Chris Amirault

I'll be interested to know how this turns out. With that 1/4 c of allspice, I can't imagine you'll lack for pimento flavor, but the soaked berries seem like a good tweak.

Do you know the name of the other one?

Go for it. Skin is good.

Does anyone know what Sum Sabai means?

Amy, I'd be very interested to know what happens if you use, separately, pureed scallops and shrimp and compare. Those Perrier crab cakes, not surprisingly, look amazing.

johung, what do you mean by "available"? There are scads available used, but do you mean in print?

I came up with this apricot habanero glaze for lamb ribs, but it could be used for a lot of things, I'd think. And I think that every family should have several quarts of Inner Beauty Knock-Off hot sauce at hand.

Strain and serve up? Or on fresh rocks?

Meanwhile, using that Hess variation above and some killer mole paste that I can get here at an area Mexican market, I'm kludging out this attempt at a mole bitters: 1/4 c mole paste 1 c Hess variation bitters 1/2 c Flor de Cana gold 1/4 c Cruzan blackstrap rum

Ton Lam Yai & Warorot Markets I had my most remarkable experiences at Chiang Mai markets, and in this post I have photos of two of them: Ton Lam Yai and Warorot markets, between the northeast corner of the old city and the Ping, above the night bazaar areas. First, Ton Lam Yai market: This market sprawls through several rabbit-warren alleys, onto main streets, and throughout a multistory building in which I spent several hours over two days. The market is one of the main locations in CM for a wide variety of food-related equipment and supplies, and the shopkeepers there make grocers in Manhattan look like frivolous wasters of space. Near one of the main streets there was a gardening shop. Having watched a few southeast Asian produce staples wither and die in gardens over the years (and not knowing how Uncle Sam feels about seeds), I didn't buy anything, but the selection was impressive. Just down the alleyway was a shop selling an array of fishing supplies. Here are the sorts of nets we saw fishermen using on the beaches of Hua Hin to catch fish: Further into the market were three fantastic cooking shops. I left only with some long bamboo paddles for stirring deep stock pots, some small ladles for sauces, and a few other gewgaws, but I could have outfitted my kitchen a few times over without any hesitation had I easy access to a container port: This last photo doesn't show them very clearly, but after the wooden mortars and pestles were several large granite ones, and I seriously thought about carrying a deep 12" one onto the plane. I was talked out of this hare-brained scheme: In the basement of the main market was a prep area that, by the time this photo was shot, was pretty quiet. Several workers were asleep on the tables that had been used for prepping the variety of foodstuffs in upper floors, and there were a few stalls with a random assortment of stuff for sale: Like all CM markets, pork was prominently featured. It's hard to explain what it's like to walk around a corner and see someone cutting up pork bellies that look like this: I have been unable to find pork in the US that is as thick and well-marbled as the pork that I found throughout Thailand. In addition, this pork -- sitting out on a wooden cutting board in the midmorning heat -- smelled as sweet and as fresh as spring. This was one of the many moments that I regretted not having a kitchen nearby to use: Pork was also available as deep fried rinds: And as sausage: In a corner in the topmost floor of the market is a very small food stall run by a woman and her kids. After all this, I needed another breakfast: OK, back to the market. There was some prepared food at Ton Lam Yai, but not much compared to Warorot (and to the remarkable Siriwattana [Thanin] market -- more on that place in a bit). This fellow was emptying out several dozen tins of steamed rice preparing for the lunch rush: And down the way from him someone was bagging this beautiful rose of rice noodles: It must get boring to read this, but the produce was impeccable. After years of wondering why Thai chefs crow about Thai eggplants -- the ones at my local markets are astringent, browning, and dry -- I crunched into a few of these sweetly bitter beauties: As in Hua Hin, there were a few stalls with North American produce: I wasn't able to get an ID on these: are they flower buds? Lots of dried fish: And here's a typical stall with, well, everything. The picture isn't perfect, but trust me, this stuff was picture-perfect: Warorot Market was more focused on prepared foods. Most of the stuff was fried or grilled in outdoor stalls near Th Chang Klan. It was mushroom season, apparently, in the hills around Chiang Mai, and a lot of hill people were selling what they had gathered or cultivated (I wasn't sure which) along with other varieties that had been industrially packaged. Here are a few of the varieties that I saw -- and, again, that made me sad to lack a stove.

