Daniel

Hey thank you everyone for your suggestions and experiences.. And thank you Cat for taking the time to share with us your medical knowledge.. And congratulations Cleo, Sue Flay, Jenny McClure,Lesfen. and Lia! I have written her a letter asking her if there were any smells the made her feel sick or if there were any strange cravings. Luckily, she has not been experiencing the difficulties that some have mentioned.. However, she has told me that Italian and carbs have been what she has really been enjoying recently... So using this we will try to create a menu.. Dinner is tomorrow night so we will be planning the menu today.. But a bread soup, fried risotto balls, and pasta will most likely be part of the menu.. I really think we are going to focus on the desserts.. Thanks again, I will let you all know how it turns out..

What about seasoned flaming arrows.. You can cook your catch right in the field..

Are you hinting at a West Coast visit??? I'll alert the troops. A. ← Wire to wire, coast to coast baby! Be on the look out.. Hey thanks Dave.. I appreciate you appreciation! Seriously, I am so happy that I was able to bring back memories for you.. Another favorite place of ours is Quebec City.. Especially in the winter.. Its like being in a Christmas Card. We might have to go there for New Years now..

Hey thanks Daddy-A, I really thought this trip was rather tame compared to our road trips?I wasnt prepared for the challenge.. I kind of regret not doing a smoked meat trifecta in one day..(Lester,Snowden,Shwartz) We might have to do that when we come back this summer on our X-Canada Road Trip..

Such great photos of food and of Italy... What a wonderul trip.. It seems like you guys really did it right.. I had no idea Tall Drink of Water was your husband.. Ahh its all coming together now.. A night too these cities take on a whole new feel.. This pictures really makes me want to jump on a plane..

Yah, I dont think you are going to find that recipe on the back of the package.. But I really feel that is what the beauty is behind the dish at APDC.. I think its trying to make foie gras less scary.. Trying to remove the stigma of the haughty taughty type thing.. Its not this foie gras with this reduction or some type of compote.. Its cheese fries and gravy with a little duck liver..

P.S I also wanted to add about Joe Beef how much I loved the music playing in the place.. I have every song playing on my rotation.. Any place where you can hear The Smiths into Greatful Dead into Biggie Smalls is my kind of place.. Just wanted to add that! Day Three: Sorry for the delay.. So we woke up at around 8 am and were ready to hit the town again.. After about a half hour conversation about how we should stay one more day and should we go to Joe Beef our APDC, reality kicked in and we were on our way to breakfast.. Thank you for suggesting this 24 hour Poutine-aria .. Besides having Poutine they do have a dineresque menu.. It was 9 am and we ordered from the lunch menu.. My girl had the coffee I had Orange Juice.. Classique: Winner winner chicken dinner style.. This was our favorite.. The ultimate in comfort food.. Oh baby.. We both loved this.. And in this dish it kind of worked that the fries are a little on the meaty soggy side.. I think on the classique where all you have is the fries, gravy and curds I want a crunchy fry.. But hey that could be me.. Oh we also got a BLT.. I almost forgot about that.. The mayo tasted strange for a Hellmans man like myself.. The bacon was not really present.. But I am a glutonous American and would prefer a fistfull of bacon on my sandwich.. Jean Tallon Market.. I am sorry about the lack of photos but, we were just carrying too much stuff.. Normally when we go to our Market in New York, we have a large cart.. This time we unpacked our suitcase and used it as a cart.. Well after one session at Prince Noir, the suitcase was done.. We got a ton of meat pictured above.. So far I have eaten some of the Venison and the baby rack of Lamb.. The meat has been excellent.. Here is the rack This is why you shouldnt play with plastic bags.. +Above+ This was actually gotten from a pork store where we bought a "few" items.. I actually was fortunate enough to meet the owners son.. It was randomly.. I asked for the price of this duck liver and he came around the counter and walked me through the entire meat case.. He was extremely educated on meat and spoke English very well.. From Duck Breast to Caribou the quality is excellent.. Is Prince Noir the best meat market in Jean Tallon? Next we stopped by the duck store.. I think I got the price wrong but he was telling me the price for foie gras was 115 a kilo.. Thats like New York Prices.. My girl talked me out of buying, which I am still upset about, this huge Bucket of Duck Fat.. I literally mean a bucket.. It was 45 Canadian and it must have weighed 10lbs.. I could have made a confit out of an entire pig head or something.. We took a break at this ice cream place recommended by our waitress from the night before.. I dont remember the name but it was amazing.. One thing that creeped me out however was that they recycled the spoons.. Obviously they washed them, but still.. We then stopped by Hamel Fromagerie as I had stated up thread..We are still eating the wonderful cheese from there.. The drive back we took our time after I got a ticket aorund Saratoga.. 88 in a 65.. Ouch! I swear I wasnt going any faster then 87.. I was set up.. Considering that was the slowest I had been going since we left Canada, I happily took it. We also stop at this Mexican Restaurant I would not recommend.. With the speeding ticket and then returning home to find our Fridge had stopped working, we were quickly brought back to earth.. Thank you guys for all your suggestions and for having such a wonderful City.. The city, the people, everyone is so gracious and kind.. Not everyone, there are jerks wherever you go But seriously, we love Canada, Montreal and Quebec especially and we are planning a drive across it this summer.. From Coast to Coast, but I will start asking questions the closer we come to that.. Thanks again, Daniel.

