jersey13

Also on the Asian fron, I can't forget one of my favs, Chez Lien. I go to the one on the west Island mostly but they have different branches. I believe it's a family ruin deal and the food is well prepared and consistent. The one in Lasalle had a different menu to the one near me and it was terrific.

Those sound wonderful Big Gra. I love little places with good ethnic home cooking. After Friday night practicesy waterpolo teammates and I would sometimes go to a Tibetan place on Ontario just west of St. Denis. It's a little hole in the wall, so blink and you'll miss it. I think it's actually called The Tibetan but my memory for these things is like seive. They were cheap and the food was terrific and filling. It's very cozy in there,too. Another post-practice haunt: Across the street le Pellerin serves a great bucket of Mussels with Fries. Service can be slow and uneven but I LOVE mussels.

Thanks Identifiler. Good deals around town......that works for me. I imagine Soy is a Japanese haunt? I love Japanese food. WiSushi out near me has a good lunch special too. Can't get enough sushi!

One thing I love about Montreal is that it seems to really run the gamut for good food both in terms of quality and price. By that I mean that cheap doesn't necessarily equal crap. It's not that I can't appreciate the high end offerings (I LOVE a great meal), it's more like I can seldom afford them. Also, I tend to think of them as special treats when I go out of town or out of the country, so even when I do go up the scale, it's usually in another city(go ahead, slap my hand ). All this being said, where are the best cheap eats in this city? Let's say $15 and under and it can be anything from a great burger to a bucket of mussels(I'm not fussy). Let's hear them!

I love nonstick for muffins too, but even with that I use the cupcake papers. Clean-up doesn't get much easier. I use aluminium for baking but I always line cake pans with wax or parchment so I don't find them too hard to clean. Also, I find that high quality non stick is sometimes more expensive than good aluminium. And, non-stick eventually flakes off, leaving the pans vulnerable to rust. We've eaten alot of Teflon flakes in our brownies, I'm sure!

I love a good doughnut once in awhile but I can't imagine they're so outstanding that I'd line up for them like an addict in a heroine program. I mean, we're talking DOUGHNUTS here...

Which is why we all need to be skilled in Basic Life Support, cause God knows we can't get an ambulance!

You have a point there. It's always disheartening see large chains squeeze out smaller businesses that offered a better product but didn't necessarily have mass appeal. Makes it harder to find "real" food. I have yet to eat a Krispy Kreme but at this point I'll try anything. Quality wise, Dunkin has been on the decline for awhile now and I never really liked Tim Horton's. As for McD's, they are now struggling because it has taken them this long to offer "healthy" meals (ie, small, expensive salads) and a cheap menu, much like what Wendy's has been doing for years.

I hear ya raspoutine. Food courts are downright evil for any type of cuisine.Well... let's just say that if I'm really hard up for pizza and happen to be in Fairview.......But really, when I order in, it's almost always from Gigi. I think the original Tevere is still open but I'm not often in that area. Another place I discovered while on contract in that area is a little hole on the wall on McGill street not far from Soto in Old Montreal. Sorry I can't be more specific but I did mention in a thread somewhere that I am directionally impaired. Their tomato/cheese pizza was terrific.. And of course the 0.99 wedges to be found along St Catherine always taste good after a long night of on the dance floor. But then again at that point, nobody's ever that discriminating.

I love Tevere pizza too. They have a branch in the food court in Fairview. Actually my favourites on the West Island are Gigi's in Pointe Claire Village and Mory's in Pierrefonds. I love a thick crusted pizza!

Hopleaf: Would it be easier if I posted the Digest on this thread too? Just to use as a reference?

Hi there, I did the digest for the "Soul of Mexico" and while I visited there some years ago, I can't really say if it captures the "soul". I understand what you're getting at, though. Thing is, with magazines, and other publications, I think there is a certain amount of romance (read: marketing) behind titles and descriptions. If they really wanted to capture the soul of Mexico and put it to print, they certainly wouldn't have room for all those ads. Also, I think we have to look at the style of the publication. As an example, I would expect to find the "soul" of a country in older (1980s)Gourmet magazines, where the issues were quite dense with travel writing as well as food writing. When I look at Gourmet today, the focus is much more on recipes and the articles are much shorter. I think Bon Appétit is in that same market. So it's probably safe to say that while Bon Appétit seems to have captured a wealth of authentic cooking info, they have likely fallen short in the "soul" category. But I too would like to hear from someone who did more that go to the beach on their visit.

