jayt90

Steve, I have seen a lot of information about grass fed beef here, and in the New York Times and Gobe &Mail. But it is never in my supermarket, and I am 40km from a Whole Foods store. Some respondents here say that grass fed may taste weird, or be tough. On Saturday, I had to take a PDA (Blackberry) into Toronto for a repair. A perfect opportunity to find grass fed, pedigreed Angus beef. I went to Cumbrae, a butcher shop with a reputation for selling pedigreed farm raised, grass fed beef, pork, and lamb, from surrounding sources. I headed to the beef counter, and asked for a shoulder steak. The counterperson showed me sirloin, strip loin, tenderloin, and rib eye, most at $20/lb., but I kept asking for shoulder steak. A butcher came out, and agreed to sell it to me for $6/lb, and I asked for one 2" thick. A few minutes later the proprietor, Steven, brought the steak out, wrapped it, and said it would be superb, grilled. It cost $9.50 and would feed two. I grilled it over charcoal in a Weber, and it was superb. Tender, juicy, and lots of real beef flavour. I did not detect any toughness, or weird taste. I did not ask for the elusive Flat Iron steak, but next time I will. What I got was cut from close to the rib end, and had the usual separations of a shoulder (read simmering) steak, but boneless. I wouldn't hesitate to ask for it again, and serve to people who might appreciate it.

You don't need a 'set of waterstones' for two fine knives.One two-sided stone (1000-4000x) from Lee Valley will work well for you. They have a large selection of Arkansas and Japanese stones available. I don't remember if they are in the Montreal area but they are in Ottawa, and on line.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Lobel's have built up a great reputation and it might take years to deteriorate, like Harvard.

I did not see the recent repeat of this ICA episode, but I did see the original broadcast a couple of months ago. Although we don't have access to to the judges' individual voting records, the comments of Jeffery Steingarten were rude, ignorant, and indicated a bias against Susar Lee. This came out in Lee's comments to the press and the CBC-1 morning show after the broadcast, but it was plain to see on the show. I wonder if Flay made any comments about the tie?

I wasn't aware of that issue, but brown bottles should provide more protection than green. I wonder what lighting the Beer Store uses in the back. You are right to say the LCBO doesn't care. Somewhere around 1990 they stopped stocking wine in horizontal bins, corks or no corks. Fortunately a few wines now come with Stelvin or even a glass stopper, so vertical is OK.

Thanks for coffee tip, Worldly, I"ll check out the roast your own place next week. Not wanting to stir up the bagel war again, but is St. Urbain part of the Montreal shop? Or maybe it is connected to a bakery in Vaughan selling flat bagel crisps called St. Urbain in some stores.

Hudson's Bay had them a couple of years ago. They are called La Campagne, but I don't know if they still have them. I stopped visiting the Bay after I found their higher grade store called Outfitters, which I still visit regularly.

I have the two piece Staub from Costco, last year, but it is still in the box! I began to use a low price Chinese knock off (La Campagne from the Bay) after I ruined a Creuset casserole left too long over hot coals (haven't had the nerve to return it yet). The low priced enamel cast iron has been great, and stands up to my usual abuse. The only thing it does not have is the recessed lid of the Staub, but I had to pay a lot to get that.

Years ago Nortown short-weighed some sole I bought there. They were always very busy, and the scale was set too high. I re-weighed at home, and called the city, and they got back to me saying I was right and they would ticket the owner. I never went back there.

A perfectly executed brown sauce (as in Escoffier's Espagnole) took me awhile to master, as an amateur, but once accomplished, I could do any of the basic sauces. Except Mayonnaise. Sometimes it works perfectly, other times I struggle with it, as there is little consistency with the eggs, temperature, and oils in my kitchen. So regrettably I always keep Hellman's on hand. Nicely grilled fish, or, especially, truite au bleu, always impresses me in a restaurant. It has to be as good as the fresh fish shown to me swimming in a bucket, under a thatch canopy by the Pacific in Oaxaca, with a pig and chickens underfeet, that came back perfectly fried in lard by the peasant cook/owner. They didn't have much to work with, but did it well.

Speaking of ratings, I've noticed that the Star, and also NOW magazine are featuring three wines, weekly, two of them in the under $15 range, and one over (still not expensive, usually under $20.) Both publications tend to group everything in the middle-upper range of their ratings. 87-90 is typical for Stimmel, and NNNN out of 5 is common for NOW. Like most other published ratings,Natalie included, they are afraid of revealing the real clunkers, and I suspect many wines are uplifted somewhat beyond their worth.

