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Is the potato starch retrogradation technique like the one in the Potato Primer? That's my favorite way of making mashed potatoes. (Did it at the Heartland Gathering in KC). Cook at 71ºC, cool completely, finish cooking at 80ºC. And yes, the cooling step is essential. I'm sure Nathan and company explain it well.

I have a small chamber vacuum (a VacMaster) that I can bring. My immersion heater is kind of old and cranky, but I can bring that too.

As we get closer to the actual date, people start discussing what equipment will be needed and who can bring what. Since I live in the area it will be more practical for me to bring larger equipment to the Feast this year. I'm definitely interested in doing the cocktail workshop!

This place is a treasure. It's just a few miles from the West Side Market, so it would make for an excellent side trip during the Saturday morning shopping. The Sausage Shoppe Before the non-red-meat eaters panic, we should note that they are very accommodating of vegetarians and vegans. Jonathon Sawyer is young, but he's got quite a resumé. GHT is Cleveland's first LEED certified restaurant, and Chef Sawyer has gotten a lot of press since being named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine. Unfortunately, fresh fish and seafood are hard to come by in Cleveland. There's a vendor at the West Side Market that has quite a nice selection of fresh seafood. There's a second that looks pretty decent (but I'm not as familiar with), and a third that is best avoided. That last one is pretty easy to detect. There is some "local" fish - mainly Walleye Perch. I used quotes because I'm told that the commercial Walleye fisheries are in Canadian waters on the opposite shore of Lake Erie.

Coz, glad to hear that the SB egg technique was successful. My main problem has been peeling the eggs once they're done. The whites are very tender and have a tendency to shred when the shell is removed. Percyn, interesting thought about using acid to make the eggs fluffy. I'm assuming one would use a very tiny amount so as not to screw up the flavor. Your results look very good as-is, though. Thanks for posting your results.

Mine arrived last week (I had it on pre-order). I've only had time to thumb through it, but it looks to be quite useful.

I don't like the onsen tamago (LTLT) eggs for the reasons you cite. What I'm looking for is a set (yet tender) white with a liquid yolk. I found a possible solution in the post Towards the perfect soft boiled egg on Khymos.org. The post itself is interesting, but the technique I was looking for is actually in the comments. Scroll down to the pair of comments by Olly Rouse of Souse Vide Solutions. He describes a method of starting the eggs at a high temperature to set the whites, followed by immersion in a moderate temperature to allow the heat to travel to the center of the egg. The white is completely set and the yolk remains liquid. This is the sort of result I'm aiming for: (This egg was at Restaurant Drouant. I have no idea how they prepared it. It was absolutely glorious.)

I wound up buying the Premier grinder mentioned above. So far I've only had time to play with it a bit. I ground a masala for biryani following Niloufer Ichaporia King's method. Also made idli batter - the texture was amazing. I'm cooking dinner with friends on Christmas Eve, and the idea has been floated that we should do a proper mole. I'd also like to make tamales with freshly made masa. Sourcing the right kind of corn for that will be interesting...

Another tweet from Chef Achatz: Three Michelin stars. Congrats to the Alinea team.

The location of the original is really the "odd fit". It's a much nicer restaurant (inside) than one would expect in a strip mall.

This would be an exciting development if the rumors prove to be true. I love the original, and hopefully the New York edition will bear a resemblance. This note on Eater says the menu will be scaled down. I just hope that the Northern Thai items will remain. Does anyone know how involved chef Saipin Chutima will be in the New York operation?

Does anyone have any experience with the Premier Tilting Grinder? It has a slightly larger capacity than the Ultra Pride and the tilt feature sounds handy.

VTR got some publicity courtesy of Michael Symon. "The Best Thing I Ever Drank" includes a segment shot at VTR last Spring. Symon does a great job describing the drink. The episode re-airs this afternoon at 2:00 Eastern Time on the Food Channel.

I downloaded the zbar app, but decided to get a cheap barcode scanner instead. I bought a "de-clawed" CueCat off of eBay. Works like a charm. If they ever decide to do an iPhone app for Eat Your Books, the barcode-scanning library used in the zbar app is open-source and freely available. Could be cool to have an option to upload books to your library...

Yes, please add me to the "Pretty Definite" list too.

We usually schedule the Gathering to coincide with Kristin's visit. She's got the longest travel time to get here. I'm fine with either July or August.

Nancy, everyone kept looking at me when they mentioned Cleveland for 2011! (I suggested that you or LuckyGirl might be more skilled at organizing this sort of thing). BTW, next year will be the 10th anniversary of eGullet.

I'd like to do the coffee tasting. Options 1 & 2 sound most interesting to me. (Though I do love S.O. espresso as well...)

Catching up here... Alex has the price range about right for Grange. I love Roast (and love the idea of supporting a downtown Detroit business), but Szechuan would be great too. Szechuan preferred. We have some great Hong Kong food here in Cleveland. I'd like to do the field trip if it doesn't conflict with Kerry's workshop (I suspect it would...). I would vote for Dearborn. We have some small Halal grocers here in Cleveland. Dearborn is a whole other story. To make things simple, count me as a "yes" for everything except the Friday field trip (assuming it conflicts with Kerry's workshop - if not I'll do that too! )

A mix of confection and pastry stuff sounds great. I don't have a ThermoMix, but I'm interested in learning more about it.

Interesting tweet from Grant Achatz this afternoon: Deciphering the Tweet-speak, that sounds like an insane number of dishes coming out of that kitchen tonight. NRA weekend, perhaps?

I'd like to do both Kerry's ThermoMix workshop and Tino's bread workshop if they don't conflict. Grange sounds like a winner. Roast is also fun (I've been there once). They have a private room we might be able to reserve with enough advance planning. Since I'll be driving to AA I'll be able to bring various tools/gadgets if needed. Closer to the actual date we should coordinate who's bringing what so that we have everything covered.

Kristin, I can give you a lift back to Cleveland on Sunday. Middleburg Heights isn't far out of my way.

Wow, lots of activity since I last looked in on this thread! I'll block out that weekend in my calendar now. Here's the topic discussing the most recent Ann Arbor event: Member-organized Event - 2006 Heartland Gathering :wub: Since AA is within driving distance of home I'll be able to bring appliances, etc. (Sounds like Sam already has the Vita-Mix covered). We can work out what's needed as we get closer to event time. Really looking forward to it!

Tom, I may have misunderstood what Sonny was saying about the pork dish. Perhaps he was talking about a different version. The one we had didn't taste like it had liver or intestine in it. If it did it was well disguised.