prasantrin

Freezing lemons!?!?!?! Excellent! I forever have lemons and limes going bad on me! For me, someone here said you could freeze garlic--given that it takes me about 6 months to go through a head of garlic (or more), this tip has proven invaluable. And actually watching Kerry temper chocolate was also an eye-opener for me. I always avoided anything that needed tempered chocolate, but now that I know it's painless, I'm planning to make more things with tempered chocolate as soon as it cools down!

For additional comments (not mine), there was a similar topic discussed.

After a few years of having it on my "must try" list, we finally went to Mise. I started with Kir. They do offer Kir Royale on their menu, but I was still expecting them to ask me what Kir was (it has happened before, especially in Winnipeg). I was pleasantly surprised that they not only knew what it was, but that they even asked me if I have a preferred type of wine with which to make it. Nice. The amuse was some kind of curried chicken salad with apples and other stuff in a little pastry cup. It looked an awful lot like krathong thong, a Thai dish I love. It was soooooo good! I didn't expect to like it so much, but the flavours were so perfectly balanced. It had a very fresh flavour, and a little punch of heat. Next we were given some kind of chunky hummous and sweet (maybe blueberry?) butter with thinly sliced bread. My mother really like the hummous (too much curry powder for my tastes), and I really liked the butter. My mother also proclaimed that the bread was even worthy of Tom (tino27) ("Oh, I think even Tom would approve of this. It's so fine!") Next we share the "Warm Buche Riblaire with Sambuca Poached Black Mission Figs, Toasted Almonds, Orange Ginger Dressed Greens and Candied Parsnip". Again, a big hit. It had so many of the things I love--cheese, figs (which were dried, I think), and almonds--so I knew I'd like it. It was a wee bit sweet, but when you could get a bit of each ingredient together, it was perfect. I had something like "Corn Meal Crusted Pickerel with Northern Pike and Crab Cake, Roasted Creamer Potatoes, Tartar Sauce and Vegetables". I think the menu has changed a little since we were there, since I don't remember the Northern Pike and Crab Cake or the tartar sauce, and mine was served with wilted arugula or some other slightly bitter green. Regardless, my main was a bit of a disappointment. I think they forgot to salt the pickerel, or perhaps salted it too lightly, because it barely had any flavour. No, that's not entirely correct, because it had a smokey flavour, as though it were finished in the oven (which maybe needed to be cleaned). Oh well. My mother had "Seafood Linguine with BC Spot Prawns, Seared Hand Gathered Scallops, Bluepoint Mussels, and White Clams in Spicy Rose Sauce". She liked the seafood in it, but wasn't thrilled with the sauce. It was reminiscent of tomato juice. Again, oh well. For dessert we had the pecan pie. I wanted the dacquoise, but was disappointed to hear it wasn't offered during the summer months. For a third time, oh well. The crust of the pie was very good, but the pie itself was too sweet for our tastes. It also tasted strongly of molasses. I think overall it was a good pie, but we just didn't appreciate it. We were told it was one of the most popular desserts there, however, so other people really like it. We'll definitely be going back, but I think I'd prefer just to order off the appetizer menu, especially since the appetizers, in general, look more appetizing than the mains (to me). I know they offer an appetizer-only menu after 10pm, but I can never stay up that late, so I hope they allow diners to only order appetizers for dinner, as well. Mise Restaurant 22 - 222 Osborne Street Telephone: [204] 284-7916 Hours of Operation: Wednesday - Thursday 5:00 pm - 11:pm Friday - Saturday 5pm - 4am [Casual Menu 10pm - 4am]

Lovey's BBQ 1-208 Marion St. 233-7427 Hours: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m., Tue. - Thu.; noon - 8 p.m., Sat.; noon - 7 p.m., Sun. Lunched here shortly before leaving Winnipeg. It's a cute place--barbeque-related memorabilia on the walls, including pictures of the owner with some barbeque legends (I don't know if they're really legends, but I recognized the names) in the US, red and white checked tableclothes (plastic, I think), etc. The food, though, is just OK. I had an a la carte half slab of pork ribs, dry (but asked for sauce on the side) and onion rings. Although I ordered a la carte, they gave me cornbread, baked beans, and coleslaw. The sides weren't very good--the cornbread was sweet, and had that same weird aftertaste boxed cornbread (and cake) mixes have. The baked beans had at least three types of beans in them, which was a nice touch, but they were also very sweet, and my mother said they tasted like doctored-up canned beans (they may have, in fact, been made from scratch--we don't really know). And the coleslaw was runny. The onion rings, which I had heard were very good, were very much like McCain's onion rings. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because I like McCain's onion rings, but I expect more for $4.25. Even A&W onion rings are more special than these. The ribs were tender, but they were served pre-cut. It looked like they had been cut some time before serving, because the sides were a bit brown (so if there was a smoke ring, it was obscured), not fresh looking like ribs you've just cut into. The sauce is very vinegary, which I don't care for, but I think that's just a personal preference. I still had to use the sauce, however, if I wanted the meat to have flavour. My mother had a pulled pork sandwich with no sides. I can't remember much about it, but the bun was a heck of a lot more plentiful than the pork, and the sauce (I think the same as the sauce for the ribs) was, again, the only thing giving it flavour. Too bad the sauce was just sort of squirted on like ketchup. The pork, itself, didn't have any flavour, but at least it wasn't dry. The above and a Boylan's root beer cost $28 plus tax. At those prices, given the lack of flavour in our meal, I doubt we'll be going back, at least not very often. They were relatively busy, though, but they're in a pretty good location (very close to St. Boniface Hospital).

