Ah I have little regrets in life but I regret not getting that fried chicken.

My best friend and I ohhh lets call them Duke River, DR for short.

Now DR was in from out of town coming to Toronto for little visit so we decided we wanted some spicy chicken so off to Home Of Hot Taste.

A spicy korean fried chicken joint that I’ve wanted to try for a while.

I enjoy a simple menu with pictuees and stright to the point. None of this wondering but on the other hand a little mystery.

While we plucked away at the menu DR noticed a message on the chalk board ” steam chicken you will get addicted!” Now DR and I have adventure in out hearts when it comes to eating. So we got it plus some Fire Chicken!

The fire chicken arrived sizzling with some sweet fermented radish. We dove on the chicken, damn it was so good DR quoted the late Anthony Bourdain ” when spicy food is good its addictive”. The chicken was full of spice and wonderful sweet notes that cut through the heat. It was so good we were scraping the hot pan for the crisper sauce that filled us with joy.

Now the steamed chicken we like the idiots we are didn’t look at the menu picture so when this massive bowl of crimson chicken,dumplings,noodles and squash with these lovely potatoes arrived. It was massive to massive for two people. I bite into and sadly I did not enjoy as this one flavour. It felt like a stab to my nose. I began looking around for the ingredient that caused this distress in my mouth. I thought it was the steamed chicken skin at first, nope. The inner meat was moist and spicy. Not the dumplings but then I had the squash. Oh boy.

Now believe it or not I took a food writing class. My teacher said just because you don’t enjoy something doesn’t mean it isn’t good. I enjoyed the chicken but the rest of bowl has flavor of squash and now I lived in regret wishing I got that fried chicken but eating is adventure. I had the adventure of the company of DR and he got to watch me freak out as I couldn’t finish the food.

But the adventure continues!

It’s hard to judge a restaurant off of one experience you really should go three times but I’m tossing that rule out. I’ve decided to just write a review after each meal I have and see if this works better, like a never ending saga or one of those animes that just goes on forever.

Today I was out with my old buddy Darkness who is in a kick ass punk band! Today him and I went to Her Chef-The Beginning which if I do say that is one epic name. The beginning of what? Maybe a epic saga? So where does one begin when they enter Her Chef’s cozy restaurant and clever red chairs that double as a storage unit. Ah I love it so clever!

Well you begin with being brought a cool refreshing glass of cold green tea and this hits the spot after biking through the cooked roads of Toronto on a hot hot hot summer day!

Darkness and I both agreed we had to have the Drug Salad, and the hype be true cause you hooked like a fish on a worm baby. It arrives on this big black plate a well placed pile of green onions, chives, sesame leaves, onions and a in house sauce that is placed on the plate with the touch of a painter. Now there is this white powder on top of your greens which confused me a little making me think. “No it isn’t real drugs but is this powder sugar? I’d prefer drugs over sugar myself” But the first few bites is this texture experience that makes chewing fun with hints of spicy and sweet you can see why people get hooked, as I write this right now I want some more.

Now I just didn’t have some salad and green tea I ordered myself some chicken but not just any chicken of no this is a saga after all! All great stories have friend chicken in them but this bowl had the juiciest, crispest karaage little bits that rested on a egg and a sleepy dreamy bed of rice. If this chicken only knew the sweet mayo sauce it had been covered in helping the rice to stick to the karaage giving it a bite to be desired.

If you ever need a cozy spot to hang with a friend and chat over some good food. I suggest Her Chef which is located at 599 Bloor St W, Toronto Ontario.

 

 

Need a good spot to grab a bite or maybe somewhere to catch up with a old friend or go on that fun second date, well I got the place for you. Film Cafe Restaurant by Eative is your spot.

Walking into Film Cafe there is this hip fun feel, a screen showing old cartoons, stuff like Bugs Bunny. The staff strikes with the grace of special forces, informing you to get a table and take a menu. Some may dislike this I frankly enjoy the straight to the point.  The menus are on clipboards displaying it’s different sections from breakfast, sandwiches, pancake,sushi rolls, okonomiyaki, Japanese street eats and donburi rice bowls. I ordered the Kyoto Breakfast, I also happen to be dinning with my friend Darkness as he shall be named, all three times we went he got the Sapporo Breakfast.

