Indoor Barbeque Burger with Strawberry Salad

Sportscaster Sid Waddell once said, “That’s the greatest comeback since Lazarus.”  Unlike Lazarus, I may not have been literally dead, but this blog certainly hasn’t had a heartbeat for a few years.

It has been two years since I graduated from VIU and, while I have visited the campus on occasion, the opportunity did not arise to dine at the cafeteria during that entire time.  Of course, it’s difficult to write a food review blog without tasting the food.  Fortunately for me, I managed to have an appointment on campus recently that would end at approximately the same time that lunch was being served in the cafeteria.  A quick check of the VIU Food Services Facebook page revealed that an “indoor barbeque” was on the menu.

 

I confess that when it comes to the topic of barbeque, I can be a bit of a gourmet chef, myself.  In the past when I have had the opportunity to grill, I have made everything on the barbeque from biscuits with a cedar plank pork loin to a smoked peach upside down cake with caramel sauce.  One day a frequent dinner guest of mine was telling me about how he had bragged to his co-worker about my barbeque skills by saying that I “could probably barbeque Jell-o.”  After I had a good laugh at his comment, I took it as a challenge and actually created a recipe for making Jell-o on the barbeque.  Trust me; I know how to barbeque. 

Initially I was enthused about having a barbeque burger from the cafeteria; however, I have to admit that I was skeptical of the fact that it was an “indoor” barbeque.  An “indoor barbeque” is an oxymoron.  Unless you are cooking with an indoor smoker, or a giant cooking pit that is well ventilated (such as the kind that can be only found in smokehouses), you are actually cooking on an indoor grill.  A grill does not impart the flavour of wood smoke.  A grill cannot infuse the meat with the primal taste of the burning wood.  True barbeque flavour needs true smoke, and to the best of my knowledge the cafeteria does not have the means to infuse this smoke flavour into its food while simultaneously eliminating the actual smoke from the kitchen.  

Sometimes it’s nice to be proven wrong, however.  I found the cafeteria burger to have that smoky flavour.  It was a mild flavour, mind you, but at least it wasn’t the strong essence of liquid smoke.  The meat was not exceptional, unfortunately, and had the loose texture of a processed patty that was purchased from the freezer section of a grocery store chain.  The bun appeared to have come from a bakery, and was not made on campus.  As a matter of fact, I was a little unimpressed that guests at the cafeteria had to retrieve their bun directly from the plastic bag.  I may not have taken a food safety course, but I was rather turned off that my hand was reaching into the same bag that many other unwashed hands had been into.  All I could do was hope that the other hands were somewhat clean prior to handling that food.  Personally, I would have preferred the buns to have been removed from the bag by one of the cooks or servers, just for the reassuring knowledge that only clean hands had come into contact with the bag.

One might think that a burger is just a burger and that is the end of this review, but let us not forget the condiments and the sides.  While the cold staples such as cheese slices, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and relish were all traditionally produced by off-campus sources, I am happy to say that the caramelized onions were not.  The caramelized onions must have been made in the kitchen on campus, and they were delicious!  In retrospect, I should have asked for a double serving of them.  The savoury, yet sweet taste of softened, thinly sliced onions were a delight to my taste buds and balanced quite well with the salty and chewy bacon slices that were also cooked perfectly and added to my burger.

I opted to pass on the French fries and have a salad as my side dish, and much to my delight it had a raspberry vinaigrette and strawberries.  I confess that strawberries are my favourite food, so perhaps I am a little biased when it comes to anything with strawberries in it.  It has been a while since I have had strawberries in a salad, and the combination of berries and lettuce tasted wonderful.  The strawberries were unusually strong and sweet, which initially confused me.  Local strawberries, which are normally the only kind of naturally sweet and flavourful strawberries that you can buy, were not quite in season at the time of this lunch.  How did the chefs manage to find such a bold berry?  I suspect that the strawberries in the salad had been imported and marinated in a combination of large amounts of sugar and artificial strawberry flavouring.  Unfortunately this strong flavour of strawberry overpowered the both the strawberries and the raspberry vinaigrette that I chose.  I would suggest that next time the chefs either scale back the sugar and artificial strawberry flavours that are added to the imported strawberries, or better yet leave the strawberries alone and make a vinaigrette from a combination of natural strawberry juice, olive oil, and a balsamic reduction.