Who Vic Harradine? Never heard of him. A link to a review to all of Olivier's 04s from CT (for those like myself who frequent this site): http://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=1416 It is funny, however, to see Vic Harradine reference Parker gushing over every release? since I do not recall the last time Parker did a full review of Olivier's wines and to my knowledge Alsace is now Pierre Rovani's territory and Rovani's last write up was of the 2001 vintage (yet to see anything for 2002-04 and it was not in my most recent issue of WA). I think I will pass on Vic Harradine's reviews (but thanks for noting them) and hope others will pass on the ZH as a result so I can get more of the only 75 cases that came in. ← I've given up on Harradine. The newsletter ratings tend to be on the high side though not in this case. I've never been burned by a Parker rating, even when hyped by the Vintages blurb. After all these years he is still a consumer advocate first and foremost. That ZH is a bit pricey, but I may try it, if it comes to local store.

Grass fed is hard to get in my area, but there is a small, and growing trend to farm raised beef with a history, from small butcher shops. As I recall, there is essentially no incidence of Mad Cow disease in Brazil, Argentina, or Uruguay, where the beef cattle are raised and finished on grass.

If I was making bisquits I would try using lard, as long as the package said non-hydrogenated (some are, a few are not). Unless your cholesterol levels are too high... The snack food companies quickly discovered a loop-hole allowing them to say 0% trans fats when there is a small amount of hydrogenated fat in the mix. Maybe a nutrition expert can explain this. Oddly, a small percentage of trans fat appears in the labels for butter, ground beef patties, cheese, and other products from ruminants, as up to .4% occurs naturally. This is why the only country banning trans fats (Denmark) allows a minmal amount, up to .4%. There have been recent reports on the excessive levels of trans fats in fast food restaurants. Usually 5-15% in fried foods, though some like MacDonald's, have lowered the amount by changing over to non hydrogenated oil. It would be nice to have a disclosure available to consumers when they stand in line for these products. KFC (Canada) responded to the negative media reports on their trans fat levels by saying they were working on the problem, but they did not want to compromise taste. Maybe there are bean counters at work on the problem...

No, you have to look at both, particularly if you're trying to avoid sodium as well as hydrogenated corn syrup & whatnot. ← I look at both but pay more attention to the nutrition labels, as they are newly expanded whereas the ingredient list usually has the same old bugaboos. There are big nutrition differences between brands, and I buy the items that give me more. Pilaros (from Spain) canned tomatoes, e.g., is way ahead of Heinz in calcium and vit. C. If I look at prepared tomato sauces, there is not much nutrition left after all the high temp mixing and processing. Bottled roast peppers offer nothing, but I may keep one jar on hand. Bottled lemon juice is a complete sham, taste wise and on the nutrition label. High priced eggs have a slight advantage in Omega type fats, but otherwise are the same as the factory chicken eggs. Reading and comparing labels has become a fun project while shopping, and my last checkup showed a steady improvement.

Good point. I am about clean my grinder with barley that is a year old.

Tom is writing from UK Ireland. There are large frozen shrimps in Costco, if there is one nearby.

I can suggest what not to do for chicken. My usually reliable pre-cooked chicken from Costco changed from dry rub rotisserie to oven baked after spraying with Sprite. And they put the price up! My inside source there says sales are way off...

I can't speak for Texas, Kent, but most Atlantic salmon I see comes from Pacific northeast farms. The striated fat layers make a very attractive steak presentation when raw, and the bone structure allows for easy flipping. Snce most ends up on the BBQ, the marketers have a good plan.

What kind of wood are you using? ← I buy the charcoal ready. The suppliers use pinewood most of the time. ← There is is a turpentine content to pinewood. Check your suppliers.

I did not mention the "Canadian technique" but now that it is on the table, it is 10 minutes per inch, with any heat source, such as poaching, broiling, roasting, or pan frying. It was devised before microwaving or sous vide became popular, but can be adapted.

Another repeat last night, but instructive. Mario Batali faced Chef Desfraines (I have have probably mangled the name), using live tilapia. Mario won, not by a large margin, but mostly on taste. The challenger used several high-tech techniques, such as a controlled-temperature water circulator, a hand-held extruder, sous vide, a chemical glue to attach two types of seafood, and xanthan gum, to thicken a watery green sauce. Mario depended on good cooking and well flavoured finishing. Makes me wonder if the the new techniques are really worthwhile, or a flash in the pan.

How can he cook over charcoal for 45 min. without drying it? How far from the coals?

There is something similar in North American ponds. Whirlygigs. Should I catch a few? What would I do with them?

The wok is one of the few pieces I don't have....Because it would be so heavy I imagine it would be hard to 'stir' ingredients by tossing the pan. btw, there are some good deals on amazon right now. 61.80 for 3 1/2 quart saucepan white saucier pan 63.60 ← I have found cast iron woks in Chinatown, usually in the big all-purpose stores, for $15-$20. I didn't buy, but I don't think they were too heavy for tossing. The LC would be heavier with the enamel coating.