Bob Blumer can't decide which faux plastic toilet to eat out of first.

“In the ever expanding universe of food television,” quips food TV host Bob Blumer. “Do you ever get the feeling you’ve seen it all?”

Yes Bob. Yes, we do. We really do.

So what could our friend Bob Blumer (remember his Foodists video?), the legendary culinary adventurer who brought us such gems as The Surreal Gourmet and Glutton for Punishment, be up to these days worthy of our attention?

Weirdness.

Seems Blumer and his friends over at Paperny Films have just wrapped production on a new Food Network series, World’s Weirdest Restaurants.

Billed as a “global extravaganza of 52 eccentric, off-the-wall eateries,” Blumer’s new program took him to the four corners of the world to unearth the weirdest and wildest venues on the planet. Along the way he was served beer by a monkey in a Japanese tavern, he crashed a pop-up nudist restaurant in New York City, he ate curry from a toilet in Taiwan and he engaged in some seriously high-speed acrobatics in Amsterdam.

“We spent six months circumnavigating the globe in search of mind-bending, jaw-dropping restaurants.  I dined in a rabbit hole, a prison cell and a laundromat,” Blumer says. “I’ve definitely eaten at some crazy places in my life, but nothing compares to what viewers are going to see in this new series.”

Yeah, but judging by the series trailer, it doesn’t look like Blumer had the guts to eat naked. But it looks like he’s having the time of his life (he really does have my dream job).

Each episode of World’s Weirdest Restaurants takes viewers to four different, eateries from Tokyo to Milwaukee, Amsterdam to Portland and many places in between. Vancouver even makes an appearance during a lighthearted segment about culinary speed dating. Part food show and part travelogue, World’s Weirdest Restaurants appears to be a sure bet for foodies with a case of wanderlust.

But with the TV airwaves saturated with shows about, culinary travel, extreme eating or bizarre foods, is there room for another?

Apparently so.

Our hope is that our favourite gastronaut—or should we say “gastroNUT”—Blumer and company really dig deep to deliver on their promise of weirdness. Eating in the dark or out of clean little plastic toy toilets isn’t going to cut it. That’s not weird, that’s just gimmick. We want to see stuff like robot chefs, little people serving Hobbit fare, vampire fetishism, cannibalism, and bestiality themed culinary exploits (these are all real restaurants by the way—we can’t make this shit up).

Come on Bob—get your weird on.

Let’s all tune in to the premier of World’s Weirdest Restaurants on April 4th (9pm ET/9:30 pm PST) to Food Network Canada and see for ourselves.

…Yogurt! Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I remember my dad once bought one of those Salton home yogurt makers. He made a batch. It sucked. We never used it again. As a result, yogurt never played a huge roll in my upbringing.

However, despite the all-out gluttony that we here at Foodists are known for, some of us do eat rather healthy, lower fat meals when not indulging. For me personally, I try to follow a diet that has a good balance of protein, carbs and fat. That’s tough to do come dessert time, but one grocery store item that works very well into that mix is Liberté Fat Free Greek yogurt.

If you look at the nutritional information of most non-fat yogurts, they are usually low in protein and can also be quite high in carbohydrates (sugar). Greek yogurt is crafted using traditional methods: The yogurt is drained according to the principles of old-time cheesecloth draining, which gives it an incredibly rich and creamy texture and one that’s absolutely free of fat. The catch, for Liberté anyway, is it requires three times more milk than a regular yogurt. The result is twice the protein of any other regular yogurt, and therefore more nutritional value.

All this is for naught if it tastes bad. Thankfully, Liberté has done a good job with that. When it first came to market there was a limited selection of flavours. In a move that I think helped them differentiate, rather than start with traditional flavours such as blueberry and strawberry, I first noticed Date & Fig and Honey flavours on the shelves. Kind of makes the Greek connection! While interesting, the Fig & Date flavour has a more pronounced chalky texture and mouthfeel that is a little unpleasant. The Vanilla and Honey are my favourites, and the fruit flavours are a quite good. There’s still a little residual chalkiness to it mind you, but it’s not so unpleasant as to steer you away from it. If you want to invent your own flavours, go for the plain version. It’s also a good a substitute for other plain yogurt and even sour cream in cooking.

Will you love it as much as full fat yogurt? Probably not. Is it thicker than other no-fat yogurt, absolutely. In fact, you may even need to thin it with a little milk if you plan to use it with your morning muesli or granola. On the plus side, if you run out of spoons, you can eat it with a fork.

Liberté has offered a $150 gift basket for one of our readers. It includes ten free 500g Liberté Greek yogurt coupons, bowls, diner napkins and a bamboo tray.

To enter, post the following on Twitter (one entry per tweet):

Put a little Greek in your diet…yogurt that is. Enter to win a $150 @LiberteCAN gift basket @Foodists — http://tinyurl.com/79osrap

We’ll draw one winner on March 17th, 2012.

February is National Apple Month, and to celebrate BC Tree Fruits paired up with V by Earls in Yaletown, and popular Vancouver foodie Mijune Pak a.k.a “Follow Me Foodie”, to bring a little attention back to the red and green orb. Holding a VIP event for local food media we heard information about the apple industry by local growers, pitches about the fruit by marketing folks, nutritional information (making apples a superfood), and noshed on a series of gourmet eats and drinks featuring apple varietals.

Earls Head Chef Martin Keyer created the following fruitful offerings:

• Duck comfit with brie and Gala apples on crostini
• Chicken, fig, brie, and Granny Smith apple sandwiches
• Mini apple pie lollipops featuring Macintosh apples
• Blue cheese, Granny Smith and candied bacon on crostini

There was also a series of cocktail demos where we sampled the “Apple Collins”, and learned how to make an “Apple Martini”. For all you shakers – here is the recipe:

Apple Martini

• Fill martini glass with ice to chill
• 1 oz ginger simple syrup
• 1oz fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1 oz Smirnoff Vodka infused with apple
• 1 oz fresh pressed BC apple juice
• 1 oz water
• Shake with ice and pour into an empty martini glass. Garnish with a thin apple slice.

Giving apples a bit more brain space than I usually do I realized that this is one versatile and powerful fruit, and I wonder why I don’t use it more. In fact I have three apples that stare at me every day from the second rack of my refrigerator. Maybe it’s time for a little applesauce, pork with apples, apple crisp, or maybe I should even make an apple doll – you know those creepy crafts from the 70’s?

