Food at the Junos

[*Deborah*]

Oh, I'm sure I'm alarmist, and they doubtless propagate like rabbits or something...but humans seem to have a way of wiping out species when there's profit involved, that's all.

[shelora]

Beavers, they're so dam cute!

[M'd]

On a side note:

--I have observed many an executive chef and many an understudy. I have worked closely with "Michelle Star receiving Fancy Pants'", and "Joe Fisherman".

--I have never seen a more efficient and precise butchering of poultry as I have while watching a crew of women on a Manitoba Hutterite Colony while they cleaned their weekly harvest.

They might not be epicurean in any way, but they do have some serious SKILLS!

p.s.--that goes for pork and cattle as well.

[shelora]

You are SO RIGHT, M'd!!!!

There are some wonderful heroic stories to tell from your neck of the woods. Believe me, I'm all ears.

s

[Dejah]

If you're really interested in getting some Beaver tail, I'm sure my cousin still has some in the freezer or he just has to head over to the ranch and shoot some more. My understanding is that the Beaver problem isn't about to go away anytime soon. Interesting that it is prized in Chinese cooking. This could be a new economic boom for Rorketon, well actually, it's only economic boom

Do you know if anyone has started a commercial operation for High bush cranberries? A picture of the plant and fruit.

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I'm definitely not interested in cooking up beaver tail soup! Rorketon...I know the community well. We used to play for their high school grad dances there! Glad we didn't get paid with beaver tails. Mind, I wouldn't have complained if they paid me with beaver pelts.

Haven't seen any commercial high bush cranberries around BRANDON. Wanna start a biz?

Shelora, beavers are NOT cute. They are downright vicious...and ugly without their fur coats.

I have eaten in many Hutterite colonies. If you have a chance, visit their kitchen, their bakery, their chicken processing facilities, walk in freezers...etc etc. They are so organized and efficient. I used to contract one of the colonies for 10 lb chickens for my restaurant. When they deliver, there was always several blocks of cheddar cheese, bottles of dandelion or chokecherry wine.

We took some American friends to visit the colony acouple of summers ago. The women were just processing raspberry juice. It was wonderful! Some of it will be used to make wine as well.

One of the meals I remember most was a simple potato soup. It was delicious.

To get beyond perogies, anyone make these with beet leaves instead of cabbage leaves?

Edited April 7, 2005 by Dejah (log)

[M'd]

Shelora,

--just to be clear:

I am and have been for some time now, a very proud BC resident.

I am proud of my MB upbringing, but I am also proud of my new found ability to PLAY OUT DOORS ALL YEAR AROUND!!

[Pam R]

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

Coonie is another smoked fish. We seem to do a lot of smoked fish around here. (It goes by another name... something like Iconue.) Shmoo.. see below.

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?

I thought this thread could use a picture or two, I pass a couple of Sals on my way home from work so snapped this picture. It's not great because I was taking the picture with a setting sun behind it... but here you go!

I've never had a nip! Yikes! I don't often go to Sals (my yearly visit should be coming up in the next week or two) and when I go I often have the Salsbury Steak... mmmm... grease.

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.

There are still burger places... such as VJ's, Georges and others. There is supposed to be a good one that is owned by a guy who owns an art gallery. It seems he has no seats in the restaurant but there are tables in the gallery... so you can pick up food on one side of the street... then go to eat in his other business ... I'll have to try it out this summer.

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.

Sorry... in my attempt to answer all the questions I missed while at work I must have mis-read. I do apologize.

I did a quick search, and Schmoo torte appears to be a sponge cake with pecans, layered with whipped cream and caramel sauce.

We always call it a chiffon (not sponge) - sounds fancier . Though this is what a Shmoo is, it is so much more than that! The caramel sauce has to be homemade. And there is something about the flavours! I'll let you know that when our restaurant was open, the Shmoo was the most popular dessert we sold and at weddings and bar mitzvahs it's always the first to go.

Whoa! I've been away from this thread too long...

...Pickerel is wonderful, panfried or steamed. ...

...The "nip", I thought was just a prairie term for "burger". It is definitely associated with the Sals. but it was called "nip" in our rural Mb.restaurant in the 50s-70s.

Pam, do you know Mitsy's? It's runned by a Mandarin lady. One of my friends was in there an evening before the Junos. Apparently it is one of Randy Bachman's favourite places to eat. He was at one of the tables while Lily was there. She didn't recognize him...He's lost so much weight.

You have been away too long!

I always order Pickerel when I'm in Gimli and Winnipeg Beach during the summer. Nothing like eating it while smelling the air rollign in off the lake.

