jsmeeker

ok... I made a Pegu Club. My first! This is a nice drink! The Fee Bros. Orange Bitters has a fantastic aroma. I can see using this in many things. Could work well in a margarita, as I think a little more orange goes well with it. Also, an Old Fashioned. I usually muddled sugar and bitters with a wedge of orange. So, I think some orange bitters in there would be nice. And now to think how to use this on the savory side of cooking.

number one peeve is stores that rearrange their stores, moving everything around. I have to re-learn the whole store. Grrrrrrr... Hate that. I know why they do it. They want me to wander around the store hunting for stuff in the hopes I stumble upon something I wasn't really looking for but will buy anyway.

I was in the liquor store today to pick up a bottle of rum to make some mojitos. Last time I was there, I noticed they has started to carry the whole line of Fee Brothers bitters. So, today, I picked up a bottle of their orange bitters. Now, what to do with it?

I just made a mojito.. I muddled the lime wedges and mint with simple syrup. Is it better to do the limes and syrup first, then the mint? After reading this thread, I think I may be over working the mint too much.

another data point.. Didn't make it to the local butcher today. they close at 6:00 PM and I didn't leave work in time to get over there. But I did stop by the fancy grocery store again. I swung by the meat counter and they had prime strip steaks today. Over $30 a pound. That's a lot of dough, IMHO. Their non-prime (Choice, I assume) was about $17 a pound.

it sure is blue!! but shouldn't it be pink??

OK.. Muddle #2 for tonight. Muddled some lemon quarters with syrup and diced cucumber. added ice and some Tanqueray. shake. strain. It's only OK. Not as successful as the previous drink. really, no cucumber flavor at all. Not sure if it's over powered by the lemon or the gin.

did some more "muddling" tonight. The other day, I muddled up some diced cucumber with simple syrup and small pinch of salt. added ice. Poured in some Absolut Citron. Shake. Strain. Did the same today, but added some mint leaves. Not bad.

I'm thinking that gin with some lime and cucumber would be my next move. Of course, I don't have Hendrick. Just some Tanquerray. Unless that's really going to be offensive, I'll give it a whirl tonight. I also like the idea of a gin sour with cucumber. Maybe even something like a Tom Collins with some muddled cucumber? That might work. ← well..the point of doing it with Hendrick's (is it not available there? I thought it was pretty widely distributed) is that Hendrick's is pretty distinctly cucumber flavored... doing it with a more juniper-forward gin is going to give quite different results. ← I don't know if it's available here or not. I just happen to have something else on hand and figured I would try to craft something with that I had on hand instead of running out to the liquor store and spending more money on more booze. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's just that I like the idea of trying to use what I already have. What's the worst that can happen with something else? I'll muddle up some cucumber, add in the gin I have and if I taste no cucumber?? Oh well. No loss. I'll know that Tanquerray is not a good match and will use it for something else.

Did anyone watch this documentary on McDonalds? If you haven't seen it yet, there is still time. CNBC will be showing it a few more times. Check your listings. I'm in the middle of it right now. So far, largely a positive profile. It's not really an attack thing like Super Size Me. Just a history of the company, a profile on an owner operator and how successful they can be, etc. right now, the segment is about the FOOD and new menu items.. When I finish, I'll be back to post more comments.

I'm thinking that gin with some lime and cucumber would be my next move. Of course, I don't have Hendrick. Just some Tanquerray. Unless that's really going to be offensive, I'll give it a whirl tonight. I also like the idea of a gin sour with cucumber. Maybe even something like a Tom Collins with some muddled cucumber? That might work.

inspired by the cucumber "trend" and a drink I had in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, I set out to re-create that drink. muddled diced cucumber with simple syrup and a tiny pinch of salt. added ice. poured in some Absolut Citron. then a small squeeze of lemon. Shake. strained into a cocktail glass. Seems like it came pretty close to what I had in Vegas. Pretty tasty. Now, what else to do with this diced cucumber. Something with gin? Tequila??

that was great how Josh got booted off the show in the middle of service! BOOM! Outta there. I hope Julia does well in culinary school. And for me, I hope she DOESN'T go back on the show. No reason to play a game show on TV to make it in the restaurant biz. Maybe she will get an externship with one of Gordon's actual restaurants? That would be great for her.

