rmillman

Not a restaurant review but just spent the weekend with firends in SD. Since they are new with child, we spent most of the weekend at the house cooking and eating. Two things of note: 1) Chino Farms: Rancho Sante Fe http://www.kqed.org/weblog/food/2005/08/ta...chino-farms.jsp Bought some of the best produce I have seen in a long time, yellow, purple, orange and white carrots, three colors of beets, a dozen types of greens, the best french stawberrys, and herbs galore. With things this fresh, you do not need to do much to them 2) Whole Foods, La Jolla I live two blocks from a WF in Boston, but this market blew me away. They have an in store meat dry aging locker and they carry prime steak as well. Many of the small producer products I mail order were there as well including La Quercia Prosciutto, Fra Mani salumi, and over 25 different kinds of salt. Sea Food was excellent as well with an instore smoker for things like smoked mussles and fish. Both worth checking out.

Fresh morels at Whole foods in Downtown Boston. $59.95 but they are truly beauties from the underworld.

I use LN2 for a variety of things since I have access through work (biotech lab). One favorite is orange cell supremes. Place orange segments in LN2, place in a plasitc bag and hit with a rolling pin. his breaks up the orange into frozen cells. Last night we mixed these with pastry rocks and cocoa nibs from lepicure, pastry rocks from chef rubber and granulized honey from an asian market. The resulting crunchy mix that crunched back was great. Another use is similar to the "air" but we use popped popcorn. submerge popcorn for a short time in LN2, remove and serve. Last fun item is to partially fill a balloon with liquid (I have use chocolate milk, fruit juices, etc), submerge balloon in LN2 until frozen, remove, pop balloon with torch and serve. Yields a hollow frozen sphere.

We live in Boston and are big foodies and eat everywhere. Hands down for that special dinner is to do either the tasting at Clio or its sister sushi bar Uni. Both have the best ingrediants and using modern techniques to highlight their dishes (Nothing over-the-top Alinea style but done well).

I really think your technique and not the sous vide process yielded your poor results. 1) I prefer to sear first as this adds a good flavor profile to the steak as it is cooked in the bag. 2) temp and time are wrong: shorter times to an internal of 50-53C gives one of the most beautiful consistant coloring through the steak (see Roca's sous vide book for more on this). 3) it sounds like the sear post sous vide did what it should: give it appearance and mouth feel.

I have order most of the products discussed on this link and one is extremely noteworthy:La Quercia Rossa--Heirloom Breed Culaccia. By far and away one of the best prosciutto I have ever had (domestic and imported). However, I must say that my favorite is the Newsom free range ham http://www.newsomscountryham.com/exornewagham.html (yes, country hams can be eaten uncooked). There is a complexity to the flavor that rivals the best Spanish producers. We have one in our ham stand right now and are happily slicing off snacks thoughout the evening.

If it is bone-in, then I would not do sous vide with steak. If it is not, then I still prefer shorter times for cuts that are naturally tender. I do 62C for ten minutes (get a 53C or so center) and then finish. When I do my pre-sear it is in a pan at 315C or slightly higher.

When I really want crispy skin I remove it before sous vide cooking and crisp it either in a broiler or fry pan spearately and then recounstruct the dish with it. Post sous vide it is difficult to crisp out of the bag and my best success had been to pat it dry, sprinkle with isomalt and then hit it with a torch.

For steaks, I prefer to sear, bag, sous vide, then finish sear. I do this not thinking about surface sterilization but the added flavor profiles of the first sear. For some types of steak, I sometimes do not do the first sear (high fat kobe). For temps and time, I tend to follow Roca's book and do a 60-65C bath to an internal temp of 50-53C or so (about 10 minutes for room temp meat). For beef ribs and pork dishes, I tend to do the long (36hours+) cooking at 61-62C to disolve out the collagen from the meat. Wehnever I do long cooking, I sear first because it also holds the surface texture better. I have never done a long sous vide with poultry or fish: it is not needed to alter texture and cooking times are quick. I have never gone from frozen into bath: even with the best circulator, your temp will drop significantly and it will take some time for it to equilibriate: this may be fine with a long cooking time but not with shorter times (and with longer, I always start with sear meat.

Ming's is great but not really in Boston (close suburb of Newton). If you do not eat at Clio's, definitely go for a dessert tasting: Rick Billings the Pastry Chef is one of tops in the country by my palate and eye. Sage in North end is a great bet: make sure to make a reservation since it is small. An alternative in the north end that is great for sea food is Mare. Another you could try is Toro in the South End: very enjoyable tapas. Stop by Mantra in the Ladder district for a drink and a snack. A 3:00am try South Street Diner on kneeland for you last bite of the night.

Absinthe bar in Paris as featured on Anthony Bourdain: it is not a scary place despite the look of the webpage and they do have one of the best selection to taste, http://www.cantada.net/ and then a place to buy your own: http://www.vertdabsinthe.com/

For variations on an egg dish I would either poach or suos vide a quail egg and then serve it on a tasting spoon with various additions on the spoon: one was pop-rocks. The creamy texture of the yolk and popping sensation was interesting. Mixing them with smoked salt was also used in several savory settings.

