Adventures in the Spice Market Pt. 5: The Event

Game Day!!!


My day started at 8 AM. Mincing, chopping and frying, and squeezing oh so many limes. I think the count was 14, and I still had to send my wife to pick up one of those squeeze bottles of lime juice, sacrilege or not, I wasn't squeezing one more G.D. lime that night. The desserts were done and out of the way the week before as was the dipping sauces. So all that was left was the main, sides and appetizers(oh my). Ah the appetizers...for future reference; in this day and age, people aren't as into the public eating of fried foods as they use to be, let alone wheat, meat, and heat. So deep fried samosas and spring rolls didn't go over so well with the folks. Although my adventurous friend Michael gave them and the Galangal Emulsion the thumbs up. I didn't mind much since I had these wonderful treats to snack on throughout the week. The Chicken Samosa particularly made me happy.

Onto the sides, The ginger fried rice asked for day old rice which I was happy to accommodate for the day (or two) before. It was such a surprisingly simple dish to make and oh so flavourful that it is now my staple rice dish if I'm in a pinch. The power of slow cooking leeks is undeniable in this dish. The ginger, garlic and fried egg come in to round out the flavour. The lime noodles were tasty, I made the lime syrup the day before, thrown together with some rice noodles and vegetables. I'm sure the vegetarian were pleased with this one. And last was the mango, cherry tomato and long bean salad. I was doubling all the ingredients so that the usual “Serves 4” would accommodate the 8. And although I bought double the vegetables for this salad, I ended up just using the one servings worth, I've made salads before and there's just so much mango and long bean a person will eat. And I didn't need leftover salad taking up fridgespace. It was more than enough.

And as all this was going on my tofu and chicken breast were cooking and blackening away. This was the dish that sparked the event. I needed it to be everything it could be. Biggest lessons learn, double the sauce and lose the kumquats, anything so small with so many seeds should be banned from the kitchen. But all in all, the citrusy sweetness of the kumquat sauce was tasty and I wanted to make “the best chicken” my wife's ever tasted as authentic as a cookbook would let me. Nobody was dissappointed, not even the vegetarians who had my molecularly altered Tofu (frozen, thawed, squeezed, brined, squeezed again and dry rubbed) instead of chicken.

And after a few drinks and great conversation we had the dessert. And you can't go wrong with a chocolate coffee tart and coconut sorbet.

All in all a success, we had a wonderful meal, good wine, great conversation. and all it cost me was a lot of money, a lot of time, two very sore feet and a clean up that wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Bottom line. 8+ dishes is a lot for one man in a small condo with no cupboard space. But with the grace of god and mainly the help of some very wonderful friends washing dishes, feeding me alcohol, giving me an extra hands in the kitchen, serving up dessert as my feet cooled. It all worked out. They were as much the reason the night was a success as was the food. And I thank you all.

So Jean Georges, I salute you for a wonderful excuse for a wonderful evening. I have learned a lot, forgotten much. Feel more confident in asian supermarkets. Have a new love for sriracha, kimchi and shrimp paste, a new resentment for kumquats and freshly squeezed lime juice. And forever fond memories of that afternoon in NYC where the Spice Market Experience was born.

Adventures in The Spice Market Pt 2: The Ingredients

Galangal, Thai Basil, Kaffir Lime Leaves, Shrimp Paste, Fish Sauce, Lemongrass, Tamarind Paste, Shaoxing Wine, Pickled Turnip, Palm Sugar, Vietnamese Coffee. It may surprise you, but most of these ingredients cannot be found at your local Superstore.

Now, Toronto is as multicultural as a city gets so there is no doubt in my mind everything I need is here. But where to find it? I've attempted searching Kensington Market and Chinatown for Galangal in the past with poor results. Kensington had nothing and the chinese markets had no english labels on any of their produce so it was obvious I wasn't there preferred clientele. I'm sure if I asked someone would have helped, but it wasn't a must at the time. I was just tempted to try Tom Yum Soup at home. And I am a bit of a coward when it comes to asking for help.
So I thought for my next attempt, I was going to educate myself on the ingredients as much as possible, what it looks like, what the best quality brands are, AND most importantly, decipher the chinese spelling of the ingredients. Jean-George also gives some brand name suggestions he uses as well as websites to get any obscure ingredients. Here are some sights that came in handy for finding ingredients.

importfood.com - Almost everything Thai food related can be found here.
Kalustyan's - A New York based Asian Spice market that has plenty of imports.
Temple of Thai - Very useful site for putting images to thai brand names.
Thai Table - My personal favorite, full of recipes, images and descriptions of ingredients. A real asset.

As luck would have it though, I live in an amazing part of town. And a T & T Asian market opened up about a 20 min walk from my house. I've been tempted to check it out before but haven't had a reason, well now I do. My first trip there was merely a reconnaissance mission, with my list of obscure ingredients I hit the market to see what they had and didn't have. And to my delight everything was labeled in english as well as Chinese. And to my further delight, everything I needed, except for the good quality Shaoxing Wine was there. Jean-George suggests you don't use the overly salted cooking wine that goes by the same name but if not available, a good quality sherry would do. After searching one of our largest liquor stores for the Shaoxing I decided on the sherry.
But wait!!! What about the vegetarians? Can't be using Fish Sauce and Shrimp Paste on their dishes. What do I do? For this I turned to my library again to find a Thai Vegetarian cookbook called Bhudda's Table by Chat Mingkwan. In which the author points out that Fermented Bean Curd could be used in place of Shrimp paste and Light Soy Sauce (not to be confused with Lite Soy Sauce which is a lower fat version. Light Soy is lighter in colour, but a hell of a lot saltier).

