Summerlicious 2014: Paese

After the disappointing start to Summerlicious with my visit to Fred's Not Here. I really hoped that Paese would not just be more of the same. Paese Ristorante on King St. is the younger brother (or sister) of the storied Bathurst location. First opening its doors in 2010 (almost 21 years after the original!) Paese on King has quickly become a local favourite for Italian fare. It goes without saying I was very eager for my first visit and Summerlicious was the perfect excuse to make it happen.

We started off the night with Calamari. Now considering we ordered this at Fred's I was a little weary about ordering it again. Paese was more than ready to aleviate my fears with a fantastic appetizer that really highlights how to correctly execute a dish. Expertly seasoned but light, intensely smoky without being burnt, just perfectly cooked. The tender calamari was accompanied by lemon mayo, capers, red onion and a little bit of greens. All the ingredients served to elevate the squid without covering it up.

The second appetizer of the night was Meatballs. Now meatballs fall into two camps, ones that have a soft tender texture due to liberal use of breadcrumbs and wet ingredients and ones that have a coarser texture due to being predominantly meat (its a constant battle between finding the ideal texture and making sure the flavour of the meat comes through). The ones we had at Paese fall on the meaty side. The flavour was decent, Paese uses three different cuts in their ground: short rib, sirloin and brisket. Many places (especially burger places) will experiment to get the perfect ground that gives you the best combination of flavour and texture. The real highlight of the dish for me was the tomato sauce; vibrant and bright. The pecorino on top was kind of tough and was difficult to cut so it was hard to incorporate it into mouthfuls but the cheese itself had a mild nutty flavour.

For our first main, we had the Ravioli with Lobster. The lobster was expertly cooked, perfectly tender. The ravioli itself was delicious with the cheesy polenta combining well with the tarragon butter sauce. Cherry tomatoes were strewn throughout to help cut the richness of the dish. The pasta skin itself also had an interesting peachy flavour that I had trouble identifying. If anyone has experience with how this dish is traditionally made and can give me some insight, I'd love to hear from you!

Now the next dish really highlights how Paese does a good job of letting their ingredients shine. I ordered the Semolina Crusted Chicken that was accompanied with Panzanella. Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad; the one at Paese included cherry tomatoes, cubed English cucumbers and some leafy greens. If you appeciate fresh vegetables that are not covered up by complex sauces then you will really enjoy the dish. The crust on the chicken has a nice crunch due to the slightly cheesey semolina and a ring of chili oil encircles the plate as a garnish for those who like a small kick.


Before I start on the desserts I feel like I should point out that the portions at Paese were extremely generous. I'm not much of a stickler in terms of portion sizes but my meal at Paese genuinely had me wondering if I'd be able to finish, haha. Good thing I have a different stomach for dessert because the dessert here was exquisite.

To finish I ordered the Lemon Semifreddo and boy was I happy that I did. The semi frozen lemon custard was topped with shortbread crumble, blackberries and mint. The superbly light but deliciously lemony custard went so well with the crumble and blackberries. The texture of the crumble plus the little bite of the blackberry seeds all on the canvas of custard was heavenly. I really can't stop going on about how lemony the custard was, in my head I imagine a poor chef's apprentice being tasked with zesting 1000 lemons just to achieve this mind blowing result.

The final dessert of the night was the Cioccolato. Sooooooooo much chocolate. I'm a huge chocolate fan (check out the blog title *cough*cough*) but regardless of my unhealthy addiction to cocoa, this dessert was fantastic. The cioccolato had two layers of moist chocolate cake sandwiching a delicious white chocolate mousse, all upon a bed of warm nutella and topped with hazelnut brittle . It goes without saying that the dish was sweet, but not overpoweringly so. Even the white chocolate was airy and light. One the best desserts I've had in a while.

Paese was a breath of fresh air for my Summerlicious escapades and I look forward to a return visit in the future to try things off their regular menu. If you enjoy great Italian fare with fresh ingredients that doesn't over complicate then you should definitely swing by Paese.

Recommended

Restaurant Review: Shiso Tree Cafe

Were back in J-Town! I don't know why I only remember to take pictures of my food when eating in J-Town but Shiso Tree Cafe definitely has food worth blogging about. Now Shiso Tree is a small little cafe within J-Town specializing in Italian pasta with a hint of Japanese influence. The last place I expected to be eating Italian was in J-Town but I had heard good things and decided to give the place a try. Some of the pasta Shiso uses is actually made fresh in house (it is usually displayed on one of their chalk board menus and will say fresh pasta!) In addition to the plethora of pastas the menu also includes fry dishes where crispy potato fries are seasoned and slathered with various toppings and sauces. During my first visit we had Nori fries, spaghetti bolognese and another spaghetti dish with cream sauce and smoked salmon.

