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31 January 2010

seductive blondes and brunettes seeking a good time...

not exactly lady-like, and a little bit on the pricey side, but what gorgeous tracts of land from hot blondies bakery! run by two fab ladies out of nyc, these decadent-looking brownies and brownies are bakery pr0n at some of its finest.


(minimum 5lbs of butter in that photo...)

business is apparently ka-booming in the year-and-some they've been in business. check out hot blondies' classic blondies, or their nutella hazelnut brownie. but first, put on a bib to catch your drool...


(food pr0n photos courtesy of hot blondies bakery)

25 January 2010

wham! bam! thank you lamb!

didn't know the specifics of sheep meat until now, and being the awesome person i am, i want to share this tidbit:

- lamb is sheep meat that is less than 12 months old.
- baby lamb is meat from a 6-8 weeks old sheep raised on milk (a redundant term, cause lambs are baby sheep).
- hogget is sheep meat that no more than two permanent incisors.
- mutton is sheep meat that has two or more permanent incisors grown in.

anyways, all of them come from our adorably delectable ovine friends [insert corny lamb joke here] and they are all tasty in their own way, be it the variety of sheep or cut of meat.

i've found that quebec lamb is generally less gamey than most lamb from new zealand (where per capita, lamb is consumed more than anywhere else in the world). gamey flavour comes from what the animal eats (grass vs. seaweed vs. grain, for instance)... i wonder if the animal feeds on worchestershire sauce, if it means it'll be pre-seasoned by the time it becomes food... hmmm...

anyways... basic preparation is pretty simple (remove excess visible fat and any visible sinewy crap), then season and cook.


here's a quick wet rub — marinade, for you perverts — for a leg of lamb (good for a 3 or 4 lb leg):

- a spoonful of honey
- a spoonful of dijon mustard
- a teaspoon of worchestershire sauce
- salt*
- pepper (as you wish)
- a handful of crushed herbs (try sage, rosemary, and thyme; simon and garfunkel blundered when they included parsley in that song because culinarily, parsley is pretty much useless)

* you should salt the meat in advance in addition to adding salt to the rub. salting the meat is like brining it — helps keep moisture in and enhances the flavour and texture of the meat. it sounds counter-intuitive but it happens because of magic... the magic of science! (more on science later...)

let the rub sit for a good hour or two, if not four or overnight. roast as you would any other piece of meat, until the internal temperature reads what you want it to (145F for rare, 160F for medium).

try spicing it up with chipotle or cayenne, or substituting the honey with brown sugar or maple syrup (or omitting the sweet stuff all together), or you can even dress it up to look like harpo marx!

the world is your lamb!

16 January 2010

salt and pepper something (or everything)

one of the staples in cantonese restaurants is salt and pepper [something] -- think of every good cantonese restaurant you've been to, and someone in your eating party inevitably orders salt-and-pepper [something].

it's the spiciest type of dish in cantonese cuisine. and someone will always order it. it's just that loveable.


the [something] is often shrimp, crab, tofu, squid, porkchoppy things, chicken, babies, etc. and it is really simple to make, but just slightly labour intensive (i wrote "intestines" by accident).

a) you need to deep fry or pre-cook the [something] ( see below for some suggestions).
b) you need to make the salt and pepper mix.
c) you need to put it all together by cooking it with garlic and green onions or regular onions (or whatever your heart desires, but the sparser, the better).
d) you need be eat it.


make the salt and pepper mix! approximate the measurements to your liking...
  • 1 Tbs (15 mL) table salt
  • 1 tsp (5 mL) ground white pepper (or mix of white/black pepper to equal 1 tsp)
  • 1/2 to 1 tsp (2 to 5 mL) sugar
at this point, you can add stuff like
store in an airtight container.

09 January 2010

i smell cookies... cookie towels

this morning when i went to dry off with my towel, i noticed that it smelled like cookies.

more specifically, these cookies:

spiced snowballs. just take a snowball recipe and put a bunch of spices in it (here, i've experimented with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger), then bake it an roll it in icing sugar. you can probably use whatever nuts you like (i used almonds; hazelnuts would probably be equally tasty and fattening) and adjust the flavours to your liking for these shortbread-like balls.

(unfortunately, the only thing remaining about them is this photo as the lot of them were gobbled up at the incubator's birthday get-together the night before.)

i guess i underestimated the power of cardamom and how it can permeate everything in your house.

i think i just came up with a product -- food-scented towels! i'm gonna be rich!!!111one

06 January 2010

foodies of the web unite!

food bloggers bootyroll call!

the food blog blog is an impressive and comprehensive anthology of anglo-centric food bloggers that i'm not going to list off. the foodie blog roll has a slightly more internationally-flavoured list of blogs, which i'm also not going to list off. there's just too many of us out there, which imho is a good thing.

i'm sure thare are more of the ilk, but i have work to do and don't feel like trowelling through google results for "food blogs" ("flogs" which might result in soft pr0n or self-flagellation videos).


[pas rapport picture of spinach and bacon flatbread from tory row, boston, ma.]

(btw, i am not on either of these lists (and neither is my good friend la popoteuse) because they are haters, but we're bigger haters than them... well at least i am. you ask, how does it feel to be overlooked and under-appreciated? it feels like a child receiving a box of underpants on christmas day, surrounded by other kids who each got nintendo ds systems)

montreal.com's list of noteworthy (anglo) montreal food bloggers offers a small sampling of local food lovers -- too small a sampling, if you ask me. but i am too humble to make a fuss of it.

(that title reminds of this high-larious banner).

01 January 2010

so long 2009... hello 2010!

as the days of 2009 finally disappear, i look back at the past year with cheerful reflection and a rotund belly... props go out to the wonderful things i've eaten this year (to name a few):

- apples from quebec.
- the best egg tarts/po-tats ever (from royal garden*).

- hot pot with lamb intestines.

- mango butter from the bohol bee farm.
- fresh oysters on the half shell from the union oyster house.

- fresh chocolate banana doughnuts from the sparrow.

- dandan noodles from wing lai yuen (詠藜園).
- the best porkchops in the world (tonkatsu from tonkichi).

- soup dumplings with amazing beijing chili oil (北京水餃店 beijing shui gau shop).

and to everyone who has given their time of day to this blog, have a happy and healthy 2010!

*note to royal garden management: continue to make these things and your patrons will die in bliss of heavy coronary blockage. be forwarned.