Dejah

Ok, that's weird...not sure I can handle eating in a former funeral parlour. It was unsettling to me that Hy's Steak Loft was besidea funeral parlour! Well, you can always come meet me and eat at my house...seriously... I finish teaching on July 22, but away for the second and third week of August. Do you have any idea when you will be through Manitoba?

When a recipe calls for rice flour, unless they specify "GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR", or "NOT glutinous rice flour" then I use "ordinary rice flour" I buy these pre-package in Asian stores and they are clearly marked as just "Rice Flour" with the red label, or "Glutinous Rice Flour" with the green labels.

Oy. Hy's Steak Loft.No matter when I went to Hy's, I would know at least 3 other tables of people there. Theory is they may be trying to appeal more to the expense account crowd now that they are in the bank district. beachcomber.... am I right in thinking this was next to the convention center? ← Exactly! I was so impressed before with the waterfall, "Hawaiian" dishes, etc. They used to always present the ladies with a gardenia. Then we went in for an early supper one night before they turned the lights down low. It was in pretty bad shape, grunginess hidden by the darkness. The food was pretty mundane compared to all the new places coming into Wpg. We never went back. I wonder if there is still a Beachcomber at the York Hotel in Calgary? We were there in 1966 for our honeymoon.

I heard about it on the radio (I've been paper-less for a couple of months). Do you think they'll rebuild? It sounds like it'll be a great loss to Brandon. I haven't been through in years - but I keep saying I should do more roadtrips - Brandon would be a good one. ← The owners of the building said they will rebuild, but the women who own Lady of the Lady said they haven't gotten beyond the shock of seeing the flames to think about the future at this time. It's unfortunate, but I don't know if they can reproduce the unique atmosphere of the old building. If you ever decide to venture beyond "the perimeter", please give me a shout. Amandasmom and family came out and spent yesterday with us. We had a great visit over eGullet and food. Whatever topic came up, it always reverted back to food! Is Hy's Steak Loft still in Wpg? Anyone remember Happy Vineyard? How about the old Beachcomber? Am I dating myself?

What if you used a double boiler?

Wonderful blog, Kris. Egg of some form seems to be present in many of the food photos. Are eggs used as a filler, for appearance, or extra protein? The chocolate banana that Hide was enjoying, is it fresh or frozen?

I would definitely call the above comfort food, especially"When I get old and losing my teeth , errrr....hair"

Ah...Good for you! Pam for opening the Prairies thread. Don't know how many of you have been in or thru' Brandon. We had a diasterous fire last Sunday and one of our favourite eating places was burnt to the ground - Lady of the Lake. It was one of 6 biz in an old implement dealership. Lady of the Lake started as a unique gift shop...some items on consignment from local artists, and many Manitoba products such as saskatoon jams, jelly, etc. Then they included a restaurant at the other end of the building. They served quiche, paninis, organic baking, great salads, sandwichs and homemade soups. My favourite lunch was the field greens with saskatoon vinegrette. My daughter always ordered the veg panini and hungarian soup. The place was always packed. On Friday nights they had open mike. According to the newspaper, this little gem was recognized as a "must stop" in tourist guide for Manitoba. The manage/cook was to come over next week for a Cantonese chow mein cooking lesson at my house. Guess she will have more time now.

That is confusing. I googled steelhead and salmon, and they appear to be 2 different fish. Wonder why it is called by 2 different names on the same package. Where are our fishing experts?!

I know he used to have a cooking show... and I just thought he went around town doing demos! Let me know if you find out where he is. (Do you think at some point we should start another non-Juno thread? ) ← Good idea! Maybe something about "prairies" just so it is not limited to Manitoba. I know there are a couple from Sask. and Alberta. Not that we want to leave Vancouver and British Columbia! You guys have all been most accepting, but then, most of you are prairie transplants!

Ok, now that you've listed the places, it was Omintsky's. I will look for Desserts Plus next time:-) I found Peter's column in the back issues, but none of them mentioned where he is chef. I may have to search further back. He is no longer in the magazine...

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.