Asian Gourmet Magazine

It's not often I get called upon to be a "food critic" of sorts, so it was with much gusto and an appetite for exploration that I accepted the challenge when Asian Gourmet Magazine came knocking (they're refreshing their content so this link may not be up yet).

The publisher read my work in 24 Hours Toronto (for the Street Eats TV series) and here on suite101.com and decided I was assigment-worthy. And what an assigment it was! Eat at six different Asian restaurants around the Greater Toronto Area and report back on ambience, food, service and value in 200 words or less. It was great fun and a terrific way to learn about new dishes in cultures I was already familiar with. From Korean to South Indian- flavours were savoured and a few surprising delicious bargains were unearthed.

Here's the funny thing about food "critiquing" though- what you experience one night, may not be what you get on another night . In many cases, the chance of you dining at the same location 3-6 times to ensure consistency is pretty slim (unless you're with a big, established magazine or paper). I don't know what the policy is in Toronto city papers/magazines, but having read Ruth Reichl's memoirs, I know she went back to the same place MANY times before making her determinations when she worked at the New York Times as that paper's food critic. I agree with Marion Kane who says that food critiquing is often like taking a "snap shot" of a place- a good night and you get a flattering snap shot. I'm by no means a seasoned food critic, but dabbling in this genre was hugely insightful and fascinating (plus I'm not a household name so unlike Ruth or Joanne Kates, I didn't have to disguise myself either!).

This is the magazine's second issue and it's chock-full of terrific recipes from Chef Winlai Wong (of Monsoon Restaurant), Chef James Spry and other terrific chefs and recipe developers. If you're in the GTA- the magazine is available at Chapters, Indigo, Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart. If you get it, let me know what you thought!