My Version of Snout to Tail Eating

Why no posts in so long?
Simple, I didn't have an Internet connection for a while plus I felt sick.

Anyways, about two weeks ago I decided to go for it and buy the pork hocks I often see and Safeway and cook them up using a modification of this Bon Appetit recipe that can be found on Epicurious. It's a recipe for "braised and roasted pork shanks with prosciutto and porcini mushrooms" but don't worry, I didn't actually use most of those exotic ingredients. I didn't use porcini mushrooms or any mushrooms at all. I cooked about 700 grams of hock. . . I think that's almost the same as shank. There was no leek or prosciutto. The herbs were oregano and thyme. I used a famous Belgian beer shown here in place of red wine:
What did this have to do with the recipe then? Well, I followed the braise then roast method. Here are the piggy bits in their braising liquid:
I did the braising and roasting on two separate days. When the liquid cooled, I spooned the fat off the top and noticed that it was like Jello. Is that the gelatin in the animal bits?
Here's a glamour shot after it was all roasted up and placed on the braising liquid:

The one big problem? That liquid was really beer-bitter. And while I like to drink beer, I couldn't bring myself to eat much of it. I had sweet potatoes on the side, and that might have made it more difficult with the contrast. The meat was okay though. But there wasn't too much of it for all the bone, skin and fat. I guess it was tasty and okay for a three dollar experiment. It looks pretty crazy. I like that.

Anyways, the second piece that I ate the next day had less meat and I didn't want to eat the liquid and vegetables. So, I stir fried the meat and some skin (yes skin) with zucchini and onion and probably some other stuff and mixed it with rice.

This is probably extremely unhealthy and makes me feel guilty. But pork skin has some appeal.

And that's how I ate a piggy part that many people wouldn't. I hope you were amused.

Final Comments on the Canmore Trip

I want to mention a few things about the breakfasts on the Canmore trip. Come to think of it, I really don't talk about breakfast as much as you'd think. That's probably because I usually eat cereal, which I enjoy more than I should and fruit. There's not too much to say, although Shreddies are awesome. That's not very gourmet of me is it?

Anyways, the first two mornings in Canmore, we ate breakfast in the rented condo. It was pretty ordinary with a strong raisin theme. I ate Raisin Bran and some sort of raisin bread product both mornings. I also had an egg, some banana, and an orange. All of this seemed too ordinary, and like I was eating too much. It was accompanied by a guilty pleasure. What could that be? Perhaps processed creamy peanut butter my parents brought. I tell myself I love natural peanut butter, and it is good. But I couldn't get enough of the salted, sweetened taste of the processed stuff, especially that first morning.

By Monday morning, I was tired of eating in like I was at home every morning. So, I asked for and received a promise of breakfast out. We chose a place that my parents had eaten at for dinner before and thought was good. I'm going to omit the name. We were seated fairly quickly, our orders were taken, coffee brought (not for me), and then we waited. And waited. For an hour. Yes, an hour for breakfast. I think it was crazy. At breakfast people haven't eaten in perhaps twelve hours. I was very hungry. We got excuses from the server that seemed to suggest the kitchen was understaffed or something and couldn't keep up.

Eventually, I did get my cheddar and apple crepes from the extensive breakfast menu, they were pretty good. I ate way more than I should have. It was tasty but perhaps too syrupy inside with the apples and the cheddar could have been better. The hash browns were deep fried and I prefer pan fried ones. But, for the price it was quite a good breakfast, if only it could have appeared in a shorter time frame.

How long do you think is reasonable to wait for breakfast?

Fine Dining: Quarry Bistro and Wine Bar

In Canmore with my family this weekend I was looking to indulge in what makes for a good vacation in our family: physical activity followed by a lot of delicious food, because we work up an appetite. It rained on Saturday, so my "physical activity" was wandering around Canmore and through some shops before the previously mentioned pizza.

But on Sunday, we got lucky and there was some sunshine and plenty of "not raining" to go around. We hiked about 15 km at Lake Minnewanka (or Lake Willy Wonka if you're eating chocolate, which I was). Lunch was a ham and cheese sandwich, an orange, and some chocolate along the trail. I took some pictures of the scenery, so here's one since I didn't take pictures of restaurant food:

Okay, so I saw some pretty mountains and worked up a monster appetite for dinner. As a result, I was the only member of my family to complete three courses.

We went to a really nice local restaurant called Quarry Bistro. It features local and organic ingredients much like the pizza place, except more formal and upscale. Of course, it never gets too formal in the mountains. Anyways, they say they specialize in French and Italian cooking, which I'd agree with.

