markk
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pig snouts
In the 1970's we befriended an Italian family on the island of Capri, and one night we took them out to a restaurant - they didn't want to go to a "tourist" place, understandably, so we went to a 'local' restaurant, where one of the featured 'antipasti' was "muso", or pig snout, which they went crazy for; until that time, I had probably thought that mozarella and tomato was the end-all gastronomic treat, but remembering that my Jewish grandmother ate chicken feet and intestines, I was fearless and discovered a new treat. Culinarily, I've never looked back. That includes duck hearts !!!
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It's the duck breast I'm worried about. All the recipes/cooking methods I'm seeing call for cooking the breast skin side down for 15 minutes to crisp the skin and render the fat. I can make a pan sauce and saute chard while the duck is resting, but add plating time and we're looking at at least 25 minutes between #2 and #3, and that seems way too long! Can I partially cook the duck in advance, and then keep it warm or finish it off without overcooking it? Any ideas?
A subject near and dear to my heart as I cook duck breasts all the time - your cooking time sounds too long. Below is a photo from a similar meal I made (but I decided to plate several of the courses together, the opposite of how you're doing) - but the method I use for cooking the duck comes from D'Artagnan's cookbook, and you really only need to cook the skin side down in a (really hot) pan for 8 minutes, turn them once to cook the other side 4 minutes, and then lucky for you, they actually need to rest a good fifteen to 20 minutes in a warm place - a 110/5 degree oven or anything that approximates that. If you go much over the 12 minutes you're going to overcook the breasts (I've done it too often), and similarly if you don't give them a "good" rest they won't turn out as nicely either.. I also don't think that you're going to get much from the pan (even after you pour off tons of darkened duck fat) to help you with a sauce, so that could be something you make in advance. Also, there's no reason you can't make the chard in advance. I usually leave things for "the moment" and then regret it, but for this dinner I started at 4:30 in the morning and had my lentils and pureed yam/turnips all done and ready to reheat, and then it was just a case of heating and plating while the duck was resting.
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I roast it, just as if it were a Rib Roast (a.k.a. Prime Rib), which is of course the "neighboring" cut. It makes an extremely delicious roast. If for any reason you have it on the bone, that's even better. But "no" it is not a waste of this cut - it's an especially good way to show it off.
A great description of how to roast such a cut can be found in Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" instrucitons for a Rib Roast (Prime Rib) (and it may be there that she mentions that you can do it equally well with the loin.)
Remember, the resting is the most important part.
I have followed the instructions for the "jus", and have always gotten great results. But lately I've discovered a boxed beef broth that the health food stores and upscale supermarkets sell- "Pacific" brand Beef Broth - and if you want to save yourself the trouble of making the jus, you can subsitute this with great results (or use it as an ingredient in her instructions).
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A few years ago, the Seafood manager at my local Hoboken (NJ) Shop Rite pointed out to me that they had Alaskan King Crabs that were flown in cooked, but "fresh" - not frozen - and explained to me that this was the case just two weeks each year. Although I had never had great luck with King Crabs, I bought some, and they were outstanding. I have bought them each successive year that they have told me was during the two-week "fresh" period, and have never been disappointed.
Apparently, that two-week period has just ended, during which I bought copious amounts of them and feasted on them, and I meant to pose this question sooner -
Does anybody know about this phenomenon?
I have had them frozen on a few occasions in my life, and they have ranged from lackluster to horrible. Yet when they are "fresh", they are impeccably delicious. What's the deal? Nothing on the internet addresses this.
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can you give me a general idea of what it's nearby on route 27? Thanks.
It's approximately 1.2 miles south of the interchange with 287.
While for the most part, I enjoyed the meal, I was disappointed by the lack of service we received compared to other patrons.This has happened to me at other Dim Sum places. I agree with you that it's unpleasant indeed.
The cart finally came however the servers didn't speak english and had a hard time explaining what they had. I just pointed and took what looked good and for the most part I wasn't disappointed...I think that only one or two of the servers there speak English.
