Jason Perlow x

What are some of the best places to stay and eat on the west side of the island? I've been to the San Juan area a few times and I'm looking for something different. ----- Jason Perlow -- Director eGullet.com Community

I actually grow a few different types of eggplant in my home garden -- the smaller, asian egglplants come in several different colors, and taste slightly different but you pretty much use them in stir frys, tempuras, just about anything the same way. Thai eggplant in green curry (Gang Keow Warn) is one of my favorite dishes. Mamster's website has a whole page on how to make these http://www.mamster.net/food/essays/thai-curry.html The larger black eggplants are primarily used in italian cooking, for rollatinis, eggplant parmigiano, antipasto, etc. I have a few white eggplants growing but I am not sure what they are used for. ----- Jason Perlow -- Director eGullet.com Community

My favorite way to eat asian eggplants is in thai curries. For italian style, roasted and tossed with a fresh tomato sauce made with great olive olil served with some fresh mozzerella has got to be tops for me ----- Jason Perlow -- Director eGullet.com Community

Well, I have to say after hearing from you nut cases I actually went to a restaurant supply store locally (Hackensack Restaurant Supply) and inquired about putting a commercial range in my house -- the very knowledgeable sales guy there, who did it in his house in Clifton, says that the sucker puts out so much heat that you dont even need to heat your house in the winter, and in the summer you sweat bullets if you are anywhere near it, plus if you attempt to open the oven latch with your bare hands you will burn your skin off. The unit he showed me was a 36 inch American Range, which uses 6 32,000BTU burners, which doesnt self clean and has no built in broiler -- bucks total. This did not bother me, but he also mentioned that in addition to having one huge mother 2000CFM custom hood with giant external blower on his roof, and super thick fireproof ceramic tiles on all three sides, and 6 inches of empty space between the range and the cabinets, he had to put in a special fire extinguisher system in his kitchen to keep things in code, and that if he ever had a fire his homeowners warrantee would be null and void and his insurance company probably wouldnt pay for any damage. Sorry. I think I am gonna go for the "fake" garland, which will deliver enough power for the kind of cooking I intend to do at home! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote: from PastryChef on 5:04 pm on July 20, 2001 Talked to a guy who works on restaurant stoves and he said I was crazy to recommend a pro range to any homeowner. Said no amateur cook is safe on a 24-30k btu and even pros use the fake ranges at home on account of the safety and heat issues. Not sure I agree (couple of folks here lived 20 years wihtout mishap) but here is his source. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, its true. But the one thing I really like about Garland is that for a "home" professional range, its probably the closest you can get to a restaurant range in terms of raw burner power and the functionality of the broiler. Lord knows I've been obsessing for months on which of these stoves to get! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote: from Fat Guy on 9:47 pm on July 19, 2001 Anybody who put in a restaurant range 20 years ago, before the fake pro-style kitchen wave hit, installed a real one. That's an entirely different animal from the declawed specimens being sold on the residential market today. I'd love to see one of these so-called professional ranges last one month in a real restaurant, cranking every burner and the oven at full for 16 hours a day and otherwise getting the crap kicked out of it, liquids spilled into the works, etc. At the same time, the reality is that most people don't need a restaurant range in the home. Even people who consider themselves extremely serious cooks rarely do restaurant level cooking at home. So those pro-style ranges are fine for most people's homes, and if they want to delude themselves into thinking they have a professional range I suppose they'll never have that belief put to the test anyway so it's harmless. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My wife and I are in the final stages of the design process of re-do'ing our kitchen, and we are currently evaluating which appliances to buy. Obviously the most important part of a pro kitchen is the range and ovens --we're looking at a few brands, primarily Wolf, DCS, Viking, GE Monogram, Thermador, Gaggenau, and Dynasty. We originally were thinking about the DCS because one of our friends has one and is very happy with it, and also because DCS makes real restaurant equipment. However after looking at the Garland, which has a very high burner capacity (18.5K btu) as well as a very low simmer (250 btu) and a 1850 degree infrared broiler (which stays on as long as you like) I think we might go with this one. Thoughts anyone?

