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Krys Stanley

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  1. Most of what I've tried at Bouchon has been disappointing. People just get star chef struck. I haven't had macarons in SF for a while, so I don't have any suggestions there. If you are in the East Bay, Masse's in Berkeley has pretty good macarons. Even Virginia Bakery is better macaron-wise than Bouchon.
  2. Scoma's offers a three-course prix-fixe lunch for $25 until 3:30 pm. http://www.scomas.com/ Normally I warn off anything in Fisherman's Wharf, but the prix fixe is a good deal. If you are here on a Saturday morning, there are lots of food vendors at the Ferry Plaza farmers market. SF has lots of 'gourmet' food trucks. I'd advise against most of them as the prices are almost the same as going to a sit down restaurant and, well, you are eating from a truck. You might find some other mid-scale restaurants that you are interested in and see if there are specials or prix-fixe deals.
  3. I saw this non alcoholic cocktail listed on the menu of a local African restaurant I googled and found these links http://www.kitchenbutterfly.com/2009/09/02/chapman-drink-recipe/ http://thecrazynigerian.com/2010/02/09/how-to-make-chapman/ It is a mix of Angostura Bitters, a black currant cordial, Fanta, Sprite and a few squeezes of citrus such as lemon, orange or lime. Garnish with a cucumber. It is pronounced 'shapman'. I haven't tried it yet.
  4. This was my first practice marmelade ... what is it that makes it well, marmelade? Is it sugar or the pectin in the peels. I tried scaling down a recipe as a first try. Most recipes have equal parts of sliced fruit, sugar and water. I tried scaling down the sugar. Here's what I did 1 orange sliced thin (one cup) 1 cup water 4 teaspoons sugar Brought to a boil and then cooked until liquid was reduced. All it looks like is cooked oranges. Can I save this? Suggestions for the future?
  5. That sounds like an amazing combo. Oooh, I'm going to have to try a strawberry rhubarb jello. Is that muscat wine, grape juice or grapes. The blackberry cabernet was the first I tried which I found on Martha Stewart's site. If anything it intensified the juciness of the blackberries. Martha was overly fussy though. She had lots of unnesesary steps. The big thing is the gelatin to liquid ratio ... 2 cups liquid to 1 packet of gelatin. Nothing else matters. One experiment had too much liquid and didn't gel, so I froze it and it made a lovely little sorbet.
  6. Wonderful suggestions. Thanks so much, GlorifiedRice That is the point. The list is endless and you don't need the chemical, sugar-laden stuff in the box. What is Konnyaku or Alsa Gulaman? Where would I buy it? I'm thinking of trying agar-agar, but haven't worked up the nerve yet. Knox is surprisingly expensive. The least expense I've found is at Target which sells a 4 pack for $1. Usually it is $2 or more. I tried coffee ... a number of ways. Just didn't like it. However, I'm looking forward to using tea. Love ... LOVE ... that apple cider cinnamon idea. Will try that next. Also the ginger ale sounds fantastic. I wonder if adding fresh ginger would be a good thing? Can you tell me a little more aobut the jello w/ cucumber with onion, dill and sour cream? Do you just mix all of the above in it?
  7. Last year I learned to make fruit gelatins using Knox gelatin. The are super easy and usually contain no sugar or artificial sweeteners, just 2 cups of juice, fresh fruit and gelatin. The watermelon I made with watermelon juice was amazing and different from all the rest with a wonderful smooth mouthfeel, almost a a sherbert like consistancy. Here's a few of the best I've had. All use 1 pack of Knox Watermelon: 2 cups watermelon juice, sugar to taste, juice of 1/2 lime Blackberry merlot: 1 cup merlot, 1 cup apple juice, 1 pint whole blackberries Strawberry champagne: 1 cup apple juice, 1 cup champagne, 1 pint quartered strawberries Strawberry banana: 2 cups Juicy Juice strawberry banana juice, 1 sliced banana added as gelatin starts to set Peach Melba: 2 cups of Juicy Juice berry juice, 2 cups sliced peaches Fresh lemonade, red, white and blueberry: 2 cups of home-made lemonade, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. This is the only one where the fruit wasn't cooked. The fruit was added as the gelatin started to set. Here's how easy it is 1. Put 1 cup of juice or wine and fruit in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes if using fresh fruit. If using juice only without fresh fruit, simmering is not necessary 2. Put 1 cup of juice in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 packet of Knox. Soften at least 1 minute. 3. Add hot liquid with fruit to gelatin mixture 4. When slightly cooler put in serving cups and chill until set (2-3 hours) Sugar or honey can be included, but isn't necessary usually. After hot and cold liquids are combine, mix in sweetener to your own taste. What this tastes like warm is what it will taste like cold.
