Posts by: Melissa

 

Korean tapas! So exciting!

Korean tapas! So exciting!

I am originally from B.C. and I love going home. I love seeing my friends and family and usually spend most of my time in Northern B.C. and on Vancouver Island. “(I usually pass through Vancouver on the way to other places. Besides its beauty, I think that Vacouver is the capital of Asian tapas!! Tapas has always been my favourite way to eat, and Asian food is usually the cuisine that most delights my palate…especially Japanese and Korean.

I have tried a few places already: Bao Bei, which is wonderful and serves Chinese tapas calling themselves a “Chinese brasserie”. Guu in its early days and Happa Izakaya for the Japanese-style tapas or Izakaya eating. On my last trip, though, I tried a new placed called Damso. It is tiny, the décor minimalist and welcoming and the food de-li-cious!! It has just the right mix of Korean and nouvelle cuisine that I like and the Chef makes some surprising combinations.

 

I also often mix Korean food with western food. In fact, I believe that the best condiment I made in my life was a mix of southern-style chow-chow in which I replaced the cabbage with homemade kimchi. (I also make kimchi with kale, as you can see in this youtube video that I made in the hopes of going to Korea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK5bj8oBGrY)

 

Mi familia!

Mi familia!

I went to Damso with my cousin Sarah, her husband Danny, who is a chef, and my sister-friend Tisha who don’t eat-no-powk (swine). We had a nice little dinner and it was a great evening out. Tisha had never tried Korean food, and neither really had Danny and Sarah. Though this place is not at all traditional, it is great both for the uninitiated to Korean cuisine and for people like me who have a weakness for novelty.

 

Tisha was in from Montreal and lovin' it...even the pork!

Tisha was in from Montreal and lovin’ it…even the pork!

Here were the dishes:

 

Beautiful, but missing a bit of pizazz too traditional vinegared pickles

Beautiful, but missing a bit of pizazz too traditional vinegared pickles

 

The pickled vegetables were beautifully presented, but they were too vinegary and traditional to me, and it would have been nice if each vegetable was pickled in a different way.

 

Green salad with homemade bacon. Delish!

Green salad with homemade bacon. Delish!

This was a just a straight-up fresh salad with the usual suspects in Asian western fusion: sesame, daikon, onions and sprouts, but then there was a bit of sweetness and the homemade bacon that brought it all home: simple, but well executed.

Nice idea, but the tomatoes needed some softening and sweetening to compliment the foie gras

Nice idea, but the tomatoes needed some softening and sweetening to compliment the foie gras

 

Here is toast with foie gras shavings and tomatoes confits. It was really intriguing, but overall, I felt the tomatoes confits were over-powering the foie gras shavings. It seemed like a dish that could work, but was unbalanced.

Classic Korean!

Classic Korean!

 

Tteokbokki is a very traditional dish with rice cakes in a spicy sauce– and he definitely got it right. Not only was it a hit with everyone, but it meant my friends also got to try some traditional stuff.

 

Definitely one of my favourites!

Definitely one of my favourites!

Here we have Korean-style chitterlings (fried intestines). My friend Tisha may not normally eat swine, but she’s got a soft spot for southern food and this was the best of both worlds.

 

This was wonderful and looked like the sunset on the sea and tasted like the sea! Excellent!

This was wonderful and looked like the sunset on the sea and tasted like the sea! Excellent!

Squid stuffed with squid sausage served with its ink and caviar: REALLY wonderful! Beautifully presented with delicate layering of flavours.

 

People are usually iffy about offal, but Damso's tongue dish brought home the prize as the favourite!

People are usually iffy about offal, but Damso’s tongue dish brought home the prize as the favourite!

This was everyone’s favourite: the tongue. Simple and well-done. It had a gentle meat-glaze-esque sauce, velvety with collagen and flavour. J

 

This dish looked beautiful, but its execution was lacking. I feel the ears should be served with vegetables with more resistance in the mouth than lettuce and the ears should be least resistant to the bite by thinner slicing and the sauce would have been better as a thin vinaigrette or marinade than a thick sweet sauce.

This dish looked beautiful, but its execution was lacking. I feel the ears should be served with vegetables with more resistance in the mouth than lettuce and the ears should be least resistant to the bite by thinner slicing and the sauce would have been better as a thin vinaigrette or marinade than a thick sweet sauce.

