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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, Ju ly 29 ,2 02 1 | 36 Supporting Local Businesses inYour Community ourYusinesses inB With shopping restrictions changing regularly to complywith the latest public health safety measures our communities need to be kept in- formed onwhich businesses are open and how they are ensuring a safe shopping experience. To help our communities we have created an online business directory that features local businesses that are open, hours of operation and how customers can safely make purchases from the stores. Our business directory can be accessed from anyone of our 25 Community sites in Ontario.Visit metroland.com to find the community site in your area. Visit our communitywebsite in your area and click on the banner at the bottom of the page. ea and clickarourye inebsitwommunitycVisit our www.metroland.com Don't let your deliveries pile up. Is your business prepared for the holiday rush? Now is the time to get your parcel delivery plans finalized with MPS. We provides final-mile delivery to over 3.85 million Ontario households. That's lot of homes for a lot of orders. Visit our website at metrolandparcelservices.ca Scan for more information Don't let your Scan for mationinfor Coffee and dessert are enjoyable at the end of a meal, both at casual res- taurants and more formal venues. I like to combine them in an affogato. The menus at coffee shops, either national chains or haute shops with young baristas revelling in their roles as they prepare élan caramel "ribbon- crunch" frappuccinos, can be overly complex in their caffeinated offerings. The affogato, on the oth- er hand, is a relatively sim- ple preparation that's a fla- voursome combination of a bold and slightly tart bit of acidity against a sweet and exultantly creamy texture, taking two relatively com- monplace ingredients and melding them into a decid- edly sensuous taste experi- ence. Affogato means "to drown" or, even more harshly, "to choke" in Ital- ian. Its Italian origin is, like the espresso itself, murky, and you won't find the bev- erage-dessert mentioned in a book such as Waverly Root's "The Food of Italy." And for whatever rea- son, the Italians, including North American Italians, are happy to align food with images of strangling and choking: for instance, "strozzapreti" pasta, while it has a varied food-origin story, translates loosely as "priest strangler." So, dispensing with that imagery, let's go with a cu- linary meaning for affoga- to that instead includes a sense of "poaching" (as in an egg) or of "pouring over." Whether it's drink or a dessert on a particular menu, start with a rich, strong and dark coffee, finely ground, through which you force steam to make an espresso. That process, the gor- geous gleaming $30,000 La Marzocco extraction ma- chine notwithstanding, gives you a fine layer of creamy froth to begin. Next, spoon out gelato or ice cream into a small chilled glass or bowl and pour on the hot espresso, in effect "smothering" it. Restaurants in Waterloo such as Ennio's (which fea- tures their house-made gelato) and Kitchener's Ca- sa Rugantino serve affoga- to, as does Matter of Taste, with their combination of gelato and espresso -- the combination of chocolate gelato and espresso yields an affogato mocha. TWH Social in the Wal- per Hotel doesn't list affo- gato on the menu, but chef Nicole Hunt says it's a drink they're considering putting back into action. A few blocks away, Café Pyrus, both in their new lo- cation on King Street near Water Street and their Wa- terloo Outpost location, serves affogato with any of their gelato flavours -- and that means they're plant- based, too. At Wildcraft in Water- loo, the affogato is high- lighted with "because ev- erything is better with ice cream," while on Corona- tion Boulevard in Cam- bridge, Café du Monde also serves affogato along with other coffee beverages. I think when it comes to the affogato, it's best con- sumed on a patio in an ur- ban setting: the small Mon Ami Pizza patio at the Tan- nery has a few café tables just outside the restaurant where you sip and spoon your affogato after having a bite of pizza and as you watch the ION head south from Waterloo to down- town Kitchener. It's a reflective moment beneath the Google, Com- munitech and D2L signs as you watch the rain roll in and the window washers 19 storeys up at One Victoria pack away their squeegees and roll up their platform. To your left, just across Victoria Street, is Universi- ty of Waterloo's School of Pharmacy -- a seven-sto- rey tapestry of medicinal herbs and other flora where you might have got- ten your vaccination -- that is, in a way, at the cen- tre of the bustle of the city as things reopen (forever, we hope). So, take your pick: sip the espresso and gobble the fabulous Kawartha Dairy ice cream each on its own, or lazily observe what's around you while the two components merge into creamy, satiny goodness just waiting to be slurped. Andrew Coppolino is a Kitchener-based food writ- er and broadcaster. Visit him at www.andrewcoppo- lino.com OPINION YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE AN AFFOGATO Affogato and cappuccino. Andrew Coppolino photo ANDREW COPPOLINO Column MON AMI PIZZA Address: The Tannery Building, 151 Charles St. W., Kitchener Phone: 519-570-9992 Website: monamipizzakitchener.com SIPPING AND SPOONING YOUR AFFOGATO AFTER A BITE OF PIZZA AT THE MON AMI PIZZA PATIO IS DELIGHTFUL, WRITES ANDREW COPPOLINO