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Fat Guy x

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  1. Fat Guy x

    Basil

    There's something to be said for the purity of one herb, but pestos also taste great when made with mixed herbs. On account of belonging to this CSA thing, and because sometimes I grow herbs on my windowsill with seemingly random results, and also because I'm a terrible impulse buyer at markets, I sometimes find myself with herbs without portfolio. I recently made a pesto-like substance from cress, garlic scape, basil, tarragon, and about half a sage leaf (put too much sage in anything and that's all you taste). I didn't sit around and conceptualize the combination, it's just what I had around. But it was amazingly good. I spread it on everything until I got sick of it. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  2. Fat Guy x

    Basil

    Basil is also delicious with grilled fish, roasted potatoes, risotto, and eggs (omelettes/frittatas). I use it on Italian cold cut sandwiches, chop it into vinaigrette, and add it to most pasta sauces. Incidentally, pesto is also good when you make variations from herbs other than basil, or in combinations. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  3. To quote Jeffrey Steingarten's book, The Man who Ate Everything: "Overnight, everybody you meet has become lactose intolerant. It is the chic food fear of the moment. But the truth is that very, very few of us are so seriously afflicted that we cannot drink even a whole glass of milk a day without ill effects. I know several people who have given up cheese to avoid lactose. But fermented cheeses contain no lactose! Lactose is the sugar found in milk; 98 percent of it is drained off with the whey (cheese is made from the curds), and the other 2 percent is quickly consumed by lactic-acid bacteria in the act of fermentation." Of course Steingarten thinks everybody who claims to be lactose intolerant is a neurotic liar, when in fact that's only true of most of them. You, for example, seem to have had a legitimate and definable trigger event. But if the lactose pills and other correctives aren't working, and if you're having a reaction to cheese, you may be experiencing a problem driven by something other than lactose. Sometimes, for example, we just have trouble digesting foods we haven't eaten in a while. (Edited by Fat Guy at 2:04 pm on July 30, 2001) ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
  4. Fat Guy x

    High end ranges

    Whatever you do in the end, you'll definitely be able to say you considered all the options! My in-laws use wall-fan ventilation for their range/salamander combo. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  5. Fat Guy x

    High end ranges

    If you do put in a real restaurant range, you can write one heck of an article about it. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  6. Fat Guy x

    High end ranges

    Anybody who put in a restaurant range 20 years ago, before the fake pro-style kitchen wave hit, installed a real one. That's an entirely different animal from the declawed specimens being sold on the residential market today. I'd love to see one of these so-called professional ranges last one month in a real restaurant, cranking every burner and the oven at full for 16 hours a day and otherwise getting the crap kicked out of it, liquids spilled into the works, etc. At the same time, the reality is that most people don't need a restaurant range in the home. Even people who consider themselves extremely serious cooks rarely do restaurant level cooking at home. So those pro-style ranges are fine for most people's homes, and if they want to delude themselves into thinking they have a professional range I suppose they'll never have that belief put to the test anyway so it's harmless. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  7. Fat Guy x

