Bonne année ( oui je suis un peu en retard, décallage horaire).
Frank avait déja parlé d'Alex du Rosalie, je suis assez d'accord avec ses propos, mais sur le côté humain ou de la gestion Alex était bien mais pas top :).
J'ai du mal a oublier notre derniére soirée moi et Frank, ou bien engager un sous-chef comme John, ou bien crier sur Graham, et la minute d'aprés lui lancer des citron.
Mais qui suis-je pour critiquer les gens, puisque je suis pas bien ni top sur le côté humain :).
Disant que j'ai travaillé pour plusieurs chefs, tous ils m'ont appris, dirigé, fais confiance, même certais m'ont corrigé avec une spatule ( merci Franck baudry ). Mais je peux vous dire que le premier Chef qui m'a vraiment marquer, est un Tony, son vrai nom est Koumar, un gars qui vient du Bangladesh, c'etait pas un chef, c'était un montor. Il était le Chef d'un resto grecque, sur prince Arthure, la bouffe c'était vraiment grecque....... :)).
Tony ( Koumar ), m'as marqué, par sa rapidité, son caractére, sa generosité, il pouvait servir, 500 personne, il faisait les viandes, les homards, les accompagnements, je le sais, c'était pas de la gastronmoie, ni de la bistronomie, c'etait de la bonne bouffe, qui goutait bon, les cuisson etait bonne, bien assaissonée.
Tony ( Koumar ), pouvait gérer son grill de 3 métres, gérer le pass, caller les commandes écrites a la main, il faisait 120h semaine, et pouvait te lever et netoyer 10 saumaon entier en 18min, j'ai parié avec lui et j'ai perdu, je devais netoyer 5 sacs de 50lb de pomme-terre.
Tony ( Koumar), était hindou, toute la cuisine était bangali hindou, sauf moi un marocain musulman et un indien, le pére de Koumar a était tué par des bangalis muslumans, alors vous imaginer les présentiments que ca peut engendrer, mais au contraire, ils nous protégés. Il m'a fais confiance, m'as appris a parler bangali, et m'as mis deuxiéme de cuisine, parce que j'étais passionné par la cuisine.
Sur ce, comment on peut definir un Chef, pars ses techniques, sa rapidité, sa gestion sur tous les niveaux, sa passion.
Pour moi un Chef, c'est un être humain qui aime la cuisine, un artisan, et qui défend sa brigade, qui partage son savoir, qui remts les gens a leurs places quand IL LE FAUT.
Over the last year we have had to chance to visit some great producers and artisans within a modest radius from our home. It's not the hundred mile diet but it's close enough and I'm not following any strict guideline at the moment. On each of these trips there"s always plenty of discoveries to be made and nice folks to meet, this past weekend Véro had a rare Saturday off and we wanted to take a drive in the country. I suggested we go toward Hawkesbury and it's bordering Quebec towns, I wanted to check out some properties and figured we would find some other things to do at the same time. Some quick research before yielded a couple of interesting destinations plus a mandatory trip to the LCBO. We woke up too late to do lots of exploring but still intent on exploring a bit we headed out in the beginning of the afternoon. One site that caught my interest and the only farm we ended up visiting that day was la Ferme Albé. I found them while searching out info on Canadian Katahdin sheep farms. I had heard a lot of positi
ve things about this breed of sheep before and lo and behold there is a farm just a little over and hours drive from Montreal. We made a point to stop in and see if we could purchase some lamb and maybe see a couple of cute sheep, the farms is a little off the beaten path but getting there is very straightforward. Micheline greeted us warmly and I think we took her off guard by our eagerness, when we couldn't quite make up our minds about which cuts to buy she showed us in and rummaged through her freezer to show us what she had and gave us a couple of choices, we settled on a pack of the cutest chops and a boned out shoulder roast. We then got a little tour of the place, we saw the weaned sheep in the barn, because of the unseasonable weather most of sheep we're in the barn ( we did see some out in the fields from afar with their Llama guardian). There we're some beautiful gals keep
ing cool and having a rest, We also got to see their laying hens, broilers and also turkeys that are going to be fattened up for thanksgiving. Luc and Micheline greeted us warmly and took the time to chat with us about a little of everything, really passionate folks who are doing something they truly love and with ideals that they are not willing to compromise for a quick buck, if only more folks could be like this. We ended having the chops that night for supper with a red rice and bulghur wheat salad, think tabbouleh but with red rice and chickpeas. Yesterday I pot roasted the shoulder with some tomatoes, anchovies, lots of fresh thyme, rosemary and a nice chicken/pork/beer broth I froze after braising ribs a f
ew weeks back. Today I finished some Flageolet beans in the broth and called it supper. From our quick trials the meat has a nice flavour, not too intense or gamey but it's from fairly young animals, I found the fat to have a nice succulent quality (tasty even when cold) we really need to get a roasting joint next time to get the full range of flavours. Good folks making great food.
