We have visited and reported on many sushi restos in Montreal…from the more high-end ones like Jun-I and Mikado, to more middle of the road ones like Tataki, and then the all-you-can eat places, like the abysmal Odaki and the ridiculous Kanda (two locations). I’ve been thinking that all-you-can-eat sushi and Montreal are just never going to be partners, and if you want decent sushi in Montreal, you’re going to have to pay the high price tag. Well, this past weekend, I was proven wrong, and I enjoyed the best all-you-can-eat sushi experience that Montreal has offered me so far, at Sushi 999.

We stopped in for a late lunch on Saturday, around 2pm. We were worried the place might not be serving food at that weird time, but it was, and for $13.99 per person! It’s more expensive to eat dinner there (about $25/person, the Montreal norm), but for a weekend lunch, $13.99 is hard to beat. While the don’t offer sashimi during the lunch menu, they offer plenty of other choices that make up for it. They even give a card that they stamp, so that if you go 9 times, the 10th is free. And it seems as though the place is BYOW as well…and finally, the food is great! The sushi is fresh, the rice well-seasoned, and the fried food we tried were all perfectly done. I don’t have a single complaint about the place, only praise.

We started by sharing two of the salads, the wakame (seaweed) salad and the fish egg salad, and both were delightful and refreshing. The wakame salad was excellently seasoned, and the fish egg salad, with strips of “crab” and lettuce needed only a splash of soy sauce.

As I said, the sushi was perfect. The tuna was fresh, the salmon buttery and rich, the eel luxurious.

We also really enjoyed the sushi pizza, with salmon atop a crispy, fried ricecake. We had ordered a handroll by mistake, but it was fortunate one, since it was one of the best things to come our way (stuffed with shrimp tempura).

We indulged in some of the fried options, such as the scallops, topped with a dollop of Japanese mayo and the dumplings, wrapped in super-crispy wontons.

The edamame was lightly seasoned and the shrimp tempura had a sweet and light, crispy batter – both were excellent.

The fish head had little to it, but its skin was fun to eat. They even have a small dim sum menu, so we tried the shrimp dumplings and loved them. The wrapper was a tad gelatinous, but I enjoyed the texture.

I am seriously looking forward to returning this Saturday!! They are only about 6 months old, but I hope the place sticks around for a long time to come. Oh, and sorry about the quality of photos…all I had was my phone with me…

Sushi 999
405 Sherbrooke Est, Montreal, Quebec
http://www.sushi999.ca/

I miss writing, especially here. Been gone, but where?

These were the days of my life since… last October. I am a foodie, but a keener of the sort. I have loved food since the start – easy hobby I figured. My mom didn’t really “love” food, but she loved the people eating it, and it showed. She gave me a head start on the whole ethnic palette idea – foreign color, flavor, and texture on a regular basis. I explicitly remember the breaded and baked calf brains served with a highly acidic, but still un-cured green/white cabbage salad. I was 7. I was not happy.

Pied de Cochon make a great calf brain omelet soufflé thing – fantastic

Anyway, I started cooking and eating everywhere/everything. Traveling as a foodie is too good, especially if stop as you go… so after taking to as many markets, tables, sidewalks as there are types of bread, I decided to take a few sporadic plunges.

The Ritz Carlton – as far I know, my mentor. I worked there as a banquette server, always between the kitchen and the client. The kitchen was – the best. It’s where I saw my first 400 liter stock pot.

Other restos followed. I served mostly, but that implies always near the kitchen. Italian, Sushi, Chinese, tapas, bars and pubs – all different; all fascinating.

I eventually managed a couple for restos, but most recently, in the last year in fact, I was a chef. I cheffed for fifty, everyday.

They loved it. I loved it. Here a short list of some of what I served: Sample Menus

Why am I telling you all this? Because I went from foodie to pro, and thought you should know. Plus, I just sort of want to say thanks to all the people who truly love food and have shared with me their experience and passion – professionals and foodies, diners and dishers, servers and savants… thanks. My palette will forever know the amalgamation of texture and flavor one uses to taste the art of life…

…and with that, one of my favorites from the last year:

Crepes Terrine with Spinach, Mushroom, and Smoked Turkey

Crepes are my favorite and are in fact the first thing I learned to make after the fried egg. I know it as a breakfast food or dessert and love the way you can fill them up and roll them on your plate, blanketing them in any of many syrups, sauces, or jams. But the rich and sumptuous crepe is far more ready for a savory setting than I had earlier thought, dans la forme d’une… terrine? Sorta. Not exactly right, but serves the purpose.

