fiftydollars

I like what Eddie Murphy described as "welfare burgers." They are pretty much as close to a burger as I got growing up in Mexico City. My mother, unknowingly, made them almost exactly as Murphy described. She would take ground beef, add onions, bell peppers, egg and then fry it in a skillet and serve it in either plain sliced white or a bolillo with ketchup and mustard. Sure we complained. But at the time there wasn't a single place in the DF where we could find anything close to an American hamburger and so we learned to love them... or at least eat them quietly.

A place in San Luis Obispo, California, Firestone Grill, serves my favorite ever cobb salad. Instead of chicken they use chopped crunchy bits of their famous tri-tip roasts. It's a great salad and Firestone is a great place for cheap eats and beer.

I would reduce it completely, as Jaques Pepin instructs on making glace de viande in his Complete Techniques. He takes the reduction all the way; drawing out all moisture until large caramel-esque bubbles pop without releasing steam. I have tried this quite a few times with varying amounts of success. It is incredibly difficult to draw out the very last bit of moisture. As the mixture dehydrates it becomes extremely easy to burn. It also thickens a lot. It gets down to the consistency, viscosity, and tackiness of taffy or caramel and can actually be pulled kind of like sugar. It's pretty cool. Though it didn't seem that way when I was trying to stir the last bit of moisture out of the hot sticky goo. The last time I made this, due to advise received from good folks here at eG, I didn't bother to go quite as far as trying to draw out all the moisture, the results were still great and I cut the ugliest 5-6 hours out of the preparation. As far as how long it would last, I can't say. Pepin says his glace can stay in a loosely lidded jar in the refrigerator almost indefinitely. Mine was gone in just a few happy weeks.

you want the bone. sometimes you can get them to cut you a deal on the end of the shank, which should have quite a bit of meat along with a lot of bone.

I think Michael Mina can compete with high-end NYC dining. Grant it I have limited NYC dining experience. But, for example, the seasonal tasting menu and classic menus I tried at Michael Mina a couple of weeks ago would go toe-to-toe with the seasonal and classic tasting menus I had at Jean Georges in September. I'll admit that Mina didn't win. JG's foie gras brulee still makes me cry when I think about it. We also had a much better table at JG's and at one point we saw Mr. V himself inspecting the dining room, which nearly made me swoon and did prompt me to display an embarrassing level of giddy excitement. But Mina's steak rossini, lobster pot pie, some tuna tartare and/or tuna parfait thing I ate, and pretty much the whole menu was perfectly executed. Mina is dangerously good at what he does and there are few who cook at his caliber on either coast.

More than half of 80 proof rum is already water.

Nope. I think that we have a more sophisticated understanding of authenticity to do that, Susan! From what I've read, NulloModo is right on the money; this is a classically intricate, and thus classically meddled-with, dish, a la cassoulet. ← That's what I was wondering, but I was looking for the words... That's it -- if "one of Mole Poblano's signature flavors" would be missing by leaving it out. I don't get too hung up and rigid about authenticity, but before I'm familiar with a dish I don't want to change it up so much that I won't have an appreciation of the taste of the classic version. But cloves.... I don't know if I can do that. Probably I will leave it out and just pretend for one mouthful that it's in there. Keeping out the clove won't ruin it, but for me putting it in there might! ← No cloves is cool. It's all about what you DO put in there, not about what you don't... There are some recipes for MP that have, like, 4 or 5 spices that I personally consider to be sort of close to each other (cinnamon, clove, avocado leaf, allspice, star anice...). Overall there is a certain direction these spices are meant to take the flavor. Some recipes use one, some all, and some a lot more spices. It provides a certain spicy note that gives the mole a type of aroma and flavor I can't really describe, but which I definitely associate with MP. Anyway, I think mole is about the chiles; not the spices or the chocolate or the nuts or the whatever else the recipe can be made to contain. But there sure is a lot of stuff in this dish and it all blends really well together.

