Suzanne F

Hey, Kyle, if you are a rank amateur vis-a-vis bread baking, then I am Marie of Romania.

I seem to have missed a whole new page of injuries. Oh well. This refers to a post WAY back: Varmint, your uvula story reminds me of a story I read years ago about someone burning his esophagus with some micro-waved pie. (Sorry, Jin!). Endied up in the hospital, and almost had his burn "go sour." Might have been in NY Press or some other similar rag. Anyway, yes, the oddest most unexpected foods can give the worst burns. When I was a kid we used to go to Patrcia Murphy's on Long Island. Every time, my father burnt his fingers on the steam that leapt from their popovers. Also, my husband was at the Kennedy Space Center when he popped out an inlay while eating a muffin at breakfast. He saved it in a plastic bag. The next day, when he and I met in San Francisco, our hotel found him a dentist who worked on Sunday and would cement it back in. Since the dentist was in Chinatown, we followed up with a great dim sum meal. Some injuries have silver linings!

Another WOW. Do you dry them? That way the storage takes up far less room. You can dry in the oven (overnight at the lowest temperature setting) or outside. I can't do "sun-dried," but the oven version works just fine.

Yes, I was amazed at the out-dated information she used. Some raw-milk cheeses ARE being allowed in now. And, well, "Argentine by way of Australia" still starts in Argentina.

I've been the president of my 39-apartment co-op for many years (on and off, due to term limits) and this is what I have to say: Working with contractors is a gigantic pain. One has to be somewhat "forgiving" of the mistakes that are judged to be: 1. due to total stupidity on anyone's undeterminable part; 2. due to circumstances over which NO ONE has control, such as a supplier who sent an appliance that was not ordered; 3. due to be the fault of the person asking (in this case, you, Rachel), because of incomplete information given to you. However, if you ordered the right thing, and the contractor or subcontractor or supplier sent the wrong thing, you should be mad as hell and act accordingly. Not necessarily yelling; I've found that a look of extreme pain and disappointment, accompanying the statement "(sigh) Well, this isn't what the contract says it should be; oh it's all right, we can pee into a bucket until you bring the toilet we ordered" can do wonders. Rachel: Once this is over, you will have a fabulous kitchen that is the envy of most if not all of us. COURAGE!!!!!!! and keep up the appropriate fight.

Okay. De gustibus. And oh, it's not raspberry, but BLACKBERRY. I avoid Healthy Pleasures ever since I had an interview there to be the chef. Very unpleasant in the non-public areas.

There's a line of chili-infused sodas (something "... loco") that I've had at Ideya on West Broadway. One of the flavors is lemon/lime, I think. Also raspberry, perhaps. Sorry to be so vague, but right now my mind is in severe need of food. At any rate, these sodas are GREAT!!!!!

Yeah, but who's gonna be the first to discuss his/her personal experience? Edit: references to specific persons removed, to be inoffensive.

Shrimp bought live and drowned in cheap Shaoxing (had to put a cover on the bowl so they would not flip out [literally] during their death throes) then stir fried with ginger, garlic, and soy (plus some of their last bath); Tom yam (from a Knorr cube) with udon, Szechuan preserved vegetable, seaweed, some variety (?) of choy, fish balls, pork balls with shrimp, and sweet-and-spicy tofu.

Oh my god! Beurre monte is THE BEST thing for finishing vegetables. And I understand that Keller rests his proteins in it. I could just drink the stuff, if my arteries would stop screaming at me not to.

Reminds me of one of the entrants in the Vermont State Chili Cookoff a couple of years ago: "Next-Day Chili." Yeah, it's gross, but sometimes we all have to acknowledge our inner 10-year-old boy.

Dstone: both. "Simmer" as a verb can be both intransitive ("the water simmers when it remains just below the boiling point") and transitive ("the fish simmers in the barely-bubbling oil"). Got that? Whichever you think it is, you're right. G. Johnson: I don't know if it's better, per se, but at least you know exactly how fresh the fish was before it went into the pot, and exactly what else went in with it. It's a paranoid, control-freak thing. (Just kidding, mostly.) In any case, it tastes great and is very little work at all.

Well, all I know is that a properly-seared piece of meat TASTES BETTER to me than one that should have been but wasn't, because of the Maillard Reaction. Alan Davidson cites Harold McGee extensively on this. And if it tastes better, it stimulates more saliva, thereby increasing the moisture in my mouth -- rather than my having to rely purely on the moisture inherent in the piece of meat. Maybe that's why the end cut of prime rib and the "burnt ends" of barbecue are still so good to eat. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Steve P: probably so you don't overcook the very outside of the fish before the inside is done. No accident, just careful thinking; no "crust" wanted. Okay, I've got the FC article in front of me. First she (Lisa Hanauer) infuses the oil with the flavorings (sliced yellow onions, rosemary, thyme, and bayleaf, coarsely cracked black peppercorns, zest of 1 lemon, and what seems like a lot of salt) by cooking them at 140 to 150 degrees F for 20 minutes. Then she turns off the heat and cools the oil down to warm. She turns the heat back on to medium-low and adds the tuna to the "barely warm oil" in one layer. (If the fish isn't completely covered, add more oil). Bring it back up to 150 degrees F; turn off the heat; remove the pot and let it sit a couple of minutes until the fish is medium rare. That's basically it. She cools the fish and oil separately, and strains the oil before pouring it over the fish for storage. On the other hand, Pasternack just seasons the fish, puts it in a pot with smashed garlic cloves and oil, and THEN turns on the heat to bring it to a simmer, and cooks it for about 10 minutes. Off the heat, he adds herbs and then lets the fish cool in the oil. The recipe says: "Tuna can be used at this point but is better if allowed to marinate overnight." Kerouac1964: since the fish is supposed to pick up at least a little of the oil flavor, you might want to use something more than peanut oil. Unless you really like the flavor of peanut oil (I don't). And your crumbing suggestions sound quite tasty to me. Do you have to worry about the cooking temperature, or are the normal temps okay? FWIW: one chef I worked for used ground "Corn Nuts" to crumb-coat fish. Hey, not bad!

