As featured in the January 5, 2012 edition of Dining Out, Waterloo Region Record.(photo credit: The Record)
If you can’t jet set to an exotic destination this holiday, you need go no farther than MeMe’s Café in New Hamburg to sample multicultural cuisine from around the world.
That’s right: New Hamburg.
Meredith Hagen, owner of MeMe’s Café, grew up in New Hamburg but later lived in Paris and spent time in Italy, Greece and the Caribbean along the way. In a post-review conversation, Hagen credited her travels to her expanded understanding of global cuisine, which often agrees with her food allergies and gluten intolerance. She came to appreciate the slow-food mentality of these countries: preserving traditional and regional cuisine and encouraging farming of the local ecosystem, ideally organically.
When Hagen returned home and opened MeMe’s Café in 2001, she envisioned merging local, mostly organic food with international recipes to provide wholesome, feel-good options for patrons, including those with food sensitivities. Her chef, Stephen St. Christian, lived most of his life in Toronto, where he was captivated by the city’s ethnic smorgasbord of culinary marvels. These memories continue to inspire MeMe’s constantly changing menu today.
Our epicurean adventure started with callaloo ($3.25), the Caribbean version of gumbo. Spinach lends this soup its rich green colour but takes a back seat to fragrant coconut milk, hearty plantains and a hint of that Jamaican secret ingredient: allspice. It was served piping hot with soft, oven-warm bread. Had my lunch ended here, I would’ve been quite content.
But we had barely left the runway. A tour of the Mediterranean followed with MeMe’s feta salad ($5.25), which I hear has hooked locals with its organic mixed greens, sesame and sunflower seeds, almonds, red pepper, raisins, marinated feta and honey Dijon vinaigrette. Delightful.
Next came an oversized bowl of Greek seafood stew ($10.25), which had me thanking Zeus for its savoury roasted tomato and fennel broth bursting with bites of fresh sole, shrimp and calamari. I’m a bit squeamish when it comes to squid but could’ve easily taken home another bowl had it not sold out.
We also paid homage to Germany’s quiche ($9.95), with a roasted apple thyme and swiss rendition. But it was served cold, which didn’t win me over, and its flavour paled in comparison to the other dishes.
Fortunately, dessert was its redeemer, and let’s just talk about MeMe’s heavenly baked creations: gourmet cookies the size of your head, pies, squares, tarts — all godsends. Makes perfect sense that baker, Kim Frere, is a local minister’s wife.
I confess that the dessert I selected was a little more sinful, entitled “tits of the Andes” ($2.75). I’m not kidding. Apparently, this is a commonly known dessert in parts of Europe. Large, chocolate-covered coconut macaroons with white chocolate peaks were va-va-voom. Now how often can you order something off a restaurant menu with a name like that? And gluten-free, no less!
On a more wholesome note, we also sampled a zesty lemon tart ($4), which reminded me of something my sweet little Irish grandmother would lovingly prepare. Lovely.
Now don’t be disheartened when you pull up to MeMe’s unassuming exterior (OK, the interior’s nothing to write home about either). Because you know that magic is bubbling over in the kitchen when a continuous stream of customers float in and out its doors, many hugging brown paper takeout bags and sporting anticipating grins.
Who needs airport lineups, jet lag and turbulence when you can enjoy this kind of hassle-free baggage claim?
MeMe’s Cafe
102 Peel St., New Hamburg
519-662-2828
www.memescafe.com
Hours
Monday to Friday: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Closed Sundays, and Jan. 1 to 9 for holidays.
Accessibility
One step up to the entrance makes this café not accessible.
Cuisine
Internationally inspired dishes with a local twist.
Reservations
Not necessary.
Atmosphere
A dim but homey café with barn-board floors and eclectic wood furniture amid retro Formica and aluminum tables and chairs. Walls covered with local artwork.
Menu
Soups, salads, sandwiches, quiches, entrees and many delectable desserts. Varieties change daily. Many marked gluten-free options. MeMe’s Café also has a catering menu for weddings, private dinner parties, corporate events and luncheons covering areas as wide as Stratford to Toronto. All culinary creations — including those served at the café — are prepared at its off-site industrial kitchen, also located in New Hamburg.
Drinks
Several varieties of Baden Coffee Company organic javas, dry sodas (in unique flavours such as rhubarb, juniper berry, vanilla bean and lavender), organic juices and all-natural sodas. Not licensed.
Service
Friendly (know most customers by name) and accommodating.
The bill
$40.06 (before tax, including tip) for an order of soup, a salad, two mains and two desserts.
In a nutshell
Excellent food, great value, charming little café. Two and a half forks
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