phaelon56

Phaelon56® believes that FatGuy® is 100% correct on this one.

Had my first shaved ice this past weekend. If that's not a sign that winter is gone, I don't know what is. Jamie We don't have shaved ice or ice cream vendors out yet but I think spring has finally arrived... even here in central NY. Pic on the left was taken last Wednesday when we had a blinding snowstorm for several hours. The one on the right was taken in my front yard three days later - same town.

I love the plates too - very nice. Yes... resize them a bit bigger. There's a nice free utility called PIXresizer that will easily do all your pics in a group and allows you to set them all to the same size. In response to a pic posting question in hte Pastry and baking forum a few days ago, I revived a thread that has some tips on the resizing and posting process - plenty of helpful info in the thread... Posting pictures with Imagegullet I don't think PIXresizer is available for Mac but not sure about that. I will suggest that you consider trying to get the plates in a spot under a bright light and disable the flash - I've been getting better, more natural looking results by doing that.

Chickenlady - you're in upstate NY? Where is the Rib and Clam Shack that you refer to? I'm always interested in trying a food joint with "shack" in the name.... particularly if it's located ina real shack. I'm no more inclined to eat gas station chicken than I am to eat the hotdogs or pizza they serve.

Actually... should we perhaps be discussing who has the best takeout of fried genetically engineered organisms? KFC Hoax

Is that fresh pasta as it appears to be.... and if so, do you have a good local cource for it or do you buy it?

This has me thinking.... suppose I was to make a simple syrup by dissolving some turbinado sugar into good quality espresso.... perhaps add a bit of vanilla scraped from the bean... would this in fact make a tasty syrup for either ice cream or perhaps waffles (especially malted waffles)? Have any of you tasted a coffee syrup that was decent enough to use in this manner?

Yeasr ago we had a few places locally, all small operations, that went under the name "Broaster Hut". Their claim to fame was "broasted"chicken and I'll be damned if I know what it is but it seemed to be a specific appliance that was used to cook it. It was crispy but not greasy and so well cooked that you could actually eat most of the smaller bones (I'm a true carnivore and at that age I actually did eat the bones!). All of them are gone now. On occasion I see grocery store pre-fried chicken that's in the same case as the take-out rotisserie chickens - it looks much like broasted chicken but is oily and sometimes dry. The true broasted product was never dry or oily and always crispy. I think there was some sort of pressure cooking process involved. Does anyone else remember this chicken? These days my favorite chicken is Peruvian style marinated and grilled but I can't get it where I live now. The rotisserie chicken from my local Dominican restaurant is a darn good substitute.

My local movie theatre chain, Regal (was Hoyt's until recently), has a "Chock Full 'O Nuts" coffee bar in several of their local theatres. The coffee is pretty bad and the espresso is worse.

I've been using a Paella Valenciana recipe of his for years. I still use the yellowed newspaper clipping - it was in his syndicated cooking column. Terrific recipe and it was interesting to see recently on FTV or the Travel channel, during a "best of" series on paella, that this recipe is nearly identical to the one most popular with the Cuban community in South Florida.

Perhaps it would but did you notice how many of my plates were white? (that woudl be all of them) We have commercial china factory in town and I buy those oval plate you saw in my blog for about 79 cents each when they have a good sale. They weigh a ton but the shape is nice and one has to work hard at breaking them. Some day I'll have some cool colored plates. I'll probably juyst wait until they have their summer tent sale with lots of discontinued odds and ends and pick some up. They had some really cool black plates in both triangular and square shapes last summer but I had neither the inclination nor the space to store them at the time.

The Times archives is charging $2.95 for it but if anyone has an interest just PM me and I'll send a paraphrased version. I guess a standard bitter melon and lamb recipe would work with the green peppers substituted, right?

There are people in Syracuse who would disagree there...think I'm a bit of a pain Glad to be around, may even join a couple of other forums. Well actually, Andrea... you'e now officially in all of them so post away! If you're referring to the dining forums at syracuse.com..... it's a blessing to have another place to go and we're in it! Due to copyright issue I can't publish the contents of the recipe that Rebekah used for the lamb dish (and its vegetarian compatriot). I can advise that it was a NY Times Robert Bittman recipe and he printed it as a way to use green bell peppers in place of bitter melon. It included salted black beans plus the other usual suspects - sherry or wine, garlic, chopped scallions, etc. Both versions - the lamb and the vegetarian one with bamboo shoots added - were delicious.

Mike - by the way.... I forgot to PM you about the dog bowl / heat gun pics email that you sent me awhile back. I had an "event" in which everything in my "INbox" was accidentally deleted - I forgot to email you and request another set of the pics to post. I'l still be happy to post those if you like but I also just finished posting a thread on how to post pictures with Imagegullet - for the non-technical user. It's part of this thread Attaching a picture to a post or reply It appears that we all do Liquid Amber to about the same roast level. I'll do mine later in the week and post some pics.

