Kevin72

If you enjoy Page and Dornenburg, check out thisQ & A they did last fall. Culinary Artistry is great and a wonderful sourcebook. Becoming a Chef is good also; I'd be interested to see the revised edition with new chefs added in but haven't run across it yet. They had a completely new book out The New American chef which I also was intrigued by but seems to have disappeared altogether.

I've picked up a bad habit this year of starting books and not finishing them or getting distracted with another. Currently I'm winding down on Slow Meditteranean Food by Paula Wolfert, which is fantastic. I'm about 3/4s through the Fourth Star as well and I gotta say it's not doing it for me. Seems to be redundant: start each chapter with a story about one of the players in the restaurant, then plunge into the kitchen for that night's chaos.

Yes Tad took what I was going to say. You want to avoid using forks right after the meat comes off the heat source as the juices will come out. Using it on raw meat will not lead to it leaking all the juices out.

I really want to get this book. I have her Flavors of Puglia book and it's excellent as well. I can't remember where but I once read an article about the funeral for the bistecca in one town since meat was no longer going to be allowed to be served on the bone after the Mad Cow scare. Alot of celebs were there, I think Elton John won the bid for the "last" bistecca. Thankfully I guess the scare died down and they're back to tradition.

Yes, in fact it was my question to Mario about whether Molto Mario was still doing new episodes. MM is no more, but he will be involved in more ICA, and I think he said it starts filming in September.

Coarse-grained sea salt sprinkled over the meat, while not traditional to the recipe, is a nice touch. When I make it I go as thick as possible--3-3 1/2 lbs in one piece, and use porterhouse. Cook it rare and carve it almost like a roast and serve. Soak rosemary branches and toss them over the coals as the meat cooks if you don't want it on the steak. Olive oil and lemon juice are amazingly effective condiments for the finished product. (Though when I ordered it in a restaurant in Florence and asked for lemon I got a funny look). I'd avoid a pasta and maybe do stewed cannellini beans or roasted potatoes instead. I usually do a mess of mushrooms cooked in olive oil and garlic and that compliments the meal well also.

Probably the single best, turning point meal of my life was at a Chinese restaurant in Houston. My parents, brother and I had been to a wedding and had gotten precious little to eat. We left and on a lark went to this restaurant which we had always enjoyed. It was New Year's Eve however and they initially expressed concern since it was reservation-only. They had been booked, but a family of four had just cancelled and they let us in. It was a Chef's Menu that night and while we did make a now-regrettable request for substitutions, they happily complied. It was the first time I had ever had a multi-course meal beyond appetizer/main course: two apps, a soup, a rice dish, two or three main courses, and desserts. A true revelation in cooking and eating for me. I went time and again afterward but it was never equaled or even hinted at, much to my dismay. A second would be a classic case of the company being the whole of the meal, on my graduation from graduate school in Georgia. My parents and girlfriend went to an Italian restaurant in Atlanta. The food was nothing mind-blowing but it was just a great time, stretching leisurely over many hours, truly one of my happiest memories. Three of the best of my life were, expectedly, in Italy on my honeymoon with the very same girlfriend from the Atlanta meal. The highlight of those three though would be Villa Gaidello, a farmstead bed and breakfast outside of Bologna. Heightening the experience was that we were staying in their guest house "just a ten minute walk" down the road from the dining hall. When we set out it was pitch black, got lost, and wound up taking the car route to the main house rather than the walking path. An hour later, cold, a little wet frm the light drizzle, and more than a little frazzled, we arrived. The hostess was mortified when we explained to her what had happened and profusely apologized throughout the meal (no comps though, not that it was expected ). Anyways it was a six-course affair, all of it made on-site. House-cured meats, bottles of wine made for them, hand-made tortelli in broth, tortelloni in butter in sage, platters of roasted game birds and rabbit, fried zucchini, and two different dessert plates.

