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I only had fried soft shells once at Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City, NC. There is a big charter boat fishing business there, and that's why I was there. It's right on the water, and has been there since 1938. You see out the windows at dusk the fishing boats coming into port with the charters having all the catch hung up for people to see. The commercial boats keep the catch chilled, as it should be, but this is a big charter fishing port, so you get a big parade of boats showing off the catch in our hot and humid air, so as to get more charter customers. When I tried the Sanitary, it was in the late 80's and it was better than it is now. I just ordered the wrong thing. I was curious and didn't understand the season for live soft shells. I'm sure I would not have agreed to go out on a charter fishing boat in April or even May. It had to be further into summer.
 
My one example must have been frozen and it seemed to have spent too much time regrowing its shell. It made me very sad I ordered it, because my dining companions' food looked good.
 
They did bring in a spiny lobster that night from one of the fishing boats that sold it to the restaurant and they have an aquarium for such purchases. This thing was as long as my whole arm! It had no claws like the Maine kind, but I still wish I'd ordered that instead of soft shells. Who knows how much it would've cost, though.
 
A question for those who have had good soft shells: Do they typically not have a chitinous shell to try to deal with/chew through?

I just made this with the domingo rojos. 
Truly weak in the knees time. 
Coconut Brown Rice and Domingo Rojos. 
Massa organic brown rice and our red beans, cooked in coconut milk. 
 

Oxtail Mole de Olla with Taquitos:
Intended for last night, but the oxtails needed more braising than we had time for.
Fast forward to tonight, with an extra few hours of cooking and all was well. The taquitos (cheese, onion cilantro) made for a nice, crunchy edible utensil.

My recent Danish pastry project reminded me that I really love making laminated doughs - almost as much as I love eating them. This week’s project: croissants and pain au chocolat with Joe Pastry’s recipe:
 

For anyone who still doubts or is somehow unaware of the extreme deliciousness of whole roasted cauliflower . . . it's true:

This is the first year I've been able to get them. These were purchased for too much money at a grocery store, but I found a big patch out in the woods that I'm going to harvest from sometime later this week. Even though they were from a grocer, they were still covered in boatloads of dirt and mud at the roots. Took me forever to clean them, but here they are:
 

 
On a quest to make it last, I pickled some, made ramp butter, and made a ramp chimichurri for dinner that night.
 

 
Dinner that night: "Sprung!" 
Lamb with ramp chimichurri and sauteed morels, baby carrots (the purple ones were glazed with balsamic), asparagus, and a 63C yolk.
 

 
 

Who doesn't love it when your passion is recognized by the Old Grey Lady?
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/dining/black-bean-soup-recipe-video.html?ref=dining
 
“I believe you have to show the beans who’s boss,” he said. “Then they will obey you, and your recipe.”
- Steve Sando
 

 
There is a Caribbean restaurant in Memphis that periodically does goat curry. It's outstanding.
 
A lot of small, generally African American, barbecue establishments around this part of the world will barbecue goat, too, and that isn't half bad.
 

Here are some of the best purveyors of country ham that I know of. Most have been mentioned already, but let's keep the list growing. I'd love to discover more producers.
 
Benton's Country Hams (TN)
Broadbent Hams (KY)
Calhoun Country Hams (VA)
S. Wallace Edwards and Sons (VA)
Father's Country Hams (KY) 
Johnson County Hams (NC)
Col. Bill Newsom's Country Hams (KY)
 
 

Ready for PMCA next weekend. 
 

 

 

Pistachio Apricot Meringue & Lavender Macaroons !

Today's breakfast.

 
Veal Oxtails cooked in the Breville PC and served with Polenta. 

