kiteless

Where did Noah run off to? He's been gone from Porcella since last summer. And it seems the shop has suffered for it. We went in before New Years to pick up some braseola. We used to adore Porcella's braseola (and prosciutto, but they were out as usual), but this last time it was terrible! We chucked it in the garbage. Talk about disappointing. Have other meats suffered the same fate? Is Noah somewhere else making amazing cured meats? I'd love to know.

After reading glowing reviews for Union here for so long, I finally made it a point to get down there. While it was good, I wasn't left as blown away as I was hoping. Am I expecting too much? We barely ate all day, so we ordered many plates, all to share: 3 cold plates, 2 pasta/rice, 2 fish, and 1 dessert. The good: the service was great, very attentive but relaxed and friendly the presentation on everything was immaculate the carne cruda was outstanding in every respect the octopus was cooked perfectly, with a wonderful char the risotto was wonderful, great and creamy with each rice grain wonderfully separate, toothy but tender the pasta noodles themselves were wonderful the ahi tuna and the skate were seared perfectly with a wonderful crust the in-house gelato, specifically the cherry and chocolate flavors, were the best I'd ever had, and were very light and fluffy and amazing The not-as-good: the raw mackerel was a little fishy (is this typical of mackerel? I honestly don't know) the braised rabbit pasta was a little too salty (is this symptomatic of rabbit? I had the same problem with a rabbit and pasta dish at Cafe Juanita) the ahi itself was a little bland the baby beets that came with the skate were also lacking. I LOVE beets and can eat several regular sized beets with nothing more than a little olive oil and salt, but these were a little bland and thin tasting. The cinnamon gelato was a little gritty from the ground cinnamon There were a few other things I didn't care for, but I'll chalk those up to personal taste. And I just too picky? I'm still a little new to more upscale dining, the majority of my experiences have been in the last year, but I've had similar experiences at Zoe, Cafe Juanita, Seastar, and Canlis, where I'm just not blown away and little (or big, in the case of Canlis, although I know Canlis is hardly an egulet darling) things are wrong.

These are excellent suggestions and resources, thank you very much!

Hi, I'm going to be spending a full week in June in downtown Montreal to watch the F1 race. I've perused the threads on this board and made notations of great-looking places (such as the Snowdon deli and Joe Beef), but I'm also looking for other suggestions. I'm going to be staying between the University of Quebec in Montreal and Chinatown near Boulevard Rene-Levesque East and Boulevard St. Laurent. Does anybody have suggestions for breakfast, good quality coffee and/or bar/pub places nearby that have a casual atmosphere (I'm hoping to spend most of my vacation in jeans and sneakers)? I'm assuming since it's near the University there will be plenty, but suggestions for the better locations would be most welcome. I'm also looking for suggestions for shopping near our hotel, which has a fully equipped kitchen. I have the Jean Talon and the Atwater markets noted, but suggestions for good places nearby would be appreciated. Also, is anything special available in early to mid June that I should keep my eyes out for, or specialties (besides smoked meat, of course)? I'd love to try some local items, especially things that aren't available or are harder to come by in Seattle, Washington. Thanks for your suggestions!

Flat Iron and Skirt Steak are actually 2 of my favorite cuts. As mentioned, sear both sides in a hot cast iron pan, and finish in the oven for a few minutes. Makes great eating as-is or phenomenal sandwiches. Skirt steak, as mentioned, is the best (and as far as I'm concerned, only) cut for carne asada. My marinade is similar to stephle's: beer, lime, garlic, fresh cilantro, olive oil, salt and pepper. Marinate for around 4-6 hours (if you marinate it overnight, it can actually taste beer-y and you don't want that). Throw on a hot grill and cook quickly. Chop up into small pieces, and make tacos with two small fresh, warm corn tortillas with a little fresh chopped onion, radish and cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Add red or green salsa and eat. Heaven with a cold beer.

I'm not sure about that being the dumpling specifically for goulash (for some reason my grandmother never really made goulash), but it definitely is the small flour and egg dumpling used in Hungarian cooking (I used to eat it with chicken paprikash). My grandmother and father were both born in Hungary; they came to the US when my father was around 10. I don't know which region they're from (they never really discussed their time in Europe, ever), but my grandmother uses Pride of Szeged sweet Paprika. Of course, that's the best that was available at the store, so I don't know if she uses that because it's good, or because it's what was available. I've found June Meyer's website to be a fairly good online resource for traditional Hungarian fare. Not everything is listed (specifically nokedli, the spaetzle she listed is not the same), but I've found it to be a fairly good resource nonetheless. As a side note, I did grow up having roux soup with caraway and buttery skilled-fried croutons on occassion, so I guess that hasn't died out completely

Thanks for the heads up! My husband and I are attending the class (I guess we'll be coming home with a lot of sausage!)

