Fleur du Marquis

I was craving some Cheese, so I naturally I had to buy some, which by the way never turns into one piece, or type, but I did limit myself to two, so we are all good.

Its always nice to try new cheese, and 'ash' ripened cheese is something that does not crowd the cheese fridge at most places, I mean it says Ash kinda of weird.  And this Fleur du marquis, well it got what looks like twigs [rosemary] and blue, like its moldy [which It probably is] also has Juniper.  But this cheese so good, made with Sheeps Milk from Corsica, and I didn't realize Corsica was french who knew.  My only problem with this is that there is all this rosemary, dried loose rosemary, I personally don't like rosemary, and sure as hell don't like eating twigs, once scrapped off pretty good.

Smells so good with a hint of rosemary, rich. Taste, Creamy, mild pleasant rosemary taste but with a little aged notes not amonia yet but good, twigs of rosemarry kinda of sucks but hey its rustic french cheese pairs very nice with this Vin D'Pay D'Oc Viognier

I give this 90pts!

Hakkasan Restaurant Located in the Industrial Area of Richmond, Richmond being the home to a lot of Asian Restaurant. A lot of Chefs came from Hong Kong I guess in the 80/90s

It is Hakka Cuisine, so that in itself makes it stand out from other such standbys as dim-sum.  From my understanding Hakka being A Nomadic Tribe, traveled around took recipe from the area moved on etc etc so they have a range of food styles. They have some Szechuan Style, which I enjoy they are great for those cold days.  As you can tell from the Images they are warm foods, Beef Curry Brisket, Eggplant and Chicken Chili/Garlic, and Fried Green Beans yummy.  There traditional dish is the Salt Baked Chicken.

A Must eat at place, and fantastic deal for lunch, but Usually order off the dinner menu for myself.

BC [Okanagan Namely] VQA Trade Tasting.

Twice a year the VQA [Vinters Quality Assurance] sponsors these events to try the new releases, Fall being more reds, spring being more whites. I must say that the quality of wine is really progressing a lot more being "drinkable" meaning I would pay money for them. Some that Jancis Robsinson Raved about I didn't find to be that "awesome" they were good But I found them to be too one dimensional.

Tasted A lot but these are the ones that stood out. Also helped out the old friends from the Restaurant.

Random Pictures, including after events har har.....to much to drink


Some Standout Wines and Wineries

8th Generation [German Wine Maker / Grower]
Pinot Gris 2008 [Really Nice Acidity Thumbs up for me]
Rose 2008 [Fantastic Sold Out and 2009 has a waiting list from my understanding]
Merlot [Don't know Vintage But really nice]

CedarCreek Winery
In Generally All Wines Doing pretty well
2007 Merlot [Big Wine, Big Tannins, Good purity of fruit]
Plantium Chard 2007 [Oaked for sure in French Oaked I generally Don't like Chard or Oaked Whites heh]

Chandra Estate Winery
Chardonnay "Yue" 2006 [A Chardonnay I liked, Hint of Oak very nice Good value too]

Clos Du Soleil Winery
Never heard of this Winery, Had a good looking blond pouring so OF Course I had to try the wine.
Red 2007 [Man what a fantastic wine it actually made me stop and think about it, did some research after the event seen its good some good reviews from local wine critics defintly a buy]

Garry Oaks
Really Impressed with there Wines
Pinot Noir [Red Fruit, Spice good purity of fruit tho Cranberry, Strawberry ,Rhubarb]
Pinot Gris [Love it good Acidity]

Mission Hill
Compendium 2006 [Drinking Nicely, smooth touch of fruit, dark chocolate]
Quatrain 2006 [A merlot Syrah blend, Syrah very syrupy coming through smooth creamy, fruit]
Oculus 2006 [BIG MASSIVE WINE, almost not drinkable, no point in opening this anytime soon the Tannins are just massive good fruit coming through tho]

Poplar Grove Winery
The 2005 Merlot and Legacy showing very nice currently [Just opened a 2004 Merlot which was Fantastic, you can ask Kim and Vibemore about it!]

