Kenk

Was that the same food inspection and sanitation that didn't shut a single restaurant down for 20 years up to a couple of years ago?

The crop is in! Total yield is 7 green coffee beans. The Flowers for next years crop are starting to bloom. The plants are now 5 foot tall. The goal for next year is to have enough to make 1 cup of coffee.

This also puzzles me. Because of the sheer monotony, I cannot stand the smell of the Toronto street vendors anymore. The hotdogs at best are mediocre most are bad. They are just standard supermarket type hot dogs. I also don't like the size of the hot dogs. I actually think they are way too big. They are usually between 4 - 6 to a pound. I would prefer smaller ones 10 - 8 to a pound. I even like the 12 to a pound hot dogs, they can fill the light snack category. Some of the sausages I have tried are OK. I cannot figure out why there is not any other things sold on the street, I guess this leaves a business opportunity to someone.

I recomend bringing a cooler with you. This way you can get a sandwich at every location and say that you can just put it in the cooler if you can't finish. This way when you finish, you will not feel as guilty. The best training is, stuff your face every day untill friday 10:00 AM, snack Friday night, you will be in form Saturday morning.

In Ontario most large grocery stores now have a wine outlet in them. Although the selection is limited to a specific wine company, the wine is better than the junk in depaneurs. There is even ice wine and cider and I think there is some junky liquor. By the way the grocery stores are also not limited to 5 people working on a Sunday. The Opening hours for the Beer stores and Liquor stores in Ontario are also much better than they once were. There are now fewer reasons to go to Hull for booze. The Quebec policy for allowing only junk to be sold in depaneurs is paternalistic and just tastes bad. The prices that are charged is just plain price gouging. I can find many bottles of wine in a good Ontario liquor store that are $7 and less (GST ncluded) that are better than the depaneur junk and you get less of that sulfur headache. Jeffy Boy, try the LCBO, liquor store, on Rideau and King Edward. They are on the way to Hull and the hours are not too bad, they also have St-Amboise beer.

I would recommend using olive oil. Be generous with it. Add some spices that are toasted in the oil before adding the other ingredients. Try using a personal combination of: Cumin Coriander Allspice Mace Chili peppers Cloves Fenugreek Nutmeg Thyme Oregano Make a Cajun spice mixture and use it. Onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne, pepper, salt, thyme, oregano A good sugestion. Allspice, corainder, funugreek, cumin, thyme. There is no reason not to use them. You can find a history of these spices being used in Jewish cooking from Europe and North Africa and throughout the Middle East. I have some spice mixtures from Israel that have excellent spice combinations that use these ingredients.

Opening Soon overall is a very good show. One of the best episodes of any show on the Canadian Food Network was the Opening Soon special that revisited some of the earlier restaurants. It really showed the ups and downs of the different people behind these ventures. The worst episode of Opening Soon was the one featuring Mitch and Steve Rosenthal's Town Hall in San Francisco. The whole episode was of these guys playing to the camera. Most uninteresting.

The signature dish of Toronto should be Bubble Tea, or Pho.

Thank you M. Landurie for your comments. I think it demonstrates your desire to maintain a high level of quality in your restaurant. This is what separates the good from the bad restaurants. Most of the time the most important ingredient in any dish is that the person preparing it cares. Cheers

Anything or everything dipped or smothered in maple syrup. This is the season.

Abies should be considered as part of the itinerary. Again an offshoot of Schwartz's. Abies is in the west island (St-Johns Blvd.), Smoked Meat Petes is just off the western tip of the island on Highway 20.

My favorite float combination is any dark chocolate ice cream in a cherry soda. What is your favorite float?

I am not sure if chicken bones are available in other places but they are a Canadian concoction. Originally made by Ganong. They are a 3-cm. stick of cinnamon candy filled with chocolate flavoured soft filling. Chicken Bones at Ganong They are not my favorite but they are interesting, and a perfect name to interest kids.

There is some general understanding that Americans prefer wickedly bad coffee. But hopefully there is a trend that the cafe Americano will slowly fade into the past.

Canada is a very big place Chromedome! I grew up in Montreal. It is soft drinks. I never heard anyone call it a pop in Montreal except on television.

