MissAmy
-
Posts
508 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by MissAmy
-
-
Thanks for the great episode, and thank you for not portraying Texans as a bunch of racist idiots.
Come back soon, and have some more Shiners!
-
I assume that RR's 30 minute meals is done in real time, or am I just being naive? I realize that other shows need multiple shots for close-ups etc, and can be painstaking.
I know nothing about how RR does her show, but I would be lots of money that it's not real time. The editing those people do is slick. Really slick. Like, slick to the point you never notice it. They can condense something that would take, oh say, four to five minutes and make it look like it really took only a few seconds, and you would never know the difference. It's really pretty interesting.
This also ties in with racheld's point about the hand-washing thing. They are probably washing their hands longer than just a quick jaunt under the sink, it's just edited in such a way it looks faster. Also, I doubt there is any hand make-up going on. There certainly wasn't on the show I was on.
-
It may have been mentioned before, but do the FN people have makeup on their hands? They all seem to wear long sleeves (cue SL waving huge white butterfly swoops over the skillet of chicken tenders), and never really seem to wash their hands.
RR runs to the sink after handling chicken; under the water, rub palms together three times, back and cut salad. I know time is limited, but is there another reason they never really WASH? Like dislodging Max Factor #27?
I was just involved in a shoot for a food TV show last week. They DO wash their hands, you just never see it. Everything that's not foodfoodfood gets edited out. And they take like, a million takes of every single step, so something as seemingly mundane as hand washing doesn't ever make it on screen. Also, I found it interesting that the director, the camera guys, sound guys, etc etc, weren't food people AT ALL. Not even a little bit. They don't care about showing stuff like washing hands, all they want are the pretty shots. There was lots of other surprising stuff I learned about how those food shows get made, but that's another post entirely.
-
I know it's technically correct, but when I hear people say COO-linary, it's like nails on a chalkboard. I DO NOT go around saying I graduated from COOO-linary school. If my chefs heard me, they'd slap me sideways for being pretentious. It's just Culinary.
On the other hand, it's really hard to suppress a snicker when I hear someone say 'ex-presso.'
-
A close friend of mine was shocked to discover over the weekend that I really, really despise shitake mushrooms. I hate them with the firey passion of a thousand burning suns. They completely overpower any dish they are in to the point that you can taste nothing but those damned shitakes. And what's worse is they're soooo trendy. And everyone claims to looooove them. Gak. They are revolting.
-
Huh. Interesting. I don't think I would ever get one for myself, but I can see the practicality behind it. The lack of counter space alone would drive me bat-shit insane. However, it is far, FAR superior to most kitchens in small apartments, and if I had to choose between the two (God forbid) I'd choose the circular thing.
-
I had a wonderful dinner at Asti on Friday night. We shared the baby bella mushrooms stuffed with parmesan, goat cheese, and ricotta, topped with bread crumbs and truffle oil. Really nice. Deep flavor.
My entree was the linguni with clams, and a sausage and tomato ragu. One of the most popular menu items for a reason. My aunt had grilled trout on lemon risotto. Simple and delicous.
For dessert, we shared the plum crumble and the gelato of the day which was vanila bean with tyme and lemon curd. Really refreshing and complex. I was underwhelmed with the crumble. It was tasty, but it could have been warmed up a bit more, and the topping was extremely dense and heavy.
We shared a bottle of wine which I can't remember the name of, but came recommened by our server, and it was very nice. I went and looked for it again (I remember what the lable looked like) at Central Market, but I can't find it.
I really love Asti. I feel like for the high quality of food, the prices are really reasonable. It's a great place for a nice dinner out.
-
At the Central Market here in Austin, they have rendered duck fat IN the butcher's case right where they sell the duck. They may do the same thing at the one in Houston. It's still expensive, around $5 per little bucket, but cheaper than the stuff they sell in the deli area.
-
My favorite is one I learned to cook at a spa. I use roasted chicken breast, dried cherries, walnuts, finely minced shallot, minced fresh taragon, mayo, salt, and pepper. I love it.
-
Edited to add: I disagree with all banning of any food product. It is up to the individual consumer and their own ethics to decide what they will and will not spend money on. However, I also have a hard time spending boucoup $$$$ for foie gras and truffles while people are starving all over the world. It's kind of hard for me to live with myself when I know what I spent one dinner could feed a family of four for a month.
But if you think that way all the time, you'll never get to eat, or you'll just never be able to live with yourself. In many parts of the world, even the $5-10 you might spend preparing dinner for your family of 4 would feed a family of 4 for a week. And the car you drive would be able to feed a family for years...or the money you spend on gas....(cars, to me, are not necessities of life but luxuries, as are foie gras and truffles, so I include them for comparison).
