phaelon56

I think we can safely assume that a tiny percentage of this city of 7 million participates in the Zagat survey and an even smaller number eat at higher end places such as Per Se. Factor in their low number of daily covers and even after being open another year there will likely be a fairly small number of respondents for Per Se. it will still be interesitng to see where it falls in the rankings. I'm truly indifferent to the whole thing but do find some of the comments (in the guide vs this thread) to make for amusing reading.

I had the best conch of my life at Majahual, a tiny fishing village about a ten minute walk south of the new cruise ship pier at Costa maya. It was a conch salad and was so far superior to any of the conch I've tried elsewhere that it was almost like a different food. Not sure if it's as good further up the coast where you'll be but it's worth checking out. Also, if near a beach, ask around to see fi there are any beach vendors for spiny lobster (should it happen to be in season - I'm not sure if it is right now). Over on Cozumel there's a guy who gets fresh lobster every day, seasons/butters it and then grills right there on the beach. I wasn't lucky enough to try any on my last visit there but have heard great things about it. Coz actually has some great taqueria and other little local joints once you get away from the touristy places near the cruise ship terminal and the town square.

The cfm rating of the hood is in theory supposed to be double the square footage number of your kitchen. A 300 cfm hood should therfore be adequate for a 150 square foot kitchen but with 12 foot ceilings and the possibility that your kitchen may be open to another room such as a dining area... you should probably double the cfm of the blower motor to 600 if possible. An alternative that some people have used is to adapt/attach a flexible dryer vent hose directly to the vent ouput of the roaster and then cip the other end of the hose to the screen area of the duct. This will tupically get 90% of the smoke directly into the outgoing fan and eliminate the drift that sets off the smoke alarm. There is such a thing as overkill - a 1200 cfm blower will require a 15 amp circuit all for itself and most apartment kitchens, especially older ones, just don't have enough juice to spare for such a thing.

Yes you do have to order it and then wait. Typically one orders the soufflé when the meal is ordered so it will be ready when dessert time arrives. Order it at the bar and you can warm up with a good wine or aperitif while you wait. It is intended to be shared, eaten with two spoons, from one vessel. Sensuous to share and very tasty. I'm no soufflé expert (in keeping with my tendency to know just a little bit about many, many things ) but it was outrageously good and markedly better than the chocolate soufflé I had at Danube ( a dessert Danube is supposedly known for).

The blowers that are in typical consumer range hoods, even the "fancy" ones, are inadequate when you get a large volume of smoke. They do fine with bits of airborne grease particles and are especially good at venting odors but don't have the cfm movement to handle the smoke. A retrofit for a stronger blower should be relatively easy to do and a place like Grainger most likely has the motors. One of my colleagues retrofitted his in this manner. I asked his wife how well it works. "It sucks the cloth naokins off the dining room table when we turn it on - that's how well it works!" was her reply

So.... who can tell me which used model to look for and what serial number (or lower) will assure me that it was made before the changes took place?

Give us damn near anything other than a foreskin to work with and us gentiles can cut with the best of 'em

I'm not sure what the atmosphere is like but Etats Unis, a small restaurant on the upper east side, has an outrageously good chocolate souffle for two. They also operate a wine bar directly across the street from the restaurant and serve the same souffle there. I vaguely recall the atmosphere at Cafe Mozart on the upper west side but my visit was so many years ago (i.e. almost 30 years back!) thatit may have changed dramatically. La Lanterna in the Village, on MacDougal about two blocks north of Bleeker Street, has a really romantic atmosphere and I think they even have a fireplace going in the winter. I was unimpressed by the dessert quality and selection and the cappuccino was terrible. If you're going simple for somethign like cannoli's they might be okay. That was three or four years ago but I think it's still run by the same owners so it may not have improved.

I think it suffered from the Starbucks Syndrome and is now referred to as "tallage"

Please, please please tell us that you captured that ballet on video. We'd love to see a replay Just curious - do you use it near a window and use a small fan to get the smoke heading outdoors? I think that short of a range vent hood that has a duct direct to the outdoors, that's about the only way to really deal with the smoke. My Alpenroast is a smoky little guy, especially when I hit the Stop Roast button.

I found the Gorgonzola gelato to be even more astounding (and I was duly impressed by the olive oil version). I mistakenly expected the Gorgonzola offering to be a bit of a gimmick - perhaps very good but too extreme to be enjoyable for more than a few bites. Not true. It was subtle and had slowly developing but lasting undertones of the cheese flavor yet retained the fundamental sweeetness and silkiness of a great gelato.

