gfron1

I infused horehound into the water for the infusion. Good idea Lisa.

In no particular order... -definitely cane sugar -Small batch - say around a pound -Thermometers are fine because I always use two...I'm my mother's untrusting son -No citric acid, and different recipes. Today's was pretty simple: sugar, corn syrup, infused water -My room is definitely not cold - its my regular restaurant kitchen so if anything its hot. Again, I'm pretty sure this is just altitude but a 50º difference is pretty severe. I'm at 6000'

I know this is altitude but very often my sugar candies will start to smell burnt before I get to 300ºF. Today I was making horehound candies and the burned at 250º. I could bring down my heat but then I never seem to get to temp. And my pan is heavy aluminum not copper. I work on coiled electric primarily. And they aren't done cooking...like this batch isn't setting up properly. Suggestions?

I love how the artisenal cider movement took off since the OP back in 2005. All sorts of good ones out there right now. In the US I'm enjoying the Teton Cider Works Yakima dry hopped cider - not too sweet at all.

We live very distracted lives these days. I'm always amazed when it happens at my dinners...not to be a primadonna, but you're dining at a James Beard nominated restaurant and you're going to chat away while your food sits. Oh well, they're paying the bill, just don't write a bad review.

When I read that article it rang very true for our town. I think worse in bigger cities possibly, but I can't tell you how many times my food has been "not hot" or "not cold" after sitting at a table for 10-15 minutes untouched.

Again great stuff - Summarizing and marking what's really striking my interest from here and other friends: Berkeley Bowl - groceries Crixa Cakes - Euro pastry Burma Superstar - restaurant Kermit Lynch wines Castro Village Wines ** small production wineries Craftsman and Wolves ** B Patisserie Dandelion Chocolate Trick Dog - cocktails ** Outerlands - restaurant suggested by Judy Shertzer formerly of Terra Spice Atelier Crenn ** Judy says, "to have your mind blown" Tartine BiRite Little John's Candies Woo Ri ** Cheese Plus ** St. George Spirits ** Kamei Housewares ** Recchuiti chocolates in Ferry Bldg Alemany Farmers Mkt ** Cookin' used cookware Off the Grid @ Ft. Mason ** Soko Hardware ** Kenkyodo - fresh Mochi **

Great suggestions! I just had a lawyer from SF in for dinner tonight and she's now hiring me to do a class at her house in trade for housing for a night or two!

Thanks I have been following along with that.

I'm going to have a week in San Fran next week and want to do some serious shopping. You know, like hard core stuff that only eG folks would be interested in and may not even know what it is. I'll be hitting Chinatown hard and maybe the Japanese District (is there a Korean area because I've been hunting down an acorn liquor). Any suggestions? Anyone in town and want to say hey while shopping?

I didn't take it as a personal attack, its a matter of how to motivate employees. "Suck it up" is not IMO the most useful way of discussing the situation when it comes to long-lasting positive change. So absolutely no need to apologize.

That's essentially what we've done. Anyone who's worked on the floor knows that you can't stay Susy Sunshine all the time, but the best ones are able to more than the others. "Suck it up," and "Deal with it," and other harsh responses certainly aren't motivating, so we've had conversations over the past month or two that get her to the same place of understanding. We're both getting a much needed vacation next week which will undoubtedly help. And as other have suggested I've continued to reinforce the big picture of one bad tipper v. 100 great tippers, and when we've had a poor tip from other customers she's been repeating that line back to me so I think she's getting it. As for the airline comparison - different system so its not really relevant to this discussion IMO. We haven't seen that specific guy for a while - I think he's a contractor who comes in and out for the mines - so all of the ideas about addressing his poor behavior haven't been addressed yet.

I've read ad nauseam about microwave food safety and nutrition. The consensus seems to be that they, in fact, maintain more nutrition than regular cooking because the heating up happens faster than other methods, thus keeping nutrients from cooking out. And the whole cancer thing is similar to MSG in that one outlier suggested that it caused cancer but studies have never shown that to be true. All of that said, I only use mine for heating liquids. I simply don't like what it does to the texture.

