Dejah

Pam, what is the name of your retail outlet on North Main? I remember buying kosher meat at a store on North Main when our Jewish friend from Brooklyn came to visit for 2 weeks. That was a couple years ago.

Peter doesn't have a restaurant of his own, but he is chef at one of the fine dining restaurants. I will have to check on my back issues of Man. Gardener to find out which one. We knew Peter when he was station manager at CJOB. He was instrumental in our beating out ray St. Germaine for Entertainers of the Year for Man. Music Awards back in 19*^! After he left the station, he followed his dream and took courses towards his chef status. BTW, I am registered to take a 4 hour cooking class at our local college in South African cuisine on April 24th! Yeah!

Pam, You may have told me in another post, but do you have a restaurant in Wpg? Or did have? Maybe next time, Lily and I can come and try your schmoo! She's posting as amandasmom971. Maybe she'll post from my house tomorrow. Are you familiar with Peter Grant? He's a chef in one of the restaurants in Wpg. For a while, he used to have a column with a featured recipe in manitoba Gardener. Haven't seen it for a while but we'd like to try his restaurant sometime too.

But the scrambled eggs are much more fluffy, wouldn't the strips be too long and thin?? I think the Cantonese style served at restaurant are more like a stir fried dish while the style that I get at home is like a watery soup version. ← I usually make sure the "omelet" is fairly thick. They are not really long strips. I cut them into strips then into shorter pieces about 2 inches long by 1/2 inch wide. The scrambles eggs would be fluffier. I will try it next time!

Asparagus is at a good price at the moment. I've been blanching and stir-frying for the last couple of weeks. What is the flavour like with the white asparagus? Do you use them the same way? Different variety or just "kept in the dark"? What is this cheese wrapped asparagus called "sliders"? The only time I've heard that term used was for bad hamburgers at a White Castle! Didn't Harmen's turn into a coffee shop that served falafals? Haven't noticed it the last couple trips into Wpg. Pam: I don't know anything about Mitsy's, but Lily has joined eGullet and she will post some info'. She's actually coming out to meet us tomorrow...for the first time. We were introduced through another food list. This internet is amazing!

I had never had tomato beef with egg until my students from mainland China cooked it for our international food fair. Then my kids ate supper at my brother's while we were away, and she added eggs strips. Now my kids always ask me to add egg like "kow Mo" does. My students add scrambled eggs (clumps) which didn't look as appetizing to me. I like the look of the strips.

I use strips of fried eggs. To me, it adds colour and a different "shape", both in contrast to the rest of the ingredients. I also find the egg is great for scooping up the sauce at the end! Another benefit: I can nibble on pieces of egg while the rest cook.

take a look here the weights and prices are on the right side, to look at other types of rice click on any of the names on the left side. Currently the excahnge rate is about $1 to 108 yen but I just round it off to 100. so if it says 5,000 yen it is about $50. ← OUCH! No wonder my old classmate always requested rice when his family visits, or when he comes home in the summer. He always buys basmati rice to take back to Kyoto.

The only trout I know of that could be pink is rainbow trout.

Shhhhhhh! Keep it down or they'll ALL be over here! Remember, Western Canada starts west of Lake of the Woods. A. ← Can it include the Lake of the Woods? I grew up with a cottage just north of Kenora Wait... we sold it years ago... ok, I'm with you. ← Hey! My son is working up in Red Lake, north of Kenora, so we'd better include Lake of the Woods. He brings home pickerel that his boss catches whenever he can. Gotta love that kid! I send back bison steaks and char sui baos. BTW, if we are wondering about aboriginal cooking and preserving, smoked fish would belong in that catagory...I believe that's how they prepared food for the winter...smoking and drying fish and meat over a fire.

If you're really interested in getting some Beaver tail, I'm sure my cousin still has some in the freezer or he just has to head over to the ranch and shoot some more. My understanding is that the Beaver problem isn't about to go away anytime soon. Interesting that it is prized in Chinese cooking. This could be a new economic boom for Rorketon, well actually, it's only economic boom Do you know if anyone has started a commercial operation for High bush cranberries? A picture of the plant and fruit. ← I'm definitely not interested in cooking up beaver tail soup! Rorketon...I know the community well. We used to play for their high school grad dances there! Glad we didn't get paid with beaver tails. Mind, I wouldn't have complained if they paid me with beaver pelts. Haven't seen any commercial high bush cranberries around BRANDON. Wanna start a biz? Shelora, beavers are NOT cute. They are downright vicious...and ugly without their fur coats. I have eaten in many Hutterite colonies. If you have a chance, visit their kitchen, their bakery, their chicken processing facilities, walk in freezers...etc etc. They are so organized and efficient. I used to contract one of the colonies for 10 lb chickens for my restaurant. When they deliver, there was always several blocks of cheddar cheese, bottles of dandelion or chokecherry wine. We took some American friends to visit the colony acouple of summers ago. The women were just processing raspberry juice. It was wonderful! Some of it will be used to make wine as well. One of the meals I remember most was a simple potato soup. It was delicious. To get beyond perogies, anyone make these with beet leaves instead of cabbage leaves?

