Shalmanese

I'm not seeing that term being used in the way you seem to be referring to. AFAIK, a secondary bevel refers to a more complex shape on one part of the knife. I'm talking about having complete different shapes on different parts of the knife.

One thing I've never seen discussed is that with hand sharpening, it should be possible to put a variable angle on your knife. Keep the belly at a meaty 20 - 25 degrees to let it power through tough matter without giving up and hone the tip down to 10 - 15 degrees to fine, delicate slicing. Is this possible? A good idea?

According to koki: Seems like a really large gap in the market.

A more thorough google reveals that no, they don't exist. The largest Santoku's I could find were 190mm/7.5" which brings up the question: Why don't they exist? There doesn't seem to be any technical reason you can't produce a larger blade and to me, 7.5" is simply too small for a general purpose knife. Given that Gyuto's go up to 270mm, why do Santoku's top out at 190mm?

Want to buy a nice kitchen knife for a friend as a wedding present. Took him shopping today and he really fell in love with santokus except he's also a big guy and is looking for something a bit larger. The largest santoku's we saw today were 7" and a quick google doesn't reveal anything larger. Is there a reason santoku's are so small? Does anyone have a reccomendation for a 8" santoku? Preferably around VG10 level steel.

It's no good anymore. New management, completely changed the recipes and it's now awful .

tall food and coulis are still "Nouvelle Cuisine" even though it hasn't been Nouvelle for 30 years now. Mondrian and Pollock are still modernist painters even though their work is far from modern now. Accept the fact that labels will be misappropriated.

I've switched over to doing beer can chicken for all my roast chickens. Essentially, you get a can half filled with some liquid (I keep a couple of empty soda cans around for this) and shove it in the cavity to form a tripod. Season the chicken well and place it on a small sheet pan and put it in the fridge with the can and let it air dry for a day. Let it come to room temperature and then throw a bunch of paper thin sliced onions on the sheet pan (a few whole garlic cloves and herbs wouldn't hurt at this point either). Roast it at 350 until done. Take the can out, empty the contents onto the pan and then let the chicken rest, with the empty can back in. Meanwhile, strain the liquid, degrease and then put the onions back in and puree it a blender, then strain again. The onions will thicken up the sauce and give you a intense, slightly sweet gravy which goes amazingly with the chicken. edit: The hour and a half the chicken takes to cook is exactly enough time to make up a small batch of crackling stock from the trimmings of the chicken which amps up the flavour of the gravy even more. To help it go faster, I puree the fat in the blender with a tiny bit of water.

I just recently made a dry rub of dried morels, porcini, shittake, seaweed, pepper & truffle salt. I call it the umami mammy.

Skate is also good and, IIRC, still in season.

For those of you who complain about the artificial, synthetic nature of perfume, I'm completely missing where that's coming from. Sure, cheap perfume is going to smell one dimensional and artificial, just like cheap food is. But high end perfume is made by artisan perfumer from a combination of natural and synthetic scents, depending on the desired effect. I'm perfectly willing to be a guinea pig in this but I'm surprised more people haven't experimented in this area. gfron: Maybe flaming a perfume would get rid of the objectionable alcoholic note. Alchemist: I like the idea of scenting the eating utensils. djyee: I honestly can't see food safety being an issue. This is stuff that's designed to go on skin around the facial region of millions of people. If it weren't safe in at least the minute quantities I was planning on using then putting it in food would be the least of the worries of these companies. I currently have a cold and a blocked nose but as soon as I get better, here's what I'm going to try: 4 negronis, each glass spritzed with 1 whiff of Terre d'Hermes before pouring in the drink. 2 will be poured straight away and 2 will be poured after 30 minutes to expose more of the mid-note. 1 of each will be flamed and the other unflamed. The traditional garnish for a negroni is a twist of orange so I wonder how the bitter citrus and earth notes of the fragrance play off that.

Perfumes when they are put on inconsiderately or without regard with the food is obviously going to detract from the experience but I think, when well thought out and in careful synergy with the dish, I don't see why it wouldn't be at least interesting to experiment with. Lots of modern molecular gastronomists like Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz are playing around with using aromas as an integral part of a dish. I see perfumes as a logical extension of that. I don't think food safety is much of a concern seeing as these are products designed to be applied near the face. I'm willing to bet the dose from an intense makeout session would be far greater than what you would potentially get in a dish. Going for congruent flavors seems like an obvious first step but I think there's room to push it further as well. A nice, leathery smoky scent dusted on a plate right before a steak goes down? A chicken dish built around Chanel No 5 and the images it evokes? A rich chocolate dessert with undertones of earth and sandalwood? These all seem like intriguing possibilities.

