Food at the Junos

[Dejah]

This was posted in the Winnipeg Free Press, March 23, 2005:

Chef is Winnipeg Convention Centre executive chef Quentin Harty.

And as Harty can attest, dinner for 1,300 requires a lot more than multiplying a few loaves and fish. Try 600 pounds of fish, 700 pounds of beef and a mountain of Manitoba wild rice and vegetables.

2005 Juno Awards Gala Dinner Menu

Bread sticks, focaccia, lavash (large, flat Middle Eastern bread) & cocktail rolls

Ginger and butternut squash bisque

Gran Padano cheese straw, eggplant crisp and fine herbs

Market greens set in a parmesan and asiago cheese bowl with roma tomato and bocconcini cheese and crostini roasted red pepper vinaigrette

Canadian mixed grill

Tarragon and blue cheese roasted filet of beef with Cafe de Paris butter and Marchand de Vin sauce

Grilled marinated fillet of salmon crusted in pesto and glazed with fire-roasted tomato and garlic sauce

Sweet potato galette with Manitoba wild rice

Baby carrots with stems and butter-glazed asparagus

Dessert

Twin chocolate pillars with a duo of chocolate mousses served with Kahlua sauce and pralines

The recipe for the dessert was also included in the article.

[Daddy-A]

This was posted in the Winnipeg Free Press, March 23, 2005:

Chef is Winnipeg Convention Centre executive chef Quentin Harty.

And as Harty can attest, dinner for 1,300 requires a lot more than multiplying a few loaves and fish. Try 600 pounds of fish, 700 pounds of beef and a mountain of Manitoba wild rice and vegetables.

Thanks for the summary Dejah. The online version of the Winnipeg Free Press costs $5/month for us out-of-provinve types

So does this mean you've accepted that Manitoba is part of Western Canada??

A.

[Dejah]

This was posted in the Winnipeg Free Press, March 23, 2005:

Chef is Winnipeg Convention Centre executive chef Quentin Harty.

And as Harty can attest, dinner for 1,300 requires a lot more than multiplying a few loaves and fish. Try 600 pounds of fish, 700 pounds of beef and a mountain of Manitoba wild rice and vegetables.

Thanks for the summary Dejah. The online version of the Winnipeg Free Press costs $5/month for us out-of-provinve types

So does this mean you've accepted that Manitoba is part of Western Canada??

A.

←

Ya knowsit! Daddy-eh Couldn't believe it when they grouped Blue Bombers as Eastern...

I suppose the real question is: Do the three Westerners accept this middle child as part of the west?

[Pam R]

This was posted in the Winnipeg Free Press, March 23, 2005:

Chef is Winnipeg Convention Centre executive chef Quentin Harty.

And as Harty can attest, dinner for 1,300 requires a lot more than multiplying a few loaves and fish. Try 600 pounds of fish, 700 pounds of beef and a mountain of Manitoba wild rice and vegetables.

Thanks for the summary Dejah. The online version of the Winnipeg Free Press costs $5/month for us out-of-provinve types

So does this mean you've accepted that Manitoba is part of Western Canada??

A.

←

Ya knowsit! Daddy-eh Couldn't believe it when they grouped Blue Bombers as Eastern...

I suppose the real question is: Do the three Westerners accept this middle child as part of the west?

←

I think the real point is that Winnipeg IS the center of Canada... and that other city isn't!

Hrm.

Having said that... we are much more Western than .... well.. Eastern!

edited to add: maybe Dejah and I need our own forum?

Edited March 27, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[Pam R]

I liked the Salsbury bit - if you closed one eye and squinted the other one you could see our building (where our catering company is) while he was walking out of the one on Main St.

Pretty good showing from the Peg I thought..

[shelora]

Its so amazing to me how these events unfold. With all the food and staff involved behind the scenes.

The menu interested me in the fact that beside Manitoba wild rice, that was the only evidence of local, seasonal product on the menu. Market greens could mean from outside the province.

