Chocdoc - Sussing out Saskatoon

[Kerry Beal]

I am here at the Hollows - @Irishgirl's suggestion. It's located in an old Chinese restaurant - still decked out as before.

 

 

 

love the eclectic collection of glasses

 

 

Feeling Fino to start 

[Kerry Beal]

I have jammed a business card under one side of the table - no more wobble

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Smoked olives

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Bone marrow 

 

love that hat she hasn't got carried away adding way too many layers. Just marrow with a great crumb crust and some stuff on the side

 

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Bone marrow luge - suggested by the bartender - sherry poured down the remains of the bone marrow

 

She suggested this when I admitted I was ready to lick the plate no matter who looked!

Edited April 23, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Anna N]

Oh boy. 

[Kerry Beal]

The Grape Drink made by the bartender to go with my 'flight of desserts' - port, cognac and champagne float - bit of simple

 

 

 

Pistachio semifreddo with sous vide rhubarb and Saskatoons,  caramel pot de creme, chocolate pate with peanut butter schmere and toasted marshmallow 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

For @Irishgirl

 

 

 

Christie could not say enough good things about you and what you did for her career.

Edited April 23, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Still sitting at the bar chatting with the bartendress who's sister is in med school at McMaster and likes to cook - we shall be seeing her soon I'm sure!

 

i've had the Cook's tour of the back room where the illegal  gambling used to take place - seen the hides that Christie and her hubby have tanned - what a wonderful old property!

 

 

[Shelby]

13 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Bone marrow luge - suggested by the bartender - sherry poured down the remains of the bone marrow

 

She suggested this when I admitted I was ready to lick the plate no matter who looked!

 

This is brilliant!

[Irishgirl]

Christie walked into my kitchen at Feenie's one day and asked if she could work for me.  It was the middle of service and I was taken by surprise.  I asked her a few simple questions about her experience (basically none) and told her to come in for a stage.  I said if I still liked her after 4 days, I would hire her.  She always was fearless and ambitious.  And she always had the right attitude.  I love that she has been so successful without compromising her values.

 

And yes, I did hire her. (Obviously)

[Kerry Beal]

2 hours ago, Irishgirl said:

Christie walked into my kitchen at Feenie's one day and asked if she could work for me.  It was the middle of service and I was taken by surprise.  I asked her a few simple questions about her experience (basically none) and told her to come in for a stage.  I said if I still liked her after 4 days, I would hire her.  She always was fearless and ambitious.  And she always had the right attitude.  I love that she has been so successful without compromising her values.

 

And yes, I did hire her. (Obviously)

Funny - she talks about a huge long interview where you asked her a whole lot of difficult questions!

[Anna N]

9 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Funny - she talks about a huge long interview where you asked her a whole lot of difficult questions!

 Isn't it amazing how two people can view the same interview in such different ways. I am quite sure that some of the interviews that I sweated through appeared to the interviewer to be friendly and unworthy of a sweat.    

Looks as if your final dinner in Saskatoon was worth the wait!   Good food. Good booze. Good company. What more could you want? 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 Isn't it amazing how two people can view the same interview in such different ways. I am quite sure that some of the interviews that I sweated through appeared to the interviewer to be friendly and unworthy of a sweat.    

Looks as if your final dinner in Saskatoon was worth the wait!   Good food. Good booze. Good company. What more could you want? 

Indeed it was!

[Irishgirl]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 Isn't it amazing how two people can view the same interview in such different ways. I am quite sure that some of the interviews that I sweated through appeared to the interviewer to be friendly and unworthy of a sweat.    

Looks as if your final dinner in Saskatoon was worth the wait!   Good food. Good booze. Good company. What more could you want? 

 

Perspective is everything! 

 

I suppose for her, she was nervous to begin with.  She was expecting to find Rob Feenie back there, and then found me running my line. (She literally walked in from the dining room and started talking to me in the middle of a busy lunch or brunch!)  I didn't have time to grill her for long, because I was busy.  But I have been told (even in high school) that I am extremely intimidating.  (I don't think I am, and I don't intend to be, but that is what people think when they find a strong woman!)  She might have remembered the talk we had after she showed up for her stage.  I literally didn't know what I could get her to do, as I didn't know what she was capable of.  So I asked her a pile of questions and then showed her how to do things exactly the way that I wanted them done, and she ran with it from there.

[Kerry Beal]

Had to vacate my room at 3 - plane leaves at 6:30. Decided to wander about and find a bite. 

 

Lots of panhandlers - I'm not a big fan of handing over cash but always happy to feed someone so grabbed some wonton soup for the fellow sitting outside the Chinese restaurant who was hungry.  

 

In a last ditch attempt to part me from some cash for 'coffee' later he insisted on showing me his partial foot amputations bilaterally - caused by frostbite when his sister threw him out on New Years. I could just picture how that played out - not an unfamiliar story in the world of the guys I care for.

