wattacetti

I was at the Sélection (440 de Maisonneuve o) this evening and decided to repeat Carswell's experiment and see if I could find any New World Pinot Noirs. There were exactly two: a 2000 Beaux Frères at $127 (one bottle) and a 1999 Beaulieu Vineyards at a slightly lower $75 (4 bottles). Everything else was European, though they did say that stock would eventually come in. Plenty of Merlots, but I did notice that the 2001 Sauternes and Barsacs have started to trickle in.

… and preferably in the dark. If your apartment has air conditioning, it will be easier to maintain the temperature range year-round.

Ah… Saskatoon. Last time I was there, it was Carver's (steak house) for dinner and that was about it (breakfasts while on the road consist of coffee). Another eGullet thread suggested that "fine dining" in the city was once defined by Earl's.

Gidney's is selling fresh crab right now (options are still moving or cooked). Feel like picking through some shells? On a side-note, they also have soft-shell crab for $2.95 apiece. Decided to steal Rob Feenie's schtick from his Food Network commercial and made a sandwich with it.

Poissonnerie Gidney's 5055 Henri Bourassa ouest Saint-Laurent, QC H4R 1B7 tel: 514-336-3163 At one point I thought that this was a retail component of the Gidney's that distributed lobsters, but I can't be certain anymore. Without a car, your options would be the 215 bus from the Côte-Vertu Métro station or the Bois-Franc station if you're into the commuter trains. The shop itself is fairly small and looks pretty desolate by itself on the NW corner, but the important thing is their product. Fresh fish, frozen product, dried, take-away seafood… all there and great quality. The most imposing structure is the two-level tanks for lobsters (and currently crabs) at the far end of the shop but what you will find most striking is the absence of smell. I purchase virtually all of my seafood at Gidney's, and have been able to source at one occassion or another: - farmed, organic and wild salmon - fresh salmon heads ($0.50 a head the last time I bought; great for broiling as kama or use in stock) - (some really nice) tuna - opeh - marlin - whole monkfish - Patagonian toothfish (a much cooler name than "Chilean sea bass") - snappers - porgies - tilefish - enormous shrimp (80-100 g weight apiece) - fresh and cooked octopus - cherrystones - various fish eggs (tobiko, ikura, caviars) Snow crabs and lobsters are a given; I'll ask about the origin of their crab supplies but I remember someone saying the Gaspésie. Crabs and lobsters are available fresh, cooked and chilled, and cooked and hot. I'm lazy when it comes to crabs and lobsters so it's just easier to call in a pick-up order for whatever number I need (you can specify female lobsters too if you want the eggs). There are other things too like mussels, oysters, halibut, trout, tilapia and dried cod if you're into that stuff. Ditto the things that help you prepare and eat everything (condiments, breads, crackers, herbs/spices etc). For take-away, their chowders, fumets, fish pies, seafood paellas and fish en croute are really popular. Figures - now I'm hungry.

Bake some bread, or have something with vanilla, but cinnamon's always good.

What about your wine picks? Saw that you were leaning towards that white Burgogne but what else has caught your eye?

Gidney's on the corner of Marcel Laurin and Henri Bourassa also has live snow crabs. They'll also cook them for you too if you give them enough lead time.

I would have thought one of those food dryer things like the models Ronco used to hawk to make jerky (pre-Showtime infomercials). I have one of these things and use it to dry carrots and limes for powders, and other stuff for decoration. You get some pretty weird looks when serving a transparent slice of dried tomato.

At the shop I frequent (Gidney's), about double. There is a noticeable color difference but taste depends on how stuff is prepped.

In Taiwan, a lot of geese are boiled and served with julienned ginger and dipping sauces. Goose confit or rillettes would be really nice (I had an opportunity to taste rillettes made by James Mcguire - wow). I did a goose magret once but that wasn't quite the success that I had in mind. Barbecue makes me think of flare-ups, but smoking one would be interesting.

There is a reason why I spend all that time in Air Canada's Maple Leaf lounge: within the security zones your choices boil down to White Spot (one with sports bar leanings) and Tim Hortons. You can certainly expand your options by also including the snack items sold at the newsstands. Outside, Hanami (the Japanese restaurant near the International gates) is okay if you want a quick bowl of noodles and the rest of the places are collectively a food court write-off. I agree that you should just suck it up, exit the security zone and go have dinner at Globe@YVR. Four hours gives you just over 2 hours of leisurely dining before you have to go back through security and walk over to C39. Oh - CATSA was "interesting" the last time I went through YVR. Your experience may vary. Edit: let the staff at Globe know that you're catching the earlier of the two redeyes so that they're aware of your timeline. Service has slowed on occassion when the place has been busy.