Hmmm, wish I had known that. Beaver is prized for making medicinal soups by the elder Chinese. My Mom said it's because there is such strength in the tail that if you eat it, it will make you strong...increase stamina, etc. A friend of ours trapped one for her years ago. My neighbor butchered it for us. I couldn't look at it...She stewed the meat with herbs, gingsen, etc, but the tail was the prize. It looks like a huge piece of fat...but didn't taste fatty (So says my Scottish/English hubby). I didn't eat it; one of the few times I wouldn't eat something my Mom made.

Whoa! I've been away from this thread too long... Pickerel is wonderful, panfried or steamed. When my sister comes out from Burnaby in the summer, she always takes acouple dozens whole undressed frozen pickerel back with her. She says seafood is great on the West Coast, but nothing tastes as good as pickerel. Wpg goldeye is available once in a while in Superstore. I have shipped these to folks down east. The best time for a feed of incredible smoked fish is on Sept. long weekend when the towns Pine Falls and Powerview have their 4-P festival. The 4 Ps stand for pulp and paper, power, peas and pickerel. At the end of the Friday and Sat. night gigs, we'd pack up our gear, rush back to our hotel rooms and kick back with a basketful of smoked fish, lemon wedges, and ice cold beer. The peas they grow in this area is specifically for peas soup. Most of the crop is shipped to France for consumption. We usually have this for lunch with crusty bread slathered in butter. Saskatoon berries is another Manitoba specialty. There is nothing like going out picking berries off the bushes around our farm. It's hard at the first picking of the season to have enough berries left in the pails to make even one pie! There are cultivated bushes now for U-Pick, but it's much more fun and cheaper to find your own wild patch. Chokecherries and pin cherries: Are they available in other provinces? Maybe in Saskatchewan. They really make you pucker eaten hand to mouth, but they make great jelly and syrups. I ship chokecherry and saskatoon syrup and jams to my friends in California. Bison is gaining popularity here. Hubby worked up a website for one of the ranches in exchange for meat. We had the prime rib roast for Easter and it was incredible! Have a pile of tenderloin and New York strips steaks for the BBQ. How about rainbow trout? About 20 years ago, local farmers started to raise these in sloughs. I remember cooking up about 20 after a gig in our hometown. We had musician friends visiting from England and they loved it, even tho' they weren't made into "fish'n' chips. Let me see, what else? Our aboriginal students at the university often hold bannock taco sales. Talk about adding local touch to an "imported food"! When in season, we've enjoyed elk, moose, venison, in one of our local restaurants. Unfortunately, my friend sold the biz and I haven't been in since the new owner took over. Neil is a chef and I am sure he will feature some of the same on his menu. The "nip", I thought was just a prairie term for "burger". It is definitely associated with the Sals. but it was called "nip" in our rural Mb.restaurant in the 50s-70s. Pam, do you know Mitsy's? It's runned by a Mandarin lady. One of my friends was in there an evening before the Junos. Apparently it is one of Randy Bachman's favourite places to eat. He was at one of the tables while Lily was there. She didn't recognize him...He's lost so much weight.

This is quite popular for Chinese New Year...and some of us indulge more often. My Chinese students get together often on weekends for "hot pot". One of our supermarkets started carrying specially sliced and packaged meats for this. It is more expensive than preparing it yourself, but these kids have no real skills in the kitchen, so they need to have someone slice it for them. They just know how to dunk and eat.

bean sprouts are a lifesaver aren't they?! The week before payday sees me pulling out the dried and canned foods... As we saw with last night's dinner with the fu (wheat gluten) and wakame (seaweed). I also tend to avoid dinners that us too much rice, so we tend to have non-rice meals more often as well. I would hate to run out of rice right before payday. ← Pardon my ignorance...but is rice very expensive in Japan? Am just curious because of the statements above. Great blog, again, Kris.

