edmonton foodie

barry likes don.

2011-12-04T03:19:00.001-07:00

barry's shocked that andy contributed to a cookbook...

2011-09-09T20:15:00.000-06:00

...and the recipe didn't contain any condensed soup!

if you haven't already checked out the andy warhol exhibit at aga, then you really should go. his mother, júlia, contributed a caribbean fish dish to a cookbook, which andy artfully embellished upon with paint.

i'm trying to imagine a cookbook full of recipes by warhol, and all i can think is that it must be less trippy than one by dali.

barry takes a bite out of jasper.

2011-07-24T13:10:00.001-06:00

last friday, a bud and i took off to the mountains for a day of hiking, kayaking, and cursing mosquitos. we not only conquered the alpine meadows hike at mt. edith cavell, but also managed to stay upright, despite massive blood loss thanks to the swarms. to celebrate we decided to head to the emerald lounge at the jasper park lodge for a quick drink.

its here that we met our server, jonas henriksson. i decided to take his advice and try jpl's signature martini. this turned out to be one of the best drinks i've had in a long while. of course, it probably helped that jonas actually invented the drink himself.

the infamous martini came into being 4 years ago when jonas first arrived in Alberta from his home in sweden. determined to try canadian ice wine, he began a mission to create the perfect hybrid of swedish and canadian spirits. what originally started out as a drink with equal parts inniskillin ice wine and straight-up vodka, morphed into ice wine and citron vodka, and finally as a mixture of absolut pear vodka and inniskillin, served in a sugar-rimmed martini glass. it goes for a cool $17, but it's worth the treat.

after our $17 drinks we decided to head into town to papa george's for supper. we chose this restaurant on my older sister's advice - she would not stop raving about their game burger, served with a side of potatoes fried in duck fat.

both of us opted to get this, but we started off with elk pot pie and pan seared scallops. we both felt that our appies missed the mark - great in concept, but not worth the price. my bud's elk was overcooked, and though my scallops were done perfectly, the faro patties that they were served with were over salted.

a mix of elk, venison and bison, the game burgers arrived promptly after our starters. we expected game burgers to have a stronger flavour. though these were cooked perfectly, they were bland for our tastes. the great service and beautiful ambience couldn't balance out our disappointment.

oh - and the potatoes fried in duck fat? superb.

barry learns some fun facts about tres carnales

2011-07-09T10:36:00.013-06:00

only open for a week, tres carnales is already the talk of the town. all you mexican food lovers, rejoice!, because this place is the real deal.

chris - one of the tres carnales - gave me some fun facts to share about his new place:

1) 2 years ago in a small mexican town, 3 buds sat down with a bottle of flor de cana rum. by the end of the bottle, the idea and business plan of tres carnales was hashed out. really, wouldn't the world be a better place if all ideas came about this way?

2) these guys have some serious passion. all 3 (chris, dani and edgar) are right in the thick of things at the restaurant - chris and dani work the floor, while edgar tends grill. need a food recommendation, or a way to snag one of their elusive tables? just ask one of these guys and they'll hook you up.

3) all the meat is locally sourced within 200 km of edmonton, so feel good about supporting your friendly neighbourhood ranchers!

4) their menu is going to be changed up regularly. chris was already talking fish tacos (hell, yes), duck, and desserts. my response to this news? thank you, jebus.

***

some other things you should know:

1) come expecting to socialize with strangers. this place is small, and they emphasize communal eating (including a large communal table). after waiting in line for awhile, my bud and i ended up dining with the couple behind us in line. turned out to be a really awesome conversation about travels through mexico, the small-town feel of edmonton, and pink tacos. (don't ask.)

2) the chorizo is made in-house, and is pretty damn awesome.

3) the sangria is alcoholic. it might taste like juice, but by the second pitcher you'll suddenly realize it's not.

4) at first we were all a little disappointed that the hot sauce wasn't so hot. turns out the real stuff is made in-house and kept under lock and key in the back. ask for some up front with your food. you won't be disappointed, but your tongue might hate you just a little for trying to burn it off.

5) ordering is a cross between pampa and famoso. you initially order at the counter, but if you don't want to start a tab, you pay up and get your table sign clothespinned. (you'll get this when you go) otherwise you can keep ordering more from your table. like additional pitchers of sangria...so dangerous...

6) watch out for table cherry pickers. they kept coming in behind us, and cutting in front to wait for tables. give them the cut-eye, and be ready to grab a table as soon as you see people heading out.

go.

eat some tacos,

and be ready to make some new friends.

10119 100A Street
Rice Howard Way
Edmonton
780-429-0911

barry + breakfast + deutschland!

2011-03-06T11:00:00.015-07:00

(it has fruit in it so it must be healthy, right?!)

guten tag!

breakfasts were so varied in germany, that i've broken this down into 2 posts. today, we're looking at a traditional bavarian brunch, with some cake thrown in for good measure. perhaps you'll be inspired for your own sunday get-together? it's easy enough to head down whyte, pick up some weisswurst, weissbier and have a family wurst showdown. ;)

i tried to tie this in with edmonton dining week menus, but the closest germanic influence i found was cafe lacombe doing a saskatoon berry strudel for their dessert. really? come on guys.

(how is it that almost one year later i can still tell you that here we have an egg nog, bavarian fruit bombe, austrian sachetorte, champagne and spanish vanilla selection?)

(for anyone headed over to bavaria, make a special stop in freising to naschwerk for some truly awesome cake.)

(apparently one way to eat weisswurst is to suck the meat out of the casing. oddly enough, none of the guys wanted to demonstrate this.)

also, please note the BASKET of pretzels. one basket is not enough.

(this is meatloaf. i don't even know what to say to that.)

barry's breakfast series continued...

2011-03-06T10:35:00.016-07:00

(so. much. cod.)

take 2: lisbon, portugal

breakfasts i wish i was eating now continues in portugal where they have a massive obsession with salted cod...sure.

BUT fried cod fritters, egg tarts and cherry liquor totally work for me. you can find some wicked egg tarts right here in edmonton (including at the italian centre) to start your own breakfast foods journey.

if you're following along with edmonton dining week, might i suggest pairing your portugese breakfast stylings with sabor divino for lunch: they're serving cod!

(belem egg tarts and cod fritters: a winning combination.)

sweet and savoury,
with a depth of flavour.
my love of fried things :)

(a ginjinha liquor. very lisboan.)

a 10am start
could only be completed
with cherry liquor.

(seriously? even in the graffiti?)

barry's breakfast series.

2011-03-06T09:51:00.013-07:00

first off: thank you all for the wonderful comments you've been leaving - glad you're enjoying the recipes, pictures and anecdotes here on the site. it's been quite a while since i've posted anything, so i thought i'd spring back by doing a series this week: mostly pictures, maybe a few haikus, but above all, a focus on deliciousness.

second: welcome to edmonton dining week. though it may not be as classy as new york fashion week, or as planned out as emergency preparedness week, i can promise it will be both tastier and fattier than both - and who doesn't love that?

i've started my dining week experiences by hitting up cafe select last night. and though i enjoyed both excellent service and an absolutely tasty entree, i realized that this week was missing something: breakfast. so here i am, encouraging you to go out and get inspired for lunch, dinner and dessert at any number of amazing edmonton restaurants this week, and to keep posted here for some inspiring international breakfast ideas for you to try at home.

breakfast from granada, spain:

memories of warmth,
decadent and comforting.
churros are a must.

but what else to have?
hot chocolate so thick:
a dip for churros.

slathered on baguette:
tomatoes, garlic, oil.
true tastes of summer.

barry has a suggestion for what to make for dinner tomorrow.

2010-11-06T20:59:00.015-06:00

pizza. but not just any pizza: pear and cambozola cheese pizza. inspired by the original recipe from the chefs at the best of bridge, i updated this delight with a new crust and a few additions of my own. i've been looking for some super simple, quick and easy dishes to prepare for guests coming over, and this recipe definitely fits the bill. of course, i did have to try it out for myself first - to make sure it's edible and all that. right....

enjoy !

the dough

1 c. warm water
1 pkg yeast

sugar

1. combine and let activate - ~10 minutes.

2 1/2 - 3 c. flour
2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

chopped fresh or ground dry rosemary (optional)

2. add to yeast. knead into dough and continue to add flour until dough doesn't stick to bowl or hands. cover and let stand for 10 - 30 minutes to rise.

3. stretch dough onto pizza pan.

the toppings

olive oil
4. brush crust with olive oil.

cambozola or, if like me you can't get your hands on it, brie/camembert and blue cheeses
1 can pears, drained and sliced
toasted pine nuts
pomegranate seeds
more rosemary
5. top with pears, pine nuts, pomegranate, rosemary and cheeses.
6. throw into the oven at 375Fish for 10 - 30 minutes, or until cheese melts and crust browns.

black pepper
7. top with fresh black pepper.

barry shares some inspiration.

2010-10-31T14:09:00.008-06:00

with the leaves gone, and snow coming, i thought i'd share a few dishes i've had over the past little bit to inspire some delicious and warming fall creations of your own.

start the night (or day - i don't judge) off right with a ginger saketini, complete with pickled ginger garnish. spicy, slightly sweet and a wee bit salty, it's a fantastic balance to whip up when the temperature drops.

i made this! i'm so proud of this fresh fig salad. lots of prosciutto, goat cheese, aged balsamic and fleur de sel, this stuff was ridiculously good. head over asap to the italian centre to get the last of the fresh figs.

i had this beet risotto this past summer at dine kalyna in vegreville. not only does it look beautiful, but add some onions and maybe a hint of dill, and it is absolutely delicious.

barry continues to explore the mercato, and goes beyond the cheese...

2010-10-31T13:28:00.016-06:00

...only to come back to it because, after all, what's life without cheese?

so the fantastic thing about il mercato is that you can get almost any kind of food here. not all of my pics turned out, but imagine heaps of pomegranates, mounds of spinach, oodles of noodles, barrels of oils, and porcini mushrooms as far as the eye can see. this place is a kind of mecca for foodies everywhere; a pilgrimage that needs to be undertaken at least once in a food lover's life to achieve enlightenment.

or, at the very least, a very full stomach.

for a truly authentic experience, join the florentine locals for lunch at nerbone's, located on the main floor of il mercato. go for their traditional panino con bollito (boiled meat sandwich dipped in meat drippings), or their trippa alla fiorentina (florentine style tripe).

of course, a trip to florence would not be complete without a traditional steak. take note: if you're looking for the authentic, go for a cut similar to the below picture. anything else, while WE might consider it a steak, is just a piece of beef for florentines.

...or there's cow testicles. your call.

the homemade pasta we saw looked out of this world! and for those of you who've never tried it, gnudi is the ravioli filling, minus the ravioli. it's delicious, especially with a fresh pomodoro sauce.

look at your cheese in the fridge. now look at these cheeses. look again at your cheese, and back to these! your cheese isn't any of these delicious european concoctions, but it could smell like them if you let it sit on the counter for a few weeks. or, as a healthier more delicious alternative, you could book your plane ticket now.

i think i'll have to have a separate post dedicated solely to cheeses i found in europe. many of them can't be found in edmonton (maybe in montreal), but just imagine if they were! for starters, i'd be 400 pounds and have diabetes, but i would be in heaven so it wouldn't matter!

barry attempts to explore florence's mercato centrale...

2010-10-07T17:53:00.017-06:00

...and is at a loss of where to begin. so i think i'll break this up into a couple of posts.

bustling with locals and tourists alike, the mercato caters to all tastes. luckily, i was there on a private food tour with angel walking tours, and so was able to enjoy stuffing my face with delicious goodies in relative peace. our guide, Samanta, started us off with a "small" selection of italian antipasti and wine (can you already tell that this is going to be good?!). everything was local, fresh, and told a history of the region that made you wish that all history lessons you had in grade school had a sample involved, because you would actually remember what you learned. i'll try to impart just a fraction of the wisdom i learned, and leave it to you to discover the rest on your own food adventures.

can i just say that i love cheese? i've been smitten with it for years, but would never have thought to serve it straight up with huge dollops of raspberry jam and orange-onion marmelade. DO IT. a staple around florence, and with so many sheep in the countryside, both fresh and aged pecorino cheese is the only way to go when sampling tuscan cuisine.

how can you tell a florentine salami from a venetian, or even a hungarian? no, this isn't some dirty joke, there really is a way. just look at how big the fat bits are. florentine ones will have larger fat bits, and lots of black peppercorns. other sausages will have smaller bits closer together. eccola! with info like this, you're going to be a hit at all the cool kids parties!

let's talk carbs, shall we? or more specifically, tuscan bread. no, i'm not talking about the soft, fluffy stuff they serve at olive garden with their mozzarella fonduta, but instead, the saltless wretch that tries to rip you teeth out of your mouth when you take a bite of it. ah...THAT bread.

for years florence and their rival (well, one of their rivals), pisa, went after each other in anyway that they could to get the upper-hand, and one thing that the pisani had access to that the florentines did not was the harbour...and salt. by heavily taxing salt headed for florence, almost no one in the city could afford to puchase this basic seasoning. the result: a new bread weapon...um, recipe, that was salt-free. ha! take that pisa!

i don't like olives. argh! i can practically hear you judging me. i do like olive oil if that makes you feel any better. no, these olives were not the typical olives you'd find at the corner store in edmonton. they were fresh, and done in a simple brine to keep as much of their fresh flavouring in. it also made them more meaty than other olives i've tried. tuscany is brimming with olive trees, and you'll find their fruit and their oil in almost everything. we were also educated in what to look for in a good olive oil. 1) make sure it's cold pressed, and 2) the freshest olive oils will be a murky green. the longer they sit, the clearer, and paler in colour (towards the yellow many here are used to) they become.

what would italian cuisine be without a little garlic? i ate these. raw. well, pickled. and surprise, surprise, i did not create a 10-foot barrier around me with my breath. sweet with almost no after taste, these suckers were probably my biggest surprise on this tour.

i also don't like sun-dried tomatoes. calm down, calm down! if i WERE to like any though, it would definitely be these. packed in good olive oil to be carefully preserved with love, these ruby jewels were crammed with enough flavour to work over your tastebuds as you chewed. only the best plum tomatoes are to be used - use the tomato-flavoured olive oil with salads!