Last night I was in the back yard with my new toy (Canon EOS 70D) taking long exposure pictures of the night sky, and I began thinking about photography and its role in modern food media.
For many of us, food is art. Wether we are creating it ourselves, our salivating at the artistry a chef places before us, or a fellow eGulleteer posts, we are all here because we've learned to appreciate the art that is food.
Of course, the origin of food art must be linked to ingrained knowledge of what each individual believes tastes good, or what we imagine will. To look at a picture of a wet oyster is, to many, to crave. Yet objectively, it's merely slimy white stuff in a shell!
Here at eGullet, we've all waded through many threads, packed with stunning food photography, but I would like to take a fresh look at food photography as art. It seems that the great majority of food photography these days falls into two categories: illustrative and informative.
Illustrative food photography says 'here is what I ate and/or cooked," and is what most of us are producing when we post pictures online. Informative, or educational photography tells a simple story like, "this is how you make this, or where this ingredient came from," and is likely the category that much of the amazing MC@Home photography falls into.
Of course, an illustrative photograph of an artistic dish is artful, but it's the dish, not the photograph that is art. The photographer merely catalogued what was already present.
I think there is a third category that food photographers tend to shy away from, and that is interpretive art. My photography teacher told me that there's a difference between 'taking' and 'making' pictures. The great artists of any generation or medium are usually interpretive. A master painter doesn't strive for perfect photorealism, but strives to interpret the scene according to the vision in his mind. Isn't this what the greatest chefs accomplish? We revere men like Keller and Achatz not for their note-perfect replication of timeless classics, but for their artistic re-interpretation of them.
I am starting this thread because I am sure there must be others who, like me, would love to see what art we can make of food photography.
Let's create an up to date repository of answered questions on food photography. Tips and suggestions for achieving certain looks or results.
But more than that, if there is a community anywhere that could redefine food art as interpreted by photography, we are it. In our midst are some mind-bendingly talented chefs and creative home cooks. There are people from every continent and people group, and there is a wealth of photographic ability represented in our membership.
What is your perspective on food photography as art?

I purchased the Koizumi.  I hadn't bought any pots or pans this month.  I was about to take one for the team and order an All-Clad TK non-stick for comparison but William Sonoma's spring 20% off sale went out from under me at checkout.  Their loss.
 
For anyone interested the TK non-stick pan is still 20% off at WS but a different promotion.  Also the All-Clad d5 non-stick omelet pan is on sale 50% off but it is a weird size and shape.
 

Just went to Bali Kitchen in the East Village for lunch.  I think it's a great addition to the neighborhood.  Everything was really tasty and fresh, and really well cooked - it's a fast casual type place with only a few seats - I think most of their business will be takeout.  It's run by two older Indonesian guys - both are really nice.  As we were enjoying our lunch there, they even brought us over a little basket of various crackers.
 


Shrimp chips (nice and shrimpy) next to a canister of sambal
 

Fish sate lilit
 

Rendang Ayam (chicken)
 

Dabu dabu - turmeric marinated broiled fish with mango pineapple salsa
 

Crackers on the house... I think the white and colored ones were some kind of fish cracker - and the bubbly ones were barley/oat crackers... more shrimp crackers on the bottom.
 
The cost including tax/tip was $42 - which included the sate lilit, shrimp crackers, rendang and fish...  We thought everything was really well prepared - we felt like it was a good value.  We will definitely be going back.

 
Warm white bean salad with opah belly and garlic crostini.

Tried Misty Kalkofen's Guadalajara. 

2 oz Siete Leguas reposado tequila (Cazadores)
1⁄2 oz Fernet Branca
1⁄2 oz 1:1 agave syrup 
2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters
1 twist orange or grapefruit peel, discarded (grapefruit)
 
This was a curious drink. As you might expect the fernet dominated, but combined in interesting ways with other flavors that I wouldn't expect would be natural partners for eucalyptus and menthol. The finish, driven by fernet and bitters, I experienced as a numb tingling almost like novocaine. 

Spiced Copper River Sockeye Gravlax with Aquavit, Spring Asparagus, Capers, Chive Blossoms, Lemon, Olive Oil and Rye Croutons-

Mine is Sugo!!
 