Overall, I would say that it was a flavourful lunch, which was not what I expected from an indoor barbeque and, as always with VIU food, it was reasonably priced.

It was good to be back for a visit to try the cafeteria food once again, and I look forward to my next visit when I hope to enjoy a meal in the Discovery Room.   Just don’t expect this to be my final blog entry, as I am certainly not dead.

Jambalaya Joy

A few weeks ago I took a trip to the Deep South by finding myself in the lower cafeteria.  There I discovered that Jambalaya was on the menu.  I could almost hear the zydeco music playing as I smelled the aroma of Cajun spices drifting up from my dish.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with Jambalaya, the word itself is Creole for “jumbled,” which pretty much explains the ingredients in this dish.  Rice, green peppers, celery, onions, Andouille sausage, parsley, tomatoes, Cajun spices, and whatever meat happens to be available, whether it be alligator, shrimp, or chicken.  In this instance I was slightly disappointed to find that it was chicken (not that I don’t like chicken, but rather because I have always wanted to try alligator), but I was still excited about having some good Southern food.  The jumbled ingredients are slowly stewed and stirred in a large pot, preferably cast-iron, until they form a thick casserole-like dish which is then served hot.

I found the VIU jambalaya to be flawlessly seasoned, with pieces of Andouille sausage, chicken, and vegetables that made me feel blissfully happy.  Happy enough to make me want to go home and re-create the dish.  Well, almost. I did find two very large pieces of boiled chicken skin in the gumbo which I am confident were not part of the recipe.  That aside, I loved everything else about it and am now hunting down my own jambalaya recipe, some zydeco music, and a store that sells alligator meat.

On a side note, I would like to acknowledge one culinary student in particular for his fabulous customer service recently.  On one occasion, while I was ordering lunch, I noticed that one cook was going out of his way to be fast, friendly, and very courteous to all of his customers.  Many years ago this kind of behavior was the norm, but in this day and age of DIY yogurt bars and self-serve gas stations, this kind of customer service is a rarity.  Special recognition goes to student chef Cameron for his great attitude in such a high-stress occupation.  Gordon Ramsay could learn a lot from Cameron’s first-rate example.

Raising the Nanaimo Bar

I have to admit that I have been postponing trying the VIU version of the Nanaimo bar for several months now.  After all, this city takes its Nanaimo Bars quite seriously.  A stroll through the Nanaimo museum, a tour of the Nanaimo Bar Trail, or even a news story about a grocery store that makes a dessert that is eight feet long by 3 feet wide sets a high standard.  We have proven repeatedly in our city that we love Nanaimo Bars.  There is a lot of pressure on the baking students at VIU to produce the perfect Nanaimo bar, and thus there is a lot of pressure on me to give a thorough review.  With the semester winding to a close, I gathered up all my courage and bought a strawberry Nanaimo bar from the cafeteria.

I have noticed that our students like to experiment with Nanaimo bar flavours.  I recall seeing a hazelnut Nanaimo bar in the cafeteria last month, and at Christmastime the baking students were selling peppermint Nanaimo bars to help fund their trip to France.  The strawberry Nanaimo bar caught my attention, however, as strawberries are my favorite food. 

The bottom crust of this Nanaimo bar was chocolaty and crunchy.  I tasted cocoa, coconut, and nuts, as anyone would expect from a Nanaimo bar.  I did not taste any strawberry in the bottom crust; however, I still had two more layers to go so I felt that I must persevere.  This was for a review, after all.  Another bite revealed the next layer: custard icing that was yellow, creamy, and offered just the right amount of sweetness to contrast with the cocoa.  Again, however, I did not taste any strawberry.  Finally, I took a bite of the smooth chocolate ganache layer on top and waited for it to melt in my mouth.  Like the rest of the Nanaimo bar, it was delicious, but again I didn’t taste any strawberries.  

Perplexed as to why a strawberry Nanaimo bar didn’t taste like strawberries, I slowly ate half the bar, searching for that strawberry flavour.  Alas, I found a hint of it in only one bite.  I decided that, perhaps, the problem was that the treat needed to come to room temperature in order to bring out the flavors, so I saved the other half of the Nanaimo bar for later.  Two hours later it had reached room temperature and I slowly ate the other half.  While the chocolate certainly tasted better at room temperature, I still did not taste strawberry.  I was disappointed.

