Cheap Eat of the Week: the traditional flatbread known as bannock at Oliver and Bonacini’s latest venture, Bannock
By Gizelle Lau
Freshly-cooked bannock at Bannock (Image: Gizelle Lau)
August has been a good month for Aboriginal cuisine in Toronto. First, there was the opening of indigenous-centric restaurant Keriwa Cafe, and now, we have Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants’ newest endeavor, Bannock. Opening today at the corner of Bay Street and Queen Street West (at ground level in the Simpsons Tower, across from Old City Hall), Bannock keeps with the O&B tradition of serving Canadian cuisine (a la Canoe) and, as you might expect, serves bannock.
Oliver & Bonacini’s chef Michael Bonacini and corporate executive chef Anthony Walsh (Canoe) developed the menu, going back to the basics of what bannock is meant to be: “a round flatbread traditionally cooked on a griddle or stone; brought to Canada through Scottish explorers and traders; adapted by indigenous people and settlers.” If what you want is campfire bannock — best described as fried bread, dripping with oil, crispy on the outside while soft and bready on the inside — you may be disappointed.
In the kitchen, opening chef Paul Brans (Canoe, O&B Café Grill, O&B Canteen) and chef de cuisine Luke Kennedy (O&B Café Grill) are creating dishes like a basket of savoury herb and garlic bannock ($6), which is flat and soft; it tears apart like a roti, but with the texture of a scone. There’s also the potted cretons ($10), a classic Quebecois breakfast dish that’s similar to a spicy pork rillette, served on whole-wheat bannock with oats, pumpkin seeds and dried fruit. It’s a richly textured accompaniment to the creton spread.
Other bannock items on the menu (over $10): bannock with toppings, including a BLT bannock, a veggie bannock with portobello mushrooms and peppers or the bannock bannock with house-smoked salmon.
Bannock, 401 Bay Street, 416-861-6996
Gizelle Lau is a food and travel writer and photographer in Toronto who lives from one meal to the next. Her column, Cheap Eat of the Week, highlights dishes that costs $10 or less. Follow her on Twitter for your daily dose of food from in/around the city.
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