This is a riveting, spellbinding, deeply moving read.

It opens with a homeless woman sitting on a window ledge contemplating suicide. The woman was Norma Herr was once a healthy, vibrant, brilliant piano protégé with two daughters when her memory starts to deteriorate. Mira Bartok, the author, and one of the daughters, takes the reader to Florence, where she worked illegally of art dealers. In these pages she briefly deplores how the shady world of art dealers generate “fake art” and pass it on to unsuspecting tourists and occasionally to locals.

Then she goes to Israel with a project to educate Israeli and Palestinian children in one class. This project was a failure and explains how Israelis think about male and female relations.

Mira Bartok then returns home and has an unfortunate accident that changes her life drastically, while still dealing, albeit remotely, with her mother in and out hospitals and “residences”.

She writes about mentally ill people who suffer due to neglect of the “health system”.

Mira Bartok’s narrative is sad, poignant, written in a fast-paced style and utterly captivating, forcing the reader to turn page after page to learn what happen next.

She is a powerful, articulate, insightful writer, and painter.

One of her paintings graces the beginning of each chapter, which add a special meaning to what she describes in it.

Read this book; think about mental illness that can befall you, but especially schizophrenia and how society deals with people who suffer from this debilitating disease.

A powerful book that should be read and analysed by everyone.

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

Yet, in order to “throw” a party, regardless of size, you must know how to cook to please a large number of people, or choose an appropriate alternative, consider dietary restrictions, create a pleasant atmosphere, choose the appropriate music, invite compatible people, buy alcoholic beverages, and determine appropriate quantities of ice, decide on flower arrangements, and rent dishes and other equipment if you don’t own sufficient quantities.

The chores seem endless, but the reward can be extremely gratifying. This is where The Entertaining Encyclopaedia comes in.

The author, an caterer, has created a very useful book for all who like to organize parties and entertain their friends, family or business associates.

Young people wanting to start catering companies would also benefit from the contents of this valuable book.

She starts with a chapter on essential party elements and themes, then continues to discuss a variety of appropriate venues, décor, china, centrepieces, flowers, and follows up with choosing guests, seating arrangements, or for buffets or receptions.

Chapter three outlines food preparation possibilities from buying ready-to-serve from a restaurant, to hiring a caterer to look after everything including service, bartending, and clean up, to what the host must do to put everything together with starting the idea, to the menu, to determine quantities of food and beverage to buy, what can be prepared in advance, and everything else that must be addressed.

The most extensive part of this monumental book deals with specially selected recipes that anyone with a little knowledge and inertest in cooking can accomplish. Each recipe contains practical tips to ensure success.

Richly illustrated with colour pictures, this is a book for all who like to entertain, brides planning their wedding banquets and/or reception, backyard party organizers, young cooks considering starting a catering business, restaurateurs thinking of starting a catering branch and entrepreneurs looking for business opportunities.

This is an excellent, thoughtfully, and professionally conceived book that deserves a place on any public or home library.

Highly recommended.

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

All we wanted was a simple lunch – a bowl of pasta, a glass of wine and a salad. My friend, Livio Camarra, the quality obsessed Italian restaurateur in Toronto, and I were at the end of our extended wine tour of Italian wine regions, and in no mood for yet another gastronomic meal and innumerable bottles of wine to taste and savour.

We were about to order when a seemingly wealthy Roman businessman appeared from nowhere and started to give instructions to our server. Livio, although fluent in Italian, decided to listen but not interfere. The businessman and server, after considerable debate suggested a menu to us, and we, although startled, accepted the menu just to experience what was going to be served and at what price. Traveling in Italy is never short of surprises, some of which can be hilarious, others pleasant, and yet others very frustrating and annoying.

The menu concocted consisted of puntarelle (a bitter chicory, julienne cut, and dressed with an assertive dressing of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, anchovy fillets, lemon juice and salt and pepper). Next came carciofi coi piselli (artichokes and peas cooked in chicken stock, prosciutto ham and onions). For the record, Italians are known to tolerate the highest levels of bitterness in their food. They enjoy the bitterest digestives, and aperitifs like Campari, Fernet Branca or Cynar just to name a few.