To start with, we all shared PEI Mussels and Frites. The mussels were huge and tasty in their white wine, butter and capers. The frites were cut thin and featured some sweet potato fries, which I thought was a nice touch. I've never really discussed my love of sweet potatoes, but I really like them. The fries were topped with aioli, I'm pretty sure. That was rich and tasty and perfect for my very hungry stomach. My sister started with the soup of the day, which I think was tomato and bread. She loved the tomatoes and thought the bread was good. She also claimed the soup filled her up so she could barely eat her pasta entree. The soup did appear very thick to me.

After the mussels, we were brought some foccacia bread. I only ate a little, wanting to save room for other things, but it was really tasty with plenty of olive oil and salt on top. Anyways, they have good bread, which really I would expect.

Next up were the entrees. Before they arrived, I noticed the spectacular red Mohawk of one of the cooks through the pass. It was pretty sweet. My mom had the special which was lobster, duck confit, and (white?) beans. She ate it all I think, so it must have been good. My father and sister had Penne all'Amatriciana. It was penne with a spicy tomato sauce and bacon. My sister once again loved the tomatoes. I tried a piece of pasta and a bit of bacon and it was indeed quite tasty. Neither of them could finish the pasta, I would have expected more from my dad.

My entree gets its own paragraph, because I'm important, kidding. I had the Sooke Hills Rainbow Trout served with almond risotto and green beans. I was trying to branch out and I believe it was my first risotto and my first trout. The green beans were lightly cooked so they were still crisp and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar. The vinegar was a nice touch and I would have been sorely disappointed if the beans were overcooked. The trout, was served with the skin and was seasoned with plenty of pepper and some butter. It was really tender and tasty. I wouldn't hesitate to have rainbow trout again. The best part of my entree was the risotto. It was really soft and creamy. . . I thought it was supposed to have a bit, but like I said I've never had it before. Anyways, it was really delicious and creamy and had plenty of delicious almonds mixed in. It will not be my last risotto.

I had a glass of Italian red wine that my parents ordered with my food. It was drinkable and good and apparently from grapes grown of vineyards sloping towards the sea in Abruzzo. Anyways, as a result I was slightly drunk by the end of the meal, lightweight that I am.

So, after devouring my entire entree, I wanted a sweet treat. I knew that there was a single scoop of homemade semifreddo (ice cream) available. So I ordered that in chocolate, for a little something. This is the course I was alone in eating. Anyways, texture-wise it wasn't too spectacular. It was good but nothing like the smooth creaminess of gelato. Where it really shone was in the flavour, which was given a twist with some cinnamon. Of course I ate the whole scoop, loving it all. They're really smart to have such a small dessert on offer. I wouldn't have gone for anything larger.

Anyways, the Quarry Bistro has good food and a nice atmosphere right on Main Street in Canmore. Incidentally, I found this video on You Tube of Chef David Wyse from Quarry telling Kelly Hrudey how to make carbonara. It's kind of fun, maybe you should watch it.

Pizza!!! From a Wood Burning Oven

I'm a fan of pizza, and last Satuday I hadn't eaten it for a while. My parents suggested that we go to Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company for pizza. I was psyched, even more so when I saw the big woodburning oven in the corner of the restaurant. It was a crowded place and I figured the wait would be worth it. I'd say we waited half an hour or 45 minutes for a table with me staring at the oven hungrily. The restaurant is pretty casual, as you'd expect a pizza place to be. There is a big emphasis on organic food and revealing the source of ingredients. Although, the special pizza that night featured Atlantic salmon, which to my knowledge is almost exclusively farmed and contains an order of magnitude more contaminants than wild Pacific salmon. Anyways, it was a pretty cool place.

I should get to the food. I was with just my mom and dad since my sister foolishly opted out of this meal and ate Quizno's instead. For the 3 of us we ordered 2 regular pizzas, the Nemo and the Naturally Meaty (I think, it's not listed on the website). I started out drinking just water, but my dad said his beer--a local pilsner--was really good and "European" in style. So, I ordered a half pint, because I'm a lightweight, and enjoyed it with my pizza. It was not sweet and not heavy; it's too late to describe it now but it's worth a try if you like beer. The Nemo came first, you might guess that it featured seafood, and you'd be right. The website describes it as "Brushed with pesto and tomato sauce and topped with king prawns, artichokes, red onion, cilantro and asiago cheese." This is not quite right as the shrimp weren't that big, there were crayfish (or something like that), and I don't think there was cilantro or asiago. Anyways, it was as described on the menu in the restaurant. The crayfish things were especially tasty as was the very strongly tomatoey sauce. I also quite like artichoke. Anyways, it was freaking tasty. The crust was thin as expected, but less crisp and more limp than I might have guessed coming from that oven. I ate some pizza with a knife and fork, which is a sacrilege for me. But I repeat it tasted really good.

