[I won't eat... What are your food limits?]

Dates- I had a date square when I was a kid and the fibers sticking out made me think it was full of hair so to this day I will immediately spit out anything I discover that had dates in it. Eggshells in food are the next most disgusting but that's an accidental thing.

[Yeast: Types, Use, Storage, Conversions (instant<>active, US<>UK, etc.)]

If your recipe is actually based on 1 oz. of fresh then I would use about 1 Tablespoon of the instant (or 1 Tablespoon +2 teaspoons regular dry yeast).

Personally I would use even less (2 - 2 1/2 teaspoons instant) as most recipes are way to generous in their use of yeast just to speed up the process. Remember that your recipe will never fail if you have a lttle less yeast than is called for. It will just take a bit longer to rise and most likely have a better flavour.

A gram/oz. scale is a great thing to have in the kitchen as well.

[The Best Bit]

What my father has always referred to as"dippers": taking a piece of bread and dipping it into the frying pan after cooking steaks and leaving it until... (yes here comes the common thread) it's all brown and crusty and salty.

Even now this still beats deglazing and making a sauce (for pure comfort food and memories).

[Veal Shank Prices]

They used to be very reasonably priced just like sweetbreads and veal kidneys were years ago but yes, as they got more trendy so did the price. (Supply and demand.)

Milk fed veal the favorite of many, and most upper end restaurants, has always been pricey though.

[Whole Roast Pig Source?]

Thanks mot juste, I took kobykoby's advice and went to Nikuya Meats on E.Hastings where I found not only Korabuta but also a variety of pork that is raised on Rye.

Apparently the owner has a connection with the syndicate that ships all the Korabuta Pork to Japan. Unfortunately this limits the selection of cuts to specific boneless items like loin, part of the shoulder and belly.

As to be expected in a shop where Kobe Beef is a featured item the prices here are not to be taken lightly. The shoulder cuts were $4.00/100gr and the loin was $4.50! At this price I decided to go with a piece of loin as my preferred cut (the shoulder) would require too much to experiment with and not require a bank loan. So... a piece that was slightly over a 1lb. came to $23.00!!

Believe me I am currently not in the best financial postion but I'm always willing to try a new high quality heirloom product. The hope being that sufficient positive feedback will create a larger local market with more reasonable pricing.

So I took my little treasure home and made a spice rub with sea salt, coriander seed, fennel seed, fresh garlic and cracked black pepper, rubbed it all over and let it marinate for a day in the fridge (a la Zuni). I pan roasted it after browning on all sides in a 375 F. oven until it was just at the pink and juicy stage.

The verdict? It was very tasty, moist and flavourful, definitely better than the standard brand. The Mrs. thought it was the best pork she had ever tasted and as for me well it was damn good but the price needs to be a heck of a lot lower to get me try it more often, although I definitely will give the more reasonably priced grain raised pork a try in the near future.

(As an aside, has anyone here ever composed a nice little piece and in using the preview post mode lost the whole !!*#**!! thing when a correction was accidentally made in preview and not the original???)

[Absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions (Part 1)]

For roasted garlic, I like to pop the cloves out of the skin (especially when needing a quantity) and I take a sheet of alu foil, fold it in two to give it some thickness and place the cloves off to one side. Then I splash a bit of extra virgin olive oil on top, a bit of dry white wine (just enough to moisten the cloves) sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper and depending what I plan to use them for a sprig of fresh thyme or rosemary.)

I then fold the foil over the garlic and crimp the edges to seal it all in and place the package on a small ovenproof tray or frying pan and bake it at 375 F. for about 20 minutes after which time I flip it over, so that the garlic does not get too brown on one side, for another 10 minutes or so. Check to see what is going on and either pull the finished product out or pop it back in for a few more minutes.

This works best with fresh garlic that has not started to sprout. Remember that if it won't squish between your fingers it is still only half cooked,

[Whole Roast Pig Source?]

Wow, thanks, i'm on it !

[Whole Roast Pig Source?]

I wish I could tell you where to find this in B.C. but check out the article on Korobuta Pork (an old English breed called Berkshire transplanted to the States) in this week's latimes.com.

It's the lead article and man do I wish we had something like that here. How does "plump, juicy and terrifically rich sound"? Isn't there any one raising heirloom pork in our neck of the woods?

[Viking versus KitchenAid – For bread]

I've also had my eye on the new Viking (probably the same cookshop as you!) and would give it a try if I was in the market for a new mixer. I have a Kenwood Major which is in the same league as the Viking as far as power and capacity. (Probably not available in N. America any more).

As the others have stated it is too soon tell if the Viking has the durability for years of use but the style tells me it would probably be superior to the KA for kneading dough. I find the KA is not powerfull enough for most serious dough kneading and the style of the dough hook never quite gets the job done to my satisfaction.

The Viking has a power control that is like my Kenwood in that you can increase power gradually, unlike the KA which clicks into each power setting often causing flour to jump out of the bowl (who uses those bowl covers anyway!). It also has a nice spiral hook.

Shop around and see if you can find a store in town that has a good return policy (and hopefully better pricing) and give it a try at home.

Good luck and let us know what you decided.

[The Jam Topic]

Right now my favourites are the marmalades (homemade). Meyer lemon marm. for every day, and for brunch: classic Seville Orange with a few drops of my favourite scotch - Bowmore 17 year old -that was added before I processed the jars.