battlepanda

Of course the point is to make a profit. Considering that food chemicals such as sodium alginate and whatever else used to make the 'egg' eggy is cheap in bulk and labor is cheap in China, I can certainly see how fake eggs can undercut real eggs and still have a handsome profit margin. I really am curious as to what a fake egg tastes like now.

I'm not too sure where to post this, but I reckon it would be of interest for eGulleteers who are into molecular gastronomy and are familiar with the "sferization" process to make 'caviars' and 'raviolis' using sodium alginate. Some unscrupulous Chinese vendors have been using the same process to make fake eggs. Fake eggs report The site is in Chinese, but they do have interesting pictures of a fake egg getting made. The part that puzzles me (and have not been shown on the site) is how they get the shell on there. According to various news accounts, the "egg" is dipped in a "calcium bath", or "poured into a previously prepared shell of plaster." The most credible-seeming website (a pop-science websitefrom Hong Kong) said that plaster powder is mixed into liquid paraffin before the "egg" is dipped in the mixture to form the shell. This page shows a photograph comparing a fake egg and a real egg. There does not seem to be external visible difference between the two. Photographs on the same page claims to show that the substance inside the egg does indeed stiffen just like a real egg when cooked, although the result is supposed to be rubbery and unappetizing. I briefly considered whether this news report could be a hoax, like the "paper buns" debacle, but I have found many reports and it seems unlikely that a reporter would have perfected the technique of making a fake egg just for a fake news story. I wonder if the process of making the shell is safe, if so, I can think of some non-nefarious applications for the process. Imagine a cocktail served in an "egg" that the drinker get to break into the glass!

I think "eep!" is "eep!" whereever you go. Though the Taiwanese also uses "Aiya!" for good measure. I just opened the attachment the owner sent me of the drinks menu..."Marqueritas", "wodka -- tonic"...no sangria, no sherry. I've got my work cut out ahead of me. Their menu selections are quite sorry too...we're talking "spanish-style fried rice" "parma-ham plate" "beef in tomato sauce...clams in tomato sauce...shrimp in tomato sauce...squid in tomato sauce..." No wonder the owner complains that the place is barely breaking even! She's had to put money into the restaurant from her day job in recent months too Oh well, we all have to make our start somewhere. The funny thing is, though I'm upfront about the fact that I've no experience, the owner somehow got this idea that I'm going to really help her liquor sales pick up. This might be because the current bartender is a sullen young man who talks in monosyllables.

I still can't believe it...I've just taken a job to be a bartender at a Tapas restaurant in Taipei. I've never worked a day in the food industry before. Eep! Any good ideas out there for spanish-themed cocktails? They probably have Sangria already, but if anyone have a good "gold standard" recipe, I'd love to see it.

Whoa! I don't know how big the the jiggers y'all used are, but mine came out to just about 2 tablespoons. That's certainly not two ounces, or even 1 1/2 ounce, is it?

Another twist in our eggy tale. I tried the New York egg flip. And indeed, it was spectacular. And deadly. I totally spoilt my dinner after having just one! But I was intrigued with the flavor combination -- port is one of my favorites, and I've never seen it used in a cocktail. So I seeked to streamline the New York egg flip while playing up the port, and this is what I came up with... Take an egg yolk, beat it and measure out two teaspoons of yolk. Shake with 2 jiggers of port and one jigger of rye. Or make life easier for yourself by making two at once by using the whole yolk and doubling the liquor. Shake with ice and strain into a small wineglass or other suitable stemware (cocktail will be very short.) Take a tablespoon of cream and mix in a pinch of nutmeg. Float cream off the back of the spoon on top of the drink carefully. Twist the stem between your fingers carefully while the glass rests on the table to get the cream to float evenly. I struggled with what to call this. The only other drink I know that is this short is the buttery nipple, so I decided to name this "The Purple Nurple". Don't try this cocktail without the yolk -- otherwise the acidity of the port will curdle the cream. Not yum. What is yum is the last sip of this drink -- almost all nutmeggy cream, with just the dregs of the port and rye. Mmmm...

Aw, shucks, Diva... To tell the truth, this one is born out of looking at a fairly depleted fridge and liquer cabinet and thinking..."hmmm, what can I make?" Not adding too much peach schnapps is definitly key. You just want a hint of peach. Otherwise you end up with a drink that tastes like that godawful Arbor Mist peach chardonnay stuff. Well, to be honest, even as is it is reminiscent of of Arbor Mist because it shares the same kind of flavor profile. But it's far better, I can assur you.

