prasantrin

I tried making the gougeres today, but I think something went wrong. The batter was very soft--too soft to hold its shape. That means I have some very flat gougeres. Still edible, but not nice and poofy as they should be. I followed the recipe as written, although at one point two eggs dropped in instead of one (I broke all the eggs into a bowl before adding them one-by-one to the batter). I mixed a little longer after that happened to account for the extra egg, but I can't think of anything else that might have affected the outcome. Any advice?

There's nothing new about coconut water, except maybe the tetra-pak-ing. We've been drinking it for decades, purchased from Chinese grocery stores. The only coconut water worth drinking, in my opinion, is the frozen kind. Rooster/Cock brand is a very common brand. It comes with chunks of young coconut flesh and a little pronged stick with which to eat that flesh (plus a straw to drink the water). It's a refreshing drink during summer when you can drink it half-frozen like a slushy. Some of the canned ones are OK, too, but the frozen ones are best.

I would imagine it's practically brand new once it's reconditioned. It has a full 10-year warranty, whereas a brand-new Blendtec 2-jar combo, which sells for almost $500, has a 3-year warranty, though an extended 4-year warranty is available for another $110. So basically I'm looking forward to getting $600 in product for $250, guaranteed for 10 years. I'll take my chances. I agree that it's a good deal. But that wasn't really the point I really wanted to make (but since it was brought up. . .). If you don't already own one, or want to purchase a second one, it's a great buy. But if you are going to return one you already own (that works just fine and you've used it regularly since its purchase), just to take advantage of this great deal, then it may still be a great buy, but I think you're at the very least unethical (and a great deal more that should not be printed here).

Given it's a refurbished model, it probably belonged to some other person who used it for as long as s/he could before returning it to Costco to get a new one.

To make a similar point from another angle. . . If you (general "you") want to eat something the way you want to eat it, make it yourself. Why go to the trouble of going to a restaurant and asking the chef (who is not your employee, despite that you are paying for the meal) to alter what he does just to suit you? He has other customers he needs to cook for, too. Are you really so important that you can take up more of his time (and time away from his other customers) just so he can make you an extra special dish because you need what you want when you want it? Or if you don't want to cook, but you still want someone to make your food exactly the way you want it, hire a cook or a maid who also cooks, or marry someone who will let you order him/her around in the kitchen. Then you can order that person around as much as you want (until s/he quits or divorces you), and you can eat whatever you want, anytime you want. And in defense of bad-tempered chefs who refuse to do special requests, I have an anecdote. I have a friend who owns a Thai restaurant. A customer ordered take-out, and requested that every dish be made gluten-free. The customer was told that it would be difficult, but the person insisted. Customer should always be accommodated, doncha know. So the staff said they would try to accommodate the request, but they couldn't make any promises. Customer says OK. The next day, customer's husband comes in and bitches the staff out because his wife had a bad reaction to the food. Despite the best efforts of the staff to make a gluten-free meal, and despite the staff spending a lot of time during a very busy night to accommodate this absolutely inane (in my opinion) request, and despite being told no promises could be made, these people demanded their money back. And they were given it back. IME, customers are far more likely to be rude about making (as well as not receiving) special requests, than chefs/staff are about not granting them. Very few chefs will just say, "No, we won't do that because we don't want to. If you don't like our food, go eat somewhere else," but far more customers will say, "If you don't make it exactly the way I want, I'll go somewhere else and tell everyone I know that you were rude about it."

You sure that's not Hunky Bill's? http://hunkybill.biz/

It's a shame the activity on the board about Winnipeg has fallen off so much. I just came by to offer one recommendation for brunches--Prairie Ink in the McNalley Robinson at Grant Park. It's smaller than some of the other brunches, but there's a fair selection of foods that should suit all tastes, including some of their housemade croissants (made with pure butter, I was told!), eggs benedict made to order, and an excellently prepared cold-smoked salmon. It's only $20, and reservations are necessary unless you want to wait an hour or so for a table. Also, the restaurant is quite small, so line-ups for food can be long. One of the reasons I'm mentioning it is because I went for a special occasion (small 75th surprise party for my mother), and I requested a special cake. They were able to make an 8" hazelnut dacquoise (with buttercream made from real butter) for only $20!!! A steal to be sure! We'll be going back for brunch, and I think they've also become our go-to bakery for special occasion cakes (except carrot--we'll still go to Tall Grass for that).

Grant twittered with a link to the video and the blog. Very cool. The amount of work that went into the restoring the car was pretty amazing, and it was a very special gift, indeed.

In my experience with similar situations, very few would be happy would just steamed vegetables or fries or a simple salad. I've experienced much more demanding customers (both as staff and as a diner), and in those cases, it's been all about "I". "I need", "so I can", "I want", etc. etc. I don't believe it is up to the restaurant to make sure their food can accommodate all the different food restrictions in the world. It's nice if they do, but it's not reasonable to expect it. In the particular example given above, as a host, it would be my responsibility to make sure there were selections available to suit my guests. As a guest with restrictions, I could easily take it upon myself to call the restaurant to see what they could do to accommodate me (i.e. give them advanced notice). Should there be absolutely nothing, I would still go if the event were important enough, but perhaps just drop by for dessert (and of course I would discuss it with my hosts prior to the event), or take the celebrant out on my own to a place I know I can get what I need. The event shouldn't be about me and my needs, but about the celebrant. Maybe the "stiff neck" that should be bent sometimes is that of the diner, not of the restaurant. I'm not trying to pick on this post in particular, I just find the demand for special requests or exceptions to be incredibly annoying, and it seems to happen more and more frequently with more and more restrictive requests. Yes, David Chang does come across as arrogant, but I admit I find myself repeating a quotation from him quite often: "It's food. Just eat it." Or don't. (And I do make requests on occasion--runny yolks in my eggs, salad dressings on the side. . .but if I end up not getting what I request, I move on with my life because in the whole scheme of the world, it's just food and a hard yolk or overdressed salad or picking bacon out of a "vegetarian" dish is just not that big a deal. And that baptismal party I missed because of my food restrictions? I bet my presence wasn't missed nearly as much as I missed there. But then it wasn't about me, was it?)