This may be another thread and I by no means wish to rain on anyone's parade, but, doesn't Manitoba have a bit more of a food culture than wild rice?

I'm intensely curious.

S

[Pam R]

Our food culture (in my opinion) is made up mostly of ethnic foods from other countries. We have a huge huge huge number of ethnic restaurants owned by the people who know the food best - immigrants.

The problem with seasonal local items is that there is still snow on the ground - we're smack dab in the middle of North America - meaning we don't have a coastal climate and we're far enough north that what we do grow locally isn't available yet. Having said that, there isn't TOO much that I would say is native to our part of the world that is really unique. If it was summer, they could have had wild berries (blueberry and Saskatoon are known to grow in these parts)...

They probably SHOULD have had a fish from one of our 'great' lakes (Lake Manitoba or Lake Winnipeg). Pickeral would have been a good choice or Goldeye.

Another option would have been bison...

I'll add more things if I can think of them.... I hope other Tobans respond too

[shelora]

""Our food culture (in my opinion) is made up mostly of ethnic foods from other countries. We have a huge huge huge number of ethnic restaurants owned by the people who know the food best - immigrants.""

Agreed, Pam. As in most of Canada as well. As I stated before I mean no disrespect to the chef's task at hand.

Back to your food culture. Yes, you are right about the lake fish - pickerel or goldeye would have been heavenly. It's been a long time since I've eaten smoked Winnipeg goldeye, but my God, what a flavour! At one time I recall hearing that goldeye was near extinction. Any updates?

Now, what about cheese? Is there anyone making cheese? We've all heard about Winnipeg cream cheese, but is the Mennonite community involved in cheese making?

With the strong German, Ukranian influences in Winnipeg, has anyone taken up the task of sausage or wurst making?? How about the French community - any sign of local charcuterie?

Or is everything being imported?

Love to hear back from you.

Shelora

[M'd]

With top soil like much of Southern Manitoba has there should be no shortage of winter stored root vegetables and with Mennonites making fine dairy keepers there should be great cheese.

There are also some great French family dairies too.---more cheese!

The afore mentioned farmers also make the world famous Winkler Farmer Sausage and are known to preserve/can/jar EVERYTHING.

---plenty in the pantry for the long cold winters.......

How about Aboriginal dishes?!?

[shelora]

Fabulous, M"d! Winkler Farmer Sausage. Can we get some shipped to the west coast?

Has anyone been documenting these types of food from the Manitoba landscape? What a wonderful and important project it would be. The French cheeses, the foods of the Mennonite community, the Eastern European food traditions, and yes, the preserving of dang near everything.

And let's not forget freezing

And what about those Aborginal dishes and cooking and preserving techniques?

Are there any chefs exploring the type of foods made in Manitoba and putting them on Winnipeg restaurant menus?

Any farmers producing free range or organic meats or poultry?

Let's talk more.

s

[canucklehead]

My brother drove accross the praries last summer and the big highlights for him were the food. He has some 'real' perogies in Manitoba - and they were a real revelation to him - for a long time, all we could get were the frozen Chimo brand.

I think that it is really important that we preserve all of the 'authentic' food out there. Not a cheffy version of something - but the real thing. I am hoping to drive across country soon and would really like to sample some of the good things in Winnipeg.

This has been a really great thread.

[Keith Talent]

Uhh, Canuklehead, I hate to break it to you, but your brother is a liar. Okay, that's a little harsh, maybe not a liar, lets say slightly overenthuiastic. I'm Ukurainian and Cheemo while not the real deal, certainly isn't so far off that to have the real thing would be a "revelation". This is based on a youth of eating Bobba's homemade pedahay on a weekly basis, lunch after church until I was sixteen. (And if anyone wants a very graphic demonstration of how dumb Ukrainians are, only a bohunk would name a food manufacturing company one repeated letter away from the most awful form of cancer therapy. It's like Mastectommy was already taken by an Edmonton cabbage roll concern.)

