FoodMan

I just printed this recipe. I like how little eggs it has. How did it freeze? Was it still scoopable after hours in the freezer? I am a big fan of frozen berries unless I can find good quality fresh ones. So I will probably be using frozen ones when I try it. Elie

Tony- I got quiet a laugh from reading about your experience with the "putrified shark" in Iceland. The reason for that is because I am currently reading Kurlansky’s “Cod” book and that was the first time I’ve ever heard about this dish. I remember thinking to myself, “jeez, this sounds nasty” and the very next thought was “I am sure Tony would try though” And what do you know I was right! So can you give us some more details about the Iceland experience and the rotten shark? How does it taste? Will we see it on the show? Looking forward to Monday night’s airing. Elie edit: silly typo

I assume you moved into town when you found out where the party was. I've always found Taxis in Spain to be pretty inexpensive. Although we've not taken a taxi to elBulli from Roses, I've generally recommended it as a reasonable thing to do. I don't always recommend following what I do as the reasonable thing to do. No one's ever mentioned the price before. I assumed it was well less than that. It's good to know the price. ← Bux- The taxi ride is a rip off, but convenient of course, especially after four hours of eating and DRINKING. It's so funny because my wife was nudging me in the cab and saying in hushed tones "where the hell is his taxi meter, I don't see it". He had no meter that we could see. We paid more for the ride back as well. I think it was 25 going to elBulli and 28 back to the hotel . Elie

Stanley- I agree with your comment in general but not specifically about Hummus. ingredients and preparations can vary. This is not classic French cuisine after all and we have no reliable record of "master recipes". Hummus means chickpeas, literally. No discussion about it. If roasted red pepper, avocado, red beans, black beans...are used instead, then it is a tasty dip (red-pepper dip, avocado dip,...), but not hummus. Chickpeas are the dish, we cannot roast an eggplant and call it a chicken! We have a couple threads about this dip anyways and we can discuss it more over there. Let's keep this one on topic. The origin of this dish -askara wa harramiyya- might never be known, like I stated early on I have never heard of it. For all we know it might resemble anything depending on who named it, in this case Archestratus' ex-wife's ex-boyfriend's mom maybe. Elie

How do you exactly "make" tomatoes at home ? I'm guessing grown in your garden, right? I just couldn't help but comment on it. Elie

I made a few things o ver the past week from the PQ. I tried the "Peach Jam Scones" for breakfast and I highly recommend them, especially since we have some great peaches right now. I also made the "Emergency Crostadas" and filled them with nectarines. Simple and also great. the crust is very buttery and almost cookie like. I served them with vanilla ice cream. Last but not least I made the Tuxedo cake again for my son's 2nd b-day. As you can see my wife and I took some liberties with the final cake so it can fit the "Thomas the Engine" theme. Everyone loved it! I do not think I have ever recieved so many compliments for a cake, even from "chronic dieters". I did use 1/2 an envelop of gelatin and the frosting was much easier to work with. Elie

Thursday: Angel hair with garlicky shrimp, chilli and crunchy bread crumbs. Nectarine crostadas with vanilla ice cream for dessert Friday: beer braised homemade brats with parlsey-chive mashed potatoes Homemade ice cream (mint and chocolate) with chocolate sauce for dessert. Saturday: My son's 2nd B-day. We had: baked zitti with ham and ricotta brined baked chicken with rosemary, vermouth lemon and garlic chickpea and carrot salad The cake was the Tuxedo Cake from the Pastry Queen book (Click here for the book thread)...of course the Thomas The Engine theme is mine . Sunday: Leftovers Elie

finally I got to try my first homemade sausages that I made and froze a couple of weeks ago. I braised the brats in beer and onions and let them brown. Served them with chive and parsley mashed potatoes and dijon mustard. The result far exceedeed my expectations! They were awsome, with excellent flavor and texture. Elie

here is the mint ice cream and the last of the chocolate one topped with chocolate sauce. The mint flavor was nice but a little too subtle, next time more mint is in order. Elie

might be too late now, but for future use, the "container store" has all kinds of large jars. That's where I got mine. I was thinking about removing the spices after a few months as well. Abra, stuff like star anise can be very overpowering. I used a cinnamon stick, vanilla and a couple of cloves. Elie

The sanyoura and ice cream were both very good. But it is seriously hard to compete with Halab when it comes to anything that contains ishta. Hallab's cream is so fresh you almost feel like it might be healthy ← Are you saying Aishta is bad for you? What if you add fruits on top and drizzle with honey? I am sure your arteries will be just fine then Elie

Nadia, that silk worm story is very amusing, I can picture it too. Thanks for sharing it. I've never heard of the type of Syrian ice cream you mention, you can actually just cut strands out??! Fascinating. On a side note, be careful when using mastic ins anything. It STICKS like nothing else and is almost impossible to remove. I had to throw away a spoon I used to stir ice cream mixture after adding mastic to it . Zeitoun, yes, mullberry is Tout. The same stuff whose leaves the silk worms love so much! Nadia- How do sweets in Sidon compare to the Tripoli ones? I have never been to Sidon and would love to hear what you think. Elie