Then came the pasta – tonarelli cacio e pepe (long strands of pasta with ewe’s milk cheese and black pepper), which was followed by costolettine a scottadito (chops of milk fed lamb) marinated in herbs and grilled. We had no desire, capacity or intention to order dessert! Espresso was all we could handle.

The whole meal was washed down with glasses of Colli Albani and Frascati. Both are local white wines, made close to Rome, and mostly consumed by Romans as everyday drinks and often instead of water. (There are some Colli Albani and Frascati in Ontario and across Canada but they seem to taste less vigorous after the long voyage).

Roman cuisine has little common with the extravagant feasts of ancient and imperial Rome where the tables of the rich would groan with dishes like honeyed dormice sprinkled with poppy seeds, larks’ tongues and flamingos in rich sauces accented with exotic spices from the four corners of the empire. Pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and close were popular as were local herbs and garum (fermented fish entrails sauce).

Today, there is one restaurant (Magna Roma) in the eternal city that offers antique recipes culled from De Re Coquinaria (The Art of Cooking) by Apicius.

You can order lenticulum castaines (lentil and chestnut soup), minutal dulce excitriis (pork stew with citron, grape must, leeks and spices). An archeologist in on the payroll to explain the provenance of all the dishes on the menu, their cooking method and ingredients.

Of course, ordinarily Romans ate simple food. They could not afford expensive ingredients and were never interested in culinary extravaganzas, being too busy eking out a living. Roman cooking is hearty and unpretentious. Some dishes are ingenious like spaghetti alla putanesca (Consult a dictionary!).

Roman cooking lacks the delicacy of the Venetian cuisine, or the sophistication of Piedmonts repertoire, but eating in the eternal city is an adventure if you choose the right restaurant. In Rome, if you are lucky, you can have memorable experiences, but you can also be robbed of your valuables in unguarded moments!

Take a walk to the Testaccio district, where the abbatoirs gave their workers “variety cuts” (offals) as bonus. The wifes of abattoir workers learned how to prepare intestines, pancreas, lungs, brains, kidney the tastiest way they could i.e tripe soup, fried liver, braised oxtail, stewed pajata (the fourth stomach of the cow) with rigatoni graced, and in some cases still do, the tables of ordinary Roman families.

Of course in antiquity and even today, meat, fish, poultry have been very expensive. Romans, like most other Italians make good use of pastas, legumes, olives, spices, leafy and/or root vegetables. Rome is famous for its tasty vegetables, which grow abundantly in the volcanic soils of the hills surrounding it. In the thriving produce markets of Rome, farmers offer their wares fresh, daily, to eager shoppers who still insist on buying produce, meat, or fish daily, and in small quantities.

Artichokes are a staple in Roman restaurants.

Artichokes Roman style are stuffed with garlic and mint, carciofi matticella are brushed with mint-infused olive oil and grilled on vine twigs, and carcifo all giudea (Jewish style) is twice deep fried and delicious.

Cucina ebraica (Jewish style cooking) constitutes and important part of Roman cooking. The Jewish community settled in 200 B.C but grew significantly after the 1492 Inquisition in Spain and Portugal when fled to escape torture inflicted upon non-Catholics. In the ghetto you can still order salt cod (baccala), or ricotta and chocolate stuffed doughnuts.

Roman cooking is gutsy, practical, intense, imaginative and don’t expect sophisticated and refined dishes such as you can order in Venice, Milan, New York, Tokyo, Barcelona or Toronto.

Magna Roma Via Capo d’Africa, Metro Colosseo
Checchino dal 1887 Via Monte Testaccio 30, Testaccio
Piperno Monte de Cenci 9, Ghetto
La Taverna del Ghetto Via Portico d’Ottavia 7 B, Ghetto
Yotvata Piazza Cenci 70, Ghetto

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

Difficult to find outside of the region of production with names (marc, grappa, trester), and often mispronounced, all are heady, earthy-tasting clear distillates derived from the pressed skins and pips of grapes. Some producers use stalks too, but most prefer to leave them out.

French age their marc and let it acquire a rich tawny colour. Marc de Champagne, Marc de Bordeaux, Marc de Bourgogne and Marc d’Alsace, are relatively famous and enjoy a certain popularity in France, but some bottles are also exported to the USA, UK, Germany, Canada and even Japan.

