snacky_cat

Deeb - as an effective demonstration of the size of your oven oven and sink, I may come over for a drink on Saturday and then climb in both of them and pose for photos.

Indian Flavours sent out some delivery flyers to our building the other week, and their arrival in our mailbox perfectly coincided with us a) wanting Indian and b) being too lazy to leave the house in search of some. We ordered some Chicken Tikka Masala, Aloo Gobi, Naan, and Papdums. All were delicious, and I especially enjoyed the chicken - lots of fresh ginger in there and honest-to-god identifiable chunks of vegetable, rather than the usual red purée. Generous portions, average pricing, food that is mercifully free of the translucent pools of ghee and other fats that are often found lurking in the bottom of Indian dishes, and fast delivery. Their menu now has a permanent place in our delivery options drawer.

I really want to head over the North Shore to try Kashcool one of these days. When I was in Toronto a few months ago, a friend took me to an amazing restaurant (Shomal, or North as they call themselves in English), serving cuisine from the Northern area of Persia. The food was incredible, especially a dish called Kebab Torsh (menu is at the linky above - good reading if you want to check out some Persian dishes). Anyway, upon my return I decided I had to find a place that served something similar in town, and a Persian coworker suggested Kashcool. He said it was one of his family's favourites, and he also pointed out a bizarre trend in Persian restaurants - he said many of them were very short-lived - they'll open, be really awesome for a year or two, then go downhill. He listed off quite a few places he had loved that went downhill and eventually closed. Weird.

I picked up a pile of GBP from Neil for Mamacat's birthday dinner a few months ago, and Neil gave me all the instructions on how to take it from cold to hot on the plate in no time flat. If you want to make it at home, you could easily prepare everything well in advance and simply assemble it all in 2min just before serving. This is what I did, and it worked like a charm: 1. Get a bowl that will hold all the pudding-ized cake. Pour some caramel sauce in the bottom of the bowl. 2. Take the pudding-ized cake and pack it into the bowl. 3. Nuke. I was doing two large-ish bowls straight from the fridge, so I did around 90sec or so. 4. Invert hot pudding onto a plate for serving or just spoon directly into dishes. GENEROUSLY coat with caramel sauce. 5. Commence shovelling the cake into your mouth. Do not stop until every crumb and every drop of sauce is gone.

You guys are awesome! One more question: as part of this event (a two week-long scientific workshop), we traditionally hold a final dinner for all the participants on the last Saturday night. We're looking for someplace walking distance from UofT or Bloor/Bathhurst that we can hold this year's dinner at. Basic requirements are; -Can hold about 60 people, seated in large groups (8-20 - nice and communal) -Offers a price per head menu with veggie, fish and meat options -Reasonably priced (around $30-40/head, exlcuding alcohol) -Not too adventurous for some people's palates (to prevent fussy eater-itis we usually go to a pasta or upscale casual-type place). Any ideas?

We just returned from breakfast and , whle it was decent, I don't know if we'll end up going back very frequently. Arrived around 10:30 and seated ourselves. About 75% of the tables were full and they only had one server working the room, so it was about 5min before she came by to say hi and another 5 before we were able to place our coffee order (and maybe another 5-7 before the coffee came). I don't mind waiting for food, but I need my coffee stat on a weekend morning. The waitress dropped off the menus and let us know that only the breakfast menu was available. That's cool, we said, that's what we're here for. She neglected to mention, however, that they had none of the baked goods on the menu left. Evidently they were slammed the morning before, probably due to the Queue review, and ran out. Now, call me crazy, but if you get reviewed in the paper on a Thursday and get slammed on a Saturday morning, you'd anticipate that Sunday might bring more hordes clamoring for food, thus you would re-stock on the items you had run out of (especially considering her lineage as a pastry chef, it seems rather plausible that people would be coming in looking for pastry items) AND schedule more than one staff member to handle the rush. The breakfast menu is pretty small, so without any baked goods on the menu, you only have about 3 or 4 things to choose from. So I didn't get either of the menu items I had decided on whilst perusing the menu - no scones and no carrot cupcake. Instead I went for the eggs any style with ham. Mr Cat and I both ordered multigrain toast, and when our breakfast arrived we ended up with white toast and no jam in sight. We just went for the white toast anyway, no big deal. Mr Cat eventually scored some strawberry jam, which I have to say was outstanding. Really intense strawberry flavour. Yum! Anyway, the food was nice simple breakfast fare, but for just a little more money, I'd rather go to Seb's. The portions are bigger, the food has a little more creativity going for it, they're never out of anything, and despite having line-ups, the servers never miss a beat when taking care of a totally full restaurant.

