The Aimless Cook Podcast Episode 17
Freestyle Friday #5
I’ve been eating lunch a lot at Fresh & Local Market & Kitchens at Avenida and I’ve been quite happy with the food there. It’s been a reunion of sorts as many of the older vendors there are people I’ve known at the old Kingsland Market, or Market on Macleod, for some. Since being back in the south, I’ve eaten at The J-Spot 3 times, Rendezvous Korean twice, and there are still so many places to try. But it’s all good. I’ll eventually get to try them all.
The latest banger I had, besides Rendezvous’ gamjatang (unbelievable), was the Dirty Fries at The J-Spot. This is a plate of fries that will make you wanna slap your mama. It consists of his fresh house-cut fries, mochiko chicken, pickled red onions, house sauce, spicy aioli, and avocado, finished with chopped scallions. It’s sized for 2 people to share unless you want to have them all to yourself, which is a tempting proposition.
Mochiko chicken is a riff on chicken karaage that uses mochiko instead of potato starch. The mochiko is seasoned and made into the marinade so it coats and sticks to the chicken, the same consistency as a tandoori marinade. Texture-wise, it creates a crispy shell-like coating that preserves the moisture in the chicken as it’s fried. Karaage is lightly dredged in potato starch, so in contrast, it’s a much lighter and thinner type of crispy. The chicken I did at Eats Of Asia was based on karaage that I learned to make at Zipang, so it had a lighter kind of texture.
All technical jibber-jabber aside, his chicken is marvellous. The components in this plate are everything you look forward to in a great dish, proper fries, juicy, crispy chicken, savoury, spicy, tart, creamy, rich…it’s all there. So props to The J-Spot.
My latest visit to Rain Dog Bar. Yes, we returned to Rain Dog Bar for our late Valentine’s dinner date night. It was great because when there’s just the two of us, you can just sit at the bar and enjoy yourself. The other great thing is that you can enjoy the regular and not a special Valentine's menu. Am I anti-romance? No, I’m just practical. By the way, if you want to read my full review of Rain Dog, you can on the substack, or in episode 9 of the podcast.
I’ve gone to some nice places for dinner with some seriously talented chefs, one of them being the visit we made to Salt & Brick, or the omakase at Ryuko. But if you haven’t been here to Rain Dog Bar in Inglewood, you are seriously missing out on some amazing and clever food. Chef Rashad Ali is one talented MF. I just want to give credit where credit is due because Rain Dog Bar is everything a neighbourhood hang-out should be and more. I will be having Chef Rashad on the show soon, as well as the owner, Bill Bonar to talk about his amazing place and about being a cicerone on our upcoming episode about beer.
On this visit, we had to have the pretzels again with the brassica mustard and beer cheese. I wrote about that one before….excellent. Then we wanted to try the roasted carrots with whipped chevre, lovage vinaigrette, toasted bread crumbs, smoked sea salt, and fresh mint. Holy shit. It tasted like carrot raita, but was made with completely regional components and presented in a Canadian context. Mind blown.
The steakhouse burger was also delicious. As you know, I love me a smashed patty, which they also do, but the steakhouse is 6.5 oz of dry-aged steak patty (70/30), Taleggio cheese, white onion, pickles, black pepper, in a sesame seed bun. The course grind of the patty preserved the speckles of fat, giving that medium-cooked burger maximum flavour with little distraction. The Taleggio was a great choice of cheese as its inherent fruity notes complemented the savouriness of the beef and the tang of the pickles. Also, the sweet onion lent a crispness that gave the whole composition a layer of texture that just made each bite fantastic. Insane.
I’ll say it again. The food at Rain Dog Bar is unbelievably clever and tasty as hell. Please go there post haste.
And, oh yeah, I also went to Brooklyn Dumpling Shop. Yup…
Listen to the entire episode right here: