markk
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Posts posted by markk
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I made a new thread because all of the photos here are specific to Dynasty Buffet and I thought they'd get more visibility separate from the generic Asian Buffet thread. These are all available-light photos, btw.
As I had said on that thread to the people who mentioned Dynasty, it's long been one of our favorites, specifically because they frequently have "Blue Crabs" which they do in the 'ginger-scallion' style, as well as a very excellent Peking Duck, and an always present leafy-green Chinese vegetable, all just as good as you'd get ordering a la carte somewhere in Chinatown, actually.
I cannot figure out where the crabs are in season now that they get them from - I know they come in alive because they tell me that (and recoil in proper horror at the idea that they might not be alive when they get them), on top of which their taste and texture and meaty firmness tells me they're alive. But where they've been coming from for the last 2 months is a mystery to me!
And these are meaty, succulent little monsters!...
These shots were hard to get. Everytime we broke into especially meaty crabs, our hands were way too gooey to take out the camera. So after we washed our hands, we felt we hadn't gotten crabs as meaty as before, but close enough. Superb specimens indeed.
And the aforementioned duck, with which they're certainly not stingy:
(when they understand me, they're happy to give me the whole leg, and sometimes the'll give me the entire neck - sorry, no photos of it)
And rounding out for me what is the ideal Chinese (Cantonese) meal, leafy green vegetables:
(They usually have Mustard Greens, but I would say that tonight was Shanghai Bok Choy)
(I would say they ran out of the bok choy, and it looks to me that they substituted regular old Spinach, though please correct me, anybody.)
Another dish that they make quite well is the Seafood Mai Fun
Another excellent offering, though I don't have a photo, is their salt and pepper (crispy) Calamari.
For dessert, they have the usual garbage cakes, soft serve ice cream, and jello cubes, but they also have.... chocolate and butterscotch sauces in Squeeze Bottles!...
Add a Beignet, and you have:
And now, the exterior - you'll have to disregard the vehicle that decided to park there (to eat, I assure you) just before we took the photo:
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I steam a lot of vegetables, so let me add my two cents. The device that you're using works absolutely fine.
I like my veggies plain-steamed, because I generally serve them with somethng rich (i.e. fatty) and I think that the contrast, having a plain veg steamed with no fat, helps your mouth appreciate the rich or fatty part of the meal without sensing overkill, as if the veg re-sets your mouth each time. So I'm not in favor of the pan steam that uses fat.
But I do use the pan steam all the time for things like string beans that will cook quickly - and let me say that I like veggies "al dente". So for string beans, I'll put a half inch of water (maybe a little more - you'll learn to do it by eye) in a small skillet with a tight fiting lid, then I'll add the veggies and put the cover on, leave them simmer for a minute or two, and turn off the heat for a few minutes.
I also like that this give things such as string beans a 'gentle' steam - so as not to turn them to mush. I'll use a big pot with a steamer basked if I'm steaming yams or turnips, because they need the large amount of heat that comes from a big mass of boiling water under them. (For this I use a large Cuisinarts stockpot that has a steamer that rests in the top and has a domed lid.) I'll also steam a whole head of cauliflower that way, though if I break it up into small florets, I'm just as likely to put them in a small pan with a little water and steam them gently.
You will get a feel for this over time - I've been doing this for a very long time, so I just have a sense of it, but it's based on the density of the vegetable, and of course your cumulative experiences. And lastly, I find that when veggies still are on the "al dente" side of done, they retain a little more of their flavor - I actually don't like veggies as "crudites", but I don't like them much more cooked than that either. (Hope this ramble helps.)
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There was one Chinese restaurant which, understandably, had a menu for non-Asian folks. We'd go there and my dad would say, "Just serve us whatever you're having for dinner," and we'd get a good Cantonese Chinese meal.
