rae

Kerry - I did notice the conference. It's on my radar, but that weekend is a bit hard for me (husband's birthday). All - If no one has any experience with the chocolate course at the CIA, can anyone speak to any good or bad experiences with any of the CIA's professional level continuing ed classes? Thanks, Rae

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone has taken the Chocolate and Confections professional level continuing ed course at the CIA (or had heard anything about it)? I have been looking around but have not seen any reviews. I have been making chocolates (molded and dipped) for a couple of years now but have never had any formal training (I do have formal training as a chemist, which seems to transfer well), and I have finally decided it is time to pursue chocolate making more seriously. I have been looking into a range of courses (Ecole Chocolat's online course, 3-day classes at the FPS) and I keep changing my mind on where to go. Peter Greweling's Chocolate and Confections book is one of my favorite books in terms of its detail of instruction, which is why I thought the CIA class might be a good option. If anyone has any info on that course (or wants to recommend others), I'd appreciate it. What I'm specifically looking for is formal instruction on tempering, molding, and enrobing, and the opportunity to see professional level equipment. Thanks, Rae

Sorry for the delay. The ramen is really that great. We go for the ramen. We sit down order a house salad to split and a ramen each. Occasionally I get convinced that if the ramen is so great something else will be that great too, but I'm always wrong...

You call regularly every couple of months! We go about every 10 days at max, usually every week. On Friday they make pho ga, which is great (there a lot of chicken bones to sift through, but it is worth it), but they generally only have it on the weekend (fri, sat, and sun). There is another soup that is really good with shrimp in it, but I tend to go for the pho dac biet over that. Once and only once they the most amazing beef stew, but every time I ask for it now they say they don't have it. It was kind of like the beef stew hoagie over at cafe nhu y (only replace the hoagie with noodles), but different enough to make me crave it. Basically everything we've had there has been great. We even go for the pork chop w eggs on rice once in a while and it rocks!

I go to Morimoto almost weekly for lunch. Overall I think the food is pretty mediocre except for a few things, which are great. The Morimoto ramen is great. The house green salad, is really good. And the tempura rock shrimp, yummy. Sometimes I get the cha-soba, which is also good, but not great. The sushi is not very good. Most times that I stray from what I listed above I am disappointed. I have not gotten the sushi in probably a year, but my dining companion got about 10 pieces of straight up nigiri a couple of weeks ago. Oddly enough he thought that every piece had been rubbed with garlic; needless to say he did not enjoy it. I think if you are looking for an overall meal, cooked food and sushi, I would go to Zento and do an omakase there.

I would caution against the pasta at Osteria if you are training for a marathon. It is seriously some of the best pasta in the city, but many of the variations are super saturated with butter, oil, or both... And there is not so much on the red sauce front there.

We finally made it to brunch at Cochon this weekend. They serve brunch on Sundays from 11 - 3 pm. I have been on a pancake kick lately so I ordered those. They were delicious. Huge but incredibly puffy and with caramalized bananas. They was perfect, I will definately order them again, I have never had pancakes like them. Others at the table had the frittata, french toast, and eggs over ham steak. All were great (I tried them all), and everyone was completely statisfied with their choice. We all proclaimed it was one of the best brunches we had ever had. I think next time I am going to have the french toast with berry maple syrup. Finally a place to replace my previous favorite brunch (Snackbar). Although to be honest, I think I liked Cochon brunch better than Snackbar brunch (I never thought I would like any brunch better than Snackbar brunch). Also, fyi, Cochon is doing a pork-centric 4-course dinner this week to celebrate their anniversary. $35, includes pork cassoulet!!!

A small group of us will be in New Orleans for a long weekend at the end of Sept, but before we go home we are going to drive to Memphis to have Gus' Fried Chicken. We know New Orleans and Memphis pretty well food wise, but where should we stop in Mississippi? It looks like we'll be driving up I-55 to Memphis and would appreciate any recommendations for a Sat mid day lunch/dinner. We, of course, are willing to detour for deliciousness. Thanks in advance.