The Kyoto Breakfast arrived, I had take moment to grab a photo because that’s life. I dove into the tamago yaki (egg roll) they we’re light fluffy and a little sweet, the shrimp tempura and I know this was good because normally I don’t get shrimp tempura because it lets me down but not today tempura not today! The shrimp had this freshness and the batter light the kind that doesn’t make you wanna take a shower after eating something fried. The onigiri was my first experience and I enjoyed each bite wondering if I could just order some of those to go, they simple sweet nutty flavor left me wishing for more.

Now Darkness and I have been here three times on the second time out I got the Katsu Curry Don this dish inspired me to make Japanese Curry it left me with a longing for more.  It arrives one side a pool of curry I wish I could swim in, the other side nutty purple rice with a omelette on top with a  breaded pork fillet and one tiny little piece of broccoli, good we understand ourselves eating out isn’t the time to be healthy.

This was my first bite of Japanese curry and it was awesome, not one big blast of thats beef but many different little flavors making a party in my mouth. I would love to eat this on a rainy day it would warm the soul. Each time I took a spoon full I mixed it with rice, with omelette, pork nothing over powered the other I wanted them all in my mouth at the same time. The pork’s breading that had coated it once again not feeling heavy despite being deep friend Darkness got the same meal he enjoys it.

The third time out I ordered Subuta Pork Don (Sweet and Sour Pork on top of a bed of rice and cabbage) and I was excited. As someone who enjoys sweet and sour pork I was on the edge of my seat while Darkness was telling me about his super cool band. Now the food comes and I’m use to the sweet and sour sauce almost looking like syrup and regret . This though had a texture and colour similar tomato sauce but when took a breath it tingles your nose, the back of your mouth and all the way down your throat. The cabbage and rice are ok but the sweet and sour pork is the superstar of this dish. The sourness of the sauce and fatty pork strikes a great balance while listening to Darkness up coming shows.

I would suggest not going on a Sunday as this place can be packed but if your looking for a fun place to eat I suggest going to  Film Cafe Restaurant by Eative located at  230 Augusta Ave, Toronto, ON M5T 2L6

 

In today’s Knife skills second class we got to cut up two chickens! Now it was a little bit of chaos our normal teacher Hobbit couldn’t be there and then the sub wasn’t told they had to teach so it was a bit of a mess. Don’t worry it all worked out.

We had to help do a bunch of the prep work I got to cut the habanero peppers to which the hobbit said ” Where gloves I don’t want you burning yourself” I gloved up and took the seeds out of those peppers.

Everyone else was chopping shallots while the Hobbit was running around like mad, he had another class to teach. The sub arrived to teach and off we were. Learning all the important ways, breaking a chicken down into eights and how to spatchcock a chicken, that’s where you cut its back open and lay it flat down.Spatchcocking a chicken is so easy and frankly watch a youtube on it and never pay more money for a spatchcocked chicken.

What I’ve really taken away from these classes is these basic knife skills and cooking skills are so easy and a great deal of fun. Learning these building blocks I believe I  my cooking can reach a new level. I also find myself saving so much money because I know how to cook so many different dishes now. Save the money!

Something important we learned in class is when breaking down anything you always have a wet hand and a dry hand. Your dry hand is your knife hand never leaving the knife and your wet is the other one moving everything around. Knife and chef become one.

From many books, a  forest of pages,  a pile of ingredients and one goal. Part 1

Eggs are a food I love and hate, hit or mess , bring a smile to my face or gag away. Now I dislike scramble eggs hate them in fact I’m not sure what it is really that causes me to recoil with such disgust. Some have been to moist others, dry but when they hit my mouth I nearly die!

Now those  hard boiled eggs soaked in soy sauce you know the ones I’m talking about. I was flipping through my Korean Home Cooking book written by Sohui Kim and found Gyeran Jorim Soy Marinated Eggs. I love these eggs I’m not sure how similar they are to Ajitsuke Tamago the ones in ramen but I shall have to find out.

But tonight I made Gyeran Jorim which as I write this they are soaking away in their marina for tomorrows dinner.

