Chris Amirault

I've never seen those before. Do you know of any internet outlets?

Speaking of shanks, just put up four lamb shanks at 70C for 48h. Used a rub with ras al hanout and Aleppo pepper, and added a mixture of chicken fat and butter that we had used for dipping artichokes earlier in the evening. Will report back.

If you count the last 24 hours -- which I will do for the sake of contribution -- it's easy: the Chinois Chicken Salad at Wolfie-To-Go in LAX. Just because it was the best option available doesn't mean it wasn't wretched.

Completely blown away by Cambodia Town and, especially, Little Saigon. But, first, Anaheim options. Went back to Thai Nakorn and had a great meal again. I had the best Chiang Mai sausage I've had outside of my kitchen or Chiang Mai itself, and the pad thai was very good. The three dishes that I thought were outstanding were the nam sod pork salad, the yum yai shrimp salad, and "Tom Kroung Nai Voi" soup, which we ordered because of the seeming reference to kroeung, Khmer curry paste, in the title. It was a rich, meaty broth with pork (neck and shoulder?), big chunks of tripe, and more. There's no description of it on the menu, but it was worth the risk. If you like offal, you'll love it. Also went to Thuyen Vien Vegetarian Restaurant, which was also excellent. I'm no fan of vegetarian food generally speaking, and I don't go for the faux meat tofu dishes, but the array of savory dishes we had at lunch proved that the kitchen was adept. The canh chua was outstanding, with a lot of mushrooms providing a meaty foil to the other ingredients. We also scooped up two dishes with rice chips: the umami-laden seaweed xao lan w tofu & mushrooms and rice chips and the goi mit, the best jackfruit salad I've ever had. I could eat at those two restaurants and never go hungry.

nickloman, Pam Reiss is coordinating the foodblogs; you can read more about that here. Prawncrackers, I'm really eager to follow your foodblog! What markets will you be visiting later this week? Why those?

Forgive the ignorance: brown sauce would be...?

Though I hardly have a fraction of Adam or others' experience in this topic, I will affirm that combining separate infusions produces a product that tastes more like a product of separate infusions than a unified product. To that end, I still have most of this stuff in little jars, as I haven't been able to figure out workable combinations of the tinctures.

Here are a few notes from my experiments/fumbling around with a variety of bittering agents.

You can read the Eater coverage here. Their questions:

The only problem with that is -- as with all mammals -- humans need that NaCl to do its chemical duty. Governments and companies may find a flavor substitute, but good luck finding one that won't destroy the species.

Funny: I'm reading Mark Kurlansky's Salt right now, so it's a bit ironic that, of all the substances one could battle over (fat, HFCS, booze, etc.), they've got NaCl in their sights. Battling over salt seems a central feature of human existence and government.... Almost immediately in his book, Kurlansky says that there's no consensus on how much salt a human body needs, and thus no consensus on what is "too much." Given that "too much" correlates with bad things ("Eating too much salt raises blood pressure and puts people at risk of strokes and heart disease, chronic illnesses which drain public health resources" -- very bad indeed!), it seems important to know where "ok" and "too much" divide, and that may be a fool's errand given Nick's points. Doesn't this get down to Michael Pollan's "Eat Food," as in "(Not Heavily Salted Processed Food)," point?

But if you had to choose only one...

Good point. Ditto for Angostura orange.

Thanks for these; they're on my google map. Any more to add?

Responding within the constraints you mentioned, I'd suggest that you search cocktaildb for both orange and Peychaud's bitters. You'll quickly see a roughly representative list of the options on both sides. Much as I love my Sazeracs, I'd choose Regan's orange bitters over Peychaud's if I had to choose. Thankfully, I do not have to do so.

I'm pretty sure Domino superfine doesn't have cornstarch. Powdered nearly always does, no matter the brand.

I wanted to pull this great point out. Dressings are a great place to figure out these sorts of balances, because you can usually and endlessly adjust with a pinch of this or a dash of that. David Thompson talks about that in his classic Thai Food, and emphasizes tasting as you add each ingredient.

Gotcha -- the Achatz connection especially makes sense to me given your comments about nostalgia. The dish seems to have enough objects on it. How about a gastrique with a dried fruit, or some of Achatz's burnt toast sauce for bitterness? Just a bit of it on the plate as a counterpoint.... I think that sounds like a fantastic amuse for lots of reasons: it's a great way to kick off the story in an unmanipulated, authentic reference to your past; porcinis are in season, and the entire dish screams "autumn," so it references time (both now and past); it's a classic dish that's both everyone's and yours -- sort of like love itself. Finally, it would also taste great. Nothing wrong with mushy.

Sorry: yes, they add it for you unless you ask for stuff on the side. Speaking of which, if you're ever short on heavy cream and the stores are closed, you can always go to Dunkin Donuts and ask for an "extra extra extra light -- but don't add the cream," and they'll give you a separate cup with about, well, a cup of cream in it.

You mean if you go in a place and order a coffee to go it will have milk and sugar in it unless you ask not? I mean that, if you order your coffee "regular," that's what you get. If you state "regular" or if you order a coffee and the server says "Regular?" and you say "Yes," for sure; if you provide no modifier at all and they don't ask, that's what you'll likely get as well. It's the assumed default. I note that because I've been to other places where "regular" meant "black."

Welcome, makemewarmer! I had a few thoughts: Overall the dishes seem... a bit forced. While I get the Keller-esque play here, I note stuff that would, at least in my head, produce a lot of dissonance for cleverness. In particular, I worry about the juxtaposition of rosemary, curry, and banana, and think that delicate rabbit might not make its existence known given the potent other ingredients. The bubble gum shot seems misplaced. Given the attention to everything else, I guess I can't help but think flavored vodka, of all things, is a bit cutesy. What role do you see it playing in the course of the meal? It doesn't seem to me to function as a palate cleanser, or a dessert, or even interesting booze. Maybe that's the question: what's the story you're trying to tell in this meal? What's the trajectory you're charting?

We are already planning responses in eG Forums and elsewhere for the book's release. Watch this space!

Did the vinegar thing this weekend with some romaine that was a bit limp. It's probably a placebo effect but it seemed to perk up a bit more than a typical ice water rinse.

I haven't and am very interested. Do you have a recipe you're considering?

Do report back. Some time ago I tried to make Jamaican jerk bitters (click for post up-topic) but couldn't find a use for 'em. The main problem there was the scotch bonnets and habañeros, of course!