Next up was the "Naturally Meaty" featuring the same crust and delicious sauce. It also had green peppers, fresh tomato, ground beef, and sweet Italian sausage. It was also really tasty, with a particular emphasis on that spectacular pizza sauce. That sauce was really important to me as a big tomato fan.

As a final comment, the pizza is not inexpensive at up to $20 for a regular. But it is really tasty and the larges might be more economical. All I can say about the pizza is that it's tasty because there was so much good flavour going on. And it goes with beer. My mom almost didn't want to wait for this pizza experience, but I insisted and it was sooooo worth it!

Edmonton Stuff

I'll start with Wednesday and the remains of Ryan's ANTM Finale Party. He got an "ANTM" Dairy Queen log cake and served Diet Coke. I don't drink Diet Coke. . . or regular Coke for that matter. I don't really like sweet drinks and I can't stand the aspartame after taste . . . or Splenda aftertaste for that matter. But Dairy Queen cakes, those are good. I enjoy my Dairy Queen, although Blizzards make me sick from too much ice cream. I hadn't had an ice cream cake in ages, although I used to have them for every birthday. So, I guess there's a lot of pleasant memories attached. The cake was much appreciated!

On Friday before I caught my bus to Calgary, I ate at Kabsa downtown, based on reviews like this in the local media. I went alone and ordered the lamb, which cost about $13. It came with what I think was the vegetable Kabsa. There were potatoes, carrots, and some other veggies in a really tasty sauce. The lamb had a lot of bone and fat. . . real lamb and it was tender. . . but disappointingly weak lamb flavour. Although, I might have overpowered any of that by dipping it in the homemade hot sauce. That sauce was good, cool tomato and cilantro, but spicy. Actually, quite spicy. I really liked it. There was also a salad of finely chopped marinated vegetables that I also enjoyed for its tartness and vegetableness. Finally, there was (a mountain of) rice, probably some of the oiliest rice I've ever eaten but so tasty with onions and peas, and delicious fat. The portion was huge and I didn't eat it all. I'm thinking the fish or chicken might be better. Anyways, it was an interesting experience. I don't know if I'll go back, but I might if I were hungry and downtown. I don't think I'd get lamb though. It wasn't that great and other meats are cheaper.

After that meal, I got on a bus to Calgary then drove with my family to Canmore. I'll talk about some food there next.

Dinner Party Part 3: Dessert (AKA: The Main Event)

If you've been reading my Blog--and I know you probably haven't--you would be able to figure out what I made for dessert for my dinner party. Want a hint? I ate three of them on Monday. It was brownies!!!

These are my dark chocolate brownies. They're mine because I sort of combine and modify two recipes, one from Epicurious and one from the BHG New Cookbook (not very gourmet, I know). Anyways, this is quite a chocolaty brownie with a crumbly texture and medium density (neither lead nor aluminum, hehe) I like them and my friends dug in at the party, so they must be alright. Brownies are super easy, everyone should make them. They will impress your friends with minimum effort.

Here's how I do it:

6 tablespoons butter (I use salted, I'm not a proper gourmet, but I don't add extra salt later)

4 ounces coarsely chopped unsweetened chocolate

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stir it a lot, use a saucepan. When it's all melted, remove it from the heat and cool it somewhat.

2. Grease a 9-inch square cake pan.

3. Stir the sugar into the chocolate and butter goodness in the pot. Add the eggs individually and stir well between each addition. Add vanilla, stir again.

4. Stir together the flour and baking powder with a fork. Add this to the chocolaty goodness. Stir until it's combined, do not over-stir. Put the batter in the pan, really that's the best place for it.

5. Bake for 23-25 minutes. Take it out, cool it, cut it into brownies. (I broke mine flipping it out of the pan. But rustic brownies are good, so it was fine.)

Here's a gratuitous shot of the unbroken brownies in the pan:

Somebody should try to lift it out and eat the whole thing. But, that would be piggish, but delicious. And it would break. . .

Dinner Party Part 2: Main Dishes

I did a really bad job of photographing the main dishes I made for my dinner party. So all you're going to see is the mango chutney above. It was served with an oven roasted pork tenderloin made using this recipe, with a few changes. The changes were that I used ground cumin and added it with the turmeric, I roasted the meat at 450 F to an internal tempertature of 155 F, and I omitted the cilantro because I don't really like it. This was the second time I made this reciped and it's good. Obviously that's why I made it again. The roasting probably took at least half an hour, but I wasn't timing it.

Anyways, the result was very good. Tender and lightly curry flavoured pork with a sweet, tart, and spicy chutney. I don't know about its authenticity as Indian food, but my Indian friend thought it was good and not totally Western. Anyways, the recipe tastes good and the chutney can be conveniently made in advance and served at room temperature.

