djsexyb

oh my word....why dont i have luck like that...or a grandma like that... i hope hes sending her a nice bouquet and not some cheap stuff from jewels..lol

gotcha. looked it up and yes they're still there, here's the link: http://www.the-char.com/index.htm Looks old school supper club like you said, but deffinately a contender for a nice night out. The wine menu looks quite nice too. good find! anyone else with suggestions? Especially nightclubs, we really dont mind driving ten to twenty minutes away either... Thanks!!

a group of us will be coming going to Winterplace Ski Resort over the christmas-new years holiday and staying in Beckley, WV. i was wondering if there are any places off the beaten track (fine dining, burger joints, whatever!) that are worth looking up. its nice to stray away from the tourist restaurants and into the local life. Also, since we will be there for New Years, any good night clubs around (preferrably 20 years old and over, as one of or guest is just shy of the big 2-1)? i know its a ways away, but the planning is in the works now, thanks in advance. M

thanks katie, cant wait to hear your report. i was expecting a more floral scent in this too. hopefully you can comfirm my thoughts. thanks

Trevor Jones NV "Jonesy" Old Tawny Port I bought this to cook with and it worked fine given the $10 price tag. Chocolat and espresso in color, darker than most tawnys, an intense viscosity. Aromas of roarsted almond and pecan, sweet oak, bitter chocolate, and mocha coffee. Moderate sweetness, flavors of molasses and fig, raisin and black cherry. a little overripe for my taste. There a littel tobacco note here. It was smooth, but short with a little heat and tannin in the finish. this was only ok for my taste. NOTE: I still had a half bottle or so after cooking with this, so its sitting in this fridge. i tasted it a few days ago. 2-3 weeks after initially opening and it has smoothed out much more, and was much more enjoyable. deffinately good PQR. 2003 3 Blind Moose California Cabernet Sauvignon ok, i didnt have high expectations for this, but wow was i wrong. despite trying not to like this one just because its another bulk-no distinction wine, i loved it. I decanted it for an hour or so before serving. It was very clear, dark burgundy in color. raspberry, black cherry, jammy aromas up front followed by milk chocolate and sweet american oak. Flavors were the same, but the body was very light and soft, with well-integrated tannins. very smooth, though lacking a little acidity. this finished reletively short. Despite what might look like a lack luster reivew above it was quite the opposite. all the qualities that would be "negetive" in a lot of wines, like short finish, jammy flavors and light body are exactly the qualites that made this so nice. it made you want to go back and back for more. it was simple and unidimensional, but i would go out and get this!! (someone brought this to my house) and that's saying something. i base my tasting off the "wow" factor, and this deffinately had alot of it. take this review as you want, i liked this. and yes, i am surprised to be saying that.

ok, was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this vodka. Being distilled from Burgundy Grapes, cote d' or water in france, it did get my attention. i was wondering if anyone had a sort of tasting note on it, whether on its own cold/room temp, or in a cocktail, vodka martini, etc. here's the website in case anyone would like to learn more. http://idolvodka.com/index.html thanks

ok, i see where you are going with this and i will sure try it for myself the next time I am in. My wife and I are planning on dining again in a couple months, once our businesses reach their slow time of the year. I am assuming that the vanillan compounds would add a distinct, though not overpowering nose, and perhaps a little added bite on the palate. This is kind of like the "Randal the Enamel Animal" filter used in some bars to impart more hop flavor (though waaay more high tech) (quick note: the "Randal" machine is a two foot tall cone filter that gets attached after the tap and is filled with 1-2 pounds of dried hops, or fresh when available). hmm. seeing as you said that you can impart any flavor you want into the glass, wouldnt it be different if you did a deconstructed wine course that consists of all the primary and secondary flavors of a specific wine carmelized into a glass. it could be served along side a tasting portion of the actual wine for comparison's sake too. just a thought (i am assuming that by carmelizing the flavors into the glass you obtain a product with amazing nose/scent...man, i just have to come in and try this already....) Much thanks Chef

chef cantu, if you would indulge me once again... i have recently been reading up about the class I lazer and how you zap the vanilla bean before pouring in some wines. my question... what wines do you traditionally serve in this method? being a self-admiting wine geek, and also Moto fanatic, i have conflicting view points on this. i would think that you use a wine of lesser quality, therefore the vanilla perks it up. right? because infusing something into a high quality (and possibly expensive) pinot sets off a few alarms in my head. so which wines do you use for this? Thanks in advance, as always.

