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Reefpimp

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Everything posted by Reefpimp

  1. Reefpimp

    Seared Butter

    I don't want to stuff tuna with ice cream. WHo the hell would eat that, anyhow? I want to cook the centermost segment of a cube to about 40*C and have the outside be butt-cold and raw.
  2. Steak and Shake isn't notably worse, if no better. It's hard to tell through the prism of memory and the acquisition of taste. It' still my first choice for roadfood. Madison, WI, has a local chain known as Pizza Pit. They are WAY, WAY better than they were when I was in school here in the mid-to-late '80s. Much better crust, much better everything. I credit this to the overall quality of bagged/boxed ingredients coming up over the past 10-15 years.
  3. Yes, that one is quite nice, actually. Makes me want to read the novels. So true! I spotted this in a shop and thought that if someone had enjoyed the books enough to write this recipe collection then there had to be something in them. I went off and read them all, thought they were great, and duly bought my own copy of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog. Catherine ← Pray, Mr MGrath, what be you about? A trio of others has already, but (dare I say it) you did not attend.I credit Mr O'Brian for giving me something to live for besides methamphetamine; in a very real sense, you could add my name to the list of sailors Jack Aubrey has saved from foundering (note lack of an "l" in that word, please). I love the cookbook. Everything I've made--most of the puddings; the Mushroome Ketchup; the Strasbourg Pie (use perhaps a sixth of the fat called for, for flash gimcrack modern taste); the "vulturine" sea-pie, cooked a little longer than the original; the Little Balls of Tripe A Man Might Eat Forever-- has been extraordinarily good. Note, however, the resemblance from very old Lutheran church cookbooks in which every other recipe seems to start with, "Take one pound of butter...." No. Of all my antiquarian reproductions, it remains tied for first; grappled onto my 1909 edition of Audels Millwrights Companion which is a noble tome indeed if ever one has to set and sharpen a crosscut saw, set up jears, maintain a Scotch boiler (that nasty innovation) or simply build a full-framed house. Do you see, sir, what you have made me to do? I'll be talking like this for a sennight, as God's my life; and surely will I be beset by undesireable elements in opposition; it will make me weep tears of blood, for all love.
  4. And of course I totally forgot about and totally adore this book. Were it made flesh I would woo and wed it.
  5. New Professional Chef at least twice a week, for inspiration or to refresh my memory on... a point of procedure, Madame Chair.... Patterson, Fish and Shellfish, ditto. Escoffier, daily at least. I have two copies. One lives in the kitchen, one lives in the bathroom. Auguste gets it at both ends. The James Beard Cookbook 1-2x weekly. Who can ignore the G.K. Chesterton of the American culinary scene? Childs, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I've glove-boned probably two hundred birds by now. I have no idea if it can be done without her book open on the counter. I've never tried it, you see.
  6. Reefpimp

    Seared Butter

    Well, being from Wisconsin, I'm all for the idea of deep-fried butter. I'd wrap it in bacon, too, but that's just one man's opinion....
  7. You know what? I think we need to tread a little carefully here. We're not talking about just an image or an icon. At this stage in his career, we are talking bout somebody's life, and his livelihood. In a very real sense, WE are the people who determine if he makes his mortgage payment. It's fun to talk about and all; but I would like to respectfully submit that this thread be abandoned, and all speculation ceased. Mr Bourdain has made it abundantly clear that he is uncomfortable with the concept of laying his entire damn life out for public consumption; if we respect him at all, we should change the subject. Just my two cents.
  8. Twin Peaks: FIre Walk With Me was rife with diner food.
  9. Vadouvan, you really are the wind beneath my wings. Did you know that? The point is not necessarily to say, "This is what things are and forever more shall they be ever so." The point is to say, "Here is something new. What can we do with it and where can we go with it?" Inventolux, have you done any reading into zero-point energy? Tiny little boluses of quantum energy, popping into and out of our dimension at all times on all frequencies at all amplitudes? We can't harness them because the math we have now, isn't sufficiently evolved to describe how we can access that energy in a useful fashion. Early research seems to indicate that toroidal effects seem important; that low temperatures seem important. But that's all empirical, not predicted nor predictable--because we don't yet have the maths. Which, writ smaller, is where your research is, IMO. If I'm reading you correctly, what you're doing in the kitchen is research from which money can be made and further research built on--but it's clear from the tone of your posts that you don't feel that you are at any sort of conclusion with this: rather, you are just now discovering what vistas are opening. We can't refute thermodynamics yet; we can't yet get out more than we put in. But cooking is alchemy rather than a "purer" science; who knows what marvels await?
  10. Reefpimp

