Good times in the Village

Well I guess as is quite often the case it depends what you are looking for and sometimes its what comes looking for you and on this evening, it was just amazingly good food.

L'Artusi sits on W10th between Bleecker and Hudson in the Village.

An interesting place with darkened windows that you would walk past without knowing that inside there is a fab restaurant on two levels, with amazing food, fabulously friendly service, with an interesting wine list that is delivered by regions reflecting Italy, with way too many bottles in triple digit prices as probably my only real criticism.

The menu is broken out into four sections that represent appetisers, pasta, fish and some mains.
We chose to dine in my particular fashion, which was to share plates and graze.
We ordered 4 plates and the first two that arrived excelled.
A simple wagyu beef carpaccio, beautifully marbled, expertly sliced, with a lovely dressing of olive oil and a very light horseradish cream, with a sprinkling mix of extremely finely diced scallions which provide some nice textural difference and even more so the crunchy tiny pieces of crispbread.
We received that dish at the same time as an heirloom tomato salad with a variety of both beefsteaks and cherry tomatoes and cubes of watermelon, with crispy croutons and pieces of basil leaf, drizzled with a very tasty first press EVOO, all sitting on what I initially believed to be slices of toasted bread. Surprise, its slabs of nicely braised pork belly that one assumes has then crisped up to provide another layer of texture and taste. Sweet tomatoes, salty delicious pork belly, sweet watermelon cubes.... there I was thinking it would be nice to have burrata with my heirloom tomato sald and instead I get blown out of the water by a totally unexpected combo.
Next up was the bucatini with a pomodoro sauce with crispy pancetta.
I love bucatini and its not served in restaurants as often as I would like to see, so we had to have it and what a joy of beautiful al-dente goodness served with a nicely reduced, slightly spicy tomato sauce with just the right amount of diced crispy pancetta and onions.
Thus far we were doing so well, I was getting concerned. The Barbera we had ordered, a wonderful red chosen by my dining companion was an excellent complement and we didn't have to wait long before our final dish was delivered.
A very nice medium rare flat-iron steak, sliced into chunks of perfectness, served with oven roasted potatoes (almost roast potato heaven) and a new condiment for me in their salsa bianco. On first blush, I had thought maybe it was that beautiful ricotta that they had served us at the very start of the meal with salty brown soft crackers; however it was a mixture of creme fraiche, horseradish, finely diced pickled shallots and salt, that was the perfect accompaniment to those sublimely fabulous roast potatoes.
The combination is just an amazingly good one that had us thrillled and truly impressed.
Again what a wonderful combination.
We decided not to have dessert despite the very attractive choices; however we were delivered a single scoop of an intensely flavoured lemon gelato with an amaretto cookie that had aspects of a chewy macaroon; yet still cookie like, providing a lovely finish.
Eating out with regularly, its pretty easy for one's palate to get jaded; however the choices at L'Artusi as simple as they seem are so well executed, and delivered with such poise that their simple elegance, as served will speak very clearly for themselves. It didn't harm the overall experience to have wonderful service delivered by a young pleasant part time dancer that served us.
This place receives 4.5 forks out of 5! Why not 5, you might ask, quite simply they need to offer more well priced wines, rather than the large number of triple digit dollar bottles on offer.
http://lartusi.com/

By Grazor on Sep 13, 2011 06:55AM

The Emperors "Urns" Naught _ June 15th

Yesterday morning, as I was looking at the market trying to divine the tea-leaves that represents the various information that provides guidance, I was torn between spending anymore time on understanding what's going on in Europe and the impact on rates with both the US and Canadian 10Y benchmarks sitting around 3.00%.

The geopolitical jitters (handy understatement I might add) that represent our current global markets are understandably scary.

Let's step back and look at China first, as the China Rising story has been a most pervasive one over the years. Many economists had generally accepted, acknowledged, or challenged that Chinese consumption would help propagate global growth and lead us all out of the great crisis.

