ScoopKW
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Posts posted by ScoopKW
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Considering the SHEER VOLUME of restaurants and cooks in this town, you'd think it would be a slam-dunk to offer it through the library. Problem is, Las Vegans don't spend money on ANYTHING. Not willingly. We're the "no taxes, no services, no kidding" state.
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OK, first, we're talking about a Cat 2. People have died in cat 2s, but only doing "hey y'all, watch this" type stuff.
I used to barbecue in the middle of a cat 2 -- just have to find a lee spot where the wind isn't so bad. Non-Floridians seem to lose their minds when a storm is coming. Don't. Irene is going to be 16 hours of mind numbing boredom. (Or 16 hours of listening to a generator. Your choice.)
Some tips:
1) Salt water freezes colder than fresh, and will keep your fridge colder, longer (But you can't drink the salt water as a back up supply. But you CAN flush your toilet with it.)
2) Use your baking pans/loaf pans to freeze water. Put the giant ice cubes in ziptop bags. FILL that fridge and freezer with giant ice cubes. Less surface area means they last longer. Use the salt-water trick if you tend to lose power for long stretches. Then resist the urge to open the fridge. Only open it once every four to six hours, and then pull EVERYTHING you need quickly.
3) Have a cooler filled with ice. Keep the milk, juice, wine, eggs, stock etc. -- stuff you want access to throughout the day -- in the cooler.
4) No plywood on windows is safer than poorly-installed plywood on windows. I've lost two windshields to flying plywood installed by morons who obviously thought, "Four screws oughta hold it."
5) Fill the tub, some big pots, and five gallon buckets with potable water. Rain water collected from the storm is perfectly fine, too. If water service goes out, you're going to want some to drink, and you're REALLY going to want to be able to flush the toilet now and again.
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Just my luck -- nobody for 200 miles. I know, I know. I've got knives that cost almost as much as this book. I should just break down and buy it. Problem is, I just changed careers, and I'm supplementing my income with savings, for at least the next year or two while I work my way up.
I really wish they'd release a downloadable pdf, priced around $100. That way I don't have to pay for the massive printing costs. I don't want the set to sit on a shelf and impress the hell out of nobody in particular. I just want to read the thing.
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OK, let's be frank. My goal is to read the set without shelling out $450. I would LOVE to pay $450 and own my own copy. But that isn't happening. I even agree that it's probably worth every penny. But that's 45,000 pennies I can't afford right now.
So, has anyone heard of a school/library/foundation lending the thing?
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I blanch the basil as well. I make the pesto sans cheese as well. Then I freeze in small amounts varying from a cups worth to an ice cubes worth.
When I need pesto, I remove an appropriate amount from the freezer, thaw and add my cheese and a little lemon juice to brighten the flavor. No complaints.
Freezing pesto with the cheese added yielded a gritty, unappealing mush when thawed.
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if done properly, you set yourself up as a high-end exclusive boutique business where you can sell 10 cakes at $100 instead of 20 cakes at $50.
Didn't Martha Stewart pull this one with pies?
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Sandra Lee scared him? I would have loved to have heard that conversation.
Probably started with "My husband, the governor of New York" and ended with "in a cement-filled burlap sack in the Hudson."
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I can't believe people care from the opposite side of the fence. Who the [censored] watches Food Network anymore? It's all cleavage and crap out of a can these days. Why bother?
I can see much better cleavage elsewhere. And I can get much better food info elsewhere -- here, for instance.
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Has anyone bothered to weigh the rice before and after its stint in a salt shaker?
My hypothesis is that the weight difference would be recorded as "diddly-squat."
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The 12" pizza margherita was $19. ... But food cost was likely in the $2-3 range.
Why do you say that? Doesn't food cost run in the 25-30% range at most restaurants? And that's based on bulk purchasing of ingredients, so one's food cost at home can be expected to be higher for equivalent products.
For the price you're saying it costs you to source two small pizzas, they're selling with restaurant mark up. I'm just saying there's got to be better sources in your area.
Arthur Ave. in the Bronx? That's where I'd try first. I've never been, but the Italian markets look like the places I go to in here in Vegas and in San Francisco.
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To put it in perspective, my wife and I just ate at Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco. They won "pizza of the year" in 2007 and are one of the handful of Vera Pizza Napoletanas in America. The 12" pizza margherita was $19. Worth every penny. But food cost was likely in the $2-3 range.
