MikeMac

I love Bison great tasting, lower in fat but touchy to cook due to low fat content. I have a couple of Prime Ribs I am going to have a go at and want to do something different. Usually I cook slow to a temp of 125 and it works out great.. Suggestions?

Actually one of my favorites is Rocky's Burgers its one of the original food Trucks its a converted bus that was in one location for years then it moved to Crossroads market. Its still run by Rocky and his family. Go Hungry very hungry Another one I like the look of is Farm Girls have some neat home make things. Also Chef Mario at Burger 320 will get his trucks back on the road soon he used to do pizza's not sure what he will come up with now.

Check out http://www.yycfoodtrucks.com/meet-the-trucks/ This is not all of them but a good start. Jelly Modern Donuts is pretty neat and anything BBQ or Indian is really good.

Food trucks love them. It's so much better to do one singular thing right. Plus the cost of admission is much cheaper than a traditional restaurant allowing Chefs to do it for themselves. What's everyone's favorite?

I can not imagine going to London with out getting into Indian Food i think its better in London than any other place in the world. I am not sure wherein London you are staying but its hard to find a bad curry.

What are your favorite restaurants in Calgary and why?

I have a Rational 101 oven in my house and love it. I went with a gas unit that needed 110V 15 amp plus gas and highly recommend it. I explored the electric route the problem is Rational other than their smallest unit requires multiple phase power which is simply not available in other than newer or larger Commerical buildings. We are on the same path I started with the Electrolux and had some great results but had trouble keeping them running and getting them serviced. Rational is in an entirely different league with service not only fast and knowledgeable but the sales staff at least here in Canada are very accomplished chefs that know exactly what they are doing. The only issue I know about is the servicing dealers insurance is not valid for non Commerical establishments so if we ever need service other than what I can handle an issue we need to deal with. Rational was not recommending the install in a residential environment but at the same time the service and support I have received from Rational is far above anything else I have experienced. I have two of the Electrolux units never spoke to Electrolux considered it a huge thing just to get manuals. Absolutely no end user support . Rational on the other hand has amazing support.

Interesting in Canada nothing can be installed with out a listing. I have certainly been in homes in AZ that have commercial kitchens in them. And I am sure the people followed the law in putting them in I wonder how they did it? In my write up on the Rational Install I gave the name of the guy I dealt with at CaptiveAire - Josh Young

Rational a month all in. I could not be happier with the Oven I do not use my stove top at all. I get consistently great results and its easy. Rational is an amazing company to deal with they answer all my silly questions with out making me feel silly. I don't think the Rational would come together without the professionalism and handholding from the area rep Kevin. And the nice thing is now that they got my money the service is still first-class on shows no signs of changing. The CaptiveAire Vent system (Josh) is amazing quiet and automatic it works off two separate thermostats and if the one in the hood is 6 degrees higher than the outside ceiling it turns on. It came in cheaper than a high end residential version and the only negative is we have a huge fan on the side of the house. - but its quieter than the DCS vent we have on the stovetop. The local (Calgary) trades have been first class as well Modern Metal (Brad) for the stainless, sinks etc Hendrix (Anton) for the Rational and CapitiveAire if you ever talk to Anton ask him about his license plate. Stat Climate Control (Sean) for installing the CapitiveAire and the necessary ducting. Old Country Hardwood Flooring ( Dave) for the hardwood and Polstar Contracting for the tile work. Byron's Plumbing (Byron) for the gas and plumbing work. And Calgary Interior Systems Led (Ralph) for the drywall work. Our General was a guy named Matthew Kane who just started BMC Builder's he was great to work with and fast - I think he did the Demo in one day cost effective and kept the job moving along. Amazing Trades Our kitchen designer was great Erin McPherson from Ekko Cabinetry Ltd. not only is she a great person she kept peace between my self and my dear wife during the whole process and her husband (boy toy) is a professional chef with his own highly recommended restaurant here in Calgary Bistro 2210. Rob runs the install side of Ekko and he put one of his installers Stan on our job could not have turned out better. They really care and they get it right. Its busy in Calgary and all these trades went out of their way to ensure things were done and done well. I The only fly in the ointment was the solid surface - we dealt with a firm called Fine Lines they held our job up for 12 weeks due to poor planning and their idea of compensation was $400.00 they had no understanding of what it was like to not have a kitchen for and extra 12 weeks. But I guess we can not have everything perfect. I have paid all the trades other than a few holdbacks, I have no financial interest in any of the firms mentioned nor am I being paid by them in any way whatsoever. But with the local firms if you're looking to do something different and nice these guys are all first-class. Hendrix, Rational and CaptiveAire are all national/international firms.

I installed a rationale in our home in Calgary Canada and I worked closely with the inspectors and my insurance company. They are not UL approved for home use but as long as the manufacturer's guidelines were followed there were no problems. You're quite right to talk about venting this was a bigger hassle than the oven itself fortunately I found a company called CaptiveAire who did as builds and a great job simply first class all the way even better the price was right. I had a Gaggenaeu oven can keep it running local support people were great but couldn't keep it running. The rational and CapitveAire service people are fantastic.

