markemorse

You guys should check out the Cooking with Cradle of Flavor thread, not for recipes, but for lots of pictures of achar/atjar and examples of what they're eaten with....

I think Pebs might be on to something...my mom grew up thinking that well-done meat was the only safe meat.

And here it is, Shrimp Satay: Pictures are kinda sucky because we were so hungry our hands were too shaky to take non-flash pictures. So these are the non-blurry photos. There's not really any char cause I had to use the broiler, but this was still very good, I used 2 biggish Holland chiles (1-4 recommended) and it was just about the right spice level. I didn't really make that many shrimp, so (against Mr. Oseland's advice) I cooked the remaining marinade along with a little more coconut milk and used that as an optional saucy element. The rice is the Lemongrass-Scented Rice recipe but using bulgur instead (for nutritional reasons), and it worked perfectly (you don't simmer it after the boil, just cover and let steam). So, yeah. We really enjoyed this satay though it definitely wasn't what we're used to when we think "satay" (chicken or lamb with peanut sauce): the strong kaffir lime and coconut notes reminded more of Thai cooking than Indonesian, and it's hard to imagine what a perfectly complementary dipping sauce would've been. I'd be interested in seeing what ideas others have in this regard....

I'm pretty sure I saw a copy somewhere when I was in America. I know this in itself is not the most helpful tip, but I'm just saying that it seems to have distribution in America.

Welcome, Mike! If you look at the recipes list (post #241), you can tell by the number of entries which dishes so far have been favorites. But some recipes have been cooked only once or twice, and they are great too. Have fun with your new book. ← On the other hand, if you're trying to cross off recipes that need crossing off, I'm making Shrimp Satay (p. 150) at the moment, so there's one less to worry about...

If any of y'all are interested in another perspective on animals living their lives within the world of modern industrial food production, I highly highly recommend the Austrian film Our Daily Bread. I've just been trying to elaborate on my recommendation, and it's tough to reduce to a capsule review, primarily because most of the film's impact is strictly (and gorgeously) visual: there's no dialogue and no music. No commentary, and no explicit judgment passed. But I found myself thinking over and over again, "that cannot be real." But apparently it is. Thought-provoking stuff. ETA: Probably stating the obvious, but I should also mention that I wholeheartedly agree with Gul_Dekar's original inclination toward knowing where your food comes from.

Thanks as always paulbrussel for the thoughtful recs....I'll ask my typical rube question: does anyone have any recommendations for pubs/eetcafes with excellent/interesting food in Brugge? Looks like we'll be going there in a couple weeks for a day trip with my in-laws. Nothin' fancy, good beers and good food in a non-touristy locals' spot if such a thing exists in Brugge these days. Thanks!

I'd definitely prefer weapons to cellphones any day.

Having just eaten at both Zinc and Sea Saw for the first time, I would say that no contest, Sea Saw is the more "special occasion" restaurant: food, service, atmosphere are all quite a bit more subtle and intimate than Zinc.

Actually the Bianco website says that they're not currently doing to-go orders....

hey all, just wanted to post a brief report of my Sea Saw dinner, no photos b/c most of these dishes have already been photographed here and there were enough other diners doing annoying things, I didn't want to contribute to it. I'd planned on two dinners at Sea Saw, one shared plates dinner with my parents, and an omakase by myself, but came down with some extremely nasty stomach bug which made that plan impossible. so this is just the shared plates dinner. we had: COLD hamachi yellowtail with avocado, grapefruit, ponzu oil, some kind of truffle essence fresh grilled octopus with tomato, shallot, housemade mozzarella, olive oil, yuzu juice, wasabi aioli, pink peppercorns and micro greens cool duck, soy-zinfandel reduction WARM soft shell shrimp fry with curried green papaya slaw baked black cod marinated in miso with spicy shiso daikon slaw miso marinated seared foie gras with poached pears and a japanese mountain peach sea bass, green tea soba noodles, umeshiso scented mushroom broth DESSERT Okinawa fritter with chai ice cream to drink ‘02 Duckhorn Napa Merlot. +++ thoroughly interesting, technically unimpeachable food with the exception of a weirdly half-assed steamed sea bass: the entire dish had a scorched aroma and the green tea soba were stuck together in the kind of formations that happen when you add noodles to water and don't separate the individual strands. or this could possibly be an authentic japanese thing I'm not aware of. this dish was verging on inedible due to the burnt overtones, and i think if i'd been in a different mood i might've asked the kitchen if this was the intended taste or not. favorites of the night were the duck, the cod, and the foie gras, all subtle and delicious. everything was subtle and delicious, in fact...perhaps a bit too subtle for this man's palate. it was a pleasant meal, but further data is necessary. I'm going to need to try the omakase, but unfortunately that'll have to wait some months.... thanks for the tips mark

Thought of this thread when I was Googling "pipian rojo" and came up with quite a few hits for venison. Here's one of the more interesting links.

For the cranberry sauce, you might peruse this thread. It's got lots of good ideas and suggestions: Cranberry Sauce ← Thanks a bunch, Jaymes, just getting ready to start cooking....I think I'll actually try one of those maple syrup/cranberry ideas....

I thought someone might say "You do it better then." Even though I consider myself a good amateur cook, I just don't think the potential for deliciousness is that high for the traditional TG meal. I haven't tried to make it though. ← What about educating them a dish at a time? Volunteer to make the gravy or the mashed potatoes. I'm sure they'll notice the difference and appreciate it. ← This has been my approach this year, just trying to make really good versions of a couple things that no one really likes to make. I'm making the stuffing (trying one of John Folse's cornbread stuffing recipes) and cranberry sauce (from whole cranberries instead of the can, with a little orange, mustard, and ginger).