So there I was, in a market full of strange exotic ingredients. What's my next step? Well to really know a cuisine I figured I'd have to play with the ingredients before attempting the recipes on the menu, So my next course of action was to make some Traditional Thai as well as some of the Spice Market dishes to get a better understanding of how and why each ingredient is used.

Adventures in the Spice Market Pt. 1: The Menu

First things first, I needed to decide which dishes I was going to make for the evening. There were certain must that had to be included the Char Grilled Chicken with Kumquat Lemongrass Dressing, the "best chicken I've ever tasted" according to my wife. And I really wanted to make a simple but thoroughly pleasing Ginger Fried Rice, it had a sunnyside egg on top that when cuinto the rice made for an unbelievable yolky rich flavourful side dish.

I would have loved to make the beef skewers for appetizers, but without a vegetarian substitute, felt some of my guests would feel left out so I opted for spring rolls, chicken for the meaties and mushroom for the veggies. As for a vegetarian main, Originally I was going to try to substitute Seitan or Marinated Tofu for one of the fish dishes but then thought why not make my life easier and just do the chicken dish with the Tofu. And for dessert, we had the Ovaltine Kulfi which I found a bit too rich, but we also had a very pleasing dish called Thai Jewels and Fruit w/ Coconut Crushed Ice, which was subtle in sweetness and refreshing at the end of the meal. but I'm sure it wouldn't have been a show stopper for anyone else, so I opted for a tart, but to lighten it up I thought I'd add a scoop of Coconut Sorbet. So here's the final menu.

.

Appetizers

Mushroom Spring Rolls & Chicken Somosas (ended up as Spring Rolls)
with 4 dipping sauces: Nam Prik, Galangal Emulsion, Peanut Sauce and Cilantro-Yogurt Dip
Main
Char-Grilled Chicken Breast w/ Kumquat Lemongrass Dressing
Sides
Ginger Fried Rice
Mango, Cherry Tomatoes & Long Bean Salad
Lime Noodles w/ Vegetables, Basil and Sesame Seeds
Dessert
Chocolate & Vietnamese Coffee Tart
Coconut Sorbet

With the recipes selected, my next task would be the most difficult. Finding the ingredients. Ingredients I've never used and some I have never seen.

Adventures in the Spice Market

In the fall of 2010. My wife and a couple of our friends planned a trip to New York City.

.

Each of us had a chance to pick one activity they would like to do while there so naturally my choice was a culinary experience in NYC. After a bit of research I decided that the Jean-Georges' Spice Market in the meat packing district was a good choice. Originally I considered his namesake restaurant, but heard that it could be a little cramped at times, plus it would be nice to try his Asian fusion menu.

.

I think it's safe to say that everyone was pleased with my selection. The decor was warm and inviting, the waitstaff courteous and professional, and the food...exquisite. We agreed on the Tasting menu. Among the dishes were:

.

• Shaved Tuna with Chile Tapioca, Asian Pear and Lime
• Chili Rubbed Beef Skewers with Thai Basil Dipping Sauce
• Char Grilled Chicken with Kumquat Lemongrass Dressing
• Cod with Malaysian Chili Sauce
• Ginger Fried Rice
• Thai Jewels on Crushed Coconut Ice
• Chocolate and Vietnamese Coffee Tart with Condensed Milk Ice Cream.

.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something but never the less, an unforgettable dining experience. Not to mention the delicious and (literally) intoxicating pitchers of Ginger Margarita's we were drinking, made it a perfect afternoon's feast and a memorable New York experience.

.

As we were leaving the restaurant, I noticed a cookbook in the lobby called Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges . Could all of the miraculous dishes that we tasted be in this beautiful book? If not all, then most seem to be in there. My wife insisted we buy this book, but after dropping so much money on lunch on the first day of our NYC adventure. I thought I'd hold off until we got home to check out the price online.

.

Now, I own a lot of cookbooks; more than my little condo can hold. I've even made my own out of recipes I've gathered out of magazines and websites so the thought of buying another wasn't so appealing to me. So I decided to see if our trusty Toronto Public Library had the book in it's system. It did. I reserved it. And in a matter of days I had the book in my eager little hands free of cost for 3 weeks, no shelf space required. A good way to try out some recipes without committing.

.

Initially I thought I'd just jot down the recipes that we had in NY and see if I could re-recreate them. But with the turning of each page, I found more and more recipes that looked too good to resist. So, bottom line, I ended up typing out 2/3 of the book, with my wife's persistent

urging to "Just buy the dang book!".

.

So with the wealth of recipes, full of ingredients I've never used. How could I justify all that time wasted typing out all these wonderful recipes? Have a dinner party of course. An elaborate Thai fusion dinner party to re-produce the wonderful experience of the Spice Market. I sent out an invite to 8 of my more adventurous friends. And then it dawned on me. I'll be cooking for 10 people. 3 of which are vegetarian, 1 of which has a gluten sensitivity, and at least one that cannot handle excessive heat. What have I gotten myself into?!?!

The odyssey begins.