Let’s Talk Food and Drink

If you’ve ever been to Ontario Canada, you’ve probably wondered at some point where to buy wine – or beer – or any liquor, actually.

Control of all Ontario’s liquor sales occurs through the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario), although beer can be bought at outlets we creatively call The Beer Store.

Image from LCBO.com.  My local outlet doesn’t look this nice.

Shenanigans at the Beer Store are worth a post of its own, but I’m not sure I want to venture down that rabbit hole.

Image from thestar.com

At the end of October, Ontario will be taking a huge leap into the 20th Century (yes, I know …) by allowing wine to be offered for sale at selected grocery stores.  We’re definitely not talking leading edge stuff here.

The bidding process is not insignificant to be one of the 70 initially allowed outlets …eg the store must have at least 10,000 sq ft of retail space available with food items.   Only SEVENTY stores in a province that’s almost 1.1 million sq km (424,700 sq miles).  Obviously the Ontario Government has taken the position we can’t be overly cautious.

Ok, in fairness, a major chunk of the province is virtually unpopulated, but the population of Toronto alone is about 2.8 million – and that doesn’t include the ubiquitous squirrels and raccoons.  I don’t think I’ll be abandoning my local LCBO outlet anytime soon.

Anyway, I didn’t really intend to write this post about Ontario’s archaic liquor laws. This post was actually inspired by a little jewel the LCBO offers – for free – called Food and Drink.

It is a glossy magazine, available 5 times a year in the LCBO outlets, full of great photos, food related articles, recipes, and decorating ideas.  The Fall Edition – one of my favourites – will be available today.

Now, assuming you don’t live in Ontario, I would imagine you’re asking yourself why you should care.  Well, the magazine and all its recipes from previous editions are available online (click on the photo to go to the website)

My most recent foray into Food and Drink recipe land was a Chocolate Salami.  I’m not particularly a fan of either dark chocolate or dates, but the recipe called for Sambuca – an Italian anise-flavoured liqueur – and that was good enough for me.

I would show you a photo of the Chocolate Salami I made, but Husband discovered how yummy it was crumbled on French Vanilla ice cream and then it was bye-bye Salami.  Let’s just say it looked like the photo in the magazine … and that’s one of the beauties of Food and Drink.  My efforts usually look just like the recipe.

If you are interested in trying it yourself, click on the photo.

 

 

How could the Food and Drink be better?  Well … if only there was a hot line available for having fully prepared orders delivered to my door … now THAT would be a very good thing.

 

Footnote – Ontario wines have been available at a very limited number of Wine Rack shops located in some grocery stores for several years.  In addition, beer has also been made available since September 2015 in a small number of grocery stores.