rgruby

This week's Now mentions Vientiane, located at 2 Bradstock, at Weston Rd. Cheers, Geoff Ruby PS - if any downtowners with cars are considering a road trip to check it out and would like some company, I'd love to join you.

It's called Paris in a Basket by Nicolle Meyer and Amanda Smith, published by Konemann in 2000. I picked up my copy for @ $15 Canadian maybe a year or so ago - our large chain Chapters/Indigo was blowing them out. I suspect they may still have a few on remainder tables here and there. I should also mention that it is a big glossy coffee table type book, with lots of pictures. Includes a bunch of recipes as well. It doesn't deal with streets having mainly food shops like Rue Cler or Daguerre at all - just the street markets.

There's a book out, in English, on the markets of Paris. Basically it describes the authors' favourite market in each arrondisment in a fair amount of detail, has a bit of info on their runners' up, and simply lists the rest. I'll try and look up the actual title etc. later today. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I'm not Kev, but the larger grocery stores in Chinatown often have that stuff. Try Tai Kong on the west side of Spadina just north of Dundas. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I don't think so Geoff ... but I haven't looked closely at IKEA cabinets lately. The problem comes with the drilling for the hinges & slides (i.e. how they are attached to the doors and/or cabinet). It may not match the Blum hardware, and you'd end up with what we refer to as the "Swiss cheese effect". Besides, by the time you've switched everything over I think the time & money you've invested will make those IKEA cabinets a lot more than you think. Have you been to Home Depot? They carry a line called "Thomasville" in-stock in a few doorstyles. Price point was pretty good IIRC and they're well built. To save money in other areas, I usually suggest to my clients that they can remove the old cabinets, tile the splash (attend a DIY seminar at Home Depot ... very easy) and do the paint. Keep us posted! A. ← I went to Home Depot & Ikea today. I thought the Thomasville doors looked a bit better than the Ikea ones, and maybe felt a bit more solid. The hinges for Thomasville were Salice. They looked nice - but I'm no expert on hinges. The hinges at Ikea were Blum! And at least some of the sliders were too (some of them didn't have names on them, so I couldn't determine whether or not they were Blum as well). The sliders on the Thomasville drawers looked quite solid, but the ones for the pull-out drawers seemed quite flimsy. I have to say, comparing Ikea with Thomasville cabinets within a few minutes of each other, I came away highly impressed with the Ikea product. And it is considerably less expensive as well. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Here's the text from section(s) 33 (7) & (8 - just to show what they want us to do to fish!) from the Food Premises Reg of the Health Protection & Promotion Act here in Ontario: (7) The following shall be cooked to reach an internal temperature of at least 71 degrees Celsius for at least 15 seconds: 1. Pork. 2. Pork products. 3. All parts of ground meat, other than ground meat that contains poultry. O. Reg. 74/04, s. 1. (8) Fish shall be cooked to reach an internal temperature of at least 70 degrees Celsius for at least 15 seconds. O. Reg. 74/04, s. 1. 71 degrees celsius is @ 160 fahrenheit. A bit above rare. Or medium rare. A recipe for a godawful hamburger. And also dry, dry fish (wasn't aware of that one before just now, although we do allow a one degree respite from what our overcooked pork requires). Other sections of the reg allow raw fish (thank you to John Allemang and egulleter Malcolm Jolley for their part in not requiring our sushi to be pre-frozen), and poultry gets its own section - 74 degrees celsius I think (yup, s. 33 (6)). So, yes Steven, 'tis the law here re: ground beef. Carpaccio is still safe. The degree to which the law is adhered to is another matter. But, I suspect the adherence is fairly high - I've asked for rare or medium rare burgers and been told no can do on several occassions. Fear of the resto inspection people is probably quite high in most places I would think (the results here in Toronto are publicly available, so you don't just get a slap on the wrist, the whole town knows about it). Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Or why not - if they want to go that far - up along Bloor, past Bathurst to the Korean area? Lots of places there. Kimchi tchigae, pibimbap, suntobu tchigae and all that, with lots of free side dishes (if you know how to spot the more traditional places, as proper Korean restaurants are duty-bound to serve them) all for around $7 or $8 or less. ← Yes, absolutely. A bit further north, but maybe another 10 minute walk. And a direct subway ride home, or very short cab ride. I somehow always end up at Korean Village, but it's just one of several decent choices in that hood. Kev, it's been a while for me eating up there and you're making me hungry. The Owl for pork bone soup is really good too. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

