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Steve Klc

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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Everything posted by Steve Klc

  1. Jeanne--another stereotype which seems to get mentioned about DC is that we have had a very diverse and very deep array of ethnic restaurants for a long time--much more so than in other big food cities. To a certain extent, do you agree? If so, do you consider our concentration of government, embassy and military complex to be mainly responsible? I arrived in DC in 1978, but you grew up here--when did you get the sense there were "ethnic" cuisines and were they part of what made DC special for you?
  2. Steve Klc

    Mastic

    Library? Do people actually go to libraries anymore?
  3. Short answer Jeanne--no, I wouldn't find lists of best-selling cookbooks helpful and much prefer your method. That information is readily available elsewhere. I do think asking local chefs/winemakers/restaurateurs/food pros/readers/politicians/Tony Kornheiser et al what their 5 favorite food books are--and running a list like that occasionally, might be fun and be interesting to a wide swath of readers--with a sentence why each particular book was selected. A tangent--Jonathan Yardley of Style/Books "reviewed" the recent Barbara Haber book--From Hardtack to Homefries--which dealt with culinary history. Were you aware he was going to write about it or consulted and given the opportunity to review it in Food--as Charlie Perry in the the LA Times Food section did? Which review did you prefer? Link here to Yardley: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2....nd=true Or do you not really mind if books like this--or Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential--are handled outside of your section?
  4. Steve P--we used to hear a similar myth trotted out about food in the Middle Ages being heavily spiced because it was rancid and of poor quality--until enough food writers read Mennell and Barbara Wheaton to reach critical mass and have that myth dispelled. If they could afford the expensive, rare and complex blends of spices--they could certainly afford the freshest meat and game, which was less expensive and less troublesome to procure right from their backyards. The more we get into the possible historical parallels between the development of Western haute cuisine and Indian cuisine, the yin/yang between the aristocracy and the masses, the curiouser it all gets. There was always public display of culinary wealth in Europe and the aristocracy saw public feasts and banquets as a necessity, a vital way to reinforce their elitism, wealth and privilege among the masses and lesser nobles alike--and this pre-dates the restaurant version of haute cuisine which Steve P. rightly points out. Only in this case--as royalty toured the domain and feasted--the idea was for the regions and provinces to emulate--not go home and improve. All of Cabrales's potential themes are on point--and we've dealt with some already on this board--namely the evolution of Indian cuisine taken in at restaurants or at home and direct comparisons to the development of two parallel but diverging tracks of cooking styles and methodologies in France--and also some speculation of the fusion aspect of Indian cooking in Western restaurants and what that might portend for the future. I guess India has had at least as many (if not more) significant internal bouts with fusion as the French went through new waves of "nouvelle" cooking seemingly every 50 years or so. And, I personally don't care whether the leading Indian culinary lights are working for the aristocracy one wit--I want to know whether they are evolving and pushing successfully in new directions yet or just creating "watered down hybrid abominations." If this is happening in the privacy of elite homes--eventually it will leak out and filter down. I wonder if this is happening at all and rely on other more experienced and nuanced travellers to report.
  5. Jeanne--in light of your previous comments about food writers and "writing about food" here: http://forums.egullet.org/ikonboa....;t=6841 Do you ever expect a newspaper writer to win a Pulitzer for writing about food or food topics? Is this within the realm of possibility in the near future? I'm thinking of: 1) something investigative, along the lines of the "Taste of Slavery" series, which linked the world chocolate trade to modern-day slavery and won a Polk Award for international reporting honors. It was reported by Sudarsan Raghavan and Sumana Chatterjee of Knight-Ridder and, for those who haven't seen this already, here is one part of the series: http://www.realcities.com/mld....179.htm or 2) recognition of some body of work--criticism, essays or commentary. If so, what writer, what voice might you lay early odds on now? If not, what has to happen or change?
  6. Steve Klc

    Mastic

    Sandra--one print source of mine says that gum arabic is "a natural additive obtained from the bark of certain varieties of acacia tree." Another print source, "A New Book of Middle Eastern Food," says that mastic is "the hard resin of the acacia tree." Gastrotex--thank you for your very detailed post--would you mind passing along the source or reference? Gastrotex--have you ever held flintstone grade crystals of mastic in your hands? are they hard and not squeezable in the slightest?
  7. Wing--have you tried the organic marzipan and almond paste from Sicily by BIA Stramondo in your taste tests? Imported by Purely Organic--I found it in foil-wrapped 250g packages at Whole Foods Market. Also, how about almond flour from The California Press? I haven't yet come across a packaged almond milk that could rival one made by boiling or infusing your own. Are you familiar with "mandorle da bere?"
  8. Steve Klc