Yes, what you are saying is completely true, and I realize that is the reality of it. But, I still can't help but feel a large measure of guilt every time I spend money (well earned and deserved I might add) on a luxury dinner. I am going out tonight, and I will enjoy myself but feel guilty for a while afterwards. On the other hand, I won't be eating foie gras either. A large part of this guilt is why I've been volunteering more and donating a lot more than I used to. I've also been taking the bus when I can get to point "B" on a route, and have been using less gasoline. What can I say? I'm a bleeding heart liberal to my very core and trying to reconcile that with my much more shameful love of food and leisure can be a challenge.
-
I was also one of the truck-chasers. I'd be sitting around in my grandmother's house, watching Days of Our Lives and bored out of my skull, when that siren call of the little tinkling jingle would rouse me out of my seat, and out the door down the street.
That's sad that the kids won't have the trucks. Also, I remember those portions from the ice cream truck being much smaller than the portion you would find at say an ice cream shop.
The only thing that contributes to obesity is bad habits and lack of proper exersize. I wish these bannings of various things would stop.
-
My line is drawn at anything unnecessarily cruel, like shark fin. Although, I have to admit that I ate shark fin soup while in Singapore and it was delicious! I wouldn't eat it now that I know how it is fished though. No live insects. Nothing that is still breathing for that matter. The only time I ever got truly grossed out in China was the time that a still-gasping whole fish was placed on the table for us to consume. Couldn't go there.
After reading an article in Salon about the evilness that is the meat industry, I am now trying to cut down on my consumption of red meat, pork, and chicken. Also, did you know that pigs are highly intelligent animals, more so than dogs? It's true. As much as I love bacon, I am beginning to have ethical issues about eating it. I am thinking of getting a pot bellied pig for a pet, and naming it Bacon. That will be the only bacon I have.
(Please don't kick me off eGullet!)Edited to add: I disagree with all banning of any food product. It is up to the individual consumer and their own ethics to decide what they will and will not spend money on. However, I also have a hard time spending boucoup $$$$ for foie gras and truffles while people are starving all over the world. It's kind of hard for me to live with myself when I know what I spent one dinner could feed a family of four for a month.
-
I've made a citrus brulee pie, and use blackberry coulis and fresh blackberries as garnish. They go really well with citrus, so if you don't have a lot of them, you might want to make a citrus tart of some kind and use them as the garnish/flavor enhancer.
You could also get a few more other kinds of berries and do a mixed berry cobbler. Always good.
-
I know this isn't what you want to hear, but slow and steady is the only way to lose weight healthfully. When I was on Weight Watchers back in the day, I lost weight extremely fast, mainly because I always, always ate under my point range for the day. If I got 20 points, I would eat 17, no more. Some days I would push myself and eat as few as 10. I essentially starved myself, and as soon as I got skinny and started eating normally again the weight surged back on with a vengence. Now my metabolism is shot all to hell, and it is much harder for me to lose weight.
On South Beach, you do get a lot more food than WW, but you also have to eat a lot of veggies so it may not be for you. Also, I know you say you don't really like veggies, but have you tried a bunch of different variations? What about spagetti squash mixed with marinara sauce? totally veggie, but really tasty. It's all about experimentation and finding what you DO like. No one is telling you that you have to eat nothing but raw celery and kale to get your veggies. Yuk! There are lots of good things to do with vegetables.
-
Now that's a recipe - thanks!!!!!
You're welcome!
-
The infamous Trudy's fried stuffed avocado.
Fried Stuffed Avocado
Yield: 1 Portion
Stuffed Avocado Ingredients:
½ ea. avocado
2 cups relleno batter
3 ea. shrimp, chopped
½ tsp. garlic
2 tbsp. pico de gallo
10 oz. white wine
3 oz. cream
2 tbsp. manchego cheese
2 oz. pasilla sauce
Method:
1. Take the ½ avocado and remove the skin, leaving avocado ½ whole. Take a scoop and
remove some of the flesh around the seed whole to allow for more filling.
2. Dust with flour and wrap in plastic and freeze.
3. Dip the avocado in the relleno batter removing some batter from the whole and deep fry.
4. Heat, sauté and cook the shrimp with garlic and pico. Deglaze with white wine and add cream
to bring to a boil. Add manchego cheese and cook until thickened.
5. Fill the hole with the shrimp mixture and pour sauce around rim and serve.
6. Serve on a large round plate and garnish with fresh cilantro.
Relleno Batter Ingredients:
2 eggs, separated
3/4 cup beer, room temperature
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tbsp. salt
Method:
1. To prepare, place flour in a mixing bowl and add egg yolks, salt, oil, and beer.
2. Stir batter until thoroughly mixed.
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow it to rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours or as long as
24 hours - the longer the better, to a point.
4. Just before using batter, stir it well again.
5. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry; gently fold egg whites into batter.
6. Fry in oil at 360 F.
-
Congragulations! That was most impressive!
-
I have friends who like to call me a food snob. I am not a snob. I just want things to taste good. I would much rather eat at the little taqueria on the east side where they have the homemade tortillas and the fresh barbacoa than I would some crappy, overpriced, yuppie-packed burrito joint. I refuse to eat at places like Fire Bowl and PF Changs because the food is crap, it's overpriced, and it is NOT Chinese food. For some reason, this makes me a snob to some people. So be it.
