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Heidi, did the contraption you saw look anything like the video I linked above? These things fascinate (and scare!) me... I wonder if the "Korean corn syrup" was actually millet syrup. I think they use that in Asian non-sweet applications. (Or maybe I'm imagining that...)

There are some puffed "snack" recipes in one of the el bulli books. I tried the puffed quinoa and the puffed "paella" (flavored rice). A bit time-consuming, but fun. I'm fascinated by . (youtube video)

I've got a reservation for 9:30 tomorrow. I've been checking the web site to see if something earlier might open up. There have been 9:30 slots open all weekend for Monday and Wednesday. I guess that 9:30 is rather late in the evening for a weeknight - even if it's a "hot" reservation.

They have a retail store? Probably just as well that I didn't know that. I've ordered from them on-line. Seeing all that stuff in person could be dangerous to my finances. re: smoke-free environment. I'm fairly sensitive to ambient smoke, but didn't have a problem walking through the casino floor at Mandalay Bay to get to RM Seafood. The restaurant itself wasn't smokey at all. Is there really a problem with smoke drifting into a place like L'Atelier? I'd think that if there was they'd do something about it...

Thanks for that recommendation. I went to Settebello for lunch and quite enjoyed it, as did my customers - I think they'll be back. I love the Neapolitan style of pizza, and it has the added advantage of cooking quickly. We got our order without too much of a wait. A good thing at lunch-time. My first evening in Vegas I wound up going to Lotus of Siam. Several friends have raved about it, and the posts here looked promising. I had the Nam Kao Sod (crsipy rice and sour sausage) and the Khao Soi, a Northern-style noodle curry. Both were absolutely wonderful. I'd heard so much about the crispy rice dish that I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the hype. But it did. Nam Kao Tod Khao Soi On Tuesday I went back to RM Seafood. I'd been there before, but wanted to go back to try the sushi and sashimi. I genuinely admire their commitment to sustainable fisheries. And the quality of the seafood they serve is impeccable. I started with the oyster sampler, and moved on to some nigiri and sashimi. I wanted to try the cobia (unusual for sushi), but they were out so I substituted the sable. The fish that looks like salmon is Char, a close relative. Oyster Sampler Nigiri and Sashimi I didn't make it to L'Atelier - that will have to wait for another visit.

Nice! Lucy supplied the honey for a special Slow Food dinner at Lolita a couple years ago. There's a post about it in the Lola/Lolita thread. She sells an interesting variety of honeys.

That's Brewerkz, isn't it? Do they still have the Mougwai on tap? ← Yeah, the same folks own Brewerkz, the wine bar, and Café Iguana. (Company info here.) I walked past it numerous times but never got around to stopping in. All three businesses appear to be doing quite well. My colleague said that Brewerkz was the first microbrewer in Singapore. The concept has caught on now - we had lunch on the veranda at Red Dot, which is in a charming old "black and white" colonial cottage. We also had dinner at Paulaner Bräuhaus, which has a rather unusual dining room. There's plenty of good beer to be had in Singapore, though prices are not cheap...

Rona, Jumbo is indeed a chain. My colleagues in Singapore love it. We went to the one on the beach not far from the airport. Nice view of the ships queued up for their turn at the docks. (It looks like a city at night, with all the lights from the ships). Here's a lobster dish we had. Yes it's covered in mayonnaise! (It was good. Really). Duck. Garnished with shrimp chips. (I think of it as "krupuk" but I guess this is the Chinese version). Veggies and seafood. I remember my colleague specifying "no sea cucumber". I guess it's an acquired taste. Everyone's favorite, pepper crab. (My colleagues prefer this to the similar Chili Crab). What a mess to eat, but absolutely great. Café Iguana is owned by the same folks who do the brew pub and wine bar nearby. I didn't go there, but my colleagues spoke well of it (and the other businesses as well).

Thanks for pointing out the tasting menu at L'Atelier. It looks pretty good.

I'll be in Henderson (near my work site), but I'll have a rental car. I'm willing to drive a bit to find good food.

