malcolmjolley

Carousel for the peameal, for sure, although the Italina and Portuguese sandwiches are very, very good, too. Don't miss Chris' Cheesemongers for their selection of Quebecois raw-milk cheeses. These are hard to find and absolutely on par, if not better than, any French product.

It's the imposition on the freedom of grown up chefs and their customers that really annoys me, whether 95% of sushi is frozen (or ought to be) or not. Frankly I think it's enough that one of Toronto's top sushi chef objects: And as Fat Guy points out in the April thread on U.S. fish freezing: I imagine this law will merely make outlaws of our better chefs, which is enough reason to repeal it.

Dear Toronto eGulleters, I woke up this morning to read this article in the Globe. I am absolutely livid. I think this is a call to action and the food and wine community should send a very strong and clear message to Queen's Park that we will not countenance this absurdity. So, I am collecting an electronic petition, which I will send to Steve Peters, the Minister of Agriculture and Food, as well as the Premier's Office. If you would like to be part of this petition, please email your full name and postal address* to sushi@gremolata.com. I have also put up a web notice at the food and wine site I am currently developing: www.gremolata.com, if you would like to use this as a way of spreading the word. (I am a little embarrassed to announce gremolata.com in this way. I had planned on a shamefully self-serving eGullet post closer to launch next month, but I feel like I should use this tool now to get rid of this insane law.) Yours, Malcolm malcolm@gremolata.com * You have my absolute word that I will only use this information for the purposes of this petition. If you visit www.gremolata.com/privacy.htm you'll see that I back this up by providing my own personal email address and cell phone number as a kind of anti-spam collateral.

I wondered if it wasn't Chilean Sea Bass too, but I'm pretty sure it's what Laksa found, so I think you/we can continue to keep up the butterfish habit. I found a decent link too: http://www.ocean.udel.edu/mas/seafood/butterfish.html

Been doing some digging: according to the Oxford Companion to food it's latin name is peprilus triancanthus, or at least the "butterfish" found on the North Maerican East coast, which is probably what we're eating. Will try and find out more.

I had a seared butter fish sashimi last night at Tempo (in Toronto), which was absolutely sublime. The foie gras of fish. I'd never come across this before. A friend and I were so impressed we went back to talk to the chef, who said the butter fish was a large tuna like creature. Chef's English was not too hot and he was pretty busy so that's the extent of the butter fish intelligence we were able to collect. I am very curious about this fish. does anyone know more about it? It's proper name? Where it comes from? Recipes and/or presentations? [edited for spilling - also to add the question mark thingy, because I am dying to know more...]

More of an aside: I HATE being comped dessert, since I suspect the piece of cake or whatever is just sitting there anyway and will be thrown out if it isn't comped. Much better CRM to take something off the bill.

The plot thickens. See this thread from the Centre of the Universe - oops I mean Toronto, etc. - forum: Nat Decants, Natalie Maclean's inflated 100 points. Mission Hill is a great vinter, but I haven't had anything that comes close to a Parker or Wine Spectator 99. But maybe this particular label is very special. I don't know...

Matt Kramer's revised Making Sense of Wine is the best wine book I've read. It's suitable for absolute beginners, experts and everyone in between. Jay McInerney's Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar is also very good and fun.

Elizabeth Deli (really a Hungarian Butcher) on Bloor at Brunswick (just east of Bathurst) has about as big a selection of sausages as I've seen. Some quite interesting like lamb and mint. Also the Bloor Meat Market in Bloor west Village has an excellent and tasty selection, as I remember it.

Picked it up on Saturday and have been chuckling my way through it since. Vintage Bourdain.

OK, this is ringing a bell. Thanks!

If Grimes is a snob, who cares? That's got to be one of the funniest pieces of food writing I've read in a long time. Great post, Soba.

Huh? What? This news completely slipped by me. Where is this new restaurant? What's the concept?

From the NY Times. Says big names are doing fine from the 2003 vintage, but the smaller ones are losing the farm.

Pretty sure salt = salt = sodium chloride = NaCl Big fan of the roast free range chicken, but I've never brined. In our house a roast chicken is a quick dinner stand by, something we make when we don't want to fuss.

How would it compare to, say, Chuck-E-Cheese?

Yum. Exactly. Or butter and shallots and throw in a dash of Marsalla at the end. Earthy good!

The Keg's OK. If I'm in a small Canadian city like Prince George or Thunder Bay, I'll often seek one out. At least they'll have a decent steak and a wine list with a little more than "Red" and "White" on it.

What about a coffee grinder?

Well put, chefwoody. I don't think anyone would question Adria and the prgressives' commitment to quality and underlying traditions.

I can't believe I keep posting as such a foodie conservative - I'm not and would take a table at El Bulli or the Fat Duck in a New york minute - but I think what worries some of us with great respect for the traditions of great gastronomy is that Adria, Blumenthal et al are doing less cooking than chemistry. The worry, or at least one of them, is that science will triumph over art and that Adria's experimentation will eventually end up with a Frankenstein monster indistinguishable from the formulas developed in the food additive industry. How far is the journey from the master's kitchen to Dow Chemical? Silly and far-fetched, but a worry nonetheless.

I spent a week in Southern California in April and had several very good SC bottles from small producers. Don't make a difference at all to what's in the glass and once the novelty has worn off one ceases to really notice.

Where might we see it? [Given my "Shrimp Burger" post earlier, I may not be ready either. But I'd sure like to find out.]

The Economist, of all publications, has an article (made me use my subscription log-in, so may not be available) on Quebecois "Ice Cider". Has anyone tried this? Sounds like really sweet Calva, but what do I know? [edited for spilling]