mamster

After making it many more times, I've come to the conclusion that the phad thai recipe I posted has too much tamarind. I've been playing around with the proportions but haven't come up with something I like much better yet. So I'm in, too. Also, Iris is really into phad thai lately. The spicier the better. Isn't David Thompson's recipe the one that calls for "a handful of rice noodles"? What a tease.

Malarkey, about how many beers are available?

That's Vivace. Iris and I are regulars there.

I haven't seen it on the stand yet either, but it'll definitely be sometime next week.

I made the rendang today, substituting pork for beef because I was at Uwajimaya yesterday, which is a great place for pork and less so for beef unless you want it sliced paper-thin for sukiyaki. Made with the pork, the rendang is exactly like southeast Asian carnitas. No complaints there. I used ten chiles and the spice level is about right. We haven't actually had dinner yet, but Iris and I tasted some and we approve.

I haven't made the AAB brussels sprouts recipe, but I do have a brussels sprout tip, although I suspect most of you are way ahead of me here, in which case, just enjoy reading about my charming naivete. I love brussels sprouts but I don't buy them that often, especially at the grocery store, because they're such a pain. You always have to remove some dried out leaves, cut off the base, and, because I don't generally like to cook them whole, cut them into a few slices. Then I read the Mark Bittman article about frozen vegetables couple of weeks ago in the Times. Where have I been? I didn't even know they had frozen brussels sprouts. I guess I sort of figured there was frozen corn, spinach, and broccoli, and that was about it. Well, as you have guessed, I got some frozen brussels sprouts, and they were the cheapest, easiest to prep, and most delicious brussels sprouts I've ever bought at the supermarket. I'll probably still buy fresh ones at the farmer's market. Maybe. But otherwise, forget it.

You can crisp it up with potatoes and onions in a skillet and make duck hash. I've made it with Chinese-style duck and it was great.

I'm about to start the maple-glazed short ribs recipe, and I have a tip for all you short-rib fans out there. For some reason, AAB doesn't mention it, but the best way to brown short ribs isn't in the pot or under the broiler: it's roasting them. Put them bone-side down (or just lay them flat if they're flanken-style) on a broiler pan or just on some foil on a half-sheet pan (the pan has to have a rim) and roast them at 450 for about 45 minutes. No smoke; you can prep the rest of the recipe while they're browning; and if you're doing a reasonably sized batch, it takes about the same amount of time. You do have to clean another pan, but compared to having to clean the entire kitchen after browning them on the stove, big deal. I learned this tip from Cook's Illustrated and have never browned short ribs any other way since.

Picking a pot roast is easy: if it says "chuck" on the label, buy it. If it doesn't, forget it. There are many chuck roasts, like the chuck eye roast, top blade roast, and 7-bone roast, but all of them make great pot roast or stew meat. This thread just reminded me that beef short ribs are on sale this week at my supermarket, and I'm going to pack the freezer with beefy goodness.

My supermarket also carries Boar's Head pancetta (after I requested it!) and the quality is just fine. The only pancetta I wouldn't recommend is the nitrate-free stuff from Whole Foods, which is very fatty and doesn't taste right to me.

Funny you should mention the polpettone, wkl, because that's the seventh recipe that I tried but forgot to report on. I did use tomato juice (just plain, not V8) and was also skeptical, but the sauce was fine. The meatballs, however, were pretty bland. I had no trouble eating several, but it's hard to understand why the headnote was so enthusiastic about them.

I'm late to the party, but we've been braising all sorts of things from AAB since we got the book a couple of months ago. In fact, I've made seven of the recipes. World's Best Braised Cabbage Not the world's best, because it doesn't contain pork, but very good. Bistecces Rancheros Agree with the comments about the potatoes, but otherwise I liked this very much; I'd never bought the thin-sliced chuck steaks before, never even had an idea what you'd do with them. Was this the one with lots of poblanos in it? That's how I remember it tasting. Caribbean Pork Shoulder I like almost anything with lime juice in it, and this was no exception. Actually I made the smaller variation at the end, without the skin. Too bad there. Braised Endive with Prosciutto This was the world's best braised endive, because of the pork. Daughter Iris is a little skeptical of vegetables, but she sure liked this. Chicken with Cider and Parsnips I used chicken thighs instead of breasts and cooked it twice as long. The chicken was nothing special, but the parsnips with the reduced cider were great. Iris loved this one, which reminded me of the little boy in the book French Impressions whose family doesn't realize that French cider is hard cider. Braised Sausages with Grapes A variation on the sausage and plum recipe, which I'll try during plum season. I've written about this dish before, so I was curious to try this recipe. The biggest difference is that the one I make doesn't contain wine; the sauce is pretty much just grapes. I liked the taste of the sauce better in this recipe -- it's not as sweet -- but it made the grapes stand out too much. Some nice tart plums might be just the thing, though. I can't wait to braise a few more based on suggestions from this thread.

You've actually managed to hit the two main violations that actually lead to people getting sick: not cooling hot food properly and bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food (after forgetting to wash your hands). If they're going to come down hard on any two violations, these are the ones. Obviously I break these rules at home all the time, but I'd like to see restaurants held to much higher standards than my kitchen. The idea of cooks at a high-end kitchen like Lark wearing gloves does seem a little weird, though, I admit.

Yes, everyone should make bugmenot part of their repertoire. I hope it becomes popular enough that it's no longer necessary. At some point I'm planning to copy all of my reviews to my site, proper, so they won't need to link to the Times, but it'll be a while.

They still have all the other crap, but they've added three Top Pot donuts.

I don't think Uli's has smoked andouille.

That's excellent, although I think a sign pointing to the front door would be funnier.

That sucks--lousy service aside, I liked Maguire's.

Koronet.

I concur with Laurie's assessment and also with part of creepygirl's: this is a remarkably greasy slice. Nothing a few napkins can't take care of, but the perfectly triangular grease spot on the paper is something you don't see every day. When I make pepperoni or salami pizza at home, I often defat it beforehand with a couple of minutes in a frying pan, but I can certainly understand why pizzerias don't do that.

According to the folks at the Broadway Pagliacci, the Salumi Primo will be available by the slice today, Thursday the 3rd. I'm so there.

I've bought them at Delaurenti. Are we getting warm yet?

Oh, I think Iris could totally demolish the gai yang. But admittedly she might poke some of the artifacts.

I believe one of the owners of May is also one of the owners of Peso's. I went four times for the review and ate twice upstairs, twice downstairs, and service was slow both times downstairs and fast both times upstairs, but that could have been luck.

Fay Jai, that sounds incredible. Is it going to be on slice rotation, or whole pie only?