canucklehead
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Posts posted by canucklehead
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Sorry to not post in a while
Here are the soybean cakes being soaked in the brine - these pictures were taken a few days after the soaking process. They have been sunning in the brine for a few weeks now and will continue to be set outside as long as the weather stays sunny.
The cakes have since broken down into a mash and the soy is indeed much darker. I will post additional pictures shortly. Had a quick taste - and it was fantastic - very complex and fully of all sorts of unami-ness.
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Located Crystal Hunan's new location with much help from Daddy-A. Just a few blocks south on Nelson and Imperial in Burnaby. Renamed "The Xiang" - very good Hunan, lots of heat, clean and bright vinegary flavours.
Kitchen is primed - food came out very quickly and was very fresh. Definitely worth a cross town trip.
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I think that Illichman's does a good job with butchering and drying aging some of their beef. Run by old school German's - I love it there.
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Ah Leung - I hope that you continue to particpate in some manner. Your enthusaism and knowledge made all of your posts informative and fun to read. You are a true master.
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JKWB was superb! Had something like 5 or 6 courses for what lunch at Thuet's cost me. Excellent recommendation.
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JKWB which is outstanding value. Restaurant is more pricey though. Did you make it to John's in NYC?
Alas - did not make it to John's. Ended up in a meeting that lasted 8 hours! I am kicking myself for not making it out to John's and going to Batali's Otto instead.
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Sorry - quick question..
Cava vs JKWB - which would you choose?
The menu at the Jamie Kennedy restaurant looks good too!
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Not to rub it in... I am on business in NYC right now - had a suprsingly good pie from a chain Piola (one was topped with very fresh ricotta and arugula) and a surprisingly weak pizza from Mario Batali's Otto. His partnership with Nancy Silverton in LA - Mozza, was waaay better. I may try to hit John's before I go to the airport today.
Good to see some suggestions above for places in Vancouver.
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...where is Tsim Jai Kee?
Thanks, guys!
Tsim Jai Kee is in Richmond - Westminster before three road - right across the street from the Richmond Public Market. They have good congee.
They have opened shop across from the main branch of the VPL on Robson - and have dubbed it Jim's Noodles. Not bad - but the orginal is better.
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Hi northern friends... here's a Seattle newspaper's perspective on your Chinese food scene:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outd...nesevan142.html
Any reactions to their recommendations?
Some good picks - Fisherman's Terrace is good for dim sum and a good shout out to Ho Yuen Kee. And even though SSW is good, the article completely overlooks Kirin and Sea Harbour. That being said - the King Crab I had at SSW Richmond was the best I had this year.
Though Congee House remains popular - I really find that cleanliness is a real issue. And it does'nt have to be that way - look at Mak's and Tsim Jai Kee.
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After about 10 days of resting in the baskets (layer of newspaper, two layers of very thin towels)
The Mold has taken Hold!
I am amazed how wild spores have grown on the soybean cake medium. The dark mold seems benign to me - but the green stuff looks a little scary. My uncle said that this is what they looked like when they were being made when he was a kid. "People have been making this for thousands of years - and look it how big and strong I grew up to be".
At this point, they are ready for the next step in production. When sunny - the cakes will be laid out to dry out completely - and then they will be added to the brine to brew in the sun. I mentioned that they looked awfully pale to make a dark soy sauce - but he said that the brew will darken as it sits in the sun. "Just like how people get tanned." Huh? I don't understand how it can get darker - the brine is very salty - so I assumed that there would be no further fungal growth - but how can it get darker?
Takadi - you bring up a couple of intresting things.. My uncles and aunts also no longer trust the quality of many of the products from China. Weird shortcuts and poor controls have resulted in some nasty suprises.
Also, the article you posted discusses the 'first draw' of soy sauce from a batch of the brine. It is indeed the finest (drawing the comparision of the first pressing of olive oil) and it is much coveted. There is a restaurant in Vancouver which features first draw soy sauce in many of their foods - the best being dungeness crab stirred fried with first draw soy sauce. It is sweeter and more savory at the same time - a kind of heightened unami-ness.
I actually consulted a scientist about the dangers of the molds involved - and generally it is a very safe process and one would have consume ALOT of the dangerous strain to even get close to hurting yourself. So far so good - keep knocking on wood I guess.
Anyway - with the weather we are having (mostly cloudy) - the next steps may not occur for a little while. I will keep you guys posted.
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About the pastuerization stage - I don't think that there is going to be one! Seriously - with the amount of salt in the brine - I think it will be safe.
The trick is what kind of mold or yeast takes hold. That will be in the interesting part. My grandmother never used a starter - just let it sit out and see what takes hold.
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Retirement can do strange things to people
I have an uncle who has always been a bit of DIY freak. As he and my aunt get older - they are becoming more and more careful of what kind of food they eat. Now that that they don't have growing kids to feed - they try to eat as much organic food as possible and grow alot it themselves.
News reports out of HK last year detailed alot of the lack of quality controls in foods produced in China - so they decided to start making their own soy sauce. I wanted to provide a little update as to how this is done - and I was surprised that it was not as hard as you might think - just a little time and care.
My uncle remembers growing up in post war Hong Kong when food was scarce and making ends meet was not easy. The war had left my grandmother virtually broke (from bribing officials to keep her kids safe), widowed, and still having to find a way to feed 8 kids. One easy source of protein was to make miso at home - fermented soy beans that was cooked with a little pickled plum and rock sugar. My uncle said it seemd like the most delicous food at the time.