A further note re: the Simply Bishop's Caramelized Apple Upside-down Ginger Cake I made above - I ate the leftovers for breakfast the next day and the spice flavours had developed a lot more. If you want a more spicy cake, just leave the cake overnight, slice, then nuke for 30sec or so to warm it up.

TimK - I just left you a ltiny ittle pile of old-school cocktail recipes in the Rare blog comments (following up on my request for a French 75). One of them calls for peach bitters, so you should order yourself a batch of those. I'm always interested in finding those bars in town that offer up vintage cocktails (yay Lumiere and Feenie's!) so I'll be sure to check out the Sauzerac at NU. I can see their bar from my living room so I really have no excuse not to get there soon. If anyone else has any recommendations for vintage cocktails, bring 'em on. And for those in need of recipes featuring your newly-purchased bitters, go over to Cocktail DB's recipe search. You can type in your ingredient(s) and have a whack of recipes returned to you, incuding no less than 327 for orange bitters!

I just made John Bishop's Caramelized Apple Upside-Down Ginger Cake from the Simply Bishop's winter desserts section. It was, as the book's title would indicate, quite simple (though perhaps one of the most advanced dishes in the book, requiring the dirty of - gasp! - three whole bowls/pots). I was going to take a photo but wasn't happy with how the cake released from the pan, so I've spared you all the shot of the apple-topped turd cake that the final product so closely resembled. That said, it was a great turd cake. It had a wonderful texture, sort of cake meets souffle, with a nice light crumb. It looks heavy on the plate, but it ends up light on the mouth. I would recommend upping the spice levels in the recipe - neither the ginger nor the cinammon was very prominent, and I like a really spicy cake. It bakes up quite puffy, so when you invert it, you have to smush it down on the plate to get it to sit. And for god's sake, use the parchment paper. I thought I could get away with a decent Wilton non-stick springform sans papier, but prying the base from the top of the cake was an exercise in the art of the delicate touch.

Sounds perfect! Melriches was our old hangout, back when it was a mere couple blocks away. Last time we were there, though, it was a long, wet, umbrella-less walk and the morning's open-mic entertainment was being provided by the Lower Yaletown Screaming Baby Chorus and Dirty Diaper Revue. My breakfast sandwich was not its customarily enjoyable eggy little self in that environment. Now Diner looks like the closest decent breakfast option to the new pad. We're big fans of installing ourselves at a comfy table with the weekend paper and slowly replacing our entire volume of blood with coffee, so I'm sure Diner and us will get along just fine. Mr Cat will doubtless be relieved to know they have Eggs Benny too.

Hey Lee - What are the breakfast prices like? Mr Cat and I might check it out this weekend and must remember to bring enough cash. Can you remember any other menu items? Inquiring cat minds want to know

Mr Cat, Mamacat and myself are going to hit Brix this Friday night. I think we're all going for the $25 menu, as the salmon really is done VERY well there. We will, of course, report back.