The pig’s ear salad was the least favourite – I had pushed for it, but I was disappointed too. (I often eat pig’s ear salad, buying the ears already cooked and sliced, and there’s a reason for that; if they are over-cooked, the meat starts to peel off the cartilage and if they’re not sliced thin enough, they are too chewy and the experience of chewing through thick pieces of cartilage is unpleasant. Indeed, these were a bit too thick. The sauce was also a bit too sweet and I would have preferred julienned vegetables instead of the leafy greens. I did, however, like the ground black sesame. It was beautiful in the plate 🙂

 

I really loved the spirit of the place. Some of the dishes were extraordinary and some were missing a bit of finesse, but I could feel the dedication of the chef. I admired his willingness to take risks and even make mistakes, and the dishes that were super-dooper came out of his daring combinations of Korean cooking with for the most part French nouvelle cuisine. Koreans are fairly chauvinistic about food, they don’t usually want to pay much. In fact, this place remains very affordable but at the same time offers dishes that are definitely off the beaten track and beautifully presented and the tapas tasting style was refreshing. I would definitely go back to try some more :).

 

I forgot to take a photo of the Korean taco and the pancake, a traditional dish that they nicely re-invented as a waffle Sorry! I guess you’ll have to go and try it yourself!

 

Damso

867 Denman St, Vancouver, BC

V6G 2L9
(604) 632-0022

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Damso-Modern-Korean-Cuisine/210596938969979

 

 

 
Painting of Samuel de Champlain and his Order of Good Cheer

Painting of Samuel de Champlain and his Order of Good Cheer

This year’s anniversary was very unique, and may not be easy to wrap your head around. It was a tribute to  Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (1758-1838) and his dinner club and “goguette” or singing club Le société du caveau . I’ll let you read about Grimod la Reynière, but I will tell you this: he was the first food critic in France and the world! He wrote the Almanach des Gourmands or the gastronomic almanacs. He was also a grocer and one of the first people to use the business card. He also set-up a comittee to taste and critique foods. We see drawings of him in a library where there is food on the shelves instead of books. We always see him portrayed alone at a table writing, eating or pondering the food in front of him. He is portrayed as an independent thinker and taster in this way and his tools for his livelihood are the pen and the fork. Grimod de la Reynière had deformed hands, and his parents kept him out of public view. Because of his time alone, he developped his intellectual faculties, independent thinking, but also a deep desire to gather people together with him around a table and shared gastronomicexploration. I can relate to this. At one point, he had a dinner party at his parents’ house and they came home to find a pig dressed-up and eating at the table with a sign saying he was the president. His parents disinherited him after this.

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Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com 

Grimod de la Reynière was a trained lawyer and had been a theatre critic, but was forced to write about somehting more “neutral” which led him to gastronomy. He had a love for art. Besides eating with his club and drinking as the name “Caveau” suggests. The club was a goguette which means that they also sang together. You could find poetry and theatre during their dinners as well.  His dinner club mixed food with the arts.

Re-inacting the play from the Order of Good Cheer where De Champlain meets Poisedon

Reinacting the play from the Order of Good Cheer where De Champlain meets Poisedon: The priest gets eaten by the whale! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com

The second pioneer that we payed hommage to for our club’s 11 year anniversary was Samuel de Champlain and his club L’Ordre du bon temps ou The Order of Good Cheer . Samuel de Champlain started L’Ordre du bon temps to keep his men from dying of scurvy or of fatally low moral during their first winter in New France in 1606-1607. Each member took turns hunting and coordinating the catering, and they never missed out, in fact, they ate lavish meals. They also mixed food and art and had a theatre piece about de Champlain meeting Poisedon.

Special guest Nathalie Cooke editor of Cuizine Magazine narrating Samuel de Champlain's meeting with Poisedon

Special guest Nathalie Cooke editor of Cuizine Magazine narrating Samuel de Champlain’s meeting with Poisedon Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com

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The new Samuel de Champlain: a pioneer and a woman! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com

 As a side note, I had a French professor tell me that Grimod de la Reynière was much more interesting and his club pre-dated de Champlain’s. It’s hard to see clearly when you see the world through your country’s belly button. She can’t help it… Sorry to the French people, but the Société du Caveau only started in 1729.

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Ingredients for a yogourt rice recipe from Pondicherry, a region of India colonized by the French Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com

Sensual pleasure in February is a must!

Sensual pleasure and vitamin C in February is a must! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com

So how did all of this work into our dinner club celebration? Well, first things first, we celebrated it on February 1st, right in the throes of winter when the morale of many is at an all-time low as is their consumption of vegetables.

Tahitian "Poisson Cru" Like a ceviche in a coconut sauce- the star of the evening!

