Batard

I can imagine serving them though, and people wondering how you got those those perfectly cooked pouched eggs to come out square. You could call them egg pillows ... people would ask how you did it. In the link that KatieLoeb posted for The Perfect Poached Egg, the very first recipe instruction is this: - Get some microwaveable clingfilm If you are supposed to be using FDA-approved, microwave-safe plastic, I'm not sure what the concern is. Is the premise that microwave-safe plastic actually becomes unsafe in boiling water? Are we suspicious of the FDA? Or is it that old prejudices against plastic wrap are hard to break? I know I am probably steering this thread off-topic again, and for that I apologize, but I still can't figure out what the big fuss is about.

Poppy seed roll and neon green relish? Oh. My. God. Get thee to Rutt's Hut, my friends.

Great idea! I already have some leek leaves and was planning to place a few side by side on a bamboo (sushi) roller, stuff them with a nice Chinese style pork/rice filling, then roll, tie, and steam. This might be a good way to riff on Lo mai gai. I'm going to try it, and if the leek flavor comes through, I will be back here to gloat.

There’s a lot more to umami than MSG though. Doritos uses five different types of glutamates, and they do it for a reason. Then there’s inosinate, guanylate, and adenylate, which are not glutamates, but certainly contribute to umami. The first time I heard of kombu jime it was being used to prepare beef. But the technique was never explained. The kombu may pull excess water from the meat, and have the effect of concentrating the 'beefiness' of the dish. But that’s not "infusion", it's more like extraction. I'm a lot more interested in the infusion possibilities. I'm finding that umami-rich ingredients have a tendency to round out flavors. And while that is handy to know, I tried adding a few umami components to a braised beef dish I have been making for years, but I think those additions just flattened out all the flavors that were making the dish tasty. There were no more spikes of flavor. All it did was wash out most of the 'color' out of a dish, not improve it.

The green part is very fibrous. It will never really get soft or pleasant enough to eat by itself, even if you braise it. I just clean up the green tops and save them for stock. Hmmn, I'm wonder if you can make a kind of 'lotus leaf wrap' using leek leaves and steaming it? Has anyone here tried that?

I was recently reading about umami, and how chefs are trying all sorts of techniques to infuse food with that special flavor. I've read all about Kikunae Ikeda, glutamate, inosinate and guanylate and the wide range of foods that contain them -- everything from hard cheese to mushrooms to seaweed to breast milk. But other than some strange anecdotes about people adding dashi to oatmeal, I haven't read anything practical about how this translates to cooking in my kitchen. I experimented a bit with varying degrees of success. Hard cheese rinds do improve the broth, but after adding a bit of Kombu and mushroom water to the beef marinate, the food was much blander than the original recipe. I obviously have no idea what I am doing. Does anyone here know the term "Kombu Jime"? Anyone have successful techniques for incorporating this magical fifth flavor to the foods they cook?

White and black pepper are not equivalent in either flavor or in measure. I think people who use it simply for 'aesthetic reasons' either do not add enough pepper to their dish to make a difference, or for some reason don't taste the difference. It surprises me that people don't talk more about the completely different flavors of white and black pepper. You can't just substitute black pepper for white pepper in Asian recipes. If you really want to taste the difference, try heating up some good, plain chicken broth. Pour out two small cups, and add a little black pepper to one and a little white pepper to another. Taste the difference? Add a little more pepper to each. Does the white pepper starting to overpower the other flavors? Try the same experiment with simply prepared eggs. How does white pepper taste compared to black? White pepper is also a much more forward and assertive flavor. Use with care. If you add the same amount of white pepper to a dish as a substitute for black pepper, you may well find that dish overpowered.

Try searching under 'Watermelon' or 'Roseheart' radish.

We have a small Turkish Community in my area, and I've heard nothing but good things about Sultan's Kitchen: A Turkish Cookbook. The online reviews seem to suggest that it is remarkably authentic. Unfortunately -- or fortunately if you're me -- there are so many respectable Turkish restaurants in my area that I have not yet had to try out this cookbook. If you are worried about ingredients and sourcing, you can preview some of the recipes here for free. It's obviously not the complete book, but will give you a good idea what you are getting yourself into.

You have this problem only with Chinese food, and nothing else? If the problem is MSG, then you should also react to other glutamate-rich foods ...

