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Gul_Dekar

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Posts posted by Gul_Dekar

  1. We actually did inform our landlord about the mouse problem and they did get exterminators to check it out. Unfortunately, all the exterminator really did was place a few more glue traps and a poison trap thing. Something we could have probably done ourselves. We also tried to seal off all the holes that we could find (there are quite a few where piping goes through).

    I suppose I've always tried to respect whatever animal my meat or seafood comes from by trying my best to cook it well, and also dispatching it as quickly and best I can (for the ones I've had experience with so far). it's just that after something like this, I just wonder if that really is enough...

    All I can say is, hats off to all the butchers/people who actually have to kill animals for us to eat so we don't have to do it ourselves on a regular basis. I'll also try my best to learn about and respect the food I eat as best as I can.

  2. My building has been having a bit of a mouse problem lately and as a result, I've caught two mice using sticky traps. There was no way to remove the mice and release them outside without seriously injuring them (I tried on one, it was not pretty), so I had to consciously kill them. The first one I managed to take it out swiftly using the snap trap over its neck. The 2nd one (which a friend asked me not to kill, so I tried to pull it off the sticky trap, which inadvertantly caused even greater suffering) was bit harder, as the snap trap went over its leg instead of its body/neck thus merely adding to its injury and not ending its life immediately. I finally had to bludgeon it with a wine bottle. As you probably can guess, I didn't feel too good doing it, but it was necessary as my housemate has really been freaking out because of this mouse problem.

    The whole ordeal sorta got me thinkin' about my meat. Don't get me wrong, I still plan to eat meat but I just sorta thought I should at least either witness a slaugthering of an animal or kill one myself at some point (maybe a chicken or rabbit). So far I've only had to kill lobsters, crab or fish. All of which I've been perfectly alright with. But somehow having to kill something that's pretty intelligent (they've been pretty elusive) and was downright cute in appearance bothered me quite abit (mouse, not a rat). So am I taking my guilty conscience too far, or does anyone else think as a meat eater, one should witness how a live animal turns into prime rib or rack of lamb? Perhaps someone here has had animal slaughtery experience that they can share?

    PS: come to think of it, I do remember the passage in Soul of A Chef about how Thomas Keller had to kill rabbits. I guess I didnt really appreciate how hard it actually is to kill something like that until one has to do it themselves.

  3. I was just wondering if anyone knows if there are any books about Japanese breads and/or pastries (melonpan, ampan, deep fried doughnut curry sausage etc.) that are available in English? Have been watching an anime called "Yakitate! Ja-Pan" and its sorta got me wondering about Japanese breads... :biggrin:

  4. I saw some zucchini flowers at Chinatown and bought some to stuff with. However, it also came with a lot of zucchini leaves, so I was wondering if people eat the leaves too? And if so, how do you cook 'em?

  5. I'm also a singleton living on a budget, so I'll just put in my 2 cents. I totally agree with getting groceries at ethnic markets. The Chinese grocers I go to usually have a lot of fish that's not very popular in the mainstream, which means they're cheap and you have the luxury of variety. They usually have more cuts of pork available too.

    I also tend to buy whole poultry and portion it up into quarters, which gives me the option of cooking it differently if I want to (as opposed to roasting a whole chicken, not that there's anything wrong with a roast chicken). Even duck is pretty affordable if you buy whole at Asian grocers, and you can make a fancy meal out of the duck breasts and legs for confit. Stock from the carcass can be used for soup, which is a way I use to get rid of vegetables that may be a bit past their prime.

    Again I agree with the herb garden thing, but if I sometimes have to buy herbs I can't grow (since I'm not too great with gardening), I try not to waste them by using them to make flavoured oils or pestos.

  6. I managed to save enough duck fat from two ducks to make my first duck confits a few weeks ago. After finishing up the duck legs, i was wondering if it's still okay to reuse the fat after I strained out all unwanted bits for next time? Are there microbial concerns or would the fat break down and taste a bit off? Just curious...

  7. There are many Buddhist-influenced vegetarian Chinese restaurants that use faux meats. While they range widely in quality, I used to greatly enjoy one in Atlanta.  In some cases I find the faux meats tastier than the real thing, and the textures can be excellent. You could possibly look at these dishes as authentic rather than faux copies, because I believe they stem from a culinary tradition in Asia.