20 year aged balsamic vinegar. you know all those trendy restaurants that started serving strawberries decked out in balsamic? yeah...they're doing it wrong. good balsamic vinegar should be sweet and almost syrup-like in consistency. anything less is just gross fwhen you're using it for dessert or appetizer toppings. try drizzling the good stuff over strawberries, ice-cream (really.) or, like we did, freshly shaved parmesan.

barry reflects on gelati in all it's glory.

2010-09-12T09:42:00.012-06:00

and oh how glorious it is!

i'm sure, just like anything, there must be bad gelati in italy, but i'm guessing it's really difficult to find. instead of having the good, the bad and the ugly while sampling my way through the frozen concoctions presented to me, i experienced the good, the better and the oh-my-god! varieties of gelati.

i tried the traditional milk gelati, the sorbetti, new-fangled soy and even a granita or two. all were created using the best ingredients, and all delighted the senses in ways that should not be legal without a prescription.

the great thing about gelati that we get less and less of in north america, is that it tastes real: peach gelato tastes like fresh peaches, not like some chemical compound created to mimic what a peach tastes like. unlike those of us who live in a world where mad science experiments such as the grapple exist and are for sale, italians are sticking to fresh ingredients and some places, like perche no!, even follow the slow food regulations, exponentially increasing their deliciousness factor.

even better than freshness - the flavours are RIDICULOUS. sure there's peach or the ever-present national obsession of nutella, but how about pine nut or toasted sesame and honey or even ricotta and fig (thank snoopy's in cortona for that gem of a flavour)?

so for your next gelati summit meeting, might i suggest firenze's:

vivoli for some really good gelati, such as their peach

perche no! for some truly outstanding delights (the tiramisu flavour will make you want to weep)

and after a quick road trip to the south, gelateria snoopy in cortona for mind blowing tastes where the ricotta and fig is just the beginning.

barry gives you a sneak peek...

2010-07-26T21:52:00.009-06:00

...of strange and often wonderful european delights.

one month, five countries, and some might say too much wine (but not me, because that is crazy talk). stay tuned for more shortly, but here are a few pics to whet your appetite.

barry loves skinny legs...

2010-06-07T20:34:00.004-06:00

..and cowgirls. had you for a second, didn't i?

so i've literally just arrived home from an evening out with my uncle - a last food hurrah, if you will, before i'm off on my european excursion. uncle wanted greek; i was put out by koutouki's on 124 street (WAY too expensive for what you get), so i suggested we go down jasper ave to skinny legs and cowgirls.

he wasn't too impressed by the name.

thinking he was getting into some sort of burger bar that just wasn't his thing, i convinced him to go check out the menu with me before we moved on.

boy was he glad that i twisted his rubber arm.

funky decor, wonderful staff, and redonkulous food, we made the most of our evening, even though i've lost my camera battery charger, so was without pictures. damn - of all the nights to not have a camera, this was the worst. not only did the food taste great, but it looked great too.

we started off with a bottle of wine, a grilled caesar salad and nova scotia scallops served with a bacon and creamy leek sauce (with extra warm bread to soak up the sauce). everything was great, but the scallops definitely stood out for us.

we followed this with their daily veggie platter. it was supposed to be asparagus, but since i'm not too much of an asparagus fan (yeah, yeah - you can bitch to me later), our hostess amy kindly switched it up with a plethora of grilled veggies including red onion, portobello mushrooms, aubergine, zucchini, red pepper, beets, mini squash, fennel and mashed sweet potatoes. YUM. this complimented our australian rack of lamb, coated in herbs de provence and with a super tangy and addictive mint sauce, perfectly. (did i mention that they do mostly organic stuff here?)

and what could possibly top off this feast? how about vanilla bean crème brûlée. now, i don't know anyone who doesn't love a good crème brûlée, but let's be honest with each other for just a second. the real thing we love about the crème brûlée is the brûlée, right? right. well, these guys do it in an extra large, shallow ramkin so there's maximm brûlée action going on. yeah, i know.

i highly recommend you visit our girl amy and her mom (the chef) for a delicious treat, or better still, check them out next monday for slow food edmonton's indulgence 2010 food and wine tasting. i'm warning you know that this restaurant is pricey, but well worth it for super-fantastic service, amazing food, and a fun atmosphere.

thanks again to everyone at skinny legs for making our night!

barry brings you today's blog thanks to the letter "p" and the number "4".

2010-04-27T10:56:00.019-06:00

p is for perogies!! and 4 is for how many kinds we had at our perogy party. picture it: people bring their own fillings, we prep the dough and stuff them, and then....wait for it....WE EAT THEM.

bliss. heaven. happiness. there should be a book about how perogies feed your soul, and how world peace could be accomplished if everyone just ate a few of these everyday.

brie, garlic, pumpkin:
my fillings ingredients.

mellowed with some sage.

the flatness persists.
how to salvage the flavour?
cranberry jewel.

flavour unrefined:

jalapeno, cheddar, corn.

party in my mouth!

beets and boursin cheese?

for wild flavours, yes please!

made with love...and crack.

divine decadence:
did someone say s'morogies?!?!
beyond the campfire.

barry presents a feast for your eyes.

2010-04-07T10:00:00.026-06:00

barry's bringing sexy back.

i thought i'd share a few pics and recipes from this past easter weekend.

some of you may recall the avocado pie my bud informed us about last year. i finally tried it, and let me say, it's my new go-to dessert. 4 ingredients. 10 minutes prep. no baking. SNAP!

zest 2.

then juice them (1/3 cup).

mash up 2 whole ones of these.

mix them with one can of condensed milk.

start drooling.

put the mix into one of these pre-made (don't do chocolate though - too cocoay and dry).

chill it for 4 + hours.

tastes like heaven.

meyer lemons? try liar lemons! supposedly these "innocuous" fruits are supposed to look like lemons, smell like lemons, and taste like lemons without the sourness. LIES! sure you might peel these suckers like a mandarin orange, but everything else about them is bitter - like me.

plums, blackberries and starfruit. a hit with the nephew...and no one else.

the infamous "pail".

the breakfast of champions...and barry's family.

dinner was not for the faint of heart. case in point: carrots smothered in butter.

world's best stuffing (carb treat #1). notice the glorious sultana gems.

carb treat #2: potatoes...smothered in butter.

nalisnyky: carb treat #3 (with some farm cottage thrown in for good measure).

carb treat #4 (because there's no such thing as too many carbs): holubtsi.

my brined turkey (brined with apples, brown sugar, onions, 1/4 cup salt, garlic, cinnamon, and fresh rosemary, thyme and sage).

we overcooked it.

damn.

and finally, what's easter without the food equivalent to crack: farm cottage cheese.

happy eating!!

barry shares another link for food trends.

2010-03-11T15:48:00.001-07:00

although really, some of these are already out there...

barry has one word for you: EMPANADAS!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-26T14:33:00.026-07:00

say it with me now: "EMPANADAS!" this is not a food that comes out quiet and demure, waiting to be noticed. this is a party food, ready for a fiesta (or a fight), and ready to take centre stage at your next shindig.

one of my buds, carolina, took the time last weekend to show me how to make this south american treat. as it is with most food items, empanadas vary from region to region, so she showed me a popular choice from her home town of buenos aires. as you can imagine, there was a lot of beef, a lot of spice, and a lot of delicioso argentinian wine (which we thought would be way better to drink on the side then cook into the meat).

your first step is to caramelize an onion in olive oil. your onion to meat ratio should be 2:1, so remember: LOTS of onion.

once it begins to caramelize, add half each of a green and red pepper, finely diced.

keep stirring.....

when it starts to brown, add salt to draw out the moisture.

next add the beef. lean beef is fine, but don't do extra lean - you want the flavour! we did about a 1/2 kilo.

stir it to break up the meat, but then stop stirring - you don't want to toughen the beef.

once browned, it's time to season it. we did this all to taste, but you're going to add oregano, a bit of paprika, a bit more cumin, a lot of pepper and salt, and garlic salt. at this point, you can also add diced black olive and boiled egg, but we didn't.

cool off the meat outside or in the fridge until you can handle it. for exceptional tasting filling, leave it overnight to mellow.

take your empanada shell (we found ours at the italian centre) and wet the outside edges with some water. fill with about 1 tablespoon of filling (not TOO much or they'll explode).

pinch the edges closed starting from the corners, and working towards the middle. REALLY make sure that it's closed.

using two fingers, fold the edges over each other to "braid" them.

brush with an egg yolk (or two).

bake at 350F for ~45 minutes. this made 24 EMPANADAS! with some filling left over.

barry shares a link.

2010-02-25T09:52:00.004-07:00

photo courtesy: k! pizzacone

one of my buds just shared this with me, and i feel that it's my duty to share this delicious, wonderful concoction. pizza in a cone!! forget calzones or pizza pops, this one pays homage to the oh-so-fabulous ice-cream cone. i'm intrigued, but is edmonton ready for such a novel way to eat pizza?

thoughts?

barry bakes beer bread.

2010-02-18T08:30:00.007-07:00

and clearly loves alliteration.

so, i bought another plane ticket. this means three things to you. 1 - for about a month this summer you will not hear from me (i know, you're absolutely devasted). 2 - when you do hear from me again, i will be sharing stories of wild sangria concoctions, pretzels that melt in your mouth and hot chocolate thicker than pudding. pudding! and finally, 3 - currently, i am poor.

it's this third point that led me to my latest recipe trial. see, without money i can't go out to restaurants OR grocery stores, and so must make do with what's in my cupboards.

i'm going to be honest - it's pretty limited.

enter judy schultz and her AMAZING recipe for cheddar beer bread. i had beer (German white beer), i had cheese, and yes, i had flour. the result was a redonkulously easy recipe, and a moist and super tasty bread. highly recommend trying this guys - the hardest part is trying not to drink the beer first.

judy schultz's cheddar beer bread

1 3/4 c. flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp sugar

(i added a pinch of chipolte chili powder)

1 medium onion minced and browned in 2 tbsp. butter

1 c. cheddar cheese grated

1. mix above ingredients. make a well in the middle.

355 ml. beer (any kind, but darker has more flavour) at room temperature

2. pour beer into the well, and mix until JUST combined.

3. spoon into a well greased loaf pan. top with an additional 3/4 c. grated cheddar.

4. bake in pre-heated oven at 350f for 45 - 50 minutes.

5. cool 10 minutes on wire rack. serve hot.

barry: "why yes, i am obsessed with cheese - and you?"

2010-02-02T16:01:00.012-07:00

i ate these two delectable crostini for dinner the other night. just thought i'd share. they were tasty; they were pretty; they were damn sexy; and yes, they were particularly cheesy.

using two halves of a whole wheat ciabatta bun i created two very different tastes. on one half, i combined garlic, apple slices, brie and cinnamon (out of the two, i would say this was my favourite) for a sweet, yet savoury taste, while on the opposite side i wilted spinach with olive oil, garlic, sun-dried tomato feta (on sale at superstore), lemon juice and dill, to create a salty, pseudo-spanikopita topping.

all of this food manipulation came about due to a craving for some cheese. enjoy!

barry wonders what's going wrong.

2010-02-02T15:18:00.004-07:00

what the hell am i doing wrong, guys? i keep trying to recapture the deliciousness of central america by recreating fried plantains (platanos maduros for those of the local tongue) as can be seen below, but keep getting some kind of wussy version that just doesn't do it for me (see above picture). oh-so-ripe plantains? check. a wee bit of veggie oil? check. salt and sugar? check.

hell - i've even brought in a dash of cinnamon for kicks!

and though this rendition IS tasty, it's not the same, and i want the same.

so i need your help, and recipe knowledge, to tell me what i'm doing wrong. pointers, links, recipes, WHATEVER - just help me recreate the taste sensation that i'm missing.

barry IS ridiculousness.

2010-01-25T16:44:00.018-07:00

so you know those people who can't make up their mind? everything sounds just dandy to them, and if they choose one option, that means forgoing the other, which is truly catastrophic and can't be imagined, so when you ask them "chicken or beef?" they just say "yes please". you know, those people??

well, clearly i'm one of them.

case in point: sunday. lovely day, sunday was. the sun was shining, it wasn't too cold; it was a day for grocery shopping at superstore on 51 avenue, without a care in the world...except for the fact that i forgot to eat before i went there.

damn.

shopping hungry is truly a massive mistake. what isn't a massive mistake are frozen kiwi mussels for $2.98. delicious, cheap, and uber tasty in a white wine sauce, served with garlic toast for dipping. nice? try frickin' amazing! who can pass that up? clearly, not i, which is what i started off the day with thanks to a super simple recipe from the reluctant gourmet.

what a delightful meal, yes? one that should have satisfied me, but was it enough? of course not! not when i could also be eating triple chocolate haagen-dazs smothered in brandied cherries. it wasn't as if i was even hungry, but the very thought of going another minute without tasting this delightful pairing was unimaginable.

dear god - i'm like a hobbit. soon i'll be eating second breakfast, followed by elevensies, lunch and first tea. why should i choose between one decadent dish, when i could have two?