 

I had my eye on the bahn mi shop next door - but while there were still people inside the door was now locked - no good deed goes unpunished I guess.

 

 

so lunch from the Smokes Poutinerie 

[Anna N]

When I read stories like this from you, I want to burst into song:

"Only you and you alone......"  

because I swear it could only happen to you.

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Lots of panhandlers - I'm not a big fan of handing over cash but always happy to feed someone so grabbed some wonton soup for the fellow sitting outside the Chinese restaurant who was hungry.  

 

The place I was chef in Edmonton did a lot of catering, and often after a function I would bring home a few packaged meals for lunches and suchlike. Walking down to the bus often meant passing panhandlers, so I gave out a lot of meals. One guy was utterly floored when I handed him a meal of duck breast and wild rice...turned out he'd been a line cook before the drugs and alcohol caught up to him. We may or may not have known a couple of the same people back in my punk days in Vancouver, but it was hard to know for sure. 

[Kerry Beal]

14 hours ago, Irishgirl said:

 

Perspective is everything! 

 

I suppose for her, she was nervous to begin with.  She was expecting to find Rob Feenie back there, and then found me running my line. (She literally walked in from the dining room and started talking to me in the middle of a busy lunch or brunch!)  I didn't have time to grill her for long, because I was busy.  But I have been told (even in high school) that I am extremely intimidating.  (I don't think I am, and I don't intend to be, but that is what people think when they find a strong woman!)  She might have remembered the talk we had after she showed up for her stage.  I literally didn't know what I could get her to do, as I didn't know what she was capable of.  So I asked her a pile of questions and then showed her how to do things exactly the way that I wanted them done, and she ran with it from there.

I suspect you are right - it probably was the talk you had before the stage. 

 

Anyway - they seem to be doing nose to tail in the extreme - starting with an entire animal - using the skin, tanning the hide, making soap from the fat! Apparently in some quiet times staff get to paint egg whites onto violets and dip them in sugar to candy them. If I lived in Saskatoon I'd be in there like a dirty shirt!

[Irishgirl]

9 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Anyway - they seem to be doing nose to tail in the extreme - starting with an entire animal - using the skin, tanning the hide, making soap from the fat! Apparently in some quiet times staff get to paint egg whites onto violets and dip them in sugar to candy them. If I lived in Saskatoon I'd be in there like a dirty shirt!

 

So Christie and Kyle style!  (Her hubby Kyle worked for me too, at Feenie's.)  Christie has a blog called Crust in the Kitchen.  (She garnered the nickname Crusty in one of her kitchen jobs.)  I've been keeping tabs on them since they moved to the 'Toon by reading about them on the blog and on FB.  She is very intermittent with it, as she is so busy with the three businesses.  (I think they also have a vintage clothing store called "Goldie's General.")  Back before I met Christie, she fashion modelled for a number of years.  She still has the body for it and posts photos of her wearing some of the items that they sell in the store. 

 

Seriously, the woman is an all rounder.  She sees something that she wants to do, and she just does it.  She grew up in Saskatoon, and always loved the local flora and fauna.  She has taken appreciating it and being environmentally responsible to a level that most people wouldn't even consider.  I am so proud of her (and Kyle) for following their dreams and taking charge of their lives.  They did it so quickly.  I think it was 6 years after she walked into my kitchen that they opened the Hollows.  Hella inspiring!

[Kerry Beal]

2 minutes ago, Irishgirl said:

 

So Christie and Kyle style!  (Her hubby Kyle worked for me too, at Feenie's.)  Christie has a blog called Crust in the Kitchen.  (She garnered the nickname Crusty in one of her kitchen jobs.)  I've been keeping tabs on them since they moved to the 'Toon by reading about them on the blog and on FB.  She is very intermittent with it, as she is so busy with the three businesses.  (I think they also have a vintage clothing store called "Goldie's General.")  Back before I met Christie, she fashion modelled for a number of years.  She still has the body for it and posts photos of her wearing some of the items that they sell in the store. 

 

Seriously, the woman is an all rounder.  She sees something that she wants to do, and she just does it.  She grew up in Saskatoon, and always loved the local flora and fauna.  She has taken appreciating it and being environmentally responsible to a level that most people wouldn't even consider.  I am so proud of her (and Kyle) for following their dreams and taking charge of their lives.  They did it so quickly.  I think it was 6 years after she walked into my kitchen that they opened the Hollows.  Hella inspiring!

I've been reading her blog today and really enjoying it. Think we need to introduce the two of them to our own @gfron1 - I see a popup with elk's blood bonbons.

[Irishgirl]

Kerry, you should check out this interview with Christie:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/2017/saskatoon-food-scene-christie-peters-1.4350496

 

[Kerry Beal]

3 minutes ago, Irishgirl said:

Kerry, you should check out this interview with Christie:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/2017/saskatoon-food-scene-christie-peters-1.4350496

 

Nice! She really was a fascinating person to chat with.