Well, it's my last day in Kauai. Unfortunately, we were hit with terrible weather (25 inches of rain in 5 days; over 6 inches of rain yesterday in Lihue), I've never seen it rain like this in my entire life and I live in the Seattle area! Anyway, we didn't do much fine dining as our budget wouldn't allow for it and, well, honestly it gets a bit tiring for us and sometimes we just want burgers and pizzas and a cold beer! So here are my impressions, from the likes of Roy's to the greasy spoons. Camp House Grill - Greasy spoon. My husband and I had reasonable burgers and cheese steak sandwiches. Decent spicy fries. Not much to write about. Kalaheo Coffee Company and Cafe - Great coffee. We had a pretty good breakfast the first time we were here: a breakfast burrito that was tasty but unfortunately had obviously jarred salsa and frozen hash browns. Still, wasn't too bad - filled with veggies, eggs, ham, black beans, etc. Wasn't so great the second time that we came here, but it's definitely a good spot to get good drip coffee and buy some beans or grounds to take back to your hotel or rental. Waimea Brewing Company - We had one of these back home, but they closed down recently. I never cared much for their beers, but they introduced a new Northwest Style, highly hopped IPA that my husband really liked (he says it's very fruity and floral, and like a cross of Deschutes Mirror Pond and Redhook IPA, his two favorite beers). I had the Kalua pork wrap, which I had initially loved back home, but here it seemed a little lackluster: the cabbage was warm, instead of crisp like before, and either there wasn't enough of the kimchee style sauce or it wasn't sour enough. I was a bit disappointed, but the food here isn't bad, it's just not great. Roy's - We went here instead of the Beach House because the menu at the Beach House was a bit out of my husband's comfort zone. The drinks at the bar were terribly bad, my husband had a margarita made with really terrible mixer, and later, a flat and overly sweet mojito (they shook the cocktail shaker after they added club soda - why?). We were then seated inside, and didn't have the world's best service - they forgot bread, didn't split plates like they promised, etc. I have a feeling it wasn't the waittress' fault as she seemed to have ordered other folks who didn't follow through, and they later made up for it by comping a dessert. Anyway, we had two appetizers of potstickers and seared Cajun ahi which were pretty good - the ahi was fresh and buttery, and the potstickers had good texture and flavor, and the sriracha aioli were a good compliment. We ordered a Mahi Mahi entree to split and it came out a bit dry and bland. We had a trio of sorbets (lychee, mango and coconut) which were tasty but not spectacular. A bit underwhelming, especially considering the price tag. Tokyo Lobby - The tempura was the best thing we ordered and it was nothing special. Shrimp shu mai were rubbery, deep fried, and had an odd taste; spicy tuna and salmon rolls did not taste fresh, and were very sloppily prepared, both in rolling and in slicing. The spicy tuna was chopped and mixed with mayonnaise - we were a bit put off by this bit. Neither of us wanted to finish the sushi. And, the bathrooms were disgusting. The sink area had dirt caked around the faucet and looked like it had not been cleaned for at least a month. I would say to avoid this place... Hanamaulu Restaurant, Teahouse and Sushi Bar - This was recommended by a friend, and we wanted to cleanse our palatte from Tokyo Lobby with some good sushi. We were pleasantly suprised. Inside this restaurant is a manicured Japanese garden and fish pond, with tea rooms surrounding the inner garden for beautiful views. This is a completely beautiful, unassuming spot if you were to reserve a tea room (we did not); otherwise the main restaurant is nothing special. And the sushi was right on - very fresh and well prepared. We had spicy tuna, salmon, and spider rolls and left very happy, and had to keep ourselves from ordering more. We wanted to go back for another meal, but unfortunately due to flash flood warnings, breaking dams and several mudslidess we are not traveling far until we are ready to leave for the airport. Shame, we really wanted to come back. Brick Oven Pizza - I don't consider myself an authority on pizza; I'm strictly west coast and you NY and Chicago folks can duke it out, and I don't have any Italian blood. However, the crust was crispy, the toppings were pretty good, and this was pretty good American-style pizza to go with a pitcher of beer. The Shack - The best place I found to get a beer. They had a pretty good selection - Guinness on draft, as well as Redhook IPA, Widmer Hefeweizen, Bass, Kona Firerock Pale Ale, and your typical American macrobrews. $2.50 pints at happy hour which is very cheap. Atmosphere is loud and there were a few obnoxious patrons. We didn't eat food unless you count chili cheese fries. This place has free wi-fi - a feature we found odd for a bar and burger place. Coconuts - I had really high hopes for this place and was not let down. We had the seafood cigars as an appetizer which are seafood-filled fried spring rolls served with a spicy pineapple chutney-type condiment. Really delicious. My husband had the wasabi crusted ahi, served with garlic-spinach and (we think) coconut-cilantro rice; it might have had nori in it too, but were were unsure. Absolutely delicious, my husband ordered his just seared and this was hands down the best ahi tuna I've had. Everything went very well together and we were very impressed. I had the tempura ono served over a puck of fried rice, the ono was unfortunately a bit over-fried and the tempura shell was very hard, but was still good. The rice underneath could have used a bit more of something as it was a bit bland. I would have ordered my husband's ahi if I knew how astoundingly good it would have been. Unfortunately we did not have room for dessert. Poipu Tropical Burgers - I suppose if you're in a burger mood this would suffice but it was just ok. The burgers were 1/2 lb and really too thick for my husband's tastes, I can't say I wouldn't agree. The place really suffered from being understaffed and although it was obvious the servers were working hard, there weren't enough people to go around - people waited in line to be seated but were ignored, and tables sat with food and dishes on them for as long as 30 minutes before being cleared.

