prasantrin

Not anything specific I would say, just their dedication to quality and the consistently excellent service they provide. It was through their stores that I knew I wanted to work for them. Philippe also gives cooking seminars at the market, and the two stores have become very well established at the market, and in Montreal. We supply spices to stores all over Quebec, and Philippe has a book on how to cook with spices coming out in late October. Ah, I always use the word "infamous" in it's prescriptive sense (dictionary says it means "notorious), rather than the descriptive sense (people use it to mean "really famous"). I'm from Winnipeg, too! It's a great food city, and I love the size. I think the feeling of bigness in Montreal comes from the traffic and all those tall buildings. I do find it to be more crowded than Winnipeg, in general, but I guess that's partly because of the tourists infiltrating the city. Now that you've shown us St-viateur, I'm still hoping for Schwartz's! Fatty, please. None of that lean stuff! (And after seeing those 4 fried eggs, I don't feel you're a lean-meat kind of guy!) Since your focus in cooking recently has been on Chinese (and Japanese), how do you feel about the Chinese food in Montreal? The best place in Montreal that we knew for dim sum (somewhere around Chinatown, in an office-like building, I think, on an upper i.e. not main floor), kind of sucked compared to Winnipeg dim sum. But there were some non-dim sum restaurants that were OK, but still not as good as Winnipeg Chinese restaurants. Do you ever get back to Winnipeg? For the food, at least?

Really, then, there's no point of taking a picture of anything, meal or otherwise.

I would do it, but then, I'm shameless. Seriously, though, you paid for it, why can't you take it? They won't know, after all, that you just haven't been a glutton and eaten it all for breakfast.

Pam, is that $300 Canadian? Where did you pick it up?

I was afraid of that! I'm going to have to get a sharper knife before I can give this a try. I wonder how a ceramic blade would cut through phyllo... Thanks!

What happened to make them infamous? My sister went to McGill, and I visited a couple of times. I love Montreal for the food (but it's a bit too "big city" for this prairie girl). Are you going to take us to Schwartz's? Or any other Montreal institution? Do we get pictures of St. Viateur (sp?). They're the ones with the tiny store with the big oven (is it wood burning?)? I love them!

When you cut through the phyllo, do you cut straight to the bottom, or just through the top layers? I was thinking of doing this for spanakopita, so I'm planning to cut into squares.

How did you make the eggplant balls? I think I need some of those! Fabulous work! I wish I could have been there!

FWIW, I don't think the comment is racist (I think that word is used far too frequently, and sometimes inappropriately), but it does show ignorance. Tom is assuming that because Hung grew up with Vietnamese food, that he should have some kind of visceral attachment to it. This may or may not be true. It is entirely possible for Hung not to feel a strong attachment to his heritage at all, at least in his mind. I would say that many naturalized citizens of any country, especially those who immigrate at a young age (and doubly those who don't have competence in the language of that country when they arrive), reject everything and anything having to do with their country of origin. I do think, however, when you're raised with something, it becomes a part of you whether you recognize it or not.

Just as with language teaching, a good teacher will assess the needs and wants of their students before progressing. This is especially important when designing a class for a particular group of students. You can do this through surveys or interviews, any way you please. Once you figure that out, you've got to try to mesh your goals with theirs. What do you want them to learn? Can you teach them what they need? Will you group them into different levels, or have multiple levels in the same class? I, personally, find it annoying to know much more or much less than others in the class, and prefer to be grouped with students of a similar level. If you have a wide range of skills in your cooking class, the higher-skilled students may not be interested in what you will need to teach the lower-level students. Also, how will you charge for the class? Will you charge per class, or per group of classes? Charging per class would be easier, especially for mixed groups, as higher-level students can pick and choose the classes they're interested in. Will you be teaching Japanese cooking or western or a variety of cuisines? How long will your classes be? One thing you can try is a demo class at ABC Cooking School. The first demo class is usually cake, then if you do a second demo class, you can choose with a cooking class (as opposed to a baking class) amongst the choices. You can see how they teach, and what they provide in terms of materials. They have branches everywhere, so if you're still working in Namba, for example, you can try the one at Namba Parks.

I really liked it, and I had the same thing for lunch today! The egg cut the heat of the mabodoufunasu beautifully (I accidentally used too much chile). I'd love to try it with ground turkey, or even ground chicken, but ground turkey is definitely unavailable, and ground chicken is much too expensive. Maybe I'll have to try mincing my own in the food processor!

Don't worry, I knew you were joking. I don't really count, though, but if you're ever in my 'hood, I'll give you free oysters. Of course, I don't know if you'd want free oysters in Winnipeg (it's so well-known for its seafood!).

