Vadouvan

I predict it will be more "maze" portions and plate aesthetic than "royal hospital road" Maze was 3 courses, 35 quid. Delicious but tiny portions.

Dont feel bad, there are well over 100 baby sprouts.....

Sup Bill..... Sour cloves are a type of baby (salad) green with a distinct tang and character similar to sorrel. I believe Oxalic acid makes it sour. There are lots of sources for fancy stuff that will never see retail shelves...... A lot comes from bucks CO places such as Blue Moon Acres in Buckingham..... Read...... http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/food-for-thought also http://www.chefs-garden.com/ http://www.culinaryvegetableinstitute.com/ I know you are the KING of cooking vacations........

I dont know how you store ginger but just leave it in the fridge in a ziplock bag, should last well over 3 weeks. I know people who store ginger in sherry in the refrigerator but the point is it no longer tastes or smells like ginger, it sherry marinated ginger..... Also freezes well indefinitely if vacuum packed.

The salad leaves would do it for sure..... I am almost certain citric acid would curdle right away BUT you may be able to use citric acid if you introduce it in powdered form *along with* standard Ice cream stabilizer ?? Or one of the fancy emulsifiers from TIC gums. TIC has a few pretested "Dairyblend" stabilizers I am using which is what makes the Lemon-Brie Ice Cream work with liquid citric acid to up the tang because its served cold. I suppose the citric acid may cause synerisis otherwise ? Check this out bro.... http://www.ticgums.com/store/product.asp?product_id=2179 Hit me up, I can give you the email for an inside rep I met at IFT in Orlando, she knows everything.

Z... I made a reservation today, shockingly, I just called .....they picked up in 5 rings and Booked lunch. I am trying lunch before commiting to dinner. Lunch 3 courses $45 Dinner 3 courses $85 Its either the best deal in the city or the dishes are microscopic. Atelier Robuchn has lots of single dishes that cost more than that.... We shall see.... The website is Lame, there is barely any info.

David, I find that most supposedly egg focused dishes are lost in translation, they become no longer about the eggs, all these fancy breads, tasso, shrimp, proscuitto just distract you from the true pleasures of egg consumption. Keep it simple. By Croque Madame, I am assuming you dont want an open face sandwich ? And then a fried egg on top......... Typical Crouque is Sandwich filled with ham, bechamel and gruyere, fried in clarified butter or panini grilled ? Eggs and Truffles love each other, go to dean and deluca or citarella and buy a small jar of black truffle cream, its actually just cheap. Would be nice if you went to Union square market and actually got some real farm eggs. Do you know how to boil eggs perfectly without any sulphuric smell and perfect colored yolks ? Make the sandwich with.... Brioche Good cooked and NOT cured ham, cured hams are too salty, distracts from the eggs.. Make a thin Bechamel with chopped boiled eggs folded in at the end. very young gruyere, no aged stuff or Comte..... Truffle cream Fry up that sucker......the eggs will speak to you....... Remember the truffle egg toast at Ino ???? Kinda like that but better.....

Galanga is one of the key backbone ingredients of Thai and Vietnamese cooking. Unfortunately, Dry or powdered galanga is *not* an acceptable substitute for the fresh roots which you can buy on any day of the week at 12th and washington in south philly. Rhizomes like galanga are heavily dependent on thier volatile essential oils such that when dries (basically evaporated) what is left is a dying whisper and quite frankly an unpleasant medicinal substitute of the flavors you are trying to introduce into your cooking........thus having no culinary value in authentic south east asian cooking. It would be like using powdered tomatoes to make marinara sauce. Do use the fresh stuff, its quite good.

Lateralus is right on, the young man is driven and few are as passionate about "the art" any more. He will in fact do good things, I have no doubt. I just caution Lateralus its better to swoop in unnoticed without raising expectations too much..........and nailing it...........which he will. Shhhhh. he's got his wings......let him fly......

