Chris Amirault

Very interesting and promising meal at Ebisu last night. Big hits were the tuna tostada, deep-fried sandwiches of nori and rice topped with tuna tartare, the ebi wonton soup (great wontons) and shumai, and the shiitake and geso robata yaki. The chicken dishes (sasami and tori yakisoba) were marred by overcooked chicken; I suspect they had been par-cooked and then finished instead of cooked a la minute. But lots of little details are solid: great pork stock in the wonton soup, interesting shumai filling, sort of a pate of shrimp, cabbage, etc. It was very quiet, with only the last few minutes bringing in any customers. However, we'll be back and with the kids and guests. I'm really excited that something like this is in town.

Indeed they were.

Word. True dat.

You're not a shill. If the quality jump is what you describe, it makes sense for many members. As a Food Saver owner, I'm eager to hear the specific differences.

Not sure which Chris you mean, but I presume not me. My Big Ben was devised by plattetude and has rye, genever, Benedictine, and orange bitters. YMMV. Meanwhile, I had only lemons (that is to say, not limes) on hand, was eager to partake of a batch of Erik's excellent Swedish punsch, and the wife wanted a drink (which means a sour). I found the Waldorf (Savoy version: 2 punsch, 1 gin, 1 lemon/lime), and started tinkering. First, I wanted to use some of the rhum arigricole I had procured on sale in place of gin. Second, I had some cinnamon tincture and pimento dram that I wanted to dash in, if possible. Made it, and it's damned good. Tweeted around for some a good, freaky Swedish/Jamaican hybrid name. Considered the White Rasta and the Kingston Hostel cocktail. Finally, saved by Dave the Cook, who is, clearly, a genius: The Ja, Mon Cocktail 2 oz Swedish punsch (Underhill Punsch Tales version). 1 oz rhum agricole (Niesson) 1 oz lemon 2 dashes pimento dram (homemade) dash cinnamon tincture What is the sound of one white Rastafarian clapping?

Bump. Was at the farmers market and saw a perfect head of cabbage for stuffing, big leaves and all. I had saved about half of a trimmed lamb leg (2 lbs, maybe?) from the grill this weekend and decided to get going tonight. Blanched the cabbage leaves. Mixed some red onion, garlic, grilled scallions I had from earlier this week, as well as the last slab of salt-cured lemon rinds, all minced finely. Added some zataar, thyme, cinnamon, roasted thai red peppers, S&P, and smoked paprika. Ground up the lamb, and added as much rice as seemed appropriate. Doused the whole thing with a few Ts of pomegranate molasses and mixed with a vengeance. After reaching the boil on the stovetop, they're now in a 300F oven covered in a quart of tomato juice and some roasted chicken stock. I'll report back.

Well, I like both. I am happy to have a cooked yolk in my egg sandwich -- don't want runny while I'm driving -- but can't imagine a cooked yolk in, say, bibimbap.

?

Thought I'd embrace the second anniversary of Portland's fantastic Teardrop Lounge and make one of David Shenaut's Dizzy Sours. Got to the lemon and couldn't find any, so I tanked it. Strike one. Found a lime, though, so I thought I'd make this funky punsch sour I have been working on. Got everything ready to go and, instead of turning the empty glass over the metal shaker, I turned the full glass over the floor and myself. Strike two. At this point, I found the half lemon in the fridge, so I decided I should make a version of a Gloom Lifter I've been wondering about, subbing in some scotch with the Irish whiskey and adding a dash or two of cinnamon tincture. Grabbed the demerara I was going to add, squirted it in -- and realized it was mislabeled ginger syrup. Strike three. When I'm making bad drink after bad drink, I nearly always go to the Manhattan, a nearly un-screw-up-able drink: Rittenhouse BIB 2 to Punt e Mes 1. Happily, I have Luxardo Maraschino cherries in the fridge, and I took two. Figured if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, you know? When you're down and out, making swill drink after swill drink, what's your go-to, back in the saddle libation?

Just spent too much time trying to find a happy marriage between pisco acholado and lavender honey syrup. Didn't get 'em to the altar.

Having just returned from a farmers market (Hope St) here in Providence, I have another worry to add to the list of NE tomato-lovers: most of them so far suck. The lack of sun and the absurd amount of rain is producing inferior fruit, even without the fungus problem. It's depressing as all get-out.

(That's Al Forno, guys.) Can you say more about the soft-cooked egg pizza? How were the eggs prepared? Were they cooked atop the dough in the oven or cooked prior? Chicken eggs?

Got into it with someone else recently. She raised another issue I hadn't considered but that makes perfect sense: the pressure that some distributors put on stores to stock only their products at the expense of others. It's illegal, apparently, for distributors to refuse to sell you stuff, but that doesn't mean that there aren't other stalling, delivery, etc. tactics that can be used. Of course, for customers like me that want the widest selection, that means dealing with the widest array of distributors, which makes the big boys unhappy. Also got a peek at a RI Beverage Journal. That is about the least organized collection of information I've ever seen. And I cannot fathom why people are so paranoid about keeping it out of consumer hands. The retail price I pay is more than stores pay wholesale: who knew?!?

