Jennifer McLagan's Blog, page 3

Tripe Truck

I was excited when I learnt that the Tripe Truck would be in my Paris neighbourhood in November. It was scheduled to be at Montparnasse twice in the same week: Monday and Wednesday. Monday arrived and I jumped on the 58 bus and headed to the station. I walked around and around the square in front of the station - no tripe truck.



Major disappointment. However, perhaps I'd made a mistake.

Odd Bits Sizzler

Here is a sizzler reel introducing the Odd Bits pilot that was filmed in Toronto this summer.
 Please take a look and let me know what you think either here or, even better add your comment to Youtube and perhaps we might get the chance to make more episodes. And if you have 20 minutes free  you might want to watch the entire pilot here.

Sweetbreads

I love being in Paris for lots of reasons, one of them being the ready availability of offal. In my local market we spied sweetbreads, ris de veau in French. I would like to bust several myths concerning sweetbreads -



 #1 sweetbreads are testicles - they are not. Testicles are testicles. I just read on a blog this week that sweetbreads is another term in English for testicles, it is not!

Fat is now Fett

I was very excited to learn some time ago that Fat would be published in German and now it's finally a reality. To celebrate the Swiss publisher is holding a Fat dinner on Friday November 9, in Zurich.


The event will be at Wirtschaft, Neumarkt and I have just received the menu. I'm happy to see that they have managed to include all the animal fats. There will be lardo, butter, duck fat, and

Eating pork in New York and Calgary

I've been traveling, New York, Calgary and on the road pork is my meat of choice. My first stop in NYC, straight from the plane was Ippudo. We started with the hirata buns, a steamed bun with a choice of chicken or pork, we chose pork. Everything is right about these buns, from the fatty pork and sauce, to the crisp iceberg and the ratio of bun to filling. 






Then it was ramen. Narita

Harald's Cold Summer Soup

With the thermometer in my kitchen never dipping below 35C this week, turning on my oven was not an option. My commercial Garland range is already putting out enough heat, it runs with pilot lights so it helps maintain the warmth in my kitchen. With the heat and the humidity I don't really want to eat, preferring to take my calories in liquid form, let alone cook. My

Gin & Gooseberries

It's an exceptional summer in Toronto. The heat began early and by the time I returned mid-June it was very hot and humid. I love the heat, but the humidity can drain all your energy, so that by the afternoon all you want to do is snooze in a chair. The upside of all this heat is that it's perfect weather for gin and tonic, my preference is Hendricks gin with sliced cucumber.
The heat has

Odd Bits in Toronto

As you know I'm passionate about odd bits like this beautiful piece of caul fat and convincing people to try them, every chance I get. My excuse for not blogging recently is that I have been working on a TV pilot. 
It all began earlier this year with an email. Over the last year I've made good friends and made many interesting connections  via email and Twitter. And while I rage against

Kohlrabi

Perhaps, like me, you've never given the vegetable kohlrabi a second thought, or even a first thought.  I bought it several years ago when I was food styling. It looked cool, so I tucked it into a display of artful vegetables in a photo. Did I eat it? Probably, because I hate to throw food away, but it left no memorable impression. As Grigson says inn her book Jane Grigsons

Paris in the spring

The spring has started wet and cool here. Although the weather isn't spring-like, the produce in the markets screams spring. The main reason we come to Paris at this time of the year is to eat white asparagus. These beauties were displayed with a bulb of new garlic.

White asparagus must be peeled and trimmed before cooking, and if they are thin there is nothing left, so we