fiftydollars

But isn't the cruelty part of the fun?

We ate at Gramercy in January and it was as good a meal/service/ attention to detail/creative food as I have ever had. As a single you can eat at the bar--we started there for a cocktail while waiting for our table. I made reservations a month in advance. ← Every meal I've had at Gramercy hit the mark dead on. It is a great restaurant. That said, if you've been there a few times, particularly if you've had the tasting menu more than once... you start to wonder why there is always the pork belly, the this lamb, or the that. Nonetheless, I have never had anything less than a great meal and have always enjoyed truly outstanding service. Not to mention that I absolutely love their cheese service. I recently went to Gramercy, Daniel, and Alain Ducasse on successive nights, had cheese at each one, and have to say that the Tavern was by a long shot the best of the lot. Many restaurants seem to only offer cheese as a compulsory side note, but at Gramercy they elevate it to a main event. I can think of few restaurants that deliver equal or better cheese service and I've seen none that did so with the pride and elegance with which it is done at the Tavern.

Does he say he went to the Ivy League? He went to Cornell which I thought was not traditionally referred to as an Ivy school. ← Ahem. Stephen and I both attended the Cornell Hotel School. Cornell is definitely one of the Ivy League Schools. And yes that makes us superior. ← Ok, then... subtract 13 from 100 (no calculator!).

what ivy league school did stephen go to? I guess arithmetic education is not what it used to be... or is 100 minus 13 really 77? I went to public school, so I wouldn't really know.

I'd go to Gramercy. However, I do like the Peter Luger knockoff action Colicchio serves up at Craftsteak (steak for two carved table side served slathered in a pool of butter and beef juice on an oval plate set at an angle).

Sourdough donuts are interesting.

It looks great in your picture. I also saw an ad and I've been curious about these since then. Is it porous? Like, would I have to keep soap away from it and whatnot?

As a tobacco smoking enthusiast, I oppose any and all attempts to curtail the practice. I wish I could turn back the hands of tobacco time to the days--oh so many pack-years ago--when smoking was allowed everywhere; not just in restaurants, bars and the like, but also in hospitals, classrooms, and all domestic and international flights. I can concede, particularly after any visit to Nevada, that perhaps not all people can appreciate the wonder that is tobacco. But, tobacco is quite simply delicious. Nowhere else but in this noble leaf can one find such flavors and aromas. Likewise, tobacco smoking yields sensatory pleasures unattainable by any other means. Smoking is great. Try it! I think you'll like it...

I would use a stainless steel scouring pad. Cast iron will quickly eat up your typical dishwashing brush, especially one with plastic bristles. The scouring pads do a great job on cast iron and they are cheap. For the grill pans I use a metal welding brush, which has great metal bristles. You could probably use a grill brush with good results. Cast iron is pretty damned durable, so I would probably use a hammer and chisel if I had to…

Meringue is a good time and definitely something I wouldn't try without a stand mixer.

It's a sort of, uh, buttercream dam to keep the filling from spilling out. They probably use the same buttercream to do this on all their cakes since the fully frosted cake would cover it up.

Shrimp, lobster, and other seafood ceviche preparations are favorites of mine. However, I think it is best to par-cook the seafood a bit first. For shrimp ceviche I take shrimp and steam them lightly, then cool them, before putting them in lime juice for an hour or so. Usually I add some sour orange to the citrus juice mixture, too. Lobster ceviche is really good, I say... as is dungeness crab ceviche. But you have to cook the critters most of the way through... not just because I think that it is difficult to extract them meat from a live bug, but because when cooked completely in acid, the texture is not as good as if it were cooked a bit first. It's sort of the same with shrimp. Fried corn tortillas are an important part of ceviche service for me.

I make veal stock 2-3 times per year. It is a long, tedious affair and it makes the whole place reek of meat... so I'm really not allowed to do it anymore often than that. Over the course of a couple of days I make veal stock and glace de viande. I follow instructions from Jaques Pepin's Complete Techniques for re-cooking the bones to make the completely reduced product, but I start with The French Laundry recipe for the veal stock. The veal stock is a product similar to Pepin's demi-glace recipe; a simple no-wine (or roux, etc) version of demi-glace. I use this stuff almost exclusively for braising and making sauces, although once in a while I make an onion soup or two. The glace de viande is the tedious part of this operation. It requires impossible patience and nerves of steel to take the reduction to the limit on my terrible stove. Basically, you reuse the bones from the veal stock to make a second stock that you then reduce until all of the water has been evaporated. Starting with 20 quarts of reused bones and water I end up with about a hockey puck's worth of glace de viande. The puck analogy is apt as even at room temperature the stuff is dark, tough, and rubbery. But just melt a little bit down slowly with a bit of wine and/or whatnot and finish it with some butter and you'll know where your weekend went. Adding a split calves hoof is the best part of Keller's recipe. It makes a big difference and it is also a good way to get noticed at the butcher's. I've received odd stares followed by awkward questions and at least one local purveyor will no longer look me in the eye. I try to approach the topic with a bit of humor, which is a strategy that has admittedly backfired in almost every other area of my life, with this being no exception. So my advice would be that you get yourself a split calves hoof the next time you make a veal stock and maybe even re-boil the bones a bit (ok, about 12 hours plus further reduction time of about 4-10 hours or so, depending on your stove, gumption) to get what is almost a free product (I tell myself), but be serious about all of this or your relationship with your butcher could irreparably suffer.