...or three...

there was no stopping me.

you would think that, stuffed with mussels, cherries and ice-cream, the madness would end, but no: i needed vegetables. and steak. and why would i have a simple, boring steak salad with just a few key ingredients when i could have them all combined together in one "holy hell!" dish?

first, i started with garlic mashed potatoes, that were no ordinary garlic mashed potatoes...

there were potatoes. there was garlic. and there was cauliflower, celeraic and dill.

then there were roasted beets and grilled onions.

there was steak.

there were tomatoes and corn, spinach and shredded red cabbage.

there weren't croutons made out of sliced cheese bagels, smothered in garlic butter and toasted, but that's only because i forgot.

there was brie; there was blueberry-cinnamon rolled goat cheese.

there were apples and guacamole.
finally, there was a dusting of cinnamon and a drizzle of mustard vinaigrette.

and yes, i ate it all. and yes, it tasted damn good. and yes, i am ridiculousness - hear my stomach roar.

barry recaps his central american culinary adventure in haiku.

2010-01-22T15:42:00.020-07:00

hey boys and girls. i should just clarify that my obsession with food during my travels into costa rica and nicaragua meant fewer food pictures than i would have liked - i was far too busy eating. but i did like the food - even most of the food at the resort i stayed at. enjoy!

costa rican fare,
so tantilizing...mostly.
load me up with pork!

oh, calamari.
breaded to oblivion.
do you see the grease?

imperial beer!
beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer!
you were good to me.

sketchy bus depot,
selling bagged meat with veggies.
oh, nicaragua!

curious pink stuff,
i wondered just what you were.
disguised coconut.

breakfast at le mar,
fried plantains, fried cheese, beans, rice!
your taste is sinful.

nicaraguan pop -
bottle pepsi delights me!
oh - bottle's reused.
:S

the beef makes me cringe,
the pork excites my tastebuds.
to them, chicken's king.

to monteverde,
where coffee is best - but wait!
just eat the sweet fruit.

barry gets creative.

2009-10-07T10:24:00.015-06:00

so i very recently got cable tv

(don't get too excited, i'm getting rid of it by the end of the month),

and managed to catch the last 10 minutes of oliver's twist: an older tv show featuring british celebrity chef, jamie oliver. he was doing delightful things with bread, but what really caught my attention was a grape-rosemary calzone he was preparing. i only caught that there was pine nuts, rosemary, grapes, wine and icing sugar in the mix, but it looked too amazing to not try.

with the help of a (dis)similar recipe i found online, i whipped up my own take of oliver's calzones for a couple of friends this past weekend. the result was such a hit that this is now going to be my thanksgiving contribution for the upcoming weekend. super simple to make, super impressive to look at, and with a taste that is pretty damn good, you'll be the talk of the thanksgiving table, finally one-uping your cook-it-all sister.

i win dammit! i finally win!!

grape-rosemary calzones

pizza dough:

1 package yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
1 - 2 tsp sugar

1 c. warm water

combine above ingredients, and put in a warm place to activate (about 3 - 5 minutes). it will start to bubble.

add 2 to 2 1/2 c. flour to yeast mixture (start with 2, and see how it goes from there) with some salt and olive oil. the dough should be elasticy.

let 'er rise.

filling
approx. 2 cups grapes, roughly chopped, or as i like to do it, squished with your hands
roughly chopped fresh rosemary minus the sticks (as much as you like. i used about 2 tbsp.)

cashews - yes please!

olive oil - just a splash
sweet wine (oliver used vin sinto; i used something sweet and red from the okanagan. WAY cheaper)
icing sugar (approx 3 tbsp or so)

mix the filling all together. the icing sugar with help coat everything, but everything will be liquidy).

roll out small rounds of dough and spoon onto them the grape mixture. top with some chevre and fold over and crimp together the sides. add a wee bit of salt and olive oil to the top of the calzone and bake at 350F until golden brown (15 minutes or so).

barry heads over to the cactus club cafe.

2009-10-05T14:12:00.013-06:00

so, if you're feeling a little la-ti-da, and want to experience the creations of an iron chef, you should head down to the cactus club pronto. chef rob feenie has created some delightful concoctions that may or may not give him another win on iron chef, but if nothing else give your tastebuds a run for your money. and there is quite a bit of money trading hands. my buds and i started off with some beef carpaccio ($13), followed by our entrees of butternut squash and fried sage ravioli, vegetarian fajitas and beef dip (~$15 - $25). we then ended off the meal with a bang, and had his key lime pie (~$8), made from scratch with love. though the individual meal choices are not ridiculously expensive, they add up as you want to try more and more dishes. out of the entrees, my clear favourite was the ravioli, but the other dishes were lovely too.

beef carpaccio
you were the evening's highlight.
i want more, dammit!

sage ravioli,

simply done with truffle oil.
you were crazy rich.

refreshing with zing,
you were other's favourite.
get me some pie, bitch!

on a side note, our waitress gave us the skinny on the dress code for wait staff. all women must wear heels no shorter than one inch. umm....what? they're on their feet for how long, running around with our food and drink, and flats and low heels are out. can anyone say union?

barry gives you some advice on food from the shaw.

2009-10-05T12:05:00.012-06:00

it's surprisingly good!

i'm a sceptic when it comes to eating things created en masse - things tend to be dry, rubbery, and only barely edible. but this is the third time i've had dinner at the shaw conference centre, and i have to admit that, overall, i like it.

our meal started off with homemade bread rolls, including some fantastic dill ones, followed by a curry butternut squash soup served with an apple fritter.

the main event was chicken supreme with coq au vin, steamed veggies and lyonnaise potatoes. the potatoes were thinly sliced and layered like scalloped, but without any flavour. the veggies were also a bit limp, but were tasty, as was the chicken and sauce, which were moist and delicious.

finally, we ended off with a very suprisingly delicious black forest cheesecake that had me craving seconds. mmm...

barry celebrates harvest moons and thai delights

2009-10-02T11:12:00.013-06:00

so, i just found out not half an hour ago that tomorrow is the mid-autumn or moon festival. it's a time when families get together and celebrate their adundance and completeness, but more importantly eat moon cakes. moon cakes are delightful lotus and peanut concoctions that have an egg in the middle to symbolize the moon. they're not really sweet, but they are definitely tasty, with a lot of peanut and almost toffee action going on. stay up late tomorrow, eat some cake and enjoy mother nature's show.

last friday i went out with colleagues to enjoy the spectacle that is tropika on calgary trail. if you love thai and malaysian food, head down for the feast.

roti and satays
start off our delightful meal.
roti all the way!

red chili chicken
garlic and cashews combine.
oh dear god it's hot!

bland and forgetful,

the desserts disappoint me.

...more roti perhaps?

barry thinks you should make this dessert. now.

2009-09-16T08:37:00.022-06:00

strawberries are on sale, it's +30 degrees out today, and who doesn't love a dash of tequila in their lives?

i made this quick, delightful dessert last weekend for sunday dinner, and had rave reviews for it. it also helped that the hardest thing to do was slice the strawberries (i'm feeling particularly lazy of late if you haven't noticed with the lack of writing). go pick up some strawberries, an angel food cake, whipping cream, a lemon and some white chocolate. slice up the strawberries, splash them with some tequila that i'm assuming you have on hand, and set aside. now whip up the cream with an electric mixer (or whatever) and fold into it some lemon zest and chopped up white chocolate. oh yes, i know. now just pile high all ingredients on each plate and enjoy the decadence.

scrumptulescent.

barry takes in a few tastes at the rosebowl.

2009-08-27T14:04:00.007-06:00

and likes them.

desperately needed pizza after 11 pm one friday past, so a few buds and i headed to the rosebowl on jasper and 117 street. a lot has changed in recent years at the bowl, particularly with their décor, but the pizza still delights the senses. try their spicy mexican pizza or their refreshing can’t-quite-remember-the-name-pizza with a garlic butter base, melted cheese, and chopped fresh tomatoes and cucumbers on top.

i had the chance to speak with the manager, and even better news: they’re extending their menu this fall to include more pizzas, more entrees, and more drinks!

good food, extended menu…my only complaint was that the music was crazy loud, making it near impossible to converse with my buds. maybe earplugs would be a good starter for the evening.

http://www.rougelounge.ca/rosebowl/

barry's sweet, sweet sugar rush.

2009-08-06T08:33:00.006-06:00

sun-soaked cardamom
syrup and dough combine as one.
gulab jamun goodness!

head-rush, sugar-rush,
sweet syrup dripping off my chin.
shamelessly munching.

they cry out: “eat me.”
the glucose rush clouds my mind.
just one more you say?

barry’s arabian adventure.

2009-07-10T15:36:00.010-06:00

it was middle eastern mayhem the other weekend after i followed the silk road (97 avenue) to 134 avenue and discovered an arabian paradise. well, paradiso anyway. and sunbake, elsafadi, and hajar’s halal butcher. what am i talking about? little lebanon of course – an area of 134 avenue between 107 street and 113 street full of fantastic grocery stores, bakeries and butchers that promise to have something for everyone.

my bud and i started off at sunbake pita bakery where we loaded up on fresh pita, hummus, and ekawi cheese pie; big thumbs up to the pita and cheese pie, but the hummus was a little heavy on the tahini for our tastes.

next we headed west to elsafadi bros super market. here we discovered the wonders (or so we thought) of canned appetizers. you would think that we would know better, but we didn’t. stuffed dolmades and aubergines enticed us with their fancy packaging and promise of tastiness inside. LIES! it made us sad, but did not distract from the hundreds of other fascinating and tasty things to buy at elsafadi, including reasonably priced produce, and fun middle eastern treats – many of which aren’t canned.

paradiso called my name from the same strip mall as elsafadi. i went a little overboard on buying various baklavas and doughy treats (okay – a lot!) but it was so much fun! and everything tasted great, but be careful: some of the treats make sugar seem bitter, so handle with care.

finally it was around the corner to hajar’s halal meats for a big bag of chicken pieces cut and marinated in a delicious. $13.00 for this bag – and the chicken tasted great, particularly with some tzatiki.

this is not a cheap expedition, particularly if you’re like me and start getting carried away the moment you see new food options. pace yourself, and know that these fantastic places aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so relax and enjoy!

barry goes bananas for barbeque.

2009-06-18T13:43:00.008-06:00

…and barbeques bananas!

to celebrate good weather FINALLY arriving in edmonton, a couple of barry’s buds hosted a ‘barbeque everything party’ this past weekend.

people went all out, and there came a point when i couldn’t tell if i was sweating from the heat, or from the meat consumption. we ended up consuming an assortment of barbequed items including, but not limited to: meat on a stick, meat marinated in yogurt, meat marinated in teriyaki sauce, ground meat formed into patties, and vegetarian hot dogs masquerading as meat.

to top off all the protein was a gut-expanding collection of salads, vegetables, appetizers and desserts. my buds’ buds really classed-up this barbeque with such delights as saint andre cheese heated on a cedar plank, and topped with toasted almonds and red wine jelly, and chocolate fondue done in orange halves and served with marshmallows and pound cake.

fancy, i know.

and i made banana boats. childhood camping memories would not be complete without a banana boat here and there. all that’s needed are bananas with a slit cut in them, then chocolate chips and marshmallows to be squished in and everything then wrapped up tight in aluminum foil to be thrown onto the barbie until the banana caramelizes. i also added a wee-bit of kalhua for the grown-up crowd.

so simple, so good.

happy barbequing!

(as a complete side note, i finally tried smirnoff’s mojito vodka. i’ve been wanting to try it for awhile now, but revolted against the idea of a mojito without rum. guys, don’t think of it as a mojito, but as an insanely refreshing minty-lime drink when mixed with club soda (it’s too sweet otherwise). superstore has it for ~$16.)

barry hails caesar.

2009-06-05T15:34:00.006-06:00

what makes a good caesar: the brand of vodka? the tomato to clam juice ratio? the garnish used? i don’t know – you tell me! – but i can tell you who makes a good caesar: the haven social club. i discovered haven on a blustery winter day this past february. at the time i was screaming for socialism, cbc, and more speak n spell while listening to the dulcet tunes of taking medication. (side note: music does not need more cowbell, it needs more speak n spell, dammit!) what better drink to enjoy the night with than a caesar? only this was the best caesar i ever had. it was garnished with a pickled asparagus, and other than a smooth, savory taste, i can’t tell you much more about what made it so great. i highly recommend that you all take your medication at haven and try one for yourself.

one of many caesar recipes:

6 oz. mott's clamato juice

1½ oz. vodka

2 dashes tabasco sauce

2 dashes worcestershire sauce

celery salt

freshly ground pepper

lime/lemon wedge

1 crisp celery stalk

1. rim highball glass first with the lemon slice and then the celery salt.

2. fill this glass with ice.

3. add vodka and juice to ice, and season with pepper, worcestershire sauce, and tabasco.

4. stir, and then garnish with a celery stick.

barry finally posted pink slip pics.

2009-06-04T11:53:00.001-06:00

say that three times fast. click here to view the post with pictures.

barry's ethiopian haiku.

2009-06-02T08:25:00.008-06:00

ahoihoi readers. i just checked my facebook fanpage, and realized that i don't know everyone on the list. this is a first! thirty-five and counting...

ethnic finger food:
lentils, spinach, doro tibs.

langano skies rocks!

injera rolled tight.
the wait for fresh food is long;
start off with a snack.

spicy and mild fare,
vegetarian and meat.
watch out for berber!

barry reads the headlines.

