Bondbug

Unexpected bonus. Family have all gone off to IKEA. Freed at last from the eagle eye of she-who-thinks-she-must-be-obeyed, I have managed to get out and get the last present for her, and I have time to spare ... I think. So Gogo, you talk of cooking 'from scratch'. Not always easy in the city. You need access to good fresh materials, which usually means access to open markets where local producers bring their wares. I recognise that some supermarkets do all they can to bring their veg. to the sale point fresh, and many reject stuff just at the point when it is becoming interesting, but it is never the same. Interior atmospheres, however carefully controlled, are never as kind to veg as open air ... good for folks like myself who hate indoor air-conditioned atmospheres. We buy big bags of beans every year to shell/shuck for cassoulets. If you are not careful you will find slightly rotting stuff in the centre of the sack. Mind you, even with open markets you have to look carefully, and find merchants you can trust. We are lucky where we live there are good markets in the villages and small towns near us, though not in our village itself which has nothing - no shops at all now where there used to be 7 or 8. In the villages here the merchants do not sell the shop when they retire; they close the shop, convert it into living accommodation and continue to live there among the people they know. Streets in the centre of these villages are full of houses with what were obviously old shop windows and doors on their street facades. There is even one old pub not far away where the now retired owner has not even bothered to remove the old signs and advertising panels ... no sign at all that it not still a working pub. That wouldn't do in England, but I suspect much of mainland Europe is the same. Some cities are fortunate in still having large, probably 19th century covered markets, iron/wrought-iron enclosures and gates, with plenty of air circulating, but many authorities have pulled these down and replaced them with more hermetically sealed modern replacements, usually away from the town centres and near the major roads for road access. These have become distribution centres instead of accessible live markets. I don't know the situation in N. America. Vancouver for instance is only about 100 years old - Port Moody here is currently celebrating its 100th birthday, and, given the rate of expansion since then I doubt if any early 20th century markets have survived. The best markets for keen cooks are neither drive-in nor cooped up in giant commercial centres. Need to ask daughter, who is a keen 'from scratch' cook when time allows how she manages, or, as I suspect, adapts to what is available. She grows what she can in their garden and they have friends with an allotment so they manage pretty well. But time for two busy professional people is limited, and with a son subject to 7 year old 'peer pressure' the house is still full of the most unimaginable (to me) crap. So how do you hard working city folks get by ... or are you completely conditioned to the mass produced pre-packed alternative living style. Perhaps I should get realistic and accept that the cook from scratch (very old-fashioned) way of life is the small minority alternative living style. I hasten to say that we adopted it because it is much cheaper than the pre-packed food style, though I think that fact has been disputed here in the past. You are lucky to have Chattius who is much more in tune with the times and who gives the impression of being a knowledgeable and dedicated do-it-yourself type. Whoops ... here they come ... I'm off.

"other areas of France" ... what better to refresh your few idle hours. Try Alsace next. Mind you I bet Chattius would be less enthousiasic (blast this qwerty keyboard) about French cuisine with all the good stuff he churns out in Germany, and I suspect the Italians would dispute the supposed French superiority. Nowt wrong with British cooking either if you can get into proper traditional English and Scottish cooking. However ... try Alsace next ... wines and cuisine ... and beer though too much of it is Eurofizz these days, which is why I envy you your microbreweries. Same in Germany when I visited the Cologne area back in the er..50s. Every bar had its own brewery ... don't know whether it is still the same now. Funny thing about these TV chefs they don't last over long. I think the good living does for them. Too much booze and fat and stuff and not enough poutine. Any way, the final Xmas explosion is about to burst on us, so I had better wish all and sundry a happy family Xmas, and a successful survival of the New Year orgies. Then I have to get back to France via GB, and am not looking forward to the long drive south in a jet-lagged stupour (sure the spelling there does not look right).

Seem to be making heavy work of this. The chef who tosses stuff appears to be showing off. A little olive oil, brown the onions, then garlic, then the meat, then get on with whatever ingredients you wish to add (but don't forget the tomatoes). Very much the same as for curries. If you are worried about a little insignificant bit of fat, then skip the meat and put something less life-threatening in. Sauces for spaghetti can be made of almost anything that takes your fancy. Leftovers are a good 'sauce' of inspiration. And yes ... a pinny. My wife made me one decorated with a big fat pig. Hmmpht

... further to previous post: Vancouver & Touraine. Both lacking interesting food specific to region. Vancouver produces cranberries, has many Eastern Asia restaurants - Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and has steak & lobster meals which I gather are common across Canada. The Asiatic, especially Japanese, are good and cheaper than in France, but hardly Vancouver specialties. Plus what I believe are called Microbreweries - brilliant, just like the old days for beer, before we got drowned in tasteless fizz. If I had the time and could afford it I would try some of the Real Ales on offer in the Waterfront area, a Japanese meal and a steak & lobster nosh up, plus perhaps a Thai meal (love Thai and Vietnamee ). Ah, well ... next time perhaps, if the dear old £ sterling recovers its former exchange rate against the euro. As for Touraine regional specialties such as Fouee (like nan bread), rillettes, and rillons are fair enough but hardly memorable cuisine. Do the chateaux and vineyards then head south for the food. No doubt some of the Vancouver residents on the forum could give a better crit on local BC specialties.

have taken this to Inglenook!

