HVRobinson

I can't help it... and I apologise in advance: this comes from a cooking teacher I started with.... "All of it!"

Asking what kind of hot sauce is kind of like asking what flavor beer you ought to drink. Just as there are different types (regional or style) of BBQ--- the same holds for hot sauce. Me personally? I keep several flavors of Mexican-- TapaTio, Chollula, Valentina, and el Yucateco. For the south-eastern flavor Tabasco in several flavors, the classic, the smoked chipotle, the habanero (great on eggs), then there's the Crystal (the best inexpensive vinegar/hot). For asian fun, there's the Sirichiri Rooster sauce, or a jar of chili oil with pepper flakes in it. And when doing a whole hog-- I'll make a couple gallons of pig pickin' sauce. Hot stuff? As long as it has flavor, yes. To see how hot you can stand it? Nahhhh- there are better ways to hurt yourself. HVR

So- My beautiful bride ended up with a dental abcess... and couldn't eat, couldn't kiss, went to bed before me (and I go to bed at 8:30)... I do love St Valentine's Day-- the cursed holiday -- not!

Loving Wifey is gone? Yahooooo! Lessee: Shrimp in lobster sauce, wontons stuffed with ginger chicken, hot and sour soup. Liver in worcestshire sauce with fried onions, mashed potatos...drool Deep fried ravioli, OMG!!! I can do polenta with extra cheese and 3 sauces! Any seafood, and a big pot of cioppino! Bread pudding with raisins and Grand Marnier sauce! Excuse me all, I have to go abuse myself now.....

From the mis-spelling files: The best one for just being easy to unnerstand: I'd like an order of French-Fires please..... This came from a National menu at Chili's... hvr

Two come to mind: my bride has always called the bigger than bay shrimp "prongs" .... And my camping friends and I refer to Spaghettio-s as "Culo de pesci con pomodoro" -- I needn't translate.

Over a fine dinner? Dessert. Where to walk it off. Other dinners that compare with this one. Who amongst our circle of friends would especially like this place. If it's with the wife alone-- remembering romantic dinners past-- the nekkid soup, the time we had the whole top floor of an old Victorian restaraunt to ourselves and danced to the music all by ourselves between courses, or that romantic night on our honeymoon where we ate on a pier over the Central California Coast above the stormy seas and the rain coming down through the roof. Besides-in the people's republic of California there's no place to have a brandy and cigar after dinner-- and that's also part of the dining experience too!

Worst meal at somebody's house? Easy. My ex-roomate finally got married. His new bride had no real experience cooking. My roomie had been a very unadventerous eater-- and couldn't eat anything with shells or bones... he was too squeamish. So I show up with a nice bottle of cabernet and dinner is placed on the table. This is about a week after the honeymoon. Dinner is a limp salad with a salty dressing that has dessicated the lettuce. (Other things in the salad? Nope!) After the salad comes the Sheepherd's Pie. The pie is topped with sliced potatoes. These are mostly raw. The contents of the pie is ground beef, browned to within an inch of being sawdust, some formerly frozen peas, now mostly gray, and some onions, diced fine and perhaps browned in motoroil. Compliments were foist upon the cook, and I couldn't be honest. BUT- on the way to the car my buddy confided in me, "Hell, she can't cook either!" Sadly within a year she and I did not see eye to eye, and my roomie had to stick with his wife--- I don't blame him, but he et best when I lived there.

If the strips aren't too long, I usually put a foil covered insulated cookie sheet on the bottom-most shelf and using coathangar "S" hooks, hang the pork from the top rack at the highest position. I leave the "goop" on and although about half of it slithers off to hit the foil--- what remains is a great crust. I prefer to do this in a low slow oven for a long time, rather than jet thru it an have a chance of burning it. Besides, what's better than char-shu sliced with fresh veggies in steamed rice paper wraps? Or left over and crepe-ed in the morning with a bowl of jook?

For trout there are a bazillion ways to cook 'em, but for me there is only one favorite- Pull your fish out of the water, dispatch, clean and scale 'em and put them in the smoker for 45 to 90 minutes. You will be rewarded with food of the gods, and when you are done it looks like a cartoon fish skeleton, head, tail, backbone and ribs. (Yumbola!) As to people who don't like fish, I think it's like people who don't like Scotch- either it floats your boat-- or it doesn't. Converting somebody who doesn't like fish is like converting somebody from their childhood church-- you can do it, but why bother? Now I have to wait for season opener for the Eastern Sierras. Hurry up Spring!

Well-- that's a tough question to answer. When you make coffee you can re-use the grounds, IF there's enough strength left in 'em. But usually the 2nd brewings of coffee are weak and washed-out. It's the same with Dashi--- once you've soaked the bonito flakes, it's better to bury them with the roses than to re-use them. But--- if all you need is a hint of flavor-- then you're in luck. I hope this helps. By the way-- what time do you want me?

This new reality show, courtesy of the producers of Project Runway on Bravo, will be airing beginning on March 15th at 10 pm EST/9 pm CST. Top Chef It's like "The Restaurant", but better. Soba ← Why do you think it will be "better"? ← After investing some time into "The Restaurant", the real answer is: It COULDN'T be worse. The Restaurant had very, very little to do with running a food sales establishment and lots more to do about how dysfunctional people interacted with each other in an artificially intense environment. (Kind of like American Chopper--- don't give a delivery deadline that you can't meet and beat people over the head with it... turn down business that costs you more than it delivers.) I look forward to watching people who design with food, who think about food and its interaction with flavors, textures and appearance. I always appreciate watching a cook who doesn't guild the lily with thirty flavors when all you can taste is the garlic and the curry. Mostly--- I like getting inside the head of a chef and trying to understand what they are attempting to do, why and how-- so I can apply lessons learned if they suit me or my intended audience. (But what do I know?)

Valentine's Day? The cursed holiday? The one where my bride or I are sick, injured or have to dash out of town to nurse an ill family member? Where if the above does not occur the maitre'd loses our reservation, does not approve of our attire or can't turn our table? I think not. This year it is a duckling, roasted with a fresh citrus reduction, a small spinnich salad with a curry-vinegrette dressing and a chocolate fondue with all the trimmings. Heaven forfend--- a bottle of Spumante (the bride's favorite) and fresh baked popovers and life will be good. Now if we can keep from being too stuffed...