Menu sounds lovely!
No meat, hmm.
I am thinking maybe a beautiful cheese platter, with fresh fruit, some high-quality crackers/crisps/lavash, and a kind of jam or chutney with some smoked almonds alongside... do all Canadian cheeses... or maybe a hard cheese, a soft cheese, and a nicely-veined blue or something else of that ilk...
Ina's lemon yogurt loaf NEVER fails to please company... that's a wonderful idea. Oatmeal cookies, cupcakes, how can you go wrong.
I think for the sandwiches you could maybe do personalized grilled cheese sandwiches? Bon appetit did a great recipe in their Oct 2012 issue, here is the link: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/10/grilled-cheese-sandwiches
Of course lots of dips, spreads, and salsas are great at parties... may I suggest a homemade roasted corn guacamole (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fresh-Corn-Soup-Topped-with-Roasted-Corn-Guacamole-352975), a delicious salsa (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...)... maybe a quick pico de gallo with lots of nice chips, blue corn tortilla chips, maybe a some of those root veggie chips... kale chips... possibilities are endless and yummy!!
Your salad ideas sound great. Orzo tomato pinenut, with some kind of balsamic reduction on top, a bit of slivered basil.. your second salad sounds more asian-inspired, why not add slivered toasted almonds, nappa cabbage, sesame oil, sesame seeds and fried chow mein noodles and do a little asian nappa salad? And for your final salad... crunchy vinegary slaw sounds excellent. Maybe add a little jicama for interest, or a different kind of slaw dressing --- a tangy Carolina mustard slaw?? Mmm.
Party sandwiches sound lovely too. Some egg sandwiches, maybe corned beef and pastrami with pumpernickle or rye bread, some tangy mustard alongside, some cream cheese pinwheels with a sweet pickle...
any pescetarians at the party? Could do a gorgeous side of lox... some cream cheese? Yumm.
Pesto pea crostini sounds good! Edamame is a nice twist on the pea idea too, if you wanted to.
As for the quiche -- I usually do a Lorraine at parties I throw, but a delicious interesting one is a simple leek & goat's cheese or leek & feta quiche. Just do tenderflake and you'll be golden!!
I hope I was able to be of some help to you... please let me know how the festivities go! Good luck, have fun in the kitchen cooking and then later with your lovely guests!

Best place to get what you are looking for is The Village Grocer. The owner, Evan, does his own home-made corned beef in-house, and it's absolutely fantastic. I don't go anywhere else to get it now.
The store itself was built 28 years ago and was located on Main Street in Unionville, but they've since relocated to a newer location just at the tip of Unionville, at 16th and Kennedy (they've been there two years I believe). It's really unbelieveable and they will let you sample it before you buy it (I get mine, shaved, a couple of times a week... then do it up on a great rye bread with some nice tangy mustard... how can you go wrong!!).
I strongly urge driving out there if it's even a bit out of your way. The staff are so friendly and the store itself is so lovely and aesthetically pleasing. They've got quite a following.
Also... Evan also does his own maple sugar ham, black forest ham, delicious keilbassa sausage, killer pepperettes and landjaeger sausage..
So I hope I've been convincing but I can't speak more highly of this place in terms of the quality of their meats (corned beef especially) among other things I haven't mentioned yet that you'll find elsewhere in the store.

Here's the location:

The Village Grocer
4476 16th Ave Markham, ON L3R 0M1

They're open today until 6 pm I believe.

Highly recommend T&T at Woodbine & 16th Ave. They have uber-cheap and uber-fresh seafood there. I buy all my lobster, crawfish, spot prawns, and blue crabs there for all my summer boil-ups and indoor winter ones too. :-)

There are several locations in the GTA, including one in the Promenade Mall. But the newest one is the one at 16th and Woodbine and I've never been disappointed with quality or freshness there.
You may also want to try Seacore Seafood Inc. It's more warehous-y, but you can find exactly what you are looking for there.

If you're a tomalley lover, both locations will happily seek you out females that are chock-full of eggs and all that other good stuff, if you're into that (like I am!).