Which brings me to another BC Tree Fruit initiative.  The group is putting some momentum behind the apple with a nationwide competition called The Artful Apple – asking fruit fans to decorate their favorite apple and then upload the works of art to share.  Prizes include an exclusive Okanagan vacation for four. Maybe my apple doll isn’t such a bad idea…more information can be found at www.artfulapple.com

And if anyone can show off an apple it’s Mijune Pak.  Everyone who attended took away her “Apple Pie In-A-Jar” -  super cute, tasty, and all packaged in “Follow Me Foodie” style.  She’ll be sampling this sweet concoction on February 18^th at Salty Tongue from 12:00-2:00pm, so you can try some too.

February doesn’t have to be all about Valentines Day, it can be about our love for BC apples – and I know I’m already appreciating them a bit more.

Chef Josh Wolfe from Glowbal Group serves up amazing food to guests during Dine Out Vancouver. (photo courtesy Glowbal Group)

My wife and I stopped going to Dine Out Vancouver a few years ago after a couple of unfortunate experiences at restaurants who didn’t embrace the spirit of the festival—some even seeming to resent it. So when I was kindly invited by the folks at Glowbal Restaurant Group to sample of of their offerings this year, I figured it was time to give it another shot. And am I glad I did! Not only was the food shockingly good, and the serving sizes surprisingly generous, but all the staff at the four restaurants we visited (Black + Blue, Coast, Italian Kitchen, & Sanafir) were excited to host the public during the 17 day food festival. Global Group’s Assistant Corporate Chef Josh Wolfe (also owner of terrific food truck Fresh Local Wild) was particularly enthusiastic about Dine Out and generously offered to tell our readers the interesting story behind the event—now in its 10th year—and how the event is really about us, the diners. – ed.

Ten years ago a little festival called Dine Out Vancouver, that has come celebrate Vancouver’s unique food and wine culture, was created. But it was an idea ten years prior that got the ball rolling. In the summer of 1992, Kasey Wilson, an award-winning food writer, was in New York City following the Democratic National Convention where 15,000 journalists had covered the event. Restaurateur Joe Baum (most well known for his World Trade Center restaurant, Windows on the World) and Tim Zagat (founder of Zagat) saw an opportunity to showcase New York’s top restaurants at lunch to this captive and hungry audience for $19.92 (same as year). Restaurant week was born. Since then Restaurant Week has become a mainstay in most major American cities.

By the time winter rolled around in 2001 tourism and hospitality businesses around the world had begun suffer from the events of 9/11. In an effort to bring life to a traditionally already quiet time for restaurants, Wilson met with Tourism Vancouver (she had met with them twice previously, first in 1994 and then again in 2001, but there was no budget to put a festival together in 1994) to suggest a similar festival be held similar to the one she saw in New York. Dine Out Vancouver was born. Since then it has become the largest restaurant dining festival in Canada.

As a Chef I always found it interesting that an event created initially to some extent for restaurants has come to celebrate you, the diner. Dine Out has evolved into a sophisticated gathering of diners coming together to enjoy innovative, contemporary food expertly paired with locally produced British Columbia VQA wines. All this at accessible pricing makes it a win-win.

If you have ever enjoyed a meal at a participating restaurant you know how busy they can be and as you can imagine chefs are busy too (Ironically, I submitted this piece late because I have been so busy getting ready for Dine Out!). Over the years the latter half of January has tested the determination and true grit of cooks across North America and Vancouver has been a driving force. Those who have done their time in a restaurant during Dine Out understand what 900-1200 plates every night (300-400 guests each eating 3 courses) means. Imagine the dishes to wash! You’d think it would be easy, after all the extra hours, to resent this event. To pass it off as a pain the ass that you can’t wait to end. Well, there’s more to it than that.

For those of us who have come to love working in restaurants, meeting and greeting complete strangers, creating experiences and plain old showing people a good time Dine Out Vancouver delivers. So many great people are involved in bringing it all together. Anthony Gismondi, wine critic of The Vancouver Sun suggested a wine component be added to Dine Out Vancouver and it was the first city to incorporate that. Writers and bloggers alike now bring you live, minute-by-minute, commentary during the dinner hours across the city. And maybe most importantly chefs sit down, drink BC wines, talk shop and write menus for you to enjoy. When you put them all together we’re ready for great time!

When you eat in one of our restaurants please know that for us it’s more than just feeding you. We love meeting you, shaking your hands and knowing that you had a great time. If you dine with me this year, and I don’t come to meet you, please pop your head in and say hello. After all, it’s about you!

Chef Josh Wolfe
jw@jwolfecuisine.com

For more information on Dine Out Vancouver, be sure to check out http://www.tourismvancouver.com/dov

Nicli Antica Pizzeria's Bill McCaig has big plans for his neighbourhood. (photo by Tyler Wilman)

I am getting sick to death of hearing people say how awesome Nicli Antica Pizzeria is. I get it already—their Neapolitan pizza is very good, and it’s so authentic it earned Vancouver’s first Vera Pizza Napolentana certification. They were listed on Westender’s Top 10 new restaurants list, then readers voted them as #1 on Scout Magazine’s list of Best New Restaurants, and now international restaurant guide Zagat.com has named them the best newcomer in their 2012 Vancouver Restaurants Survey—even The Globe And Mail’s Alexandra Gill has offered her endorsement of Nicli’s pizza. But seriously people, they don’t even cut your pizza for you! I mean really…

OK, I have a confession to make. I love Nicli, as do other Foodists. And the restaurants owners, Bill and Alison McCaig, have become friends whom I adore. To say that the McCaigs are passionate about high quality Italian food would be an understatement of the highest order. They’re nuts for it. And their rapid rise to the top of the food scene in Vancouver isn’t slowing them down either.

Nicli occupies half of a building, and the McCaigs are now working hard on their next project next door: a casual 16 seat eatery featuring authentic homemade pasta as well as a classic Italian deli.

The new restaurant will be named Vicino Pastaria & Deli, the name itself an expression of their commitment to their community as “vicino” means “neighbour” in Italian. Not only is this new spot literally the neighbour to its big brother Nicli, giving customers more options when yearning for an Italian fix, but the deli will serve as a market for their neighbours in Gastown, offering only the best in authentic Italian fare.

“Fresh filled and extruded dried pasta will be made on site using the best ingredients.” promises McCaig, “with cured meats, imported, local and some made in house available to enjoy on premises or for your table at home.” The plan is to not only curate a terrific retail selection of ingredients, but apply the same approach to quality and authenticity used next door at Nicli to create a suite of signature sauces and which customers can take home and finish themselves, or sit down at the long share table and enjoy with other likeminded food fanatics from the neighbourhood.

