prasantrin

I think I will do a photo "essay" on the subject and post it in a new topic. ← Please do! I have more questions, but don't want to go too off-topic here...

elfin--do you remember where Baikal was? I'm headed to Kyoto for a day of beauty soon, and what's a day of beauty without sweets? Has anyone tried the new Laduree Tea Room at Mitsukoshi in Ginza? Opened at the end of July, I read. It's definitely on my list! Henri Charpentier has a to-die-for salted caramel cake. I have pictures somewhere...And their cafe macaron is very very good. It might even take first place in my coffee macaron taste test. Their caramel comes pretty close to first, as well. I'm going to have to do a side-by-side with Henri Le Roux's, but I'll have to go to Tokyo for the HLR's!

Yup! I really wanted one of the electric ones like on the second page, but those are way out of my price range. I was willing to settle for one like those at the top of the second page, but Y15 000 is a lot of money for something I'm just going to use to grind nuts and dried fruits! (I want to make the fruit and nut balls that andiesenji makes.) I was only expecting to pay about Y3000 for it. I did find a similar looking metal one for about Y4000, but it came with plastic parts which isn't really a good thing. The plastic one of the first page is like the one I saw at Tokyu Hands, but it seemed a bit flimsy. Maybe I'll see of they have anything at Yodobashi Camera--if I can get it free with my points, I might not mind the cheap flimsy-ness as much.

Can someone tell me what a food/meat grinder is called in Japanese? I'm doing on online search, and so far haven't been able to find any. I saw a cheap-looking hand-cranked plastic one at Tokyu Hands, but it was more than I wanted to pay for a cheap-looking hand-cranked plastic one and silly me, I didn't bother to see what it was actually called. Nevermind, I found them under meat mincer, but even the hand-cranked cast iron types are 3x the cost as in the US! I'm going to have to think about this purchase...

Noodle Express is located in the Dynasty Building in Chinatown. They only started carrying dim sum relatively recently, I think. We had some usuals, and some other harder-to-find options. We found duck feet on the menu, so Mom had to order it. She didn't like it--scrawny, flavourless...I can't remember what else she said about it. We also had scallion pancakes! I love scallion pancakes, but these weren't like any scallion pancake I've ever had. It was as though they coiled the dough on itself (in two layers), and instead of rolling it out, they deep-fried it as is. The result was a very crispy (and greasy) outside, and a doughy (albeit cooked dough) inside. If it hadn't been called a scallion pancake, I'd have enjoyed it, but since I was expecting a scallion pancake, I was disappointed. Char siu rice noodles--char siu could have been more flavourful, but the noodles were good. Har Gau--I don't remember much about these, which means they weren't bad, but weren't necessarily great, either. Hum soi gok--OK. Chinese doughnut--not you tiao, but the cow-tongue named one. I love these, but they're hard to find and Noodle Express has them! It was OK--not as sweet as I like, but good enough. I can't remember what else we had. After 2:00, they have a special where everything on the regular dim sum menu is $2.20, plus there's a 50 cent/person "seating charge". I kept the menu, and copied down the prices of the different sized dim sum, but I've left everything back in Winnipeg. Oops. Some of the items we had were on a different menu, and so had different (read: more expensive) prices--the cow tongue doughnut and the scallion pancakes, for example. I'd go back if craving items that aren't normally found elsewhere, but for the usuals, I'll stick to Kam Ho or Kum Koon. Oh, they also have xiaolongbao. It was about $6 or $7 for I think 10 pieces. More and more places in Winnipeg have xiaolongbao, which is making me think they must be outsourcing production--all the ones I've seen look alike. I'm betting they're getting them from Hoa Ky, and my mother is going to ask the Hoa Ky guy the next time she's there. ETA: Am I the only one eating dim sum these days? Almost all the posts on this page are mine, and I haven't even covered my Victoria Seafood and Kum Koon visits!