[canucklehead]

KT

You know, even the perogies that I have had an the local church dinners seem waaay better than Cheemo. I had a Ukranian friend who said that perogies his grandmother made other weird fillings - like fruit. Sounds pretty good to me.

Keith, I can't decide whether your are the voice of reason or ... something else. Remember - you don't have to put others down in order to raise yourself up.

Edited April 5, 2005 by canucklehead (log)

[peppyre]

Uhh, Canuklehead, I hate to break it to you, but your brother is a liar. Okay, that's a little harsh, maybe not a liar, lets say slightly overenthuiastic. I'm Ukurainian and Cheemo while not the real deal, certainly isn't so far off that to have the real thing would be a "revelation". This is based on a youth of eating Bobba's homemade pedahay on a weekly basis, lunch after church until I was sixteen. (And if anyone wants a very graphic demonstration of how dumb Ukrainians are, only a bohunk would name a food manufacturing company one repeated letter away from the most awful form of cancer therapy. It's like Mastectommy was already taken by an Edmonton cabbage roll concern.)

←

I almost had water coming out my nose with that one. I have to say that when I was in Winnipeg last I tried my damndest to find some local cuisine and I found it very difficult. The attitude of many people (my former in-laws for example) doesn't seem conducive for culinary awareness. I was asking where I could find perogies (I knew that I wasn't going to get to my families farm on my first trip, so I thought I would take back the next best thing) and they had no idea. My ex and I took his family to a brand new Thai restaurant that had just opened by his sisters place and they bitched and complained about all the spices and that it looked weird. Even though I found that most people I spoke with had the same attitude, there was certainly a bit of a culinary revolution going on. In certain parts of town there were amazing little cafe's opening, and gourmet food stores and just a general awareness of good fresh food was starting. I then spent a week on the other side of the spectrum. My family has a ranch in the middle of MB (Rorketon for anyone who may know it) and of course everything is fresh. My cousin actually has an organic garden that my dad and I pillaged on an hourly basis. Oh... and Winkler Farmer Sausages...the only thing I miss about my ex's family. His mom would ship him packages of it and every Christmas we brought home enough to last a year. um....anyone care to send a package?

[cubilularis]

And as Harty can attest, dinner for 1,300 requires a lot more than multiplying a few loaves and fish. Try 600 pounds of fish, 700 pounds of beef and a mountain of Manitoba wild rice and vegetables.

←

I am no mathematician...but I hope this meal was served after the awards, that would be 16oz of fish and beef per person! How did they have room for the mountain of wild rice and vegetables?

[Keith Talent]

Fruit perogies. Gak. No one liked them. Blueberries inside. Again with the Ukrainian lack of forethought, take fresh summer fruit in the peak of ripeness, encase in dough and boil the hell out of them. Yeah, I too am suprised the French didn't think of it first. The only think worse than fruit were the dry cottage cheese variety. Gak again, bone dry mealy cottage cheese encased in boiled dough. Why?

And if you want to make Cheemo taste good, here's the secret. Get the cheese and potato, no other variety will do. No bacon, and certainly not the saeurkraut, they're of the devil. And if you see ANYONE walking through the store with those little faux-Italian abortion's, the turds of satan himself, PIZZA FLAVOUR, yoiu're duty bound as a wannbe bohunk to run them down with your shopping cart and proceed to stomp them to death, show no mercy to the heretics.

Anyway I digress. You can see why a simple trip into Safeway takes me forever. Take one medium onion, dice finely. Add into a frying pan of oil, no idea what kind, but knowing Ukrainians, whatever is cheapest. Slowly, very slowly sautee the onion until it is a light mahogany, You should have approx. 1 cup of onion flavoured oil and one half cup of onion.

Boil perogies, drain, arrange on plate let cool slightly before adding plenty of sour cream. More sour cream than a sensible person would add. More sour cream than someone who has even a vague idea of what a cardiologist does for a living would add. Then comes the onions, and onion oil. Again, do it like the term triple bypass relates to baseball and not open heart. Onion oil is the secret. It's the secret to all Ukrainian cooking. Nothing came out of Bobba's kitchen without a spoon of diced onion/onion oil on top. You'd be suprised how tasty tinned peas are when they have a couple tablespoons of fried onion/onion oil on top. (That's another secret of the Ukrainian kitchen, nothing and I mean NOTHING can't be improved through the scientific marvel of CANNING.)

