alanamoana

you could probably also do this as Sugarella describes, but pipe an outline with royal icing (on acetate placed over the font printout) and flood with thinner royal icing. Wait until it dries and then transfer to cake.

Steve, thanks for more ideas. I knew you could buy "blank" stamp pads, but could never find them at the local Michael's. I guess I'll have to go to on-line sources. Also, the fact that you can get custom stamps so inexpensively is great! I'll have to see what resources there are around here. With the one rubber stamp that I have (with the four designs)...it seems the designs that are more just outlines work the best. They give sharp clean images. The other designs that have a lot of "solid" surface area tend to hold too much cocoa butter and when you lift up the stamp you get areas of blobby color. You know what I mean, I'm sure! edited to add: compare the solid letter "G" you've stamped to the outline letter "G"...just cleaner and nicer looking on the outline. When you say you use a hair dryer to keep the cocoa butter warm, do you just heat the ink pad itself? I guess you could heat up the stamp too to keep the cocoa butter from setting up in the crevices of the stamp... Well, it is fun! Also, if you want to customize things, much cheaper than other companies who charge insane set-up fees for artwork! Unless, of course, you have to make thousands... Also, what kind of acetate do you use? The firm kind or the kind you find purchased transfer sheets screened onto? Thanks again for your photos and comments! Alana

I definitely checked to make sure the cocoa butter side of the transfer sheet was the side in contact with the chocolate. I have a feeling the chocolate was just too cool. I didn't think that was possible, but with transfer sheets, i guess it is a consideration. I've looked at the dipped pieces again and it is funny...the indentations, where the transfer sheet design was, have bloomed. The rest of the chocolate seems to be in temper. I'll attach a picture in a minute to show you what I mean. I hope there aren't any more curve balls thrown my way as I have to have 300 of these done for a friend... eta: image of funny bloom!

I think "not innovative" was the wrong phrase to use. There have been discussions elsewhere about the term "Regional Hawaiian Cuisine" (is that the correct phrase?)...and its implications with regard to the Hawaii restaurant scene. I ate at Alan Wong's in November and had a pretty delicious meal. I don't think you'd be disappointed by either Mavro's or Wong's restaurants. It is hard to knock local chefs for using an over abundance of lilikoi, papaya seed, taro, etc. as these are the ingredients they have access to. If we are going to subscribe to an "American" cuisine where local ingredients are prepared well, according to the seasons...then the Hawaii chefs are doing a great job. I guess I just get upset when it becomes redundant and kitschy...there are only so many desserts you can have with passion fruit coulis (madame pele's lava cake) or a dinner garnished with an orchid.

Has anyone had the experience where their transfer sheet image is not adhering to the chocolate? I just bought some PCB transfer sheets and they worked fine on a test run. Today, I'm dipping some chocolates and topping with little squares of transfer sheet. I wait the recommended (okay, not the full two hours) but at least an hour...peel the transfer square off...and nothing! An indented image of where the transfer sheet was, but the cocoa butter has stayed firmly attached to the acetate. Is it possible that the chocolate was too cool (although in temper) for the transfer sheet? Thus not melting the cocoa butter enough to adhere it to the chocolate?

This is why I would stick with In-n-Out. It is cheap fast food, but good quality as well. Meat is never frozen, french fries are cut and fried within minutes of your order...decent service (considering the age of the employees). For variety, Taylor's wins...can't get an Ahi Burger at In-n-Out! Also, I think they serve wines and beers at Taylor's. It is definitely a "special occasion" fast food joint. Besides, they have to pay the rent (which must be considerable) for their space in the Ferry Building.

Vanessa, I have been playing around a little bit and thought you might like to see this...my results are very crappy as I was just messing around with a bit of not so nice cocoa butter, etc. I guess that's enough excuses: This is a picture of a fairly large rubber stamp. It has four designs, one on each side of the cube, leaving two sides clear for holding onto the stamp itself. I bought it at Michael's, the craft store. This picture is of a sheet of chocolate onto which I transfered the design. I got the idea from another thread which discussed using rubber stamps to make transfers or designs on chocolate. I melted some cocoa butter and used a paint roller (they sell very small ones for detailed work)...probably not food safe, but this was just an experiment. I rolled the cocoa butter onto the rubber stamp and stamped it onto a piece of acetate. I let it sit overnight. The next day, I spread a little bit of tempered chocolate onto the stamped images. After it crystallized, I peeled off the acetate and voila! I'm trying to think of better ways to get the cocoa butter onto the stamp. The first time I did this, I just dipped the stamp into the cocoa butter, but it didn't allow for a clean impression of the image. The paint roller worked pretty well, but you lose a lot of cocoa butter in the fibers of the roller and I don't think it is food safe. I want to find a good quality sponge (more like a stamp pad) to do this with. Another thing I don't love about this, or cocoa butter in general...it is murder to clean off of anything. Including your hands! It takes the hottest water you can stand and tons of soap. This might stop me from experimenting as I hate that feeling. Sort of like working with shortening Anyway...just thought I'd show you what I'm up to.

anybody get the feeling there are just too many "panda expresses" around and people are getting too comfortable with getting their own combo plate to share?! i mean it really isn't chinese food, so why should you share, right? that kind of thing just wouldn't fly at my parents' house...we have a huge dining room table with a huge lazy susan...specifically for sharing!

