Don Genova's Blog

Pacific Palate - Contest Winners Announced and My Secret Revealed

This morning I broadcast my last edition of Pacific Palate on The Early Edition, after 10 years of memorable meals. 

On Saturday I climb on board a plane in Vancouver and late on Sunday afternoon I'll arrive in Parma, Italy.  From there it's a short hop to Colorno, where I will be living for the next year while I take a Masters of Food Culture program at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, otherwise known as Slow Food U!

Don't worry, I'll keep writing on my blog as often as possible, and will still be producing my Food For Thought program for CBC Radio One, and my Podcast, All You Can Eat for Podshow.com.

If you want to try the lasagna recipe I talked about on the Early Edition, which was very ably executed by my wife Ramona this weekend, you'll find it here.

And thanks to everyone who entered the contest, there are some truly great stories, and I encourage you to read them by going to the bottom of this posting.

The winner of the dinners for two at Nu, Rare and Senova is Dee Taylor of Maple Ridge.

Daphne Spencer of West Vancouver won 11 different culinary books from Raincoast Books, Douglas & McIntyre and Whitecap Books.

And Nancy Carpenter of Vancouver won the Breville Panini Press pictured above, courtesy of Breville and Ming Wo Cookware in Chinatown.

Thanks to all of my listeners over the years of Pacific Palate and to all the people I have interviewed who helped make the show what it was, the best-tasting show on the radio!

Ciao for now,

Don

Pacific Palate - even more prizes!

Great news...Raincoast Books has thrown a veritable pot pourri of culinary books into the Big Bang prize package, including:

How I Learned to Cook
Kathy Casey's Northwest Table
Michael Chiarello's Flavoured Oils and Vinagars
World Food Cafe
The LAtin American Kitchen
The World of Spice
Duchy Originals Cookbook

You only have until Monday, November 13th to enter the contest to win these books and more from Douglas and McIntyre and Whitecap Books, as well as a Breville Panini Press from Ming Wo Cookware and dinners for two from Nu, Rare and Senova.  Tell me about your Most Memorable Meal!  Go to this page to enter.

Pacific Palate - My Secrets of the City

This week on Pacific Palate, my secrets of the city...and the Cowichan Valley.  These are my favourite haunts, not the high-end, white tablecloth places, but spots I can go to on my budget and not worry about breaking the bank. 

Don't forget to enter my 'Most Memorable Meal Contest' to have a chance at some fabulous prizes:

Dinners for two at Nu, Rare and Senova.

Copies of Mama Now Cooks Like This, by Susan Mendelson, and Had a Glass 2007:  Top 200 wines for under $20, by James Nevison and Kenji Hodgson, courtesy of Whitecap Books.

As well as copies of Vij’s: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine by Vikram Vij and Meeru Dhalwala, and The Cocktail Chef: Simple, Chic Entertaining by Dinah Koo and Janice Poon, wine notes by John Szabo, courtesy of Douglas & McIntyre.

And a Breville stainless steel panini grill from Ming Wo Cookware.

To enter the contest, go to the bottom of this blog entry.

Now for the list:  I haven't had time to look up all the addresses and phone numbers or websites of these places, so please try searching on your own before asking me for more info.  I'll try to add to the listings in the next week or so.

Vancouver:

- In Chinatown, I love the prawn turnovers and Pina Coco Buns at the New Town Bakery on East Pender Street just west of Main
-down the street, Ming Wo Cookware, for the best selection of anything you need in the kitchen
-on the other side of the Skytrain station from the CBC, T and T Supermarket for fresh Asian groceries and dried and canned goods.  I also just like hanging out at the seafood tanks and watching all the live stuff wriggle around
-In Yaletown, Rodney’s for oysters and mussels and clams
-Urban Fare to shop the world
-any branch of Hon’s Chinese restaurants.  I like to sit near the kitchen at the one on Robson Street and watch the chefs make stir-fries under the huge wok burners in less than 30 seconds

I used to live around the Main and King Edward area…and still have a few favourites there:
-Legendary Noodle, where you can watch them make the noodles at the back of the restaurant, try the noodles in spicy peanut sauce!
-Windsor Meats, the best butcher shop in the area for quality meats at good prices
-Jasmine Halal Meats and Deli for anything you need from the Middle East, and just north of King Edward, Sun Sui Wah for great dim sum, including duck tongues