Making soy sauce is simply removing the liquid that the soy beans are fermented in. They still end up with miso that they use as a condiment for cooking things like fish and pork - it gives a plumlike sourness . Now in Vancouver - we don't get as much sun as we would like - so the fermeted soy mash does not cook in the sun for as long as it should - so there is more acidity in it then you would find in industrial soy. Still - its pretty good.
Dried organic soy beans are cooked till they are soft and fall apart into a meal when squeezed between your fingers.
The soy beans are mixed with flour - ratio that my uncle uses is 16 oz of soy beans (dry weight) is mixed with 12 oz of flour.
The beans and flour is kneaded together to make a loaf. My uncle says that from what he's seen, alot of industrial producers skip this step.
The loaf is then cut up into disks - and the whole basket is wrapped in layers of towels to promote mold growth.
The mold growth part takes about a week - I will take some pictures then if the mold takes hold like it should.
The saltiness for the soy sauce will come later when the fremented disks are soaked in a brine that contains 8 oz of salt. It's funny - the salt water has been prepared for a few weeks now. Large containers sitting out in the sun (under plexiglass). I actually don't understand why this needs to be done - but my uncle says that my grandmother would always let the sun cook out the water - sometimes for a whole month. Perhaps this was a way to remove impurities - when tap water was not so safe - and nowadays, it may be good to let some of the chemicals used to treat water, evaporate off. Vancouver is notorious for its use of cholrine.
Hopefully the mold will take hold and I will have new pictures soon.
BTW - I have no idea what kind of mold takes hold and how my uncle ensures that it is not some killer strain. So - that's my attempt at a legal disclaimer.
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Now that local strawberries are coming in - I am going to start on John Bishop's rum pot recipe. I am loving his new cookbook offering "Fresh".
Basically you select local fruits and let them sit in rum - and then enjoy the resulting elixir come Christmas time. His suggestion is to add berries as they come into season to the rum mix. Genius! What a way to best of our local bounty in the cold winter months.
Into 26 oz of rum - add equal weights of strawberry and sugar. Then in turn, raspberries, cherries, and finally blueberries. The toughest part was finding a 4 liter glass container to hold it all (finally found one at Gourmet Warehouse).
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Took a look at the Okada menu and decided on a small sample of items I'm interested in trying.
Nigiri: Sockeye salmon, salmon, amaebi, hotate, hamachi, toro and maybe the uni. (More items can be added or substituted if people name some "must try" items.)
I'm also looking to try at least 2 rolls, anyone have any favourites they can recommend?
Edit: Is there a peak time that I should try and avoid when going?
No real peak time - its a very mellow sort of little place. Great sushi though. For something different - there pickled plume (ume) and shiso roll is interesting. You can always round out your dinner with Chazuke also (soup/tea over rice).
Your other instincts about Blue Water raw bar are good also - I think the seafood there is really excellent also.
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If you do a scouting mission - make sure you have dinner there. The fresh sheet is available only at dinner (and the lunch menu is smaller in general).
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Savoury Island is one of my favorite pie places too. I make a pilgrimage out there one a month at least. If a place like Savoury Island were in Vancouver I might be about 20 pounds heavier
If you only want the pies - I think that Stong's sells them in Vancouver.
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I second Okada - relaxed atmosphere, everything done well. Their dinner fresh sheet is always a winner - I recently had Monkfish Liver for the first time a couple of weeks ago - it was stellar. I think it is off the fresh sheet now - all eaten up!
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Thanks for the suggestions so far. No ideas about sweets? Anyone?
We just had a few products that contained meat confiscated at customs after returning from Japan. We weren't trying to sneak them in... just didn't realize that something like furikake had meat in it.
When you say 'sweets' - do you mean candies? I don't there is anything made locally, but Richmond does have a large selection that is sourced from Asia. I think a wander around Aberdeen Mall or Parker Place would land you a large baskets of candies.
If you mean cookies or cakes - there is Michelle's in Ricmond and Vancouver. There cookies, sponge cakes, and breads travel reasonably well - especially if you are coming up by car.
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I agree. How did that sign get past city planning? It cheapens the Shore Club itself and the entire intersection. The new Holt's accross the street can't be happy about it either.
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Sea Harbour has killer spotted prawns right now - I think spotted prawn season runs through May. Soy sauce wok seared - excellent.
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Izumi-ya and Fujiya both have downtown locations if that is more convienent for you.
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Not sure if the pricing was new - since it was my first time there. $100 for a six course tasting with an array of amuse bouche to start as a bonus.
There were four of us - two of whom ordered three items ala cart - so we were charged for three tastings. Very fair pricing. Matching wines would have bumped things up by $73.
The only awkardness was in the beginning. There were two us having the full tasting - but we were not given the chance to choose which of the two tasting menus we wanted, instead we were given mix and match selections from both (Amy Pataki noted the same thing happened to her when she went with her husband).
The servers make sure there are no food allergies or strong dislikes - but from then on out - you are in Susur's hands. Worked out quite well.
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Just finished dinner at Susur (the man himself was in the house) - excellent meal. I had some trepidations after reading some recent reviews - but $100 tasting was great value - 6 courses were all full of bright lively flavours, witty presentation, and relaxed and knowledgable service.
Use of Chinese flavors were particularly well done. Jellied Shanghainese style pork laryed with foie, tomato gelee looking like glossy globes of salted duck eggs, the bright spark of chekiang vinegar in the amuse bouche.
Fun evening!
zaru soba
in Western Canada: Dining
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What part of town are you looking at?