McCaig said he hoped Vicino Pastaria & Deli’s would be open as early as spring 2012 (three months from time of writing), but needed to overcome the standard City Hall hurdles such permits and licenses. But even with this exciting announcement, McCaig had more to share.

Although Nicli Antica Pizzeria enjoys steady traffic—let’s face it, some nights it’s difficult to get a table—they’re starting to offer a special “Industry Feature” to their neighbours working in the numerous restaurants in Gastown. From 10pm – midnight daily, anyone that works in the restaurant business can purchase an entire Pizza Margherita and a Draft Howe Sound Lager for $12.

“Having worked in a few kitchens,” explained McCaig, “I know what it’s like to finish a long shift, wishing for a decent option for a quick meal and a beer, and be faced with the fact that the only thing left open is mass produced, fast food.” And he’s right: Vancouver’s hospitality staff who bust their asses to make and serve our meals deserve a place to get a great beer and an amazing pizza after work—and that place is Nicli. Now that’s neighbourly of him! But don’t expect it to be sliced for you—Bill assures me that’s not going to happen. ;-)

As we often do with restaurateurs we respect and admire, we asked Bill McCaig to sit down for a chat and answer our barrage of questions (with nods to CreativeMornings and Scout Magazine for inspiration) so we could better get to know the man behind the restaurant:

• How do you define creativity and apply it in your career? Creativity is taking the resources I have at hand and make something from them.
• Where do you find your best creative inspiration? I find my best creative inspiration within my own family and I look to society to see if Vancouver needs what I need.
• What’s the one creative piece of advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person? Just do it. And I know I must have seen that pretty much everywhere.
• Who would you like most to hear speak at a conference? Mario Batali
• What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done? Opening a restaurant on East Cordova.
• What did you learn from your most memorable creative failure? Don’t quit before completing the project.
• What’s your one guilty creative indulgence? Ableton Live
• What are you reading these days? Salted – it’s a book about the mineral how to use it and the history of its use.
• What fact about you would surprise people? I used to live on a buffalo farm.
• How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned for your future when you were a sixth grader? I wanted to be commercial pilot when I was younger. I would imagine my stress level is lower.
• How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger? I opened Vancouver’s first authentic Napolitan pizzeria.
• What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)? If you build it, they will come and I’m not talking about Nicli. I just went to a restaurant on Kingsway which opened with zero marketing or advertising and is already at capacity.
• If you had a magic wand, where would you be in five years? Right here in Vancouver, I love it I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Oh wait: magic wand? I’ll take clear and sunny days please, it can rain while I sleep.
• What keeps you awake at night? Tiramisu.
• Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you? My maternal Grandfather, he built bridges in Southern Ontario, and followed the axiom do it right, do it once.
• If you could interview anyone living or dead, but not a celebrity, who would it be and why? Arturo Nicli, he died before I got to know him as an adult.
• If you could do anything now, what would you do? Fly a glider.
• Where was the last place you travelled? Italy: Alison and I got married there and travelled around experiencing the food, sights and sounds.
• What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life? The success of Nicli Antica Pizzeria has been wonderful.
• Where is your favourite place to escape? The Sunshine Coast, far enough away to disconnect, close enough to be there by lunch.
• What was the best advice you were ever given? Quality sells itself / build a better mousetrap.
• What practices, rituals or habits contribute to your creative work? Meditation and dining out.
• When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck? Lose myself in another activity: walking, dishes, breathing.
• If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them? Stop and enjoy life.
• What has been one of your biggest Ah ha! moments in life? Everything is unfolding exactly when and how it should.
• What are three things about Gastown that make you want to live there? L’Abbatoir, the local colour, my apartment.
• What are three things that Gastown doesn’t have but should? 1) Top notch pasta, 2) a farmers market – dairy, meat & fish, produce and dry goods, 3) a boutique wine store
• Name the thing that you eat that is bad for you that you will never stop eating? Fat: It’s a flavour delivery vehicle.
• Default drink/cocktail of choice? Bourbon Sour
• Where is your favourite local patio? Chill Winston.
• The dumbest thing that you’ve ever done to your hair? Sun In.
• What are the three things you’d like to change about Vancouver? 1) The flashing green traffic light: as it is, it does nothing; use it as an advance green to get the people turning left around the corner. Extend the green but cut the walk signal back, so the people turning right can get around the corner.  2) Eliminate all 4 way stops and make them roundabouts. 3) Jaywalkers: realize you are taking your life in your hands and conduct yourself accordingly.
• Is there a local bartender who could sell you anything? Shawn Layton of l’Abbatoir
• Your go to, no-frills place for dinner? La Taqueria.
• If you could board a plane this afternoon, where would it be taking you? Buenos Aires.
• The strangest place you’ve ever been to? Egypt.
• Your ancestry? Scottish-Italian
• Your three favourite films? There Will Be Blood, Kalifornia, Grindhouse
• Television show that you could tolerate re-runs of? The Jetsons, at least I used to.
• Under what circumstances would you join the army? To make sure they were well fed.
• How do you know when you can trust someone? You can see it in their eyes.
• What musical instrument do you secretly long to play? Bass guitar
• Have you ever fired a gun? Yes, long guns only. Scariest situation: outrunning a mama buffalo.
• The one place that you have the least interest in ever visiting? Antarctica.

Nicli Antica Pizzeria is open daily from 11:30am to Midnight and is located at 62 E Cordova St in Gastown, Vancouver (GoogleMap), BC. 604-669-6985 (no reservations) niclipizzeria.ca Twitter @NicliPizzeria

Who do you think we should interview next? Email your suggestions to info@foodists.ca.

George Siu (L) and Park Heffelfinger (R) of Memphis Blues BBQ getting intimate with their menu.

Recently we were invited to partake in a good ‘ol fashioned Southern pig pickin’ to mark the 10th anniversary of venerable low ‘n slow barbeque joint Memphis Blues BBQ House. Started by George Siu and Park Heffelfinger at 1465 West Broadway in Vancouver, I still remember sauntering in to the original location in their earliest days. In fact, I have a vivid food memory of a lunch special consisting of lamb ribs, something you don’t see everyday on anyone’s menu. Best thing ever, and still sometimes available I believe (or hope)!

Over the years Memphis Blues has become synonymous with a side of ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and their legendary Elvis Platter. For me personally, I have to admire those who attempt to bring authentic barbecue to the masses because, well, typically there is a preconceived notion by the general restaurant-going public of what good barbecue is and is not. Reconciling people’s desire for fall-off-the-bone ribs vs. ribs done properly must be tough and what I’ve found in general is that after an initial attempt to be competition-level authentic, there’s a compromise for the sake of the business. I don’t think Memphis Blues is any exception to this, but so what?

