weinoo

I've been to Schwartz's in the past and it's very good; I'm just not one to wait on line for hours for a specific food. Now - as to the bagels, since agreeing to disagree is disagreeable to me... The older style bagel (dense, somewhat plump, chewy crumb AND a great crust) is hard to find these days, but I've got a few decent enough places I still go to. And these days, you can be sure I'm buying (if they have them) mini-bagels, which are the same size as bagels of yore were at one time. As you know, old @rotuts, when bagels started to become sandwich bread (something they were NEVER meant to be), that pretty much screwed the pooch for us old-school bagel lovers.

Kinda boring, but if that makes you happy...

No negativity; just that they're not bagels. And if they are, they suck.

The mushroom guy at Jean-Talon has a wonderful selection. Always enjoy Montreal, and Joe Beef; and even though they screwed up our reservation , it worked out fine. All of our meals were worthy.

A very nice weekend in Montreal, even with a snafu at Joe Beef, which aggravated me. But prior we did stop in to LVP, consuming a few glasses of wine and a snack... Grilled haricots, with harissa yogurt, bread crumbs and mint. Delicious (and maybe we should have stayed here to eat). Haricots were on every menu, and deservedly so, especially after seeing these at both Atwater and Jean Talon... Saturday's dinner was a new restaurant from the Toqué group, Beau Mont, in the gentrifying Parc Extension neighborhood. We'd not eaten at Toqué, so this was high on my list. Located in a semi industrial office building, quite modern and spacious inside. We decided to sit at the sparsely populated bar, comfortable and with lots of room. Great service from a fabulous bartender, and we dove in. Fine technical cooking, I guess to be expected from a Laprise run kitchen, focused on local ingredients, etc. etc. Bluefin is around, as noted on an earlier visit to Montreal, and here it was offered a few different ways. We went for the off-menu appetizer, cured and served with local artichokes and strawberry puree dotted around the plate... A Nordic-ish (well, maybe everything is Nordic-ish?) seared cucumber, hollowed out and filled with local Beurrasse cheese, topped with cured herring row, won me over. So much so that the picture sucks... Significant Eater opted for a really lovely pasta for her main course, while I, after reading about D'artagnan's Quebec sourced salt-marsh lamb, opted for the salt-meadow lamb from Quebec. Lamb "steak" from the leg, with pureed coco beans... Champignons on the side for both of us. Cheeses, dessert. A very nice meal all around. With a bottle of wine, a martini, 2 glasses of wine, $306 CA pre tip, so quite reasonable for food this good. Sunday night's dinner at Lemeac was also a winner, if a little more crazy in the service department. Including a great smoked hareng, duck confit, more haricots, a pretty damn good crab cake, moules frites, and profiteroles. Everything fine, if not revelatory. A wee bit more drinking than the night before, but the bill was exactly the same. I found their wine prices to be more on a par with the mark up we see here, except in Canadian dollars...so it doesn't feel quite as rough. Light market lunches both days. Oh, and for me, there's this fun stuff too (when in Canada)...

Thanks - we also hit Atwater during our weekend jaunt. Certainly different, but enjoyable in its own way. And talk about butchers!

Funny, but I thought the traffic at Jean-Talon (we were just there the last weekend of September) was not a problem. I guess it depends on where one is coming from before ending up in Montreal. I love these, and we ate haricots at 3 different restaurants! Speaking to one of the excellent vendors, who had a huge orchard stand located around the perimeter, he told me that Jean-Talon is the largest outdoor farmer's market in North America. Now, whether or not to believe him is another story.

Sad news indeed. RIP, Lisa.

Saucepan 1 inch of water bring to boil, add cold eggs either in steamer basket or on bottom of pot. Cook covered about 11 minutes for hard boiled. Don't shock. P.S. times gives you 10 free articles a month, I think.

I actually just tried out the J Kenji-Alt method he wrote about recently in the NY Times... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/dining/how-to-hard-boil-eggs.html It worked even better than the Instant-Pot method.

Pork shoulder "steak," pan-fried, with a bit of pan gravy. Rice made in the donabe, with stock, shitakes, scallions, and ginger. Pretty tasty.

Actually, now that you mentioned it, I could've definitely cooked the potatoes at the same time as the lamb. I had plenty of room in the pan, and the potatoes would've made a nice rack.

Potatoes were cooked first and then basically kept warm on top of the oven while the lamb cooked. Weren't as crispy this way, but still good. It was fresh. The rack was slightly over a pound (7 bones, iirc), and I think they run about $20/lb, which is quite fair around these parts. Especially when they're practically Frenched. I do a tiny bit more butchering, by removing the silver skin, but that's it. I cooked them, sans steam, at 425℉; after 15 minutes, I took their temp and it was a little low - I put them back in for another minute and a half, removed them at around 122℉, measured in the thickest part. Rested about 7 minutes - I couldn't wait any longer.

The haricots were from Trader Joe's (Guatemala) and the lamb was from Trader Joe's; it's grass-fed New Zealand, and it was tasty enough. The lamb was roasted in the CSO, after being salted and hanging out in the fridge for 6-8 hours. The haricots, butter braised. The Yukon gold potatoes, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and pimentón, and steam roasted in the CSO.

How much of the stuff did you have to buy?

Good; great thing about Paris is that it's quite easy to get around via Metro. In the 19th, the Parc de Buttes-Chaumont is quite fabulous. The 8th is too fancy for me to recommend anything, other than a couple of great museums (both the Grand and Petit Palais).

If you'll be there on a Sunday, the Marche Biologique on Blvd. Raspail is wonderful. There are 2 vendors I adore; one makes crepes, the other these cheesy-potato pancake-y things. We also like the Marche les Enfants Rouges in the 3rd. Pleny of other markets abound. Here you can get a taste of some old-school trad food at a very reasonable price...Aux Bons Crus Fulgarances brings in visiting, young chefs. Lunch is a steal. Lobrano did a piece for the Times a while ago, which means these places may be slammed a bit.

Kinda like the dumbest thing I've ever heard in terms of transporting tomatoes home from the farmer's market.

Weirdly, I don't seem to have this problem when porting stuff home from the USQ greenmarket. I usually try to rearrange the stuff I've bought so that the hardier veg and fruit act as a cradle for the stuff more susceptible to damage. Also, I tend to buy heirlooms which aren't super soft.

Sure I save the rinds from Parmigiano Reggiano. And I often save the rinds from Pecorino Romano. I find both great in a pot of soup, or maybe to flavor beans. But I have not, at least not yet, saved rinds from any other cheeses. I'm mostly referring to cheeses like Manchego, or various cheddars, anything basically with a rind that you don't feel like chomping on. Do you save them? And if so, what are your favorite uses?

If they ever make an oven that can clean my apartment, I'm in!!!! (alton?)

Oh geez, they had to say this on their website: Also, it doesn't really look like this can replace all the functions of the CSO - for instance, I don't see it as a toaster.

First attempt with the 2nd donabe I've bought. Nothing wrong with the first one but it's pretty big, so I went down to Korin and picked up a more reasonably sized one for the two of us. Chicken ginger rice. Made the dashi, which using a dashi tea bag took about 4 minutes. Chicken thighs marinated in sake, soy, nam pla. Lots of julienned ginger. A touch of sesame oil, and scallions to garnish. My one mistake was measuring the liquid incorrectly, for reasons that shall remain a secret. So, a little overcooked on the rice but just great taste, and this is easy. Served with assorted pickled veg and sautéed broccoli. The donabe will start to see a lot of use.

And some of us, despite all the reports, still do.