My version is much like Ben's, except no ketchup or celery. I prefer flank steak to ground. I have finally got the sugar and vinegar balanced. There is still some adjustment depending on the ripeness of the tomatoes. I usually want them red but firm. I'll have to try the brown sugar method. The eggs are usually beaten then fried into a large pancake. Then they are cut into longish pieces and added at the last minute. Love lots of long pieces of green onions and julienned ginger. . On top of rice, it's gotta be "thickened" so it has that velevty mouthfeel. I swear my Mom used to add ketchup, but she's changed in the last couple years. Who's to argue with a 95 year old kitchen prima donna? Ben, is there anything you eat without fu yu?

Can't remember if this was the thread where durian was mentioned...BUT! Kind wesza, aka Irwin sent me a care package containing several durian moon cakes and candy bars! The icon is for Irwin...not sure about the treats as yet. I did have some of the moon cake and they were fresh, sweet, yummy and not at all like the offensive smell of fresh durian. I am saving some and the candy bars to share with family and friends visiting this weekend. This, of course, is all in preparation for my second try at eating the "frightfully freaky fruit"!

One of my daughter's favourite foods is tomatoes...in BLTs, salads, soup, but most of all, beef and tomatoes stir-fried with strips of fried eggs over rice. In fact, she doesn't even want rice! I love it over steamed rice. So, how do you cook yours? What do you use to produce the perfect balance of sweet and tanginess? Do you add Spanish onion? green onions? ginger? vinegar? sugar?

There are certainly variations of Toisanese spoken within the Chinese community here in Brandon. The older generation are able to tell which village newcomers are from once they start talking. To me, THEY talk with an accent. What Irwin said: "They both reiterated that the majority of Restaurants both European and Chinese in Hong Kong were staffed mostly by people who generally came from Towns where they mostly apprenticed with people or family, friends etc from the same area. " is certainly true with our family. We had sponsored many young cooks from our village. One reason is helping them to immigrate, but more importantly, they spoke the same dialect, so training is easier. These young men can cook REAL Chinese food; it was the westernized items and sanitation that they needed to learn.

Ok, Po-Po was over for her weekly supper. She directed me to cook "halibut trimmings" for supper. She said this is one of her favourite Toisanese dishes. First I had to "hok ah" the fish... in other words, season and brown in the hot wok. I had also pan fried some tofu squares. Then I cleaned the wok and fried up some slivered ginger, garlic and tangerine peel. Add the fish back on top of the aromatics, add fermented black beans, splashes of light soya and cooking wine. Top with green onion and simmer for about 10 minutes. It was delicious! Her only disappointment was "no fish head". While eating, I asked her for the exact description of our house in Toisan. She said, " Hoi Saon, Ngai Kui, Lungpan Toon, Oiy Gong Hu". Can anyone understand that?

I certainly agree with Shalmanese on the communal idea. 2 years ago, I was taking a Mandarin course (where I was the worst student! ). Our visiting professor and his wife, 10 classmates and their spouses all came to our house for Chinese New Year. Prof and Mrs. Bao taught us how to make jiao zie. We prepared the filling and the dough, then used 2 tortilla presses and 2 shifts to make the jiaozi. It made short work of the job and a lot of fun with some odd shapes while trying to converse in Mandarin! The kitchen was pretty steamed up with 2 big pots boiling. Can't remember how many we made, but there was none left over. My students often get together to make jiaozi. They haven't had any leftovers to bring for me either! That's a great idea to insert cubes of jelly with the filling! I will write that down on my recipe. That would probably work with potstickers too.

Are these the sweet pickled radishes malawry's recipe called for? I use these when I want to make a steamed dish with beef or pork. Toisanese call this "ham choy". The salted ones need to be rinsed off before using. The sweet ones are actually not "sugary sweet"...just not salty.

From another source, they used bok choi for this dish. Wash the bok choi and let dry. Using the leaves, roll it up like a cigar then cut into fine shreds. These are deepfried quickly. Don't let the bok choi turn brown in oil. Drained then sprinkled with sugar and chopped toasted almonds. Along this same vein, has anyone made deep fried spinach? I've heard people raving about it, but have not had the pleasure of tasting the real thing. I tried and got a mess of splatters and greasy spinach. .

Can't find where marinated egg is mentioned above but ... marinated egg (US version) is diferent from the 3 you mentioned. Marinated egg is cooked hard-boiled egg let sit in a mixture of salt, vinegar and some sugar. Sometimes spices are added to it too. Beetroot is also sometimes used to give color. ← That's what we call "pickled eggs"? Tangy. They sell a lot of those in bars...unfortunately, without the yau t'ieu and sticky rice.

Bison prime rib roast with peppercorn gravy. Roasted vegetables: brussel sprouts, carrots, turnip and baby potatoes. Pumpkin pie with real whipped cream. My grandson's Easter chocolates!