johnnyd

jeffj, I am very grateful for your jaw-dropping photography and insightful description of your visit to Alinea. Those of us who are too far away have you, yellowtruffle, Mr. Suburban and others to thank for offering a window on this truly historic culinary event. It has caused much reflection on the possibilities for food in the future. Very fascinating. johnnyd

A bit more about "Free Range", It is actually more of a seafood retail store, and has a nice take-out on the side which, I'm sure, will be busy this summer. Actually that is now a question as the "Scotia Prince", the 100+foot car ferry that ran twice daily to Yarmouth Nova Scotia from a slip behind Free Range (under the bridge to SoPo), has pulled out of Portland in a huff. It seems the ferry terminal, which is maintained by the city, failed a mold test and the ferry company refused to book any routes for this summer. The city put several thousand $Ks into the terminal and disputes the claim. It has hit the town hard as the sight of the mini-cruise ship leaving or entering the harbour, especially at night, gives the town a charm most beloved for three decades. The trip also brought many tourists, who see "Free Range" before anything else on the way into the Old Port. Before this place was Free Range Fish and Lobster, it used to be "Tiny's Bigman Seafood". Tiny, as you may guess, was not a small person. I used to sell my sea-urchins to a guy upstairs who rented an office from Tiny, and after a while the place seemed like a frat for waterfront types of all stripes. When the urchin biz cooled off, Tiny bought a display cooler, painted a sign and sold some mighty nice looking fish. He then put in a couple fryers and opened Tiny's Take-out. I had the BEST fried clams at Tiny's about seven years ago. They were a revelation. I had hoped Free Range would get close, but not really. I'll go again, even if they didn't have lemon (which I feel, CSASphinx, counteracts the oil in fried foods, so I use it often). I will definitely check out Susan's as well as a couple other hole in the walls around here. We might uncover a diamond in the rough. I get so disappointed sometimes after dumping ten bucks on a gnarled tangle of battered stuff, that I make fried clams at home when I can. I make my own tartar sauce too and even tweak it with Mae Ploy hot chili sauce or some ancho sauce. Yum... damn, I'm getting hungry!

So a friend and I stopped by the "Free Range Fish and Lobster" Company on Commercial Street here in Portland for a serving of fried clams and a lobster roll. They have a take-out window and a couple of tables to the side of parking area Lobster Roll came with chips and was pronounced "delicious" Cost: $10.99 My clams were breaded, crisp and tasty. The foot-siphons were too chewy and the clams were packed in the box too tightly. Fries were awesome. Cost: $9.99 + Fries @ $2

Absolutely Astonishing. Thank You Yellow Truffle!

Sorry! I've always put malt-products in the same category. 3Musketeers filling is basically the same stuff as Malted Milk Balls ("Maltesers" in Europe) only super-dried.

Poached atop half-inch rings of fennel bulb in a mirin/chix stock broth; lemon slices and Parsley sprigs at random. Mmmmm....

No, I mis-read the recipe: I thought it was all together! I wouldn't put olives in a fresh ceviche but I would consider it in an ESCABECHE...

Is this at all related to the elusive "Three Musketeers Souflee"?

Fresh bluefish is wonderful! Please provide more info... I've done some fishing off Cape Cod and in season have caught plenty of bluefish--and apparently I've tossed this delicacy. Bluefish on its own is sadly not a standard on restaurant menus so I've been happy to get people to eat it at all. ← The deal with Bluefish is that the decay rate is faster than anything else. Thats why you see it for $3.99/lb or even less. The best Bluefish is the one you caught yourself. To get enough cheeks for a specials run, you need a shitload, say 5lbs for 20 dishes at an 8oz yield each. Now how many Bluefish will it take to get those cheeks? Do that math! If you market it like a once-a-year type deal ("The Bluefish are running! "The Bluefish are running!), the buzz might make it worthwhile... you could charge a fortune for two weeks... Hey it's a Native New England thing!

Stopped by Harbor Fish and there were lots of Bluefish. Seems they are from Virginia area. I asked about cheeks because of this thread and my pal there said there was no call for it now, if ever, to his knowledge. Maybe this summer when the run hard in Casco Bay I'll bring it up again.

Jeez, I dunno. Rick's 101 has too much stuff interfering with the fish, who are in turn, interfering with each other. I've had some delicious things like it, but one seafood item and easy on the tomato. My favorite is a simple lime juice, coarsely chopped garlic, thai bird chili or other hot pepper, and cilantro - and I use the freshest possible seafood. Our scallop season just closed but up 'til then, I've sliced big raw scallops into thirds and into the juice they go. I find three to six hours is just right. Overnight gets a bit tough, but not bad. Same with fresh shrimp off the boat (in season in winter only), but one hour cuz they're so small. We're getting fresh squid from RI now. Should I try it? What's really fresh there now?

Word.

This reminds us of why the world wide web sparked wonder in the first place. The connection with strangers so far away shrinks the globe to that of a simple neighborhood. We meet on common ground: anniversary, noisy neighbors, food... That is why I think once blogs take on more of a marketing veneer, they will go the way of websites in general. A web page used to be a novelty, now they are more of a shill. Blogs will suffer the same if, as ptipois mentioned, they become show-offy - a vehicle for self-promotion, hard to distinguish among all the commercial dreck.