While the Chinese have been consuming, they have increasingly started to run into their own problems, from drought in some parts to flooding in others, energy issues, and most recently China Uprising, than just Rising, as protests against government which have traditionally been focused in agricultural areas, has increasingly found its way into urban centres.
China's economy is overheating and that is especially clear as inflation starts to increase and the Chinese "command" economy seems to have less command about it. In recent times there's been a wide number of rate increases to stem that inflationary growth, and suddenly with substantive issues of their own to deal with the Chinese Rising can no longer be the saviour of choice.

In North America, the promise of the US continues to be failed and flawed, even as the GOP and the incumbent Administration stare each other down on the budget ceiling, and what to do as the next supporting act in what has been a jobless recovery. The US seems intent on focusing much if not all of its resources into the financial services area while ignoring the evident need in the more general area of small business and infrastructure projects that can help propel immediate growth, consumption and numerous multiplier effects for the US economy.

In Canada despite our avoidance of the same extent of damage as our partners south of the 49th parallel, we are saddled with some of the same challenges, though in typical fashion it represents only a small percentage of what the US is experiencing. Ultimately we are still joined at the hip with our US neighbour and as such their fate and pours are inextricably linked as our largest partner.

This brings us around to Europe and the picture is an unusually bleak one, with problems continually being kicked further down the road as with Greece; but back to that "ugly" in a moment. Let's however take a pulse check for the rest of Europe and the fiat Euro (reasonably true of all the major currencies).

Recent elections in Spain and Portugal has trounced the incumbents sending a clear message that austerity is not a pill that joe public is williing to swallow, a reaction we have already observed in Ireland, as the public increasingly understands that they are being asked to bear the burden of bad risk management oversight at banks, in turn being bailed out by their governments.
In Italy the population is increasingly tired of Berlusconi and his antics and 4 recent referenda, that his party had encouraged voters not to turn out to vote for, ended up with overwhelming turnout with votes in favour of those referenda, indicating the increasingly turning tide against him and his party.

Getting back to the real big issue however, which is Greece currently and over the preceeding 18 months.

German Finance Minister Schaeuble on one side and ECB's Trichet on the other and the IMF, Rating Agencies, and Investors on the sidelines watching intently. Greece two days back had four of its banks rating reduced to CCC, something I wasn't aware was a rating in all honesty. Understandably its prospects continue to worsen as the market through credit default swaps is assigning a 50% default probability to Greece/Greek debt.

In the Germany- ECB standoff, the former has suggested that it would be acceptable to have what many would term a default event without breaking the back of the Europe, with Trichet adamant that it cannot happen and that's it would possibly refuse Geek debt as collateral, with the IMF indicating unless a plan is agreed upon for resolving Greek finances of over next 12 months, then even part of the original Euro package agreed upon last year might not be forthcoming.

*****Germany with Bundesbank President Says Euro Could Withstand Greek Default
2011-06-12 12:46:25.692 GMT - By Richard Weiss
June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann raised the pressure on governments to agree to a Greek bailout
without the European Central Bank taking part in easing the country's debt burden, saying the euro can withstand a default. [Source: Bloomberg]

*****Trichet 'Holding a Gun to Own Head' on Greece: Chart of the Day - 2011-06-12 23:00:01.0 GMT - By Matthew Brown and Keith Jenkins
June 13 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank is playing a "high stakes game of chicken" with Germany by threatening to
disqualify Greek debt as collateral in the event of a bond restructuring, according to Baring Asset Management. [Source: Bloomberg]

******ECB-German Standoff Risks Damage That May Force Compromise
2011-06-13 07:57:22.33 GMT (By James Hertling and Jonathan Stearns June 13 (Bloomberg) -- The confrontation between the European Central Bank and Germany over bailing out Greece risks causing so much damage that officials may be forced to compromise.
"The balance of forces in the euro zone is a little like it was in the Cold War: both sides are brandishing deterrents that would be too horrendous to use," said Philip Whyte, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London. "It's all going to turn on whether you can fiddle with
debt maturities without calling it a credit event." [Source: Bloomberg]


Is this scary enough for you? Europe burns and the would be emperors at the ECB, the IMF and Germany fiddle different tunes.