For me, the realization that I've stumbled onto a a place that caters to a nationality of people in their native language and presumably with the authentic food they seek in a foreign land (be it Chinese, French, whatever) is a turn-on. (Would that I could find authentic Jewish food this way!) But for the record it is true that only a very few people working at this restaurant speak English.
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This place has been mentioned in passing on other threads - that's how I learned of it - and I have loved it the few times I've gone.
Today I was in the neighborhood, and had a dim sum meal there so incredibly good that I thought it deserved its own thread. It reminded me that while a schlep, it really is good enough to merit the trip to Exit 10 on the Jersey Turnpike, and I post this in case there are any Gulleteers who are as crazy as I am, or who want to file it away for whenever they're in the neighborhood.
I'm sorry that I don't have any photos, but I scanned the dim sum menu card (there's only cart service on Weekends and Holidays) becaus I think it's interesting. When they offer the cart service, there are many, many more offerings than on the printed list, btw.
The Siu Mai is the least good thing they make. The Har Gao are delicate and delicious, but still don't reflect the glory of the place. The Shrimp Fun (Cheung Fun) are exquisite - light, and fluffy, and simply ethereal, and they remind me of a description that I believe Pan wrote once about having a similarly great version of the plain noodles at a place that he had discovered in Flushing; I've had this dish a billion times in my life, and never like this. I also noticed dozens of orders of "Crispy Fun Noodle" going by, and had that as well; it was out of this world.
Two absolute standouts - I don't think I've ever had dim sum this delicate and flavorful or exquisite before I started going here, were again #29 "Steamed Watercress Dumplings with Pork & Shrimp" and #30 "Steamed Spinach Dumplings with Shrimp & Scallops".
I also like the vibe at this place - it's modern and clean, and as usual, my party of two was the only non-Chinese table out of a full restaurant of several dozen tables - and the people there are always families of several generations, all quite obviously feasting on tables groaning with all manner delicious-looking foods - dumplings, whole fish, vegetables, etc. It's a happy looking crowd.
I've never made it for dinner, but I'd like to. But I post this in case there are any Dim Sum lovers who might be in the neighborhood, or as crazy as I am to make the trek.
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They do, and they said that tonight they'll be featuring AYCE of the "mediums", but they weren't going to know the price until after 4 pm.
I ate there twice in November and the claws were pristine and delicious, unlike many places (Monty's to name one, but not limited to there) where they've been unpleasant.
Billys is quoting the following prices for Lunch orders of stone crabs (not all you can eat) with the explanation that at dinner the prices are higher (you have to call after 4 pm for dinner quotes). But to give you an idea, today for lunch the mediums (7 claws) are $21, the Large (4 claws) are $32, and the Jumbos (2-3) are $39.
I can predict (from my November trip) that the all you can eat prices at dinner will be formidable; but the quality is definitely there.
I was going to go with all you can eat, but they talked me into starting with a dinner portion of 7 large and except to gorge myself needlessly one one or two more tastes, I really couldn't have eaten any more; I would have picked an additional crab perhaps, and paid a fortune to do so.
Please let us know how you make out!
Call Billy's in Hollywood to see if they still offer AYCE stone crabs. -
I don't know!
The fellow hawking them was adamant about the fact that they're 100% natural.
But I really couldn't get an answer if that meant that they were suflite-free shrimp, and I don't know if there was any substance used as "glue" - I had been thinking that it could have been this all-natural "protein-glue" that was discussed at tremendous length here with regard to the WD-50 "shrimp noodles" (invented by the Japanese firm that invented MSG)... or, it could simply be that the shrimp, after they're shelled and butterflied, are dried off and naturally stick to each other, at least until they're frozen into the sprial. The demonstrators were not offering a lot of answers!