Ok... I went to Central Market on the way home. They had prime rib eye in the meat case. $23 or $24 a pound. Ouch! That's why I don't buy it. I suspect Whole Foods will be about the same. Will a local, independent butcher shop be a lot less? I tend to doubt it. But I'll find out in the next couple of days anyway, I think my price sensitivity extends beyond a prime rib eye vs. a standard supermarket ribeye. I'll eat eat the standard supermarket steak. It can taste OK. Then I release I am spending over well $10 for a meal on a weekday, at home all by myself. That seems to excessive so many times. For what I spend, I could go to a decent local non chain fairly fast food joint (a seafood place, for example) and eat for less. And I don't have to cook. And I don't make a mess I will clean up. This is really fodder for another thread, though. For now, I'll see what I can get at the local place. Right now, this is about STEAK. But what about other cuts of beef? What are you doing for "lesser" cuts? Maybe something that is going to be braised for a long time. Do you drop a lot of cash on those cuts? If so, doesn't that almost defeat the purpose of making dishes that use lesser cuts?

I'll swing by the local fancy grodery store (Central Market) that sells prime beef on the way home from work and note the prices of rib eyes and strip steaks. Then, I'll go to a mega mart near home and check their prices for their "Certified Angus" or whatever it is (pretty sure it's choice grade). I still suspect the difference in price will be very high. Then, I'll go to a local butcher shop that seems to have been around for a while and see what he has. The buy in bulk and freeze won't work for me. Space is a major constraint, but a bigger one is the time it takes to thaw. I don't typically plan out dinners I make for myself at home too far in advance. A large number of them are things I make with something I bought on the way home from work. I'll just forget to take it out of the freezer far enough in advance to thaw. Single person. travels out of town a fair amount,. Cooks for one 99.99% of the time. etc. etc. Makes buying in large bulk not very feasible.

when did you visit my kitchen??? This is me A LOT of times. I hate doing the dishes. After I cook, I just hate spending the time to fully clean up. I like to And I always forget to run the dishwasher. I always intend to wait until just before I go to bed, then start it. Then, I forget. And forget again in the morning on the way to work. Then I come home to dirty dishes and stuff in the dishwahser and soem dirty pots and pans and whatnot piled up in and next to the sink. My drain board/rack is my primary storage spot these days, it seems. yeah... I'm bad about that. The kitchen is pretty small to begin with, though. So, even when clean, there is little work space.

Needless to say those numbers don't add up to 100%. I believe the way it works is that the flour(s) add up to 100%, and then you take all the other ingredients in ratio to the flour. So, if you have a kilogram of flour (500 grams of all-purpose and 500 grams of bread flour) the you'd use 660 grams of water, .5 grams of yeast, etc. ← This is correct. The flour is the 100% ingredient. Everything else is a percentage of this. Usually, I hear the term foumula and think baking (especially bread baking).

Maybe it's a regional thing for the pricing? As I read through some more of the posts, I saw prices that really shocked me. Prime meats for $16 or so a pound? In the Dallas area, the premium grocery stores (Central Market and Whole Foods) are charging over $20 a pound for prime steaks. There is one local butcher not too far from work that I should try out. Not sure if he carries prime or not. Maybe I need to start up a thread in the Texas forum about where Dallas area folks get there meat. Still, for my "everyday" meals, going to some butcher shop that's not convenient between work and home is going to be an issue.

I guess you mean the American continent(s) and not the areas that became and are the United States of America.. So, with that, I will submit BBQ as America's great contribution to the food world.

I agree.. I would love to be able to get super high quality beef from a local merchant that is as close to home or work as the regular meg marts I shop at and spend the same money. But that's not going to happen. can I justify the cost for day in and day out meals? no. I can't. I've already increased my food budget a great deal over the past several years as I've started to eat better at home and while out. Buying top premium beef, chicken, etc. for every meal would make matters worse. Maybe I should just not buy beef or chicken unless I can afford the premium stuff and go out of my way to get it? I dunno. What would I eat between those times?