2009-05-25T15:27:00.022-06:00

geez, you guys are demanding – actually expecting me to write and all. okay, here’s a quick trip through some local (and personal) headlines of stuff around e-town.

to market, to market…

YAY! the weather’s grand and i’m feeling peckish. what’s a person to do? why, visit one of edmonton’s fantabulous farmer’s markets of course! as of may long, the downtown market on 104 street is now open, and selling everything from edible flowers to delicious lemon tarts. wander about, sample the local food scene (literally – almost everyone has food samples), and pick up some lunch.

http://www.albertamarkets.com/

speaking of markets…

a friend and i trekked out to callingwood in west edmonton to discover the wonders of the happy camel. homemade pita, hummus, and tabbouleh are just a few of their delights. try their creamed roasted vegetables spread on multigrain pita, or maybe some of their yogurt dip on one of their loaded flatbreads. the happy camel has been at the old strathcona markets for awhile now, but this is their first year at the downtown market. if you discover you love them more than life can bear, make sure you visit them at their store on the west-end – there you receive a card and stamps for every visit over $10. collect 10 stamps to receive a free medium hummus and 4 large pitas.

http://www.happycamel.ca/

things i found at the supermarket…

recently i decided to try cooking with lemongrass for the first time. i tend to get nervous about cooking with new ingredients that seem difficult to use (i have yet to try cooking with phyllo), but have decided that this is the year for trial-and-error. i didn’t even know what it looked like, but with some friendly help at the 51 avenue superstore, found it amongst the potatoes and onions. i stripped off the outer leaves, and started hacking it to pieces, then blended it with garlic, fish sauce, and rice vinegar to marinate pork pieces for a vermicelli bowl. no clue if i stripped off too much or not enough of the outer leaves, but the nice thing about this was how cheap the lemongrass was, so i didn’t feel too bad about wasting too much of it.

fish sauce…
i bought fish sauce for the first time to make the above recipe. golden boy fish sauce to be exact. yeah…has anyone out there purchased this brand before? if you have, you know exactly where i’m going with this – how the hell do you open it?! sure you take off the outer layer of plastic first. and sure you flip open the yellow cap, but then what?! how do you crack the 3 solid plastic, concentric circles?? i tried prying them off with a knife, i tried pushing them in, i even begun sawing away at the top ring, but stopped after i realized i would get fish sauce everywhere (i don’t do anchovies very well). the solution came from my brother-in-law: take a corkscrew to make a hole in the top. brilliant in its simplicity, effective in its result – i now pass along this wisdom to you, my fellow foodies. no longer shall we be denied the fish sauce.

another first attempt…

for mother’s day part of my gift was to prepare a homemade brunch for my parents. eggs benedict came to mind, but since both of my parents are diabetic, i needed to create a low-fat, low-sugar and low-sodium substitution for hollandaise sauce. i came up with: 1 tbsp. butter, 2 tbsp. lemon, 1 tbsp grainy mustard and fresh dill, heated until the butter had melted. it looked great, and tasted just okay, but there has to be something out there that’s better. if anyone has a recipe for a low-fat hollandaise, send it my way – it will definitely come in handy in the future.

hello, hello!

finally, i’d like to say “hello” to don at the river cree casino. don, as introduced to you in a february blog, is the sous chef at the kitchen buffet restaurant at the casino, and works his creativity for the seafood buffet there. i went back for some snow crab legs, mussels and shrimp on friday and had a quick chat with him, and he apparently reads this blog (woo-hoo! i’m up to 30 readers now!). so hello to you don – thanks for the deliciousness.

barry has a couple of quickies for you.

2009-04-17T10:44:00.004-06:00

quickie #1: a couple of weeks ago i found out that pharos pizza and spaghetti house did not close in january as i reported in december '08, but was granted an extension and will now be open until late june. SO if you didn't go already to reintroduce yourself to their popeye pizza and greek salad, don't wait til june GO NOW!

8708 109 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6G 1E9‎
(780) 433-5205‎

quickie #2: bananas at no frills in vegreville were .36/pound on monday. i think superstore on 51 avenue has bananas for.76/pound. you do the math.

barry's back with the pink slip.

2009-04-15T12:28:00.007-06:00

yes, i know. many of you have already given me plenty of grief for going m.i.a., but wasn't the wait and anticipation worth it to find out the winning recipe of the pink slip?!

well, okay, maybe not.

i have a confession to make. i didn't actually test the recipes i came up with until after the voting was done, so when i had a wee shindig to sample the three pink slip recipes, it was the first time anybody had tried them, including me. so really, it's not my fault that pink slip recipe #2 won...even though it turned out to be the most disgusting thing i or anyone else in the room had ever consumed.

my bad.

BUT even though #2 tasted like fizzy cinnamon cough syrup, the other two recipes were a big hit. recipe #1 was particularly popular, which surprised me because campari usually means a bitter death. i suggest changing that recipe slightly and add just under a part of campari and instead add an extra splash of pineapple juice - it tastes great, and has the bitterness of grapefruit juice.

here are a few comments from my pink slip party guests. i offered them the option of anonymity, hence the online names.

superman liked #3 because he said so. SNAP!

latinlover felt #3 made him feel fantastic.

me! thought #3 was the best combination with a light, fruity taste. very refreshing. the shade of pink with the red cherry at the bottom was also lovely. p.s.- three rules.

carolina. liked the cherry of #3, but didn't like #2 because she hates cinnamon.

stone fox's first pick was #3 as it was the best of the bunch.

everyone else in the group picked #1:

evilbreakfest liked the orange chair, that orange chair rocks, why aren't there more orane chairs?*
*i should point out that when my friends wrote their comments they had just had a number of very strong drinks.

em eye picked #1 because the other two SUCKED! just kidding (not really). #1 is fresh, different and doesn't have a disgusting cinnamon after taste. yikes, i need tums after #2!

(illegible scribbles) wrote "hey! i ordered a cheeseburger what the f*ck? $5000!!?!*
*again, alcohol.

sea of ash thought #1 was sexy! it definitely is a breakfast drink and you can never start drinking this [stuff] too early with economic crisis.

mrs. roper: pink slip #1: bitter, tart, delicious.

the tastemaker: it's like a breakfast you can drink. it's a marker of refined, sophisticated palates. i feel sorry for people who chose #2 because they will never experience true tasty delight.

tasterator: vegetables and sugar turned into a palate cleansing drink - what more could a robustly, athletic, pro-active and vital young man want? pink slip #1 is beyond my taste expectations.

so that's it folks. #1 was the clear favourite. my vote is to think of names for recipes #1 & 3 and get them on the market. write in with your name suggestions, and we'll get those posted!

barry reminds everyone that it's the last day to vote.

2009-03-19T15:34:00.005-06:00

the pink slip is coming, the pink slip is coming!

yes, today is your last day to vote for our recession-themed drink: the pink slip. will it be pink slip #1 with it's bitter campari and caribbean flair? how about posh #2 with it's haughty display of the last vestiges of wealth? or maybe #3 with it's easy-to-remember recipe so you can order it again and again at the bar? you tell me! go take the pink slip poll on the right and help decide what our recession drink should be.

click here to find the three recipes again, mull it over, AND THEN GO VOTE!

come back next week to find out the poll results, as well as some reviews on all three pink slips; we'll see if the right decision was made.

barry's famoso haikus.

2009-03-18T13:07:00.007-06:00

famoso pizza,
i’m sad you disappoint me.
flavourless and blah.

excited for taste,
prosciutto-arugula
combined disappoint.

STOP: fantastic greens!
a symphony of flavours.
you win me over.

barry’s angry.

2009-03-11T14:41:00.006-06:00

aarrgghh!

has anyone read the march 2009 issue of avenue magazine? they have an article by gail hall of the 25 best things to eat in edmonton. my co-worker showed me the article, knowing full well what i am (an edmonton foodie, dammit!) and that i would appreciate something like this. i start reading; okay the ural burger at high level diner. good burger. is it the best? dunno, but i appreciate the suggestion that this could potentially be a top 25 food in edmonton. i keep reading. a lot of items and restaurants that i haven’t tried yet, but this intrigues me to go out and see if they deserve to be on the top 25 list…but then i arrive at page 38. there noted is the only gelati to make it to this illustrious list and it comes from fantasia gelateria e caffe.

w.t.f.

has the writer ever had real gelato? has she heard of eclectic edmonton gelaterias such as da capo or leva? apparently not, because she seems to think that the best gelato around is supposed to taste like crap and have a terrible grainy texture and is made of various syrups instead of fresh ingredients. maybe she really thinks that’s what good gelato is, but come on people! argh!

okay. okay – i’m okay. breathe.

i could barely read the rest of the 25 bests without scepticism. i mean, how could i trust the writer’s judgement after such an outrageous remark?

For example:

she lists the shrimp lollipops at wild tangerine (several people have told me they’re overrated, although i haven’t tried them myself to find out)
the turkish egg and spinach pizza at sofra (tried it; WAY better choices at sofra to choose from)

and other picks she makes seem scandalous in other ways (read: culina highlands)

i don’t know what to feel other than saddened that of all the culinary wonders edmonton has to offer – and it has a lot, believe me – she chose to highlight some of edmonton’s less than stellar choices.

tears.

do you think i’m crazy? let me know what your favourite gelati in edmonton is and why, or what your thoughts were on avenue’s 25 best things to eat in edmonton.

barry's bud learns a thing or two about salt.

2009-03-09T11:48:00.008-06:00

eww.

and now we bring you the another installment of "barry's buds" – a guest column of barry’s many comrades who share a love of all things food-related. this week one of barry’s buds tries out a new recipe and ends up with a salt lick.

do you have a delicious recipe idea? if you do and you’re celebrity chef art smith, you’d preserve it for future generations by burying it in salt. delicious, mouth-watering salt…

i’ve heard of art smith before – his famous 'table 52' restaurant in chicago, and his numerous appearances on oprah (he was her personal chef apparently). i tried one of his dessert recipes a few weeks ago (a nifty thing called hummingbird cake) which turned out well, so i thought i’d attempt to make one of his provocative main courses: crushed pistachio chicken with spicy coconut curry ginger sauce.

this also was the most extravagant recipe (more than just one stop at a grocery store) that i've attempted, which was obtained from oprah’s website: http://www.oprah.com/recipe/food/recipespoultry/food_20071002_chicken.

crushed pistachio chicken with spicy coconut curry ginger sauce – by art smith

chicken ingredients

4 brined (no! i'll explain later...) boneless chicken breasts
1 quart buttermilk
1 pound salted pistachios, shelled and toasted
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh thyme
1/3 cup chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 cups all-purpose flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (again, no!)
grape seed oil to taste

sauce ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 shallots, minced
2 blades lemon grass, chopped
3 pieces (1/2-inch) fresh ginger, thinly sliced
1 cup sweet white wine
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons thai red curry paste
2 tablespoons chinese black bean chili sauce
1 can (8 ounces) coconut milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
salt (no! damn-it!) and freshly ground black pepper to taste

brine ingredients (don’t do this!)

1 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
5 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon black peppercorns

the poison (aka: brine)

place the salt, sugar, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and 2 cups cold water into a saucepan over medium-high heat. stir constantly until the sugar and salt dissolve. remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

when brining chicken use a non-reactive pot or plastic container. completely submerge the poultry in cold water and weigh it down with a plate. add the brine and cover. let the chicken sit in the brine for at least two hours, preferably overnight (to prolong your lifespan by 10 years, skip this process entirely).

the chicken

remove the chicken from the brine and cut in half. with a meat mallet, pound until 1/4-inch thick and place in a non-reactive bowl. pour the buttermilk over the chicken, cover, and let sit for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.

in a food processor, place half of the pistachios, half of the parmesan cheese, and half of the herbs. pulse 5 or 6 times until the mixture is finely chopped. transfer to a bowl. repeat this step with the rest of the pistachios and combine with the other pistachio mixture.

preheat the oven to 250°F.

place the flour in another bowl and season it with salt (no!!) and pepper. remove the chicken from the refrigerator and prepare it for assembly. pre-heat a large nonstick sauté pan over medium-low heat with a thin coating of grape seed oil. remove one breast, shake off any excess buttermilk and dust the breast with flour on each side. dip only one side of the chicken back in the buttermilk and press pistachios onto that side. repeat that step with all the chicken. place the chicken in the sauté pan, pistachio side down, and cook for 2–3 minutes. turn and cook the other side for 2 to 3 minutes. place in the oven to finish cooking for 8 to 10 minutes. remove, let rest for 5 minutes and then slice to serve with the coconut chili ginger sauce.

the sauce

in a saucepan over medium-high heat, add the tablespoon of butter, the shallots, lemon grass, ginger slices and wine. reduce to half. add the broth, red curry paste and chinese black bean chili sauce and reduce to half again. add the coconut milk and reduce to half a third time. remove from the heat and whisk the bits of butter into the sauce until all the butter has been incorporated. season with salt (wtf?!) and pepper.

if you re-heat, do not allow the sauce to boil or the butter will separate.

the review

the starter:

my guest brought a spinach, blackberry, and tear-drop tomato salad with a delicious maple vinaigrette bought from the strathcona farmers market. it was an excellent starter – light and slightly sweet with just the right amount of tartness from the berries.

the entrée:

this was the saltiest meal i have ever tasted (editor's note: that's what she said), and i once ate a big heaping bowl of salt! well, maybe just a tablespoon, and i was six years old... but trust your instincts when trying a new recipe – it would have been saltier, as art smith calls for salt to be added in the battering flour and curry sauce - which i didn’t do thankfully. still, the brined chicken was so salty, my vision started to fade, and i swear i could see through time and space to see art smith laughing menacingly at my hallucinogenic sodium trip.

i later found out that he’s a good ‘ol southern boy, so that might explain the salt fetish. luckily, i had two fresh chicken breasts left in the fridge, so i battered them, pressed them in the pistachio mix, seared, and baked – it was so much better (the salt from the pistachios should be enough to please anyone). the brine-less second try was tender and juicy (and as opposed to the hard fibrous salt slab on the first attempt – chicken flavored), allowing us to appreciate the pleasing texture and taste of the seasoned pistachios, and the deliciously creamy and sophisticated sauce.

you like-a da sauce? the sauce is good? i'll get-a you more sauce...

this is a good 1 - 1½ hour sauce, because after adding each group of ingredients, you need to reduce to half every time. worth the effort. imagine the best butter chicken curry sauce you ever had, then add ginger with some rich coconut goodness, and two small rocks of crack.

the dessert: avocado pie

a complicated main dish calls for a simple dessert. i found this anonymous recipe for avocado pie by accident on the internet. it is the best chilled pie i ever made/tasted.