-my new neighbourhood centers around West 10th Avenue near UBC…
-Ginger and Chili Restaurant for ginger beef and spicy green beans
-Mix the Bakery for great baked goods and bread, of course
-Hime Sushi for well-made sushi at great prices
-Perfetto’s pizza, for the Sicilian
-Gold Train Express Noodle House for fragrant Vietnamese beef noodle soup
-on campus…One More Sushi for the excellent agadashi tofu

-on West 4th and Vine, Simpatico for great lamb shoulder and ribs
-and Memphis Blues on West Broadway for excellent barbecue
-Osteria Napoli at 1st and Renfrew for what they call casa linga food, homestyle cooking from Joe.

-On West 2nd at Burrard and at Granville Island, Barbara-jo's Books to Cooks for the best cookbook selection in the city
-on East Hastings, Gourmet Warehouse, a foodies delight of cookware and tasty products

-stores like Capers and Choices and Whole Foods for bringing people more organic and local foods than ever before…

In Victoria and the Cowichan Valley (my weekend and summer place is in Cobble Hill)

-Zambri’s, in Victoria, an excellent Italian restaurant that has been a regular hangout…
-the Market on Yates
-Thrifty’s Supermarkets, anywhere
-Sooke Harbour House….for culinary innovation, romantic settings and  devotion to organic and local all year round.
-Cowichan Bay Farms
-Chuck Ford’s asparagus
-Hilary’s Cheese
-True Grain Bakery
-downtown Duncan Farmers market
-Mad Dog Crabs

Why am I divulging all of the secrets now?  I'm moving to Italy for a year, and I want you to patronize all these places while I'm gone!  More details next week...and if you'd like to add your own favourite places in Vancouver or Vancouver Island to this list feel free to do so in the 'comments' box below.

Pacific Palate Contest - Your Most Memorable Meal

November 13, 2006  UPDATE:  Contest entries are now closed.  Thanks to all of you for sending in some wonderful entries.  Winners will be announced and notified on November 14th. After ten years, Pacific Palate on CBC Radio's The Early Edition is coming to an end. There's a reason behind my departure, and I'll reveal all the why's and where's on November the 14th.

In the meantime, to reward my loyal listeners, we are running a fantastic contest you can win by telling me about your most memorable meal...all you have to do is scroll down to the comments section of this page, and write no more than TWO PARAGRAPHS about your most memorable meal ever.  We'll read some of the entries on the air, and on November 14th we'll announce the grand prize winner.  The deadline is noon, Monday, November 13th.

The grand prize so far includes dinners for two at three of the best new restaurants in Vancouver:

Nu

Rare

and Senova.  For an updated list of prizes, (yes, there's more!) click here.

For me, my most memorable meal of recent times came this spring in Italy, with my wife Ramona at a tiny little bistro in Rome.  It was the perfect lunch, joking with the waiter, being able to point at a dish of large, tenderly braised artichokes in the kitchen and having them delivered seconds later to our table, toothsome pastas, and an amazing appetizer of fresh cantaloupe, arugula and prosciutto.

I look forward to hearing your stories about your most memorable meal!  ...and good luck in the contest.

Pacific Palate - En Route Top New Restaurants

If you are looking for the Pacific Palate Most Memorable Meal Contest, click here.  This morning on the show, I talked about the Vancouver restaurants that made it to the top ten best new restaurants in Canada as named by En Route magazine.  By Wednesday, November 1st, the full En Route food issue should be posted to their website and you can check out all the details there.  In the meantime, here are the Vancouver restaurants you need to know about:

In first place, Nu.

In fifth place, Rare.

In the Top Twenty Five new restaurants to watch, Vancouver scored three more restaurants:

Century

Mistral

and Senova.

Congratulations to all of the above.  Please check my blog for my Food For Thought entry on the En Route awards starting Wed., Nov. 1st, and enter the Pacific Palate most memorable meal contest if you want to win dinner at Nu, Rare and Senova!

Pacific Palate - Apple Fest

This week on Pacific Palate, I celebrated apples, along with Canada's newest apple, the Aurora Golden Gala.  The apple was developed at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre in Summerland.  If you missed it this year, you won't want to miss next year's UBC Apple Festival. You could look at over 200 different varieties of apples, taste many of them, buy many of them, and learn so much about apples in a fun way it makes it a very entertaining family outing.  Of course once you buy the apples you have to eat them, so I have included a Tarte Tatin recipe I have made with some success over the years.  Depending on the size of your apples, you might want to cut them into quarters instead of halves.