Now when I got myself ready I sorta messed up, I forgot to make ice cubes because when you’re boiling eggs you need a bowl of ice water to cool the eggs so they stop cooking after being pulled out of the water. But I was wouldn’t give up I just pulled out some ice packs and used this in my bowl of ice water.

Now the book says bring the water to a boil and I may have to look up the term of boiling because when I dropped my first COLD egg into the BOILING pot of water, it cracked it’s top! After I dropped the other eggs in the water temperature dropped and I decided to dial back the boiling a little.

Now I tried mixing two different kinds of soy sauce a salty one and a sweet one,  added more garlic cloves and a few more fresh peppers then the recipe said too. How this will turn out who knows but I love spicy garlic food!  Now while my eggs were chilling away I mixed all the soy sauce, rice wine, peppers and garlic and brought to a boil then simmered for some time. Placed the marina in a container with the eggs in them and now they in sit in the fridge till tomorrows meal. I’m so excited about this!

Next time watch I shall the water and perfect my boiling egg game!

 

 

 

Hello all I haven’t posted any recipes from my project cooking from Tiffin. The reason for that is I have been going through other cook books and have been seeing all the different items and in haze I decided to that I wanna cook from as many cooks books as I can so from this point on I have decided to start my new.

I have many books from Nordic, Korean, Vietnamese, from different chefs and different  styles. I’m a go big or go home kinda dream, I bite more than I can chew so now I shall start this new adventure that I am calling.

From many books, a  forest of pages,  a pile of ingredients and one goal.

Let the mad science cooking adventure begin!

 

 

Hello all sorry about the posting lately I’ve been all over the place!

I started a new class at George Brown I started taking knife skills so I could take the butcher class. I have a new teacher and they are night and day from F lets just call them Hobbit. A very happy fellow who cares a great deal, goes to the end of the world to give you a great class.  I didn’t give him the name Hobbit for height reasons gave it to him cause he just kick ass and gets the job done.

Now Hobbit is friends with Shoe so he asks me how he she was doing all the time and  he also cracks jokes with me.

I think the first coolest thing he told us we could hone our knives on anything metal as long as it’s a harder metal than our own and to avoid cheap sharping stones because our knives will just shave them off. You know the $9.99 ones you pick up.  He was showing us the easiest way to remember what angle to hone our blades at which is a 22.5 degree angle it’s easy to find put your knife at a 90 on your honing steal then at a 45 which is half then half of that boom! Listen I thought it was cool and how if we keep on top of our honing we won’t have to sharpen our knives that often. Up keep is very important!

We didn’t do much in class we chopped up veggies and fruit but Hobbit showed us how to make a proper lemon let me explain.

Have you ever gone to squeeze a lemon and splat it goes everywhere just makes a mess, you get it into your families eyes they all trip and fall and ruin the whole dinner gah awful right! Now what can we do about this problem so it never happens again and granny doesn’t need a new hip. Simple we cut it better, take your lemon cut the ends off then cut it in the middle. Now this is important see that white thick membrane remove it and the seeds then cut a wedge off. Now give it a squeeze and it will fall in one spot. Now if that isn’t magically then I have no idea what is!

 

An animal I’ve loved eating from the beginning, I’ve heard butcher call it their favourite vegetable and now I get to stuff. The pig and today in class were making stuffed pork loin.

Another classically day with F going off script from the hand out teaching us what cooking really is and that’s our imagination. God I love these classes inspiring!

Today we stuffed pork loins with dried apples, onions, herbs, bread and stilton. Gah it was so good and F wanted us to cut pockets in our pork not split them in half like the book wanted. We made a pockets with our boning knifes or paring knifes. I was so happy I got use it. Slowly and carefully opening the loin. After the fish and chicken this had become easy.

We had to pre cook the stuffing a little before stuffing. Once the pork was stuffed with slapped it in the pan and got a good shear on both sides. Place in the oven for ten minutes on each side.

Now while cooking the chops, go chop some apples and ginger for some apple sauce. Once the pork is done pull them out of the pan and use all that fat in the pan. So take the pan on the stove drop the apples and ginger in with some cinnamon and cook till just before the apples get mushy but have their shape.

I have plans to re visit this dish and change it up!