More recent entries into this category include Richmond’s Hogshack Cookhouse, Pekinpah in Gastown and the ReUp BBQ food truck. All are doing their own thing in an attempt to bring varying levels of authenticity to the craft. I’m not going to play critic here since all have worthy offerings, and as I’ve come to learn over the years, there are as many opinions about good barbecue as there are people. You be the judge. And if you want to literally be a judge, go here.

Below is our interview with George and Park. Up front are some BBQ specific questions, followed by some deeper stuff. There’s always surprising and unexpected gems each time we ask these. So, without further delay, let’s get to know these guys…

How would you categorize the type/style of bbq you offer at Memphis Blues?
George and Park: Memphis style (tomato and molasses based, sweet sauce; mostly pork – ribs, sausage, pulled pork; and sauce is served on the side so you can taste the meat).

How do you reconcile the difference between competition-level bbq vs. customer expectations? (I.e. toothsome ribs vs. general public’s preference for fall-of-the-bone)?
George and Park: Competition level is more authentic, we’ve spent the last 10 years educating people on Memphis style. Some people don’t like it, and that’s fine. But the gulf is smaller due to the Food Network.

How do you keep it interesting after ten years?
George and Park: We’re expanding – Franchise development adds a whole new discipline and learning curve – keeps you on your toes! We also wrote a cookbook, called “Bringin’ Southern BBQ Home”; our sauces and rubs are being bottled; promoting our staff; and most of our trips are “research” on eating and drinking new things.

What are your favourite wine/wine varietals to pair with pulled pork, ribs and brisket?
George and Park: For pork – Mosel Riesling, Mosel Riesling, Mosel Riesling! Hands down. Oh – and maybe Pinot Noir. A Cabernet Sauvignon is great with brisket.

What’s next?
George and Park: Moving our North Van store to Robson Street; opening in Abbotsford next year; expanding into Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba… tomorrow, the world!

How do you define creativity and apply it in your career?
George: Brainstorming with staff, talking to customers and using those ideas to get better.
Park: Coming up with something interesting and beautiful from something mundane or ugly.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration?
George: When eating and drinking on trips out of Vancouver.
Park: Books.

What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
George: Network with people who can inspire you and give you good advice.
Park: Dream big.

Who would you like most to hear speak at a conference?
George: Bill Clinton.
Park: Tony Bourdain.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
George: When I moved from TO back to Vancouver in 1989, I drove through the Southern States with a friend. Small town Texas isn’t very welcoming to a Chinese guy and a white guy with long hair.
Park: Came home overland from India though Europe with $40 US.

What did you learn from your most memorable creative failure?
George: You can’t have success without a few failures first. Learn from them, but don’t repeat them.
Park: Stay away from North Vancouver.

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?
George: Food porn.
Park: Charcuterie making.

What are you reading these days?
George: Keith Richards’ biography, Conan the Barbarian, 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.
Park: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles.

What fact about you would surprise people?
George: I’m 50, and have been married for 20 years.
Park: I’m actually very nice.

How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned for your future when you were a sixth grader?
George: I always saw myself as an entrepreneur (I sold firecrackers to the other kids in elementary school).
Park: I’m not a doctor.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
George: I take tough meats, and turn them into tender, delicious food.
Park: I sling meat.

What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)?
George: You’re only as good as your staff–treat them well.
Park: I agree.

If you had a magic wand, where would you be in five years?
George: Wintering in a sunny, warm climate.
Park: Body surfing with my family in a Tropical location.

What keeps you awake at night?
George: Bad landlords, City of Vancouver bureaucracy.
Park: My one-and-a-half-year old.

Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?
George: Chef Alan Dunelle–he taught me a love of food, and to nurture my intuitive cooking.
Park: My Mum. She taught me to be interested in what people have to say.

If you could interview anyone living or dead, but not a celebrity, who would it be and why?
George: Shakespeare–did he or didn’t he write those plays?
Park: Ghandi.

If you could do anything now, what would you do?
George: Practice law.
Park: Live in the Tropics.

Where was the last place you travelled?
George: Paris (eating and drinking – heaven!).
Park: Vietnam.

What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life?
George: When we told people we were opening on Commercial Drive they said we were crazy, it was all vegetarian food. The weekend we opened there were line-ups down the block, and people said thanks for bringing meat to the Drive.
Park: What a joy it is raising a family.

Where is your favourite place to escape?
George: Moorea (I have family in Tahiti)
Park: Hawaii

What was the best advice you were ever given?
George: Buy your location instead of just renting (haven’t managed to do it yet, unfortunately); and leverage your money.
Park: Listen.

What practices, rituals or habits contribute to your creative work?
George: Making my morning espresso helps clear my head, and help me get the day organized.
Park: Reading.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?
George: Meditate, go for a workout.
Park: Read.

If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them?
George: Sleep.
Park: Meditate.

What has been one of your biggest Ah ha! moments in life?
George: Becoming a father, it’s very humbling.
Park: Our first night at home from Vietnam with our six month-old adopted daughter.

Although many of you might be a little disheartened in the upcoming tasting choice, I for one feel that introducing myself to as many different foods, flavors, and textures allows me to appreciate the art of cooking, the passions for food and the appreciation of where our sustenance comes from.

An opportunity recently came up for me and a some fellow Foodists to try some seal meat, and after watching Anthony Bourdain experience his first seal we were all very interested in the textures and tastes that made these people so excited about their meal. I should state that this meat was not controversial baby seal, but sourced through a local importer via government-sanctioned herd culling in Northern Quebec where seal populations have spiked and are depleting fish stocks.

BBQ Champion Ron Shewchuk was our chef for the experience and served us some raw seal steaks, slicing against the grain to allow us to dive into the raw flesh. It was surprising how red the richness of the colour was, and how soft and smooth the meat was to the touch. It smelled as if rich with iron with a hint of the ocean. Apparently seal meat is very rich in protein, calcium, iron, magnesium and vitamin B-12. The meat is leaner since seals carry all of their fat directly beneath their skin, and it is free of hormones typically used in farming to increase mass or growth.

Tasting the meat, the texture on the tongue was just the same. Silky smooth and seemed quite gamey (almost like an organ meat) yet had a subtle flavoring familiar of the ocean. We pondered the taste and were surprised at how little the fishy flavor was present in the meat. The irony aftertaste proved to be a bit overpowering with Mark Busse commenting that it was “like a bloody nose” but commented that he “felt manly somehow about eating it, like an Inuit hunter.”