I went to Parc last night at 9 pm, and overall I found it a very unpleasant experience. When we walked into the dining room, we were all in shock over the noise level. It was quite possibly the noisiest restaurant I have ever been in. It was equivalent to a rock concert without the benefit of the music. We asked to be seated in the back (near the kitchen), because it was slightly quieter there. My voice was hoarse from yelling across the table after about 10 min. Our table was also seated under a fan. It was very windy. Very very windy. To the point where my eyes got dry. We asked twice to turn the fan down, and once the manager came over and said he would take care of it but nothing ever happened. It would have gone a long way to make me feel better if he had come back to our table and explain that he was not able to lower the fan. Anyway, on to the more important part - the food. We loved the bread. It was quite good. We added a little salt to the butter and thought it was all pretty great. We started with the charcuterie platter, the salad Lyonnais, and the escargot. The charcuterie platter was quite good, the salad Lyonnais was fine, I have had much better, and the escargot had a nice sauce for the bread but the escargot did not really add to the dish. The entrees - 1/2 roast chicken, leg of lamb, duck confit, steak frites. I thought the leg of lamb was quite good, although it was rather cold. The combination of the lamb being pre-sliced and under the gale force wind from the fan made it cold in about 2 min. We had the polenta put on the side which I think was a good call. The polenta was good, but I was glad to have it separated from the lamb. The steak frites was okay. The steak was pretty mediocre and tough/sinewy, but the frites were very good. The duck confit had a nice salad with it but the duck itself was rather dry. I did not like the chicken at all. It was mushy and tasted salty and saucy but not particularly like chicken. Others at my table found it passable, but I just did not like it. We asked for the check before being offered dessert, because I could not stand to be in there any longer. While it is a pretty restaurant, it was sooooo noisy, it was pretty unbearable. Next time - go to Cochon, get much better food, better service, and a higher level of comfort for half the price. I do hope they will start selling their bread by the loaf though, I would easily pick up a baguette on the way home from work (if I bring along some ear plugs). I believe pics of our meal will be posted at some point soon. And possibly a slightly (although not by much) more favorable report. Others at my table said they would come back for the bread and the charcuterie platter if they went at a really odd time to avoid the noise. I am not going back any time soon.

Cantina Dos Segundos opens today in Northern Liberties! We were lucky and were invited to last night's friends and family night to get a preview. So I thought I'd give you a preview. The whole menu looked incredible and we were just two people so we had some tough choices to make. We settled on Quesadilla de Hongos y Huitlacoche, Tacos al Pastor, Pulpo, and the pork chops, and banana/chocoalte empanadas for dessert. The rest of the menu looked equally delicious. I had a hard time resisiting the goat tacos, a favorite of mine from the owners' other Cantina (Los Caballitos). The menu inculdes some of the stars from Caballitos but lots and lots of new deliciousness. So for the food - I started with the Tacos al Pastor. They rocked. The pork was moist, flavorful and very well seasoned, and there was just the right amount of pineapple. Best al pastor I've had in this city! Quesadillas were also fantastic. Not a heaping glob of cheese like you might come to expect when you have had so many bad quesadillas like I have. You could really taste everything that was in it, and the cheese also rocked, much higher quality than your normal run-of-the-mill quesadilla. Pulpo - might be our favorite of the night. It was perfectly cooked and tender, which is hard to get in a pulpo and really shows the mad skills of the chef. It was grilled and had a delicious mildly spicy tangy sauce. (Sorry I can't be more specific, I should have snagged a copy of the menu...) Pork chops - I was full, unfortunately, by the time I got to the pork chops so I cannot say much about them. The couple of bites I had were delicious, and again very well flavored both in terms of the pork and the marinade. My husband started with the pork chops and really enjoyed. He ended up eating one and a half chops, while I had maybe a third of a chop. Banana/Chocolate empanadas - I know I said I was full, but I had to get these. I'm a sucker for anything with both banana and chocolate. The were rich, but thankfully didn't put me over the edge. Fantastic. For drinks I had a Cadillac margarita and my husband had an El Dorado margarita and some kind of tequilla. I liked my margarita very much. It tasted like super tangy delicous guava juice with a kick. The servers were so knowledge about the drink and food menus and really helped guide us when we needed it, for instance when my husband wanted a glass of tequilla and knew nothing about the kinds offered. Our waitress described the varieties in detail and helped him select one he really liked. I am so excited that this place has opened. It is now on my short list of places I like to eat at, and I will definately be going back soon. Info: Cantina Dos Segundos 931 North Second Street Philadelphia, PA 215-629-0500 http://cantinadossegundos.com

