Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home, Week Nine

Dan    Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home     beer, CHARCUT, chicken wings, Food Network Canada, recipes, Top Chef Canada, Trevor Bird

What an eventful time in Top Chef Canada land this past week. Cooking with vending machine ingredients, ‘roughing it’ in the wilderness and an appearance by Roger Mooking. This was definitely one of my favourite episodes to date. Although, I must say, it broke my heart a bit to see Ryan sent home. He will be missed. After watching all the chefs sweat making, uh, ‘unique’ dishes out of vending machine fare, I thought to myself, ‘Thank god I won’t have to do that this week!’

I spoke too soon… Little did I know, Trevor’s Pork Rind Crusted Chicken Wings with Pretzel Beer Mayo would sweep the polls on foodnetwork.ca. As much I had hoped to garnish a plate with squab feet, that dream would have to wait for another day.

Trevor’s idea of coating chicken wings with pork rinds was quite genius, actually, although I was a bit skeptical about the pretzel ‘mayo.’ Seeing as I utilize Twitter for just about every aspect of my life (including my never-ending search for true love), I decided to reach out to Trevor for some advice. Luckily, he came through and told me to add more beer.

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Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home, Week Eight

Dan    Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home     CHARCUT, Derek Bocking, Food Network Canada, Jonathan Korecki, Ottawa, pulled pork, Top Chef Canada

I am tired. For the past two weeks, I have been traveling across Canada. First to Vancouver (as mentioned in last week’s post), then a side trip to Seattle, followed by Ottawa and, finally, Montreal.

Along the way I ate some amazing food, met some fantastic people and had an all around great experience.

A couple highlights from the Eastern leg of my cross-Canada adventures include meeting current Top Chef Canada cheftestant, Jonathan Korecki (pictured) at his restaurant Side Door Kitchen in Ottawa and having brunch in Montreal with one of last season’s competitors, Derek Bocking.

The downside to two weeks of traveling is the fact that you I dine out a lot, you I drink more beer and wine than you I probably should. By the time I finally get back home, I need a few days ‘stay-cation’ just to unwind.

So, what’s my point here in relation to this week’s challenge? The fact that I needed some alone time. I didn’t care what I had to make this particular week, I wanted to make it just for myself, in my own home and my own kitchen!

My assigned dish for this week, Jonathan’s winning pulled pork and tofu lettuce wraps, proved to be a nice, light dinner. It was just what I needed, considering that my stomach was still processing the amazing, but rich and buttery, meal I had at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal on Thursday evening. Pulled pork is most definitely one of my favourite things to make, so I was looking forward to putting a bit of an Asian twist on it.

One of the best things about pulled pork is that it requires little to no attention in the first stage. If you have a slow cooker, a pork shoulder, some spices and an onion, you’re pretty much good to go. I popped the pork into my slow cooker late Saturday evening then fell asleep on the couch watching random episode reruns on Food Network Canada (shameless plug, I know…).

To see the final recipe for my pulled pork lettuce wraps and a really cute picture of my parrot, head over to FoodNetwork.ca here!

Metro News Lunch Rush Column Monthly Recap: April, 2012

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     Brewsters Brewing Company, calgary, eating out, Fat City Franks, Metro Calgary, Mhyre's Deli, Sushi Ichiban, Trawlers Seafood

Check out the great places I featured in my Lunch Rush column this past month!

Sushi Ichiban

Sushi is always a reliably quick lunch. Although, it’s hard to find really, really great sushi during a quick in and out business lunch. Regardless, sometimes, you just need that unagi fix, you know?

At Sushi Ichiban, I ordered the Tempura Udon for lunch ($8.50). The soup (udon) itself was fairly average and a little bit on the saltier side, but I appreciated the amount of tempura vegetables the restaurant served with the dish.

For under $9, that is one heck of a deal.

Click here to read the rest of this review and see my final rating on Metro Calgary’s website.

Mhyre’s Deli

I am almost ashamed to say that I have never been to Montreal. Also, I am equally ashamed that I have never tried a Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich before. What is wrong with me? This week, I decided that this had to change.

I weighed my options. It was between flying out to Montreal to try the sandwich staple, or just finding one in Calgary and saving $700. Stay here it was!

Myhre’s Deli is located in a little strip of shops just a couple blocks north of 17th Ave. I stayed traditional with my choice and went with The Montreal Classic ($9). It was a sandwich that was loaded with smoked meat, lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo.

Click here to read the rest of this review and see my final rating on Metro Calgary’s website.

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Lunch at Ensemble Tap, Vancouver

Dan    Restaurants     beer, Dale Mackay, Ensemble Tap, Top Chef Canada, Vancouver

I’m moderately embarrassed to say it had been awhile since I’ve been to Vancouver. Almost a year and a half actually. I know…terrible, right? Feel free to slap me in the face the next time you see me. I arrived in Vancouver  last Monday with a list of restaurants as long as I am tall. Which, for the record, is 5’9”, lies somewhere in the grey area between being short and tall.