I really get frustrated that nowadays you are a snob or an elitist if you don't want to eat fast food slop. My food doesn't come from the most expensive grocery stores, nor do I regularly eat at five star joints. I do not buy hugely expensive wine. All I ask is that what I eat tastes good, is prepared well, and is a reasonable value. Again, reasonable value is all relative. I see Uchi as being a reasonable value for the kind of food that you get. On the other hand, I do not see PF Changs as being a a reasonable value. I don't think this makes me a snob or an elitist or a classist. I think it just makes me someone who sees that life on this planet is too damn short to eat bad food.
-
I'm going to second the advice about the raw oysters. I was always taught the adage, "Only in months that have an 'r'." In other words, don't eat oysters May-August.
-
Looks like that was a pretty crappy knife, Daniel. I would junk it. I like to use a big, heavy cleaver for cutting through things like veal bones, and a nicer Shun knife for delicate work.
-
1st foie gras: Culinary School, circa 2004
1st caviar: A party with my father, probably age 9 or so.
1st black truffle shavings: A restaurant in Tokyo, can't remember the name, aged 12.
1st white truffle shavings: same
1st alcohol: Age 12, a party with my father.
1st raw oyster: Probably around age 6 or 7. I do remember always liking them.
1st eating something while it's still alive (conch): Do raw oysters count?
1st escargot: The now defunct Jean Luc's Bistro in Austin, TX. Was with my aunt, age 13 or 14.
1st soft-shelled crab: Somewhere in Japan, aged 13.
1st blood sausages: not yet, really want to!
1st fugu: Kyoto, Japan, age 14
1st coconut (cracked open fresh): On the beach in Thailand, age 14.
1st avocado: Don't remember. Avocados are a staple of my family's diet.
1st sushi: Some place in Dallas, TX. Age 10. Loved it the first time.
1st sweetbreads: Culinary school, circa 2004
1st beef tongue: Grandmother's kitchen, aged 4 or 5.
1st jelly fish: Nanjing, China, aged 12.
1st pineapple fresh from the stalk: Honolulu, Hawaii, aged 15.
1st In-N-Out burger: San Jose, CA, circa 1999. It had been hyped up so much I was actually really disappointed. The fries sucked!
-
Ew. After losing a job to a guy from culinary school who I know for a fact lied on his resume I find this kind of behavior reprehensible. If he can't get the job with the experience he has, he needs to go out and get the experience the honest way.
Sorry to be so harsh, but despite lying on a resume to be dishonest, I am continually apalled by the way people think they can behave in this industry, when they would never pull the same stunts in others.
-
Lori, I was thinking the same thing this morning when I logged on!
I think we're all anxiously awaiting the results.
-
The scene in Goodfellas where they slice the garlic paper thin with a razor blade and it melts in the pan. Brilliant!
Oh yeah! That's one of my favorite scenes in any movie, ever. I tried it once with some friends in college. I think we had the oil too hot, though, 'cause it just burned.
What You Notice at Restaurants
in Restaurant Life
Posted
My number one gripe: Not being acknowleged. I understand that if the place is busy, it can take some time to seat or wait on a person, but it only takes about three seconds to say, "I'll be with you in a moment." It's not that hard. When I feel ignored, I leave.
Dirty floors, glasses, or silverware are incredibly off-putting. If the front of the house is dirty, imagine what the kitchen looks like!
I can tell when you're trying to "up-sell" me. Stop it. I am not a frugal orderer, and that should be evident when I order a glass of wine and an appetizer as soon as you hit my table. No, I don't want any X-treme Fire Ball Fajita Taquitos or Make My Teeth Hurt Sweet Chocolate Goo. Another reason I avoid chains.
If the place smells like sanitizer solution instead of food, that's kind of gross and I don't want any part of it.
Being dead during busy hours is a bad sign. If it's Saturday night at 8pm, and there are only five tables in the place, it's probaby not very good.
Please have regular, understandable hours. There is a place here in town that I have no clue as to how it stays in business. The hours aren't posted, and it always seems to be closed when I want to eat there. I've trying going at peak hours. Closed. Off hours, closed. Yet I'm always hearing people talk about how great the food is. When do they eat there?! I'm beginning to think it's a front for some sort of vague organized crime.
To all restaurant owners: If you have a wine list, make sure your waitstaff understands it and has at least sampled the more popular sellers. I hate asking for a recommendation, and recieving what is obvious utter bullshit from the server. And it's not the server's fault. Make them try the stuff. Teach them about it. It's not that hard. You're just being lazy if you don't.
Another gripe to restaurant owners: Make sure your place is adequately staffed. Having one poor harried server for an entire floor of tables makes you look cheap. And I won't come back.
A petty, but important gripe, re: Bacon. Serve good bacon. It's not that expensive, and I'm not paying money for cheap, thin paltry servings of bacon. Again, another thing that makes you look cheap and makes me not want to patronize you. Same goes for coffee.