Another great topic, lots of interesting thoughts generated here. I have three cities to draw from in my adult experience: Houston, Atlanta, and Dallas. Houston to me truly represents the old model of cities with suburbs around an urban core--inside the loop vs. outside the loop. My parents live in NW Houston in a relatively booming area, but there seems a lack of cutting edge or destination restaurants. In fact whenever an inside the loop restaurant has opened an offshoot out there to capitalize on the population it founders or has to drastically alter its menu to survive. It's still what I think of when I hear the term suburban. This is no slight on Houston and there are notable exceptions, i.e., the Woodlands and the Heights areas come to mind. Dallas and Atlanta seem to be following the trend of more self-contained communities that provide a mix of urban appeal with suburban comforts. I currently live in Plano, which while it has a healthy dose of suburban-friendly chains also does have its share of hipper restaurants nearby, particularly just up the road in Frisco. What this means to me is that suburban and urban are blending in concept and hopefully the terms will lose their stark contrasts.

I went on a local Chinese restaurant tear right after we moved to Plano: May Hua in the Asian supermarket center on Coit and Park and 1st Chines Barbecue were both stops. When I went they had some type of organ, I'm guessing tripe, prominently on display in their window. At any rate, I went I think on a Sunday afternoon so it was all large families ordering multicourse meals, all of which looked good but I couldn't even begin to sort out. I had their ribs. With both 1st Chinese and May Hua I have been a little disturbed by the fact that either the sauce or the meat is served cold, which is a little off-putting. Enjoyable enough but I'm having a hard time convincing my wife to go after explaining the organs on parade display to her.

How easy is it to commute to Rome from Tivoli, how much does it cost, how long is the ride, etc.? We're in the planning stages for a trip to Rome next spring.

The chicken broth gives me pause, but then all the added salt and vinegar might offset it. Make it all and freeze it, use it within the day of making it, or mix all the ingredients together except the broth and add it at the last minute.

Based on limited experience here: I've noticed that things wrapped in butcher's paper seem to give an "off" smell to them--not sure if the paper just absorbs liquid more or what. But I get pork from a butcher in downtown Dallas sometimes and have noticed an off smell to it when I unwrap it after a few days in the fridge. Usually once I throw out the paper, rinse the meat and pat it dry, it doesn't have that smell. Only once did it seem to permeate the meat, but that was after a considerably longer time in the fridge. Wound up throwing it out after cooking and taking a bite. I'm stubborn that way, though. I usually try to use the meat as soon as possible or transfer it to different wrapping when I get it home. Not to try to persuade you from returning meat with a funny smell, just the butcher paper distinction gave me that thought.

Right now is really a good time for a Weight-Watchers friendly regimen, with all the vegetables and seafood at their peak. It'll be much harder come fall and winter when I'm craving those robust cold-weather braises and roasts. As Tess just said, I'm amazed at the distance you can get on soup: I made veg. minestrone at the start of the week and essentially the only points are in the pesto you swirl in at the end!

I have very limited experience with Italian seafood but in Venice last fall I was just blown away by the regional variation in seafood. I couldn't get enough of cannoche aka mantis shrimp, the flat critter that looks like a cross between a shrimp and a centipede. I also dug the brown shrimp they had there. I'm dying to try sea dates though I know there's some, ahem, legal concerns there. Even the clams were different with thin, glasslike shells. And the shellfish all tasted much sweeter than here (America). Is it that American waters are less plentiful in variety or are American fishmongers and/or customers more . . . mundane? in their tastes. I don't know the right word for it . . . but basically everyone's idea of a shrimp is a little curled pink thing and that's was seafood providers cater to. Keep in mind I live in Dallas, I know New York and the West Coast are very regional as well in their preferences. But again from my experience when the best seafood providers in Dallas, Central Market, first arrived they had a wealth of different types of seafood: langoustines, razor clams, geoducks, abalone, etc., but shortly all that vanished under the explanation that none of it sold.