In addition to the pork, I made shrimp. I like having pork with seafood. It just seems right, I think I've mentioned this before. Anyways, I used a pound of large shrimp to make "Border-Style Shrimp." I reduced the recipe to about 2/3 of the original amounts, but used all the spices. I also used a little olive oil instead of cooking spray as I don't own any and it's not my style. Anyways, I was too busy eating the shrimp and making the pork to photograph them. But they were good, a little tart from the lime, a touch of spice, and some buttery goodness. They were really fast and easy too, but I think shrimp sautees generally are. One could definitely do worse. Then again, I find shrimp intrinsically delicious and tastier than lobster. Lobster provides for my exciting eating though, what with all the shell cracking and digging for meat.

A break from the Dinner Party Talk: Let's Talk Luck and Randoms

I want to share some random stuff. You may remember my post about a delectable mango variety. Well, I found them again at Save On Foods and bought two more. They're called Ataulfo. These ones were maybe not as perfect looking as the first one, but the one I ate this morning had the same delicious flesh. I think they're more orange inside than the most common mango variety. If you find these mangoes, buy them. They are much less fibrous than typical ones and who wants a more fibrous fruit? Crazy people, that's who.


Next random comment: Why can I not help myself when presented with three remaining chocolate baked goods? The rest of the time i tend to eat one or two cookies or brownies at a time. . . usually one. But the last two times I've baked chocolate treats, I've eaten the last three all at once. It feels gluttonous. It happened with the chocolate and Mini Egg cookies I made. It happened again tonight with the remaining unfrozen brownies. I rationalize it like this: I eat two and there's one left. I figure if I eat it now I just won't eat it later so it's fine. Plus, I was planning to work out after each mini-binge. But now I have no more delicious brownies. . . more on them later.


You might be wondering where luck comes into this. I went to buy a few essentials at Safeway tonight: milk, eggs, bread, Shreddies, family size Fruit and Nut Dark. Actually, it's probably lucky that family size Cadbury bars are on for a dollar. But I had more luck. You know how nobody ever wins on those contest cards at Safeway? Well, I never had except Airmiles, which I don't collect. Tonight I won!!! A rather fancy pen, well fancier than anything I already have. It has a lifetime warranty, but I'll probably lose it. That's why I don't have nice pens. Anyways, who doesn't like to win?

My third stroke of luck came when I knocked my favourite water glass on the floor and it didn't break. I have the magic touch . . . maybe.

Dinner Party Part 1: Appetizers

On Saturday I hosted my first ever dinner party. I think it was tasty and fun for me and four of my friends who decided to attend. First up were the appetizers: I made two different toppings for baguette slices: a "classic caponata" and garlicky roasted bell peppers with feta cheese. Interestingly rumor has it one of my guests would eat an entire baguette with spinach dip given the opportunity.

First up, the peppers. This is my variation on a recipe that my uncle learned from a Greek neighbour. My uncle and father make this by barbecuing the peppers to blacken them. I'm not equipped for that, so I use my oven following the guidelines of Clotilde. Bell peppers take nearly an hour to roast at 400 degrees, with several turns. I used two green peppers and one red, since I wanted a mix of colours and flavours. After sweating the peppers in foil and peeling them, I sliced them into strips and tossed them with about two tablespoons of olive oil, a minced clove of garlic, salt, and pepper. I then refrigerated them overnight as these things get better with time. It's key to roast the peppers on foil as pepper juices can burn and pretty much ruin a baking tray. I know because it happened to me a few months ago. These are my peppers after roasting and sweating, don't be alarmed at the burnt spots because they peel off for the most part when you skin the peppers by hand.

I really like the taste of the peppers combined with feta cheese slices and bread. I've eaten that combo four separate times in the last two days because I had leftovers since three peppers is more than five people need. Every bite is good with it's combination of salt, creaminess, breadiness (bread is good, don't you know?), and the indescribable but so good flavour of roasted pepper. As a variation, you could use hot peppers like my uncle does. In this case, the feta is a necessary cooling agent. Even so, three years ago I could barely eat one piece of his roasted chili. It was freaking hot.

I made the caponata from this recipe on Epicurious. I'd never had caponata that I know of, but it sounded good and I like eggplant. Plus, the recipe was well rated. I made a bit less than the full recipe, which was nevertheless a lot. I used a one pound eggplant, 3/4 of an onion, two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and a little less than the recommended amount of olive oil. I omitted the pine nuts since one of my guests was probably allergic, plus I'm lazy and cheap (actually I'm not sure if they're expensive). Also, I boiled the mixture considerably longer than recommended. I think this helped the flavours to meld together and to soften the eggplant. Here you can see the onions, garlic, and eggplant sauteing. It looks pretty good right there.

