gfron1

Thanks L for the tips. I can squeeze a few dogs into my tight eating schedule I think. Tonight was Pizzaria Bianco. This forum is dominated by New Yorkers so pizza is a serious thing to you. For me, I love Imo's in St. Louis still, so I'm no judge. I can say that since I got in for the first seating it was very good. Had I had to wait 1, 2, 3 or even 4 hours as others did, I would not be as pleased. We arrived at 4 and were the last seats for the 5 o'clock. That means, if you want to guarantee a seat at door opening at 5, shoot for arriving no later than 4 - that means parked and in line at 4. Other tips - they allow you to get 2 pies each, so most people ordered extra to go. And they allow you to split, so we were able to try 4 flavors on our 2 pies. My favorite by far was the biancoverde with Fresh Mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, Ricotta, Arugula - outstanding. I had the Spiedini appetizer which I will do my best to re-create at my place. I was surprised at how much local sourcing they did - and now need to find time to visit the Arizona Olive Oil Co (or something like that) which is where they get all of there oil. Switching gears. I hit Scratch at the suggestion of a friend. A small strip mall pastry shop and deli. Scratch was very nice - decent technique and good flavors. I'm spoiled I guess by my own kitchen, but I could easily recommend Scratch. This was good since yesterday I visited Au Petit Four - hard to find! There the technique was good but the flavor was wayyyyy short in my estimation, although, again, I would recommend it to folks because its so hard to find good pastries. Tomorrow is going to be Los Dos Molnillos. I was telling my saga of finding good Mexican food to the cool couple next to us at PB and they suggested Los Dos. They said its not Oaxacan but an amazing New Mexican restaurant. The irony, since I'm from New Mexico, is that I can't get good NM food in Silver City, so this will be a treat. Thursday is the highlight of my trip with a visit to NOCA - looking forward to meeting MoltoE in person after all these years of online talk.

The vast majority of the recipes are not fads, but current trends - big difference in my book, and it includes many classics. Also, remember, we've clarified that the book is only $100+ if you're a dummy like me. You should be paying around $59.

Seems like more questions than answers in this topic, so I'll share what I've found. Today I was looking for a good Oaxacan restaurant. Two are listed in the phone book - one on Van Buren and one on 16th. I started at the Van Buren one, sat down to some nice live salsa music, ordered a decent margarita (my second on this journey) and looked at the menu - not one traditional Oaxacan dish. I asked the server and she didn't know what Oaxacan dishes were. She brought the owner over and I asked more simply - any molè? He smiled and said jokingly, "I'll go get a Hershey bar." He later said that when he visited Oaxaca they didn't like any of the food so they started hanging out at the American style steak houses...okay dude - then pick a different name for your restaurant - it was called Oaxaca something or other. So then I headed off for the one on 16th (also with Oaxaca in the name), slightly buzzed and really needing some food in me. It was very confusing not knowing the system so we started on a 16th that was on the West side - correction, the wrong side. Then we headed to the East side 16th and ended up on the South side, wrong side, so we headed to the North side of the East side 16th and I think we were in the right place, but that address appeared to be a closed down strip mall with nothing in it - urghh! In that vicinity, on 16th, we passed a huge Mexican grocery that had a restaurant attached called Tradiciones. It looked good and turned out to be really nice. Very friendly staff, good prices and serving sizes. I had the pork loin with cream chipotle sauce and it was good. They let me sample their molè and I passed. We're going to try again to see if there is a Oaxacan restaurant somewhere in the PHX area. BTW, that Mexican store was amazing - well worth a visit.

Dan - my guess is about 40% recipes to 60% articles. That's an interesting question because the articles will only get read once, but it is an annual book, so maybe that's okay. And the recipes are mostly in metric. I have only run into a couple of ingredients that I couldn't source, but it depends on your determination and access. That shouldn't be a barrier however to buying the book if you're inclined.

Interesting stuff everyone. I ended up using the stamen (?) not the petals, blanching, and then candying. I snipped the heads and used them on my parrotfish ceviche with sweet potato puree. It was all very nice.

