Octaveman

Forgive me if this question has been answered in another thread but I'm trying to remember/find the name of an Italian restaurant I ate at 6 years ago in either Kirkland or Redmond WA. It is set in a very small strip mall toward one end facing the street. The Chef used to be the personal chef to the Prince of Monaco (I think). I had the most flavorful Buffalo Tenderloin there and the host of the dinner ordered many wines from their HUGE wine selection. I once saw the website for this place but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place. Anyone know this place? It's supposed to be highly rated. TIA, Bob

Awesome pics...seriously. Not only are you blogging your day of food and neighborhood travel you're also introducing Sun Diego to those abound. Looking forward to more pics through the eyes of your camera. I've heard of Hodad's but never been. That burger has my name written all over it. Have you ever been to the farmers market in Coronado on Tuesdays? No arts/crafts...all food, flowers and herbs. I go every week.

Lovin it so far Mizducky. Keep 'em coming...

OMG, this is killing me...How? How? Why?

A man sits down at the bar orders his drink and notices a drop dead gorgeous woman with a very voluptuous body at the other end giving him some inviting looks. He sips his drink and sees her coming over and sits down right next to him. She leans over against him and wispers in his ear "I'll do anything you want...anything...for $50". He looks at her, orders another drink and says to her "anything?". She says "yes...anything, but you have to tell me what you want in three words or less". The man says, "three words?". The woman says "or less". He sits there for a few moments contimplating what to do and he says, "okay...paint my house".

Thanks for the link Kristin. I made fried rice with XO sauce and OMG it was so tasty. Since then, I've always added a generous TBL or two to my fried rice.

Boos maple boards are very good. Edge grain or end grain boards can be very heavy depending on the size and the thicker the better. You complained that your current board is warping. A board that will not warp over time needs to be at least 1.5 inches thick. End grain boards are preferred because they are more gentle on your knives. Your edge will be cushioned between the wood fibers rather than cutting those fibers with edge grain board. The wood fibers also absorb and kill bacteria more effectively than edge grain boards. This is not to say edge grain is not good...it is. End grain is just better all around. My board is 2.5" thick edge grain. I now wish I bought end grain but the Boos board I have is super nice and is a custom design no longer available. Go with Boos and get as thick as you can afford. I gaurantee it will last a very long time. Cheers, Bob

I'm honestly a little confused with what is being asked. All advice to encourage your daughter to start heading in a certain direction is right on. Getting her to sample the life in a kitchen with a part-time job or a 2-week internship is also a great idea. But I get the impression that because you're daughter is "faling hopelessly" you or both of you want to pull her out of school to start work in food service when she has 3 more years of school to go? If the former is the case, I'm not sure why you brought up her schooling problems. But if the latter is the case, I am definately not an advocate of pulling children out of high school to work. Maybe there's a desperate nature to your situation that is causing you to find alternatives to school for her. Maybe you're trying to find ways to get her started on a career path instead of just blindly going to school like so many of had. I just don't know. Can you please clarify for my benefit (if not for others too) what you're really asking us? Thanks Bordelaise Respectfully, Bob

Man, when I worked in the area about 6 years ago, I ate lunch at Woo Chee's 3 days a week. A truck load of pretty damn good food for $3.50. Actually, Nijiya had a great lunch thing going too with hot Chinese food take-out back then. They don't have that anymore since they moved. Okay, well, it seems like I'm just going to have to start on one end and go to the other. I will definately look for the chef supply store mentioned above. I shop at Mitsuwa and their shops don't have what I'm looking for. But it was pointed out that sushi knives have been spotted. I may have to look a little closer because I don't remember seeing any. Of course Nijiya has sushi knives but they're cheap stock knives. Going to LA may be an option but not ideal. Don't want to spend $30 in gas to look for a $35 cleaver that may not be there. Thanks for the ideas so far. I'll try to check stuff out this weekend. Bob