There are two sunrise marts herb, one in St Marks Place and the other on Broome just before west Broadway heading into the Holland Tunnel. The problem with finding such ingredients as Yuzu, Sudachi Lime, Wasabi Root,shiro dashi, yuzu kosho, Matsutake, natto Beans ect ect......is that most of the Asian places in philly are chinese, vietnamese, limited Thai with almost no japanese ingredients. Japanese food has its own completely different aromatic base and you would have to have someone committed to Japanese Food not other Asian Foods. None of the places on washington have anything beyond basic shoyu, oversweetened american mirin and extremely low quality kombu and bonito. Forget about fresh ingredients. You will only find basics like enoki and shiitake. You can buy all these stuff online though if you are willing to pay for it........Mitsuwa in North Jersey (Lincoln Tunnel) does a decent job, some food produce, fish is ok.......but it's worth going to......you can shiseido yourself silly.... http://www.mitsuwanj.com/en/index.htm

I was hoing to sublimate it into a more intelligent conclusion.........not so much to take issue with commerce but more the issue of companies selling a different perspective to the public, sure romance sells and some people want it. The point was any company saying they commisioned a product "specially for them" gives the impression that they had some creative stylistic input into the said product. While the product is an excellent one, that clearly is not the case here wether you want to believe it or not. Whole foods does this all the time with misplaced political clout. I guess it ultimately depends on how gullible people want to be.

Unfortunately, most people go for taste-memory association and the colorant laden high fructose corn syrup infused Heinz ketchup rules. There are a few things in life that start to suck the fancier you make them. ketchup is one of those things. Besides most things you eat with ketchup arent good for you.......

John, you are a wise man, your Bullsh*t receptors are working properly. Whole foods is full of crap and its the company that proves most Americans will eat up any corporate BS you feed them. I will explain later. There is no "uniform taste" of whole foods customers. I am sorry, I have to disagree, that is exactly what they are doing, the Manni oil is not inferior, its quite excellent.............they are just hyping it calling it "limited and exclusive", jacking up the price over 100% more than if you bought it directly yourself. Whole foods has no interest in the proliferation of good olive oil, they are simply doing it for the $$$$. You would have to get the true answer from Manni though I suspect it isnt. Manni is a great olive oil company that makes a fantastic product but I suspect they may be at the beginning of starting to sell out thier souls to marketing ploys. In my line of work, I buy a case of Per Me and Figlio about once every 4 months which is just about the only cost effective way to do it if you can swing the $275. It's cheaper than a PerSe dinner for example..... Manni sent out an offer a few months ago to it's regular customers touting it's special blend for 2006. I think there is some issue of translation between what the Italians at Manni are saying exactly and what the deal is. 1. They claim to be making 5 Blends. Are all 5 blends the same ? Are they different from Per Me and figlio? If so how ? 2. In order to buy one of the 5 blends (assuming they are different) you have to buy a *minimum* lot of 150 boxes at $55 each........$ 8250.00 They will also "personalise" it to you complete with your ribbons. As you see its quite expensive thus only big corporations or deep pocketed restaurants can afford the investment. It is being marketed as a Holiday promotion. So I think there will be 5 holiday Blends. Whole foods has one. Who has the four others ? You just have to wait and see when they start popping up with different ribbons. Though it's probably a good way to move oil, i think it's a bad marketing idea, confuses the consumers and is just a thinly veiled licensing deal of which the licensees are just buying prestige because they can afford $8000 minimum orders rather than they actually care about olive oil. It smacks of American consumerism and frankly isnt what top Tuscan producers want to be known for. Dont get me wrong, i love the oil, its fantastic but it's "specialness" is being eroded by mass marketing. Here is a transcript of the Manni e mail from a few months ago.... Draw you own conclusions JohnL Per Me and Per Mio Figlio come in 100 ml bottles for $27 each. You bought 250 ml of the "special blend " for $40 That means 100ml of the "special blend" is $16 while Per me/per mio figlio is $11 more expensive. looking at wholesale prices of similar UV resistant bottles, I estimate 75cents for each bottle So there is still at least a $10 discrepancy that is making the "special blend" a lot cheaper. thats why I think somehing is wrong. If the "special blend" was better, why is it a lot cheaper ?

Yes, coupled with elasticity....

There is no fresh Yuzu in Philadelphia, I can confidently tell you that. I have been to every grocery store. The only place that I ever found it was Midori when it was on chestnut. Not even Han Ah Rhuem. Midori got it from True world foods and Nishimoto trading in New Jersey. The only retail outlet I have seen for Yuzu and Sudachi Lime is Sunrise Mart.