So, first – prepare you fillings:

Mushrooms and Spinach

I like to use a mix of mushrooms that have been roasted and chopped with a bit of salt and pepper or a mushroom duxelle – nothing too fancy required, but feel free to experiment. Be wary of over flavoring as the finished dish is quite complex from a flavor perspective. Same goes for the spinach – roasted with salt and pepper. I mixed both of these with some onions rendered in butter for some extra flavor. Again, any approach to creating a delicately flavorful filling is good.

Smoked Turkey

I did this dish with shrimp when I was working (cooked then minced with green onion and garlic), but the deli-slice is far easier to work with. Use any you like, i.e. smoked turkey, but nothing too crazy. Finding something with little salt and fat is a good start.

Cheese

Buying sliced cheese is fun, but pricey. I like to get a few small chunks, grate, and mix (at work, this was replaced with a saffron roux and wilted spinach with onion). I also included a few intermittent layers holding brie as their prize. Remember to save some cheese to top the terrine.

Crepes

¾ cup all purpose flour (you can use any basic flour, but the texture will change)
1 cup milk
3 eggs
½ tablespoon sugar (optional, but I like the bit of sweetness)
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter

Whisk the eggs and milk together – you can optionally do all this in a blender or using a hand blender. Add the sugar, mix again. Temper the hot butter and add to the mix. Add remaining ingredients and mix for a last time. Store this in your fridge for one hour. This is required for a moist and tender crepe as the flour will have the time require to sponge-ily absorb the wet stuffs. Drink flour, drink (evil laugh)…

Heat a non-stick pan, butter it, and drop a teaspoon of the batter in the middle. Leave there until firm and then wipe it around the pan and throw it away (well, eat it, but for some reason the first crepe is never a nice one). Heat up your oven to the minimum setting and leave the crepes in there with a slightly damp towel overlying to keep them from drying.

Once done, and in an oven safe vessel, start the layering. Make sure to double or maybe triple the crepe count at the bottom so that you have something of a base. Use an intermittent method, is this case, mushrooms, turkey, cheese, mushroom, turkey, brie, as so on…

Top the last crepe with your reserved cheese, some crushed oregano, and finish in a 350C oven for a few minutes, just to melt the cheese. Remove, let rest 10 minutes, and then slice with a bread knife or another super sharp or toothy knife – enjoy.

You have the option to top with a hollandaise or other like sauce, but I like a drizzle of truffle oil and maple syrup. Serve with a sharp crisp white wine.

Now, I was sort of mentioning a shrimp based approach, but there are many options here. Enjoy ham, smoked salmon, spinach, avocado, other cheeses, other sauces, and of course – any dessert manifestation.

Sigh… the marvels of flesh, and thusly protein. I lived a vegetarian from the ages of 18 – 28. I was in San Fran summer of 2003 and met my first pork rib – ever. I was raised not eating pork – never. Needless to say, my pork-free-vivre-veg-libre body did not quite understand what had happened.

Like a culinary pork-bomb fell… didn’t sleep or eat for 2 days.

Anyhow, that to say I now take meat very very seriously, so that when I’m being good or bad, I know it. Organic free range best-you-can-get for the money type of thing and sometimes foie gras

En tout cas…

…can’t cook if you’re hungry, so one fresh East Coast oyster each… and let’s get started…

I found (1 week, 7 visits, and 5 phone calls) a 3.5 lbs piece of organic Alberta filet – the tops. We were only 3 diners, so I trimmed it down to something gorgeous and generous. I removed the silver skin and anything that might be chewy.

Oyster to keep us going… and some scallop sashimi…

Now, grab a pot, one as narrow as possible, but still large enough to hold the whole filet. Place your trimmed filet inside and make a note of the highest point. Remove the filet and replace with olive oil, just covering the noted high point.

In another pot, any size, but – you are going to heat the measured oil in this pot (to 80C) and then pour it over the filet, which will later be place back in the narrow pot, so find something that’s easy to handle. Again, 80C! Note: Narrow = Less Oil = Less $$$ and waste.

Oyster to keep us going… and some scallop sashimi…

Heat a cast iron skillet to YEAH! and sear the whole filet to your liking. Go nuts because this is your only chance to add color (I was a bit too fragile and thought it lacked some color; would’ve liked to see a small fire in pan instead – inexperience to blame).

Heat the oil to 80C. Not sure if it’s me (I don’t often heat 1.5 liters of olive oil to a low number) but it shot past – and that’s not good. I added colder oil and brought the temp down, but Oil = $$$, so

Once there, pour over the now narrowly nestle meat and wait 15 minutes, rest, and slice. That’s it. Nuts. I got the “recipe” by hearing the words “lamb poached in duck fat”. Really? No. Way.

I also prepared a mushroom duxelle to top the acorn squash and new potato mash.