It seems simple, but I haven't yet seen it mentioned: add a good amount of thickly sliced shallots to cubed potatoes for oven roasting. They get crispy and delicious. I also sliced several shallots thickly and added to the bottom of the roasting pan when I was oven roasting a chicken the other night. Although they were greasy, they were again delicious and carmelized and crispy and my husband and I fought over them. I also like to pan fry them until crispy and use them as a topping for meat. I guess I prefer them crispy and carmelized than delicate and tender.

Thursday it snowed, and called for a comforting soup: coconut milk and chicken broth steeped in galanga, lime leaves, lemongrass and garlic; later I poached in the liquid thinly sliced chicken breast, and to finish added rice noodles and topped with a mixture of mung bean sprouts, julienned english cucumber and cilantro. Saturday was another cozy meal: salad of parsley, shallots, baby lettuces, english cuke and blue cheese dressing, with sauteed quartered criminis, oven roasted baby yukon golds and more shallots, and a flat iron steak with thyme compound butter.

guppymo, thanks for reviving this thread and posting more pictures and recipes! I must say that while there were several oustanding reasons for me to sign up for egullet, your images of Banh Xeo on the first page of this post is one of the few things that really made me stand up and take notice. This thread also led me into searching out more information about Vietnamese food besides the ever-popular Pho, so thank you. Everything you post looks so beautiful

Thanks! Just the char siu, some minced and browned onions, and the sauce ingredients (dark soy, oyster sauce, ketchup, sugar, chicken broth and sesame oil). This is territory I was completely unfamiliar with, so I followed the recipe as written.

Also bumping an old thread. I tried this over the weekend, using a recipe from Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's Dim Sum Dumpling Book. It turned out well, although perhaps I could have used a little more filling in the buns, and an ever-so-slightly-bit saucier filling. The Char Siu: The filling: Baked bao:

Thanks to this thread (I made this chili a while ago but am just getting around to posting) I tried chili with cubes of chuck. The texture was vastly improved, and it will be hard to make it with ground beef again. I also apparently made many no-nos, as I used onion and beans. But I'm nowhere close to Texas or cajun country, so I'm just fine with making bastardized chili. What went into mine: few lbs of cubed chuck, a sweet yellow onion, a green bell pepper, chili powder, chipotles in adobo sauce, pureed tomatoes, beer (porter), and half a cinnamon stick. Browned the beef, removed it from the pot, sweated the onion, garlic and green pepper, then threw everything but the beans in and let it simmer for a few hours. It was good, but it needed a little tweaking. Next time I think I will attempt to make my own chili powder. Served up with copious amounts of cilantro, lime crema (lime juice and lime zest mixed in with sour cream), and a little cheese.

Chicken picatta is one of my easy stand-bys. Served with broccolini and some sort of starch (brown rice, buttered pasta, whipped potatoes). Thai bbq'd chicken is good, too. Marinate bone-in chicken in fish sauce, lemongrass and lots and lots of pureed or pounded cilantro. This does take some advance planning, but the marinade is very quick to put together, and grilling doesn't take too long. I also think risotto is pretty easy, because except for the stirring it's fairly brainless. Beef stroganoff can be very rich and and comforting when using good quality ingredients. In the summer, salad nicoise is so easy and good. And one of my favorite comfort foods - elevated ham and cheese sandwiches. Sourdough from your favorite bakery, with prosciutto, capocolla, black forest ham, etc. and the cheese of your choice (the last one had a Vermont cheddar and an English Farmhouse cheddar), liberally buttered and pan-fried.