CharityCase

My current relationship has been monté aux beurre for the last three years. I doubt we'd be so happy together if we weren't both lovers of food. Some Random and entirely lewd thoughts: 1. Getting first-degree burns while puréeing squash soup in the buff 2. Trying to prepare a multi-course South Indian feast after returning home from three months in Kerala, and in the rush and excitement of seeing my woman after the long hiatus subsequently ruining everything 3. Spending a fabulous weekend in Montreal and unanimously deciding that the baguette, cheese and olive assortment eaten in our hotel room was our favorite meal. Food is comfort, food is romance, food is sex, it's whatever you want it to be. It hasn't failed me in any of these regards except too much raw garlic the odd time.

Was in TO this past weekend and had a look at the store while in the area. Definitely premium prices but plenty of pride and workmanship is evident in front of and behind the counter. A nice selection of prepared foods plus some interesting marinades and roulade stuffings.

The Surreal Gourmet's Psychedelic Coleslaw is a dramatic and tasty coleslaw variation. Be warned though, as the red cabbage will stain just about everything in sight, and by the next day the slaw will have lost it's psychedelic qualities and turned red. Recipe

A couple of interesting tidbits: 1. Wednesday's Ottawa Citizen did a story on Beckta's selection by the Canadian consulate to do a six-course meal showcasing Canda's best food and wine for 50 people: 2. The Ottawa Xpress resto reviews, IMHO, have started to improve. Last week's review of Flipper's was helpful, and this week carried a review of Hot Peppers, the new Thai Food/Wine Bar (intriguing, no?) at the corner of Somerset and Lyon: Strangely, while dining at a place bold and adventurous enough to call themselves a Thai Food and Wine Bar, the reviewer opted out of trying any wines or having the server help with matching and instead ordered a Singha. Not that I don't like Singha but I'm interested in testing the merits of the server matching a crisp riesling with my jungle curry.

Thank you all for the excellent links and recommendations. I'm confused about my global 8" chef's knife. By description it is a straight edge and not beveled. 1. For home sharpening can a steel still be used daily or weekly to help retain the edge, or is that counter-productive with this knife? 2. The sharpening tutorial found here seems helpful: http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/HowToSharpen.html But I want to to make sure I follow the correct set of instructions as there's also this page (for "Single bevel edge" knives): http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/HowToSharpen2.html Thanks for your helping straighten (or bevel) this out for me. Charity Case

Um...Yum. Great posts.

If you're looking for something a little lighter given the summer weather maybe a whitefish and bacon pairing would do you: A couple of eipcurious recs: Bacon and Sage Panfried trout Swordfish, Bacon and Cherry Tomato Kebabs P.S. Your blog is fantastic - moreso for us apartment-dwellers who dream of the day we have a backyard oven at our disposal :)

Thanks for the tip Kinsey, you're right about not needing something over the top, a bread knife doesn't need the versatility of a chef's knife. I'm in Canada so I don't know about Smart&Final, but I had totally forgot about Winner's so I think I'll have a look there too. As this will be a birthday gift I may match it with a good paring knife and couple of heat-proof spatulas.

I'll preface this question by painting a virtual picture of me: I'm a renter not a homeowner, my kitchen would be described as "microscopic", I'm a good and knowledgeable cook but not working in the industry, and I possess only one good knife in my collection..everything else belongs to my girlfriend and is from Ikea...and is dull! :) Soo...I received a Global 8" chef's knife as a gift several years ago, and while it's got an easy grip and performs relatively well it doesn't seem to keep a good edge regardless of how frequently it's sharpened and/or finished with a steel. I know these knives were all the rage a little while ago but having worked with a few of the old Germans I've found myself able to make better use of them. I really need a good bread slicer. The Ikea version is now a de-facto bread smasher, so what are everyone's recommendations in this regard? I was hoping something half-decent could be had for less than $60 or $70. Thanks.

And how! I actually tried getting a plot this year but the waiting list is long, and I'm almost past the point of no return. I've managed to do quite well for just a balcony but CSAs are definitely where it's at when you're limited in space and exposure.

I picked up the Splendido tomatoes yesterday as they were news to me. I used them in a basic vodka tomato sauce and they're actually not bad, the difference with SM tomatoes is fairly negligible. I wouldn't say the same about the Splendido pasta, which is often more expensive than Barilla and not quite as good.

Nothing I've eaten overseas came anywhere near the Potted Meat Food Product in Hawaii.

Being in Zone 5 with nothing more than a west-facing apartment balcony, I'm far more limited than you damned SoCal and New Mexico egulleters. But based on successes last year I've planted (in containers): Patio Tomato Serrano and finger chillies...lots of 'em (they did great last year even with only six hours of sun) Sweet Basil Italian Oregano Italian Parsley rosemary The tomato may not do too great without alot of sun but we'll see. The cherry's did pretty well in the same spot.

Brilliant Daniel, just brilliant. The aged grease bit though? I'm intrigued but confused. Was the idea that the aged grease added flavour? I suspect that once you start deep frying hamburgers at all you're changing the dimensions considerably...but in oil approaching it's centennial?!