I've got some muffin recipes which call for agave nectar, but don't have access to any (unless I wait for my mother to bring me some in December). From what I've read, for one cup of sugar, one would use 3/4 cup agave nectar. Would it follow, then, that, for example, 1/2 cup agave syrup could be replaced by roughly 2/3 cup sugar? I'm assuming I may need to increase the moisture in the recipe, as well. Does that seem like a logical thought?

Thanks andiesenji! I don't have a grinder, but perhaps I can pick up a hand-cranked one soon. I think these fruit and nut balls would make a perfect snack to stave off hunger pains. If there's another Silver City/Chile Fest get-together in two years time, I want to be there, too! If I'm invited, that is!

I've only been to Tavern once for brunch, and I wasn't that impressed. Although the food was fresh (not so much of the heating trays that wilts food as much as keeps it warm), most of what we had was flavourless. That was several years ago, though (maybe as far back as 2002 or 2003). I do think of the buffet brunch options, FGH is still the best of the bunch if you don't consider the price. I'm not sure it's the best value unless you really eat a lot. Most of the time I'd rather go to dim sum, but I'd love to find a breakfast place in Winnipeg along the likes of Al's Breakfast in MSP. One that I wouldn't mind going back to again and again, with no reservations (both in the literal and figurative sense).

Fort Garry Hotel is supposed to be the best brunch in Winnipeg. It's certainly the most expensive ($40/person, more on holidays), but it is all-you-can-eat, so if you can eat a lot, it can be a bargain. One thing I've noticed about the FGH brunch is that the hot items are not often the best choices, and so I stay away from most of them. I usually eat my fill from the cold seafood table and the cheeses and pates. I guess this means I don't get my $40 worth of food, but I always leave full. On this occasion, the cold seafoods were oysters (poorly shucked and rather limp), poached salmon, and some nice plump shrimp. I ate a lot of shrimp, and had a bit of poached salmon (it was very dry). There were only three cheeses, and they were boring ones at that--I think there was a smoked gouda, pecorino, and some kind of cheddar. Snooze. The pates were flavourful--one was rabbit and I can't remember the other. What I really filled up on, however, were the figs. They had delicious fresh figs and luckily, most people who were brunching that day didn't seem to appreciate them, so I had the equivalent to 6 whole figs. Yum! They had their usual ham and roast beef at the carving station, an omelet station, some pre-made (i.e. soggy) waffles and pancakes. I did have some ham, and it was rather dry. Once I added a good load of maple syrup to it, though, it was scrumptious. On the hot table, they had some kind of Asian-inspired fish (my mother said it was salty and not very interesting), some kind of salmon with dill (my mother said it was tasty, but dry), vegetarian and non-vegetarian eggs benedict, sauteed zucchini, some kind of chicken, bacon, sausage, french fries...there was more, but I can't remember what they had. The only things I ate were the bacon and sausage--both very non-descript, but I like non-descript bacon and sausage (and once again, a good dose of maple syrup makes everything interesting). I didn't try any of the pastries, but I did have some very good dense multi-grain bread. We only shared a couple of desserts--a very nice chocolate walnut cake and a too sweet and too tart lemon tart. There were no financier or madeleine, but they did have a kind of dense macaroon--more madeleine-like than coconut-y, and very delicious. We were going to try to sneak some home, but we couldn't figure out how to do it discretely. Even though most of the food served at FGH brunches really aren't that well-prepared, I still enjoy the experience. If you choose your foods wisely, you can have a great brunch there.

Is the recipe floating around eG somewhere? And what's the first picture? It looks like it's rolled in a bit of coconut. Both the first picture and what I assume are the pistachio balls remind me of one of my favourite (but a little difficult to find) Japanese snacks. The Japanese snacks are made from roasted soybean flour, so I think I'd like yours even more!

The pickling salt is also a couple of dollars cheaper than the kosher, at least in Winnipeg! I bought some kosher salt in the US, but had to leave it behind for fear my baggage would be overweight. As it turned out, I had just under 5 lbs to spare, so I could have brought it after all!

