Jason Perlow

Danko is nice. But I'd much rather go to Incanto again.

I made this tonight: and this last night:

This is a dish I've wanted to make for a while. Tonight, it became a reality: Instead of chicken, this one has shrimp (which I marinated and velveted the same way using Ah Leung's recipe) and char siu. For veggies, I used shanghai bokchoy, fresh shitakke mushrooms, mungbean sprouts, and some scallion.

Recao is a Pho condiment, but they call it Saw Leaf Herb or Saw Tooth. "Ngo Gai". http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/essentials/herbs.htm I far as I understand, Culantro and Recao are the same thing. I don't think there's a difference unless its a varietal type of deal. Apparently, it also goes by the names spirit weed, stinkweed, fitweed, long coriander, false coriander and Mexican coriander. The species is Eryngium foetidum. It has certain medicinal qualities and is used as a tea to treat diarrhea, flu, fevers, vomiting, diabetes and constipation in some cultures. Its cultivated in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, and even Fijii.

I've always wanted to bring my dogs to a place like this, but we don't have one in Jersey. I doubt we'll ever bring the poodles to Paris, though. Maybe you can rent dogs there?

You know, I think we just don't use the Silpats when we make the Toll House cookies. We just use unadorned baking sheets. I recall Silpat having the same effect on those cookies myself, which is why we ended up going back to the sheets.

We have a Thai grocery, right behind that Hispanic one! I go to him for Thai basil and other Thai stuff, he might also have culantro as well.

Yeah, I actually had problems finding Culantro, because we've never cooked with it before. I was eventually able to find it at a big Hispanic food market in Hackensack (Giant Market) and I even spoke to the (Mexican) guy working the produce section in Spanish asking for "culantro, no cilantro." He looked at me quizzically at first, I said "para hacer Sofrito" and he was like "ah! Tu quieres recao!". It wasn't near the cilantro or the other herbs, it was off to the side, wrapped in a little plastic bag, in area I would call the "strange caribbean stuff" section, along with packs of ajices dulces (which were mixed among packs of scotch bonnets! Bad mistake to make!) Similarily the Achiote seeds I think were labelled Annato stashed in the spices section, it wasn't among the regular Goya stuff, although Goya itself makes Achiote paste and jarred Sofrito and Recaito, which I bought some as well to try.

Rachel has been using that avatar for a long time. The photo above was from one she made last night, and I took it without a flash, actually. This is one she did in September at the Pig Pickin' event: I think there is some slight variation in every time its been done, the one above used Cool Whip as the mixer for the creamy layer. Last night she used yogurt and I think the Jello mix this time used less water. And I think this is the Version 1.0 mold, from our 1st NJ Pig BBQ back in 2003, which I think Rachel's avatar is based on: Here's one from the 2004 Pig BBQ, this I think was called the Jewel Mold or something, its when you take all the different colors (I think 3 or 4 colors) and let them set on sheet pans, then cut them up into cubes, mix up the colors, pour them into a mold, and pour the yogurt/Jello mixture over them. When you slice into it, its supposed to give the appearance of jewels.

Steven, wasn't it you who introduced me to the Bacon of the Month club from Gratefulpalate.com several years back? I recall ordering them all in one fell swoop (was like 18lbs or something rediculous like that) as opposed to taking them in multiple shipments. I really need to do that again. Now those were some really distinctive bacons.

When I have especially crappy days, I like to make voodoo dolls out of hamburger meat, cocktail olives, bacon, and tater tots, and deep fry them. Then I eat them according to ancient Satanic ritual while standing over a pentagram, while watching Rachael Ray on Food Network -- although if Rachael is not avaliable, I'll settle for one of my archived Tivo episodes of Sandra Lee. Then I'll make a nice big Haagen Daz strawberry and Percocet milkshake, and finish it off with a nice tall snifter of small batch bourbon or aged rum. The problem is, I've now run out of friends and family and eGullet staff to kill in effigy and my cholestorol count is now at like 600, I am currently enrolled in a twelve step program and am under constant psychiatric observation.

Bullshit!

Just call me the Larry Flynt of online food photography. We both have the same taste in closeup shots. Although, come to think of it, Bob Guccione was probably much more of a foodie than Larry is. Unfortunately, after a life of hard living, Bob is eating through a tube now.

I don't "know" but the "rediculous series of quotes" is starting to make this "eccentric foodie bulletin board" look like a "goddamned Zagat entry".

Tonight we decided to make a traditonal-style Chinese soup stock using the leftover duck carcasses from last night's annual Chinese New Year Celebration. The soup itself was a combination of the picked over peking ducks, simmered into stock overnight, with chicken stock added to balance out the strong flavor. Leftover frozen char siu was cooked to death in the broth to render out all their flavor (in lieu of Chinese ham) along with ginger, garlic, black peppercorns, sichuan peppercorn, shitakke mushroom stalks (the caps all prepped for tomorrow's dinner) and a big bunch of cilantro and scallions. After simmering this for a while, everything was strained out to yeild a very strong Chinese soup stock. We didnt bother trying to clarify this since for it was for home consumption. To make the finished soup we added Shanghai Bokchoy, Spinach, shrimp, fresh cilantro, mungbean sprouts, and some kickass storebought char siu I bought today. And of course, the fresh Wonton Skin Noodles, and a hit of sesame oil. And a few drops of Maggi Seasoning (The Taste of Asia!). Hey, there ain't no substitute for MSG. Fresh Char Siu, threatened with early consumption. Good thing I bought 2lbs of it! The finished soup in the pot. Plated portion.

One of the reasons why we chose the exotic greens soup for its cooling effect.

Yeah they just seem to add a slight brinyness.

Wow, what a cool cuke. I'd love to get cukes like that here.

Well, Sofrito and Recaito are pretty important components in Latin American cuisine, and they are useful for keeping around, just as you would pesto or a basic marinara in Italian cuisine or roux in Cajun/Creole, or veal glace reduction in French or even stock. Same deal with fresh curry pastes used in Thai cooking. People keep that stuff around in their freezers or refrigerators for the same reason. If you take the time to prep some of these things in bulk, it won't be as frustrating when it comes time to cook. Whenever you want to try out a new cuisine you're always going to run into these issues. As to the green olives... you see a lot of it in Puerto Rican, Dominican and Cuban cooking.

I didn't take a lot of pictures tonight but I will post some -- many of the dishes we had tonight we have photos of elsewhere. I am posting some video on Google Video now, it will take a few days for them to compress it and put it up.

I love the shells, especially the little shrimpy legs that get deep fried.

I liked the Kentucky Colonel bit though.

That's demented.

looking forward to seeing everyone tonight. Be sure to bring singles to tip the lion!