Wayne

George Brown College offers a Sushi course through it's Continuing Education Program. The course is 6 weeks (6 x 4 hour classes). The cost is $258.00. The instructing chef is David Chung. Sometimes it runs on a week night and sometimes on a weekend day. Here is the website: www.coned.georgebrown.ca/section/culi/asia.html I've taken the course and would recommend it.

I'm very picky about my cookbooks and only purchase one after I've read it and decided it's one I'll use. Cookbooks I've recieved as gifts are another matter, especially when recieved from someone who doesn't cook. I've asked not to be given cookbooks unless I choose the book. The one cookbook I did buy and have never used, and don't plan to, is The Roadkill Cookbook. It's hilarious. Found it in a sale bin years ago.

I shop St. Jacob's a couple of times a year. They are similiar in set-up to St. Lawrence in that there are permanent vendors and farm vendors (similiar to SLM north market). The market, due to it's proximity to many Mennonite farms, has many Mennonite vendors. Market strengths: Pork, beef, poultry, smoked meat products and sausages.Farmed game. Local maple syrup. Local produce. Fresh apple cider. Market weaknesses: Very limited seafood selection. Limited cheese selections. Lack of, for want of a better term, upscale items. Prices are generally lower than SLM and you can usually get discounts if you purchase in quantity (ie. 10 lb. of chicken breasts). We usually combine our visits to the market with a visit to Elora Gorge when we're entertaining out of town guests.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will look into Taro. I've also found a B.C. supplier so I can find out who they supply in Toronto.

Has anyone found wasabi root in any of Toronto's markets? I've seen it in Seattle and know it is being grown in the Pacific Northwest. I've also seen a Country Canada story documenting it's cultivation in B.C. I haven't seen it at Sanko, Little Tokyo, JapanTown, T&T, or the Spadina Chinatown grocery stores I've checked out. If you've seen any, or know of a source, please let me know.

Wild morels.

PCL: There is plenty of firewood unfortunatley most of it is under a meter of snow and standing deadwood is timeconsuming to gather when it's cold and daylight is short. Stoves allow everyone to be fed quickly and efficiently. The situation is different if we aren't travelling every day and set up a base camp then we depend more on wood fires.

I've purchased two useful items from dollar stores. The first was a $1 rubber mallet which has been designated the "kitchen" mallet and the other was $1 cotton side towels that I use in cooking class.

Interesting subject and near to my heart. I'd like to contribute a slighly different slant to the subject: camping food in winter. Last weekend our group of eight had a three day hut to hut ski in the Temagami region of Ontario. A hut is a walled shelter with a wood stove and a two burner propane stove. All gear and food is carried on your back between huts. Temper- atures ranged from a daytime high of -15 C. to a nightime low of -30 C. We consider this "warm" camping as we can heat the huts (at least when we're awake). Next weekend we'll be "cold" camping in Algonquin Park for two nights. That means we sleep in tents without an external heat source. Cooking is done on three white gas burners. Winter's low temperatures, with respect to cooking, results in several advantages and disadvantages. Advantages: Food spoilage is not a problem. Everything goes in frozen or quickly freezes. Much is pre-cooked, vacumn sealed then simply reheated in a pot of water. This can include meat, poultry, pasta sauces...etc...excepting seafood which cooks very quickly. Disadvantages: It takes a lot of fuel, either gas or wood, to cook food so the quicker it's ready to eat the better. The meals on these trips can be very good and keeping in mind the above points most anything will work. It is very easy to consume 3000-5000 calories per day and find you've lost weight. Water: We carry an ice auger and drill for water in lakes or streams.

Bill Murray in the Farrelly Brothers' "Kingpin": Tanqueray and Tab.

Wayne, I warn you that rambutan generally travels poorly, so it's pretty unlikely that you'll have good rambutan in Canada. If you don't find the fruit very good, therefore, don't assume you won't like the real thing when you have the chance to taste it. As for the mangosteen, even a mediocre one will probably taste pretty good to you; what a wonderful fruit that is! ←

Wayne, I warn you that rambutan generally travels poorly, so it's pretty unlikely that you'll have good rambutan in Canada. If you don't find the fruit very good, therefore, don't assume you won't like the real thing when you have the chance to taste it. As for the mangosteen, even a mediocre one will probably taste pretty good to you; what a wonderful fruit that is! ←

This is a wonderful thread. Great photos. So much so that I trudged out in the snow yesterday to a Vietnamese market and picked up two dragonfruit and some rambutans. Will try both for the first time this evening. They also had some nice mangosteens and custard apples.

On a cold morning. Hot Irish oatmeal with a pat of melting butter and maple syrup.

McDonald's sausage and egg McMuffin. Somethimes two on the drive to ski. I also have a weekly craving for Jamaican spicy beef patties. The ones with the flakey rather than the doughy pastry.

Face to face, expecially when we're dining out. We can see each other's meal, discuss it and observe each other's reaction to the food, and have a good conversation.

I tried out the PC Puff Pastry with butter. Used it to make a tarte tatin and I have to say I'm not overly impressed. It browned well and puffed up but there wasn't a great butter flavor. It was better than other grocery store frozen puff pastry I've tried. I would use it again but what I would really like to find is a better frozen product or a bakery that sellls a good quality in-house product

I've had my copy for about a month and finally made the duck a l'orange yesterday. Worked out very well just needed an extra half hour in the oven for our 5 pounder. I found the recipe for rillettes interesting in that it is almost exactly the recipe my French Canadian grandmother used to make. She would seal them in rendered pork fat to preserve them and were called 'crettons'. We also had store bought crettons which were ground rather than pulled pork but still highly seasoned and sealed in pork fat. Grandmother's were much better. Love the book.

Thanks for posting this. Great photos and descriptions. Perigee has moved from our "will go" to "must go" list.

7 out of 11. Missed the English, French, Polish and German questions. Interesting quiz.

I haven't tried Aidell's commercial sausage so I can't comment on it. With respect to his book on sausage making the recipes, as with any other recipe, are starting points. I use them as guidelines for a partic- ular style of sausage and adjust the level of flavor to my taste. Since I started making my own I find most commercially available sausage bland and oversalted. I've read the Perry and Reavis book and it is usefull.

Congratulations on your first batch on homemade sausage. I've been doing it for two years and really enjoy it. I did a fair amount of research when I got started and settled on Bruce Aidell's Complete Book of Sausage. I regularly make southern breakfast sausage, hot italian sausage and the New Mexico roasted pepper sausage. I've also had very good results with: sundried tomato, pine nut and lamb sausage crayfish sausage game sausage made with wild goose and porcini My one major modification to Aidell's recipes is I use much more fresh herbs (per- sonal taste and a productive garden). My next big step will be to start smoking them.

I would go with chezcherie's method of of first sauteing the shells in a little butter and/or oil. I would also, if whole shrimp are availible, add the heads with the shells for a richer flavor.

My wife and I have one simple rule to avoid conflicts when cooking together: One is in charge and the other does what is asked. We can't always conform to that but it does prevent a lot of conflict.

Second on The Cheese Boutique. Great place.