Peter, I am willing to bet there cheese department isnt too great either right? I totally agree with you and I really want to try the places mentioned above by posters now..

Day 2: I awoke after a night of crazy dreams..I dont know whether or not to attribute it to the food or the book.. I had a dream I was a duck being chased by a large Canadian.. Just kidding.. It was around 830 am and I was still full. I didnt know what we were going to do that day but, I could tell you how it was going to start.. With some smoked meat over at Snowden Deli.. I call the Deli and a man picks up the phone.. What time do you guys open? "Open, we have been here since 5:45 this morning!" We jumped in a taxi and were in the middle of nowhere in no time at all. The neighborhood seemed a little strange.. I couldnt decide if it was a bad neighborhood or not. There were definitely interesting spots; a homeless guy sitting at a Mc Donalds, there was an interesting Polish Grocery Store, a tough group of kids at a bus stop, a nice looking bagel shop called R.E.A.L Bagels with a wood burning oven.. But it was certainly not a touristy place.. This beats morning coffee on some days.. I must say, I have said it before on my last Montreal Trip.. I love this Cott's more then Dr. Browns for taste alone.. For sentimental reasons Dr. Browns wins everytime.. I almost feel guilty drinking it, what if Dr. Brown finds out.. It would crush him.. Here we ordered coleslaw and sour pickles since everything is a la carte.. Or for those who do not have the understanding of French that I possess it means "it aint free" The coleslaw was of the vinegary variety.. I am more of a creamy Deli Coleslaw guy.. Coming from a place where a deli sandwich can be split between you and a few friends, I was surprised to see a normal looking Pastrami Sandwich.. I dont think I have ever seen one.. I loved this sandwich.. Loved! It was just about perfect.. It has a subtle smoke and was melt in your mouth soft.. I dont know if I got a special one, but I couldnt imagine they would be able to recreate something so perfect consistantly.. The meat was broken down to a point where it was really being held together by memory.. I am not doing side by side comparisons, but if you have not tried this, its worth deciding for yourself.. Hand cut fries.. Nice to see its such a regular thing in Montreal. They have gravy, but no curds.. The gravy is a beef base.. Our next stop was R.E.A.L Bagels down the street.. None of my photos came out good.. But we had a hot sesame bagel. Not as sweet as Viature Bagels I have had.. But they good.. More sesames then you would find on 4 New York Bagels.. It was extremely coated.. We then walked around and did some touristy things.. We had cartoons of ourselves drawn, had my name written in Chinese on a piece of rice, Stamped a couple of pennies, we put on Fanny Packs and walked around looking straight up in the sky, and I found a cut out of some moose and we put our heads through and took photos.. Not really but, along those lines.. After a couple of hours it was 1 ish.. We hit up a bar we had gone to last time we were in the city.. Its called Dundees and its a lot of fun.. For us anyway.. We really like the bartender Tim.. He is a fun Irishmen who likes to drink.. He hooks up the drinks and makes involved shots.. That include fire, melting lemons, cinammon, and some ducking.. We had a few to several Bloody Cesars which he makes very well.. We then went back to the room ate a bunch of chocolate at the gift shop and passed out.. That day we called Joe Beef and asked for a reservation.. They said they were completely booked.. My girl pleaded our case and they told us no problem please come in at 930.. Awesome! They were extremely friendly and funny on the phone.. When asking what the attire was, we were told tonight