Sourdough Grilled Cheeses at the Mile End Market

I have one more favourite stall at the Mile End Market. I don't even know the name of the stall, but what I do know is they take their fresh sourdough bread (the only bread they make) and some incredible cheese and make very simple grilled cheese sandwiches in front of you.

Okay, so a lot of places are touting the simple grilled cheese, the gourmet cheese, the classic, the modern, etc these days. Comfort food. There are whole restaurants devoted to grilled cheese, and I don't even eat grilled cheese(!), but I love this stall. I've chatted with the woman who tells me that it's her husband (I'm pretty sure it was husband) who has spent the last year or something ridiculous like that honing his sourdough bread craft. He inherited sourdough starter from a former roommate of some sort and kept it going. All he makes is sourdough bread, and the lady bakes other things, but at the market her job is to grill this bread with some organic cheese. There is absolutely nothing fancy to this, but I love this couple.

Across the way a woman sells pickled asparagus and honey-dijon vinaigrette. Now honey dijon vinaigrette is about the easiest thing in the world to make, but this is from a very high-quality honey from her farm. I don't know how you would possibly get through all this vinaigrette without it going bad, since there are really no preservatives in it and it couldn't last more than a few weeks max after opening, but good luck.

Pickled asparagus are something I never would buy for myself, but house guests bought them after sampling them and left the bottle at my house. I do not throw out organic local products, no matter how much I dislike refined sugar. Basically the pickling mixture is vinegar, sugar and salt. I ended up loving these things, though. They're the dessert of vegetables - not sour or hot like kimchi or bitter or chewy like pickles. If pickles were this good I think I would like them. I do love asparagus, however, and the natural sweetness makes this a refreshing topping on a salad. It's basically a roasted asparagus salad pre-made and without the oily dressing; you don't even need to add anything to it. You can snack on them as they are, or combine them with something else, like lettuce or carrots, which actually helps to dilute the intensely sweet brine.

She also makes some tasty-looking muffins. I never buy them because I never want 6, but did you ever think of rhubarb and almond in a muffin? I didn't. She did. Her blueberries and wild blackberries also look plump and ripe in their muffin homes, as well as the more traditional strawberry-rhubarb option. Flavours change every week, so Thursday 4:30-8:30 at Parc Lahaie (St-Laurent and St-Joseph) is your chance to be surprised.