The most I ever paid for a meal was Euro 300-ish at Steirereck in Vienna. It was the summer of 2004, and my mother, my aunt, and I had travelled to Europe for a family wedding. I knew they wouldn't be too keen on the idea of dining there if they knew the cost (it wasn't that expensive, but we were travelling on the cheap), so I went ahead and booked, and asked the restaurant to provide menus without prices. They were kind enough to do so, and they charged my credit card without my ever having to produce it. My mother and aunt were none the wiser about the cost, and we had a wonderful memory. (The food was good, but not great, but the whole experience was really wonderful, and my mother still talks about it.)

Cripes, eynkiora! That made my skin crawl! I can't even bring myself to repost the first picture, which I deemed the worst of the two. I'm going to have nightmares. I vote eynkiora's pictures as the new worst (best?) of the bunch!

I use the green can when my sauce isn't very good. At least 1/4 cup of the green can on anything, and it's edible. Why waste my good parmesan on bad pasta? Plastic cheese has its place in the food world! Like that plastic cheese sauce for nachos that you can get at convenience stores. That stuff rocks! I wouldn't mind a slice right now, but plastic cheese in Japan just doesn't taste the same. You know, I like plastic cheese straight out of the fridge, but when melted, it really does look a bit too much like plastic to me. I can't eat it melted (unless it's plastic nacho cheese sauce, which doesn't look quite so plastic-y).

What happened with Yoonhi's birthday? Fancy schmancy dinner? Flowers of the non-wheat variety? I thought that ham looked familiar! And it looks as good as ever!

I think in certain developing countries, you're much better off sticking to the local food. Like Yemen. Except in Yemen, the local food for tourists wasn't very good food. But if you were fortunate enough to be accompanied by locals, you could eat very well. Yemen is a very poor country, so I can't imagine there were many top French restaurants around (for example) for me to try, since it would be difficult to find enough clientele to support such a restaurant. And certainly not all non-native cuisine will be good in a particular country. In Japan, for example, I have had excellent Italian, French, Turkish, Indonesian, Thai...etc food, but I have not yet had Cantonese food that I thought was any good. This includes the food at some high-end places I've dined at. It might be good food, but I don't think it's particularly good Cantonese food.

What kind of mushrooms were these ones? I have to admit, seeing all the mushrooms was kind of cool, but it also freaked me out. I don't know why, but mushrooms make my skin crawl! The last picture you posted of the mushrooms you saw really made me skin crawl! Were any of them edible?

When I make quiche, I add parmesan rinds to the milk/cream mixture when I heat it. Don't know if it really adds flavour, but I like to believe it does.

How long ago was it? My mother talks for going to the German Club for German food, and eating Hungarian food in Bangkok--this was in the late '60s. Not important, really, but I'm just wondering...

Yikes! Well, at least it gives you a very clear idea of the type of food they really like... Wowsers! That's some fine looking whole wheat! Why is it infamous? Because it's so good, it's bad? Would you or Tino care to share the recipe? So will the cost of those June chicken breasts count as part of the October 11 meal, or does it count as part of your June costs? Does the coordinator average out the costs of all your meals, or does s/he only look at the per meal cost (or per month cost of meals)? I hope you can show them the light regarding your food costs. If they don't know your background in law, they're going to be in big trouble! My money is on you for this one!

Ah, well that makes a difference, then. If you're travelling to a country specifically for the food, then it makes sense to only eat that type of food. But people travel for different reasons, and I prefer to have a wider-range of experiences in a country, and sample everything it has to offer, since there's a good chance I won't visit it again (much as I might love to).

Is that plastic cheese on them there tuna melts? I want some! (The cheese, not the tuna melt. I have not yet discovered the attraction of tuna melts.) I sometimes get cravings for plastic cheese. It's not something we had a lot of when I was growing up (my mother hates the stuff), but whenever I went baby-sitting, I'd always sneak a piece of plastic cheese out of the fridge to snack on!

I eat anything, anywhere, as I want to have a great food experience, regardless of where I am or what style of food I'm eating. I'm wondering, markk, if you found out one of the best French chefs in the world was in Bangkok, for example, and you knew you would never have an opportunity to eat his/her food anywhere else in the world, would you not want to try his/her food? Peter Green's topic on the WGF in Bangkok is a perfect example of why one should be willing to try other cuisines in countries where those cuisines do not originate. So no, when I travel, I don't limit myself to the traditional cuisine of that country. If I did that, I wouldn't get to eat anything when I travel to the US...Except McDonald's maybe...

Kristin, which Sanyo model did you get? I'm thinking of picking one up, and your $250 model would be much more affordable now, if it's still around. I saw the copper-pot model at Yodobashi Camera yesterday, but it was priced at under Y100 000. Not that I would buy it even then...But my friend was telling me that her husband bought a rice cooker that was about Y50 000! For a rice cooker!!! I have to wonder, can a person really tell the difference between rice cooked in a Y10 000 cooker, and a Y50 000 cooker? (Assuming they're the same type of cooker, ie both IH, etc.)