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The cheese, tomatoes and flour were all costly. Fresh mozzarella of good quality is a lot per pound, San Marzano tomatoes are expensive, and any flour other than all-purpose gets pricey. I needed like twenty bucks worth of stuff to make a couple of small pizzas.
Ah, the joys of living in NYC.
Here in Las Vegas, the San Marzano DOC tomatoes and high-gluten flour are cheap. Enough buffalo mozz to make a pizza is a few bucks. So, we're looking at $5-7 to make a couple quality pizzas. Depends how much cheese you need, mostly.
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I know I read/saw Alton Brown address this (but I don't remember where) -- he said it's for breaking up clumps. Problem is, the rice itself breaks over time. Better to use unpopped popcorn kernels.
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Hey, just wanted to thank Carolyn publicly:
Tanpopo was GREAT. After the bowl -- cauldron is more like it -- we didn't have any room left for a bento box or sushi. We'll hit those next time.
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Thanks Carolyn -- leaving in an hour. Looking forward to a bento lunch.
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Bump - leaving in 18 hours. Any must-eat place in Japantown? A really good inexpensive sushi joint?
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I hate my dishware -- so I happily LIFO.
And Steven, think of LIFO this way: You have a stack of dishes in the dishwasher. You remove them from the dishwasher one at a time and place them on a stack in the cupboard, counting 1, 2, 3, etc.
The last number you count will be the first plate you grab next time you need a plate. That's LIFO.
FIFO would be placing the clean dishes from the cabinet onto the counter upside down. Then placing the dishes from the dishwasher on top of the stack. And then flipping them all over and placing them in the cabinet. This is how I would accomplish the task if I gave a [censored] about my dishes.
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I live in Las Vegas. We shop once or twice a week. And then I will often (at least three times a month) run to the market(s) to assemble ingredients for some dish I want to make. Or to hit a sale that is silly not to take advantage of. (Sometimes, produce is on such deep discount here, it is essentially free. I'm always up for a sack of free yellow onions.)
I have three markets within three miles of our front door. And another two I frequent regularly that are 10 miles away. (Asian groceries in Chinatown.)
My semi-weekly with occasional daily forays seems to work out for us. I don't worry about gasoline prices -- one electric car and one that runs on compressed natural gas. Transportation is cheap.
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Hey all,
I'm taking advantage of Spirit airlines' $9 fare from Las Vegas to San Francisco. Leaving in a couple days.
We have our favorite places in Chinatown and North Beach. But we thought we'd try something new and see Japantown. Any restaurants in Japantown that are must-do? I'm not "flush" this trip, so budget "must-do" would be appreciated.
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I appear to be the minority opinion here, but tomato paste, regardless of the brand, has almost always been cooked too long and has lost almost any semblance of bright tomatoey flavor. Further cooking may bring out sweetness, but at a cost of dark metallic notes. I can't speak for other dishes, but for pasta sauce, I would never cook paste any further than it's been cooked. If I want sweetness to balance the slight acidity of the paste, I'll find it elsewhere (caramelized onions, sugar, etc.).
That's why a one-two punch is necessary, I think.
I fry the paste. (Thanks, Clemenza!). But I also use fresh tomatoes, San Marzanos, sundried, etc. as appropriate to the season to kick up the tomatoey flavor. I haven't noticed a dark metallic taste in my sauces.
"Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick."
I've made this exact sauce, emulating the amounts by watching the DVD. It's a good sauce -- needs more herbs, but maybe Clemenza used meatballs and sausage that were loaded with herbs.
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From "ambiensideeffect.net"
COMMON side effects: Drowsiness, headache, dizziness, worsening of insomnia, amnesia anterograde (do not remember what happened while you were awake after taking medicine.) The amnesia may be associated with inappropriate behavior. Hallucinations, agitation, nightmares. Fatigue. Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain.
No thanks. I said I wanted to do this without resorting to drugs. Anything stronger than Tylenol PM is a dealbreaker for me.
Some other thoughts:
1) I hate the damned lone-ranger sleep mask. It's like trying to fall asleep with a maxi-pad attached to my face (uh, I surmise, at least). The drapes aren't dark enough for me. I need DARK to sleep, it seems.
2) I'm so wiped out after my shift it's a scary thing just driving home. Half an hour of down time is all I can manage before I crash completely and fall asleep. I just can't STAY asleep.