Marc is an earthy, robust, distillate, high-alcohol (40 -50 %) product some connoisseurs like after a heavy meal, or in their coffee.

You can also put a splash in your morning espresso, if you work at home or have the privilege of working in a “creative“ environment, or pair it with Epoisses a most flavourful French cheese or use it to flame your game birds for extra flavour.

Marc is very flexible; you can even use it in citrus sorbets.

Aubert de Villaine, the manager of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, arguably the most venerable of all Burgundy wineries declared marc to be the “ fifth wheel of the winemakers cart “. Be that as it may, the fact remains that refined marc is the result of long aging.

Cognac and Armagnac are distilled wine, and must be aged a minimum of three years, often much longer. Marc becomes tame and smooth after 12 years or longer since it originates from a byproduct, – the skins and pips.

In Burgundy distillers clarify their marc by adding a small quantity of milk

resulting in a smooth, polished, and refined product, that only a few marc of other regions can match.

Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Dujac, M. Gaunoux, Roulot, Clos de Tarte are a few of the better Marc de Bourgogne distillers. If you happen to be in Cotes du Rhone and dine in a fine restaurant, ask the sommelier whether he has the marc of Chateau Grillet, the smallest and single-owner appellation of France (4.5 acres = 2 hectares).

France is the only country producing marc. In neighboring Italy many wineries distill grappa. It is much the same as in France except that Italians think aging weakens “the fire “ of the grappa.

In the past, grappa was a “ fierce “ distillate, rough and burning. It was mostly meant for labourers tilling the land or working the vineyards. Three decades ago, a few small distilleries thought of refining the traditional age-old grappa by distilling it using steam rather than fire.

Nonino was the first and most successful of all, and to this day is the market leader or refined beautifully packaged “varietal“ grappas of Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Bianco.

Others produce grappa di Barolo or grappa di Barbaresco

(Piedmont), Lombards are also well known for their white wine grappas.

Today grappa, at least in northern Italy, has been elevated to a sophisticated after-dinner drink packaged in outlandish, sometimes stunning-looking bottles. Prices escalated accordingly.

If you ever come across Grappa di Barolo or Grappa di Barbaresco by Ceretto in Piedmont, buy it without questioning quality, but watch the price!

Some Chianti producers distill grappa, but usually refrain from marketing it! They prefer using their product in Tuscany.

Germans call their marc trester and each region produces its own style.

Some are better than others, but most importantly it is the grape variety that matters. Riesling seems to produce the best because of its high acidity.

Often in poor vintages, trester or for that matter marc, tastes better than in good vintages. In Oregon there are a few (Steve McCarthy) grappa producers, using Pinot Gris pomace; their grappa is smooth with a pronounced varietal character, but expensive at US $ 50.00.

Surprisingly, Argentine and Chilean wineries prefer to use pomace as a fertilizer on their vineyards, as do South Africans, and Australians.

As the saying goes: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure “.

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

Grappa,Marc

The Vintages division of the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) selects fines wines, spirits, fortified-, and dessert wines plus sakes from all over the world and releases them bi-weekly.

Most are imported in small quantities and distributed to selected stores throughout the province but can be ordered by any Ontario resident living in remote locations.

In my opinion Vintages releases are competitively priced relative to others in Canada and to some extent even New York State.

Here are my picks for the month of February:

Fortified wine

Quinta De La Rosa Reserve, Douro Valley, Portugal
Well-structured offering ripe fruit aromas, along with fig and rosewater smells. Sweet but well balanced to enjoy on its own or with fresh ripe fruits.
92/100
0715540, $ 19.95

Sparkling wine

Brut, 2007, Argyle, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Smells of brioche, pears apples, white peaches. It is crisp, light, balanced and refreshing. A fine sparkling wine at a reasonable price.
89/100
02518160, $ 31.95

Helen’s Harmony Viognier, 2008, Small Gully, Barossa valley, South Australia

Offers honey, peach, pear, white pepper aromas. Medium-bodied, crisp and dry with a fine balance and pleasant finish.
88/100
0269332, $ 19.95

