Strawberry Syrup

My church had a summer picnic this past Sunday and I struggled a lot with what I wanted to bring.  So I decided to bring drinks!  But it's not my style to just bring some store bought pop.  I have to put my culinary spin into it.  So I made strawberry syrup, home made unsweetened lemonade, home made unsweetened iced tea, home made simple syrup along with store bought club soda.  The idea is that people can make strawberry soda by combining strawberry syrup and club soda, or strawberry freckled lemonade, or strawberry iced tea.  For the non-strawberry people the simple syrup was for them.

Strawberry syrup is actually really easy.  I saw it on a youtube video by Food Wishes' Chef John.

Take 2 lbs of fresh strawberries.

Then using a pairing knife cut out the green stems and quarter the strawberries.

In a pot with 2.5 cups of water dump in the strawberries and bring to a boil.  Then simmer on low for about 15-20 min.  Afterwards strain the strawberries out of the water.  You'll see most of the colour gone from the strawberries.  Dump in 2 cups of sugar, bring to a boil again, then simmer at medium for 5 min.

I then put the pot in a sink full of cold water to cool.

Then bottle up the syrup - yay you're done!























To make strawberry soda, fill a cup with about 1/3 of the way with the syrup and then fill the rest with club soda.  It's refreshing and delicious!

Salade de Fruites

My co-worker treated me to lunch today at Salade de Fruites and I ordered the "Moules et frites" or "Mussels and Fries".  Whenever I come to eat here I always see people order this and I always said to myself "I have to get this the next time I come here!".  I guess the best time to do it is when someone else is treating!

So you're served this big pot of mussels.  Steamed in a delicious white wine cream sauce it was great with subtle notes of garlic and spring onions.  The mussels themselves were plump, tender and perfectly cooked.  You get A LOT of mussels - and the sauce is pretty rich.  So as good as it is, about 1/2 way through you don't feel like finishing.  I would definitely recommend splitting this as an appetizer with a friend instead of eating an entire order by yourself.  But if you've ever craving mussels - you would be satisfied.... and them some.

The fries are crispy, seasoned well, but otherwise fairly plain.  Served with mayonnaise for dipping.

My pile of empty Mussel shells.  I made a bit of a mess eating this, spilling the broth on myself and almost hitting the gentleman seating next to me.  I must have smelled like mussels for the rest of the day.

Diva At the Met

If you seen my facebook food blog photo album you would have already seen this meal.  But I felt obligated to document one of my all time favorite foodie meals in Vancouver for my general food blog audience.  The following meal was from December 2011:

I had an amazing dinner with a friend of mine. I've been reading about Chef Hamid Salimian (executive Chef of Diva) on a popular food blog - so I've been interested in trying his food out for awhile. He's also one of the chefs that I've heard of dabbling in molecular gastronomy in his dishes. One day I just called up a friend - want to go out for dinner? And away we went!

This is the bread course. Left to right: Onion and Nuts, Rye, Ciabatta.  Sprinkled on the butter is 'brown butter powder'

Amuse Bouche #1 - Olive Marshmallow 

An amuse bouche is a complementary gift that the chef prepares for you. It's supposed to be one bite and gets you excited for the meal to come.

Olive marshmallow starter was very interesting. It already sets the tone that this meal will stretch your culinary palette beyond a typical meal. It was pillowy soft and texture was like a marshmallow but with that olive flavour and basil accent.

Amuse Bouche #2 - Crispy Salmon Skin with Liquid Nitrogen blasted Gravlox

I love the crispy salmon texture. It had a nice crackle to it when I bit into it. Inside it had a cold pure type of filling. I don't know what a Gravlox is, but it tasted almost like salmon mousse. I really enjoyed this one.

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/11/30/chef-hamid-salmon-gravlax/














Amuse Bouche #3 - Parsnip and Mapled Cured Bacon

This tasted like crispy maple bacon, but it was perfectly flat, and no greasy texture at all. The maple syrup and smokey cured bacon flavoured balanced each other very nicely.











Amuse bouche #4 - Parmasean crisp with eggplant and onion purée

This was very light and delicate. Although parmesan crisp is not an original concept, I never seen it quite like this.

Amuse Bouche #5 - Potato crisp with truffle shavings

This tasted like one of those kettle chips, i.e. Thunder crunch. But it's so thin - it's transparent. Even though it's delicate, it still had a crunch to it. My dining companion and I puzzled on how it was made.










Amuse bouche #6 - Brioche topped with creme fresh and sturgeon caviar.

The caviar flavour was very subtle and it didn't have the salty briny flavour I associate with caviar.

Amuse Bouche #7 - Liquid Nitrogen grapefruit soda 

This served as our palette cleanser before our first course. It tasted like frozen grapefruit soda!