  8. Thanks. I made a fennel-themed diner the higlight of which was a fennel, radish, celery and parsley salad. The fennel bulb, radish and celery was thinly sliced. The feathery fennel leaves and chopped fresh parsley added and everything was tossed with vinagrette. It was an excellent blend of flavors. I also added some fennel to butter and put it on corn on the cob. The trout on a bed of fennel leaves was microwaved. All was wonderful with a nice white wine. The market must have mislabelled it. It was also very small fennel, maybe 2 inces across and 1/2 inch thick.
  9. A market near me was selling fresh organic star anise for 10 cents. At that price I figured I buy it and figure out what to do with it ... what DO i do with it? I have three bulbs. Also there is the frilly green top. Can I use that? Recipes I see on the web just use the dried version. Hope to get some help. It smells wonderful.
  10. If anyone is interested in the Tuesday event, here's a calander that has a lot in California ... all of California. There's an event in San Rafael on the beach ... sounds cool and food seems to be involved in all of this. http://www.7rooz.com/ Looking forward to your report if you go to that dinner.
  11. I just found out about this holiday last year. Do any restaurants serve special menus? Is there special food I should look for in Persian Markets? Any special events? I found these events at the Persian Center in Berkeley which list events and Bazaars in Berkeley & Palo Alto http://www.persiancenter.org/events.html - "Chahrshanbeh Souri", TUESDAY, Mar. 13th from 7pm; Jump over bonfires in the street, Persian Style, at the 2000 block of Durant Avenue in Berkeley! There will be fire, food, & dancing. - Persian Center cordially invites you "NOROUZ 2007", SATURDAY, March 24th, 6:30 pm at Regency Center, 1290 Sutter at Van Ness, San Francisco. The evening will include cultural performances, traditional Persian Dinner, and lots of dancing! - Kahrizak Foundation is holding the 15th annual Norouz Bazaar on: SUN, Mar 11, 9am-5pm, Palo Alto Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real, Palo Alto; Join us for a fun filled day of community effort to celebrate Norouz with the music of Ostad Nejad, traditional dance by ballet Afsaneh, Amoo Norouz, and homemade Persian food.
  12. Precisely. We await with much interest Patterson's expression of new cuisine as he invisions it and creates the menu of his next venue. No? ← I third that sentiment. IMO, the most profound statement was this “is foam the fifth horseman? because then we're all in trouble. think sabayon or zabaglione - those were new at one point as well, as was beurre blanc, hollandaise, etc. in foam's case, it fits the modern style of intense flavors combined with lightness of texture and less fat. it might be worth thinking about why it triggers such a vehement reaction, not just for you, but for many people - does the fact that it is not part of cp's repetoire mean that it shouldn't be anywhere? there are those who use new techniques like that in a way that fits nicely with their overall vision of food, and is not an artifical appendage.” After trying a good version of foam, I no longer have a fear and loathing of foam. It wasn’t a gimmick and it tasted good. I detest intellectualizing food, which is not to say that I reject being educated about food. I found Patterson’s explanation about the reason for foam fitting with modern life styles to make a lot of sense. And perhaps that is where Chez Panisse excels. Alice Waters didn’t just put a perfect tomato on the plate. She had the respect for us as customers to educate us as to why that tomato was so delicious. She continues that education to the next generation in her edible classroom. I don’t know if any of you have been to the Mandela Farmers market, under the Bart station in a seedy neighborhood in Oakland. Children are selling organic produce that they grew personally in the backyards of the inner city. If you read anything about Ferran Adrià, on a more limited scale, he does the same. He explains how to understand his food. He makes us share his passion. I would have no reservation about eating anything he cooked, but I am reluctant to try any copy cat who may be trying new techniques for the sake of innovation. Thus the initial rejection of foam. Patterson did not write an article as he said to simply advocate diversity. He concluded the reason for that lack of diversity, as he said in the second paragraph of that article. "You mean the tyranny of Chez Panisse?" It does not lend credibility to say that he like Waters and would eat at Chez Panisse every week, if possible, to take enjoy the “comfortable home cooking with no particular point of view” Even in the paragraph at the top of this post, he opines that rejection of foam is because it isn’t served at Chez Panisse. No. I did not reject foam on that basis. That never occurred to me. I rejected it initially because too often we are duped by food critics who eat out often and not on their own dime. I eat out often too, however on my dime. I know what it is to get bored with the same cuisine no matter how wonderfully it is prepared. So we go to those restaurants with glowing reviews about the creative chef or cuisine of the moment. Too often the food is a gimmick, overpriced and tasteless. Even worse, at times, it tastes bad. That is what it is all about .. taste. Food is not art. It is nice when creativity and taste meld, but the reason we eat is for the flavor. If sabayon, zabaglione, beurre blanc, hollandaise, etc. didn’t taste good, we would not be eating them today. Perhaps having grown up during the early feminist movement, I am too sensitive to this. But why are Chez Panisse, Zuni, Jardinière, Boulevard, all restaurants headed by women, labeled homey and without direction? Yet Thomas Keller, David Kinch, and Laurent Gras are lauded for their innovation. Even though it was the NY Times writing the headline, perhaps “To the moon, Alice” was too appropriate. Perhaps mine is not civilized and intelligent discourse. IMO, well-moderated online forums have given a different voice to people who never before had the chance to express themselves in person. In the past our only option was to vote with our pocketbooks. We no longer have to sit silently, listening to the experts tell us what we should be enjoying. We can speak up and say that the Emperor has no clothes. That doesn’t make some people happy. Yet I am not someone who wants dumbed down populist food either. I totally agree with the statement I read that said “I'm a strong believer in places doing what they do best and not trying to broaden to please clientele.....thereby hopefully attracting a savvy clientele that appreciates what they do best (and which will keep them honest).” So I am always open to be educated about why something should be appreciated … why we should like that perfect tomato or foam. Help us become that savy clientele and creativity and diversity will flourish. I would have appreciated an article with suggestions of how we could have more creative cuisine “in addition to” the wonderful food that is currently available in the Bay Area. Let’s hear some ideas for attracting the more creative chefs to this area instead of looking for blame for their absence.