We have a Telia Foodsaver and we love it. It produces a near commercial quality seal, meats are totally freezer burn resistant and when you seal stuff in mason jars and in large canisters in the fridge, fresh veggies and fruits last for weeks! We had some lettuce recently that was sealed in a large foodsaver canister and it was 2 weeks old.. was fresh as the day we bought it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote: from Ronaldo Zacapa on 5:32 pm on July 26, 2001 My kids eat like a bunch of pigs, and its been forcing us to buy stuff in bulk. Generally we've been freezing stuff in ziplock freezer bags but I have been told the "Food Saver" is good for eliminating freezer burn and is good for some other uses. Anyone here have one that can care to comment on it? How much does it cost? Where do you get one? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Jason Perlow -- Director eGullet.com Community --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I like it when you add stock. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote: from RPerlow on 10:56 am on July 28, 2001 I'll agree that using lots of cream and butter is yummy, but let's get real, you can't do that all the time. Save that version for Thanksgiving, and try this version. BTW, this is the way I made it when Fat-Guy and wife were over for dinner a month or so ago, and I think they liked it. If they were just being polite, I don't think Steven would have gone for thirds! This is more of smashed potato, rather than a smooth puree (use a food mill or potato ricer for that kind). Anyway, I think I used Yukon Golds, scrubbed but unpeeled, cut into about 1 inch chunks. Put into cold water with a several peeled garlic cloves and quite a bit of salt (water should taste a little salty, but not like seawater). I've always heard that you shouldn't overcook the potatoes, that they'd become water logged. (Un?)Fortunately, I got distracted and totally forgot about these, I think they cooked for almost an hour! However, I drained them and put them back in the pot, over heat to cook off a little of the water (when it starts to stick to the bottom you're done with that step). Remove from heat, mash with hand held potato masher (the wavy wire kind, not the spring loaded kind), add a couple Tbs butter, then adding milk as needed. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and fresh ground black pepper, and one more raw garlic clove, minced through a garlic press - I recommend the GoodGrips brand). These were excellent, very pleasantly garlicy and even though the skins were on came out not too lumpy because of the "overcooking." (Edited by RPerlow at 10:58 am on July 28, 2001) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Jason Perlow -- Director eGullet.com Community

Pastrychef: Can you elucidate on why carbon steel is a pain in the ass to maintain? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote: from PastryChef on 9:51 am on July 19, 2001 Just visited the knifemaker's Web site at http://www.wildfirecutlery.com where he says he's so swamped with orders from New York Times readers that he's in deep doo doo. Poor schmuck. When these amateur cook Park Avenue types realize what a bitch it is to deal with carbon steel knives he's going to get so many whiny complaining phone calls that he'll lose his mind. The New York Times TOTALLY understates the difficulty of maintaining these knives. Aside from a few sushi chefs who engage in lengthy knife maintenance rituals every day I don't know of any professional cook using carbon steel any more.

Perhaps the greatest example we have from ancient times are the writings of Marcus Gavius Apicius, who lived in ancient Rome and recorded recipies of many dishes that were eaten by the elite as well as the common man at the time. Heres some of his stuff that was translated from Latin: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/historical/ant-rom-coll.html heres another site which includes stuff from medieval europe: http://www.bahnhof.se/~chimbis/tocb/

Well, the Costa Del Sol is the most attractive place to go in spain tourist wise due tot he fact its right on the Mediterranean, and it does have its share of great places to eat. Torremolinos is the most touristy area, so you'd probably want to stay away from there. I'm going to be in Marbella in October, which is just south of Malaga, on the eastern side of the southern coast. Its approximately 100 miles away from Jerez and the sherry growing region, if you're into that, and both Marbella and Malaga have great little local restaurants, primarily seafood. Paellas are a huge speciality there, cooked in huge pans with rice and mixed seafood and all kinds of stuff. ----- Jason Perlow -- Director eGullet.com Community

Bought some Laressingle VSOP yesterday. A Real bargain at อ a bottle

Yes Bob, Armagnacs are awesome. Except that I can hardly afford to buy most of the ones offered in even the best stocked liquor stores! <p>The other day I saw some 1946 and 1900 vintage Armagnacs ... The 1900 was $600 a bottle and the 46 was over three bills. Ouch. Maybe if I do better in the stock market this year...

I saw Gil's post on Port and I thought I'd interject my thoughts on cognac. I've been drinking quite a bit of this stuff lately and I figure I'd share my thoughts on good brands and values I've found lately. <p>In the VS/VSOP range, my current faves are Ferrand or Meukow, which are usually under 40 dollars a bottle. Very smooth by themselves with maybe a little cube of ice, and you wont feel bad about using them to make stingers at those prices. The lower end Ferrand is so good at about 35 a bottle that its almost a waste to get the more expensive ones. In the XO range I have to say the best value right now is probably Hine Antique (Hine is the official cognac producer of the Royal house of Windsor), which you can get for about $75-$80 if you look around. This stuff is aged for at least 20-25 years, and in my opinion is a lot smoother than Remy Martin XO at over $100. I'm also a big fan of Meukow XO, which is truly amazing stuff at about $120 a bottle (and has a really striking crystal bottle with a carved predatory feline jumping out of it), but is primarily only avaliable via mail order because the Asian market totally snaps it up before it gets to the states. I really wish they would increase their distribution somewhat. I've also heard a lot of good things about the single-estate Henessey's that were recently released but I havent tried them yet. Any thoughts?

Tommy . this finger lakes reisling you speak of is a sekt (sparkler) or just a regular reisling? ----- Jason Perlow -- Director eGullet.com Community