mbe's Profile
Cavena Nuda-" Prairie Rice"
Hi Flinta,
I tried it at a food show here in Toronto last week and it was quite tasty, one version was in a kind of rice salad and the other was pan fried in oil with some spices until crispy.
I'd like to know if anyone has tried putting this stuff in the rice cooker?
Thx!
Fresh Chestnuts?
Thankyou! I found them at the big Korean grocery store on Bloor (south side) at Christie, about $3.50 a lb, and went to Soon Tofu for lunch too :)
Fresh Chestnuts?
it couldn't possibly be MORE out of season but I have a friend that needs some chestnuts ( in the shell) for a photo shoot. Anyone have any clues or sightings? Have tried Bruno's, Harvest Wagon, and Pusateri's.
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Pusateri's
1539 Avenue Rd, Toronto, ON M5M, CA
Harvest Wagon
1103 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4W, CA
what to do with barley malt?
The BBC Food Programme had a show recently on malt, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yw6kh , interesting info and a few ideas... as to lasting I'd imagine you've got quite a while...
Modified corn starch?
Thanks peppermint, I'm actually looking for modified starch, one that's been chemically fiddled with to make it keep it's jell after it's been cooled. I actually just found that Golda's Kitchen has some for sale so I'll head there tomorrow, thanks nonetheless :)
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Golda's Kitchen
2885 Argentia Rd, Mississauga, ON L5N, CA
Modified corn starch?
I'm trying to preserve chocolate pudding in jam jars and have been doing a bit of reading about starches. I'd like to try a modified starch, preferably corn to avoid the gluten issue that comes with wheat starches. Does anyone know where to buy in GTA?
I can find it online through americanspice.com but thought I'd give a shot locally first.
Creme Fraiche
Loblaws at Queens Quay has 2 or 3 different types (PC brand, Liberté, and then something oraganic/locally) intermittently.
Motherhome Myanmar Cuisine?
I feel bad taking so long to reply to my initial post. We did end up going, as Duguid stated the real goods here are the salads, both the tea leaf and the ginger salad were fantastic, we pop by every once in a while to pick up some salads to go. My BF is addicted to the tea leaf salad and I have to get two whenever I pick up takeout. Both are full of fried lentils and nuts and lots of textural interest, and they come with very thinly sliced green chilies on the side which you should mix in with abandon!!
The "tempura" we had (I think it was called "golden fingers" on the menu) was some squash or gourd and was delicious, very crispy and not oily, they also had an onion bhajia type fritter but didn't try those. The dipping sauce that came with the tempura was based on pickled chilies and was super... more on these chilies below.
The curries unfortunately were not very remarkable, kinda home cooked generic and not that exciting, but they wern't bad. The Oo No Kau Swe (not how they spell it) was very simple split pea broth over noodles, some chopped onion, hard boiled egg, lemon, and chilie powder to garnish. I found it bland but my brother really liked it. The rice that we had with the meal was really tasty, a little oily but still sticky, really tasty.
So, on our way out we spotted (a) a steam table with a whole lot of curries that wern't available on the menu (goat vindaloo??) (b) a whole lots of home made sauces and pastes and desserts for take out. They had the pickled chilie sauce, ngapi (sp?) or Burmese fermented shrimp paste, blachan (sp?) a fried garnish of shallots, garlic, chilies, dried shrimp, and in this case fried bits of dried fish. I got one of each and have them in my fridge, break them out when I feel like my meal needs some funk. The desserts (we tried a coconut milk agar jelly thing and an egg pudding thing) were, um, interesting. I don't genereally like agar as a texture, I find it grainy, and the egg pudding was kind of like fluffy sweet omlette.
Next time around we got take out from the steam table. While the steam table dishes were definitely more interesting and more spicy than the a la carte curries there were no revelations. If I remember we had a vindaloo, and a chilie chicken, and one other curry. All tasty but just a touch too similar for my liking, maybe we ordered poorly.
Overall, go for the salads, the incredibly cheap pricing, and the fact that the staff is very very earnest and cares greatly about giving you great service and is very friendly and sweet. Reminded me of how lovely and gentle the Burmese can be. Plus they have really vibrantly coloured walls, purple and yellow, which I think is great, and the bathroom and kitchen are squeaky clean.
