rgruby

Are there any other countries that allow such a substantial proportion of grapes from other jurisdictions in "their" wines? Cheers, Geoff Ruby

That is not a typo. Here's a link to the story in the Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...99037&t=TS_Home I'm not sure what to think. I don't buy all that much Ontario wine, and it appears that the VQA wines are still required to be 100% Ont. grapes. But still ... Have at it. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I suppose we should add Canoe & Bymark as possibilities as well. Both on the upscalish end of things - Canoe on the 54th (something like that) floor serving "Canadian" (ie a fair amount of game) and Bymark in the basement of the same office tower. 5 minutes or so from the tower. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I'm not sure I've ever seen them for sale here (Toronto). Whole or half a pig's head, sure. Nevertheless, I have a Burmese cookbook that has a recipe that calls for 5 pig's ears. I always thought that odd, since the average pig has an even numbered set of ears. So, can't say I've knowingly eaten pig's ears, but, sounds like they could be quite tasty a number of ways. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

They look stunning! Thanks for the pix! Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I visited a place not too far from Alma (which is north of Parma) that had a restaurant by the name of the White Horse, or something very similar to that (but in Italian of course) that had a culatello processing facility associated with it. I can't really pin it down more than that. I remember we got pretty lost trying to find it. We didn't really get to take a look around - the guys working on the culatello were in basically surgical scrubs, with hairnets and possibly facial masks as well - it looked like keeping a pristine environment was incredibly important. Hope this helps, Geoff Ruby

Don't believe I mentioned Christine Cushing or Alford & Duguid of Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet and a number of others. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

The area immediately around the CN tower is a bit of a food wasteland. Planet Hollywood anyone? But you don't have to go too far for what you're looking for. For seafood, and oysters in particular, Rodney's is a short jaunt west on King St. There's a couple of informal bisto-type places a short walk up Peter St. to Queen - Le Select and Peter Pan. There's more upscale French dining options not too far as well such as the Fifth and Thuet, which may have better wine lists (can't really comment on that though, never been to either). Also close by is the King St. W. dining strip (roughly Simcoe to Spadina) which has quite a number of options - but I can't for the life of me remember anything I would recommend for seafood or a bisto-style place with wine. (Anybody?) There's a few places on King west of Spadina (Rodney's among them) that might fit the bill. Crush, I believe billing itself as a wine bar, had a good buzz a couple of years back. Not far from the CN tower also offers Rain and Monsoon, Avalon and a few other options for higher end dining. And, come to think of it, Jamie Kennedy's places on Church aren't all that far away either in the other direction, offering a tapas-style wine bar and a newly opened resto. Starfish (oysters and seafood) is also in that neck of the woods, as is Hiro sushi, if you don't want your seafood cooked. OK, so a few options, a few of them not really what you said you were looking for, but, what the hey? Everything mentioned should be within one km of the CN tower (let's say a 15-20 minute walk, max.) Enjoy your visit. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

My apologies for my role in this as well. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Just one. But first, thanks for your thorough, thoughtful response. Anybody care to guess why soapstone isn't more popular/ available? From what I can gather it is seeing a renewal in popularity, but around here, at least in the kitchen design joints I've visited, it is not on display or otherwise being promoted as a possibility. When discussing possible counter materials I'm the one who is bringing it up. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I asked this about Corian, but it may have relevance here as well. Will soapstone counters put up with having things like pasta makers or meat grinders screwed down to them. Might they be prone to chipping or cracking? Will it leave scratches? Thanks, geoff ruby

Arne, I dunno if this will help, but I pulled out my copy of the Chipotle Chile Cook Book by Jaqueline Higuera McMahan (whew!) published by the Olive Press. She suggests using ripe red chiles, as they'll be sweeter. Her technique uses a Char-Broil meat smoker - not sure how adaptable that is to your Weber. She starts with hardwood briquettes, adds soaked chunks of fruitwood and hickory chips once the hardwood is hot and developed an ash, and smokes the chiles between 150 and 175 (I'm assuming farenheit) for 10 to 12 hours, turning the chiles occassionally and then tops up the wood and chips every half hour or so. So, pretty standard smoking technique, really. She suggests using a green fruitwood if possible. She also has a recipe for chipotles in adobo and lots of recipes using chipotles (a couple of breads!) and also a few non-chipotle recipes involving chocolate. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I'd use mine as a dust filter over my microphones - if I had any CR bags. For now ziplock bags'll have to do. Does this mean I should drink more booze? Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I think Chase's restaurant was called Youki. I have no idea what he's up to now though. I haven't looked at his cookbook in quite a while. I should pull it out again.