[snacky_cat]

I'm half Ukranian and half French (which means I like drinking, garlic and butter in no particular order), and once a year I'll make homemade perogies. I usually do this when I want something from Mr Snacky Cat - homemade perogies are quite persuasive (not unlike their cousin the kolachy). It's a horrendous ordeal, mostly because Prairie farmhouse kitchens and Yaletown condos exist at opposite ends of the counterspace continuum.

Anyway, the key to the homemade pyrohy is boil them all when you make your massive batch. Serve that night's allotment boiled, with sour cream and Mr. Talent's onion and onion oil/butter combo on top (browned bread crumbs and/or bacon bits are popular toppings too). Freeze the rest. For subsequent servings, thaw them out, then fry them in a bit of oil (onion oil for bonus Ukranian points). Nothing beats fried, reheated homemade varenyky.

As for the sausage debate, my family is rather fond of Marchyshyn's Home Meat Market on 101st St in Edmonton. We still own a random chunk of the neighbourhood, so whichever family member has to pay the annual duty visit to the lot is absolutely required to bring back a bunch of rings. I'm pretty sure if you didn't, you'd be disowned. Anyway, it's pretty awesome stuff. Be warned, though, they never have enough packing boxes so stop at the Staples on the way and either buy a stink-proof box, or just check the sausage on the plane. I have yet to work up the courage to bring a box of it on board.

[shelora]

"Having said that, there isn't TOO much that I would say is native to our part of the world that is really unique. If it was summer, they could have had wild berries (blueberry and Saskatoon are known to grow in these parts)... "

_________

What about mushrooms? Seems to me I remember eating freshly picked chanterelles there when I was a child.

s

[Pam R]

Oy, I miss a lot when I actually put in a days work.

To say that store-bought frozen perogies are just as good as homemade ones is ridiculous. All I can suggest is that maybe the person making them wasn't a great cook?

We make all of our perogies at work from scratch - being Jewish we have different names for them (Verenekes and kreplach) - fill them with the apparently terrible cottage cheese filling (again - ours aren't dry - not sure what you're talking about), potato and fried onion filling or meat filling (which are served in chicken soup). I briefly ran the food-service at St. Boniface College and used some of the mass-produced versions and they were terrible.

I haven't tried one in years, but if you get to Winnipeg and want some perogies you can go to Alicia's. John Candy used to have them flown to him and always stopped in when in town - and anybody in the city should have been able to tell you that you could get them there.

For french restaurants, the only one that my family has ever really gone to is La Vieille Gare - very traditional stuff. I think I'll have to explore the French Quarter a little more this summer - I wish I spoke french

As for sausages and cheeses - there is definately good sausage making but I unfortunately can't help too much. At home (and work) I keep kosher so I don't buy things like this unless they are kosher. In fact, all of my meat comes from Ontario because there is no kosher chicken slaughter here - and not much meat.

I think there was a native restaurant... but I don't think it's around anymore... same with Mennonite. If I'm wrong, I hope somebody out there can correct me so that I can try them.

By the way, Winnipeg Cream Cheese is no long being made in Winnipeg. I think it's being made in Saskatchewan and it has caused great havoc with our cheese cakes.

Yes, we have tons of root vegetables.

Yes, Goldeye is scarce. What about Coonie? Do they have that anywhere else?

How about baking? Winnipeg is renowned for our baking. If you haven't sampled a Winnipeg Pastry Table you're missing out. Shmoo torte anybody? Canadian Living Magazine has asked us for a couple of Dessert recipes, and published one at Rosh Hashana last year and one for Passover in this months mag.