This was a good make-ahead appetizer. My guests seemed to like combining it with feta cheese as well, which is fine by me. I'm really not a food Nazi who tells people exactly how to eat my cooking. I actually just want people to enjoy what I make for them. The flavour of the caponata is a bit tart with plenty of eggplant texture. The capers in it add a tart and salty dimension. If you haven't tried capers, you really should. I'm experimenting with mixing the leftovers with pasta for lunch tomorrow.

In conclusion, tasty things on bread are a winner as starters for a dinner party. Plus, they can be made the day before and I'm pretty sure my friends liked them nearly as much as I did.

Too Much Sushi

I've been to Japan, but Japanese food is not an obsession of mine, although I like it once in a while. I find it a bit. . . lacking in spice and strong flavours compared to other Asian cuisines. Anyways, I've eaten Japanese food probably 3 times in the last six weeks, thanks to my new favourite sushi restaurant.

Kyoto Japanese Cuisine on 109th Street near the University was recommended by an old friend who evidently loves sushi. My first visit was with my sister, for sushi. I had sake . . . big mistake as it was nasty stuff. To me, it was floral plus alcohol equals nail polish remover. . . or maybe hairspray. I was really impressed with the diverse dinner menu of sushi and other Japanese things. I had toro, spicy tuna, unagi, and scallop sushi. I enjoyed all of them. I especially liked the scallop, which I could not remember having before. It was very tender and I really liked the texture. The flavour was characteristically mild. I also tried the jellyfish salad, which was very tasty with a lot of sesame flavour. My sister and I split some fried squid to start with. It seemed okay.

On my second visit, I was pretty disappointed with the tempura in my tempura udon. I ordered it because my throat was sore. The broth and noodles hit the spot, but the tempura were too greasy. . . I know they're fried but still. They weren't fried well.

So, on my third visit with my mom, we avoided fried foods. We also ordered way too much. The yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), were unremarkable as the sauce lacked flavour. We both agreed that this was the element that should have been left out of the order. We also had meat gyoza (dumplings). To me, they were a bit bland. But my mom liked them as she's a dumpling fan and I still ate three even though I was stuffed. We tried some special salads. I had the Kyoto one and she had the seafood one. I enjoyed the presence of salad greens in an otherwise nearly vegetable matter free meal. My salad had four large pieces of barely seared (ie nearly raw) fish and some black fish roe. For sushi, I had scallop, salmon, and baby tako (baby octopus). Scallop and salmon were good as expected. The baby tako was quite striking in appearance with two reddish purple baby tako on each roll. They were difficult to eat delicately due to their size. However, the tako was very tender and not too chewy. All in all, it was a very good meal. My mom seemed to enjoy her spicy tuna rolls and unagi. I challenge anyone not to like unagi. Seriously, barbecued eel is good. Now I definitely know where to go for sushi, if not for Japanese fried food.

In Japan, I went to one sushi restaurant of the rotating-sushi-track variety. I don't remember what I ate except for some rolls topped with clear, colourless worm-like things with black eyes that I was told were baby eels. I ate them even though it was a roll that my Japanese host family wouldn't touch. I was a crazy eater even at 15.

2 Quick Dinners in the Colour Yellow, Plus a Random Chinese Baking Comment

I think I'm pretty behind on my blogging, not that a lot of people would notice. But, a lot of what I've been up to is food related, so I foresee three posts in the next couple of days, at least.

I talked about going to T&T Supermarket a week ago. When I go there, I like to buy Chinese-style baked goods. Last week, I got a taro bun with almonds. There weren't many almonds, but I didn't really care because I got that topping to avoid the sickly sweet "pineapple" topping on so many of the sweeter buns. Not that it's terrible or should be avoided, but I didn't feel like eating it for breakfast on Sunday. Chinese baked goods, judging from T&T's and things other people say are usually very soft. Buns like the taro bun are soft and slightly sweet. They're a nice change from other bread products.

The taro filling was purple and pleasantly sweet with a starchy texture. . . I think, it was a while ago. Anyways, I liked it. I think I may still prefer red bean filling, though. I think I'm the only white person I know who enjoys red bean sweets, I tried feeding red bean candy to my family and nobody really liked it. My sister in particular was disgusted and didn't finish her piece. Personally, I think it like it because I'm just that big of a fan of beans. If I can have bean texture in sweet form, it's fine by me. Probably the most revelatory baked good that I've bought at T&T was called "cumin bread." I only saw it once. It was a soft bread, not sweet, spiced with cumin and topped with cumin seeds containing raisins and walnuts. It was a very good breakfast. The reason it was a revelation was that it gave me the idea to spice oatmeal with cumin since if it works in a "raisin bread", why shouldn't it work in oatmeal. . . like cinnamon. That may not make sense but it's how my mind works. I'm a big fan of cumin, needless to say.