Beef Tartare 

Hidden underneath the topping (I couldn't remember what the topping was) was the beef tartare. It had both the creamy elements and acidic, bright limey elements that I enjoyed when I had beef tartare @ The Market. Instead of spreading it on a canopy that most tartare is served with - it came with beef tendon puffs! The puffs almost had a texture of pork rinds which was an interesting pairing with the tartare.







Sunshine coast sturgeon 

The sturgeon was cured, and was accompanied by some prawn, dill ash cured scallop, salmon roe, and champagne jelly. I enjoyed the cured flavours of the seafood and when I bit into the champagne jelly it transformed the dish again and brought out different flavours. It was topped with grated egg. What's grated egg you ask? I'm not sure either. The server was trying to explain how it was made and all I got was that it took many days just to get the egg itself prepared.








Puffed Fois Gras 

This was really interesting. Normally when I have fois gras it's either pan seared, or made into a pate. This is the first time I had it in a puffy light texture. It's served to you cold, but you spread it on top of warm brioche and it melts into the bread. When you eat it you get the light puffy texture, but then it turns melts into that rich creaminess that you associate with fois gras.


This dish was featured on Chef Salimian's column in the Vancouver Sun.
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/12/19/puffed-foie-gras-how-to-make-it-at-home-diva-style/

Sweetbreads 

If you don't know what sweetbreads are - you don't want to know. Sweetbread is something that if you don't know what it is - you'll think it tastes great. But once you know - it'll probably turn you off. Hint: sweetbreads are neither sweet or a bread.

Despite knowing what sweetbreads are, I enjoy eating them on rare occasions. The offal flavour was very carefully controlled, and I only got a hint of it when eating it.

White alba truffles with smoke pork hock 

This dish has a very comforting flavour. My dining companion says it reminds him of chicken noodle soup and that it was his favorite dish of the evening. An entire white truffle was supposed to be in this dish but I couldn't even smell that truffle earthiness nor taste it. The noodles I found interesting though. No wheat was used to make the noodles at all - but they somehow turned a cipollini onion into the noodles. There is no oniony flavour at all either.

Thiessen farm squab

Accompanying the squab was pomegranate pure, walnut, deep fried kale, quinoa.

This is just a single breast of the squab. No gaminess at all and pairing it with the tart pomegranate was interesting. The chef came from Iran and our server says that this dish reminds him of back home. Apparently pairing the tart flavours with savoury dishes is common in persian cuisine.

Leek ash crusted beef tenderloin

The round white ball you see at the top of the plate was a horseradish cloud. Have you ever ate a cloud before? I can say I have now! You break into it and taste it - and it's texture is what I imagine a cloud to taste like! The horseradish flavour was there but not overwhelming. On the left hidden underneath the crisp was something that tasted like a cheese dumpling. The dark green smear at the bottom of the plate was sunchoke pure.

The tenderloin itself (hidden on the top right under the crisp) was covered in black - apparently that was the leek ash. It was sous vide prepared and cooked to a perfect medium rare.

Dark chocolate praline bar

Underneath the chocolate wafer was hazelnuts. The top of the plate was hazelnut ice cream.

Mashed potatoes and gravy slurpy machine

Coming soon to a 7-11 near you:

Lonestar - San Antonio

Everything is bigger in Texas.

Last day in San Antonio!  I'm writing this blog entry at the airport while I'm waiting for my flight.  One of the Vancouverites I was with really wanted to eat ribs in Texas before returning and I agree with her!

We were recommended a Texas style steak joint on the Riverwalk so we went to check it out.  The drink menu featured something called "The Big Shot".  Basically a super sized 3 flavoured margarita with a bottle of soda stuck in it.  We started chanting 'Do it! Do it! Do it!' and she caved into peer pressure.

Look how big that thing is!!  It looks cool but you drink off the top two layers pretty quick and left with a cup full of red soda.

I ordered a full rack of ribs.  I've had full rack of ribs in Vancouver no problem and didn't think it was a big deal.  So here comes my order:

It can't fit on 1 plate so it's served on two!  Two buns, a bowl of beans, potato salad, and some pickles.  Whoah.  I ended up eating only 1 plate and gave away the 2nd plate to my friends who were dining with me.  Have to say though that I was disappointed with the flavour.  The rub on the ribs was way too salty.  I prefer my ribs a lot more tender than what I was served.  Not quite falling off the bone but comes off easily when I bit into it.  The ribs here had a lot more chew to it than what I prefer.  Last of all it was drenched in sauce.  I do like saucy ribs but this was too much for me.  I did like the BBQ sauce when I scrapped most of it off - it had a nice spicy tang.