The reason I'm asking is I'm looking for an area that has shops with which to purchase cooking supplies such as woks, cutlery, steamers, rice cookers, etc. similar to the Chinatown in San Francisco. It's been several years since I've been up north to shop but is there anything like that down here in SD? I'm trying to find some Hong Kong made cleavers (brand name Chan Chi Kee) locally and I would appreciate any help. Of course while I'm there, I will check out all the other offerings as well since I love to shop. A 99 Ranch type place is not what I'm looking for as they really don't have what I would call "genuine" quality. Small mom and pop shops like The Wok Shop in SF I think would be more of what I'm trying to find. I understand that Convoy area would be a good place to start but anyone know for sure what is out there before I spend a day walking up and down that street? TIA, Bob

If I walked into a joint where they said they will not be accomodating to the customer, I would never go back. I've honestly never been to a place that did this and can't imagine Ba Ren would either. Thai restaurants always ask how hot we want our food. I've been to other Chinese places that say they can do whatever I'd like to a dish heat wise. I'm just guessing here but I'm sure there are many Chinese that can't stand the heat as well. One person asking to lower the heat a bit is not dumbing down the cuisine for all who don't speak Mandarin. They're probably smarter than that to know the sporadic requests they get does not represent the masses. This is allowing a particular customer to experience their food and enjoy it too. Sure, there are dishes that are not hot on the menu but if there is one dish that sounds awesome but it's got that little red pepper next to it, I see no reason why we can't ask for 1/2 the heat. I also can't beleive they wouldn't want non-Chinese customers to visit their restaurant and try their food. The "you no like" syndrome that you say is a result of making heat level changes I'm sure doesn't exist and is not a good argument for not asking to lighten up on the heat. That's implying they would mess with our food and I don't think that would happen in a respectable place. If I owned a restaurant I would be thrilled that people from all walks of life came in to eat. I'm assuming they would be just as thrilled. I'm sure Ba Ren has way many non-hot dishes for my wife to try so I'm not worried about a thing. She likes heat just not super heat. Thai is one of her favorite foods. I just asked if they would be willing to adjust the levels just in case of that one special dish that she would love to try but there's that damn pepper.

Yep, we did a chocolate fondue that followed the traditional Chinese take-out feast at home.

We're going to try this place. I'm assuming we can request to go light on the fire, right? My wife doesn't have the same level of tolerance as I do in this regard. Thanks for the rec. Bob

Another great place to get uni is from Catalina Offshore Products off Morena blvd. Don't know how it compares to sushifoods but they have a very high turnover of fresh fish.

270mm Kikuichi Elite carbon gyuto 240mm Hiromoto High Carbon gyuto 3k grit Naniwa sharpening stone 1 pound tub of Demi glace 8 ounces of dried porcini 8 ounces of dried chanterelles Juniper berries pizza stone, peel and trays

I say give it to the cat.

We must've started at the same time. Mine is exactly as yours with a fridge temp of about 35 and I was wondering the exact same thing. BTW, I plan on cooking at 350 for about one hour, then down to 200 for the duration with a 500 blast after resting to brown. If I'm shootin for medium rare center with medium sides what is the temp I should pull it out at? TIA, Bob

Haven't nailed down the entire menu but it's going to be fairly simple since I don't want to spend a lot of time cooking. This is what I have so far: First: a small baby green salad with dried cranberries, candied walnuts and feta topped with a light raspberry vinegrete Then: a porcini bisque with brie and french bread Main items are a 10 lb. rib roast (aging in the fridge since Monday) with au jus, steamed asparagus with sea salt and shaved parm reg, baked potato or roasted garlic mashed or both, some other veggie Desert will either be creme brule or chocolate fondue with fresh raspberries, strawberries, banana and pound cake. Can you tell I'm leaning toward the fondue? Whatever you all are having, have a great Christmas weekend. Cheers, Bob

The link you gave is to the old KF forums...before the update. I was wondering why the most recent reply was in September. Below is the current KF forum. Happy Holidays!! http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showforum.php?fid/26/

I've been at it for a year but there are others that have way more and super exotic stuff than me. You belong to Fred's FF forums, right? What about KF? I/we love to see people get new stuff so don't keep us waiting too long now. I remember going nuts over the my first Japanese knife so I love to hear how others are blown away too. Watanabe's knives are not really that expensive at all for a beautiful hand made knife. You could easily pay twice as much for the same quality. Very nice stuff.