Tarte Tatin Benoit              Serves 8

This recipe is from Patricia Wells’ ‘The Paris Cookbook’.  (Harper Collins, 2001)  It’s a recipe that you get better at making the more you do it.  So eat lots of apples in season!  I used Northern Spies for my tarte tatins, and they worked beautifully, but you could also use Golden Delicious, Jonagolds, Fujis, or Cox’s Orange Pippins.   You need a well-seasoned 9-inch cast iron skillet to make this recipe a success.

Ingredients:
¾ cup sugar
10 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into thin slices
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 pounds large apples, peeled, cored and halved lengthwise
1 package puff pastry, thawed
Whipped cream, crème fraiche or ice cream to top

1. Spread the sugar evenly over the bottom of the cast iron skillet.  Place the butter slices evenly over the sugar, then drizzle with the vanilla.  Beginning at the outside edge of the pan, stand the apple haves on end on top of the butter.  They should all face in one direction, with the rounded edge against the edge of the pan and the cut side toward the centre.  Pack the apples as close together as possible.  Make a second circle of apple halves inside the first.  Place one apple half in the centre of the circle to fill any remaining space.

2. Place the skillet over low heat and cook the apples in the butter and sugar, uncovered, until the butter/sugar mixture turns a thick, golden brown and just begins to caramelize.  This will take about an hour.  The liquid should remain at a gentle bubble.  Baste the apples from time to time to speed up their cooking and to make for evenly cooked fruit.  If the pieces lose their places a bit while cooking, you can nudge them back into formation.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 425F.

4. Take the skillet off the heat and place on top of a cookie sheet.  Roll out the thawed pastry to size on a lightly floured work surface, then drape it over top of the apples, gently pushing the edges of the pastry down around the edge of the pan and trimming any excess.  Place in the oven and bake until the pastry is golden, 25 to 30 minutes.  Do not be concerned if the juices bubble over, this is normal.

5. Remove the tart from the oven.  Immediately invert a serving plate over the skillet and then quickly but carefully (using gloves, remember the skillet is hot!) invert the skillet and the plate together so the pastry ends up on the platter, with the apples on top.  If any stick to the pan you can remove them and carefully place them back in the tart. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream or crème fraiche.   

I also talked about Pinnacle Ice Cider today.  This is a line of award-winning apple cider products from Domaine Pinnacle in Quebec, but the products are available across Canada and in the United States.  Rick Cluff and I sampled the ice cider and the sparkling ice cider.  What a great way to start the day on The Early Edition!

Pacific Palate - Abalone

This week on Pacific Palate, BC abalone returns to Vancouver restaurants...but this time around it's farmed abalone.  C Restaurant hosted a magnificient lunch to introduce this farmed product to a gathering of the media.  Executive chef Rob Clark and chef de cuisine Rob Belcham were very excited to be able to offer this mollusk, as BC abalone of any sort has been banned from harvest for the past 16 years because of dwindling supply.

These shells were being prepared to hold an appetizer dish of a light salad laced with strips of abalone and served with an 'abalone Caesar' cocktail.  The shells are beautiful, but they all have to be gathered up and returned to the farmer, under the strict harvest regulations set by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.  They don't want empty shells from farmed abalone out there in case some unscrupulous poacher tries to stuff them with illegally poached meat.  The black market is still a huge problem on the coast.

The abalone farm is on land in Bamfield, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  It's called the Bamfield Huu-Ay-Aht Community Abalone Project.  It brings together the Huu-Ay-Aht First Nations, the Bamfield Community School Association, and the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. 

I think this was my favourite dish at lunch the other day.  Abalone sashimi, served on top of side stripe shrimp with shaved salmon candy.  Farmed abalone aren't cheap...C Restaurant can expect to pay about $50 a pound wholesale...which means you probably wouldn't want to order a pound of them in the restaurant, but have them served with other dishes like the ones we had at lunch.

This is a grilled BC Pinto Abalone with crisp pork belly, confit potato, and truffle jus.

Pacific Palate - Bridging Borders Toward Food Security

This week on Pacific Palate you get a taste of Bridging Borders Toward Food Security, a conference held in Vancouver by the Community Food Security Coalition and Food Secure Canada.