is Nudist Night.. You can wear whatever you want, just dont wear yellow cowboy boots.. I was kind of pissed because the cowboy boots tied my whole outfit together, but I obliged him.. I had seen this review online that completely confused me.. It was saying that Joe Beef was some sort of play, or stage and you were the audience.. And all this other wierd symbolic crap.. Its very simple, Joe Beef is awesome.. I was outside smoking one of my only cigarettes of the trip when the Owner asked me how I was enjoying my meal.. I thought about it and said well the food is great, the staff is extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and the space is cozy.. I mean thats the place in a nutshell.. The food is honest, of the highest quality, and really cared for.. The wine list which has nothing below the 50 dollar range but, the wine we had was excellent.. The owner and chefs passions are really conveyed well to the staff who know they are apart of something great.. You can tell everyone is really excited to come to work everyday.. We started with two appetizers.. I dont know the name of what I ordered.. But it was basically a poached egg in a lobster bisque with huge pieces of lobster in it.. Served in this cute little mason jar with buttered toast sticks.. Very fun, lots of lobster.. This also came in a less expensive mushroom version. DIP: My girl went with the foie gras with a muscat gelee.. This was a beautiful piece of foie.. Nicely shaped and creamy.. I order a double pork chop.. It was served wrapped in smoked bacon.. There were pieces of pork belly,potatoes,some greens all over the plate, it was served a beautiful medium rare all the way though in a (forgot the alcohol for now but it was brown)cream sauce with a currant jelly on top.. This thing was just awesome.. Really, a gorgeous cut of meat, a pretty cut doesnt exist.. I love how they planted the knife in the middle of the chop... Here, eat! My girl ordered the mashed potatoes with lobster.. Lobster on the bottom.. Taters on top.. I only had a little taste but she loved it.. There was a really nice amount of lobster.. It lasted the whole dish and you can see these huge holes being created in the taters as she pulled up these fork size pieces.. The dessert chef was coming to New York so she came out to ask us some places to go.. She was as friendly and energetic as everyone else who was working there.. She or someone sent us out two desserts.. Our favorite being this guy below.. It was a Rum Creme Brule.. It was really interesting.. Vanilla and Rum is obviously a great combo.. Why havent I had it before.. I wanted to ask her how she got the rum flavor without any of the alcohol kick.. Did they cook off the alcohol first or was it a rum flavoring, it couldnt have been a flavoring.. Either way, it was fantastic.. Second dessert was apple ice cream, with baked apples on a tarte.. It was good.. It was not as good as the Rum Dessert however.. Joe Beef, big fan.. Really, I wish it were closer.. The night ended with a taxi ride from the strangest guy in Montreal.. Wearing a huge Fur Coat with greasy permed hair and way too much cologne.. He proceeded to bump Justin Timberlake the whole ride back to the hotel..I was so happy to take a deep breath of the crisp Montreal night air after that ride..

Both dishes I recreated tasted exactly the same... In the two examples I made, it was not dumbed down.. And for the most parts the recipes are very straight forward and simple.. Just getting the various animal parts or wanting to use a quarter pound of foie gras on something is the hard part.. Every item that was on the menu with the exception of the foie gras grilled cheese, was in the cookbook.. The book is a must have.. I think him and Fergus from St. John should sit down and have a beer and some pickled Venison Tongue..