Okay, I just had Cochon's second version of cassoulet (at least the second one that I've had), and I don't know how it was possible, but I think it was even better than the first. Although really, saying better would be like choosing between two children, but this one, my goodness... It was pork confit, garlic (?) sausage, and some duck breast, with the most yummy beans. I've been fighting a cold for almost a week now, and I think this might have just been what I needed to fend it off for good. Dare I say it, but the cassoulet might even be more powerful than my grandma's chicken and matzoh ball soup. Cochon is truly one of my favorite places to eat in Philly. It is really, for me, the only consistently satisfying restaurant. Did I mention yum??

We went to Cochon very spur of the moment tonight. It was outstanding. We probably hadn't been in a month or two, and after the first bite we were yelling at ourselves for not getting down there often enough. For apps we had the pork croquette special (with blood sausage). It was so good. Blood sausage was incredible, croquette was perfectly fried on the outside and perfectly soft and delicious on the inside. Also has scallops (perfectly cooked and delicious) and sweet breads, also great. For entrees we had the rack of lamb, the pork shoulder (my perennial favorite) and the cassoulet speccial. The rack of lamb was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The pork shoulder is always fantastic and tonight was no exception. But the standout for me was the cassoulet. It was made with quail and chicken sausage and other deliciousness. I couldn't get enough of it. In fact I traded a piece of my rack of lamb to dagordon just for the leftover beans in the cassoulet. (We were both happy with this arrangement.) Yum.

Yaaaaaayy!! I have been dreaming of this day for so long. It is surely going to be hard to wait until April 19, but I suppose I will manage somehow. Those who know me well know that there is nothing I'd rather eat for brunch than Jonny Mac's french toast. Yay french toast (please let there be french toast!)!

In both cases I used the exact same amount of ingredients, only the methods for making the ganache differed. Chocolate:cream was 2:1

I have been making a great dark chocolate ganache for a while now based on the methods in Chocolate Obsession by Recchuitti. Basically the method is to: 1. heat dark chocolate to 115 F 2. heat mixture of cream and invert sugar to 115 F 3. pour cream over chocolate and mix with immersion blender (I use a mini food processor) 4. Add softened butter, blend Then he pours it into a slab, refigerates, cuts, and enrobes. Lately, I've been playing with molded chocolates and have used steps 1-4 (i.e. no slab or refigeration) to pipe into molded shells. The consistency and taste are great. But I'm having a conceptual problem. I am a scientist by training and have recently been reading Peter Greweling's Chocolates and confections. This makes much more sense to me. In his ganache method (as you all know) he either starts with unmelted tempered chocolate for the piped method or melted tempered chocolate for the slabbed method. I tried the piped method with the ganache recipe I've been using and it was much firmer than the same recipe processed according to the Recchuitti method. In both cases I had no problem with my emulsions... but I just don't understand why the Recchuitti method works... If I am heating the chocolate to 115 F all of the stable cocoa butter crystals are melting out and it's untempered. But the emulsion still sets fine. Is the result of this method just that it's softer (i.e. you cannot handle it without refigerating, unless you are piping it into molds), but the emulsion is fine because the ingredients are being combined at the same temp? Will there be a problem with this ganache during storage since the crystals are not stable? I have not noticed any problems. I'm going to try the same method with tempered chocolate at working temp instead of 115 F chocolate tonight. Does anyone have any techincal insights for me? The more technical the better. edited to fix typo