Ling

I heard that Sushikan is now closed, and the chefs are back in Japan. I thought there was a downtown location opening? Apparently the owners think that Richmond might not be ready for such a high-end Japanese restaurant? Damn...there goes my hirame engawa.

^GAAHHHHHHHH DROOOOOOOOOOOL!! I've only had tendon at Chinese restaurants--tendon and noodle soup is one of my favourites. It's a bit firmer than marrow, but the taste is similar. So delicious.

Is that pate made with rabbit liver and pheasant confit, or are those two separate items? I love that you have marrow, trotters and beef cheeks on the menu! To get back to your earlier question, I would love to see a lot of game dishes on the menu (or perhaps you have this already?) Venison, elk, caribou...mmm. I also love tendon and tripe dishes, but I wonder if that would be appealing to your niche.

Thanks angrykoala! I hope you don't mind me saying this, but the pound cake looks rubbery in the middle, just like my Elvis Presley pound cake...which is why I didn't like it. What were the proportions like for the Sherry Yard cake?

^Is that a serious offer? I would love to spend an afternoon in your new kitchen! Folds? I think you mean "turns"? I did six turns. link to photos of the puff pastry, pain au chocolat, and Portuguese tarts I made yesterday (and if you scroll down a little further, you'll also see the brownies I always make...I did quite a bit of baking that day )

I used to serve my parents breakfast in bed when I was a kid. I distinctly remember thinking myself quite a pro in the kitchen when I whipped up some fresh peach "jam" (basically just mashed up peaches, sugar, and a squeeze of lemon) to serve with Eggo waffles. I also mixed the maple syrup with the butter to make "maple butter". I had a little vase filled with a flower from the garden too! (I think I must've been in grade 3 at the time. ) My parents thought it was cute, but they told me (years later) how they'd hear me banging around in the kitchen and have to wait in bed and pretend to be asleep so I could "surprise" them. I made my ex breakfast in bed all the time (no Eggo waffles or peach jam, I promise.) I would much rather eat at the table, though. Kind of hard juggling all that food in bed.

I just took a look at the Seasonal Menu for March and it looks great! Lots of interesting items. I am unfamiliar with "Verhona" chocolate...do you mean "Valrhona"? If so, can't wait to try that dessert...mmm!

I made the apple frangipane galette out of the Feenie's cookbook today. Brief notes: -lowered amount of sugar -substituted ground hazelnuts for almonds -made dulce de leche instead of the caramel sauce -made puff pastry instead of using frozen -added bit of cardamom -baked for 22 minutes instead of 12-15 at 400 degrees -did not have any of their wonderful vanilla ice-cream to serve with it Great recipe, and very simple to do! Apple galette photo

^That's awesome! You're so creative, tejon! I made the apple frangipane galette out of the Feenie's cookbook. The pastry chef told me that it is their most popular dessert. I've had it at the restaurant and it's quite good. I love their vanilla ice-cream (made in-house)! I cut down on the sugar in the recipe, and used ground hazelnuts instead of almonds in the frangipane. I added a bit of cardamom with the cinnamon. I also made dulce de leche instead of the caramel sauce, and used the puff pastry I made instead of frozen puff. The recipe specifies that the galette will be done in 12-15 minutes at 400 degrees, but perhaps my oven is off because it took a full 22 minutes for the puff pastry to crisp up. Great recipe, though--and so quick and easy to put together!

^I love fish head soup when it's properly prepared. The black gunk sounds really scary...why was the soup black?

^Yeah, I agree. The cake portion was just OK. The filling is great, though.

^#2 in Gourmet's taste test! I'm surprised that Michel Cluizel came dead last. I think their chocolate is excellent, though I haven't baked with it.

I usually order off the fresh sheet there. Crab guts--yum. Haven't had that there. The tempura yam sticks are really good, but generally I'm more a fan of the sashimi (very good quality) than the kitchen items.

Awesome! I can't wait til I have kids so I can do cool things like that with them! On a sidenote, my friend's brother just asked me to help him teach a cooking class for kids on Fridays.

No problem...I wanted to point you to this recipe, which I think tastes similar to the ones you like (just leave out the nuts.) Alice Medrich's Bittersweet Deception cookies

^Becca, could you tell us which other recipes you tested against your Cold Oven pound cake? Did you try the sour cream and cream cheese variations? I remember doing a few recipes that had sour cream and cream cheese...but can't remember which ones I liked the best. Thanks!