Thanks Carolyn. This was actually a turkey stock that is wa-a-y gelatinous, but that was 40% of the liquid. I thought the veg stock was fragrant but thin... I almost added an envelope of gelatin I had bought, but I've never worked with it and didn't know what would happen in the oven, so I opted for my turkey stock. Shall I use gelatin next time? The goat cheese idea is making me want to crank out another terrine, good one! I'll serve a ring of it with my terrine slice instead. There was no bubbling or nothin' when the timer dung, so I logged another 30min on the clock...

Okay I want to play too. Terrines have hit my radar off and on for years but this thread finally got me to try it. I bought a crueset ceramic mold knockoff this weekend and here's what I did. Outer layer: proshute, then blanched leek leaves. Alternating layers of zuchini and yellow squash, cut on my benriner, lightly salted and peppered. The middle layer is one roasted red pepper. After folding it all up, I poured a reduced veg and herb stock I made this morning, but since I didn't have very much (wasn't paying attention) I mixed in some chicken stock. I put foil on top and put it in a hot bath and now it's in the oven at 400. I figure half an hour. My brick is ready. I don't quite know what I'm doing, but I guess we'll see if it comes out a glopfest, or after chilling overnight, a thing of beauty. My fingers are crossed. Anyone want to weigh in with a tip? Should I have left out the stock? Added a bit of white wine? More time in the oven? Thanks!

Holy Hannah, what a great tour! I love Makers Mark! That was a treat. Say, Marsha isn't there a camp of Julep makers that marinate some ingredients for a day or more to get the "right" mix? Should we get started so it's ready for post-time? Oh, and yeah, you are crazy!

Caught a re-run last night where they hear the season closure announced. I'm glad they are covering several boats at once to see the differences in gear, technique and morale. Boy those crabs are huge.

"HERE!" ...that and the clean-as-you-go deal. Somehow it does not compute. *sigh!*

Awakened by a trainwreck nightmare at 3am, I wandered into the TV landscape and stopped on Ming hacking away at a big fish. "Whaaaa?" Then I see less than charming ladies hacking some rap verse in a kitchen stylie and the occasional onion. Ruhlman/Ming/English trying to keep from laughing made me put the remote down. Onward to the center stage and the finalists fight for space in too small a kitchen to cook one freakin' egg. Fantastic. ...except for the knife presentation at the start of episode2 (a nice touch), and yes, the Apprentice-like 86 award (music made check if I was on FOX), it was refreshing to see a lack of staging and script. Never mind that judges (and contestants) were sometimes "wooden" - public life is wooden sometimes people, and this is public TV! Other points: - Having to pack everyone in that kitchen for a ten-minute contest was very realistic. Brilliant. Someone had to choke here and they did. - Blaming someone else for your failure is shitty and the judges correctly reinforced this as did the gracious Seattle chef. - Ming directing the contestants to "clean the house" for the real chefs to begin on a real day's work conveyed good kitchen habits that non-chef viewers may not know. A good detail that could have ended up on the cutting room floor. I couldn't wait for egg dishes to hit the table. Some had a future, some sucked. The short interviews (I hope they get a bit longer) with the contestants aided the viewer to form favorites and villains, just like that damned survivor dribble. I'm hooked.

Hey I saw that. Ruhlman/Ming/English simply said "Make your Mis en place" and they had an hour to come up with it. Very telling when a few appeared with semi-complete meals or prepped for one style of cuisine when non were mentioned. That show is good. My general method is to set a meez if the dish demands your ass stays at the stove to cook. Otherwise I like to get away with prepping while things are simmering, but I'm quick about it. The chinese bowl setup with each to a step, emmapeel style, is the way to go.

Hey now, we used to spend summers in Edgartown or chappy and a trip to Gay Head was mandatory. This was the sixties and all I remember was a place we (rather, I) used to get ice cream out there. Might be the same place

Clearly inspired but too cheap to spring for the real thing, I set about creating a substitute: I poached a big salmon filet in mirin, chix stock, lemon and parsley on Sunday. I make sure there's enough to graze on during the week. So I minced about a tablespoon of celery, fennel bulb, cilantro and red onion... combined it with a dollop of mayo and a teaspoon or so of capers... then carefully separated the salmon leftover into "leaves" and folded them in. Toasted a Hannaford Bakery-fresh hotdog roll and...Voila! I added a twist of white pepper but no salt. What do we call it? Salmon Roll is taken!

AuntieD, Who and where did this travesty occur??? Sounds awful. Were the chefs drunk? Incidently, we do have a Best Lobster Roll thread currently running on the New England forum. Join in!

Catching up on your blog and I eventually realized you don't actually have a monkey. It was not uncommon for people to have marmosets as pets in Brasil so I began thinking that having a five year old was pretty good... Loved the Times article!

Hi Jean, Click here for a recent discussion on the Lisbon area.