    Bouley

    PaulaJ--thank you for the followup. I just noticed it today and am grateful. How was the carpaccio plated? Thank you as well, Cabrales and others, for the reviews and previews. I've posted to this thread and followed it with great interest. I guess there might be a fine line between cuisine with lyricism and moderation and what might charitably be described at "Bouley lite." A question, though Cabrales--would you mind revealing a bit behind your decision to be judicious in this case and not post a more involved summary of your first experience at the new Bouley? After all--you are very familiar with previous incarnations of Bouley and certain similarities and differences must be so stark as to render them practically objective rather than open to a more personal, subjective evaluation or dependent on multiple visits? Larger issues for me--which may not hold as much interest for others: is Bouley trying to make due without a top-level pastry chef or taking the lead himself for dessert production? what compromises or concessions are being made creatively, artistically or compositionally as a result of this decision--and how much currently is inspired by or directly lifted from Herme, Bill Yosses and Adria? Are customers being shortchanged and is the food media in a position to notice or care?
  9. Suzanne, you could put the sour cream recipe here even if it is from a collection or part of a longer article or source. It would almost certainly be ok under our fair use policy. If you have a concern, e-mail or message me and I'll help you figure out how to post it. My question for you is: have you ever compared this with almond milk that you infused from almond powder or finely ground almonds? How creamy or soft is the texture?
  10. Holly--your question has come up and been discussed indirectly within several threads on this nascent DC board, but you have added an interesting wrinkle--causality. Yes, DC has been diverse cuisine-wise for a long time, even before it became cool in a Saveur magazine kind of way to read, write, discover and wax poetic about the intricacies of all these cuisines. Adams Morgan in 1980 had already been a wellspring of culinary ideas and ethnic exoticism for some time. I find I mention Phyllis Richman all the time (usually I assign some degree of blame to her for something I don't like about the DC food scene or how it is been mis-perceived historically) and I'll mention her again here--for she was the driving force, the largest non-chef, food personality on our food scene for two decades--and while some complained that she didn't leave the downtown core enough to get out into the suburbs to ferret out enough of these ethnic gems (nor recognize that once someone moved out to the burbs, they generally stayed there to eat) one thing she got right for its time was to embrace this explosion of ethnic cuisines and convey a wealth of information about foreign cuisines and cultures in her reviews. She was always a terrific writer, accessible and interesting, and no doubt was the first introduction and a reliable ongoing guide to these exotic terms and strange dishes for many a Washingtonian. She stretched us significantly and well at the low end. Where I'm intrigued, and possibly take issue with you, is your conclusion: "that the DC area, because of all the embassies and all the military and government types who served abroad, probably would have the best assortment of ethnic restaurants in the country." I wonder if that question might be much more complex and difficult to answer? If anything, I wonder if we have ethnic culinary diversity moreso because of economics--that we've had substantial and diverse pools of poor immigrants and laborers settle here--that the two richest counties in the country (Fairfax and Montgomery) surrounded DC, so there was the right mix of affluent professionals requiring maids, nannies, gardners and housekeepers, construction laborers, service and support workers that our local population base was unwilling to fill? Now, was our area more welcoming because it was the National seat of government, with the overwhelmingly Democratic and liberal District itself riddled with large pockets of poor neighborhoods--where immigrants and non-resident, illegal aliens could more easily find housing? Did ethnic restaurants spring up to serve this ethnic clientele more so than the government/military/diplomatic/industrial lobby? I suspect so--but was it this consortium that was responsible for those ethnic restaurants opening in the first place? My personal and by no means scientific opinion of these embassy/military/government types is that they knew very little about good food, are very conservative and have had much less effect on the development and ongoing success of our ethnic culinary diversity as one might assume. Except if you are talking about steakhouses. (We have great depth of steakhouses, which Tom Sietsema profiled and was nominated this year for a James Beard journalism award for.) When I started eating in these ethnic restaurants 24 years ago, it would not be uncommon to be the only white person in the place. Now, of course, these restaurants have many layers of customer support. However, if you were to go back to the 60's rather than mid to late 70's--perhaps what laid the groundwork for such ethnic explosion later were all those embassy staff workers--who sent money home--and then had relatives emigrate; American diplomats who worked abroad and brought foreign service employees back to the States with them; Chinese who made connections because of Nixon; Vietnamese who made connections because of the war, etc. Also, we can't downplay the role of DC's wealth of Universities which have always been open to foreign students--perhaps more so than in other cities?--so it's not just poor service workers and their families but sons and daughters of wealthy accomplished people coming here as well. Maybe another way to approach this is to compare DC with NY--are elements common to both cities and which might have come to bear on the diversity and early development of ethnic cuisines--as opposed to a similar development in other large East coast cities? And what does that say about the populations which support such restaurants?