They are just basically a flourless or near-flourless dark chocolate cookie. There are lots of recipes posted in the Baking forum for similar cookies. Chewy Chocolate cookie thread

The Valrhona chocolate cookies are quite good, as dark and chewy as others have mentioned. I hesitate to post this...but the Sparkle cookies I had at Thomas Haas two weeks ago are definitely different from the ones I've eaten in the past. I make them at home according to the recipe posted in Recipe Gullet, using Valrhona Guanaja. I bought one at Thomas Haas because Wendy (the forum host in the Pastry) said she couldn't discern the almond meal in the Sparkle cookies when she had them (I don't know how long it's been since she's had one though). While the Sparkle cookie at Haas does have a melting texture due to the almond meal, it was definitely not as intensely chocolatey as the ones I make at home. Also, the almond flavour was very strong compared to the ones I do at home. I think they've re-formulated the recipe to make them less expensive to produce. Make the recipe posted in Recipe Gullet with the right chocolate and I'm sure you'll be quite satisfied with them. If you use a less expensive "dark" chocolate, like the dark Callebaut, the cookies will spread too much in the oven because it contains too much fat and not enough cocoa solids.

Thanks for bringing that up. I know I'm kind of intruding on this thread, but I just wanted to mention that some (well, most) of my friends are the "young-Asians-at-CFD-restaurants crowd" and do look forward to DOV each year because it's fun and the food is cheaper. I guess the more "lively" atmosphere that many of us don't prefer is actually seen as a bonus, because it's definitely less formal. My friends always ask me for recommendations, and I also post recommendations on another board that's a bit younger and less informed about dining than the Egullet crowd. I did recommend my favourites, and also told them which restaurants I was going to this year too. Reading some of the comments here almost make me want to apologize for directing some of these people to those restaurants, because I know they're probably not leaving a 20%+ tip or ordering bottles of wine. ETA: I booked all my reservations at what I assumed would be the last seating--8pm or later, except for Parkside at 7:30 p.m. as my parents like to eat earlier. I did remember to look around the room to see if they were in need of tables perhaps an hour into our meal, and neither West (at 10:30pm) nor Diva (at 9ish) seemed particularly busy, so I did take my time at both restaurants and stayed just over two hours. (I had extra courses at all my DOVs though.)

I had foie gras three times in two days--at Elements, at home, and at Parkside. I do love the fries that come with the veal chop, but that might be a lunch time special. My favourite dish I had this summer was the cornish game hen stuffed with sweetbreads, but that might be a lunch dish as well. The onion tart is quite good. Nice pastry.

Just wanted to chime in on the praise for that tutorial...wow, I've never seen anything like it! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your greatest oyster adventure, Chris!

Thank-you all! Yes, it was fun to make and I'm so glad I get to cross off one of my culinary resolutions for the new year! The bad thing is I used more than half my puff pastry already and I know that means I ate more than a cup of butter yesterday, if you count all the butter and cream in the chocolates, brownies, ganache, etc. I think I will have strawberries for dessert today.

So...I have a confession to make. I thought I had PMS last week but I guess I was just being a pig as usual...oink oink. I must've remembered the date wrong. But today I was in a FOUL mood. Seriously, I was pretty grumpy from the moment I woke up...I didn't really talk to anyone much today. I ate non-stop. Some of today's highlights: -I made a tray of pain au chocolat...I ate like 8 of them. -I had 6 Portuguese cream tarts (made those too) -then I baked brownies, covered them in ganache and caramel. Ate 3. -I ate a big handful of Valrhona pieces and raisins...kind of like high-end Glosettes, now that I think about it. Then a handful of cashews. -I ate a huge plate of beef curry and potatoes -scrambled eggs, some sort of Chinese soup with lots of pork -a big plate of pasta and a mountain of meatballs -a blueberry muffin (from Costco...yuck) with cream cheese -and then if that wasn't enough, I ate HALF A GINGER CAKE -another handful of Valrhona...(I am running low) -a hunk of E. Guittard Harmonie b/c my friend came over and wanted to try it...so I might as well eat a piece too, right? GRRRRRRRRRR!!!! Feel like a fatty! *sob* ETA: OOPS I forgot to write about my lunch! It was four slices of that soft, squishy bread you get at Chinese bakeries slathered with a ton of peanut butter and sprinkled with chocolate chips (the cheap stuff), and a cup of hot chocolate (powdered mix).

I just learned how to use Photoshop tonight...I touched up the photo of your pound cake recipe, Becca. I guess I'm going to move onto the sour cream and cream cheese pound cakes this week.

I've heard of these substitutions. I use the -2 tbsp flour, +2tbsp cornstarch.