I just finished breakfast at Globe@YVR. I had the breakfast buffet since there wasn't much difference in price between that and just ordering the eggs benedict. It was a pretty good deal for an airport hotel breakfast buffet. They had a small selection of cheeses, and I liked all the ones I tried (they were much better than the ones at the brunch at the Hotel Fort Garry in Winnipeg). I also had a parting plate of sausage and bacon (nicely crisped) with a side of maple syrup. I'm going to miss sausage and bacon. Given the choice, if I didn't have time or transportation to go somewhere good for dim sum, I'd stick to Globe@YVR if I had to eat at the airport again. No more Flying Beaver for me!

Lilac Bakery opened on Grosvenor, almost at the corner of Stafford sometime in the first two weeks of August (it wasn't open when I left Aug. 5, but was open when I returned Aug. 15. More Mise news...they're anticipating an October opening date for the new place on Corydon, and they'll be keeping the old space for events, catering, and baking. They may eventually close it, but they'll see how things go. They'll also be opening a gourmet store with take-out foods. They wanted to expand the restaurant, but that would have led to renovations galore (extra washrooms, etc.).

I thought the bowls were for people who wanted to eat "Chinese-style" as opposed to Western-style. Yesterday's Tom-tidbit: Oh, this bread is very fine. I think it would meet Tom's standards!

On Saturday, I had brunch with a friend. Our first choice was surprisingly closed (Bistro Dansk--how dare they close, didn't they know we were coming? ), and she had never been to Fresh, so... despite my comment that it would never be a regular spot for me, we went there for the second time in just a few days. We arrived almost at noon. There weren't that many people waiting ahead of us, but we still ended up waiting for about half an hour. One of the problems with Fresh is that the main seating area is on the second floor, while the waiting area is on the first floor. This is great for people who are actually seated, because they feel they can linger for as long as they want since they can't see anyone waiting. But for people waiting, it sucks because people who are seated can linger for as long as they want. For example, once we were seated, we noticed the table next to us was finished, but they still lingered while they selected and ordered a smoothie to-go, and then sat at the table for another 15 minutes while they drank their smoothies (to-go), then for another 10 minutes or so after that. If they had been able to see the very long line of people waiting, I doubt they would have lingered for quite so long (maybe they'd have actually left once they received their smoothie to-go). Coupled with slow service does not make for happy customers. This time we all ordered the same (more or less) things. We all had eggs, toast, and hash browns, and I had some buffalo sausage. The hash browns (which are really large cubed potatoes), were much better this time. When they're fresh, they're right from the grill or pan. But the potatoes we had the other day were reheated in the oven (or so we think), and that is what gave them that strange chewiness I mentioned in my first review. Unfortunately, our potatoes were not all fresh from the grill, but were mixed with some older oven-heated potatoes. I hate getting obviously reheated leftovers, especially when I'm paying for something "Fresh". This is something they really need to work on, or perhaps they should think of changing their name to "Mostly Fresh". My poached eggs were suitably runny (I asked for them very runny, and they obliged) and they were much more like poached eggs than the ones on the eggs benedict the day before. No plasticky-looking whites on these babies. I still like the bread. Homemade strawberry (strawberry rhubarb?) jam was very runny. It took 3 tries with 3 different staff members for my friend to get some peanut butter. My opinion hasn't changed much. It's still really loud, the service is still too slow (though it's friendly), and the food is good, but nothing to rush over for. I'd still go back, but again, I'm not in any rush to do so.

Get a flame-tamer or whatever they're called (a round metal thing for putting on top of elements to help disperse the heat better). I picked one up in the US a couple of years ago because even the smallest element on my gas stove was too hot on its lowest setting. It's one of the best things I ever hauled back to Japan with me--and it was one of the smallest and lightest, too! And cheapest! (I think I paid about $5 for it.) ETA: Mine looks like this one. I've never seen them in Japan, or even in Canada (my area doesn't have a lot of gas stoves), but I know they're available at places like Target in the US.

In Canada, "pickling salt" is the equivalent to "kosher salt". I wonder if you could find a closer substitute if you looked for pickling salt (or whatever salt is used for pickling) in France.

