NulloModo
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Posts posted by NulloModo
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Fires in the kitchen are just something an adventurous or ambitious home cook has to learn to live with ;).
I haven't caught a pan on fire yet, but I often have flare ups beneath my burners from spilled oil/other bits.
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Wow, I can't say I was that thrilled about hearing pad thai being the next cookoff subject, I'm not really a fan of noodle dishes, but this thread has really gotten my attention, I will have to try. I do have some questions though.
I have never had pad thai noodles, so I know nothing of their texture. My two noodle options are either Shirataki or Yuba sheet noodles (tofu skin noodles). I'm sort of leaning towards the shirataki because they look more like the noodles everyone is using, and the yuba noodles are very chewy.
I have never seen picked radishes in the asian markets I frequent, but one that I really like just got in these jars (from thailand) of either pickled or fermented cabbage (not like kimchee) would this be a good addition?
Are these chile pastes made from dried or fresh chiles? I can pick up some bird chiles this weekend when the farmers market opens again, or I could get dried bird chiles at the co-op tomorrow. Do you use either the paste or fresh chiles, or can you use both? What about Huy Fong Chile Garlic Paste (basically Sriracha without the sugar)? I am thinking I might want to add some powdered dried bird chiles, make a paste from some fresh roasted chiles as a condiment, and top it off with some fresh unroasted serranos and bird chiles. I also might want to throw in just like a tablespoon of the chile paste for good measure.
I would love to add tamarind, but all of the tamarind I can find is loaded with sugar, is it just a naturally sugar-laden fruit or do the manufacturers add extra? To give it that sour tang what would I want to use instead of tamarind, just vinegar?
As for the fried tofu: I can't seem to find that either. Would I get the same effect just from draining some extra firm tofu and frying it up?
I am assuming the bean sprouts mentioned are mung bean sprouts, I can find those fresh I think, and they are pretty tasty, so that sound slike a good addition. Is there ever any greenery other than the cilantro though? I guess this is not the type of dish to toss in some bok-choy as it cooks?
I've taken to using pickled ginger I get at an Indian grocer for most of my ginger needs, and my intuitions says this would be OK for this, or would fresh be more the style? I could order dried galangal, but I have never seen it fresh anywhere around here. I suppose I should also get some fresh fish sauce while I'm at it, I've had the same bottle in the fridge for over a year now, not that I know if the stuff can even go bad...
What about the peanut factor, is it always just whole peanuts, or should I Grind some up or add some natural peanut butter too? What about coconut milk?
I am a total asian-food newbie here, I know I have lots of questions, just not sure where to even start with this one.
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Heh, my roomate and I have our fair share of tiffs over the kitchen. He hardly ever cooks, I do all the time, but whenever he does, he leaves a huge mess. He also does not understand the concept that certain things can just be rinsed off and put back away into the cupboards, so the sink becomes overflowing with dishes/pans/untensiles, that end up having to be washed because the stuff gets dried onto them.
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Scott - one thing that I have found that helps in buffalo wings if you are wanting extra burn without extra salt from lots more sauce, just add a capful or so of Dave's Total Insanity or Blair's After Death, it adds some good flavor, and a lot of heat for just a small about to a large batch of stuff.
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Adiabatic -
Also keep in mind that most consumers just don't give a damn about any supposed environmental problems caused by fish farms. Well, they might say they do, but when it comes to voting with their wallets they certainly won't stand behind the statement. I know I am not willing to pay 3x the price just because there is a potential for some ecological issues in some fish farms.
I've never had wild salmon, well, maybe I have, I've never really looked. I'm perfectly happy with the farmed stuff on the rare occasions I feel like having salmon. Just a quick question though:
In most meats, beef, pork, lamb, etc, fattier tissue is considered a good thing, more flavor, more marbelling, etc. Why is fattier salmon a bad thing?
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I don't have children myself, but as I was growing up the expectation at my family's table was that you would eat what was being served or you wouldn't eat at all. Showing disdain for the meal or making rude comments (such as saying something looked like slime, or scabs, or etc) were grounds for being sent to your room without dinner. For that matter, so was belching, sneezing without covering your nose first, or producing other bodily noises, but that's another thread (or two).
I was never a picky eater, so it was fine for me. And I am glad for my parents insisting that I try certain foods over and over again. I hated okra and turnips the first times I had both, but being exposed again and again has led me to love both now. They would never force any of us to clean our plates, but we did have to at least try a taste. I have heard that encouraging kids to clean their plates can lead to obesity issues later on, and that it is best to just allow them to eat until satisfied then let them stop. Of course, it probably is a good idea to teach them to take portions of a size which they can handle to begin with.
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I love pickles too, and pickled anything. What is the point of pickles? They have a little crunch, and they have lots of tang and a little bit of sour to them, what's not to like? A cucumber on its own has no real flavor, but pickle it, and it is infused with vinegar, spices, and just becomes wonderful.
I actually like even the crappy grocery store pickles. Vlassic recently put out two lines of flavored pickles: tabasco and lime. I picked up both first time I saw them, and they are pretty good, though I prefer the lime as the tabasco one doesn't have enough tabasco flavor (I guess I could always add more).