3) No need to worry about food -- I work at a union-shop Vegas resort. I am fed WELL. (And they do my laundry, take care of my health, etc. It's very nice work. I must say I am very happy with the wage and benefits.)
So, because of #3, I really want this to work. Keep the ideas coming, please. Something might work for me.
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Bit the bullet and took my first kitchen job. Major career change #2.
I'm working at a big resort, kitchen relief, graveyard shift.
How the [censored] do people adjust? I get out of work, unwind for half an hour and go to bed. Then wake up a few hours later because my body says, "[Censored] me, it's NOON. Get UP!"
Then I shuffle around the house like an imbecile for a six hours, try to catch a few ZZZZs, and wake up at 9 pm so I can be at work 15 minutes early.
My coworkers tell me they haven't gotten used to it, either. Some of them have been at it for 15 years.
Short of illegal stimulants and sleeping pills -- got any ideas how to make this work for several months while I move up the ladder to at least swing shift?
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Near the end of his career, Jackson Pollack shot paint onto a canvas using a small turbine engine. But I would not suggest that as a starting point for an art student. Learn the classic techniques first.
Same deal with sharpening knives. Buy a diamond stone or a whetstone from a hardware store -- online is cheaper if you don't mind waiting for shipping. Get a strop, too. They're cheap. Less than $100 for both -- even throwing in a ceramic honing steel. And this purchase will last a decade or more.
Learn to use the stone and strop. Learn when (and how and how often) to steel a knife. Then if you want to try belt sanders, electrolysis, angle grinders, low-rpm grinders, or whatever, you still at least know how to do it the old fashioned way.
Now excuse me while I hone on a strop for awhile.
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I don't like the menu -- any of it.
1) I agree with Jeff that an all-vodka bar menu isn't right. Why is almost every drink vodka-based? It tells me (whether true or not) that the bartenders or the F&B managers are lazy.
2) List the beers in order of distance from your front door. Considering your location, why are Guinness, Newcastle and Stella even offered? You have some of the best breweries in the world less than 50 miles from your tap handles. Why aren't they on the menu?
3) Finally, the food menu. What? Did the restaurant manager throw darts at a map of the Earth? "Ooh, we hit Louisiana. Add jambalaya to the menu. Korea? Add some rib appetizers. Japan! Put some Mizuna on the menu somewhere -- with the crab cakes. Nobody will notice."
The dinner menu is a mess. Looks to be 1/2 American comfort, 1/5 Italian comfort and the rest a complete hodgepodge of "running ideas up the flagpole and seeing if anyone salutes."
Find some direction...
The best thing about the menu is the wine selection -- mostly local, fair (I'd say even low) prices. Put the Suisun wines first. You're actually describing those. So they go first. Then the Napa wines. Also, I'll bet if you added Schramsberg or other higher-end wine to your sparkling menu you'd sell some.
Finally, a major peeve -- you list a Sunday champagne brunch, but you don't offer any champagne on your wine list. So, are you bringing in the French bubbly on Sunday afternoon only? Or is your "bottomless champagne" actually "bottomless sparkling wine?" Smacks of dishonesty.
It's not my intention to slam a place I've never dined at. But based on this menu, I would find someplace else to eat.
Religion in restaurants
in Restaurant Life
Posted
I think the main problem for the non-religious is that they have tired (long ago) of the religious telling them what to do. We HAVE to have this engraved in the town square. We CAN'T teach this in schools. THIS book is evil, and must be removed from the libraries. THESE PEOPLE can't marry because [wrong skin color, wrong orientation, wrong religion].
Seriously, can't we even have a decent meal without the religious preaching at us? (Note, "at" not "to." Big difference, and I think the crux of the matter.) Chik-Fil-A and In-N-Out, I'm lookin' at you.
And it's not a Christian bashing thing. I don't care what cult knocks on my door demanding I convert or be damned. We get a LOT of that in Vegas, from surprising religious groups. I politely thank them and bid them a pleasant day, away from my house. What I WANT to say is, "You FREAKING MORON. I pulled a double last night and got home at 6:30 a.m., and now it's 10 and you want to tell me about a damned BOOK? What the [censored] do YOU know. You can't even dress yourself properly. And you think you have the wisdom to tell me about my spiritual path??!!?!? [censored] YOU, Charlie."