It's a deal. What level do you roast to? How far into second crack? I may be doing it before next week. I brought half of my just completed roast into the office for use in our little shared superauto. Amazing - every person who tried the coffee thus far said... "Wow - what's this? It's the best coffee we've had yet from this machine.". Just goes to show the power of home roasting. Previous batches included several varieties from our local microroaster (decent) and some of Wegman's store brand beans (horrible). I burned through a fair amount of it myself this wekend as it was so tasty I just couldn't seem to stop drinking it.

Hey.... will one of you fine PA folks PM me when the Old Forge trip gets scheduled? It's only a two hour drive for me and I'd love to meet the bunch of you, not to mention that I love pizza and find driving all the way tp Philly or NY for a slice to be a bit impractical.

How was the Hollandaise sauce on the Eggs Benedict? I don't think I've had decent Hollandaise on my eggs ever since the salmonella / raw egg thing became a big issue. I need to start making it at home but need a good excuse (i.e. a crowd to cook for.

Interesting that you mention Liquid Amber - it is the only blend I've ever roasted that has resulted in multiple hues / roast levels, apart from the one I just did for these pictures. I generally roast blends of beans that have comparable roasting times or do a binary blend - roast the slower roasting beans together and then the faster roasting beans together before doing the final blend. I neglected to check roast times on these before I threw them together and started roasting. Just curious.... do you get a totally even appearance with Yemeni beans if you go just into second crack? I think the variegated appearance is either from the Robusta or the Yemeni but not sure which. The "set it and forget it" feature of the Alpenroast is a joke. I always, always, always set it to the max setting and set a countdown timer for 13 minutes. I return when the timer rings and begin listening for the cracks and smelling the smoke.... roasts usually terminate at about the 16 - 17 minute mark - I always terminate manually at the desired crack point. The Alp does do a good job with chaff control - extremely helpful for those of us who must roast indoors in the frigid Northeast (where I live winter starts in late November and continues through late March!).

I roasted the second half of the beans when I got home that evening. Should have done a bit more advance research on the roasting times for these bean types - some varieties roast faster than others. Smoke is an inherent problem for those of us who roast indoors (and have to do so during the long cold winters). If you have a good vent hood above your range it might serve the purpose for smoke control but I roast near an open window and use a small box fan to draw the smoke away. When the Alpenroast is put into the "Cool" cycle a huge cloud of smoke emerges - see pic below. Also note the color variation on the roasted beans - this was because I had some Yemeni beans in the mix, which tend to roast unevenly, and some Robusta, which takes a bit longer. This blend ended producing abundant crema and had not even a faint hint of bitterness. The deep, rich, chocolate undertones were a pleasant surprise but it had no fruity notes - I'll have to work on that. Latte Art #1 from this batch - if you have young kids you know what this is - a profile picture of Squidward, from Sponge Bob Squarepants (Tom Kenny, the voice of Sponge Bob, is from Syracuse. That means I can watch the show - what's your excuse?) Latte Art #2 - my hearts are getting much better but I'm still not getting rosettas.

I've eaten at Spripraphai only once and had the dish I've seen in very few Thai reataurants: sour curry. Very, very good. I orded it spicey and it was just about right but I was with an Asian friend who has eaten there many times and they appear to have known that real spiciness would be okay. I wish more places would follow the lead of my favorite local Thai place here in Syracuse offers "Thai Hot 1 to 5" in addition to their standard Mild, Medium and Hot (which, she informed me, is on an "American scale of hotness").

I think that you opera folks and fans (you know who you are) might consider making a weekend pilgrimage to visit the Ommegang brewery and tie it into an evening at Glimmerglass Opera They are relatively close to one another and there are a few decent restaurants in the area as well.

Yes... I think so. By the way - it will be a kid friendly and dog friendly event. Durian is not allowed unless you keep it in the back corner of the yard. One of our cooking club members is from Australia - he confirmed the the "No Durian" signs are common on most public buildings in Oz - the smell is so overwhelming that they don't want people bringing it to their desks to eat.