You might be surprised to learn how that just doesn't work for non Chinese people when we ask that. I've had some favorite Chinese restaurants write down the name of some things in Chinese (like Ong Choy) so that I can show the paper when I ask for it in my travels. The answer I get is "This is a vegetable only Chinese people like - you won't like it", and it does no good to explain that the reason I carry the slip is because I do like it. And I've been to chinese restaurants when the staff has been eating and asked for what they're having and been refused it on the grounds "you won't like it".
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Well, I honestly can't think of a better dish served in America than a freshly made Egg and Sausage Mc Muffin. (Or, sadly, a less healthy one.) I indulge only very, very, very rarely. But man oh man, somebody sure got that right!
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And also on the "not just in America" theme:
I used to travel extensively in Italy in the 1970's. What I'd find in the major cities and tourist destinations was in fact a pre-printed menu, in 4 languages (Italian, English, French, German) on which the restaurant filled-in the prices of the dishes they offered. So you had all the categories - "antipasti", "pasta asciutto", "carne", "pesce" and then listed were all the dishes that people think of as "Italian" though not those you necessarily went to Italy to discover outside their region: prosciutto e melone, insalata caprese, lasagne bolognese, fettucine alfredo, tortellini alla panna, bistecca fiorentina, spaghetti al pesto, etc. with prices filled in for the ones they offered. Though it'd be pretty foolish to order lasagne bolognese on the Isle of Capri, etc. But this corresponds exactly to the "diner" theory put forth earlier where diners now offer every dish known to man, and yes, I think that to a large extent, what the Chinese restaurants at that level offer is what the printer has decided that Americans think of as "standardized" Chinese food.
In the case of the Italian menu, I'm sure it made life easy for as many Americans as it horrified.
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Dynasty also frequently has "blue crabs", which they sautee (halved) with ginger and scallions, and which are always meaty, fresh, and succulent. And they always have a sauteed green leafy Chinese vegetable (well, the kind that Chinese people always eat) - most of the time Mustard Greens. We go there frequently and make a meal (a pig-out actually) of just the crabs, the greens, and the aforementioned excellent duck. (Although I should add that their cripsy calamari, and their seafood mai fun are excellent as well.)
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Well, I think I understand what you're looking for, and yes, a cheap cake cooling rack will work. Here's how I use it...
To cook a steak, I render some of its fat in a pan over very high heat, and char the hell out of both sides of the steak, at which point it just needs a few minutes in a warm place to cook through. So what I do is place the cheap cake-cooling rack in a hot oven to get it hot while I'm charring the steak, then using tongs, I lift the steak off the bottom of the pan, and using tongs on the hot rack, slide it under the steak. The pan provides enough residual heat from below to finish cooking, and resting the steak.
If this is what you meant, then you got it. A cheap, tight gridded cake cooling rack will indeed work.
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Something creamy and with mushrooms would be nice - perhaps a vat of mushrooms (the baby bella/cremini would be ideal) that you sauteed in butter and a some shallots, and then reduced with heavy cream. You coud heat it up there and serve it with toast points. You could also top it with some fresh parsley.
Similarly, you could do the same thing with chicken livers - sautee them with butter and shallots (and in fact, even the mushrooms), then puree or mash them and serve them as a spread, and again parsely would go at the end.
And, you could add garlic to the sautee of both of those, as snails in garlic and parsley Iare a traditional white Burgundy pairing.
And a final thought which comes to me in a stroke of brilliance - if you sautee some leeks in butter, add to it some chopped thick bacon (lardons) which you have crisped up, and add some cream and goat cheese and reduce it a bit, you can spread that on rounds of toasted bread. That'd be ideal as well. (This is a classic dish that comes from Madeleine Kamman's "When French Women Cook", btw.)
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This of course begs the question: if I now enjoy healthy foods out of necessity, do I dislike candy and other verboten foods? To a point, yes. The mere sight of a Boston kreme donut gives me the hives. Not so much because I dislike it, but because I know that if I DID eat it, I'd become sick immediately. So sweets present little-to-notemptation for me.