Precious few of the consumer auto drip coffee makers on the market actually brew coffee at a high enough (and therefore correct) brewing temp. It's true that coffee prepared with scalding water is a bad thing but the few peopel who have the possibility of doing that are typically using Mellita or Chemex manual drip systems and they know enough to wait until the water is off the boil. Coffee, yes, but we're talking latte here. In a properly run espresso bar the milk is typically frothed/steamed to about 145 - 155 degrees. Anything less is not warm enough and anything beyond 160 is likely to scald the milk. I see the biggest problem as the stabilizers/preservatives they'll add to keep the milk from getting funky in the can and the inevitably flat and stale taste of the espresso (or more likely just extra strong concentrated coffee) that's used as the primary flavor component. Then again... if it's as sweet as the bottled Starbucks Frappuccino drinks, it will serve simply as a delivery system for caffiene and sugar On those occasional road trips to places where gas station coffee is the only option I'll probably resort to my old standby - either half hot chocolate and half coffee or 1/4 gas station "cappuccino" with 3/4 coffee.

I don't recall the exact recipe but the Glenny family eggnog recipe, adhered to for several generations by an old co-worker of mine, made an amazing drink that was so smooth one could not taste the alcohol. As I recall, it was much like Marlene's recipe but with less sugar and more alcohol. There was rum involved but also a very generous dose of Jack Daniels. Here's the freaky part: it was made in large quantities (many, many gallons) and family tradition called for it to be stored in the only place where it would fit - an unheated back porch. Our December days are typically cold but often as high as the mid to upper 40's (fahrenheit degrees). This nog was not consumed until starting just before Christmas yet it was never spoiled and no one got sick drinking it. It was also incredibly, remarkably smooth - you really couldn't detect the alcohol, which was at a high level. Was it the alcohol that kept it from spoiling?

The hell with authenticity if it tastes good. I do think you should make both varieties, take a scientific poll among the pie-eaters (a blind A/B test would be even better). The recipe I use calls for half light Karo syrup and half dark Karo along with a sinful amount of granulated white sugar. I use dark brown sugar instead of white and substitute maple syrup for about 1/4 of the Karo syrup. Its' less sweet and has a more complex flavor than regular pecan pie but doesn't set up quite as well. I'm still working on that aspect fo it but I am inclined to try the Steen's Cane Syrup this year. I recently tried the fried dill pickles for the first time (at the Penguin Diner in Charlotte NC). They're way better than they might sound to some folks and the Ranch dressing for dipping is a must. Just curious... is there a traditional food to serve for Boxing Day dinner or is it just a hodge-podge of what's left from Christmas dinner (in whcih case what is traditional for Christmas dinner?).

Although the plant I'm thinking of has been closed for years, when I was a young lad the world's largest cream cheese plant was located in East Smithfield PA where my best friend had relocated to a few years after we met. I visited there every summer for years and recall that they not only made Philadelphia brand cream cheese under contract for Kraft, but also a number of other brands as well. That's not to say that all "store brands" are the same as the Kraft product but I suspect that a number of them are. One thing we haven't considered here and I wonder if it could be an issue: the transitional seasonal change that occurs in some milk supplies due to a change in the cows' diet. In the cafe where I work part-time as a barista, there's a change that occurs in the milk in early to mid autumn, when the cows' diet transitions from a mix of silage and outdoor grazing to all silage and other supplied feed (versus the mix of natural grasses and other feed). Although the milk is always sold to us as whole milk and has the same overall taste, there's something different about the fat content during that transition- either its level or its intrinsic nature. The noticeable change is the way the milk froths/foams - not nearly as well. In some senses it's similar to what one gets when foaming a lower fat content milk although not identical to that.

I don't recall ever having worked on Christmas Day but spent many years working retail on Christmas Eve until 7 PM or so and many more years tending bar on New Year's Eve (typically at catered events - not in a tavern). Ads a general rule I found patrons to be apreciative and they seemed to tip better than usual, a practice I engage in as a general rule but especially on holidays.

In general terms I agree and they do represent a breath of fresh here in the "wasteland of upstate NY". I can only hope that they maintain their high standards in the pastry and chocolate department as time goes on. Here in Syracuse, they went to great lengths to build a traditional brick bread baking oven for their new flagship store, even importing a few artisans from Spain for the construction process. After a few years of baking their "artisan style" breads (which were very good) from scratch, they switched over to par-baked stuff that gets delivered from Rochester. It gets finished in the Syracuse oven but the bakers here are no longer bakers - just machine operators. I was alerted to this fact by someone here on eGullet and was loathe to believe it until a local acquaintance who is a pastry chef advised that a friend of hers was the chief baker and resigned in disgust when they made the change. I'm baffled as to why they would do this unless it were strictly a cost-savings move. If they think people here don't know the difference theyr'e incorrect, as the success of a few other bakeries should indicate. But they still do the numbers and I guess that's what works for them. Despite my grumbling, they are the only mass market grocery store I've yet to encounter that really "gets it".