My first thought when I read this is that the foaming is being induced by rxn with peroxide (think hydrogen peroxide on a cut). H2O2 tastes a bit salty and I wouldnt want to drink much of it, tho it is used as a dental rinse. Now Im extremely curious what Chef Cantu uses in that drink. ← Quoting Chef Cantu...,"There are many ways one can create this reaction. For the advanced home cook, you can separate a mixed drink into 2 inert liquids. One contains an acid and one contains a base. The one that contains a base should have the foaming agent, in this case we use egg white powder. Just be sure to allow the egg white powder to dissolve and strain out any lumps as egg white powder pockets are less than tasty. Use a hand blender rather than a cup blender because the cup blender will create a foaming mass that will spill all over. The only thing one should taste is the drink, not the elements added to create the effect, so only use what is necessary. Depending on the beverage you want to create, you have to adjust the acid vs base. Also bear in mind items like lemon flavored spirits alter the formula and should be taken into consideration. We chose the hurricane because as the base is ejected into the acid, it swirls around in the martini glass thus producing a "milky way" like effect that looks like a satellite image of a hurricane. Any beverage can be adapted to this technique. Cheers." From the horse's mouth....

I agree with the above post. there is no reason these shouldnt drink very nicely. some (the chard, specifically) may be a little past their peak, but age just brings a new dimension to wines like those. The only apprehension I have is how do you "forget" that you have bottles like these laying around in the cellar?!! lol

bingo! Thats why i do it, that and since my business is mobile (meaning i have to have as much control as possible over my dishes, even though i am in a foreign kichen) its more consistant for me. $.02

so how'd it go!?

i have also heard that CO2 changes pH, but since the spheres are already formed, then carbonated, it shouldnt be a problem. Like i said i have seen this done before.

Well, ive tossed this around abit, but no experiments yet. what i do find is that the spheres are semi-permeable. (leave a sphere out for a while and the liquid inside will eventually (though slowly) leek out, dont know if that leak would be suffiecient enough to fizz/ foam like Moto's hurricane. secondly, i do think that if you made the alginate sphere, and just broke it while in this drink, that would be more appealing (if the whole thing didnt fizz over!), and i thought i should add that Chef Cantu told me that their base in the hurricane drink is powdered egg whites and not sodium bicarbonate. i think its WD-40 that places algiante spheres in an airtight container and carbonates them, which i think is also genius....kinda like MOTO's carbonated fruit... further experimentation is certainly needed, though.. keep us posted...

when i take the caviar out of the calcium bath, they go into a fresh water bath with a fine mesh strainer (aka chinois), where as i can then drain the water and i also place the strainer with the caviar in it on a few paper towel and let any residual water drip off before serving. the foam is bascially a 1/2 vitamin D 1/2 heavy cream, which is steamed lightly (for that steamed milk taste) and then buzzed with an immersion blender untill soft/medium peaks (for structure). when i do this for customers, i will put a little bit of lecithin in there to make sure the structure stays longer (so i can transport the finished foam.) yeah, espresso in an ideal candidate. i want to note that after brewing, i seasoned with a little sugar and salt. Again i am trying to emphasize, dont just make spheres, make finished products that taste great instead of mediocre. I like the donut panna cotta ideal. i do a donut soup (ala Moto) and have done the pairing also to great review. whats your orange sauce? one thing too, throw a spig of mint on top of that thing or if you're more advneturous put some mint paint on one side of your bowl, the color combos would really make it pop.

my recent adventures with alginate caviar. This is a dry run of a dish im doing for a customer in a few weeks... Deconstructed Mocha Cappuchino-- Espresso Caviar, Steamed Milk Foam, Almond Butter, Drawn Ganache, Shaved Bittersweet Chocolate, and Cinnamon Crystals man i need a better camera

unless the surface tension and viscosity of liquid nitrogen matches that of the product you're putting into it, you would not be able to make perfect frozen spheres, and if you cant do that, then i dont see a point. secondly, from experience, when i freeze portions, even though my mold isnt round or oval in any way, i get perfect ravioli because the outer layer is gelled first and then the liquid inside disperses against the sides of the gell evenly so you get a perfect sphere, reguardless of if your frozen shape was spherical. hope that makes sense... ← Doesn't your second point conflict with your first? The whole point of freezing them is that they dont need to be perfectly round. Then again, caviar might work differently to ravioli in this respect. I was thinking more in terms of freezing a batch pre-service and then just being able to drop them all into the alginate solution at once which would help speed up service. ← i do understand what you are saying, and the only point that i am making is that if liquid nitrogen doesnt do any better of a job freezing solutions than, well...the freezer than it wouldnt be cost effective enough to warrant using... on the other hand, if liquid nitro helped define shapes better, or has other pluses, like it being quicker than traditional freezing, i would rethink sorry for the confusion

unless the surface tension and viscosity of liquid nitrogen matches that of the product you're putting into it, you would not be able to make perfect frozen spheres, and if you cant do that, then i dont see a point. secondly, from experience, when i freeze portions, even though my mold isnt round or oval in any way, i get perfect ravioli because the outer layer is gelled first and then the liquid inside disperses against the sides of the gell evenly so you get a perfect sphere, reguardless of if your frozen shape was spherical. hope that makes sense...

