SteveW
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Posts posted by SteveW
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Can any Montreal breakfast establishment make great french toast??? I`m having trouble finding any. Can anyone here recommend a place?
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Steve
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I had never found the pizza at Pizzeria Napoletana(they claim to be Montreal's first pizzeria opening in 1948) to be any good. However after so many raves by so many egullet members shortly after this thread started, I decided to give them another try. On my last visit there, I found their pizza to be quite decent(fairly good, but not outstanding).
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Steve
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Recently I saw a recommendation for Danelis Pizzeria in Lasalle. Anyone with comments on this pizzeria?
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Steve
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Elaborate on Cargill`s Alberta `Prime`program. Is this their Canada Prime grade beef? Canada Prime graded beef, is almost non-existant in Canada.
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Steve
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winefellow thanks for your comments on the Winnipeg restaurant scene. Any opinions on Manitoba beef(is it excellent etc.)? Don`t know much about it, except that Steven Shaw(Fat Guy), mentioned it alongside Alberta beef as being the best Canadian beef.
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Steve
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Chef, could you try posting the picture of the dry-cured pastrami again? For some reason, the image did not post. Maybe this time, you can post the picture of the dry-cured pastrami, as part of a sandwich(hopefully you hand cut your pastrami, instead of done by machine).
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Steve
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What about the Winnipeg restaurant critics? Any of them influential and/or overly harsh? Can't remember the full story, & based on a foggy memory of it. Around 4 years ago, several Winnipeg restaurants sued(or threatened to sue) a restaurant critic, for this person's overly harsh reviews of their restaurants.
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Thanks prasantrin, for your two recent responses on my query about Chutneys(unfortunately I only saw your Sept 30 posting for the first time ever today, as I've been experiencing problems with my home computer the past month). Did some checking now, Chutneys was at the Forks Market.
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Hmm, I didn't enjoy the one-star restos and that is why they are rated Fair.
I think it's a mistake to compare rating systems. I'm rating within the Montreal arena. When it comes down to it, readers should follow the rating grid:
* Fair
** Good
*** Very good
**** Excellent
Lesley is it still your [private] policy, that no matter how bad the restaurant is, you at least give the restaurant one-star(I think you made one exception, when you gave one Montreal restaurant no stars)? That`s what you told me several years ago.
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When people here talk about the East India Company restaurant, are they specifically refering to Chutneys? From what I`ve gather, the East Indian Company, could have several restaurants in Winnipeg, with Chutneys being their upscale restaurant. I just saw something on Chutneys the other day(that`s why I`m asking). I wonder if the food at Chutneys is any good.
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One thing I hate is when a reviewer neglects is to name the chef in the restaurant in a positive write up. It's like a bunch of fairies are doing all the cooking and all this food just turns up on the plate. I say commend the people doing good work, get them out from behind that kitchen door. And name the good pastry chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers and waiters as well. Give credit where credit is due.
Going only by memory, from checking your positive review of Cavalli when it first came out several Saturdays ago, I can`t remember you mentioning the name of the head Cavalli chef(I could be mistaken).
I agree star ratings are very useful in restaurant reviews. Gives me a clear idea from the reviewer, where he/she rates a certain restaurant(sometimes I can`t tell from reading a review). Personally I would like for all the fine dining reviews in the major publications, to be based on at least 2 visits.
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Steve
edit: Going back checking the Cavalli review again. Now I noticed that Cavalli chefs are named in photo caption(& you name the chefs in the writeup). Sorry Lesley.
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heres some answers to a few questions from previous posts in this thread:
david chrystian spent a few months as executive chef of the crowne plaza toronto centre after accolade closed, and now he has left to head up the kitchen at the drake, a new boutique hotel opening on queen west in november? 2003. i kow this because i worked with him at accolade, and will be joining him at the drake {www.thedrakehotel.ca}.
ned bell, who was supposed to be an up and comer, bounced from toronto to niagra, to somewhere out west. anyone that has seen him on cook like a chef will be able to see that while he is on tv, he isn't even near the same calibre as susur, chris mcdonald, dedier leroy, etc.......
hope this helps,
M@
Ned Bell didn't last long at the Niagara restaurant, Pennisula Ridge(he was soon gone, after the Opening Soon television series finished filming). He's now in Calgary at the Murrieta's West Coast Grill. BTW, he's originally from the west coast of Canada(not from Toronto).
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In a home kitchen set-up, an individual can`t cook his/her steak(s) at the super high temperatures that the top steakhouses can. Same idea could hold true, for Chinese dishes, that are cooked at super high temperatures in woks at Chinese restaurants(can`t be duplicated at home, with residential equipment).
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Evan, I have been suggesting you to Steven Shaw, for a future eGullet Q&A for a mighty long time. Thanks for joining us here at eGullet. My #1 question to you, is could you run down any quality differences of the USDA Prime beef supply in the several decades you have been at Lobel`s butcher shop? As an example, is the US Prime beef as a general rule, less marbled than it was decades ago(USDA seems to have lowered the standards for their USDA Prime designation gradually over the years)? If I can ask you a side question. Have you ever tried Canada Prime beef(the Canadian equal to US Prime beef).
