Chris Amirault

Evan Williams black label, Broker's gin, and NP dry. KD1191, that's quite a haul! Interested to see what you think about that Old Fitzgerald. I have two very old bottles of Chartreuse that have a funky quality that really works in some things but, with citrus, say, really doesn't. And: Peach Heering?!?!

Ardbeg Supernova 2010, Macallan Cask Strength, and Highland Park 18. Sigh.

Thanks to the Modernist Cuisine fried chicken recipe, I'm now in possession of a rather remarkable ingredient: buttermilk powder. Sure, you can use it in your homemade pancake mix, but it adds an excellent tang to spice rubs and other savory coatings. I dusted some onto smoked ribs the other day to great effect. It got me wondering about what other uses there were for the stuff!

Quick Update: Phu Lam Market has gotten really lousy as of late, with produce quality very sub-par. Narin & Chinese American Market are still the leaders.

What he said. And for those of us on the East Coast, an array of good burger joints from which to choose is enviable.

Good point: I have a very old bottle (still has the tax stamp on it) of the 90 proof formula. Who knows what relationship that has to the 100 proof stuff (the new version of which doesn't do it for me).

What a fantastically useful post, blackp. I'm very grateful. A few follow-up questions: This is what I also understood from the discussion of chamber machines in Modernist Cuisine. However, I thought -- perhaps wrongly -- that a chart like the one above linking %ages to -cmHg would allow me to seal the bag at the right moment, eliminating the boiling risk. True, I gotta be standing there to do that! But that should work as well, shouldn't it? Whose your supplier? Apologies if I missed this. Uh oh... I feel another SV equipment purchase coming on....

Thanks, Janet. I know you and Dave are old hands at this! That's the plan! I'll be adding those notes right here, in fact. I copied all the recipes (plus that schedule and the menu) for everyone to have for tomorrow save the noodle dish, which I think we're going to do together at wok as the dish cooked last before eating. But the sheet pan idea is genius! That's a great way for us to organize our mise as we prep, and those pans (and beer trays, and...) can be carried around from prep area to cooking area. Good point. I have been accused of liking the sound of my own voice in my teaching evaluations.... Just added that to the list. Thanks!

And agreed. You learn more when you teach than anytime else. This event is likely to involve a lot of learning for all of us, and I'm surely going to have many changes to make after the inevitable snafus.

Thanks for the feedback! They're all college students with some experience with and interest in cooking. My thinking is that people can switch between groups at the 15 minute breaks depending on what they want to do, and that we can all crowd around to see stuff that's worth watching because the schedule's pretty leisurely. (I've made this entire meal in an afternoon alone, and the bulk of the time is prep.) I should have explained more clearly. The class is intended as a very hands-on experience, not as a credit-bearing lecture. That's how I teach and how I think people best learn. If this were a day at CIA on SEA cooking, the goals and methods would likely be very different. My job today is going to be to develop a shopping list, sharpen knives, create workstations, and get out all of the ingredients and equipment that they'll need to do the work. In addition, dinner's going to be cooked at the last minute and nothing needs to be served immediately except the snack fritters, so if we're a bit behind here or there we should be ok. Having said that, if you see places in the schedule where things seem too cramped, I'd be very interested to know where those crowds are. Yes: we'll use everything once and pile it in the sink to be cleaned later. We need a small number of cooking vessels, all of which will be single use, and I am a fetishistic collector of stainless bowls of a variety of sizes. I"ll handwash knives as needed. I agree completely. The salads we'll prepare together so that we can taste and discuss balance, and brave souls will do actual cooking of the dishes at the stove so that people can see the caramel darken, the coconut cream crack, etc. (I'll be cooking the last dish, the noodles, at the wok station.) That's a really good point. I had assumed that the president of the Brown Epicurean Society would do this but haven't said so explicitly. I was hoping I could bribe my 13 year old daughter into this role, but she's in Arizona! That's a great point. I'll get that out today. Agreed!