I have used non espresso coffee beans in my espresso machine. The result did not give me espresso but I think it gives a good coffee result for the beans that you use. I think using the espresso machine with plain coffee may be a good way to evaluate the quality of the coffee. Another question I have been asking myself and I see in this thread is “What makes a good espresso bean?” I have not been able to figure it out. Dark roasted coffee is not the answer. Many espresso beans are probably better to use as fuel in your habachi, to grill a steak than to make espresso. Some of the better espresso beans I have used are not particularly dark? Obviously the coffee blends are important but I do not know what to look for.

Your vinaigrette should be fine for a few days. Botulism develops in an air free environment. Associated with garlic in oil. The vinegar in the vinaigrette will raise the acidity levels that will resist bacterial growth. Good question. ---------------------------------- by the way, Why would anyone pump a deadly toxin into their face unless absolutely necessary?(BOTOX)

One of the most under represented restaurants in Toronto is a restaurant that serve quality food at reasonable prices! Or restaurants that give good value at any price. (I will exclude most Vietnamese and some Chinese Restaurants) I will not exclude Caribbean restaurants that tend to be quite expensive for what you get if it is any good. If you think I am wrong Please feel free to provide examples to refute what I am saying.

Mad cow dangers may be understated This article brings forth why we all should be concerned.

I recommend trying some of the Chinese or Vietnamese grocery stores to buy raw duck legs. Kawloon in Ottawa has them including a whole bag if about 5 lbs. There must be somewhere in Montreal to find them. When I made confit du canard at home I bought a whole duck and a couple of leg/thighs, rendered the fat from the whole bird and kept the fat from cooking the bird breasts. With fat from the legs that came out when cooking, there was enough fat to create the confit. I am not sure what the seasoning I used but I am pretty sure I used allspice, thyme, salt pepper, bay leaves and a bit of cloves. I used whole spices to keep the texture from getting gritty. I kept the confit in the fridge for a few days before eating. There was no way they would last more than a week. The taste and texture was very good. Good luck on your quest!

There are 2 subs I consider as the standard. The cold sub is a Italian cold cut sub that is a mixture of capicolli, Genoa salami, mortadella, and mozzarella cheese, The sub is topped with sliced lettuce onion and tomatoes. The sub is dusted with a mixture mostly made up of ground oregano and drizzled with oil. The other standard sub is a steak and pepperoni hot sub. The sub is made with thinly sliced beef and pepperoni that is grilled then mozzarella cheese is allowed to melt on top. The sub is topped with grilled onions, sliced lettuce, and tomatoes. The sub is dusted with a mixture mostly made up of ground oregano and drizzled with oil.

I think you certainly can be Kosher and a foodie. I enjoy cooking. My perspective is that there are very few foods that you cannot make that satisfy kashrut. Most Asian cooking easily can be made following kashrut the only problem is at times getting prepared ingredients that are approved. I see no reason why you cannot make most Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian, foods. For Indian and Pakistani Food the biggest hurdle is don't use yogurt with meat. No big deal. One of my big bugaboos is making desert that are designed to be made with butter of milk or cream that are made with some hideous replacement. For a meat meal make something else. Use butter, cream and milk in the things that need them. Kosher Chinese food is very possible. There are some important items that are available now. There are many examples of Chinese Jewish cooking, some of them good. I had to buy eggroll wrappers in the kosher section of my Supermarket. Looking at the many different countries where there has been Jewish cooking we can see how cosmopolitan it is. Israeli Russian Iranian German Iraqi Yemeni Moroccan Afghani Ethiopian Romanian Yugoslav French Italian Etc…

Try the Chinese grocery stores. There are quite a few in Mississauga.

ExtraMSG, Thank you for accusing me of taking a moral opinion on this issue. I have heard enough scientific opinions stating that protein is just protein. Including a professor from Guelph University that think it is a good idea to feed animal human sewage. This moral opinion has followed people probably for thousands of years and gets proven to be a good one, time after time. Science is not able to prove, or immunize people for every condition. At best they can address some problems in time. 15 years ago it was considered perfectly within scientific reason to feed cattle processes cattle from rendering plants. Now without absolute proof it is not considered scientifically acceptable to feed cattle the same way. I think your point on risk analysis has some merit. The problem is confidence in the food supply is based on perception. If the perception is that you can get sick from eating beef the perception can take over. If the food industry Ignores the problem, or buries it or misrepresents it or blames it all on Canada this will not help.

My guess is the coffee drinkers are not having the 6-8 big gulp size soft drinks the not coffee drinkers might be having.