fud
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Posts posted by fud
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Sandy and I went to Hart House tonight. We wanted to 'check it out' for a potential wedding.
I had the scallop chowder, ribeye and a peanut butter cheesecake. Sandy had a tossed green salad, sirloin and a lemon tart.
The scallop chowder was ok. I'm not sure what it was missing but it was missing something. Sandy's salad had a really refreshing vinegarette. Simple and good. The ribeye was the highlight. Wow. Flavourful, soft and cooked exactly rare and finished with a marvelous gorg sauce which wasn't too overpowering. Sandy's sirloin was very packed with flavour but not as juicy (as expected). We had a great waitor. Super funny.
The lemon tart was not really a tart but more like a lemon cake. Interesting approach. I really liked how they carmelized the top like a brulee. The peanut butter cheesecake was really rich and good! I was surprised since I like PB and I like cheesecake but I never thought putting them together would work as well as it did.
Food was solidly good, service was top notch. They have made our short list for wedding destinations.
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My neighbour has told me on more than one occasion that he makes the BEST breakfasts.
Perhaps I should collect some curious egulleters and head on over. I'm sure he was be ecstatic to see us all.
Hmm he also has a rather large dog...
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^ Sorry BCinBC I have been corrected, Nathan had the Kershaw Shun not you. I thought you were weilding the dazzling demascus patterned knife.
Oh and Second correction - using cornstarch in lemon curd is new to me too...pretty cool way to stabilize the curd/pudding and make it thick (?!).
I made biscotti last night and added irish creme. Not a bad choice. Maybe Grand Marnier next time
Definate changes:1. Less Cornmeal - more flour
2. Less Fennel and more Irish Creme
3. A bit of vanilla
4. Duck Fat
(Ok How many people's eyes did this?
)#4 was for moosh.
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[Verbed] to perfection is on my personal Strengst Verboten list. I am seeking to have it banned by Federal law in the next Parliamentary session. Punishment for breaking this law will include public humiliation on eGullet and attendance at a 15-hour Remedial Menu-Writing Community Service Program, available in major metropolitan centres in Canada, or by Distance Learning for rural offenders.
ETA: I believe truth in advertising prohibits the use of the word "cream" in a Twinkie description, too, Wes!
Ha! I've been exposed for the sham I am. "To perfection" is such a ridiculous term. If it was in fact done to perfection I guess one wouldn't have to mention that. Actually considering I'm advertising a twinkie I really should be excused from all crimes of embellishment.
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I always wondered if they had a "menu writing" category to these sorts of competitions. I personally think it's a challenge to describe your masterpiece in a way that makes customers salivate and make "mm" noises.
Food, in a restaurant - it seems - has to sound good when read off a menu and of course the usual smell/look and taste.
"Lightly whipped molten cream encased in a golden cake cooked to perfection"
(Microwaved Twinkie)
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thanks for the pics!
mmmm....chocolate
i'm actually in the middle of a 2 day course with chef marco from northwest now. is that the pastry chef that you're talking about with the "tilted" entry?
For those of you who are in the NWCAV cooking class...now we know where all Chef Tony's liquer went
Great pics!
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I saw Chef Jeff tonight, and he mentioned the smoked sablefish hash with poached and Hollandaise...I think a return to Aurora is in my near future
Oh man. I better walk down there right now....wait...it's 10:15! dang!
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In around Main and broadway there are some Gems
- The Whip Cafe (Main and 6th Ave)
- Slickety Jim's (Main and broadway (next to the sushi place called Kishu)
- The Hatch (Broadway between main and kingsway (looks like a garage)
And of course if you just want some Congee...
- Congee noodle house (broadway, west of main on the north side)
I love breakfast, I used to go to a place called "Blue Fox" in Victoria. Always a line, and good valued food. The closest thing to blue fox here I think is Hatch.
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^ You meant Kits right? For a moment, I thought there was competition for Ajisai in Kerrisdale.
There is
this one is on 41st and Yew (Kerrisdale). I really like Ajisai too, good quality stuff in a small venue. -
Unfortunatly, as far as I know, egullet does not have a Bullshit filter, so we all have to use our own common sense.
Yes we do. His name is Daddy-A. But sometimes he misses stuff
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^ An interesting comment but I have to ask:
Why would anyone in the biz want to self-promote on this site in the covert way you mentioned? If they got 'found out' they would lose all credibility in their restaurant as well as in their status on this site. It's already a well known fact that everything on this site is opinion so has to be taken with a little salt as many people have differing tastes.