Les Grands Groux Sancerre, 2009, Domaine Fouassier, Loire Valley, France

Aromas of straw and apples dominate this finely balanced, refined wine. The finish is long and satisfying. Highly recommended with white-fleshed pan-fried fish, or cooked a la Meuniere.
89/100
0267948, $ 24.95

Hochheimer Kirchenstuck Riesling Auslese, 2003, Domdechant Werner, Rheingau, Germany

Absolutely delightful aromas of dried apricot, tangerine, peach compote, nut, lime, and petrol emanate fromt ehg alss. Medium sweet with ane xcellent acid backbone, this wien can be enjoyed on tis own or with moderately spices Thai or hinese specialties.
89/100
0931386, $ 27.95

Old Vines Riesling, 2010, 13th Street Winery, Ontario, Canada

Intense aromas of lime, ripe pear, peach, apple emanate out of the glass. It also offers minerality on the palate. Balanced, complex, and highly recommended with Asian dishes and lightly curried white fleshed fish.
91/100
0272617, $ 23.95

Red wines

Shiraz, 2009, Epsilon, Barossa valley, South Australia

A modern fruit-driven Shiraz smelling of ripe berries. Well-extracted, and deeply flavoured with an excellent mouth feel and satisfying finish can be cellared for 3 – 5 years, but ready to enjoy with grilled beef or beef stews.
93/100
0039552, $ 24.95

Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006, Chateau Chevalier, Napa Valley, California

Delivers complex aromas of black plums, cedar, leather, cassis and blackberries. Dry and full bodied with soft tannins and full flavoured finish.
91/100
0256776, $ 34.95

Estate Cabernet/Merlot, 2007, Ridge, Santa Cruz Mountains, California

Blended using Cabernet Sauvignon (58 per cent) and Merlot (42), this dark red and brilliant wine offers vanilla, tobacco, and cracked black pepper aromas. A firm wine with an excellent balance, and full body it is best with deeply flavoured foods e.g medium rare grilled steak, rack of lamb, grilled lamb chops, and semi-hard cheeses.
93/100
0089284, $ 49.95

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

The carnival of Rio de Janeiro is famous in the Americas, but in Europe those of Cologne, Munich, Venice, and to some extent that of Basel in Switzerland enjoy more popularity.

Carnival in those cities and in smaller ones is a “crazy” time. People in costumes go to balls, drink a lot, sometimes to excess, and watch colourful and well organized parades.

The weather in February and March happens to be chilly, if not downright cold, and accordingly, parade participants dress warmly unlike in Rio, New Orleans or Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago where they are scantly dressed to suit their climate.

The carnival of Venice starts 40 days before Easter and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Martedi Grasso). It is distinct because of its leather or cloth masks (now more plastic and modern materials are used) that are designed by specialists. There are full-, and part facemasks or costumes. Designers formed a guild, and established their own statute on April 10, 1436 and still today adhere to its rules and regulations. Venetian designers look at life as theatre and imagine everyone “masked”.

Masks and costumes are judged in a specially organized event by a panel of artists, and mask designers.

In 2011 the winner was a Belgian, in 2010 a Briton, and in 2009 a German.

Approximately three million tourists visit Venice daily during the last days of carnival festivities.

Costumed participants are picked up by gondoliers and whisked on canals to balls organized by a number of specially created groups.

Further north in Munich, Germany, carnival is called Fasching. It was, up to 1829, an open-air festival, and the first Fasching ball took place ten years later.

Now the Narrenhalle (The Council of Fools) is the official organizing committee that decides the parade route, ball locations, and other events as might be expected in an “orderly society” like Germans.

At midnight on the last of Fasching, the female vendors of Viktualienmarkt (in city centre) start dancing in their costumes with great pomp and circumstance.

The fun loving population of Munich enjoys beer and lots of it. Beer halls do a thriving business during the last days of Fasching.

Further west and south in Basel, Switzerland, the burghers celebrate carnival differently. First, they start one week after Ash Wednesday, and the main event lasts exactly 72 hours, starting with a spectacular parade in total darkness at 4 a.m. The only light allowed is by means of torches. Drummers and percussionists walk through the city noisily, and get served Baseler mehlsuppe (Basel-style flour soup, and onion pizza for sustenance. The event attracts the burghers of Basel and those from nearby German villages.