I've added a whole new crop of cooking shows on PBS to my Season Pass list on my TiVo. I'm getting exposed to people I haven't seen before (or didn't watch much of previously) Ming Tsai -- I actually like the concept of the "master recipe" (which is usually some sort of sauce or sauce base) which then gets applied to a few different dishes. He also brings in guest chefs. Hubert Keller -- This guy is probably doing the most elaborate stuff out of all the shows I currently TiVo. Lots of steps and fussy preperations. Lots of ingredients. It all looks great. But man, it's a lot of work. Paul Prudhomme -- I TiVo this still, but really don't watch it. Dunno what exactly it is, but I just don't get motivated to watch it. Rick Bayless -- He's great. I need to get one of his books. I really should be cooking a lot more Mexican stuff considering I live in Texas. Might give me the motivation to do some shopping at grocery store target towards the Hispanic population. Mark Bittman -- Not a chef, but I enjoyed is previous series Bittman Takes On, and now I am liking The Best Recipes in the World. It's a lot more "food travel" show then straight up cooking. I get to see a lot of stuff I other wise would not see.

for me, when I make them myself, I am a "depends on the drink" guy. I tend to follow the rules people have already mentioned. At a bar? I rarely see a drink get stirred. I've been ordering Manhattans at bars a lot this year. ONCE did someone actually stir it. And they used bitters automatically. This was at Taddich Grill in San Francisco. Everyone else always shakes. There was one "hybrid" approach where a bartender gently trasferred the liqquids and ice from one side to the other of the Boston shaker, then strained it into the cocktail glass. So, not stirring, but not shaking. (that was at Delmonico Steakhouse in Las Vegas)

John, I bring up this question from a certain cultural context. In my multi-course dining experiences in Chinese restaurants, the dishes are usually served communally, either "family-style" or "banquet-style." When I was looking through Wing Lei's menu, I did notice the tasting menu, as in each course is individually plated and served to the individual diner. That is not usually offered in a Chinese restaurant. The only time a course is served like that to a certain extent is the soup course, where the soup is brought out to the table, and then tableside, ladled into individual soup bowls already arranged, and finally served to each diner. And then there's the order of mu shu pork. But that's it! I'm used to having tasting menus at "Western" restaurants by myself. Mind you, having a tasting menu dinner at a Chinese restaurant is having me do a double-take, just a bit. It would be a different dining experience for me, because of my previous dining experiences of eating a multi-course Chinese meal more communally. Mind you, I do eat Chinese food as a solo diner, mainly one-item meals like chow mein or a large bowl of noodle soup. I hope this helps you (and others) understand where I'm coming from. ← when I went, about two weeks ago, they did plate up the "main course" course of our duck tasting menus to share amongst the people ordering the duck menu as well as to share with those who did not. The dessert course was served the same way. I'm not sure if this is normal for them or if they only did it because some people at the table ordered regularly. I think it worked out OK.

I tend to prefer pecans in/on things like cookies and brownies. Maybe it's because I live in Texas and that they seem pretty common for this part of the country.

I dined at Wing Lei one week ago today.. It was a good experience. 6 of us in total. Four of us had the duck tasting menu. The other people just ordered off of the regular menu. Not a problem at all. They actually DID offer a wine pairing with the duck menu. Something that surprised me as a I didn't recall seeing it when looking at the menu on-line a few weeks prior to the meal. Not too long after we ordered, they wheeled out the cart with the duck. Actually TWO ducks, since four of ordered the duck menu. We had an army of guys at our table carving up the ducks. It was neat. They started with the duck pancakes. And then the sommelier came with the first wine. Put down two champagne flutes and presented the wine. And started to pour. And pour. Uhh... That's pretty close to a FULL pour I thought and commented to my friend. We're in for some fun tonight!! The food kept coming, as did the wine. Got to try something I had never had before (a gruener veltiner, which seems to be hard to find for me here in Dallas and a nice rose. I had never had a rose before.. Oh, and a sherry with the dessert). At this point, the people who ordered off the regular menu just sat there. They each ordered a soup, but that came out with the first duck course. They wouldn't get anything else until the main course came.. The main course was served family style. Two LARGE plates of the main duck dish and the mains for the people ordering off the regular menu. us duck people were more than happy to share our stuff with the non-duck guys as there was PLENTY of food to go around. For dessert, they did the same. The non-duck guys didn't order any. And really, there was no need to as there was enough from the duck dinners to go around (the chocolate bars pictured above, plus a sorbet sampler) anyway, a really nice meal. Friendly service, too. The friendly service even started long before I got to the restaurant with the reservation agent at the Wynn who took my reservation. Very nice. Very enthused.