Personally I have nothing but the upmost respect for people who are from the industry that lurk or contribute to this site. I think it's really good that these people are interested in how they are doing enough to pop onto a site like this and peruse the postings to see if they can better their own restaurants. If I opened my own shack I'd probably be the type of owner who would lurk this site to find out how I'm doing (for real).
Come on, how many people tell the honest truth when asked "how was your meal". I will admit that more times than not I will say "good.good" while I choke down the food with some wine. Sites like these are great for people like me who maybe didn't have the best time at a restaurant and want to vent and/or warn others. What better place for the owner of said establishment to read these sorts of comments and (hopefully) make some changes.
I think the most dangerous diners are the one's who have a bad time and don't say anything because you know they (and their friends) will simply stop coming back. And as an owner can you imagine suddenly losing business with no feedback? It has got to suck. It's like taking an exam, getting it back with an 'F' with absolutely no markings on the sheet. No indication what you did right or wrong.
Wait. I am totally digressing sorry
Anyways my point (if I had one to begin with) is that I don't think it seems like a good idea to covertly self-promote as it will only hurt you in the end.
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I was wondering if I could use corn starch as a thickener during cooking, now I will try it out.
Yes you can. I use corn starch a lot actually in cooking thai food because it's "faster" than reducing but of course the results are not as tastey since the flavours don't concentrate as they do in reducing. Make sure to dissolve the corn starch in water BEFORE you add it (and I add it off the heat) to prevent ugly clumping.
Fud: of all the unflattering pix of me on the internet, that one of me rolling pasta is the new king. Yeesh. Perhaps I should change my nickname to Deer-In-Headlights. Oh and as for length, mine was so long I had to cut it into thirds. Whoops, that didn't sound as good as I was hoping. I'm a fan of action shots. I promise next time I'll have you weilding the shun like a shaolin master chef! -
Welcome to the forum!
I'm drawn to try this place now since my only real idea of mexican food in this fair city is Las Margaritas on 4rth and "Carlos or Charlies" in Port Moody.
I will mention that Carlos is a really funny owner who greeted us at lunch with a diatribe on how we can call him Carlos OR we can call him Charlie, it's ok he doesn't mind either.
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and 1 from my 4 year old daughter ( but i explained that i can't put the filet o fish on my menu)
Wait, your daughter might be onto something. The ocean meets land. Like a surf and turf burger! Filot o fish combined with a patty and breaded to make one giant-yet-distinctly seperate (texturally) burger.
4 year olds have the best ideas!
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My Votes:
For Casual Fair:
- Toshi's on Main Street and 16th
- Octopus Garden on Cornwall just off the burrard bridge
- Shiro Japanese Restaurant (on Cambie & West 14th Ave)
For more fine dining fair:
- Yoshi's on Denman
- Sakae (Downtown by Thurlow and Alberni)
For non-sushi
- Kintaro (Amazing Ramen - Denman)
- Shiro Bay Chopstick Cafe - Izikaya (Yaletown - I think it's on Hamilton Street by Nelson?)
- Guu - Izikaya - (Robson and Thurlow)
- Modern Club - Okonomyaki - (Dunbar Street by 16th)
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^ Alex,
The second greatest thing about this class is the networking and ability to draw resources from fellow classmates. So when can I borrow your pasta maker, food mill, pasta roller and knife?
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^ Hi Ling!
Yes Rustichella is a brand of pasta and they make different kinds. You can find them at Gourmet Warehouse and other fine vendors. You will notice that they are different from other pastas because the pasta is "rough" in texture. Imagine sauce sticking to the rough surface...oh man. It's like hundreds if little spoons attached to the pasta!
They manage this (according to chef Tony) by feeding the pasta through a stone die instead of the standard nylon used in most pasta makers (nylon is FAST but makes for a smooth pasta like you see in primo or catelli). The stone one is much slower. I believe he also said the pasta is dried outside in the sun versus with fans.
That being said it is of course much more expensive...but Chef Tony's comment? "Pasta is CHEAP to start with, even if you have MUCH more expensive pasta it is STILL cheap!"
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Class #5
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- Linguine /w Broccolini and Proscuitto
- Turkey-Smoked Gouda Tortellini
- Prawn-Leek /w Vodka-Lemon-Cream Tortellini
- Biscotti
First we were tasked with making the dough! We mixed together sugar and butter and then added the dry ingredients, threw in egg, nuts and flour. mmm biscotti dough. We rolled it all out and put them in the fridge so the butter coagulates.
At the same time we mixed in flour, egg, salt and water to make the pasta dough. Simple! We worked it over quite a bit and then let it rest.