Early Edition. I always thought the show was Canadian because most shows with stupid plots are Canadian. . . Beverly Hills 90210 had The Peach Pit. Beavis and Butthead had Burger World. Gilmore Girls had Luke's Diner Saved by the Bell had The Max Most shows targeted at teens have restaurants in them (Degrassi: The Next Generation has one, but I can't remember the name)

I wonder if a TO outlet will be able to get away with some of the same service crap the NY outlets pull. I don't think the ever-so-polite-and-considerate ( ) Canadian population will put up with some of that stuff (well, maybe in TO. . . ) As an example, the most recent story I read on "another forum" ( ) was from a woman whose table was served oysters they didn't order. The oysters were sent back to the kitchen (with an "I'm sorry, we didn't order these"), and then the table was presented their check without receiving any of the food they had ordered. Apparently if you reject unordered food (given not as a comp, by the way, just as a mistake), you are considered unworthy to dine at the restaurant at all. Can't remember if it was at Ssam or one of the other places. Still, I'll probably check it out after it opens (and the next time I'm in TO). Any projected opening date announced?

I included McD's QPwC in my burger taste test last summer (I did a test of popular local burger joints/stands), and McD's wasn't even the worst. I don't think McD's produces a bad product (generally speaking), though it's certainly not the best in any genre. And their fried apple pies still rock if you can find them. I noticed McD's has caramel shakes right now. Do I or don't I? I love caramel anything, but I'm worried it will be sickeningly sweet and have that nasty aftertaste some artificially- flavoured caramel things have. Shamrock shakes will be available for a limited time, too. Question (primarily for Holly, but if anyone else knows, please chime in!), does McD's use evaporated milk in its ice cream products?

Carolyn's food-themed jewellery uses miniatures of food--a very different style than what is pictured (which looks more like an ornament of some kind rather than a piece of jewellery).

25? I thought it was 26 (I was told it was because the price of Christmas cakes gets slashed on the 26th, but maybe now they get slashed the evening of the 25th). Well, I guess that means I'm waaaaay past Christmas cake. But I'm like Christmas fruit cake. It gets better with age.

I don't think the first picture is from Katsukura, just because Katsukura doesn't have bottles of dressing. They use a ceramic vat-thing and bamboo ladles. The kanji looks like Wako, but I can't guarantee that's correct.

Nada. Like it says on the, uh, tin, liver sausage / liverwurst, the soft, spreadable kind. Not the slicing or rough-minced ones. Like the Underwood kind with the devil on the label? I can get that, too!

Closing forever???? But I never got to eat at either place! Don't they know they're supposed to stay open at least until I can go?

@Blether--thanks! I'll have to see what kind of pork liver sausages I can find. I've never seen them in markets, but I've never really looked for them, either. But if all else fails, I can always make my own! eta--are pork liver sausages just liverwurst? I can get that no problem!

Any chance of sneaking a peek at the luxury pork liver pate recipe? Do you make your own pork liver sausage for it, or use a commercially-made product?

Aack!! When the server at the tonkatsu place cleared your stuff away, did s/he have a funny look on her face? Once you grind the sesame seeds, they don't like you to use the pestle to mix in the sauce. I guess they think it's very gauche. (A friend (Japanese, no less) did that once, and she got a little frown from the waitress.)

McD's in my area of Canada just came out with breakfast biscuit sandwiches, so for two days a couple of weeks ago, they were offering free biscuit sandwiches--sausage and egg, bacon and egg, or just sausage. I thought they weren't that bad, though McMuffins were better. I'm hoping they bring back fried pies and pizza, but failing that, what more do I have to look forward to? Surely there are some new offerings in the US that have yet to make their way to the Great White North? And is the quality of McD's getting better or worse? When I did my burger taste tests last summer, McD's actually finished above one very popular local burger joint in town (and I would eat a McD's burger again, while I would never eat that other burger joint's burger again) and I thought my Quarter Pounder really wasn't all that bad. Why all the hate on McD's?

I know Pizza Hut doesn't have the greatest pizza, but sometimes I crave that salty crispy greasy crust. And last summer, I had a cheese breadstick for the first time, and I fell in love with its junkiness. I could have eaten the whole box of them all by myself in one sitting. Is Pizza Hut getting better or worse as time goes by? Anything new and exciting I should look out for?

My bad. Reading your post again, you made it very clear why you were wary of opening it, as did everyone else who replied.

Why the hesitancy in opening it? Is this another case of the "subtle" snobbery the permeates food boards? It's made by the same folks who make Bailey's Irish Cream, and iirc, it's similar in flavour. The separate bottling is to allow for a layering effect when pouring. If you don't want it, send it my way or to someone who will at least open it and try it before judging it.

I love jilebi and I often crave the neon orange sickeningly sweet fried snack. I once tried to make my own, but it was too cold (I was living in Japan at the time) inside my house and the mixture wouldn't ferment. But I have a question which may seem stupid. I bought some jilebi the other day, and it's not very good. I don't think it was very fresh, so it's sort of soggy (not soggy, but it doesn't have that nice crisp exterior that fresh jilebi had). Can I rejuvenate it? Stick it in the toaster oven? Crisp it up in a non-stick pan? Or is my only choice to microwave it with some milk, mush it up, and eat it with a spoon?