What is food security?  It may not be what you think.  One definition which captures the spirit of the concept would read:  Food security is a strong, sustainable, local or regional food system that ensures access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food to all people at all times.

It's a mouthful, but visiting the websites posted here will lead you to an intriguing world of agencies, governments and communities all trying to reach a similar goal.

I was only able to touch on the basics on my program this week, but listen to my Food For Thought shows and my podcast in the near future to hear more.

Pacific Palate - Jim's Noodle Express

This week on Pacific Palate I visited Jim's Noodle Express at 382 Robson Street in Vancouver, right across from the Vancouver Public Library Building.

This little shop is the baby brother to the original Jim's Noodle House in Richmond.  It was opened in 1996 by Andy Wong, grandson of the 'Jim' in the title of the shop.

Andy and his staff make excellent wonton noodle soup, with a secret formula for the rich soup stock, and noodles and wrappers made to a specific recipe for the shop.  I had a chance to try stuffing the wonton wrappers like they do at the shop.  I was supposed to be able to wrap 15 wontons in a minute.  I managed 3.  But when I did finish the 15, they weighed exactly one pound, just like they should have.  At least I wasn't ripping off the customers by making small wontons.

At Jim's, the 'express' is for real, as you can get a bowl of noodles and wonton to go in just a few minutes, but the wontons, noodles and greens have been cooked just seconds after you ordered them.  Don't stop at the pork and shrimp wontons, though.  They also offer delicious curried fish balls, scrumptious hoisin short ribs, shredded pork and beef tendon.

  I never thought I would like tendon...as the pieces look like chunks of hard fat...but surprise!  The texture was toothsome and the flavour superb.  If you're in a hurry, and on a budget, check out Jim's.

Don't forget to get your tickets for the Oxfam World Food Day event I'm emceeing on the 11th.  Click here for more information, and hope to see you there!

Pacific Palate - Spinach

(to find out about the Oxfam fundraising dinner I'm MC'ing, click here.)

This week on Pacific Palate, a review of the e coli outbreak in the United States caused by contaminated fresh spinach products grown in California.  For the latest news on American cases, check out the FDA website, and to see what our government is advising, go the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website.

The distressing part of this outbreak is that officials may never be able to pinpoint the exact cause of the contamination.  All we do know is that this dangerous strain of e coli comes from the intestinal tracks of humans and cattle, which means the source could have been the water supply, improperly composted manure, or even passed along by workers handling the spinach, although considering the widespread nature of the outbreak, it seems likely the e coli may have already been in the spinach when it was harvested and bagged.

The Canadian-grown supply of fresh spinach is safe, however, and you can still find some at farmers markets and stores like Capers, which has sourced it from two Fraser Valley organic farmers.

But for a change, you might want to try cooking with some chard or kale, also in ready supply this time of year.  The following uses were inspired by recipes from Deborah Madison's 'Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone'.

Chard, Catalan Style

Ingredients:

1 large bunch chard, stems removed, leaves blanched

2 tbsps. olive oil

1 large garlic clove, sliced

1/3 cup raisins

1/3 cup pine nuts or chopped almonds

1 tbsp. lemon juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Coarsely chop the cooked chard.  Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a wide skillet.  Add the sliced garlic and remove from the oil when browned.  Don't let it burn!  Then add the raisins and pine nuts or almonds.  Stir and fry until the nuts have turned a golden brown and the raisins have plumped up.  Add the chopped chard and stir until warmed through.  Sprinkle on the lemon juice and add salf and pepper to taste.  Serves 4.

Kale with Beans

Ingredients

1 to 2 pounds kale, stems and ribs removed (you can save them to use in soups)

2 tbsps. olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

a pinch of red pepper flakes

2 teaspoons chopped rosemary

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup cooked white navy or cannellini beans, rinsed well if canned

salt and pepper to taste

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Put the kale in a pot of boiling, salted water, then reduce to a simmer and cook until tender, about ten minutes.  Drain the kale, reserving the cooking water, and  chop the leaves.  In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and saute the onion until translucent, then add the garlic, rosemary and red pepper flakes, frying until fragrant.  Add the wine and cook until the liquid reduces and the mixture becomes syrupy.  Add the beans, kale, and enough of the cooking liquid to keep the mixture moist and not gummy.  Serves 2 to 4 people.