shelora
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Posts posted by shelora
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"The worst of the bunch is Alison Davidson at the Birmingham Post. She also has her own website here. She's vegetarian! A veggie food critic, I ask you! God, give me strength..."
Spending most of my time lurking here, I've decided to chime in.
I read all of Davidson's short reviews. Many thanks, it gave me great hope for my future as a food writer. Doesn't she have an editor? Does she get paid? Couldn't any of you apply for her job? How does a vegetarian speak about the meat dishes? Does she take a carnivore out for lunch or does she simply write up whats on the menu?
S
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ditto on the Herdez product line.
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You might try the small cans of El Pato. They do two that I like, the salsa de chile fresco and the salsa verde. Mild to good heat hits to them. You can always zing it up by adding some chopped serranos.
The 220gram cans would be easier to transport than jars. Check El Sureno on Commercial and 2nd for the product and any other products they carry.
Shelora
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Indeed. La Bodega. It's been there for yonks. I forgot about that place. I have very pleasant memories from there. Especially when they had live entertainment in the way of flamingo singers and dancers. Muy caliente.
Nice little hideaway.
Now that we can get real jamon serrano, I hope the folks at La Bodega are inspired to offer it on our menu.
I have great hope for the foods of Spain to get a strong foot hold in Vancouver. In fact I'm depending on you!
I have been eating Jamon Serrano all week - it's soo good. Sorry I'm getting off topic. Again.
s
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Ah, those were the days, when I had time to nurse a book reading coffee - I mean read a book nursing a coffee.
If memory serves me well, I used to hang at the Calabria bar on Commercial Drive. You can park there hassle free as long as you order a cappuccino or two. And who can resist those pastries?
S
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Thanks for the article. Very fascinating. I was in D.F. in December. Unfortunately, the restaurants I wanted to eat in were closed for holdiays.
I see nothing wrong with this new wave. It's happening in other parts of the world, why should we try and hold innovation back in Mexico?
I loved the quote from Camara, saying she consults Kennedy's books. I think that is a very impressive statement about Kennedy's tireless work.
Diana Kennedy's comments might have been taken out of context, but my oh my isn't she crotchedy these days? And it's too bad she wasn't available for more comment.
There are a few of you posters out there living in D.F. What do you think?
Shelora
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Working in one of Vancouver's best Chinese restaurants making wontons, noodles and dumplings.
Working with the cooks at Vij's making curry.
s
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Great. I will try and score the ham bone instead.
Why does jamon serrano have the hoof attached? Is it solely from a practical stand point, something to hold on to?
s
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Wow, Neil. I can still hear the trauma in your voice.
I do want to hear the rest of the story, though. If you ever get the time or the motivation. When his family arrived, did they come into the restaurant and see you?
s
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"Stumped, Shelora. Shame on me. What era?"
Sidhu's was frequented by those mostly from Kits with hippie tendencies. I'm sure James Barber would remember. It could have been the 1970's - the era of the electric frying pan. Sidhu made some great batik in the back too.
"Any from Victoria that you'd like to mention? One of my favourite haunts used to be The Library Bar (not the Bengal Room) at The Empress. I think it's a gift shop now; when I drank there it was merely a gift."
I have only lived in Victoria for 14 years and sadly no one is keeping track of its culinary history. Restaurants come and go so rapidly here, perhaps no one can keep track. Incredible 1960's architectural wonders have been torn down without a blink of an eye. Jack Lee's Chinese Village is one example. Food no great shakes, but the building was amazing.
There is one restaurant that folks talk about a lot. George's Bavarian. This 1970's restaurant was hot. Hungarian musicians were flown in and the booze flowed. Pepper steak, Paprika chicken, spaetzle and Black Forrest Cake with kirsch poured over it.
The show stopper was the talent of Pablo who made Spanish coffees. This involved flames poured from a height behind his back, while liquored-up patrons would yell, Ole.
Pablo Hernandez is still in the biz, owning Pablo's Dining Lounge. The tableside fireworks are kept to ceasar salad and bananas foster. George's wife is the manager at the Harbourside. To get those people to tell stories would be amazing.
Younger people talk about the Southside a lot and of course the beginning days of Herald St. Caffe, with line ups down the street. All before my time. But I did get to see and work at Herald St. in its glory years. I miss you Mark Finnigan.
S
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My first cooking job - right out of cooking school - was at the Lonsdale Quay Hotel. The exec was Murray ? and pink peppercorns were his favourite ingredient. It showed up in everything.
My first task was to make the Caesar salad dressing, 40 egg yolks, broken and separated by hand, made with 80 litres of oil. All mixed up in a hobart. We had a buffalo grinder (strange name) and this was used to grind the garlic and anchovies for the dressing. With tons of coarse black pepper, worchestire sauce, mustard and lemon juice, this was a damn fine dressing. Luckily there were no pink peppercorns. After all these years I have never forgotten the procedure. I could do it in a minute. And the smell. Garlic everywhere.
s
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"I'm sure that you all realize now that the real reason I posted this topic was to figure out how old you are."