  13. I enjoyed a meal so much at The General's Daughter a few weeks ago, that I made Thanksgiving reservations there. If anyone at the restaurant is reading this, what will be on the menu? Will there be a website soon?
  14. I thought it was a very self-serving and unprofessional article. There are chefs who are more concerned about expressing their own creativity rather than pleasing the diner. Most Bay Area diners are too savy a group to fall for it. I say most, because there are always that group that has a need for the most trendy place. The type that define eating out as more about the entertainment value. Patterson says "Today, there are two points on which most people seem to agree. The first is that the majority of the food in the Bay Area is delicious; the second is that it is not very innovative. " There have been a number of innovative restaurants in San Francisco. They failed not because of some imagined 'food tyranny' but because the food wasn't all that delicious. Currently, Winterland is not doing turn away business, despite the El Buli influence. Daniel Humm at Campton Place is very innovative, and yet you can walk in without a reservation on a Friday night. The staff seems to believe that people don't like to eat at Hotel restaurants. They sure did when Bradley Ogden or Jan Birbaum was heading the kitchen. While I agree that delicous and different can co-exist, so far no one in the Bay Area has really done that. An article like this could only appear in the NY Times. They don't get it. Yes. there are delicous and innovative restaurants in NY. The culture is different. Also, there isn't the availability to the spectacular produce other foods that California enjoys. The lettuce that has to be shipped accross country to NY in December has to be tortured into something creative, because the quality isn't there. It is also amusing that while critisizing the price of dinner at Chez Panisse and complaining about the price of a $5 heirloom tomato he says How can we build an egalitarian society based on a lifestyle that so few can afford?" Clearly, he is not going to be cooking for the masses. It is certainly not the dollars of the Food4less group that he is targeting. The movement that Alice started touches all levels of our society. Even working class farmers markets like Alemany have a organic, heirloom produce at affordable prices. It is a movement that has even filtered to McDonalds where they weill be selling organic coffee soon on the East Coast. I'd worry more about Patterson's point of view if the diners in the Bay Area didn't have such good taste and sense. We are not amused by gimmacky cooking ... unless it is also as delicous as what Patterson calls "comfortable home cooking with no particular point of view." I certainly hope that Patterson's restaurant will be the new beacon of both creativity and good taste.
  15. Thanks for mentioning that the show transcripts are on line. I liked: The shots of the restaurant and food The interviews with the reasaurant owners However, I thought the show a little slow and the first group perhaps a little too well spoken, almost like those Saturday Night Live paradies on PBS. What really annoyed me ... really annoyed me, was having people who have no familiarity with a specific cuisine, recommending a restaurant. As someone of Polish ancestry, I think that Old Krakow is a poor representation of Polish food. That comparison of the stuffed cabbage to haggis wasn't far off. Not to mention Eileen doing a Russian accesnt during her interview. How politically correct would it have been to have someone doing a Chinese or other ethnic accent while describing dinner. Here's my old eGullet post on Old Krakow: Old Krakow The problem for me with Old Krakow is that people think that is representative of Polish food. It isn't. Bruce articulated that very well. Actually the Bay Area has a WONDERFUL Polish restaurant in Walnut Creek called Chopin. Or for divine Eastern European pastries go to Crixa in Berkeley. It is Hungarian, but the idea is the same. I think it would be more interesting when reviewing an ethnic restaurant to have the person of that particular ethnicity recommending it. They would have more knowledge and insight to the cuisine. Or at the very least, someone who eats a particular cuisine a lot and can tell a good restaurant from a bad one. The other reviewers on the show could then react to how they feel about an autentic experience. So, my view of the show is colored by this poor choice of restaurant and ill informed reviewer.
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