Like this..
 

What a disaster of a day. First, at noon, I made some rice - or tried to. Half way through cooking the rice cooker died.  I've had it about fifteen years and it was a gift from a client, so no cash really lost, although I still had to buy a new one.  I mean when you eat rice every day, you need one.
 

 
Then dinner. This was an experiment. Which failed. It tasted great. but looked like something the cat sicked up. It was meant to be fish pieces in a laver and beer batter. I think I know what went wrong. The batter was too dry and perhaps the oil temperature could have been higher. Never mind, that is what experiments are for - finding out what not to do. I'll try again, but maybe not soon.
 

 
To cheer myself up, I bought a new t-shirt.
 

I have Apple Crisp ice cream in the works right now, and pumpkin pie lined up. I have made lemon meringue ice cream. It was well received, but I'm not a meringue fan. I just baked a half sheet of meringue until lightly browned and dry. Then, crushed the pieces and added it to the lemon ice cream.This has got to be one of my favorites: rosemary brown butter with hazelnuts. So good, I may put it with a fig special this weekend.

@David Ross you can get the holes with a 65 to 68 hydration.  You need good gluten development and a longer cold fermentation.
 
This bread was baked yesterday from a dough that had been made on Saturday and left in the fridge until yesterday morning.
68% hydration.  I have another 500g batch in the fridge made the same day that I'll probably bake tomorrow.  Also 68%.
 

Sliced while still warm.

Sliced this morning for toast.
 

I am not the biggest radish lover but I just happily lunched on a big ol' bowl of radishes in the form of the Radishes with Tonnato, Sunflower Seeds and Lemon from Six Seasons p 112.<br style="color:#1d2129;font-size:14px;">I picked up some at last week's farmers market for another recipe and had quite a few orphans that ended up in today's lunch.

 

I made a few minor modifications: subbed slivered almonds for the sunflower seeds and served it all on a bed of greens. 
The more major mod was using a Tonnato recipe I know and love rather than the one in the book. I'm sure that one is fine but it seemed a little heavy on the tuna and under seasoned. Next time I'll give it a try.

I've been making my recipe for caramel sticky buns for years.  But why I never thought of using the pineapple upside down trick I don't know.  Now I do know................

Recently, over in the Pastry & Baking forum, @Hassouni asked a question about the best flour to use to make a traditional Lebanese bread.  I have no experience with the breads he asked about but I want to thank him for starting the thread.  Like many eGullet topics, it led me to want to learn more about something I knew absolutely nothing about.  First, I watched a number of Anthony Rahayel videos like the one he linked to (الترويقة اللبنانية الشهية : مناقيش عالصاج) and this one, MANOUSHE: Lebanese World Renowned Traditional Breakfast.  
 
Of course I couldn't understand them and a search took me to this cookbook,  Man'oushé, Inside the Lebanese Street Corner Bakery by Barbara Abdeni Massaad.  It's not new, I think it was originally published in 2009.  The author also wrote Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry and Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate our Shared Humanity.  I haven't tried to cook from this book so I can't speak to how well the recipes work, but I feel like I've spent time visiting many towns in Lebanon, meeting the people and learning about the breads as the author did for this project.  The soft-bound version was $16 when I ordered it, which I thought was very fair for this large, photo-filled book.  I generally hate it when people review a cookbook without cooking from it but I think this is a lovely book and I wanted to mention it here in case anyone else is interested. Instructions are provided for both traditional methods and a conventional oven or stove-top skillets so I should be able to try some of them.  I'll come back and update this when I do.
 
Sadly, there's no look-inside feature for this book on Amazon, so I'm sharing a couple of photos to give you an idea of the book.  
I most likely will NOT choose as my first recipe from the book this paper-thin bread that's stretched on a cushion and baked on a convex saj.

 
Something like these flat breads may be more within my reach: