Jisho

Maybe I'm an oddity, but some of these comments just surprise me to no end. I'm just a friendly person, I suppose. I like everyone that I meet unless they give me cause not to. I don't mind hugs from strangers or people I just met. I prefer my first name. I'm with sans on the waiter bit. I go out to eat for the food. I don't need or want a snooty butler. People talk about, "oh, the service was exemplary"...I don't live in that world. Not only do I like my waiter to let their guard down, be a little touchy, but I often invite people waiting on me to sit with us a moment if it's slower, just take a load off, and enjoy friendly conversation. Of course, I'm sure there are people who say, "I'd fire a waiter if they did that" or "I'd leave a restaurant if I ever saw that", but again, the food is what matters to me, not whether or not my waiter was a stiff and proper uptight arse. It amazes me the things that people find to be bothered about. The wrong type of greeting (often with words that lack meaning but with real feeling behind them), a passing touch, a familiar tone...all the things that bring us closer and make life warmer. Maybe some people have enough friends and feel content with closing their circle where it is, but I find my friends from all walks of life and all income brackets, and I think love of my fellow man is the most exemplary way I can serve.

There are some things you could do to spruce up your site, obviously. What people like these days in a site is something that aggregates the data that they need. Some suggestions to make it more appealing (and worth more in ad and yearly fees): - I second the graphic designer notion. You really need to have something simple and eye-catching, that speaks of your brand. The banner at the top looks, I apologize for saying, like something from a pre-packaged template. A small 'menu' graphic that really highlighted your brand is really all you need - Look into the Yelp API. Yelp is a "hot" website right now, and offers user reviews of restaurants that can be directly integrated into your site. And if the restaurant is missing from Yelp, part of your $275 could include sending their site in for addition, or encouraging your readers to review the sites via Yelp! - Provide multiple links to reviews of restaurants. Be willing to do 15 minutes of work for each site: Create a link to Citysearch (you aren't competitors), call for their operating hours, find their latest local review online (if they've been reviewed AND it's positive). Be warned, all of these are fine lines. When you add reviews to the mix, you run the risk of a restaurant getting a bad review, which makes them wonder why they gave you $275 to begin with. You may just want to add restaurants for free, but strategically offer both google and sponsored advertising. If you spread out beyond NO, your revenue from ads will only grow as long as you set it up to serve ads for local restaurants.

Honestly, the reason for the dumbing down of food network is pretty simple: The VAST majority of people don't actually want to learn how to cook. Especially not Monday through Friday. Myself, I love to cook. But like most Americans, cooking is not my job. I leave my house at 6:30 every morning, and am lucky to get back, kids in tow, by 6:30 at night. 12 hours of my day are spent at work or commute, and my wife's job is just the same. When I get home, I'm cooking something quick, or else my kids will find things to snack on and be full of granola and fruit loops before dinner is on the table. I have worked hard to have healthy and fast alternatives to cook, but none of them have or can have elaborate prep or long cooking times. And in reality, though *I* am more interested in cooking on the weekends, I'm usually not watching cooking shows, because I'm spending some hours with my family. And I'm really more the norm, closer to 'average', than the eGs who throw elaborate weekend dinner parties or go out wining and dining at the high end eateries. Food Network plays to people like me in lifestyle, but who have almost NO desire to cook. They like to eat, and they like games, and they like to pretend, but mostly they just want to watch to see who's cake will explode, or what Guy is going to shove in his mouth on the next episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (word of warning: I actually like this show. I have an obsessive love of diners, drive-ins, AND dives. Call it my indy rock roots, but I'd rather eat a mountain of biscuits and gravy at Star Seeds cafe in Austin than dine at Uchi. And I loves me some Uchi).

I would like to add my support of the casual fine dining trend. As a former resident of hippie-heavy locations Berkeley, CA and Austin, TX, the thought of turning away anyone in any dress at an Austin institution is nearly unheard of. In a place where multi-million and sometimes billion dollar CEOs work and play in birkenstocks and khaki shorts, most establishments take the affront rather than risk offending the wrong person. All in all, it creates an unjudgemental atmosphere that allow me, on my jeans and t-shirt days, to have the luxury to comfortably stop at a fine dining establishment and enjoy a fantastic meal without having to go home and get gussied up.

All of these are great suggestions! I have already started my second or third read through Bouchon. There are a number of great recipes, and I have a little bit of skill with knives, and other equipment to make up for what I lack. I have recently made the Macaroni Gratin from the book. The Bechamel/Mornay came out beautifully, and the dish was well received at the office potluck. I was amazed by the complexity of flavor and transformation the sauce took on. I will be trying some desserts from the book, as well as the brined pork, and some of the technique foods in the glossary section. I'm going to eat away at the book in small pieces until I've made simply everything in it.

