Restaurant Arepera

Rue Duluth in the heart of Montreal's vibrant plateau always promises yummy good times. There is an abundance of "bring your own wine" restaurants which can make your nights out way less expensive and way tipsier at times. But, I was with my friend (with whom i like to lunch) or "chum de fille" as you will, for a lunch date--so no wine this time. We had better plans: to consume hearty, flavourful, exotic...Venezuelan food!

We headed to the corner of Duluth and De Bullion to check out the restaurant, aptly named Arepera as it serves the traditional arepas. Not sure what that is? Neither was I. The handsome and friendly waiter was very happy to explain that arepas are a type of white corn flour chewy bread stuffed with delicious meats and vegetables of all kinds. Sounded good to me!

We went with the chicken and avocado arepa. Hoder, qué bueno! It tasted like chicken salad suspended in the creamiest guacamole imaginable. Pleasure synapses fired in my brain--the combo of carbs from the corn bread, fat from the avocado, and protein from the delicious fresh chicken just flooded my limbic system and made my brain and taste buds very, very happy.

We also ordered a "plato" which comes with the meat or veggie stew of your choice, rice, black beans, fried plantain. Oh the plantain..., is there another substance that lends itself better to a quick bath in piping hot oil? I don't think so! You eat all of this with another mini-arepa and amazing homemade sauce. Avocado sauce, and homemade hot sauce with chipotle peppers. I will be back to Arepera just for those sauces. Trust me.

You can't say the food at Arepera isn't fresh. The cooks were grabbing produce off of the display to make our lunch. Beautiful. 

The interior is clean, bright, and warm. All the elements you need for lunching on a cold winter's day.

A hammock in the restaurant, why not? You might need this after stuffing your face with delicious arepas...I settled for a brisk walk home, feeling full and satisfied.

Cayman Food Times

I recently visited a friend living on Grand Cayman Island. What an amazing trip. Fun, sun, surf and sand...all the clichés of a holiday getaway. I excitedly looked forward to all the fresh food, especially fruit, that I would be able to consume in this tropical paradise. I should have done my research, because when I arrived I soon realized that a lot food is brought onto the island on shipping containers from the United States and even from England. Here is a little look at the yummy things I ate and drank while on Cayman.

I pretty much had the best brunch of my life at the Westin Hotel on Cayman. An all you can eat and drink Champagne brunch! The bubbles and conversation were a-flowing, and you could tell which tables had nearly drunk their fill by their noise level.

Oh god, look at that delectable clutter of food. I went heavy on the seafood with seared tuna, seafood salad, seaweed salad, sushi, dumplings and for desert: bacon, breakfast food of champions. I win at life!

This is plate number one, with champers glass numer two. Foodgasm.

Hello rum punch, where have you been all my life? Later in the evening, I accidentally smashed that blue water glass. People who know me will not be surprised.

Oysters! Served with cocktail sauce, how pedestrian. This restaurant, Guy Harvey's was actually OK. However, when my steak was brought to me cold, I had to complain. Fueled by rum and visions of Gordon Ramsay screaming "start again!" I returned my plate to the waiter. For some reason the head chef, who really should be in the kitchen, was faffing about in the restaurant talking to customers. He had the nerve to tell me "you know eet eez very deefeecoult to cook ze steak hot, because you ask for medium rare". To which I rolled my eyes and replied that my dinner companion had ordered his steak rare and his was served hot. The chef kind of looked at me with a "you caught me talking out of my ass" look. Touché!

Freshly grilled Mahi on the beach. With a jerk seasoning, no less. This is what I had been waiting for.

                  

Aside from eating, I did a lot of standing around in infinity pools with swim up bars mere meters from the beach. No big deal.

Also, lots of margarita drinking.

And this.

Laurier's chicken shack

I have this friend with whom I like to lunch. We have sort of become the ladies who lunch. Not that we have the time or the money to do so, but hey, you only live once, so why not shirk responsibilities and throw down the credit card once and a while? Not that this meal was expensive; I am rapidly learning that lunches are way cheaper than dinners. The same held true during our excursion to Gordon Ramsay's re-hauled Chicken Shack on Laurier, in Montreal. It's not so much a chicken shack as a classy rotisserie. The decor was pretty much the antithesis of the "before" looks on Kitchen Nightmares. Whitewashed wood on walls, dove grey banquette seats and lovely brown exposed beams. The place was spotless. I also really enjoyed the oversized pickle jars on each table to eat to your palate's content. I am a huge fan of pickles.

My companion and I both decided to get the prix fixe lunch menu. A very good deal for 14.95$, plus you don't really need to eat for the rest of the day! Choice of soups or salad, many chicken and non-chicken mains, and amazing homemade deserts.

We both decided to go for the salad. How many times have I watched Gordon verbally bitch-slap bad restauranteurs for the quality of their produce? Too many. But he obviously takes his own advice.

The salad was perfect. Nice touch with the shaved fennel.

Nice thigh! The chickens are local, grain-fed and presumably have a life before becoming sustenance for my body.

Everything tasted awesome. The service was courteous and prompt, except they forgot to bring our drinks before the food came. Give 'em hell, Gordon!

There was a great selection of homemade deserts. This here is the chocolate cream pie. It was crazy good!

I would go back just to have another taste of the bread and butter pudding. 

Check out those caramelized pecans! 

curry in a hurry

Greetings fellow eaters. I made a veggie curry, wanna see?