I've never seen it called Nip anywhere but at Sal's.

I don't know Mitsy's... where is Mitsi's? What is Mitsi's? I have heard that Burton Cummings can occasionally be seen at the Green Briar Bar

So that's what happened to John! Death By Perogy!

But is it really possible to claim with a straight face that this kind of food has any culinary merit?

I was going to say something about the perogies killing John.... but I thought better of it

And yep, I think the food has culinary merit.

Didn't Northern Pikes sing She Ain't Pretty? (This did start off as a thread abut the Juno's after all )

ahhhhhh....... she just looks that way. I miss the Northern Pikes.

Absolutely the food has culinary merit. Outside of any nostalgia I legitimately like it. I'd far rather have a well made cabbage roll than another vertical tower of tuna tartar. It's not only our culinary history in Canada, but damn tasty too. Any culture that figured how to survive winters on the Steppes, and later on the prairies without a Safeway must be applauded as culinary geniuses.

Yep. I agree... and I also agree with the comments comparing the perogy to all other dumplings. Almost every culture has some sort of a dumpling - and they all deserve culinary merit.

Keith:

Let me ask you this quite seriously: If you were paid to write the definitive book on Ukranian Haute Cuisine, how many pages would we be looking at? My publisher may be interested.

Ummm.... which publisher? Is this open to others?

We won't be beaverless. My father used to exchange beavertails for something like $0.02 when he was a kid - over 50 years ago - so it must have been a problem then too... and they did so much damage, it's still a problem.

Ummmm... my mistake they were gopher tails, not beaver tails. Sorry.

edited to say: sorry, I don't know what's going on with the quotes

Edited April 7, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[Daddy-A]

I'm just happy to see everybody discussing Winnipeg and the prairies on here... I knew we were better off in the West forum than the other one 

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Shhhhhhh! Keep it down or they'll ALL be over here!

Remember, Western Canada starts west of Lake of the Woods.

A.

[Pam R]

I'm just happy to see everybody discussing Winnipeg and the prairies on here... I knew we were better off in the West forum than the other one 

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Shhhhhhh! Keep it down or they'll ALL be over here!

Remember, Western Canada starts west of Lake of the Woods.

A.

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Can it include the Lake of the Woods? I grew up with a cottage just north of Kenora Wait... we sold it years ago... ok, I'm with you.

[Dejah]

I'm just happy to see everybody discussing Winnipeg and the prairies on here... I knew we were better off in the West forum than the other one 

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Shhhhhhh! Keep it down or they'll ALL be over here!

Remember, Western Canada starts west of Lake of the Woods.

A.

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Can it include the Lake of the Woods? I grew up with a cottage just north of Kenora Wait... we sold it years ago... ok, I'm with you.

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Hey! My son is working up in Red Lake, north of Kenora, so we'd better include Lake of the Woods. He brings home pickerel that his boss catches whenever he can. Gotta love that kid! I send back bison steaks and char sui baos.

BTW, if we are wondering about aboriginal cooking and preserving, smoked fish would belong in that catagory...I believe that's how they prepared food for the winter...smoking and drying fish and meat over a fire.

Edited April 7, 2005 by Dejah (log)

[shelora]

"Shelora, beavers are NOT cute. They are downright vicious...and ugly without their fur coats."

Yes, Dejah. But I was referring to their dams. Seems like only Mr. Shelora gets my sense of humour.

So if beavers are ugly and vicious and there are so many of them, does that mean it's okay to wear their fur?

And so sorry about the mix-up, M'd, didn't realize you were a prairie refugee.

[shelora]

Hello egullets pals, I'd like you to see my beaver!

Seriously, if you've never seen one this is a true Canadian icon - notice crown made from a can of Canada Dry Ginger Ale?

And vicious?! Never. Hungry?! Never. He's stuffed!

Edited April 7, 2005 by shelora (log)

[M'd]

I may be a "refugee" but I can still appreciate a nice Beaver.

[Zucchini Mama]

Ukranian food and the food I grew up with in Sask. called "German Russian" food is SOUL food. It is a labour of love. One of my neighbours handmade all the cabbage rolls and perogies for her Ukrainian wedding-and if you think Greek weddings are big...

My mother said she once made that Greek dessert that involves stretching out dough over a kitchen table until it is paper thin, and making layers and layers cooked with honey and walnuts-Baklava, of course. Apparently this woman says her mother made it so often they had baklava for breakfast.

This is food as a tradition, a way of life handed down from one woman to another. When it comes to perogies, yes, they are like ravioli-your imagination is the limit. (I had some Cheemos with pancetta, onions and asiago the other day). I would take my mom's homemade mushroom perogies with our neighbour's homemade sausage over Feenies weenie and ravioli ANY DAY.