I'm like that too - it's a kindness that our minds have done us.
In my own case, since cholesterol (and to a smaller extent sugar) is the enemy, I've realized that I do love fish and seafood and the many hearty things you can do with it and olive oil. And whereas I used to eat thick, fatty rib steaks several times a week (with butter, no less) I'm lucky in that I now look at them and see the enemy. Oh, part of me would love to bite in to one, and many other parts of me are repulsed by it, so I don't do it. I thank my mind for adapting like this, I really do.
And there are so many times when I'd normally have had a couple of hot dogs or some other high-fat, high-cholesterol snack that now I just couldn't enjoy it. I come close, some times even driving by the hot dog cart, but the part of me that knows why I shouldn't makes me not want to.
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My most masochistic occasional indulgence is White Castle. I can't help going there a few times a year, because there's simply no other way to capture that particular flavor -- and I need that flavor.
You beat me to it, Fat Guy !!!
I live not 5 minutes from a White Castle, and there are others that I pass on a daily basis. I indulge.
It's not fast food, you know, but convenient French Food. As I've said in other threads, it's a bit of "Pot au Feu Haché" on a bun, for which they even slice the cornichon and put it right on the bit size portion of chopped Pot au Feu.
By the way, how many do/can YOU eat?
I have a rule - I don't let myself order more than 8, though I've certainly eaten a dozen at a time.
And after all these years, I have found the secret to digestibility. I order them with the onions scraped off. I actually think it's the chemicals in which the onions come packed in water, diced, that creates the heartburn. If they scrape off the onions after they're cooked, you get all the delicious onion flavour, but none of the heartburn, no matter how many you eat. I discovered that about ten years ago. Of course, they can cool off during the de-onionizing process, so you have to ask to have them re-steamed.
(Wish I knew that back in 1968 when I started eating them!)
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I'm glad you enjoyed it and that your food was good.
In my post (#244) upthread when I told of a very ordinary meal there, we too had very VIP reservations and treatment. I had had a most unfortunate and unpleasant experience entertaining guests at another Batali restaurant, and wrote to tell him about it in no uncertain terms. The day before this Babbo meal, the restaurant manager called me to assure me that he'd do everything possible to see that this meal went perfectly and that my guests weren't horrified. And in fact, he did, as fas as the service was concerned, and the fellow doing wine service upstairs (who may have been the fellow you had) recommended some absolutely delicious wines and explained them wonderfully. It was just the kitchen that let us down that night. And, the manager let me discuss a few things with the chef before the meal, and it was extra-surprising that our food was such a letdown.
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My local supermarket (Shop Rite) has been having organic Tilapia, which is seriously delicious. I've had lots of experience eating whole tilapia (in Chinatown, NYC, they have them alive, and they steam them whole to order) and they are exquisite - the fish has a light and fluffy texture, totally unlike the farm-raised (non organic) Tilapia fillets that are everywhere which are dense and leaden. (Besides, I've never understood how they can farm fillets only.) But the organic fillets are light, fluffy, and delicately flavorful, and really taste like you just took them off the bone of the whole cooked fish.
I topped mine with fresh oregano, a hint of garlic, a hint of sea salt, and lemon slices, drizzled it with a great Greek olive oil, and added a little white wine. Then I covered it in parchment (too lazy to make packets) and baked it.
Covered:
Uncovered:
After I plated the fish, I reduced the liquid for a minute and poured it over:
It was really delicious, but I think a lot of the credit goes to the quality of the fish.
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It was 37 years ago, and we had "Spiedies", a variation of shishkebab particular to the area around the Souther Tier of Upstate New York.
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This would be the first of many exposures to pigeon on the trip and this dish was certainly the most pure.
I am loving this so far, Bryan! (I adore pigeon and eat it as often as I can, btw!)