Huh. My memory of vin jaune is about 6-7 years old but I remember it having a brandyish quality to it. When I sampled the amarone just last week it reminded me of the same thing. Maybe I'm way off base. I guess I'll find out when I open them probably next weekend.

I fell in love with Vin Jaune a long time ago and just the other day I sampled a young amarone. So I splurged and bought a good bottle of amarone and a decent vin jaune. The reason I wanted both is the both reminded me of brandy. I want to get the most out of this so I'm appealing here for knowledge beyond wiki. Anything that I should know? And one specific thing is that I remember that I can cork vin jaune, but what about amarone?

missed my photo upload.

Doing a comparison tonight. I've had vin juane before and enjoy it. Was sampled a cheap amarone recently and fascinated at the similarity to vin juane, so I bought a nice one. Anyone know - I can't re-cork the amarone can I?

I like how you did those Pastrygirl. I will borrow that for lunch tomorrow!

I'm simply food obsessed. Always have been. Now I find myself to be most commonly disappointed when I eat out even at nice restaurants with stellar reputations. Food always seems bland, uncared for, over cooked, under cooked, poorly plated, too tweezered. And yet I survive and have simply learned to not write the bad review. It is a sad existence, but its mine. I'll save all year just to fly to Helsinki for dinner (this December. If you want to call me a foodie, that's fine, because my mind is filled with much more demanding things such as how to use my fresh duck stock that I made this weekend.

For the same reason we hear about getting a bad mortgage rate, a bad deal on a car, a bad contract...we all shoot for the ideal 20% tipper but you get the 10% tippers too. I don't think I've yet to work in a perfect industry.

As I've said here before, in my very small remote town, my lunch servers average $15/hr and peak around $80. My night averages $20-25/hr and peaks around $125. I do a base pay of $4/hr and there is no tip out and no pooling. I get the best in town. Previously when I worked at Keystone Ski Resort, I had guys getting much, much more than that - but it was seasonal. Again, we had the best in town. My point is that the cream rises just like in any industry. You can make not only a subsistence living waiting tables, but a helluva living if you hustle and have a head on your shoulders. As a restaurant owner I fully support a higher minimum or better yet scrapping the tip culture and having the cost shifted into menu prices, but I've seen time and time again that customers don't want that. I also feel like it has to be an all or none proposal - that the system change completely. The mention to sexual harassment is one we're spending a lot of time with right now with our staff - and the subtle racism that plays out in tips. That's another discussion but also relevant because we're talking about pay related to work environment.

From the kitchen: Here is the special menu. Most of the items require many days of preparation. For example, the sea cucumber takes 3-4 days to get boiled enough to become soft enough to eat. All the dishes are truly authentic. Chef Hsia has served in the Taiwan military's top officials' kitchen and in a highly ranked Shanghai cuisine restaurant in Taipei. These kitchens require great talent. You and your guests will greatly enjoy this unique experience. Jelly Fish Appetizer Shanghai Dumplings Soup Crispy Flounder in Black Vinegar (this dish will show the real Chinese "sweet and sour") Eight-Treasure Duck Ginger Basil Sea Cucumber Scallion Chicken Snow Vegetable and Baked Tofu Sweet Lotus Seed and Longin Soup

Here's the guest list: Rob & Tyler Connoley (Curious Kumquat Chef/owner) Ari Levaux (Writer for Alibi, Slate and Outside magazine) Christophe Descarpenteres (Café Petit Louis Chef/Owner) Gwen & Scott Clapp & guest (Culinary instructor at CNMCC) Munaf Aamir & wife Marissa Michelle & David Garcia (Farm & Table Restaurant) Anthony Salvagno (3 guests) (S'wich Food Truck Chef) Sharon Neiderman (Cookbook author) King Crowder & wife (Tre Rosat Chef/Owner) I've been working with the owner to prepare a feast worthy of this group and can't wait to see what they come up with.

Kicking this topic up again. I over harvested for my nocino this year and have a gallon or so left of these. Any thoughts on using them.

I foraged a bunch of horehound this morning while gathering my annual stash of wild walnuts for nocino. My hiking companion was talking about horehound candy and since I've never made it before I thought I'd give it a go. Plenty of recipes online that all say you'll love it or hate it, but I'm wondering if anyone has a recipe they really love.