Fat Guy

I have some medication here and it says not to take it on an empty stomach. What does that mean. I'm pretty sure my stomach hasn't really been empty since 1969. But seriously, let's say I eat a yogurt. For how long after that is my stomach considered not empty?

According to a recent New York Times article, the rise in quinoa consumption in the richer nations has made it too expensive for many Bolivians:

Okay I am officially embarrassed by the sameness and lameness of my salads (and vegetable plates). I'm going to need to up my game a lot here.

I think you could fit half a dozen Subways inside the average McDonald's. Gross revenue also probably follows a similar ratio.

I'll follow up and find out for sure, unless Nathan M. gets here first.

No. I assume plate or brisket but I don't know for sure.

The striped dish was in layers. The internal part of it was wonderfully eggy and had the flavor of a thousand mushrooms. The top layer had the texture you get when you beat an egg and microwave it. So while it was very cool looking I wasn't sold on the top layer.

This morning I had the opportunity to sample some modernist dishes, prepared by the Modernist Cuisine team, at a modernist breakfast at Jean Georges restaurant here in New York City. This was the menu: Some photos of the dishes: I recognize many components from the book, but I no longer have access to the online reading room and don't have a physical copy. Those of you in the book, are these recipes from the book? I thought the flavor of every single thing served was superlatively deep -- in other words they all delivered on the better... stronger... faster... promise of modernism. The cornbread, for example, was just like normal cornbread except it tasted twice as much like corn. I have a quibble with the texture of the cool-looking striped top layer of the mushroom omelet, which to me seemed a little rubbery the way omelets get in a microwave. If it's in the book I'll be interested to know the exact methodology.

Today we observed the Jewish holiday of Purim, an ancient tradition that this year happened on the same day as a relatively new holiday: Macaron Day. Invented in 2005 in Paris by Pierre Herme and introduced to New York in 2010 by Francois Payard, Macaron Day is a celebration of that most delicious confection. I've occasionally thought of fabricating a holiday, but I've never had so worthy a justification as the love of macarons. I learned about the holiday last week when I was walking on Houston Street and saw a sign about it in the window of Payard's downtown shop. I'm not sure how they observe Macaron Day in Paris, but in New York City several bakeries cooperated in a Macaron Day promotion wherein you could get a free macaron by mentioning Macaron Day. Normally for this sort of thing I'll clear my calendar and plot out a driving route, however today being Purim we already had a driving route laid in for delivery of Mishloach Manot. You see, there is a Purim tradition of giving gifts of food. My wife and son have been working all week to produce platters of baked goods for our friends, family and colleagues. The tradition is to deliver these platters on the day of Purim. So the challenge became figuring out which bakeries we could hit along our Purim-food-distribution route. The human brain was barely adequate for this task, but we made it work. Complexity was enhanced by a late-morning time window: we had to be at a birthday party by 12:30, and we couldn't get started until about 10 because our son, PJ, was working on an art project involving the cardboard cores of paper-towel rolls. Unfortunately, two of the places we really wanted to go -- Bouchon Bakery and La Maison du Chocolat -- don't open on Sunday until 11:30am and noon respectively. Our first stop (our first macaron stop, that is -- we had already made several Purim-delivery stops) was Butterfield Market on 78th Street and Lexington Avenue. I went in with PJ while my wife Ellen waited in our double-parked car. At Butterfield Market the setup was pretty elaborate. They had signage out on the sidewalk announcing Macaron Day. Inside, there was a standalone macaron station staffed by a woman who offered a choice of about six flavors. I chose pistachio and PJ chose cranberry. Then Ellen went in while we waited with the car. She also had pistachio. We traveled up Madison Avenue toward more Purim stops and drove right past La Maison du Chocolat. Unfortunately there was still half an hour to go until the store's noon opening time, and Our schedle was tight: we had to get all our Purim and Macaron Activities concluded in time to park near and attend PJ's friend's birthday party on Central Park West. Georgia's on 89th Street and Broadway had no visible indication of being a Macaron Day participant, and indeed most of the hundred or so people eating at the cafe, waiting for tables, or making purchases from the bakery counter seemed blissfully unaware of the arrival of this important culinary holiday. PJ and I made our way through the crowd and said to the guy at the counter, "We're here for Macaron Day." He offered us a choice of flavors. I selected "oreo" and PJ had mango-passion. He repaired to a secret stash of macarons behind a structural support column and gave them to us wrapped in opaque white paper. Ellen then went in and got a chocolate one. The last macaron stop we had time for was Jacques Torres on 73rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Here the setup was self-serve. There was a macaron-laden table at the back of the store and you were told to take one. I took two -- one for me and one for Ellen, both chocolate -- and PJ took a lemon one. All the macarons we had were excellent, and while I'd like to be able to report differences I can't identify any based on the small tastes I had. I don't even know if each establishment was baking its own, or if they were produced centrally for multiple Macaron Day participants. The birthday party ended early enough that we could have hit a couple more places. We gave PJ a choice between more macarons and ice cream at home, and he chose ice cream which, he emphasized, was not an expression of a belief ice cream is superior to macarons but was, rather, driven by a desire to get back to his art project. http://www.macarondaynyc.com/index.html

