Jinmyo

pete, thank you thank you. My faith in St. Mario is all I have.

And the green had what sprinkled on it? Honestly, I've never seen green miso. And lawd only knows the miso I've seen.

cabrales, thank you. I wonder if they just dumped some bottled tonkatsu sauce into the braising liquid. What was the green miso?

The gingko tree is one of the very remaining "pre-historic" trees. Fascinating leaf structure, rightly appearing ubiqitously in Japanese kitsch.

Why would anyone anaesthesize a fruit fly? For goodness sake, just swat the bugger! You know, now that I think about it, the fly anaesthetic is triethylamine, not triethanolamine. And nobody corrected me! It is positively apalling what this crowd doesn't know about fly anaesthetic!!! We were just having him on.

cabrales, I have never cared much for aged sakes though I don't dislike them. I've found them heavy and without the brightness of a new junmai. The onsen tamago sounds wonderful. I think I would have ordered another as well. Did the pork belly seem to have some miso component in the sauce?

I agree, Nick. Bad bad idea. I remember letting some tuiles rest on wax paper. Ruined.

Since trees along streets are planted generally at the same time, they tend to come to maturity all at the same time. Twenty-two or so years after planting gingko trees there would arise such a stink as to cause people to consider selling their homes.

Wow. What fun.

Oooooh, Robert. Et tu. This is the first major bout of criticism of Babbo I've heard on eGullet. Of course, mostly from one table on one night. But still... Mario, Mario, wherefore art thou Mario? Oh.

Nina, I am subjectively interested in the pork belly dish as well. If you have the time and are comfortable could you please expand upon this to the best of your knowledge. Further, should you be inclined to return to Saka Gura I would be most interested in other reports.

Here's a Mario story, based on memory from the New Yorker bio. A table sends back the chops. Everyone in the kitchen clusters around the plate, everyone says they're fine, the table's a bunch of stooges but we'll do what they want. Chops go back out. Something else comes back from the table. Mario shouts, "That's it. Get them out of here. They'll never eat here again. What are they drinking?" A $600 plonk de plonk. "Oh, all right." The night continues. Mario goes out front to watch the table leave.

Actually, there's a pork bung thread somewhere in history.

Nick, many of us have grown up with guts. I remember veins and things popping up from the surface of my "beef soup" when I was a lass of three.

Basil, that's great. I like your sample menus a great deal and look forward to the completion of the site.

Folks, I'm just doing my morning mail, checking the news sites. The day begins. Why are you still up? Sleep, sweet princes.

Steak. I send a nice Curry Steak your way Jin! No thanks, Suvir. However I would love to have your fried okra and many other dishes. But the infamous curry "steak" shall ne'er be on my plate.

I usually use grapeseed oil for Sichuan peppercorn oil. I add a bit of lime zest. I sometimes blend it with mirin and citus, emulsify it, and use it as a dipping sauce for crispy panko-crusted chicken thighs or sticky chicken wings. It also is interesting with rack of lamb.

Ed, you're a charmer. As well as very knowledgeable and helpful. Too bad you don't like stinky tofu. Thanks for your wonderful contributions.

Steak.

It is a shame when marrow is served under-cooked. Some punter rallies his courage and orders marrow for the first time after seeing it only here and there on menus. "Gah. It's just fat." And never oders it again. Making it more difficult to find. And confirming a git in his prejudices or preventing a git from raising himself, squaring his shoulders, and becoming worthy of good marrow. A vicious cycle. It is us up to all concerned who are concerned to do their part and insist under-cooked marrow be returned to the kitchen to be tended to with the dignity it deserves.

Hust curious, Steve. How many of you were there? Did you consume all of the wine? As well as the huckleberries, was there any saucing of the venison? ediot: Look! I just can't spell "just"!

The point, the nib, the jist (if you will) under present question is... it's just a non-stick thin thing instead of the sturdy vented and cursively-capped or some such monster cast in iron that startled my imagination into new paths, now so cruelly blockaded and stopped off at the throat by the pale image of yon non-stick thinnyness of aforementioned thing. And also: 4 potatoes. Just 4? Further, m'lords and ladies. Had they non-stick thin things in the 1880s? I say to this nay, a thousand (more or less) times nay. Surely, surely, surely Shirley--I mean, Suzanne--this cannot be what these crisp yet fluffy dreams fall down to and expire as. Surely, surely... /death throes, exeunt stage left

Oh. What's the point of that? (Thanks for finding it, though.) Why not just use the oven? And I know I do 20 to 40 pounds of potatoes at a time. But 3? I could eat 3. ediot full discloure: "At" does not contain a "zed".

I'm for par-boiling (in salted water with garlic cloves and pepper corns) then slathering with whatever lipid is at hand (duck fat preferably, chicken fat after that, butter and peppery EVOO mixture after that) and roasting at 450 for an hour or so. But the contraption sounds interesting.