    High end ranges

    The brand Ellen is thinking of is Diva de Provence (http://www.grandecuisineamerica.com/). Tom Colicchio uses these in his new kitchen at Craft, where they are beaten upon day and night by the cooks. They are the only professional range I know of that has enough insulation to pass muster for home use under the local fire codes. They also make island suites with integrated gas burners, convection oven, induction cooktop, overhead broiler, sink, shelves, everything. Wish I had one. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  8. Rachel: Hmm. You know, I think that's the way it happened, but purely for the purposes of scientific accuracy you should probably make them again for me -- maybe a few times. Michelle: The difference between cultured and regular butter is that regular butter is made from fresh cream and cultured butter is made from cream that has been allowed to, well, culture. That is to say, it is left out and becomes sort of like sour cream. Then they make the butter out of that. The result is that the butter has a bit of a, well, again, cultured taste. That combined with higher butterfat content (by only a couple of percent, but it makes a big difference; this is also known as a lower moisture content) is why the butter in Europe generally tastes a heck of a lot better than the butter here. In terms of what it does to the potatoes, it adds an extra dimension. Remember, butter and cream are the same substance. So adding butter and cream to something is somewhat redundant flavorwise. Not totally redundant -- the process of making cream into butter, even regular butter, changes the flavor somewhat and each provides different textures too -- but still somewhat. You certainly have a ton of leeway in terms of the ratio before you'll notice. But with cultured butter the butter is contributing additional flavors that you can't get from the cream. Kind of a sour creamy, yogurty taste, but not as sour or strong. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  9. I would add that when you use that non-optional butter the best results come if you use cultured butter (like the Keller's or Plugra brand, or any of the French imports). ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  10. Tell me more about this fetish . . . The Thiers-Issard knives I have are pretty old, from back before the whole Sabatier trademark fight. I only call the Thiers-Issard because I know them to be so by the logo. They are technically Sabatier "Elephant" knives. I think the ones made today are a bit different, still French but influenced more by the Germans. As a knife fetishist, I'm surprised you use a serrated knife for anything. I find that a real blade, properly sharpened, is always better, even for bread and tomatoes. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  11. I have a few Thiers-Issard "Elephant" knives in carbon steel. They're works of art. Sleek, totally superior aesthetically to my Wusthof stainless clunkers. And pretty much useless for intensive cooking tasks. The inconvenience just isn't worth it. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  12. I wouldn't go that far. There certainly has been a lot of cross-pollination of ingredients and techniques throughout history -- a process that is ongoing. And it's crazy to be a hyper-purist and to ignore that cuisines develop all the time. But there's a big difference between cuisine that has developed over hundreds of years, or even decades, and cuisine that a single chef invents in his head in five minutes. Time is a very important component of the evolution of cuisine. When it's dispensed with, results are mixed -- mostly bad. The occasional genius (Adria, Gagnaire) can create compelling fusion cuisine without reference to tradition, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  13. There's even a Michelin two-star restaurant in Paris named after Apicius, though I don't think his recipes predominate. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  14. I think, for the most part, I wouldn't have wanted to be a food critic anywhere in the world prior to the 19th Century. It's not just a question of being stuck with a very limited spectrum of local-origin ingredients, it's also about lack of refrigeration and other technology that has made it possible to eat fresh, wholesome food year-round. I don't care how elite you were in the Middle Ages, your winter was a long one in terms of what you could get to eat. That is, if you could eat anything other than gruel given that your dental situation probably became pretty much unbearable after your teen years. If you lived that long. Where was I? Oh, yes, many aspects of food history are pretty well documented in a number of books. It actually seems it's easier to find out what was on the menu at a banquet in Egypt three millennia ago than it is to find the origins of carbonara. If you have 贝 to spare, you can get the two-volume Cambridge World History of Food, which contains enough information to defeat even the most acute case of insomnia. The most enjoyable book I've read on this subject is, unfortunately, out of print. But you can probably find it around somewhere: Why We Eat What We Eat : How the Encounter Between the New World and the Old Changed the Way Everyone on the Planet Eats. It's one of the only food-history books written by somebody who actually loves and appreciates food. I know, you wouldn't think a non-food-lover would bother to pursue a career in writing about food history, but the food-academia subculture is full of just such people. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  15. Rosie & Pete, I'm going to start an "Oysters and Pearls" thread in General. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  16. And I thought I was a pessimist! ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  17. Admin: the archived thread with discussion of ADNY under Christian Delouvrier as chef de cuisine may be found here. The discussion thread for ADNY under chef de cuisine Tony Esnault may be found here. This thread continues the Ducasse discussion that originated in the "Tako the Octopus" thread. There were plenty of writers who liked the place. There just weren't any willing to admit it, for fear of being labeled snobs. That's the real scandal. Those are the people I place in the absolute lowest category of cowardice. And there are still precious few American journalists who will say a good word on Ducasse's behalf. When I meet new people and they learn I write food, they usually say three things: 1) "Really? How come I've never heard of you?" 2) "Okay, so what's the best restaurant?" 3) "Oh, that Ducasse place is awful, isn't it? All the critics said it was." Meanwhile, when I meat actual, agenda-free, restaurant-savvy consumers who have dined at Ducasse's restaurant -- even ones who dined there in the first week -- they tend to rave about the place. Apparently, only the press managed to perceive it as an affront. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  18. I finally received reliable information regarding Wayne Harley Brachman. Apparently he is not working at any restaurant right now and is happy doing his shows and his books. I wish him success, though I'm pissed that there's no current way to get his desserts without preparing them myself. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
  19. Bits of Wayne Harley Brachman information are beginning to arrive in my inbox now. The latest lead I have is that he's doing a Food TV show called "Melting Pot," with Michael Symon. He has also been sighted on "Sweet Dreams" as a guest. His Food TV bio, however, has not been updated to reflect his departure from the Glazier Group's restaurants. I've made an inquiry at the Food TV site, so we'll see where that leads. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
  20. Having been involved in a few new magazine launches, some of which didn't even come to fruition, I can say from experience that it's nearly impossible to do a good first issue of a magazine. Usually there have been three or four management changes before the actual launch, and the first editor-in-chief of record gets stuck with a lot of copy that wouldn't have been that person's choice. Just getting a magazine on the stands without too many spelling errors is an accomplishment worthy of at least some respect. So even though it would be a simple matter to find several faults per page in the early issues, I'd be inclined to give Gastronomica a chance. At least the overall mission seems like something interesting. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com
  21. Fat Guy x

    Cognac

    Best NYC restaurant for sampling a range of Armagnacs: Gascogne 158 Eighth Ave. (between 17th and 18th Sts.) (212) 675-6564 Good introductory article on Armagnac: "Armagnac: The Golden Flame", from Cigar Aficionado http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/Aficionado/drinks/spirits/MW1196a.html ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
  22. Fat Guy x