Thanks for the recipes...I'll be sure to pick up the ingredients next time I do a liquor store run. In the meantime though, I couldn't resist coming up with my own recipe. I call this the Runaway Bride, because it looks all peachy and innocent, with a pale pink tint and frothy white head, then you take a sip and realize it's got a kick. After a couple, you'll be ready to head off to Vegas yourself: Take 1 tablespoon of eggwhites, 1 teaspoon of peach schnapps, 1 jigger vodka, 3 jiggers of white wine (I use chardonnay), 1 jigger cranberry juice, juice from half a lime. Shake with ice until frothy. Serve in a wineglass. I don't add any syrup because I don't like my cocktail sweet. Cheers.

I'm down with the rye, egg and nutmeg, but port with heavy cream...I don't know... Still, one only lives once, so I'll be giving it a try.

I read about the classic cocktail White Lady in a recent issue of Bon Apetit. In addition to the orange liquer, lemon juice and gin, I was intrigued to find a tablespooon of egg whites among the ingredients. Even though I couldn't imagine it adding to the cocktail, the recipe insisted that the addition was mandatory. I came home and started to experiment. I had no lemons in the house, but I added some eggwhite to my usual cranberry and gin with a twist of lime and whisked the mixture vigorously until it is cloudy with some frothing on top. I sipped -- it was delicious. I can smell the lime and the gin as usually, but the cocktail was much smoother on my tongue. It also had slightly more body to it, which was nice. I can get away with adding a lot more gin without the drink becoming too harsh. So, any Alton brown types out there able to explain how this works? Are there any other any other cocktails out there which calls for egg whites? And can I use this as a trick to retrofit all kind of cocktails for which egg whites are not an intended ingredients?

One thing I do find appealing about the idea of the magic bullet is the fact that you can chop a tiny amount, then store the food right in the blending recepticle. Maybe parsley or parmesan. Not worth cluttering my kitchen with yet another appliance though. The last time I bought something off the TV, it was those 'chef tony' knives. They were really sharp, but oddly dangerous since they're so flimsy and lacking in heft.

I love cooking in other people's kitchens when I am the guest. The problem is, the more your host is going to appreciate your efforts (because they don't cook much), the harder your job is going to be (those who don't cook much don't usually have a very well-stocked kitchen). The problem is, I travel the most often by air, making it impossible to carry bulky/dangerous kitchen tools. Oh, how I would love to be able to take my sharp knives and a few good pots with me! So, from an equipment point of view, I tend to make do with what my hosts have. But I always make a point of carrying my own favorite spices (cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon...hmm...all "c" spices) and all my favorite recipes in my palm pilot. The important thing to remember is that they'll be so thrilled that you've cooked for them that it wouldn't really matter if your onions are more of a Rachel Ray-esque rough "chop" than the fine brunoise you usually reduce them to. (Yes, I am a freak of nature. All my favorite recipes are on my computer and my palm pilot, which I also use to track grocery store prices when I'm feeling virtuous.)

I only remember my grandmother doing this...I don't think it stunk up the kitchen that much. Then again, she had an old fashioned (non open plan) kitchen so smells are less of an issue. I remember she gave me some sugar to dip the warm cracklings into. Sounds gross now, but back then I thought it was really, really good.

About food magazines: don't throw them away! I think some people collect them and I got good prices for my back issues on eBay. The process of getting rid of them actually inspired me to cook from magazines I haven't touched for years and any "keepers" were copied out onto my computer where they are very accessable and are no longer cluttering up my living room. I tend to find that I am inundated with recipes I want to try. I actually think my cooking would improve if I can get myself to cook the same recipe multiple times rather than gravitate towards trying something new every time I feel the urge to cook. I have a feeling I'd become a lot more effcient and technically proficient if I developed a 'stable' of favorite recipes that i have perfected. My beef with those food porn books is not that they have too many big, beautiful pictures, but what they DON'T have -- pictures that takes you through the techniques step-by-step. Big pictures are nice for inspiration, but what I would really like is more smaller pictures that break down the difficult stages. Food network is good for this sort of thing. I remember reading multiple descriptions of how to butterfly a chicken but being completely flummoxed until I saw alton brown do it on Good Eats.