For the second round Ron added a pinch of sea salt to the meat. This punched out the fishy flavor and made it all the more evident that this was seal meat. Next, he added some truffle oil along with the salt which cut through the fish flavor and added to the soft texture on the palate and allowed the richness of the seal flavoring to come forth.

Ron then slightly seared the seal meat, giving it just a bit of heat on each side while leaving the inside raw. This began to give the meat a very familiar flavor, reminiscent of caribou or venison. A gamey irony flavor that completely disengaged the senses from associating this animal meat with the sea that it came from.

This was an incredible experience and one that I will not soon forget. Eating the meat in its purest raw form almost made me feel closer to that of a hunter, or the people that rely on seal meat for daily sustenance, fuel and warmth for their bodies in very cold climates.

In the future I don’t know if I would rush out and purchase seal like I would beef, but it would be interesting to try some of the authentic recipes and various ways of preparing seal.

What are your thoughts around this controversial meat? Would you try seal if you had the opportunity?

Butter On The Endive's Chef Owen Lightly

On a cold November night, many of Vancouver’s foodie elite descended to the new Gastown location of The Found & The Freed ”pop up” shop for an event called Sweater Season. Accompanying the kitschy collectibles and eclectic collection of antiques was served a fabulous meal prepared by Chef Owen Lightly, the genius behind Butter On The Endive.

Small plates of yarrow meadows duck confit tortellini in a pine mushroom broth, seared Qualicum bay scallops with bacon wrapped salsify and apple-mustard vinaigrette circled the room. Then various canapés such as caramelized onion, marinated anchovy and niçoise olive toast, pig face and sweetbread croquette with pumpkin-currant chutney, and grass fed beef tartare with parmesan crisp and watercress continued throughout the evening. Each dish was packed with flavour and elegantly prepared and served. The final sweet note was provided by a memorable quince beignet with almond and brandy caramel.

We were too busy stuffing our faces, drinking and buying trinkets to take many pictures, but here are a few:

Later, we sat down with Owen and subjected him to our barrage of interview questions, which are below:

• Why did you leave kitchens like West and Araxi to start Butter On The Endive? I took a month off and went to Europe and came back energized with an entrepreneurial spirit. It started with a pop-up dinner in Squamish and grew from there.
• How would you categorize the type/style of cooking you offer? That’s a hard question to answer. Italian food has had a huge influence on my cooking in recent years, but above all, I just try to make food that is honest, made from scratch and really delicious.
• How do you keep it interesting after nearly a decade as a professional cook? My dad used to say to me, “boring people get bored”. I try to keep that in mind.
• What are your favourite kind of customers or events to cater? I love doing events in unique locations for open-minded people.
• What’s next? Hopefully a very busy 2012 and eventually starting to look for a brick and mortar location…..
• How do you define creativity and apply it in your career? Creativity for me is the distillate of a lot of reading, eating and thinking. It comes in flashes (usually when I have a knife in my hand) and then it’s a lot of hard work to turn that flash into reality on a large scale.
• Where do you find your best inspiration?  Walking through a market looking at ingredients or when I’m running.
• What’s the one piece of advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person? I’m going to leave this to William S. Burroughs “Avoid fuck-ups. We all know the type. Anything they have anything to do with, No matter how good it sounds, Turns into a disaster.”
• Who would you like most to hear speak at a conference? Mike Watt.
• What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done? I got married young, and subsequently divorced not long after.
• What did you learn from your most memorable failure? That the little voice in your head is usually right.
• What’s your one guilty indulgence? Those borderline tabloid New York food blogs ie. Eater, Grub Street….
• What are you reading these days? Tiger by John Vaillant. Consequently not going to the Siberian Taiga anytime soon…..
• What fact about you would surprise people? That I was in a punk band in high school called Spent Load.
• How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned for your future when you were a sixth grader? I honestly don’t know if I had a clue what I wanted out of life when I was in the sixth grade. I was pretty much looking ahead to high school with terror/dread and wondering what sex was like.
• How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger? I make food happen in various places for all kinds of different people.
• What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)? How to make a Swiss meringue.
• If you had a magic wand, where would you be in five years? I don’t believe in magic wands, but if I have my way I‘ll be cranking out amazing food in both the catering realm and in a busy restaurant.
• What keeps you awake at night? Fear and self loathing.
• If you could interview anyone living or dead, but not a celebrity, who would it be and why? I would probably interview my grandparents on my dad’s side, who I never had the chance to meet. I think it would help me understand my dad and myself a little bit more.
• If you could do anything now, what would you do? Play more music. I’ve been so focused on work lately that my guitar has developed a nice layer of dust on it.
• Where was the last place you travelled? New Orleans for work.
• What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life? How many rich experiences cooking would give me.
• Where is your favourite place to escape? Sleep.
• What was the best advice you were ever given? Put your head down and work.
• What practices, rituals or habits contribute to your work? Sharp knives, lists and deep breaths.
• When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck? Have a glass of whiskey and look at The Flavor Bible (or its earlier incarnation Culinary Artistry). Solid gold. You can start with any ingredient you want and go in a million directions.
• If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them? Read.
• What has been one of your biggest Ah ha! moments in life? Travelling throughout Italy a couple of years ago was filled with them. Fried anchovies in Liguria, all’Amatriciana in Rome, pizza in Naples……could go on and on.

Who do you think we should interview next? Email your suggestions to info@foodists.ca.

Foodists.ca founders Mark Busse and Ben Garfinkel meet Food Network celebrity chef, author and television host, Roger Mooking and discuss his career in the exciting setting of D Original Sausage Factory.

Maybe you caught the Q&A with Roger Mooking on this recent post, or the latest video in which Mark and Ben interview him in our favourite underground sausage making facility, D-Original?

Well, if either of those leave you feeling like you need more Mooking action, this is the contest for you. Roger kindly signed a copy of his latest cookbook Everyday Exotic for one lucky Foodists fan.

Everyday Exotic features some not-so-traditional ingredients in traditional dishes. The concept being that once you learn to master the ingredient, it will become “obedient”. I like how recipes are clustered around more than 50 of these ingredients. A great way to expand your daily meal horizons I’d say.

To enter, post the following on Twitter (one entry per tweet):

@RogerMooking takes a turn for the wurst. Enter to win a signed copy of Roger’s cookbook Everyday Exotic from @Foodists—http://t.co/SSt0JEf4

We’ll draw one winner on January 3, 2012.

