Thursday Goose, Closings, and Marshmallows
I have a few tidbits in oven but they're just half-baked. (Haha, insert joke: "but they're usually half-baked anyway.") It's that time of year and I'm busy putting together Christmas lists, holiday party tips, and lists of places open for New Year's Eve (not to mention New Year's Day brunch.) In the meantime, here's a plate of cheese and crackers to hold you over.
New at The Goose: Foie hot dogs! Yes, they sound almost too good to be true and I hope to pop in today just to try one of these earthly delights. (Chris almost had them finished when I popped in yesterday afternoon. Lately, new sausages and meats have been gone as soon as he's put them in the case, so keep checking in. He expects them to go fast.)
Mexican Restaurant Closes: The Mexican restaurant lately busted by the health department in Greencastle has closed. Remember when employees were found butchering a road kill deer in the kitchen? Apparently, that has a bad effect on business. Go figure. (And I'll say it again. The butchering didn't gross me out as much as the fact that the deer was *road kill*.) Ewww.
Welcome to the new Wine Canine: Give a big blog world shout out to Jackson Gray (or J. Silverheels Gray), the new blogger over at Wine Canine. Jackson joins his owner's family newly from a Weimareiner rescue program.
Conrad Tea: Rita Kohn at Nuvo is reporting the Conrad Hotel will host a holiday tea every Thursday through Saturday from 2-5 p.m. I haven't checked this out, but I know the old tea of days past at the Conrad was popular and formal high tea could be a fun break from shopping! Check with the Conrad (317.713.5000) for more information and reservations.
Homemade Marshmallows! My favorite treat so far this season has been the peppermint marshmallow squares you can find right now at Trader Joe's. But these homemade wonders look so much more intriguing. Reading the notes, it's clear that the hardest part is getting them into the pan. As long as my mixer can hang in for 12 minutes, homemade marshmallows could be in my future.
28 comments:
Uh, it's Greencastle...and the rest of the story? The deer was delivered by an Indiana State Conservation Officer and he's not being reprimanded. Go figure.
Yes! From what I've been told, apparently, the DNR offers road kill deer to people for eating all the time. That to me seems so much more gross and wrong than a few guys butchering a deer -- for non-restaurant consumption -- in a place designed to be scrubed down and cleaned most days anyway.
Oh, and fixed "Greencastle", thanks!
Why would the conservation officer be reprimanded? It may be a bad policy, but he followed current rules, from what I've heard. It's not his fault the recipients of the deer took it back to their place of employment. Still a health department issue for the restaurant.
But I'm with braingirl on this one. How can deer killed and found on the road provide safe meat for butchering, even for home consumption?
yeah, I agree that roadkill doesn't sound sanitary, yet I have a friend from OK who swears she was raised on roadkill...really!
Years ago, in Texas, they joked about no dogs being near the Mexican restaurant...and one of the jokes in Broad Ripple (again, years ago) was that the predecessor to La Jolla used duck eggs from the canal for the chilies rellenos..
Reportedly, it was the DNR officer who took the deer to the restaurant. Seems that should have been a red flag to him.
Maybe another "Mexican restaurant closes"…
On the way in to work today, I passed Cabo Grill on East St. downtown and noticed a “Closed” sign in the window. I’ve never seen it there before as a routine after-hours indicator. Here’s hoping that it is, in deed, closed. Anything else in that location would be an improvement, ANYTHING.
It really depends on how "fresh" the roadkill is, whether it's gross or not in my book. I don't know about Indiana, but when I lived in Michigan if you hit and killed a deer they could issue you a deer tag on the spot and you could take it with you (I think they also had an organization that would pick it up and butcher it right away to feed the needy).
Anyway, if it's a "fresh" kill what's the problem? How is that different than shooting it?
I beg to differ, but for a gas station location in a pretty sparse part of downtown, a Mexican place that is trying to do something local and that's not serving up completely heavy food service crap is better than the possibilities. Should another Subway go in there? I've had some fairly tasty things that rivaled Qdoba and Chipotle there. And I don't get in the business of driving buy places and hoping that they'll have failed and closed.
terrykirts wrote:
"a Mexican place that is trying to do something local and that's not serving up completely heavy food service crap is better than the possibilities"
If that were the case, I'd be with you. But being "local" does not trump the fact that what they are serving is both "heavy" (what would you call soggy meat in a steam tray?) and "crap". I put my money where my mouth is, and champion the little guy all the time, even in "sparse" parts of town. "Rivaled Qdoba" - faint praise indeed = marginally better than dog poop/SubWay. Yippee! Oh, and I'll "get in the business" of hoping for their failure doubly-hard just for you, Terry.
Boys, boys...I don't think anyone thinks you were actively hoping for them to fail, scubachef. I had mixed opinions about the food and certainly didn't frequent Cabo, but I'd put it a margin better than the "kit" foodservice Mexican places that serve everything out of a bag or pouch.
Sadly, though I think a huge problem was the location -- I'm not sure of much that could succeed in that space.
re: deer -- I have no idea. How fresh is fresh? (Or, for you hunters out there, how long do you have to get a carcass to a processor before the meat is questionable?)
re: deer
I think it's mostly a problem with the guts/entrails. Once the animal is field-dressed, deer are often stored hanging in a tree or garage (45 degrees or less) for a while, often a day or two, like beef in a meat locker. Road-kill is really only a problem when the intestines have been ruptured, making clean-out a bit more unpleasant. Still better than cleaning chitlins!