Quails Gate Estate Winery
Heard Lots of good things about there Pinot Noir, they were pouring both of theres
Definitely a new World style play
Pinot Noir 2007 [Raspberry Coulis very nice]
Pinot Noir 2007 Reserve [Same profile as regular but a lot smoother]

Road 13
Viognier Rousanne Marsanne 2008 [Really Impressive]
Jackpot Syrah 2007 [Jancis Robinson Liked this wine, has those Rhone Qualities minerality fruit]

Summerhill Pyramid Organic Winery
Both Bubblies I love Blanc de Blanc really good
Cipes Brut NV
Organic Cipes Gabriel Blanc de Blanc NV

Not to Shabby all in all

Tourist In Your Own Town

Dear Diary;
Last week the new "Canada Line" opened up which is our skytrain system that runs now from YVR to Downtown. Big news here in Vancouver, we were [dad and I] planning on going on it last week when it was free but that turned into a ..... well lets just say paying for it when its running normally and without all the media photo ops is a way better way to go.

Took an extended lunch break to downtown, went by the new Vancouver Convention Centre which is massive and really nice to look at [Had a wine tasting on the 3rd Floor that faces the mountains with glass windows really nice].

Headed on over to Miku Restaurant for some Lunch time sushi and a bottle of wine, found a Chenin by Chateau du Varennes Savennieres 2005, it was really a perfect sushi wine, not overly complex but had a touch of minerality and lemon zestyness and great acidity. A wine that goes perfect with raw fish, seasoned with a little soy and wasabi. The food was really good, Abrui style sushi which from my understanding the fish on the top was lightly torched with a charcoal "brick" and it added a nice smokiness but also on the fatty fish it just warmed up this good fatty oil. The Dessert was fantastic too made in house two pastry chefs from what the menu said not to shabby.

All in All a Fantastic Lunch heck even dinner be good [prices are not crazy compared to other top end sushi places], in a nice business area of down so the night crowd might be a bit more .........You know business men and high class hookers? haha its in that area.

Then we head back down the new Line and out to the Airport, Airport really quiet for a Summer, must be the recession I know the restaurants in general are down 25% Im guessing

Dinner and Wine (No Pics Sry)

Sometimes you just need to buy a bottle of wine.

So I have my own collection so to speak my mini wine fridge is full with 30 bottles, plus more off site, but yet I wanted to buy a bottle of wine. So First I went to granville Island to do some shopping, Charcuterie, Spices all the fancy stuff (and expensive from granville island) and my last stop was Liberty Wine Merchants. My plan was to walk, shop then buy my wine by then I should know what I wanted. Well that didn't really work out to well walked into the Wine story (By the Way Liberty on Granville Island is my favourite Wine Store In Vancouver, Staff is well educated, they treat you like a normal person since they deal with so many tourist they make you feel wanted without feeling like a wine idiot).

I walk in was asked if I needed some help said not right now still trying to figure out what I needed, then after couple mins of wandering another guy asked I decided I wanted a value red play. Pointed out a Cotes du Rhone (Very interseting) but Ended up with a Argentina Cab. Sauv. from Mendoza. "Circus 2007" Good choice Since it made up my mind whats for dinner.

Dinner.

Sous-Vide Steak in butter @ 55F [From all my test 55 is the best temperature] 56 just a little to much also it was in the water for less then hour. I had some Lamb Sausage I picked up from the Local who's who of Charcuterie of Vancouver [Oyamo Meats] and had Cabbage at home [I live cabbage, raw in a coleslaw, or even brasied like today]. Removed the Sausage meat and sauteed it with some Garlic, hint of ginger, deglazed with Cab. Sauv Vinegar, Chicken stock and threw in the Cabbage thinly sliced of course!. Then finished with butter, and sliced sous-vide steak.

The Wine Info Now.