No kidding! This is the George Hamilton of roasted poultry.

Never mind… I thought this thread was about brining a friend.

I would recommend following Fat Guy’s directions for seasoning and re-seasoning cast iron. It’s a bit dangerous and the writers of most any author’s E&O policy would probably cringe at the thought, but it’s the best method I’ve found. I’m sure a simple search can get you right to it, but basically… Get that pan screaming hot, and while it’s still damned hot, scrub it with a heavy-duty stainless steel scouring pad and kosher salt. Scrub it down to the bare metal, which is actually pretty easy when the pan is so hot. Then schmear it with shortening and crank up the heat again, for a while (I don’t really remember the rest… the scrubbing is really what’s important to me here). With Fat Guy’s method, it doesn’t take a lot of effort, just a pair of heavy gloves and large balls.

The Rabbit Compote with Prunes is ridiculously delicious and completely surprising. It is basically a rabbit rillette served with thin slices of buttered bread, but it is just so damned good. The rabbit is just plain delicious and the prunes add a nice contrast. I rarely stoop to licking my plate in public, but this rabbit was just too much temptation.

This is fascinating! So you can make carbonated soft drinks by just fermenting juice? Like making beer? Do they taste funky? Could I, say, make a cola this way?

I use GLAD-like containers to freeze the soup or stock and then I take these soup-sicles and vacuum seal them in bags with a FoodSaver. The bags don’t take up a lot of room, stack nicely in the freezer, and don’t leak.

Is that stinging sensation something I should be looking for in good olive oil? Something that produces "a strong stinging sensation in the throat" is not exactly what I would say I am looking for in my olive oil. Exactly what is this stinging sensation and what would be a good way to measure it? If my favorite olive oil does not produce violent gagging, should I switch?

Thank you everyone for helping me find my teapot. The online research enabled by your suggestions was critical. But I found my teapot at Asakachi Iron Teapot, in San Francisco. I could not believe that there is a store in San Francisco devoted almost entirely to Japanese cast iron teapots... and related accesories. This store is way effin awesome, especially if you are looking for one of these Japanese teapots. They have a very vast assortment and their prices seem good. I shopped around before deciding on my teapot and when I got to Asakichi the exact teapot I was looking for was for sale at a lower price than I had found anywhere online. The teapot,made by the Iwachu Casting Works in Morioka, Japan, appears to me to be of very good quality and I am particularly happy with the interior enameling. It looks a lot better than the enameling I saw in a higher priced teapot selling at a local retailer (Viking Home Chef). The other enameling was heavily pocked and coarse. By contrast the teapots I saw at Asakichi had smooth interior enamel that covered completely. The biggest difference is right around the spout. The pots at the Viking store had spouts where the enameling looked like a complete disaster... pocked, entirely missing in some areas, and clumped in others. I imagine this is a difficult part to get right and it is something you want to take a very close look at before you make your selection. Even among some of the nicer teapots I've seen it appears to be a problem. Anyway, the folks at Asakichi kick a lot of ass. The woman who helped me with the teapot was very friendly and knowledgeable. She directed me to their sister store that sells Japanese green tea. Well, actually, she asked me if I liked green tea and then, upon hearing my answer, she whipped out a fancy pastel-colored tin and opened it in front of me while she scooped up a bit of almost fluorescent-green tea with a fancy little wooden scoop. The aroma of that tea entered my nose and I almost teared up with joy. She said that they overnight the tea from Japan regularly to keep a very fresh supply. Downstairs, at the bottom floor of the Japan Center in San Francisco, I found Asakichi Antiques. It seems the owner has several ventures throughout the mall, the iron teapot place and this antiques store being only two of them. At the antiques store I was shown to a nice selection of Japanese teas... but they knew what I was looking for... It turns out the tea that I had been shown was Takamado Kabuse-cha. They had higher quality tea, but the store owner seconded the recommendation of the cast iron teapot lady. The package is entirely in Japanese, so I am glad that the store owner wrote down the name. He also gave me some tips and instruction on enjoying this tea. It is awesome. I can't say enough good things about this tea, the teapot, and the whole business of Japanese cast iron.

I am very happy about this. I miss watching her everyday. I am also glad she is excited about the move. Sara Rocks!

I belive that organic golden raisins are also sulfurated.

Jeffrey Steingarten wrote an essay in which, while on a similar mission, he rigged his oven so he could use the self-cleaning cycle to make pizza.

99% of all raisins come from green Thompson seedless grapes. Their color changes as they dry. Golden raisins also come from green Thompson's, but a preservative is added to keep the lighter color. Yes, in California, grapes are still set out in the fields on heavy paper trays and dried by the sun.