Happy hunting!! Or should I say fishing. :-)

Here are the locations:

T&T
9255 Woodbine Ave Markham, ON L6C

Seacore Seafood Inc.
81 Aviva Park Dr Vaughan, ON L4L 9C1

Hey, Bairrada Churrasqueira is unreal. When you walk in it's always full of people, unreal smells of roasted meats, lots of good olive oil, very attentive waiters, fast service... if you go in the summertime they've got a backyard seating area with lots of portuguese flags everywhere and when I was there watching the world cup it was fantastically busy but the food quality never goes down. Bairrada never disappoints. The portions are large and everything is really delicious... you MUST try to whole, spit-roasted pig... it's absolute heaven. Or the glazed and flambeed chorizo. It's simply to die for!! They've also got a specials menu included on the inside of the regular format menu everyday, and there's usually some kind of variety meat or unusual animal featured, to those who aren't familiar with things beyond their typical (but unbelievably good) churrasqueria chicken... things like goat, rabbit... you'll find those on the specialty menu and they are to be tried... I highly recommend it!
Make a reservation if you're planning to go on a Friday or Saturday night, bring a couple of buddies and you will leave the place smiling with lovely scents in your clothes :-) and truly satisfied!!!

Here are the deets:

Bairrada Churrasqueria

1000 College St
Toronto
(416) 539-8239

(Btw there is also a St. Clair location, but personally I'd go to the one above on College. I'm there more often and that's where I had my best experiences with this restaurant).

5secondrule, I just called them,, and although they don't carry the white tea w/ vanilla, they do have other varieties.
Thanks for your tip though!

Hello,

They have a HUGE selection at McEwan, at the Shops on Don Mills.

I am actually looking to see if anyone knows of a place that sells the Clipper brand of White Tea w/ Vanilla. It seems nobody has it, and I've had to source it out online. The thing is though that I would much rather go get it myself if I can!

If the two OPs are still in tune with this conversation, I am wondering if any of the places that have been suggested so far have the flavor I am looking for.

afternoonveggiedelight, McEwan sells ALL of Clipper's teas -- green, white, black, even the hot chocolate mixes. I have seen at least 10 different boxes there. I do recall seeing a Chai flavor, too.

-----

McEwan
38 Karl Fraser Rd
Toronto, ON
M3C 0H7

This is a delicious recipe courtesy of Maangchi: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kkakdugi

Make it using your daikon, and let it ferment for 48 hours for optimum pungency :-)

Hey, yes I did make the banana cake -- it was really moist and I thought it was worth the effort of sourcing out all the ingredients.

Hmm. Hazelnut praline paste, I didn't buy but actually made my own, but hazelnut paste you can find at Whole Foods Unionville (it's brand new, I checked it out yesterday and am soo psyched to return.. they've got everything. They've got all the nut oils, pastes, and butters Tosi calls for in her Milk bar recipes. Also their bulk foods section is excellent too, they have shelled pistachios in bulk and you could totally make a hazelnut praline and grind it into a paste, unfortunately I didn't see a hazelnut praline paste but I saw hazelnut butters as well as things like marzipan and gianduja, high-quality stuff.)

Good luck with the banana cake! It looks stellar when unwrapped, the bright faux yellow layer of banana paste looks awesome contrasted with the whitishness of the cake itself and the dark chocolatey ganache layer.. yumm.

Whole Foods Unionville
3997 Hwy-7
Markham, ON
L3R 5M6

Thanks for this! I contacted nfftt too and that was successful bcos the representative I sent the email to was super helpful in explaining nfftt's practices and how I could get ahold of some quality Concords from a grower associated with nfftt.
I really appreciate all your help thx again!!

Ok, I will check those places out. Just at the moment I am without a food processor so I don't think I can blitz an adequate paste together.. I know it is possible to make it by smashing the nuts with a rolling pin in a bag or in a mortar and pestle but I am looking to get paste, just for now. But thank u anyway for the tip

Hey also Galati on Leslie avenue has macadamia nut oil.
Have you checked the bulk nut store in st Lawrence market??
I saw cashew nut oil there, too, in addition to a lot
Of other exotic nut oils (I am not sure about quality though because
They are made locally, it isn't a company like La Tourangelle
Or anything...) and they look ok, I asked when they were put on
The shelf too and the shopowner told me they are
Concerned about selling fresh oils, so it is buyers prerogative I guess.. :-)

that's alright. thanks!

that is what i am planning, next week it's a double b-day in the family so im going to use the tips for the larger sized milk bar b-day cake from this blogger's post:

http://dinnerwithweijia.com/2012/07/0...

she uses 10" cake rings for her layers and multiplied each quarter sheet pan by 1.5 times, and the crumb to a similar proportion, maybe it is x3? she triples the frosting to cover her cake perfectly... nice pics to follow along with as well!!

thanks. this is great

hey thanks for the note on the pistachio paste. would you say the price is competitive? like, compared to... er, if i ordered from king arthur flour's website (the love n' bake products, their nut pastes and schmears).

sweet. this is a good tip. i will start looking thru the kosher aisles of some of the supermarkets i know... never heard of the brand, but i really appreciate your help and listing of the ingredients!!