Moth, meet flame. Flame, this is moth. We were back at Senhor Rooster AGAIN tonight, this time with our best friend in tow, all the way from Ottawa. On our last visit, Daniel told us to call in advance so he could prep the salt-crusted Cornish game hen for us, so we rang up this afternoon and put in our order for that. While I ws chatting with him, Daniel also mentioned that the lamb we had also requested had become SO popular (go internet, woo!) that he has now added it to the regular menu. He also mentioned an amazing pork special - pork tenderloin stuffed with a whole chorizo sausage, so we signed ourselves up for one of those too. He managed to mention a few other dishes too, all of which sent my salivary glands into overdrive. We popped by at 7:30 - it was fairly quiet (I think all of Vancouver is grazing at DOV establishments) so we shared the space with a couple regulars, another couple, and eventually former MP and MLA Ian Waddell. My first Senhor Rooster celebrity sighting. Maybe I'll get Iona Campagnolo next. For an amuse, Daniel sent out some fresh cheese he had made that day with the jalapneo sauce (no avocados he said - from eyeballing the sauce it looks like he has changed the recipe- it is still sublime, I must say). There is nothing this guy can't do - meats, sauces, desserts, and cheese to boot. It was a wonderfully soft, fresh, gentle cheese that was hoovered up instantly by our party. Appies were the pancake/Camembert conction I mentioned in my last visit's post, and a new dish he was trying out - a wild mushroom terrine served with an artfully plated palette of sauces (mango ginger, piri piri and jalapeno) and a crest of enoki mushrooms. Hoo boy, was this ever good. Take Neil's HSG delectible wild mushroom ravioli filling and put it into terrine form and you'll know what I'm talking about. Our mains were just amazing. I apologize for the intensely crappy cameraphone photos, but we get so caught up in the excitement of going to Senhor Rooster for a meat feed that we always forget the camera... Salt-encruted Cornish game hen: This was OUTSTANDING. So delicately flavoured, so moist. Wow. Call ahead and order yourself this treat! Pork tenderloin stuffed with chorizo: Another amazing dish. Daniel brought out a squeeze bottle of a blueberry sauce he had put together - blueberry, a touch of balsamic perhaps, and a bit of a cinammon flavour. It went so beautifully with this and would complement any pork dish wonderfully. Lamb, o infamous lamb: I will sell my first, second, third and fourth born for this lamb. Our out of town guest, who lived here during the 80s and loved the lamb at the erstwhile Yanni's on Robson, declared that this came damn close to sheepy perfection. This is the only dish in town that brings me back to my caveman roots - I just grab it by the bone, shove it in my gaping maw, and then shear every last tendril of meat of the bone using my immense tooth power. All of this was accompanied by a side of Emporer's rice (the really black stuff) and a plate full of roasted veg (carrot, zucchini, red pepper and potato) and red cabbage. All wonderful, espcially the rice. What a treat! We finished off with the last order (saved for us especially by Daniel) of a secret dessert creation he came with at 1:30 in the morning - a pineapple and green peppercorn mousse. This was an incredible blend of flavours - imagine the intensity of his mango mousse but with pineapple as the main flavour, paired with a bit of a pepper kick, all with a light, foamy texture. Really an amazing creation. He says he wrote down the recipe, so call ahead and you might get yerself a batch. Here is a picture: The mango mousse is in the background of the pic - our out-of-town pal chose that one (he's a big mango fan) and loved it. We also had the chocolate mousse - pic below - which was, as expected, delish. You can see Mamacat's arm reaching towards the pineapple/peppercorn mousse. All in all, another great night for an amazing price-per-head.

One day I'm going to put some treats from Patisserie Ganache under a box held up by a stick near your house. I will wait in the bushes, and when you make your move for the treats, I will trap you in the box. I will then take you to the nearest medical imaging facility and put you in the scanner. As a curious scientist, I NEED to see this second stomach or hollow leg or wherever it is that you fit all this food. I hope more people take butternut squash soup photos. It's on so many menus that we could put together a lovely comparative photo essay on the subject.

One half of you anyways - the other ? The jury is out on that ! ← Heh heh heh Joel's drink was piiiiiiiiink and served in a martini glass. There was something oddly fetching about a scruffy musician dragging a little pink martini around. Perhaps it upped his cute factor. <prepares self for "No, I meant Joel was the cute one" retort > Stephen- we skipped after-dinner drinks as we simply did not have room for another molecule of anything in our bellies. In fact, I just woke up and am STILL full. My god. Enjoy your birthday meal - I had my party there last year and we all had a fantastic evening (I saved the day's menu as a souvenir, and consulting it reveals that I had I prawn and scallop tortellini in a seafood bisque with green and white asparagus to start, venison tenderloin medallions in a cognac sauce, and their woooonderful dulce de leche caramel flan.)