Thanks for all the information, everyone. Here's the skinny on what's happening this weekend. I'm hosting nine members of the Brown Epicurean Society at my house for a multiregional Southeast Asian meal. Here's the menu, which "maybes" in parentheses: Brown Epicurean Society SE Asian Dinner March 2011 Khmer shrimp fritters Khmer shrimp with black pepper & cilantro Thai chicken geng gari Khmer eggplant with ground pork Thai mushroom salad Khmer pomelo salad with smoked fish Thai rice noodles with greens, green peppercorns, and thai basil sticky rice Based on the "scale back" advice here, I've cut out a few things: a soup (canh chua, the lone Vietnamese dish), some pickles, an egg dish. We'll start by doing some shopping and then hit my house for about three hours of cooking, talking, and eating. Thanks to Dave the Cook and JAZ, I got the idea of breaking the group of nine into three smaller work groups, and then divided up tasks in quarter-hour chunks: <html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/><meta name='lsq' content='1'/><meta name='trixrows' content='102'/><meta name='trixr1' content='0'/><meta name='trixr2' content='17'/><meta name='trixdiv' content='20'/><meta name='trixcnt' content='1'/><meta name='trixlast' content='17'/><link rel=stylesheet href="/client/css/598663115-tiler_view-ssl.css" type="text/css"><style>html {overflow:visible};</style><style>.tblGenFixed td {padding:0 3px;overflow:hidden;white-space:normal;letter-spacing:0;word-spacing:0;background-color:#fff;z-index:1;border-top:0px none;border-left:0px none;border-bottom:1px solid #CCC;border-right:1px solid #CCC;} .dn {display:none} .tblGenFixed td.s0 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border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 class='tblGenFixed' id='tblMain_0'><tr class='rShim'><td class='rShim' style='width:0;'><td class='rShim' style='width:69px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:250px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:250px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:250px;'><td class='rShim' style='width:250px;'><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td colspan=3 class='s0'>BES SE Asian Meal March 2011<td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'><td class='s1'><td class='s1'></tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s2'><td class='s3'><td class='s3'><td class='s3'><td class='s3'></tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s4'><td class='s5'>Group 1<td class='s5'>Group 2<td class='s5'>Group 3<td class='s5'>CA</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>5:00:00<td class='s7'>Intro & recipe overview<td class='s7'>Intro & recipe overview<td class='s7'>Intro & recipe overview<td class='s7'>start Ultra Pride grinding rice and start sticky rice</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>5:15:00<td class='s7'>Clean produce<td class='s7'>Clean produce<td class='s7'>Clean shrimp<td class='s7'>Prep deep fryer</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>5:30:00<td class='s7'>Knife Skills Demo & Work<td class='s7'>Knife Skills Demo & Work<td class='s7'>Knife Skills Demo & Work<td class='s7'>Knife Skills Demo & Work and clean Ultra Pride</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>5:45:00<td class='s7'>Prep geng gari paste<td class='s7'>Prep fritter batter, mushrooms, & pomelo salad<td class='s7'>Prep shrimp, noodle, and eggplant<td class='s7'>Assist</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>6:00:00<td class='s7'>Deep fry overview and shrimp fritters<td class='s7'>Deep fry overview and shrimp fritters<td class='s7'>Deep fry overview and shrimp fritters<td class='s7'>Deep fry overview and shrimp fritters</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>6:15:00<td class='s7'>Eat fritters & discuss geng gari/curry<td class='s7'>Eat fritters & discuss geng gari/curry<td class='s7'>Eat fritters & discuss geng gari/curry<td class='s7'>Eat fritters & discuss geng gari/curry; start curry</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>6:30:00<td class='s7'>Taste, discuss, & prepare liquids<td class='s7'>Taste, discuss, & prepare liquids<td class='s7'>Taste, discuss, & prepare liquids<td class='s7'>geng gari</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>6:45:00<td class='s7'>Sauté, mise en place, & wok discussion<td class='s7'>Sauté, mise en place, & wok discussion<td class='s7'>Sauté, mise en place, & wok discussion<td class='s7'>Sauté, mise en place, & wok discussion</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>7:00:00<td class='s7'>Fire salads<td class='s7'>Fire eggplant & pork on stove <td class='s7'>Fire shrimp on stove<td class='s7'>Fire noodles in wok</tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>7:15:00<td colspan=4 class='s8'>Dinner!<td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'></tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>7:30:00<td colspan=4 class='s8'>Dinner!<td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'></tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>7:45:00<td colspan=4 class='s8'>Clean Up<td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'></tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>7:55:00<td colspan=4 class='s8'>Wrap Up<td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'></tr><tr><td class=hd><p style='height:42px;'>.</td><td class='s6'>8:00:00<td colspan=4 class='s8'>Head Back to Providence<td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'><td style='display:none;'></tr></table></table></body></html> Feedback is welcome!

