malcolmjolley

Will do, thanks!

You're with Lifford, no? (I get your e-newsletter.) What do you guys have in this month's releases that you're excited about? Particularly, in the $15 to $25, I'm buying a bottle for Friday night dinner with my wife range?

Hazan is a must. The River Cafe (London) series is excellent, too. (Most used Italian cookbooks in our house.)

Great news. Makes me proud to be an Upper Canadian, for once. Could Gerrard Kennedy be a secret Naked Chef fan?

Lardo, stained with roasted beet.

My 1961 edition of the Larrouse Gastronomique says simply to cover one's rillettes in lard. Not sure if 1961 lard is rendered or not, or whether they would edit this sort of thing for les rosbifs. Anyway, I'm quite pleased to own a cookbook that exhorts me to use raw pork fat. Makes you pay more attention to the hygenic standards and standards of sourcing of your local butcher, if nothing else. (Then again I'm waging a war against Ontario's pre-frozen sushi laws, so there you go.)

This is not a nice review. For the record, my wife cooked the Basque chicken from the book the other day and we were quite pleased.

Now that I think of it many a big North American city would have "Cotes de Basque" fancy restaurant in the 60's and 70's - althought the stress would be French. La plus que ca change...

After the Gherry museum in Bilbao, the food and wine scene in the Basque Country has been attracting the most international attention. I have to admit I had never given the region much thought before reading/viewing A Cook's Tour. While gourmandisme is generally an apolitical activity (notwithstanding GM food debates, organic practices and other regulatory battles - see the Sushi War in Toronto/Ontario), it's a good thing that more scrutiny is being put on this old conflict, wherever one's sympathies may lie.

Wow. Yum. I'm jealous!

I've posted the following at gremolata.com today: Forgive the run-on metaphor, but our campaign of shock and awe seems to have got the gov't to back down. But they still have an exit at the end of the three-month consultation period and, I'm sure, would like nothing better than for all of us to forget about it. The province's chefs are organising and will strongly oppose the ban. I really want to make sure the citizenry, represented by the 500 odd signatures collected so far on the Save Our Sushi petition, have a chance to be heard as well. Every additional signature we collect during this period will help. I will get the signatures and comments that have been pouring in published at Gremolata over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend to be ready to be presented next week. Thanks to all of you who took the time to sign and pass on the URL. So far so good: it looks like stupid food laws actually can be defeated! Malcolm

I saw that. Yikes. One fight at a time. More press today: An Editorial in Eye Magazine, which is great. Still looking to talk to someone at the ministry and/or someone from the restaurant industry who has talked to someone at the ministry, but it looking more and more like we've won and our sushi is safe, at least for a while.

Finally, we have some authority that the ban is not on (for now)... The CTV Story goes on to say that: Either we've won and they're looking for a way to back down gracefully, or they're buying time. I'm inclined to think the former. I know that a group of the city's top chefs has been organising to fight the ban, especially during the three month period. They may have been in contact with the ministry. I'll try to find out more. Malcolm

Chef rocked! I would love to know if you can get it on DVD... Not so much a Darren Star sort of show, though. I think they had Raymond Blanc on one episode or maybe one of the Roux brothers, or maybe both. The one where he buys the illicit Stilton? Oh well, I hope Bourdain makes a piss-pot of cash from this no matter what. It's hardly like another crappy TV show is going to ruin our lives.

Can you imagine a Ministry of Health offical lecturing Hiro on how to serve sushi? Anyway, good point Jayt90: Kurji, the Chief Medical Officer of Health was quoted in the Star on Thursday morning as saying they would be willing to look at something like the "education" option. Fair enough. But to make the Star's deadline he would have been quoted on Wedensday, which is when the Minister, George Smitherman made statements to the effect that they were sticking with ban. So what's it all mean? I sent an email to the ministry's press office this morning asking for a clarification. No repsonse yet. I am trying to get a real person's name at the ministry from a contact and will continue to pursue a statement fomr someone in a position of authority. Until we hear something, we can only assume that nothing concrete has changed. - Malcolm 7:45 EDT: no response.

I was really, really hoping that there'd be some news in the weekend papers, but after combing through the Star, the Globe and the Post I didn't see anything new from Smitherman or the ministry. (If anyone's reading the Sun(s), the Citizen, Free-Press, or any other local papers and saw something, please post!) On Monday I'll contact the ministry myself and see if they can provide a straight answer. Jacob Richler had a decent opinion piece in the Post: "The elites fishy causes". Needless to say I disagree with his closing argument that we shouldn't "rise up" until the sushi police actually start raiding Hiro, Kaja et al. First of all, we already have risen! Secondly, it seems to me that that's a little late. I also strongly disagree with his twin assertions that a) the ban was targeted only at mid-range sushi bars, and b) that this is an elitist cause. I don't see much evidence that anything to with the ban was targeted or thought about much. And amongst by the hundreds of signatures we've collected at Save Our Sushi, this is not an elitist cause, but very grass roots. (That being said, if any of you elites out there would like to sign, we'd be happy for it!) My wife thought that Rob Shaw's profile of our campaign in the Globe made me sound like a lunatic. She's probably right, but I'm very pleased since it's led to nearly a hundred new signatures today! [edited for atrocious spelling and also to say it’s now OVER a hundred new signatures today.]

I think we need a separate thread about how Toronto, Onario, etc. sucks. The only trouble is the Vancouver and Montreal forums will have to fight it out as to where to post. Still trying to figure out if the ban's been lifted or not. Hoping that there may be some clarification in tomorrow's papers.

I just saw this on the CBC Toronto website. I think we just won. Let me confirm... ...Not sure looks like yesterday's story. Sorry, I may have jumped the gun.

Well, I got a little worked up on the show - I hope I didn't come off deranged! This thing still makes me really, really mad! But good news: lots of new signatures! Thanks! (I've also heard that the Globe and Post are doing major stories for their weekend editions.)

Um, just to be clear: this is an Ontario issue being fought by Ontarians for Ontarians. The federal government has nothing directly to do with the regulation at stake and our objective is to change the minds at Queen's Park, not Parliament Hill. That being said we've received a number of very supportive Save Our Sushi signatories (and eGullet posts) from sushi-lovers from across Canada and even the United States and we're very grateful for the support. I think there is a generally a solidarity among food lovers wherever they live. On this topic, the CBC has done a new story on what appears to be a mellowing on the Health Ministy's side. This is coming from the chief medical officer of health, not the minister so we're not entirely sure where the issue stands. The campaign is still on. I'm scheduled to be interviewed this afternoon between 5 and 5:30PM on Here and Now with Matt Galloway on CBC Radio 1 about the petition and the Save Our Sushi movement. I'll let you know how it goes.

This is VERY encouraging. Here's the Toronto Star article: Outcry forces thaw in sushi rules

I heard George Smitherman on the 5:30 news backing the ban. Looks like it's going to be a bit of a fight. An interesting aside: Hiro is in own riding.

The struggle for fresh sushi is starting to pick up some more media, which is great! Stories that ran yesterday... CTV - looks like it's getting picked up out of Ottawa): http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor..._20/?hub=Canada CBC (Web only, I think): http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2..._ont040928.html CFRA ( Ottawa Talk Radio): http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=2&nid=20036 There are more developments in the air - will update later today... Oops! I just picked the Star and saw this, too: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968793972154

The battle continues, or rather has just begun...see Margaret Wente's column in the Globe this morning. There a lot of angry sushi eaters in this province. [spelling edit]

The rage continues... A petitioner wrote this in his email this morning, which I thought "Swiftly" summed it up: - GR, The Beach