Let's get the DOV review party started. Mr Cat and I just got back from a seam-busting night at Parkside. From reading the "report your bookings" thread and examining avatars, I have cleverly deduced that we were sitting next to JasmineL. Had I checked the thread earlier and known this beforehand, I would have of course shown you my decoder ring and we could have talked eGullet, but alas it was not to be. We arrived for our 8:30 seating on the dot and the earlier seating occupying our table was still on dessert, so we settled in at the bar for some cocktails. Parkside is one of the few places around time that crafts my beloved French 75 (more cocktails ought to be named after cannons), so I started with one of those (made to perfection - oh lord, was it ever good), and Mr Cat had the Frozen Greyhound - a scoop of grapefruit sorbet melted down in vodka. Baskinsi-Robbinski. Yum. Our table freed up and we opted to relax at the bar with our cocktails for a bit, and finally ambled over to our little corner of the room once I had drained most of my drink. As the hostess seated us, she said "You guys make a gorgeous couple. Really hot." and that was it - Parkside could have served us dog food on Wonderbread and I would still give it an A+++++ after that comment. Still being in the budget-conscious post-new-home phase, we opted for one of the bargains on their wine menu, the Les Brottiers Cotes-du-Rhone. Along with the Louis Bernard Village, this is one the great C-d-R bargains to be had at $35 on the menu (although I give the slight edge in overall quality to the Louis Bernard.) The fact that Mr Cat was only going for one glass and I had to polish off the remainder of the bottle also contributed to our decision not to go too extravagant with the wine. I've always figured that after 3 or 4 glasses, my objective palate dismisses itself and is replaced by my "gimme more of that fermeted shtuff" alter ego, so spending the big $$$ on lots of glasses still doesn't fly with me. Mr Cat and I had different starters - I went for the terrine of chicken, rabbit, smoked ham and foie gras, with toasted country bread and traditional garnishes, and the man had the pesto crusted salmon carpaccio, with potato and green bean salad andtapenade vinaigrette. The terrine was fantastic - from meals with our family in France I am used to layered terrines, but this one was all mixed up in a jumble of terroir goodness. I had to pick out one wee bone and one cartilaginous bit, but overall it was deliciously fantastic, and tasted almost like a perfectly traditional holiday dressing but crafted out of meat instead of bread. If all dishes translated into meat form so well, I would be a very happy and very protein-ated little creature. I had a bite of the salmon carpaccio too - it was thicker than a true carpaccio, more like small sashimi medallions, but was delicious. We both had the braised beef short rib with spring onion mashed potato, savoy cabbage, and mustard jus for our mains (there were also a few cubes of various and sundry winter veg). This was outstanding - the beef was so tender that you'd just look at it and it would fall to pieces. A very sophisticated and expertly done version of a warm, hearty home cookin' dish. Dessert for both of us was the sticky toffee pudding, which is a close cousin to the HSG gingerbread pudding. I never met a sticky pudding with caramel topping that I didn't like, and of course, this was no exception. Man, I am ever glad I didn't wear pants. I'd have had to crack the button mid-meal. I should probably clarify that by saying I wore a dress. I didn't show up totally pantless. Maybe next year. Anyway, it was a fantatsic evening over all. We were paired with Deborah's beloved Johnny Depp Waiter, Michel (who I realized tonight was the waiter at my birthday party that Mamacat was so charmed by), who is a consommate professional and, as Deborah so rightly pointed out, is FINE! I am going to roll around in all my over-fed glory and let my stomach marinate in its own juices. Edited because I hit submit too early.

Ouch! ← Heh, I can say this knowing full well that it is my destiny too. Mamacat is right - look out for the bones in the caldeirada. My advice is to spend 5 minutes flaking all the meat off the fish before you even attempt to eat it - it will also afford a brief cooling-off period.

Ha ha, that was totally the crowd that was there last Friday too. Lots of 40/50somethings in black turtlenecks rocking the thick-rimmed spectacles and talking about their favourite trip to the Napa Valley and how the Volvo is in the shop AGAIN! Those potato and cod cakes look FANTASTIC! Great pics Lee! Mamacat has an out of towner coming in next week so since we took him to the HSG last time, he gets Senhor Rooster this time. I will report back upon our next visit.