Prairie food is all about the Terroir-I grew up with the best organic potatoes, free range eggs, fresh dill, unpasteurized dairy cream you could stand a spoon in and when it come to good ingredients all you need is a simple presentation to let the flavour come through-seasonal, local, fresh. I know how good food can taste, and every step taken to industrialize food production back home breaks my heart. Pesticides and large scale farming are contaminating the food chain and destroying rural prairie culture.

If you want to taste good prairie food, chances are you may not find it in a restaurant. Sask. has a very depressed economy right now and many people still do not want to spend big bucks on fancy meals that might not appeal to their palates. You need to be invited to a church potluck or go to a fowl supper to get the real deal. Many small communities have game suppers or wildlife suppers, where the hunters and their wives cook and share their bounty.

The thing that fucked up prairie food was the packaged food that appealed to winter-depressed folks like my mom-pizzas and taco mixes in boxes, Jello, you know what I mean.

Imagine working on the fields all day and then coming home to a big communal supper with fresh bread made from locally milled organic grains, wholistically raised roast beef, fresh new potatoes, carrots, and peas with butter and a whisper of dill, followed by Saskatoon pie with homemade organic ice cream. Now how good do you think that tasted?

I have more to say, just have to gather my thoughts,

Zuke

P.S. There are many forms of kolachy-type buns on the Prairie as well.

[Zucchini Mama]

I just found a book called The Food Lover's Trail Guide to Alberta by Mary Bailey and Judy Schultz. There is a chapter called Kalyna Country:

"Kalyna is a Slavic term for the bright red high-bush cranberries that grew wild in this part of the province. Native people used the berries along with the Saskatoons to flavour pemmican. Early settlers used them in bannock, syrups, and jams, and as a flavouring for vodka. (Kalyna Country: home of the original crantini.)"

pg. 145

If you hit the perogy trail you pass Glendon's Giant Perogy, Vilna's King-Size Mushrooms, Vegreville's Huge Pysanka, Andrew's Enormous Mallard, the Great Smoky Lake Pumpkin, and Mundare's Big Sausage. Make sure you take your camera!

This passage brought tears to my eyes: "[in Smoky Lake, Alta, ] The town's favorite loaf is a traditional Ukrainian bread stuffed with cottage cheese and dill, and baked on a big cabbage leaf. When the [traditional Ukrainian outdoor oven] is going, the residents from the seniors lodge next door come out to watch, to smell the bread, to remember." (pg. 149) This is what Ukrainian food is about, a connection to the past the immigrants left behind, the memories of their childhood homes, their families, and their original terroir-the land which resembles the Canadian Prairie, but is not the same thing at all.

The book is informative, but they have missed a few choice places I know about. Again, I do tend to give up my secrets if I am plied with the right amount of alcohol!

Zuke

[jamiemaw]

If you hit the perogy trail you pass Glendon's Giant Perogy, Vilna's King-Size Mushrooms, Vegreville's Huge Pysanka, Andrew's Enormous Mallard, the Great Smoky Lake Pumpkin, and Mundare's Big Sausage.

Make sure you take your camera!

Zuke

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One could only ask: Which lens?

[Pam R]

If you hit the perogy trail you pass Glendon's Giant Perogy, Vilna's King-Size Mushrooms, Vegreville's Huge Pysanka, Andrew's Enormous Mallard, the Great Smoky Lake Pumpkin, and Mundare's Big Sausage. Make sure you take your camera!

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umm... I actually think I have a picture of the big perogy. When my father came to Canada, the government sent his family to Sask. Several years ago, we drove along the Yellowhead to visit the old homestead so that I could see it - you would be amazed at how many of the 'largest things in the world' you find along the way! Litte (or huge) prairie treasures

I wonder if my publisher would be interested in a coffee-table book??

Edited April 7, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[peppyre]

KALYNA!! Thank you Zuke!! Many years of having know idea how to spell my favorite condiment....Ahhhhh...eGullet!

[Zucchini Mama]

Memories of Winnipeg's Fat Content

(I starting writing this in my journal a couple of years ago, but dug it up for this thread.)

Summer, 2002: President's Choice calls its featured cream cheese "Memories of Winnipeg". Has Winnipeg replaced Philadelphia as the origin of cream cheese? I lived in Winnipeg for two years in the mid-nineties, and to be honest, I can't remember its cream cheese, but I do remember its fantastic lesbian potlucks. "What is a lesbian potluck?" a friend in Vancouver asked me, as if it would be especially salacious and indulgent occasion. It consists of healthy comfort food served by lesbians. I am filled with a sudden nostalgia for warm nights with witty companions on the porches of a neighborhood called Wolsley that even has its own miniature folk festival.

