MikeHartnett

Ordered it and it'll be here on Tuesday! I can't remember the last time I was so excited about a cookbook. I feel quite the opposite of Merkinz re Plenty (one of my all-time favorite cookbooks), and I don't expect to be disappointed by this one.

Awesome. Enjoy.

No decent ones, but a friend took this with his phone. Note: This was also after we had eaten...

Beautiful book, and everything I've made from it so far has been delicious. To date, I've made the Chicken in Tart Garlic Sauce, Lima Beans with Galangal, Roasted Eggplant Salad, Golden Egg Curry, the Shallot-Lime Chutney, and Tart-Sweet Chile-Garlic Sauce. Standouts were the chicken and the egg curry.

Yeah. He's definitely passionate about what he does.

All of the above, plus Michael Doyle from Maurepas Foods in the Bywater.

Did you decide on your pour over future?

The problem with pouring all the water at once is that it leads to uneven extraction. As the water makes its way downward, the grounds on the bottom are exposed to water longer than those on top. This means that the bottom grounds get overextracted, producing bitter coffee, and the top grounds are underextracted. Melitta seems to suggest that you can do this, but if you're going through the trouble to make pour over, I wouldn't advise it. If you're precise enough with your kettle, by all means, save the money. All the fancy ones do is produce a thinner, slower stream.

I'm not sure what you're referring to when you ask about the difference between open-style and restricted cones. The V60 cone has spiral-ribbed walls to aid in proper extraction (no idea whether this actually does anything). I will say that to achieve optimal results, you will need a kettle in the style of the Buono - standard kettles don't provide you with the level of control that the Buono does, and proper pour over depends on a consistent pour. If the idea of standing over the cone pouring for several minutes is a turn-off, I'd suggest the Clever dripper. It's basically a combination of a pour over and a french press. It has a valve at the bottom to keep the water in; you pour in all the water, wait for the desired amount of time, and then place on top of the cup, where it will release the water. It uses paper filters, so it results in a cleaner cup than french press, but does have a heavier body as a result of the complete immersion style of brewing.

That looks fantastic, patrickamory.

These are wayyyy at the top of my list.

Nasi Lemak from Plenty: coconut rice with homemade sambal, okra, fried shallots. Unbelievably good.

Agreed, if I trust the chef enough to put myself in his hands. If I'm less familiar with the restaurant, I'd prefer that the menu give some indication of preparation.

Quite pleasant and comforting. Definitely something to consider along with chicken soup for those days when food loses its allure. A liitle too like invalid food to make a regular appearance. Fair enough. I've been looking to try it for a while, too, and I can see how that might be the case.

And how was it?

I read that 1 in 9 people who currently live here didn't before Katrina. Plus, the food culture here supports more restaurants operating at a higher level than almost anywhere else.

SobaAddict70, when you say "carrot pasta," are you referring to pasta made with carrots? I didn't notice any mention of carrots elsewhere in your description.

Looks beautiful. I've had my eye on this recipe meaning to make it for ages. Thanks! It was really tasty, but I realized afterwards that I made it with a squash that looked very much like butternut, but wasn't. Texturally, off a bit. It would have been fantastic with actual butternut.

Kerry Beal, the pork bun inspired eggs look awesome. Great idea.

Butternut squash with tahini yogurt sauce and limes, from Plenty by Ottolenghi

No kidding. What would life be like without "Vietnamese po boys?"

I am not in any way, shape, or form what you would call a "science person," so wait for Chris Hennes to confirm, but I believe the heat loss is because first crack is an exothermic reaction, meaning that the crack results from the bean expelling heat. It seems like that might explain the loss of heat at that point. Then again, a lot of things that seem right to me are not, as I have been informed by my biologist fiancée. Actually, according to Sweet Maria's, French Roast is basically defined as the nearly complete burning of the beans' sugars. Of course, roasting coffee is about caramelizing the sugars in the beans, so I guess it depends on what stage you'd consider "burnt."

Oh, great. If FrogPrincesse and HungryC can post pictures of purchased banh mi, that means I'm going to have to go around and buy a bunch to remind myself which Nola banh mi is the best.

True. Forgot age as a factor, too. Add that to one of the reasons you don't want to buy coffee from the grocery store. Even reputable brands' coffees are often months past the roast date.

There are two things that affect how the oil to rises to the surface of a coffee bean: roast level and age. If you roast up past FC+ and into the extremely dark roasts (those that I suspect everyone here agree are over-roasted for your purposes) your beans will be oily coming straight out of the roaster. On the other hand, if you roast to, say, Full City, it may take a few weeks before any oils rise up to the surface. But give them a few months in the cupboard and you'll find they're coated with oil. The higher you roasted, the sooner the oil will rise to the surface, but if the beans are old enough then the amount of sheen isn't an indicator of roast level, it just means they're old. What he said.