Jason Perlow

Please join Richard Hamilton, executive chef of the Spiced Pear Restaurant in Newport, Rhode Island for an eGullet Q&A the week of October 25, 2004. Chef Hamilton grew up in the restaurant business with his family in Oklahoma and began cooking at the tender age of six. He received his formal training from the Ritz-Escoffier Ecole du Gastronomie and Le Cordon Bleu culinary academy. After his graduation he worked as saucier at the French two-star Michelin restaurant Espadon under Chef Michel Roth and Guy Legay. Hamilton has also served as Chef du Cuisine at the MGM Mirage Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas and Magnolia’s in Nashville, where he earned the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine in 1999 and a four diamond rating from AAA. Most recently, Hamilton consulted as the Executive Chef at the Dunmore Beach Club on Harbour Island in the Bahamas. In the course of his 20-year career, Hamilton did stages with renowned chefs such as Joel Robuchon, Alain Ducasse and Jean-Georges Vongerichten and has had the pleasure of working at events with such chefs as Thomas Keller, Todd English, and Charlie Trotter. Hamilton has also been a featured chef at the James Beard House in New York on several occasions, most recently in February 2003. At the Spiced Pear, Hamilton draws upon his diverse experience to combine island spices, Southern Flavors and New England seafood for his signature style. “Every day, I draw upon all the flavors and countries that have influenced my cooking – from the freshest seafood in the Bahamas to the simplicity of a crystal clear French consommé. I approach each day as a chance to create something new,” he says of his approach which also includes creating menus each day based on what is in-house as opposed to ordering for a specific dish. Hamilton lives in Newport, Rhode Island with his wife and four-year old son. Click Here for the Richard Hamilton Q&A

That has to be a change since we last ate there, roz. I'd say that when the restaurant was new, the use of garlic was very hefty.

Rachel and I ate there twice about 4 or 5 years ago. Definitely pre-eGullet in terms of relating my last experience there. We enjoyed it a lot, but you need to be a hardcore garlic fan. I haven't heard anything positive or negative about the place since, though.

One of the best meals I have ever had was a late night meal with a group of friends in 2002 at The Fifth Floor. Laurent is a genius and I hope he gets picked up at a really top notch restaurant.

Please join Richard Hamilton, executive chef of the Spiced Pear Restaurant in Newport, Rhode Island for an eGullet Q&A the week of October 25, 2004. Chef Hamilton grew up in the restaurant business with his family in Oklahoma and began cooking at the tender age of six. He received his formal training from the Ritz-Escoffier Ecole du Gastronomie and Le Cordon Bleu culinary academy. After his graduation he worked as saucier at the French two-star Michelin restaurant Espadon under Chef Michel Roth and Guy Legay. Hamilton has also served as Chef du Cuisine at the MGM Mirage Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas and Magnolia’s in Nashville, where he earned the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine in 1999 and a four diamond rating from AAA. Most recently, Hamilton consulted as the Executive Chef at the Dunmore Beach Club on Harbour Island in the Bahamas. In the course of his 20-year career, Hamilton did stages with renowned chefs such as Joel Robuchon, Alain Ducasse and Jean-Georges Vongerichten and has had the pleasure of working at events with such chefs as Thomas Keller, Todd English, and Charlie Trotter. Hamilton has also been a featured chef at the James Beard House in New York on several occasions, most recently in February 2003. At the Spiced Pear, Hamilton draws upon his diverse experience to combine island spices, Southern Flavors and New England seafood for his signature style. “Every day, I draw upon all the flavors and countries that have influenced my cooking – from the freshest seafood in the Bahamas to the simplicity of a crystal clear French consommé. I approach each day as a chance to create something new,” he says of his approach which also includes creating menus each day based on what is in-house as opposed to ordering for a specific dish. Hamilton lives in Newport, Rhode Island with his wife and four-year old son.

Oh, my. I feel so woefully inadequate now. EDIT: I spy Ron Zacapa!

In honor of the Japanese people who suffered a tremendous earthquake today, tonight I made a homemade Teriyaki glaze, from Japanese mardaizu soy sauce, sugar, scallion, orange juice, rice wine vinegar and fresh pineapple slices, and served it with grilled chicken breast, fried rice and Horenso Goma Ae (Spinach with Sesame Sauce)

"Thriller" chillers? Prince Burgers? Madonna "Sex" on a Beach? Bueller? Bueller? God, the 80's was such a vacuous pit of crap, wasn't it?

Jerry's? Dunno. We liked Jerry's but it was a tad expensive and they didn't seem to change its menu that often. I don't remember the exact reasons why we stopped going.

Actually our problem with Felice is not as much as the quality of the food -- we liked the food there a lot. The problem is that rachel is hypersensitive to cigarrete smoke, and the bar area has terrible ventllation so it goes right into the dining room.

Yeah, I was very surprised to have found them at the local Asian market. Most of those things tend to be made here in NY or out in SF or LA.

Anytime Kris... but that airfare from Kansai to Newark is killer...