Who said the revolution would not be televised.

Good luck out there...we need some!

Democracy & Hypocrisy or the New Imperialism

Lying in bed this morning listening to the local talk station, I was reminded of how much hypocrisy we are surrounded by an subjugated to in all its myriad forms.

Globally my disappointment is increasing and in particular with the recent actions of the current incumbent in the seat of power, in his latest undertaking in Libya, sanctioned by the UN and led by the US.

That there is a civil war unfolding is unquestionable and while no one wants to see another Rwanda (my basic understanding suggests that this is neither tribal or religious divisions driving the situation; but social & political), its so terribly disingenuous to suggest its in the name of democracy rather than simply securing a major source of desperately needed light sweet crude -OIL-.

The supposed desire to create change in a form that reflects western ideals through the democratic process is very laughable, almost cynical, and smacks of terrible idealism or reckless stupidity bordering on cunning. the cynical view however might suggest simply anew imperialism as President Obama continues a not too different policy approach in the Middle East theatre to his predecessors.

If it was truly the case that the democratic process was respected or revered as a way forward in the Middle East and North Africa then in all likelihood Hamas would be the recognized power in Palestine back in 2006, as they won that"democratic" elections; but was selectively ignored by the West as not suitable in character or ideology even if "democratically elected".


On our own doorstep here in Canada, in my absence an election was called (ok so they didn't need my approval) and interestingly enough of the 5 parties that Elections Canada subsidizes, only four will have an opportunity to use the media platform in the upcoming debates.

Simply put, the media in Canada is deciding for the electorate who they can and cannot hear from and essentially limiting possibilities. Where the hell is Elections Canada and its mandate as Broadcast Arbitrator,and who gave the media the right to make that kind of presumptuous decision. The ah- in apathy towards this upcoming election couldn't be more evident.

Worst still is that none of the parties have anything terribly interesting to say as they increasingly move more towards US style attack ad tactics, where the clear lack of substance is so palpable that the opportunity to clip ones toenails might be deemed infinitely more enjoyable.

Unfortunately it doesn't end there as the next item on the news was of the new Toronto Mayor scrapping some long thought out plans on a general transportation strategy for the GTA and introducing his own plan. While a transportation strategy in itself is a great idea, I always understood substantial strategies of that nature with its wider implications would have the consultation of the people's chosen representatives i.e. the duly elected Councillors chosen by the electorate.
What the hell has happened to democracy and why is so much of its replacement, hypocrisy, not been challenged more so?

Foodies, Bloggers, Life!

I recently finished my eighth course at George Brown College in Toronto in Culinary Arts, with one more to take to complete my Culinary Arts certification.

This is a matter of personal pride and also an amazing journey over the last couple of years,with Saturday or Sunday afternoons or for that matter Saturday morning jaunts into Toronto to attend class.


The journey has provided me with a huge amount of enjoyment, knowledge and joy along the way. I have made some good new friends and acquaintances and really learnt to appreciate some of the Chefs teaching at GBC. I have yet to have a bad experience.
The stern but immensely likeable Anne-Marie S., Frank T. the friendly giant, Patrick J. with his deadpan delivery of his jokes, Gerry M. with his enthusiasm, and the very animated and very funny Ian D. A really wonderful group of teachers and Chefs.

I have learnt the elegant simplicity of making pasta from scratch with the amount of variety that portends, agnolotti anyone.

I have confirmed my understanding and expanded my techniques for a number of dishes as well as filleting both flat and round fish and cooking them for their best results, I have also learnt and appreciated how delicate a fish mackerel is to fillet.