While shopping at an Asian grocery today I saw banana blossoms and of course had to buy some. Before I did some online research I thought I would candy them for garnish for an event tomorrow night. I see the more traditional uses are stews and salads. Anyone have experience with these?

what about blueberries, or think about something tubular that you can slice seeds out of.

I am making some ceviche tomorrow and have scoured my options. I'm leaning toward either red snapper or parrot fish. Does anyone have a preference? I'm familiar with snapper but not parrot - but parrot sounds like it could be very nice.

Lee Lee's is fantastic. I went for big eye tuna which they didn't have, but they did have sierra fish, yellow croaker, golden sand bass, parrot fish, red snapper, green pargo, gasper goo, milk fish, pompano and all the regulars.

Thanks - I'll see what I can check out. I'm just a few miles north on 101 next some Cajun joint.

I have a catering job in Scottsdale this Saturday and need a good Asian market - especially in the way of produce and seafood. Any recommendations?

I make ganache balls and core my apples with mine.

If you chilled it, it should have worked -but also make sure you have heavy whipping cream. I bought some organic heavy cream a while back that wouldn't whip for the life of me.

Another thanks for your updates. I've been reading at your blog and enjoying the pics. The one striking thing for me is how French the plating style is - makes me laugh (in a good way).

Suck it up and buy a box from ChefRubber and you'll never go back. I find leaf so much more gentle once you get used to using it. And just go for the silver leaf as it seems most common in the cookbooks. btw, for your recipe, if it calls for 6 g of gelatin, they are referring to 6 g of dry leaf - depending on who you ask, 2 or 3 sheets. Don't worry about the water, just fill a bowl with water, add ice cubes (or a bag of peas in my kitchen), and add the gelatin. In about 10 minutes they'll be soft and usable. The ice softens the gelatin without melting it.

Last week a new cook was rattling on and on about some "5-star restaurant" in the Phoenix area...and I had never heard of it. I quickly through out the names bantered around on eG which I consider the best. It led me to thinking about the rating systems that are out there. My first thought, knowing this kid and his family, is that he was probably referring to AAA diamonds. Fair or not, I don't give much credence to that rating system as my perspective is they honor established, conservative restaurants for the RVset. When I hear Michelin or Beard, then I pay attention. My assumption here is that these are going to be nicer restaurants that are looking toward cutting edge or at least not remaining stagnant. Again, fair or not. Am I way off base? What rating systems do you use or have you found reliable and worthy?

Have you got any information on this toaster? I looked on their website this morning and nothing shows up. The only toaster they have listed in their 2009 collection is a two slice vertical one. ← My rep said it will be about another month before they are released.

I'm eating my afternoon pop-tart right now. This morning I measured out the 3 1/2 C, unsifted and it was slightly wet, but I forged ahead. The end result is perfect. Flavors - French Fig preserves with 100% Claudio Corallo chocolate, and also Nutella with piñon. Both are just right.

Tammy - did you do weight or measure. I'm screaming at the measuring cup manufacturers right now. I just measured and then weighed with one of my cups and ended up at 580 g, then I remeasured in different cups and got 550, which are both different than my first one at 625 - grrrrr! I'm assuming you did 3 1/2 C and that's my final answer because I'll have to trust my original notes that say I measured the flour.

Ha! I'm starting to feel like someone who finally has employees to help out.

I just checked and my 3 1/2 C equals 625 g, so off but no so far off - definitely not 4 1/2 C. Also, I double checked my notes and for some odd reason I used measure as my standard on this and then added weights...not sure what that was all about. I'm going to re-type the ingredients here since there was the format glitch in the original post - use this list: 3 Sticks plus 2 T of unsalted butter 1/3 C. plus 1 T milk at room temp 1 L Egg yolk at room temp 1 t. Sugar 1 t. Salt 3 1/2 C. AP Flour And now I really would like someone to check my recipe to see if it works. I haven't heard any reports back. I'll make a batch as well filled with my favorite French fig preserves and 100% chocolate.

I work in grams so go with the weight not the measure. I'll try to double check my measure when I get in this morning. Thanks for catching that.

Apple "Pasta" with cardamom cream sauce, key lime granite and spicy jelly

I'm so glad I asked this original question - this is all new material for me - thanks!

It is a Pavoni mold from Chef Rubber - thanks