vengroff

Care to fill us in, Mark?

Pirate's Booty Veggie Booty Fruity Booty etc... I can't say I'm a fan of the stuff. It tastes like flavored styrofoam to me. See Robert's American Gourmet for details. Warning: their web site is very slow.

I'll take a pic of the other side next time. Hopefully I won't be run of this board for posting it. I tied it based on my interpretation of Fowke's original description.

After downing a 24oz. porterhouse, sometimes you need something a little lighter. It's like ordering a super sized big mac meal with a diet coke.

Not to belittle your methodology, but if I had any product that I realy believed 99% of people prefered, I would have independent blind testing done immediately, and I would trumpet the verified results like there was no tomorrow. I'd bet money that if you went to a consumer-level wine expo and blind tested Gallo Hearty Burgundy vs. Chateau Lafitte, you would find at least five people out of a hundred who preferred the Gallo, for whatever reason. 99% preference in any sort of subjective test of taste is simply a phenomenal result.

Let us know how it turns out. I am planning to give it a try next month for American Thanksgiving and would like to hear how your experience turns out.

Vannillin is the the primary source of flavor in vanilla beans. It can also be extracted from certain kinds of tree barks. The difference is that the small quantities of other flavoring agents that occur in the beans will not be found in the stuff extracted from bark. I have not heard of "imitation" vanilla made from actual vanilla beans, but I've not looked at the Watkin's product. Perhaps it does not satisfy some technical requirement for how the beans must be processed in order for the resulting product to be labelled as vanilla extract.

They are good for smoking.

Thanks Ch&Ch. David is, of course, welcome to post as much or as little as he likes here. I'm sure we would all like to hear something of his experience opening this place if he has the time. I think Mr. Klc made some excellent points about what the discussion is like here. I just went back and read what I wrote after visiting Cieba, and I think I still stand by it. The place was brand new, literally days old, and there were a few issues. I suspect everything I mentioned can be dealt with easily. I haven't returned yet, so for all I know they already have been. And like I said, I have a warm place in my heart for anyone in this country who is willing to serve shrimp with their heads. On the other hand, maybe they are right on track and headed for a huge success as is. Perhaps I'm just not their target customer; maybe deconstructionist avant-garde-loving espuma slurpers like me just aren't going to get what they are all about.

Is it not the case that in a great number of the restaurants in DC, of all cuisines, the hands doing a lot of the prepping and cooking are either Salvadoran or Mexican? They certainly seem to have mastered a lot more than papusas and frijoles.

I'm not asking for a debate at this point. Before I do that I'd like to at least read over your patent to see what the method and apparatus are all about. If you could give me the number I'd be happy to look it up myself.

Cut it into strips and stir fry it with some veggies.

What's the patent number? A number of us here have scientific and/or engineering backgrounds and would be interested in reading it. From the pictures I've seen on the web, it looks like the device consists of six cylindrical Neodymium Iron Boron magnets (about $1 each, much less than that in quantity) in a clip made of plastic and/or metal. Is there more to the device than this? P.S. Are you this Dennis Lynch?

I'm curious. If you use this device with the arrow pointing in the wrong direction, what happens to the wine? Does it get more tannic? Perhaps the testers can tell us. Like Bruce, I would strongly advocate a double blind test.

Don, I'm sorry to hear that this trip didn't match up to your prior visits. But I have to believe you experienced an anomoly. Time will tell.

I wouldn't worry to much about exactly where the question was originally posted or moved. Corkage is a subject on which Mark has been quite candid about his views and the reasons behind them. I'm sure he will continue to be nothing less. For another example, see this thread in the wine forum.

I bet plenty of people in New York City can sympathize. Is there any chance you could get some kind of sturdy countertop-level cart that you could use as a work area outside the kitchen itself and then stow in corner when it's not in use?

It's lipstick size--five or six pumps.

I would be a little hesitant to put quail inside another bird. To me, one of the biggest joys of quail is the high surface area to volume ratio, which results in lots of crispy skin coming along with every bite of meat. Maybe you could turn the concept on it's head and plaster the outside of a larger bird with six or eight boneless quail, tie it all up and then roast the whole thing. A pheasant with a surface layer of quail--how could you do better than that?

I'm holding out for a magentized version.

Don't forget the minijito, served in a mini-atomizer.

New New England Clam Chowder, desconstructed and reconstructed by the minibar. According to our minibarador, the clam was cooked for three seconds, just enough to chase the rawness away.

Bad mojitos could be the basis for an entire thread. There are dozens of ways the ingredients can be out of balance, resulting in an undrinkable greenish sludge.

A few of the questions and answers so far have touched on issues where there is some kind of disconnect between your ideas and those those that pervade the wine marketplace, especially on the consumer side. The discussion of packaging issues, and the question of why people drink white zinfandels in such quantity are good examples. So I'll ask the meta question: What do you think are the most common or most serious misconseptions and predjudices consumers have about wine? By all means, people should drink what they like, but those who are open-minded may find things they will enjoy even more. Feel free to answer from points anywhere on market's spectrum, from wine-buying neophytes to experienced consumers clinging to old traditional ideas that no longer make sense.

Somehow I seem to have left out my personal favorite, the deconstructed sushi with crisp rice, nori, sushi rice espuma, and soy gelee. It was the finest piece of raw fish I've had since Kaz's tuna with foie gras.