Mideastro Yorkville: Around the world in many flavours

I was recently invited to a Media Tasting event at Mideastro Yorkville. Opened since last summer, Mideastro is a refined approached to Mediterranean and Israeli cuisine. I’d call it “comfort food refined”.

The fusion of cultures is a huge draw to this restaurant. People in Toronto know how multicultural this city is, but Israel is multicultural as well. The “Jewish State” is a melding of religions and cultures from all over the world. Owner Leon Goldstein is Israeli but grew up in South Africa. Chef Benny Cohen was raised in Israel by Moroccan parents, as indicated by the inclusion of lamb in many of the dishes, and his cooking has been influenced by the flavours he experienced from immigrants and travelers to Israel. In Introducing the dinner, Chef Cohen refers to it as “11 countries from around the middle east”.

Shortly after entering the warm space on one of the few cold snowy days we’ve had this winter, I was handed a cocktail called “Avatiach frizzante”. “Avatiach” is the Hebrew word for watermelon. One of my favourite Hebrew words, actually. (Another favourite is the Hebrew word for cucumber: “Melafafon”.) “Frizzante” means “fizz” in Italian. So, it’s a “watermelon fizz”. Similar to a bellini, it’s Chombord and Prosecco with a scoop of watermelon sorbet. Israel meets Italy & France. It was enough to make we want to speak Hebrew.

Hors d’oeuvres followed: Beautifully grilled falafel “sliders” were presented in a pita with pickled Israeli salad (chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley). A home made pocket stuffed with ahi tuna, pumpkin, harissa and shifka pepper is listed as “fricassee” on the evening’s menu but I thought I heard the waiter say “Paprika Sandwich”. Regardless, it’s deliciousness. The pocket is buttery and spicy. It’s one of my favourites. “Bourekitos” are their take on a boureka, Balkan-inspired flaky pastry drizzled with tzatziki labane and covering a parsley salad that I thought was tabouli, but they kept saying wasn’t. All three of these hors d’oeuvres are going on the brunch menu soon.

Two more “appetizer courses” followed, beginning with soup, of course.The aroma of the tomato-based lamb soup made my mouth water. With chickpeas and lentils, beef stock, chunks of lamb, cumin and paprika, it seems to have influences of Italy and Morocco. It’s a hearty soup and delicious. I would love to make a soup like this.

The next plate in the appetizer was a duo:

Turkish-style Baladi Eggplant is grilled whole eggplant topped with tomato salsa, Israeli feta, wild oregano roasted garlic, and herb tahini. The tahini contained a combination of parsley and cilantro. The cherry tomatoes came from Italy. After the dish was introduced I cried out, “You had me as Israeli feta”. Seriously, I believe that Israelis make the best dairy products in the world. That said, my world travels are limited so my informed opinion is that Israelis make better dairy than Canadians. If I ever have an opportunity to travel the world in search for the best dairy, I’ll jump on it.

Lahma Ba’ajin is a Damascus-style flatbread topped with ground lamb, chickpeas, tomatoes and sheep yogurt tahini. It’s a style of flatbread that goes back over 500 years. The dish is wonderfully spiced.

Third course gave us another duo: Black Truffle Carpaccio and Grilled Calamari.

The carpaccio is 12-week-aged waygu beef tenderloin wrapped around arugula and thin slices of Parmiggiano Reggiano. A slice of parmesan sits on top. Finishing the dish is a drizzle of balsamic and black truffle oil over top with a layer of pomegranate honey reduction. There’s a lot going on, but it’s cohesive and well balanced. In my notes I wrote, “One of the best smelling dishes ever.” Real, black truffle. Not overpowering. Not off-putting. The arugula, bitter on its own, provides a nice contrast to the dish. The flavour of the balsamic reduction reminded me of birch syrup. I wanted to lick my plate. It prompted me to tweet, “Scraping up every last bit of balsamic reduction. Would it be appropriate for me to lick the plate, @Mideastro & @Butter_PR?”

Chef refers to the carpaccio and “Lazy carpaccio”. It saves him from having to compose the dish on a plate. To me there was nothing lazy about it. It’s delicious simplicity.

