The Benedict Chronicles: Bell Lightbox Canteen
By Matt Brown
September 19 2010
"...as plate after plate of fluffy poached eggs, cartilaginous peameal, and lakes of sunshiney goo continued to pile up over time, I realized that if I don't start catalogueing these excursions in some formal manner, a great field of human knowledge would be lost. Hence, the Benedict Chronicles..."
I had hoped to visit Canteen for their eggs benedict right at the beginning of TIFF 2010, though in the end it had to wait until the last day of the festival for birthday brunch with my father. That's not bad. The Lightbox has also been a pleasing firepit of activity all week, so it seemed like the best place to close out my TIFF experience for this year.
Eggs benedict at Canteen costs $12 and has swapped regular peameal bacon for pulled pork. That is, nominally, a favourite choice of mine, so no worries - but I have to say, I was more than a little startled when the naked plate actually arrived. Two gem-like orbs of eggs benedict, alone in a field of polar whiteness. I know minimalism and deconstruction are "in" this decade, but come on.
To be fair, the menu says nothing of sides, and there is a sub-menu of the regular side stuff - hash browns, potato hash, other things involving varying forms of hashing - directly below the benedict. Buuuuuuuut coooooooooome onnnnnnnnn.
As a bendict, Canteen's is ok, not amazing. The pulled pork actually doesn't work here as it is either undressed or too subtly dressed, but in either case not dressed enough; and there isn't enough hollandaise to make up the difference. The eggs were flawlessly poached but I was left wanting more. Canteen is a lovely space in a lovely place, but it won't get my bennybucks again.
Canteen is located at the TIFF Bell Lightbox at the corner of King and John in Toronto. The Benedict Chronicles is an ongoing, non-regular series.