Peter the eater
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Posts posted by Peter the eater
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You are probably in the middle of the morel season in Nova Scotia right now... you might find yourself lucky if you go for a walk (look under poplar trees). I pick them so it is not necessarily a luxury ingredient to me (and those were from last year). Ramps are fairly cheap in the market here. Foie gras is a little bit more expensive but we only bought a small amount (not a whole liver!
). As you can see, I cooked everything in a very simple manner... nothing too fancy 
I asked for wild morels at the Halifax market last weekend with no success (same for ramps) We're going to the Annapolis valley next weekend, I know there are some mushroom fiends at the Wolfville market. I am a bit hesitant to reap wild mushrooms - I don't mind hallucinating, I just want to avoid death for a while.
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I have been a very non-ethical cook recently... for my partner's first mother's day (we have a one month old baby) I cooked an appetizer of foie gras with ramps and morels.
Wow what a dish - those are three items I have never had but am thinking a lot about recently.
Why don't you just shave some white truffle on top and call it a day!
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- what's your favorite dish to grill?
chicken thighs
- do you know how to tell if your steak is done (without cutting it all up on the grill)?
finger poke plus timing it
- do you use charcoal or stick to the "easier-to-use" gas?
gas grill
- what do you want to know how to do better on your grill?
rotisserie, never done it
- what secret ingredient do you like to play with while outdoor cooking?
hardwood shavings from my wood lathe
- and if you are willing, what did you screw up for your guests?
a raccoon stole a prime rib directly off the hot grill 5 minutes before ready, in front of eight guests that i didn't know very well
we grill out here on the right coast too.
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This is a very interesting - and useful - discussion. I love the idea of lipid-poaching meat although I have yet to actually do it. Does lean beef work well?
What are the best candidates for cooking this way?
Anybody have a top ten list?
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Here's six new songs to guess now:
A. "When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazool"
B. "The meatballs, pizzas, school cheating, now that's stuffs pretty good too"
C. "Then pass me that mammy fried okie
And some good old black eyed peas
Give me a hay rack full of biscuits
Make my coffee black if you please"
D. "How do you like your toast in the morning?
I like mine with a hug"
E. "Make my bed out of Wonder Bread
Spread some mustard upon my head
I don't want no onions or sauerkraut, Mamma
Hold on to the bun baby, work it on out"
F. "Branch water and tomato wine
Creosote and turpentine
Sour mash and new moon shine"
Hmmmm. I don't recognize any of these. Is it country music?
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"Build you a garden, eat a lot of peaches"
"Peaches"
The Presidents of the United States of America
(thats a lot of typing, how about U2 next time)
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Ooooh, now we're getting somewhere.
A feast, with a beast and a steely knife. What do you think? Is it Ozzy's Mr. Crowley? Non-specific hedonism?
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And that's all ten solved!
Well that was clearly too easy.
I'll need to be more cryptic and rarefied next time.
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#7 Miss You
Rolling Stones
Spot on!
And it was 1978 from Some Girls Doesn't get much better.
So its not been an hour and nine of ten are solved - you people are good.
Hint for no.10:
Ironically not from their other album "More Songs About Building and Food"
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3. "Two out of Three Ain't Bad," Meatloaf
4. Some really awful song by Paul McCartney and Wings ..Admiral Halsley, maybe?
Right on!
“Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey”, 1971
I agree that is not one of Sir Paul's best. Strangely it just came to me as thought of starting the thread - as did no.6.
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Can you tell I'm obsessed with 70s rock? And I'm only 21
ETA: I looked up the ones I didn't know, and I'm so annoyed I didn't recognize #7!
Well done!
I'll accept no.1 although, strictly speaking, it should be Baba O'Riley from 1971. Since you apparently weren't born for another decade and a half we'll let it go (I was five years old)
You joined eGullet in like grade ten? Good for you.
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Well it was only a matter of time. . .
Below I will give ten lyric fragments from 1970's popular/rock songs (a few might be from the late 1960's) each has a reference to food and/or drink.
You reply with the appropriate artist(s) and song title.
We all feel good for remembering such a golden age of music, maybe pull out some vinyl, sip a fortified wine and crumble a stinky blue cheese, whatever gets you through the night, 'salright, 'salright (John Lennon, 1974) See how fun that was?
In increasing difficulty (for me anyways):
1.“Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals, I get my back into my living”
2."And in the master's chambers, They're gathered for the feast, They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can't kill the beast"
3.“But there ain't no Coupe de Ville, Hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box”
4.“He had to have a berth or he couldn't get to sea. I had another look and I had a cup of tea and a butter pie.”