In case anyone is wondering (probably not, but what the heck), Makoto Ono is doing very well at his namesake restaurant in Beijing, and his investors are planning to open more.

My mother went to Bombolini for the first time in years. She said it was a huge disappointment--very flavourless food. She said she wouldn't go back, but would like to re-try Amici's (Bombolini's higher-end sister upstairs) to see if it has gone downhill, as well.

Anyone seen this one, yet? It should be out shortly according to Amazon, but I find books often come out earlier than stated (at least from Amazon).

Is she? I thought it was only going to be for one year, but longer is better! More beautiful writing!

I know she has mentioned it here before, but I love reading Abra's French Letters. I think her time in France will be coming to an end in a few months, but I hope she continues writing after she moves back to the US. Her writing and photography are really wonderful.

When we made souffles in junior high school, we put a ring of aluminum foil around the souffle dish so it extended a few inches above the top of the dish. Then before serving we removed the aluminum foil. It was very pretty, from what I remember...

Instead of leaving for a meeting with a student, you spend your early morning making salmon rillettes. . . In my defense, the rillettes is my lunch, and my student was late, anyway! (How can I get rid of that fishy smell off my fingers?)

On my way to assembly, but the security guys are pretty much always there. They've had them for at least a year, probably more. It's primarily to keep away the drunks that hang out asking for money.

I'm guessing either the filling was too wet, and it sounds like the phyllo might have been a bit moist-er than usual. Wet phyllo always makes for glumpy products (but I still like them!). From your picture it looks like you put the filling on the short side of the phyllo rather than the long side, but it's hard to tell. I always end up with too much filling for everything I make that involves filling, though, so it may not have been the phyllo, but the recipe.

Do you mean the one on William (but in the phone book it says Elgin, because that's the only door that's ever open)? My mother said it opened last March. I thought it seemed kind of dirty already, but it was definitely cleaner than it used to be!

I forgot to mention, there's an Indian restaurant in the south end of Winnipeg in, of all places, the Montcalm Hotel. We didn't get to try it, but a billboard says they sell samosas for $9/dozen. Cheap!

I'm not Hiroyuki, but the backsplash thing is just a disposable aluminum backsplash. They're usually less than Y1000 ($10), but sometimes you can find them at Y100 stores. I think the hoods are sold separately, but I don't know how much those would be.

The key lies in how they spell the name. If it's Bar-B-Q, it's the old flavour. If it's BBQ, it sucks.

Judging by the names, France was very well represented. . . on the American team. Are there any US-born pastry chefs who compete in these things? It seems the pastry chefs on the other teams are native to the countries they represent. Not that it matters...just wondering why there aren't any US-born chefs on the US team. Are they just not that interested in participating?

I think I mentioned this elsewhere, but can't find it now... When I returned to Canada in July, my mother surprised me with not one, but two bags of Old Dutch! One was "Bar-B-Q", the beloved potato chip of my childhood, and the best barbecue-flavoured chip ever. The other was "BBQ"--New and Improved, the bag said. Well, the New and Improved BBQ flavour sucked. It was more like other barbecue-flavoured chips--too sweet, too something. Not like my beloved Bar-B-Q at all. I thought it might just be a trial flavour, but by the time I left in August the shelves were packed with the new flavour, and the old Bar-B-Q was nowhere to be seen. Had I known, I'd have stocked up on the old one! I wrote to Old Dutch expressing my dismay, but I never received a reply. Well, now I have absolutely no reason to buy OD chips again (except maybe for the occasional dill pickle bag). If they tamper with my OD cheese-flavoured nacho chips, I'm going to be very very upset! On a plus note, at least I don't have to worry about the temptation anymore!

My only experience with TH this summer was a little box of TimBits from the TH at a mall. They were pretty bad (which in no way prevented me from eating them...). If they had brought back the Lemon Drop, I'd have been there a lot more often, though!

Sun Fortune on Pembina (Pembina and Chancellor in a strip mall) has some dim sum items. They have assorted rice rolls (char siu, duck, I can't remember the others, and Hong Kong-style with the youtaio), spring onion pancakes, xiaolongbao (I think), and a couple of other things. I've tried their spring onion pancakes before, and they weren't that great. They weren't flaky enough, but they'd do when craving spring onion pancakes. This year I tried to order the HK-style rice rolls. According to their menu, the rice rolls are only available until 3:00pm. We were there for a late lunch, so we figured we'd be OK, but we weren't!! All the rice rolls EXCEPT the HK-style one are available every day before 3pm. The HK-style one ONLY is only available before 3pm on weekends!! Or maybe it was only on Saturday, I can't remember now. So we settled for the char siu rice rolls. They were sooooo good! Very moist and flavourful char siu, and the sauce wasn't too sweet (I actually like it sweet, but I liked this version, anyway), and the rice rolls were perfect! I think I may have also liked them because put green onions in them. They were a very nice touch! I'd like to try the other dim sum items on their menu now. Either that or I'll only be going for lunch from now on, just so I can keep eating their rice rolls!

