Gourmet foods from Canada to try

Gourmet foods from Canada to try

Excerpt: A food-loving shopper with a nose for a bargain would usually sniff elsewhere than the red-bricked row of gourmet food shops that line a stretch of Yonge Street in Toronto’s upscale Rosedale neighbourhood. Locals call them the Five Thieves. They are not known for filling a grocery basket at a discount. But let’s imagine you heard the Italian white truffle harvest was a bonanza this year, and that you might be able to root out some of the bonanza for yourself at a butcher here. The co-owner of Olliffe Butcher Shop doesn’t even mind the Thieves sobriquet (“I’ve embraced it. It’s kind of funny”) but he can’t offer good news about the prized fungi. “We sell them for $8 a gram. Last year they were the same. Supply and demand hasn’t really kicked in on this,” says Sam Gundy. That’s the bad news. The worse news: The sought-after Piedmontese white truffle proves elusive in Canada anyway; it’s the less-revered truffle varieties we tend to get. “You never get alba truffles outside of Italy—whoever says they’ve got alba…” the thought trails off. He shakes his head. “It’s impossible.”

Full article at Money Sense