I've always felt the most knowledgeable guy on the Internet about Knives is Jay Fisher I love his site and I have purchased some of his knives which I really like. I've also tried ceramic knives they haven't worked out I have a few Japanese knives which are good and a few German ones which are also good. The key seems to be honing them on a regular basis if their sharp they are easy to use and safe. I bought a book recommended by Jay Fisher the razors edge and it's worked out really well. But it's work and others do not treat my knives the way I do which means resharpening and rehoming. I now see a new type of knife called Vmatter I wonder if they really work I'm not qualified to follow the technical end.

It's great to see the new App and I look forward to getting it. Personally I love what modernist cuisine does and to support them I bought every book they have come out with. But how much do I use them? Frankly not that much they're too big and bulky I read everything on my iPad. So to hear they come out with an app is great!! And as a registered user I get to buyer at 50% off until after Christmas is even better. I guess it goes to show good things come to those who wait.

We have the Rational Oven installed and I could not be happier the oven is so good it's scary. It cooks really fast and it does a great job. The Rational Company itself does not recommend the use of the oven in a home environment but once you get over that hurdle the service supplied by the company is exceptional. Despite the great food it turns out the oven reduced my wife to tears. She saw it during the self-cleaning process that has it look more like a washing machine than an oven. Seriously during the cleaning process it blows suds all around the inside in the oven comes out perfectly clean looking new. Then the display start showing little sparkles. Amazing. Maybe we should call it kitchen TV.

I bought a Rational 101 but it does not microwave. With microwave do you have to use all plastic pans? I am just in the process of starting it up should have it going this week.

The purchase of the oven is just where it starts I'm very impressed with the customized "Gastronorm" which I assume is German for the customized pans suggested for use with the oven. Commercial pan sizing actually make sense a standard one GN pan is 12 inches by 20 inches which just happens to be the largest pan but sits on one rack of the oven. When I compare the prices of the rational hands and racks to what I would normally pay for pots and pans I think they're good value. In purchasing the oven it was strongly suggested that I also purchase the rational base for the oven. I'm very happy that I did the quality of the base is amazing and really completes the oven. I went for the base on wheels, not because I plan on moving around much but simply to save kitchen space so we could pull it out to service it.

Pick up The Food Lover's Guide to Paris by Patricia Wells she has a favorite chef whose name I can not remember but loved the food went their a few times. Its an old book 1999 and hopefully still relevant. If not its a great read about Paris.

We have torn out our kitchen and are doing the prep for the rational oven we have a gas 101 sitting in the garage waiting for the rest of the kitchen. We've had great support the local rational chef rep our biggest issue has been figuring out the ventilation as putting a commercial oven in a home doesn't seem to fit in any codebook. What makes it worse is it a modern oven that does not produce anywhere near the BTUs or hot surfaces as a conventional commercial oven. This is pretty amazing the reads of this topic are over 5000 now so I believe what I've been telling the manufacturer and the supporting companies is that there is a big market for this in homes. The proof is in the pudding and we hope to have the oven up and running within a few weeks

Ok I understand their are many ways to extract Flavor from spices. Some spices are best toasted dry some are best steeped in a bit of hot oil some reading I have done talks about fat soluble flavors others are water soluble. Any available reference material on this matter?

HAPPY DAYS Looks like we are going ahead with a gas 101 very frustrating experience its now down to the size of the hood needed and the CFM Needed to exhaust

PS the wonderful lady with the great posts on pressure cooking is "pazzaglia" from Rome,

LOVE my Pressure cooker... but hate cleaning the burnt mess off the bottom. So what I started doing is putting a couple cups of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker then adding a stainless steel bowl with the ingredients in them I got this idea from Miss Vicky's website and learned a lot more from the wonderful lady who lives in Italy and posts on pressure cookers. My problem is when I cook rice in a stainless steel bowel l it can take three times as long as it does in the pressure cooker directly also everything seems to take longer in the stainless steel bowl and I don't know why or how to calculate how much longer it should take. All I can say is I really recommend cooking with a bowl inside the pressure cooker as it makes a cleanup so easy I just need to combine this easy cleanup with the wonderful time savings normally involved with the pressure cooker.

Okay in rereading your reply even though the VP 112 technically has a bigger chamber it's plastic which means it won't last as long and further the shape of the vacuum chamber is not as useful as the other ones this is correct? I watched the video I see what you mean it.but it got the point across

I will read and learn Larissa you guys are the best !!!

It's great to see industury experts comment espically with full disclosure . to recap you are recommending the VP112 for home use as it can handle much larger bags of liquid and work with canisters ? Will it work with foodsaver canisters ?

This is not a new variety of brown rice, but a newly discovered way of cooking brown rice to "activate" it and increase natural occurring gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid in brown rice believed to have health giving properties such as lowering blood pressure, improving kidney function and relieving stress. While I am not techinically capable of commenting on the above statement I do like the taste of the rice . problem is when making it in a rice cooker I am limited to a 2 hour soak aparently because the rice water gets too ripe. plus are the claims made about GABA rice really true?