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Hi Kris! Since you managed to get lost going to and from Tremont, no doubt you can get lost in North Royalton too! Easy to get to - the amazing thing is that there's anything of interest there for "serious foodies". To look at it, you'd think that it was one of those "party center" places not-to-be-caught-dead-in. It's kind of weird and wonderful to see the overlay of serious dedication to artisanal and organic ingredients on top of an old-fashioned restaurant setting. Kind of gives one hope for the future of food in "the Heartland". BTW, chef Dominic gave us a sneak-peek at the new menu and wine list. The organic, "slow foods" type stuff now occupies an entire page of the menu. The wine list has been revamped with many interesting Italian vintages. Chef Dominic says that the "Lambrusca and Blue Nun" crowd accounts for the bulk of his sales. He's not being condescending - simply realistic about where the majority of his customers are coming from. I'm seriously impressed with the way he's managed to create a sort of restaurant-within-a-restaurant, pleasing the upscale crowd without alienating the loyal customers of yore. Not that you're particularly interested in the wine list.

I met up with NancyH and husband Bob, and also Cleveland-area personal chef Brian (don't know his eG name) for dinner at Carrie Cerino's last night. The first Friday of the month is when the "blue egg ravioli" are available. They're too labor-intensive to serve all the time. All of us got the appetizer-sized portion of the BER. One large raviolo: ricotta filling with a whole egg yolk sandwiched between sheets of fresh pasta, dressed simply in a fresh sage butter. The yolk, visible beneath the pasta, is still liquid and helps to form a luxurious sauce when combined with the sage butter and the bit of pasta cooking water clinging to the raviolo. This dish is absolutely sublime - so simple and so good. We opted to eat "family style", ordering several dishes to share rather than each ordering one entrée. This gave us all a chance to taste a variety of dishes. I was eager to try the Spaghetti alla Carbonara, but it seemed like overkill to order two dishes with pasta and egg. Passing the dishes around, we got to try: Spaghetti alla Carbonara House-made pasta, olive oil, garlic, Romano and Parmigiano cheeses, and guanciale sourced from Armandino Batali. This is served with a raw yolk on top to be broken and stirred in at the table. Berkshire pork chops A "heritage breed" hog. The chops are moist and flavorful. Cavatelli in Pesto Exactly like you'd want it. Tender little dumplings, fragrant sauce. Calamari Benfrito Long strips of calamari seved with a marinara dipping sauce. This is an Antipasto, but we ordered it along with the other main dishes. The breading was thin and crisp and the squid was tender and not at all rubbery. The "style" of this dish is pretty typical of many Italian restaurants in the U.S, except that squid was tender, the breading wasn't too thick, and the marinara was fresh and subtly seasoned. We also had salads and dessert. After dinner Chef Dominic gave us a tour of the facilities. This place is huge. I think he said thirty thousand sq feet. There's a large ballroom and a number of banquet rooms, plus a large lounge. The kitchens are extensive and equipped with some exotic stuff, some of which isn't available anymore. They have a cool old Italian pasta-cutting machine, a massive cast-iron tilt skillet, and a huge oven with steam-injection and a sort of ferris-wheel rotating platform (like the oven that's used to bake the bagels at Zingerman's, as seen on the tour tammylc arranged for the Heartland Gathering). They make the pasta in house, and bake the bread, and make the desserts. Very impressive.

Another piece on Symon in the PD, this time a review of Lolita in the Friday Magazine: Welcome temptation