My friend Sean and I made our first batch of fruitcake in 1995; I was 16 and he was 17 years old. It started as a joke. See, we had this theory that nobody actually ate fruitcake, they just hung onto it for a while and eventually re-gifted it. We wanted to see how long it would take before we got one of our own fruitcakes back, so we set about making some. Our plan backfired horribly for two reasons: It turns out that people not only eat our fruitcake, they freaking love it. Also, people assumed that since we make fruit cake we must also love fruit cake (not true, folks!) and they’ve started gifting us with fruitcakes of their own.

We knew so little about fruitcake making that first year. And, we were terrible at math. We drastically overestimated the quantities of ingredients we’d need, and schlepped about a three year supply home from the local grocery store. It’s a good thing that fruit cake ingredients practically never go bad.

We made mistakes nearly every year. The first year, we didn’t know that there was such a thing as ‘candied citrus peel’, so we spent ages peeling lemons, grapefruits, and oranges and tossed the peel into our fruitcake batter. The cakes were slightly bitter, but people loved them. One year we accidentally dropped an entire egg into the whirling food processor, shell and all. We stopped and tried picking out the fragments of shell, then looked at each other, shrugged, and turned the machine back on. The recipe calls for grape or pineapple juice, but we always used whatever kind of juice we found in Sean’s mom’s fridge (though we did draw the line, after serious consideration,  at using tomato juice). You’re supposed to wash and then dry the raisins and currants, a process which takes hours. We may have done this twice and then gave it up. Apparently you’re supposed to make fruitcake months in advance and let them cure; we’ve made them as late as December 23^rd. People loved every single one of those cakes.

In the early years fruitcake production took us close to an entire day. But we’ve become older, wiser, better, and more efficient at making fruit cake. We’ve switched to buying the ingredients in exact amounts at a local bulk food store. We’ve switched from cutting up and buttering brown paper bags to parchment paper. We’ve discovered pre-chopped dates! We know our respective jobs well, so we set out a giant “Make Love, Not Fruitcake” button on the counter, and get going. We’ve got this thing down to a science and can now churn out a double batch of fruitcake (yielding about 20 cakes) in a matter of a couple of hours (not including cooking time).

A few years in (once we had both reached legal drinking age, of course) we decided it was time to start soaking our fruitcakes in brandy. We bought the cheapest brandy we could get our hands on and worked like this: one for the fruit cake, one for Sean, one for the fruitcake, one for me. On one thoroughly brandy soaked taxi ride home I attempted to tip my cabbie with a fruitcake. He awkwardly declined.

The only year since we started making fruitcake that we didn’t make any was in 1999, when I was living in New Zealand and Sean decided he wasn’t going to make fruit cake without me. The people were massively disappointed, so the next year we upped to a double batch and have made a double batch every year since. Now, since I’ve moved to Sweden making fruitcake has become a bit of a logistical problem and I’m sorry to say that unlike last year when we were organized enough to make them while I was in Vancouver in August, this year it didn’t work out. It’s entirely my fault; I was only in Vancouver for brief moment this summer for my sister’s wedding, and I didn’t get around to organizing fruit cake day. I emailed Sean to see what he was going to do about fruitcake this year and he replied, sadly, that for the first time ever he’d do it alone, but  he’d only be making  a single batch this year.

I got a text from Sean yesterday letting me know that the fruitcakes were done, and he was going to take a fruit cake round to my dad, a fervent fruitcake fan. To appreciate the sweetness of this gesture you need to know that Sean and my father, who Sean used to call (to his face) ‘Oscar the Grouch’ had a bit of a tumultuous relationship over the years. Sean, one of my oldest friends, used to drive my father around the bend torturing our family dog, making my little sister cry, and dressing up as my dad, among other things. And now, all these years later, he’s making the effort to take a fruit cake to my father. And that is what it’s all about, folks. It turns out all this time we have, in fact, made love, not fruitcake.

Happy Holidays.

Aging cocktails isn’t a new technique—in fact it used to be the norm a century ago—but only in recent years has aging cocktails in oak barrels made a come back in Europe and the US—even the New Times is talking about it.

London bartender extraordinaire Tony Conigliaro kicked off the trend a couple years ago, but it was Portland’s Jeffrey Morgethaler (Clyde Common) who made the practise mainstream in the US, followed by restaurants and bars across the US. Curiously, I’ve not seen the trend much locally, with notable exceptions being L’Abbatoir in Vancouver (love that place) and Liberty in Seattle.

But why wait for overpriced bars when you can barrel age your own cocktails at home?

I recently got to meet and enjoy a barrel aged cocktail made by Grey Goose‘s global brand ambassador Dimi Lezinska. Seeing how interested I was in how he had used an oak barrel to enhance my Negronski (a version of Negroni made with vodka instead of gin), he gave me some pointers on how to age cocktails at home and generously gave me the French oak barrel he had used.

The technique is pretty simple really. Using spirit-based cocktails that don’t contain ingredients that spoil, you pre-mix the cocktail to your taste and let it rest in an oak barrel for between a couple weeks to as long as a couple of months. ”My advice is to make the cocktail the way you like it first,” instructed Dimi, “then after some time in the oak, store it in a nice glass bottle and it will only get better with time.”

Lezinska says the length of time depends on the type of spirit you use, the flavour profile you’re after, and how many times the barrel has been used previously. But in the end it’s really up to your taste, so keep a baseline (un-oaked) and taste to compare often.

According to this article where Jeffrey Morgenthaler explains his approach, the alcohol extracts colour and flavour from the oak over time, and an oxidation process occurs through the oak, while the constituent parts themselves meld together, creating a more harmonious elixir. Beyond the nuttiness one might expect from wood, the oak adds notes of caramel and vanilla, and if you patiently leave the cocktail in the bottle for more weeks or months (this is the part I struggle with) the aging process continues, resulting in a mellow and smooth cocktail with softer mouthfeel.

Now tell me you aren’t dying to do this yourself, right?

Barrel-Aged Negroni

For our first foray into the barrel aging, I assembled a core group of Foodists members who appreciate a finely-crafted cocktail (or three) and we agreed to start with a classic Negroni (equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and bitters). After a long debate over the brand of each ingredient, we settled on Plymouth gin, Vya sweet vermouth and Campari.

We all met at Foodists headquarters one Saturday afternoon and fiddled with proportions (not quite equal parts as is the convention) until we all agreed with had the perfect Negroni. Into the barrel it went. Note: a funnel works much better for this than tin-foil. Just sayin’.

After a couple weeks we decided it already had enough “oakiness” (Lezinska warned us that French oak had stronger flavours that American oak) and, after a pass through a sieve to remove any bits from the barrel, into bottles it went. Of course we had to have one on bottling day to celebrate!

I’ve been enjoying outstanding Negronis at home for the past two months and it tastes better every time.