Sum Sabai Nimmanhaemin Soi 17 108 Sirimangkalajarn Rd. 0-5359-4950 We found this place completely by accident while wandering around Nimmenhamin one night. It is a cavernous open-air buffet that, as far as we could tell, was filled with CMU students hanging out for hours over the beer, grilled food, beer, impromptu soups, and beer. There was a large selection of fish, meat, and offal to grill and poach. Vegetables (mostly leafy greens like water spinach and cabbage) were also available. The prepared foods didn't seem particularly appealing to us, but there was quite a lot of it. We tried the dumplings and pad thai, and they were just ok. Here's a bit more of the spread: Sauces were a bit too sweet and gloppy: The set-up was really fun, though. You get two circular charcoal burners into which a server places the coals. Over one is a wire rack for grilling: The other has a stamped metal dome onto which you place meats and vegetables that cook and drain their flavors down into a moat that turns into an a la minute soup: Of course, lots of fruit and jellies for dessert. It was dirt cheap even for CM standards, and while it wasn't at the quality of Good View, it was a fun, relaxing time with fresh, simply prepared food. Absolutely worth a one-time visit on a short trip; it'd be on our regular cheap-eats itinerary if we lived there.

Dave, two questions for you. If you don't have Bulleit, can you make another recommendation? I'm going to try this with Wild Turkey 101 tonight. Is that 1 tablespoon of Herbsaint? It's a lot more than a rinse, and thus very interesting, if so. No one was shot for the Angostura heresy, eh?

During an afternoon spent using up store gift cards and merchandise credits, I found Hollinger and Schwartz's Art of the Bar at T J Maxx and then again at Williams-Sonoma, both on deep discount. I haven't made anything from it yet, but I'm very interested in their extension of some classic principles into different territory.

Has anyone tried to make the cherry vanilla bitters from The Art of the Bar by Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz? If so, where'd you get your cherry bark from?

I just received this sad news from member SuzySushi: We hope you'll join us in sending your personal condolences to her via PM or email.

No. Gastrile disfunction.

Absolutely in the Angostura camp, but esoteric if you mean (as does Mirriam Webster's) "of special, rare, or unusual interest" and " limited to a small circle." That stuff is hard to come by round these parts....

I think that's it exactly: more sugar. I've dialed back the sugar on my bacon and cook it at lower temps when I use the Polcyn & Ruhlman recipes for this reason.

You mean homemade or commercial? If the latter, I think Fee's whiskey-barrel aged bitters are outstanding.

I have been adjusting most of the recipes in this book by bumping up the fat and spice content to better effect.

I'd be loathe to say we make a lot of soul food here, but a lot of the food we make is definitely based in soul food. I am particularly partial to collards or kale braised a long time with a smoked hock or some bacon ends, onions, a few smashed garlic cloves, and several dried red peppers.

What's it taste like? If it's not a slightly chocolate-y, complex bitters, then you're out of luck.

I think not. I didn't see a Marconi Wireless up there: 1 3/4 oz applejack 3/4 oz Punt e Mes 2 dashes orange bitters

That Maiden's Prayer is dandy. Here are two with orgeat: Cameron's Kick (from the Savoy): 1 oz scotch 1 oz irish whiskey 1/2 oz lemon 1/2 oz orgeat Puerto Apple Cocktail (from cdb): 1 1/4 oz applejack 3/4 oz light rum 1/2 oz lime 1/4 oz orgeat

Got it. That makes sense. I've done the first filtering series for a batch of bitters here, and still am grappling with having a weak spot give in the filter paper. It's pretty clear now and settling out a bit more louche. I'm going to try to do the last run in the next few days, will grab the camera when I do. ETA: I did the scrape test and there's not much there. It's not without flavor, and the louche is sweet, but it's mainly just sort of muddy.