just want to make sure you know how im doing it. i freeze the solution that has the alginate in it, not the finished sphere. tony, first let us know about the lactate and how that goes. second i dont think that is what cantu does, i talk with him occasionally and he has informed me to freeze the liquid and alginate solution (hense my sourses for the liquid center bday cake idea), or perhaps he has been doing it different lately. how do you know? i am not sure on what the benefits would be with freezing the finished orbs.

i agree with bryan, set it all up and make em there. as for service temp, you can heat the spheres gently in warm liquids, but be sure not to go too far/too hot as they will explode on ya. i should also note that if you are doing an egg yolk ravioli (which is a coool idea) that is has cacium in it and thus should be done with inverse sphereification.

2004 Bonny Doon DEWN Pazzo Chardonnay This wine has been fermented with the skins on with Chard grapes from the Santa Cruz Appelation. 14.2% al. This wine was pleasantly surprising! I tend to stray away from cheaper (although this was roughly $26/btl.) California chard for the lack of distinction, but this offered nothing of the sort. Very clear golden color, fading to light honey on the rim. The nose was very nice, and quite complex. i found carmel apple and honeycomb, followed by grapefruit peel, yeast, and a pleasant floral/jasmine scent. There seems to be a banana peel element here too, but i may be wrong. Randal Grahmn says on the website that these floral and caramel notes are due to the fermentation with skins. Spicy american oak in the end. The fruit was pleasant on the tongue, normal chard here with a nice hint of that carmel apple and quince comes in the rear, as with many of BD's Santa Cruz grown whites, followed with the spiced oak again. Very good balance, though lacking a little acidity for my taste, but worked well with Herb Roasted Game Hen, braised red cabbage, and parmasean polenta. This chard needed food to be fully enjoyed. the finish was moderate. All in all, this is better than ALOT of american chard you could buy for the money, though it is still a different breed as compared with french chards. and the limited availability is a little disheartening. this is a DEWN wine that should be put on the everyyear menu. An american Chardonnay with an Italian twist...I approve.

i go directly from the freezer into the Calcium bath. i know from experimenting that to get a very nice, thin, but very strudy orb, it needs to be in there for 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 minutes. at that time i poke it with my finger to see if there is any frozen liquid in the center, then place it in a warm, fresh water bath for another minute or so and go to plate. i am interested in the calcium lactate also, anyone used this the the purpose of sphereification? chef cantu from Moto told me once to try to find Calcium Lactate for this purpse and that it does work, though you need to use much more of it. i have not tried it yet though.

ok as for molds, i prefer to freeze individual servings. i use these plastic shot glasses (tuperware i think) that have air tight lids. that way when you get an order for it, pull it out and drop it ito the CaCl2 bath. i leave the sphere in the bath for approximately 3-3 1/2 minutes and it forms a nice thin layer. the i strain it out and place it into a fresh water bath to rinse, which is slightly warm, to thaw it fully. ive noticed that the shape of the mold doesnt mater becuase the liquid inside the orb disperses evenly and forms a sphere. i will have to experiment to find a mold and CaCl2 bath that will facilitate the shape i want for the liquid center b-day cake....

i wish i still had a pictue of this. i had it at Moto a WHILE back, couple years prolly. basically it is a white birthday cake style disk (looks more like a small hockey puck than a ravioli) with sprinkles on top. it is liquid center of course and made using this method as i talk to chef cantu every so often and he informs me of such. the only aspect i am still testing is that the one served at Moto had a diffinative shape ____ l____l looks like that, and not rounded orbs like el bulli raviolli. ok, i guess its time to let the cat out of the bag, the secret to getting great ravioli (for me anyway) is freezing the liquid into shape prior to the CaCl2 bath. i do my ravioli this way and it works hands down every single time and they are all uniform in shape and size. the only "problem" with this is that they still look like raviolli and not a deffinate shape as shown above. so i am thinking i need to make a bigger mold, freeze it, and leave it in the bath (perhaps a "stronger" bath too) longer. the LCBDCAKE at moto had a very strong outer layer, i think i could have dropped it to the floor from 5 feet and it would have been fine.... so thats the outlook for that experiment...

hey justin good luck with the party, hope the menu worked out ok. be sure to let us know how it went, and dont forget a WTN too. Mike