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Some recent meals Salmon with saffron rice Italian Sausage and Peppers (trigger warning for @rotuts) SV sirloin (132 x 2 hrs) and roasted root vegetables Paella with shrimp and chorizo Bavette steak (SV 132 x 2 hrs) with coffee/chilli/maple sauce, salt new potatoes, broccolini

Evaporation will be an issue if the vessel is uncovered

Our local-ish paper, the News Journal, has lots of restaurant reviews but they are always super positive...even gush-y. So not reliable. The Phila paper has a food critic who is extremely discerning and can be relied-upon. He has a policy of publishing really bad reviews on a Friday so as to help people not ruin their weekend by going to a dump. Doesn't happen too often. But it happens. Craig LaBan...good guy.

Yup. Yes indeed. Always wanted to have a beer with him. My bucket list is getting shorter by attrition....Dan Jenkins is another one who left the list recently AB showed up on eG in the early days. You could troll around and find his stuff

I wonder if the restaurants might tie the (lightly) trimmed section of salmon filet to plump it up and make it a more uniform thickness. I've been known to do that with beef tenderloin

Chowhound used to be great for hyperlocal food and restaurant reviews. Then, about 5 or 6 years ago, they got bought and became very intrusive in their moderation. They took down critical restaurant reviews that were in no way out of line. End result...everybody left and its filled with clickbait "articles". I don't know of a site for thoughtful restaurant reviews that is very active right now. Tripadvisor is the best of a bad lot as far as I can see.

Nothing at all, but that's not the shape I often see in a portion of restaurant salmon. I see a square/rectangle of decent thickness with no tapering. Perhaps they get them pre-portioned and the fish guy uses the trimmings for something. But that doesn't seem like its very economical. Perhaps I'm over-thinking.

@JoNorvelleWalker A related question is "How do restaurants serve a big square lump of salmon without wasting the thinner edges of the filet?"

Chicken is as bad

Nice piece on the exploding pyrex issue https://gizmodo.com/the-pyrex-glass-controversy-that-just-wont-die-1833040962

Dysonized?

how do you make pokeweed nontoxic and edible?

Yes @rotuts! Props are lame and annoying. some aproptosis is called for

Go figure. A big lunch and I'm done for in the afternoon.

This works well. I used to do the foil wrapped chips. but converted to the thingy pictured in @rotuts post. Works great with less mess. You do need to buy the pellets though.

@MetsFan5 Great meal! What was t he sauce on the duck?

Tween 80 is a PITA to work with. I think your solution was a good one. When I worked with it I'd add it to a beaker of liquid sitting on a scale and then just stir it in.

Duck with lingonberry sauce, au gratin pots, creamed arugula

Just a great place in Philadelphia. Craig Laban, the eminent Inquirer food critic gives it a rare perfect 4 bells. They serve a modern American cuisine in small plates, large plates, topped toast appetizers (waaaay better than it sounds), and roasted meats. Last night I had a lemongrass pork sausage small plate and a venison tenderloin in a foie demiglace sauce with roasted cauliflower puree, roasted florettes and shaved cauliflower. Fantastic meal. Others had kampachi, potato pave, uni scrambled eggs, smoked trout, tuna bolognese, and I forget what else.

@teonzo Ha. The old guy in the TV commercials is Rana himself, cool. Apt name...he looks a little batrachian. I tried his mushroom tortellini. Pasta was OK but the filling was mushroom flecked breadcrumbs. I bet he wouldn't sell that in Italy.

While we are being heretical, I'd like to put in a plug for the "no boil" lasagna sheets. They are thinner and lack the (stupid) rippled edge of the traditional (in US anyway) dried lasagna. Much easier to work with and results in a more stable (ie not likely to fall apart when cut) product. The Barilla ones I use say to bake for 30 minutes...no way...it takes an hour or so to get t he center softened and cooked at 390F. And it can't be a dry-ish lasagna. There must be liquid to rehydrate the pasta. Unless you soak them for 30 minutes first. Which seems like boiling traditional lasagna, but you still have a much nicer lasagna and a much easier pasta to work with.

The chef is Canadian. I enjoy him on Master Chef Canada. A bit fussy, but a good guy. Ate in one of his restaurants....nice meal. I could see see this as a restaurant method to guarantee reproducible results. But how tricky is lasagna?

Not what you are asking for, but I usually just throw a couple slices in a pan on the stove top.

I like the guy on Canadian Master Chef

I love all cheese. But extra sharp cheddar, parmagiano reggiano, and mozzarella , to a lesser degree , are irreplaceable . If if it weren’t for pizza I could live a somewhat happy life without mozzarella. There are places like St Louis and Scranton who put cheddarish stuff on pizza. But they will have to answer for this one day. Aged gouda and gruyere are valuable too. But not in the pantheon of cheese. And crappy American cheese is great on a burger and has enough citrate in it to make Mac and cheese not separate as it cools. .