gfron1
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Posts posted by gfron1
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On 1/4/2024 at 4:34 AM, liuzhou said:
I realise that doesn't help you, but may explain the lack of respomse to your question.
I'm not using the correct terminology I suppose. I'm thinking pineapple cakes, all the various buns, taro globes, mooncakes, mochi, etc...
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I'm looking for books I may not yet have, and they can be in English or Chinese (I think my Mandarin skills are good enough to survive a cookbook). Youtube content has been helpful but I would prefer something more formal. I suspect there's a whole world of Chinese-language books that I am not aware of. What I have currently:
Taiwanese Desserts Ideas, Ilda Eitzen (very poorly written)
Mooncake and Milkbread, Kristina Cho
Not exclusively pastry:
First Generation, Frankie Gaw
The Food of Taiwan, Cathy Erway
Win Son, Josh Ku
Made in Taiwan, Clarissa Wei
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Chef Wang is one of my favorite YouTube channels, and a few weeks ago he got into trouble with the system. HERE is the CNN version of the story. HERE'S a slightly biased video explaining the cultural implications a bit more.
My 5 second summary: A long-forgotten Chinese general was hiding in the mountains during a war, and decided to cook egg fried rice, which sent off smoke plumes that alerted the enemy of his whereabouts. Stupid mistake. So, if you cook egg fried rice near the end of September, when this incident happened, you are considered unpatriotic. Chef Wang released an egg fried rice video a few weeks ago, which is now gone from his play list.
I saw the video and thought it was an odd step backwards in his repertoire, but he does do quite a bit of home cooking on top of his restaurant quality dishes. Was it on purpose? Who knows, but he apologized and said he would never release an egg fried rice video again. He hasn't posted any videos since. FWIW, he lightly argued that he releases numerous fried rice videos throughout the year, so this was just poorly timed. Well, I hope he's able to come back because quite frankly his channel was a wonderful gateway to Chinese culture, and the far vast majority of the world would have had no idea of the backstory had the Chinese government not alerted us to the gaff.
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This is all very unfortunate how the fact checking is playing out, but regardless, Heidi has always been such a supportive eG friend, and was always a boost of confidence and joy for me back in the early days. I sure have missed our interactions here in the forum.
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I go through 5 gallons a sorghum each month at the restaurant. We use it daily in both sweet and savory applications. I prefer it to molasses as its a bit more complex especially the freshly pressed juice when its boiled down. I also use the flour quite a bit for my gluten free breads...but that's not what you're asking about. Word of caution - cutting corn syrup in is rampant. You'll be able to tell if the syrup begins to separate - a corn syrup texture and a more gritty texture. Many Amish and Mennonite communities press sorghum.
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On 10/9/2023 at 9:44 PM, heidih said:
Ditch the pop-tarts - give me Danish Go Rounds https://bionicbear.livejournal.com/53035.htmlun
Could not agree more. Those were so good but never survived the 70s.
12 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:For all the haters in this thread let me just say, I'm sure they're not as good as my child-brain remembers, but the recipe that I did tastes exactly like the boxed, and has the exact texture as the originals, but fixes the fatal flaw of filling to crust ratio...as well as removes about 20 preserving and coloring chemicals. I still make my version everytime I do a brunch pop-up and they are always the first thing to sell-out. Bougie pop-tarts can kiss off...if it's not an homage to the original then it's not a pop-tart.
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The human brain is amazing sometimes. I immediately recalled a pivotal article from Behr in 1990 on Bay Leaves. Changed how I shop for them forever.
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That's been my go-to travel food for years because it's always better than fast food. Lately there's an expansion of Naf Naf, which serves middle eastern food.
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Kicking this topic back up in case there are fresh eyes. Have never let this project go.
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Every time we lose one of these long-timers it hurts a bit more for our community. For me, it has always been the writing that attracted me to eG and I always enjoyed Maggie's.
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This was my set this year.
Lemon dark chocolate
Hazelnut & passion fruit
Espresso & house tapped maple
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On 12/1/2022 at 6:44 AM, Anna N said:
And then go on to open not one but two award-winning restaurants. That’s @gfron1. I tried to find a photograph of the range he used at The Curious Kumquat in Silver City, New Mexico. Knocked any ideas that great cooking was dependent on great equipment from my mind. He now owns Bulrush in St. Louis and I’m sure has better equipment. But his creativity is intact.
That is not to downplay great equipment. I was just as guilty as anyone hoping for top of the line equipment, I just knew that no matter how much I spent on equipment I was not going to become a better cook because of it.Ha! That was a $300 Kenmore glass top 4 burner stove from Sears (does Sears even exist anymore?) The funny thing is I've downgraded in my current restaurant with six $50 induction burners from Amazon and a few sets of Ikea pans. And to give me even more to chuckle about, one of my biggest competitors recently closed its doors (not laughing at that part), and they had been open less than a year with a purchased $100,000 Heston range system. That chef was also the captain of US Culinary Olympic team...it's not the equipment that makes good food.
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On 11/11/2022 at 1:14 PM, ChristysConfections said:
I have heard mixed things about Melissa Coppel in my circles - I believe it is largely because some of her content is created without a regard for shelf life.
