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I know many of you live nowhere near a Drybar, but did you know you could buy all their products no matter where you live?? That means you can have a Drybar experience from anywhere now--all you need is my tutorial to top it off!

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Quality Cheese is located in Vaughan, at 111 Jevlan Drive, just off the 400 and north of Highway 7. In addition to the factory they have a very well stocked shop which carries all their cheeses - sold under the brand name Bella Casera - as well as an assortment of imported cheeses, pasta, baked goods, olive oil, balsamic vinegars and other Italian groceries. We asked if we could photograph the shop, and were referred to Joe Borgo, who not only agreed, but offered to give us a tour of the factory. Whoa, amazing!


We all started off by putting on white lab coats, hair nets and disposable booties over our shoes, and we washed our hands thoroughly (although I also tried to made a point of not touching anything!) As the door closed, it shot disinfectant over the first few feet we had walked over.

Every time I talk to cheesemakers about what they do, the first thing that gets mentioned is "cleaning". Half of each day Monday to Friday is dedicated to cheesemaking, and the other half of the day is dedicated to cleaning. On Saturdays they get serious and spend the entire day cleaning. Of course, we were there on a Saturday so what we saw happening was mostly cleaning.



There was a truck delivering milk for the next batch of cheeses. Apparently it came from Stayner. Hey! We know Stayner... we drive through it regularly. The other thing associated with cheese is stainless steel. This is just the beginning of all the shiny metal stuff...

The floor is wet because I think the driver had just finished unloading the milk and now he was cleaning. (Youre sensing a theme here, arent you?)



The next thing that happens is the newly delivered milk is pasteurized. The milk is on one side of stainless steel plates; steam is on the other. This allows the milk to heat and cool quickly. Then, off it goes through the pipes.



Some of it may go through a separator. Pizza block mozzarella and provolone are made with skimmed milk. Most of their cheeses, however, are made with whole milk, which also gets homogenized.



The milk is then stored in one of two stainless steel silos until it is time to send it off through more pipes into the cheese making area. Between the two silos they can have on hand up to 37,000 litres of milk. Im saying "stored", but they frequently go through more than that amount of milk in one day.



There is a smaller tank in the receiving bay to hold the water buffalo milk.



Soft, creamy cheeses like brie and what Joe referred to as blue cheese (a Gorgonzola type) are made in this vat. The whey is drained off and is used to make ricotta cheese. They make two ricotta cheeses. One is sealed in a plastic tube and has a short but manageable shelf-life. The other is a fresh ricotta sold only through the factory store as it has a shelf-life of only a week. (Thats what I used in the Ricotta Gnocchi).



The "pasta filata" cheeses are started in this vat. That means all the "stringy" type cheeses, mainly forms of mozzarella.

After the curds are formed, they are left to settle in the whey. They are drained and shredded into fine strands, then soaked in hot water. The hot water causes the strands to stretch and clump, and the texture becomes doughy. Heres where it gets tricky. The clumps get stringier as time goes on. The cheesemaker must judge the right moment to drain them. Too soon, and the cheese will be crumbly. Too long, and the cheese will be too tough and rubbery.



Next, the cheese is extruded (molded) into different shapes.



It then goes into this litle wagon, where it is soaked in cold water to set and chill it. In general, they receive enough water buffalo milk to make three batches per week; a total of 3,ooo litres of milk, with half coming from each of the two farms.



These are the molds used to form the mozzarella into balls.



Looking across the floor of the factory, you can see the vats in which cheeses are started. They are then fed, by gravity, into the molds that will determine their final shapes.



This device is used to turn loads of cheese, so that the whey will drain off of the cheeses evenly, keeping them in good shape and consistent in quality on both sides.



Some cheeses need to be soaked in brine. There is a room mostly dedicated to that purpose. Since its a cool room, some packaged cheeses find their way in there as well.



There is also a smoke room, which we didnt go into, on account of it being full of smoke. While there was no cheesemaking happening, cheeses were being packed and labelled, in this case smoked Cheddar. In addition to the cheeses they sell under their own brand name Bella Casera, Quality Cheese makes and finishes cheeses for other companies.



Next, we went upstairs. The entire upstairs is dedicated to cheese aging rooms. These are rounds of blue cheese.



Behind the blue cheese, trays and trays of "fondue brie", flavoured with herbs and designed to be served hot and melted.



Wheels of my old favourite, Friulano, wait in the packaging room.



Pairs of scamorza cheeses hang in the shop. After all that, I forgot to actually take any other pictures of the shop, but trust me: its a great place full of Italian goodies, not to mention all the cheese. Its well worth a visit if you are anywhere near Vaughan, and the shop is just 5 minutes off the 400.