Tahitian “Poisson Cru” Like a ceviche in a coconut sauce- the star of the evening! Photos by Mélanie Dusseault www.melaniedussealut.com

We are also a bit of a do-gooder club once a year and we like to spread the joy, so myself, special guest Nathalie Cooke and long-time member Judith Colombo went and sang folk songs at an old folks home for “La Journée m’enchante” which is practiced in 3 countries. It turns out that most of the dinner club isn’t that much of do-gooders, they mostly come for the food…We, however had a really nice time singing at Le Manoir de Verdun songs like “Au Chant d’allouette”, “L’hyme de l’amour” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow”. It was really nice.

           

Fresh herbs Vietnamese style

Fresh herbs Vietnamese style

We chose the food them of “French Colonies” as it gave us alot of options and we are in a former French colony!  We ate a Cambodian beef salad, cretons, tarte au sucre, bahn mi, crispy vietnamese lemon duck, “poisson cru” a Tahitian ceviche in a coconut sauce, yogourt rice from Pondicherry, cajun artichokes stuffed with shrimp and a black triangle salad (sugar, rum and nutmeg in it!).

Guillaume Mansour of the Guillaumansour Experience

Guillaume Mansour of the Guillaumansour Experience

     

Playing

Playing

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Frank Zappa was even there!

Frank Zappa was even there!

We also mixed music, dance and theatre with the meal, Nathalie helped us re-create the piece about de Champlain and Poisedon. It was amazing!

Majiza Phillip Tap Dancing

Majiza Phillip Tap Dancing

       

Later...De Champlain bellydances

Later…De Champlain bellydances

   

Sexy Me!

Sexy Me!

 

This was just what I needed to get through the lowest part of winter and experience some good cheer with my fellow goguettiers! I think De Champlain and his men would have had an even more delightful winter if there were a couple bellydancers in the mix!

The beautiful...

…Beautiful..

And unforgettable Dominique Jean!

…Sensual..

...Sensual...

…and unforgettable Dominique Jean

 
Katie- ready  to , hunt, play and eat!

Katie- ready to , hunt, play and eat!

I was house-sitting in Ormstown on a large piece of land with two dogs: an old and subdued healer, Chancy, and a young and rambunctious Husky-German Shepard cross, Katie. There are many food favours and negotiations going on all the time. We were told by the Masters of the house, a spunky and tiny French bomb of energy, Ariane and British husband, Eric, to help ourselves to any food in the house (except the frozen steak and kidney pies Eric has to drive way out to get and are the nostalgic fix he needs). Of course, when they got home, there was sauerkraut, homemade ham, Parkins biscuits (he had the Golden syrup to make them and I had the fresh ginger to sex them up), British malt vinegar pickled red cabbage and poached fish. We too wished to thank them for the time at their cozy, wood-heated, solarium-lit, deluxe kitchen and jacuzzi having place nestled in their 50 acres of land full of trails and a joyful steam that dances through. The food seals the pledge of trust and appreciation of each party. Food also concerns the dogs. They are fed at the same time every day. They are also rewarded with treats when they behave well and come when they are called.

Nordic nuts and soup made with squash and wild local mushrooms. The abundance of the gatherer's table

Nordic nuts and soup made with squash and wild local mushrooms. The abundance of the gatherer’s table

Chancy is old, blind and has battled cancer. She is small, but she still has the power over the young and free-spirited Husky. Chancy’s approach to food is to beg at the table with the pathetic pleading eyes of a destitute orphan. Katie, however, is very independent, employing a can-do approach. She hunts mice and birds daily and has been sprayed by 3 skunks, quilled by 3 porcupines and I saw her with a racoon in her mouth one of the days I house-sat.

Katie’s instincts are very close to the surface. She is as free-roving as she is attention-seeking and curiosity and exploration of the outside world are in complete harmony with her need for camaraderie in the pack. For Eric, however, I think the adjustment to such an independent and demanding dog has been hard as he is used to dogs that hang-on their Master’s lead. I thought this was well-illustrated in a story that played-out between the two of them. Katie, sniper extra-extraordinaire, came home proudly with a hawk one day. The hawk was still alive and suffering in her jaws. How could a hawk be caught by a dog!? Eric pointed out that hawks do not have any natural predators, and so may have been napping complacently on the forest floor or on a low branch. Whatever happened, Katie capitalized on her chance. Katie couldn’t care less if the bird was suffering, but to the human sensibilities, this was already a problem. Eric finished the job and then brought the hawk out into the forest to rest in peace indefinitely.