Another friend that I was dining with had the Smoked BBQ Sandwich.  I took a photo and asked her for her opinion and she basically just layed into her meal.  "Uninspired" "Boring" "Chicken was too dry".  From the picture below you can see what she meant.  It's basically dry chicken covered in BBQ sauce on a hot dog bun.

It's too bad that my last meal in Texas wasn't a good one - as most of the trip was outstanding.

While I'm writing my blog entry they just announced that my flight is delayed by 1/2 hour and that the flight is overbooked.  I hope I can make my connecting flight back to Vancouver ok.  Apparently American Airlines staged a last minute strike and is messing up air travel for everybody today.

Biga on the Banks - San Antonio

Things have been so busy for me in San Antonio that I didn't get a chance to do too many culinary detours.  But my flight leaves back to Vancouver tomorrow so I decided I must visit this one place before I go - no matter what.

Chef Bruce Auden gets consistantly nominated for a James Beard Best Chef award (the culinary equivalent to the oscars) and his premiere restaurant "Biga on the Banks" is just a 10 minute walk from my hotel.  

After placing my order I was surprised with a complimentary starter salad.  According to my server the chef felt sad that I was dining by myself so he gave me a gift.  I'm sure he's just playing with me but I appreciated it!

The salad was pretty simple with golden beats, cherry tomatoes, feta, shredded carrots and cucumbers tossed together with lettuce using a standard house vinaigrette.

I don't know why but I recently started to become a fan of beats and feta in my salad so I definitely enjoyed my complimentary starter.  I usually like walnuts to provide that extra texture element in a salad like this but I guess the tortilla chip provided that in this case.

The next course is a dual of roast quail and elk.  I don't remember ever having elk before so I was really interested in this dish.  I had venison before at La Crocodile and didn't quite care for venison.  Is elk and venison the same?  Not quite sure.  Anyways the elk prepared here was delicious!  Coasted with an 11 spice rub and cooked to medium rare.  I tried to look for a gamey taste but I couldn't detect anything.  It pretty much tasted like a chewier version of a beef tenderloin.  The quail was great.  The trickiness of quail is that you want to make sure it's cook thoroughly but because it's so small it's often overcooked.  Not this time.  Accompanying the proteins is a parsnip puree (tasted a lot like mashed potatoes but healthier!), chestnuts, Brussels sprouts, cranberry raisin chutney, juniper demi sauce.  I don't eat brussels sprouts very much but after trying it here I decided that I like it!  I'll have to learn how to cook brussels sprouts now.  My only criticism is that there isn't the care and attention to detail in terms of presentation that I would expect in a high end restaurant.  A little bit too rustic.

For dessert I had a grand mariner souffle.  I've had soufflés prepared for me at Hubert Keller's Fleur de Lys, the Eiffel Tower restaurant in Vegas, and at Dale McKay's Ensemble and this one is my favourite.  It had a lightness / airiness to it that I enjoyed a lot.  Again the presentation is not as good as the others though.  Professional souffles usually raise straight out of the ramekin and this one had a muffin top but in terms of flavour and texture it was there.

Altogether with a large bottle of San Pellegrino and taxes my meal was $65.  It also came with a complementary bread basket which included some delicious corn bread.

Air Canada First Class Lounge @ YVR

I'm in San Antonio right now for a Church Conference.  But I think I'm in trouble.  It's 1 AM here in San Antonio time but 10 PM in Vancouver time.  No way I'm getting to sleep until like 3 AM local.  But my first session tomorrow is 6 AM Vancouver time.  Oh oh.  I hope after I write up this blog entry I'll be able to get to fall asleep soon.

I was offered an upgrade to First Class when checking in so I decided to do it for another $75.  Not only does this come with comfier seats (I hate sharing armrests !!) I get access to the first class lounge!  Although this is the Air Canada first class lounge in the US departures terminal, you will get access to it if your first class ticket is for any Star Alliance airline carrier.

The first class lounge was really exciting to get into but once I got to see it - it's kinda disappointing.  They offer an all you can eat salad bar:

They have some Automated coffee machines that grinds your beans to order and make cappuccinos and lattes:

Free Cookies (English Bay):


An open fridge for you to grab Sodas, Juices, etc:



But probably the most interesting thing is all you can drink Booze (which I did not partake):

And shower facilities:

Not pictured:

• Tortilla Chips and Salsa
• Minestrone Soup

So the First Class Lounge was a bit of a let down.   Hopefully I will be able to dine at some neat places while I'm here in San Antonio and I'll be sure to share it on my food blog!  On my list of food to eat: Texas BBQ, Cajun/Creole, Tex Mex, Mexican.