The Mexican place is El Trompo. Try the Tacos al Pastor. Papusas are awesome as well - might be a little more akward with a large group - in the summer you could just take them outside. In the winter, there might not be much room to eat them. I think only one of the papusa places actually has seating, and for 5 or 6 people at that. If you walk about 15 minutes or so directly west on College past Bathurst, you get to the College St "Little Italy" strip of restaurants and bars. The several blocks past Bathurst is chock full of bars and restaurants (dozens), many Italian, many not. If that doesn't sound too far, let us know, and I'm sure we'll chip in with some more (specific) suggestions. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Ah, Charmaine Solomon. My girlfriend's parents gave us a copy and -- You can pick the best recipes by the quantity of sauce splotches on the page. ← I love that. (I've edited Jeese's quote - the whole thing is upthread). I haven't used that book much, but I'm going through a bit of a Chinese cooking jag, so Ms. Solomon (And Barbara Tropp's book too) should make a reaquaintance with me and my kitchen. (Any fave recipes out there?) And, on a completely different tangent: when do you give up on a cookbook? I guess sometimes that happens before it enters your home - you look at it in the store or online or wherever and make up your mind - eh, this isn't for me. But what about the ones you do purchase or get as gifts - what makes you decide to sell, give away, bury, etc. a cookbook. I've found this very difficult, for some reason, even for cookbooks I'm fairly certain I'll never use (again). Cheers, Geoff Ruby

If using a spice grinder, do you remove the seeds first, or just chuck the whole pods in? Thanks, Geoff Ruby

I think I started a thread on this very topic, probably within the last year or so. A search should turn it up. Yup, here it is: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...871&hl=larousse Cheers, Geoff Ruby Edited to add link

Was in Perolas in Kensington today. They had aluminum presses for $15 and another, much heavier press for $20. Not sure what the heavier press was made of, but it did recommend that you always use plastic or wax paper between the presses and warns not to have food contact the presses. My impression though, was that the presses are for the relatively thicker corn tortillas rather than flour ones - but I could be wrong. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Hey, anything you can tell us about the cuisine from Uruguay would be good too - what to order if we stumble upon a Uruguayan resto, for example. Or what a parillada is. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Ate at Rashnaa last weekend. They have a website www.rashnaa.com so you can have a look at the menu if you like. I had the lentil dumpling thingeys - well, more like doughnuts. I found them to be a little dry, yet doughy at the same time. Not sure I'd order them again. My friend had the Devil chicken curry - a fairly standard, though less saucy than most, spicy chicken curry. I had the masala dosa, which comes as an enormous, slightly crisp crepe-like dosa folded over the same potato curry with peas that came as a side with the chicken. Really good, and did I mention, enormous? I hope to go back some time and try the stringhoppers or vermicelli. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Another area I am not all that familiar with. I know there isa Peruvian (?) place on the College strip - that I tried once and wasn't wild about - and there are a number of places on St. Clair stretching west of Bathurst, and I think I've spotted a place or two along Jane as well, but I'm sure there's more out there. So, S. American in TO - what have you tried, what are some of the representative dishes from the different cuisines, what are your favourites? Cheers, Geoff Ruby

This may not be quite what you're asking for, but I just heard of a book by Mark Morton (I think) called Cupboard Love that deals with the etymology of various food-related words. I haven't seen it myself though, and am not sure it deals with "kitchen-speak" and slang in the restaurant world. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