Barrel-Aged Manhattan

After the success of our first attempt, we decided to try something that would be complemented by the residual flavours left in the barrel—a classic rye Manhattan. For the next three weeks we literally referred to it as “The Manhattan Project”. Nerdy, right?

After more heated debate over ingredients, we landed on (rî)1 Rye (otherwise known as Rye-one or R1 Whiskey) and Carpano Antica Vermouth, opting to skip adding any maraschino liquor or bitters prior to aging, deciding to leave that as a finishing choice based on personal preference. (Note: I personally love a dash of orange bitters and a brandied cherry in mine. Yum.)

Because the base spirit in a Manhattan is already barrel aged, we left our cocktail in the barrel for a couple more weeks than the first batch, testing it every few days until we detected the tell-tale woody notes of caramel and vanilla.

Of course we had to try some immediately. Absolutely delicious and better each week since.

What’s Next For Our Little Barrel?

We recently starting our third batch of barrel-aged cocktails, going back to the classic Negroni (we’re all basically out already!). This time we’re using Beefeater Gin and Campari, but using the more herbaceous Punt E Mes sweet vermouth for more bitter notes. The plan is to leave it on oak even longer for added flavour depth. Wish us luck!

In the end we all realized something important about these cocktail experiments. With all the fussy over ingredients, proportions, and time in the barrel, it mattered little how close we came to creating the perfect cocktail mix or what enhancements we added during the oak barrel aging process. The “perfect cocktail” for us happened when we Foodists gathered around our little barrel and raised a glass of our cocktail creations, knowing it would only get better in time left in the bottle.

Have you tried oak barrel aging cocktails at home? Got any tips for us?

You’re either a wine person or you’re going to be one. When you start out, you might be less inclined to spend the big money on a single bottle of wine because, well, you don’t get what makes a wine better than any other (or, you are under austerity measures). The next step might be applying the thinking that as the dollar value goes up, so does the quality. Certainly, if you go on the notion that the more commonly famous wine regions of the world command a premium, you will pay one, but there are places that can produce superlative wines more economically due to labour rates and many other factors.

Can you spot a wine bargain? Are you one of those people who hopes like hell the random liquor store clerk actually knows a thing or two more than you do when you ask for something around $15? Natalie MacLean’s going to set you right. And tell you a yarn while doing so. Recently named the World’s Best Drink Writer at the World Food Media Awards, she’s devoted herself to nosing around the globe to find good wines at bargain prices. Regardless of your ability to afford a $2,000 bottle of Bordeaux, she’ll slough off some of her frugal roots and steer you clear of that rabbit hole.

If you’re in Vancouver this coming Monday, November 21, you can go meet Natalie in person. She’ll be sharing her wisdom over wine and cheese pairings at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, and reading from her latest book, Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines.

We have a copy of her book to give away. Just comment on what your ‘go to’ bargain wine (varietal, brand, etc) is and how that came to be. We’ll pick a random winner from all the comments we receive. Book prize will be available for pick up from Foodists.ca headquarters!

Increasingly we’re asked by food industry folks to interview them for this site, which is an honour and appreciated, and fun (the reason why we do this!). Such was the case when Food Network celebrity chef Roger Mooking called, saying he was in town to promote his new cookbook “Everyday Exotic”, and keen to chat on camera. Of course we couldn’t say no!

Thankfully, our trusty video team of Nathan and Ryan were both conveniently available, as was our friend Drews at D-Original Sausage who offered his location as an interesting backdrop for our interview. So, with very little time to prepare pithy interview questions with which to grill Mooking, former member of the R&B group Bass is Base and host of Everyday Exotic and Heat Seekers, we met last Saturday afternoon and had some fun together—while eating some delicious D-Original Sausage of course.

Here are a selection of photos from the shoot:

The edited video of our interview is available on the Foodists video page, and we’re running a contest to giveaway a signed copy of Mooking’s cookbook, but in the meantime we can share some answers to some questions we borrowed from our friends at CreativeMornings and Scout Magazine. Check it out:

• How do you define creativity and apply it in your career? Creativity is the ability to transform an idea into something that can be perceived in time and space.  I create things.
• Where do you find your best creative inspiration? No specific place. Inspiration strikes anywhere and any time. Always strike back.
• What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person? I’m still a young person.
• Who would you like most to hear speak at a conference? Bob Marley.
• What did you learn from your most memorable creative failure? Creating anything is always a success. Making an idea into something that can be appreciated or hated is success in its purest form.
• What’s your one guilty creative indulgence? The ability to afford the free time to think and nurture ideas is my greatest indulgence.
• What are you reading these days? NY Times, Twitter feeds, Kahlil Gibran, Dr Seuss.
• What fact about you would surprise people? My toilet paper always goes over.
• How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned for your future when you were a sixth grader? There are opportunities for Chefs today that didn’t exist with the frequency that it does now.  I knew I would be cooking but I never imagined I could cook, make music and create so many things under one career umbrella.
• How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger? I entertain people.
• What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)? It’s hard to find Tamarind in Calgary.
• If you had a magic wand, where would you be in five years? Wherever I am needed.
• What keeps you awake at night? Kids.
• Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you? My grandmother gave me many many lessons that I remember every single day. She was the first person to show me how to rinse my nasal passages with salted water to remove toxins, allergens, etc…way before the netty pot. I always told her she should have marketed that idea. Oh well, I know the truth.
• If you could interview anyone living or dead, but not a celebrity, who would it be and why? Lao Tse.
• If you could do anything now, what would you do? Teleport out of this plane and into my living room.
• Where was the last place you travelled? Vancouver, BC.
• What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life? The sex of my kids at birth.
• Where is your favorite place to escape? My car.
• What was the best advice you were ever given? All things in moderation.
• What practices, rituals or habits contribute to your creative work? Ritual stifles creativity in my world.
• When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck? Clear the mind, breathe, relax.
• If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them? Sleep.
• What are three things about Toronto that make you want to live there? The most beautiful women on the planet, the diversity of the food, and summer in Toronto is unstoppable.
• What are three things that Toronto doesn’t have but should? Better street food.
• Name the thing that you eat that is bad for you that you will never stop eating? Pork
• Your favourite sound? Low rumbling loud ass bass.
• Your least favourite sound? Anything with Taylor Swift.
• Your favourite smells? Garlic and onions sauteing in a pan.
• Your least favourite smells? Rotten meat.
• Your go to, no-frills place for dinner? A ghetto little Pho spot near my house.
• If you could board a plane this afternoon, where would it be taking you? Home.
• The three books that you read that made an impact on you in your formative years? The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Revolutionary Suicide. Tao Te Ching.
• Who’s style do you covet? No one.
• Where was the last place you traveled to for work or pleasure? Vancouver and before that Calgary. Book tour.
• Where did you go to school? Edmonton Alberta. College at George Brown College in Toronto.
• The strangest talent that you possess? I can fit my entire hand in my mouth. It’s great at parties.
• Your three favourite films? Apocalypse Now. The Usual Suspects. Roots.
• Television show that you could tolerate re-runs of? Married With Children. Star Trek Next Generation.
• Your major character flaw? I’m very impatient. Learning to master this.
• The character flaw in others that you can’t abide? Lying.
• How do you know when you can trust someone? You don’t it is always a leap of faith.
• What is the best thing about your work? It lives in chaos.
• What is the worst thing about your work? It lives in chaos.
• The talent that you wish you possessed? The ability to draw.
• What are you listening to as you answer these questions? The fan in the background.
• What is the game that you’re best at? Winning.
• What is the one animal that scares you the most? Bears.
• If you had a motto, what would it be? Spread Love.
• Have you ever fired a gun? Yup.
• The thing that makes you the happiest? Waking up with my kids and wife in bed.
• The thing that makes you the angriest? Betrayal.
• Your first memory? Sleeping on the floor of my classroom while the whole class recited the alphabet from their desks.
• The first album that made you love music? Simon and Garfunkel.
• Three songs that you could listen to on repeat for an hour? I do this often, and there are many.
• The one place that you have the least interest in ever visiting? Europe.
• The best way to die? In your sleep.
• The song that you want played at your funeral? Another One Bites the Dust.