Can I just throw in a comment not roadkill related? :)
Went to Goose for the first time last week and had the spiced fig and hazelnut iced cream. So delicious. Not exactly that kind of weather, but good nonetheless.
Also picked up a bar of Vosges Chocolate. I am so glad the offer them and their cocoa. I am going to Vegas in January and I cannot wait to pick up stuff at Vosges' store and not have to pay shipping.
Oh good, I was just wondering who else carried Vosages besides Taste Cafe, which closes at 3 PM.
Oh good, I was just wondering who else carried Vosages besides Taste Cafe, which closes at 3 PM.
K, they have the Barcelona bar with milk chocolate and sea salt, the one with bacon, and the Black Pearl with wasabi. They also sold the cocoa.
I feel your pain. I love love love their stuff, but hate paying the shipping. They even charge you like $7 to ship a gift card. I have yet to try their toffee or caramels, but that is why I need to bring an extra suitcase to Vegas.
Also, my sister bought me some Vosges bars as a gift from World Market, so they may have them, too, but it's proably more hit or miss.
Carrie said...
"they have the Barcelona bar with milk chocolate and sea salt"
I recently tried the brownie bites with "French" sea salt from Trader Joe's. Interesting idea, but just a little too much salt, and I like salt - probably too much for my own good. Really could only eat one little piece before salt overload. (Maybe that's not such a bad thing?)
Carrie, thanks for the tip on World Market! I am glad the Goose has the cocoa...I think I'll get that and some fish-gelatin marshmallows (at Wild Oats) as a hostess gift for some pescetarian friends.
I love the Vosges store in Chicago (Lincoln Park). It may be worth a road trip!
Have you tried the Barcelona bar? I haven't. I bought it as a gift for a friend. It has gray sea salt. However, I have had the goji candy bar and it has goji berries and "pink Himalayan salt", which they don't note as being sea salt. I am not a into salt much at all and I was really suprised at how much it really enhanced the flavor of the chocolate without being overpowering. Maybe because it's pink :)
My all time fav bar is their Naga. It has curry and coconut. Goose needs to get that stat!!
I have not tried the brownie bites at TJ, but since you like salt and it is too much, I think I will skip them.
Eating just a little bit of chocolate is never a good thing.
I have never been to their store and I was so ticked because I went to Vegas last year and didn't even realize they had a store there.
Maybe we can keep building our culinary repertoire and they will open a shop in Indy. If I am correct, I think the woman who owns that company is from Indiana orginally.
About half a dozen varieties of Vosge chocolate bars, including the Barcelona bar, are available at Grapevine Cottage in Zionsville. No cocoa yet, though.
I'll resist the urge to comment on road kill....
mmmmm....Vosges Chocolate. I need to make a trek down to the Goose.
The Goose had Vosges?!? I'm in so much trouble now.
Anybody try any of the cheese at Goose that was particularly memorable?
Christopher doesn't carry that many cheeses but they're all excellent. I suggest you try as many as you'd like. My current favorites are the garroxta (an aged goat cheese they may be out of) and the incredible applewood smoked cheddar in a paprika crust. (He had a caradmom crusted goat cheese early on from the same company -- oh, so good!) He regularly has tallagio and TP's fleur. But he's a good cheese purist. (So sick of that drunken goat you see everywhere.)
He changes inventories pretty often, so you might not always find the same cheese twice which is great for us foodies since we like trying new things!
I love that he has a small selection but they're very high quality.
The applewood smoked cheddar sounds so good. I just really love a hunk of good bread and great cheese. Some wine doesn't hurt either :) That would be my perfect last meal.
What is Vosges? Sounds like I've been missing out? What makes it so great compared to other gourmet chocolates?
8:16 -
Here's comments from America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated that I just got this in my email today. It describes Vosges from a taste testing of mail order truffles. While they did recommend Vosges, their favorite was Fran's Truffles.
"Vosges Haut-Chocolate
Exotic Truffle Collection Heart Box
Price: $42 for a 6.7-ounce box (16 truffles)
Cost per ounce: $6.26
Cost per truffle: $2.62
Packaging was truly high-end; the box was an off-set, deep purple heart wrapped in satin ribbon, with each truffle nestled in a well-protected cavity. Tasters uniformly felt the chocolate quality was very high but were split on the more unusual spices (including curry, wasabi, and fennel) some of the truffles contained. A fine gift for a discriminating but adventurous chocolate lover. "
The exotic flavors are exactly what I like most about Vosges. Finding a good traditionally flavored chocolate isn't really isn't all that hard. But to combine unexpected flavors with chocolate and do it well, that's not so common. The bars are a good place to start to see if you like the flavor combinations since they are less expensive than the truffles.
The only thing that suprised me when I ordered their exotic truffle collection was that the size of the truffles was smaller than what I had been accustomed to.
I agree...love the different flavors that they use. I just wish they would come up with some new stuff. I also like the texture in some of the bars/truffles.
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