This is amazing to me. I don't have her subscription but have attended a few workshops with her and have a number of her recipes. My critique of her is that she over-relies on additives that lend shelf life, which, while good for sales is not so good for the human body. Specifically I'm referring to her use of sorbitol. I know she was strongly challenged by a student in a workshop once so maybe that has changed.
and FWIW, I get So Good each issue. I'd say 10% is chocolate and confection, and most of it is stuff that we've seen elsewhere including the chefs' social media.
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22 hours ago, cyalexa said:
Dry pot cabbage next?
I do adore dry pot cabbage
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18 hours ago, liuzhou said:
The dish which comes to my mind most closely matching your description is indeed (qié zi pí 茄子皮蛋dàn), a relatively mild Sichuan dish, usually employing just a little green chilli pepper. It also makes use of sesame paste, which may account for the sweetness you mention.
I have recipes in Chinese for the dish and woud be happy to summarise the ingredients and general method, if you think it is what you are after. Just let me know.
Alternatively, search for 茄子皮蛋 on the search engine of your choice and it should list Chinese language recipes (with pictures). If any appeals to you as being close to what you are looking for, send me the address.
That opened a whole world of recipes for me. Thank you. Let me dig around and see if I can't find the closest recipe and I'll circle back if I need more help.
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I've completely fallen in love with this dish, but the variations I'm finding online don't seem quite right. I'm eating this at my favorite Szechuan restaurant, and most online are saying Hunan. My version is a little bit sweet with virtually no spice/heat. Can someone suggest a recipe or the pinyin that might help me search for a recipe better?
Thanks
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11 hours ago, donk79 said:
Few words - lots of questions! Are those wheels sliding against each other? I eagerly wait an explanation/demonstration!
Three wheels independently spinning. Laser etched wood with ball bearings. Well over a year's worth of focus groups to get to this point. Final focus group is being held in a week. Then we go to production.
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As always more to share than time, but this week we were featured on a local PBS show called Living St Louis. I think they did a great job capturing our work. We're also on a national PBS show called A Taste of History (Episode 4) which you can find on Prime Video as well.
FWIW, we are really focused now on a concept we're developing that we're calling Reparative Restauranting. I'll dangle that right there and hope to expound later.
And lastly, we're in the final stages of our new bar menu concept - a truly consumer directed menu. I'm sure many will have words on this:
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18 hours ago, donk79 said:
I am about to go pick pawpaws here in Virginia. I checked them last week and they were still a little bit green. This week I think they will be ready.
@gfron1has been posting about picking pawpaws this past week in his area, and I am benefiting from the fact that his are ripening sooner. Especially today, as he posted a video on Facebook of how he processes the fruit. Hopefully this link will work, as it will definitely change how I approach the task.
https://www.facebook.com/724934844/videos/5445230762240407/
Thank you, Rob!
Happy to help. We do a lot of them so it's all about efficiency.
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9 hours ago, catdaddy said:
Sohla El-Waylly has a recipe for this on the Serious Eats website, https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-spicy-chili-crisp.
I've made it a couple times. The heat is supplied by the chiles so pick what you want there. I love this stuff...it's an umami bomb that goes well with practically everything.
I second this recipe - it's the base that I use. The heat will all depend on your chiles. I do a combo that includes mild New Mexico reds so as to not blow out my guests.
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The owner swears its for food with an adjustable blade. I'm not as convinced, but I know where I can find a definitive answer
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On 7/11/2022 at 9:12 PM, Midlife said:
Any thoughts on whether what appears to be (to my admittedly uneducated self) an incongruity between what I’d thought was a routine employed in full/classic restaurant kitchens and what seems to be a beef sandwich shop? The frenetic pace and terminology seems like what people like Bourdain have recounted, but the place seems to have just a few tables and no front of house staff visible.
Regardless, the show did get my wife to ask why anyone would want to work in such a place. Carmy is from that environment but it just seems out of place.
The latter is easy - adrenaline rush, party life (work hard play hard), possibly don't know of other life options.
I've never done a busy sandwich shop so I don't know, but if they had a line out the door for hour on end, I suspect it would be similar.
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I almost walked away after the first episode because its very real, and I don't need to leave my work stress to go home and watch my work stress. But, after the first episode the character development really builds and it's growing on me. It is without a doubt, the thing all industry folks are watching right now because of the level of realistic detail that they've incorporated down to drinking out of quart containers and double gloving a bloody finger.
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Regardless of the truth or perspective of the matter, what we see in this article is not unexpected, and is what happens when chefs are held up as celebrities that they then need to maintain or grow their image. To me there are two threads that I've been considering. First, is the connection to Laura Reily's Farm to Fable exposé which has been a singularly motivating source for my own work. Second, is how Eater is taking on these type of stories - see Vespertine's punch.
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Chinese or Taiwanese Pastry/Baking Cookbook suggestions
in China: Cooking & Baking
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And last night I had my epipheny
Of course there are culinary schools and of course they would have text books. A friend helped me with my translation search issues (I was simply using:
面点 食谱）and I have a professional pastry book shipping from baidu to his uncle in Shangdong Province who is visiting next week. I'll report back once it's in hand. He said it is a set of 4 but only got the most advanced for me so I'll be checking out the rest of the set once I see this book.