glossyp

Mahalo to all for the input. The trip is confirmed and I leave this evening. I will report on eats. BTW, the dearly beloved (who left a few days earlier) dined at Custom House last night. He gave it a B+ for food, and an A+ for service.

Planning a trip to Chicago and looking for food that is unavailable here. Top of my list is Indian not of the buffet line variety. I am hopeful! Thanks for your input.

Try Marukai on Dillingham. It's a membership warehouse type place and it is only $10 for a one-year membership. They have by far the most extensive selection of Japanese food stuffs and products available on Oahu.

Ha! The funniest part of the Gawker report was the first comment: "Those napkin sniffers at eGullet are vicious!" Reading FG's review was fun, but the subsequent "napkin sniffer" comments from some reminded me of why eGullet can be such a bore at times.

It was clear from Honolulu last week how this would turn out - oneidaone's photo

You mean Hung gushing over how fabulous Marcel is? It was pretty hard to miss that. The judges also took note that some of the Season III contestants are devotees of Marcel while shaking their heads in disbelief.

Okay, this is not exactly an "arm's length" solving of oneidaone's #156 movie. I was at oneidaone's for an Easter Eve dinner gathering (lovely and delicious, of course!) and as usual they had some sort of music video playing in the living room. Whilst in the kitchen I heard the word "chiclet" come from the TV and the light bulb went on. The movie which I would never have guessed under any other circumstance is The Grateful Dead movie. Now that you know it, those clues make sense, don't they?

Is it the movie Emma with the talented Toni Collette? I know Gwenyth Paltrow got top billing, but you had to love Ms. Collette in this period piece.

The Fifth Element?

Is this one Sweet Dreams, the movie about Patsy Cline?

A big wave of Aloha to judiu for taking the time to send the recipe! There is no doubt that eGullet membership is enormously beneficial!

Aloha, I am seeking the recipe for the Honestly Good Crab Cakes on behalf of eG member oneidaone who is presently in Chicago without internet access. She wants to make these for her mother's upcoming birthday. If anyone has it to hand, it would be deeply appreciated. Mahalo nui loa!

Well it looks like we have a few interested. As SuzySushi suggested, perhaps we need to go offline to organize. Can someone volunteer to help coordinate? I'm buried with projects and deadlines or I'd offer. I will be there though - there's always time to eat!

I agree completely regarding 1) an eGullet get together 2) St Germaine French Bread Donato's closed its doors in February and that's why bread is no longer available from them. I bake Italian breads like ciabatta at home (when the weather cools off allowing for more tolerable baking conditions) using Peter Reinhardt's bread book 'The Breadbaker's Apprentice' as reference. Just for giggles here is a link to a post with photos of my first attempt at ciabatta.

I'm delighted to provide a link to eGullet member oneidaone's interview with the much loved artist Guy Buffet. A charming and humble gentleman who is starting new adventures at 63. Guy Buffet interview. Also, check out his response to Diner Bytes, our byte of humor from friends feature.

Thank you for the suggestions. The restaurant just obtained their liquor license so we have to byob, thus the inquiry here. The good news is we made our way to a local Japanese market and, by good fortune, their sake expert was in the store. He asked a funny question: did we want to impress the chef or enjoy what we drank? We told him we really didn't think it would be appropriate to try and impress the chef and we probably couldn't afford to do that anyway! He sent us off with a bottle of Suishin "Tenjomukyu" (on sale for $28.99) which should be served cold and invited us to a sake tasting on the morrow. There is plenty to learn and lots of sake to try.

We were fortunate to get seats at the counter for a kaiseki dinner which will be prepared by Masahara Seiya who defeated Morimoto 4-0 in Battle Angler Fish on the original Iron Chef series. The better half wants sake (but neither of us are very knowledgeable) and I was hoping for a sparkling wine or possibly a dry rose. We have no idea what the menu will be but since it is summer we expect ingredients representative of the season. Any and all suggestions will be deeply appreciated. Domo arigato!

The key to doing superior sushi rice is first to use a short grain high-quality Japanese rice, place the freshly cooked hot rice into a sushi-oke (wooden bowl specific to making sushi rice), using a wooden spatula turn the rice while sprinkling the vinegar mixture all the while fanning the rice. This works best with two people, one to turn and mix while the other fans. Fanning creates the glossy sheen that good sushi rice should have. Labor intensive but yields excellent results.

Fellow eGulleteer, oneidaone and myself stopped in at the Mermaid Bar (perhaps the fact that no alcohol is served there should have tipped us off that they take liberties with descriptions ) inside our local Neiman Marcus for a light lunch. I ordered the Orange Souffle with Chicken Salad thinking that this would make a tasty meal. When the plate was presented, the 'souffle' was in fact a small molded gelatin of a creamy peach hue with mandarin orange segments suspended in the chilled and congealed mound. I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure whether or not a gelatin mold can rightly be called a souffle. I do know it was definitely not what I was expecting.

Orangette because her recipes always work for me. Noodlepie because it reminds me of fine days on the mean streets of Saigon. And, last but not least, Scent of Green Bananas from Santos who blogs from a small but gorgeous island in the Western Pacific and the Philippines. Look for her shots of the produce found in Filipino markets.

Perhaps it's because I won't be able to dine at Alinea anytime soon that I really enjoy reading the course-by-course descriptions especially when the diner offers very clear descriptions of their reactions to each dish, such as Shalmanese did. This thread offers a nice mix of specifics, philosophy and theory. I would be loathe to lose any of these elements as I find all of it interesting.

Mavro is very innovative and he is only one who is actually in the kitchen cooking literally every night they are open - unless he is off-island for an event. His menu changes seasonally and there is only one dish on the menu that has been there since the beginning and that is the lilikoi malassadas. Alan Wong's just overhauled their kitchen and are supposed to be introducing new menu items over the next few months. Roy's, Alan Wong's and Chef Mavro all have loyal local customers along with the usual 'destination diners' but each appeals to a different type of local customer, if you will. Roy's is tried and true with even the daily specials following a particular flavor profile - the casual and friendly ambiance makes it a neighborhood spot that you depend upon. Alan Wong's is somewhat more adventurous but also uneven in execution (in my experience) and much fancier than Roy's in terms of what people dress like - it's a see and be seen place. Chef Mavro is for food lovers who delight in fine ingredients and innovative preparation more than anything else. You won't go wrong at any of them.

It's worth noting that the quality, variety and quantity of produce available at the farmers' markets on Oahu has been severely limited by the recent devastating rains. The Big Island was not nearly as affected by the unremitting rain as Oahu.

What won't you eat?

The publisher and author think to themselves...what will sell more books, a memoir about food and writing or a memoir about sex, food and writing? That one is a no brainer. They increased their audience significantly by expanding, as it were.