bigfellow's Profile
What is the best place for...
The scones I had at The Sparrow were much better. IMHO
Eccentric Montreal PART 2 - Seeking out the strange & unusual
La banquise
Mas Cuisine
Joe Beef
Villa Verdun (Peruvian)
In need of a downtown Montreal brekkie spot
I was pre occupied this morning. Yes, I meant the Sparrow. My bad.
In need of a downtown Montreal brekkie spot
Is this a weekday or weekend event?
Though not downtown, my two favorite places for breakfast are The Swallow on St Laurant for weekend brunch. Or La Banquise on Racel bt Lafontaine Park any day of the week.
Montreal guys night out
For jazz there is the Upstairs Downstairs around the corner on Bishop. Not bad food, good drinks and nice music.
Cocoa Locale cakes?
I just called the shop and it's closed until Feb 9th according to the voice message.
Crowsnest Pass
Thanks Sarah, but I'm looking at the communities in the pass, not in BC.
Braai Time
Lekker = Good South African slang
Boerewors= direct translation is a farmers sausage. It's a sausage that is very popular in South Africa and it is a fixture at Braai's.
Caribou to me tastes like a cross between beef and venison. But it does get flavoured by the marinade. It is very lean.
To understand a braai please watch the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq2SOmwzjUU
Braai Time
I had 4 friends over for a cold weather braai tonight. Instaed of the traditional boerewors we went a different route.
We grilled a couple of small caribou roasts along with kababs of mushrooms and onions. Potatoes were baked and veg grilled. For veg we went with baby bok choy, tomato halves, asparagus and carrot chunks. We marinated the caribou in a maple syrup/juniper berry concoction that we later made a reduction out of for a sauce.
For a sweet we grilled assorted fruits (pineapple, grapefruit, oranges and apples with cinnamon).
We also killed more than a few bottles of wine.
Music was by motown.
It was lekker. But cooking was cold cooking.
Braai Time
I live in Montreal now and it is supposed to be -24 C (-11 F) by tomorrow morning. Today it is -8C (17F) plus windchill. Being the perverse B*stard that I am. I'm thinking that it is time to get some friends over late this afternoon and have a braai in the dark. We can eat inside.
Any suggestions for a cold weather braai?
The photo is of my last cold weather braai.
What are you making right now?
It is a prep day for me. I'm baking bread, pain fesse. I'm also making corn bread. I'm putting down 85lbs of brisket in a vat to make corned beef. I've got 15lbs of duck legs to make confit with. And lastly, I'm making spring rolls to freeze.
This is what happens when you empty the larder over the holidays. Now, where is my hot chocolate?
What are your Late Night Snacks?
I had a light supper tonight and am hungry. I'm having a toasted peanut butter sandwich and a couple of fresh chocolate chunk cookies with a glass of milk.
What are you making right now?
Baking chocolate chunk cookies and making ice cream. Pistachio and chocolate ripple flavours.
Ice cream sandwiches tonight!
Quality Baking Chocolate
Slightly off topic, but a very good article on a chocolatiers in the townships and their new take on dark chocolate.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Taking+bite+dark/2406250/story.html
What are your Late Night Snacks?
I tend to do a lot of admin work very late at night. I tend to get a little peckish when I do so. Tonight I had a bowl of cheerios and a grilled Cheddar, beef and onion sandwich. Last night it was a chip butty.
What are your Late Night Snacks?
Favorite butcher at Atwater
If you know how to cook it then it does become a little piece of heaven. It is called Bavette because that is French and it is a French cut of meat. Most of the people here in Montreal are French. So I don't know about fancy sounding.
2009 - Top ten tips and recipes of the DECADE
A few decades ago when I started out as a chef. A ggod chef always had his/her knives as the esential tools. Now every chef I know has their knives and their computer. Much more sharing and networking. It has changed the face of food.
The second major thing for me is the Slow Food movement. http://www.slowfood.com/
It conbines taste with being responsible. Education and grassroots leadership with worldwide support.
Restaurants to try in 2010
It is Bocadillo by Sablo Kafé, 3677 St. Laurent, 514-227-4041
It was mentioned today by Maeve Haldane in the article on casual restos for 2009.
Restaurants to try in 2010
What restaurants do you really want to try locally (in the province) this year?
I want to try Les Enfants terrible and a Venezuelan on St Laurent that I've heard about.
What restaurants do you just have to try?
Food/Cooking related resolutions for 2010
Last year I wanted to do pastry better. I did succeed, but not to my expectations. So I am keeping that on my list.
I know that it's weird, but I want to start a database of burger recipes and all the international variations that I can find.
The last thing I want to do is to add a new, kick ass, signature dish to my repertoire.
Now what are your Food/Cooking related resolutions for 2010?
Crowsnest Pass
I'll be heading top the Crowsnest Pass area in Febuary. Any recommendations on where to eat?
Biltong Recipes
Thanks, but I'm looking for recipes to make biltong, not for using it. My fault for being unclear.
Biltong Recipes
I found the thread "Making Biltong". It is very good and informative. But I am looking for an assortment of biltong recipes. So if you have any, please let me have them.
As a child we had so many variations of biltong around. Now in Montreal I can only find it by mail order. So it's time to make some.
Visiting London over the holidays.
We had a late lunch/supper at Harrods. We started in the Champange & Oyster Bar. There we ordered the Harrods Plateau de Fruits de Mer. It's made up of Lobster, Caviar, Oysters, Smoked Salmon, Gravadlax, Crayfish and King Prawns. It is served with a glass of Harrods Champagne, we ordered 3 extra glasses of Champange as there were four of us. I had the impression that they weren't disaproving, but that they weren't thrilled that four of us shared the dish. But for us it was a starter.
We moved on to the Rotisserie next. We ordered a Baby Chicken that was mariunated in yogurt, lime juice, garlic and fresh herbs and their jerk mix. It was covered in gravey. It came with roasted veg. There was also order the BBQ Pork Ribs, that came with corn on the cob. As well as a Filet of beef that came with a grilled tamato and mushrooms. We opted for Bernaise sauce with the beef. There were a selection of compound butters offer too. We ordered Roasted and mashed potatoes as well as more of the roasted veg. They were non pulsed by our request to put all the food on the table and let us share it "en Famille" style.
I must admit that we tempted to try dessert at The Chocolate Bar or Gelatto house. But we opted to take our shopping plunder home.
Over all service was very, very good. The food was very good, but not great. The pork ribs were lacking IMHO. But it's not Memphis is it. You can get overwhelmed just by the amount of restaurants, there are 26 by my count including a Krispy Kreme dougnut outlet.
Very highly recommended.
What food gifts do you bring when you travel?
always, always go with No.2 medium John.
Visiting London over the holidays.
It was the best lamb that I had ever tasted. Much better than 99% of the lamb in Eastern/Central Canada. Saltspring Island lamb from British Columbia does give it a good run for its money though.
Visiting London over the holidays.
Had an early dinner at Roast, Stoney Street, London SE1 1TL. I started with Hot Scotch egg with pea shoots and piccalilli, my companion had the Griddled scallops with Jerusalem artichokes, hazelnuts and garlic. For her main course she had Pan fried halibut with salsify and beetroot sauce My main course was Roast leg of Elwy Valley lamb with slow roast shoulder and mashed potatoes. We finished with the Roast cheese selection.
Service was excellant and the food was very good.