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Today at my local supermarket (to stay unnamed) there were reps from the manufacturer of a brand new product called "Shrimp Steaks". Apparently this is a 100% natural product (only ingredient: shrimp) which is made from Mexican shrimp which are shelled and butterflied, and then stood on end and wrapped around each other in a pinwheel; they're about an inch high (the height of a butterflied shrimp stood on its side), and 4 (maybe 5) inches in diamater, and are solid shrimp, and I think the total weight of the product is 6 or 7 ounces (they're selling for $5.99 each), and the fellow hawking them said that they're a "big hit" at Cheesecake Factory and 'on all the major cruise lines'. He also named some major steak house chain that serves them, and showed photos of them served atop a Fillet Mignon as "surf and turf".
Googling them got me nowhere. Has anybody else encountered these?
There was one guy cooking them up in an electric skillet, and when they were done he put them on a cutting board and cut them into bite-size pieces. The guy doing the hawking, who was wearing a chef's jacket, had his hands in his pants pockets, and then took them out of his pockets, and without donning a glove, grabbed a half of a lemon with one hand, and with the forefinger of the other hand poked it into the cut lemon, picked around for the pits, and then juiced it with the finger against the lemon over the warm cooked product; I was grossed out, personally.
But I'm curious about the product, called "Shrimp Steaks", which is apparently brand new, and will soon sell two-to-a-box, frozen. Does anybody know anything about them?
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I was told that the truffle salt will come in "two different concentrations", which I take to mean the amount of truffle. I really don't know much more than that, but I do believe it was pointed out to me that the one I smelled (that was outrageously sinful) was the weaker strength.
I was also told that Whole Foods would be carrying the product this Spring, and that's all I know. If I can find out any more, I'll certainly post it.
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Just the other day I had a sneak-preview of a Truffle Salt of the "Selezione Tartufi" brand (which are my favorite truffle oils) - this is a new product imported by a company called Italian Products USA. I didn't actually taste the truffle salt, but I got many (many) deep inhalations of it, and it smells utterly sublime, rich and wonderful. I gather that it will be available later this spring, that it will come in 2 strengths, and that it will be available at Whole Foods. I'd suggest keeping an eye out for this one!
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To lighten the thread just a tad... I was recently told that I "had" to go to Steve's Kosher Style Deli, in Bayonne, for their pastrami. When I called first, I learned that it was Hebrew National pastrami, of which I am not all that fond. But in my neck of the woods (Hoboken area) we take what we can get.
The pastrami was neither terrible, nor great. It was tender instead of stringy (which is my usual objection to Hewbrew National, so I take it that it was steamed a sufficient amount of time), but it was incredibly, incredibly salty, with not many other flavors coming through.
And so a few days later I had to trek to Tabatchnick's in Livingston Mall to re-sample the pastrami which comes from Empire National in Brooklyn who made it for Second Avenue Deli before it indeed closed. This pastrami was crumbly, moist, flavorful, and utterly delicious, as always!
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Susan,
I have been an admirer of your posts and your photos for a long time!
I hesitated to post about Chispa the first and second times I went there, because I knew I'd sound like a crazyperson or an interested party (which I certainly am not - interested party, I mean)!
The first time I went, we had the roasted pork belly, the seared marinated octopus, and the Pulled Lechon Flatbread appetizer (the pork, figs, caramelized onions, and blue cheese turn out to be just a tad and-a-half too rich). I think that time we both had the daily fish special and the superb crisp, warm apple tarte for dessert, and went away so happy we went back the next night - and we were staying in Bal Harbour, so it was a good 40 minute schlep. The next night we had the same waiter, and he raved about the crabcakes, so we split a dinner portion to start, and as I say, they were the best crabcakes I've ever had - and we have done the same deal every time we've been back. I've also had the Paella, which is sensational.
I do like to eat, and I've done a lot of it in my life, and I consider this a great restaurant for many reasons - the food being the first two or three, but they are one of those places that really gets everything right.
If you do get down there, please post!
I wish I knew more places this good in Miami!
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So, could some of you Miami locals (and anyone else with an opinion) chime in with what you think might be the best Cuban food (be it hole-in-the-wall, upscale, sandwich shop, etc.) in Miami.