You know, I have that exact same cookbook. From that exact same year. maybe I need an upgrade?

hi Jisho-- i can only comment on the hollandaise part, but it sounds like you guys had a great breakfast, so no need to split hairs~! i find people are scared of hollandaise a little bit, but if you have it over water that's just bubbling, and whisk it every 4-5 minutes, and (here's the "cheating") whisk in 1-2 tsp of warm water from the pan below, it is stabilized and will be fine. i have heard of using cream to do this, but i also like the really lemon-y taste, and cream and lemon = maybe not. it sounds like you did everything great--my hollandaise ends up a "quivering" texture (i can't think of a better word) that's like halfway between 35% cream and a loose mayonnaise. and if you're making something "caribbean", like grilled fish, try lime juice, or tangerine juice instead of the lemon. but it all sounds lovely nevertheless. ← That's exactly the texture I ended up with. I thought about adding some warm water to it to smoothen the texture, but decided to leave it. And you're right, it had a powerful lemony flavor. I haven't really had "good" handmade hollandaise, so maybe it's supposed to be that way. Over eggs, I was having a hard time imagining it, but I can see that same lemony bitter flavor working very well over, say, asparagus or fish.

This morning I made my first attempt at Eggs Benedict. Due to some other meals we were having, we just happened to have the leftover ingredients necessary, and my wife was craving Hollandaise, so I decided to give it a try. I have never poached eggs before, and I have never made Hollandaise, so this was going to be new. First, some non-Hollandaise components: We used whole wheat english muffins, which were toasted first and set in a warm oven. Then, the canadian bacon was heated and just slightly browned, and placed on top in the oven to keep warm. We don't have 'farm fresh' eggs in the house right now, so regular eggs had to suffice, though I knew they wouldn't poach as well. When the water was heated and lowered to a simmer (with some vinegar), the water ended up at too low a temperature (electric stove. How I long for gas). After about 3 eggs half disintegrated in the pan, noting it was getting worse, I decided my technique might not be the issue. I raised the temperature a bit, waited for the water to come back to a nice light bubble, and slid the eggs in. This time, I got nearly perfect poaching. Excellent. Once poached, I slid them on top of the waiting bacon/muffins, and started in on my Hollandaise. Now, everyone seems to have their own recipe for Hollandaise. There doesn't seem to be a true "standard", so I did some searching here, at the Food Network website, and around the internet to get an idea of a base for the sauce. After some deliberation, I decided on the following formulation: 3 egg yolks 1 tbsp water 1 tbsp lemon juice 1/8th tsp kosher salt 1/8th tsp white pepper 6 oz (1 1/4 sticks) of butter I have seen a number of creation methods for the Hollandaise, but the one I'd seen recommended as best for the emulsion was using cold, cut butter instead of melted butter. I've seen some with clarified butter as well. I went with cold butter for mine. I whisked the yolks, water, lemon juice, and kosher salt in a bowl placed above (not touching) simmering water, until they had turned pale and thickened a little. Or, at least, that was the intention. I turned to pull my last poached egg for a moment, at a crucial juncture, and when I turned back, it appeared to my untrained eye that the eggs, while still a delicious color, might have thickened a tad too much. I pulled the bowl off the pan, whisking in 1 tablespoon of butter at a time, bringing back to head as needed to get the butter incorporated. At this point, after 6 oz of butter, I had an issue: the hollandaise appeared to still be too thick. It did not drizzle, nor was it velvety, although it did not separate at all, and after breakfast, is still a nice emulsion. Since my knowledge of hollandaise is limited, I thought that perhaps this might be normal, so I let it go. I sampled the Hollandaise. It was rich and creamy, but perhaps a little too lemony bitter? I'm more of a fan of bitter, but when my wife tasted it, she was definitely of the opinion that the lemon had contributed a bit too much. I added 3/4 of a tsp. of prepared mustard, which helped take some of the edge off, and about 1/4th tsp of sugar, and gave them a quick whisking over heat. I poured some warm hollandaise on the waiting eggs, and served them up. Mostly, the breakfast was a taste success. My wife likes her eggs a little more "done", and is not a fan of runny yolk. When I bit into mine, the runny yolks from the eggs merged well with the hollandaise and cut the lemony flavor. After tasting it, my wife agreed for the first time ever that perhaps she would have liked her eggs a bit softer in the middle. So, some notes on what I learned, and some requests for opinion: 1. I used a pan that was a little too shallow for poaching. Next time, I need to use a deeper skillet or a larger pan with more water. Also, I need to watch carefully for water heat, or I just end up with egg strings all over the pan. 2. The hollandaise was too thick, it seemed. Did I thicken the eggs too much (there were no cooked egg bits that I could discern), or did I use the wrong proportions of butter? Should the butter have been melted instead? It did not drizzle from the spoon, but instead came out in small blobs, like a pudding that has just begun to set. 3. The hollandaise seemed a bit lemony and bitter. I used fresh lemon juice, but some recipes called for 3 eggs to 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and some called for more lemon juice than I used. Perhaps next time a 3 yolk to 1.5-2tsp of lemon juice mixture would fix it without having to add other things to soften it? Maybe Hollandaise is supposed to have a lemony flavor, because my only exposure is with small diner hollandaise (having never ventured to fine dining for breakfast). 4. Whole wheat english muffins are chewier and harder to cut than standard english muffins. After warming in the oven, a sharp knife was necessary to easily get through the muffins, though a butter knife would do with a little effort. Next time, I'll make the muffins later in the process, and go with the standard white variety. 5. There was not enough salt in the Hollandaise, I would increase it to 1/4 tsp. I apologize that there are no pictures. I had a hungry family waiting for the meal.