A fully de-boned chicken, stuffed and roasted is a joyous Sunday supper item, and family favourite.

My appreciation of French cuisine has been heightened and my understanding of how a mother sauce can create many beautiful daughters substantially enhanced.

In the interim I have also been trying my hand at baking. I have always baked; though my frustrations with this branch of cooking has more to do with the strictures or constraints. In baking the opportunity to be as creative on the fly isn't as great in my opinion, because baking is much more science. That's never stopped me ; but I find it less inviting.

Nonetheless I have started trying my hand at making bread specifically the challah style(milk, egg& sugar as base ingredients) braided loaves. My two attempts thus far have yielded improving results, with the second time around a better success. Part of this interest has been fuelled by seeing the New Diva of British Cooking, and ex-model Lorraine Pascale doing her stuff.


Both my son and myself immediately loved her on seeing the first episode of her UK show, Baking Made Easy (I also obtained the book from Amazon UK in short order).

I am still keen on charcuterie and there is so much more I would like to undertake/experience in this area; though I haven't moved as far forward in as I would like.


Part of the issue has been time (2010 was one of my busiest years from a professional and personal perspective, with much weekend travel related to the latter).

Likely the fact that I haven't accquired a proper curing chamber for my further adventures in charcuterie is another reason.

However I have had the joy of finding some other blindingly capable non-professional cooks on line that inspire me. The biggest of those is Matt Wright at WRIGHTFOOD, a transplanted Brit living in Seattle that's cooks elegantly with locally sourced produce and provides high quality pictorials and videos of his work. Did I mention that he is also very big into Charcuterie (and shoes, two loves we both share).

This guy is really, really very good and is generous to a fault on his blog with info, recipes and sharing his experience.

In addition I have started to develop a friendship with another foodie and blogger with immense style and passion, that makes for brilliant conversation. Check her out at The Indulgent Foodie. Brilliant!

The possibilities are expansive as me move into spring and the mood lightens up and we start to get open markets. I see steamed new potatoes with a dill and sweet butter dressing served with poached salmon and a lovely saffron aioli, with a nice crisp sauvignon blanc just on the horizon. Bring it on baby!

Headless Chickens on a Rampage!

Yesterday morning in conversation with clients the general sense of the market was that it made even less than usual. My view expressed with a certain degree of misplaced concern was that the Fed, Administration and Treasury in the US were running around like headless chickens and it wasn't any better in Europe.
China has its issues and Japan overnight has expressed its degree of desperation by making the enormous change of lowering its rates from 0.10% to a range of 0.0% - 0.10%, leading to an interesting rally. More quantitative easing, with the Japanese leading the way.

My views were somewhat reflected at lunchtime yesterday when I had the pleasure of hearing the sometimes provocative Soc Gen London strategist Dylan Grice (current partner of Albert Edwards at SG, London) sharing his views of inflation, deflation and other growth related matters, essentially mirroring my view in a somewhat more precise fashion; by explaining that Dr. Bernanke does not know what he is doing.

Essentially Bernanke has been put in a situation where he is trying different things, without knowing what or how they might end up working, if at all.

Looking at Japan's actions yesterday morning, it seems representative of the global experience currently. In all domains the view is how to stimulate further for growth as the majority of economies crawl along what seems the bottom of a chasm while hoping to get back cliffside, without knowing what the appropriate tools might be.

Taking the FED as our natural case in point, a trillion plus spent last year provided an attractive equity market rally and not much else. Despite low rates and relatively cheap credit, its reasonable to assume that those that can afford to are choosing not to borrow and maybe those that would like to may not meet the new current standards.
There is a clear air of desperation out there currently with market reactions seemingly out of proportion with the trigger event; however maybe not if the vampire squid folks are correct.