Did someone say pie crust? When I posted about My First "from scratch" Pie Crust the amount of helpful advice was astounding. I'm also happy to say that, entirely due to the sage advice I received rather than by virtue of my own talent, my next crust was fantastic. The key proved to be cold, cold, cold ingredients (including flour from the freezer), minimal handling and butter that was cut into the flour only until it yielded small irregular chunks. I found so many on-line recipes that advised to get the consistency of the flour and butter to be like cornmeal - big mistake. Much better to have a rougher texture and let the butter melt while the crust bakes. You will be using a bit of maple syrup in your pecan pie, won't you?

An interesting comment appeared in a recent thread about decaf coffee In light of my decided inclination towards coffee and espresso rather than other beverages, I'm curious to see how people feel about that statement in this context. A truly excellent espresso shot will have characteristics that are described by some aficionado's as sweet and although that sweetness is only relative when compared to sugary substances, a distinct lack of bitterness can also be the hallmark of a great shot. I stress "can be" in light of the fact that an element of bitterness is a desirable part of the flavor profile for some blenders and roasters. So... in your opinion how true is the opening statement and why? Is a good espresso described as sweet by virtue of its lack of bitterness or because there are subtle sweetness elements present that are derived from the caramelization of sugars in the roasting process and the ability of the barista to extract those characteristics? Or are such characteristics totally dependent on the experience of the taster? (i.e. is the taster in question someone who has enough experience with and appreciation of espresso to detect such subtleties). It seems reasonable to state that most people can agree as to whether a given food item is sweet, salty, sour or bitter. Is it really that much different for beverages, in particular coffee or espresso? I know of many people who are experienced in fine dining and able to appreciate great subtleties and nuances in food items yet seem some oblivious to the subtleties offered by various single varietal coffees and differing roast profiles. These are folks who consider all plain black coffee to be bitter and assume that it requires sugar. Is it because they haven't been exposed to truly excellent coffee or is it just subjective? Is it just a matter of personal interest (e.g. they're more interested in the food and wine experience than in coffee or espresso) or is there truly something more subjective about the physical experience of consuming and appreciating the flavor profiles of beverages?

I was in a Bruegger's Bagels here in Syracuse last week (don't shoot the messenger - apart from grocery stores it's the only bagel option in town). I spotted a sign with the various cream cheese flavors listed on it and assumed that it was simply a lisitng of the 8 oz cream cheese tubs that were available for purchase. Why? Because the price was $2.25. The horror... the horror... it's their new price for a bagel with a schmear. Not only is this not NYC.. they don't know from a schmear in this place. That's not a typo - $2.25 cents. $ 0.75 for the bagel and $1.50 for a really pitifully small amount of cream cheese. It almost makes a $2.00 doughnut look like a bargain

I agree with the above statement but as regards whether there is such a thing as truly good if not great tasting decaf the answer is yes. It's worth noting that fresh roasted decaf has a much shorter shelf life than fresh roasted regular beans. I rarely drink decaf but recentlytook home a half pound of fresh roasted beans (about two days after roasting them) to brew coffee for Thanksgiving guests. It was our standard SWP (Swiss Water Process) decaf blend - one third each of Colombian, Sulawesi and Sumatran. I brewed it in a vacuum pot and was really blown away by the result. Despite not being quite as full bodied and robust as regular coffee, it was so close to regular coffee that few people if any, would notice the difference.

They probably just need a better generator perhaps with some sort of catalytic converter to reduce the odor. I haven't tried their drip coffee. The cappuccino I tried was noticeably better than Starbucks but not on Top Ten my list of great cappa's of all time. But it was one of the best espresso drinks I've ever had in Manhattan (which has generally crappy espresso nearly everywhere ). That would be nearly any picture of me but I keep telling people it's just my unique form of smiling - it's not really a smirk

This is good to hear. The change you describe is what many air roasting folks have already been accomplishing by using a "variac" (voltage controller) in conjunction with their existing air roaster or popcorn but.... * variac's are pricey - about $80 - $100] * they require manual intervention throughout the roast process to achieve the "program" one desires Despite the small batch size, which does actually have some benefits (as malachi has already pointed out), the I-Roast certainly appears to have promise.

A recent thread discussing the new Hearthware I-Roast had many tangential discussions arising - most of them related to general issues surrounding home roasting of coffee beans. We have lots of home roasting expertise weighing in on this forum regularly - let's share some ideas, opinions and experiences. Some worthwhile discussion points, sure to be expanded in this thread, might include: * Why do you roast your own coffee - is it cheaper, better or both? * What technique or machine is the best or most convenient? * Where do I get the green coffee beans? * What about smoke and mess - can I do this indoors? * Does it take lots of skill and also time to gain enough experience to produce good results? * My time is valuable (because I'm soooo important ) - is it really worth doing?

Ahhh... a classic KW dining experience... so so-so and some trulu excellent but somehow the ambiance and the weather make the food take second stage most of the time. Glad you enjoyed the time there and the updates are truly appreciated by those of us who haven't been in awhile but look forward to returning.