It was nice to meet you all and a special treat was discovering that "bleudauvergne" and I grew up in the same neighborhood (although she is young and charming and I..... old and crotchety ) Our cooking club came together by chance. The local newspaper has a web site that includes forums. Upon returning to Syrcuse this past summer, I foolishly thought that it could be a nice local adjunct to my eGullet activities. I posted reviews of some local restaurants I was visiting and in the process, made an online acquaintance with a few of the other posters who responded to my threads. Unfortunately, the local forum is one step (barely) above a chat room - lots of inane one line off topic posts and little contructive dialogue. One of the acquaintances I made suggested a cooking club - we took the conversation off line by way of shared emails. I set up a Yahoo club as a central point for organizing, making calendar postigns and as a place to share the recipes that were prepared. We used the 'Poll" feture to decide what cuisine to pursue next but just as a lark - it's such a small group that decisions are not a big deal. Our plan thus far has been very loose. We are spacing the meetings out to once every five weeks or so but that may change, especially with people's busy summer schedules. Our structure has been much like the one you describe. The host provides the main course and usually a side and/or dessert. Other people bring a side or two, sometimes wine or their other beverage of choice (we have a few beer drinkers in the group) and all show up about 90 minutes before the planned start of the meal. If possible, one dish is included that lends itself to group preparation, e.g. when we did Central American food, all joined in to stuff the pupusas (empenadas). It's working well thus far. We're a bit short on people - started with five adults and two kids (boys about 9 and 11) and then I added one adult by bringing a guest last night. I think ten adults would be a good size and perhaps six meetings a year? It can be whatever people wish it to be but it has been fun. There seem to be varying levels of cooking experience and expertise but we all share a strong interest in ethnic foods and experiencing the cuisines of other cultures. I'm also hoping to thow an eGullet gathering at my place this summer. We might have a surprise mystery guest eGulleteer visiting the area from France, I'll try to coax GordonCooks and DocSconz into driving over from Rochester and Glens Falls and might even get an NYC based eGuleteer or two to show up.

This is it - my final food report on the blog... sigh. It's been great fun and I've eaten far better than usual. Thanks to all who've both lurked and replied and been patient enough to sit through my ramblings. I recently joined together with a handful of other people locally, all either new to the area or recently relocated here, to form a "cooking club". Our intent is to mix a bit of socializing with food prep, discussion and most important - eating!. I'll work on recruiting a few of these folks into the ranks of eGullet but in the meantime the cooking and eating continues. This month's theme was Chinese. Next will be French, I'll be the host and we're sure to do a repeat of the bouillabaise from this week's blog, among other things. Dinner consisted of: Fried tofu. This is the firm variety done with an interesting prep method. Slice the block in half horizontally to yield two thinner sheets. Place on a towel on the counter or in a cookie sheet to catch the excess liquid. Place a cutting board or similar liquid resistant piece on top and then stack lots of books on top of that (we know you all have a big, heavy stack of cookbooks - admit it!). Leave it for at least an hour but as long as you wish. Change the towel or wring it out periodically. The resultant texture is much firmer than any tofu I've had previously and it absorbs almost no oil in the frying process due to the dense surface. This was served with rice and three dipping sauces. Sorry I can't recall the ingredients but one was sweeter and thicker with minced scallions and cilantro or flat leafed parsley, one had rice vinegar and Maggi and the other was also vinegar based but more peppery. Next course was sauteed bean sprouts with fish sauce, rice vinegar and a few other things thrown on - these were excellent. Sauteed string beans on the side - there were some yellow beans mixed in with the green. I don't usually care for yellow beans but these were delicious. I think there might have been sesame seeds in here but I was too busy eating and talking to get the details (shocking, I know, how out of character ) The main event: Two stews - both with green pepper, onion, garlic and assorted other items in a very pungent broth. One was made with lamb and the other, to accomodate the vegetarians in the group, had sliced bamboo shoots added for extra body. All told, a great meal. I regret that I failed to snap a picture of the dessert. It's an item not specific to China but variations of it exist throughout Southeast Asia. Our host referred to it as "ABC". Our host said that she makes it only on rare occasions as one must open multiple cans of ingredients and without a fair number of people to consume it, there would be much waste. Take sweetened red beans and chunks of coconut milk infused agar (similar to a gelatine or pectin, I think. It gives the coconut milk a jellified texture) - put them in a glass. Add crushed ice. Stir in some pieces of a fruit that looks and tastes (to me) like lychees - can't recall the name but it's very similar to lychees - lychees can also be used. I think there may be some of the coconut agar mixed in with the crushed ice as well. Stir in some canned sweet corn. Yes - corn! The ABC is Agar - Beans - Corn. It's a vegan friendly dessert and really tasty. A single ice cube was added to each glass. I found it best to stir it repeatedly and let it sit for awhile while the ingredients melded. There are loads of flavor contrasts in this dish. Very good. That's it for me - I'm looking forward to Jensen's spa food report and we might even get lucky enough to have Aussie Stringer the following week to do a "Visiting the US foodblog) . In the Garden State of NJ no less.

I cannot speak on his behalf but I suspect Mayhaw Man might be willing to push his slot back and let you step up to the plate Tom. I think he has been "volunteered" by some folks here but hasn't even consented yet (he is probably too caught up in strategizing plans for this years okra crop. I, for one, would love to hear the feedback of someone visiting the US and commenting on their culinary experiences.