I just had an experience which made me rethink this whole thread. I was out with my parents at Sea Saw in Phoenix, a dinner I've been looking forward to for months. It's a small, quiet place, 6 tables and maybe 15 bar seats? Something like that. After an hour or so of lovely, peaceful dining, for some reason my mom brings up this very laptop/bar/eGullet topic and it turns out my dad is very much of the same mind as Chris, which I guess I could've predicted. So he and I start debating the point, my regret increasing along with my blood pressure. At about this time, three unrelated couples at the bar simultaneously hit that magical point in their evening's intoxication curve where inhibitions drop and speaking volume rises, and before you know it, they are bellowing across the bar at each other in this otherwise quiet restaurant about the intricacies of arranging happy endings at massage parlors and the taxonomy-related differences between "Mexicans and Hispanics". And that's just the beginning, you wouldn't believe the list of topics. Going on and on, and I mean yelling at each other as if they were at a sold-out basketball game sat inconveniently a few rows apart. And I realized that at that moment I would have been approximately 7000% happier if all six of them were instead working on laptops, silent except for the hum of their processor fans, the glow of their screens, and the different clicketies of fingernails or not on keyboards. Maybe technology's not the problem... mark

I had that flu as well. I'm just starting to think about cooking again. I've been wanting to make that tofu but I don't like deep frying. I'm not afraid, I just hate wasting all that oil. I'll just live vicariously for now. Great pictures as always. ← Thanks, Kim! Yeah, I've just recently ditched my no-fry policies, like maybe 6 months ago, don't know why. It always seemed like a big hassle: messy, wasteful, stinks up the house, dangerous, etc. And then, one day...I just did it, and it wasn't an ordeal, so I kept doing it. Just use a big pot, use as little oil as you can get away with, and open a window.

I finally got back to cooking after my Europeanized immune system was ravaged by some badass American stomach flu....yuck. Breakfast today was Twice-Cooked Tofu w/Coriander. I started it yesterday, intending to cook it yesterday, but other plans took over so I did everything but the frying on Monday: and then fried them for breakfast. Here's after the first cooking, basically reducing the marinade with the tofu in the pan: And after the frying: Tasty. It was my first time deep-frying tofu, I think I could've done a better job, and the marinade could've been a tiny bit saltier, I didn't add much extra salt when the recipe said to taste and adjust. Forgot that fried things want more salt. But salting them afterwards worked just fine, too.

I remember having them at a Mexican restaurant in Atlanta in the late 80s maybe? Time is a bit iffy, but definitely pre-1992. They weren't called poppers yet though I don't think. My parents would remember better, I'll ask them. Are you interested in where the "poppers" name came from, or the concept of mini-rellenos?

This article from the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta poses some questions about public space etiquette in thoughtful ways: Etiquette in an Electronic Age. Not saying our scenario under discussion here is at all comparable to the specific one mentioned in the article (the setting isn't a bar, for starters), just providing some related material for further reading about the underlying questions raised by this thread. ETA: emphasis.

To me, it's amazing that anybody would think that it was OK to come into a half-empty bar where I as a hypothetical patron am enjoying the hospitality of a quiet beverage far away from all things office-ly, and plop down within 10 feet of me, open up a laptop and get to work. But I guess that's where (as Dave Mason once said) we just disagree. ETA: sorry, don't have time to do this post justice.

I'll try the Laptops vs. Vibe question: laptops are still at the point in their adoption rate/functional evolution to where people of drinking age are primarily doing "work" on them, not recreatin'. Of course there are exceptions. When I see someone working on a laptop (and laptops are easy to see vs. notebooks and newspapers...I think it's that glowing screen thing), it reminds me of work in ways that reading a newspaper or writing in a notebook doesn't. If you've got a calculator and you're writing in a notebook, that's different, I might start to think about work, but more likely I wouldn't even notice. My point is: usually, I'm not going to a bar to think about work or be surrounded by people who look like they're working. Unless I'm at the airport. If I walked into a neighborhood bar intending to have a relaxing drink and saw a couple of businesslike people laptopping, I would be incented to go elsewhere because I don't find that to be relaxing. And it's not like because it's quiet that it's invisible. Part of going to a bar is people-watching, and I'm liable to see you more than once, laptopping away, reminding me that I've got emails to respond to. +++ Also: While everyone probably has a paper notebook of some sort, or a newspaper (or can get access to one), not everyone has a laptop. Some people choose not to, some people can't afford them, some are intimidated by them. Computers still make some people uncomfortable, to the point where some don't like to watch other people working on computers. As someone who can easily spend 16 hours a day in front of a laptop, and who has been carrying around a laptop for almost 15 years now, I don't fully comprehend this, but I appreciate it because I've met enough smart, generally non-technophobe people who feel this way. Some people very close to me would definitely be turned off by a couple of laptoppers in our favorite bar.

Well, Chris...I'd be surprised as hell if the guy would change your oil. He wouldn't even let you use your laptop.

Actually, that's the owner's position, and the position of everybody who says the "his place, his rules" truism ends the discussion. My point is that Chris was treated inhospitably, that there was no justification for doing so -- as in a good reason, not the "his place, his rules" power play -- and that it is simultaneously grandiose and petty to care if one person in a half-empty bar is using a laptop computer quietly in the corner. ← I think that's a yes, cakewalk.

I'm glad it's not just me...

It's possible that the situation isn't so dire. This is very much an American problem...I don't mean that restaurants are cash-only, I mean the complaining about it. Call first to find out, or Google, or just assume the worst and bring cash. We do it every day across the Atlantic. If you disagree with a restaurant's cash-only policy, don't go there...problem solved.