Relish

Not the pickled and chopped condiment but a new eatery.

Opened about four weeks ago by chef Jamie Cummins, the light and airy - and tidy - space with soaring ceilings, salvaged wood counters and tables is a welcome change to the neighbourhood plagued with a down-on-its-luck vibe.

It's strictly breakfast and lunch five days a week and Cummins packs in a lot of hours in those five days baking breads and morning pastries, smoking meats, making sausages and preserves, and generally whipping up flavour packed, healthy fare. Like the savvy chef he is, he draws from local producers, and from lessons learned working with chefs Edward Tuson (formerly of Sooke Harbour House and now owner of Edge) and George Szasz of Stage fame.

Mornings start with buttermilk scones, muffins and cookies, and sturdy breakfast sausages served on a housemade bun with farm eggs, tomato and fresh arugula.

I dug in to a light lunch of quinoa salad with cilantro and a hint of smoked paprika, a bowl of summer minestrone and the daily sausage on a bun.

The sausage in the bun today was chicken with sundried tomato, preserved lemon and basil, with the right amount of flavourings, fat and salt.

That's housemade relish by the way.

I missed the onions or sauerkraut for .50 each but I'll be back.

I'd also like to point out the bun that Cummins has crafted specifically for the sausage.

I have a fond childhood taste memory of crusty buns from a German deli, and Vancouver Portuguese buns, the kind that were made in the late 1980s. This specimen was a combination of those two, and was nothing short of brilliant.

Look at that crust! It crackles perfectly without falling apart, and the bun size shows you it can handle extra ingredients without spilling out onto your designer blouse.

Cummins also features larger lunch plates, anything from flank steak, chicken confit, salmon, handmade pasta or smoked pork loin, all around the $10 range.

There are also wonderful looking focaccia rounds, made from a very cool round silicon form that he proudly showed me.

Next time, I'm in for one of these babies of grilled pepper, eggplant and herbed goat cheese. Now that's a sandwich.

It's great to meet a chef so obviously content cooking the food he loves. Perfectly cooked food imbued with fresh flavours, this is lunch you'll relish for a long time.

Still Life with Zucchini

I'm on a diet. Cue the violin.

Words like crispy, confit, and second helping, have been replaced with gentler words such as steamed, skim and, on the side.

I've been playing around with preparing low calorie snacks and meals utilizing as many vegetables I can get my hands on - in ways that are interesting and flavourful.

Take the zucchini, one of the stars of fall harvest season, before they get out of hand in terms of size.

I've devised a "pasta" dish - and I"m sure I'm not the first to try this - by using a wide bladed vegetable peeler to create wide strips, like pappardelle.

Run the blade firmly down the length of a peeled zucchini, until you hit the seeded area, and then turn and repeat on another side, and so forth, until you have yourself a bunch of wonderful looking "noodles." (The zucchini you have left behind can be grated for soups or picadillo).

Rinse in cold water making sure they don't stick together and start preparing the sauce.

Freshly chopped tomatoes are the base with capers, garlic, basil and one red hot chilie pepper added in for flavour. I've used just tomatoes and capers with great success, so the garlic, basil and chile were a last minute experiment. Hopefully, you'll create your own experiments.

Saute the garlic in a 1/2 Tablespoon of olive oil, because non-stick, non-fat spray is totally useless.

Add the tomatoes, capers and chilie pepper and saute until the tomatoes release their juices. Simmer until almost all the juices are evaporated but the tomatoes still keep a bit of shape. Check the seasoning.

Run the "noodles" through your salad spinner to dry and toss into the sauce.

Add basil and toss the zucchini around until it collapses and takes to the sauce. You don't want mushy noodles.

Plate up and sprinkle with an angel's portion of grated parmesan.

It's filling, kind of good looking, tasty and nutritious, but, I must admit, it's a little boring.

Through boredom comes innovation, and low-fat plain yogurt took on a whole new profile when I drained all the water out of it.

Line a sieve with cheesecloth, add yogurt and let drain over a bowl. What you end up with is a thick and cheese-like concoction, great for spreading over an allotment of bread, or used as a dip for crudite, adding herbs or spices to zing it up.

Lately, I've become enamored with Greek food and have been referring to The Olive and Caper by Susanna Hoffman ( Workman Press), for inspiration. Radish tzatziki is my new best friend. Freshly chopped dill and radishes are folded into the thick yogurt with a hit of lemon juice and salt (garlic optional).