If the duos on each plate were in competition, the carpaccio was clearly the winner but the calamari is another merging of countries. The grilled calamari is served on lime root vegetable cream and ox tail cavier lentil pot au feu (literally, “pot on the fire” – traditionally a French beef stew). The calamari is marinated in spices that include paprika, garlic, salt and pepper and grilled at 500 degrees, Spanish style a la plancha- grilled on a metal plate. Plancha griddles or flat tops are chrome plated which prevents reaction with the food. Some base metal griddles will impart a subtle flavor to the food being cooked. Also, with a plancha if you use a low even heat and a drop of oil you can toast the food and caramelize some of the natural sugars in the food (I learned this via Wikipedia). Beneath our calamari is a foam of cauliflower and milk, showing a variety of techniques in one plate.

Fourth course (the first of the mains) and getting full. What the menu described as “red snapper baked in smoked paprika and tomatoes in root vegetable fish stock served on sweet arisa risotto” is actually chraime, a Moroccan and North-African fish and vegetable casserole. A nod to Jewish, sephardic roots, chraime is often served as an appetizer on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.  Fish are considered a symbol of wealth. While I’m of Ashkenaz descent, I’ve read that almost every sephardic family has its own special “Chraime” recipe. Cohen’s begins with fish that was soft, tender and flaky. On the side was a super hot red pepper, of Spanish origin and grown in Israel.

If I was “getting full” on the fourth course, I could barely eat the fifth, a lamb and beef grilled kufta in a grilled tomato and eggplant stew in Middle Eastern spices. Mideasto serves theirs in a large cast iron pan (we got a mini version) covered in a thin layer of fresh foccacia with a hot yogurt and tahini sauce. The waiter’s “table trick” is that he arrives with the dish, presents it, and then cuts into the pastry for the customer either cutting around, down the middle or beneath, revealing the dish inside. The idea is to tear pieces of the foccacia and dip it in to the stew, sort of like using injera to eat stews at an Ethiopian restaurant. Not that using bread as a utensil is restricted to one culture. It’s an old practice. It was, again, beautifully spiced and I think I heard them say that there were rose petals in there. I don’t like floral flavours and yet it all worked together so well. I ate half before giving up and moving on to dessert.

Dessert duo:

Nutella parfait with frozen nutella cream, caramelized bananas and a piece of salted pecan brittle; Fig Kataiv, which was layers of spiced mascarpone, fresh figs and pistachios sandwiched between crisp layers of shredded phyllo dough spun thin. I loved them both but I think I liked the Nutella just a little bit more.

Throughout the meal Israeli wines were served, though their wine list includes wines from Chile, Italy, Ontario, France, and other places. Master Sommelier Bruce Wallner is one of the most well trained sommeliers in the country. In 2009, after 20 years of serving and studying wine, Bruce became the 171st Master Sommelier, one of only three “Master Sommeliers” in Canada.

As many of their ingredients as possible are imported from Israel. This is not great for locavores but the quality is fantastic. As I said earlier, Israeli dairy excites me.

In speaking with Goldstein and Cohen after dinner, I learned that the Cohen has lived in Manhattan and believes that Toronto is similar but better (take THAT, 30 Rock writers!). He observes that Toronto is still young in its food culture and tells me that he wants to help expand it. It’s something that I’ve heard from other chefs as well. A chef friend once shared his opinion that food trends take 8 years (!) to cross the border. It’s ambitious, but doable. Cohen’s food philisophy is that food should be simple, yet innovative and delicious. It should nourish and excite. Cohen told Neil of Communal Table that he’s hoping to bring a truly unique experience to Torontonians by bringing the flavours of the Middle East mixed with his expression, knowledge and technique in a fine dining setting, and also showcasing a 2,000-year-old voyage of the Jews through history, time and space.

Toronto is a multicultural city. It makes perfect sense to have a fusion of cultures. I wish Mideastro Yorkville the best of luck. They’re already off to a good start.

Address:
27 Yorkville Ave. at Yonge

Telephone: 
416-477-2427

Hours:
Monday -Thursday: 11am-3pm, 5pm-10pm
Friday – Saturday: 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 12pm
Sunday:  11am-3pm, 5pm – 10pm

Price range:
At lunch, appetizers start at $6 for the soup and go to $25 for the burrata salad and mains are $13-$19
At dinner, appetizers have the same price range as at lunch but with more options, and mains are $21-$34.
Dessert is $9-$14.

Website: http://www.mideastroyorkville.com (Warning: It has music.)

Full photo set on Flickr: