Kalamari vs Calamari

For the past year I have been on a quest for the best Calamari in Halifax. I have opted to say yes to the few extra pounds of weight that these often deep fried little morsels may add to my hips. I love calamari and consider myself a connoisseur of calamari!

Kalamari is Greek, Calamari is Italian. Simple put calamari is squid prepared as food.

The definition comes from the Italian word of calamaro, from Late Latin calamārium, pen-case, from Latin calamārius, relating to a reed pen, perhaps from the “ink” the squid secretes.

My judgements are based on the batter, the color, it's crispness, sauce placement, presentation, serving size and price point. What to look for is a nice light golden color, crispy, evenly breaded. Sauce on the side lots of it. Sweet and hot sauces are great as it compliments the squid nicely. Sweet Chili sauces are my favorite and tatziki is also a nice lighter tasting compliment to a greek Kalamari.

Restaurants use the deep fryer or fry cooker to prepare the calamari. The fry cooker is a good indication of how often they are cleaning their fat and makes a huge impact on the color and quality of the calamari. Also you do not want any bits of french fries or other batters interfering with the presentation of the dish. Calamari should never be deep fried more then a minute or it becomes tough, crap which I have been served. The price point should be $8.50 to $12.

I have eaten the best calamari at the Pouge Fado, yes a greasy little pub but great food! They have taken it off the menu to my disappointment, but I have yet to taste better. Grandview Golf and Country club comes 2ND, Beating out the Armview due to a hit and miss of several tastings and moving the AV into a 5Th place. Peggys Cove was yummy giving it a 3rd place, the serving size is small and expensive clearly catering to the tourist but YUMMY!!! NSCC cafeteria 4Th place as it was the perfect demonstration of how to do calamari cooked by we the students. Because I only tasted as soon as done and had no presentation to judge on I can not give it a higher mark, but damn it was good! Salty's is another wonderful calamari but also hit and miss with several tastings. the rest all all unremarkable either being dry, overcooked, or just ok.

The following is a list of places I have eaten calamari Greek, Italian, and pub. My list is not complete and I will add on and vote on a calamari tasting basis. If you know of a place that you feel has the best calamari drop me a line and lets go tasting!


www.poguefado.com
www.spitfirearms.com
www.cafechianti.ca
www.allgreektome.com
www.opataverna.com
www.aco.ca/golf/ns/halifax/grandvw.html
www.beermarket.lowerdeck.ca
www.il-mercato.ca
www.peggys-cove.com
Bluenose II Restaurant‎
www.yourfathersmoustache.ca
www.oldtriangle.com
NSCC Cafeteria

And The Winner Is.....

So here I am with my very first Culinary competition medal, Bronze!!! Very proud!!! 

The day started off fantastic and continued to get better and worse and better... I had some huge things happen to my soup. IE; the time limit was coming to a close before my carrots cooked. We had one burner each and my carrots were the last to be cooked. It takes at least 2 days to get the veggies cooked on those little burners!!!!! We had 2 hours! When trying to puree my uncooked carrots I realize I have to take it off my sign, it will not be done in time, they will not pass the test. So the staff comes over with some little white stickies and covers over the carrot ginger foam part of my sign.  I think it is all over as my garnish is mush and I throw some chives down and quickly chop as a replacement, this will have to do. The doors open the tasting begins,  I get some fantastic feed back.  My soup is the last to be tasted as I drew the highest card.  Points for Jr. Chef Mandolyn!  But I still think the cold foam gave it that POW that it needed. I was now just playing the tastings game and took myself out of a medal standing in my head.  When my name was called I was in shock, truly in shock. Very excited to compete and now my soup alone with out the garnish came in 3rd! My soup is one that is different from the others, not one that is seen often and one that is my own recipe.  The rest are roasted veg soups, many with squash and pumpkin. The gold was the squash. The silver went to a corn chowder. 

A part of the competition game is selling yourself, selling your product and sell I did! Parsnips are not a favorite of a lot of people. You either love them or hate them. I made some parsnip haters turn in to parsnip lovers that day. I, making comments like I will turn you in to a Parsnip looovvvverrr lovvvverrrrr! As well as letting the yummyness of the soup speak. So keep watching as I prepare for future competitions and events. I am just getting started!!! 

Soup It Up

After being near death this week with not only bronchitis but laryngitis and eating nothing but soup and popsicles I find Saturday fast approaching with an event called Soup it Up Culinary Challenge.  Soup is the last thing I want to see right now but this is an event I have entered, I entered it weeks ago.   This challenge is held by the Jr. Chef Association and will take place at Exhibition Park Maritime Fall Fair. This competition has kept me up at night and when sleeping I  have dreamt about my soup. Literately keeping me in  vivid dreams about what soup to make. I have researched recipes, I have talked to a dozen chefs and others who consider themselves soup connoisseurs and after hearing what everyone thinks I should do... I came up with my own combination that is quite delicious. 

The way culinary competitions work are you are given a list of ingredients or a black box with no knowledge of what ingredients are in the box, then you are to create a dish with only those items.  In the Soup It Up challenge we have been given a list of ingredients. We will be given a harvest basket and have 2 hours to create 100 servings of soup. The general public then votes on the soup. 

I can not disclose my soup recipe or the name of my soup until after the competition. I had a early tasting of the soup on Friday night where I received much appreciated feed back from my best critics. All honest, all appreciated and of which I have kept in mind going into my very first culinary competition.  I look forward to you coming out to vote for the best soup this Saturday October 18th from 12-2 at The Maritime Fall Fair. By the best soup I mean mine:)

back of the bus

On Tuesday of this week I spent the day in the Valley of Nova Scotia discovering L'Acadie Vineyards and rediscovering  beautiful Domaine De Grand Pre. In total there were 170 NSCC students and faculty who piled on to big noisy buses and headed to the Valley. The buses all chugged along and at times I thought would not make it up the not so steep highway hills. We made it all in tact and ready to explore. The weather held off and although there was the threat of rain it was the perfect day. I should add I have not been on a school bus in well over 20 years. 

Nova Scotia has been cultivating grapes since the 1600's finally the wine industry in Nova Scotia is growing in leaps and bounds, this year marks the opening of the 9th vineyard in Nova Scotia with L'Acadie. This is only a snip  of the vine with Pete Lucket opening his Winery in 2011 along with Benjamin Bridge and 2 others. The area is rich with mineral deposits that make the grapes grown in this region have a very distinctive flavor.  The hills, valleys and the soil they hold, the iceage responsible for it all, the sea and her air are contributing factors. What makes it special is the place, the time and a climate change that is doing some good. I find myself now not only a wine lover but so interested in the rich history of grape growers and wine makers.  I almost see myself living on a vineyard but fear it would not be successful for I would drink all the profits.

I have posted some photos,  as you see the day ended in my drinking on the back of the bus. Not the most elegant way to to drink wine...out of a bottle sharing with several others but the experience one I can say that I did not have 20 years ago.