Eatmywords

I wouldn't discount Marcel. He took some crazy risks in that finale and that's a few years past already. He's a sous for Jose Andres now, arguably one of the best chefs in the world.

A molecular finale - Richard vs Marcel would be insanely awesome

Yea, like where's the other Voltagio, Kevin and Stephan? Although they brought in some very worthy contestants I feel like it'll be a show of Top Personalities or Top Attitudes making for top ratings. Ofcourse, I can't blame the producers. I'll be rooting for Richard.

Agree with the disapointed esp Gordoncooks. It was cool to have past winners assisting but it didn't make for a level playing field. As soon as I saw Voltagio, arguably the best TC, I knew whoever got him would win. I'm super curious what his real level of contribution was. Poor Ed stuck with Ilan and Anjelo being sick just made for a lopsided final. Not taking anything away from Kevin. He stepped up in the finals but hard to accept as winner overall. I can't remember another winner who performed as poorly/inconsistently pre-finalie. Goodluck to him either way. I would give his place a shot if I had a reason to be near it.

Finally got to the 100th and Paris eps last night. Wow, I thought the Paris was the single best of any season. Its been no secret that Paris is experiencing a dining renaissance but the show laid it out in such an interesting, insightful and entertaining way. Not to mention the food was beautiful. And with Ripert defending Michelin/classic dining and offering legitimate arguments for both styles. It all highlighted the current movement so well. Adding Robuchon was a nice bonus. I wonder if they approached Alan Ducasse. His perspective would surely have brought the show over the top. Simply amazing episode. Bravo and thanks Tony and the crew.

Last night I did a swiss chard parmesan au gratin that came out very nice. Subbing brok would obviously be fine. Chop and skin the stalks to your liking, add to salted boiling water for a couple mins followed by the florets for another 3-4 min. Preheat oven to 400. Remove broc and put in a colander about 2-3 mins, shake a bit for any remaining moisture. Layer in a shallow pyrex or whatever you use for baking. In a pan, melt 3 tbl spoons of butter on med heat, add 3 tbl of flour, stir until smooth, add about quarter to half cup of milk and then 3 or 4 tbl spoons of any or combo of grated parm, romano, pecorino and mix well for a min. Pour over broc, add a layer of breadcrumbs. (I had some day old sesame topped semolina which worked great). Bake for about 30 min or until crumbs are golden.

Kind of tough to compare Degustasion w/USC or Gramercy. Very different experiences. Did anyone rec Aldea? That's the one I'd like to try.

Yea, live is best and if the monger has seaweed, kelp or whatever that grassy stuff lobsters and crabs sit in even better. For storing fillets like catfish, tilapia, codfish for a couple days I like to get the fish out of monger's packaging which is usually pretty wet. I do just a quick rinse of fresh cold water, pat dry with paper towels and wrap the fillets individually in plastic wrap tightly so no air escapes.

Just remembered something that really shocked me. From Oliver's Food Revolution, the demo he did in the test kitchen for a few elementary kids. He broke down a chicken set aside the parts, took the carcass threw it in a blender, shaped nuggets, breaded and fried them. The kids were given the choice of eating the carcass nuggets or the breast. It was nuggets by a landlslide. I mean he prepped everything 5 feet from them. They heard and saw the bones crunching in the blender!

Had a Parker Meridian cheeseburger w/the works yesterday. As good as ever. Excellent blend of fat and lean meat. Would have left off the mustard (strong flavor for a paddy of this quality) otherwise very nice with the lettuce, pickles, onion, ketchup and mayo. I was thinking about second one but didn't go for it. Fries were just ok. The shock of entering this place - going from a beautiful modern high ceiling hotel lobby to a concealed wooded snack shack never gets old.

Anybody notice the Village Voice, NY Times and a couple others recently blasted Plein Sud where Ed is executive chef? Mostly a consensus the food is unfocused and bland across the board. Poor guy. I think he's alright and hope he recovers.

I'm sure you've found no shortage of online info re the burger craze in NYC. Your on the right track with Burger Joint, Shake Shack, Dumont and Mark. Of them I only know Burger Joint and Shake Shack and both are very good. . Have you gone through the burger thread? This guy is descriptive offers a good list and a map http://www.bestburgernyc.com/p/rankings.html By no means are these currently buzzing but I used to frequent them regularly and they've stood the test of time; Corner Bistro in the W.Vlg (standard cheese burger), Big Nick's on the Upper W.Side (Madrid Burger), Island Burger in Hells Kitchen (The Hippo or Slick Willie). I've heard good things about the Black Label at Minetta Tavern. DBGB does some gourmet stuff which gets high praise too. Not that anyone would steer you there but avoid Jackson Hole like the plague. Bad qlty baseball sized burgers

I love sesame, poppy and onion bagels. But I also enjoy cinnamon raisin or even blueberry. Like having jam or some sweet factor injected in the bread instead of having to spread it over the top. A basic desire of sweet over savory. What’s the big deal? Are blueberry pancakes, waffles and French toast a travesty as well?

Everything looks so good esp the lamb dishes. Interesting technique on the dessert with the dipping in the water. Never seen anything like that. Nice report, thx.

