Text 5556, 102 rader
Skriven 2006-09-16 18:14:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JOAN MACDIARMID
Ärende: Road trip: Food report 1
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 JM> Have a nice trip on your excursion! Or "hope you had a nice one" if
 JM> you don't see this till after!
 
 JW> We just got back around 3 AM Sunday. I'll file the obligatory trip
 JW> report as soon as I have time to compose it. Lot's of neat food and
 JW> drink experiences to report upon.

Here's the first installment....

We visited my brother and lots of Roslind's relatives and did a lot of
shopping (it's been three whole years since I was out in the world and
there was a lot of pent up demand). On Labour Day, Future Shop was open
and having holiday sales so I got some incredible deals on electronics
including a $499 lap top and a $299 colour laser printer. I also
upgraded my rather tattered wardrobe and invested in two cases of wine.

Alberta wine and spirits are at least 1/3 cheaper then locally purchased
ones plus the variety is greater. Liquor sales have been privatized and
there are now corner wine stores everywhere. They generally fall into
two types: small neighbourhood stores that lean towards cheap fortified
wines plus domestic beer and mickeys of bottom shelf spirits (maybe I
was in the wrong neighbourhoods!) and elegant upscale boutiques with
rare and expensive offerings. It was actually hard to find a middle of
the road store with a good assortment of affordable but drinkable wines.
But eventually I did; that's when I hit a quandary.... whether to buy
one case of better wines than I am used to or two cases of every day
quaffing stuff. I cruised through De Vines, a highly regarded specialty
wine store, and rather wistfully gazed over the labels. But in the end I
went for two modestly priced mixed cases at an ordinary store and picked
up 9 whites and 15 reds, consisting of three each of....

Banrock Station Chardonnay,
Michelsberg Piesporter,
Willm Gerwurtzaminer (the only one of the bunch over $12) and

Banrock Station Shiraz,
Bouchard Aine Beaujolais,
Folonari Valpolicella,
Frontera (from Chile) Cab-Sauv/Merlot blend,
Forgeot Cotes Du Rhone Villages.

I also picked up a bottle of the store's oldest and most expensive rye
whiskey for my FIL's birthday present. I had a sip with him and it was
the only Canadian Rye I have ever tasted that I truly enjoyed. For those
of you who like whiskey it was Gibson's Finest, 18 year old. Nose:
aromatic, strong rye character with spicy notes. Palate: Dry, lightly
spicy, well rounded, not hot or biting at all. It was very "gentle".
Finish: Nutty, dry, warming, and very long. Amazing stuff.

Roslind and I had spent considerable time in advance choosing the ten
restaurants where we would have our five lunches and suppers that week.
We wanted lots of variety, cuisines and tastes that weren't available
here in Yellowknife, and excellence with affordability. We planned to
re-visit old favourites, and talked to some Edmonton foodies and
explored Internet reviews for new ones as well. We ended up with an
eclectic list and scored 4 good meals and 6 extraordinary ones, with no
real duds.

The first meal of note was Friday night in Fort Rae, a small Dogrib
hamlet 60 miles from Yellowknife and 10 miles off the highway down a
small side road. I had to make a side trip there to photograph, tape
measure and put signage on a listing. There is just one restaurant
there. It was formerly know simply as "the cafe" and was a real dump.
Someone took over, renamed it "The Trapper's Get Away", tried to upgrade
it a bit but went broke and left behind a fake log veneer (the place is
actually two Atco construction camp trailers jammed together) and a fair
kitchen. Some Chinese people took over from there, added a wok and
offered the typical small town menu off half Canadian-half faux
Cantonese. It serves mostly burgers and chow mein type items. I was
there a year ago and ordered a club sandwich as all the locals were
eating Canadian not Chinese. I was surprised that it was as good as
anywhere else, with really good fresh lettuce and tomatoes. The lady
said she drove to Yellowknife daily for produce rather than buy from the
local general store. This time I noticed that half the customers were
eating Chinese (she must have been educating them) so we ordered the two
most "exotic" items on the menu.... stir fried chicken and vegetables
with black bean sauce and ginger beef. Both were as good as anywhere in
Yellowknife and at least as good as half the places in Edmonton. The
meal was in actuality merely good, not utterly fantastic, but
considering the location, pretty surprising and worthy of comment.

A side note: ginger beef is a Canadian dish, first made at an exclusive
private club in Calgary famous for its beef by a Chinese cook and it
spread from there to quickly become the most popular Chinese dish in the
country. In case it isn't well known yet in the US it is basically
Szechuan beef served in the sauce usually made for ginger chicken. There
are variations: it can be mildly or strongly gingery, contain slivered
chilies or be toned down with sweet red pepper or even grated carrot and
either sweet and sour with a distinct vinegar twang or just sweet. I
prefer lots of chilies in a strongly gingered, vinegary sauce but this
restaurant served a sweet, lightly gingered sauce with carrots. When you
consider her regular client base, this really isn't surprising. So I
asked her for chilies or a hot sauce and she brought out a fresh,
unopened bottle of "Rooster" brand Sambal Olek! She asked me if I knew
how hot it was and when I nodded and said I liked it a lot. She just
smiled and left the bottle on the table without giving me her standard
warning for the round eyes who straggle in from time to time. It really
turned the ginger beef into a proper Szechuan fiery treat!

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