I forget how cheap the lunch and dinner specials from the steam table are but they're insanely cheap. The multi-story used clothing and bric a brac shop across the street is worth a visit too if you have time to kill and dig such things.
House on Parliament temporarily closed while moving next door
I'd been for brunch and it was "decent" (as in not terrible), although the waitress was "hungover" (as in still a bit drunk from last night).
ISO Seville Oranges downtown or on subway line
Try Highland Farms locations, I found them in Missisauga but geez that was almost a month ago
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Highland Farms
850 Ellesmere Rd, Toronto, ON M1P, CA
Motherhome Myanmar Cuisine?
I'm going tonight. Anyone been? Reccomendations?
1194 Bloor St West
Naomi Duguid kinda reviewed it in a blog post (http://naomiduguid.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-heat-of-night.html) and there's a review of the tempura and smoothies (?) on Urbanspoon.... Is this the only Burmese restaurant in Toronto?
Local Persimmons?
Does anyone know any local growers or where I could fine locally grown persimmons? I found a farm in St Catherines (Grimonut.com) but was wondering if there was anything a bit closer.
Paramount Restaurant (Yonge / Dundas area across Eaton Centre)
Went there about 3 weeks ago around 8pm, the service upstairs was unbelievably poor, I would be surprised if the waiter had any previous restaurant experience; messed up orders, no cutlery, 20 minutes get a coke (which we had to remind him of), water for half the table but not the other half, etc.... And then he complained about his tip. In the top 10 "most clueless people ever", I wish he were high, that would have explained it, but I fear that this was his natural state. The slickly dressed manager spent the entire meal bringing the two girls next to us free stuff and fawning.
Food wasn't bad, kafta arayes was fresh and tasty, shish taouk plate was good, someone ordered the little sausages and enjoyed. And fresh pita! Yum to fresh pita.
So a mixed experience you could say.
Kaza Maza: yowza!
Went last night. The food was good although I can't believe it was the same food that led to much of the gushing above. Soujouk with kaskaval cheese stood out, mutabbal betteraves, baba ghannouj, mouhammara, humus kawarma were all tasty. Didn't find the pistachio kefta to be that great, a bit burnt for my liking. I'm amazed that anyone could leave there and not be full, we were bursting at $30/person for 4, including a bottle of wine and tip. Very good service and a Syrian (?) version of happy birthday towards the end of our meal from the oud player and old fellow in the corner, nice casual ambience. Would definitely go again.
Korean
Black goat soup at Maison Bulgogi, I go every time I'm in town. Gamey, spicy, delicious. Use to have a big meaty rib in it but alas no longer, still good though. Apart from this soup I've never found MB to be anything out of the ordinary.
The Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder
Went tonight, expected a big linup but at 5:00pm was barely full. Ribs were very good, smokey but not too much, tender, nice sauce a bit thin in consistency but well balanced between acid and sweet. Chicken was great too, very tender and juicy, although a bit of crispy skin would have been nice. Found that both meats benifit greatly from a dip in the sauce otherwise they're a bit plain. Fries were winner, crispy, not too salty. They no longer make onion rings which is a shame as I hear they were fantastic. Brussel sprouts as a side, not overly exciting. Lime-aid with mint, not too sweet, it is what it is, they could work a bit on the beverage options.
Overall I thought that $50 for 3 ppl (1 whole chicken $14, 1/2 rack ribs $13, fries $5, sprouts $4, 3 limeaids $8.25) after tax before tip was a fair price but I've been in Vancouver for 2 yrs so protein at this price seems like a steal. Would go again.
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The Stockyards
699 St Clair Ave W, Toronto, ON M6C, CA
Braising: can I use brown paper instead of parchment?
If you're putting this into a closed container with steam and liquid is it not going to fall apart?
Anybody else eating dandelion greens for dinner tonight?
sauteed: cider vinaigre, garlic, olive oil, salt, coarse paprika, pinch of sugar. Or if they're salad worthy then with a creamy caper vinaigrette.
Am loving radish greens too, they're like a present that come with your radishes.
