Magictofu

This TV show is not known for getting the best people to talk about their chosen topic... and considering that Quebec's cuisine is not known for its use of truffles (as opposed to pork, foie gras and mapple syrup)... the "expert" might not be the most qualified person to judge the oil. But at the same time making real truffle oil just seem like a waste to me... If I had he money to buy truffles, I think I would try to use it as fresh as possible. That being said, I am still surprised that truffle oil is made with olive oil... I have the feeling that olives and truffles don't mix so well and that a lighter oil would be preferable... but I only had truffles a few times in my life and my memory is failing.

The recent "discovery" that all truffle oils are fake created some heated debate among restaurateurs and food enthusiasts recently. I am not among those who are particularly bothered by this fact and would not necessarily avoid food containing truffle oil... I might even find the smell quite pleasant and apetizing. Of course, its omnipresence in restaurants is annoying but I think the trend is dying. I am a bit concerned however at the very high price of these oils... if they are made of synthetic aroma, I assume they should be much cheaper. Of course, sometimes it is the high price that push uneducated consummers to buy such products (for prestige or because they believe it is necessary of better quality). Yesterday, I saw a short piece on truffle oil on TV. It is not the best food show on TV, far from it, but they were able to fool a specialist by creating their own "truffle oil" by adding a few drops of truffle aroma bought on internet to olive oil. Their oil cost about $1.50 per bottle compared to the usual $15-$30 we are used to pay. (you can find the show, in French at here). I was very curious about this whole homemade truffle oil thing (particularly after the success of the homemade vanilla extract thread) and did some research online but found very little and most was in French. Here's a list of what I found: http://www.patiwizz.com/catalogue/arome_de...mpignons_14.php http://solubarome.free.fr/sale.htm http://truffiere.free.fr/magdelatruffe/art...3?id_article=22 I was wondering if any of you ever tried using these extracts to make truffle oil. If so, how was the result? Any luck with other kinds of aromas? How natural/chemical does it feel? How difficult is it to get such products in North America?

So Daniel, did you freeze them? Had a chance to try them defrosted?

One of the best dish I ever ate was made of three kinds of testicles (beef, lamb and pork) cooked almost table side on hot rock with green onions and ginger if I remember it well. I bet one can do he same in a pan.

Ahhh This is probably the best non-artisanal yogurt in Canada! They also make a great sour cream.

I used to make sauce but now I simply bake tomatoes when my oven is warming up (a good 30 minutes) and lightly crush them with a bit of salt and sometimes herbs, chili peppers or garlic. Since tomatoes loose water in the process, you need one can of tomatoes per pizza or about 10 small fresh one per pizza. The flavour is more concentrated and the natural sugars of the tomatoes caramelize slightly which adds a very nice aroma.

Thanks for this very nice piece.

Interestingly enough, it is the soup made with the duck bones that won us over. The crispy bits in the stir fry part were also very nice but the almost opaque duck soup was just perfect. I also think Yang Tse does a good job with the skin but if you look carefully, you will notice that they use many ducks for the dish. It is perhaps easier to find out when looking at the bones in the soup but it seems to be the case for all other dishes. My guess is that they prep everything in advance for the whole evening (1 box with the skins, one with meat bits and another one with the bones) and start from there to assemble the dishes. It makes senses for such a large restaurant but it looks a bit weird at the table.

I finally tried Brother Wu's duck. It is the best we had in Ottawa, just after Yang Tse. The worst we tried was at May's Garden (May Garden has a lot of other nice dish though and the staff/owners are great). Concerning the comment from Ashley, i would simply say that, as with all Chinese restaurants in Ottawa, it is good to speak a bit of Chinese and ask about the best dishes. Most Chinese restaurant assume that people want to eat kung pao chicken and spring rolls but add a few nicer dishes here and these (often in Chinese on the walls).

I'll have to give this place a try... we have been quite disapointed with the quality of Chinese food in Ottawa since we moved in... this might just be what we were looking for.

I tried the canned silkworm larvae and they were truly disgusting... like most canned meat I guess. My guess is that fresh is always better.

I was about to answer prety much the same thing... one question remains: where is brother wu? I don't think I've ever been there... and I pretty much tried all chinese restaurants in Ottawa.