The carnival in Cologne in northwestern Germany has been celebrated since time immemorial, and in a haphazard fashion until Prussians took Cologne in 1814, and decided all events to be organized and executed in an orderly fashion. Organized carnival festivities started in 1823. The committee is responsible for all official events, and other details.

The Kolsch (as the citizens of Cologne pronounce it) carnival starts on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, at 11 minutes past 11 o’clock. The 100 Karnevallgesellschaften (comparable to krewes in New Orleans) or vice versa) organize, design, produce floats, and participate in parades.

Of all German carnivals the one in Koln (as Germans call Cologne) is the craziest and most fun, with unending balls, drinking, street dancing and a lot of fun.

From time to time gays disguise as women and dance the night away, occasionally seducing a partner to have sex. In rare cases when the man discovers that he was duped, the costumed is killed!

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

In Thailand, there is a saying: “ Any Thai willing to work will never starve”. There is always rice in the fields, fish in the waters, and fruit on trees. Even in hard times, the country’s natural wealth continues to provide a livelihood and hopes for a more prosperous future.

Thailand’s location between north latitudes of 6 – 20 (1500 km. in all) and longitudes 100 – 106 enables farmers to grow a variety of tropical, sub-tropical and temperate climate fruits and vegetables.

Rice has always been the most important food staple, but since 1950’s, Thai farmers have also grown cash crops including rubber, cassava, corn, soybean, tobacco, sugar cane and pineapple. The country produces enough to feed its population, millions of tourists that flock annually to skip cold winters in Europe and elsewhere, and even exports significant amounts to other Far Eastern countries and North America. Many of the Dole pineapples are now grown in Thailand for export the both the U S A and Canada.

In Chonburi, Rajong, Chantaburi and Trat on the coast of South China Sea produce quality rambutan, mangosteen, lychee and durian. All are delightful fruits that taste at their peak of ripeness indescribably delicious. Unfortunately, when we get them here they fail to impress us as they would if they were picked ripe.

Southwest of Bangkok, grapes grow abundantly to supply local markets.

In teh north Chiangmai, where temperatures average 21 C, during December to February the weather gets cool. Temperatures may drop to single digits. Scientist are researching to find the best locations for coffee, cold-climate fruits (apples, pears, peaches, apricots) and even flowers for export. Surprising as it may sound, apples, pears, peaches, apricots and cherries are exotic fruits in tropical countries and expensive luxury items.

Even macadamia nut trees are planted to see how well they can thrive in the terroirs of northern Thailand.

Royal projects funded by the king have helped poor highland farmers to switch from opium planting to cultivation of peach trees, and cut flowers. There is an insatiable market for exotic flowers in Western Europe.

Further north close to the border of Myanmar in Chiang Kai researchers planted citrus fruit trees and determined that they are viable cash crops. Soon you will be able to buy Thai citrus in Sri Lanka and southern India, two regions too hot to grow oranges, grapefruit and mandarin.

In Phetchabun, approximately 300 kilometres north of Bangkok, farmers now grow sweet tamarind, and less traditional vegetates like spinach, celery, salads, herbs and even carrots.

Imagine buying locally grown strawberries, mulberry, loquat, qumquat, persimmons and avocados in northern Thailand; thanks to research funded by the government and western scientists.

In Loei, north-east of Bangkok, and very close to the Laotian border, Château de Loei is a popular wine with locals during celebrations. Chenin Blanc grapes yield off-dry white wines suitable with local specialties. Although wine is not part of Thai gastronomy and culture, western educated young people and entrepreneurs have taken to drinking this mildly alcoholic beverage. The market is growing with the help of tourists visiting the country. Regardless of the popularity of wine beer is the most popular of all alcoholic beverages and most suitable with delightful Thai curries and seafood specialties.

If you ever wanted to experience a floating market, take the train from Bangkok to Rathchaburi. In two hours you will arrive in this hectic but beautiful village, and experience how farmers hawk from their long, narrow and graceful boats their fresh coconuts, pomelo, mango, lychee and sweetest grapes you ever ate.

Tourists associate Thailand with beaches, constant tropical climate and fiery hot cuisine, but miss out on the delights of visiting villages that are gradually changing by switching to a new agriculture more in tune with export markets.