Right now, their cheeses are mostly sold in the Toronto area through stores such as Pusateris, Longos, Whole Foods, Olympic Cheese, Schefflers Deli, The Healthy Butcher, as well as others. They are hoping that soon some of their cheeses will be carried by one or more of the national chains, so keep an eye out for them in your local Loblaws or Sobeys - or ask for them.



As we finished the tour, Joe said he would give us some samples. We were picturing slices on the end of a knife, so we were pretty floored when Joe handed us a box full of cheese. You can see many of the varieties they make here: starting at the bottom right and going clockwise on the plate: a mild, nutty brie, "borganzola" (their blue cheese), smoked scamorza and Friulano. Around the back from left to right: stracchino, ricotta, burrata and water buffalo mozzarella in two sizes.

Ive already used some of the water buffalo mozzarella here, and the fresh ricotta (not pictured) in Gnocchi.


It was the first time we had tried burrata, so I didnt do anything fancy with it. Its an interesting and intricate cheese; bits of mozzarella trimming and cream are enclosed in a thin mozzarella pouch. The cheese is extremely fresh - its so mildly milky and creamy its almost like eating milk made solid. This cheese just won a first prize at the Royal Winter Fair, along with their ricotta and water buffalo mozzarella.

All this cheese expertise has been around for a long time. The present generation of the Borgo family are the fourth to be cheesemakers, although the second in Canada. The company was started in 1957 in Orangeville by Almerigo Borgo. He had come to Canada a few years earlier, but was obliged to work for the railway for a while before he was able to get back to making cheese. In 1988 Quality Cheese started up in its present form.

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Shelby, over at The Life & Loves of Grumpys Honeybunch, posted this "recipe" recently. It is more of a cooking technique than a recipe, but never-the-less, it is fantastic and so much fun to bring the tastes of summer indoors during the winter!!! Shelby has such good recipes over there, I hope you will visit her page.

This isnt the best photograph, but the ribs QUICKLY disappeared before I realized I needed a better photo, so this will have to do for now.  Lets just say that the ribs went from the above condition, to the condition in the next picture in record time.

Start with a 2 to 3 pound section of baby back pork ribs and cut them into three sections. I buy the more meaty baby back ribs, so I think next time Ill cut them into even smaller sections.

Put the sections in a large deep pot and cover with water. Shelby said to salt and pepper the ribs, but I added a full tablespoon of salt and a ½ teaspoon of black pepper directly to the water.
Bring everything to a boil and then reduce to a "high simmer" (not a full boil) for an hour, then drain.

While the ribs are simmering, cover a baking sheet (that has a lip) with foil and spray it with vegetable spray. This will be a huge help in cleanup.

Place the boiled ribs bone side up first and cover with a thick layer of your favorite barbecue sauce. Shelby recommends Sweet Baby Rays and I totally agree.  Broil in a PREHEATED broiler, on high, for 5  minutes.

Remove from oven and flip the ribs over so the meaty side is up. Apply another thick layer of barbecue sauce and put back under the broiler for another five minutes or until the sauce is bubbly and just starting to crisp up (watch it because it will burn quickly if left under the broiler too long).

Remove and serve immediately....with LOTS of napkins!!!   Delicious, thanks Shelby.

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"The Internet also makes it extraordinarily difficult for me to focus. One small break to look up exactly how almond milk is made, and four hours later Im reading about the Donner Party and texting all my friends: DID YOU GUYS KNOW ABOUT THE DONNER PARTY AND HOW MESSED UP THAT WAS? TEXT ME BACK SO WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT!

I found my productive writing-to-screwing-around ratio to be one to seven. So, for every eight-hour day of writing, there is only one good productive hour of work being done. The other seven hours are preparing for writing: pacing around the house, collapsing cardboard boxes for recycling, reading the DVD extras pamphlet from the BBC Pride & Prejudice, getting snacks lined up for writing, and YouTubing toddlers who learned the Single Ladies dance. I know. Isnt that horrible?"

Oh, did you forget you werent reading my writing?? Yeah, I had the same reaction.

So for those of you who dont know who in the hell Im gushing about yet, Mindy Kaling is a comedy writer, actress, and occassional girl group Subtle Sexuality member. Put simply, you probably know her best as superficial, ditzy customer service rep Kelly Kapoor from The Office.

