AndrewK

One thing I noticed last week while walking around the ultra-cool brand-spanking new John Mackey theme park (aka Whole Foods on 6th Street) was the lack of roaches, rats, or other vermin running around the store. How did this happen? Speaking as someone who has worked in grocery stores and the food industry for his entire professional life, there is no way this could have been done without some sort of "inhumane" disposal. What a bunch of hypocrites! You're telling me that I can't buy a sea-roach from you because they are sitting in a cardboard box instead of in their own crap on the ocean floor, but you can spray for bugs and get rid of your own pest problems so that you can keep up the appearance of a squeaky-clean store? It makes me ashamed to be a stock-holder in WF. For that matter, there were no homeless people or any of that ilk hanging around the store, but a number of very mean looking security guards standing at the entrance and exit doors. No transients hanging around a building downtown in a post-Katrina Texas city? Someone is clearly not making them feel welcome since they won't be buying a wheatgrass shot from the veggie bar. Lobster rights? Give me a break... ak

Kent, Central Market's fresh yellowfin tuna comes in as grade #1, which means that the whole fish is flown in within 1 day of hitting the docks and cut on the premises. Meanwhile, the frozen sushi-grade fish is just that: sushi-grade fish. In Texas, and most states, you are not allowed to sell a fish retail as sashimi or sushi-grade unless it is frozen for one week and sealed in air-tight packaging (think FoodSaver-style). When the new Whole Foods opened up on Lamar in March, they were cutting chunks of yellowfin loin off the fish and throwing it in the case and calling it Sushi-grade. They got busted for this within a month (by the way, they are still looking for a seafood manager. I think they are on number three since the store opened up nine months ago). A restaurant can claim whatever it wants as sushi. They could go and get something out of the Riverwalk, throw it on a bunch of rice, throw some soy sauce on the biznatch and call it a Fiesta Roll. They get to deal with the Health Department from there, but the labeling goes how they want. Going back to the fresh yellowfin tuna, I've eaten it straight off the fish before as it's been cut, pulled it off the line and eaten it raw, as have many of the customers. The CM folks can't call it sushi, but it essentially is. Grade #1 means there is bacteria in the air, on the knife, on the gloves, etc. hope this helped. ak

Cleveland's Steamers Or any place owned by some young, trucker-hat wearing Fox sitcom star.

I made a beer tiramisu with reduced Young's Chocolate Stout a few years back. It worked out really well and had a coffee flavor to it as it reduced. What really caught everyone's attention was using Lambic Kriek as a glaze by reducing it to a thicker consitancy then adding some dehydrated cherries and pouring it over the tiramisu. That would work really well over cheesecake also.

Heh-heh...simple, yet too damn good: Two eggs over easy on top of toast. Also, there is a lot to be said for a bowl of Frosted Flakes with ice-cold milk. I don't care what anyone says, I frickin love sugary cereals. ak

I used to work as a fishmonger in Texas and part of our HAACP restrictions was that we weren't allowed to sell any mussels that were dead, EXCEPT for the Greenlips. Supposedly they contain less bacteria, so are safer to eat after they die, but I still didn't trust it. Also, New Zealand is pretty sexy right now and the hot place to be, with all the Lord of the Rings hype. Andrew

Karen and Lee: Thank you for the advice. I'm actually pretty terrified as to what my chef would do if he walked in on me with an immersion blender doing the Hollandaise. I'm sure it would result in the blender being placed in a very bad place on my body. Andrew

I thought MRE stood for Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. My father scored some of those from a military surplus store and we used them on a backpacking trip to Colorado. The nickname was more appropriate, because to this day, I blame my confused taste-buds and out-of-whack palette on that trip. That said, maybe I could learn to enjoy some fish basted in engine coolant. Thanks for the book ref. I'll try to find it at the library. Andrew

Bleu: Not only have I never done it, I've never tasted it or even seen it done, so I'm really only relying a couple of people assuring me that "it's real f-ing good". Come to think of it, the people who keep trying to get me to do it aren't the brightest of bulbs in the universe, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. WHat do you suggest and what have your expereinces been with this? Andrew

I really hope that there isn't a thread on this already, but I have to ask if anyone has ever cooked a fish on the engine of their car. Being in Texas, we tend to drive a lot and whole fish is plentiful with the Gulf Coast. What I want to know is where do you place the fish? Wrap it in foil? How long do you have to drive for? Does it matter that it is hotter than hell here in the summer? I'm more concerned with damaging my engine than my guts, but is there anything to worry about? Thanks! Andrew

Yeah, I'll let out a pretty deep grunt and my grimacing face will scare off any waitstaff that is bugging me still. You can't help but feel like the sh*t after that and the rock horns. Andrew

I play air guitar and air drums...Just have tomake sure my chefs knife is not in my hand as a drum stick...could be ugly!

Anyone have expereince making Hollandaise Sauce? Can it be done with a hand-held immersion blender? My right fore-arm thanks you in advance, because I'm getting completely worn-out from making it at work every day. Andrew

If it's going to be something that I need to concentrate with, either Jeff Buckley's "Grace", or Sigur Ros "()". Otherwise, AC/DC "Back in Black" can't be beat. Andrew

Good point. I'm at Four Seasons in Austin. Even though I'm biased, it has to be one of the top five spots in Austin to eat (especially breakfast!). Andrew

Yet another reason why I love Australia so much. God, could there be a cooler country? On the extreme opposite end of that, I worked in a restaurant in France where our sous chef would dump a crate of live hard-shell crabs into our huge Hobart mixer and turn it on when he was making stock. What killed me was that all of the French kids would run up and start dancing around in circles with their arms raised over their heads, imitating the crabs, while the Americans would either turn green or haul ass out of the kitchen.

I think I work for the same hotel chain as a breakfast cook here in Austin. We have a caf that feeds all of the staff free of charge, as well as any police officer, 24 hours a day. The cooks never get breaks, so we are welcome to prepare anything we want for ourselves (within reason). I have to feed the kitchen staff on Sunday mornings, because the cafeteria is closed for the day, so they get a lot of breakfast pizzas and breakfast taco fixings (I'm getting a reputation for hitting hands that I see sneaking onto the line from the waitstaff. Nothing quite like having a run on your refried beans when you step away for two minutes.) On another note, the worst staff meals I ever had were when I was working in a Michelin one-star restaraunt in France. I was a happy boy when I saw the industrial-size can of Chef Boyardee-style pasta opened up, the regular food was so awful. I'm talking Grade-Q beef and stale bread (if the bakeshop was feeling nice), burnt vegetables, and other things too horrible for me to think about. I credit my strong-as-iron immune system to my time over there.

Lemon Liqueurs? Anyone have a good recipe for that? I've seen one or two great ones for oranges... Andrew

I can't believe I had forgotten this one: I used to work in a cooking school and we had an Indian chef who had me slicing serrano peppers for her curry class. Everyone I worked with told me to wear gloves, but I'm young and full of myself, so I didn't. Feel the burn! I didn't think it could get any worse than the feeling of having my hands hit by hammers, but I was wrong! I had to go to the bathroom pretty badly and even though my hands were no longer aching, there was still plenty of chile oil saturated into my skin. Use your imagination on that one. Also, I had to take my contacts out that night for bed. I screamed a lot and swore heavily. The End. ak

I'll never do what I saw my roomate do a few years ago: Poor guy was frying turkeys for the deli he was working in (I think they had about 200 special orders) and he didn't completely dry out the inside of one of the birds. When he dropped it into the giant fryer, a pocket of melted ice caused an explosion and he was covered in burns all over his face, arms, and neck. Worst part for him was when he had to shave...poor guy. ak