This week we are taking a look at the Drunken Buffalo from Monforte farm. This cheese is a washed rind as well as being a cooked pressed cheese. What does that mean, well it means they cooked the curds so they would solidify  before pressing them to get the water out tends to be done on cheese like goude. Then washed it or soaked it in a lovely porter from Black Swan Brewing co and yes people do go around with a brush and wash the cheese. Both of these places are located in Stratford Ontario, I love when two things join up to make a great new product.

Now this cheese has a rich caramel colour rind that’s smooth with valleys and ridges. Cut it open and you have this inner pasta that just shines  with caramel spots on the inside. I believe that is the fenugreek. Fenugreek tends to smell like maple syrupy and when I take a big sniff of this cheese I can smell burnt bitter sweet maple wood. I see this cheese on a rainy day being slide to me a course a big old wooden table knocking into my porter. Spilling it everywhere causing that sweet wet wood smell I’m getting.

When I bite into this cheese I get

Bitter – bitter in different states a burst in the beginning then a finish. If you bite into the rind you get a lot more bitter almost a little over whelming but if you enjoy that rich porter taste then yeah it’s for you.

sweet – a little bit

salt – a small amount

Umami – dances with the bitter but doesn’t lead

sour – a small amount.

Secondary flavors it really tastes like a refreshing drink, I wanna eat this cheese in the sunshine, have it instead of my shower beer. This cheese is a picnic cheese, a summer cheese with some honey while the warm breeze blows past you. Maybe hang out with your buffalo friend to thank them on this lovely summer day for charming cheese.

 

I think in this weeks class everyone was saying the same thing ” How did F make it look so easy” Everyone with the same dumb struck look on their face as they starred down at their chicken trying to de-breast it and feeling nothing but utter defeat. We all knew F had years of skill but damn made it look like a cake walk. The struggle was really but it was fun to listen and hear the epic struggle of everyone’s chicken troubles. while we tried to get breasts out of this bird. It was slippery and wet OH! I forgot to say what we we’re making today. We we’re making poached chicken with curry lemongrass cream and a Bechamel sauce.

Lately I’ve been feeling less stress when cooking rather finding it more of  peaceful practice a meditative state. I zero in on what I’m suppose to do. As someone who had a former high stress job before being a cheese monger I often bloomed in chaos. Living among chaos seeking to bring order in my theatre world and sometimes I have dreams of becoming a serious chef and charging head long into chaos once again seeking to bring order  but then I remember what it felt like to do 16 hour days as a theatre tech and I go back to enjoying my simple practice of cooking class.

Any who we started this class of with making a sail boat out of a onion and bay leaf. No serious in order to make the Bechamel Sauce we need, milk, a quater of a onion, one bay leaf and some cloves. F made a little sail boat shoving the dried bay leaf into the quarter onion and once again making it look easy by shoving the cloves in. When I went and did it my cloves broke and cracked. I decided I would just put them in the milk because I had more of a ship wreck than a ship. I placed the milk on a low simmer.

The chicken oh the chicken. Pulling it’s skin off was as easy as pulling a sweater off just like F said it would. I was trying to think of a joke but nothing came up all that came up was how I hate sweaters how they make me itchy.

Now I dislike handling chicken I always feel like I have to wash my hands all the time I go on cleaning quests some might say its a chicken crusade ridding my cooking area of any raw chicken germs that might get me.

Now we chopped up or shallot and some lemon grass stock which was fun because once we cut it up we smacked it with our knife releasing a lovely smell of lemon grass in the air. We had some green curry paste, we didn’t have to make it but I know in the other cooking classes we get to. I look forward to Thai level 1 and 2.

Now in a pan take some chicken stock pour a little slap the chicken in then your shallot, lemon grass pour the rest of a stock and the paste. Bring to boil then down to a simmer.

The rest was easy I just had to wait now, once my milk was nice and warm I was able to mix some flour and butter in a different pan till it looked like dough, slowly adding my onion ship wreck milk into the dough to make the Bechamel sauce. Once ready I pulled my chicken out it was fully cooked I might add. I combined the Bechamel sauce with lemon grass stock making a lovely cream for my chicken.

I regert not adding more of the lemon grass curry paste but Shoe will enjoy.