The cream isnt a stabilizer, its a binder combined with egg and chicken (protein). Cream does Mask flavors used in copious amounts. In the specified amount for the above recipe, it is a non issue. Rather....... canned livers are too intensely strong for raviolis because they are preparations that are designed to be eaten cold. Furthermore, they have been seasoned with salt with the intent of cold consumption such that heating them up makes them too salty. They therefore need to be cut with the chicken which also acts as a binder and the cream acts as an agent to adjust the durometer (compression texture and mouthfeel) of the final product so it isnt a hockey puck. The only thing worse than pastas that are too thick are fillings that are too dense. In this case, cream presents *needed* dilution and structure. This may be a matter of opinion.....I disagree. "White port" which really isnt port but more a sweet wine is being used primarily for its color and sweetness so the color of the mousse is light blond and not off pink/brown from "red port". Unfortunately like Mirin, reducing white port to less than 1/4 of its initial volume changes it's flavor profile to a nasty medicinal tasting reduction. The protein ratio in the recipe provides enough structure to absorb all that liquid. It isnt simply the amount of chicken, its also the temperature. In fact I use a food processor with a metal bowl which is pre-frozen before making the mousse, the heat generated by the motor thus does not affect the preparation.......the temperature stabilizes the emulsion......totally fool proof. Freezing the chicken helps if you dont have a metal bowl.....just chill everything. Interesting because this was the very basic procedure but now cooks are quick to resort to "molecular" processes without nailing down the old school basics. that is evolution....but a dose of tradition.....???? though other gums or combinations of gums may work, I would simply use DOW's methocel as the various formulations have fairly precise gelling temperatures. That way you could add wheat gluten to the pasta dough, roll it almost trasparently thin and poach it in a water bath. The filling would gel and the wrapper would just disappear...... Good discussion....i feel like it should be on the methocel thread ? is there one ?

Awww cmon Zupon, you dont seem to be strapped for time..... How goes it at Zze kitchen lab...?

Indeed you are Carolyn......Goose liver raviolis can be transcedental if made properly. the issue of liver to pasta ratio is simply a function of making good pasta than can be rolled out thinly without breaking......as in using a higher strength flour.....basically eggs and "00" flour. 1. YES you would have to add something to the liver because once the ravioli hits the hot water, foie mousse is a cold to room temp emulsion and would break in hot water thus leaving you with grease filled raviolis. You would need to make it a heat stable emulsion. Measure out the following : Weigh your liver mousse....outside the can. Weigh 30% of the above weight Boneless skinless chicken breast and freeze it till almost solid. Cut up the chicken into small pieces before freezing. Buy white port (its cheap) and reduce 1 cup of it to about 1/4 cup and cool. 1 Whole egg 1/2 cup Chilled Heavy Cream salt and pepper to taste....(pinch) Puree everything but the cream in a food processor quickly till well emulsified. Check with a spatula. Turn machine back on and add the cream till emulsified. Adjust flavor with salt and white pepper. Transfer to a pastry bag and keep refrigerated. You can basically use the agnolotti dough from the Laundry cookbook and bang out ravioli's or agnolottis with this filling. Your sage brown butter and some Reggiano sounds divine....... Edited to add: And you can skip the Frenchie old school method above by simply using 20% chicken breast and methylcellulose (methocel) thus avoiding the eggs and cream ..........giving a more intense Liver flavor.

My issue isnt with your post urbanfabric....its the suspiciously ethusiastic one that follows it.......

You missed the point........and the elephant on the coffee table. Read between the lines.

Interesting.......As inspector Clouseau would say.....very interesting Indeed. there was no actual review of the "party food" to the degree of rushing over there,was urbanfabric's post edited ?

Joe, you are confusing URENA 32 E 38th Street. with URENA'S 2262 3rd avenue. Completely different restaurants, you are referring to Alex formerly of Blue Hill.

Goat Milk, fig and Olive caramel would work deliciously.........

.....or skip the hassle and use regular milk and Methocel A 15 c.....

I am guessing "milk skin" a -la Michel Bras / Andoni Aduriz...... Well JM......whats the deal ?