I substitute 1 to 1. The recipe I use calls for a half puck of moctezuma, which comes in 40g tablets (1.43 oz). I wind up using most of a fifth of a 9.7 oz bar (they are prescored into 5 pieces). Sometimes I add a bit more. I don't usually add sugar to compensate for the lower amount, but you can. The recipe I use already has dried fruit and I think that adds enough sweetness, but a lot of people like it a little sweeter. The moctezuma chocolate also has cinnamon, which I believe is actually "real" cinnamon (not cassia), so I adjust the seasoning slightly.

I don't show off. It's impolite. But earlier this week we had a potluck at work. Everyone brought great food and whatnot. I wasn't trying to show off, mind you. However, I did get in a little earlier than usual and set up a smoker in the parking lot so I could freshly smoke a few racks of ribs for the people. That wasn't showing off, mind you... but it did get me accused of such (albeit mainly from a small, but vocal, contingent that got no ribs).

I like substituting Scharffenberger and spices for the Mexican chocolate. I love Ibarra, Moctezuma, and other Mexican chocolates sold in stores in the US. I grew up eating cheap Mexican chocolate like Ibarra and I am real fond of it and whatnot. But Scharffenberger’s 99% is a whole lot better. Ibarra has some spices like clove, cinnamon, and sugar. You can add some of these to your mole if you wish… I am not sure how much cocoa is in Ibarra, et al., but go ahead and taste it… you’ll find it’s not much. Anyway, the Scharffenberger (or your favorite high quality 70%+ chocolate) really shows what chocolate can do for this sauce.

Keeping out the clove won’t ruin the mole. However, mole poblano recipes call for a lot of clove and there is a reason for it. Clove is one of mole poblano’s signature flavors and I would not leave it out entirely.

This is just a random comment: I absolutely love the Rich Man’s brioche. It is ridiculously more rich and much, much better than the middle-class version. I made both recently and I ended up using most of the middle-class brioche dough for sticky buns (effin disgustingly good!) because the rich man’s brioche is just too good. On it’s own the lower fat brioche is still damn good, but you can’t compare the two recipes because the one with a FULL POUND of plugra is always going to win. It is much easier to work with the version with only a half-pound of butter, though...

Is the dish with the shrimp noodles still on the menu? I have a reservation in a couple of weeks and I was wondering if I might finally get a chance to try it.

I have a Thompson mill that I purchased just because it does the coarse settings so well. It does very well on the coarse grinds because it has a sort of notched adjustment screw that allows you to keep wide open settings in place. Other mills have a hard time keeping a coarse grind because you essentially have to loosen the adjustment screw to the point that it won’t stay in place.

I had the pleasure of dining at Per Se last September and I have to say that some of the negative reviews I have read have struck a chord with me. Not necessarily because the experience we had was similar to that of any reviewer(s), but because ever since I ate there I have been struggling with where I should place Per Se in my personal pantheon of food experiences. We were there the weekend before the NYT 4-star review and I was nothing short of dazzled by the experience. However, there were a few burps and hiccups in the service that I felt seemed to magnify the small burps and hiccups in the food and overall clearly differentiated my experience at Per Se from my experience at the French Laundry. The smallest of these infractions was committed by the first server that came to us after we had been seated and greeted by one of the men in a suit. We made a comment to the server about the laundry symbols on the lighting fixtures and asked what one of them meant. She said she would find out and left, but then never came back to tell us (It was a tiny little infraction that we would never have even remembered had things not slid so quickly downhill from there). A further infraction, and one which resonated because of who committed it, happened later when we were served the sorbet course twice in a row by a gentleman who’s station near the “fireplace” apparently required him to look over at our table regularly, at times point in our direction, and in one instance to call together a group of servers for the purpose of determining who would come over to ask me to put away my camera. I was just a little annoyed about it since I had twice asked for permission and was taking non-flash photographs in a nearly empty area of the dining room. But it was a perfectly reasonable request that I was happy to honor and I was not sure why it had required such a commotion. Apparently none of them had wanted to talk to us and they instead sent out a guy from the back. He told us that photography is not allowed and before I could protest he offered a tour of the kitchen after our meal. I took this as quite a bonus and left it at that, but my companion, who had watched a lot more of the “huddle” and miscellaneous drama, was not happy about it and she said she sensed a good deal of condescension in his tone. I was apparently blinded by the giddy excitement of it all and didn’t notice, as she had, that we had assumed the role of persona non grata before we had even been served the “cone.” So when the man by the fireplace (they are candles in what is not exactly a fireplace but rather some other nifty design element) served us the sorbet, which was by the way the only course he attempted to serve, it simultaneously made me glad that perhaps the service missteps resulted from a lack of polish attributable to a less-than-seasoned staff and deeply disappointed that I was paying a hell of a lot more than I had at the French Laundry for what was essentially service and food from Thomas Keller’s second-string. My rabbit rillette contained a small fragment of bone, which was the sole flaw in an otherwise perfect execution of Mr. Keller’s menu. However, my dining partner had nothing but criticism and nit picking on her mind after our unfortunate run-in with the management. She noted that following our incident the rather large man stationed near the fireplace regularly looked over at our table and made gestures that she took to be unprofessional. I spent most of the meal calming her and trying to bring back our pleasant mood. But she’s not a “food person (her words)” and no matter how many times I told her how great TK is and how he is the patron saint of all food things good, she didn’t believe me and she seemed to feel sorry for me.