  11. I use the narrow and wide Benriner, they're inexpensive enough to have both sitting on a shelf in the closet and not fret about them. I seem to recall we had a thread on mandolines before.
  12. And that's why we come to eGullet--to find out the places in Napa and elsewhere that will be happy to see you. This thread provides more than enough. (Of course, you could go to the Anderson Valley instead where they really, really will be happy to see you.) Ron, somehow I personally managed to avoid "spas, mud baths, herbal remedies, smoothies, massages, and (spending) lots of money" by doing research and asking around. I did get a few artistic and design ideas from the too-pricey boutiques along the strip, though. Of course those things are there if you choose to be diverted from the food and wine experience and yes, this was before eGullet was created to simplify things and help people tailor the right experience for them. But I was lucky I had locals and local chefs to guide me--hence how I ended up at All Season's and discovered a young former French Laundry sous-chef cooking there under the radar, forward-thinking enough to hire a real pastry chef as well. For me Calistoga was mere strategy, an affordable base station with easier access to restaurants and wineries down valley. The excellent supermarket in Calistoga was key as well--we used our kitchen, which allowed us to eat simply and well "at home" when we didn't feel up to taking a meal out. Do you know if any of those Healdsburg restaurants are online? I haven't eaten at them--Tastings was still too newish and had good but mixed reviews--we heard the same things with Roux and Miramonte. We decided to wait to try them. Howie--on my trip last summer I did manage to spend some time at the CIA-Greystone campus. Nice place to look at, not worth a detour unless you plan to take any wine class given there by Karen MacNeil--she is simply one of the most superb instructors I have ever experienced in any discipline. Otherwise, don't feel guilty skipping it. Short of that, buy her book "The Wine Bible" if you feel the need to brush up a bit before your trip.
  13. This caught my eye today on Jim Romanesko's Media News site and I wondered, what would Jeanne think about it: Washington Post Style section writer Hank Stuever says: "I think newspapers have always been oddly accommodating to the gay man. I'm going to really stereotype here, but newspapers have always needed a queen to run -- oh, this is so stereotypical, but it's so true -- graphics, features, food, dance, theatre. How are you going to cover all that if you don't have some queens in the newsroom telling people what to do?" Here's the link to the full interview: http://www.metroweekly.net/feature/?ak=10 I'm not sure how to react to this. If quoted accurately, do you suspect Hank is just saying what everyone else thinks?
  14. To pick up on what's been discussed in the above posts: I disagree with Ron re: skipping Napa--there's still better food there--and Beachfan seems to agree with me about the Calistoga strategy. Going the back way into Calistoga is fine--just don't do it at night. It can be dark, dangerous and confusing, especially if you are driving late and you're tired. We stay at Carlin Country Cottages in Calistoga--not "luxury" but comfortable, reasonably priced with full kitchens surrounding a nice pool. Here's the link: http://www.carlincottages.com/ Locals put their families up at the El Bonita when they visit--707.963.3216--centrally located, inexpensive. Obviously, reservations way in advance are a must. I still recommend Calistoga over Sonoma or Healdsburg and down valley. It can be (comparatively) less expensive, you could do some of your own cooking with ingredients and artisinal breads from a nearby reasonably priced market. There are inexpensive and chic, pricey restaurant options along Calistoga's main drag, which you can walk to and along. There's a wonderful small underappreciated gem of a restaurant there that I've written elsewhere about--before Food & Wine outed them--the All Season's Cafe, where there is an attached wine shop and you can buy wines at retail for your meal there! This place kicks Wappo's butt food and wine-wise, though eating out under the trellis is quite nice ambience at Wappo. Do lunch/brunch at Wappo and dinner at All Season's. Don't taste wine at all the afternoon before the French Laundry, if you get a reservation. Relax, take a spa in Calistoga, lounge poolside and try to contain your excitement. I'm not as enamoured of Healdsburg, their nearby restaurants (Charlie Palmer?) or bakery (The Creamery.) That whole town had a gimmicky faux feel to it. It may be good for what it is, where it is, but otherwise, not.
  15. My thinking exactly, Lady T!
  16. Why hops--what were the critical differences or deficiencies in terms of food, creativity, service, ambience, wine? Have you dined at each place once or several times? and how recently, if you recall?
  17. Steve Klc

