Chris Amirault

Thanks, Mitch, for asking this. I have precisely the same issue: I feel confident about sharpening my western knives (mostly Wusthof, but some Henkels and Chicago Cutlery thrown in there) but very hesitant about my Ken Onion Shun chef's knife.

Would you stick Oleana in expensive or middle?

Just made a Hoskins Cocktail with this pre-tinkering Amer Picon. I don't have any Torani Amer around, so I can't compare, but, boy, that's a swell drink.

Around here, WT 80 is about $21-22, and WT 101 is $25-27. When it was available, I could find Rittenhouse for $15-17 bucks no problem.

Agreed: The Wild Turkey 101 is a swell product. But it's also inferior to, and $10 more than, the Rittenhouse BIB 100. In mourning, having stopped at a few places this week that didn't carry the Rittenhouse or were out, I made a final Rittenhouse Red Hook. We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when....

Again, the prices are remarkable. Three decent burgers -- for two adults and a kid -- for under $30 is hard to find in Providence outside of Stanley's.

Yup: Dallas Convention Center located at 650 S. Griffin St. Dallas, Texas 75202.

We're happy to announce that Chris Hennes has joined our hosting team. Chris will be working with the Kitchen and regional forum teams. Society volunteers donate their time to create topics, keep forums organized, support members, and make the eG Forums the vibrant place it is. Please join us in welcoming and thanking Chris by sending him a PM. Here's to Chris!

Bumping this up in anticipation of a trip to Dallas in early November. I'm eager to try places that a conventioneer can reach without a car (I'll take public transit if need be and it exists) and that typify Dallas food for a New Englander: Tex-Mex, brisket, links, whatever you think. Low- to midrange prices -- and I'll eat anything. Thanks.

Tell me about Dallas cocktail bars. Is anyone plying the craft in the Big D?

Henry had lots of success with this very set up a while back uptopic: click here for that discussion.

As someone who felt wholly indulged by APdC, I'm fascinated by this. What exactly was indigent about it? Or are you being hyperbolic for some reason?

So is the smoke at 200F the only roasting of the raw almonds you've done?

I've been trying to figure out how to produce consistent smoked almonds starting from skin-on raw. My results have been hit or miss, and I've not developed a consistent system yet. I'd appreciate any tips or ideas, especially about these questions: What are effective ways to salt and/or sugar the nuts slightly? I've tried brines (some success) and applying well-pestled salt and sugar at the end (less so). What's the proper time to roast them: before or after smoking? What temp do you roast them at, and for how long While on the subject of heat: hot smoke or cold smoke? Temp? Duration? I'm sure I'll have more questions as the topic grows -- and as my favorite cocktail nosh supply runs low...!

Quick update. The non-stick "jerky" racks are fantastic, and anyone who has had problems with the original racks should just get them. They're a bit small for smoking nuts, I've found, but other than that everything else is a breeze.

Has anyone ever made sweet/sticky rice with their Zojirushi machine before? I see the setting but haven't tried it yet; however, I'd be very happy to break out of the soak/steam pattern that I currently use.

Both pork? About how much rosemary are you using for the first sausages? Minced? Those cumin/porter links sound amazing too.

But I don't think anyone has claimed that ear wax jelly beans are art. In addition, they aren't actually made from ear wax. I think. The point of "Fountain" was that it was an actual urinal. Paul, I think you've got a point about post-modernism. However, the composition of dishes at most of the restaurants we're discussing is absolutely modernist, as are the tendencies to seek the "essences" of certain ingredients, especially in the early El Bulli dishes. So, a bit of modernism, a bit of post-modernism... again showing, I think, that clear trajectories from the world of visual arts, architecture, and performance into culinary arts are hard to define.

I don't get it. What would the equivalents in the culinary world be for "Fountain"? No one is serving refuse as food, I think, which makes "I declare this garbage to be fine cuisine" not as workable as "I declare this urinal to be art." Ditto "Bride Stripped Bare": are there multiyear projects involving flawed, accidental elements that make their way onto the plates at WD-50, El Bulli, or Fat Duck?

Living in a bereft cocktail bar city, I've decided that I have to go with what's there, and try to turn it into a bit of a game. The key is not to choose a crucial element from the mediocre-to-bad stuff: start with something good and go from there. The other night at Al Forno, I started with a decent bourbon, asked about bitters (Angostura -- check), and then asked about Italian vermouth: not much there. (Much could be said about the lack of decent Italian vermouth at Al Forno, but I shan't say it.) So I went with a bourbon Old Fashioned, which was just fine, thank you.

They're good, if untraditional, with carnitas, I think.

I had named it "I Heart jmfangio" in my cocktail list, and even I know that The Marguerita is better than that.

I store that chipotle ancho rub in a jar in the fridge. The tasks of frying chiles just right without burning, mincing a ton of garlic, and grinding it all up to the proper shaggy texture take enough time that I made a double batch this time and have stored half in a vacuum-sealed package in the freezer. I'll be able to compare fresh vs frozen down the road.

Once you get the meat to the temp of the pot/oven, then it doesn't matter how big the chunks are; it's about time at that temp. The trick is to pull the meat out of the braise before it's done to the degree it would be in a dish that wouldn't have a second cooking. It's like making a daube or chili that you plan to chill and serve the next day: since you're reheating it you want to undercook the meat a bit.

I think that looking at the connection between avant garde art and molecular gastronomy as an "evolutionary path" is wrong, too. (I do think that the points made above about the culinary lineage demonstrated in these dining experiences are pretty accurate.) However, I think that you can accept irregular influences and connections without accepting direct lines of pedigree. There are clear differences between the avant garde art movements and current molecular gastronomy trends, not the least of which is the lack of any political content in the latter. Whatever they are, the series of El Bulli books are not manifestos in a political sense. I think that, in many ways, molecular gastronomy is damned to be quite conservative, in that the form must always engage with a diner's pleasure, taste, "soul," and so on. Dufresne may annoy people now and then with his pizza bites, but he can't turn into Karen Finley and grind sweet potatoes into their faces as part of a compelling performance. Unlike viewers of visual and performance-based art, event "cutting-edge" diners pretty universally reject annoying, confrontational, unpleasant meals -- or even single dishes. Spielberg can start "Saving Private Ryan" with a grueling battle scene, but can you really imagine Achatz starting your meal with a grueling dish like The NE Clam Bake, a littleneck clam and chunk of lobster in a ground shell and sand batter encased in a corn noodle dough wrapped with a few threads of corn silk?