I am 8 years late in my discovery of Mela Cafe, Italian Vegetarian Magic at 7 Yorkville Avenue 416 916 0619. Perhaps its location where Wanda’s Pie in the Sky once was kept me from coming too close, as I missed Wanda’s very much. I came across Mela Cafe last week after buying DLish cupcakes and looked around the corner for some lunch. Yes, I got dessert before choosing a spot for lunch.
The chalkboard menu and glass display cases at Mela Cafe were very enticing. I tasted a certain magic in the food with the mixed veggie salad and sweet potato mash with rapini topped with homemade tomato sauce I had. I enjoyed my lunch so much that I went back the next day for beet risotto with greens, which was delicious. As was their signature eggplant sandwich, which I enjoyed another time.
Mela Cafe is a great little spot to have some lunch or get takeout for dinner. Their food is prepared with great care to a point where the chefs Roberto and Kim grow their own vegetables. They are real innovators here. The quality shows through in the delightful taste of the food. I highly recommend Mela Cafe for a healthy, delicious meal that inspires us to eat more veggies by showing us how tasty veggies can be. What an amazing accomplishment for Mela Cafe!
Working for a Meal?
This week, I came across two articles on a food trend of people working for their lunch or dinner. Working in the sense of volunteering their time to help in the labour intensive process of bringing harvest from the farm to the table.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-trends/free-labour-diners-line-up-to-volunteer-at-restaurants/article4566712/
Having volunteers help a restaurant produce food product is quite the clever ‘win-win’ situation-helping educate the consumer in the farm to table process while the restaurant receives some extra labour they could use at a time of abundance. Creating good, high quality food does require work!
I particularly like the community spirit behind working for your dinner at the Irish Heather in Vancouver:
http://ltsmenu.blogspot.ca/
I truly believe that the more we can be involved in the process of bringing food from harvest to table, the more we can understand and become aware of best practices for environmentally and economically sustainable food production.
Perhaps this could be inspiration to go apple picking at this time of year. Great outdoor activity and opportunity to work for your Canadian Thanksgiving dinner…
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Posted in commentary, local food
Tagged Food trend