Onions make us tear up because of a reaction in the onion releases a chemical (lachrymatory factor) that irritates our eyes, it's the same effect as tear gas. Peeling an onion doesn't have any effect, but as soon as you cut one, burny chemicals are released into the air. In Japan, they actually engineered a 'tearless' onion, but it didn't taste
as good. I've actually been known to wear a snorkle mask when chopping buckets full of onions for catering (that was a particularly hot batch).Â
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Onions are an invaluable culinary tool, but we tend to take them for granted. They are the building blocks of most cuisine along with their relative, garlic, of course. In order to draw attention to this little studied vegetable, I've written a treatise on the humble onion, breaking down the flavour profiles of everything from leeks to bullets and illuminating their powers and pitfalls. It's the perfect exercise for pandemic
downtime, food nerds!
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The culinary secrets of onions...
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TRUFFLE COOKING CLASS WITH CHEF ROBIN
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Winter is truffle season, so truffle hunters are out picking in Italy and right here in BC. Locally, many different types of truffles grow under the soil in the wild and they can also be cultivated on hazelnut and xmas tree farms.  You can sometimes find them by searching through squirrel holes in the forest as they've been known to cache them like nuts. Keep an eye on those squirrels as their keen sense of smell attracts them to truffles which are hypogeous (underground) fungi. Or you can go the easy route and buy some fresh truffles or truffle oil. I've been fine tuning my winter truffle recipes for a decade now, ever since a standout Alba truffle dinner that blew my mind when traveling was still a thing:) I'm excited to use this new wacky online education world to pass on my three favourite
truffle recipes with expert advice to make one of the most expensive ingredients in the world shine. Â
THE MENU
Avgolemono soup - lemon, rice, white truffle
Black truffles cream sauce on handmade tagliatelle, Parmesan
Truffle honey coconut macaroons
When: Online cooking class recipes are released Feb 1st, so you can start cooking and a live zoom session Q&A with me including a truffle hunting talk will be held on Valentine's day Sunday morning.
Cost: $39
WINTER COASTAL FORAGING LUNCH
Meet us at the beach to lunch and learn what delicious foods are harvested in winter with our chef & foraging team. This trip is for people that want to learn to survive on coastal food. Chef Robin will teach you how to sustainably gather her favourite winter foods like seaweed, shellfish, crab and nutty winter roots like cattails and burdock. Trip includes a big, steaming hot bowl of her famous chowder with fresh
bread and butter for lunch. We’ll meet at the beach for this adventure, bring your own beach chair (so we can distance appropriately) and a hot cuppa, bundle up and we’ll do something fun to start the new year.Â
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If there is a covid lockdown at the time, we'll reschedule any sessions or issue refunds if you can't make the new date.Â
How are you doing?
We would love to hear your feedback on some new Covid friendly food adventure ideas and how the pandemic is affecting your food life, take the survey...
SWALLOW TAIL
Online Foraging Education
ONLINE WILD MUSHROOM FORAGING COURSE
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Learn about mushrooms from Chef Robin from the comfort of your own home. She's been putting together videos of her mushroom foraging travels in BC this fall covering matsutake, lobster, chanterelle, shrimp mushroom, comb tooth and 20+ more edible and poisonous Pacific Northwest fungi. To learn how to safely forage this long wet November, check out the course...
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Virtual Foraging Survial Trip
2 hours with foraging expert Robin KortÂ
A fun way learn some useful food foraging survival tips in case of emergency covering forest to seashore ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. From sustainable edible wild weeds to nutrient rich plants for survival and beach forage superfoods like
seaweeds and shellfish. Learn about any poisonous plants you should avoid and simple cooking methods for the food you find in this 2 hour video collection. I've been teaching wild foraging classes for over a decade in BC and would love to share my knowledge with you.
FULL FORAGING 101 ONLINE COURSE
If you want more than one class, we have our full foraging 101 online course. In this video collection, I can show you how to safely forage for edible plants and mushrooms in all types of ecosystems; forest, meadow, river and even urban foraging in way more detail ...
MEDICINAL EDIBLES
Online Course with herbalist Lori Snyder
Our online video series featuring two hours with aboriginal herbalist, Lori Snyder, in her garden covering edible medicinal plants both native and invasive. She teaches us that food is our medicine, how to listen and get to know the plants that surround us. Learn how to identify, care for and prepare these powerful plants into simple medicines like edible
tinctures, teas and balms. She'll cover which parts of each plant to use for healing and which to leave for the bees.Â
Swallow Tail Gift Certificates
Available in any value. For our wild mushroom trips, sea foraging workshops, outdoor summer secret supper club featuring star chefs from around the city.
Note: a lot of our trips are outside and can be purchased as private tours.
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We love our city and making fun food events in it, so see you soon!
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