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The next time Katie went out, she came back with the hawk in her mouth. To Eric, this meant he would have to revise his strategy, so he went and buried the hawk in the woods. Lo and behold, Katie found it, dug it up and brought it back. The battle continued. Eric threw it in the stream, and somehow Katie tracked it in the stream and brought it back again. Eric was bedazzled. This dog was slick…and determined. Eric ended up freezing it and putting it out with the trash and then it was game over. I listened to this story in awe and with shocked “No!”s every time the tension moved up a level with the: “she found it again and brought it back!” What was the tension? What was the battle? It seemed to me the battle was that Eric didn’t want Katie to kill things or bring dead or dying things home, and Katie I believe, wanted Eric to accept the bird and eat it. The two did not see eye to eye. Eric feeds Katie and gives her treats, but that is a one-way street. Eric does not eat what Katie brings him.

"She Found it again!!!"

“She Found it again!!!”

And again!!

And again!!

This is the irony of Master and Servant- with food the Server is often Master. It depends on the arrangement, but the one who has the capacity to gather, prepare and serve food often has the upper-hand. They have the capacity to give and give what they want the other to have. We need food to live, so giving someone food to eat is no small affair, it is giving them life. The server may even feel their feathers have been ruffled if the served tries to feed them.

Here I am wearing the dress my Mom made me and eating my first large helping of Christams dinner. I am being served and I'm loving it, but we are incredibly vulnerable and dependent at this age and have almost no power!

Here I am wearing the dress my Mom made me and eating my first large helping of Christmas dinner. I am being served and I’m loving it, but we are incredibly vulnerable and dependent at this age and have almost no power!

 Money changes this dynamic and restaurateurs and those in the food industry depend very much on the coin from the customer. This is a case where the client who is being served holds the power, even if it doesn’t always feel that way in very uppity and sometimes intimidating restaurants. Restaurants are like a stage where people come for an experience. Both the waiters and the client step into roles and “act” in this unreal world, but there is an exchange and both hold power, but the client a little more as they do not need to eat in a restaurant, but the restaurant needs money from clients. Restaurants create a hype or build on a real or feigned image of not needing clients as they are so in demand. This gives them the wield of choosing their clientele or the hand that feeds them…ironic, no?

Futurist meal- sculpted meat and food or "esthetic food" just to see and not to eat. What happens to power dynamics around food when one nourishes themself with spiritual or esthetics?

Futurist meal- sculpted meat and  “esthetic food” just to see and not to eat (satay and its representation) . What happens to power dynamics around food when one nourishes themself with spiritual or esthetic food? What happens to sex when it becomes an idea: a spiritual, energetic, visual or intellectual exchange? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurist_meals

 Think about your lovers, friends, parents, children. Who feeds who? Who holds the power? The person feeding or getting fed? Is it a one-way transaction or two-way? When we love someone, we naturally want to feed them. We want to keep them close to us with food. That’s why mothers keep bringing food even after their children have left home. The feeder is investing in the future of the fed. Feeding the other also gives them purpose and the joy of seeing the other eat, even if they hate to cook! The person being fed gets to devote their time to play, work, healing, things other than food preparation.

Food isn't always a "master/servant" dynamic, it can also be a potlach or gathering and pooling of resources, like my dinner club. Here we try oysters, smoked venison, smoked white fish, smoked scallops, berries and dried berries, caviar and arctic char sashimi that didn't fit in the photo. What happens when all are contributing!

Food isn’t always a “master/servant” dynamic, it can also be a potlatch or gathering and pooling of resources, like my dinner club. Here we try oysters, smoked venison, smoked white fish, smoked scallops, berries and dried berries, caviar and arctic char sashimi that didn’t fit in the photo. This is what happens when all are contributing!

When we refuse food, eg. hunger strikes, anorexia, not eating food that is offered to us or only parts of it, there is a power-struggle. We are protesting another’s behaviour, not sharing their values, taste or what they are “laying on the table” or not accepting their control over us or we are fighting for control over ourselves. It is a strong statement when we do not take what the other is dishing out, preferring hunger and debility.

The sylvester apple, the first apple brought during French colonization, now wild and undomesticated.  There's an ebbing and flowing between wild and cultivation and between serving and being served, love and control, dominance and affection

Gathering the sylvestre apple, the first apple brought during French colonization, now wild and uncultivated. There’s an ebbing and flowing between wild and cultivation and between serving and being served, love and control, dominance and affection

My futurist representation of baked stuffed apples

My futurist representation of baked stuffed apples

Please think of your close relationships and how food figures. How does food bond you to others or drive a wedge and who is the person you like to be fed by and feed the most? What do you like to be fed and by whom? What do you try to express when you cook for others: abundance, down-to-earth, no-fuss, opulence, health, tradition? What do you refuse to eat? Why? Food for thought….

I really wrote this article so I could put this song on my blog! (Dogs, Housewives and sex- they capture exactly what I wanted to say in a song!)

 

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