Flavourful Saskatoon, May 23, 2011
Foodie news and events in and around Saskatoon – bees and beer, movies, handicrafts and elBulli
Beer and Bratwurst
Join Steve Cavan of Paddock Wood Brewing at Souleio Food’s on June 11 at 7 pm for a pairing of sweet and savoury foods with Paddock Wood beers. Tickets are $30 and are available in advance from Souleio. Every ticket entitles you to entry in a prize draw.
Handmade Alternatives to Plastic Bags
The Rural Crafter makes reusable produce bags in a variety of different styles, sizes and materials – from crocheted drawstring bags made from yarn to bags made out of recycled plastic grocery bags. 
Check out her Facebook page as she makes all sorts of other items as well – from really cool hats to reversible washable swiffers.Cava in Clavet
Cava Wines are now available from Neen’s Nook (Race Trac Gas) in Clavet. Neen’s Nook carries 16 types of wine, from $15 to $25.Day of the Honey Bee – May 29
Clinton Shane Ekdahl, a Saskatoon beekeeper, initiated the Day of the Honey Bee in 2009 to recognize their important role in pollinating crops. Canada is the twelfth largest producer of honey in the world. The top three provinces are Ontario (31%), British Columbia (26%) and Saskatchewan (15%).Movies
Queen of the Sun
Queen of the Sun follows beekeepers from all around the globe as they strive to keep their bees safe from pesticides and other causes of Colony Collapse Disorder. The 82-minute film will be shown at Broadway Theatre on May 27 and June 2 at 7 pm and on May 28 and May 30 at 9 pm.The Pisim Project
This film about the Pisim Project follows a group of high school students in Cumberland House as they build a house using energy-efficient technology and traditional building methods. The film will be shown on Wednesday, June 8 at 7 pm at J.S. Wood Library (1801 Lansdowne Avenue) and is co-sponsored by the library and the Saskatchewan Environmental Society. (via apm – thanks!)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A season in the kitchen at Ferran Adria’s elBulli
.The food
“Food can be whatever you imagine it to be” is the defining principle behind Ferran Adria’s recipes.
“Yet Ferran is not content simply to emphasize flavour. If he were, he would be serving that liquid-nitrogenized mango sorbet alone in a bowl. He combines pure flavours in new, provocative ways and brings new techniques to the same task not just because they are amusing or taste good but because, in doing so, he allows his diners to re-examine their expectations of what food is and what it can be.”
“ ‘What we’ve done,’ Ferran likes to say, ‘is create a new vocabulary, a new language, for cooking.’ That new vocabulary has produced some startling metaphors: ‘dragon’ cocktails that make the drinker breathe smoke, ‘caviar’ made from tiny spheres of olive oil. But it is his grammar – that is, the way he puts plates together – that is most astonishing. Hot turns into cold, sweet into savory, solid into liquid or air. Adria’s cooking plays with the diner’s expectations, undermines established categories of taste and texture, and constantly, miraculously, continues to surprise.”
The work
The book profiles the 32 apprentices who spend six months preparing the food at elBulli. With no pay and no opportunity to try the unusual dishes they are producing, it’s hard, monotonous work. “Precision, physical endurance, the abilities to overcome disgust and keep one’s opinions to oneself: these are all key qualities in a stagiaire. But although the cooks may not realize it yet, another characteristic will be infinitely more important to their success at elBulli, and that is the mental and emotional ability to withstand the tedious.”
Flavourful Saskatoon May 16, 2011
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