Who do you think we should interview next? Email your suggestions to info@foodists.ca.

For most of us, the closest we get to a whole octopus is through the glass at the aquarium.

The Butchers of Gastown (BOG) is all about sharing in the sourcing of a whole beast (or beasts), learning how to take them apart and then making a feast fit for kings with little to no waste. Sharing being the operative word here, though limited to only maybe a handful of Foodists at each event, video has become the window we can let everyone partake (not as tasty we realize).

Our first BOG was ambitious, a whole hog. I’m not kidding when I say we were at it well over 15 hours after all was said and done. Number two was a more modest eight or so hours as our lamb was much smaller than the pig. Our most recent, seafood edition, clocked in at something like 14 hours if you include the early morning beach and supermarket foraging. That’s a lot of footage to shoot and then edit down into a neat ten or less minutes. In limited space, with a crowd of eager, knife-wielding Foodists, the action unfolds quickly and is often not repeatable (once you’ve cut the head off certain beasts, that’s it, there’s no staging a second shot).

Our go-to guys for this are Nathan and Ryan. Talented and so dedicated to their craft they barely get to sample the melée they are recording. And that’s not even counting the editing. Creating a cohesive and engaging story out of the chaos is a massive load of work indeed. Work that does not go unappreciated by any means.

So, our hats off and knives out to them as we celebrate and share the latest in our ongoing series, Butchers of Gastown…

The Butchers of Gastown III: Seafood Edition

Check out other fun Foodists videos on Vimeo and stay tuned for more upcoming videos soon! Have a great idea for a Foodists video? Share with us below!

It’s almost inevitable that at some point in the career of an Asian chef, one faces the big decision: MSG—To use? Or not to use? In some Asian countries, such as Thailand where I come from, it’s not uncommon to find a bag of Ajinomoto, the common household brand of MSG, in the pantry. And you just add it like you would salt.

Monosodium Glutamate, at first sight, looks like sugar or salt. Upon closer inspection, you will notice that each grain is like a tiny stick—long and slim. When you taste it straight up it’s kind of salty…but then it’s also a little sweet, with a presence of that je ne sais quoi that prevents you from eating just one piece of Doritos, which of course, contains MSG. Most Thai and Chinese restaurants here in SF order it in 50lb sacks. It’s like an added assurance for good, addictive flavor. As a Thai chef, I am faced with many questions: is that cheating? Is it bad for you? Does it really make a big difference?

I see many diners turn away when they find out that the restaurant uses MSG, thinking that it’s going to give them cancer, a headache, or maybe green spots on their arms…I’m not sure, I’ve had many people report so many different reactions to MSG it’s kind of fascinating. I personally find that in very large amounts, it makes me feel insatiably thirsty and leaves kind of a numb, worn-out feeling on my tongue. But other than that it’s fine. On Food Detective, a Food Network show, an experiment was conducted and they discovered that MSG side effects are actually placebo—they only happen when diners who claim to be sensitive to MSG were told (falsely) that there is MSG in the food. No studies have proven that MSG, in the normal amounts that are used in food at least, is bad for you, which is why it remains a legal food additive worldwide.

When you are in the Asian restaurant community you hear lots of MSG stories. One was of an old Korean cook who worked in a restaurant that decided to stop adding MSG, but the cook was so unconfident without it that he would sneak it in from home and used it when working. He was just afraid people wouldn’t like his food….it’s kind of cute in my opinion.

A bag of MSG (this one is Ajinomoto, Thai version) you can buy from the store

I am currently working on a menu for new restaurant project with a group of Thai people who have owned Thai restaurants previously and share the same fear that without the magic powder, food wouldn’t be good enough. We went back and forth arguing if we should use MSG until I finally grew tired and said, “Okay, you want me to use MSG? I’ll use it.” So the debate ended. Came food tasting day, as everyone was eating, they asked, “Is there any MSG in these?” To which I said, “No.” They said, “Hmm. Tastes good.” I rest my case.

Now, here is my philosophy behind that belief. I don’t think it’s going to kill me or give people hives; I just think it’s cheating. As a chef, I believe that a true accomplishment is when you take plain, simple, natural ingredients and manipulate them into something wonderful.  An artificial enhancer gives you an excuse to care less about bringing out the best in food, because now you can just cover it up with a false sense of tastiness. Using MSG is like finding out that the really hot girl you’re dating is botoxed and siliconed…

Food should be made of things that are natural. Yes, you can argue that MSG is somewhat natural…because glutamate, the molecule responsible for that tasty effect, occurs naturally in some food such as tomatoes and cheese.  And in fact, the slogan of Ajinomoto in Thailand goes, “Extracted From Natural Ingredients.” But to get the amount of glutamate in a teaspoon of MSG, you’d have to add a pound and a half of cheddar cheese to your dish….which is not something you would ever “naturally” do now, is it?

Having said that I do very much enjoy an MSG-filled bowl of ramen every once in a while, and I’m thankful they exist. It’s just not something I would personally want to be known for.

But I’m curious…what do other foodists think about the use MSG in restaurants?