Hmmm, I was going to suggest maybe the resting was the problem but then dorpsch mentioned it as a prep step as well. I seem to remember when I made mine having to move pretty quick and not letting them sit too long or they started to come apart.

I made a variation on that myself recently (more along the lines of the Roman suppli and they were shallow pan-fried). My only suggestions would be more egg, and maybe did you let the risotto rest a day after you made it? As it sits it absorbs more liquid and gets tighter. That's all I can think of. Mine, too, were fragile, but tasty.

The Houston Press did I thought a really good article on Gulf Oysters here: http://www.houston-press.com/issues/2004-03-25/feature.html Interesting reading, just throwing it out there.

Travel & Leisure did a write-up for Puglia in their July issue: http://www.travelandleisure.com/Invoke.cfm...A5C1624AE27193C Their restaurant and hotel recommendations are a bit high-end (their Lecce pick as "the only game in town" is $193 a night! ). Nevertheless it gets me pumped about going, which is in the planning stages for next spring.

OK, a simplistic question here but is Trattoria Da Fiore at all related to Osteria Da Fiore? I gather they are not as nothing I have (including the cookbook) says that they are but I was wondering if there's any story and/or animosity behind such similar names. Are Italy's copyright laws more lax? To really confuse things, we went to "Bar Da Fiore" affixed to the trattoria mentioned above when doing a "cichetti crawl" one night. Good stuff but certainly nothing on par with what's being written in this thread.

I'm pretty strictly olive oil. My wife went to the Dr. last year for her checkup and he said she's had the highest "good" cholesterol he's ever seen! I recently tried using olive oil in place of butter in a dessert recipe (the recipe said to do this) and it worked out quite well. In the winter I mix it up a bit and use bacon fat when doing stews and braises.

Leave an instant read thermometer in 80 lb of sourdough, and then proceed to mix it rather vigorously for 10 minutes in an 80 qt mixer. Use a brand new digital probe thermometer to test the temperature of the brine in an ice cream machine. It read 13 degrees before it fizzled out. And I don't know why, but it's still in the drawer in the kitchen, along with several crappy timers, as if it's going to come back to life. Cool, I've found a new way to ruin the next one. I'll be taking the temp of my bread dough from now on! I have a collection of bases in my drawer, too. Under the mental rationale of "Hey, the timer still works, right?" Finally, I had the probe of my newest thermometer get completely submerged in oil while I was frying (going all the way up to the wire) but miracle of miracles it's still ticking!

I probably had the highest opinion of the experience out of the four of us. We had the same cheesecake, it appears . . . a highlight!

Great pic. Verona was a highlight of our trip last fall. Have you ever heard of or been to Trattoria dall'Amelia, along the Adige river? We saw it on our walk the night before and decided to stay late the next day just to try it out for lunch and we weren't sorry!

Good assessment, particularly the last paragraph. Nothing so unusual but just classic, letting the ingredients speak for themselves mentality that impresses me more and more.

Has anyone posted a review of T'afia yet? I've searched the forums and this is the only thread that comes up. So I'll post in here. Ate there Sat. night and it was fantastic. I'm a sucker for any restaurant that touts local, regional foods so I was really impressed. I had: >Farro and Hazelnut Salad >Nieman Ranch's Salami platter (split for the table)--The meat itself was fantastic but there's only 6 slices on the plate, no crackers or rolls come with it to put it on. >Duck confit with mustard fruits and Potato-celeriac gratin. The duck was superb, everything in taste I go for when roasting/braising meats. The only misfire was that my mother ordered the fish stew or chowder and it said that it came with potatoes. The "potatoes" were literally like couple tablespoons spooned into the middle of the plate. No spoon came with the dish so we had to flag down the busy waiter to get one. Dessert menu was also fascinating, particularly their cheese plate offerings. I wanted to try one but my wife insisted on the cheesecake so we went that route and it, too, was excellent. Really enjoyed this place. Anyone else been?