OK, Googling around I found this - http://soapstonecounters.com/ Ah, look at the cute kid in the soapstone sink. Anyways, they have some info re: maintenance, installation etc. They're even in my area and charge @ $90 per square foot (Cdn dollars) installed. I'm not sure how that compares to Corian, Silestone or Granite around these parts however. Further drawbacks - it will chip and scratch (but scratches can be sanded out apparently, there is abit of maintenance (oiling) particularly at first, and if you have an overhang, it needs some support underneath. On the plus side, it looks great (my opinion, of course) & you can put a screaming hot pot on it. Maintenance seems minimal and it looks pretty darn durable as long as you're not using it as a cutting board. At the moment I'm leaning towards soapstone providing it is reasonably similar in cost to the other surfaces mentioned above. In the Corian thread Arne also posted a link re: soapstone that I haven't managed to access yet. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

In an earlier thread I asked about the pros & cons of Corian and Silestone countertops. (You can read more about that here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...485&hl=)&st=30) That thread brought up a couple more countertop material possibilities, namely soapstone and concrete. While there is some discussion of them in that previous thread, I thought I'd give them their own little shot at egullet glory by having their very own thread. I'm particularly interested in hearing more about soapstone. The only drawback I've heard about it so far is that it comes in, well, soapstone. I have no idea about its durability, porousness, maintenance requirements or cost. Can somebody fill me in? Concrete was discussed in a little more depth in the Corian/Silestone thread, but any further comments would be welcome. Thanks, Geoff Ruby

For example, here in Ontario we have: http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/availability.htm I think the book Flavor by Rocco DiSpirito (yeah, that Rocco) has a chart in it that lists produce by the seasons, but also has a list of things that were once seasonal but are now available in decent quality pretty much year round (such as oranges. lemons etc) either due to long distance transport or greenhouse growing. A bit of a different take on the idea of seasonal, but (for certain things) a valid one. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Byron, I apologize. Your name isn't all that long. And, one of my favourite cookbooks. Pretty much the only one I own that I've cooked almost every recipe in it. I own the Young Thailand version. I believe that Simply Thai Cooking may have a few extra recipes added. Great book. I forgot about the Asian Bistro cookbook. I own that too. And, yeah, whatever happened to the author, Andrew Chase? I can't remember the name of the restaurant he cheffed at, but it was just off Yonge, and I ate there a few times and enjoyed it. OK, does anybody have any ideas on whether there was much stuff that might be considered "historical"? Are there any books that delve into the culinary history of this part of the world? Foodie magazines that came and went? Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Sure, Niagara counts. Thought of a couple more after a perusal ofmy cookbooks. Smita Chandra has a couple books devoted to Indian cooking. Regan Daley (I think - I don't own this one) had a Beard (IACP?) winning book called In the Sweet Kitchen. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Remembered one more. Marion Kane, from the Star, just released a book called Dish. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Hi, I'd like to try and compile a list of food literature and cookbooks that either feature the GTA or are written by writers living in and around the GTA. Here we go: John Allemang's The Importance of lunch. The former (and still sometimes) food writer for the Globe features a collection of short essays that often involve Toronto. Margaret Visser's Much Depends on Dinner - the story behind 9 common foodstuffs, exhaustively researched. Author in part TO-based. Gina Mallet's The End of Food. TO - based author - haven't had a chance to look at this myself yet. James Chatto - TO Life food writer has a couple books. As for cookbooks: Susur is about to release his big shiny tome. Jamie Kennedy already did his. Bonnie Stearn has a bunch. Chatto and Lucy Waverman (I think) put out a good looking cookbook within the last year or so Madelein Greey is TO or area based I think, and has book by the name of Get Fresh detailing how to choose & store most common fruits and veg. Some recipes. Kathleen Sloan-McIntosh I believe is also based around here and has written a cookbook or two. The Southern Accents Cookbook is the only TO-area resto cookbook I own. I'm having trouble coming up with others off the top of my head, but surely there are others. And, in the none of the above categories: In the internet/ blog category finds Gremolata.com (Malcolm, it's a boy) CityBites is a new-ish food related mag that came as an insert in Now a few weeks ago. They have a website, but I'm not sure if the paper edition is available other than via Now. OK, that's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Oops, one more - The Young Thailand cookbook by Wandee Young and Byron, long last Greek name that starts with A. It has since been renamed. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

I was there a month, maybe two, ago. My meal was ok - I had the low temp steak with tobacco jus, and it was fine, if a bit chewy. I thought the menu looked less interesting than it did shortly after they opened though. Service was fine, the meal was fine. Nothing stunning. I'll try it again sometime, but I'm not rushing back. Cheers, Geoff Ruby

One more question. How badly is Corian going to get dinged up screwing down a pasta maker or meat grinder to it? This is actually fairly important to me. Thanks again, Geoff Ruby

I just bought a food mill and, as usual when I buy a new kitchen gadget, I turned to egullet to see what other people are doing with them. But to my surprise there does not appear to be a thread on them. So I'm starting one. What are your favourite things to make using a food mill. Pureed tomatoes are likely going to be the first thing I do in mine. Do you core the tomatoes first or just chuck 'em in? Similar question for apples and applesauce - do you remove the stems first, or is that unnecessary? Pureeing root veg for mash or soups is a given. What else? Cheers, Geoff Ruby

Dunno if I'd recommend the Patrician, but it would be the yin to the yang of the other places you're eating at! It's an old-school, timewarp, greasy-spoon diner. I like it a lot. Lots of places do brunch on the weekend. Many of them seem quite popular. I don't really get it. I guess I'm not really a brunch guy. Others may have a better informed opinion on this than I. Dim sum in Chinatown might be an idea. On the high end there's Lei Wah Heen (did I spell that right?). I'll let others suggest possible alternatives. Cheers, Geoff Ruby