When we went to VS, it wasn't too busy, but it was around 11 on a weekday. The staff wasn't that friendly the day we went, and they were very slow (to take our order--though that seems to be a trend these days in Winnipeg--and also to refill our teapot and water glasses). They weren't unfriendly, mind you, just not friendly. I thought the dim sum was much better than when we went last year. There were three of us that day, and we all commented that they must have a new cook. The seafood items were still great, and the meat/pork items were much better. When we ordered the sticky rice last year, it was the same style (minced pork in the middle), but didn't have much flavour, and I think the filling was rather skimpy last year. This year it had much more flavour, and there was more of it. It would be better if they added some other stuff to it, though. Would a few rehydrated mushrooms and a teeny piece of lap cheung be too much to ask? My parents always say the ground pork-only filling is the cheap way to make sticky rice. We had the fried shrimp with mayonnaise, too. I actually didn't like this dish too much (and I'm a firm believer that anything fried is good). The filling wasn't as flavourful as I expected it to be given VS's record with seafood. Hum sui gok has a thicker dough than previously, but the filling is still a bit skimpy. We had the xiaolongbao here. I thought the pork filling was quite good, but I don't remember the broth too much. We had the fried meat-filled bean curd wrap, too. I remember thinking it was very good. The Hong Kong-style rice roll sucked. Ick to soggy youtiao (spelling? I seem to spell it differently every time!). Char siu rice roll also sucked. The rice roll part had definitely improved since last year, but the char siu was still lacking in flavour. We had a lot more--chicken feet (I think only my mother ate it, and she said she still prefers Kam Ho's), the special seafood siu mai (very good), and char siu bao (meh). Maybe more but I can't remember now. Overall, in terms of food quality alone, I'd put it above Noodle Express, and maybe the same as Kam Ho, but a little less than Kum Koon. We didn't go to Dim Sum Garden this year, so I can't compare it with the rest. My mother prefers Kam Ho for flavours, especially their sticky rice, tripe and chicken feet. I'd need to do repeat visits, though, to test consistency. This year I only went to each place once. The main reasons I put Kum Koon higher are that they're very consistent with their food--everything I ate there this year seemed to be the same in quality and flavour as last year, and also because my favourite dishes are best there (hum sui gok and char siu bao, and also coconut buns, but those probably shouldn't count because no one else has them). VS is much closer to home, though, and has better parking. On that note, I don't have much to report about my visit to Kum Koon, because as I said, they're very consistent. They had a new dish, though. It looked like a piece of maki-zushi--something minced wrapped in nori and steamed. It didn't look like anything I would have ever ordered, because it kind of looked gross (who likes limp nori?), but my mother got it while I was away from the table (she's sneaky that way--there were chicken feet on the table when I returned, too!). It turned out to be very very good. I think it was fake crab in the center (those pollock sticks), ground pork around that, then the nori. It had a very delicate flavour. I'd order it again, unless the Vietnamese spring rolls rolled around first...

Slightly off-topic, but along the lines of honesty and integrity in blogging... I was reading one of my favourite blogs today, and found a post that mentioned the plagiarism of the blog-writer's pictures. Another blogger (who interestingly enough is a fairly well-known chef in his area) had used one of her pictures on his blog without credit. It wasn't the first time it had happened to her (another blogger taking her content and posting it as his own), nor was it the first time the plagiariser had used pictures from another site (without credit). Many blogs are covered by a "Creative Commons" license or something similar. According to the website, this means with regards to attribution My two questions: How do those of you who blog deal with using material from other blogs or websites? If the blog you are "borrowing" from does not specify anything about attributions, do you still feel the need to credit the site/author? (Personally, I couldn't imagine not crediting, but people interpret things in different ways.) If you blog, how would you deal with someone who "borrowed" your work without permission or without credit?

OK, you've talked me into it. I just finished ordering it, and expect delivery in two weeks! I hope andiesenji does a photo tutorial before then (hint hint, if you're reading).

This is the cheapest one I found. It looks like it's kind of light-weight, though (is it possible that it's aluminum or some other light-weight metal rather than cast iron?). I might try it, anyway. I just hate buying things like that on the internet, because I really want to fiddle with it before buying. It could probably be done in a food processor, but I think with a food processor the texture will be quite different. The dried fruits will get too sticky, and the nuts won't get chopped evenly, so the final product will be more pasty than I want. I actually have a food processor (a Cuisinart which I sent from the US--one of the most useful but also heaviest items I have brought to Japan), so it won't be a hardship to try using it, but andiesenji uses a meat grinder, and I want my fruit and nut balls to be like hers! They're perfect! Andiesenji's fruit and balls