Jamie, you look so good for someone born in 1912! What's your secret? Oil of Olé?
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"Can't remember the name of the restaurant that used to be in False Creek on Leg in Boot Sqaure but I think it was something like Fish?"
You don't mean the restaurant that was behind Emily Carr arts school do you? Wasn't that something Fish? I vaguely remember another restaurant in Leg in Boot around the time of Expo though. I think I applied for a job there with scads of other hopefuls. The interview was conducted by you the hopeful and five management weiners. Very comfortable experience.
What our the names of those two restaurants? Now it's driving me nuts.
s
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"More wine, wench"! This was the drunken cry that hounded me every weekend for two years at the Mediaeval Inn. It was the 1970’s and this was my first official job in the service industry. I contributed to many a horrid hangover, pouring all-you-can-drink B.C. red to adults wearing bibs, which we, the wenches, courteously tied around their necks.
Set in Gastown in an old creepy brick building, authenticity was tantamount and we took our jobs seriously. Dark, dank and overrun with mice, two floors of the building were reserved for private functions where we worked our wenching magic.
We would festoon the rooms with candles and incense, issuing each guest with a bowl, a glass and a steak knife. After setting the stage we would tart ourselves up for the evening.
Our costumes consisted of a long red skirt topped with a white low-cut puffy-sleeved blouse. The finishing touch was a large leather lace-up belt that heaved our assets up to our necks for maximum effect.
Being young and naïve certainly helped our enthusiasm but it was the promise of getting high each evening either with the minstrels, the lord of the evening or the drunken revellers. We felt that being stoned helped us get into our roles and made us more efficient. Or so we thought. (Our boss didn’t quite agree when he caught 10 wenches sharing a fatty one evening).
If none of you can remember the Mediaeval experience, the dinners went something like this. You and your friends could rent out one of the party rooms and drink as much as you wanted for a nominal fee. Dinner was included and consisted of four courses; cream of leek soup (or cock-a-leekie), one trout (with head and bones), half a Cornish game hen and roast beef. Each course or rather "remove" was presented with much pomp and circumstance. Entertainment was also provided by a wandering minstrel (in tights no less) and a "lord" who officiated at the head of the table, conducting the "show."
The lord, an out-of-work Shakespearean actor, also took his role seriously. He entertained the party with ribald jokes and songs, getting drunk right alongside everyone else. If he could no longer speak or capture the attention of the drunken and unruly crowd – which was more often than not - he would resort, like any other trained actor would, to improvisation. This usually took the form of standing on the table, lifting his lordly gown and flashing the guests. Now, that’s entertainment!
As I mentioned earlier, the tables were laden with nuts - which you had to crack with your bowl - a basket of oranges and a steak knife. These oranges were rarely eaten and more often became weapons for that jolly mediaeval game of bean-your-neighbour-in-the-head. We, the wenches became inadvertent targets along with the merry wandering minstrel. The food fights could become particularly nasty by the second remove of the evening, Cornish game hen.
Standing in the middle of the room, with a platter of steaming roasted hens we would announce,"Lords and Ladies, the first remove of the evening is Cornish game hen".
We would then impale each half with a dangerous and mediaeval-looking fork and fling them onto plates, assembly line style. We wenches could do this with lots of hearty enthusiasm or resentment, depending on the guests. Besides, the flying juices only added to the theatre and those bibs helped a lot!
If there were any bones left on the plates we would wander the room with a large metal bucket, calling, "alms for the poor, alms for the poor". The guest would scrape their scraps into the bucket and away we would go for more jugs of wine.
This continued on for at least four to five hours, food flying, with many guests removing clothing or throwing up their removes. The damage had been done, we had done our duty and this was our cue to scurry off and smoke a fat one in the change room.
At the end of the evening, in an altered state, the wenches’ duties continued as we scrubbed the thick wooden tables with a bucket of soapy water and stiff brush. A forgotten guest would inevitably be found passed out somewhere in the room and had to be carried down the stairs and shoved into a taxi.
Cleaning up one particular evening, we discovered a camera with film still left in it. Inspired, we decided to do a little "flashing" of our own before depositing the camera to the lost and found. It was our way of saying, "Thanks, for the memories."
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Does anyone remember the cheap and cheerful, Sidhu's Kitchen? I think it was on Broadway somewhere, in the alley and up some stairs. Great cheap curry meals, fresh chapatis and a wonderfully addictive dessert. Sidhu's might not be a bell-wether but all this talk about the past has me experiencing culinary flashbacks.
I love it.
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Thanks again Bux. Great article. I just want to go to Spain right NOW!!!
Here's my next dilemna. What should I drink with the jamon? Butterfly, any suggestions?
And I have been offered the hoof of the jamon? Should I accept? Because I like to experiement, they thought I would like to cook with it. Do Spaniards cook with this hoof or is this pretty much no tocar?
Shelora
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Well ring my chimes!
We have talked about eating in Victoria quite a few times. I'll try to give it a new angle.
Since I live 3 blocks from downtown, my well trodden lunch path is:
Zambri's - for the entire vegetable antipasti selection or the meat ball sandwich, illy coffee.