Oh yeah? Well, MY deba is 6mm thick at the handle, weighs 3/4 of a lb and was made by Watanabe in Japan. Here's a Picture (from Watanabe's site). Good idea to clarify the use of the boning knife. I repeatedly tell people to not use a Santoku or Gyuto around bones as you could easily chip it (the knife that is). Matter of fact, since the traditional Deba is for fish bones and not chicken bones, it chipped the first time I used it. I sent it back and he reground the bevel to be more obtuse making it stronger and I haven't had a problem since. I love it.

J.K. Adams block has wide slots. Well made, nicely finished. I have the large one and find it fits whatever I put into it. Well, my custom Deba didn't fit so I had to widen one of the slats but it's now tip top.

All this talk has got me thinking. I might do this too. Only questions I have is do you salt it at the start of ageing or wait until it's done and how do you make the au jus or sauce? thanks

The soft steel is what surrounds the hard steel in the sandwich configuration you spoke of. This is called the Warikomi process. The process of laminating a piece of hard steel with softer steel. Surrounding the hard steel with softer steel serves as a dampening affect and adding toughness to the blade. I've never seen a Japanese blade use soft steel as it's core. Some knives are certainly softer than others but still tempered to a higher HRC than Euro knives. For example, most Japanese knives are tempered to 60-64 HRC. Euro knives highest HRC would be about 58-59. This may not seem a big difference but it is. The highest a kitchen knife will get tempered to is 65-66 and that knife costs $1,500 and uses Cowry-X as it's blade material. Anything higher and the edge will constantly get chips or worse, break.

First, read THIS web page. It talks about what Japanese steel is and how it's made. It boils down to a different chemical makup of the components of the steel allowing it to be forged to a higher level of hardness. This higher hardness (HRC) then allows for a thinner blade. The con to Japanese knives is that it's more fragile than euro knives because it's harder. Basically you'll be fine if you don't cut anything frozen, let it get near bones (talk about that later), bang it around, leave it in the sink, don't put it in the dishwasher...you know...take care of it. Not all blades are created equal. They each have their own characteristics that differentiates themselves from the others. The powdered steel term refers to the process of making the blade and not the steel itself. This process creates a harder/tougher blade than the usual forged knives. I'm no expert in metalurgy so I can't go into much detail without doing the reading but as a user like myself, it means I won't have to sharpen as often, I won't have to worry about dinging the edge or maybe even chipping it. It's a fairly old process newly applied to kitchen knives. That's why there aren't many powdered steeled knives out there. Tojiro Powder and Ryusen Blazen have powdered steels. Yes. What I wrote above points some things out. Since these knives are thinner, harder and sharper the bevel angle is more acute than German knives. This means that you will not be able to sharpen them the same way nor will you be able to take them to a shop to have it sharpened because they are just not equipped to properly sharpen these knives. All knife forums (most notibly Knife Forums.com and Foodie Forums.com highly suggest learning how to use wetstones to sharpen your knives. It is a process that needs to be learned but the good news is that it doesn't take long to learn it. Korin.com sells a DVD that teaches you how to do it and it's really not hard at all. The amount of time it takes to KEEP you're knives sharp depends on your usage. The average home user can touch-up their knives once a week and it only takes 10 to 15 minutes. The goal is to keep them sharp so it doesn't take a lot of time and energy to re-sharpen them. I've stopped using my steel entirely. When I need to realign the edge, I just get out a stone and do a few quick swipes and I'm ready to go. So not only did I realign the edge, I just did a quick sharpening too. It truely is the way to go. Chad Ward made a Sharpening tutorial here on egullet that does a great job of talking about sharpening. It would be a good idea to read it. In a nut shell, take care of the knife, don't use it to cut hard things, don't let it get dull and keep it sharp on the stones and you'll be one with your knife. Oh, I forgot to talk about knives to cut up harder stuff. The Honesuki is a boning knife for chicken and fish. A Western Deba is a thick version of the gyuto. It's thick, heavy and strong so it would'nt have any problem with the heavier jobs. The gyuto or Santoku is a chopping/slicing/mincing knife, not for bones of any kind. Hope I didn't get too wordy. There is so much else I could say but I tried to keep it down.