My friend Ted has always given me food for thought over the years, often over a whiskey or two into the wee hours, so when Ted and Roisin invited us to London (Ontario) a few weeks before I took off to Europe this past August (I know, I am attacking my post backlog!) for a barbecue and campout to end the summer, I was thrilled to finally be tasting his "thought for food" (that's "thoughtful food" said with a mouthful of Ted's homemade burgers!).
You see, I met Ted in Halifax, Nova Scotia way back when he was a fine arts student at NSCAD (now NSCAD university). What started as a couple kitchen jobs to pay the rent took over as a full-on artistic passion and career. I left Halifax in 2006 having had only a small taste of his famed gelato flavour creations at the popular but now closed, Dio Mio Gelato house on Spring Garden Road. I remember being in town briefly to see the first attempt at home brewing stacked in Ted's living room (my former apartment), sealed and fermenting. Sadly, I left before I got a chance to taste any.
This August, in Ted and Roisin's new home in London, we finally got the full treatment. We were fed homemade burgers with the full fixin's and a fantastic spread of goodies. The highlight was the most impressive homebrew I have ever had in my life - a delicious Cerveza (Corona and Sol are examples of Cerveza), and a couple darker brews, including a hearty nut brown that I loved. B and I stuffed ourselves around the campfire and got to know Ted and Roisin's London crowd.
(Pesky camera strap wants a bite of my huevos rancheros too!)
The gastronomic peak for me was breakfast the morning after. Ted had started a pot of Mexican beans from the day before straight from dried to let the spices seep slowly in as the beans hydrated, slow cooking through the party festivities into the morning. When we woke up, we were treated to an authentic huevos rancheros breakfast cooked over the still burning coals of the campfire. The beans had a fantastic aroma and heat to them and Ted made my eggs deliciously runny, just like I like them. This was served with homemade guacamole and campfire-heated tortilla bread. As if this wasn't pampering enough, we were also treated to fresh watermelon and lime margheritas to accompany breakfast and give it an extra kick.
Ted and Roisin have created a beautiful home for themselves in London, with a vegetable garden out back, Roisin's textile studio for Bespoke Uprising and Repeat overflowing into the halls, and a kitchen humming with Ted's latest catering and food delivery venture, the Handicraft Hash House.
Ted's signature is the incredible thought and detail he puts into his craft, from the organic and locally sourced ingredients, to the second edit of the food manifesto he sent me recently for another look, to the design of his new food labels (you can give your input by joining the facebook group: The Shoofly Appreciation Consortium).
You can order Ted's homemade meat pies, baked goods, preserved soups, sauces and pickled foods here and even set up a weekly meal delivery service within the London area. (w/ occasional trips to Toronto and Essex County). HHH Pies span everything from Cornish pasties to Jamaican patties to crawfish. I am intrigued by the Kentucky Burgoo, a stewed concoction of small game (rabbit) and mixed vegetables, a recipe originating in hobo camps of the 19th Century American West. And from the preserves and spreads, I can't wait to get a lick of his Calvados (apple brandy butter).
bread - anadama bread
soup - scotch broth
pies - Jamaican patty, bierock and tortiere
potted meal - polenta povera
Oh, Ted. Tell me you were serious about couriering that meat pie to Berlin...
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