I wouldn’t discount the versatility of the gas grill. You also mention you want to use a rotisserie and even mid- to-lower-end gas barbecue models now feature a rotisserie. I will admit that I have a charcoal grill that I use for most things, but I do like having the gas grill around. I especially like having it when I go somewhere or when tail-gating. Charcoal is just not practical for me when I am on the go. It takes hours for the charcoal to cool after cooking whereas the gas grill takes only 5-15 minutes after you turn it off to be cool to the touch. Sure charcoal burns hotter and does not produce water as a by-product of combustion like gas, so I think it gives you a better steak and whatnot. But I think you seem to lean in the gas direction and you will probably be happier with a gas grill.

I was once told at a Birkenstock's store (they carry a plastic clog very similar to the one sported by Batali) and they said he wore a shoe made by an Italian company. Were they wrong?

As far as Oakland, I would strongly recommend Oliveto. Paul Bertolli has some of the best Italian food anywhere and features wonderful house-cured pork products.

I recommend Michael Mina at the St. Francis. It is easily one of the best restaurants that has opened since you were last here two years ago.

Hello good people of the New England Forum, I have the pleasure of visiting your great city for one day on Friday, May 27 and I am looking for a dining recommendation. I had been thinking about going to Blue Ginger, but that’s basically because that is the only restaurant I could think of… I will be in town all day... from about 8am until whenever... I just have to be in CT the following afternoon. I would like a good dinner reservation, but of course there is a lot of other eating I could do and I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you!

Braise it. Paula Wolfert has an update to her classic "Cooking of South-west France" coming out in September and rumour has it, she features a very good recipe for a braised pork belly (petit sale).

Wow! That is a fantastic roast.

I like the ribs from the loin end. For 4 people you’ll want about 2-3 ribs. Dry aging yields a nice rib. Alton Brown did a show on it and there are a lot of descriptions of his method and others in old threads.

I have been mis-using and abusing Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles lobster bisque recipe ever since I learned that my food processor easily and efficiently turns a bunch of whole shellfish into delicious soup. His recipe is down, dirty, and brutal. You’re not going to read through a long description on how to most humanely kill off the lobsters. In fact, from what I can tell he prescribes just angrily cutting through the live lobsters and searing the still-moving parts with oil… To his defense, however, he does quite conscientiously give advice on saving wear on your blade by cutting between the joints and not necessarily through the shells. After the brutal searing, the lobster parts are simmered with stuff and whatnot, eventually pureed in a food processor, and strained before serving. The lobster version is great, but I became pretty fond of making this with Dungeness crab when it was around $2/lb a few months ago (I also tried this with shrimp, but I was disappointed by the relative lack of violence).

In no particular order, my favorites are: Joe’s Zuni Taylor’s