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

Here is now a trend to become vegetarian fro many reasons, one being for healthy living, the other, to prevent, to the extent possible, unethical animal husbandry (now at least in North America a manufacturing process) and to foster environmental sustainability.

It contains internationally inspired meal idea, included several pages of colour photographs, excellent introduction to vegetarian essentials with regard to nutrition, pulses, nuts, cheese and a lot more.

The majority of recipes in this originate from around the Mediterranean Sea. The author, a chef and Greek born and raised in Turkey, has take many recipes and either adapted them to North American ingredients, or recorded as they were originally created.

Traditionally, mothers taught daughters how to cook, especially using their own recipes or those from their ancestors.

Cooking was essentially handed down from one generation to the next.

Most recipes are easy to cook; all are colourful and highly suitable for experimentation.

Many recipes include tips with regard to their suitability to holding a few hours before service, or using leftovers, and for refrigeration. Many Middle Eastern recipes are designed to keep at room temperature even during hot summer months.

Refrigerators around 1950’s were still not very common, and in some parts of the Middle East there are still households that survive without refrigerators.

All vegetables would benefit greatly using the recipes, but more importantly, people who are contemplating to become vegetarian, or even vegan.

An excellent book to read, and keep as a reference for everyday coking.

Highly recommended.

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

Statistics tell us that Toronto is the most ethnically diverse city in the world. The number of languages spoken seems to be endless, and culinary establishments represent a close second.

This diversity is attributable to the waves of immigrants coming from the four corners of the world.

After the World War II, Europeans from Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands were the first to arrive, followed by Greeks, Spaniards, and Middle Eastern people of different ethnic background, the East Indians. The list is long.

Every nationality that settled in Toronto tried to open a restaurant to introduce its cuisine. Some were more successful than others.

At first French restaurants enjoyed an exalted reputation fostered by hotel dining rooms. Most general managers then were of Central European origin and familiar with the refined cuisine of France. People enjoyed the fine, creamy and nuanced dishes and willingly paid the high prices. After a few decades, Italian cuisine started to become more popular due to its simplicity, availability of major ingredients and featuring fresh seasonal produce.

Subsequent waves of immigrants introduced Indian, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, South American, Mexican, Caribbean and now Russian specialties. If you are in the mood to eat Greek food, head to Danforth Avenue between Chester and Pape. Many Greek restaurants line both sides of the avenue. Some serve more authentic dishes than others. It all depends on your palate and demands.

Along with Greek restaurants, there are a Japanese, and Afghan, and even an Italian establishment.

Greek bakeries along Danforth also do a roaring business with their specialties.

If you want Chinese food from Canton or Szechwan, the choice is vast. The Pacific Mall on Spadina and Dundas represents a veritable Hong-Kong atmosphere where you can experience many styles of Chinese food from quick take-out to fine dining. Along Dundas west and Spadina there are many restaurants featuring roast duck, delectable soups and Chinese specialties at reasonable cost. Now that many wealthy Chinese families reside in Thornhill, fine restaurants have started springing up in the modern malls of the region. They offer unlimited parking, a convenience, and downtown restaurants lack.

You want Korean food, head to Bloor west. Here one restaurant is next to the other, offering extra hot soups and Korean specialties like bulgogi.

If you are in the mood to eat sushi or sashimi, many establishments interspersed throughout the city can satisfy your demand.

Japanese sushi places are scattered all over the city. Some are downtown east of Yonge along King Street, others in the west end a few even in the east of Toronto.

St. Clair Avenue west offers a veritable mosaic of ethnic cuisines from Cuba to Jamaican, Arabic, Spanish, and Italian; family operated establishments beckon the adventurous diner.

Diners interested in Indian food should pay a visit to Gerard east past Don Valley Parkway. You feel you have entered a “sanitized” small Indian town. In the summer, merchants pile their wares on sidewalks. Restaurants offer all you can eat buffets at low prices, but all seem to offer the same uninspired fare.

If you want to eat authentic Indian food, go to stand-alone restaurants elsewhere in the city where chefs will satisfy your adventurous palate with nuanced, and flavourful food.

