Kent Wang

I'm determined to get to the bottom of this. I just picked up four quail from the farmers market (Texas Quail Farms, Lockhart). These little birds are ideal for experimentation as they're small. I bought them frozen on Sunday and the vendor said they had slaughtered the birds on Thursday. I brined two and pre-salted the other two for a little over 48 hours. I thoroughly seared two in a cast-iron pan with duck fat and finished in the oven. The other pair I roasted in the oven without pre-searing. The pre-salted birds were placed on a rack and left in the refrigerator. After two days they developed this fantastic mahogany color. The quail, raw. Left is pre-salted, right is brined. The second pair, roasted, no pre-searing. I'm really ashamed that I failed to get more browning; I didn't get the roasting times quite right. The pre-salted was obviously superior. I thoroughly patted the brined birds dry but no matter what the pre-salted was dryer and therefore browned better. The brined was nearly twice as juicy, really a little too watery. The pre-salted was juicy enough and did not need to be any juicier. A major problem with the brined was that the meat ended up much bloodier, and that's not a good thing as poultry blood is unappetizing. In fact, the blood made it taste a bit raw though the thermometer clearly indicated the meat was well done. The pre-salted quail also developed more of a rich, gamey flavor. Pre-salting and leaving to dry seems very similar to dry aging a steak so I imagine there may be an additional process here that improves the flavor. It's hard to draw a conclusion from this single experiment. There are a lot of variables to consider. Two days may be the ideal amount of time for pre-salting but I believe is too long for brining. The brined samples may have suffered from that. I wonder if it would be a good idea to combine brining with pre-salting: brine overnight, pre-salt and leave it out for another night. You might get the best of both worlds this way. Another factor to consider is the quality of the meat. If it's very fresh and does not need to be any juicer, pre-salting will be ideal. But if the meat is of poor quality, brining may rectify that dryness. Brining also has the ability to infuse the meat with seasonings and aromatics. Most everyone in the brining thread eschews this and use plain brines (salt and water only) but I find that putting a few dried shitake mushrooms in the brine is very effective at infusing the meat with its perfume-like flavor. This would not be possible with pre-salting. With only this single experiment I can only tentatively favor pre-salting. In future experiments I plan to try brining then pre-salting. Having a control group (no brining or pre-salting) would be nice, too. I'd also like to try this experiment with pork chops.

I think your residence may be a major turnoff for many people. Have you considered simply traveling to your customers' homes? That's fairly common with caterers and chefs.

I don't scramble the eggs. I just drop them in the pan and break apart the yolks, stirring only slightly. I like the unevenness.

The ones that Central Market in Austin carries are from Taiwan. I'm told that they're irradiated on the way over. Oh man, they have lychee syrup. Perfect for cocktails.

Too much yang energy?

Is it possible that Spec's is the biggest and greatest alcohol store on the planet?

You are right. I have only pyrex roasting pans. I'll have to acquire some metal ones soon. Thanks, Richard, for the links.

The taste and texture is similar to foie gras, I suppose. What a great analogy! Also, thanks for the anatomy lesson.

Try the new MT Supermarket. They have all kinds of salted ones, dunno about fresh. Also, a few months ago at the downtown farmers market there was a vendor selling ducks. I placed an order, came back the next week and was told that he decided to stop selling his ducks as it was too much work. I'm not sure if he still sells at the market. Presumably he would have eggs. If you find any duck eggs (or any locally raised ducks), please let me know.

Just how much fat is in foie gras, percentage-wise? I think knowing this goes a long way towards describing the taste.

I am greatly amused by this absurdity.

What prices are you seeing on this cut? I imagine the price has climbed steadily due to rising demand.

I have only seen it when cooking a whole fish. I've never heard of anyone extracting a bunch of eyes and cooking them that way, though that sounds absolutely decadent. Whole fish is a common Chinese banquet dish and the eyes are usually offered to the guest of honor. The eye is composed of a dense, bony center that is not very edible -- though some like to chew on it -- surrounded by a 2mm thick (in fish about a foot in length) layer of extremely soft, gooey "meat". It is this middle layer that is the tasty part. It is similar to the cheek meat but even softer. That layer is surrounded by a thin but inedible bone-like membrane. When you scoop out the eye from the socket you will get this entire assembly so you will have to suck carefully to extract the tasty middle part.