A very upscale place (but in no way pretentious or formal) is Chispa in Coral Gables, with seriously, seriously sensuous and delicious, lusty upscale Cuban food.
The website gives a perfect preview of what the place is like, and I took it as a dare; I've been back four times in the last two years on my trips to Miami - the food is that good. The wood oven roasted pork belly with clams, and the crab cakes (certainly the best I have ever eaten) are out of this world, but I've never had a dish here that wasn't sensational.
And the waitstaff is as knowledgeable about the foods as in any upscale restaurant I've ever found - in fact, they rival the staff at Mario Batali's restaurants for knowing every dish in detail, and for that matter, in friendliness and eagerness to please. And their attitude towards special requests is simply exemplary!
I realize I'm gushing, but this is a great restaurant. Normally, a website such as theirs would have turned me right off, but something about it intrigued me, dared me, and my reward was some seriously lusty food. There's a fairly serious Spanish wine list as well.
There's live music on Fridays (plus a dj) and conga band so loud that you cannot hear your waiter or dining companions, so be warned. But there's a very serious kitchen as well, and many other nights of the week to go.
This certainly may not have been what you had in mind when you asked. But if the website intrigues you, go for it! Above all, it's the food that is great.
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It looks like we've narrowed it down to these restaurants:
Las Vacas Gordas
Graziano's
La Porteña
I go to Miami Beach a few times a year, and Las Vacas Gordas is on my short list too, but I've never made it there to eat. Last time though I did manage to stop in to get a "vibe" and look at the menu on my way to the airport, and I liked what I saw. I'm definitely going to try it.
If you go there or to any of those places, please do post.
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Wow - it's just too funny that you posted this today. Last night I took out dim sum, uncooked, and steamed them at home.
I got them from a restaurant called China Garden in Clifton (which I had learned about here on eGullet) - they have Dim Sum on the weekends only. They don't specifically have a dim-sum takeout program, but when I asked if I could do it, they said "why not?", so I picked up the various things raw, and steamed them myself. It was late in the day when I thought of this, and they were out of most of the things I wanted, but I came away pretty good. For what it's worth, we really wanted Siu Mai (one of the things they were out of) so I stopped by China Chef in Secaucus on my way home, and they sold me the uncooked ones to steam myself. So basically, I think that any place that has Dim Sum will do this.
One of my fondest memories from growing up was the Saturday morning dim sum takeout from Young Young out on 46. I forget where it was exactly, but it was a tiny little Chinese market that was put out of business by Maxim's, now Top Quality Food Market. The latter does decent dishes, but I miss shumai, steamed buns, etc. Basically, I want to get dim sum that's as close to what you can get in Chinatown for take-out.Young Young used to send a truck into Chinatown early on Saturdays and it came back loaded with dim sum. Are there any places that do that anymore? The closer to Lyndhurst, the better, but I'd rather not head out to the one place near the Lincoln Park train station for a weekly dim sum run. :-/
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Has anyone been to Lupa since Mark has "departed" for Del Posto?
Thoughts? Impressions?
Yes - I've been there at least 3 times since Mark Ladner has "departed" for Del Posto. Under Steve Connaughton, the second-in-command who moved up to fill his shoes, Lupa is as great as ever.
I was there in early November '05, when Mark was at the very end of his 'transition' for the Lupa Piedmont White-Truffle Luncheon Event, and I was told that this was the first event completely under Connaughton's control. It was magnificent, and better, even, than the photos show.
Since then, I have been back once in December, and once in January of '06, and I can report that all is great. Connaughton was always down in the cellar making the cured meats for Lupa, and it's pretty clear that he is one of the more talented members of the Batali organization.
Sorry for the belated reply.
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The idea of the buffet has gotten a bad name among the urban-upscale gastronomic intelligentsia by being associated with the obese, undiscriminating American strip-mall culture. And indeed the nation is awash in awful quantity-over-quality buffets full of utility grade beef and "Rangoons" and such.