I've found a few really good beers on tap lately. This year's Anchor Merry Christmas Ale is drinking very well very early. The Rogue Chocolate Stout is a reference point for this style, it's well balanced and perfectly chocolaty. And this holiday's Mc Chouffe is thick, spicy and warming. In my area it's become very hard to find any sour beers or lambics. The local distributors don't carry them, and store owners say they can't find them anywhere.

FYI, this recipe is right out of Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, printed in 1950. Little did you know that salty glop you were enjoying was really a "Tuna-Potato Chip Casserole", a variation on the famous "Tuna Supreme" (p.394). The folks in BKs test kitchen thought it was great, calling it "A perfectly grand dish for women's luncheons". Ack! No wonder people drank so much back then: you needed something strong to kill the taste of the food.

It's not really surprising that a school of this caliber would pay careful attention to their menus. Parents want their kids to eat healthily and have some variety. My wife worked at both the Saint James School and Episcopal High School -- both high end and expensive -- and the food in both places was excellent, seasonal, and interesting. I used to eat at EHS every day, and the food was shockingly good. The food choices are driven more by the parents than by the students, most of whom would rather just eat pizza. I think for what these parents pay -- think 20K per year per child -- the food needs to hit a certain standard.

Calum, I looked at the picture you posted, and yours looks like a standard white globe turnip. Check the pictures here and compare: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/turnips.html

I can't eat potatoes because of the carbs/sugar, and have found these to be a good substitute in stews and other dishes. They are very low in carbohydrates. I cut in them in cubes and pan roast them until they are golden and have given up most of their water (otherwise they get mushy). Even though they are radishes, I find they have a pleasant turnip flavor and have much more satisfying flavor than Daikon. One of my fave vegetables. They are also delicious prepared like Kim Chi or in Moo Kuk. You can find lots of Korean recipes and ideas if you Google "Korean Radish". I hope some of the creative people here have other ideas.

Nature's Flavors sells over 150 different Italian Soda syrups with xylitol, a sugar alcohol that doesn't have the weird fennel aftertaste that stevia has. I have no idea how much caffeine the different flavors have. Around Christmas-time I read an article saying that Coke, Pepsi, and even Dr. Pepper are planning to market stevia flavored sodas later this year. Too bad Manhattan Special doesn't have a stevia flavored soda: you'd be able to monitor your sugar intake and load up on caffeine at the same time.

Does your mystery vegetable look something like this?

The fattier milk bubbles in whole milk have a greater surface tension. This gives the bubbles better resistance to bursting or coalescing, the fat stabilizes the foam. I don't understand the science behind it well enough to explain it properly, but it has something to do with the Marangoni effect ...

I've seen this posted on the Internet, but downloading it is probably a copyright violation. As an HBO non-subscriber, I'm now in a moral dilemma -- download it and watch it guiltily, or not watch it at all and retain my ethics. Tough choice ...

I tried this last night with a couple of eggs, and it is just brilliant. I cook them a bit longer, which is my preference, and I have never served a better cooked or better looking poached egg. I wiped the plastic with a little butter before sealing the eggs up and boiling, and was thrilled with how mess free it was. I could even pre-season them with salt and pepper by sprinkling them over the butter before adding the egg and twist-tying the bundles. I especially like this technique because, if I am serving several people, I can prep the eggs a couple of hours in advance. Then I can just boil the all the pouches at once and serve them hot, which is hard to do when you are trying to boil them the traditional way. No more egg soup!

I love gadgety kitchen things too. When I saw one of the cooks on Top Chef use a little gadget called and Egg Topper, I was the first to tunou8t and by one. I don't use it much, but it is a unique tool for a unique task. It's a useful tool, since I can't cut an eggshell with a knife, and it works beautifully. But for cutting butter, like weinoo said, a knife works just fine.

Also try La Riviera Gastronomia, which is right next door and owned by the same family. Same food and great sauce, and they do takeout.

So by these rules, this would make Spam OK? Sorry, that's too open-ended. Once you open the door to all these ingredients, there is no closing it again. Let's keep pizza as pure as possible. Anyone can pile on the anchovies, but the classic margherita, made properly, is transcendent. I agree with K8memphis, to keep the sauce from getting too watery or bitter, concasse the tomatoes first.

Gluay Buad Chee or Gluay Bua Chi? (Bananas in coconut cream, same dish, alternate spellings) Gluay Khaek? (Banana fritters) "Gluay" means "banana", so keep looking for deserts with "Gluay" in them: you will find it sooner or later. Both of the above are listed in "Hot Sour Salty Sweet" ...

The NT Times had an article on this yesterday: Is a New Food Policy on Obama's List?