Day 1: So while our computers are down over here I can sneak in our weekend trip.. It really was a wonderful time and it seems like it was a lot longer then just a few days ago.. We left New York around 4 pm on Friday and headed to Montreal.. It took us right about 5 hours.. Fortunately, on the drive there was very little to no traffic heading up.. No tickets going up! We arrived at our Hotel, the Sheraton that we purchased on Priceline.com for 60 bucks.. After a quick unpack and a quick drink from the minibar, we were in a taxi heading towards APDC.. Au Pied De Cochon.. We arrived at 10 to a packed restaurant. With a reservation, there was only one table available in the restaurant.. I really having not heard anything about this place besides the Foie Gras Poutine rumor I heard two years ago.. So thank you for your suggestions..This place is really great.. You can tell the chef has a love and respect for animals and food.. The menu is very bold, there is no beef on the menu.. Lots of things people would consider strange or scary.. But you can tell the chef is cooking from his heart, not taking into consideration who would be turned off by his meals.. If you cook it, they will come type mentality.. We ordered the little liquefied foie gras things to start while we looked at the menu..(We later found out the waiter forgot to place the order with the kitchen) So many decisions, the pickled venison tongue, the foie gras burger, the foie gras grilled cheese, venison carpaccio or tare tare, we couldnt make up our mind.. It literally took 15 minutes and much deliberation to finally decide.. We started with the Foie Gras Poutine and the APDC Salad.. Hand cut french fries, with cheese curd, a Poutine Sauce with Foie Gras, Eggs, and Cream blended in.. And then topped with this huge chunk of Foie.. I am thinking it weighed somewhere around 3 ounces.. It was the type of thing where we split this dish and we found it difficult to finish the Foie.. And the sauce was just so rich..Mind you I made this dish the Tuesday I got home this week.. The salad was bitter greens with the foot of the pig (meat and cartiledge)mixed with mustard and breaded and fried.. This was something very similiar to a salad I had in France.. I wonder if it was wrapped in Suet.. I have the cookbook so will double check.. But when you cracked opened this hot fried square, the meat and collagen had liquefied and spilled out.. It was delicious.. There were walnuts as well.. However, if I have one criticism, however small, its real.. They put these really sickly looking tomatoes on the plate.. Granted, good luck finding a tomato this time of year, but then dont use them.. I have seen ok looking cherry tomatoes, or find something else.. I didnt eat them.. This is the liquid coming out.. For our main we split the Cassoulet.. Again, there were so many choices, the Duck in the Can, Foie Gras stuffed pigs foot, really, anything from the menu sounded awesome.. Our waiter suggested the Cassoulet, a special that is normally not on the menu.. Mind you, at this point, I was so Foie'd to my Face, I was ready to go to bed.. It was delicious.. Sweeter then I am use to.. I am willing to bet he used maple syrup in the dish.. Making this a truly Canadian dish.. It was really good.. The duck was leg sticking up was perfect.. There was all sorts of really tasty sausage.. The sweetness through me off for a little, but I adjusted quickly.. At this point, we got a new waiter.. The guy who forgot our pre-app left with out saying good bye or just letting us know.. We got a really cool waiter.. In fact, at this point we had ordered coffee and some shots of Jameson.. He brought over a Shaker with three shot glass and decided to take a few shots of this drink he made.. It was really good.. We then went to coffee, whiskey and This was that maple syrup pudding.. Fantastic.. I made this the Tuesday I got home also.. Bite: The place was really great.. I love his food, I love his vision, I love his boldness.. But besides being daring or different, the food is really good.. We sat and had a few more drinks after dinner.. And on our way out we purchased his cookbook.. Which by the way is the most entertaining cook book I have ever seen...It was surreal to think, we woke up in New York this morning, worked almost a full day and here we are in another country with people speaking French all around us by dinner... So cool.. It was now about 130 am.. We went back to the hotel and hung at the bar for a little and read the cookbook we just purchased.