 The veg in question. Later I added mushrooms and frozen peas, because my dad loves frozen peas and he was partaking in this particular curry. That, and my mom asked me if I would put peas in for my dad 130,004,287 times during the making of this curry.

Chop the veg up. Put some effort into it!

Stir fry the veg (I like to use coconut oil) starting with garlic and ginger. Then add the firmest veggies in first, such as potatoes and carrots. After frying and softening the veggies a little, I added the curry paste.

I like to doctor the jarred sauce with a variety of India spices. It makes me feel like I actually cooked rather than mixed things around. Anything to boost the self-esteem, people!

Time to add in the softer veggies like peppers and mushrooms.

I love mushrooms in curries.

Yes, I finally added the peas, minutes before serving this on some quinoa. Quite the satisfying meal, and even tastier the following day!

pho fantasy

If there is one soup I can't ever live without, that brings so much hot, slurpy, soupy pleasure to my life, and has even brought a tear of joy to my eye, is the mighty, unequivocal, irresistible pho. I love this soup. No, you don't understand. I LOVE this soup. Ever since I tasted what I consider to be the original pho back in 2009, I have dreamed of trying to recreate it; that full, deeply flavourful broth, the green, lively herbs brightening up the taste of the soft and yielding rice noodles, the paper thin beef slices cooking instantly from the ladles of hot broth showered on them... I could write an ode to this soup. But instead, as is customary on this blog of mine, I will show you how I made some pho 'fo my fine self!


Using and adapting a recipe found on epicurious.com, here's what happened.
 

Charring onions and ginger. I imagine that back in the day, pho would have been made over an open fire, thus making it quite easy to blacken the onions and ginger. The modern version saw me broiling these guys until they got smokey and black. Then I peeled them and they went into the stock pot.

Toasting the spices to go into the broth. Do not underestimate the power of a medium heat applied to fragrant cloves, anise seeds and cinnamon. By throwing this trifecta of deliciousness into a hot pan, you release all of its oils and somehow, the secrets of the universe come wafting into your nostrils. You smell this, and you just KNOW it's going to taste good. These spices go into cheesecloth and basically brew in the beef stock, elevating a beef bone tea into delicious pho juice. 

Starting the broth. Beware, this blog is becoming very very non vegetarian. After a visit to the local butchers, where we bought some beef bones, some flank roast, and some sirloin, we came home and started the broth.

The broth takes hours, people. Hours wherein you skim the scum and fat from the liquid, transforming bones and bringing them one step closer to some Vietnamese fantasy.

 
Repeat after me: Pho juice! Pho juice! Pho juice! The broth's been strained, the cheesecloth with spice trifecta has been removed, and it's piping hot, ready to be made into pho.



This isn't just about the beef broth and the noodles. Oh, no. Pho is all about the garnishes. When I ponder the mysteries of the beautiful pho, I realize that it's the perfect combination of soup AND salad in one bowl. 

 
When I was in Vietnam I was amazed at the variety of greens that you could throw into your bowl: mustard greens, dandelion leaves, mint, holy basil, coriander, beansprouts...and those greens just kept on coming, appearing in huge wet piles on white plastic dinner plates. 

 
You mustn't forget about balancing the flavours with some lime, chillies, hoisin and hot sauces too!





Steamed some properly cut (lengthwise!) baby bok choi to add even more greenery to the pho.

 
Pho assembly line action. Getting all the ingredients in the bowl before pouring the broth.

  That flank roast bubbled away in the stock pot for over four hours. It tasted like heavenly cows. Please note the raw, paper-thin sirloin. Just a bit in the bowl, save some for the others!



My bowl, post-garnishing. I was so excited to finally taste it!

Ah...perfectly nourishing, just the right amount of heavy and light, of crisp and soft, of spice and sweetness. If this soup was a gesture, it would be a hug.

Holiday Food Recap 2011

Welcome to 2012! Last year certainly was delicious, wasn't it? This year I resolve to grab my camera and take the time to photograph more meal-making. Either that or find a way to acquire a fancy smart phone so I can upload photos more easily to the blog.

Here's a look at all the yummy food I made and ate over the holidays.

New year's eve appetizer. Malpeque oysters with a white onion mignonette and some bubbly.

New year's eve dinner. Drake Qwacker the Third got roasted up with some baby potatoes and organic carrots. I am such a non-vegetarian now.

Sushi with my oldest friends. That is some mighty futomaki!



My hometown sushi joint is expanding into the realm of Korean food. Some spicy soup with kimchi. It was pretty awesome.

My lovely cousin made these gingerbread cookies.

My grandma's petes de soeurs (nun's farts) and some "Davy Crockets" AKA peanut butter balls.

Made some veggie curry for my family on a whim. No biggie. Thanks Patak's paste, you make me an adequate Indian cook.

Here is the first attempt at making pho, from scratch, including boiling bones for beef broth. Not bad, not bad. One step closer to recruiting a broth whisperer to make me bases for my soups.


Highlights of the holidays included:
-making pho for the first time
-having a dinner party with my parents
-my dad's emotional cosmo drinking
-adding the adjective "christmas" to every action or thought, such as "christmas annoyance", and "christmas tension"
-looking at ducks
-eating ducks
-roasting a duck for the first time
-cuddling

I hope that the holidays left you with some warm and fuzzy memories. Now it's get back to work time, and I will be posting the epic pho times very soon!

Bonne Année! xo