carswell

Le meilleur et le plus simple de la pomme de terre. You just had to make me type it out again, eh?

Have never heard of or seen a recipe for his truffled mashed potatoes. In LM&LPSDLPDT, his purée de pommes de terre recipe calls for ratte or BF 15 potatoes (Quebec-grown rattes are also available at Chez Louis for a price), though the purée à la graisse d'oie recipe specifies charlottes. By the way, over on the France forum there's an ongoing discussion of his famous purée that includes a summary of the recipe: Joel Robuchon's Mashed Potatoes. In his spud book, Robuchon characterizes charlottes as firm-fleshed potatoes good for steaming, sautéing, deep-frying and stewing and says they make "de savoureuses salades."

Spud alert! On the weekend, Chez Louis had charlotte potatoes, probably the variety most called for in Robuchon's Le meilleur et le plus simple de la pomme de terre and many other French cookbooks. No indication of provenance. For the last week or so, ExoFruits on Côte des Neiges between Queen Mary and Jean-Brillant has had gorgeous, sweet, buttery, yellow-skinned fingerling potatoes, the best spuds I've eaten in ages (first batch boiled with fresh dill; second batch steamed and eaten with salted butter; third batch boiled, sliced while hot and dressed with red wine vinegar and olive oil). Have never understood why these are so rare in our fair city. Again, no indication of provenance. Less expensive than the grelots normally on sale and far superior in taste and texture. Unfortunately, at both places they were sold prepackaged on shrink-wrapped styrofoam trays. Ironically, ExoFruits also packages nearly all its organic produce that way...

According to her member profile, she hasn't been online since November 26, which probably means she's away on business or vacation. I was happy to let you two booster away but, well, you're forcing my hand. I'm against the idea. First, there's the ergonomics. What with the eG Forums header, banner ad, sponsor blurb, status bar and sticky topics, when I drop by the MQ&EC page these days, I see three active threads on my 1024 X 768 monitor without scrolling. Adding your four sticky topics would reduce that to zero. And what happens if someone volunteers to start doing media reviews, which are also given sticky topic status? Second, there's the whole sticky topic question. Now that they've been around for a while, the existing two sticky topics are seldom read and they have yet to receive a single reply. Your proposed topics would probably see a little more action but, really, should such inert threads be the first ones everybody sees on every visit? Third, though Montreal and Quebec get the most coverage here, this is the Montreal, Quebec and Eastern Canada board. By all rights, shouldn't we create a Nova Scotia wine sticky topic, especially seeing as how their product is arguably superior to Quebec's? What about the produce of New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland/Labrador? Fourth and, I think, most importantly, there's nothing to stop you or ap jow or anyone else from starting threads on Quebec cheese, produce, wine and booster bistros on the regular board. If there is sufficient interest in the topics, they will float at or near the top of the listing, be virtual sticky topics. In fact, in some cases, you wouldn't even need to start a thread: see here for example, not to mention the market disptaches, JTM extension, Havre aux glaces and numerous "what should I not miss in Montreal" threads.

They're mocha pots de crème and the recipe's available on her website (click Recipes > As Seen on TV > 10 Minute Mocha Pots de Crème). The cream is brought to boiling then processed in a blender with melted chocolate, instant coffee, sugar and other flavourings before being transferred to ramekins, chilled and served. No baking (!). You're right: they're not traditional pots de crème.

The eggs are an essential part of a pot de crème's makeup. They enable it to just set, to achieve solid-but-trembling-in-the-centreness, a state I've never seen duplicated without them. They also give the custard an incomparably silky mouthfeel, especially when they're duck eggs. And they contribute flavour, an addition that's particularly important in North America, where most cream has had the flavour ultrapasturized and adulterated out of it. Eggless pots de crème aren't pots de crème; they're pudding. Pots de crème are chilled. Ice cream is frozen. Serve ice cream at refrigerator temperature and you'll be serving soup. A properly made custard will be solid at room temperature. Sorry but the no eggs or gelatin business eliminates every non-frozen dessert of this type in my repertoire. And having no objections to gelatin, I have no experience with substitutes. When I cook for people who don't eat specific ingredients, I don't prepare ersatz versions of dishes they normally avoid (down that path lies tofurky). In your shoes, I'd probably make a fruit-based dessert (e.g. pears poached in sweet or sweetened white wine, stuffed while warm with gorgonzola, drizzled with the reduced poaching liquid and garnished with toasted slivered pistachios) for my egg and gelatin-shunning guests and save the pots de crème for an occasion when I could make the glorious genuine article.

You might as well be asking whether you can make an eggless custard. While the answer is yes, the real question is why you would want to. The eggs are key to the dessert's flavour and texture and even if you find an eggless way to get the custards to set, the end product won't be a true pot de crème. Why not save the pots for when you can do them right and treat your egg-avoiding guests to, say, panna cotta?

What Jason said. The caps and lattes you get from most joints in North America are coffee-flavoured milk drinks. Also, in Italy, barista is a profession; the job is taken seriously. In North America (with a few blessed exceptions), it's a McJob.

Late-breaking news! Don't recall whether I heard it on the BBC or read it on the front page of the Globe and Mail, but reports are circulating that the sweet-and-spicy nut folks didn't fold up this Sunday but will be back next weekend for their clusters' last stand. A good thing, too, judging by the crowd gathered around the operation yesterday afternoon. Don't miss this chance to savour the smells and chat with the crew while buying a bag of nuts hot from the wok, enjoying them al fresco and supporting a good cause.