About the only pickles I don't lust after are half-sours, but even one of those will do in a pinch.
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I've eaten at some point at just about every chain that has locations in the mid-atlantic. As far as chains go Ruby Tuesday's isn't awful, but it isn't wonderful. I sought it out for a while because they had a special low-carb menu section, but they have discontinued it, and Friday's is better anyway.
The one draw the place does have is that their salad bar is actually pretty decent. Good options, and at every RTs I have been to the veggies are actually fresh and changed out fairly often. There is also a nice selection of chopped and cured meats, cheeses, seeds, salad toppings, etc. I think they have an all you can eat salad bar thing for like $7, so, if you are in the mood for that sort of thing it's not such a bad deal. The burgers are also for the most part OK, but I have found a lot of them refuse to cook the burger rare or medium-rare. The entrees are mostly forgettable and overpriced for what you get.
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I've been a fan of Blair's Death Sauce since, well...since it came out, I guess (more than 10 years that's for sure) but have steadfastly avoided the After Death Sauce, the Dave's Insanity and all the others that add pure cap because I knew that all of this frat-boy one-upmanship would come to something like this. Something tells me that it won't end here, though...
I'll stick with the stuff you can eat.
You might want to give After Death a try. I actually much prefer the flavor of the After Death sauce to the regular Blair's Death Sauce. The after death has a fuller smokier bite to it that the regular death sauce lacks.
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Corned been is pink because of the nitrates, right? So couldn't you toss some sodium nitrate in with your kosher salt to make a corned ham pink as well?
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NulloModo,
Re: your easy and delicious suggestions for preparing fish........................... Will you marry me!?
Well, I've always wanted to see Las Vegas....
Thornado -
You might want to inquire from the sushi place where they source their fish, maybe the supplier is also willing to do business with consumers other than full-out restaurants.
It does really sound like the problem is less than fresh fish. I love all manner of seafood, but fish past it's prime is a horrible thing indeed. If you ever want to get anyone to wretch at the thought of fish for a solid week, try to feed them some Gorton's Lemon Pepper Fish Fillet frozen dinners.
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I can't see how anyone can hate anything that 'tastes like fish' because most fish taste incredibly different from one another.
If you want something inoffensive yet still flavorful and tasty try these:
Get a steak of high quality sushi grade tuna. Rub kosher salt and cracked black pepper into each side, along with some mustard powder. Toss it into a greased screaming hot skillet until you get a little char, then flip it and do the same to the other side. Serve it up as is, you will have a slightly warm but still raw and delicious center, and a nice flavorful crust on the outside, also, no 'fishy' smell at all.
You could also get some cod fillets, slice them into slightly smaller pieces, make up a batch of beer batter, dip them, deep fry them, and serve them up with some malt vinegar and french fries, classic fish'n'chips.
Catfish soaked overnight in buttermilk, then rolled in a blend of cajun spices, cornmeal, and flour is another great candidate for the deep fryer.
If you can find Monkfish, it is great broiled with just a little butter and lemon, very similar to lobster.
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Eh, it might be possible that I've lost some heat receptors for good due to a little too much Dave's Insanity and Blair's After Death here and there, but hey, Alton says they grow back, so who knows.
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I've heard that it has some issues with consistency of chop - things near the bottom (near the blade) get pulverized, while things up top barely get touched, of course, this may be from overloading or not shaking or something.
I've also heard you can make butter with it if you load it up with cream and just let it go.
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I personally don't do this, but that is because I find most restaurant portions to be satisfying for one person. I don't feel there is anything wrong with the practice of sharing an entree.
I also do not believe that the restaurants profit margins should ever have to enter the customers mind. Restaurants are part of the hospitality industry, and the focus should be on keeping the customer happy at all costs. If I am made to feel that I am a means to a paycheck instead of a valued guest, I am not going to return to that establishment. I am sure a place could make more money if everyone ordered a app, an individual entree, dessert and drinks, but it just doesn't work that way. Any restaurant that expects the customers to do what is perfect for the restaurant, and not what the customer actually wants to do just needs to get over itself.
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I don't like Sriracha. Well, I guess it is OK, but Tabasco is a far superior sauce, and goes with so much more. I think it is the vinegaryness I like about Tabasco, and Sriracha just doesn't have enough of it, it also has a weird sweetness in the back. Also, Sriracha is just too damn mild to be taken seriously as a hot sauce. I mean, I realize that not every sauce needs to peel away layers from your tongue, but sriracha has next to no detectable heat at all.
I wonder what the difference is between Sriracha and the Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce that comes in a little jar. Now that stuff I really like for certain dishes. I like to sautee up some tofu skin noodles (yuba sheet noodles) with some pickled bamboo shoots in chile oil, then dump in like a third of the jar of the chili garlic sauce, scramble in an egg, and finish off with a shot of dark sesame oil. It tastes great, but it doesn't exactly leave the apartment smelling pretty...
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Aside from the salad, which is still a good idea, I do like the idea of adding some pickled sides that could practically last forever, which would cut down on labor time and probably food costs because of next to no spoilage.