One place that was close to the top of my list was Ensemble Tap. More affectionally known as eTap, this restaurant is owned by Top Chef Canada’s season one winner Chef Dale Mackay. The two level space has a slick design, boasts an impressive beer menu and a surprisingly reasonably priced menu.

I met a couple of friends at Ensemble Tap for lunch early last week. Just to put it into perspective for frequent travelers to Vancouver; it is a just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Japadog cart on Burrard Street.

A gift from the kitchen came out to our table prior to ordering; their sausage trio platter with spicy mustard and pretzels. Of the three, The chorizo sausage on the plate was the table favourite. My friend, Annie, went for the Asian Pork Buns, my other friend, Nathan, went with the onion veloute (cheese and onion soup) and some chicken fingers (he’s a classy guy). I wanted something lighter for lunch, so decided on the beet and fennel salad with grilled chicken.

The salad was simple. The sweet beets and licorie-y fennel are also a solid match and the sherry vinaigrette melded everything together. My friend described his soup as ‘liquid cheese’ which, really now, is never a bad thing.

Annie’s pork buns were filled with seared albacore tuna and topped with house made kimchi. They looked delicious. Definitely what I’m going to order there the next time I’m in Vancouver.

Once we finished our meal, Dale popped by to say hello. After watching him on Top Chef Canada and following him on twitter for the past while, it was nice to finally meet him in-person. I also convinced him to make a guest appearance in my Food Network blog that week. Whatta guy!

Housemade sausage platter with pretzel

Onion veloute

Asian-style steamed buns

Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home, Week Seven

Dan    Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home     CHARCUT, chicken noodle soup terrine, Dale Mackay, Ensemble, Food Network Canada, Granville Island Market, Top Chef Canada, Vancouver

I do understand that I’m supposed to be ‘taking the challenge home’ weekly with this online endeavor, but I had a bit of a nag in my cooking plans this time around; I was spending the week in Vancouver, on, more or less, a ‘working’ vacation. Which begged the question: Where was I going to cook?

I debated trying to find out where one of the Real Housewives of Vancouver lived and sneaking into their kitchen, but was unsure as to whether or not I’d be arrested.

Finally, I decided it would be best safer to reach out to a Top Chef Canada alumni instead.

If anyone could help me make this week’s assigned dish, David’s Chicken Noodle Soup Terrine, it would probably be Chef Dale Mackay. Does that name sound familiar? It should. Dale took home the title of Canada’s ‘Top Chef’ in last year’s inaugural season of Top Chef Canada.

Since the season ended last summer, he has opened up two popular establishments, Ensemble and Ensemble Tap, in downtown Vancouver.

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Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home, Week Six

Dan    Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home     Brasserie Kensington, calgary, Cam Dobranski, CHARCUT, Food Network Canada, kingsland farmers market, Pig's Ear Salad, recipes, Spraggs Meat Shop, Top Chef Canada

Wow, two eliminations last week! That was rough to watch. I always thank my lucky stars that each time I create a dish on here that I’m not subject to elimination. Just public scrutiny, I suppose…

I have had a relatively stressful week, so was looking forward to recreating a stress-free dish this week. Roast pork with apples and a pig’s ear salad. I could definitely pull this off!

While I was at the Kingsland Farmers gathering my ingredients for this week’s dish, I stumbled upon a vegetable called parsley root. At first I thought, ‘Is this a parsnip?’ But, then I noticed a large disclaimer underneath the parsley root sign saying: ‘These are NOT parsnips!’

Ha, ha. Ok then! I thought they’d make a nice addition to the puree, so I picked some up. Tasting one raw, its flavour was somewhere in-between that of a parsnip and celery root. Very interesting.

I did have some trouble locating pig’s ears. The market’s pork vendor, Spragg’s Meat Shop (where I bought my pork loin for a previous week’s challenge), needed a week’s notice for pig’s ears orders.

Since I’m not a regular devourer of pig’s ears, I was unsure where else to try and source them. Thank god for Twitter! After posting my 140-character equivalent of a culinary bat signal, local chef Cam Dobranski came to my rescue. His restaurant, Brasserie Kensington, is actually the sister restaurant of Muse (Xavier Lacaze’s restaurant). The more you know!

I swung by Brasserie Kensington and was given two lovely and floppy ears. The pig’s ears I ‘borrowed’ had already been cured and braised, so all I had to do was give them a nice, thin slice and crisp them up in a pan.

If you’ve never tasted pig’s ear before, it’s kind of like extra crispy bacon. They add a great crunchy texture to salads and is one of those things I like to describe as ‘oddly delicious.’ Bet you can’t eat just one…

To read about the rest of my Top Chef Canada dish challenge and see the pork loin and pig’s ear salad recipe head over to FoodNetwork.ca here!