Batard

“Bai –Top Shell” is just another word for Whelks. "Whelk is a delicacy popular in many countries, particularly in Korea where we have a dedicated sales office. Whelks or Bai Top Shell are actually fished in UK waters and are supplied live and fresh into OceanC for manufacturing." My local HanAhReum sells golbaengi, which is really fresh conch. I think they mix up the terms in translation, because they tag this as Bai shell. Personally, I'll take a pass on the canned shellfish when there are fresh alternatives. Especially living .5 mile from Sabor Peru.

This is a very good analogy. Only thing I would add that when you are mashing, the temperature can be very unforgiving. With oil you have a lot more wiggle room.

Welcome to EGullet, Lisa, from another relative newbie. My problem is that no one at my local fresh veggie market speaks English. My choices come down to a huge bunch of herbs that I will never finish for 99 cents, or getting a tiny amount for about for $2.99 in those supermarket plastic containers. So end up throwing a lot away. Glad to hear about Maggiethecat's advice with the aluminum foil, that's one I will have to try. Sounds so simple, but I never though to try it.

If you can get in, the $48 tasting menu is a real bargain. It's been a while since I've been though. I hear the food can be a little inconsistent.

I was curious about this too, I was looking at the offering from D'Artagon. SO I googled a bit ... Elk is also trimmed into a Denver Leg as well, which is used for the same things but it is typically twice as large, about 20 pounds.

It's a little far to go for me, but Zagat has a few member reviews here: http://www.zagat.com/verticals/PropertyDet...?VID=8&R=114542 It must be new, because there are just a few reviews and Zagat still has questions marks under "Food Decor Service Cost"

You know I had reservations there once -- I think Wylie is a character -- but I get so many conflicting stories about this place I canceled my reservation. It seems either people love it or hate it, but the reviews are so mixed that I am nervous about plunking down $200 (times 3 guests) for the tasting menu. I can go to a lot of other places for that.

Regarding oysters, has anyone else encountered "Willapoint Fancy Extra Small Oysters"? I bought two cases and they were the biggest oysters that I have ever seen!!! They are easily the size of your palm. If these are "extra small," I'm terrified to know what the "extra large" look like (I'm picturing a shell the size of a Volkswagen). Regarding flavor, they were somewhat briny, but in a good way. It's weird to find an oyster that you need a knife and fork to handle. Thank you, kbjesq, I was hoping that someone would help identity this type of oyster (I asked about them at the beginning of the thread). They are a specialty at a local Chinese place I frequent -- four of them are enough for an entree. When I ask at the Chinese place what sort of Oysters they use, I just get funny looks for an answer. I have never seen oysters this large in any Fish or Asian market. Do many different types of oyster grow to this size?

You just need to run into a good one that has the fruit soaked in port and rum for a month ahead of baking and then is so dense you make 1/16" or 1/8" sliced and are transported. There is hope. ← Heidi, if you could point me in the direction of a good product or a good recipe, I would be willing to give it a shot. I think maybe I have just been subjected to my relatives so-called fruitcake for too long, and have become fruitcake challenged. Oh and this will seem like sacrilege to many here, especially since there is a busy thread on this topic on the forum already, but I really can't stand Brussels Sprouts. I have eaten them very fresh and I am told well-prepared, but there's something skunky about them I can't get past. And I love cabbage. Ditto this; I love seafood and especially shellfish, but never could quite understand what as so darned special about lobster. Everyone sits and rolls their eyes with lobster-eating pleasure, and all I can think is, *Yawn*.

Why can't I eat them raw? This probably isn't what you had in mind, but I love to make Oyster Soon Du Boo. We can get freshly flown in, shucked Korean baby oysters on weekends at the local Korean monster-mart. I usually add a lot more oysters to the stew than any self-respecting Korean restaurant would though, it's like an oyster orgy. A local Chinese restaurant called China Inn makes a nice dish using oversized sea oysters (wish I knew more about the type, they are enormous). They are served steamed on the half shell with a heavy-ish black bean/scallion sauce. These oysters are strong flavored and I don't think they would be good for eating raw. It's something you have to order off the "secret" Chinese menu: if you don't specify otherwise they hand you the Westerner Chicken Chow Mein menu. If anyone knows more about this type of oyster, please drop me a PM.

For me, it's fruitcake. I can't stand the candied fruit --- especially citron. Yuck, it's tastes so artificial, like eating chopped up gummy bears, and totally ruins an otherwise perfectly nice cake.

Most of the ZDP189 knives I have seen are tactical knives, not culinary. I don't know of any Japanese blades, but William Henry makes knife sets out of this steel (http://www.williamhenryknives.com/product/culinary/index.html). But at $2000 for a set of 5, I'd keep looking for those Japanese knives. Anyone who wants to read more about this type of steel can check these PDFs. * http://www.williamhenryknives.com/press-aw...rticles/ZDP.pdf * http://www.williamhenryknives.com/press-aw...tactical-05.pdf

Stigand inspired me to a bit of Googling as well. I found two other breweries also boiling up something called 'Ginger Tom,' one in England and one in New Zealand. England: http://www.thefilo.co.uk/thebrewery.html NZ: http://www.thedux.co.nz/index.cfm/Queensto...D_WINNING_BEERS The description sounds lovely: Ginger Tom 4.0% a.b.v Old fashioned style ginger beer, light golden malt colour with plump fruit and spicy bouquet, encapsulated with natural fresh flavours of honey, malt and lemon, characterised by a crisp refreshing dry ginger finish. I found a few homebrew Malt/Ginger Beer recipes around. Most of them seem to use canned extract, but there are a few that are mashed. Reading through recipes should give you enough information for a baseline. http://hbd.org/brewery/cm3/recs/index.html#ginger%20beer http://www.skotrat.com/skotrat/recipes/spe...specialty_beer/ Happy Brewing.

My first post, so everyone be nice. Glad to be here, I have fallen in love with eG. Are you planning to make an alcoholic product? Normally for a Jamaican Ginger Beer type recipe, you would just pitch a small amount of yeast after filtering for bottle conditioning. My friends and I brewed for many years when I was younger, and we tried many different types of recipes (think chocolate/raspberry stout), but never with Ginger as an adjunct. But IMO, there is something about ginger in a malt beer that strikes me as strange flavor profile. Were you thinking of following a conventional beer recipe, or something experimental like replacing the hops with ginger? If you haven’t brewed before, it might be good for you to go through a basic batch of Ale with your friend just to get the basics down and get a better understanding of the process. I would avoid trying to use “natural” yeasts. Besides not really knowing what sort of off-flavors you are going to end up with, natural yeast takes too long to develop a good krausen, and the bacteria will get going in your must before the yeast gets a going. Definitely make an active starter and pitch that when you ferment (make sure to check that it is active before starting to brew). Also, you need to consider the alcohol content you are expecting in your end product: you may want to consider a champagne yeast. Best of luck with your brewing venture!