Oh, great timing for this post! I'll be in Vegas (on business) early next month, and I want to do some research ahead of my visit to find the best places to go. I've only got three evenings, so I want to make the best of it. I learned a long time ago that I can use my expense account as a subsidy for fine dining (without abusing it). I expense the allowable amount and pay the rest out of pocket. My office manager has grown accustomed to seeing dinner charges with the note "not charging the full amount". If I don't say that the expense account gets bounced. She's a stickler for matching up the receipts to the charges. So I dine at Sea Saw in Phoenix, L2O in Chicago, WD~50 in New York. I'm prepared to pay well more than half of the bill. I'm just happy for the opportunity to dine at great restaurants. One place I intend to go is Lotus of Siam. I'll probably go there the evening I fly in, since I won't have to make reservations in advance (Can't count on the flight arriving on schedule ). That leaves two more dinners. I'm thinking that CarneVino might be a candidate. When I'm in New York I rarely have enough advance warning to get a reservation at a Batali / Bastianich place. If anyone thinks that this is a bad choice, feel free to say so! Last time I was (briefly) in Vegas, I dined at RM Seafood. I quite enjoyed it, but I'm going to seek out something new this time around. I might splurge and go for a really high-end thing (Robuchon?) - I can pack decent clothes and make myself presentable. If anyone has any suggestions for must-not-miss dining experiences, I'm all ears!

And just now, she gave a little shout-out to cocktail culture. The videos for tonight's show aren't up yet, but look for a segment about the Obamas hosting a cocktail party at the White House on her MSNBC site.

I finally got a chance to view the video, and I have to say I find it delightful. And I'd say it's a net plus for cocktail enthusiasm. All the talk about grenadine made me search out the eG thread on home-made stuff. Sounds pretty simple. (Or I could just remember to buy some when I'm at VTR, but I always forget...)

"Dissed"? Really?! What did they say? I find that a bit surprising . . . mystifying, too. ← Here's a bit more from docsconz at the time: ICC post. And here's the Ruhlman blog post: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? (CAPS are Bourdain's) It seems the more dismissive tone may have come from MPW rather than Bourdain. Or that's how I read Bourdain's comments there...

An Anti-Griddle perhaps?

Are you thinking of a blast chiller? It's a refrigeration unit with high-speed fans to cool the food more rapidly than a regular fridge. They're mostly used in professional kitchens since they're quite expensive - thousands of dollars for even a small under-counter unit.

Nice posts, Rona! When you mentioned that the Ya Kun Kaya was at the MRT station and right across from your hotel, I wondered if you were staying at the Swissotel. Sure enough... I stayed at that hotel in December and went to the Ya Kun Kaya twice. I wish I'd ordered the eggs - those do look like the hot spring eggs. Being close to Chinatown is a real plus. The Maxwell Street Hawker Centre is within walking distance.

Don't know about Kentucky whiskey casks, but they sell chips made from Jack Daniels casks.

Huh? The scoring was extremely close, with Symon winning (narrowly) on flavor points. I still have trouble tasting the food through the Teevee interface, so I'll have to take the judges' word for it...

Comment of the thread. There's a sad corollary to this - that those of us with more money than time wind up wasting much of our food budget. I hate to think of the amount of food that goes to waste because I'm too lazy to really work out a food budget. I could probably slash my food budget in half if I just took the time to plan my meals and avoid waste... And then there's my crazy work schedule. Sometimes I purchase food for the next few days, only to discover that I'll be out of town on business. So I scramble to find ways of preserving the food rather than wasting it. So Maggie, take heart in the one luxury you have: You've got way more time than many of us (think we) have. You can eat as well on much less than half of what most of us spend on food. Shopping carefully, planning judiciously, and budgeting scrupulously, you can eat very well on a slim budget.

Chelsea, 9th avenue, on the NW corner of 24th. It's kind of a desolate block that doesn't have any restaurants but has a surprising amount of foot traffic. Co is located literally across the street from Grand Sichuan International. ← I'm confused. Google maps shows Grand Sichuan on the NW corner. This sounds like a good candidate to add to my "short list" to visit next time I'm in New York. Thanks for posting about it.