The Nori fries were potato fries topped with seaweed. The fries themselves were not particularly great, they were soft and could have bene crisper, indicating that not enough starch was removed before frying. The seaweed was also quite bland and overall this dish was not well seasoned. The other fry dishes on the menu are much better in comparison, especially the ones that incorporate sauces, as the sauces here are great. Nori Fries 4/10

 Before we continue I should say that I am a huge fan of bolognese, more specifically the ragu style of bolognese where it is a meat based sauce that uses tomato for flavour as opposed to a tomato based sauce that uses meat for flavour. Although Shiso Tree's bolognese isn't Michelin star, it is fantastic for local fare. The sauce itself is bold and rich in flavour, with the meaty earthy tones flushed throughout. It also clings to the pasta perfectly which is another indication of an excellent sauce. The accompanying slice of garlic toast appears to use milk bread, which is a Japanese form of bread that is extremely soft and slightly sweet. The flavour combined well with the sauce and I thought it was a great touch. Although I loved the dish I did taste a hint of burnt flavour, I am not sure if the dish was meant that way or if it was just an outlier but that did hurt the score a little, but considering the dish still gets  6.5/10 from my book lets you know that this is good stuff.

Finally the spaghetti with cream sauce, smoked salmon, salmon roe and a little caviar. The reason that the name is so long is because I cannot remember what it actually was on the menu, but who cares, another reason to go back! Now the cream sauce was light and delicious, it complimented the salty salmon and caviar well and the dill accented the flavour of the fish and sauce that made for a pleasant mouthful. The smoked salmon itself also had a great texture. This combination of ingredients is by no means ground breaking but the execution here is what matters and this was a great plate of pasta. Now the qualms I had about the dish was that the smoked salmon was a tad bit salty and could have been infused with more smoke but overall the dish is great. 7/10

Now during a separate visit (yea thats right I went a bunch of times before I finally blogged about it, =P) I remember having spaghetti with rose sauce and clams, with a cream of potato soup, okonomiyaki fries and a red bean and green tea sundae for dessert. Now I don't have any pictures of the okonomiyaki fries and I don't review desserts (my sweet tooth rarely finds anything wrong with any form of dessert -_-). But okonomiyaki fries were much better than their nori counterparts. For one thing they were laid out on a large plate, which meant they weren't as soft and/or soggy from being stacked on top of each other and steaming. The fries were topped with okonomiyaki sauce (a sweet Worcestershire based sauce), Japanese mayonnaise, green onion slices, bonito and if I remember correctly seaweed (don't quote me on that). Although the fries themselves were again nothing spectacular the toppings were great and the flavours of okonomiyaki lent itself very well to a bed of potato frites. 5.5/10

Now the spaghetti with rose sauce and clams was a favourite of both me and my better half. Personally rose sauce is one of my favourite pasta sauces (only beaten by a good ragu) the combination of  a light cream sauce and the slightly acidic tomato base is amazing and in this dish they were further heightened by the flavourful minced clam meat. The flavours in this dish harmonized the best out of any I've had so far at Shiso as each ingredient seemed to elevate each other. 8/10

The pasta came with soup and salad and you rarely see me review complementary dishes like these but this cream of potato was a pleasant surprise that made my visit. The soup itself was not overly thick and if its something that Shiso does well it is making possibly heavy overbearing flavours light and delicious, it makes you feel less guilty for eating the grub. Now the cream flavour mingled with the pieces of ham, potato and corn in a way that surprises you. The actual combination of flavours isn' t the surprise, tons of restaurants around the world put those ingredients in cream of potato, but at Shiso it was different. The potatoes are tender but not chalky or overcooked, the corn and ham gave the dish just the right level of savoriness and sweet. Overall it was a fantastic soup, although the croutons could have been replaced with a thinly sliced toast crisp on the side for better depth of texture. 7.5/10

Shiso Tree Cafe is a great restaurant and anyone who has a taste for good Italian pasta should pay a visit, you will be pleasantly surprised. Definitely recommended.


 Shiso Tree Cafe is located in J-town in Markham, Ontario. 3-3160 Steeles Ave. East L3R4G9
For more information check them out on urbanspoon at the link below




All photos courtesy of Christian Lin and Vivian Lam