    Mastic

    Thank you for that gastrotex--my bottle said "Chios Mastiha" on the label and I wondered what that meant.
  18. Since you've been to Napa before, you know a few things that first-timers might not: namely, it is very crowded, difficult to get around efficiently and you end up tasting much less than you think you ought to. I'd suggest you consider your route or itinerary once you determine where you're staying--or the reverse--just realize the two will be linked and affect your enjoyment. I can still remember what it was like stuck in traffic trying to head back to our Calistoga bungalow/spa to shower and change before dinner. Plus, you haven't mentioned the role food will play in your schedule--are you planning to hit restaurants for lunch and dinner? Often, we scheduled our wine tasting itinerary after first deciding where to stay and second where and when we would eat. Again, you might reorder those priorities--but my point is that in Napa they are all inextricably linked. My first trip or two to the region I stayed down near the city of Napa and ventured out to Sonoma or up valley. My last few trips we've changed direction and stayed in or near Calistoga and found we enjoyed that better for alot of reasons. My two favorite recent Napa tasting experiences and tours were at Chappellet Vineyards off the beaten path in St. Helena and Schramsberg Vineyards, very near Calistoga. Chappellet would qualify as something more tightly allocated to stores on the East coast, though savvy restaurants have several of their wines on their lists, while Schramsberg is widely distributed on the East coast. Since you've been to Chandon it might be nice to compare a bubbly--and Schramsberg's sparkling wines are superb--and there is so much history and family involved with Schramsberg in the valley, many of their wines were provided for White House events and State dinners and their grounds are so beautiful. You pay for a tasting but it is charming and worth it. Reserve in advance. Chappellet is not as open to the public or walkins, but call ahead to request a tour and tasting. Get really good directions as it is hidden after a long and windy drive away from the more touristy areas of Napa. There might be a charge (I did not pay) but it would be well worth it. As I've written elsewhere, for me, Chappellet just might be the single best winery in the Valley, top to bottom, reds to whites to dessert wine. If you are lucky, you will get Jon-Mark as your tour guide. Martha Stewart just did a feature on the Chappellets, so I suspect there might be more public interest now and their tour might not be such a hidden gem anymore--nor as easy a reservation to secure. Pack a picnic lunch if the timing works out for you, their grounds are quite nice. Here are the links: http://www.chappellet.com/ http://www.schramsberg.com/
  19. Steve Klc

    Cherries

    No, I misled you unintentionally. Where's my editor?
  20. Steve Klc

    Cherries

    Jinmyo--the other way, beside poaching, was grinding the kernel and using the powder, at least in this case of the cherry and presumably Adam's ground apricot kernel.
  21. Steve Klc

    Cherries

    As long as we're speaking of cherries--has anyone used mahlab or mahaleb--from the kernel of black cherries? Surprisingly fragrant, sweetish and spicy--about the brownish color of coriander seed and the size of a peppercorn, though not round. It's used ground in Middle Eastern breads, cakes and pastries but you can buy it whole as well and grind it yourself. There's an old trick among pastry chefs to include the pits and stones of fruit in the stock when poaching to add depth and complexity. Here's another way.
  22. Steve Klc

    Mastic

    Thanks Sandra, very interesting--combining semolina and flour. Something I noticed, though: the mastic is not mentioned in the text of the recipe.
  23. Yes Maria, this repeat with Shatner as the ONLY bright spot amongst many blight spots, including Kerrymotorcyclewhat'shisnamebighair. We talked about it the first time around here: http://forums.egullet.org/ikonboa....;t=5589 I remember reading in a well-written puff piece on Elizabeth Blau in Food Arts that she filmed two episodes of this, as a potential pilot, but have not seen the second episode, only this very sad, terribly misguided attempt twice.
  24. Steve Klc

    Mastic

    No--fascinating angle to consider, though. Do you have a recipe for the celebratory cake using mastic?
  25. Steve Klc

    Mastic

    Sandra--try to get the pure stuff if only for a sensory comparison. My little jar is 17g and under the Krinos label. The aroma is very fresh and stimulating, like a cross between pine needles and lemon verbena, that I imagine could come off as medicinal if used with a heavy hand, as rosewater does in most commercial Indian sweets in this country.
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