LCBO Food & Drink Travel 2025

FORKS IN THE ROAD

MICHAEL ELLIOTT “While your average diner is probably using cheap minute steaks, I like to up the ante and spring for a nice piece of sirloin. Adding a good proportion of starch to the flour ensures a light, crisp coating, and I (sheepishly) jazz up the usual milk gravy with slow-cooked onion and a bay leaf. It may be a bit of a detour toward a French-style sauce, but it does wonders without relying on powdered stocks for flavour.”

Chicken-Fried Steak with Peppered Milk Gravy (p. 100) Growing up, my parents would drag me and my brothers almost yearly down to Florida, piling everyone into the station wagon and hitting the I-95 for three days. (Why they did this to themselves, I’ll never know.) While our backseat fidgeting and fighting eventually gave way to boredom, the food was always a bright spot, especially once we got down to the American South. The people became warmer, the portions got even bigger, and everything was washed down with bottomless glasses of sweet tea, or at least until Mum cut us off. We each had our favourite dish, and mine was chicken-fried steak, which is to say steak that’s been prepared like fried chicken, preferably with mac ’n’ cheese and some collards on the side. FLORIDA

In a pinch, you can use any neutral cooking oil for this recipe, but try to get your hands on tallow, aka rendered beef fat. It adds a rich savouriness to the finished steaks.

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———————— TRAVEL 2025