There is a great diversity of species. Only a few of them come out of the ground on such intervals. But you are right, the cook might have badly treated these weird bugs.

Bisque is another good option.

You can have them squewered on a stick in China... Those I tried were a bit dry and fibrous and the taste was on the bland side (the scorpions, in front and on the right, were quite good though).

Wow... you got these beers in NS!? I had no idea that they traveled that far. Have you tried the apricot wheat beer from McAuslan (St-Ambroise). If you can find it, give it a try!

I think you are talking about "amourette"... a word that also mean something like "short lived love" or "light love relationship" (I'm not a very good translator).

They might be the same mushroom... but my guess is that people use the more widely available king oyster and call it bailing... The canned bailing I had and the fresh king oysters I had felt and tasted quite similar. The pleurotus genus is quite wide but some mushrooms have more than one name, so it might also be the exact same mushroom with two different names. On this web page, the author seems to suggest that the bailing mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii var. ferulae ) is a type of king oyster (pleurotus eryngii) once thought to be a different species (Pleurotus ferulae var. Lanze). It's all hiden in the title.

I'm not sure it's the preferred way . . . maybe it's regional. I don't think it's nearly as popular or available around here as it was when I was a kid. Peter - is it all bags around there? Or do you have the option of plastic jugs, paper cartons or bags? ← I can talk for Quebec and Ontario where the options are bags and cartons (very rarely plastic jugs). We usually place the bag in a container, cut off a small corner of the bag to pour the milk and place the whole thing in the fridge.

Actually, the two seems related but they still differ slightly: Poutine rapée (acadian poutine) is a different concoction... it is ball shapped and boiled or steamed. Rapie pie (rapure), although made in a similar way, is baked and is pie shaped. Rappie pie is mostly found in Nova Scotia while poutine rapée is mostly found around Moncton and toward the Acadian peninsule.

Wow congrats! Go back there next year, you have a good chance of finding more. Just by curiosity, where exactly are you located in Ontario? ←

There is an interesting start of discussion on Peter the Eater's foodblog about poutine. And this morning the New York Times also had a nice piece on poutine.. Bill Caselman also has a nice article on poutine which includes both the modern Quebec gooey fast food and the Acadian potato ball. Here's a link to what wikipedia has to say. Another instructive website is found at Montreal Poutine In fact, if you google poutine, you will find over 2 million pages... not bad for something which I thought was quite local in nature. It is true that many Canadians have been promoting poutine with a surprising energy... and in a very weird patriotic way. Being French Canadian myself, I can't recal how many foreigners I have forcefully introduced to poutine, generally after getting them drunk. Poutine is, after all, considered by many as a cure to alcoolic excesses. One thing that strikes me now is that the poutine is moving out of the cheap fast food world and into the gourmet world, in part thanks to Martin Picard and his foie gras poutine at Le Pied de Cochon. Another thing that strikes me is the amount of interest in the dish from a variety of people. Not that the poutine is not worth it, it is, in fact, delicious, especially when drunk and hungry at 3AM. No, I find it surprising because I always thought it as a very local dish. You usually can't find the right kind of cheese outside Québec (a very fresh brinny cheddar - in fact it is more the precursor of cheddar- no more than a few hours old). Perhaps people just got fed up with diets and are now looking for dishes like poutine and pork belly... Who knows? In any cases, the topic is officially open to discussion, feel free to share your passion and/or disgust.

1. Char the skin and peel 2. Take the seeds out and stuff them with cheese 3. Prepare a batter and dreged them in it 4. Shallow fry them in a pan At least this is the way I have done these.

Chile relleno is stuffed pepper in spanish. I made these last weekend with what I had in the fridge: large poblano peppers, ricotta cheese and fresh cheddar cheese, cilantro... and in the pantry: onion, canned tomatoes, chipotle peppers, corn flour... Not exactly a traditional recipe but close enough... at least to my non-experienced tastebuds. I was just a bit disapointed with my batter (too stiff, not light enough).

Wow congrats! Go back there next year, you have a good chance of finding more. Just by curiosity, where exactly are you located in Ontario?