Ashen

Well this is a bit out there but les trois brasseurs in Montreal serves a flammekueche( similar to a thin crust pizza from alsace region of france) with Montreal smoked meat. It is crazy good and I wouldn't see why pastrami couldn't work just as well..

Have you tried Planet Bean here in guelph? I love their espresso and they bring in their baked goods from Let's Get Baked . the dark rum date squares are killer good.

I prefer to cook it unstuffed and just make an oven dressing. you can pour some of the drippings over it later. By request , I am doing a pork crown roast for my family easter supper on saturday. parsely , rosemary ,thyme . salt & pepper. rubbed all over. on a rack over some veggies and water and bit of white wine. clean up the bone ends if needed, wrap with some foil to keep them looking nice. As I said I cook it unstuffed. I have an empty metal can that fits in the middle quite nicely to keep the center from collapsing. start it out hot 450 F for 25 mins, then down to 325 F til done . total time is somewhere in the 2.5 to 3 hr range. It only cooks that fast though because it is unstuffed and the can in the center really makes the heat transfer quick. tested with thermopen to 150 F/155 pulled for some carry over My family won't do pink pork so that is why my temps are a bit higher , but if you like it pink go for the 145 to 150 F range. drippings in a gravy separator to skim some fat then back in pan with a bit more wine and roux or maybe beurre manie to thicken. I made one this way on New Years Day and all I heard from my father in law during the meal was him muttering under his breath. "wow" "that is one awesome piece of pork" "that is good meat" LOL I know it isn't fancy but if I am going to do something like that I want the meat to be the star.

Depending on what you want to eat there are a couple of decent places near the falls. My wife and I and our friends had a very good meal at Remington's of Niagara a few years ago.I am not sure if they are still doing the Top of clifton Hill and turn right . If you want some of the best woodfired pizza anywhere in Ontario , not just niagara falls. Try Antica pizza, top of clifton hill and turn left. I can't remember the cross street name sorry. It is on the right hand side and has a outside patio that is nice when the weather is good.

If you are looking for an inexpensive option to start with for low and slow smoking, a UDS (ugly drum smoker) would be a way to go. You need to be willing to take on a bit of a DIY project but those I know who have done it say the results are every bit as good as the more expensive smokers. There are many plans online for UDS and you really only need a large steel drum (55 gal) and a few pieces of hardware . brass ballvalves and temp gauges. . New is best or one used for something food grade for the barrel. . don't think burning out the barrel will get rid of something that might be toxic. I have a barrel sitting outside right now waiting on some warm weather to start the project. I have a bullet smoker and an offset already but the UDS is going to be a fun project.

there is lots of opinons on what contitutes real barbecue . Some say only low and slow smoking over hardwood, and anything fast is called grilling. Personally, I don't really care about the distinction. It is just different techniques in live fire cooking , which is what I think of as Barbecue. Adam Perry Lang's cookbook "Serious Barbecue" is a great place to start to learn the principles behind smoking and grilling. there are alot of good recipes on his website. He hasn't updated it in a long time but there is some tasty eats there, plus great info.

I second the jerk suggestion. A good overnight marinate with a jerk paste and then grilled over hardwood or lump charcoal is hard to beat. I will sometimes soak allspice(pimento) berries in water then make smoke packs with the berries added. It is hard to get pimento wood or bark here but the smoke from the berries really gives it that extra touch. I don't often like to admit that I can't make something better than the storebought version , but walkerswood jerk paste is one of those things. The only tweak I make is a dry rub with my own ground smoke dried scotch bonnets before rubbing the pork down with the paste for the marinate. I must be doing something right though, since my Jamacian brother-in-law eats it like it is candy. LOL

It is still a bit early for them here but I am looking so forward to them . They almost always overlap the morel season so I am contemplating if a dish with both would be worth it, or keep it to dishes that feature each separately. I absolutely love to grill ramps over hardwood or lump charcoal. I tweaked to the idea after learning about how they treat calcots in spain. I should start working on tweaking a decent romesco sauce now.

Awesome pizza picture shane.. Your making me want a BGE more and more now. OR I might just build a brick oven in the backyard like my Dad had. 6 ft deep cinder block foundations and about 16 ft high . LMAO I will bring a pic of it into work if I remember and can find it. we had to use scaffold to build it.

I am thinking probe placement could be an issue. Are you sure you were dead center on the first attempt? If you weren't you might actually have pulled it at a lower center temp than you thought. Did you cook them both on the same cookware, and rest in the same place? I have noticed room temp can really affect carryover in smaller diameter pieces of meat.

I don't think you necessarily need a wok for a stir -fry but it is the easiest way. I had to use my largest cast iron pan this past weekend to stir-fry as a freak kitchen accident took out my flat bottom wok pan. It also killed the electric spiral element under it. I had just finished prep and was making a tapioca starch slurry to thicken the sauce. I placed the wok pan on the element and turned to high to preheat. About 10 seconds later there was this very loud electrical buzzing snapping sound and sparks started flying. When I looked that the pan there was a single spot of really intense white light that left spots on my eyes for at least a half hr afterwards. I turned the control off , waited til the element cooled and swapped out for the back element of the same size . I pulled down my largest cast iron pan and kept going, there was no way I was wasting all that prep time. lol It turned out well , although the low sides were an issue. Lots of things jumped out of the pan that night. I could only do a few ingredients at a time and then transfer to a hot casserole in the oven to keep while finishing the rest. At the end I sauced and tossed served over rice. Extra garlic chile paste for me as my wife isn't a chile fan.

how about a raw food chocolate cake that uses avocado. I havn't tried it myself but it looks interesting.

How about a BLAT.. Bacon , lettuce, avocado , tomato sandwich. doing such a simple thing ,it will all revolve around getting the best ingredients you can find. you could up the factor by making your own bread and mayo . A simple rosemary and gray sea salt foccacia made with pizza dough could be fast and delicous .

It depends on the restaurant . Schwart's deli in Montreal is definitely a place where communal dining is fun. It is basically the only way you can eat there anyway, because the lines waiting to get in are ususally halfway up the block .

Hi folks.. This is my first post here so if I get out of bounds let me know I love breakfast so this topic drew me in immediately. breafast today was a toasted sourdough bagel,with two sunny side up eggs over a hash of leftover debreziner sausage, onion and russet potato. the hash was seasoned with pinches of mexican oregano, dried golden thyme ( the last bit of my homegrown crop from last year) , ground cumin, chili powder( homemade blend) ,my hot batch chile blend( another homemade blend with combo of spices and bought chile powders and my homemade smoked habanero powder), kosher salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. Also couldn't forget the coffee. french press using fresh ground espresso beans.