I didn't think I would have that much to say about the bun, but on to Tuesday. I made a couple of fried eggs on top of sauteed spinach and onion plus corn on the cob. First the corn,

I hadn't had corn on the cob in recent memory. Boiled and then spread with some butter, It was really good. I liked the sweetness and the sensation of biting into it. Plus, that bright sunny yellow is visually appealing. I will have to eat more corn this summer. Actually, it was kind of funny because I tried to boil the corn in a not terribly large pot. It didn't fit until i cut off some of the stem. So, use a big pot to boil corn.

On to the eggs and spinach. They were tasty as the onions were nicely caramelized. I messed up one of the eggs and broke the yolk, which was a big disappointment. I guess my point is that I looooooove runny egg yolks and the perfect over easy egg. I have a friend who is disgusted with runny yolks, but they have been a great pleasure to me since I was a kid. I remember eating over easy eggs on toast on the weekend when I was little. I used to save the yolk till the end and relish every bit. So here's a gratuitous yolk shot:

On Wednesday, I made some vegetarian comfort food, and no I'm not a vegetarian, but I find beans and legumes very satisfying. Anyways, I felt like some lentils and had leftover dried red lentils from making this soup. I decided to make a curry soup also using the remainder of my bunch of spinach. I began by sauteing about half an onion in some olive oil. Then I added two cups of water, a teaspoon of chicken bouillon (not so vegetarian after all. . . oops), and a heaping teaspoon of curry powder. I added a half cup of rinsed red lentils and boiled it for fifteen minutes. Then I added some torn spinach, probably about three cups, and cooked it until that wilted. It looked, a little bit gross perhaps:

But that doesn't mean it didn't taste good. And it did taste good, or else I wouldn't mention it. It had a good lentil texture, I guess it's the starch and protein, the leguminess. (Made up words are fine.) The curry flavour worked well and the spinach provided a nice contrast in colour and texture as well as a mild flavour. I thoroughly enjoyed eating this.

Signs of Spring. . . My Salad Can Kick Your Salad's Ass

So, making a salad for dinner tonight I thought I would blog about it and call it "my salad can kick your salad's ass." Needless to say I was pretty confident about my salad. It was going to be freaking awesome. How could it not be? I was sauteing shrimp, onion, and garlic. I was making my own croutons. It was going to have fresh spinach and tomato. Anyways, we'll see how it turned out.

I've been thinking about making more salad, because it's spring. Did you need to be told?

Anyways, I also made a good salad a while ago with leaf lettuce, shredded carrot, canned herring, bottled roasted red pepper salad dressing, and toasted tortilla. It was good because the oily fish and crunchy tortilla were distributed in pretty much every bite. Plus bottled dressing is pretty well balanced.

This salad I made tonight:
Actually, I was pretty good. It looks good. Actually, I suppose the only flaw was the way I dressed it. I tried to make my own dressing which was about 1 part Dijon mustard: 4 parts white vinegar: 2 parts extra virgin olive oil. I mixed it with a fork, and my not have gotten it quite right. I think i left a lot of the oil behind, let's just say it was a touch too vinegary. Solution: I need to get some better vinegar like red wine or balsamic. Other than that, the croutons were crisp after being tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme and baked at 350 until toasty. The onions were nice and sweet, the shrimp were perfectly cooked, and the tomato was enjoyable if not super tasty. The spinach was fine, too.

Anyways, all of this reminds me how good salads future will be. Why? Because soon I will be gardening and have freshly picked greens. They are so nice and tender. Plus, there should be ones with interesting flavours, shapes, and colours. And late in the summer, there will be tomatoes, fresh and tasty, even yellow ones. Honestly, I can't wait until I can stop relying on mediocre supermarket produce. Maybe I will perfect the art of making a vinaigrette by then, or maybe I will just cave and use bottled.

On Obsession and the Nasty Bits

I want to talk about two things that are. . . vaguely related and definitely food related. First off, I am a little bit obsessed with finding the best food I can to eat and not wasting my time with mediocre crap. And mostly, with not being able to tell when I'm eating mediocre crap. Well I guess mediocre isn't crap, but it's "just okay." I think really, that a lot of what I eat is just okay, but I like to eat and I think I pick up on something to like in most things.