5.“Spent my days with a woman unkind, Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine”
6.“Creme tangerine and montelimat, A ginger sling with a pineapple heart”
7."We're gonna bring a case of wine, Hey, let's go mess and fool around,
You know, like we used to"
8.“I had a job in the great north woods, Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much, And one day the ax just fell”
9.“So we bought a pack of cigarettes, And Mrs. Wagner's pies”
10."I got some groceries, some peanut butter,
to last a couple of days, But I ain't got no speakers, Ain't got no
headphones, Ain't got no records to play"
Bring it on!
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I asked about ramps today at the market - apparently everyone asks for them and nobody has them. Here in Atlantic Canada they are a wild and protected species, so picking them is against the law.
Here's what a local expert had to say (Curator of Botany, Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History) when I asked about sticking some in my garden:
It is considered a species-at-risk and as such has some legal protection. The plants and their habitats are protected from disturbance. Collecting them to place in a home garden would not be ethical nor acceptable. In Nova Scotia, this plant is at the northeastern edge of its range. In Canada, it used to be more common in Ontario and Quebec, but the overcollection and destruction of its habitat have placed it on species watch lists in all jurisdictions. . . As botanists we are concerned with maintaining the native flora as it exists and not promoting the uninformed transplanting of rare and endangered species, for personal use nor to permit land development
So for now it looks like"regular" leeks for me.
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Okay - I'll play. Lets start at the beginning:
1. Potatoes
a) the potato eaters
b) Vincent van Gogh
c) it was done in 1885, but now its 2007 may 11, 4:44 pm Atlantic time
You know yours is easy when the art has several of its own websites.
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It's a cold rainy stormy morning in Amsterdam. I wish we would have had better weather this week, some balcony dinners would have been so nice
The balcony looks very uninviting today:
I do love our balcony. It's facing west, and it has walls and a ceiling so we can have dinner outside as soon as it's sunny and not too windy.
The building in the background is a school, designed by Dutch architect Jan Duiker in 1929. This is also the view from my kitchen. It's unusual, but nice, to see kids in the classroom while you're in the kitchen! You can almost read what's written on the blackboard.
This foodblog is a delight to follow. I love Holland although I have yet to go - I have promised myself I'll do a bicycle trip there (you can eat anything if you bike around all day)
A few questions:
1. What does that orange sticker on your sweetbreads mean? It appears to read "reclame".
2. Is it from a calf or lamb? Thymus or pancreas? Something else?
2. Is that the"Openluchtschool" (free air school) seen from your balcony?
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I have never used tagine before but I have decided I have to give it a shot. Is the clay tagine really worth the extra effort involved? I don't mind a little extra care if I like the results (Im a carbon steel knife junky) but the le creuset is attractive do to the fact that I would not need a heat diffuser when using it on the range and I could use it at higher heats and under the broiler if I wanted to.
So any opinions on this delima?
I got a large red Emile Henry tajine for Christmas and it has been fantastic. I have used it to sear stuff on electric and gas stovetops and to braise all day in the oven. The most remarkable thing is not how tough and robust it seems to be, but how I can practically wipe it clean with a cloth after getting it so messy. But its also the only one I have ever used.
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And about the ions... how exactly do they help? I am still a bit confused.
Salty water has more polarity than plain water (which is polar too, just less so). Flavor molecules with a charge are drawn out more by the salty water. This is the principle behind chemical chromatography - more charge means more extraction.
Of course all that really matters is what the stock tastes like in the end. Too salty doesn't taste good - who cares what got extracted if you're gagging.
I believe I get better, tastier results with a bit of salt in the mix from the outset. It is, however, a lot easier to add salt just before consumption than it is to reduce saltiness (by dilution)
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One of the reasons to salt water for boiling vegetables is to increase the ion concentration of the water so less of the nutrients from the veggies get extracted into it.
That is true for the fat-soluble nutrients only. Hydrophobic vitamins (like A, D, E and K) will stay in the food while the hydrophilics (like the B's and C) get more fully extracted as the saltiness (polarity) increases.
Stock is mostly water (from the tap) with a lipid layer on top (from the carcass). Molecules which contribute to flavor will wind up in both layers, but the salty water helps get those savory compounds (eg. glycine and glutamate salts) out of the tissue in the first place.
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This is a very cool thread. . .
For me, the greatest thing one can do in the kitchen is to make stock - and chicken stock is the king of the hill. There are no rules, just the satisfaction of making the most nourishing substance known to humankind, and possibly the best smell.