What I like about Mindys book (oh yeah, were on a first name only basis) is its construction. While she follows something of a linear storyline, beginning with her awkward chubby years in high school crushing on a mean Sengalese boy named Duante Diallo, following her through her college years at Dartmouth where she meets two of her best and perhaps most defining friends, and finally her present day gig as a big time comedy writer, she tells her story in more of a short story, essay, or her own coined-term pleist (a piece with a list-y quality) kind of way. I also love the titles of each chapter. Do you ever notice the titles of my blog posts?? God, I hope Im not pining over clever blog titles for 27 minutes-plus on average for no good reason. A title that encapsulates simultaneously what youre writing about and is also just obscure enough to further pique your interest is an art form in itself. "Revenge Fantasies While Jogging" and "Why Do Men Put Their Shoes on So Slowly" are personal favorites of mine.

Beyond all of that though, "Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me?" is just a fun read. I laughed basically every 4 and a half minutes. And when it was over? Im fairly certain I shed a single tear. And then I suffered a temporary, but no less devastating, bout of depression. But the good news is, I can continue to get my Mindy-fix right on her own very blog "Things I Bought That I Love," which is exactly what it sounds like. So in the spirit of Mindy, I thought Id share with you a thing I bought that I love: So Delicious Coconut Milk Egg Nog.
 I have The Paleo Project to thank for this find, and you can be assured that well be enjoying a grotesque amount of this spiked with rum during her visit this weekend.
 Its simple, really. Its delicious, it tastes like cows milk egg nog, and when sprinkled with nutmeg, youll be transported to a place and time where Christmas threw up.
So anyway, you should probably just buy the book. And then sip this stuff. And then weep and weep and weep when youve finished both.

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Warning -
This is a weekend fun post - or rather a slight diversion from our weekday healthy and weighty matters!


Im not a sucker for cocktails. Too much sugar syrup and the weird colours are enough to put me off. But Mojito (pronounced MOHITO) is different from your regular cocktail. We were ushering in 2007 in Goa, the hip and happening Baga and Candolim beaches in North Goa. The last Id been there was for my office picnic in the summer of 2004 which was to the Ramada resort in South Goa. We had pretty much the whole beach to our crazy bunch, the DJ playing music all night and free booze flowing. All this in an office picnic and more...I used to work one cool ad agency, before you all start imagining about where I used to work - haha!


New Years Eve in Goa
More about our New years Eve visit - Candolim is a beach where most of the charters from UK and Scotland land. Pretty much every local speaks English with a Brit accent - because thats the only English they hear and learn and thats what matters to their business.

View from Chiplun enroute to Goa

We drove down from Bombay to Goa. It was almost a 12 hour drive, and we reached there by nightfall on the 29th. The whole of 30th was spent lolling around on the beach chairs and the warm beach waters. The whos who were there trying to chill out and yet be seen! The time we werent in the water, we were on the beach chairs reading a book, trying to protect ourself from the fury of the sun, while the solarically deprived people were trying to expose every inch of their skin to get that fashionable tan which we Indians are inherently born with. Well, atleast I am!

( On the mention of tan - I always recollect that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer goes off to sleep in a tanning salone and comes home all browned up like a chocolate cookie! )

As much as Id like to, I cant share with you my beach pics (except for a sneak peek) as those were the days before I had shed off my excesses!

Sky, Water and Earth

Brittos at Baga Beach, Bardez, North Goa

On the 31st afternoon, we landed at Brittos - a restaurant & bar on Baga beach. This is the place everyone is Goa wants to see and be seen at. The place was throbbing with life, style, food and ofcourse mojito ! Landing up there at 2 pm for lunch wasnt a great idea after all, we were some 203 on the waiting list and people inside wanted to hang out for some more (and some more) time. So the best option was to start guzzling on the most popular drink in the house, from the bar counter at the entrance. Boy! They do know how to make their business roll.

This is a beautiful looking drink in a broad pint glass with a bunch of mint leaves stuck in and some wedges of lemon. If you just saw it, youd think its flavoured water - the way they serve it in US with a huge slice of lime. But one sip, and youll realise that its a different story altogether. If you gulp it down, youll forget what the story was!!

I hadnt heard of Mojito until that day and got hooked to it instantly. The fresh flavours, the warm sea breeze, the ambience, the ubercool people - plus the drink had that kind of effect on me!

Now, whenever I recreate it at home, I just have to close my eyes and Im in Goa on New years Eve. If you are too far away from Goa, trying making a Mojito at home and I promise youll feel much closer to the sea!

This weeks Friday Food Video - How to make a Mojito Cocktail
If you cannot see the video below, click here to view.



More on Mojito here

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