Very sexy! any pictures of the interior? (Use it in good health.)

No no, make sure the fish is completely covered. Otherwise it will cook unevenly and dry out on top. The neat thing I discovered is that after the fish is cooked and cooled, you can use some of the oil, strained, to make a mayonnaise to go with it. You might need to cut it with a very mild-flavored oil if it's on the bitter side. And you want to still have enough oil so that the fish is covered when you refrigerate it. (I did this with the oil in which I had cooked trout that I first marinated like gravlax with sugar, salt, grated citrus zests, and vodka. Yum.)

Well, I don't care if they ARE declasse'! And I love the crunch. They're usually the safest thing to eat at receptions, calorie-wise. The dips, on the other hand, uh oh. I also make variations on tapenade -- ALWAYS with anchovies, and cured black olives, but with or without other fish (tuna, sardines). The soft saltiness is great against sweet crunchy vegs.

At Follonico, Alan Tardi used to make an utterly simple, utterly addictive Bagna Cauda, with basically just olive oil, lots and lots of sliced garlic, and anchovies. Served warm with raw veg. Sigh.... Oops, that won't work for a bag lunch. Sorry. For that sort of thing, I like cottage cheese mashed with chopped herbs (fresh is best; dried will work if you make it the night before) and a little minced onion-type veg. Works with any veg, any cracker.

Thanks for a great report! The next time you come up to visit, check out Chelsea Market (9th ave, 15th - 16th streets), the Fairway/Citarella block (Broadway, 74th to 75th), and the Polish/Ukranian places in the East Village. And if you're REALLY adventurous, there are wonderful parts of the "outer boroughs" that have fascinating ethnic markets and restaurants, like Arthur Avenue in the Bronx (Italian) and 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens (South Asian, South American, you name it), and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn (Russian and other former SSRs). Y'all come back again soon!

Dstone: No flour (you don't want a barrier as you would when frying). Good oil; not necessarily the finest. Any thickness -- thicker fish will just take longer. And keep the flame very low, so the oil simmers but doesn't boil/fry. I couldn't find it online, but the article by Lisa Hanauer on "tuna confit" was in the August/September 2001 issue of Fine Cooking. There was also a recipe from David Pasternack when he was doing "The Chef" column in the NY Times, 6/19/02: "Ventresca Tuna Salad." Either one gives good instructions. Hope this helps.

More than lovely; sublime. The fish remains tender, since its little protein coils are not shocked and denatured by overbearing heat. It is infused with the flavors that have joined the oil. Yet it does not grasp the oil molecules to its heart. To come back down to earth, there was a piece on cooking tuna that way in Fine Cooking several issues ago. Believe me, IT WORKS! (I've also cooked gravlax-style-marinated trout fillets that way, and you can't imagine how wonderful they were.)

Foodman: Re: Mastering the Art ... : I thought a combined edition was in fact issued for its 40th anniversary last year. So perhaps what you have is, in fact complete. If you have recipes for Baked Alaska ("la surprise de Vesuve") and Cream of Cauliflower and Watercress Soup ("Potage de la Fontaine Dureau"), and appendices on Stuffings and Kitchen Equipment -- then you've got it all. Those are part of Volume 2. Cook, eat, and enjoy!!

Um, what other uses might there be? Dana: YES, Wondra flour is great for coating fish! One of my favorite bistros dips skate in milk, then in Wondra, and gets a perfect crust (I learned the trick when I trailed there).

Damn, I had to scroll through a lot of really interesting posts to get to this point. I really will have to go back and read them carefully. The only reason I skipped down here was to be snotty to Deacon: Uh, uh. Wrong again. That ain't how it works. If there is normally a conductor, there will be a conductor -- in this case, probably an assistant who worked with the famous (wo)man to prepare the orchestra for the performance. There would not NOT be a conductor (unless the orchestra is one like Orpheus, which never has a conductor.) I imagine you would have been one of the folks who walked out of Leonard Bernstein's substitution for Bruno Walter (or was it Mitropoulis?), conducting the NY Philharmonic, or Michael Tilson Thomas's subbing for William Steinberg with the BSO. Oh, and as for your first analogy: what do you think of Maceo Parker?

Steve, how almost-charmingly naive of you. You think one should always be eating the chef's hands-on cooking, not merely the chef's food as executed by an underling? Do you truly believe that "the chef(s)" are there on the line, every minute of service? Or even expediting and checking plates all the time, if not actually cooking the meals? Of course not! You know better!! There are, after all, regulations that must be followed regarding time off, and even if they are ignored, "chefs," especially those like Chef Hans, have other legitimate commitments that might keep them out of their kitchens during some services. God gave chefs de cuisine to executive chefs, and sous chefs to chefs de cuisine, in order make sure that someone is always there to look over the work of us poor little ignorant line cooks ::super-big wink:: If drrevenue is to be believed, NO ONE was in charge of the kitchen that night. If that was indeed the case, then shame on Chef Hans. (I just have trouble believing it, though.) In any event, nothing justifies the vitriol of drrevenue's blasts. Oh, and by the way, "gypped" is highly politically INCORRECT rather on the order of "jewed down."