thanks!! i think i found a good product though, 2801 keele st., at a place called Market-Tino-- they have passion fruit purees by Canoa and another brand, their website lists all their exotic fruit purees (and a whole lot of other latin grocery items) -- and it isn't frozen, it's sold in a squeeze pouch, i think 12 oz. it looks OK to me but im gonna head over there to see the specs (how much added sugars and how it compares to the product Tosi touts in her book as top choice -- Boiron/Capfruit)...

you know what's crazy, i found 'recipes' for how to make your own passionfruit puree but no youtube videos or anything like that--?? i don't know if i'd be into it, because i want to get a big quantity of the stuff and dont want to go buying pounds of passionfruit if i'm going to be all crazy separating the little black seeds from the juice... i can imagine what an insano kitchen project that'd turn into.......

thanx!!!

also i'd be really interested if you wanted to post that recipe for your concord grape pie. :-)

thats awesome to hear. im super excited to get this puree, was thinking of doing a larger version of the chocolate chip layer cake for my brother's bday. like 10" layers, 1.5x frosting and 3x crumb. (cause i'll eat 1/3 of it while constructing the thing) :-)
thanks for the info!!! ill be heading down there tomorrow.

which store in kensington market?? if you remember the name thatd be super helpful -- usually i get a lot of my latin goodies at perola's. let me know if u can recall it!
and yes i know golda's kitchen looks like a great site. if i have to do mail-order or internet i think that is where i'll source my things from, also kingarthurflour.com....
i'm thinking, though, instead of substituting cornflakes for feuilletine...
i did a little researching on what can be used instead, and i heard of people crushing up crepes dentelles by LOC MARIA.fr, they're these thin buttery crepe-waferish cookies, and i thought i might crush them up to try to mimic the texture...?
i know i can get those cookies at mcewan, or pusateri's, for sure. they've got to have them.

Thanks this is brilliant. I really appreciate this guidance. I will contact NFFTT for sure. :-)

Momofuku Toronto........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Which store? Was it one of the latino shops? If you remember the name, could you reveal your source?? This ingredient has been driving me up the wall trying to find. Helpfully I saw another CH member had written it is called/referred to as "maracuya" and that would get me somewhere when in the latino shops in Kensington market trying to find it...
But do you remember the name of the store??? Perola's??
If so I will zip down there rightaway to get it!!

Hey thanks -- I clicked this link but it's dead??
And yea, it's too bad. I mean pricewise. I don't understand how a store can have like... every other weird/hard to find/obscure oil but not pistachio, it's really a rarity.
In Loblaw (Queens Quay and Bayview locations), McEwan, Galati, and Bruno's it seems they have porcini! cashew nut! macadamia nut! agrumato lemon!? argan! but no pistachio, or it's labelled "extra virgin" (which I do appreciate for quality's sake) but seriously I cannot pay for a dropper bottle of the stuff for like pushing $35. Yee.
Yesterday I was at the Bayview Village Pusateri's and this nice lady in charge of the bakery/pastry counter directed me to their specialty oils and they did have a very nice sized Roland brand pistachio oil-- I had been trying to get that brand to Canada through amazon.com trick maneuvers over the phone but ya... didn't work out :-S
and that was great finding it but I need to save up.
I wish I could find a store that sold the Love n' Bake nut pastes and schmears in-store though so I wouldn't have to consider ordering them...

soo respect that you grow them, still.. i have issues with zucchini etc in my backyard but im big into gardening and DIY. thanks for offering some of your grapes.

thanks -- i will check them out for sure. I was disappointed when I went to Mountain Co-op on King St and they were all out... all they had were dried peas??? Weird. But thanks again for the tip!

wooow sounds awesome! let me know when. that's so cool that you grow them yourself. ;-)

Thanks, this is great! I will look out for that on my next trip to Costco. Gotta love Costco for some things. I hope they still have it. And yes what I am looking for is pure juice, no sugars added. Just the juice. Looking for the real essence of the concord.
And regarding the Gianduja, I saw it in Galati Market Fresh (on Leslie St.) but it was in a teeny tiny 7 oz jar. And it was really, really overpriced. I don't know... I am not sure it was the quality, but just that it was a gourmet-ish ingredient in a place that doesn't specialize in those things... I was thinking, maybe Bruno's would have some of these things?
I specifically called and asked Bruno's if they had pistachio oil, too, which I am looking for in addition to the pistachio paste, but they said they only had "macadamia nut oil, flax oil, cashew nut oil, pumpkin seed oil, agrumato lemon oil..." but no pistachio oil!!!

And I went to McEwan and all they have is a super small, super expensive vial of pistachio oil. Gahh. I feel like I can't win.

Thanks for your post though! I will certainly look into your concord grape tip!!