July 25, 2006. A friend and I went to the early dinner prix-fixe at West. Asparagus soup with truffle and fresh brioche croutons. Too much dairy, could've used more pepper. Crispy duck confit salad with beetroot, candied walnuts and honey essensia syrup. Really dark, mahogany coloured meat and perfectly crisped skin. Filet of wild spring salmon with ratatouille, tomato and extra virgin olive oil. Stunning presentation using bell peppers and squash. Lamb sirloin with a warm salad of artichokes and fava beans. Fresh summer berries with buckwheat honey ice cream, coconut wafers and cantaloupe coulis. Buckwheat ice cream was delicious. Apricot oat crumble with cherry pit ice cream, amaretto sauteed rainier cherries and tapioca custard. I can't resist tapioca. Petit fours. Food was OK, pretty good value at the price. Desserts were the real standouts. The cocktail menu was too fruity, too sweet and weak, ABV-wise. I had three cocktails and didn't feel a thing. The decor of the place is interesting. The light fixtures and gigantic chrome sculpture hanging from the ceiling are not tacky in an in your face kind of way... yet. Like Charlie Sheen's apartment in Wall Street and Ray Liotta's house in GoodFellas, that kind of style may have looked cool back but two decades later -- bam! -- everybody is like, "What the hell were they thinking?!" This might happen to West a decade or so down the line. This will be my last post from my two week trip to Seattle and Vancouver. I had a great time in the Pacific Northwest.

Just as there are good sparkling white wines made outside of Champagne, are there any good "tequilas" made outside of Jalisco?

I love fish eyes. Are the eyes of bigger fish (e.g. tuna, salmon) tasty as well?

This has proven to be a good solution. I just roasted some soup bones for a beef stock. I knew that was going to produce a lot of drippings so I poured about a cup of peanut oil into the pan and was able to easily extract all the fond.

When roasting meats in the oven, I usually place them on a rack over a Pyrex pan to catch the drippings. However, this often results in the drippings burnings and sticking to the pan, making it very difficult to clean. How can I prevent this sticking? I don't think filling the pan with water would be a good idea as the liquid will steam the meat.

Compared to the Dallas restaurants it's slightly better than Hola, except with none of the really egregious errors like the underbaked bread. I went with a large group and out of the nearly dozen or so dishes we ordered I thought that only one or two were really of note. Of course there's not much competition as far as tapas goes in Austin. Really? What's the deal? It's not on the website. Is Fino happy hour a better deal than Malaga?

Two ingredients. No salt or pepper. "Deviled" avocado with crab meat.

As a child I disliked stinky tofu and most kinds of Chinese pickled vegetables but have now come to enjoy them. I believe many Chinese children react the same way. One major barrier for Westerners with Chinese foods is texture. I've been told repeatedly by Westerners that they like the flavor of something but are "grossed out" -- as an aside, I find this expression extremely childish -- by the texture. On the other hand I've ever heard of any Chinese rejecting Western dishes because of texture -- then again, I'm not even sure what the Chinese word for texture is; help me out here.

The star anise filled cuisine of Xi'an is probaby not popular with all Chinese. I know my parents and I were repulsed by it while visiting there. Anise, and its cousin licorice, often has a polarizing effect on people.

Direct link to the guy's blog. I could definitely see this as being useful for really big meals. The guy's Thanksgiving dinner doesn't look so complicated, though. I feel that I could swing that without a spreadsheet.

http://www.mtsupermarket.com/ Just went there today. It rivals the size of the Asian supermarkets in Houston, Welcome Center and Hong Kong Supermarket. It may in fact be a little bigger. It's certainly cleaner -- as it's brand new -- and has yet to accumulate that unpleasant Asian supermarket odor. Some interesting things that they carry: Live crab, tilapia, catfish swimming in tanks. Lychees. $2.99/lb vs $3.99 at Central Market. Jackfruit, durian, dragonfruit (several dollars cheaper than HEB). Large selection of soy and wheat gluten vegetarian imitation meats. I'm not vegetarian but these are tasty -- you'll never go back to tofurkey again -- and extremely healthy, low fat, low carbs, high protein. Beef tongue. Pork liver, kidney and spleen. Duck gizzard, duck feet, even deboned duck feet. Whole eel chunks. A large selection of dishware. Ice cream in flavors such as green tea, red bean, green bean and jackfruit.

Don't know how I missed this but Austin Chronicle finally paid China Palace a visit and tried the Chinese menu. Rather positive review from Mick Vann. The newly opened First Chinese BBQ in the new Chinatown on North Lamar is terrific. Pretty good roast items like duck and chicken -- though no proper Peking duck -- and BBQ pork are on par with Din Ho. I had the roast duck and BBQ pork platter ($7). I also ordered the marinated pork tongue, ear and stomach platter ($6). Delicious. The ear was very tender and fatty. Generous portions on each dish, more than enough food for two people for -- get this -- $14 after tax. The decor is unusual for a Chinese restaurant. Like a sparsely-decorated Starbucks. Certainly a welcome change from the hole-in-the-wall type places like T&S. The service was also unusually attentive. After just one visit I'm going to have to rank it up there with T&S, Din Ho and China Palace. I still think that Pao's has a more extensive menu of traditional items. Hmm, I wonder if First Chinese does dim sum.