The Stats:
Circus 2007
Cabernet Sauvignon
13.5% Alc
Mendoza, Argentina


The Eye:
A nice Dark Colour not to dark tho, with a red cherry tint rim

The Nose:
Little bit of Tar, Dark Ripe Fruit, Cocoa

The Mouth:
The first thing you notice is how soft this wine is right out of the bottle especially being a 07 and a Cab even the colour too you'd think there would be more tannins but I guess not. Good amount of Fruit, not over the top just right IMO. Smoother and Almost Creamy yet there is no distiction of any Oak use. Also some nice Dark Cocoa in the background not to dark tho.


Overall/Reflection:
for 15.99 Canadian this is a fantastic deal. [11.99 to Licensees means a good deal for restaurants by the glass make some money and have people leave happy] Way to Go Argentina on the Cab, I think I might have to order more Cab from Argentina, as long as they are not over oaked.
Also it paired with the food so well

Random Kitchen Photo's

Here are some Random Kitchen Photos with New and Old Camera

Vinegars

Vinegars, one of the most underrated Items in a Kitchen (next to Mustard IMO). Vinegars can make that soup that just tastes "ok" to taste OMG amazing. Or take an Ordinary salad and with the right dressing (a balance of oil to vinegar) to "The Best Salad Ever".

Some vinegars cost a lot of money, taking product making it like wine and then turning into Vinegar. I've never made Vinegar tho apparently it is easy enough (So Says Ideas in Food peeps)

Two New Vinegars I bought today.

Jean-Marc Mireille "Citron" and Banyuls Wine Vinegar 5years old.

Jean-Marc Mireille's Citron is amazing it is so good tasting you could almost drinking it except for the 7.5% Acidity which doesn't go well to drinking straight..

The Banyuls I bought just because I've seem it in a lot of cooking books, Ill try it out sooner rather then later

My New Circulator in Action!

So I just received my brand new circulator (got a nice 30% discount too very nice tho the 30% exchange rate difference didn't really make it "cheaper" per se). I have used it once before with chicken but this is to test Vegetables (Steak is for dinner tomorrow). I must say the Carrots came out perfectly cooked and tasting like raw carrots kinda of creepy but really good. And there are potatoes too but thats with the steak.



Notes: I took the pictures before it hit 83C which is my temp (about 2hrs) Tho I think I need a cover or a lid because it was sitting at 81.5C anyways I am testing out my new toy.

BC Hot Show 2009 Day 2

Team Gold (2nd Overall)
Apprentise Gold (2nd Overall)
Professional We had two enter. Both Gold (2nd and 3rd Overall respectfully)

Blackbox I lost in the semi Finals. I did lose to the Winner tho So really it ain't all that bad hah

All in All Mostly Gold Bling Bling

Thats all I have for tonight way to tired

BC Hot Show 2009 Day 1

So here is Day 1.

Team Competition Run For our Kitchen Happened won't know results until tomorrow

Student Category (High School) - Silver

Black Box

Chef Lost in First Round
Me Won, am in Round 2 (Tomrrow)

Getting Ready for the BC Chefs Ass. Hot Show 2009

So our Kitchen is getting ready for the Hot Show '09. Lots of long hours lots of practicing lots of discussing lots of everything.

We have entering
1 Team for the Team Competition (3 courses 1.5hrs)
2 in the Professional Cat. (30mins Phaesant + Portobella Mushrooms)
1 in the Apprentice Cat. (30 mins Veal Loin)
2 in the Iron Chef Black Box (30min Unknown Feature Ingredient)

I am in the black box, so that will be fun my first time Im already freaking out and its not until Sunday.

Also the Day after the comp or whenever I get to it Ill post the dishes of what they were until then stay tuned~

The Big Fat Duck Cookbook

So I pre-ordered this book about 6 months ago, received it from amazon when they got it (November) and Just finished it Couple Days Ago. I went through it slowly, its a massive book.

Where I'm Coming from as I talk about this book. I work in a restaurant and this type of cooking interests me playing with flavours in ways we would have never thought of because it isn't the "Traditional way" of doing them. Even using the post-modern cooking techniques (Grilling a steak is Science afterall) and ingredients of Hydrocolloid's (remember gelatin and corn starch are hydrocolloids). And of course just beautifully presented plates of food.