    Seared Butter

    My immediate question is "why?" My next question is "why not?" I've been toying with the idea of a reverse-Baked Alaska treatment for tuna: Take a 2.5cm cube of sushi-grade ahi and somehow make it medium or medium-well (and hot) in the center, with a chilled and raw exterior. I'm thinking transglutiminase and a laser might be my friends here.
  11. The only thing that springs to mind with the crullers is Wayne's World. Maybe Strange Brew?
  12. It's probably more prevalent than you think; especially in the resort/hotel end of things. Nice avatar, Tim. Although Sylvia Plath wasn't a food writer.
  13. Fairly recent: Jarlsburg grilled cheese sammich
  14. Maple is traditional as it's hard and flavorless. It's not terribly dimensionally stable, though, so expect to see splits in the gluelines after a few years of use. Try and get an end-grain model for true chopping-block effect.
  15. Closing in on 40 and still unmarried, I never have these discussions. In the past, though, when I've lived with girlfriends.... I just resign myself to doing all the kitchen chores. For whatever reason, none of my previous girlfriends have been any kind of decent cooks (although one was an outstanding baker) and so it's just been agreed that I can do all the cooking. I had a roommate once who scrubbed my wok back down to bare steel. I didn't actually hit him, but sure thought about it. About the dishes not going in the dishwasher: You're just going to rearrange it and complain bitterly about how we're "doing it wrong" so why even bother??
  16. Can I just have the dessert course? That's actually kind of awesome. I'm putting together a menu for my 'dream restaurant' and I'm worried it isn't pretentious enough to attract non-foodie bankers. I'm going to have to use the Pretentious Food Generator to lend credibility to my project. Now THAT has the irony.
  17. We arent judging the outcome of ICA, we are expressing our distaste for the gimmickery. If you believe it's easier or better to caramelize chips with a laser then I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. The japanese have made nori for hundreds of years, if printing sushi rolls is the future of cooking, then it's a sad day. ← Actually, some of us are doing what you say. I think new techniques should have a role in the kitchen. As with any pioneering effort, there will be some false starts. But the cowards will never get started, and the weak will die on the way (To paraphrase Heinlein). Don't presume to speak for me. No one speaks for me but me.
  18. 4: Lady and the Tramp 5:Something About Mary 7: Repo Man, to go along with the generic "drink" and generic "crimes." Pablo Picasso was never called and asshole! Kerry Beal, so sorry: but the answer we were looking for was Platoon. Thanks for playing!! Entire roast human--what movie?
  19. On a related note, does anyone know where I can buy just the plastic nozzle for an iSi whipper? I've had mine so long, the threads got stripped out of the plastic and now I can't use it
  20. The Godfather I give you - no turkey, a beheaded duck and soap. ← A Christmas Story!!! "Beans and motherfuckers" and a John Wayne bar.
  21. Awwww!! ::blushing:: Yeah, I'll win TC3, Padma will leave Salman and run off with me, and Tom will offer me a parnership.
  22. *bump-o* And sometimes the reviewr's simply got a hardon for the restaraunt or chef who's beng reviewed. It's a thinly-veiled secret that an award-winning food journalist for a *major* Minnesota alternative weekly absolutely can't stand a certain pair of youngish St Paul restauranteurs, in good part because she dated one of them for a short period and he dumped her messily, publicly, and with great vigor. Lacking anything else to complain about in in her review of their Dr Seuss-themed seafood eatery on Grand Avenue, she griped about her server's makeup and the epistemological ramifications of it. Some people just will not be pleased, and are doomed to live lonely, sad, and empty lives.
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