The places I was referring to might have been Armenian rather than Azerbaijani - I believe the article was in the STar in the past year or so. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I don't know a whole lot about the food of Russia or the other former Soviet nations. Are there many restaurants serving Russian food? The only one I can think of is on Mt. Pleasant, and I've never been. Are there others? I also recall reading about several Azerbaijan (I think) restos on or around Steeles. Are there restaurants specializing in the food of other Soviet republics? And, what are your favourite dishes at these places? Thanks, Geoff Ruby

I'll add one more thing - John Allemang stated that he thinks the food-writing scene here is too focused on restaurants and the latest trends. I wholeheartedly agree with him. What do you think? He also thinks our produce isn't particularly good. I'm not sure I agree with him on that one. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Thanks, Marlene. After doing a bit of research I shied away from the cast aluminum ones. Not that I know anything for sure! If no source of cast iron comes up in the GTA then I will certainly be making a visit to Golda's. Many thanks. ← Check the Latin places in Kensington market too. I've seen the aluminum ones there in the past. Next time I go I'll try and remember to have a look. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

It was actually a lot of fun - most of the panelists turned out to be quite witty, and were egged on by the moderator - Ian Brown from the Globe. I laughed a lot. I'd guess there were about 200 people in the audience. The panelists were Naomi Duguid, John Allemang, Bonnie Stern, Emily Richards, James Chatto, Gina Mallett and Marion Kane. The format was each panelist was given 3 minutes to tell us how they got into food writing (none of them started out with food writing in mind - Naomi was a lawyer, Bonnie wanted to be a librarian, Marion owned a dress shop, etc. Several of them studied languages, and it seems that being raised, or studying in, the UK also doesn't hurt). Then they were given 5 minutes each to talk about a set topic - travel writing for Naomi, restaurant reviewing for James, feature writing for John, writing for magazines for Emily, and so on) and then the panel was given another 5 minutes to debate. Ian asked the panel if there are less or more opportunities to write about food now than when the panelists began. Emily thought less - there are virtually no opportunities for freelancing in magazines. This seems borne out by Naomi's experience - when she was getting started no Canadian magazines were interested, so she ended up selling stories to American magazines and building from there. Gina also noted that Australia and NZ can support several food magazines, while Canada doesn't have a single magazine solely devoted to food. At the end there was a brief Q&A session. I asked what the panelists thought were the most important food stories of 05. Gina mentioned the salmonella sprouts, Naomi picked Avian flu, and John mentioned the decimation of global fish stocks as the food story of this or any other year. The role of the internet was raised. James didn't think it would ever totally usurp the role of the print critic - he questions the reliability of the opinions expressed on the net, but he did mention that he occassionally checks egullet and chowhound if he's travelling, and also to see if there's any commentary on his reviews. OK, crying baby - gotta go. If I can think of anything else, I'll add more later. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Clafouti on Queen W. - but then it's just around the corner. I've heard people claim their croissants and pain au chocolate are as good as in Paris. I don't happen to share that opinion. But, I understand the place is run by expat Parisians, so there you go. (I also don't want to imply their stuff isn't good - it is - I'm just not sure it's up to par with the best I've eaten in Paris). Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Hmm. Perhaps I should have posted this in the TO board instead of food media and the news. (Is there a way to cross-post?) In any event, this is happening tomorrow, and I'm still hoping to attend. Any other egulleters planning on attending? And, I'm assuming there'll be a Q&A - anything anybody who can't attend would like me to ask? Cheers, Geoff Ruby

The author of the newly released "Bones", Jennifer McLagan, is TO-based. Donna Dooher of the Cookworks & Mildred Pierce has a couple of books. I recently stumbled across this blog: http://www.alacuisine.org/alacuisine/ Very entertaining! I also hear that Michael Stadtlander has just put a book out, but that it is not really a cookbook per se. Anyone know any more about this?

I know that Tutti Matti makes most or all of their pasta. I suspect that most of the more serious Italian places do as well. Cheers, Geoff Ruby