I have been playing with the chefrubber product for several months. Pure rocks in the month have a different feel than rocks that are incorporated into a product base. By the time you add enough to really notice it the texture starts to become an issue. As such, I tend to use them as a dry sprinkle most often. Other things I have tried: 1) They work well in chocolate: add after tempering or in a filling. 2) They can be a fun addition to drinks: they do eventual melt but fun on the rim or in a martini 3) I have tried several savory things but nothing I would make a regular: poached quail eggs were ok, but they were not a welcome addition to a mayonaise.

I got two different varieties of plants here: http://www.toptropicals.com/ Waiting for them to fruit now. I have tried one of the "pills" sold in Japan and it is really interesting and does indeed mess with taste recognition and association. Sometimes in a good way other times not so pleasant. Sour becomes sweet, sweet becomes bland, salt and savory can be interesting or blah depending on what it is combined with. I think the fun way to use them is in a dessert competition where any subsquent entries cold face some serious flavor problems.

I am constantly looking for best of the best maple syrup as well as unique flavor profiles. Two favorites in the later category: Smoked maple syrup: http://site.smokedsyrup.com/Buy.html Blis bourbon barrel aged syrup: http://www.mikuniwildharvest.com/ Any others out there?

Whole Foods Boston has not had them for more than two weeks :-(

I have gone through a half a dozen different sealers over the last four years. I have finally found one that is nearly commercial grade at a reasonable price, nicely sized and that is well designed and great to use. http://www.vacuumsealerpros.com/ He sells on ebay.

I have a distinct advatage here: I work in biotechnology and have access to liquid nitrogen which I take home in a dewars flask I bought on ebay. I find with oil based sorbets and gelatos, the LN quick freeze method is one of the best ways of making them. I get small crystal size and I do not muck up my ice cream maker. Simply wisk in a bowl the oil, any other base ingrediants and the LN.

Many types of canned mangosteens you can get at asian markets are peeled and seeded (I have a couple on my shelf now). For purees where I want fruit pulp texture I use a commercial style high speed blender. When I want to make a clarified type of fruit water, I use a less powerful blender and let the pulp settle and then take off the liquid layer.

Bourdain did a nice show on Peru: Lima, Cusco, Amazon with some good highlights on the food market in Cusco cevicherias in Lima and a meeting with Gaston Acurio (Gaston and Astrid and La mar). We followed somewhat in Tony's tracks and hit several of the smaller cevicherias in Lima. La Mar was great: prices reasonable for such style and food. Chino food is a distinct peruvian/chinese fusion and was not that great and the areas in Lima for it are not that kid friendly. Cusco was fun: the market a great place to see and eat with locals. Cuy (ginea pig) is an aquired taste but worth it for the historical value of the meal.

1) Blue duck tavern: new, great chef, wonderful menu, some new age style cooking. 2) obelisk: great Italian pre-fix-hard to get into due to limited seating (other Italian to note: Galaleo and Oesteria Goldoni-both have top notch chef tables) 3) New Heights or butterfield 9 (same owners)-I really like NH but chef has changed since I lived in DC 4) CityZen (at Mandarin Oriental)-What a room, power oozes but food is steller 5) Mini-bar-you will never get in (six seats reserved one month ion advance) but this is the best in DC

Ate at S'sam Sat night. We also had the pleasure of meeting and Talking with David as well (nice Chef: hope you do well). All I can say is any place that uses Benton bacon, serves Wigman ham and properly fries brussel sprots knows 1) how to find the best small batch ingrediants and 2) knows what to do with them. Food was top rate, from what was used to how it was prepared and served. We sampled starters (brusselsprot were a hit), hams, salad (great apple and bacon salad), clay pots dish (short-ribs) to wraps. Even our 9 and 11 yo nephews enjoyed the food (at least when they did not hear that the dish had fish sauce). We would definitely return.

We did the dessert tasting Sat. at Varietal. I highly recommend it. I am a fan first of taste, then presentation and then technique. Too many modernist reverse this order. JK is one of the most creative, precise and inspired pastry Chefs I have had the pleasure of sampling from. From flavors, textures, platings and techniques, he rocks. Pictures of the dishes are presented above: four course we had the 1) sweet potato ice cream, 2) white chocolate cubism, 3) wolfberry and 4) chocolate puree. Each dish had both main highnotes as well as subtle additions like lime paper, caramelized mushrooms (even the kids like these) and a reverse pear ravioli (I am assuming it was a reverse spherification because of the skin texture). I hope that he contines developing and becomes a recognized star.

I bought mine on ebay: they go for between $450 and $800 US.

Do you know the guy on ebay? Can he supply better/as good as WF shrimp? His price shipped to Boston can't be touched by WF. Thanks.