One of my favorite okra dishes is malaysian -- its okra that is flash fried and then sauteed with dried shrimp, chili, shallots and pickled vegetables. This way the okra gets crispy on the outside but has that really cool gelatinous texture on the outside, and the brinyness of the pickled veggies cuts the slimyness. The dried shrimp gives it that salty something. They also do another version of it sauteed with Sambal Belacan instead of dried shrimp. Belacan is spicy fermented shrimp paste, and when you cook it, it lets out a stink like you would not believe. EDIT: Apparently they also have a version which uses both: http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1885 And yet another interesting okra dish, this one with lemongrass and coconut milk: http://food.sify.com/recipe.php?id=1326329...76&cid=13293277

Well we ate some while we cooked and most we froze. I liked the egg roll mixture on the domestic wrappers the best and the spring roll mixture in the imported wrappers and in the gyoza wrappers. Actually the spring roll mixture is pretty close to a traditional korean "mandu" mixture or a vietnamese Cha Gio mixture. To make them vietnamese I would have just added some fish sauce and perhaps some crab meat and coriander/cilantro. Speaking of crab meat, we also made Crab Rangoons. Not at all authentic Chinese, but damn they are tasty.

Yep. Chinese hot mustard and "Duck" sauce in mini packets leftover from our delivery this week. Must have's at an American Chinese restaurant. Cool recipe for Duck Sauce Plum Sauce would probably be a pretty good match for the eggrolls, whereas with the spring rolls and fried gyozas you could probably go for something vietnamese or thai style, like a nuoc mam/nuoc cham chili/fishsauce/lime juice type thing.

The first time we used the imported wrappers from Hong Kong the grease retention was higher than the other kind, because although we used the exact same amount of filling, these wrappers were thinner and are somewhat spongy in consistency and thus allowed more oil to pass through. Next time we will use half the amount of filling and roll them tighter so that they would be crisper. We got the appropriate crisping effect when we quartered them and filled them with small amounts of spring roll filling.

Tonight we made Egg Rolls, Spring Rolls, and Fried Dumplings/Wontons. First we made the fillings: This filling for the Egg Rolls is made of Napa Cabbage, Red Cabbage, Bean Sprout, Scallion, Shittakke, Black Fungus, White Mushrooms, Chinese Roast Pork, Ground Pork, and Shrimp. We sauteed the veggies in the fat rendered from the sauteed pork and seasoned with soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and pepper. The entire mixture was then put into a colander and allowed to drain for an hour. Second filling for the spring rolls is Chives, Ground Pork (uncooked), Firm Pressed Tofu, Bean Thread Noodle (allowed to soften in hot water for about 20 mins), Celery, Carrot, Ginger and Garlic, salt and pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce. Here is a picture of the prep station, which includes beaten eggs for washing and sealing the eggrolls, a cutting board for rolling, and damp towel covering the egg roll wrappers to keep them moist. A 1/4 cup of egg roll mixture is put into the center of the egg roll wrapper. Edges are then brushed with eggwash Roll is then wrapped thusly And thus Finished rolls are painted with a coating of eggwash Deep fry until golden brown in vegetable oil (corn oil is good) Finished eggrolls draining. Note that some of the eggrolls are fried in spring roll wrappers (although these are also called "egg roll" wrappers if you buy the imported ones from Hong Kong) Egg Roll fried in domestically made egg roll wrapper And one fried in imported wrapper, this kind is more like a spring roll For the second batch we cut the imported wrappers into quarters, put in a teaspoon of filling and rolled up just like the big ones, but didn't use eggwash. These were sealed with just a dab of water at the edges. Spring rolls cooling off Spring Roll Closeup We also bought some gyoza wrappers and deep fried those with the spring roll filling as well. Spring rolls and Egg Rolls are easily frozen, put into freezer bags, and reheated in the toaster. So you can make a lot like we did all at once and eat the rest as you need them. Any questions?

I know it sounds corny, but how about Crab Rangoons? Long live Vic Bergeron! edit: I saw your aversion to deep frying... but perhaps there might be a way to put the rangoon stuffing into some other sort of vessel, such as phyllo pastry triangles and bake?

Yes, I've tried several of their current flavors including quite a few of the "retired" ones. The green apple is very good, the vanilla cola is good, and the cream soda is nice and simple. The cool thing about them is that they do have such a varied line, and come out with new flavors pretty often, some of them strictly limited edition for holidays and stuff. I think if you had a mix of Jones and Boylans you are in pretty good shape. Are you planning to do any fountain sodas? Like vanilla/chocolate/orange cokes, the old fashioned way? As for GUS, I haven't tried it yet.

I shall be eating crow. At least I don't have to waste several hours of my life watching the World Series, To "Reverse the Curse" the Red Sox actually have to WIN. I hope they choke like they have been doing for the past 90 years or so.

For rainy days nothing beats a simple grilled cheese on white bread with accompanying cream of tomato soup. I know, I know, but sometimes you just need to have it. A really good New England Clam Chowder with Oyster Crackers is also one of my favorites.

Raw pork fat can be really tasty and is perfectly safe provided it comes from a good source. I was once offered some thinly sliced raw pork fat to taste in the kitchen at MIX when Doug Psaltis was chef. I thought it was a bit strange at first, but when I actually tasted it, it was excellent. The Lardo pizza at Otto is also pretty kickass, and for all practical purposes thats raw pork fat too.

I had Les Halles' steak tartare as well as their Beef Bourginon and their Pomme Frites last night. I agree, its outstanding. I really wanted a whole basket of Pomme Frites to myself to dip into the Beef Bourginon sauce, but I think it would have made people mad with envy and the room even more crowded than it was.

That's because a couple of years ago they came out with a limited edition "gay" soda called Billy Pop, which was sort of a Tutti Frutti flavor. Billy Pop was released to promote the introduction of the Billy Doll (sorta like a gay Ken doll in a sailor suit) and they are also the official soft drink sponsors of the Gay Pride Parade in Seattle. Most people outside of the Seattle area probably don't know that though.

This once happened to me with RED SAVINA Habaneros!