Sorry, it was Fresh. I'll go back and add that in. I haven't been to the FG in a couple of years, either. We didn't make it last year, so my last visit was the year before that. I like to go early because I find the food to be fresher, although the variety may not be as great. I mostly go for the financier and madeleine--they're hard to find in Winnipeg!

I borrowed this book from the library and was planning to purchase it, but I think I'll wait until the reprint. There seem to be a number of mis-prints in the book--does anyone know if there are corrections available? Some of the errors are pretty easy to figure out (ex. the book says to bake gougeres at 300C, but I'm sure it must be 300F), but then some are a little odd. For the gazpacho with goat cheese rolled in olives, the recipe calls for something odd like 3/12 ounces of goat cheese to be rolled into balls. That can't possibly be right, can it? I know you can just use as much or as little as you like, but it's still nice to have a correct recipe to start from. Some of the recipes are also a little scary--American macaroni and cheese has curry powder?

I was at Fresh for lunch yesterday. My mother had "eggs benny" with smoked salmon, and I had the roast turkey sandwich. The smoked salmon was flavourless, and the hollandaise wasn't hollandaise. I think the eggs were microwave poached or "poached" in one of those gizmos for poaching eggs (so the eggs never really touch the water and are, in my opinion, not really poached), and the potatoes were flavourless and had an odd chewiness to the exteriors. I liked the biscuit used, but my mother thought it was too tough. The roast turkey was plentiful but very thinly sliced and dry. I liked the cranberry relish, but would have liked more, and the rye bread was moist and not too dense. The mixed fruit juices about which I've heard raves are served at room temperature. Is that usual? I expected at least an ice cube or two, but no such luck. I just had some kind of citrus combo. It was fine, but nothing terribly interesting, especially since it was warm. The service was slow to start and sparse (we helped ourselves to menus after sitting for 5 or so minutes), but efficient when you could get a hold of someone. If you want to actually hear your dining companion speak, don't sit on the second floor, at least not when it's really busy. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as I had thought it would be. It's fine for the occasional meal, but it's nothing I would rush out for, and it certainly will not become a regular brunch or lunch spot for us. Breakfast is served all day, which is great, and sandwiches are served from 11. On the other hand, we're having brunch at the Fort Garry Hotel this Sunday...

I just went to Fresh yesterday. I wasn't impressed as I wanted to be, but I'd go back. It's not a place to go if you want to have a relaxing conversation with someone, though, at least not if you sit on the second floor.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Gluttons was bought by Terry Gereta and will re-open as Mise in September. I guess that puts to end any speculation that Gluttons would reopen elsewhere. Lovey's BBQ is open at 208 Marion. Lunched there yesterday, and will report eventually. Noodle Express in the Dynasty Building in Chinatown has xiaolongbao. Had lunch there the other day, and will report on the food in the appropriate topic.

I love Japanese bread! I don't usually buy supermarket bread, though, so that may be why I think Japanese bread is so much better than North American bread. The French-style and Italian-style breads, in particular, are heads above the average French/Italian-styles available in most North American cities, but sadly, the German and heavier Eastern European-style breads are almost non-existent. Costco used to have good pumpernickel and rye. Whatever happened to those?

Thanks, all! I managed to swing by Target in Grand Forks and they still had quite a few of them. I picked up the Reynold's one, and one box of each of size of bags. They were cheaper than I had imagined (just over $6 for the machine, and under $3 for the bags). I'm thinking of vacuum sealing a sweet potato so I can smuggle it into Japan... I, too, saw the Ziploc hand vacuum pump and was tempted to buy it instead of the Reynold's, but I wasn't sure how well it would work. It looks rather flimsy, but it's also about half the price of the Reynold's (and since it doesn't have a motor, it would probably be less likely to break down). I'll see how this one works, and maybe I'll get the Ziploc next year!

Ellen. ← Thanks! I edited my original post. Hopefully someone will chime in with KarenM's husband's name, too!