Upon Canucklehead's wayyy upthread recommendation, the first 2006 edition of Ukranians-do-Chinese went to Golden Szechuan tonight. VERY good indeed. The front of house guy is very welcoming, and was delighted to point dishes he thought we'd really enjoy, including a few things on the special board, which would have remained totally incomprehensible to us without his translation. On his recommendation, we started out with shredded pork with crepes - this was a beautifully cooked pork in a soy-based sauce that came with a scallion afro. And - in a hallmark of good service - we got exactly 2 crepes per person without even having to ask (restaurants that bring 6 crepes when there are 5 of us are surpringly common. And baffling. They must be in cahoots with the hot dogs/hot dog buns packaging mafia) Followed that up with sweet and sour pork (yum) and chicken with cashews - this one was a very pleasant surprise. I usually avoid this dish because the clear sauce everythign is cooked in is typically bland, but this was rich and flavourful, adding an extra layer of savoury poultry goodness. My Dad the noodle guy HAD to have the Szechuan Tan Tan noodles (especially after FOH guy extolled their virtues) and they were fantastic. Quite a kick to them. Ordered some orange peel chicken to take home to Mr Cat and of course I paoched a bite, and it too was great. All in all, a great meal. High quality ingredients, excellent flavouring, and very friendly, attentive service. And all that food for $59! We're going to try to the hot pot next time we go, as well as an intriguing shredded pork dish that was served on something that (from across the room and without my glasses) looked like a trebuchet. Woo HOO!

Another question for all you clever muffin bakers: What's the best way to store a small batch of muffins for the week? I generally bakes 5 on Sunday night, one for each day of the work week. The Monday muffin is no problem, but what's the best way to keep the other muffins fresh until Friday? I've experimented with a few things, but it seems that every time I do something like putting them in a tupperware, some of the muffins start to do this weird fermentation kind of thing. I have no desire to make muffin liqueur, so how can I keep this bizarre process from starting?

Mamacat and I both really enjoy the Warm Tomato and Asiago Tart with Red Onion recipe from Simply Bishop's (the summer appetizers section). A commerical puff pastry round forms the base of a simple summer pizza that is delightful as written, or can be modified to suit whatever you have in the garden or, in my case, the "Yaleotwn garden" (aka the crisper drawer.) We will also bulldozer our way through any baked goods from Susan Mendelson's books. I was recently at a Jewish funeral that she herself catered, and boy did I make a dent in the baked goods table. As I was cramming rugelah into my little gentile cheeks, I overheard her mention that she has a new book in the works too. Yum!

Heh heh, yeah, I saw a TON of lamb going out of the kitchen. Somewhere, a field is markedly less sheep-y. With all the visit food dorks, I think Senhor Rooster is rapidly becoming the east side equivalent of the HSG.

Another totally delicious meal at Senhor Rooster last night, and I was delighted to see that word of mouth on this place seems to be spreading - we arrived at about 5:30 as one other diner was finishing up, and within an hour or so the place had completely filled up! I overheard a lot of people saying things like "I heard about this place and just had to try it", and saw lots of satisfied customers, maws smeared with sauces, exlaiming over how good everything was. We told Daniel to bring out whatever he felt like. We started with an amazing appetizer - a potato pancake (with somethign else in it, maybe shrimp paste and herbs?), topped with a melting wedge of brie and a sauce that was good I pretty much licked my plate clean - it wasn't a sauce I had seen there before; it was sort of a fresh tomato/cream/herb concoction. Our entrée was caldeirada, or "Portuguese bouillabaisse". This was an incredibly flavourful tomato and herb broth, with potato, red and green pepper, mussels, clams, catfish, sardine, cod, and probably a few other fish. It lives up to its name - the heat retention properties of this dish are amazing. I think it spent about 25min on our table before we got full and couldn't stuff another bite in, and even after all that time it was STILL piping hot. Really amazing, if a bit of work to get at the small fish bones. Worth the effort though! Finished off with a creme brulée and a mango mousse that was possibly the most intensely fruity dessert I've ever had - a veritable mango explosion. Daniel said call ahead next time and he'll do up the salt-crusted chicken for us! Woo hoo! Anything that you have to serve tableside using a hammer is worth trying in my book.

Mamacat, Mr Cat and myself are headed to Senhor Rooster tonight for our biweekly meat feed and to replenish our piri-piri stock. If any of you are thinking of trying the place out, come out tonight and say hi. We'll be the ones with the top buttons on our pants undone. For once we don't have anywhere we have to be immediately afterwards, so we're going to settle in the for night and get Daniel to bring out whatever he pleases.

Walking around the new hood (and peeking at Rare!), I wandered past the erstwhile Da Tandoor, which has a few signs in the window saying "Coming Soon - Infinity". The website has a fair amount of menu (including directions for parking, which strikes me as rather amibitious, given they don't really exist yet) but I have no idea what the vintage of this concept is. The website says something about 2005 and the site looks pretty dark. Mysterious.