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Wow, what gorgeous meals, everbody! And so much gorgeous duck!. Tarte Tatin, your cassoulet meal was fabulous. And Percyn's beautiful duck breast has inspired me to post a photo of a disastrous duck breast that I made recently. I haven't been cooking much because I've been needing to stay off my feet, and apparently I may have lost my touch. I like my magret as rare as Percyn's, but was using a different oven to rest it, and came out with this disaster, which almost got thrown back at me, with good reason:
However, the salad of radishes, beets, and apples that I invented with a touch of blueberry vinaigrette, was delicious.
Another meal, for which I cheated and used some specialty-store bought crabcakes for the filling and their lobster bisque reduced, plus some truffle oil, as my sauce, was this stuffed Turbot:
Then, feeling guilty, and having found some outrageous organic grape tomatoes, and using an organic pasta I love plus some wonderful Greek olive oil and some all-natural shrimp and organic garlic...
... I made an old standby that I learned to make from a chef/friend on Capri, "Lingune ai Gamberi". I had quite a bit of liquid because I had used a liberal dose of white wine, and I gave the linguine their last three minutes of cooking right in the pot that I made the shrimp and tomatoes in, and it absorbed it totally and was nice and tight, and I redeemed myself.
And in honor of all of you on this thread who obviously make and appreciate beautifully prepared and beautifully presented food, I invite you all to look at the photos and video I posted of our meal the other night at Jean-Georges, in New York, which are here.
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Well, everything is an adventure with us, and Thursday night was no exception. We were going to see the opening of a Rossini opera at Lincoln Center ("La Donna del Lago"), and it seemed that foie gras and truffles were in order. But since I don't know of any place that serves Tournedos Rossini, we went to Jean-Georges to have them separately, but in the same meal at least.
The problem was that the opera was starting at the ungodly hour of 7:30, and we needed to start eating the second Jean-Georges opened at 5:30. They were great about it, and promised to do their best to get us out in time. Of course, we needed to confine ourselves to the 3-course menu, and we'd have felt cheated, but we had just had the "Jean-Georges" menu ten days earlier, so we were fine.
But, we didn't quite make it, and therein lies the tale.
These are available-light photos, and while not up to our own standards, some are pretty good.
We began with the Amuse-bouches, a salmon concept, a grapefruit and roquefort spoon, and a (if I remember correctly) lime and something soup (last time was a mushroom concept with truffle emuslion that was other wordly, however):
Next was the sublime Foie Gras Brulé with Dried Sour Cherries, Candied Pistachios,and White Port Gelée:
At this point, Jean-Georges, who knew that we spend a lot of time in Alsace, came over to chat, which delayed us a bit, and he said he'd return later to talk some more.
Then came the dish that will linger for a very long time, the Pan Roasted Sweetbreads with Glazed Chestnuts and Black Truffle Vinaigrette:
I'm not sure that either words or pictures can do it justice. We were in a state of stupefaction.
Although the main courses should have come next, Jean-Georges sent over an additional course, which was delicious but which delayed us all the more, a Goat Cheese foam with some kinds of Pistachios and Beets:
The main courses were next. I had the Smoked Pigeon a L'Orange with Asian Pear and Candied Tamarind:
This was ethereal. I had had the Broiled Pigeon with Onion Compote, Corn Pancake, and Foie Gras last time, and would happily spend the rest of my life eating one or the other (as long as the sweetbreads were involved).
My partner and photographer had the Loin of Lamb Dusted with Black Trumpet Mushrooms, and Baby Leeks:
He also filmed its tableside presentation, and you can watch the video here.
The lamb was accompanied by a very lovely Potato Galette:
As I was demolishing the last of the Pigeon, our waiter came over to say that it was already 7 pm and we wouldn't make it and suggested that we return after the opera for dessert, so we did, finishing up and making a mad dash out.