In spite of the fact that the strawberry Nanaimo bar did not live up to its description, I still would recommend trying all the Nanaimo bars that the baking students create.  After all, these students are daily being challenged to come up a new Nanaimo bar recipe that will impress the people of Nanaimo, and it is our duty as citizens to step up to the plate and help them reach that goal. 

Bannock Fanatic

Several years ago a friend introduced me to a visitor from Iran who told me that he wanted a taste of true Canadian cuisine.  It was food for thought.  Obviously, poutine was a must, but what other food was uniquely Canadian?  After much discussion with the Canadian friend who introduced us, we came to the conclusion that bannock was true Canadian food.

The historical origins of bannock are somewhat debatable.  Some historians claim that it was first prepared in Scotland from oats and was more like scones.  Navajo tradition, however, claims that bannock (also called frybread by a Cherokee friend of mine) was first created in 1864 and had been made from wheat flour.  Some historians believe that the First Nations people in North America had been making wheat flour bannock for several generations before settlers first arrived here.  Given the fact that the Scottish version was originally made from oats, but the American and Canadian version was made from wheat, it is safe to say that they are completely different recipes; therefore, the Scots can claim the scone recipe while the North American aboriginals can claim the bannock recipe.

So why mention bannock in a blog about the food on the VIU campus?  Because every second Tuesday you can buy soup and bannock in Building 170, also known as the Shq’apthut Building (A Gathering Place).  For a mere six dollars—five if you remember to bring your own bowl—you  can help their fundraiser and get some delicious food.  Recently I had the pleasure of enjoying some of their soup and bannock.  I regret to say that of my two soup choices that day I chose the one that was not homemade, so it would not be fair for me to comment on its quality.  I can, however, comment on the bannock; and since I am a bannock fanatic it was a pleasure to review this food.

This bannock was wonderful.  It was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  It was flaky, yet not too flaky, as it still held together when I cut it in two.  While it was not the best bannock that I have ever tasted (that honor goes to a Boy Scout who used a cast iron skillet over a smouldering, smoky campfire, bacon grease instead of shortening, and an extra pinch of salt to bring out the flavor of the bacon), I can nevertheless credit the folks at the Shq’apthut with making the second-best bannock that I have ever tasted.  Well done!

I highly recommend the bannock at VIU.  If you would like to try some for yourself, then you will have to rush to get it before the end of the semester, as it is my understanding that this offer doesn’t last all year.  The next time that soup and bannock will be served is Tuesday, April 15.  It is worth the walk over to Building 170 just to experience this genuine native food.  While you’re there you can enjoy your lunch in their coffee room and chat with some of the First Nations students and staff.  Perhaps you can pose the same question to them that my Iranian acquaintance asked of me. Let me know how they replied, too.  I am curious find out what our First Nations citizens consider to be truly Canadian food.  After all, their ancestors were the original head chefs in this country and more than likely passed down some excellent recipes through the generations.

Roast Beast Friday

Fridays on the Nanaimo campus of VIU are somewhat subdued.  With few classes in session, the employees tend to outnumber the students on these days, and the scales tip even more during a reading break.  This presents a unique challenge to the culinary students who are in the cafeteria kitchen on Fridays.  They still need to demonstrate their talents and skills, but on a much smaller scale.  A wise student, however, will not let a Friday stop them from enjoying a wonderful lunch on campus.  A few weeks ago I noticed on the VIU Food Services fan page on Facebook that the Friday lunch menu in the upper cafeteria was roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, which is a pub favorite of mine.  I immediately made the journey to the big cafeteria and was delighted to find so much more than the typical pub offerings.

I must say that I am sometimes very impressed at the variety of items which appear in the cookbooks of our culinary students.  On the Friday in question, the roast beef, gravy, and Yorkshire pudding were being served with breaded rice balls and roasted red peppers stuffed with quinoa; a colorful and flavorful (although slightly carb-heavy) meal.

Personally, I am always impressed by any kitchen that can produce fresh Yorkshire pudding for several hundred people.  Making Yorkshire pudding is more skill than art, and timing is everything.  First the pans must be heated with oil in the bottom of the cups, then the cold batter is added quickly.  Lastly, the pans are immediately returned to the oven where it is shut tight.  If a chef moves too slowly with these crucial steps, then the Yorkshires won’t expand to their trademark fluffy height in the oven.  The Yorkshire’s then must be served within an hour or they lose their tenderness and develop a texture that is similar to the sole of a Phys Ed student’s shoe.  My hat is off to the students who made these Yorkshire puddings, as they were perfect.