I am almost sure I will make that on Saturday for my baby boy's first birthday. I can't wait to see what he does with the coconut frosting. The spouse actually made his first birthday cake last weekend for moi, and it was a coconut layer cake out of Cook's Illustrated. I remember it fondly from church potlucks as a kid, but I gotta say, we halved the frosting (only 2 layers) and it was still way, way too sweet for me. Like scrape the frosting off the middle too sweet. The icing was a buttercream made just with eggwhites. Have my tastes changed or are there less sweet versions? regards, trillium What you're describing sounds like 7 minute frosting which is like marshmallow fluff on cake( a classic for coconut layer cake). Yup, it's sweet alright, but I haven't seen it done any other way. You could try one of the fancier buttercreams (italian meringue+ LOTS of butter), but they are a bit more complicated to make. However, the end product is smooth as silk and not sickeningly sweet.

Hi Rosie! I'm a relative newbie to eGullet but I was in Sydney back in November and one place that had a nice breakfast was the Blackbird café in Darling Harbour. I stayed at the Travellodge Wentworth but if you can find that on your map, go straight down Liverpool St. to the water and hang a right. The atmosphere is amazing. The harbour is very close to Chinatown. For dinner, on that same strip, I'm Angus was great. Enjoy your trip. OZ is pure magic! P.S. I seem to recall an Aussie breakfast being eggs, toast and grilled tomatoes with sausage or ham (not thrilling), but I could be wrong.

Yes, what's up with that? One is not aspiring to the heights of pastrychefdom with any of these cakes. They are not that hard to bake. And I don't think I've had anything but a grocery store sheet cake at a birthday party for the last couple of years. I just pass on it. Ah...Lady Baltimore Cake! Nope, you're not the only one (name's Renee, by the way). My mom baked exclusively from scratch when we were kids and I developed a love of cake mixes purely out of fascination that a cake could be produced in such a simplistic manner. Gotta love that chemical taste! I got over that when I started doing more baking and eventually took over the dessert duties from my mom. My best buddy never knew what homemade baked goods were until he came to our house. That was over 20 years ago and he hasn't missed a family celebration since! I LOVE producing cakes in particular from scratch but confess to the use of shortening in frosting for kiddy cakes just to get the icing to be pure white. While I'm here, any hints on making pure white frosting out of butter? Can it be done?

Being quite new to this board, I clearly need some education: Howcome old posts from 2002 would reappear like no time has passed?

I'm not terribly fussy about recipes but I do prefere ones in which the ingredients are listed before the method and not as a part of the method. I have read Gourmet for years and their old format was a long paragraph that had to be read in its entirety just to get a list of ingredients. God help you if you read too quickly! Within the past few years they have changed their format drastically to include prep time, etc and I love it. Listing any equipment is a big help too. The average home baker only has so many "large bowls." (Eventually I found myself using pots!) But, as others in this thread have pointed out, we can't assume too much when writing recipes. There are loads of things I do and know from experience, but if you're talking to someone whose mom made apple pie from a mix (yeah, really), don't expect them to know what you mean when you say you want the mixture to resemble "coarse meal."

I think just 'Gullitzer Prize' is nice. It's close enough to Pulitzer for people to get the reference. "Hey I won the Gulitzer for best linguini sonnet!" sounds kewl.

Interesting idea. How would I get the thing started? I enjoy when people think for me... Even if you can't locate charities to donate the food to (and yes, I do agree that it's a fabulous idea), you could have the workshops and then sell the meals inexpensively. Effectively what you would have is your own cooking workshop/restaurant. Naturally you would have to find someplace to hold these workshops but it would be really cool. Here in Montreal, the cooking school is open for lunch and dinner and for a fixed price you can get to taste what the students are learning. If you have the patience and temperament to teach, it could be the start of something big.

It's out there, baby! I host parties at my sisters's place because she actually has a house large enought to accomodate an entire soccer team, and a large backyard equipped with a BBQ. In addition she has a husband who is a trained chef, willing to help and loves being left with a fridge full of leftovers! When the party is over, I can go home to bed! Woohoo!

Really? Just out of curiosity, do you submit articles to websites, etc? It's not a bad place to start. Not always easy to come by, because of the fact that much content on the Internet is free, many websites feel that paying writers is unnecessary. (yeah, really) No wonder there's so much crap written online! But I digress... If you want to write for money, it can mean starting out with some freebies, just to get clips, but it may be worth it to you in the end. Thing is, I am not sure how many QUALITY online food publications there are. There are the obvious ones like Gourmet, etc, but their first born is really print. Web is used as promo for them. Toss something out there and see what sticks. Thanks for the tips. In fact, I've been PMing my French Laundry piece to all takers. Fat Guy's looking at it today and giving me his opinion (rather intimidating to tell you the truth). For the most part, the feedback received has been encouraging. I'm hoping someone has the fortitude to see my potential on this website and make the right connection for me. In reality though, if I don't write for money it won't devastate me. It's a great escape. When it becomes another grind is when I bow out. I'd love to get The French Laundry piece published and go from there. But I think I'll need to condense and edit before I ship it off to the rags. Thanks. Hmmmm. French Laundry... Doesn't sound very foody.... May I have a look? The French Laundry doesn't sound very foodie? I'm confused. If you'd like the piece--which I'd be more than happy to pawn off on all unsuspecting takers--PM me your email address and when I get home tonight I'll email it to you. Thank.s Forgive my ignorance. I just don't know what French Laundry refers to. I just got my brain back from the repair shop yesterday and it seems the reinstallation didn't go as planned! A virgin French Laundrian. WOW! You've got to get up to speed my good friend. Plug that name into a search engine and explore the unknown. It's the best restaurant in the world some say. Check it out.... Oh thank God. I thought it was a new braising technique! LOL