I wish I had an opinion. I’ve been meaning to get to one/all of them for a while now. Though from what I can tell there seems to be some similarities with Hunan House, a place I have been to a few times and believe to be the best Chinese restaurant in NYC. They both seem to love cumin, lamb, vinegar, and hot peppers. I don’t mean to promote the competition but that other food discussion site (heavily frequented by Asians) provides a fare idea of what to expect at this and the others. The Muslim Lamb, spicy cow tendon, bone marrow, tofu w/wood ear mushrooms are but a few intriguing items.

My wife craves penne (or rigatoni, farfalle or whateva pasta u lika) in a vodka sc pretty often. I give in every couple weeks. My version always differs from the standard both from ignorance and according to what I have on hand. But with a few basics it almost always comes out good. (Seriously, it's hard to f it up and takes about 15min) In largish/deep saute pan or med pot saute half a small onion or couple shallots, a clove or two of garlic in 2 table spoons of OO and/or butter for 2-3min, med heat, throw in 1/3-1/2 cup of vodka, simmer 2 mins, stir in a aprx cup of that sc you made or any non-complicated plain canned sc will be ok. (Couple cups chopped fresh tom work nice too just need to cook down a bit), s&p, red pepper flakes, dry/fresh basil, oregano and whatever else you like for aprx 5 mins. Stir in heavy cream to your liking, about 1/2 cup (in your case, tired of red sc, more). Simmer another few mins. Toss your (aldente, of course) pasta in the sauce, transfer to a bowl, add grated cheese and voila, bon appetito dude.

Yea, an Andres place like Zaytinya or Jaleo would be sweet. And if your girl loves Indian she'll go crazy for Ehiopian. I don't know the tops but I'm sure if you poke around you can find them. I feel like I saw Marcus Samuelson or Bourdain do a piece from one of them recently but can't recall. D.C is touted to have the best though.

I couldn't think of anything that wasn't already mentioned so I started thinking out of the box. If you lift the grills off my gas grill and look down around the burners. Well, It ain't pretty and I still have no idea what people do to get all that crap out of there. Garden hand shovel? Not to mention the grills themsleves. How often do you steelbrush (dry) the tops before turning them over and cleaning that skankiness? (Or is that a separate thread?)

I couldn't help but be suspicious of the Angelo melt down. From the start of the show he was down and out. I understanding an off day, pressure getting to them, etc, but to go from top dog to insecure, sniveling no talent seemed very odd (and dare I say contrived? - You know, like he's not so invincible. Level playing field now more than ever? hmmm). I like Tiffany but nothing special about her food. Her wins have come as a result of being the best of the mediocre.

That's unheard of and nasty. Were the fries in the sandwich?

How about following a cuisine outside its home country exploring variations in how its been adapted to foreign palates? General Tso's chicken believed to be invented in and mostly N.American centric for ex. I went to a Chinese place in Florence once that cooked everything in olive oil (wasn't very good). That sort of thing

Yea, if it was all about mass ratings (drama) Kenny would still be there. The tension/rivalry between him and Angelo was the non-coooking focal point of the season. (Now I have to eat crow on my conspiracy theory that a fix was in to keep them both around as long as possible). More than anything Kenny was a physical (intimidating) presence and a very good prep. He lacked skill and technique. Though I found it very hard to understand how Amanda didn't go before him. He, atleast ran the kitchen well during the challenge. The courses were well presented and timed right. Should have earned him enough points to stay in. I predict Angelo, Ed and Kelly in the final.

I don't get that. Unless the're pulling off a perfect recreation (pretty tough given the challenge constraints) they'll get called for lack of creativity every time. Colicchio's blog: "I’d like to take a moment to discuss what it actually means for a chef to “be inspired by” a particular cuisine. What it does not mean is to simply copy wholesale some dish or other from the country in question. First of all, there is no creativity in that process; it is merely an exercise in reproduction, and where’s the joy in that? Paul Simon went and spent time in South Africa and didn’t return intent upon recreating South African music. He got busy songwriting, and worked with South African musicians in collaboration with musicians here to bring to fruition his own music inspired by the music that had so moved and motivated him there. This is actually what chefs here in the States tend to do with foreign cuisine anyway — they use the spices, the flavors, the ingredients from a place they’ve been without being intent on a narrow recreation of the dishes they’d eaten while there. As much as I love Chili Crab, I’m not going to return from Singapore intent on making a straight-up Chili Crab dish….." "Furthermore, where Top Chef is concerned, we knew that a lot of these chefs had never studied most of the cuisines we were asking them to draw from, so “inspired by” was a more reasonable challenge, and fitting for a competition in which we’re asking them to show us who they themselves are as chefs" In this challenge, a few chefs did do something more conventionally of the country they’d selected. Amanda did a traditional bouef bourguignon that didn’t ask her to think too hard or apply her own stamp. It wasn’t very good, and she’s lucky that three other dishes faired worse than hers, and she didn’t wind up in the bottom. On the other hand, Kelly did a fairly authentic dish as well, but she was bearing in mind the equipment restrictions when making her decision, and the dish itself was very, very good, so it was OK that she’d adhered so closely to the cooking of her selected country. It’s when you try to do an authentic dish and don’t pull off the cooking that you’re not pulling off the authenticity

I've only driven by but thinking they have a good selection and prices due to it's massive size. Just down the block and over one from LP. It's called Assi Plaza. http://www.lotteplaza.com/branch/branch.php?Id=44&lan=ENG

That's alright, just curious. But who doesn't like a long story? Likely, many are curious now. Did you/anyone suggest a food (cheese)grater?