This really came to a head yesterday when I went for a day of shopping. Of course with the numerous trips I was making back and forth across West Ed acquiring my assortment of clothes and shoes, I got hungry for lunch. Actually, that would have happened anyways, I can't really skip meals. Anyways, I went looking for some Asian food and ended up sitting down for Vietnamese pho at Pho Hoa, which turned out to be part of a massive chain. I figured it would be okay because most of the clientele were Asians. Anyways, sitting alone, I could tell that my order was forgotten about and waited at least half an hour for my soup. When it came, I was hungry so I ate it all. The broth seemed okay to me, but needed a lot of hot sauce. There seemed to be a reasonable amount of meat, more on that later. The noodles, well, they were stuck together really bad. This was my main complaint, along with the waiting. Anyways, a quick search on this Internet when I got back revealed comments that this chain is among the worst possible places for pho and something about a "big bowl of MSG." I don't think I can tell if I'm eating MSG and I couldn't tell that it was terrible. So, I don't know about my taste and questioning whether I have decent taste was. . . troubling. Anyways, on the bright side, I was only out $8 including a perhaps over-generous tip through the whole thing and had energy to shop.

Anyways, I would like to find some truly good pho or other Vietnamese foods like Bahn Mi (if that's sandwiches). Any tips would be appreciated.

You might wonder what the "Nasty Bits" part of my title is. It's a reference to parts of animals people don't like to eat. I'm an unapologetic omnivore. I do worry about the conditions of animals raised for meat, but shamefully not enough to do anything about it and find humane, hormone free meat. I remember learning in elementary school about the uses that First Nations people had for all the parts of the Bison. I thought it was smart to put everything to good use, and it shows respect for the life of the animal to use everything. Anyways, I am intrigued by the idea of eating offal, which Offal Good describes as "those parts of a meat animal which are used as food but which are not skeletal muscle." Examples include organ meats, feet, and heads.

Anyways I guess the first experiences I have had with offal were of the turkey variety since my mom puts the heart and liver in her stuffing or gravy at Christmas. I prefer it in the stuffing. When I played soccer, there was one girl who I tried to put off her game by talking about eating turkey heart. I thought that was funny and it grossed her out. At a hot pot restaurant, I remember eating chicken gizzards and tripe. These two types of offal were remarkable for their unique textures and I guess I like unusual textures, but not so much that of tripe. Tripe is the stomach lining of a cow or other ruminant animal.

When Albert was last here, we got something labeled pig's huff at T&T Supermarket. I think they meant hoof, as it was pig's foot prepared in a salty Chinese way. The flavour and texture were very interesting to me. I ate a lot of it despite the obvious fattiness. It had a tart dipping sauce. I think I would eat a bit of it again. Incidentally, Korea has restaurants specializing in pig's foot. If I ever go to Korea, I think I will try to eat in one. Incidentally, offal is much more popular across the Pacific than in North America, where most people have an aversion to it. While eating the foot, I became interested in offal and found the Offal Good website.

That was the end of my offal eating until yesterday, at the mediocre Vietnamese restaurant. They listed options for meat to be in the soup as for beginners, regular, and adventurous. What am I if not adventurous? I'm talking about food here, I might be pretty boring otherwise. Anyways, I ordered soup with steak, flank, tendon, and tripe. There was plenty of rather ordinary beef and tendon, which was pretty gelatinous. I enjoyed the textural contrast of the tendon. There was one piece of tripe, I think. I appreciated its texture but would have liked another piece to be sure.

And then there's the future of me and offal. And that is that I think I might try cooking liver and onions some time. I don't know if I like it but maybe I should find out.

What's for Dinner?

I thought I'd talk about one surprisingly good think i whipped up for dinner this week and what I mad tonight, which was also pretty good (and got photographed). The point of this is that cooking for one is an everyday activity, for me at least.

On Monday, I decided that I would whip up some fried rice with sticky rice left over from the Bul Go Gi House. No, the rice wasn't fresh. I fried up some onion, tofu, mushrooms, garlic, and a small zucchini in olive oil (very Asian I know). Then I added a bunch of rice and some hoisin sauce and garlic chili sauce. No, there wasn't egg. Does that make it not fried rice? I don't know. Anyways, it was good mainly because of the taste of the rice. I didn't know rice could taste that good. Is that taste telling me that sticky rice is bad for me?

Tonight, as I was walking home from work I composed a pasta in my head using broccoli and pork. At home, I sauteed a quarter onion in olive oil and added broccoli and a clove of garlic (minced of course). I sauteed that a bit and added some finely sliced pork chop, seasoned with black pepper and cooked the pork, added a splash of pasta water, and stirred in some al dente tortiglioni. Then I put it all in a big ass bowl and sprinkled it with grated Romano cheese. Later, I decided it needed a touch of salt as well. This is what it looked like:

I noticed several good things about this dish. The onions got nicely caramelized and were quite sweet and delicious. The cheese got fairly well distributed and contributed saltiness and creaminess, a bite with cheese was a good bite. The pork was also moist and tasty. It's actually been a while since I cooked meat, so there was a bit of novelty there. The broccoli remained crisp and it did not have a nasty broccoli pasta flavour, perhaps because it wasn't cooked to death. Finally, that pasta. Pasta tastes good to a carb lover like me. Plus, isn't that shape fun. Trust me, it's fun to eat. Don't you like stuff that's fun to eat? Overall, this was a pretty decent quick dinner for after work.

