Pierre Androuet’s Encyclopedia of Cheese is a useful reference guide to designing a proper cheese course at home. His recommendations include: Order of the speciesEating in order of increasing flavour. Arrange cheeses from weakest to strongest. How muchSelect an odd number – usually 3 or 5 cheeses. General crowd pleasers are a buttery brie, an […]
Food + Drink
Restaurant reviews and ratings for Halifax, Nova Scotia, featuring articles about the best new downtown Halifax and Dartmouth NS restaurants, fine dining, pubs, seafood, local bars, chefs, beer, donairs, pizzas, vegetarian and organic food and more.
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Beige ambition
Sometimes when culinary customs travel west across the Atlantic, they arrive upside down and backwards. Take cheese. It’s usually served before the meal, filling us up with globs of tasty fat before a meal haseven begun. I learned this the hard way. Picture it: a handful of puffy Canadian students crowded around a table in […]
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Taste toast
How is provincial politics like professional wrestling? Taste of Nova Scotia, the organization that shills for Scotia year round, held its first annual Prestige awards ceremony last Thursday at the Prince George Hotel. Folksy agriculture minister Brooke Taylor was there, saying, “It’s nice after the cut and thrust of the house to come here and […]
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Liquid art
Benjamin Bridge, a new sparkling wine specialist in the flourishing Gaspereau Valley, produced the sellout Nova 7 sparkler wine. They were also the Gold sponsor for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s annual benefit gala, Art Takes Flight, held November 2 at the Lord Nelson Hotel. While the fundraiser featured silent and live art auctions, […]
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High Steaks
Economic downturn, recession, depression, stocks plummeting, gas prices soaring, housing markets tanking—all grim indicators of what’s happening in the world right now. And while I respect all of those things as accurate economic indicators, I prefer to use a barometer closer to my own experience—the business lunch. Besides, it gives me an excuse to check […]
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Extra toppings
Xtreme Pizza moved into the old Saluzzo pizza joint on Birmingham Street four years ago. Shane MacLeod is one of the four owners of this small, eccentric pie shop. “Our whole niche is based on a different idea of what pizza can be. We’ve all worked in the pizza business from 15 to 25 years, […]
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Xtreme’s tricky treats
My love affair with takeout food is no secret. My office cooler ramblings about the places I order from, the foodstuffs I’ve subjected my digestive system to, landed me with this task in honour of Halloween: find the scariest food experience in Halifax. My first thought was to finally eat the Irish Giant burger from […]
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Hiver Nation
Brenna Warren isn’t sure if her bees are alive or not. She checked on them a month ago, but there’s no action around the hive now, except for us. The beehive belongs to SeeMore Green, a gardening collective on Dalhousie campus, and this is the first season it’s lived in their small garden, tucked between […]
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What is the traditional method?
The Traditional Method Diehard fans of Champagne often justify paying the minimum $50 price tag by explaining that only Champagne has that taste. What they are referring to is the bready, yeasty, toasty aroma and flavour that comes from long aging on the lees—the dead yeast cells—which break down and release flavour notes, in a […]
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On the Bubble
Winemaker Bruce Ewert is well-known in Canadian wine circles for his still and sparkling wines. He received multiple awards at BC wineries and won double gold for his 2007 L’Acadie Star at this year’s All Canadian championships. But what interests me is his bubbly. L’Acadie Vineyards in the Gaspereau Valley is the first Nova Scotia […]
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Why Dartmouth?
Rae Kraushar, owner of Nectar Social House, wanted a challenge. Somehow, working 80 hour weeks trying to get downtown Dartmouth on the dining map seemed like a good one. A former production designer, she got bored with the film business and decided to start her new career in her old neighbourhood. “Dartmouth needed a restaurant […]
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Social house rules
We step into Nectar Social House and I’m immediately taken by the decor. Rae Kraushar, related to the owners of Interlude Spa, has created a beautiful, contemporary space filled with the promise of good food and drink. A small bar area with a glossy black-grey floor, backlit bar and dark wood is in the front […]