Steve
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I just re-saw The Loop episode of Opening Soon FoodTV Canada show. Whatever happen to their executive chef Rolf Hagen? He was the focus & really hyped up on the television program.
I don't know what happened to Rolf. But do you remember the Hunger Hut some nine or ten years ago? It was a restaurant housed in a HOUSE! Did he not cook there as well?
In The Loop episode, they say Rolf had worked at the Liberty Grill.
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I was at The Loop in the Exchange District back in December 2002. Sadly, it did not live up to the expectations I had of it from the FoodTV show, Opening Soon. What was I expecting though? Opening Soon isn't exactly about introducing the great culinary experience.
I just re-saw The Loop episode of Opening Soon FoodTV Canada show. Whatever happen to their executive chef Rolf Hagen? He was the focus & really hyped up on the television program.
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My dad will be celebrating his 65th birthday this September and we're having a party. The general consensus is for a Chinese restaurant. I had suggested Sun Sui Wah, but I was shot down quickly. Everyone we asked said that the quality has gone down since new management. Have any eGulleteers gone and agree or disagree?
P.S. The party is now at the reliable Pink Pearl where my dad can have his favourite Peking duck and service has always been excellent for us.
Rhea S, are you sure Sun Sui Wah have new management? When did it take place, & any other more details? I know a person in Vancouver who knows the restaurant scene there very well, & she wasn't aware of this. Are you talking about both Sun Sui Wah locations(regarding new management & decline in quality)?
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Just to throw a curveball in here...some of the best Montreal-style bagels I ever had were bought from a shop (with wood-burning oven) in the Byward Market building in Ottawa. Better than just about anywhere in Montreal, save Beauty's (who probably get theirs from St. Viateur, I would imagine).
As for NY, I simply can't get a good bagel within easy walking distance of my job in midtown. Some okayish, decent ones but nothing high-end. I wonder if the tourists buy those giant fluffy things from the street carts on 6th ave between Rock Center and Times Square and think they're getting a "real New York bagel". It truly gives one pause.
Just to confirm. Beauty's gets all their bagels from St. Viateur. I would like to know the name of the Ottawa bagel shop in the Byward Market, making Montreal bagels.
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Could be mistaken, but I think I have heard that one of the tricks of the trade, for the steakhouses, is to heavily oil the steaks, before putting on the grill.
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I heard about this new Tacconelli's location for the first time several days ago. They're using a new brick oven(I'm guessing a wood-burning one). According to the Tacconelli family, the original Tacconelli's in Philadelphia required that customers reserve their dough, because their vintage oven could only handle a certain amount of pies per night.
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Steve
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I've got to say, I think the water argument is most likely nonsense. It's too convenient an explanation, and don't Brooklyn, Long Island, Westchester, and North Jersey all get their water from different sources anyway?
I'm also suspicious, but this argument is also frequently made here in Montreal. With these people saying, Montreal bagels can't be duplicated outside Montreal because we have the perfect water for making bagels.
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So in Toronto now, at the bagel places, a wood-burning oven is allowed to baked these suckers? Previously I heard it was disallowed.
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Steve
If you read the first review in the link below you'll see that it specifies "wood-burning oven" And there are also a ton of non-bagel places that boast of their wood-fired cooking capabilities:
OK, I have just been told(by someone in the know), that it's illegal to have a wood-burning bagel oven in Toronto, but somehow Kettleman's Bagel has bypassed this law. Kettleman's is the only bagel shop in Toronto with a wood-burning oven. Wood burning pizza ovens are totally different animal, compared to wood-burning bagel ovens(wood burning pizza ovens has never been illegal in Toronto).
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Steve
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So in Toronto now, at the bagel places, a wood-burning oven is allowed to baked these suckers? Previously I heard it was disallowed.
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Okay, but from where I stand, if they're running at capacity, it has nothing to do with reserving dough per se. It's just a reservation the same as at any restaurant. Is that the case?
Apparently their oven only has the capacity to produce a certain number of pies per night, according to Vincent Tacconelli. Would you feel better if you had to reserve the number of pies you wanted instead? What difference does it make? As far as making it like a regular dinner reservation, my thinking is that the number of people in a party does not necessarily indicate the amount of food that will be consumed.
The explanation sounds highly suspicious, given that there are about a million and half pizzerias in the USA and this is the only one where you have to reserve dough.
Just a thought. Tacconelli's has a oil-fired oven, which is very very rare. The only other pizzeria I have ever heard, using an oil-fired oven is Modern in New Haven. Could this type of oven, limit the capacity of how many pies they can make?
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Steve
New York-Style Chinese Fried Rice
in Cooking
Posted
My understanding is that at the top Chinese restaurants, for authentic fried rice, soy sauce 'is not used' at all.
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Steve