First of all, thank you to Guppymo for this thread. Drop dead gorgeous pictures. I'm fainting with hunger just looking at them! Phaelon, there is a seller on eBay called "Blue Cloud Imports" that carries beans from vietnam, green as well as roasted. I found that they had the characteristic deep nuttiness that I am looking for in a vietnamese bean. This is now what my boyfriend and I drink most days. He loves it while I find it a little over roasted. Once we finish this batch I intend to buy some green beans and try my hand at roasting it myself in my hot air popcorn maker.

Sigh. I know that this is a food site, but I am still depressed by how people will be willing to pay more for a fractional difference in mouthfeel or skin crispiness, but dismiss the increase in the welfare of the bird as something only a PETAphile can care about. When you're at the supermarket and picking out out a chicken to roast or a dozen eggs, what is most tangible to you, of course, is how tasty it will be, how yellow the yolk. But what is equally real is the reduction in distress in the life of a fellow creature if you choose to pick the free-range bird. I despise the insane, destructive, self-righteous, hypocritical group of dangerous loonies that is PETA. But I also believe that modern factory farms are cruel in a way that is unconscionable to anyone unless they don't think that animals suffer pain. The problem is, because those the suffering takes place out of sight, we think we can ignore it. For most of history, the argument that theres' nothing wrong with eating a chicken because if it weren't bred to be eaten, it would not even have existed might have been sound. But now, the short and brutish life of a chicken in a factory farm is a fate worth than death. I say this without hyperbole. I'm not throwing stones, here. I do not always make the most ethical choices myself, out of economic considerations. But when it comes to something like paying more to give the chicken I am eating enough space to turn around, walk a short distance and occasionally scratch a little, I don't think I can live with myself if I did otherwise. I don't want to sound like I'm attacking anyone who does not do so. That is not my intention at all. It is one of the distressing costs of living in a global consumeristic society. We see the price tag on our purchases in dollars and cents, but not in terms of human and animal suffering, or environmental cost. I think I would go crazy if I considered the consequences of every act from throwing away a newspaper to driving my car to the store. I'm sure I have many blind spots that are egregious. I know I cannot live the perfect life. But what I refuse to do is look away instead. I believe in the basic goodness of people. If we can all see the cruelty that goes on in a factory farm, I believe most of us if not all of us, will opt for free range. The more of us we are, the more economy of scale will work in our favor, thus lowering the price of the ethical choice and encouraging yet more people to join us.

Wow! Those rolls look awesome! Thanks for the tip about the dipping stations. What usually happens with my sheets is that they are brittle in some places and so wet they break in other places. And yes. The chinese chives not only look lovely, they taste great too. The more herbs the merrier! A tip: Sometimes as a break from the more traditional hoisin and peanut sauce, I like to serve fish sauce with my fresh rolls. You can make this with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar. But a really easy shortcut is to combine equal amounts of fish sauce and minute maid limade concentrate, then dilute with water to taste. Add a pinch of pepper flakes and perhaps a little garlic and you're done!

For me, the welfare of the chicken is a big factor. I have no compunctions about eating meat, but in our society we simply don't treat our animals right. Same thing with the eggs, although I do get confused between the different designations (free-range versus cage-free etc...)

This thread reminds me of my uncle. He was an obsessive-compulsive tightwad who figured out the "perfect" food in terms of low cost and adequate nutrition. He would make his own noodles from flour, which is really cheap, then boil it and boil it with chopped cabbage and carrots and whatever minced-up cut of meat that was cheap that day. This made a sort of gluey, noodle-y gruel. He then took a slice of Kraft Singles and melted it over the top. For calcium, natch. I thought it was delicious, at the time!

Back in Massachusetts, I never did make it to Pearl Harbourfront :( I did go to Lai Wah Heen for lunch today though. Unfortunately, I was dining alone and so could only sample a few things. The Char Shiu buns are good. the layered glutinous rice "chicken" was perfectly cooked but a little too delicate in flavor. The dan tat (custard tarts) were terrific, except for the fact that they were covered in this gross swallow's nest stuff that tasted like shredded plastic. All in all, I think Lai Wah Heen is not for me. I like my Dim Sum less delicate, not to mention cheaper!

