but Engel had a feeling she’d do just fine.

"When I used to book talent at ABC News, they used to ask, ‘Is the person a 10-talker?’ And if they weren’t a 10-talker, they didn’t want them," recalls Engel. "Sarah was a 10-talker. And here in Canada we don’t have many of those."

Richardson nailed her segment, says Engel. "I remember [the producer] was like, ‘Wow. That girl is going to go places. She was amazing,’" she says. "We had never had a guest on like her. So from there, she became a regular, and we kept telling her, ‘You should be doing this with your life. You are amazing. You should have your own show.’"

And so in 2000, Room Service was born. Of the original design assistants from that show (most of whom are still with Richardson), the colourful and snappydressing Tommy Smythe is probably the most recognizable. Smythe serves as Richardson’s onscreen muse and creative counterpoint, and while the two bicker and cajole for the cameras, they share a very close relationship when the cameras are off.

In fact, when we catch up with Richardson over the phone, she’s in the car with her trusty sidekick, on the way back to Toronto. Just as Richardson is about to launch into a description of her husband, the charmingly fey Smythe, 38, chimes in: "Two husbands!"

"Yes, I have two husbands," says Richardson with a laugh. "Alexander is evenings and weekends; Tommy is days."

For the record, Alexander (her real husband) runs a marketing agency in the same building as Richardson’s HQ at Queen and Jarvis. His firm is on the second floor, hers on the first. The arrangement makes work very much an extension of home — and all that that brings. A few weeks back, for instance, Richardson told Smythe she wanted to discuss the details of a project, so she led him outside so they could chat while she Windexed the front door. "That’s just her," says Smythe. "She is certainly not above doing everything and anything she would ask somebody else to do," he says.

Which is important because, by the sounds of things, there’s lots of work to be done. The current project, Sarah’s House 3, has Richardson and team fully occupied renovating and restoring a rural Ontario century home — though not without their run-ins with the long (and shameless) arm of the law.

Toronto’s Italian ice capades

7:58 pm

1ST PLACE
PRIMO

IL GELATIERE, 647A Mt. Pleasant Rd., 416-488-2663
Chef Capra’s ruddy, expressive face is almost as well-known as his stylized whiskers, but the moment he tastes this masterpiece from il gelatiere, he turns suddenly grave. “Oh,” he utters. Pause. “That tastes good.” Recovered, he gushes about the roasted pistachio flavour, perfect density and subtle sweetness. “This says, ‘I am a pistachio,’” declares Capra. “A very good ice cream — and I don’t much care for pistachios.” Now that’s praise. Flavour: Pistachio, $3.81

SECONDI PLACE

Novecento, 1228 St. Clair Ave. W.
“When you finish, you don’t feel the milkiness, you taste the chocolate, and it carries over,” says Capra. Ferrero Rocher–inspired mixture makes for one happy taste-tester. Donatella, $4.34

GOURD & PLENTY

Gelato Fresco, 60 Tycos Dr.
“It tastes like fall, absolute October,” says Capra of this pumpkin-flavoured delight. “I’m at a pumpkin festival right now.” The “beautiful butterscotch colour” earns high praise, too. Pumpkin, $5 for 500ml

BURIED PLEASURE

La Paloma, 1357 St. Clair Ave. W.
“This is a complete kids’ treat. There’s just so much stuff in it,” he says of the chunks of chocolate and nuts hidden within. In all, maybe a touch too sweet for an adult palate. Rocher Caterina, $4

MINOR AIR-OR

Hollywood Gelato, 1640 Bayview Ave.
“This one’s moussey, with a lot of air in it,” says Capra. “It definitely says summer.” Still, Capra’s not sure how the nuts fit into the dish. Good, not great. Hazelnut, $3.75

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GIVE THESE GRÜNERS A GO!

Burger joint for one and all

Have macaroon will travel

The Dean of Dooney’s back in the restaurant game

No North Toronto diner finer

Anhalt brothers open up shop

Scuttlebutt

Rose’s tip: Keep the seas sustainable

1ST PLACEPRIMO

SECONDI PLACE

GOURD & PLENTY

BURIED PLEASURE

MINOR AIR-OR

1ST PLACE
PRIMO