I was wondering if anyone's experimented with or heard about people using Perfumes and Fragrances as a part of cooking? I think it's an intriguing idea that could have promise. I'm idly considering cooking up some Crepe Suzette and adding a whiff of flamed Hermes D'orange Vert tableside right before serving.

I would recommend The Cook's Book as an amazing resource. Each chapter is written by a big name chef and there's an amazing treasure trove of information in there.

I'm looking for dry aged, preferably prime beef. Either rib eye or NY strip cut. Also, is there anywhere locally that stocks Wagyu beef at or above grade 6? Any suggestions?

Finally, the good fruit is coming into season again and I'm back to making sorbets. So far, I've made: Strawberry & Raspberry sorbet: Simple and delicious. Green Grape & White Wine Granite: I used a very minerally NZ Sav with some super tart/sweet grapes. The alcohol means I can tone the sugar way down and have it as a very sophisticated palate cleanser. Cinnamon Roasted Peach & Honey Frozen Yogurt: coat peaches with honey, cinnamon, butter and lemon juice and roast in a low oven until sticky sweet. Run though a sieve and mix with some home made yogurt for a rich and satisfying dessert. Strawberry, Chilli & Mint Sorbet with Lime & Honey: This has an amazing flavor. Rich strawberry on the front and then a light burn on the aftertaste. Previously, I'd pretty much only stuck to single fruit flavors but I'm experimenting a bit more with more complex sorbets.

What about the dishwasher?

I made a ravioli of Duck Confit, Potatos, Edamame & Truffle Salt that was gorgeous. I think there was some chopped spring onion in there as well. It's sort of east meets west but I imagine it would go great in a potsticker as well.

I asked the staff and they said a second location of Samurai Ramen opens at 43rd and the Ave in late May. Yay. ← I'm crossing my fingers, too! But I heard "summer" as the opening time and when I went by last week, it looked nothing like a restaurant inside. Maybe they can pull it off in 16 days, though! ← I've not seen a single person working there in any of the time I've walked past. I don't know what's happening with that space but I would be surprised if they could get it finished before the end of summer.

Also from the same article: Roughly 2/3rds of the transportation carboon footprint of your food is getting it from the store to your house. This is roughly consistent with the calculations at the beginning of the thread. This is not some obscure, esoteric knowledge. Roughly 20 minutes worth of number crunching would show the figures in stark relief. That food miles have dominated the public discourse so comprehensively for so long shows a disturbingly low level of engagement with facts.

I went to Veil last Friday with my father. We had the lamb burgers to start and then I had scallops and he had a halibut. The food was tasty but from 7:30 - 9:00, there were only 2 or 3 other tables full in the dining room. The bar was decently busy though.

Chocolate Stout Braised Beef 1 Chuck Roast 1 Can Young's Double Chocolate Stout 3 Carrots 4 tbsp Sugar Sear off the roast, add carrots to drippings, when carrots are slightly browned, add sugar and let caramelise. Add the beer, return the roast and braise until tender. Remove the roast & vegetables, skim off all the fat and reduce until thick and glossy.

Wow, this is a revolutionary technique. I just tried it tonight with a 3lb chuck roast. Took it out of the freezer and into a 425F oven for a few minutes, just to soften up the outsides, then I took it out and rubbed it with a mix of dried morels, sesame, salt, pepper & ancho. Back in for maybe an hour and a half and it was done. I pulled it at 130F and carryover took it up to 150F which was not what I was expecting. Seems like this method produces more carryover than usual. Tasted some tonight and it was amazingly tender and juicy. Closer to sirloin in tenderness than a chuck and a bright, uniform pink. Only thing I would change is take it up to 450 or 475F next time to develop a better crust. I don't know if it was worth cooking it a bit first before seasoning, my reasoning was it would help the seasoning adhere better. I think next time I see chuck on sale, I'll buy 3 or 4 and season them before I freeze them. Then I can have an easy roast dinner with ridiculously minimal prep work.

Seems like it wouldn't get hot enough. If a compost heap gets hot enough for bacteria to start dying out, there wouldn't be anything to contribute additional heat. Thus, if the heap is cool enough for bacteria to reproduce, then the food is probably cool enough for that to happen too.

The entire debate is a moot point and, as far as I can see, has been cynically manufactured. The amount of greenhouse gas emitted transporting food across the globe pales into insignificance compared to that last mile of getting the food from the shop onto your plate. Driving slightly further away to a farmers market to buy cherries is worse from the environment than carting them all the way from Chile on a giant container ship and both of those pale into insignificance over the relative productivity of the land and the amount of fuel and fertilizer required to produce one unit of finished product. Fresh, local food tastes better generally and that should be all the justification you need to buy local. Any misplaced and misguided concern over the state of the environment is as likely to do harm as good in this situation. The only thing I would be willing to absolutely condemn as harmful is buying bottled water imported from a distant country or even just buying bottled water full stop.