Bitten: Rotisserie Chicken Part One - Value Brands

For a fast food dinner that still has a semblance of nutritional value, nothing beats the take-out rotisserie chicken. They can be quickly turned into a pie. The carcasses make great stock. But which rotisserie chicken to buy? Fear not, we are here to help. Our first three chickens are from typical neighbourhood sources; Valumart (Loblaws affiliate), Sobey's, and Rabba.

VALUMART- $9.99
Packaging - Dark plastic tray with clear cover. Cardboard wrap forming handles. Lots of storage info labels (one listing the ingredients). Only packaging which leaked.

Appearance - Large, plump bird. Missing a strip of skin across the breast. Not well browned.

Flavour - Innocuous flavour.

Overall Impression - This bird was awash in a sea of juice, which soaked into our reusable bag. A bit fatty, the bird was moist but bland. Too much packaging.

SOBEY'S - $9.99
Packaging - Covered tray with cardboard. Like the Valumart version, this one came with instructions to store the bird under 40F or heat to above 140F.

Appearance - Nicely browned, but the skin was wrinkled.

Flavour - Tastiness is undercut by the dryness of the flesh.

Overall impression - Though the skin was a good colour, everything about this bird pointed to overcooking, compounded by steaming in plastic packaging.

RABBA - $7.99
Packaging - Foil-lined paper bag with no info

Appearance - Noticeably smaller than the other chickens, but still plump. Evenly golden.

Flavour - The wings tasted like celery salt, but the rest of the very moist flesh had the flavour of a classic Sunday-dinner chicken.

Overall Impression - Rabba's no frills, rotisserie chicken was attractive, delicious, and a bargain.

Stay tuned for Bitten Part Two - the Gourmet Grocers!

Dinner at Scaramouche Pasta Bar

We began with Provencal style fish soup with traditional accompaniments of rouille and toasts. This classic, richly flavoured fish soup was highly satisfying. Our second course was a very tender medium rare Kobe beef bavette plated with wilted treviso, French green beans red wine butter. Simplicity in presentation and taste and just what I needed and wanted. We enjoyed this course with a 2005 Volnay 1r Cru Les Caillerets-Ancienne Cuvee Carnot Bouchard.  

Dessert was almost flourless chocolate cake, served warm with brown butter ice cream and a chocolate tuille. We also enjoyed a second dessert, lemon meringue tart served with citrus salad and a lemon sorbet. Well, both of those desserts were so enjoyable, we just had to try another, the pecan carrot cake with cream cheese bavarian, praline and red wine syrup reliable. The desserts we enjoyed were exceptionally good.

The Pasta bar is a restaurant of refined simplicity in its approach to cuisine.

Friday Lunch from Petit Thuet

What one pays for lunch is not always commensurate with the quality of said lunch.  In fact, some of our biggest lunchtime disappointments have been the most expensive. Ah, but Petit Thuet, on the other hand, is the proof positive that at least some of the time  you do get what you pay for.

The greatest of the good things that money buys you at Thuet is some of the finest bread in the city. That bread becomes the base for equally excellent sandwiches.  We have written about the lobster sandwich before, but we cannot resist another. Served up on salt-topped pretzel bread roll, the filling has both shreds and chunks of lobster bound with mayo. It squishes out the sides but this is one yummy mess of a sandwich. Turkey /brie arrives on a multigrain roll with a tasty hint of mustard although none is visible. Shreds of lettuce add a discrete texture to counter the buttery brie.

We are sucked in by the handmade marshmallows, falling for white(vanilla), a lemony yellow, pink which tastes of strawberry rather than generic pinkness.  Alas, the supposedly blueberry cube offers little discernible flavour.  They have more body than the poofy industrial marshmallows that dominate the market.  Being women of little resistance when it comes to sweets, we also have to sample the in-est of cookies, the macaroons.  The pink and green apple/caramel variety seems a little gummy, the fresh flavour at odds with the texture.  But the toasty hazelnut version is macaroon perfection.

Finally, as we are about to escape the premises, the gilded lily of croissants beckons.  It turns out to be almond croissant and pain au chocolate residing in one flaky body.  Needless to say we pass the remainder of the afternoon in a hazy stupor.

Price for two sandwiches, four marshmallows, two macaroons, and a croissant: $25.60

Guu Izakaya Restaurant

People who like Japanese food are talking about Guu, the Japanese chain of izakaya restaurants. There is a big buzz because it is difficult to get a table because of the restaurant's no reservations policy. Knowing this in advance, I was at the restaurant promptly at 5pm. It was closed, and although they advise that they opened at 5pm, the doors did not open until 5:15pm. By that time there were 10 of us waiting.  Even then, we were only allowed in one party at a time and there was about a 4 to 5 minute wait between entrances, all accompanied by multiple wild yellings of Japanese greetings. So, what is the fuss about? Is it worth the trouble of the wait?