2 avocados
1/3 cup lime juice
1 regular can of condensed milk
1 pie crust (graham cracker crumb)
1 1/2 lbs. salt (just kidding)

mix avocado pulp, lime juice, and condensed milk in a bowl until it resembles a green and slightly lumpy pancake batter, and pour into a graham cracker crumb pie crust (i bought a pre-made one). chill for half a day or overnight. outstanding!

barry, the pink slip, and the honour system.

2009-03-05T15:01:00.013-07:00

it has been brought to my attention that SOME people are voting multiple times on the pink slip recipe. people, this is not american idol – you don’t just “call in” as often as you want in order to get your favourite in. the point of this is to get as broad a range of people’s votes as possible. but i DO love your enthusiasm.

one man, one vote. got it? got it.

besides, as of today 18 people have voted (well, not really 18 people, cheaters, but thank you to everyone who has voted) so i can expect roughly 5 more votes as there are only 25 fans on the edmonton foodie facebook fan site, with three of them being integral to this blog (thank you to my pimps!) and several of them being related to my pimps and therefore threatened with thumbscrews if they didn’t join (not really expecting them to vote, unless under duress).

i also have to say a big THANK YOU to the seven commentators of the pink slip – your insight and reasons into why you chose which recipe fascinates me.

anonymous who chose #3, love that you’re planning your drunkenness ahead of time: don’t forget to pack a plastic bag and some soda crackers for the cab ride home.

stone fox: i enjoy that a good drink wins out over a steady paycheque. glad you’ve got your priorities straight.

dly: really, who can resist pineapple? nobody, that’s who.

oh billie, perhaps you should cut down on the sauce. maybe then you’ll see beyond mariah’s glitter.

this is a recession, anonymous #2, stop being so damn positive!

and mona, with all that ginyness i want you to be careful not to lose your panties. check?

you have 15 more days to vote and comment on the pink slip, so go spread the word.

barry lets you in on a little secret (update).

2009-03-04T15:06:00.013-07:00

i’ve heard a lot of shocked gasps from friends after my last post (barry lets you in on a little secret) and even some commentary of bus trips to vegreville (enjoy your trip down ukrainian lane, ruby) mixed in with disbelief of how little my monthly grocery bill is. to prove to you that this isn’t some hunger-induced dream, i’ve photographed my whole bill for you nonbelievers to show you the truth of these ridiculously low prices; it’s not just no-name or president’s choice products covered either, robin hood baking goods, duncan hines, bick’s, dole and beatrice are some of the other brands included in this crazy scheme.

finally, here’s a recipe for you to show you just how cheap cooking at home can be.

lemon-rosemary roasted chicken.

1 fryer chicken (not on my bill because no frills ran out. luckily my uncle bought four of them and i bought one off him (full-price) for $3.78.)
1 lemon (i bought 3 lemons for $1.00)
fresh sprig of rosemary (i had this on hand)
1 onion, quartered (90 cents)
salt, pepper and oil.

1. wash chicken inside and out. pat dry and put in a roasting pan.

2. cut up lemon and stuff into chicken as much as you like. add rosemary sprig and onion as well.

3. rub top skin of chicken with mazola oil, then salt and pepper.

4. roast chicken in oven at 350F until done. juices should run clear, and skin should be crispy.

this dish cost me $5.01. if i had steamed a package of broccoli and seasoned it, and then roasted my yam with seasoning and oil, my dinner would have come to $7.20 and served 4 people. i could have prepared my duncan hines devil’s food cake mix and had dessert for 4 for 99 cents. yes, i’m well aware of how much you hate me right now.

barry lets you in on a little secret.

2009-03-03T15:38:00.010-07:00

i almost didn’t write this blog, for fear of family reprisals, but the ridiculously low prices made it impossible not to. how much do you spend on groceries for a month? $150.00? $200.00? uh-huh. that’s plain ridiculous. i just bought my groceries for the month, seen below as the giant pile of food, and spent (drum roll please) $72.89. this includes: a whole wild salmon for $2.28, a turkey for $10.78, a litre of buttermilk for $1.00 and broccoli florets that serve eight for $2.00 – the same price for a jar of bick’s dill pickles.

this food madness is brought to you by no frills grocery store – a delightful low-brow version of the real canadian superstore – and cannot be found in our city. no, within the edmonton area you need to head on down to leduc, fort saskatchewan or vegreville to find this gem, but believe me, it is well worth the trip.

YAY:

food that is cheaper than borscht. (by the way, i bought a beet for 18 cents.)

MEH:

it’s a bit of a trip to get there, but make a day of it and go visit rumor board shop in leduc or go for a trip down ukrainian lane to vegreville, or do whatever it is that you do in fort saskatchewan.
the selection might not be as vast as in edmonton, but it’s pretty decent.

NAY:

the prices are so good that sometimes the shelves can get a little bare.

barry's haweli haiku.

2009-02-26T14:43:00.018-07:00

i just enjoyed a decadent lunch buffet at haweli restaurant. it's cheap, it's all you can eat, and the naan is something to cheer about.

p.s. - go comment and vote on a "pink slip"

hey naan you’re so fine,
you’re so fine you blow my mind.
hey naan! (clap, clap, clap)

who knew tomatoes

could merge with cream and spices

to make chicken soar?

sweet mellow fragrance

so better than rice pudding.

oh mango custard!

*haweli online
10220 - 103 street
edmonton, ab t5j o58
780.421.8100

poll: barry makes the most of a bad situation.

2009-02-23T17:43:00.018-07:00

the other day one of my buds was talking about a new phenomenon in north america: pink slip parties. bars across the country are hosting recently laid off workers (who wear pink ribbons), their supporters (who wear blue ribbons) and recruiters (who wear green ribbons) as they network with one another over a cocktail or two. definitely a fun way to start job hunting, although when i first heard the term “pink slip party” i thought it meant that you could bring your pink slips to the bar on wednesday nights and get a free drink…even more fun, i’d say.

during the 1930s it wasn’t uncommon to head on down to the bar to enjoy a cheap beer, sidecar or whiskey sour, and forget about your troubles…for a few hours at least. so here we are: in the midst of a world-wide recession, job hunting over a drink, or in some cases, under a few drinks. but why drink just any drink? i think that there should be a signature concoction for us to commiserate over our little recession, and i think we’re the people to get the ball rolling.

i need your help to pick a new cocktail for the year.

below are three possible recipes for a “pink slip”: a recession era drink that you can order when you go out and forget about the worries of the world for a few hours. i want you to vote on the poll (to your right) for your favourite drink of the three, and then comment why. whichever drink has the most votes by march 20 wins, and a new drink is born. after that, i want you to go out to your favourite bar and start ordering “pink slips”. you might need to bring the recipe along for the first few times, but after that the pink slip should start being a part of your bartender’s vocabulary.

pink slip #1.

1 part campari
1 part gin
3 parts pineapple juice

a squeeze of lime juice

shake over ice and garnish with a hershey’s kiss.

the campari represents the bitterness of the “pink slip” while the pineapple and lime juice represent the cayman islands, where you wish you hid all of your money.

pink slip #2.

1 part cherry brandy
1 part gold schlager (or for the poor man, cinnamon schnapps)

champagne to top it all off

shake brandy and schlager over ice and pour into champagne flute. top with champagne and garnish with a cinnamon heart.

okay, so it's not a frugal, recession-friendly drink, but it'll keep you warm now that your partner left you cold and alone for someone with money and a job. the gold flecks in the schlager remind me of a shattered man swallowing the last of his wealth before the bank can come and take it. hey, at least they're not diamond cufflinks in a balloon - right carlton?

pink slip #3.

1 part vodka

1 part southern comfort

2 parts cranberry juice

shake well over ice, and garnish with a cherry or starfruit.

meh - it's sweet, has alcohol and it's pink.

barry's restaurant review: river cree's kitchen buffet and bistro.

2009-02-18T11:48:00.027-07:00

friends, romans, seafood lovers, lend me your claw crackers. well, not really; those are provided for you at the river cree casino’s kitchen buffet and bistro for their friday night seafood buffet. this past friday, like every friday night, my little crustacean friends were brought in for the masses to consume. don’t worry about them – they’re not alone as salmon, shrimp, clams and mussels join them in their underwater dance to my plate, and they were also joined by some of their poultry and bovine friends.

the feast included a salad bar, peel and eat shrimp, smoked trout, clams (which one of our party commented, “tasted like the sea”), mussels marinara, paella, cheesy mashed potatoes, salmon, ginger chicken, a panache of vegetables, pasta pomodoro, clam chowder, and, of course, crab legs with little pots of butter to dip them in. this was slowly followed by a dreamy dessert bar of fresh fruit, hot fruit cobbler and various delectable cakes like tiramisu, black forest, and a deadly bitter chocolate mousse that was so rich, you could only eat a quarter of it before you started to sweat cocoa.

i know, but there’s more.

one of our group decided that seafood wasn’t for them, so instead ordered a steak. a juicy and succulent steak prepared by the bistro’s sous chef don, who graciously came out later on to see how we were doing. don’s steak soon became legendary at our table. it was created with a delicious sauce of cognac and portobello mushrooms, and accompanied with some deceivingly simple fries. they were the best fries i’ve had in a long, long time, and the steak was so tender that it seemingly melted in your mouth. this was a true masterpiece, and i highly recommend that you try it to see if it lives up to your expectations of good steak in the middle of beef country. trust me, it will.

but back to the main event. you might not think this would be a good place to meet new people, and yes, i was nervous to meet three new faces in the group when i knew i’d probably have food stuck in my hair, but how could you not bond over such a fantastic meal?! so what if crab shells were flying across the table as i hacked away with my claw cracker to get to the sweet crab meat? and so what if a shrimp tail accidently hit the stratosphere as i peeled my way to its juicy body, or that melted butter was dripping off my chin?

we swooned over the clams, shrimp and crab legs. we cried over the empty mussels marinara pan that was always picked over right before we got there in the buffet line, and we sighed over the not-so-great clam chowder or salmon because we had such high expectations from the rest of the dishes. the seafood buffet was a great leveler as we all got messier and messier in our quest for good seafood, and we all had to laugh at ourselves at the disasters that we left in. i now have three new foodies to discuss the ins and outs of world cuisine with. just don’t forget to order finger dipping bowls before you start – it helps to shake hands with clean fingers.

YAY:
• only $19.95 per person! i know!! and if you’re a senior, you get an even better price.
• the crab legs were incredibly sweet.
• the shrimp and clams were incredibly fresh.
• three words: steak and fries.
• children are welcome (just don’t take them through the casino).

MEH:
• they don’t take reservations. we got there after 8 pm, and were warned that it could be up to a 2 hour wait. luckily, it was only 45 minutes.
• the chicken was okay, but really, that’s not why we’re there.
• we missed out on the mussels because too many people liked them. go home mussel eaters and leave some for us!

NAY:
• the clam chowder.
• the salmon was overcooked.

River Cree Resort & Casino
300 East Lapotac Blvd

Enoch, Alberta

*website
*how to get there

barry’s done with the pink!...well, after this post anyways.

2009-02-12T11:11:00.011-07:00

last time you’ll hear from me this week…promise. today i’m posting two more recipes in the note of pink: an easy but super fun entrée and a really inexpensive way to tjuzs up chocolate cake mix.

the first recipe was made for a potato-themed food fest this past summer; from the surreal gourmet, they’re meatloaf cupcakes with pink “frosting”. they were a big hit with my friends who are kids at heart, and with my niece and nephew, who are just plain kids. this recipe is really easy, and great if you want to make an activity of it: have your guest(s) frost their own cupcake.

meatloaf cupcakes.
(from the surreal gourmet)

2 cups stale bread, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (500 ml)

2 cups milk, divided (500 ml)

3 tbsp olive oil, divided (45 ml)

1/2 onion, diced

2 lb. ground chuck (hamburger) (913 grams)

1 egg

1 tbsp fresh thyme, stems removed (15 ml)

1 1/2 cups cups italian parsley, stems removed, diced, divided (375 ml) (i didn’t use this, but substituted a bit more thyme instead.)

1/2 tsp salt (2 ml)

1/4 tsp pepper (1 ml)

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (1 ml)

1/4 cup ketchup (60 ml)

4 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (i used butter and herb instant potato mix instead)

1/4 lb. butter (113.5 grams)

1 cup half and half (250 ml)

1 beet, roasted

1 bunch fresh parsley, stemmed and finely minced

1 cup indian fennel candies (the kind you get in a bowl as you exit indian restaurants) (i don’t like these so instead i roasted a head of garlic and used the cloves as the “cherries” on top.

oil spray

1. place bread in a bowl. add 2 cups milk and toss with bread. reserve.