We proceeded to make our pasta. Mmm we had Rustichella (it has SO much texture, it can latch onto any sauce thrown at it mmm). We boiled some broccoli in some well salted water:
Here's Joie slicing some garlic for the sauce:
We threw in some butter, olive oil, pine nuts, chillies, proscuitto and garlic and browned it a little. At the end we added some basil and mint.
The pasta was cooked Pre-Al Dente and then finished in the pan with the sauce so the Linguine could soak up the sauce. Toss on top some fresh parmesan and cracked pepper.
We proceeded to roll out our pasta dough into long thing sheets. Here is BCinBC getting it going.
Daddy-A works his like a pro. Look at the length!!
While all this pasta madness was occuring, other brave souls were preparing the stuffing and sauce. Our group was responsible for making the meat sauce with smoked gouda. Here is the ground turkey mixed with Moosh's magic mix of herbs and spices.
The red sauce consists of tomato sauce and more...
Now the fun part, cut the pasta into squares and stuff the meat into them and then fold them into tortellini's. Yumm! We packed ours full and then stretched the pasta dough to close them off. Look at them - so cute!
Here's Moosh on the factory floor.
And the finished product. We partnered with another group so we could have a red and a white sauce. You could also put them together in the same bowl and get a mixed white/red sauce in the middle.
The meat tortellini and tomato/white wine red sauce up close
The prawn-leek tortellini up close with the voda-lemon-cream sauce
And with a nice coffee, enjoy some biscotti (Chef Tony went off on a tirade about cafe latte - "Cafe Latte is for kids...KIDS!!! Don't give me that latte crap!")
Moosh will fill in on the wines as I am terrible at getting their names. However I wanted to share some amusing quotes from Chef Tony tonight as it was truly hilarious and memorable. He is SERIOUS about pasta...don't piss him off!
"to this day, I LOVE fat ankles" - Chef Tony when talking about playing with toy cars while his grandma kneeded pasta dough
"you know....pasta....tastes like wheat. Like wheat, that is what pasta tastes like" - Chef Tony stating the not-so-obvious
"You don't have to add meat to this dish, it's vegetarian" - Chef Tony before a student told him that there was proscuitto in the dish
"Proscuitto! Well pork! Pork is vegetarian!" - Chef Tony in response to having proscuitto in his vegetarian dish.
Good stuff. Can't wait till next week when Neil comes to visit...right Neil?
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^If the tart dough is tough, the pastry may have been overworked (thus over-developing the gluten.) Are you using all purpose flour or pastry flour in class? Canadian AP flour has less gluten than American AP flour, but you can still reduce the gluten content by adding some cornstarch to your AP flour.
ETA: Also, I never cut in the fat with my hands...the heat from your hands will melt the fat a bit, and it is easier to overwork the dough that way. I use a pastry cutter, while some people like using the food processor.
AP Flour but I think we're just overworking the dough
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But they wash dishes at the back of the room! Plus I found it quite cramped.
But they're open till 5:30am!
Erm that might also mean they dont have much time to clean the kitchen before they re-open...
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Or, of course, you can watch HNIC with the sound off while listening to Boards of Canada and Stereolab and eating red-wine-braised duck at my table.
That is truly strange as I thought I was the only one who would go and buy Stepho's takeout - for example - take it home to watch HNIC while playing boards of canada (although I would favour the white wine with it).
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I have to comment on Afghan horsemen. Where else can you dine out on low tables with pillows. The ultimate in lounge dining. Expect to spend 3 hours there if you book a "pillow" area. They even give you drinks with ultra long straws so you can stay lounging while you drink out of the planter bowl they put the booze in.
The platters are definately meaty so I'm not sure if a vegetarian would like it here. Food is similar to greek with much more indian/south east asian influence in the spice of the rice and whatnot. I love their raisin rice. My lord.
Call em up, get a pillow table and then lounge and eat meat and pawkara skaras (Afghan fried potato).
Then fall into a food coma and rest on the pillows.
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Someone mentioned there is a Burgoo going into West Van. Is it already open?
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^ yikes. Wings i can do. Hot wings? Mega hot wings? That's heartburn waiting to happen!
This isn't exactly main but on kingsway on 12th there is also Jang mo jib. Good food, terrible decore! The one downtown is way better.
Early Prix Fixe
in Western Canada: Dining
Posted
We havn't recently BUT at west the early prix menu was exactly like the "dineout" menu which happens around January. Really good value. I would recommend West and Bluewater anytime. In a way you mind as well do the early prix menu instead of dineout.