Docsconz, I recently ate at Taylor's Automatic Refresher and really liked the feel and look of the place. Luckily we had a gift card, because two burgers, one order of fries, one order of rings, a soda and a float set us back $30! There is definitely quality to be had, but I have to agree with you on the timing of the meal. We were also there at a time when there was almost nobody else in the place. They make the root beer float first and put it into a reach-in refrigerator. Then they made the burgers, then they made the fries, then they made the rings. We sat at the counter, so I could see the progression. As I am a restaurant person, it sort of gets my goat when they are clearly slow (no business) and have about five to six employees working the line and they can't coordinate their efforts enough to have the food come up at the same time...hot and fresh. Particularly for the prices they charge. For all of that, I prefer to spend my money at In-n-Out Burger...the price is right and the quality is good...always hot and fresh!

hehe Thanks Megan. You know, if you're bad like me (a "retired" professional) you'd just make a huge batch of batter and keep it in your fridge to bake off as emergencies arise As a matter of fact, I just made a ton of brown butter (beurre noisette) so I can make some emergency financier batter! So very easy and so very delicious. I love how perfectly formed your madeleines come out each time! Just great!

my good friend who is the pastry chef at telepan in nyc makes a dee-lish cream cheese ice cream. it goes with just about anything (but then, i love cream cheese).

brianz, check out this link i think you're located in manhattan, right? if so, you can go there and pick these up. oh, can you use soy lecithin as a stabilizer?

megan, i'm sure you've said before, but what recipe do you use for your madeleins? they always look so beautiful! and even if you've left em in the oven a little too long, as long as you eat them right away, the crunchy outside is delicious contrasted with the softer interior.

binkyboots, that tart looks dee-lish. i hope the recipe is in recipe gullet?! chefmoni, there's a thread somewhere that explains how to use imageGullet and how to post pictures. if your photos are on a sharing website like flikr or snapfish or something like that, you can just post the url in the "img" box when you're posting a reply to a thread. if your photos are on your computer, you can upload them to imageGullet and then can get a url from there. i think the instructions here might help.

vanessa, are you just brushing the luster dust straight into the molds? they look beautiful and very evenly coated (on the ones that you want to look that way) on the other ones that are striped or speckled, did you just flick the dust into the mold?

Isn't eGullet great for the self esteem?! I love panna cotta and pretty much anything gelatinous. Don't know why, just love it! I love the jello-mold thread as well. I've gotta try one of those.

Thanks Pan and CanadianBakin'...very easy actually. Just spred the tuile on a silpat and use a comb to make strips. I bake on two pans to keep it hot longer out of the oven and just grab three at a time and tie them in a knot. Easier than I thought. I wish I had Patrick's camera skills, tho. Also, I don't have any nice dishes at home. Time to start spending money! Hopefully, I get the job.

i'm another one who didn't want to have a huge catered affair. we got married this past november in hawaii at my parents' house. my mother and her three sisters did all of the cooking. i don't even know if they got to eat, i know i didn't eat until everyone had left. i made the wedding cakes, yes, two cakes. actually three if you count the small dairy free one i made for one of my allergy ridden sisters-in-law. let's see: grilled cumin marinated beef skewers chinese style cold noodle salad spring rolls shrimp with goat cheese wrapped in springroll wrappers and fried won tons char siu - chinese barbequed pork a huge fruit platter korean style bean sprout salad ten pounds of poke (hawaiian style marinated raw ahi) probably some other things i can't remember the food just kept coming. i think the guests didn't know that there was more food coming so some got filled up on the first round and ran out of stomach space for the rest. we were disorganized so forgot to put out wine...i returned about 3 cases. everyone was happy with fresh passion fruit/lemonade we made with lemons from the yard, sodas, beers, water, etc. cakes: white cake with passion fruit curd filling and vanilla bean italian meringue buttercream chocolate cake with chopped toasted macadamia nuts and macadamia nut paste flavored italian meringue buttercream i was assembling cake until the guests started showing up, quickly showered and changed, said "i do" then changed again into shorts and a t-shirt and finished putting the cakes together! a little hectic, but it was actually fun and i ran out to socialize when i could. the weather was great. sunny and warm with a quick pineapple shower at the end of the afternoon. only about 60 or so guests and i thought it was really relaxed and fun. i think my mom still has some cake in the freezer! now i hafta check out the rest of this thread...fun to see how other people get hitched.

Brian, Sorry to hear things aren't going so well. This is a tough business. But you knew that going in. I agree with the discount with movie ticket. Also, sometimes they sell ad space on the screen to play before the movie starts. Probably too expensive though. Do you have any sidewalk space for service? Now that the weather is better, that might be a draw. Also, I say keep it simple until you develop your customer base, then add items as the interest grows. No sense trying to be all things to all people. You'll just run yourself ragged doing that. I hope things get better! Alana

Yuzu panna cotta with citrus jus, citrus segments and black sesame tuile. Actually it was for a tasting, but we've been eating the leftovers now.

i can't wait to make my artificially flavored beef truffles?! hehehe... xenex has all kinds of flavors. it would be really interesting to try some of this stuff out at home.

i just buy the books for the pictures

i find the entire discussion hypocritical but necessary to some degree...sure, treat animals better. ultimately all of these animals we're talking about are going to end up dead, one way or another, and on our dinner plate. they are not living out their natural life expectancy and unless we all become vegetarians...or even vegans some form of animal cruelty will exist. i have to agree with pitter here as he stated that going to just about any kind of farm, regardless of how they claim to treat their animals (on the label stuck to the plastic wrap), most americans would be disgusted. so where does it stop?

Funny that he doesn't know anything about Italian food as he was based on Rome for the New York Times before he became the food critic. You'd think living in Italy would have helped?!

Funny you should bring this up as I was just reading this article. This could definitely come back to bite your brother on the @$$. It is common sense, but it just isn't as common as it used to be. nytimes