I've now read through just about every publicly-and-freely accessible article and paper on this issue, and I still don't feel all that much closer to an answer. But I do think that, especially at low doses of statin drugs, and talking about whole fruit rather than juice, it's hard for me to find a documented problem with having a grapefruit or two on any given day. The two physicians I asked about this disagreed. One, an internist, took the hard line: stay away from grapefruit anything, in any amount, just in case. The other, a cardiologist, said you'd have to consume an abnormal amount of grapefruit products before being at risk. I'm not really sure either of them knows more about the subject than a literate person who has read the relevant material. In general, I don't buy into the notion that we should defer to doctors solely on account of their credentials. It's the content of what they say that matters. I'm also wondering when furanocoumarin-free grapefruit juice is going to hit the market, if it hasn't already.

Those are amazingly gorgeous. How does one make black-garlic dressing?

Incidentally, I named the cocktail "PNO." This was for a parents'-only party for our son's kindergarten class parents, aka Parents' Night Out.

When I made a test cocktail I had to add simple to get it to a desirable sweet-tart balance. I was surprised I had to do that, but I did. I think my fresh lime juice was very tart and concentrated. As it was, I knew I was pouring for a non-cocktailian audience, which in my experience means you have to go a little sweeter than the eG preference would be. Last night went well, I thought. I don't usually mix so many of the same cocktail, and I can't believe how poor my hand-eye coordination is. I made such a mess of the "bar" area. By the middle of the evening my hands were sticky and my shoulder was killing me. Here I am at my little bar (courtesy of someone else's cell phone -- note the Wailing Wall in the background): I don't have a jigger that has 2 ounces on one side and .5 ounces on the other side, which would have been ideal for this recipe. I'm not even sure one exists. But I noticed yesterday that my new set of stainless egg cups look just like lopsided jiggers. I measured and, can you believe it, 2 ounces on one side and .5 on the other. I packed everything up in a rolling cart borrowed from my mother, and also had a bag of deviled eggs (our food contribution to the potluck). Here they are waiting for the M5 bus:

Made a sample cocktail and adjusted a little to add simple syrup: 2 oz. tequila .5 oz. fresh lime juice .5 oz. Rose's lime .5 oz. simple syrup 1 teaspoon pomegranate syrup soda Shake with ice, pour, top with soda, stir a little with spoon, garnish with a lime wedge

I recommend JAZ's article on the gimlet, Any Other Name, for an interesting discussion of Rose's lime.

With the two metal cups. How do I figure out what to buy? PS I am in Zabar's NYC right now. Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Are these numbers in roughly the right ratio for a decent cocktail (I will of course have to experiment and taste): 2 oz. tequila .5 oz. fresh lime juice .5 oz. Rose's lime 1 teaspoon pomegranate syrup soda Shake with ice, pour, top with soda

I enjoy Rose's mixed half and half with fresh lime juice. I haven't found a homemade substitute that carries enough of the same flavors. I also found about another .5 liters of tequila. The reason I'm so disorganized, and the reason I'm stuck with a limited inventory, is that we're in temporary accommodations between apartments so my liquor cabinet -- which was already paltry by eG standards -- is not accessible.

That's the science part, but not the art part and not the "real aim" or in my opinion "real achievement" of MC. That summary makes it sound a little like a fancy version of McGee. While a lot of that ground is covered, MC is about much more than kitchen science. It's about, well, modernist cuisine.

Also just found an untouched larger bottle of Rose's and an unopened 1L bottle of Dekuyper Pomegranate Pleasure. I wonder if it's even usable.

Quantity-wise, what I have is about 1.5 liters of Sauza silver tequila (two bottles filled about 3/4 of the way), about .5 liters of Monin pomegranate syrup (half a bottle), and a 355ml unopened bottle of Rose's. I'd like to be able to make 30 cocktails. So I think I'll need something like a fruit juice or a soda to fill out the volume, though I haven't done the math.

Palomas involve grapefruit soda, right? If so, I feel it has become politically incorrect to serve anything with grapefruit flavor to a crowd. Some people taking statin drugs won't touch so much as a grapefruit-flavored cough drop.

In selecting a range, rangetop or cooktop, do you prefer to have all the burners be the same or different, i.e., some bigger and more powerful than others?

I have a bunch of silver tequila, Monin's pomegranate syrup and Rose's lime juice left over from an event. I have to serve cocktails at a small potluck on Friday night and would like to utilize these ingredients. No triple sec or ginger syrup allowed (I have those leftover too), as there will be a punch at the party with those ingredients. I don't mind buying some pineapple juice or lemons or whatever, but would like to do this on the cheap to the greatest extent possible so I'd rather not buy any bottles of alcohol.

I think single-ingredient restaurants are pretty normal in Japan, where they have dedicated eel restaurants etc. Not that any restaurant truly uses a single ingredient. There's also a taxonomy issue: is a noodle shop a single-ingredient restaurant?