Pho Hoa - number 20 small, that's the brisket, no fat.
Daidoco - the octopus salad, tuna takaki, Nao-san's special soups, and the soy-roasted onigiri. Really anything he makes is great. His wife is making giant cream puffs for dessert. Great for an afternoon break.
My Thai - lunch special with red curry.
Grocery shopping in Chinatown, lunch becomes:
Loy Sing Meat Market - for beef flank over rice, lots of chile oil. Weekdays you can eat while Daniell cuts up a whole pig, very informative. Cash only.
Noodle Box - Cambodian Jungle Curry.
Cucina - Whatever is going, its all great. Cash only.
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Breakfast
It's a strange phenomena, but Victorians love breakfast. Weekend mornings they will line up all over town. I'm not big on breakfast, but when push comes to shove, here's the skinny.
John's Place - big toast, nice and greasy, great service staff.
Blue Fox - ditto, with house made granola.
Willie's - for the creamy polenta and poached eggs. Tourists and local alike.
Mo-le - fresher approach.
Re-Bar - even fresher.
Shine - new kid in town, bright room, blood sausage with potato tatties of particular note.
Don Mee - dim sum. Dress up a bit please.
Wah Lai Yuen - honey buns to go.
Raymonds - When the pressure of a family get together is unbearable - AKA push comes to shove - it's the all you can eat Chinese buffet. Very little deep fried food makes it not bad.
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Bone appeteet!
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Thanks Bux.
The fat on this particular jamon serrano we have in Canada also boasts that 62% of its fat is unsaturated. Perhaps it is the dry curing process? I look forward to the article you sent. It probably answers that very question.
Books I picked up at the library all end up talking about the patas negras and their acorn diet and how incredible they taste.
Why do they have to tease us this way?
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It has taken a long time, but finally we are able to purchase Jamon Serrano here in British Columbia, Canada.
This is my second tasting since December. My first was in Oaxaca, Mexico. A Spanish restauranteur there made his own, several whole legs were hanging in his back fridge. The flavour was an epiphany. Aromatic, faintly floral, it was amazing. Thinly sliced, the jamon was served with fresh baked bread spread with a ripe tomato and olive oil mix.
Unforgettable.
The second jamon serrano, served over last week end, had the hoof attached and a special clamp held it in place, which is a traditional technique. We were treated to thin slices served with manchego cheese, quince paste, olives and toasted whole almonds. It is from a company called Campofrio. It was delicious but not as aromatic as my first experience. Is the first time always the best?
Does this depend on curing times?
How is jamon serrano served in Spain? In a tapas bar for example? Are all jamones serranos created equal?
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"What do you thing were the important benchmark points in our culinary past that pushed us so far forward?"
Looking at the upcoming Vancouver wine festival program, I saw Richard Carras' name as one of the featured presenters.
Richard Carras was integral, in my mind, for getting the idea of selling wine by the glass accepted by the powers that be. One of the ways he did this was to open the now defunct Grapevine Restaurant on 4th Avenue.
The Grapevine was a radical concept, a place you could go and sit at the bar and choose from a vast (not really vast by today's standards) array of wines by the glass.
S.
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"but I think that I am going to pick up a bag of Masa Cal until I can get my Molcajete from Granville Island."
Masa Harina and Maseca are products that have the oil removed from the kernel that houses a lot of nutrients. That is why there is such controversy over it's use in Mexico, where corn is so abundant (Esperanza please help here).
The use of your molcajete to grind the corn might provide some problems as traditionally corn is ground on the metate. It provides a bigger space to work on. But by the photos, you seemed to get a pretty good product from your processor.
Would like to know more about whether cal has a shelf life.
Let me know what you find in Bellingham.
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"but I was there for ingredients for Mole".
Oh, hark, do tell Irish girl. What kind of mole are you making? What ingredients are you looking for? I may be able to direct you. I may have the chiles you seek.
And very, very excited about number one the Masa Cal at the Superstore and number two this wonderful experiment I wish to try, making my own masa.
And Ms. Jones, where did you buy the dent corn and slaked lime?
Please and thank you.
Shelora
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Thanks for all the great info people. You've been a great help.
s
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Hi there,
What kind of corn are you using? Where did you buy it? Where did you get the slaked lime? This is something I want to make this year, using some of the local corn, but not sure which kind would be best.
I'm very curious as to how this turns out. Keep me posted.
Thanks,
Shelora
Red Mole
in Mexico: Cooking & Baking
Posted
When making a recipe you haven't made before, especially for a dinner party, I like to have Plan B.
Make the red mole the day before. Not only will the flavours improve overnight - my experience - but if you are having a struggle with the rather lengthy procedure or if some disaster takes place - you burn your chiles, kitchen catches on fire, etc. - you can revert to Plan B.
I haven't made the red mole from Bayliss, but I am reading over the recipe listed in One Plate at a Time. Looks good and straight forward to me.
I love making moles and encourage you to dive right in. Its magical.
And please render your own lard, do not use Crisco or other brands that come in a box. That stuff is disgusting.
S