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This is fun reading. I'll give it a go. Blood orange sweet and sour prawns. Blood orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic, ginger, worcester sauce or whatever backbone you choose. . . does that cured pork belong in there too? Reminds me of a dish from Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar in NYC, now defuct I think. Langoustine and pork belly in very light pork broth, served in a covered Staub Pot. The belly was tasty but kind of blew away the langoustine. But this makes me wonder about a shellfish stock with the shrimp shells, and maybe that's where the pork comes in. Adds a little smokiness--how's it cured? just salt or salt and smoke? Then you've got prawns in smoky shellfish foam. . . no blood orange. I might be the third to motion that these three in one place equals a mess. It's two proteins and an unwieldy sweet/acid. Best of luck. This could be a fantastic ongoing thread parsing and synthesizing difficult triads of ingredients. Example: Romaine lettuce sweetbreads canteloupe

There's a place in Brooklyn that sells Pinnekjøtt. Don't know the name of the store. I think they salt it themselves. It's lamb belly and breast. The Norwegian Seaman's church in NYC probably could point you in the right direction. Think they have to be ordered. As far as the ribbe, it's pork belly. A Chinese butcher is the best place to look for that. There's one other meat item that Norwegians favor at Christmas time: Fenelar. It's dry-cured leg of lamb. Similar process to prosciutto. Salty and delicious. I smuggled one back from Norway a couple of years ago. Haven't had the pleasure of fenelar since. None of this can be truly enjoyed without good Norwegian Christmas beer and some freezing cold aquavit.

I really like Fleur de Sel. I like that the chef is in the restaurant all the time. I like that the media more or less leaves the restaurant alone. I don't want to have a bad experience there. We kind of had one tonight. Service was cold and food delivered slowly. They comped a half-bottle of wine as an apology. It worked. I ate maine crab wrapped in a crepe with foam made from shellfish. Seabeans advertised were notably absent. The foam had an acrid flavor indicative of burnt shells. Also way too salty. Veal breast was cut into an impressively rectilinear square. Then, or maybe before that, it was braised for too long. The meat was dry and tough. The jus accompanying was barely tepid and carried a slick of fat. Puree of celeriac with truffles was quite perfect. Bill for three was $300.

Don't know if there is a dogma about this. . . I always thought lime the proper accompaniment to pho. It's the rule in pho rich Seattle. Curious to hear opinions about that. I get delivery from Pho Grand at least once a month and I agree with you Banquo--it's really good. Don't like their summer rolls so much but pounded chicken is a highlight. Myself, I always eat number 1 Pho. If you ever find yourself in Seattle I strongly recommend Pho So 1. In re the fish sauce. It's been my experience that the broth is a palette on which the eater is meant to inflict their personal tastes--fish sauce, copious sirichua or other spiicy goodness, relatibe amounts of acid. This is all speculation on my part.

thanks

How long is this stuff good? I've had a tin in the fridge for 6 months.

Love those cherries. My recipe involves travel too, either to Portugal or if you're short on time, to Lisbon liquors in Newark, NJ. At either destination you can buy a delicious bottle of Ginja: a cherry liquer that will have some and sometimes many whole cherries--pits included-at the bottom. They pack a powerful punch and are typically served in the Ginja but I've taken to garnishing Aviations and the occasional Shirley Temple with them.

Aldo's in Greenport, NY Monorail and Vivace in Seattle

Sorry, no photos. I was so focused on the process, couldn't really be thinking about anything else. I can say that I made a headcheese out of feet and head. Slammin'. Headcheese is a terrible name for a delicious and not very challenging terrine. If I had any further advice it's to take it slow. Very slow. And for the most part, the animal kind of tells you what to do.

Bonnie Slotnick Books just a couple of blocks from the great Ottomanelli's on Bleeker. The book by the guy who likes animals is very good: The Cottage Meat Book. Also see "The Meat Buyer's Guide" I think I got mine at Bonnie's. Finally, the CIA's New Professional Chef has lots of info. A couple of weeks ago I fabricated the pig peering over my shoulder in my current avatar. I used all the books I've mentioned. None had as much info as I wanted and I think it's likely that the above-mentioned wisdom is on the money: hands-on practice can't be bested by ink on paper. Good luck.