Having problems with this Rick Bayless Book.. All the recipes look good, I just am really not familiar with Mexican Cooking.. Has anyone made anything from this book, Mexico One Plate At a Time.. I just purchased a whole bunch of dried peppers this morning and have some frozen habaneros.. Most of the meat dishes take 24 hours to marinate so I am shooting for a big Mexican dinner this Friday or Saturday..

D.G I would love to see or hear about Peppero day this year.. Sounds like fun..

Haha.. I am not fluent yet.. Thank you..

Yeh, the gizzards and innards.. Again, it sounds fantastic..

Sounds really pretty.. Can you do anything with the insides or does that go into the jus..

A friend of mine told me that Picholine just received a great write up today in The Times.. Unfortunately, my Russian is terrible, so I am unable to read the review.. But has it always had three starts or were they bumped up from two?

Hey thanks Pan.. Yeh, she is a good friend that I have known forever.. I would love to be able to do something nice for her like this.. I feel honored to be able to cook a meal for her and her baby.. I am sure carrying a child has its moments of being very uncomfortable, so if I can do anything to make her feel better, I will..

Thanks everyone for the advice.. I am going to ask her.. Thats the best thing.. Besides cooking for her, I know I want to send her home with a couple of pints of ice cream and things..So its better to know then go through the process to have her not enjoy it.. Thanks again.

Haha.. So my spelling is off.. But I think I got the right idea.. This was from last nights dinner.. Using the cookbook I made the Foie Gras Poutine.. Oh boy, I had to inject my gout medication directly into my heart after this one.. To make the Poutine Sauce I used a mix I bought at the store up in Montreal.. I confess.. To this sauce I added, foie gras, eggs, and cream.. It was still really delicious..

We are making Sunday dinner for a group of people.. One being pregnant, what type of foods should we stay away from serving.. No raw meats or fish? No Shellfish (really) like shrimp or lobster. How about Sea Urchin?.. Unpastuerized cheeses? Anything else that we should include? How about runny eggs or poached eggs? Is organ meats ok? I was thinking like a chicken liver pasta she might like? Any ladies out there care to help me? I was also thinking of doing a bunch of desserts.. Perhaps three different milkshake shots.. Like homemade strawberry shake, a butter pecan flavor, and still brain storming for something like pickles an ice cream.. Maybe do deep fried pickle chips and ice cream.. Or pickled flavored ice cream.. Can anyone think of a cute way to get the pickles and ice cream theme in?

I just got my shipment from tienda thanks to the fine people on this board. I bought a couple pound bag of there paella rice a few types of paprika, pickled garlic, almonds, and a really pretty looking olive oil.. I am highly considering purchasing a leg and a holder for Xmas Even Dinner. Has anyone had an experience with buying whole legs from them...

Abra, That roast look beautiful and really well done.. You said you remember why you stopped using this book? Was it because of all the finite details that could easily be done another way? Because the end results by your description and images looks fabulous.. What made you stop using the book?

I purchased the book in English this last Friday.. I made two things from the book.. Before I talk about the recipe, I want to say how cool the book is.. If there were no recipes at all, the book is extremely entertaining.. Its like a comic and artistic photography.. The spirit of the chef, his complete respect and vision of food and life is relayed well through this book .. We were just at the restaurant Friday and every item on the menu is in this book.. I love that he is totally comfortable sharing his recipes with us.. The first item was the Foie Gras Poutine: I didnt use as much foie gras as the recipe called for but it was a side dish.. The foie gras sauce was just unbelievable and inspires me to re-evaluate how to use foie gras.. By added it to cheese fries and gravy I think it makes foie gras more accessible and less stuffy.. I served it with lamb.. And for dessert we made the Pouding Chomeur We added a wedge of french toast.. But this was as good as we had it in the restaurant on Friday..

Completely stereotypical.. This is not all hostesses.. I was describing someone who doesnt have enough common sense to sit someone properly..