Agreed. Nothing wrong with having a set of reassuring, go-to regulars. But if I'm not tossing one into the sink now and then, I can worry that I'm settling in, and not in a good way. Speaking of which, I just ordered the book. Eager to weigh in with more reaction when it arrives. ET correct spelling

I had Jeff's experience as well (Friendly's, for those in New England): taught to scoop out a 4-ounce portion. Sometimes I'll still see the kids weigh the scoops before putting them on cones. Around here, Sunshine Creamery in East Providence has massive scoops, at least 6 ounces each, whereas Ben & Jerry's on Thayer is positively scrooge-like.

The latter, I'm sure.

After having enjoyed an Art of Choke with some new mint from out back and using the new recipe -- less lime, 2:1 demerara, etc. -- I sat down to reread this topic. As I did, I kept thinking about these guys as some combination of David Embury and Andre Breton. I'll admit, I like the idea of people writing manifestos; I like the bravado, the "fuck y'all" youth of it. I guess, like Dave, I'm "comfortably midd[l]e-aged" and have an appreciation for those who aren't. In case you didn't notice, his comments about "complacency and creativity" are iceberg tips with sharp points. My wife would also remind me that I also like self-indulgent, overweening flops. Blumenthal's salmon/licorice dish; Lou Reed's "Berlin"; Marinetti's textural meals; the entire Mekons catalogue; Embury's 8:2:1 sours: a lot of people hate(d) those things and were happy to let us know why. But I'm attracted to the brazenness of it all, the idea that someone's gonna drag me by the lapels into the back alley and let me have it in the name of art. Feel free to blame it all on my overeducation -- or on some notion that people flailing around with weird new ideas is a good thing, even if you find the ideas idiotic or repugnant. Take this Broken Shoe Shiner: 1 oz Aperol 1 oz Pernod 1 oz Benedictine 1 oz lemon juice 1 oz pineapple juice egg white Dry shake; shake with ice; strain; top with nine rose water drops. (I used 14.) As indicated above, on paper this looks like an avant garde car wreck. (Big fan of J. G. Ballard's Crash here.) But. Note the lineage. It's a bittered sour: bitters, sweet, juice, with base lurking in strange places. Audrey Saunders's Intro to Aperol (Aperol with freakish other elements) and French Pearl (mint where it doesn't belong) are hanging about if only you look. That Pernod/pineapple combo is straight out of the tiki tradition; sub in Angostura for the rose water (a pretty nice idea, I'd bet, if you want something earthier) and Herbsaint for Pernod: you've got Don the Beachcomber's tiki sour base complete with "secret ingredient." I just made the freakish thing, as if on a dare. Damned if it wasn't tasty. It may well be perfect. It's some crazy dance performance on Baltimore local TV in 1962: the rose, egg white and Benedictine frug around on top, while the Aperol, Pernod, and juices shimmy beneath. I'd drink this drink every night of my life. I'd teach it as an example of, as Toby said, the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. If it could be made into food, I'd live on it. But if it had turned out to be the Emperor's New Clothes, so be it. I can live with that, someone telling me to add this to that and keep fingers crossed, with the whole mess ending up in the sink. Toby said it above: "It tastes like everything therefore it tastes like nothing. Like adding all colors you get black." Shit happens. But some of those disasters-on-paper will be lobster drinks: when you look at 'em, you feel the bile rise, but in your glass they are sublime. The Art of Choke is, for me, one of those drinks; the Broken Shoe Shiner is another. I'll waste a dozen fifths to find two more drinks like those in my lifetime.

Still looking. Meanwhile, I'm pondering the question on page 209: "IS ALCOHOL ESSENTIAL TO LIFE?"

Here's the intro to the Ruhlman & Polcyn recipe (p 185 in the first edition): I don't think that this is an American conspiracy, either. In The Oxford Companion to Food, under "Sausages of Italy," we find: Across the channel, in Larousse Gastronomique, we find the entry "peperone": (Oh, and to clarify above, the Ruhlman & Polcyn soppressata recipe is 80 lean/20 fat but 100% pork, no beef.)

Did anyone attend the seminar on the psychology of bartender:guest relations?

I'm confused. Why are you only concerned with commercial pepperoni? Do you think that Ruhlman and Polcyn are lying about peperone's Roman roots?

Not often, true. But that Ruhlman & Polcyn recipe is an example. ← They have another recipe for sopressata that looks a lot more like sopressata than their recipe for peperone. ← They are two very different recipes. Their recipe for peperone is entirely lean beef; the soppressata is 80/20 pork.

It loses the floral nose slowly, and is noticeable after maybe a few weeks or so.

Just in case you missed it at the topic's original post, this Southern Foodways Alliance compendium is a goldmine of ideas, inspiration, and damned good writing.

What was good about 'em, Susan? I keep mine simple -- lard, salt, quatres epices, etc. Did Boulud do something unusual?