Roast beef, or "roast beast" as the literary great Dr. Seuss once called it, isn’t nearly as tricky as the Yorkshire pudding.  It’s one of those “set it and forget it” foods.  All the students had to do was put it in the oven early enough to let it cook low and slow.  The cheaper the cut; the longer and lower the temperature.  Unfortunately, the particular cut that was served that day was not of the best quality, probably due to the high-cost of beef and the school budget.  Even though my slice had the perfect amount of pink in the middle, it was still quite tough.  I would recommend that if the students are serving this particular cut again, that they lower the oven temperature and put it in slightly earlier.  There is no need for the students to adjust the recipe to the gravy however.  It was perfect.

Pronouncing the names of the side dishes for the rest of the meal seemed to be a challenge to the culinary students and cafeteria staff, which is very entertaining to those of us who ordered it.  The rice balls contained a type of mozzarella, which the student chefs seemed to pronounce exactly the same as the name of a certain member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and the roasted red peppers were stuffed with “kwin-oh-ah.”  I had to stifle some giggles at these pronunciations while carrying my tray.  I am pleased to say that the English department would likely be very forgiving of these pronunciations once seeing these side-dishes, however.  The roasted red peppers stuffed with quinoa were shiny and colorful, and the rice balls were perfectly “round and browned.”  I found the stuffed red peppers to be wonderfully flavorful, as were the rice balls.  I prefer rice balls to be slightly more sticky and chewy on the inside, but that is a personal preference; I don’t think that this recipe needs to be changed.

I definitely recommend this not-so-beastly meal to my fellow students.  I also recommend that they like the VIU Food Services page on Facebook so they can read the menu daily when it is posted in the newsfeed. It is well-worth planning a trip to the cafeteria for lunch on the days when the culinary students are showing off their skills to a smaller audience.

Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, rice balls, and roasted red peppers stuffed with quinoa

The Prince of Fish Cakes

Several years ago Her Majesty the Queen and her husband Prince Philip paid a visit to our beautiful province.  During this time they were treated to several gourmet meals spotlighting our local cuisine which, quite naturally, meant eating a lot of seafood.  At one point during this trip the prince kindly requested that chefs please stop serving him salmon.  I seem to recall the media saying that his exact words were, “If I eat any more salmon I shall swim upstream and spawn.”  Most of us here on the West Coast can sympathize with him.  It is for this reason that I was hesitant to try the salmon cakes—that, and the fact that I have yet to eat a fish cake that contains more fish than filler.  Fortunately for me, the culinary students were serving their fish cakes with fried polenta and my curious palette was eager to try some Italian grits.

I have to say that I was delightfully surprised by the VIU salmon cakes.  They contained very little filler, were meaty, flavorful, and perfectly crispy and brown on the outside. For the first time in my life I actually found a fish cake that I enjoyed.  Kudos to the culinary students for making and executing this outstanding recipe.  My only complaint about the fish cakes has to do with customer service.  After giving such high praise for this protein, I hate to complain, but I feel that something must be said.  I do not know why, but some odd reason the culinary staff was frying the fish cakes to order, making the wait time in the cafeteria unacceptably long.  I was fortunate to be near the start of the queue and only had to wait for four minutes, but my fellow classmates and instructors were not so fortunate.  By the time they had received their orders their lunch break was literally half-over.  Perhaps the culinary students were frying the cakes to order so as not to cool down the cooking oil too much (which would cause the cakes to fry improperly and become saturated with oil).  I doubt that the reason was because the other fryer was being used for the polenta, as the polenta was already fried and waiting under the heat lamps.  In the end, however, it was worth the wait for the fish cakes and polenta.

Ah, yes, the fried polenta: crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, and a flavor that reminded me of the guilty pleasure that you get from eating McFries.   The fried polenta was wonderful!  While it did need a little bit of seasoning (a dash of salt, if nothing else), it was otherwise perfect and left me wanting more.  I am hoping that the culinary staff would consider putting this item on the menu on a regular basis, as it is worthy of such an honor.  The same goes for the fennel and orange salad that came on the side.

