Archives for August 2004

Dean Allen cooked some duck the other day and wrote about it in his inimitible fashion about 10 days ago in Textism. “Now, for the browning, you’ll need quantity of fat for the pan; oddly enough the ideal fat for browning duck is duckfat. Rendered duckfat is right below butter and cream in the canonical hierarchy of reasons why a fat-free diet is for knobs. I once read some words about how it’s rich in ‘good’ cholesterol and anti-oxidants or something, but it’s so good I’d use the stuff even if it were guaranteed to make your toes turn blue.”

and, like it did for Ed and Martine, it turned into Market day for us. We were up at the Jean Talon Market for quite a while – first we had breakfast at Le Petit Alep, a Syrian place on Jean Talon itself, and then we cut through the SAQ (bought some nice bordeaux on the way through) to get to the market itself.

As Ed says, the market in 2004 is a great thing because it’s pretty much the only place you can get fresh vegetables that were actually grown in soil within 100km of here. But you have to keep your wits about you, because the vendors there aren’t snobs about it – they’ll sell you produce trucked in from California if they have to.

Julia Child, Famous Cook, Dies Aged 91.