The best surprise of all is ramps!!, I ended up planting a few bulbs of what we had bought last year not hoping for much but low and behold among the garlic planted in the fall, the familiar leaves popped up, since there are only a couple I will let them propagate on their own and see if I can repeat the experience this year. I love this stage of the season, cleaning out the yard, pulling weeds, planting seeds, I feel like I just woke up from a deep slumber. 
I am anxious to get started on the garden this year, the last few years I have just been trying to grow a bunch of different things depending on my humour but this year we are really going to focus. Along with heirloom tomatoes and beans, there will be Poblano peppers, a type of Jalapeno that has little heat , Cavolo Nero, cucumbers for pickling, rainbow chard, New Zealand spinach and lettuces of all kinds. I hope to take our preserving to the next step as well in the hopes to become somewhat self-sufficient. Man it's good to be back!!
Véro's Mojito's
After a nap and a shower we headed to WD-50, upon arrival I was struck by the room it's really nice, the different materials used work really well and while the design uses an Asian feel it's not kitschy. On the way there we had toyed with the idea of asking the kitchen to cook for us , but seeing has how the place was pretty full our confidence took a blow and we did not want to a pain in the ass. We got a banquette between 2 other couples, on the left coffee and mignardises on the table on the right , they we're in the midst of a tasting menu. After perusing the menu's we inquired about the best course of action, because we could not decided we wanted to do tasting but the dishes on the carte looked to good to pass up, our server Chris suggested that we order 1 app each, then have a main split between the 2 of us and finally 1 main each, that way we could taste as many plates as possible, before going off he gave us specifications on the menu along the lines of "pork belly is the same cut as bacon" and "sea trout is similar to salmon" , the downside of the recent review might be an influx of clients with little prior knowledge of the place or some the cuts they use, we reassured him and mentioned we are both cooks and it's all good. We had wines by the glass for each savoury course.
Apps followed, Véro went with popcorn soup. A buttery, nutty, rich popcorn soup almost a purée, with some sliced shrimp sausage (Activa at work here) and Jicama that's cooked in tamarind, popcorn powder, shiso oil and micro shiso. The individual parts are nice, the soup rich decadent, strange, the jicama sour and tasting almost of water chestnuts and the shrimp sausage brilliant but the sum of all these together has an immense impact, the sourness cutting through the richness of the soup. It sounds like something wacky but this is really a solid plate.
We then got surprised by a plate sent from the kitchen, Eggs Benedict done WD style. Creamy yolks cooked in a cylinder shape, crunchy bacon chips (Canadian bacon) just enough chive points and of course the fried hollandaise cubes (made with English muffin breadcrumbs). A true ode to egg lovers, Chloe would love this dish she always leaves the whites when I make hard boiled eggs and she can't get enough bacon.
Wagyu Flatiron for moi, the cippolini onions was magnificently charred, a good pairing with the steak and toothsome coffee gnocchi . The coconut foam was like shaving cream in texture, light but powerful , very nice against the silky, beefy flavor of the wagyu flatiron.
By this time the place was moving and shaking but the kitchen did not look to be missing a beat. The couple doing the tasting on the right we're not enjoying themselves but to me it seems like they would not be a place we're they could be happy, the girl endlessly checking her Iphone for SMS while she refused to try things and when she did complained about the taste, the guy agreeing with her every word , would gobble down his plate?? oh well. The other table (on the left) we're the complete opposite, not their first time at WD-50 and having a blast and they weren't young either.