And now, couple of other food notes from this week:

You know when you think somebody will bring donuts to a meeting? And then they bring strudels and turnovers instead. And then you choose some giant strudel sprinkled with peanuts and covered in vanilla and butterscotch icing, probably the richest, sugariest one. And you eat it all even though you're not that hungry. And then you feel a little sick from sugar overload. But you had to eat it all because it was there, a gift to you. That's about what happened to me on Wednesday.

Then tonight, I went to the Sugarbowl and ate most of a bowl of Elk and Mushroom soup. I'm not sure how smart it is to order soup at 10:30 at night, it's been sitting it that pot a long time. Anyways, the mushrooms were plentiful and not your ordinary mushrooms so that was good. There was a lot of rice in the mild but tasty broth. Then there was the elk. It was ground and I can't say I tasted anything distinctive about it. Oh well, at least I can add it to the list of animals I know I've eaten. . . cow, pig, chicken, duck, alligator, lamb, baby cow (I know I'm evil), ostrich, bison, deer (I think), boar (I think), . . . maybe more I can't think of. This list excludes any animal of the sea, because that's a whole other issue. Plus, I was only vaguely aware of what I was eating in Japan, especially seafood, which may have included baby eels and a sushi of my creation featuring two generations of salmon. What animals won't I eat? Endangered species, bear, and shark. Didn't anyone ever tell you bears and sharks are our friends?

Cheeeeeese 2

This is where I continue my list o' cheese:

Gouda: A nice flavour in a cheese, I can't really describe it but it's good. Sometimes in the afternoon, it's Gouda time, just ask my sister.

Swiss: This cheese was my enemy for life. I really didn't like the taste when I was little. But now, I'm quite okay with it. It has a taste, I like that in a cheese. It's good on sandwiches. Besides, who doesn't enjoy looking at a cheese with holes.

Pecorino Romano: A hard, salty Italian cheese that I grate on my pastas right how. Pasta is way better with some cheese. I'm sure Parmigiano is also good. Much better than cheese from a can. This cheese appears in the photo above.

Mozzarella: This cheese is a lot bland for me in it's industrial form, which is most of what I've eaten. Those fresh ones people talk about might be nice. Otherwise, this is only for pizza. But don't get me wrong, I love pizza.

Gruyere: I bought a Swiss imported Gruyere. It's quite mild and perhaps a bit nutty.

Cottage Cheese: I like the tartness of cottage cheese but have not eaten it recently.

Cantenaar: My cheese of the moment. This is a Dutch cheese. I'd say it's semi-hard. It's lower in fat than many cheeses but it has a really satisfying tang. I guess it's a bit sharp. It's good for sandwiches. . . actually the description in the store said it was. That's why I bought it. It's photographed above.

That's all I can think of for now folks. Please, tell me about your favourite cheeses.

Cheeeese!!!

Over the last year, I've been on a bit of an informal and admittedly not very efficient cheese tasting mission. You see, after leaving Lister--land of the plastic cheese--I could buy my own cheese. Good cheese, flavourful cheese. I discovered by something of a random occurrence that I actually love strong cheese even the dreaded blue cheese. I ate some during lunch on my first day volunteering in the campus community garden last may. It was really good and I was driven to expand my cheese horizons. Here are a few of my notes about cheese, they're a little random because it's late:

Brie: I like this more for soft, creamy texture than flavour, but it's good.

Blue Cheese: Strong, smelly cheese flavour and a little goes a long way. . . mmm. This is why I like the salad in the previous post.

Cream Cheese: Excellent on bagels, cheese cake is pretty darn good too. I love the creaminess and slight tang.

Cheddar: This was my main cheese growing up and I still love it. The sharper the better. Mild cheddar is a no go.

Camembert: Also soft and creamy but mild.

Double Gloucester: Orange and British, it looked like cheddar, but the flavour was disappointingly mild compared to an old cheddar. It grew on me, though.

Edam: It had a red wax coating, the texture and flavour were not bad but not remarkable either.

Feta: I really like salty feta on pizza and with marinated roasted peppers on bread. It's the star of Greek salad, which is really and excuse to eat cheese.

Goat's Cheese (Chevre): I love the tang and the sort of creamy texture. To me it's like cream cheese gone wild. Wild is good.

Consider this the start of a list. More tomorrow perhaps.