This interests me Bond, what are you eating a lot of in Vancouver that you're finding different from back home but that you think is good? Did some reading on Provence...is that where you're really living in France...the ULTIMATE gourmet fantasy hangout? The place that dreams and magazine spreads are made of...(quote from Gogo) Moved this here as it did not seem very apt "Creatrix" material - No Gogo, we are not really eating anything here that we do not eat at home. No poutine! Lots of shellfish around, and fish and chips if required. There is even a branch of CAMRA here for "Real Ale" ... pity the price here puts it out of my budget. Oh - Maple Syrup ... every country seems to have it own sweet syrups. And sorry but no, we are not in Provence, which, as you say, is a superb region, not just gourmet but visually. We are in a region called prosaically "Centre" (which includes Paris at its top end), in a Departement called Touraine in the southern edge of the region. Flat area except where the Loire cuts its way through the limestone with lots of troglodyte caves used for wine storage. It is the area for chateaux, wine and fruit ... the garden of France, though oddly enough grapes do not need good soil. We have Vouvray and Montlouis among the top whites, along with very good Touraine Sauvignon white, and Chinon, St Nicolas de Bourgeuil, Bourgeuil among top reds with Saumur and Saumur Champigny alongside plus a host of other noteworthy reds and whites. Plus the Chateaux along the Loire. Tours is a very fine centre for music as well, largely classical (and baroque which we don't like much) with jazz not far behind. Good cuisine, but not the taste of Provence. Much of my wife's cooking, when it is French orientated (rather than British, Italian, Indian, Greek), is Provencal based, though Cassoulet which we have regularly is more Toulouse area. And we can afford to drink wine with our meals every day. P.S. Will have to check up on Vancouver cuisine - we are an English family, all meals cooked from scratch and we have not really been around looking at the local cuisine here(sad admission). Also I need to consult Viv on Touraine cooking. There are local specialties but I would have difficulty myself identifying them from our normal domestic cuisine after 16 years in the region. We eat out rarely these days. The few restaurants we liked have died the death, and the present exchange rate has severely limited our evenings out.

I spent about 45 minutes writing a post here, then it crashed back to desktop. Forgot I should write it all out in wordpad then cut and paste. Now the family are back and time has gone. Will try again tomorrow

I am a bit puzzled here Chattius. To us goulash is beef stew, plain ordinary beef stew, though the Hungarians might be a bit hurt at that. So, firstly, why do you need a recipe? I would have thought that this would be straight every day cooking for you. Secondly, the secret of a good stew is long slow cooking, the sort of thing we put in the bread oven when it is cooling down, though I doubt if the E German army was too concerned with that. Presumably for higher temperatures and quick cooking you keep an eye on the liquid level and stir fairly frequently. Another question ... you talk of horsemeat for the stew. This is entirely possible in France where horsemeat butchers are reasonably common. English tourists walk quickly past horsemeat butcher's shop, looking the other way! Is France the only country still using horsemeat for stews? Another item I noted with interest ... your Strammer Max, (and I noted that your English translation got by the censor - bonus point for the management). Your Strammer Max is the standard bacon & egg breakfast - traditionally everyday fare in GB. Now I know why. Need to get back to my old breakfast habits.

Too kind young man. Oddly enough poutine is not a Vancouver thing! I know it is off thread here, but I will go have another look at your poutine thread.

Sitting here in a state of shock. I needed a quiet corner. My wife had apparently said that we would take care of the Xmas hooch. They pointed me to a BC Wine shop. So I looked at the wines ... nice selection ... then I looked at the prices. Just got back from hospital. Severe shock. Slight heart attack. Fortunately my wife just received £10,000 lump sum on reaching the age of retirement, so we might just manage a bottle or two for Xmas. I suppose the Canadians are used to this state of affairs. 10$canadian for a bottle that would cost 2euros at home. If I lived here I would be tea-total, and that would be an even greater shock to my system. Even forewarned we would only have been able to bring in 2 bottles each. Sorry Gogo, but that was Xmas in your beautiful country ruined at one stroke. However the eReaders were on special offer, and meals are a good price. Can't win them all. What do you drink? Is it all home-brew? This is the day when Xmas would have started in my youth. School breaks up ... (to be continued if poss after meal)...

Thanks Scleameth. That does the job beautifully. But even with the Xmas spirit at full blast and even knowing that it is sacrilege with Gogo about, I think I will skip the poutine. After all, Gogo, too many good things might be a bit too much for the aged stomach .... er ... yes.

"very very sad skills" - I know the feeling. Thanks Gogo for the booster. I still have the original on photobucket if anyone feels like adapting it. Not very important. Just trying to show a bit of Xmas spirit while I am in your country!

Fantastic (in the best sense)as always Chattius. I just hope you haven't let Podgie loose on lotro with one of those 9th century jobs, he is a bit of a crafting nutter there. However I think I will stick with the old steel family carving knife that I sharpen on the back step.