Then came this amazing passion fruit tart, w/liquid crust, passion fruits purée, argan oil, almond nougatine, black sesame paste and powder. Powerfull, fresh, nutty, sour and intense. The hit of the almond like character of the argan oil against the sour like hit of the creamy passion fruits filling. The sesame bringing in the bass note that reaches the argan oil, the nougatine powder adding crunch. Unapologetic in your face but really ...wow. The elements being what they are, not forcing you to find out why they work together, they just do. I love the little burnt meringue drops ...A1 my fave
we got to swing by the kitchen after our meal and M. Dufresne was very kind, we we're both too full of good food and booze to be very interesting, everyone was extremely courteous, Chris (our Server) was the man, courteous, his wine pairings spot-on, not pushy at all. True professionals and we got treated like kings.
Once back we took the subway and made the first of our Holy trinity of cooks dream store Korin, I initially wanted to bring in a couple of my knives to be sharpened in house but found out before our trip that their knife master would not be in during the month of March so we settled for just shopping (as if we weren't totally stoked about that). The Korin showroom is a nice space fairly small but with the knives prominently on display, there we're some people in house already so we quietly checked things and and then ended up getting some really friendly help from William one of the sales reps, he not only made some great recommendations on knives but we also ended up chatting about where we we're going to dine during our stay and we showed him pictures of how much damn snow we got in our neck of the woods. A Misono Sujihiki for Véro and a Togiharu Petty for me, a bag of Bincho Tan, some smoke sticks (a great discovery of last year, excellent for cold smoking) and a bunch of other things, we left with wallets lighter but spirits quite high.
Il Laboratorio Del Gelato was next , I had heard much about his place and was anxious to try it, I was a bit underwhelmed by their selection of flavours i was expecting some more way out stuff but , the selection was still very cool. I settled on a split of Olive oil Gelato and Red bean, the olive oil was really smooth, with a nice peppery olive oil kick at the end, I found it brought out the bitterness a bit too much but the sweetness was in check, Red bean was nice, again not too sweat, really creamy mouth feel. Véro had Amaretti crunch and Ginger, Ameretti crunch was the clear winner, with little amaretti bits scattered throughout a bitter almond base . The ginger was a surprise, really intense pungent gingery taste, not a candied ginger either, it tasted as if they had infused sliced fresh ginger into their gelato base, surprising but I came to like it. We headed back to our hotel for nap and refresh ourselves for our main event we had dinner booked at WD-50
They we're full but we gave our names, took a walk, returned 20 mins later and ended up waiting 10 minutes or so to get our table. Some nice cold beers in hand we we're reay to order, unfortunately due to the lateness of the hour , all specials we're out but we soldiered on. We ordered several skewers , on the side we got, the mixed pickle plate which was nice it had, small onions, umeboshi, a kind of seaweed that tasted a bit of tobacco and licorice ,carrots and pickled eggplant (which surprised by their crunch and flavour). Also had the cucumber and whole bean miso (another discovery). Then came the procession of skewers, Heart: expertly grilled, the right bite, not chewy at all, i was blown away by those 3 tiny morsels on a stick. We then had chicken thighs and scallions, nice char and still slightly bloody with the crispy exterior and slight bite of the scallions. Berkshire pork with lemon and mustard, nicely grilled slices of Berkshire pork belly, on a plate with a wedge of lemon and a dab of intense mustard in the corner, the combination of both is the perfect balance to the fatty crispy pork belly, tangy and through the nose heat. Then the same pork belly slices but this time garnished with ponzu and scallions, was also quite nice. We then had Liver: ok but kind of flat, Skin: which is an eye rolling pleasure bomb,I don't think I need to explain why this was good. Enoki with bacon: amazing, crispy and then exploding inside with the toothsome enokis, Véro was not too sweet on this one but i loved it finally we had another round of heart. The place is really nice, tiny but the food is top notch, I am not an expert on the style but seeing how many Japanese customers we're in attendance I assume authentic, the staff friendly I just wished we had this kind of place in Montreal, I'm sure it would work quite well. We slid out of there , took a brisk walk on Broadway and called it a night.
After getting the braise going i had built up quite and appetite and didn't feel like cooking much, after a quick look through the fridge I found some boudin noir (my latest obsession), leftover squash and some caramelised onions. I put together a quick little parmentier for one and when that sucker came out of the oven the smell was just crazy, It took all my will to finish my washing 