The book is broken up into three parts (with the index in the middle of the book). The first part is The history of Hesten, his restaurant and his journey. The 2nd Part are his recipes with little stories about each one. The Third (The most interesting) are the essays of studies from University Professors and people in different industries like the one on Perfume by the Perfume guy.

Also I should mention that they got this awesome artist to do all these drawings through the book Dave McKeanNow I must say I'm not a fan of his art style but in this Book IT WORKS!

When you read the book you definitely pick up on Hesten's personally, you get his ego(in a good way, which he does and he deserves the credit since he's rated as one of the top restaurants in the WORLD) his Advant Gardeness, but even his love of his country and their food. He is just very proud of his works and accomplishments and has a HUGE drive for perfection.

The 1st Part - The History is nicely written with crazy pictures in there, the stand outs for me is how much this guy loves cooking food and looking for ways to improve on them (The Scientist in Him). The biggest surprise to me was that he only worked in a restaurant for 4 weeks before he opened the fat duck (which he opened in his 30's if I'm not mistaken). So that just shows you how good he really is. B (A+ for Art Work)

The 2nd Part - The Recipes I think there are 30 of them with his iconic Nitro Scrambled Bacon and Eggs, Snail Portage and the likes. The Recipes are written as a Chef would write them for his staff except even more detail because working in a restaurant there really isn't "Details" its just this is the ingredients and rates or ratios. I haven't tried any of them yet to see if they do work but they look sound, might have to play around with ratios for my flavour profile but all in all A+

The 3rd Part - The Essays, are really what made me want to shell out 170 (reg 275) for this book. How the brain works with smells and taste the MRI scans they were using VERY VERY interesting. Really you just have to read it to understand it is hard to explain them all. A+

The Negatives - Now some people will see 5KG book with 500pages and think its to big then again its 275$ so not everyone is going to buy this anyways. Picking one of his dishes with the 10 to 20 different components makes it a daunting task for the home cook or even the restaurant guy who doesn't serve complicated food like this, even tho all the flavours are simple in reality. The other item people might not like is all the use of the "Food Additives" that you just dont normally find, Agar, Xanthu, Gellan and the works or the equipment Vacuum Oven, Roto Evaporator.

Where it belongs - Every Culinary school should have one of these in there library for their students anyone who loves to collect awesome cookbooks, and someone who seriously just loves awesome books in general.

The end of the year Cooking

So 2008 ended with an alright number of people coming to the restaurant, not as busy as last year and people didn't stay late to midnight (2 tables compared to well alot more). Sold one glass of Sparkling (Blue Mountain NV im 99% sure it was) no Champagne. Dine out 2009 is Coming if people are penny pinching it might be busy only time will tell.

Other then that it is time to get ready for the "Hot Show" alot of people in the restaurant are getting ready 3 for the individuals, one for the team event, and 2 for the Black Box (me being one). I should be able to get some phots for that when it happens Jan 25/26 at BC Place).

Cold Show 2008 BC Place @ Van Eats

This is some old photos from Cold Show 2008. [Testing too see if I can add a slideshow]

What is Cold Show?
Its where you make stuff look like real beautiful food, everything is non-edible, some of it is real food and some of it is stuff to look like real food it is then all glazed in gelatin to make it shinny and hold its look in a warm envirment for 8hrs.

Here you go Enjoy

View Album

Get your own

on VIP Dinners

Every once and a while we get "VIP" dinners at the restaurant. Now when I say VIP I mean VIP (Very Important Person) who are they? well generally they are friends, family members or people in the industry we know (not people we don't know or care about sorry to say). When we have these VIP's come in they get stuff out side of the ordinary, because our restaurant is casual not every table gets Amuse-Bouches', so we send out an Amuse we have ones we always fall back on which you can not like Baja Diver Caught Scallops with [Pea Risotto, Asparagus Risotto, Brandade, Lemon Mash]. And when we really know them or they want a special menu or something just special we take the time to make them something out of the ordinary. We come into work early making stuff that isn't on the menu.

Funny story about making special items not on the menu at work I like to make the dessert plates that go out its what I like. So I made this dessert plate which is awesome on top of white table cloth.