******Goldman Sachs Says U.S. Economy May Be 'Fairly Bad' (Update2)
2010-10-06 04:46:23.568 GMT By Wes Goodman
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the U.S. economy is likely to be "fairly bad" or "very bad" over the next six to nine months.
"We see two main scenarios," analysts led by Jan Hatzius, the New York-based chief U.S. economist at the company, wrote in an e-mail to clients. "A fairly bad one in which the economy grows at a 1 1/2 percent to 2 percent rate through the middle of next year and the unemployment rate rises moderately to 10 percent, and a very bad one in which the economy returns to an outright recession."*******[Bloomy]


The FED has floated trial balloons on a second round of quantitative easing and according to some QE never left ( I am m in agreement to that notion), as stealth QE has been continually undertaken in any number of ways. In fact it seems much has already been priced in to the current market..

We have global yields at lows (apart from the sovereigns running headlong into the abyss)

With 2Y US treasuries at 0.41% and 3Y at 0.57%, what's your preference here, to go short with more expected QE and any flight to quality pushing rates lower, to go long, with us within spitting distance of zero yields in the US bond market?
While the preference might be to be short the potential pain with that position in the short term, might provide quite a bit of refrain ( thank goodness I am not a trader).

All that having been said of course, with the historically low holdings of US Treasuries by banks and the fact that it does not attract any capital usage and with the buoyant balance sheets, 10Y UST could reasonably reach 2.00% in short order.

The sovereign crisis never quite went away, though folks chose to ignore it for a while and once again it has painfully reminded everyone that it still there with Ireland the most recent of the PIIGS that has attracted attention and being downgraded overnight.
It seems obvious that is only a matter of time before we have a sovereign default. Even as governments initiate austerity programs in Europe the civil unrest grows and is especially evident when the age of retirement is being modified, manipulated upwards to provide breathing room.

Globally competitive devaluation has become the weapon of choice as nations look to make their currencies cheaper, whether through verbal or currency intervention ( at least in the former case there is an endless supply of words available, not so with reserves). My anecdotal market observations over the past 20 years would be that currency intervention rarely if ever work, recent examples being Brazil, Switzerland and most recent of all the Japanese. Anyone remember that less that two weeks ago they drew the line in the sand at 83.00, spent reserves and yesterday the currency dipped to 82.96.

There are some signs out there that are positive in terms of the data; however its simply isn't consistent enough or substantial enough at this time to provide the necessary foundation for higher confidence required.

Even here in Canada where we have patted ourselves on the back throughout this whole upheaval and market shift, though we should not get too smug as we are not an island unto ourselves. As goes our neighbours south of the 49th parallel, so go we, though obviously to a lesser extent; but we are getting market calls here in Canada of housing slowing down despite all time low mortgage rates.

As we move to Thanksgiving this weekend here in Canada we will also be facing US non-farm payroll, a number this month that seems to take on even more significance than usual based on some of my observations above. It has me distracted from what sort of stuffing I might wish to use with the Thanksgiving turkey. Ah well, it is about work.

Good Luck.


For that Thanksgiving Stuffing...well here you go!


Sausagemeat
1 small onion (finely chopped)
3 or 4 mushrooms finely chopped
Some tomato puree
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
Dried thyme, tarragon, sage
1 box of paxo stuffing
Dried apricots diced finely or a handful of dried raisins (optional)
Half a cup of cooked rice (optional)

In a frying pan, heat some oil and add your sausagemeat, break it up to fine and brown.
Once it has started to brown add your finely diced onions and mushrooms and then add your spices and tomato puree, cook thoroughly,
Now add your cooked rice if using, and your sweet offset (apricots or raisins)
Next add the dried paxo breadcrumbs to the mix and add a little hot water until your get a nice moist mix that's nicely seasoned to taste
Place in ovenproof dish and bake covered at 350 for about 15-20 mins if cooking a day before hand or earlier in the day. Prior to serving warm up gently in the oven initial covered and then uncovered for full golden brown without burning.

Basel, Basil, or the New Fawlty Towers?