2. in a sauté pan over medium high heat, add 2 tablespoons oil and sauté onions for approximately 4 minutes, or until they become translucent. reserve.

3. in a large bowl, use your hands to mix chuck, eggs, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg, soaked bread, onions and ketchup.

4. set oil-sprayed cupcake liners in a muffin and fill with meatloaf mixture. smooth tops so that they are flat. bake for 3/4 hours, or until fully cooked. reserve.

5. boil potatoes in a large pot of water until tender to the touch of a fork. drain water and mash with butter and half and half. mash until smooth. divide mashed potatoes into 2 separate bowls. add 1 tablespoon grated beet to one batch and all the parsley to the other. blend until you have a batch of pink and a batch of green potatoes. cover and reserve.

6. when meatloaf is done, "ice" half with pink and half with green mashed potatoes. sprinkle with indian fennel candies and serve immediately.

since you're using beets anyways, you might want to consider using them as a side dish too.

continuing on the cupcake theme, a bud of mine had the fantastic idea of making cupcakes by taking a chocolate cake mix and adding frozen cranberries to it, along with chunks of callebaut milk chocolate that they picked up from the bulk section at superstore. at first i was against the cranberries going in thinking that they would be too tart, but they were a fantastic balance with the chocolate chunks and helped moisten the cake. my friend topped each cupcake with peppermint flavoured green icing – instead, try using almond extract and red food colouring to store bought cream cheese icing for a valentine’s feel.

barry has even more reddish recipes.

2009-02-11T13:52:00.009-07:00

so, as it’s a special occasion, two or three courses are just not going to cut it. sorry, but your facebook relationship status is on the line here. drastic measures must be taken in the form of a primi course before the main event. sure, these recipes COULD be used as the main event, but why would you do that? this way, you get more food. yay! okay now, we once again have two recipes from last food fest (we really outdid ourselves cleaning out our freezers), so hopefully you’ll also have some of these ingredients on hand (read: on hand = cheaper). the first recipe is from my cookaphobic friend who really can cook, even if she doesn’t know it. yet. the second is something i whipped up to get rid of a package of frozen olivieri brie cheese and roasted garlic ravioli that was taking up valuable space in my freezer. the pasta is creamy but too mellow, so you need some punch in the sauce.

barry’s bud’s cornbread topped with mexican goodness.

cornbread:
(from the back of the purity cornmeal package)

3/4 cup (175mL) cornmeal
1 1/4 cups (3000 mL) milk
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (75 mL) granulated sugar (my bud wanted to use brown but it was too hard)
1 tbsp (15 mL) baking powder
1/2 tsp (2mL) salt
1 egg
1/4 cup (60 mL) vegetable oil (canola oil)
my bud added grated aged cheddar & frozen corn - maybe a 1/4 cup of each.

1. combine cornmeal and milk. let stand 10 minutes.

2. combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl.

3. add egg and oil to cornmeal mixture. (my bud accidentally added this to the flour mixture). mix well.

4. add to dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. (my bud thinks she over stirred. this is also when she added the frozen corn and the grated cheddar.)

5. fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full. (she did not use a muffin tin, nor did she grease the pan).

6. bake at 400F (200C) for 15-20 minutes. (make sure the bread doesn’t jiggle, and it should be cracked on top.)

makes 12 muffins (or the equivalent in non-muffin shape).

okay, step 1 is complete. by the way, you can do this all the day before. now my bud made homemade salsa (diced tomato, finely chopped red onion, minced garlic, 1 jalapeno and fresh lemon juice) and guacamole (mashed avocado, a little garlic and lemon juice). if you make these ahead of time, the flavours will blend very nicely.

let cornbread cool for an hour.

cut cornbread into rectangles about 3.5 cm thick (is that an inch and a half? go metric!)

heat up pan on stove and put a glob of butter on it.

pan-fry each side of the cornbread until it's nicely browned and a tiny bit crusty (make sure to get the edges too).

top with guacamole, salsa, sour cream and some grated jalapeno havarti. serve with enrique playing in the background.

cranberry and lemon ravioli.

1 pkg. olivieri brie cheese and roasted garlic ravioli (i got this from costco in sherwood park.)

1 onion, chopped

butter

white wine (i ended up using 1/3 of a bottle)

pecorino, pienza, asiago or parmesan cheeses (as much as you like. i roughly used ½ cup of a pecorino/pienza blend.)

1 lemon, grated

1/3 cup cream

a pinch nutmeg

approx. ½ cup frozen cranberries

small handful craisins

1. prepare pasta according to package directions.

2. sauté onion in butter. add cranberries, craisins, and half of lemon zest. sauté until craisins start to plump up.

3. add wine and juice of half a lemon, reduce a little bit.

4. add cream and cheese. stir.

5. add nutmeg and remaining lemon zest.

6. toss cooked pasta with sauce and serve immediately.

barry hops on the band wagon and thinks pink.

2009-02-10T10:31:00.013-07:00

i feel like a lemming right now. with v-day fast approaching, and everyone dreaming in reddish tones, i’ve decided to do the same and follow the masses over the cliff into a sea of pink froth. ugh. no, i’m normally not the kind of person who enjoys pink in any form, but in anticipation of the season i thought i’d help out anyone planning a menu for the weekend in the theme of red and pink. throughout the week i’ll be posting recipes that incorporate these colours in some form – all of them are easy to make, delicious, and inexpensive.

today i’ll start off with a few appetizers from our latest food fest. they’re great starters for a party or an intimate get-together…just as long as you like leftovers.

watermelon and feta appetizers.

1 small watermelon, peeled and cut into 1 ½ inch cubes

8 oz. feta, cubed

balsamic vinegar

extra virgin olive oil

basil (fresh and chopped up if you got it, dried is fine otherwise)

toothpicks.

1. skewer watermelon and feta on toothpicks (watermelon on the bottom)

2. in a bowl, combine vinegar, oil and basil.

3. drizzle dressing on watermelon; serve.

note: this makes a great salad, just get rid of the toothpicks, add some greens and some crushed chilli flakes and presto:
you’re a gourmand.

surprise spread.
one of my all-time favourite recipes.

combine 8 oz. softened cream cheese, ½ cup sour cream and ¼ cup mayonnaise. mix until smooth. spread cream cheese mixture in a platter. sprinkle on a couple cans of drained cocktail shrimp. top with 250 ml (1 cup) cocktail sauce. shred 2 cups of mozzarella cheese; sprinkle on top then add 3 sliced green onions, 1 diced tomato and 2 diced green peppers.
serve with crackers.

barry’s bud seeks unattached ham man.

2009-02-09T09:55:00.005-07:00

and now we bring you the another installment of "barry's buds" – a guest column of barry’s many comrades who share a love of all things food-related. in anticipation of valentine’s day one of barry’s buds discusses her search for love that’s spanned continents, years, and many a kinder egg.
it’s been four long years of searching. i’m seeking a man, age 4, with a black moustache and a penchant for ham legs (both for eating and clubbing people with). he might be violent, but he is one of the three musketeers after all. no, i’m not crazy, i’m just trying to hunt down the most elusive of kinder egg toys: i call him ham man.

my search began in late january 2005, in a quaint italian town in southern tuscany. i wanted to see if there was a difference between chocolate in europe and chocolate in canada, and on my student abroad budget, a kinder egg was the perfect (read: cheapest) way to test this. as soon as i opened my kinder egg toy however, the chocolate became inconsequential. i ended up with a toy musketeer on wheels wielding a sword – a great find to be sure, but it was the musketeer collection insert that really caught my eye; it was the first time i saw *him*, or at least an artistic rendering of him.

there he was; a feather in his cap, and a large hunk of ham in his hand with a bite taken out of it. it was true love at first sight. when you roll him on his little wheels he clubs people with his giant ham leg. dreamy. while i ended up with one of his fellow musketeers, it was him i really wanted. i’ve bought many a kinder egg over the years in hopes of finding him (i usually discard the chocolate – though a few times its indeed up in a banana loaf or bread pudding). alas and alack! no luck yet, but my search continues. in fact, i’m so enamored with ham man that I’ve dreamed up my ideal proposal scenario. future suitors take note:

scene: anywhere. it could be timbuktu for all i care.

me: oh, a kinder egg how nice.

handsome suitor: i’ve been wanting to give you this kinder egg for a while now…

me: oh. it isn’t….is it…?

(unwrapping the egg and breaking the chocolate and opening up the orange plastic capsule)

me: OH MY GOD IT’S HAM MAN! …oh, what’s this? oh, a ring. thanks. HAM MAN!!!!!! you really love me!!

…though i realize the following is the more likely scenario:

me: …is it ham man? …is it ham man?!

hapless suitor (grinning): just open it.

(unwrapping the egg and breaking the chocolate and opening up the orange plastic capsule)

me: oh. it’s a ring. um…nice. thanks.

hapless suitor: well, do you have anything you want to say?

me: yeah, where’s ham man?

hapless suitor: this is my grandmother’s ring, it’s been passed down for generations in my family…

me: yeah, yeah, yeah. grandmother. heirloom. got it.

hapless suitor: i was hoping you’d accept this ring…

*silence*

me: ummm, so, seriously. there’s no ham man?

barry’s back on a soup kick.

2009-02-05T10:48:00.007-07:00

hello all. after being away for a couple weeks, i’m back … i missed you guys. i realize that i’m being sentimental – soup makes me feel that way. yes, i’m back on the soup kick with a new flavour i tried on the weekend. my buds and i have been having food fests whenever we can: food-themed evenings where we all cook dishes for each other. it’s cheaper than eating out, and you’re always guaranteed leftovers: win-win. this past weekend’s food fest was “clean-out-your-freezer-and-pantry-and-randomly-make-something”. tons of fun with that hint of danger: you never know if what you make will be completely edible. luckily for my buds and i, we all survived and didn’t have a single bad dish. one bud found a recipe for a carrot soup that they changed and made their own. it was a big hit, so i thought i’d share it with you all, with the changes my friend made. enjoy hunting around your pantries, potato bins and freezers for the ingredients to this delicious concoction.

carrot soup.
(originally courtesy of recipezaar; made even better by my friend.)

Ingredients
6 tablespoons butter (my bud generously used more)
1 large onion (minced)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
8 carrots (peeled, grated) (the fridge only produced 4 purple carrots, and a small bag of baby carrots, so that’s what we used)
2 plum tomatoes (chopped) (this was left out for food fest: no tomatoes on hand)
4 cups chicken stock (MUST be homemade!) - (my bud used oxo…recipezaar, what’s your deal?)
salt & fresh ground pepper (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup evaporated milk (my friend used 2/3 cup)
2/3 cup sour cream

1. heat butter in a pot. add the onion and garlic. saute 3 minutes.

2. add the carrots and tomatoes. saute 5 minutes.

3. add stock, salt and pepper, nutmeg and ginger. bring to a boil. reduce. simmer 10 minutes.

4. puree. return to pot.

5. add the milk and sour cream. heat through, but DO NOT BOIL.
enjoy!

barry's buds bid farewell to the year of the potato.

2009-01-28T10:51:00.006-07:00

and now we bring you the first installment of "barry's buds" – a guest column of barry’s many comrades who share a love of all things food-related. today you get not one, but two of barry’s main associates sharing with you the various potato
(mis)adventures we’ve had with barry over the past year.

it would be a huge understatement to point out that we have a thing for potatoes.

we’re obsessed. this past year was particularly gratifying, as our appreciation of this sacrosanct little spud was made to seem slightly less crazy by the u.n.’s decision to dub 2008 the international year of the potato. yes, really.

as we settle into 2009, we look back quite fondly at the multitude of ways we’ve enjoyed potatoes in ’08 (cue indulgent dream sequence music)....

in the familiar, fluffy pabulum of betty crocker, thinly sliced and meticulously arranged on a pizza at famoso’s, piped atop a moist meatloaf cupcake in a beetroot-tinted pink swirl, shredded in pancakes, roasted with sea salt and dill, diced in hash brown casseroles, cubed in coconut milk curries, mashed with cream cheese and herbs, encased in perogie dough, swimming in dill cream...and that's not even mentioning all the french fries.

as part of our bidding a proper farewell, here are two simple recipes that we each enjoyed this year.

recipe one: mini baked potatoes with blue cheese.

*note from barry’s bud #1: this potato recipe has been extracted from me under great duress. because i cannot bear the threat of the wire whisk any longer, i offer you this to appease barry.

ingredients:

around 20 small baby potatoes (try and pick ones that are the same size - barry likes potato uniformity)

enough olive oil to lightly coat your potatoes

sea salt

around 1/2 cup sour cream (full fat is better)

around one ounce of crumbled blue cheese

chopped fresh chives for garnish

1. preheat your oven to 350F.

2. wash and dry your potatoes.
3. toss you potatoes with just enough oil to coat.
4. lightly coat you potatoes in sea salt.
5. spread your potatoes out on a baking sheet.

6. bake potatoes for 45-50 minutes.

7. while potatoes are baking, combine sour cream and blue cheese in a small bowl - measurements are just a guideline.
8. take potatoes out of oven and let cool for a few minutes.
9. cut an 'x' in the top of each potato - gently squeeze the cross with your fingers to open the potatoes.
10. top each potato with a spoon of the blue/cheese sour scream mixture.
11. garnish with chopped chives.
12. MANGE.

adapted from: forster, felicity, ed. "mini baked potatoes with blue cheese" in soups. (london: hermes house, 2004: p. 240).

recipe two: balsamic caramelized potatoes.