If you're willing to set aside a bit of the budget to splurge, that Coldstream Hills Pinot Noir Carswell listed is a very good Pinot for the price. Still would leave about $73 for other bottles.

For a C-note, you could go as high as 6 or 7 bottles if you're adventurous and willing to try a lot of different regions: there's a lot of stuff in the $12-20 range that are good to great buys that pair well with food (e.g. the Lurton Pinot Gris from Argentina is a good sipping wine that pairs nicely with "unadorned" seafood and stuff with a bit of spice). Suggest you ask someone at the Sélection and describe your particular tastes in wine and what you like to eat. I'm sure you're going to come back with a lot of interesting surprises.

I was offered the Certan and didn't spring for it because I'm not wild about Pomerol. In hindsight I probably should not have gone so overboard with the 2000 Bordeaux as it's made it harder to go after the interesting stuff that's come out since their release. I'll probably hold true to form and repeat the error on the 2003s but one of these days I'll tone it down. As for the 2000 LLC, I don't know much about it yet - it's on the "hold for my retirement" rack.

This just sounds so wrong. When I was in grad school we'd always look for them plump squirrels on lower campus… Anyway, I use sriracha mainly for pho or as a dipping sauce. Did toy around with it for a time when experimenting with beef jerky.

Why do American Kit Kat bars taste terrible? But I digress… could it be that they're just shortchanging our neighbors to the south? More air = same relative volume with less syrup.

No 7-Elevens in Quebec so I'll have to wait until I'm back in Western Canada. I prefer the "traditional" flavor; the Brain Freeze Slurpee has an odd aftertaste but it was promoted with a really cool keychain.

The 2000 Léoville Las Cases (100 points by both Wine Spectator and Robert Parker for those keeping track) is still available at the Signature in downtown Montreal. I bought mine in Alberta so to me it's a bit pricey at $500 a bottle ($450 with the sale), but it's a great wine and perhaps a better purchase than the Le Pin for those of us who aren't that wild about garagiste Merlots. Hmm… I've just realized that for the same price as the Le Pin, you can buy a bottle of the Léoville and a Transtherm Mas wine cellar from Vinum Design to store it in and still have money left over for a meal at La Chronique.

Wakamono is slick decor, so I can see why your graphics artist pal would like it (they've got a great-looking business card). Foodwise, everything tasted either of too much salt or too much shoyu; if you're looking for sushi, it was nondescript. The tea was pretty good (nice aroma and pleasant taste).

Meaning their other suggestions were write-offs too? What were they? ← Wakamono, La Verlaine, Carambola Café and Cassis. All misses for one reason or another, but the weirdest was the chef who was having a "Cocktail" (as in the movie) flashback while cooking.

Torakris uses German steel? I have been replacing my Wustofs with Kershaw (KAI) Shun; these have an offset (so they're useless if you're a southpaw), a D-handle and are made of their own VG10 stainless steel mix. There is a Pro line which adheres to traditional designs: a nakiri is available, as are 3 lengths of deba and 2 yanagibas so you're only out of luck on the usuba. I have two from the Classic line (10" chef and boning knife) and two from the Pro (4 and 8" debas). They're all very sharp and easy to maintain with no worry of rusting. The Pros are very heavy and on par with the Wustofs in weight. Macs were nice too but I liked the feel of the Shuns better.

The 1980 Pichon-Lalande. Saw Tampopo for the first time because I was enamored of kaiseiki cooking and have a thing for noodles, but I couldn't understand why the vagabond was so enamored of a wine (now I know). Henschke's Hill of Grace turned me onto Australia and I blame Jim Clendenen's Au Bon Climat for getting me hooked on Pinot Noirs.

Yow! La Forchetta was actually one of the restaurants several of my coworkers raved over during lunch at yesterday's team building exercise. When I first read your experiences, I thought that you might have gone early in the week but no, it was the start of the week-end ["on Friday… same-day reservation for two."]. That makes it 0 for 5 on office suggestions.