Surprised no one has noted bubble and squeak, one of the top left-overs offerings. Basically left over tatties and veg from the day before. The veg was usually cabbage, but not limited to it. The bubble and squeak is the green lump on the left of the plate, as part of a typical English breakfast. Another is Thunder and lightning which we knew in one particular form, but which is a term used for a number of different things. ...for us it was clotted cream (or butter if cream was not available) stirred up with treacle and spread on bread, toast, scones. A favourite of the kids. ...the mix in the pic is another recipe for thunder and lightning for which there is a recipe on Internet. Other variants using this title seem to be: ...fried chick peas with lots of black pepper, of which I have not found a pic, but the following is a nasty looking variation ...there are several mixed drinks enjoying this name, and brandy sauce (Xmas) when flamed is called "thunder & lightning"

Not much of a challenge but would anyone care to stick a Santa hat on my avatar? Mebbe some pressies in the Bond Bug and a different slogan - something like "gotta get 'em there before Xmas"? Can it be done on the existing? Left it too late?

Hi Chattius, I see you are continuing the good work. Hardly a day passes without my thinking of this forum and something I could be commenting on, but I never seem to get here. Lots of concerts, and in spare time trying to keep up with Podgie in Lotro is full time and nerve wracking. However I have been promised a useful camera for Xmas so things may change. Web has it's uses, but photos of work in progress and finished products are necessary. Quite a lots of old kitchen utensils at home, but we are in Vancouver at present, in daughter's too modern and too tidy house, with nothing old in view except myself. Now I have spotted this thread I will be back. Will be here for another couple of weeks.

Iron for caramelising the sugar on a creme brulee. Heat on gas ring and place on top of sugar - assuming you have the creme in the correct size bowl http://www.cuisinstore.com/fer-a-carameliser

Where do you get these these ideas Steve? Yes there is rose hip syrup, but other than that beware. It is not for nothing that the French call them "gratte-cul" - they give you a bad itch in your annus-mirabilis, mate.

Wow - I never expected such a variety of responses or interpretations of the term "porridge". Sirius' version is a typical English rice pudding, raisins and all! Chattius has umpteen versions - I have a feeling that his thick oatmeal 'soup' is not far off our version. I remember that quite often it was prepared the day before and left to thicken/set overnight - you could get up slightly later Steve - but it need constant stirring while reheating. Reheating can be done over boiling water in a two tier pan, and can be left to heat while you do something else. The other versions - wow - magic. But I personally will have to leave it there for now - away for three weeks from tomorrow.

Some form of this must be more or less universal. Basically meal and water heated to a more or less thick paste. But even in GB the mixture varies greatly from North of Scotland to South of England, or did when I was younger - don't know what supermarket pressures for standardization have done since. Porridge was oatmeal, water and salt up north, - oat flakes, milk and sugar in the south (a sort of milk pudding). There were stories of porridge 'up north' being made, put in a drawer to set, and then cut out in portions as required. I was brought up in a midway section of GB. My porridge is also halfway. So my porridge is made with medium ground oatmeal, water and salt, but served with milk and sugar. I no longer stir the milk into it or pour the milk round the porridge and make a floating island of it, but keep the milk separate in a cup and dip each spoonful so the milk is still cool and fresh and preserves it's taste. So how do you a) make your porridge and b) serve it?

Tough Steve - must have been the good old British equivalent. Use them all the time here, on pizzas, in quiches, even fried with an egg in place of bacon which we cannot get here, whatever - never tough, and certainly never as an ingredient of pastry for patisserie.

Nice recipe - need to try that. I have always had a weakness for cider. Used to drink "scrumpy" wwhen I was in Cider Steve's area - selling ice cream from a van. But wine soup is something different from the chabrol, which is just a question of adding a little red wine to the last spoonfulls of a very hot soup, preferably vegetable soup, then drinking it out of the bowl. I note "Beckeoffe" - yet another spelling! The one my wife made was from one of the recipes we have, and was very good. Thanks Chattius I think we all have difficulty keeping up to date with forum during summer holidays. We are away for another 3weeks from the end of this week. We too live in the country, and we have no buses at all.

Reminds me of the time my wife gave a recipe to one of her English class here in France. The recipe specified "lard" for the pastry, which has a completely different name in France. The French lady used "lardons" as being the nearest she could find to "lard". Unfortunately "lardons" are small pieces of bacon, almost identical to Chattius' "Speckgrieben" in the photo above. The results were catastrophic.

moved

I think this may well apply elsewhere - herb teas - used to be called a "tissane" back in the 19th century (no I don't remember personally) - and an "infusion". Odd thing is that the French still use these two old words for herb teas, and they are still served in bars, alongside with coffee, tea and the rest. The most commonly available in bars are "tilleul" which is linden or lime flowers, and camomile also using the flowers. Plenty of literature on the beneficial values of these herb teas. Can't say I have ever had a "tilleul tissane" with my breakfast though, but sometimes in the evening.