I could well imagine this on top of lamb kabobs but I'm trying not to torture myself. Now if only I could get the violinist to stop playing.

Xoco - Chicago

Xoco is the newest restaurant from chef and Top Chef Master Rick Bayless, co-owner of Topolobampo and Frontera Grill.

The casual eatery draws inspiration from Mexican street food, but with usual Bayless style, incorporates sophisticated flavours, using local garden and farm-sourced ingredients.

All three restaurants are located in the same building, segueing from the raucous fiesta vibe at Frontera, to the more subdued grown up room of Topolo, and finally to Xoco, the streetwise little sister.

This is serious cooking served up, in all three rooms, against a decor that evokes celebration. Maybe fiesta is a better word. Shimmering tilework, wavy patterns, vibrant folk art, long curtains and the harlequin patterning used subtly in Topolobampo, which reminded me of a circus tent, all of it suggesting a well-thought out concept.

Xoco suggests a street festival by bringing the kitchen to the public's eye. Pull up to the street-facing window and watch churros being made to order. I half expected a take-out window.

But like a lot of popular street food stalls, a line up quickly ensues. (The best times to avoid the hoards, are either early morning, or between 2 and 3 pm.).

For an extra special something, Xoco also offers soft serve ice cream to accompany those churros. I just thought that was so brilliant. House made soft serve. Soft serve, the stuff of my childhood.

The combination of the two just rocked.

Breakfast empanadas and churros and ice cream was a breakfast of champions.

Besides churros and freshly ground cacao for bean-to-cup hot chocolate offered in six styles from authentic with water to almendrado with almond milk, to my personal favourite Aztec, a blend of chilie and allspice, Xoco does tortas like nobody's business.

With nine varieties to choose from including daily specials like pork belly and breakfast tortas, we went for the best selling Ahogada, stuffed with pork carnitas, black beans, tomato broth, spicy arbol chile sauce and pickled onions.

Next came the Woodland Mushroom, with wood-roasted garlic mushrooms, Prairie Farm goat cheese, black beans, wild arugula and a 3-chile salsa.

Both were lusciously delicious, freshly made and clean tasting, all gathered together in that bread! A firm crust that holds the ingredients, but with enough give to allow a nice big bite full. The finishing touch with every torta is a session in the wood-fired oven. Giving the crust a slightly toasty aroma and just a bit of char.

After 3 pm everyday, caldos are also served, including pozole, seafood, pork belly vermicelli and shortrib red chile soup. So many caldos, so little time.

We enjoyed the chicken pozole, topped with a crunchy cabbage garnish, lime for squeezing and ground red chile for a kick. Again a clean tasting broth, with heaps of chicken and hominy corn. Hearty and delicious.

The interior of Xoco is warm and inviting, with artwork by Jane Fulton Alt depicting Mexican market scenes, and Bill Blair's fantasy hand tinted photo montages. Why, look here, if it isn't the artist Bill Blair sitting in front of his artwork.

His flying torta image graces the menu's cover and also the T shirts that the staff wear.

We also enjoyed a dinner at Frontera where we made new friends, and our last night in Chicago was spent dining at Topolobampo, where we enjoyed different tasting menus that were so stunning, it left us speechless. It started with the first course, a sweet corn-huitlacoche tamal with a frothy sauce of Bayless garden squash blossoms, Oaxacan quesillo cheese and poblano chile. The dish was presented with 'confetti' - there's that fiesta again - of summer squash, and the waiter then shook a white mesh bag over the top of the dish anointing it with huitlacoche dust. The action was very shaman-like, the dish ethereal. I might have lost consciousness at that point, because I only vaguely remember wines like silk and velvet elixirs, and other dishes like a squid ink black rice under Arctic char, and a dessert of coconut dreams.

Topolobampo. You put a spell on me.

For those who want to create their own Bayless-inspired fiestas at home, check out his new cookbook, Fiesta at Rick's.

Oh, and behind every great man is a great woman. That would be you, Deann.

Taxim - Chicago

Greek restaurant. You know the stereotype.Those perfectly turned potatoes - I believe they come like that in a bag. The perfect rice - is that Uncle Bens? The classic salad made with tasteless feta, unripe tomatoes and too many raw onions. Belly dancers on the weekends. Bad wine. If you're lucky, you might be able to get saganaki, the Greek cheese (kelafatori) flamed at your table. But usually not.

I'd like you to meet somebody. This is David Schneider, and he's taking all those tired cliches served in Greek restaurants everywhere in North America and kicking them to the curb.