I hope I didn't come across as too snarky about the packaged-food-nostalgia thing. I chuckle about the odd sense of "tradition" surrounding industrial foods that were unknown a half-century ago, but any tradition, even a we-made-it-up-right-here tradition, symbolizes a connection with friends and family and a feeling of belonging. In the last several years, I've been alternating between two Thanksgiving scenarios. Scene one: My friend J gathers an interesting variety of people for Thanksgiving dinner at her lovely home high on Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh (Mr. Rogers neighborhood, literally). She's a prof at CMU, so many of her friends are academics. Her daughters are in their early twenties and bring along a mix of earnest socially-conscious bright-ones and magenta-haired postmodern hyper-ironiic types. (I'm not mocking here- I attended Oberlin College in the seventies ) Sooooo, what do we cook for Thanksgiving dinner? J: So, I guess we have to make turkey. E: Right, but we've also got the "potential Vegan contingent" J: I've got some great squash from my garden E: No butter??? J: We'll put extra butter in the stuffing. E: So, I was thinking we (I) could bone out the turkey a la Ken Hom, so that no one notices... Then stuff the neck with a wild rice and pistachio mix and the "business end" of the turkey with a somewhat more traditional bread-sausage-whatever stuffing. Lot's of herbs. J: Yeah, that sounds cool, Eddie. Isn't that a lot or work? E: You know me far too well... The one sacrosanct must do dish for J is her dad's "creamed onions". Pearl onions in a simple béchamel - I talked her into adding a few gratings of nutmeg, but even that was pushing the line. Scene two: It's my sister's turn to host the in-laws for Turkey Day. Every time this happens she freaks and "calls in the reserves" (me) to help. Seriously, I don't know why she panics. She's a perfectly good cook, but I guess she needs me there to provide support. So, I'm not even going to suggest anything too "out-there". But I do want to do a nice stuffing made from home-baked bread, sausage, a bit of sautéed onion and maybe some apple, fresh herbs... S: Whoah!!!! We have got to make Stove Top Stuffing ™ E: Huh? Well, it's some sort of imagined "tradition". Certainly not when we were growing up, but whatever. We make Grotesque Quantities ® of Stove Top Stuffing ™ , plus a limited amount of my "weird" stuffing. Here's the kicker: My bil's sil (does that make sense?) finds out that the stuffing I made contains apple, sausage, and sage. Well, she is just about driven to tears. Turns out that her german-born granny made stuffing very much like what I made - what for me seemed like a pretty tasty mix turned out to resonate with her on a deep emotional level. This year my sister is once again hosting the T-day meal, and I've volunteered to help out. I'll be making the sausage-apple-herb stuffing. Guaranteed. Back to the original question: I absolutely love the idea of "riffing" on the traditional theme. And if people just have to have those tacky old "traditional" things like casserole glop and giggly cranberry stuff, why fight them? Some of us want something more adventurous? Don't be cowed by the nay-sayers! Do both. We can make everybody happy here. Really! [/Pollyanna] Edit: Caan't Speelll worth a Daaaaarn

I've got a question: How important is the dolsot to the success of the bibimbap? I think I already know the answer - I've tried making bibimbap in an iron skillet, and it was OK but just not quite "right". I'm going to look for a dolsot at the asian grocery in Cleveland next time I'm there. In the mean time, am I wasting my time with the iron skillet?

from the Fresh/Stuffed Pasta & Gnocchi--Cook-Off thread: which eventually led to … I am so looking forward to "Battle Pasta"!

There's a nice feature in the October issue of Northern Ohio Live about the Lola/Lolita transition. It gives a bit of background on the decision to put Lolita in the old Tremont location and move Lola Bistro downtown. It was originally going to be the other way around. The link above should be valid through the end of the month, after which the article will move to the archives.

extreme frustration I have never before called my cable provider about service problems. I've called them three times today - FoodTV is showing a black screen! There are only two -count 'em TWO - episodes on FoodTV that I actually care about. One is the ICA battle featuring Wylie Dufresne, and the other is tonight's "battle asparagus" with Michael Symon (local NEO boy) vs Morimoto. Don't worry about "spoilers". If any of you can actually view tonight's episode, I'd love to hear about it. There was a major build-up to the ICA appearance in the local press. See Plain Dealer story here. Silly focus on the "secret ingredient" thing - a certain blabbermouth business partner of M. Symon pretty gave that much away back in April when I dined at Lola Bistro (hint: it wasn't Liz ), and that was before the battle took place. I can't imagine that Morimoto was exactly thrilled by the choice of theme ingredient. Still, I'll be interested in seeing how they approached the challenge - if my freakin' cable company ever brings FoodTV back on line...

Sad news about Theory this week. Saturday will be their last night (Plain Dealer story here). Symon obviously had some influence on the menu - slash & burn grouper sure sounds familiar... I wonder if Matt Harlan will be cooking at the new Lola Bistro when it opens.

Lolita is in the old location of Lola Bistro (which is moving downtown). It's in a funky old neighborhood called Tremont. If you're coming in from the west you can take I90 to just before the I490 split, (what Google Maps recommends), or continue on I490 E to the West 7th exit, which is the way I would go. There's on-street parking in the area, but weekends it may be tough to find a spot. Lolita also has valet parking. It's on the corner of Literary and Professor. Look for the black canvas awning. Liz Symon is in charge of the wine list. The restaurant has a Mediterranean theme, and all of the wines come from that region. When the eG gang met up there we had a Greek wine that was quite nice (maybe NancyH remembers the name). It's a really fun place, and it should be hopping on a Friday!

Thanks, Martin. Are you involved in translating the CD-ROM as well? I'm wondering if the demonstration videos Ted mentioned above will make it into the English edition of 83-93.