Help! Need specifics on Vancouver Greek restaurants/bakeries, any North Vancouver eating/food shopping tips, and "must do" Surrey Indian restos/markets
We had a very nice experience at Kashcool, granted we were with an Iranian friend, but the service and food were very good. If you go make sure to try the faludeh (sp?) a frozen vermicelli dessert with lemon juice; interesting and delicious.
Yaas Bazaar is great, if you're a fan of indian style desserts then trying some of the Persian sweets might be up your alley. My favourite is "bamieh", deep fried nuggets of dough that are soaked in syrup. If you know the curly Indian "jelabi" then it's the same concept. The restaurant attached to the store is not fine dining but is quite good value for money, and the food is tasty.
As to the yogurt, I've no clue about the French brand, but if you're in a supermarket it's worth looking for Liberté brand yogurt from Quebec. Their mediterranean style yogurts are higher fat and delicious. I also recently tried their citrus flavoured regular yogurt (called "Agrumes en Folie") and it was fantastic.
Asian Herbs in Vancouver
Just came back from Sieu Thi Wong Xin and they had everything I needed and more in the herb department, as well as galangal, turmeric, and krachai, fresh green peppercorns, assorted mini eggplants, etc... All in nice little baggies (99c a pop for the herbs), all flown in from Vietnam, all quite fresh.
According to the cashier, who was very kind and helpful and offered to repack some of the larger bags into half sized ones, the baby lotus root comes in tomorrow in the pm and they're open every day of the year. Except Chinese New Year.
Asian Herbs in Vancouver
Thanks everyone! This is a great great help, I'll have a shop and report back :)
Beef Barley/Farro Soup recipe
My grandmother used to make hers with brisket (thus minimal fat) which she cooked with onions and carrots which were discarded. The meat was drained, cooled, shredded and the resulting stock (which she cooled in the pantry and defatted, even though there was never very much) used to cook the barley and whatever veg she wanted, usually carrots and celery, before the meat was added back in. It sounds good but it was pretty bland.
I'm guessing that you could brown your meat and mirepoix/veg and add a bit of tomato paste and some red wine and bay leaves/aromatics and cook your beef in that fashion, if you wanted a more "gravy" style of flavour. Dust the meat and initial veg with flour before browning if you want a thickened stock.
:)
In 2009 I learned to...
-make pizza dough at home (it's so easy!!)
-use the "first knuckle" technique to cook rice (I had no faith)
-make spatzle (see pizza dough comment)
-put lemon zest in almost everything, often instead of salt (hopefully this will pass)
-eat salty licorice
-not have hot sauce with absolutely everything savory
Asian Herbs in Vancouver
Does anyone know of a good source for a wide variety of asian/Viet herbs close to downtown Vancouver?
I'm planning to make some laap/larb for Xmas eve dinner and T&T just doesn't cut it :). I'm looking for coriander and mint but also rice pady herb and saw tooth/laksa herb, and rau ram (that heart shaped leaf herb), fish mint/Diep Ca, etc... as well as fresh galangal.
I remember stumbling upon a rather dingy "supermarket" on Kingsway around 17th that surprisingly had an amazing selection of fresh herbs but if anyone has other sources I'd be most grateful.
Macarons in Vancouver?
I may be so wrong but I was at a party an they had leftover macarons (and fabulous little apple tarte fines) which I think came from CinCin (according to their menu they do offer them as part of their petit fours). They were very very good. Granted not a shop but there you go.
Are they even still "in"?
QING HUA DUMPLING
Thankyou! I think we might hit the Maison du Nord ... and then come back to Montreal anyway to try Qing Hua :)
QING HUA DUMPLING
Hey All, I'm visiting from Vancouver and am having some serious dumpling cravings after reading this thread... can anyone confirm if Qing Hua is open yet?
The Canada Line: (The Orient Express) some places to eat near the new Skytrain stations (Richmond, BC)
Wow! Super list, and I LOVE the Canada Line's new nickname!!
Where can I buy Mozzarella cheese curd - Vancouver
I believe Bosa also has rennet. I'm not sure you could make bocconcini from cold curds to begin with, I think they'd have to be fresh and warm, but I've never tried.
