menon1971

Oh that's a different animal altogether. I would flake it over top of a salad or have it with sour cream/fresh mayonnaise and capers on sliced French bread. Perhaps a little lemon juice.................

If what you have is at all similar to Great Lakes whitefish then it is somewhat bland. The good news is that means you can do pretty much anything with it. I like it pan seared with a sauce Grenoble.

Something came up at the last minute and I had to cancel the reservation at Pesce. Did go to Goode Co. for lunch and it was as advertised - good simple seafood prepared well. Just curious, where do Texas folks get their oysters. They were more flavorful than the Apalachicola oysters I usually get in AL. If I find myself back that way I will definitely check our Reef. Thanks again.

I made a reservation at Pesce and will let you know my impression. Thanks for all of the advice.

I will be in the Southwestern area. I have been to Houston before and I don't begin to understand the vastness of the city.

I think Pesce at 3029 Kirby has excellent seafood. For a more casual setting try Goode Company Seafood at 2621 Westpark. Either restaurant will provide fine seafood and good service. ← Thanks. What is the style of cuisine?

I will be in Houston next week and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of a nice place for dinner. I am looking for something fine dining yet casual (although I will most likely be wearing a sport coat anyway), but most of all interesting (eccentric, eclectic, funky, etc.) and preferably with a good selection of seafood dishes. Thanks in advance.

In the case of France Vietnamese and Moroccan food are in some ways now assimilated into the culture as a result of French colonialism. I would say the same about Indian cuisine in the U.K. However, I also try to stick with more traditional fare when visiting not only other countries but other regions of the U.S. as well.

Find a bulk spice seller either localy or online and buy the smallest amount they sell. Go in with a couple of people and split a package or maybe work some trades. Krogers, Ralphs and food-4-Less sell small packs of herbs and spoces for reasonable amounts. I am sure others do to. ← This is a good suggestion. My shop has a bulk spice and herb section and customers bring their old spice jars to fill up. We deduct the tare weight of the jar and charge by weight of the product. Most dried herbs weigh very little, and filling up a jar might cost only 50 cents or even less, a fraction of the supermarket price. Most natural food stores carry bulk spices such as the display in my shop: ← This is the way to go. My local health food store has a similar arrangement and the price is significantly lower than the big brands. I, like JimH, have been slowly over the last few years replacing the ground with the whole in bulk form and putting the new whole spices in the old jars. All you need is a mortar and pestle or an old coffee grinder............ My general rule of thumb is that herbs last about a year, ground spices about two (although I have a jar of cayenne that is at least three years old and still has its original potency and aroma), and whole spices a heck of a long time. Regarding McCormick, 15 years seems reasonable, unless we are talking about whole nutmegs.

How much is left on the interior? I think you can make broth with them or add them to soups, etc. Try this thread.

So.... Gordon won the bare knuckle boxing championship of the U.K. by beating the former Gypsy champion in a 22 round contest in a freight yard (and this was recently)? Methinks the fact checking of Mr. McDermitt's lawyer needs a bit of scrutiny. Hilarious to think about though ← This is quite funny. I guess if something is in on the net then it must be true, including satire - quite pomo.

This was something I remember a cabinet maker telling me once. Upon reflection I realize that my synapses are crossed. A ship's carpenter told me once about a couple of South American hardwoods that are toxic. The cabinet maker told me that it is good to wear a mask when working with mahogany because particulates within the wood dust can cause respiratory problems. Sorry about that. Slice and chop away.......... Nice board, by the way.

I believe that mahogany is mildly toxic and thus not generally used for cutting boards.

Groovy. I hope things went well on eBay. I have a model from 1950 and really dig it. The older ones have a different type of screw, but the newer ones should work fine with the more traditional worm. Best, D

Beautiful. I am afraid for me that this might be one of those "if you have to ask, you probably cannot afford it" instances. How's about a Zig Zag? They're fun........

When I say "lay flat" I mean that if you place the blade on a level surface and rock it back and forth at no time do you see light between the blade and the surface. Additionally, if your blade is resting on its heel there should be space between blade and the board. I have used a metal file to grind down a heel or two, but it is a pain. I like the idea of electric knife sharpeners, but feel that they often take too much metal out of the belly of the blade, while leaving the heel untouched.

Not Brittany, per se, but in Nord Pas de Calais. I am envious of your trip and hope you will find nice bulot in the South. I had great fresh sardines in the North from the South, so I suspect you will find what you seek. Also, there is a traditional Provencale preparation of snails involving tomatoes and garlic - wonderful.

Agreed. Old Sabatiers, for instance have a bump, but there is clearance and curve to accommodate an edge that will lay flat to a board. Many German knives have a unnecessarily large heel, although the blades are often quite good.

Please let me know if you hear of Whelks becoming commercially available, preferably fresh and whole (in shell). I fell in love with them while on the coast of France over the summer - served cooked but chilled with fresh mayonnaise. Out of sight.............

I was under the impression that helix snails are all land snails, quite prevalent in the wine producing areas (Spain as well, given that one of the oldest versions of paella includes them). I think sea snails are generally referred to bulot in France and whelks in Great Britain.

I am not going to weigh in on the whole slug thing, but as for snails I bought some at a street market in the Medoc over the summer that were cooked in the shell in a garlic tomato wine meat sauce - lovely, and probably pretty easy to do if you can get a hold of fresh snails.

I would guess that quality primarily resides with the wine, etc., that you use. I would put the mother and some cheap leftover wine in a mason jar with a loose lid and take a shot at it. If you do, please let us know how it turns out.

I was at a friend of my girlfriend's house a year or so ago and somehow I was volunteered to debone two ducks. I reached into the drawer and among the usual ersatz supermarket blades was a 10" Shun chefs knife, unfortunately it was dull as a second hand sermon (I have lived in the Deep South for four years and I guess it is starting to rub off). She let me take it back to the gf's house and I gave it a whirl on the Chef's Choice I bought her a year ago (I prefer a stone, but none was available). I have sharpened her Henckels a few times with great success, but man, was that Shun stubborn. I put a decent edge on it, but gave up giving it a super keen edge after what I considered to be a valiant effort. I came to find out later that it belonged to her professional "chef" roommate, and he had misplaced it. To make a long story short - keep that initial edge as long as you can!

Fig preserves with foie gras seems to be popular in France, and darn tasty too.

Ruhlman is far from being one of the "real people" he claims to identify with having grown up affluent and attending only private schools - he wrote a book about it.