His restaurant Taxim, is making a difference in how we perceive, eat and enjoy Greek food. The regional Greek menu uses time honored techniques and ingredients that celebrate the seasons and Illinois finest purveyors. In addition, all breads, pastry, phyllo, charcuterie, preserves and yogurt are made in house. That's right. You heard me.

Take for example, the pureed chickpea dish, velvety smooth and served with lemon, sauteed fresh chickpeas and sliced radishes. A drizzle of fruity olive oil and a sprinkling of aleppo pepper for colour. So beautiful, so flavourful.

The wine list was a revelation as was the staff, well-versed in the regional varietals of Greece. We chose a crisp white hailing from Santorini, Domaine Sigalas, made with the assyrtiko grape. Crisp with medium acidity, with hints of stone fruit and dry nectar. A great wine on a summer night.

Then came a dish of fresh purslane dressed with capers, dill and fried halloumi, with hits of preserved lemon and olive oil. Balanced, tangy, bright with dill, the capers provided a gentle acidic hit, the cheese a hit of salt, a pow of intensified citrus and the purslane, juicy and spinach-like. I loved this dish so much, I had it three times. Once with friends who introduced us to this amazing place, and twice with my trusted dining companion.

I'm far from being a vegetarian, but with the flavour combinations Schneider uses and the quality of ingredients involved, it would be easy to switch sides.

Another winning dish was the tender roasted and sliced beets, served with beet greens and a slice of sheep's feta. Some might think that sounds fine just as it is, but underneath all that beet goodness was a walnut and garlic skordalia. Pure genius.

From the wood-fired grill came a dish of octopus, fennel root and red onions, decorated with fennel fronds and lemon to brighten everything up.

Next, a wonderful dish of baby okra tossed together with soft sun-dried tomatoes, fresh coriander, olive oil and a side of semolina bread.

Other dishes we enjoyed included fried green melrose and gypsy peppers with kefalograviera cheese and fried shallots, a sauteed dish of baby zucchini and squash with mint and cracked coriander, and a phyllo pie stuffed with fresh shallots, spring garlic, leeks, fresh dill and goat feta.

I haven't been this excited about a new restaurant and food for a long time. I wanted to dine here every night but I could only manage two. And yes, they have many meat dishes on their mains, we just didn't get around to getting that far into the menu.

If you find yourself in Chicago, go to Taxim. Spend lots of money, eat lots of beautiful food, drink intriguing wines, all of it free of cliches.

Note: For anyone wanting to expand their knowledge of regional Greek cuisine, check out the incredible blog by Peter Minakis. Be inspired.

Green City Market in Chicagoland

With their long hot and humid summers, Illinois grows an exorbitant amount of produce. It's something I was unaware of and surprised by while dining in Chicagoland, and was thrilled to find a farmer's market to get a closer look at what area farmers are up to.

The year round Green City Market is held twice weekly in Lincoln Park, and after October, inside, at a nearby butterfly and nature museum.

Huitlacoche, that much-coveted corn fungus, was being offered fresh from Three Sisters Garden.

Floriole's popular baking luckily had one last bag of shortbread left.

Squash, in a myriad of sizes and colours, were everywhere. I also made a note about the affordable price points. If I'm not scouring the papers for the latest sale on produce, I buy as much local as possible but the prices for organic and even most Saanich farm product is considerably higher than what I was witnessing. I love going to the farms to buy food but we need something urban and affordable.

It was disappointing to realize how much we (me) are/is paying for quality food. Why is it cheaper in Chicago? Is it because there's more of it? Are more people supporting the farmers?

Eggplants so plump. Oh hot weather, why have you forsaken us?

Perfectly ripe cantaloupes. And as the grower pointed out, it's ripe right to where the fruit meets the skin. I could have wept.

Mega pattypan squash.
An array of ash-ripened goat cheeses.

There was even an Illinois dairy farmer (Kilgus Farmstead), the only on-farm bottler of milk in the state, and only one of four in the entire U.S. that bottles its own milk and raises their own Jersey herds.

You can read about him and other pioneers of artisan products in a great, free magazine, Edible Chicago.

Perfectly ripe peaches, with your choice of firm ripe, ripe, or super ripe.

Living in B.C., I can't help but wonder, where are our ripe and super ripe peaches? Do I really have to travel to the Okanagan to get one? Do I still need to buy them from Washington?

I can seriously see shopping here every week. And with this kind of motherlode, I think I could withstand the cold windy Chicago winters.

I'm green, with envy.