It would help if they defined "freshly pressed". Does the beneficial quality of this "previously unknown ingredient" decline rapidly after pressing? I've heard that freshly-pressed oil needs some time to mellow - it starts out bitter and aggressive and evolves into the wonderful stuff we love to cook with. (Someone who's familiar with olive oil production, please correct me if I'm mistaken). Even the ones that have a date on the bottle aren't all the same. Some have a "bottled on" date, which I would favor over the "best sold by" date. The latter might assume that it's perfectly acceptable for the bottle to sit on the shelf for five years. There's a long, slow transition from past-its-prime to rancid....As for other oils being mixed in, I'd hope that reputable producers are being honest when they claim "100% pure Extra-virgin olive oil" (from wherever). Maybe the sleazier brands might be adulterated, but I'd think that the marketplace would punish any producer that tried to pull a fast one on their customers. Or are you talking about trace amounts of other oils that might be introduced inadvertently when oils are processed at a contracted plant? Have to agree with you about that. And welcome to eGullet, Fran!

I have to admit to being a bit squeamish about eating squirrel, and any kind of brains sounds a bit scary to me. I believe that rabbit brains and lamb brains have been served at el bulli, so i suppose that were I so lucky as to dine there I'd take a deep breath and eat them (and probably enjoy them). Robyn - Where the heck did you hear that squirrels can get Mad Cow Disease? That's a new one to me. Doesn't the "B" in "BSE" stand for Bovine? Maybe there's some sort of related disease that infects rodents....

I find it amusing that so many "traditions" involve mid-twentieth-century industrial food products. Did the Pilgrims bring canned onion rings and mushroom soup concentrate over on the Mayflower? Maybe they used jellied cranberry sauce as ballast. I did some Googling to try to pin down the origin of turkey as the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal. I found this site which talks about the food traditions. This paragraph caught my eye:

I made Poulet aux 40 Gousses d'Ail from Richard Olney's Simple French Food last night. I hadn't even seen this thread. I had a nice fresh chicken from a local CSA farmer and thought the forty-cloves-of garlic thing would be fun.<br> His recipe is a bit different from the two previously linked. You put a cut-up chicken in a casserole with olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, bouquet garni, and four heads worth of unpeeled garlic cloves. The chicken goes in raw and gets tossed with the other ingredients. The casserole is sealed with a strip of dough and the whole thing goes into a 350° F oven for 1 3/4 hours. I didn't bother sealing with the dough since the lid of my casserole fits tightly. <br>I think the chicken would be more tender with a shorter cooking time. It was tasty, though!

When Pam said she doesn't like "eggy" quiche, I too thought that might rule out Keller's recipe (which I instantly thought of when I saw the topic title). But Keller's quiche is "eggy" in the best possible sense. The custard is delicate, tender: Pam ain't the only one obsessed with quiche. Elie already summarized the recipe pretty well. (It's six eggs, not seven, BTW). One thing that surprised me is that Keller calls for the egg/cream/milk mixture to be mixed in a blender until it's light and foamy. This runs counter to other recipes I've seen that say not to beat too much air into the custard. I don't have a two-inch bottomless tart ring, but a spring-form cake pan or removable bottom tart pan work well. Keller is adamant about avoiding the use of pie shells for making quiche. He thinks that's what "ruined" quiche for Americans, and he's on a mission to redeem quiche's reputation here.

It's been so long I can't remember if I steamed the mousse sandwiched between the pasta squares. Maybe I cooked the pasta separately. The soup dumplings were sealed, of course. With sage leaves, the leaf actually does tear a bit as the pasta is stretched going through the rollers. It developes a sort of lacy look. I don't remember the chervil or cilantro doing that. If you start out with a big leaf you'll wind up with really big sheets of pasta since everything stretches wider going through the rollers. That would probably be fine for lasagna.

Yeah, the belt-and-suspenders approach. After my duck fat meltdown episode, I've been known to do that. I think that what Sam wants to do is cut down on the "bag bloat" effect. I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes whether the seal is close to the product. Some things are just going to inflate the bag no matter what. Broccoli will blow it up like a balloon if you don't par-cook first. I haven't had much trouble with meats picking up air pockets in the bag. Some things give off a lot of liquid, but the air pocket thing seems to be mostly from vegetables giving off gasses as they heat up.

Checking with the concierge is a great idea. Keep in mind that all of the southern 'burbs (Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon) are a short taxi ride from one another. Tell the concierge what type of dining experience you're looking for. I can't offer specific recommendations since it's been many years since I was there. All I can say is that the various neighborhoods are pretty close together, and transportation shouldn't be an obstacle. I can't find the reference now, but I'm sure I read about one of the "innovative" chefs in Rio being located in Leblon (if that's the sort of thing you're looking for). Or you could go for the full-on churrascaria or feijoada. Talk about the anti-spa!

