Like everyone who reads widely on the Internet, I sometimes collect lists of interesting articles that don’t necessarily warrant a complete post, but are worth passing along, like the random assortment of meats and vegetables you find in your fridge that end up in a pot pie. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading lately, all mixed up together and capped off with a flaky crust.

Everybody’s talking about Modernist Cuisine. (Not to mention talking about talking about Modernist Cuisine.)

Montreal Gazette restaurant critic Lesley Chesterman tweets about an intriguing Craigslist job ad, seeking service staff for an Old Montreal restaurant “Modeled after NOMA, the best restaurant in the world located in Copenhagen.” Bandwagon-jumping, or just a sign of the times?

I’ve had American friends comment in the past on how weak Canadian highballs are. Looks like they just got weaker.

Animals aren’t the only living beings we humans kill to sustain ourselves, and even though plants can’t run away, they have developed some pretty elaborate defences in their efforts to stay alive. So why is it wrong to kill one but not the other? (Personally, I don’t think it’s wrong to kill either, though I do think meat that’s raised and slaughtered humanely is the best approach.)

Linda at Playing with Fire and Water once again shows why I think hers is one of the most inspiring blogs I read, by making her own miso.

I’ve been spending my evenings lately reading the memoir by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas, Life, on the Line. As Francis Lam and Carol Blymire discuss, it’s a remarkably inspiring book, and deserves a place in everyone’s library, not just foodies.

Like everyone who reads widely on the Internet, I sometimes collect lists of interesting articles that don’t necessarily warrant a complete post, but are worth passing along, like the random assortment of meats and vegetables you find in your fridge that end up in a pot pie. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading lately, all mixed up together and capped off with a flaky crust.

New Year’s is the most important holiday on the Japanese calendar, so it makes sense that the culinary traditions that have built up around it are imbued with so much meaning.

While we all await the release of Modernist Cuisine with bated breath, eGullet declares 2011 to be its very own “Year of modernist cuisine,” complete with links to some great past threads on avant-garde cooking and restaurants.

Meanwhile, the Modernist Cuisine team themselves have posted a fascinating high-speed video of the Leidenfrost Effect (a.k.a. “Why you can put your hand into a bucket of liquid nitrogen without getting frostbite”).

My friend John Sconzo, who has eaten in more top restaurants than probably anyone else I know, has a great write-up of his dinner at Coi. I know where I want to eat next time I go to San Francisco!

What is the pastry world coming to? Adam Gopnik explores the current state of dessert. Most interesting is the idea that the two biggest historical influences on modern cuisine, Antonin Carême and Michel Guérard, both managed to achieve what they did because of their perspective from the pastry kitchen.

The National Post’s Adam McDowell talks punch, and offers some advice for Toronto’s bars, all of which I agree with.

And, finally, the Cooking Issues team explores aspects of dashi that I hadn’t even begun to consider. Now I just have to track down some high-quality kombu…

It turns out it’s not quite that easy. My first attempt involved simply combining sweetened blueberry puree with cocoa butter, but when I tried to whip it as it chilled, it separated into two phases, one of hardened cocoa butter and one of blueberry puree. I re-melted it and tried to emulsify it with some lecithin, which didn’t work, then some gelatin, which did. But the resulting emulsion wouldn’t foam when I whipped it. Finally, I added more cocoa butter in the form of white chocolate (I didn’t want to use more pure cocoa butter, because of the expense), and managed to get a mousse-like substance, pictured above. It’s bad enough that it looks grainy, even though it’s smooth on the tongue, but worse, it doesn’t taste very good. Apparently I still don’t fully understand the ins and outs of cocoa butter, but I’m happy to treat this as one more lesson in how it works, and learn what I can.