Is it possible to buy hogget or mutton in the U.S.? I've never seen it, but I'm thinking that there must be some markets that cater to ethnic populations that would carry it. Given the general dislike of lamb that tastes like lamb, hogget or mutton would be a stretch for most people here. Still, I'd think that someone somewhere must be selling it...

I brought my Vita-Mix 5000 to various Heartland Gatherings. It went mostly unnoticed in Ann Arbor and Cleveland, but it got a workout at the Chicago gathering last year. I used the dry container to grind spices, and puréed the sauce for our chicken course in the wet container. Tammy and Steven used it to make their Apricot/Mango Schmear, which had previously caused a Cuisinart to emit a near death-rattle. I haven't found myself wishing for more horsepower, but I'm not in a commercial environment.

Do make the trek to Palladio. Chef Melissa Close is the real deal. She's not Italian, but she has a true reverence for Italian cuisine. Take your GPS, especially if you're going in the evening. Not easy to find in the dark, but worth it. (Actually, the lunch service is lovely, and it's nice to see the grounds during daylight). My impression of C&O is that they're not really "standard restaurant food". They seemed pretty enthusiastic about what they're doing. Give them a second chance... I'm sad to hear that OXO bit the dust. Their ideas may have been better in theory than in practice (judging by my one experience there), but I've got a certain fondness for folks who try to innovate, even if they're not always on the mark. Did you check out Ivy Inn? Chef Angelo Vangelopoulos strikes me as a motivated, talented chef. Give them a try, and be sure to let them know that you have an adventurous palate. Their bread-and-butter business may be a bit conservative, but I have the impression that they would be willing to accomodate someone who's a bit more adventurous.

Baricelli Inn hosted a special dinner last night featuring Great Lakes Brewing Company ales and lagers. GLBC owner Patrick Conway and brewmaster Luke Purcell introduced the brews. In addition to the special menus, the tables were set with informational flyers and a sampling of ingredients used in the craft of brewing (hops and various preparations of barley). First up was the Dortmunder Gold Lager The Baricelli kitchen chose to accompany this with a house-made seafood bratwurst served on a fresh bun and topped with caramelized onions. Dortmunder Gold is GLBC's best-selling brew. It proved to be a great accompaniment to the caramelized onions and mildly seasoned seafood brat. Next came the brew they're currently calling "Hale Ale" This is still under development and will be called "Grassroots Ale" when it debuts on Earth Day 2009. The herbs used to flavor the ale are grown at Hale Farm and Village, a working farm sponsored by the Western Reserve Historical Society. The food paired with the Hale Ale was a vegetable strudel with a balsamic reduction. Very richly flavored, and a nice foil to the sweet and herbaceous ale. For eight weeks of the year GLBC sells their Christmas Ale, subtly flavored with honey and spices. Despite the limited availability, the Christmas Ale is GLBC's second-best-selling brew. Baricelli's pairing for the Chrismas Ale was Duck Ravioli in a Star Anise-Cinnamon Consommé. The consommé was made with some of the ale, tying the flavors together. The duck was braised and shredded - very tender and deeply flavorful. The final savory course featured the Eliot Ness Amber Lager Spicy Pork Belly with Roasted Garlic Leek Frittata and Kimchi. The Eliot Ness held up beautifully against the fiery kimchi and rich pork belly, which was braised with Asian five spice and sambal. The printed menu concluded with the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter Lighter and less bitter than a stout, the porter paired marvelously with the dessert, a molten chocolate cake with Edmund Fitzgerald ice cream. I don't know who does the desserts at Baricelli. This was terrific, especially the ice cream. Pat Conway brought along a post-dessert extra, something that's not normally available outside of the brewery. The Barley Wine is higher in alcohol than other brews and is aged. It's perfect as an after dinner digestive, less sweet than the usual cordial, but smooth and satisfying. Since this was an impromptu "off-menu" addition, the kitchen decided to send out a taste of bleu cheese. Baricelli is justifiably proud of their cheese service. If they said what this one was, I missed it. (Shame on me for not asking. ) This was a wonderful opportunity to taste some great brews highlighted by delicious food. Great Lakes Brewing Company has outgrown the micro-brewery class, but they still have a commitment to the community, their employees, and the environment.