    In Malaysia, my favourite 'faux meat' dishes were lamb curry (the lamb is made from shitake mushroom stalks), stir-fried kidneys (not sure what they're made of, but i think it's gluten), crispy roasted duck/goose (made of yuba) and shrimp fritters (which were just kinda like crispy yuba spring rolls in the shape of a shrimp). While these dishes may have been trying to simulate meat, my family went to eat at vegetarian Chinese restaurants not so much because we craved an alternative to meat, but rather it was just that the dishes tasted so darned good!

    I think 'faux meat' is ok as long as one doesn't try too hard to synthetically transform something vegetarian to look like something that's not, which I think Asian vegetarian cuisine does a lot less of.

  8. Bill's Lobsters in old Chinatown at Broadview & Gerrard is pretty good. Good prices too. They sell these monster-sized lobsters (biggest one at the shop was 11lbs) and other lobsters of different sizes, dungeness crabs, french turbot, shrimp, geoducks, oysters and clams. All live. Also one of the only chinese fish sellers I know that sell wild salmon, 'dry' scallops and sushi grade tuna.

  9. I am a very big towel nut: one on the shoulder, a few strewn around the kitchen for easy access, one under the cutting board, a couple to dry vegetables.... I have a towel drawer and an implicit towel ranking system (ITRS, we call it around the house):

    clean dishes (white cotton only)

    quality towel (the workhorse William Sonoma kitchen towels only here)

    mediocre quality (under the cutting board, cleaning up crap on the floor)

    decorative

    And you had better know the ITRS if you're cooking or cleaning in my kitchen, bucko.

    I have a similar system but it's just really color-coding:

    White = clean dishes

    Green = wiping dirty surfaces

    Blue = cleaning chopping board/knife when in use

    Yellow & red = back up towels when I run out of the rest

    bigger, thicker dark colored ones = food preparation like drying salad greens or deskinning nuts

    Also carry a face towel these days since the weather's been so freakin' hot and my kitchen doesnt have a window or good ventilation :sad: .

  10. Hmm...I have a magnetic strip and it was pretty easy to install. Mine came with the screws and everything so just needed to drill a couple of holes and screw it in. It's 13 inches and holds about 8 of my knives (various sizes).

  11. Restoran Malaysia on Major Mackenzie in Richmond Hill has good Malysian food according to friends who've been there before. Havent been there myself because I live downtown and its kinda out of the way without a car. My friends are Malaysian (and so am I), so I trust it should be alright. There's another place around Pacific Mall but it was just so-so. Forgot the name of the place though.

    The only place I know in downtown that serves Malaysian food is Mata Hari. It's a bit on the pricey side, but the food is ok. Located near the McCaul & Baldwin intersection.

  12. Here's the recipe for rendang from the Malaysian Cookbook 1:

    1 1/2 lbs of beef (cut into large pieces)

    *1 1/2 coconut (grated)

    *water

    4 Tbs Oil

    Salt to taste

    juice of 1 lime

    Pounded Ingredients:

    10 dried chilies

    10 black peppercorns

    1/2 thumbsized piece ginger

    1/2 thumbsized piece of turmeric

    5 cloves garlic

    10 asian shallots

    4 stalks lemongrass

    4 candlenuts (I sub candlenuts with macadamia becuz I cant find it in Toronto)

    *1. Squeeze 1 cup of thick coconut milk. Add enough water to squeeze 4 more cups of thin coconut milk. (They ask you to make your own thick and thin coconut milk in the recipe. I guess coconut cream and milk would do? Not very good with this kinda measurement conversions.)

    2. Heat oil in wok over slow heat until slightly smoking. Put in pounded ingredients and fry until fragrant.

    3. Add the meat, season with salt and fry for another 2 to 3 minutes.

    4. Add thin coconut milk a little at a time and wai for the liquid to be absorbed before adding more. Cook until the meat becomes tender.

    5. Put in the thick coconut milk. Simmer until curry is quite dry. Stir constantly and do not allow to boil after the addition of thick coconut milk.

