After a rather long search for a supplier of truffles in vancouver (I guess I didn’t try very hard) I found a wholesaler through a co-worker. The are apparently the suppliers of many gourmet items to our fine dining restaurants in vancouver.
After joining forces with my co-worker we decided to make an appointment there and bundle our order. They couldn’t confirm our appointment until lunch time, well we are small fry’s. We are not affiliated with a restaurant. Regardless, we got our appointment at 5:00.
When we got down there we had a bit of trouble finding the warehouse but eventually we entered a rather descript warehouse. There weren’t any noticeable signs pointing us there aside from the address. I guess for restaurants they mainly expect their purveyor’s to deliver.
Unfortunately for me they didn’t have time to show us around the warehouse. It would have been nice to see all the different items they have right now. After all they specialize in items that are in season now. They had some meyer lemon’s that were in season. Lot of different types of mushrooms including chanterelles, burgundy truffles which aren’t half as flavorful and of course the prized alba white truffle.
When the purveyor came into his office bearing boxes of the items were were going to purchase including the truffles the pungent, earthy, garlicy odor perfumed the room. It was a beautiful thing. Many of the truffles in the box were well over 500$. I am but a beginner with truffles. I’ve had them a handful of times and I’ve never actually held a full truffle in my hand let alone cook with one. So when fondling them and smelling them I felt awe struck. After a lengthy discussion with the purveyor who was particularly excited, probably from the aroma bursting from the truffles. We discussed the produce, where it came from, how to cook it, how to clean off the truffles, storing them the best way etc. I must say I learned a lot. I was even able to purchase the truffle shaver from him which I had been looking for. I was planning to get the chocolate shaver from ming wo but that would have been a serious compromise.
I didn’t touch the truffle after getting home because I wanted to surprise my wife for breakfast. And you can’t get more decadent than to have eggs with truffles!
I woke up early and started my eggs three ways. 1. poached 2. scrambled with butter 3. loose hollandaise. I had to figure out the order just right to make everything come together. And whisking the pesky hollandaise throughout would be a problem. So I started the hollandaise on low, threw the eggs in the hot water for poaching and immediately started the scramble with butter. Altogether 8 eggs. There goes the cholesterol! Never mind that though cholesterol from eggs is good for you.
The scrambled was plated first in a circle to dam up all the egg yolk juices coming out of the poached egg which was placed in the center and the topping of hollandaise was just over the top.
Then came the alba truffle. I was smelling it all morning even though it was in a zip lock bag, wrapped in paper and in the fridge. When I opened it up and displayed it to my wife with pride the room burst with the rich truffle perfume. Next I opened up the truffle shaver and set it to high. Might as well go big! It’s our first time having it at home.
Boomshakalaka! Great, delicious, over the top!
Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again. Yes but not often cause that was an expensive breakfast. And besides I would probably get sick of it…. maybe.