    Cognac

    White truffle oil is the MSG of haute cuisine. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
  23. Fat Guy x

    Corkscrews

    Bux, I'm pretty sure there's been no lead in those capsules for many moons. Then again plenty of wines are old. Speaking of foil cutters, though I have what is building to be a small collection, I wonder what the point is. I've taken to removing the entire capsule. I just use the tip of the corkscrew's worm to rip a notch in the bottom of the capsule, and tear/unwrap the whole thing in one pull. Am I doing something bad? ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
  24. Fat Guy x

    Corkscrews

    Tommy, I know there's also a version that uses a cartridge to supply the gas pressure. I remember these various pressure-driven cork-poppers being popular in the gadget catalogs several years ago, but now they seem not to be as common. A quick search of the Web reveals anecdotal evidence of safety problems, such as this claim from eluna.com: Beware: Another popular corkscrew looks like a syringe. You insert the needle into the cork and pump several strokes until the cork pops out. The concept works by injecting air between the wine and the cork. When enough air is present the cork gives way. This corkscrew is dangerous. Many bottles have been burst by the pressure exerted against even slightly imperfect bottles. In addition to the mess of red (or even white) wine bursting all over, shards of glass can go flying. I recommend throwing these corkscrews away immediately. It doesn't seem as though that could be true given that the reputable accessory retailers are still stocking these products, so I can't say what the ultimate explanation is for the apparent decline of this product. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
  25. Fat Guy x

    Corkscrews

    It depends on how many wine bottles you open, how valuable and delicate their corks are, and how much you care about making your life easy. To me, as somebody who opens only a few bottles of wine a month, and who has enough upper body strength to force a cork (though not much else), the actual design of my corkscrew isn't a big deal. THere's only one thing I pretty much insist on: a hollow-core worm. The worm is the metal spiral that you drive into the cork (everything else about a corkscrew is about transferring leverage, or aesthetics). Hollow core means that if you hold the tip of the worm up to your eye and look at the spiral directly, it should have a hollow center. It should look like a spiral around a center of air, and not like a nail with spiral ridges running around it. Solid-core corkscrews, as most really cheap ones (and many older ones) are, are too abusive for even a fresh, resilient cork -- one false move and you've got sawdust. Probably the best widely available, relatively economical ((price tag around ฤ) corkscrew product is the Screwpull by Le Creuset. The worm is pretty much ideal. It has a hollow core and is very thin. It has a tiny groove running all along its spiral that allows bits of cork to channel out of the way, thus decreasing resistance and minimizing cork-dust creation. The whole extraction occurs while you twist in one direction, so you don't have to stop in the middle and switch to a lever mechanism. People like to watch it work. There are two drawbacks I can think of to the screwpull. First, the standard model isn't easily portable or pocketable, and the special portable model kind of stinks. They call it the "waiter" model but I've never seen a waiter or sommelier use one. Second, the one-direction technology requires that the worm drive all the way through the cork and out the other end. For a very precious bottle with an old and perhaps somewhat nasty cork this can push some of the cork into the wine. Not good. With a more traditional corkscrew, where you screw it in and then use a lever to extract the cork, you can, with practice, learn to stop just a hair short of poking through the other side of the cork. I think those reasons, plus durability, are why many sommeliers (who open hundreds of bottles a week and must get it right every time) opt for the Laguiole Sommelier corkscrew. This comes from the village of Laguiole, which is in south-central France. The town is known as a producer of some of the world's best and most beautiful cutlery (Laguiole is pronounced "lah-yole" according to the most authoritative source I have on the subject, a knife expert in Quebec). Laguiole knives are those fancy ones with the colorful resin-impregnated handles and Napoleon bee emblem on the bolster. Tons of Europeans own Laguiole folding pocketknives, which they use as BYO knives at casual restaurants. The corkscrew was made with the professional in mind and has a built-in curved foil cutter, and a sharp, thin, just-flexible-enough worm. It folds so it is highly portable. And it's attractive. They cost 贄 to 财, depending on what kind of handle you get. I've seen them in France and the UK for less, though -- around ์ for the entry level model. There are a lot of fake Laguioles out there, though, so you should buy from a known dealer only. There are also those very expensive (up to 趚 I've seen them) lever model corkscrews from Le Creuset and others. I'm sure they're great if you run wine tastings and routinely need to open 100 bottles in 20 minutes, but for the home user they're unnecessary and for the professional sommelier they're not easily schleppable. They can also blast the heck out of a cork if used improperly. In terms of technique, you can destroy a cork with even the best corkscrew if you don't pay attention. You should always put the tip of the worm in the exact center of the cork and keep it totally aligned up and down as you twist it in. Ease the cork out slowly, bit by bit, not with a mighty tug. ----- Steven A. Shaw www.fat-guy.com eGullet Community Coordinator, New York
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