Next time you go, spend a few minutes watching the workers do their jobs. The space is designed with a level of care and attention that is remarkable. I learned more about designing a bar for quality cocktail making than I have in most bars.

Case in point: Barbara, why do you think it sucks? When was the last time you had food there? Full disclosure: my daughter chose Mickey D's as her birthday dinner location. I didn't argue against it, because, whatever my objections to fast food or McDs, I loves me a Filet-o-Fish.

Can you describe what an "overly ambitious menu" looks like?

From the Wall St Journal: Pepsi fans, are you embracing the Nehi/RC Cola of the 21st century?

I've charted my experiences with cocktail workshops in this topic, and I feel like I've got a good handle on those. However, I'm starting to do some facilitation around cooking, not cocktail-making. If you've taught cooking workshops before, what advice do you have? If you've taken cooking classes, what works? What doesn't?

That's fascinating. What variety of green olives did you use?

Thanks, brinza & Katie. I'll give both of those Sazeracs a go.

Photos please! I have an early edition of Authentic Mexican andm on the dust jacket, Bayless looks like he hasn't started shaving.

Indeed, much pressure is being applied to the good peeps at Eat Your Books -- the founder is a member here, natch -- to index Modernist Cuisine. Lifetime member here.

I just made a Test Pilot: 1 1/2 oz dark rum 3/4 oz light rum 1/2 oz lime 1/2 oz falernum 1/2 oz Cointreau dash Herbsaint* dash Angostura Note the asterisk: I subbed in the outstanding Leopold Bros absinthe for the Herbsaint. It's tasty and all, but... It's not a Test Pilot. These tiki drinks need that Angostura/Herbsaint combo. That is to say, the absinthe substitute isn't ersatz; it's authentic. Ditto the Pernod in a French Pearl: sub in absinthe and you have a completely different drink. That got me wondering what other drinks are lessened by using "the real thing." Yes, I realize that Herbsaint was, for the tiki gods, the only game in town and are thus as real as it gets. But you get my point: in what drinks do absinthe substitutes, faux triple sec, and other not-quites make the libation?

This sounds somewhat like schwa in Chicago, where I ate on a recent trip: lower-end prices, (with haphazard decor and service) but an extremely ambitious modern approach to food. I loved it, but at least one or two people in my party vastly preferred the more homey (and also excellent) Lula Café. Which is to say, I'd go back to schwa, but I don't know that the others in my party would do the same. Having been involved with an ambitious new restaurant starting up in the past year, one that changes its menu every night, I am deeply aware of the tenuous relationship between regulars and regularity of offering, particularly at at this price point. In short, it sounds risky to me, and it definitely depends on your location. If you're in a large urban area with no similar offerings, well, it might work. But in most locations this would be very tough to pull off.

Oh, man, I'm so down with grandpa style! I don't know what it says about me, but that's my approach, more often than not.

Really. I declare that stains, burns, rips, and random sticky powders are signs that you have a true first edition, not some relic you bound in plastic to pay for your vacation home in Roses, Spain.

Right. Eggs have this excellent natural container, see...