Cut them into chunks and use them in a salad. See here for a starting point. Make Puy lentils as per this recipe or make a warm lentil salad and add the chopped veggies just before serving.

My sympathies. Having spent too much of my life in small Midwestern towns, I know how frustrating it can be. As I mentioned upthread, I've never cooked anticucho. But that won't stop me from saying you could adapt the recipe and come up with a perfectly acceptable dish. After all, we're talking about a marinade; the beef remains the star of the show. See here for one possibility (replace the hontaka chiles with mirasols, serranos or what have you). The only exclusively ethnic ingredient is annato, which you could order from Penzey's for not much dinero or maybe even prevail on a fellow eGulleter to mail to you a teaspoons' worth of (I'd be happy to, though there might be trans-border issues).

While I've never cooked beef heart, a local Peruvian restaurant trims, cubes, marinates it, threads the cubes on skewers and grills them medium rare. Wonderful, chewy, tasty beef. I believe the Peruvian name for the dish is anticucho. Braising and roasting, stuffed or not, are other "popular" preps. edit: Google search results for anticucho heart recipe

Good article, Mary. The only point I'd respectfully disagree with is this: There are degrees of corkedness and people have widely differing levels of sensitivity to TCA. While some corked wines reek to high heaven, others are only mildly corked and may not smell or taste off-putting so much as simply off. Anyone who has attended tastings has probably enountered individuals (women more often than not, in my experience) who can detect a mildly corked wine at 100 feet and others who see nothing wrong with a wine all the other tasters have declared vilely, undrinkably corked. And I'm sure I'm not the only person who has found a bottle off without being able to pin down why, set the bottle aside for 24 hours and then, on revisiting the wine, found the TCA taint unmistakable.

I haven't been since the move, ID. Though friends tell me the food and overall experience are not quite as spectacular as they used to be, the wine list appears not to have suffered. And while the exact list would be hard to reproduce here in Montreal, it wouldn't be hard to put together a "light" version. Heck, you could probably do so just by selecting appropriate bottles from Bû's wine list. Combine that with the cooking at, say, Au Cyclo, Jun-i or Petit Treehouse and you'd have a winner.

Sure, Maeve. Whereabouts on Park? Have you been? Cô Ba's Asian mix gives me pause but hope springs eterenal. Really? Tell us more. Would there were a local Asian eatery with a wine list as interesting as, say, The Slanted Door's.

Bonny Doon now has three wine clubs. I subscribed to DEWN back when it was the one and only and before trans-border shipments became more trouble than they're worth. The wines were always quirky, usually enjoyable and occasionally sublime: a rosato di nebbiolo remains the best ever match I've found for vitello tonnato and a late havest-style viognier made from grapes shrivelled due to Pierce's disease or some other malady was the equal of any sweet Condrieu I've tasted. Another plus was the accompanying newsletters, written by the man himself and riddled with outrageous puns, obscure jokes, pointed invective and even good sense. If I lived in a reciprocal state, I imagine I'd still be a member, as well as a Ridge ATPer.

Kind of. Red Wine with Fish : The New Art of Matching Wine with Food by David Rosengarten and Joshua Wesson advocates pairing wine and food on the basis of similar or contrasting components, flavours and textures, includes lots of examples (i.e. recipes with wines that work and don't work), appends a list of appellations and varietals with their common component/flavour/texture descriptors and lays a lot of wine-pairing myths to rest (e.g. that caviar and Champagne are soulmates). All in all, a fun if iconoclastic read. Unfortunately, it's somewhat outdated and totally out of print and the promised revised edition has never materialized.

Viognier works well with cream and herb flavours. Domaine des Goubert's Cuvée "V" is one of the best French vigoniers outside of Condrieu. California also has success with the grape; Calera's is one of my favourites.

The Oxford Companion to Wine, edited by Jancis Robinson The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson Vintner's Art by Hugh Johnson and James Halliday The History of Wine by Hugh Johnson Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch (a great read)

Imputing motives.

Cô Ba (1124 Laurier West, 514 908-1889) took over the space formerly known as Ginza. Decor appears little changed. Food said to be Thai/pan-Asian sushi bar. Sign in the window says BYOW. Given the pitiful excuses for wine lists at most of Montreal's sushi bars and Asian eateries, the idea of BYO has appeal, especially as the resto's prices are reasonable. Yet, I've never seen a review and word on the street is nil. Any reports?

Yes, and it will be that way until the new site is up, sometime next week or soon thereafter (so they say).

One of the waitrons at APDC just told me that the restaurant's website will be back online real soon now, maybe as early as next week. Same URL as before: www.aupieddecochon.ca.

I hope so. I'm just sorry I missed out on your grilled cheese sandwiches. But back to the nuts. How well do they keep? If I buy a bag for a friend, will the nuts be as delicious a day or two later when I finally see him or her? And if we reheat them in the oven or microwave, will they regain or at least approximate their fresh-from-the-wok scumptiousness?

Good question. I've often wondered why any visitor to Montreal would go to any of our steakhouses. Montreal has so many places that are unusual and even unique; I can't fathom passing them by in favour of food and an experience that can be found in nearly every city on the continent.