So after six years I was going back, back to the land of cold winters and asparagus and cheese sandwiches to perform my latest show and work on my next performance piece. Traveling is a lot different for me now that I must take along my partner, P. and my almost two year old son, U. We stay in a bed and breakfast where the owner has a full-time job, so most of the time breakfasts are self-catered. This is a brilliant stroke of luck, allowing us to relax and wake up where we want to and putter around at our own speed while we get ready to go out for the day. With a toddler, this kind of arrangement works well. I get up early, eat home-made strawberry rhubarb jam and bread, then get in a couple of hours reading a Gail Bowen mystery novel.

I like a B and B generously supplied with mystery novels, especially the Joanne Kilbourne mysteries I love. So I ease into the day with a novel set in another place I have memories of, Regina, Saskatchewan. I make friends with the heroine, Joanne Kilbourne, professor, detective, and hip mama. I like the way she speaks her mind, even in situations where she feels uncomfortable she is honest and straight-forward. She's my grown-up Prairie Nancy Drew and I enjoy walking in her shoes for a few hours every day.

When it's time for lunch we stop for Rory's sunburgers at the Underground cafe. The sunburger is just how I remember it, dense, nutty and seedy, slathered in dill mayonnaise. Dill is such a prairie herb. I realize how much I miss it and its connection to fowl suppers in Church basements. Rory's sunburgers are mythical, and I have heard of a folk singer from Toronto who orders a batch and flies them back to Toronto. I contemplate taking a bag of sunburgers back west with me.

Sunburgers are best on that chocolate and buff-colored marbled rye Rory serves, savored near the painting of Joni Mitchell in the café's wall mural. Even though I didn't like the mural when I first saw it, I'm glad that it's still there after 6 years. After 6 years of flooding, fires, epic winters, and swarms of mosquitoes, Winnipeg seems to me a Biblical city, catastrophic in its extremes. And now the mayor wants to plop an arena in the center of town, in a kind of crude way a rookie paramedic tries cardio on a patient whose life is slipping away.

We have a party with watermelon and sushi after my performance. It's a surprisingly good combination. Forget cream cheese, sushi is the big news in Winnipeg these days. I ask around about the hot places to eat and everyone says Wasabi's in the Village. As a Vancouverite I am a bit sushi-saturated and suspicious about Japanese fish on the Prairie. However, I trust my buddies so P., U., and I walk across the bridge into Osborne Village. The sky is beginning to pinken around the edges and the river is a swollen as the new moon. In a moment of hasty inspiration I suggest we sit at the bar so U. will be entertained. He hands his little soya sauce dish to the chef and demands "sushi!" So we order sushi. The shitake mushroom rolls are lovely. You can tell when sushi is made with care and precision as opposed to assembly-line sushi. The black and white sesame seeds were fresh and artfully applied. The sticky rice was perfectly cooked and the nori was not too wet or dry.

We ordered a wakame salad, which was sticky enough that U. could use his chopsticks to maneuver it into his mouth. We applauded and with our cups of green tea we toasted his first successful chopstick endeavor. The wakame was chewy and the sauce flavorful and lively. I was beginning to think that Winnipeg sushi was a good idea after all. The dynamite roll, oshinko roll and the Agadashi tofu were all top quality. We were hooked!

For dessert we went to an old standby in post-dinner indulgence: Baked Expectations. There must be cream cheese somewhere in their display case showing over 20? pies and cakes. There's whipping cream, for sure- mounds of it in my chocolate banana cream pie, which I share with U. and he wears a healthy portion of on his face. Calories? Fat content? Remember that whipping cream is mostly air. P. has a piece of chocolate mocha tort which is delicious and also loaded with whipping cream. I like their iced tea-made on the premises. U. colors with markers, while Peter eyes their breakfast menu on the chalkboard.

On Saturday I've got to teach a workshop which I'm nervous about-terrified really. I'm not a big fan of teaching, but I have the women create and wear silly hats and we all have a good time. I enjoy seeing glimpses of their talent and potential as performers. We have to go junk shopping in the Exchange-some of the best second hand digging to be had in Canada. I notice the shops have become more upmarket. Junk is now more like "Junque" and I'm disappointed that it looks like Ragpickers now rents about half their clothes, as oppsed to selling them. However, I understand the business must survive, and it's sad that there is a finite amount of vintage clothing to be had in the world.

