Cheap Eat of the Week: Acadia’s cornbread
By Gizelle Lau
Just opened this summer, it certainly didn’t take long for Toronto to fall head over heels for Acadia Restaurant & Bar. Tucked away — just the way its customers like it — on Clinton St. in Little Italy, across from the somehow-always-packed Café Diplomatico, there’s magic happening in the kitchen here.
Behind the Acadian-influenced, south-meets-east-coast cuisine is chef Matt Blondin, previously from Toronto’s Colborne Lane as well as a couple of west coast spots like Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler, B.C.
From creamy shrimp ‘n grits to succotash and collard greens, comfort fare is afforded an elegant end — and yes, there’s cornbread. Here, it comes as a side for $7: four moist, thin, fluffy wedges of pure soul food.
What really makes Acadia’s cornbread is the Anson Mills cornmeal (apparently, the cornmeal of cornmeals), a key ingredient that isn’t being used in many other Canadian kitchens. Anson Mills’ sweet, yellow cornmeal is fresh, fine and stone-milled, creating a buttermilk cornbread that’s moist on the inside — with that oh-so-soothing cornmeal texture — with a beautifully golden brown crust on the outside.
Baked in a cast iron skillet on high at 450 — a la minute so it’s just right — it’s finished with a touch of Maldon salt, a garnish of green and served with seasonal butter: sweet potato butter (as pictured above) or maple/pumpkin for autumn.
Acadia Restaurant & Bar, 50C Clinton St., 416-792-6002
Email
Print
Feed
Comments to the Post City Magazines website do not reflect the opinions of the company or the author of the article in question. We do not edit comments for grammar, length or clarity. Offensive comments will be removed at the discretion of Post City Magazines. To read all of our website policies, click here.