Very thorough answer. Thanks. So then more specifically. . . I was motivated to buy the food saver because I have been cooking trotters lately and wanting the skin to stay in one piece. There's the old school method with cheese cloth but that seems to me very messy. I had sort of an aha moment thinking that if the feet were in a vacuum bag, the plastic would hold the skin in place. Alas the bag inflated--now I think due to residual air--and the skin split. So I guess the key here is to get a better vacuum. Are there tricks with Food Saver to accomplish that goal? I assume drying everything rigorously is a start. . .

. . . and if so then the seal is compromised?

The meat itself was a little wet with blood I guess, and in the case of the shoulder I added duck fat which was fridge temp. I had cleaned veg so maybe they were damp but there was no standing liquid. Could the little bit of what is maybe best described as ambient wetness be the cause?

I recently got the new generation Food Saver that claims to be able to handle "moist" contents. I've "sous vided" and poached a small pork shoulder as well as two pairs of trotters. In each case, to varying degrees, the bags have inflated while cooking. Is this about the seal? Expansion? Poor Food-Saver technique on my part?

Seeger's. . . Seegers! Seriously, I ate at the chef's table at Seeger's about two weeks ago and he blew my mind.

In the oven with the door open is still a hot place. Your roast will continue to cook some. How much? Hard to know. It'll also continue to cook a little on the counter because of the residual heat in the roast itself. Ultimately I'd say it's better to rest on the counter. That way you have more control.

It wasn't my idea to go to Peasant and I expected very little other than trendoid Nolita whatever and what I got, I think was a solidly good Italian meal, not gimmicky, in kind of a cool space and yeah it was a little dark but not too bad. I had a drink or two at Pegu Club before hand so maybe the lighting was lost on me. Anyway they did a lovely suckling pig entree with nice cracklin. . . couldn't find a reason to complain. And nobody I ate with had a complaint either. There was some shameless upselling of wine that had to be defended against. . . that's par for the course so I hardly feel like harping on it, in fact I was kind of charmed by how the server handled it. I'll definitely go back. Peasant is a bad name for the restaurant. Makes the place seem concepty, like the servers will be wearing burlap or hemp and there will be unrefined bulgar and mead. Other ideas: Il Buco Vice Verce PS I give two thumbs up to Beppe.

I ate a respectable meal at Peasant recently.

I like FL Cookboock for stocks and general over the top getting it the rightest way you can kind of ethos. Sonnenschmidt Garde Manger. Sometimes go to Peterson for sauces. Went to Joy of Cooking the other day for, something straight American from decades ago but can't remember what. Used the new Meat book by that English fellow for fabricating a smallish pig last week. Needed more detail but managed to get through anyway. Funnily enough, for drinks mixing I think the drinks page here at the gullet can't be beat.

Online here: http://www.sushivan.com/b2b/dg/dg_m.asp?subcode=19

Good idea to go over to Japan forum Suzysushi. Hiroyuki who lives in Shiozawa, Japan came up with all kinds of interesting information about Pichit Sheet. Thanks Hiiroyuki!

Very interesting and too bad for us here in the USA about FDA approval. I'm going to post your excellent info back over in the cooking forum.

Hiroyuki, Thank you for looking into this. Very interesting. I think the plastic parts must have the quality of gore-tex.

Here's a thread from over in the cooking forum. I'm curious to gather info about this product. As the package is all in Japanese I thought that someone here in the Japan forum might be able to add a few tidbits. (see link to image of packaging below) Yeah sanrensho, exactly like that. Just googled it: fifty-five bucks a roll. Yikes. What do you know about the pichitto roll? ← Thanks

Yeah sanrensho, exactly like that. Just googled it: fifty-five bucks a roll. Yikes. What do you know about the pichitto roll?