The opera, sadly, was not great. While a great Rossini performance could certainly have followed this meal, and in fact that was the idea, this did not quite make it. Luckily we were both able to daydream about our Sweetbreads to take our mind off the less than stellar singing, so we decided to duck out at the intermission and head back to the restaurant.
Sadly, Jean-Georges had left, so we never got to speak with him more or to take a photo with him to send back to our friends in Strasbourg.
But then the dessert procession started. At this point in the evening there was very little available light available for the photos, though.
We had one Winter and one Late Harvest:
Winter, above: Warm Sweet Potato Cake, Cranberries, Dates; Vanilla Ice Cream (substituted for the Pumpkin Ice Cream); Chestnut Sugar Tart, crème Fraîche (though it doesn't look like that to me); and Granny Smith Apple Sorbet, Quine, Qunioa, and Pecans.
Late Harvest, below: Crispy Spiced Chocolate, Beet Parfait, Yogurt Powder; Warm Semolina Pancake, Poached Pears, Cumin; Sautéed Apples, Olive Oil Sponge, Maple Brown Butter Ice Cream; Pomegranite Sorbet:
And then some assorted petits fours:
It was a most, most enjoyable meal, except for the intrusion of the opera. We had kept our drinking to moderation, with several glasses of the delicious Alsace Pinot Gris of Paul Blanck, and the very delicious Mommessin Beaun Les Grèves, though maybe drinking in lesser moderation might have helped the performance.
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Duck with duck fat roasted potatoes
That is some beautifully cooked duck !!!
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Maybe, but this was a repeat airing, and they should have fixed it with a quick dub if they found it, or if they cared.
I certainly wasn't going to waste any of my time writing to them about it. A few years ago, I found a much more serious journalistic mistake in USA Today (forgive me again for thinking it might have some journalistic integrity) and found that they didn't care either.
They had a 2-page spread on The Sandwiches That Define Our Cities, and chose one sandwich to represent the largest city in each state, and told where to get the best one.
For New York City they chose the Rueben. (But... hold that thought! Whether that's the right choice isn't the point here.) They said that the best Rueben in NYC was at the Second Avenue Deli, and described it as piled high with juicy corned beef, swiss cheese, and sauerkraut. Sadly for journalism, the Second Avenue Deli was kosher and didn't have dairy in the place, and they never had a Rueben sandwich in the place or on the menu! And, they were not happy when I called them to confirm this after reading the story (I called in case I had lost my mind) - but of course they confirmed that they don't have a Rueben Sandwich on the menu, never did, and never could.
So how was the reporter saying she'd had one there, and describing how high it was piled with cheese and corned beef? I wrote to them and informed them of this mistake, and asked if they made up the rest of the news as well, but they never answered. I actually wrote more than once, making my letters very clear that they were not for publication, but were requesting a reply. I wrote to several editors there. And nobody answered.
What was I thinking? What did I expect?
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I was given an identical bottle a few years ago, so I wrote to them and asked what it was and how it's different from the regular "Chartruese", and got this reply:
"We thank you very much indeed for your interest in Chartreuse.
"The Elixir Végétal was created in 1737 as a medicine and an "Elixir of long life" - it was very strong (71%) and was supposed to cure every known illness ! It gave birth to the Green Chartreuse (55%) in 1764, and to the Yellow Chartreuse (40%) in 1838.
The Elixir Végétal is still being made nowadays, and we are celebrating this year its 400 th anniversary (the secret recipe was given to the Chartreuse monks in 1605) - with a climax in 2005.
For more information, have a look at our web site (history pages) : http://www.chartreuse.fr/pa_history3_uk.htm
Warmly from France,"
You would sip it after a meal, straight-up, in a little cordial glass. I don't think there's anything else you could do with it. Well, I guess you could use it in a cocktail.
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Well, here's a link to Solo Sea Salt, a reduced-sodium sea salt that I was introducted to at the Fancy Foods Show. If we're getting some scientific experts on here at some point, could you comment on this as well?