Italian restaurants are everywhere. Some restaurant chains offer “formulaic” foods many Torontonians believe to be authentic. Pizza in Italy is an appetizer; the dough is very thin and ingredients are few. Pasta or risottos come in small servings as second appetizers after antipasti; and main courses consist of small portions of veal, fish, or poultry, with vegetables and may be with potatoes. Italians like bread more than potatoes. Polenta is a north Italian specialty and never grilled but served along with specially produced sausages. You can eat fine Italian food in mom-and-pop restaurants, and pay very reasonable prices, or eat in pretentious establishments offering overblown service and pay a small fortune.

Thai cuisine has become the darling of thousands who like moderately spicy flavourful food. Buffets are popular with those who like a variety of crunchy or soft textures.

If you want kosher food, head to Bathurst north where several restaurants can satisfy your delicatessen cravings. Corned beef, pastrami, chicken soup, kreplach, chicken fricassees are just a few of the offerings.

To top it all off, now there exist many restaurants featuring eclectic and/or fusion cuisines, some gleaned from New York Los Angeles.

The unthinkable is combines with the pedestrian. Some of these combinations work, others are jarring, and will leave your palate wondering about the peculiar taste.

When it comes to refined food, you must venture downtown to King Street west to experience restaurants run by knowledgeable caring and experienced chef-owners out to dazzle your palate, provide “telepathic” service, conducive, appealing environment, and rare wines you will have difficulty finding in most Toronto restaurants.

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.

Wineries everywhere are faced with a multitude of problems, ranging from genetics modification to excessive yields, huge wine inventories, and declining prices.

Genetic modification to North Americans is an overused journalistic topic, but to Europeans it is something worth eradicating from the minds and deeds of scientists.

Burgundians seem to be particularly incensed, and 24 of the most reputable wineries got together (a rarity in itself) to sign an agreement attempting to ban all efforts with respect to genetic modification of vines. Also included in the declaration are the following:

1. Yeasts capable of secreting enzymes, antibacterial agents and compounds to increase varietal character.

2. Leaf-roll resistant rootstock ( leaf roll is a fatal vine disease )

3. Oidium, viral – and other disease resistant greape species

As yet, there is no talk to come up with a rootstock capable of resisting the dreaded phylloxera vastatrix.

Burgundians and for that matter all French viticulturalists, have always been close to the land, and want to preserve well-founded traditions and taste profiles of their best food and beverage. After all, Burgundians grow successfully the most sensitive grape in the world – Pinot Noir.

They made a terrible mistake in 1970’s and 1980’s following the advice

Of academics to abandon to abandon their old Pinot Noir clones in favour of newly developed high-yielding ones, while supposedly safeguarding quality and flavour.

In the following years they learned a very costly lesson. Demand for their world-famous wines declined every year and they had to reduce prices to unload huge inventories.

They were also advised (again by academics) to use newly developed anti rot sprays to ward off rot at harvest time; this proved expensive and ineffective.

Intensive application of fungicides and herbicides has rendered Burgundian soil almost sterile.

After 15 years, the best vignerons and winemakers realized the madness presented to them as “ progress “. Viticulturally and spiritually Catholic monks and nuns created Burgundy, and even today the inhabitants of this hollowed land feel a strong tug from across centuries.

Frances other viti- and viniculturists heeded Burgundians’ advice and created an organization called terre et vin du monde which pleads to all wine enthusiasts and wineries to stop “ progressive “ techniques for one decade.

More research is needed to establish beyond the shadow of a doubt whether all laboratory-created advances can improve quality.

Huge “ wine organizations “ try constantly to contain costs and increase sales, often to the detriment of taste, texture and colour of wine.

There is already a surplus of wine worldwide, and declining consumption in many countries. Wine enthusiasts everywhere seem to be consuming less, but better, and they are becoming more knowledgeable about quality.

In this instance it seems to be prudent, at least in world-famous regions, to increase quality standards than yields.

France’s vignerons seem to be on the right track and the world’s wine enthusiasts should give them the benefit of the doubt and support their cause.

We all may end up better for it.

Writer – Hrayr Berberoglu – E-mail – Read his books? Professor B offers seminars to companies and interested parties on any category of wine, chocolates, chocolates and wine, olive oils, vinegars and dressings, at a reasonable cost.