Rumour has it the movie business is starting to splash a few bucks around which could mean the death of second-hand shopping in the Peg as it has in Vancouver. Now even movies are putting and end to the post-show auction and selling their used costumes on e-bay. This means that prices for vintage clothes will skyrocket.

We find a couple of treasures at the Good Will store which hasn't changed much in 6 years, including a vintage doll with faded purple ribbons on her dress. Next, we go have another sun burger, 2 for the count. I am determined to have a date night, so after my research I decided we're wither going to a place called Fusion or Blaze. Fusion is closed Mondays, so we end up at Blaze.

Blaze: trendy new colour scheme-chocolate and green-same old hotel-style generic booths. The art on the walls is a kind of Prairie abstract modernism with nostalgic landscape painting and a dose of Edward Hopper. I like it because it shows an abandoned landscape. People have left these buildings for an urban lifestyle where they can make a living.

Our waiter is Chinese, sweet and very friendly. I order mushroom cakes. They are kind of a sweet way to start a meal, but I like them. The wine list is disappointing, but we go for a classic: Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc-very citrussy and refreshing on a muggy Winnipeg evening. I'm eating my fish and laugh suddenly because I realize it is salmon and I ordered trout, (the meat is pink). I waive over the waiter and say "Oops this is salmon, not trout, but it's all right it tastes good. He promises to ask the chef about it and promptly returns and says the chef is not there tonight, but the sous-chef will talk to me. The sous-chef announces earnestly "That is trout. I'll bet my life on it. I can show you the receipt." I was still unconvinced and make a note to do some research on the situation. Peter tastes it twice and pronounces it salmon. We have a nice meal, but in a grass is greener kind of way, I wish we'd tried Fusion instead...

So, that's where I left it, because I didn't take my research any further. Can trout be pink? Does anyone out there know? Has anyone been to Fusion?

Anyway, thanks for the Memories,

Zuke

P.S. You poor souls who have not had Schmoo Torte. I always thought it was from the Big Apple as a near-rhyme for "New York". We must have a Prairie high tea sometime, or "low" tea, however you see it! Perhaps a picnic in Van Dusen Gardens when the weather warms up. Beware of the online recipe with an onion in it. There is no onion in Schmoo Torte!

[Zucchini Mama]

One thing I miss from Winnipeg is Brad's burritos from Pure Lard with his wickedly strong Chai.

Is there Icelanic food in the Peg?

Zuke

Edited April 7, 2005 by Zucchini Mama (log)

[Dejah]

The only trout I know of that could be pink is rainbow trout.

[annanstee]

So, that's where I left it, because I didn't take my research any further. Can trout be pink? Does anyone out there know? Has anyone been to Fusion?

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Steelhead Trout is pink and looks and tastes just like salmon. The two species are very closely related- I suspect that they can interbreed.

When I was a kid, they used to classify Steelhead as Salmon but now classify it as trout. That is probably what you were eating.

Ann

[Pam R]

If you're not careful, that smoked salmon you're eating may very well be stealhead trout. The local fish markets sell it and most (all?) people can't tell the difference.

Zuke, you're entry was really lovely to read.... and I'll reply more when I get home.

[Pam R]

Zuke:

I've been informed by those who know (my father ) that Co-op Winnipeg Cream Cheese was perhaps creamier than Philly cheese. Whatever it was that was different, it made great cheesecakes. We had to rework our cheesecake recipes when the cheese was taken away from us

They did in fact plop an arena in the middle of downtown - took down the Eaton's building (which many people protested over) to build it. It is now known as the MTS Center - which is where the Juno's took place.

Sushi has definately taken over here. It seems as though new restaurants are opening every week. I often go to Wasabi on Osborne and to Bimi, which is in my neighborhood.

There's really a recipe for Shmoo with an onion in it?? I've yet to try it that way.

[Pam R]

A few more things that Winnipeg has to offer:

Amazing Rye and Pumpernickle breads from City Bread.

Jeannie's Cake - now, it's not the same cake it was when I was growing up, but nonetheless, if you're from Winnipeg you will have had a slice of their cake at least once at a birthday.

If you're in the North End, you'll need to visit Kelekis for a hotdog/hamburger and some shoestring fries.

CANOLA oil!! I just thought of this one. If this doesn't put Winnipeg in some sort of culinary history book, I don't know what will. Researchers at the University of Manitoba (along with one from the UofSask.) developed the first edible canola crop from rapeseed.

Obviously, a lot is grown here - though our growing seasons aren't as long as elsewhere. Potatoes grow here - and there are fry and chip plants , carrots, mushrooms,onions - nothing that isn't grown in other places. Wheat, canola, mustard, sunflowers, soybeans, berries - wild and farmed.

I'm sure there will be more to come.