A big jar of pickles or kimchee could just be kept in the walk-in almost indefinately, would be very cheap to obtain, and I think the vinegary pickled texture would go really well with the richness of a grilled cheese sandwhich.
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If you remove the salad, you have to lower prices. If I were dining regularly at a spot and I suddenly started getting less lunch for the same money, it would take something phenomenal for me to want to go back to that spot. Since you are just starting out and I am assuming trying to establish some dedicated regulars, you need to make sure the customers don't start think you are gipping them, and signs stating 'due to the rising costs of blah blah blah' aren't going to do it.
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I can't say I fully get the concept... is the prepwork for cooking that much a pain? When you add in the time it would take to drive out to this place, or stop off on your way home from work, I can't see it saving much if any time over dropping by the grocery store and doing the prep yourself.
Also, it seems a bit cost prohibitive. Instead of paying $6.50 per serving for one of these places you could spend a lot less buying the same ingredients yourself, and most likely have enough left over to hire a maid service to come in and clean your kitchen for you if that is a big issue.
Plus, with everything already measured out and etc how do you tailor dishes to personal tastes? What if you think it perhaps needs a little more cadamom or a extra onion? From the way the article explains it it sounds like you pretty much just have to make it how it was prepped, that sounds incredibly limiting to me.
Now, a concept I might find fun, and would be willing to pay for:
A full-out restaurant style kitchen, fully loaded with the cool equipment, ranges, knives, professional pots and pans, etc, and with walk-ins similarly loaded with fresh produce, variety of meats and cheese, and lots of different spices/herb/etc. They could just sell time in the kitchen, you pay for the time you use, and maybe a per lb fee on the foodstuffs you use. Now that I could see being pretty cool.
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Yes, but nitrates too. Don't forget the nitrates, though none will be found in the basic cheesesteak.
Also, it is not just the grease for grease's sake. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It is also grease's ability to seep and soften, to make one at one with the cheesesteak, inside and outside of the body - sliding down the gullet, smearing the face, and splattering the shirt.
Speaking of which, I recently came across a Zen hot dog vendor who made me one with everything.
On that note (and a hint of shame, because I still have yet to make it into Philly for a cheesesteak there, though I'd wager the DE options are pretty close to most) - I've hardly ever seen anyone in the cheesesteak threads or in any program discussing the cheesesteak go for the more esoteric options, like the cheesesteak hoagie, the pizza steak, or the bacon cheesesteak. What's up with that? At least the latter could give some nitrate goodness.
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I didn't realize there were two on last night, so I missed the Cora battle, but I did see the Battalli vs. Lo. This is the only one whose outcome I have been totally dead-set against so far, and the first time I have really seriously believed that perhaps the judging system could be flawed. Just looking at each set of dishes, Battali's looked so much more flavorful, colorful, and well, appealing. I'm not generally a skeptic, but I have to wonder in this case if it was PC concerns that lead to the first all-female team taking the W.
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I'm still interested in the psychology of why people tip, especially large amounts. I gave some possible reasons above. I think its to do with boosting their own egos, or to impress, rather than as reward.
Maybe its somehow its to do with guilt, perhaps at being waited on, or at the sensual pleasure of food...
I like the social contract theory as well. As you grow up going out to dinner with your parents or friends or whatever you see over time that it is just socially right to reward excellent service with a large sum, and to punish poor service with a meager one. In other service related professions the ability to do one's job can effect how much one makes by quite a bit. A mechanic, housekeeper, or landscaper known for doing excellent work will receive more clients, be able to charge more, and have more income coming in. A waiter however can't advertise themself or draw people in just for their service, since the main draw is the restaurant.
Imagine you have a restaurant with two waiters, one awful and one incredible. If your hostess seats an equal number of people in each waiter's section their income at the end of the day would be nearly identical if they were paid via a service charge built into the prices of the entrees (and maybe a little bit more for the great guy if he upsold a bit, or made the guests feel so welcome they ordered an extra round of drinks). Under the tipping system though the guests will feel much better after having dined with the good waiter, and thus will be much more likely to reward that skillfull service by paying appropriately for it, and his income will be even higher, as it should be.
Basically, I think it comes down to people wanting to tip well on occasion because it is just the right thing to do. Excellence deserves to be rewarded.
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Eh, I can't join the military so I have to take fire from somewhere ;)
FWIW though I considered the sales field I worked in to be primarily non-skilled as well, well, at least no professional degree required, and I'd think most waitstaff consider their current positions to be similar. I mean, granted you have career waiters/waitresses who rise to the top and are incredibly good and love what they do, but for most, it is a job to pay for school/loans/bills until they move onto something else, and for that, it does pay pretty well.
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I hate trying to peel eggs. The pre-boiled eggs from WaWa are almost gauranteed to have a pocket right at the big end, but they are still very difficult to peel. I would be far more apt to make egg salad more often if I could find a foolproof method, so I will have to give some of these a try.
Gosling's 'regular' v. Gosling's 151 proof
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Or just mix it straight into your drink and enjoy it for what it is. Overproof rums certainly make for a much different balance, and a drink that hits you a little harder, but I personally find drinks made with them to be very enjoyable, even without dilution.