At the same time, the close quarters, high real estate costs, narrow profit margins, high ingredients costs and various sanitation/hygiene issues make it difficult to run a Golden Corral or Ponderosa-type buffet in Manhattan or any other densely populated urban core area.
You say that in way that makes it sound as if those establisments you name in the second paragraph would actually satisfy those "urban-upscale" diners grossed out by strip-mall buffets. I say this because recently while in Orlando (Mecca to buffet lovers), Golden Corral called out to me one evening. Her song: "Here in the land of Buffet, treat yourself one evening and see how it's done right!" And, being on vacation and not obligated to eat anywhere I didn't want to, and sure that nobody from home would see or recognize us, we took the princely sum of $8.99 and drove to a Golden Corral ablaze with neon signs visible through the windows for such stations as the "Garden Fresh Salad Spot", the "Rotisserie" (neon flames licked at the word), and an entire area called "The Brass Bell Bakery and Dessert Cafe".
To make a long story short, finding anything edible was close to impossible - and, we had specifically lowered our expectations for the event - which were were considering a treat! Most of what was served came out of cans - certainly I don't think there was anything on the salad bar that didn't, except for the shredded iceberg lettuce whose brown edges gave away that it came from a bag (at several times brought into view). The rotisserie station served the same chickens you can buy cooked in the supermarket, and the hot section featured all number of mystery items in thick gooey gravy, the kind of things you remember from the school cafeteria and refuse to eat on an airplane; while any one of these could, in theory, have been a treat to a person on vacation from "haute cuisine" if done right, nothing here was. Flame Grilled Steak was mystery pieces of gristle. Having tried a taste of everything (except the seriously repulsive looking items), I found that the fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy were enough to make me not need to drive somewhere else for another dinner. A sampling of desserts proved that though there were a hundred of them, they were indistinguisable from one another except by color.
And we went here knowing pretty much exactly what we were getting into. What we found was a place that seemingly opened industrial size cans and frozen trays of simply everything that is carried in a large supermarket, heated it, and served it.
This wasn't a complaint, certainly not for my $8.99. But if there are any other hopeless romantics who think of Golden Corral as model for something we cannot have in the New York City economy but yearn for, think again.
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Some members who are restaurateurs can undoubtedly give you a more precise answer, but a restaurant that's on Open Table has the Open Table reservation system running on their computer, which is how they take reservations themselves (well, the two sets of reservations would have to reconcile, of course, and Open Table needs to know when they've taken tables out of inventory for reservations they make themselves for people who call in directly. So when you give your name on the phone to a restaurant and they put it in to book your table, your entire Open Table history with them appears.
This has happened to me once or twice - I've called places where years earlier I had dined via an Open Table reservation, and they've said "I see you last dined with us three years ago" or something like that. So that's how they have all your info and dining history.
I would like to commend the author on an excellent book, one of the few that provides new insight into the restaurant dining experience.I am particularly happy with the section about becoming a regular at a place, something that I have started to do (as suggested I won't tell where), but I had a question. I have made some reservations through Open Table and some not at a particular restaurant, which I have now dined at about 5 times. I know I am starting to be known at the restaurant because I called a couple of days after my last visit to schedule my next one and they indicated they remembered me from a couple of days previous.
After I thought about it, though, I realized there was no obvious way for the restaurant to know that I had dined with them a few times previously by making reservations through Open Table without me telling them, as they did not take my email address or anything other information that would make me particularly identifiable (my name, John Cook, is not exactly unique.) Am I correct in thinking that or do restaurants try to reconcile Open Table with phone reservations?
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Wow !!! Did I hit Silver Pond on a bad day?
I went today at 1:45 pm, based entirely on this thread, and ordered 5 things to try prior to bringing some friends here, which I'm now hesitant to do.
Everything was really dull and "tired" tasting at best, and the pork siu-mai certainly didn't look as "alive" as in Jason's photo, nor did they taste it. But I digress.