Really? Just out of curiosity, do you submit articles to websites, etc? It's not a bad place to start. Not always easy to come by, because of the fact that much content on the Internet is free, many websites feel that paying writers is unnecessary. (yeah, really) No wonder there's so much crap written online! But I digress... If you want to write for money, it can mean starting out with some freebies, just to get clips, but it may be worth it to you in the end. Thing is, I am not sure how many QUALITY online food publications there are. There are the obvious ones like Gourmet, etc, but their first born is really print. Web is used as promo for them. Toss something out there and see what sticks. Thanks for the tips. In fact, I've been PMing my French Laundry piece to all takers. Fat Guy's looking at it today and giving me his opinion (rather intimidating to tell you the truth). For the most part, the feedback received has been encouraging. I'm hoping someone has the fortitude to see my potential on this website and make the right connection for me. In reality though, if I don't write for money it won't devastate me. It's a great escape. When it becomes another grind is when I bow out. I'd love to get The French Laundry piece published and go from there. But I think I'll need to condense and edit before I ship it off to the rags. Thanks. Hmmmm. French Laundry... Doesn't sound very foody.... May I have a look? The French Laundry doesn't sound very foodie? I'm confused. If you'd like the piece--which I'd be more than happy to pawn off on all unsuspecting takers--PM me your email address and when I get home tonight I'll email it to you. Thank.s Forgive my ignorance. I just don't know what French Laundry refers to. I just got my brain back from the repair shop yesterday and it seems the reinstallation didn't go as planned!

Really? Just out of curiosity, do you submit articles to websites, etc? It's not a bad place to start. Not always easy to come by, because of the fact that much content on the Internet is free, many websites feel that paying writers is unnecessary. (yeah, really) No wonder there's so much crap written online! But I digress... If you want to write for money, it can mean starting out with some freebies, just to get clips, but it may be worth it to you in the end. Thing is, I am not sure how many QUALITY online food publications there are. There are the obvious ones like Gourmet, etc, but their first born is really print. Web is used as promo for them. Toss something out there and see what sticks. Thanks for the tips. In fact, I've been PMing my French Laundry piece to all takers. Fat Guy's looking at it today and giving me his opinion (rather intimidating to tell you the truth). For the most part, the feedback received has been encouraging. I'm hoping someone has the fortitude to see my potential on this website and make the right connection for me. In reality though, if I don't write for money it won't devastate me. It's a great escape. When it becomes another grind is when I bow out. I'd love to get The French Laundry piece published and go from there. But I think I'll need to condense and edit before I ship it off to the rags. Thanks. Hmmmm. French Laundry... Doesn't sound very foody.... May I have a look?

Really? Just out of curiosity, do you submit articles to websites, etc? It's not a bad place to start. Not always easy to come by, because of the fact that much content on the Internet is free, many websites feel that paying writers is unnecessary. (yeah, really) No wonder there's so much crap written online! But I digress... If you want to write for money, it can mean starting out with some freebies, just to get clips, but it may be worth it to you in the end. Thing is, I am not sure how many QUALITY online food publications there are. There are the obvious ones like Gourmet, etc, but their first born is really print. Web is used as promo for them. Toss something out there and see what sticks.

I write. That's what I do to pass the time and get my mind off of pumping out shrimp cocktail, quesadillas and crab salad stuffed into an avocado. I write about my travails in the biz. I write because I can pour that artistic energy into it. My life was ten years straight of wine dinners, creating menus, and getting recognition for the fruits of my labor. Now, the only way I can think to satisfy that need for acceptance is to write about my life in the restaurant world. I know it's been done before, and probably better than I'm doing now but I think it'll pan out if I keep it up. Of course it's been done before. There ain't much new under the sun. I too write. Sometimes for $$, other times as a form of therapy. I've heard it said by some very successful people that no matter what you do for a living, it eventually becomes just another job. Sad but true. On the up-side, sometimes years of routine allows one to make some very pointed observations, which is where the writing outlet will serve you best.