    6. Add lime juice and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.

    7. Plate and serve.

  13. Here's a soto ayam recipe from "The Malaysian Cookbook 2" that my mom sent me:

    Main ingredients:

    1/2 a chicken cut into 4 pieces

    1 onion, sliced

    1 stalk of lemongrass (crushed)

    1 inch piece galangal (crushed)

    3 dried salam leaves (indonesian bay leaf..I guess reg bay leaf should do too?)

    1/4 tsp MSG

    4 bowls of water (not a precise measurement....but hope you can figure it out. The book's from the 70s! :D)

    5 Tbs cooking oil

    salt to taste

    Pounded ingredients:

    8 shallots (the small asian variety)

    4 cloves garlic

    3/4-inch piece turmeric

    3/4 tsp pepper

    3/4 tsp cumin seeds

    3/4 tsp fennel seeds

    3/4Tbs coriander seeds

    Other Ingredients:

    1 1/3 lb rice made into lontong (I found a recipe for lontong here)

    1/2 lb beansprouts (tails removed and parboiled)

    3 stalks of spring onions (shredded)

    3 stalks celery (shredded)

    3 oz fried shallots (books sez: finely sliced and fried till golden brown, for garnish I think)

    4 meat or prawn cutlets (optional)

    Sambal: Small chilies (the small Thai ones) pounded coarsely and mixed with black soy sauce, vinegar and sugar to taste.

    Instructions:

    1. Heat oil in a big pot. When hot enough, fry onions untill golden brown.

    2. Add pounded ingredients and fry untill fragrant.

    3. Add water, lemongrass, galangal and salam leaves.

    4. Cook until it comes to a boil. Put in chicken, salt and MSG. Simmer over medium heat until chicken is tender.

    5. Remove chicken pieces , shred and set aside. Bring soup to a boil again then remove from heat.

    6. To serve, use medium-sized bowls. Put in a few pieces of the lontong, beansprouts, chicken meat or a piece of cutlet to each bowl.

    7. Pour enough soup to cover the ingredients. Garnish with celery, spring onions and fried onions.

    8. Serve hot with sambal to taste.

    That's it.

  14. But now we're down on the lake, and I've no clue where to go!  I stay at the Westin Harbour Castle. I'm usually on a tight schedule, but I'll MAKE time to get to the LCBO! If anyone has any suggestions on which LCBO to hit, and what wines to pick up, I'd REALLY appreciate it. I usually try to pick up 6 - 8 bottles (having to carry them during travel is a PAIN!) across a variety of price ranges and styles, and I'm really looking to expand my collection.

    Westin Harbour Castle is actually near one of the bigger LCBOs.

    The hotel is here and the Queens Quay branch is here.

  15. I actually prefer washing the little bowls more than big plates or vessels. One, because my sink is pretty small and two, if you buy the same make of bowls you can clean em' out first and stack 'em b4 washing thus saving yet more space. And I personally think the high volume to surface area of little bowls make them easier to wash too...but that's an unproven theory.

    Try to mis most of the time, but sometimes when you get back late and hungry, it's not as practical. Especially since I only cook for myself.

  16. I tried making them yesterday using the recipe linked from the original cook off thread. This one. They turned out ok-looking but I think maybe there could be a mistake in the recipe because it only called for two TEASPOONS of sugar. :wacko: Guess should've noticed that earlier because the filling was totally bland & tasteless! They also had the consistency of normal custard and not the 'firm and springy' kind I like for dan tarts. Maybe I will try the recipe that Tepee provided sometime later (they look sweet!), since I sorta OD-ed on eggs and cream this week (on this and other stuff). Either that or I'll just walk down the street and buy a few from the Chinese pastry shop which is practically next door to where I live! They have good egg tarts too... :raz:

  17. Hi everyone! Saw this cook-off thread and wanted to join.

    Just steamed my 1st batch of siu mai. Here is the pic taken using my webcam:

    siumai.jpg

    They don't look very nice (the ones in the pic are the best looking ones already), mostly because I suck at folding stuff like this!!! :raz: Whenever I make wontons or dumplings, they look like they've been mutilated. :hmmm:

    On the positive side though, they taste alright. Made them with 50/50 ground pork and shrimp following what was said upthread and followed a recipe from Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking (his was using ground chicken, but I preferred the traditional filling). Happens to be the only Chinese cookery book I own.

