gfron1

I am going to try again tonight. Last night was bizarre. Its going to be slow around here til the day before Thanksgiving, but last night was packed...but, everyone was being cheap. Not one person ordered the tasting menu which is why you eat with us. They all did the "entree only" option. So nothing to show really. I'll be trying again tonight at 6 or whenever they roll in. Its a peril of a restaurant in the southwest - cold wimps! I think its in the 50s

Do you know what the demo will be focused on?

Just learned that I have an option to save the video to my phone, which I can then upload to Vimeo or YouTube. I don't know if its worth doing all that since its more about the immediate interactions, but good to know.

Im learning this at the same time as you. The friend who turned me on to it said a week, but must be just a day. So in that way its kind of like Snapchat where there's a limited viewing window. Huiray - you asked about me chasing ingredients. That's normal. My lunch line has a set mis en place station, but dinner is more complex and so I run here and there. Tonight's looking relative slow so I'll do it again. I'll log on around 6MST and if you watch my Facebook page I'll announce it there. This isn't self-promotion since you all know me

Thanks. All I could think when I watched the screen was - damn, son, you need to get some sleep. My eyes looked seriously tired. But that's the life! Props to you for actually watching the video. Much more fun when its interactive.

Of course it was never really busy and even with a slow night it was a distraction. At one point I kept saying, "If I miss your question retype it when I'm looking at the screen." But it was fun. It was fun on the level of when I go out to my tables each night. Chefs who don't like people are really in the wrong business. I want to interact. I want to see how people respond to my cooking. I want to know who I'm feeding. And that sorta plays into this app, although they aren't eating the food. Did you catch that two tables pulled up the app and started following from their tables? One even joked, "Where's my next course." That was fun and made me watch what I was saying...I was cussing up a storm about a M/W lamb chop.

I think you'll find this is a different beast. I'm assuming GustoTV is more those cameras (GoPro or something like that) that get uploaded. This is social media. So, there is sound form me, and text from viewers with opportunities to "like" what you're seeing or hearing. Folks asked me questions throughout, some about food, some about my personal life ("how many hours do you work a day?"), some about my foraging. At slow spots I walked around with my phone to give a tour of the kitchen, my knife collection, at one point I stripped down so they could see my cool Japanese butchery t-shirt. Primarily, I had it set up to view the plating, and I would bend into the frame to talk about what I was doing, where the ingredients came from and such.

Last night I delved into the social media app - Periscope. A Twitter company that's been around for around a year, but just now seeing a little action, it may be the best fit yet for me as a chef. I wasn't sure if I could do anything interesting enough to hold the attention of viewers, but last night, unannounced, I set up my phone camera and let it roll during dinner service. It was a very slow night because of a snow storm, so it was a good chance to practice. I want to see what happens on a busy night when I might not otherwise be able to see the questions being posed. My understanding is that the live broadcasts stay viewable as a video for a week after the event. So those of you with a couple of hours to kill: HERE It can be watched on your phone or computer.

Here is the recipe list from the Fiesta chapter: Pickled chile canario White hominy with yellow molé Cactus salad Red molé with dried shrimp cakes Red fiesta molé Yellow molé with white bean and cactus Pan de muertos Stuffed crepes with farmers cheese and mezcal pears Champurrado de Trigo (hot wheat drink with chocolate) ...just to give you an idea.

A friend gifted me a book written by someone I know of but only loosely. The acquaintance is a former missionary who has lived in Oaxaca for 15 years and co-authored this book with Susana Trilling (famous Oaxacan cooking instructor). The book is self published and really surprised me with its quality. The whole thesis is saving the indigenous foods of the area and combatting GMO infiltration of the area. Those of you who know the area might know of one of my hero restaurants - the like-minded Itanoni in Oaxaca City - surely they all travel in the same circles. Recipes are average fare - not fancy - clearly recipes from regular local folk, but very authentic, not fusion. They start with basic fresh masa, run you through all sorts of things including molé and salads and end up with stuff like yucca and egg tacos. The chapters include: Wild Greens (purslane, amaranth, etc), Beans & Squash, Salsa, Nopal and Maguey, Food and Fiesta, Medicinal uses. About 300 pages in all (so figure 150 in English and 150 in Spanish). This book is not available through Amazon. It is bilingual. I highly recommend it. Side note: Quite frankly these guys are goofs. They don't know how important and well produced this book is and aren't marketing it worth crap. Go buy it. Tell them I sent you. And enjoy this book. HERE

Yeah, I was being lazy but I found it HERE.

we also have a foraging page on eG, but this time of year they're getting very scarce. I have no mushrooms left to gather in my area and haven't in about 6 weeks. My focus is on seeds and dried berries til about late March of next year.

Today I received a 10 page packet of items that the publisher need from me for marketing purposes. I just want to know when they actually want the manuscript - ha! Seriously, like they haven't even seen it yet. What if its nothing like they expect and hate it. I know that won't happen, but the process seems crazy to me. I'm sure its just a timing thing and right now is all about finalizing the fall catalog. Just odd and just sharing. The delay is good from the standpoint of me adding recipes. Just added my foraged crawfish tacos.

Kerry - now that you're "on tour" with the EZ Temper, what's been the response? I have a feeling its one of those tools that needs to evolve from "I don't need a new toy to do what I can already do" to "I can see how this can save me significant time and accuracy" which can only come with the momentum of press and peer reviews. So how's the crowd response changing from your earlier groups to this trip?

In case you missed it, Mekelburg's stuffed potato nabbed top dish of the city. HERE I may be confusing stories since I'm seeing stories about stories. Either way, fun breakdown of one of their star dishes.

I asked my agent what interaction she and I will have now that the publisher has reached out to me. Here's her answer:

I would do one of two things: add mango puree (I do think it would still work work the tomatoes) and let the sweet battle it out with the heat or make a second batch with no peppers and blend the two and give gifts to all your friends with the extra.

I have my first instructions from the publisher. Apparently what is most important for her is to get the sales catalog completed and quickly. I need to turn in my cover art ideas, a 200 word description of the book, and my author bio. I think this is fascinating since she hasn't even seen the manuscript yet. But she made it clear that the sales meeting for Fall 16 releases is coming very soon, and so that's top priority.

Its right HERE

I did post about my visit to Mekelburgs in the NYC dining forum. Stuffed myself!

Another chef I see doing this is Russian chef Polly Kosheleva.

The dim sum was okay. Its an area of cuisine that I'm woefully uneducated about so I just point at pretty things and hope for the best. So everything was okay, but nothing too special. I was a bit concerned by their B grade from the health department but I don't know how bad that really is - they still get to be open. And we walked around a bit, but that's not really my interest, so where ever Tyler hauled me, I went.

Well I'm cheating because I've foraged quite a bit a pond scum before but generally it was a very heavily sea chlorophyll flavor. Almost a liquid burst in this dish.

And you could definitely isolates the plankton taste. Very dominate.

I really don't want people to mistake my comment. Blanca was good but more aligned with 1 star places I've been. And the pours varied since they included beer and sake but I'd say 2 oz. Also, keep in mind that I had been stuffing it in this week so I had a pretty strong resilience to booze at this point. Plus I train at altitude so this sea level drinking is like the minor league to me