The first thing to arrive though, was the Rice Noodle (Cheung Fun) with shrimp, and even though I was starving, the iodine-y taste of the shrimp was really off-putting. The Pork siu-mai, and the Har Gao were both dull and lackluster, although at least the shrimp dumpling had enough smoky taste to cover the iodine flavor. The Steamed Pork Ribs (black bean) were quite delicious actually, but when the Shrimp Siu Mai arrived, it was inedible, and I had to send it back. I got another pork siu mai, and let's just call it dull and lifeless.
Well, it was a Tuesday afternoon two days after Christmas. Any thoughts on whether they have significantly better days?
I must add that so far my favorite dim sum in NJ based on 3 or 4 visits is Wonder Seafood in Edison, although I sent a dim-sum loving friend from out of town there, and apparetnly he didn't give it the full rave I had hoped for; still, I'd recommend it to dim sum lovers not afraid of the trip. I've also been to Dynasty on Rt. 22 in Green Brook a few times, and it is definitely not worth the drive just to go there. If you're local, it's probably great to have, but as they say, there's no need to make a special trip there.
Anyway, I'm tempted to give Silver Pond another visit on a weekend, but I'd love to hear from anybody who's done that and can say it's better than during the week.
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I'm treating my mom and brothers to a lunch at Lupa later this month. We've never been before, and my two brother are 19 and 26, and not really ones to dress up. Can they get away with wearing jeans and sneakers to lunch?
Absolutely! They could wear jeans and sneakers to dinner at Lupa if they wanted.
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Well, I'm coming into this discussion late, and first and formost I want to apologize if the photos linked below, which I've posted before, are old stuff to some of you, but I thought they'd be worth sharing. I was in France, specifically in Alsace in December of 2002, which at that time was apparently the most abundant Black Truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) year they could ever remeber, and the restaurants were using truffles galore. And, they were the size of softballs! We had the Truffle Dinner twice in a week at the restaurant Le Cerf in Marlenheim, and on the second visit when we had the camera, the chef went quite overboard (which was perfectly okay with us) with the truffles.
Hope you enjoy and sorry to anybody who's seen these before...
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A little North of Miami but Billy's in Hollywood has been around a while.
Yep. And I highly reccomend it as well.
Thank you both !!!
I'm in Miami Beach for the week, and although I know that Jason has written about Billy's before, I had never gone until tonight.
It was great. The stone crabs were impeccably fresh, and succulent (I've had plenty down here on past vacations that were lousy), and we'll probably go back again.
This, Billy's Stone Crab, on the Intercoastal Waterway in Hollywood, is a great place !!!!
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Well, I'll throw a 'scare' into the thread.
Does anybody remember the "French Roumanian Restaurant" on Delancey Street?
I'm going back to the 1950's and 60's here. It was a Jewish restaurant, on the south side of Delancey Street just a few blocks after you come over the Williamsburgh Bridge, but I don't remember if it was Kosher or not. It was obviously one of many restaurants whose sole survivor is "Sammy's Roumanian". We would start with chopped liver, and then always have the "mush steak", which apparently (I learned this from Fat Guy, I think) is a boneless rib-steak. I would say that as I child I ate here almost every weekend for the first 13 or 15 years of my life (I was born in 1951).
Any memories, anybody?
HELP! Can't find Fat Separating LADLE
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
I just broke my fat separating ladle, and cannot find another one. It was the cleverest gadget I've ever seen.
Basically, it's a handle from which a clear plastic cup-shaped ladle (which holds a good cupful of liquid) is suspended. The handle has a trigger that you pull with your index finger after the liquid has cooled for a moment and the fat has separated and floated to the top; the trigger opens a hole at the very bottom of the ladle, and the defatted liquid comes out. You can see the fat layer as it reaches the bottom of the bowl, so you know when to stop.
It's way more efficient than any other fat separator I've ever used, and I cannot locate one.
Has anybody seen one of these for sale? THANKS !!!