So, I took my own advice and went back for dinner at Raza yesterday. Being lazy, it was the Menú degustación 6 platos with the foie gras option again, but without wine service since the next day (today) is still a work day. I did order a half bottle of the De Martino Cabernet Sauvignon, which turned out to be a nice surprise: blackberry and oak, with soft tannins. It’s served decanted. So, what’s changed from the two weeks since the last meal? Some interesting tuning has gone on, including a modified sweet potato bread which has a more pronounced sweet potato flavor but has changed in texture to be more like a soft bread and less like a corn bread. Quail Dinner started off with the quail, but this wasn’t the same preparation that’s listed on the menu. Yes, it’s a guava barbecue sauce, but it’s not as sweet and it’s smoother in texture. The quail was actually two legs made into confit (!) of all things and served with chunks of warm guava. The little legs were quite tender and only gave a slight saltiness after the bite was almost gone. The guava chunks have a slight acidity which ties the sauce and the bird together. Definitely a way for Mario Navarrete to start off the tasting menu off with a bang. Arepas de pescado con mojo criollo, tomates cerezas y mousseline de panais Two small but interesting changes: the hake croquette has a crisp crust that’s not crunchy this time, and the roasted cherry tomato has more liquid and tomato-ey goodness than the grape tomato from the last round. The change in the tomato brings out a nice contrast to the parsnips and the mojo criollo. Tiradito de striped bass cocido en jugo de limon tropical, rocoto, shooter de leche de tigre con espuma de cilantro The tiradito looked the same but was significantly changed; the cooking liquid is not as acid which did a couple of things: it brings out a very nice taste in the striped bass and gives it a tataki-like consistency when eating it. As well, the leche de tigre is similarly modified: the coriander foam is less pronounced in coriander, the citrus is toned down, and Mario has added the little chunks of échallotes and chiles. In whole, the shooter now has an element of texture and a more harmonious depth of flavor. Pepitas suaves cubiertas con huancaína y ocopa, zanahorias orgánicas salteadas The accompaniments to the potatoes changed; served with the organic carrot were red cabbage sprouts dusted with a bit of fleur de sel and carrot powder and a sautéed organic yellow carrot. The sprouts are interesting; they’re slightly peppery and have a tiny ephemeral crunch. Oddly enough, the De Martino does not pair at all with the ocopa, as the fruitiness is completely gone and replaced by an asparagus flavor; the huancaína is better with this wine, which is the exact reverse of my impressions when first eating this dish with a Fumé Blanc. Vieras selladas, copo de camote, caviar tobiko, mousseline de alverjitas y salsa de mirasol Another nicely-seared scallop (mmm…). The pea mousseline is slightly chunky, which gives it a more toothsome texture that made it somewhat fun to eat with the tobiko. Empanada de foie gras, cerdo y chutney de manzana, reducción de maíz morado The empanada came on a bed of arugula and jicama salad, which had that bitter and crunchy apple mix to it. The interesting thing was having a glass of the late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc along with the empanada. The wine itself has a very floral bouquet similar to Gewurtztraminer, with hints of fruits and honey. This goes really well with the foie; the sweetness of the wine controls the richness of the foie, but the fruit element of its flavor pairs with the apple in the empanada. Guiso de cordero con cilantro y cerveza, cassoulet de frijoles canario, naranja rallado, aciete de limon My first time with the lamb: it’s a meltingly soft piece of shank that has a nice flavor coming from its beer marinade. The dish was not served with the cassoulet, but had quinoa instead. The quinoa soaked up some of the sauce and is much more palatable as a grain this way. A great winter dish that’s become less heavy just by switching out the beans. Ravioles de chocolate rellenos de chutney de platano, helado de manjar blanco y almendras en caramelo That really is a good praline ice cream. The ravioli was fluffier than before, which made it feel less heavy and paired better with the ice cream. There was a banana and chocolate ice cream served afterwards that really threw me: it’s mauve under the lighting. The color had me thinking purple Fruit Loops again but the taste was anything but. All in all, a nice way to tie into the banana ravioli. Thoughts about the meal? Looks very similar on paper to the first time around, but the flavor says otherwise. Those tiny little touches have brought in new elements to each dish which definitely ensured that it wasn’t a carbon copy of the first meal. Good stuff here. If you’re interested in trying this menu, I would suggest running and not walking. Mario and David mentioned that the menu will soon undergo a refresh to run in line with the change to spring and the seasonality they want in their food. Definitely worth looking forward to.