[Pam R]

Somebody mentioned a Thai restaurant... I thought I would just mention that around Winnipeg you can find many Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Italian, Greek and other ethnic restaurants. There are in fact many great 'cafes' and interesting independant restaurants in Osborne Village and on Corodyn and throughout the city.

If you ever get a chance to visit during the summer (usually the last week of July and first of August) you should check out Folklorama. It's the largest multi-cultural festival in Canada (perhaps north america?) and each ethnic group in the city sets up a pavillian. In addition to experiencing the cultural aspects of the different communitues, they all have foods to sample. Some of the groups involved are : Polish, Chinese, Italian, Israeli, Greek, Russian, Ukranian, Africa Caribbean, Portuguese, Chilean, Hungarian, Irish, Japanese and many many more.

Check it out here

[shelora]

"What about Coonie? Do they have that anywhere else?

Shmoo torte anybody?"

_

Okay PamR., out with it. What is a Coonie and can you describe the Shmoo torte???

And I thought something was wrong with Winnipeg cream cheese. Why do people have to ruin a good thing just for the sake of the almighty dollar?

s

[canucklehead]

I was also told that Winnipeg has very good burgers. Especially I was told there are White Castle style burgers called "nips". Is there a good burger culture there?

[peppyre]

A native food item that no one has mentioned, the high bush cranberry. For Ukrainan families in Norther MB, I found that this is a staple. For our family, it started with my Baba when she moved to Rorketon. She would make "Kalana" (SP - I have no idea how to spell, and when I asked my grandma, who is fluent in Ukranina, she had no idea either) which is a type of cranberry sauce that would be slathered on perogies, fried in butter and oil (it's not as easy as it sounds. It took me many many years to master it) and with sour cream on the side. The high bush cranberry has yet to be cultivated (that may have changed in very recent years) and hopefully will be around for a very long time. Pam, do you know of anyone producing or freezing the berries commercially? The women in my family that still know how to make and where to find them are getting quite old. As it is, my grandma has handed down perogie making to me.

Oh, and the Thai restaurant was in Osbourne by the freakish intersection. I think it was the first Thai restaurant on that long strip and everyone was talking about it. The fiirst time I was there 3(?) years ago, it was just starting to blossom and the second year back, the number of restaurant and cafe's had tripled, especially the ethnic food. It was certainly starting to become a very lively scene.

**Edited: do not type when really really tired

Edited April 6, 2005 by peppyre (log)

[M'd]

The "Nip" is the famous product of The Salisbury House.

--a WPG institution.

10x the burger a White Castle "Slider" could ever hope to become.

Paper thin patty(flat top fried, not grilled), darkly carmelized/fried onions flavoured by said flat top, sweet white bread bun of perfect "Wonder Bread" consistency.

----It appears I am severely missing The Nip.

--and Alicia's perogies too.

Beyond The Nip, there are also (or at least there WERE also) several Greek owned burger joints like Georges' in East Kildonan. There were a few other similar spots around the Peg. that offered awesome burgers too generally finnished with a generous dose of chili!!--------and CHEAP too.

Edited April 6, 2005 by M'd (log)

[Keith Talent]

To say that store-bought frozen perogies are just as good as homemade ones is ridiculous.  All I can suggest is that maybe the person making them wasn't a great cook?

←

No one said they were as good, I said the were a close enough that the real deal wouldn't be a massive revelation, big difference in my opinion. So yeah, we agree it's ridiculous to suggest Cheemo are just as good as homemade, though no one made the suggestion, so it's kinda a moot point.

And you're lucky I'm Ukrainian and not Italian, becuase based on my Italian friends behaviour, suggesting my great granmother wasn't a cook that made Thomas Keller look like a third string grill cook at McDonalds would be cause for a long running vendetta. Our families would war in a tiresome fashion like some north of the 49th version of the Hatfields and McCoys, whole generations would never know peace, it'd be boring and ugly. Fortuneatly this is avoided by the fact that I'm rubber and you're glue. Seriously though, you may want to chose your words more carefully if the topic is homemade vs. store bought cannoli.