Thank everyone for their input. I wavered a little when I hit the book store, because I found a number of the 'text book' books for cooking when I went. They are geared for large portions and are very thorough. In the end, I decided for a more practical, immediate-use cookbook, and did purchase Thomas Keller's Bouchon. With the money I saved not buying the more expensive text book, I also purchased Kevin Zraly's 2007 Complete Wine Course. It was so interesting, I couldn't pass it up.

With inspiration from eGullet and others, I have decided that I would like to 'get back into' cooking. I have spent a long time doing the most simple and unimaginative cuisine I could get away with, for the sake of convenience, or I eat out quite a bit. I used to cook a lot more, 5-6 years ago, but simply fell into the busy life rut. In order for the recommendation to mean something, I'll give you something of a background as to where I am: I'm a self-trained cook, mostly from growing up engrossed in cooking shows, and reading basic cook books that I come into contact with. I have a diverse palate, and appreciate a wide variety of international foods. However, I have limited exposure to 'haute cuisine', and because I'm not exactly Daddy Warbucks, limited exposure to fine cuisine in general, so when it comes to cooking high-end food, I lack a depth of tasting to compare. On the other hand, I'm creative and passionate in the kitchen when I take the time to make something. I can take dinners intended to be simple and introduce spice and complexity pretty successfully, as far as my family is concerned. I'm familiar with a great deal of food, with food pairings, and to be honest, often times my creativity exceeds my talent. Sure, it's nice to know you can braise this or that, poach another thing, and sauce it thusly, and it would be tasty, but it's entirely another to execute it yourself. I pay attention to a lot of the science of cooking and spend quite a bit of time researching "why"? I would like to expand my cooking experience. I would like a book that covers basic methods and techniques, and can help me grow from my current level. I prefer books that offer a good deal of pictoral feedback as well, preferrably pictures but illustrations would be okay. If the book brought some focus on the basic french methods (such as mother sauces, etc) without being entirely devoted to french cuisine, that might be nice, too. Also, I can do more than one book, but would prefer any "starter kit" to be limited to 3-5 books. Help me, eGullet-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

I've never heard of Dofu hua, but a quick internet seach found it under a few names, such as Taho and Tawa, with variations all over Asia. In the Philippines it's got a caramel sauce and transluscent sago tapioca balls, and nearer china, it's served with an intense, sweet ginger syrup. They also add local fruit in some locations...I can imagine a dofu hua with ginger syrup and lychee would be very tasty, though off topic.

I'm exceptionally fond of asian desserts that use Azuki (red) bean paste. They can be pureed and sweetened and used in a number of ways. The first thing I think when I think of bean desserts is asian dessert and tofu. And remember that a peanut is not ACTUALLY a nut, but is actually a indehiscent legume, although I suppose the challenger could eliminate peanut to make it tougher? I could think of a few things..maybe a dense and very lightly sweetened cake with a green tea syrup molded with layers of a honey ginger tofu custard and sweetened azuki bean paste, or something incorporating wonton and coarsely mashed azuki, perhaps with coconut milk incorporated. Maybe a tofu crepe to make a mille crepe with a bean paste filling. And I haven't even gone on to sweet peas...Sweet pea ice cream. Mmm...endless options!

Does anyone have experience with the prosumer style espresso machines, such as Pasquini or Rancilio? I've seen all kinds of espresso machines in that range, as well, but companies I've never heard of, such as Jura and Francis Francis!. Any recommendations for a good prosumer model of espresso machine?