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I also cook mine in parchment, and enclose some citrus so as not to have the heavy salmon smell that seems to permeate the house for days after I cook salmon. I have been using the "organic" Scottish salmon (though there's some controversy over their use of "Organic", the farming methods are organic though there's no such certification, and the salmon itself is extra-exquisite!)
I top the pieces with fresh tarragon, top that with slices of orange, and bake. It's delicious. Here's one that I fancied up a bit in plating so I could photograph it:
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I peel a head of garlic (the nice purple stuff if you can find it) and in a very tall, narrow pot (like a maple syrup warmer) cover it with a good spanish or greek olive oil, then simmer it very slowly covered with tin foil - 15-20 minutes will give you beautiful "roasted" garlic flavor. Then I sautee the beans in that oil in a separate pan, and sometimes add some fresh (hand-crushed) tomatoes and some thyme and simmer them a bit.
Separately, I marinate shrimp for a little while in olive oil, salt, black pepper, fresh thyme, and lemon zest, and when ready, I grill them and serve them over the beans. You can also turn that into a pasta dish.
Hope this helps you.
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Well, having asked about this a few weeks ago and not heard (or found anything in the press to dissuade me) I ate at Telepan last night.
It's extremely convenient to Lincoln Center, and that's the strongest thing I can say. Our server was incredibly nice, so that's two things, but it ended there. The food was entirely and totally mediocre. Well, my companion's word was "ordinary" but we decided that mediocre was closer. We made a meal of full portions, each, of what would have been on the tasting menu, just so we could have larger portions (each) of three courses before dessert. The "amuses" (3 tiny things on a long plate) gave us an inkling that nothing great might be coming, for sure. Starters were Roast Quail, and the quail itself was pretty good, and the best thing of the evening. A frisee salad with egg and scrapple was not nearly as good as it sounded. The Foie Gras (hot and cold combination) was okay (I guess), but absolutely nothing special at all. Having decided against the duck breast (it was Pekin duck, my least favorite breed), we were steered towards the Heritage Pork medly (house-cured sauerkraut, potato pierogi celery root & apple compote) and the Roasted Dry Aged Sirloin (oxtail glaze, bone marrow potato cake & white winter vegetables). This was pretty much something I'd have expected if I had been flying in business class. Nothing was egregiously horrible, but nothing was in any way special. A carrot cake with cream-cheese ice cream ended the meal, and again, the very best part was that it was three short blocks to the Metropolitan Opera House.
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If the restaurant wants to defraud you it doesn't make a difference whether or not the bottle is presented, because you can just bring a bottle with the wrong wine in it. If the restaurant is honest, presenting the bottle is a non-issue with respect to preventing fraud, however it can help prevent mistakes.
Gotcha. (Thanks). I would have added though that if I trust the server or bartender (that she's stopping to look at the bottle she's grabbing to be sure it's the right one), then she doesn't have to go so far as to bring me the bottle as well, in my own case. But yes, the more eyes that check something, the smaller the chance for error.
And on a separate note, I would say that when substitutions occur, for whatever reason, whether fraud, or the occurrence that they're out of a particular bottle they need that moment, for example, they're banking heavily on the idea that most customers can't distinguish one wine from another. I know like a gazillion people who order "a glass of merlot" and wouldn't know if they were brought something else red, and if they didn't like it, would think that that partcular "merlot" wasn't one they like. Numerically, I'd guess the chances of a restaurant getting away with this are astronomical.
This gets bad when you order a wine to try, let's say a chateau or winery that you've heard about, and they substitute another of the same region, but a different producer. It'd be quite a feat for a customer to know that he got one winery's wine over another, especially in the case where he didn't know it but was ordering it to familiarize himself with it. (This would be one of the major reasons I'd order wines by the glass.) That'd be especially lousy of them to do.
Leaving the price tag on stuff
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
You took the words right out of my mouth.