Fennel is one of those love-it-or-hate-it foods.  I stand firmly in the hate category, or at least I did until I tried this salad.  You see, up until now I had only eaten fennel leaves, and not the fennel root.  The fronds of the fennel plant have a very strong licorice flavor, which I suppose is wonderful if you enjoy the taste of licorice; unfortunately, I do not.  In all fairness, I had never eaten fennel root, however.  All these years I had assumed that the licorice flavor of the fennel fronds would carry into the root, but I happily discovered when I ate this salad that I was mistaken.  The delicate lettuce-like taste of the fennel root surprised me.  Additionally, the flavor of the fennel root was combined perfectly with the orange slices in this salad.  I have officially converted and now stand in the love-it category of fennel root.  Well done, culinary students!  This was one of the best cafeteria meals that I have eaten at VIU to date.  I can easily recommend the fennel and orange salad, fried polenta, and salmon cakes.

Speaking of cakes, for some time now I have wanted to mention a cake of a different type.  And while this cake may not be for eating, it is quite the display of art.  Students and staff on campus are probably familiar with the various art exhibits in the upper cafeteria, but a lot of people are not aware that the lower cafeteria has its own art exhibit:  wedding cakes.  With the exception of the new cakes that were added to the collection a few weeks ago, these cakes have been on display for some time now (which is possible, as they are not made of real cake but rather styrofoam that is covered in fondant, gum paste, and royal icing).  As a result a being on display for so long, some of them are starting to show signs of aging, but they are still quite spectacular. Special note should be made of the boulangerie cake, a few of the floral and lacework cakes, the Raggedy Ann and Sock Monkey wedding cake (who knew that they fell in love?), and the castle cake.  

Yes, the castle cake is fit for royalty, and so are the salmon cakes.  I think that if Prince Philip was an international student at VIU, then he would be quite happy to make this campus his castle.

Fish cakes, fried polenta, and fennel salad

Onion and Feta Scone Schooling

I have to admit that if all financial and other obstacles were removed from my educational goals, I would love to earn a certificate from the culinary arts professional baking program at VIU.  My interest in the science of cooking comes quite naturally to me, and as I stated in my original blog entry, I have won several awards for my baking.  Perhaps this education would only fuel my unrealistic fantasy of having a commercial-grade kitchen--complete with Hobart appliances--in my own home, but for now I will have to settle for a little bit of imagination now and then.  Perhaps this imagination is why I like to sample the wares of the current baking students and decide what I would do if I were in their chef whites.  Take, for example, the onion and feta scone that I ate a few weeks ago.

After having a few moments of discussion with my classmates over the differences between a tea biscuit and a scone, and what is the most efficient shape of a tea biscuit or scone (this is where an education in pastry would have come in handy), I finally was able to bite into the flaky creation.  The texture was layered perfectly and neither under-baked nor over-baked.  As for the flavour, I was certain that I had purchased an onion and feta scone, so why did I not taste either?  A few more bites eventually revealed a mild taste of onion.  As for the feta, I only had one bite of the whole scone that contained a small piece of what appeared to be grated feta.  I am sorry to say that the flavour was disappointing. 

As stated above, I like to sample the wares of the current baking students and mentally tweak the recipes.  If I were to revamp this recipe I would add some onion powder to the dry ingredients, just to give it that extra flavour without adding the moisture or acid that one would get from fresh onion.  Additionally, I would use more feta and I would make it cubed so that there are larger pieces to bring out the briny flavour that should be complementing the onion.  Of course, this is my own recipe tweak. As for the one at VIU, we shouldn’t expect that to change, since it is common knowledge that institutional chefs don’t like to alter their recipes.  It’s still a well-made scone, but I can’t recommend it due to its understated flavors.

Speaking of the professional baking program, I would like to mention that if any readers of this blog are interested in encouraging the professional baking students to further their education, feel free to donate a few dollars to their Paris trip.  Yes, the baking students hope to go to France and learn more about chocolate and pastries.  Can you blame them?  I even asked one of them about the instructive part of the itinerary for this trip, and it was worth it just to see her smile from ear-to-ear as she spoke about what she hoped to learn in France.  I have to agree that this is a fabulous opportunity for them.  After all, what is more educational to a baking student than discovering how a real French pastry chef makes a real croissant?  

Sadly, I will not be joining the baking students in France, but at least I will still have my fantasy of someday owning commercial grade kitchen appliances in my home.  On that note, I would like to remind the baking instructors that there is a superfluous industrial sheeter resting in the lower cafeteria that would look even more beautiful if it had a tag on it with my name and a big red bow…