The Week In Yum Feb 27-March Restaurants Canada Show, Mexican Beef and a Podcast

I wish I was a Mariachi. At least I wish I had Mariachi pants.




Spent a couple days perfecting my perfect sous vide egg and thankful that The Kid loves eggs.



I had to be at the Restaurants Canada Show so that I could act as stenographer while Libby Roach interviewed Jon Taffer from Bar Rescue. On the show he stomps, he yells, his face turns red and he can be very scary but in reality, he is a lovely, articulate guy who is surprisingly soft spoken. Despite the fact that both Libby and I can both be total brats, he didn't yell at us once. Whew.

We wandered the show afterwards, checking out all of the cool stuff that is going to be coming to a restaurant or grocery store near you, trying to suss out all the coming trends. As I have predicted, I think Sous Vide is going to be big this year. We found a company that is selling steam cooked sous vide vegetables that have up to a 12 month self life called Nobly . They offer all sorts of potato cuts, finely diced beets, legumes and pulses, all perfectly cooked and chopped and ready to go. They all stack up in the packages so easy to store, the vegetables that come out of it are fresh and tasty, no additives etc and I can imagine would be a huge time saver in a commercial kitchen. Oh, and there was another company that was selling sous vide meats to restaurants as well - whole sous vide roasts etc but I didn't get their card. I was supposed to return on Tuesday and thought I would check them out then but I fell ill and never made it back, sadly.


 I also loved my customizable chef hat from a company called Galli Green who specialize in food service products that are earth friendly and compostable which is a big deal in an industry where the sheer volume of non compostable items, especially when it comes to packaging, can be staggering. Good for you Galli Green, and I love my durable chef's hat that will not make my head sweat when I have a hot flash during a cooking class.                                                                                                                                                                    I am totally buying myself some beardy hipster chef's gear from Medium Wear Chef Apparel Inc , especially that knife sheaf belt thing - total kitchen badassery down there on the bottom left. Then I wish for this Mr Wu apron in double striped denim .Now I just need more forearm tattoos and I am set.                                                                                                                                                                We were fortunate to catch most of Chef Lynn Crawford's crazy stage show that, I think, was supposed to be a cooking demo but ended up being more of a frenetic stand up routine, which was A Okay with me. Vikram Vij got up on stage at one point and dropped an F bomb, she made some student chefs go score her some cocktails and was just generally a joy to behold. Long live Chef Lynne Crawford, pride of Canada.


So, from what I could gather from the show, this whole sustainable, compostable, less wasteful trend is a step in the right direction, as well as lots of "artisanal' this and that thrown about. It looks like food, as a result, will be cleaner, healthier and less fussy, chefs will all dress like they are best friends with David Chang and even ketchup will get an artisanal label. All I need are some forearm tattoos and a pair of Blundstones and I am good to go.




Some soft tofu stew at The Galleria Grocery Store kept me alive on Sunday, as it does.



 #ilovemexicanbeef 


I finally got to eat at Los Colobris , the wonderful upscale Mexican restaurant on an unlikely strip of King St W, this week at an event sponsored by the Mexican Beef Exporters Association to celebrate Mexican Beef . Mexico might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think beef, but it should. We learned that Mexican Beef utilizes a feedlot system, based on diets monitored by nutritionists that specialize in animal feeding. The Mexican Beef Exporters Association uses grains that provide special flavour to the beef guaranteeing that great Mexican Beef flavour. 

The partner companies all use green methods an effort to efficiently manage their food and water waste- nobody wants to talk about poop when they are talking about the meat that they eat but cows poop. They poop a lot and these feedlots use it to create compost and organic fertilizer. The bottom line is that they are producing really high quality beef, they are using very forward thinking, sustainable methods to do that, the price is very competitive and they export to countries as far flung as Japan, the Ivory Coast and Russia, as well as here in Canada.

To showcase the beef, Chef Elia Herrera whipped up a trio of delicious, off menu dishes just for the event. I was not expecting the sirloin cube served with really delicious guacamole to be so tender but after a bite I was pretty sold on it. The Carne Apache de Tenderloin con ciruela pass y chipotle (Thin slices of beef tenderloin with prunes and chipotle) was a more classic treatment and was also delicious - very carpaccio like dish.  We finished with a giant chunk of ribeye with a a basil/jalapeno oil and papas bravas so it was beef for an appetizer, a beef main and then beef for dessert or, as I like to think of it, my kind of meal. 

I can't wait to return to Los Colobris for dinner asap.
three courses of beef and a tequila based cocktail with a shockingly nice splash of whiskey 



By the time I got home from that lunch a migraine got the better of me and I spent the next couple of days lolling in a darkened room, but I did manage to come out to sous vide some pork sausages. A more in-depth report will be forthcoming in my continuing sous vide adventure series.


check here for my sausage experience and a recipe for a sausage risotto
I also managed to crank out a sous vide flank steak for these tacos last weekend

My New Podcasts!

One cool thing that I have in the can is the first of three podcasts I did with Foodyhacking - a great site that offers all sorts of cooking tips and information via podcast and articles on their website. This one is all about risotto so click here to go and listen to me yammer on for 10 minutes about one of the dishes that is most near and dear to my heart. Make sure to subscribe to their podcasts because they are all really good and are full of useful information.


Pin of the week: I am dying to make these - so clever

Instagram of the week: This guy's food plating makes me jealous

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