3 out of 3 Analysts agree that their bonuses have been guaranteed for the next 9 years. A bit of a cheeky headliner on Zero Hedge, which likely is a decently accurate interpretation of how most folks see a 9 year lead in period to the new BASEL III Capital Adequacy requirements.

As pointed out by the folks at CS an awful lot can happen in 9 years. Infact a whole market shift can occur, not to mention new markets created and developed.

Seems on the face of it that in its finality the regulations seem a bit of a cop out but maybe not so surprising necessarily, in light of the "stress tests" undertaken and what belatedly has been acknowledged as the lax nature of said stress tests.

Understandably we have a pretty decent equity rally underway since last week led by European financials.

Interestingly the same financials no doubt where so much concern was being expressed a short while ago (in particular with a focus on French and German Banks) re their exposure to the PIIGS.

Suddenly they are all a buy, which once again brings up the whole notion and idea of market behaviour and the drunkards walk aspect it often seems to follow.

While summer isn't officially over, Labour Day seems to always provide that cut-off point and it. Lo and behold the Greeks having finished their summer vacation have taken to the street once more in protest. It has been a disaster waiting to happen and has seemed inevitable . The refusal to undergo the hard therapy that is restructuring, has simply put off the inevitable, as the ECB and IMF support is providing little sway based on what short term Greek rates currently represent!

Its mixed out there with some encouraging signs; but an awfully long way to go and with interpretation open to all ( bit like last weeks BoC guidance really)!

Adventures in Curing - BRESAOLA !

Well I pretty much scared everyone in the family last evening. I had gone next door to borrow my neighbours commercial style slicer to administer to two pork bellies I had cured and smoked earlier in the week, then I remembered my experiment hanging in the cold room in the basement. I had my eye of round from almost a month before that I had cured hanging in teh basement cold room.

I used a recipe from my smoking and curing bible[Charcuterie - by Ruhlman & Polcyn] as seen in the pikkies here and tried to follow the recipe as accurately as I could. One week of curing, followed by new cure and a second week of curing.

Rinsed and air dried initially for a couple of hours, the instructions would have me next simply tie up the eye of round and leave it to air dry for 3 weeks.

Because it was an experiment, I used a small piece of eye of round (687 grams).

The idea of simply hanging the meat in the cold rooms downstairs didn't much appeal and I have yet to obtain a magic curing chamber like my hero Michael on Menu in Progress http://snipurl.com/10pm4y [menuinprogress_com], so my concession was to buy muslin/cheesecloth and use that to wrap it first then tie it up as per the instructions.

After the first week of hanging, I was having concerns as I saw white fuzz appearing and was already conceding that I might have farked up and have to regard my initial experiment as a fail; however, I held the faith and proceeded and so here we were 2 weeks into the air dry phase and the piece of eye of round was already as hard as a stone.

I asked my son to bring it up to the evident horror of my wife and daughter who almost ran from the kitchen as they claimed it looked like a some small animal that had been mummified. (Not very nice).

I was starting to feel a sense of abject failure. I would have to throw the bloody thing away and simply put it down to experience; but as they say, in for a penny, in for a pound. I cut all the strings, and removed the fuzzy cheesecloth/muslin, which seems to have taken on an almost bluish tint in certain areas and was blown away.

Yes it had clearly shrunk in size; but what I had in front of me was this dark hued almost dark log like colour on the outside (it suddenly struck me hey, that's how it looks in my local deli).

Having just sliced two large pork bellies, time to give this slicer a quick clean and proceed with slicing this piece of evident joy.

I proceed to cut it in half to fit into the slicer and I am overjoyed with the result, take a look and let me know if you agree. The taste is quite remarkable with a nice spiciness (the extra mace and black pepper) with that hint of must generally associated with Bresaola.

There is some reluctance admittedly in the family to eat it as its associated with what looked like the mummified remains of a small animal; but oh joy my foodie mates at work, will no doubt be more appreciative.