    This was fun! Gonna try the dan tart later.

    Edited to add that I used readymade wonton wrappers for it.

  18. Not mentioned by who? People who don't know about Les Meres, which doesn't represent  French chefs of Lyon. Where's the bias? You have to know about her in order to speak about her. She's well known in France, not in the English speaking world where such discussions seem to be more common. Maybe she should hire a publicist. There is nothing inherently more exclusionary in commercial kitchens than there is in society at large at any given time in history. Some of the opinions expressed upthread seem to be looking at the commercial kitchen in a vacuum.

    I suppose I was making the reference within a more popular context in mind. Specifically among people in the general public or at least those who have take an interest in the restaurant industry and its culture and history, who know about certain chefs because their histories were better documented (due to the fact that there were people who took enough of an interest to do so). I do admit I would probably be out of depth if you were referring to France. And yes, there certainly are a lot of other things that you could say happen outside the commercial kitchens as well. However, the topic of the discussion was about women in the restaurant kitchen which is why references were made within this context. Lastly, in reference to the last sentence of the quote, there's no reason to make this personal. I respect your opinion as it is, and will make an attempt to do better research next time.

    There are lots of female writers (or men like me who care about food and food history without concern for gender or color or creed)  who can do some research before writing. Write about Les Meres and Chef Brazier, rather than focusing on what is not there. Okay, write about what is not there, but do more in depth research and write about what was there. Maybe you might get some ideas into the "chauvinistic" males and encourage more females to enter the profession.

    I suppose it's one's choice whether or not to be concerned about gender, colour or creed in particular issues, but that doesnt mean these things never had an effect on the history of what one writes about. At least in Anthropology, I've been taught to acknowledged the existence of these issues but not so much that it's the only thing I'll keep looking at even if culture and society has moved on. Because it has! Biases exist in society, I personally think it's good to know about it in order to try to avoid it.

    For the record, I'm a guy too. I certainly am not 'male-bashing' if that's what you meant. I did my term paper about the culture of the chef and how the profession has been viewed by society throughout history for an Anthropology course about popular culture. I chose to write about chefs in popular culture because I really am interested by the culture, and it has had an effect on popular culture in the West. I admit, maybe the research I have done might not have been thorough enough, but that doesn't mean I didn't do any research at all or for the matter, not taken it seriously. Besides, if I made my points on the forum with every single minute detail and reference, my post would be just as long as this one!

  19. Good comments all. Gul, I especially agree with the masculine environment of most kitchens as a key barrier to keeping women out.

    Just to give some historical context to "masculine environment" in kitchens it has it's roots in Escoffier's kitchen hierachy/battalion that's based on his experience as an army cook. Some of you are writing about the topic, so it's a good idea to know a little more about the topic.

    Actually I did read Escoffier's memoirs and his biography while doing research for my term paper. However, I think the prejudice against women being in kitchens outside the domestic household goes further back to around the period of the French Revolution. At least according to sociologist Stephen Mannell, who described that only the less well-to-do members of the bourgeoisie at the time would settle for a woman cook to take charge of their kitchens.

    While about Les Meres Chefs of Lyon, I think there could also be a certain degree of male bias about the telling of their story. The bias being, well, their story isn't being told as often as their male contemporaries! I mean Brazier was a contemporary of Fernand Point, and also mentor to chefs like Bocuse, but her name isn't usually mentioned within the same breath as Point when people talk about the great chefs in history. Which I guess is a shame.

  20. Maybe I'm just cynical, could it be that Mr. Trotter's attempt to portray himself as some sorta righteous, animal-defending, wont-serve-foie-gras chef, is just for the sake of publicity and getting more customers to go to his place rather than the competition's because it's foie gras-friendly?

    I mean if 60 percent+ of online Chicago Tribune readers voted against it, wouldn't that mean next time they go to a fine dining establishment, they'd prefer a place where no foie gras is served? And now the bill to ban foie gras. The way I see it, by 'raising awareness' of the foie gras issue, Trotter's just ultimately trying to benefit himself. All the 'I wont serve foie gras but I respect others who do' is sorta BS.

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