I don't endorse wal-mart bashing for bashing's sake. And I respect that for me to have this discussion and make certain shopping and consumption choices puts me squarely in an income bracket that is capable of making these choices at all. What Wal-Mart represents, in its ethical code of conduct, McDonald's-like approach to unionization attempts, willingness to erect windowless and completely depressing store designs, preaching of moral and religious dogma through highly selective product and service offerings (as per the morning-after pill example), methodical destruction of rural economies and what's likely to be monopolization of the world's consumer spending....it represents the worst of humanity. Is a corporation a human being? No. Is my experience in a store a real human experience? Yes. Do I value a shopping experience that is convenient, fairly-priced and accesible? yes. Am I willing to "brave" Wal-Mart and take on unforeseen levels of cognitive dissonance? No. Are my resons based in both factual and opinionated arguments? Undoubtedly. Now admittedly my opinion is not based squarely in the per capita costs, average annual employee in come and other statistics that have been presented on both sides. And to repeat myself these obervations are valuable in stemming the rhetoric that anti-walmarters have put forward that rubs skeptics like me the wrong way, mainly that wal-mart is evil hjust because of its size. As for solutions one of the posts pointed to something that interested me: Certainly the "evolve or die" mentality has to be firmly in place for smaller independents to survive in the face of an organization gauranteed to reduce their profit margins to the size of a thimble. I would never think to just prop up a poorly maintained and poorly serviced store simply because it's independent. And my reasons for not shopping at Wal-Mart are two-dimensional: 1. I disagree with Wal-Mart's business practices 2. I frequent Mom and Pop stores that have a distinctive competence in product knowledge, customer service, availability of new or hard-to-find products, and lastly an improved overall shopping experience. The once or twice I have been to a wal-mart I've left feeling disenchanted with humanity. That may not be a rationale that suits all of you but I've been fine with a 10-cent premium if it left me smiling on the way out the door.

This is a common response to those who question factory farming and its purported benefits. As the variety of produce on our shelves has increased so too have the kilometres they travelled to get there. Consider both the fuel consumption and emissions of a truck that crosses 3000 miles or more to bring you a Mango from South America, or a ship that consumes petroleum while at sea to deliver those luscious San Marzanos. In terms of an affordable and dependable food supply I would say neither is really the case, and that factory farming doesn't deserve any awards for securing our food supply. In the last 40-50 years we've become accustomed to food being exactly that...affordable and dependable. We rarely if ever expect to pay more than $1.00 for bananas despite their actual cost being closer to $2.00 a bunch (in Canadian that is) if fair wages, transportation costs and re-investment into the communities where their grown was a part of the Del Monte pricing equation. The only "dependent" aspect to factory farming is a dependency on oil. It's required to transport these products to every store in North America, and in its refined form it's needed for the production of agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers.

Excuse my ignorance but I wasn't aware that the US (I'm in Canada) was enacting federal standards for Organic products?

Episure's india picture reminded me of Tapioca Chips from Kerala. Yum! the secret to a good chip may be coconut oil (aalthough that's also the secret to an early heart attack)

I would call this the American Disease ← Good christ man...a life without the odd potato chip is not worth living. Wait, lemme guess...we should only be eating Foie Gras, truffles and frickin' calve-ee-yar? Ahem. Miss Vickies' Lime and Black Pepper is quite a nice little bite, and their slat and vinegar is a cut above the norm.

If I read your description correctly, I think I'm most horrified that the angler left live fish to hang on a tree before gutting and filleting them. I do think a child's curiosity can be encouraged without allwoing him/her to be cruel to animals...and yet I as a young child remember being cruel to frogs, fish and insects (ants and a magnifying glass?) so don't have a solution to that. As for respect for what we eat I think it's of utmost importance, and agree that if we had to kill our dinner we might have a completely different take on things. I'm happily carnivorous but do wonder what we've come to when we feel the need to buy boneless, skinless chicken breats instead of a whole bird, or already-cooked pot roast instead of raw beef? Is it hygiene, convenience, distrust of our own abilities in the kitchen, a value-oriented buying pattern that makes us act like this?

I've experimented with a few different Vindaloo recipes...many of which do include potatoes although no one knows why or why not. I most recently tried Monica Bhide's Pork Vindaloo and it was easily the best version I've made (and one of the easiest too). Don't worry about "real" indian, Monica really is Indian so this is probably authentic enough for the non-indians! :) I'm including the actual recipe link, plus a link to her eGCI course on basic Indian cooking. You'll probably find this very helpful and for this recipe the pictures will help guide you in the kitchen. In the eGCI link the recipe is about halfway down the post. Best of luck and throw up a few pictures as you do it! Recipe Link Monica's excellent eGCI course

While slightly off-topic, I would love to applaud Nondoctor and kennedy on serving Cooper's. I'd imagine that's a risky choice but my god is that beer ever good! One of the better out-of-bottle experiences I've had. Back to Creemore, I'm amazed that so many purists would dump Creemore from their drink orders because of an ownership change. I can't imagine why Molson would alter the beer's formula or taste profile. Open-ended question: have they any history of doing this with other brands?

"Do you know what to do with that?" (several cans of mango puree for lassi, as the sole Caucasian in an Indian shop. Yep, I pretty much did.) This is actually one of my favorite conversation starters in ethnic food stores. There's one on my walk home that I am completely enamoured with..probably the only shop in all of downtown ottawa carrying african/mexican/south asian pantry items. I can't count the number of times I've picked up something called for in a recipe and had the lovely cashier politely say "do you know what this is for?" It was thanks to her that I found out about brown cardamom, the difference between indonesian and other chili sauces and the reason why curry pastes for thai dishes alwaysa need to be tempered/fried in oil.

Thanks for the link to the grocery lists page, I always make apoint of picking up a list while I'm in the store. It gives you a snapshot of someone in a very shrot period of time. I do like to have a look at what others are buying...figure out who is terminally single or recently separated, and take a guess at what someone's having for dinner. What surprises me mmost is the amount of generic grocery store meat that many people feel quite comfortable in purchasing. At the local store I go to, I have had the "is this coriander or cilantro" discussion at least once with every cashier. Someone needs to fix their rolling produce code thing because I think it drives them crazy.

I've come down with food fatigue too. It's not a lack of interest in eating something good, more a lack of enthusiasm in preparing such things. In my moments of weakness I usually end up ordering take-out, or eating something from the freezer which is probably the worse option.