*note from bud #2: i made up this pretty simple recipe after a visit to the old strathcona farmer’s market where i picked up a bottle of maple balsamic vinegar. parboiling the potatoes before roasting is a bit indulgent, but i feel they warrant this attention.

serves 4-5 people.

ingredients:

a 2lb bag of baby potatoes

about 1 tablespoon of olive oil

2-3 tablespoons of maple balsamic vinegar (or substitute with regular balsamic)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

about 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, coarsely chopped

about 1/2 tablespoon butter (optional)

salt and pepper

1. combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic power and thyme in a bowl. set aside.

2. wash and dry your potatoes.

3. add potatoes to a pot of rapidly boiling salted water.

4. boil potatoes just until they're soft and you can easily stick a fork through (about 5-7 minutes).

5. remove from water immediately and add to a foil-lined roasting tray. (you can cut some of the not so baby potatoes in half if you wish before roasting.)

6. pour oil and balsamic mixture over potatoes and shake the tray around so that the potatoes are well coated. add the butter if you feel like it (just do it.)

7. bake at 400F for 30min or until potatoes are browned.

8. salt and pepper to taste.

barry's restaurant review: urban diner.

2009-01-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

in an effort to save money, i’m trying to eat out only twice a month. as you can imagine, this is very hard for me since i love food. love. so, i try to make the outings count…and it’s such bitter disappointment when they don’t. take saturday’s outing to urban diner. i’ve never been before, but had heard ridiculously fantastic things about their brunch, so three buds and i decided to head over and see what all the fuss was about. it’s a cute place with lots of booths and tables, and though there was a line to get in, we didn’t wait long, and while we were waiting we had a fantastic view of pies. mmm…pies. we also had a great server who was very helpful, and a menu of gourmet breakfast dishes to choose from. the traditional eggs benny was a hit (great hollandaise sauce), as was the salmon and swiss quiche. the breakfast burger however…well, two of us ordered it, only one of us actually liked it, and it wasn’t me. you’d think a sandwich that had five (five!) proteins in it (ham, bacon, meatloaf, fried egg and cheddar cheese) would be heavenly. you would be wrong though. it was salty, the meatloaf was a funky texture (too soft) and was bland, and there was a red pepper spread. about the red pepper spread: you know when there’s a food you don’t like, olives for example, and there is the smallest portion of it in a dish you’re eating? all you taste is olives! well i normally like red peppers, but all i could taste was salt, bad meatloaf and olives. and by olives i mean red peppers. bad red peppers. it was so disheartening i had to get pie. i’m the kind of person who needs things to end on a positive note, like pie. damn good pie. between the four of us we ordered three desserts to share: banoffee pie, sour cream lemon pie and white chocolate orange-mint cheesecake. they sent our taste buds into sugar overdrive, and tried to erase memories of a bad breakfast from my mind. they didn’t succeed, but they did try, and i have to give them credit for that.

YAY:

great pie.
the eggs benny, and more importantly the hollandaise, was good.
polite service.

MEH:

the food was pricey; not a big deal if your meal tastes great, but it’s salt added to the wound if you’re not digging the food.

NAY:

the breakfast burger (don’t do it, no matter how tempted you are!)
there’s going to be a line to get in. you’ll just have to accept this fact if you’re heading there on a saturday morning after 9:30.
very, very, limited parking.

Urban Diner
12427 102 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5N 0M2, Canada
(780) 488-7274

barry’s almost finished with christmas. really.

2009-01-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

yes, yes – it’s mid-january and i’m still talking about christmas food, but really, these are dishes that can be enjoyed all year long but only need to amalgamate into one meal once a year, and besides, january is so boring now. no parties, no celebrations of rebirths, no shiny things to distract you from the mundane, and spring is WAY too far away – what’s a person to do? reminisce about the holidays, that’s what. so here i am, offering up the joy of christmas once again for those die-hards who just won’t go down.

as mentioned in my previous bit, i had twelve dishes laid out for christmas, and yes, the bread was the most ridiculous. today i want to talk about the other, equally tasty, but far less ridiculous dishes of the evening. so, because i know you’re curious and that you care, the twelve dishes are as follows: kutia (boiled wheat with honey), borscht, kolach, sweet and sour cabbage rolls, potato-cottage cheese and sauerkraut perogies, beet salad, pidpenky (creamy mushroom sauce), mashed beans, salad (we felt that something remotely healthy was needed), and raisin perogies for dessert. phew! lots of stuff, yes, but it all created a beautiful symphony of smells and flavours. from these classics i want to share a few of my favourite year-round recipes with you. they’re cheap, tasty, and i don’t know what else. just try them.

marinated beet salad.

2 c. chopped beets (you can use fresh or canned)
1 onion, diced
less ¼ c. mazola, or other cooking oil
2 tbsp vinegar to 1 tbsp sugar
salt & pepper to taste
a pinch garlic powder

1. cover beets with water and boil until soft (nobody likes a crunchy beet, people); canned beets will take less time. drain.

2. sauté onions in mazola until translucent. add oil and onions to drained beets.

3. add vinegar and sugar to beets along with salt pepper and garlic powder. mix and refrigerate.**the longer you refrigerate this salad, the better the flavour.

mashed beans.
delicious on their own, or used like a spread in place of hummus.

2 c. dried white navy beans
1 onion, diced
2 – 3 cloves garlic
approx. ¼ c. mazola oil
salt

1. in a bowl, cover beans with water and soak overnight.

2. drain beans and put in pot covered with water. cook on low for approximately 3 hours. beans should be soft, and there should not be much liquid left.

3. sauté onions in oil. as beans can be dry, you want to have oil in the pan, if you don’t think you’ll have enough, feel free to add more. grate garlic into the pan and sauté for the last two minutes of cooking.

4. without draining, mash beans. add oil, onions and salt. feel free to add more salt or oil for taste.

pidpenky or creamy mushrooms.
finally, what the masses have been waiting for…and by masses, i mean one of barry’s buds.

2 ½ - 3 c. cleaned and sliced mushrooms (white, cremini, oyster – throw them all in)
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic
400 ml cream
dash worcestershire sauce
salt to taste
oil
dab of butter (optional)

1. sauté onion in some oil until translucent. at the end of cooking (last 2-3 minutes) grate in the garlic.

2. in a separate pan, cook mushrooms in butter and worcestershire on high. you want to cook out all the liquid from the mushrooms. stir often so the mushrooms don’t burn.

3. add onions, garlic, cream and salt to the mushrooms, mixing the onions and cream separately in a bowl, then adding them so the cream doesn’t separate.

barry makes some bread.

2009-01-14T08:57:00.001-07:00

and by some, i mean a lot. yes, last week was ukrainian christmas, so a shindig was in order to celebrate the occasion, and, of course, a proper shindig requires food. deciding to do a traditional ukrainian christmas eve dinner, i set out to think of which twelve dishes to have. i made it to eleven before getting stuck. i thought that i could attempt fish jello or pickled herring, but the jello boat has sailed for the next month or so since new year’s was jello-filled, and i just refused to have pickled herring in my apartment. then it hit me: kolach! yes, traditional christmas bread would be perfect and meaningful in getting my guests in the true meatless/dairy-less spirit of things. i’ve never even thought of attempting such a feat before, so i found a recipe, looked up online how to braid the stuff, and set to work. i started at 6:30 pm after a quick bite to eat, knowing that i’d probably be up until midnight baking, but no worries because one of barry’s buds came by to visit and photograph THE EVENT. so i left the yeast to do it’s thing, then added the first of many, many cups of flour, and then let it continue to do its thing.
9:00 pm.
okay, first step complete (finally). the camembert my bud brought is now gone, and the smell of yeast has begun to overwhelm us. we now mix the rest of the many, many cups of flour with the mixture along with some eggs and oil. my arm began to go numb around 9:30, but it’s okay, this is an art! soon after i throw the spoon away and start going at the mixture with my hands. i make sure everything is mixed and then try to nurse my arm back to health with a drink or two. 11:00 pm.
okay, no problem, it’s time for the inaugural punching down of the dough. i feel that this is payback for my arm during the mixing portion of this misadventure and take great delight in doing a little damage to my dough. we’re feeling a little light-headed from the yeast. part of that might have been from the vino, but really, it was from the yeast. let it rise again.
12:30 am.
okay, so we’re past my midnight deadline. no problem. we take the frustration out on the bread. i feel that our punches are a bit weaker than they once were. we may have finally been overwhelmed. we retreat to the living room to recover from the yeast.

1:30 am.
we’re not waiting any longer. this is go-time. we pull out pieces of dough to roll out and make three braids and layer them one atop another. once again, patience is a virtue as we let it rise. *sigh*
2:00 am.
“the blob” has risen. as i try to make it look less blobby with the help of a steak knife, my cohort brushes the thing with a nice egg wash. into my tiny, apartment-sized oven with it. we now start to work on the rest of the dough and braid breadsticks for each of my dinner guests. while the blob bakes, the breadsticks rise.

2:45 am.
oh god – it’s 2:45 in the morning… the blob emerges, and has been transformed from a beast into a thing of beauty that smells delicious. we tap the bottom, which makes a hollow sound. it’s ready. tray one of breadsticks goes in after being brushed with whisked egg.
3:10 am.
tray one comes out, and tray two goes in. barry’s bud bails. they made a valiant effort, but we have been baking since 6:30 pm.

3:30 am.
tray two is out, and so am i. my eyeballs hurt, and i’m drunk with the smell of fresh bread (and again, possibly wine).

so was this craziness worth it? hell yes. fantastic bread, hilarious conversation, camembert, and a group of admiring dinner guests the next night – it was so worth it. the bread was actually easy to make, just time consuming as you waited for things to rise. this is the perfect thing to make to impress company if you’re hanging around home working on other projects. or maybe i’m just a masochist. either way, fun times with carbs are always something to write about.

kolach recipe courtesy the holy trinity ukrainian catholic parish
1907 – 2007 centennial cookbook

2 pkg. yeast
1 c. water
4 c. water
1 tsp. sugar
4 c. flour
4 eggs
¼ c. sugar
2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. cooking oil
7 – 8 c. flour
1 egg, beaten

1. dissolve 1 tsp. sugar in 1 c. lukewarm water and sprinkle yeast over it. let stand for 15 minutes.

2. combine yeast with 4 c. lukewarm water. add 4 c. flour and beat hard until smooth. cover and set aside in a warm place for 1 to 1 ½ hours until sponge is light and bubbly.

3. in a separate bowl beat eggs, add sugar and salt and beat slightly. add oil and beaten eggs to sponge mixture.

4. work in flour 1 c. at a time to make a fairly stiff dough. knead well. cover and put in warm place to rise until double in bulk.

5. punch down and let rise again.

6. divide dough in proportion and braid.

7. let braided dough rise then brush with 1 egg beaten.

8. place a rack in the lower third of the oven. preheat the oven to 350 F.

9. put dough in oven for approximately 45 minutes. bread will be done if when the bottom is tapped it makes a hollow sound.

for braiding techniques, visit http://foodgeeks.com/recipes/recipe/20030,ukrainian_christmas_bread_kolach.phtml

barry thinks it’s cold outside, so go eat some soup!

2009-01-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

my parents can attest that growing up i was a very unimaginative child to take out to restaurants. lasagna, caesar salad and french onion soup were my only options of choice, and though i’ve branched out in my eating habits as i got older (thank god), i’ve still retained a fondness for my nostalgic three. so, in saying that, this horrible weather has inspired me to warm up with some homemade onion soup and i’d like to pass along my recipe to you. if you want to get really crazy, caramelize the onions for a few hours ahead of time (you can do them the day before). don’t worry if you’re on some fangled new year’s health regime, just keep telling yourself that this is part of a healthy liquid diet. right….

barry’s random french onion soup.
(i call this my “random” soup because i add whatever i have on hand until it smells and tastes good.)

4 – 5 onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. butter

1 – 2 tbsp. sugar

3 sprigs fresh thyme (dried is fine too)

1 carton of beef stock

about ½ c. dry white wine (if you have red wine use that)

about 3 tbsp. sherry, optional (if you have brandy use that)

1 bay leaf

a couple dashes of worcestershire sauce

french bread (regular bread, croutons, etc.)

smoked gruyere cheese and parmesan (swiss works, as does asiago)

salt

pepper

1. sauté onions in olive oil and butter over low heat. add sugar a teaspoon at a time throughout the process, as well as a smidgeon of salt and pepper. once your onions have just started to caramelize, add approx 1 ½ cloves worth of minced garlic. about halfway through the sauté add ¾ of the thyme. by the end of it, your onions should be golden yellow, almost creamy-looking and the smell in your kitchen should make you crave hot dogs.

2. to the onions, add your stock, wine, sherry and worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil. add your bay leaf and the last bit of thyme. reduce heat, cover and simmer for roughly 20 minutes. add salt and pepper to taste and remove bay leaf and thyme sprigs.

3. meanwhile slice french bread and rub with the remaining garlic. broil until toasted. grate cheese.

4. ladle soup into oven-proof bowls and top with bread then cheese. broil until cheese melts and starts to brown.

barry says hello to 2009 with a look back at 1959.

2009-01-05T10:04:00.001-07:00

happy new year to all! i had a delightful new year’s eve celebration – old friends, new friends, champagne and jelled salad.

no, you heard me correctly: jelled salad.
since time immemorial my mother has made a gelatinous concoction of lemon jello, crushed pineapple and shredded cheddar cheese for us to wolf (slurp?) down for christmas dinner, and every year we patiently wait for christmas to come again so that we can have our festive treat, and every year i conveniently forget to mention this particular dish amongst the litany of others i mention to friends. until this year. not surprisingly, when i mentioned the salad to friends, it was met with a bit of incredulity, amusement and flat-out fear when i indicated it would be my contribution to the list of new year’s eve culinary delights.

so there it sat on new year's eve, jiggling slightly, surrounded by the other more favourable appetizers, whether in fear or in anticipation of midnight when it would ring in 2009 with a glass of bubbly. i’m happy to report that everyone there tried it, and i think that about 85/90% of the party-goers actually enjoyed the concoction.

here’s to a new year of trying new things.

barry’s mom’s pineapple-cheddar jelled salad.