Oyster to keep us going… and some scallop sashimi…

Cast iron still hot? Good. Sear one perfect U-10 scallop per person. Pick you poison for flavor, but I used fresh cracked black pepper and Cloés Vanilla Butter. The butter is… butter, so it works well with the scallops, only trouble is I can’t lick the fry pan after the scallop leaves behind its buttery wet spot (?)

Oyster to keep us going… and some extra seared scallop…

Foie Gras. No. Do not discuss. My first and possibly last time buying it (at home and maybe anywhere). $6 and 50 grams.

Score. Sear. Serve.

Lastly, oyster to keep see us off, open the truffles. Slice. Serve.
Slice more; fry in butter; serve. Serve truffle kissed butter… no wet
spot left behind (?)

Red wine. Done.

Acorn and New Potato Mash
1 acorn squash
1 lbs new potatoes
1 tsp olive oil
4 tbs butter
cream
salt and pepper

Boil water and cook peeled and diced potatoes until tender. Half the squash, clean it, rub it with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 370F for 30 minutes. Combine roasted peeled squash and potatoes, cream and butter, salt and pepper to taste. Mash!

Mushroom Duxelle
2 lbs mushrooms (your choice)
2 tbs butter
salt
½ cup wine or 2 ounces of vodka (both of which you should be enjoying already)

Heat skillet; add very clean, finely chopped mushrooms, salt, and butter. Give it 10 -15 with some good heat behind it. Add a good splash of wine and move it around until it reduces.

I love sushi. I love tuna. Got this bad boy from work on a Friday night and decided to do it up seared and saucy. So, get the best tuna you can afford and try to find something you’ll be able to cut into a block, avoiding the shaped called steak. Streaks are great for other things, but this techniques works best with thick and evenly shaped pieces of tuna.

Roll your clean tuna in a dish that is covered with untoasted sesame seeds. Untoasted is best because a raw seed can still take a lot of heat. Not much else goes on here beside heating up your thickest skillet to med-high or high and dropping a teaspoon or less of your favorite vegetable oil. Once ready, place the tuna in the skillet for a maximum of 2 minutes per side. For this I like to err on the rawer side of safety. Set the tuna on a cooling rack to rest for a few minutes and slice.

Sauces! Yum. I’ve worked in many restaurants and have had the great pleasure of tasting and tasting and tasting! Ever taste away 1500 calories in an evening? I have. So that said, 2 sauces came to mind this night. A sesame paste vinaigrette and a tobiko, chive, and mayo sauce.

Sesame vinaigrette

Mix together…
1 tablespoon sesame paste
1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons mirin or other vinegar
2 table spoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
pinch salt to taste

Tobiko and mayo

Mix together…
1 tablespoon Japanese or other sweet mayo
1 teaspoon tobiko
1 teaspoon chopped green oinion
1 teaspoon fine chopped Japanese, Lebanese, or wild cucumber
Rooster sauce to taste (spicy! garlic-y!)

Enjoy!!

Addition:

My chef friend took one look at that first picture and asked “sugar”? Indeed, these was an optional marinade that I had omitted from this post, so for anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours, marinate your tuna (in a Ziplock bag) with the following ingredients:

Tuna Marinade

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
some whatever else you might enjoy like garlic, sugar, sake, etc…

Soli made me my first fish tacos ages ago, but even with persistent prodding, has yet to post this fine accomplishment. But these fish tacos deserve to exist outside of just my memory, so here’s my feeble attempt at remembering what had to happen to create them.

For me, the fish part of the taco wasn’t as exciting as the sauce that was used on top. I can’t imagine any other protein being as fresh and delicate as the fish though, so it carried the sauce well and made the whole meal feel rather light.

Ohh, the sauce! Rather than use store-bought taco seasoning, which is more salt than spice, Soli ground up his own.

I think it must be a pretty failproof combo – you can add whatever spices you’re fond of, and however much you’d like. I can’t recall what he threw in there, but taco seasonings seem to include staples such as chili powder, dried onion, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper.

Once you’ve prepared the seasoning, get a sauce going. Equal parts (1/2 cup) of sour cream and mayo, and 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro seem to be the standard. Soli threw some chopped tomatoes in there, along with some lemon juice. A few spoonfuls of the seasoning, and stir!

A little spicey, a little tangy, a little sweet – it’s a sauce I could spread across pretty much anything.

I don’t remember the fish that was used, but anything white and light can make a good taco – think cod, or maybe mahi mahi.

Take about a pound, cut into 1-inch cubes, and throw them into a bowl with lemopn juice, a couple tabelspoons of vegtable oil and more of the seasoning. Toss, and then pour it all in a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat until the fish flakes apart when poked with a fork.

Take your tortillas, fill it with some of the fish, add shredded cabbage, some tomatoe and the sauce, squeeze some lime juice over the whole thing and roll!