On entering the restaurant, I was greeted by the usual yelled greetings from the kitchen staff and escorted to a communal table where a daily specials menu and a routine a la carte menu were presented. Throughout the meal the kitchen or wait staff would go about their ruckus outbursts on the occasions of people coming in, going, or the service of some special dish. This initially made for a fun but noisy dinner which eventually wore our patience thin. We ordered a daiginjo saki ("life is too short to drink cheap wine") which turned out to be pleasantly floral and delicate. The perfect complement to very fresh raw fish.

We began with exceptionally fresh and sweet Hokkaido scallops with a mild wasabi dressing. This was my favourite dish of the evening!

Our following dish was another favourite, salmon natto yukke: chopped salmon sashimi with a chopped melange of natto (fermented soybeans), shibuzake (pickled eggplant), takuan (pickled daikon radish), chopped cucumber, winton chips, garlic chips, green onion and a raw egg, to be eaten with rectangular nori (seaweed) strips. This dish was nicely presented with each ingredient separated in a bowl. Then, the waiter chopped and mixed everything together into a colourful but gooey mass, to be eaten with the nori. For those of you unfamiliar with natto, the fermented soybeans have an unfamiliar but strong flavour, are very slimy to the touch, and are covered with a clear slime......not very appetizing, but very tasty to me and many Japanese.

A course of ama ebi, sweet cold water shrimp and uni, sea urchin followed. both were very good. most of the sea urchin was fresh, but 2 pieces were "melted" somewhat and somewhat less than fresh.

A very fresh octopus "carpaccio" was served with a highly complementary and mildly tarte yuzu ( a cross in taste between yellow grapefruit and mild mandarin orange) and wasabi sauce, beautifully presented with chopped scallion and topped with thinly sliced daikon radish and seaweed. This was my second favourite dish.

A tough textured grilled beef tongue with salt followed. tongue should be very tender so this dish was disappointing.  Then, grilled pork cheek with salt and yuzu pepper followed, and the texture was as it should be. A good dish, but the restaurant does better with it's seafood courses.

Our next course was oyster kakimayo, grilled with spinach, garlic mayo and cheese. This was a satisfying combination of flavours.

We also liked the salt and pepper grilled short ribs, which were very tender and came with a flattering green onion sauce.

The following course, grilled whole surume squid with schichimi pepper ( a Japanese melange of several ingredients, principally ground red chili pepper, and then smaller amounts of ground madarin orange or yuzu peel, ground poppy and sesame seeds and ginger). Unfortunately the squid was a bit overcooked and dried out.

Our next dish was a very tasty piece of nicely grilled black cod with saikyo miso, white wine sauce. One can't go wrong with this course if you enjoy a piece of grilled fish.

Our dessert was a delicious and wonderfully creamy custard of almond tofu with cinnamon and nutmeg flavoured pumpkin cheesecake. we loved the dessert!

So, was it worth waiting in line for? If you only have to wait for 15 minutes, yes, but a long wait would not be worth it.

Perry Street Restaurant, New York.

This new retaurant by Chef Jean George Vongerichten is located in the Meat Packing District in a building by architect Richard Meier. The ovens are manned by his chef son. For my lunch, the standout dish was a wonderful lime flavoured chicken broth with perfectly cooked and firm, bight sized pieces of heirloom carrots, yellow, purple and orange as well as croutons, radish, dill, avocado and celery. A delight for both the eyes and the palate!

Friday Lunch from Tim Horton's

With the Vancouver Winter Olympics beginning, it is time to show our patriotism. Foodwise, nothing is more patriotic than a lunch from Tim Horton's.

Short on chunks of chicken, light on flavour, Tim’s chicken noodle soup is still comforting on an icy winter day. Full of bow tie noodles, and bright with reconstituted carrots, peas, and herbs, it’s heat and colour offer the warmth of nostalgia.

We also try two sandwiches. The rolls are decent, probably of the frozen dough baked on the premises genre and the lettuce on both is romaine rather than iceberg. Those two things alone are enough to lift them into the better fast food sandwich level. Alas, with spongy tasteless chicken, the club sandwich relies entirely on honey cup mustard for flavour. What it loses in sickly winter tomatoes, the BLT makes up for with a load of crinkly bacon and just enough mayo to hold the hold the whole thing together.

Dessert? Doughnuts, of course. Both the eggy French cruller and the maple cream are hits. The glaze on the Boston cream is not chocolaty enough to overcome the chemically filling.

Tim’s lunch is not the greatest lunch. It is, however, good value for money--and more satisfying than some more expensive lunches where reach exceeds grasp.

Price: Soup, two sandwiches(one a combo with coffee), and three doughnuts, $15.68.