When I dusted off (literally) my pasta machine on Sunday, I was planning on doing exactly this! I wonder if we read the same magazine article. I was thinking that I got the pressed-herb idea from a cookbook by Jean-Louis Palladin, but I just looked through the whole book and didn't see it. That's exactly what I did back when I saw the technique in that magazine (Bon Appetit? Saveur?) One time I made "open" (unsealed) ravioli with a lobster mousse from the Palladin book. Another time I did a sort of "soup dumpling" (xiaolong bao?) with tiny cilantro leaves pressed into the pasta. I shaped them like pillows rather than the usual twisted-up shapes so that the leaf would show through. One trick to getting the herb to show up nicely is to pass the pasta through the machine twice after you imbed the leaf. You need to use a tiny leaf - the smallest sage or cilantro leaves work, as do tiny sprigs of chervil. Roll the pasta down to the thinnest machine setting. Lay a sheet out, position the leaves spaced at regular intervals, lay another sheet over the top, and press the sheets together. Run through the rollers again. Cut the the sections apart and run through the rollers with the pasta turned 90 degrees from the original direction. As the pasta goes through the rollers the leaf gets stretched and spread apart, so what starts out as a tiny leaf becomes noticeably larger after it goes through the machine. Rotating 90 degrees spreads the leaves in both dimensions.

Kris, A bit late for you now, but I think part of the instructions for the pasta machine should be running some sacrificial dough through the rollers to clean them out. They put mineral oil on the metal parts to prevent rusting, so you should discard the first batch of dough. Hopefully the metal "flakes" you saw were just streaks of oily stuff. Also, the blood sacrifice is really not necessary. I'm wondering if the texture problems you had are due to the type of flour. Pasta recipes are always kind of vague about the flour-to-liquid ratio. Part of it is the relative humidity, size of the eggs, etc., but I think that the protein content of the flour makes a difference as well. Your leaky "volcano" sounds familiar. If I'm mixing by hand I use a big bowl with a flat bottom - can't count on my cutting board being warped enough. You get bonus points for making your own cheese.

I experimented a bit with intentionally keeping the temperature in the range where enzymes are active. Following McGee's discussion of meat enzymes, I tried keeping the temperature just below 40°C (where calpains deactivate) for an hour or so, then ramping up to just below 50°C (at which point the cathepsins become inactive), and then ramping up to a more normal long-cooking temperature (normal for sous vide, that is). I tried doing this with Moulard duck legs "confit" and with beef brisket. I tried several combinations of ramping times for the duck legs, with subtly different results. The more prolonged the time at lower temperatures, the softer the meat texture. The result was OK, but somehow not exactly "confit-like". Also, the low temperature cooking appears to "set" a pink color in the meat which no amount of further cooking will remove. Some people may find this unappetizing. The beef brisket was one of the few experiments that ended in utter failure. The flavor was bland and the texture was absolutely revolting. Think of wet papier mâchè and you get the idea. The color was also an unattractive pinkish grey.

That's one reason I bought a clamp-on circulator rather than a complete water bath. The circulator was pretty clean when I got it, but I scrubbed it carefully and ran it with several changes of water (on a high heat setting) before using it with food. Even though the food is usually enclosed in bags I still don't want any nasty residue anywhere near it. The only thing I've cooked without being vacuum-sealed is the slow-cooked eggs, and that was only after I've used the circulator with so many changes of water that I don't think there could be anything left on it from it's previous life.

What a great idea! The main thing that keeps me from making yogurt more often is the hassle of regulating the temperature. Do you vacuum seal the jars? I'd think they would lose their seal during the incubation period. My circ. bath is a small Lauda unit attached to a big stock pot. I'm not sure how to fit the jars in without completely submerging them. I'll have to come up with a way to try this.

I use a big stock pot for my "tank", so there isn't much of an issue with evaporation for shorter cooking times. Sometimes I put aluminum foil over the opening, but plastic wrap sounds like a better idea (easier to see what's going on in the bath). One thing I didn't notice right away about the circulator is that the tube where the water jet exits the impeller housing is positionable. There's a bend in the tube, and if you rotate it you can direct the water flow up or down. Directing the flow slightly downward creates a nice rolling circulation that keeps the water moving throughout the tank. I usually lay a small plate (tilted) next to the circulator so that the water movement holds it against the heater housing. It keeps the bags of food out of the way of the heater. I've also used a mesh strainer to hold eggs captive while they slow-cook. They just roll around inside the strainer instead of banging around loose. 64.5 ° C for 45 min, as described in the Hesser article.