Thanks for the recipe, Patrick S. I will be sure to try it once I'm home. I have been defeated by my cousin's crepe maker. The wooden paddle thing is broken, and instead there is a metal spinney thing that you put batter into and swirl around the griddle like a compass. I know I'm not explaining this very well. You must finish the revolution under 4 seconds or the batter cooks before getting spread out. Apparently, when the crepe maker is used properly it makes the finest, most thinly lacy crepes possible, but it's beyond me. Once I'm home I'll be experimenting, using my good old frying pan.

Yum! How do you make this lemon cream? Is the recipe online anywhere?

Hmmm. I haven't seen much love for "Cooking Light" magazine. If any of you have been put off because "it's healthy so it can't possibly be any good", do give it a try. A better name for the magazine should really be "Cooking Lighter". They are not health nazis, and they are consciencious about making their food taste so good that one does not feel deprived. Do stay away from the baked goods (there's just no way to skimp there), but the rest of their recipes are often delicious and varied. I cook from it all the time even when I'm not thinking about my weight. And I agree. Fine cooking has gone way downhill. A shadow of its former self. Echoing what another poster said about CI, you know a cooking magazine is out of ideas when they do issue after issue on infinite-variant foods like sautes, "more ways with cutlets", etc. etc. People complain about the esoteric ingredients in Saveur, but it's one of the most rewarding things about cooking to be able to replicate a taste from another corner of the world. Take the time to seek out the ingredients, and you'll find that their recipes are perfectly calibrated for American kitchens. The articles together with the recipe really give you a sense of adventure without leaving your kitchen. I think by the time I got on the culinary scene, Gourmet has already seen its salad days go by. I'm kind sad to hear that (according to many posters) the arrival of Ruth Reichl marked its decline, because I heard Terri Gross' interview with her on NPR and her new book sounds interesting. But then again, it's about her tenure as a NYT food reviewer rather than as editor of Gourmet. See my rant on CI on a more recent thread all on CI. I have a love-hate relationship with that one.

I find it quite amusing how they feel compelled to trash every recipe out there first before they can bring out their own creation. It often goes something like..."We painstakingly collected 1028 lemon meringue pie recipes, from right off the box of the Kraft CoolWhip container to the latest Jacques Hermee-cousteau collection. Each and every one was found to be wanting. 278 was found to be too lemony. 359 was not lemony enough. Tasters found the filling of most pies to by "gummy" and "unedifying". A whopping 821 recipes had inadequate MtLC (Meringue to Lemony Custard) ratio. 37 were too flabby. 1 was too French. Work, work, work (sigh!). As usual, we have to do everything ourselves..." I think they take themselves a little bit too seriously. Maybe it's to compensate for the fact that deep down, they know that people made meat loaf and lasagna and every sort of pie perfectly well before their tinkerings. Still, I'm glad they're out there, making hundreds of portions of each recipe, doggedly testing, retesting and re-retesting. Personally, it's rare that I cook a "Cooks" recipe from start to finish. They are usually too painstaking and I don't think the results are worth it. All those microtests comparing what adding a little of this and taking away a little of that results in recipes with a bajillion steps, many of them unnecessary. The food is good, but very "cookie cutter", if you know what I mean. I second whoever said that they treat cooking too much as science and not enough as art. All those iterative tests to come up with the "best" version agreeable to the maximum percentage of testers polishes the character right off many recipes. Having said that, I think everytime I sit down and read a "cook's" recipe I pick up interesting information that makes me a better cook. From techniques like brining to the definitive lowdown on whether it is necessary to flour after you butter you pan. Thanks, Mr. Kimball.

Fillings, indeed. Most important, now that I've got the batter part down. I'm thinking ham/sauteed mushrooms and cheese for the savory part. Unimaginative? All the fillings I can think of are omelett fillings adopted for crepes. As for sweet, my favorite forever is nutella! There's already jam in the house so we can use that too. Any other ideas? I'm going to give everyone free choice over their fillings and cook the crepes right at the table to make sure everybody likes their food. Yesterday I made porkchops with apple sauce with a little sauteed red cabbage on the side and pumpkin pie for dessert. Sounds safe, right? Well, my cousin didn't eat the pie (she doesn't care for cinnamon), her brother wouldn't touch the red cabbage and acorn squash ("too weird") and her boyfriend, who usually eats everything, worked so late he had to eat at work.