My preference is:
1. don't let it boil
2. use the entire carcass, chopped up is faster
3. cooked and chewed bits are okay - bacteria can't live more than a few minutes in a simmer
4. a little salt does help (by increasing the dielectric constant of the solution, thereby aiding the extraction of hydrophilic flavour compounds - sorry)
5. mess around with the veggies - taste the difference for yourself peeling the carrots or washing the celery makes
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For $60 US I can get five litres (1.3 gallons) of my go-to fortified wine Andres Private Stock Ruby Port which in my estimation is an outstanding value. Unfortunately I doubt its available outside of Canada, so I guess thats not too helpful. I can say that there are tons of affordable ports out there and one ought not ignore those $10-20 US Portuguese Portos.
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Im in Toronto for a week, I have my fine dining picked out, what im looking for is
the to die for places the locals eat everyday. Dim sum, or pizza, great little whole
in the wall places or local specialties not to be found any were else, worlds best deer jerky, or moose.
Papa Ceo's is a casual pizza joint with a huge selection of gourmet pizza and toppings to choose from . . . 654 Spadina Av - (416) 961-2222
It has been a few years but its always been a fave for me (I'm T.O. born and raised now out east)
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Went to Vancouver this weekend past and wanted to post some thoughts.
Good to read your reviews, although half of the places are unknown to me. I lived in Vancouver for one year in the 90's and still miss it terribly - I worked at the architect firm building the "colosseum-esque" library - maybe you saw it, very large and curvaceous.
Best food memories for me are the Granville Island Public Market (taking the silly little ferry over) and dim sum in Chinatown every Sunday. In fact I had never been to an Asian bakery prior to that time, those fluffy white buns with savory and/or sweet centres are outstanding.
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Peter~
I think we all found that it isn't easy.
We have a topic HERE
(several merged :Living on the 100 Mile Diet) and I was looking to have someone join me in it last summer here in Central Coastal CA.
Also, phlawless had a blog last summer where she tried it in North Carolina.
I'd still like to try it !
Good luck~
Kathy
Thanks for that - I did several eGullet site searches and turned up none of these.
I was a bit surprised at the apparent lack of references - I guess now that the hardcover is out and a big book tour is happening (I believe the authors are in California today) there will be renewed interest.
eG Foodblog: yunnermeier - Malaysia Truly Asia
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
I have been looking at your posts and I am blown away - all those colors, textures and shapes. What a delicious and unique place with so many influences. I am sooo going one day.
It got me thinking about my father-in-law (now 75) who spent 2 years in Malaya while in the British Army back in the 1950's. He emailed me some of his "food memories" today and I thought I'd post a few excerpts for anybody interested. I don't have a clue about the politics there and I hope none of this offends, its pretty interesting from a foodie's point of view:
The British Army provided all we needed both in camp and on patrol. As I recall it the food was good and, in the officer's mess with a high proportions of curry - the anglo type. Breakfasts in camp always included prodigious amounts of fruit. When we went into the jungle - which I did probably more than most others - we carried all our food with us.
We were issued with ration packs - one for each day out - which always contained rice, curry powder, instant coffee, tea, raisins, salt tablets, paludrin, porridge for breakfast and a small can of either beef, pork or chicken stew. The senior NCO also carried a jug of double proof rum for everyone to have a large shot at night.
Occasionally one came across some of the small wild bananas and there was a tree fruit about the size of an egg with a soft fuzz on it. It was as hard as a rock and could not be bitten into. However, simple held for a while in the mouth it gave off a wonderful flavour of almonds and was very refreshing. On occasion, when I was with the aboriginal tribesmen I ate with them and all I can recall was palm shoots and a tuber (like cassava I think, that had to be boiled to drive off the poison. I ate it rather like a mashed potato. On a couple of occasions when I hit terrorist camps I was able to liberate what food they had (generally very little but on one fondly remembered occasion a whole toblerone bar of Swiss chocolate.)
When in a Malay kampong I don't recall ever squatting for an entire meal but instead simply having a chat in a circle and eating fruit. I particularly enjoyed lichee nuts served in their shell and always crawling with red ants. (The shell, a bit like a horse chestnut had strong spikes projecting from it. ) Tap the spikes on the ground and all the ants fell off so we could peel the shell and extract the fruit
Malaya was roughly divided into 50% Malay, 35% Chinese (higher in the areas I patrolled) plus quite a few Indians and some Eurasians and Europeans and they all tended to eat according to their national customs. I particularly recall eating with Chinese businessmen and their families who were most hospitable and their meals put to shame anything served up in a Chinese restaurants around here. Some rice but a vast array of add on dishes with wonderful vegetables, strange fish (I never cared for octopus) and wonderful prawns - all accompanied by copious amounts of whiskey and beer.