1 – 3 oz. package lemon jello
1 c. hot water
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
4 oz. (1/2 pkg.) cream cheese, softened
¾ c. liquid, drained from pineapple
¾ c. crushed pineapple, drained
¾ c. grated cheddar cheese

1. dissolve jello into hot water. add salt and lemon juice.

2. with electric mixer, beat in softened cream cheese until mixture is smooth. add pineapple juice.

3. chill until slightly thickened.

4. fold in pineapple and cheese. spread/pour into mould. chill until firm.

barry's cup o' joe.

2008-12-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

so when the german came down to visit me last week, i knew that i would need some activities to keep him occupied, while at the same time making sure he was well fed. enter my dear caffeine-addicted friend who suggests we take the german down to new york bagel café for edmonton’s supposed best coffee. intrigued yet skeptical, we headed over to gateway boulevard through the frigid weather and, lo-and-behold, we really did have edmonton’s best coffee. i’m normally not a coffee drinker, but their house coffee was so flavourful and smooth you couldn’t help but be impressed. the process felt like a japanese tea ceremony as you added the brown sugar and the steamed milk on the side, making drinking coffee an event.
this was in stark contrast to the cappuccinos and espressos we had later in the day at da capo. although i normally rave about their authentic cappuccino (see my da capo restaurant review from november), we were underwhelmed by the concoctions we received that were bitter and unflavourful and the caffe itself was freezing.

sorry da capo, maybe next time.

in the meantime, you might want to try new york bagel for their heavenly house coffee to warm you up during this deep freeze.

barry gets confused.

2008-12-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

metric, imperial, metric, imperial, metric, imperial AHH! for my inaugural use of my new favourite book, david rocco’s dolce vita, i decided to try his spaghetti alla carbonara recipe for a friend visiting canada for the holidays. i’ve been on the hunt for an authentic carbonara recipe since coming back from italy three years ago, and was excited to finally have found one. i headed down to the italian centre on 51 ave for the pasta, pancetta and pecorino, i laid out all my equipment and ingredients for ease in preparation, and i even allowed witnesses to join me in the kitchen while preparing the dish. i was ready to go… and then i screwed it up.

although david clearly states that this dish needs 1 lbs of spaghetti, my metric instincts kicked in and i foolishly converted the 1 lbs of pasta to 1 kg, thus roughly doubling the amount of pasta required for the recipe. i blame my high school math teacher for drilling all things metric into my head. the result was an oh-so-tasty and incredibly dry pasta dish that could have fed the thrashing crew during harvest, but instead left me with leftovers that i thought would never end.
carbonara take 2:

with so many leftovers to work with, my brain luckily cleared up. by reheating the pasta and adding additional eggs, milk and cheese, i was able to give my dried up pasta new life, and have a proper spaghetti alla carbonara for my leftovers. may the metric system never fail me again.

barry's book review: david rocco's dolce vita.

2008-12-19T15:57:00.001-07:00

we all need a little bit of the good life, and david rocco makes sure that we all get some.
his new book is a spectacular combination of simple recipes and amazing photography that will make you want to sell all your worldly possessions, buy a pair of oversized sunglasses and hop on a flight to the boot. i love this book! i actually sat down and went page by page until i was finished - it took me three hours. i reread the whole thing again the next day.
the pictures will make you envious that there are people out there who actually live like this, and you’re not one of them. the recipes are so amazingly easy, which, as he comments throughout the book, is part of dolce vita: slowing down, taking it easy and enjoying the everyday.

barry says goodbye to an old haunt.

2008-12-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

this is difficult for me to write. pharo’s pizza, a staple of the garneau community for years, is closing its doors in mid-to-late january. the 80-year-old owner wishes to retire, and so has sold the building. i know. it gets worse though.

the building, which includes the garneau theatre, has apparently been sold with plans to modernize the look of the two businesses. with this being one of the few art deco buildings left in alberta, it seems shocking that anyone would want to change the décor! according to pharo’s pizza waitress jill, the plan is for the theatre entrance to be moved to the side of the building on 87 avenue, and the whole façade modernized. i was very surprised that i hadn’t heard of this earlier, as i imagined that there would be an uproar in the edmonton community, but it seems that not only will we be deprived of mouth-watering popeye pizza and delicious greek salad, but we will also loose an edmonton landmark to modernization. there is one month left for locals to pay their respect to this fantastic eatery, so go out, grab a popeye pizza and toast this garneau landmark.

Pharos Pizza & Spagetti House

8708 109 Street NW

Edmonton, AB T6G 1E9

(780) 433-5205

barry's word of the day: pranzo.

2008-12-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

my vocabulary was expanded this past weekend as my family and i gathered at the santa maria groetti community centre in edmonton for a traditional italian dinner (pranzo) sunday afternoon. wave after wave of food was brought to us, and in true italian style, we ate until it was physically impossible to eat anymore. we had two antipasti courses (cheese, meat and marinated vegetables and rice with a beef stew), a prima (rotini with a marinara sauce), pork chops and breaded chicken with gravy, roast potatoes, salad and mixed vegetables, and finally chocolate cake for dessert. i think that’s everything, but with so much food, you can’t blame me for forgetting something. my family loved this home-style meal.

i’m going to be honest: i didn’t.

the food was okay, and yes, there was plenty of it, but the sauces and chicken looked and tasted as if they were store bought, and nothing stood out in my mind as being extremely tasty or even tasting authentically italian. as my sister pointed out, nothing was wrong with the meal, and i have to agree with her; nothing was wrong with the meal. but when you go out to eat, particularly for a nice family get-together, do you want to have a meal with nothing wrong with it, or would you rather have a meal that was special and excited you, made you wish for seconds, or in this case, made you think of an army of italian grandmothers preparing this meal in the kitchen simply because of their love for food? i didn’t feel that way unfortunately, and was particularly looking forward to this meal since i had heard such wonderful reviews of the pranzi served up by the community centre.

maybe the cooks were having an off weekend, but after this meal, i feel that if you’re looking for a “nothing’s-wrong-with-it” meal, head on down to albert’s. it’s cheaper.

Santa Maria Groetti Community Centre
Sun (11 am - 2 pm)
11050 90 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5H 1S5
(780) 426-5026

recipe for a gingerbread army.

2008-12-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

run as fast as you can. actually, you don’t need to run that fast: this army of gingerbread men is pretty out of shape with all their candy and doughy goodness. and they are oh-so-tasty! enjoy the recipe - it’s perfect with kaluha hot chocolate and mulled wine (we *ahem* thought it best to test it out. for quality assurance of course…)

gingerbread army:

½ c. shortening (i used margarine)

½ c. sugar

2/3 c. molasses

1 egg

3 ½ c. sifted flour

2 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. ginger (or more if you like)

1 tsp. cinnamon (again, i used more)

1. melt shortening and let cool. add sugar, molasses and egg; blend well.

2. sift in the flour, baking powder, salt and spice. mix well.

3. wrap dough in waxed paper and chill in refrigerator. take out a small amount of dough.

4. roll out on lightly floured board to ¼” thickness. you may have to warm dough in your hands, as it may be too crumbly otherwise.

5. bake on greased cookie sheet at 375F for approximately 8 - 10 minutes.

restaurant review: da capo.

2008-11-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

coffee-lovers (and haters) rejoice!

there is a place on edmonton’s south side that will make your taste buds soar with a single sip of their cappuccino. da capo caffe can safely boast to have some of the best coffee outside of italy, and will compel anyone to come back for another cup. this funky spot, located on 109 street next to the garneau theatre, has a fantastic ambience – think modern european coffee house, great service – food and bevies will be in hand quickly for you to dive into, and fantastic menu items! besides the cappuccino, you might want to try out their panini or pizzas, homemade biscotti, and you must, beyond a doubt, try their gelato. heaven! nothing outside of italy is this good. go overload on a taste of italy today. right now. go. why are you still here?

YAY:
· great food and beverages
· fairly fast service
· handy central location
· great ambience

MEH:
· parking is sometimes hard to come across

NAY:
· it can be expensive
· odd hours, so call ahead to make sure they’re open

phone: (780) 433.5382
address: 8738 - 109 Street

barry loves bruce.

2008-11-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

…bruce, alberta that is.

yes, as a carnivore, i can’t help but love bruce, alberta. many would drive by this tiny community of three streets and two avenues without thinking to stop, take a deep breath and smell the beef, but friday nights at the bruce hotel is the place to be for one of the best steaks you’ll have in your life.

not to be forgotten are the unlimited salad bar, sweet treats and potatoes drowning in cream. even if steak isn’t your thing, there’s no excuse to not come by, check out the wood paneled walls, bingo hall chairs and luxurious paper plates. it’s a feast for the senses (and your belly) that should not be missed!

the bruce hotel: reservations are required: (780) 688.3922

YAY:
· really good, reasonably priced steak ($15.99 for a 8oz top sirloin and $21.99 for a 16oz steak the size of your face…prices include buffet sides, salads, coffee and sweets)
· terrific taco salad
· three words: dill cream potatoes. four more words: all. you. can. eat.
· at least 8 different freshly prepared salads
· dolly parton poster. as a youth. enough said.

MEH:
· a bit of a drive from edmonton (road trip!).

NAY:
· canned mushrooms have never been my thing.

organic bc cherries + kirch + callebaut chocolate = !

2008-11-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

just once a year chocolatier Bernard Callebaut indulges his customers to a Christmas treat. he brings out his famous chocolate covered cherries (BC cherries that have been soaked in kirsh for five months and then dipped in semi-sweet chocolate) for people to elbow each other out of the way for.

there is something incredibly sexy about unwrapping a proper chocolate covered cherry. it seems so decadent and forbidden that you can’t help but swoon as you take your first bite of it. and then there’s the melted chocolate on your fingertips and the kirsch dripping down your chin – what’s not sexy about that?!

(well, except for the fact you look like a dribbling mess and you’re sobbing over the remains of the cherry that didn’t make it into your mouth and the fact that then there’s no more, and you’ll have to wait until next christmas to get more. but other than that, what’s not sexy about it?!)

ho.ho.ho.

its HAMmer time.

2008-11-14T14:00:00.001-07:00

growing up i hated ham.

why would i consume such a boring meat when i could be savouring turkey or a roast, or best yet, some lamb? as an adult, living on my own, i have since seen the light. it’s a pinkish light, and for some reason has the most alluring aroma: spicy, yet slightly sweet, and rich as it wraps around you like a big, comfy blanket.

nothing could be more juicy, rich, or aromatic, and there is no better dish to present to guests: scoring designs in the fat, studding it with cloves and finishing it off with a glossy glaze – it’s not just a meal, it’s art! and if i happen to scald myself with the boiling water? please! i live to suffer for my art. most of all though, i’ve taken pleasure in converting fellow friends and family from their ham-hating ways, and introducing them to this most comforting of treats.

its hammer time people: join the herd.

I HEART HAM:

1. Start with a picnic-shoulder ham. Rinse and take of “netting”
2. Boil for 1 hour in gingerale and a little water.

(2.5. save stock for soup)
3. Place ham in roasting pan, skin-side up. Cover with tin foil and put it the oven at 300F. 30 minutes per pound (kg x 2.2 to figure out pounds)

4. In the meantime, make the glaze.
For the Glaze: combine brown sugar, a package of instant apple cider mix, a little cinnamon (optional) and enough apple juice to make a paste.
5. 30 minutes before you ham is done cooking, pull it out and remove skin with a sharp knife. (do not remove the fat!)
6. Score the fat in a diamond pattern - don’t cut all the way through!
7. sprinkle fat with about 3/4 tsp dry mustard.
8. Place a clove in the centre of each diamond.
9. drizzle the glaze all over the scored ham. Place uncovered in the oven at 425F for the last 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Rest. Cut. Serve.

something to mull over.

2008-11-13T21:21:00.001-07:00

FREE FOOD! that was the draw to a sobey’s holiday open house last night, but that was not what kept me there. as someone who works in the event industry, it did not seem that this was a spectacular success; the food stations were not clearly marked, the program was non-existent, and half the time i didn’t know what products i was eating (neither did the staff for that matter), but let me tell you about the vino!

ah.

the vino.

upon arriving at the store, i immediately discovered their mulled wine. oh! the heavenly, heavenly aroma of cloves, oranges, cinnamon, and above all, alcohol. it’s heady smell, and complex flavour sent me back for more four times, and was perfectly paired with the only two decent appetizers: the festive canapés with blue cheese, walnuts and maple syrup on toasted baguette, and their cheese crisps: simple, elegant baked cheese and flour. these were what made the evening palatable, regardless of the rest of the food, most of which was dry, dreary, and made me sad.

so raise a glass to the start of the holidays: the season of mulled wine has begun.

YAY:
· mulled wine
· blue cheese and maple canapés
· cheese crisps
· funky produce to take pictures of while we waited for more wine to be brought out

MEH:
· frozen shrimp cocktail (the shrimp was still frozen)
· food preparation demonstrations (they smelled okay, but were not set up well)
· my lobster friend in the tank. you made me sad.

NAY:
· any of the meats served
· the length of the event
· the lack of signage
· the menu delivered to us at the beginning of the night (3/4 of the items listed were not even served)