Haninger- Welcome to the eGullet Society and sorry for your loss. That really sucks. The person you spoke with on the phone is probably not that informed or probably does not care to verify exactly what is and is not allowed to be brought in. Iberico is still a no no unfortunatly. That is why I did not dare buy and bring any back with me in May. I did however bring a few dried sausages, but I did not "really" declare them, not on paper. When they asked me what I am bringing in I said "cheese and sausage", the csutoms agent did not even ask me to see the products. Elie

Saturday: Braised beef tongue, Colombian style, with potatoes, yuca, peas, tomatoes, cilantro and lime juice. I love the texture and taste of well prepared beef or veal tongue and this is one of my favorite preparations. Served it on top of white rice. Sunday: Parmeggiano and Proscuitto (sp?) sformato, a rich savory Italian "flan" made with parmeggiano cheese and baked wrapped with Parma ham. I served with it some thin sliced grilled leftover steak from lunch. Monday: Mujadarra, Lebanese lentil and bulghur pilaf with cabbage salad and pickled turnips. Chcocolate ice cream for dessert. Elie

Sorry, my mistake. But the price is still below average at a fine dining restaurant. Elie

John- that looks very decadent. Great work! I made the mint ice cream mix last night for the "Profiteroles with mint ice cream and chocolate sauce". I will churn it tonight and hopefully make the puffs as well. If not then it is the ice cream with chocolate sauce only. Elie

I have a good crop of spearmint in my backyard. Last night I made a mix for mint ice cream to be churned today. The plan is for it to be served in profiterols (sp?) with chocolate sauce, if timing is tight, then just chocolate sauce. More on this later. Elie

I actually tried getting a table at Lola when I was up in Dallas, but they had a party going on in the Tasting Room. Lola has been discussed in another thread and it seems worth the money. But in my experience it is an anomally, 14 courses for $59!! I would guess that maybe they have a biggger main dining room and only a few (I think under 10) tables in the Tasting Room. So the main profit maker is the main dining room where you cannot get the tasting menu (I asked). Again, I have never been there so I am just guessing. Elie

I got my copy, although I have not cooked anything yet. I am just reading through it and evaluating my options. I just wanted to share a couple of amusing Batali comments from the book. Reading his intros to recipes is quiet interesting as usual, for example one recipe for olives in tomato sauce, he describes the dish as comforting and compares it to Nigella Lawson, the attractive British food personality. No, not her cooking but to herself . I guess he is a fan as well. In the Intro for his gelato recipe he says that gelato differs from American ice cream in that it has less air whipped in it and has less fat. Well in the recipe he uses 14 egg yolks, cream and milk! Only Mario would use 14 yolks and the words “less fat” in one recipe. Needless to say, I would like to try it ASAP. Elie

I am no expert by any means and the following might only apply to those machines with the freezer bowl. So, please correct me if any of this makes no sense. I made the Alton Brown as written recipe many times. It produces a thick creamy ice cream, even after freezing. I'm guessing using the Splenda/honey mixture and the "I kept tasting and adding milk until the sweetness was acceptable" really caused the "rock hard" consistency. Homemade Ice cream needs a good amount of fat, sugar and air in it to remain scoop-able. My general observations about the rock-hard ice cream situation: This happened twice to me and I learned my lesson well. The first time around I tried mucking around with a low fat strawberry ice cream based on Alton Browns "Serious Vanilla". Well, I mixed in a good doze of blended strawberries and used less cream. The result was rock hard. The second time was a rich Charlie Trotter coconut ice cream. So, fat is no problem here. The recipe had cream, four or so yolks and made about 1/2 a quart (2 cups) of ice cream. That was the problem though, it was too little of an amount to make in my Krups with the frozen bowl. As soon as the mix hit the bowl it froze in under 5 minutes. No air was whipped in it and the result again was rock hard. The next time around I made a double batch and enjoyed an awsome ice cream. In both situations the ice cream was still edible after letting it sit on the counter for 10 minutes and then scooping out. So, what I learned was: 1- I need fat in my ice cream base 2- If a recipe makes less than 1 quart, make a bigger batch! (BTW, I do the same with the PH chocolate ice cream I showed above). Hope this helps. Elie

That is just too funny, and of course expected! I am sure they were doing their jobs seriously 'Observing' what the 3000 calorie Lebanese Hallab breakfast is composed of, since it can seriously affect the polling results . Elie

Farid- This is a whole lot of stuff!! How long does it take to prep all that? What is the "game plan" to execute sucha varied buffet? Elie

What about Indian-Chinese fusion, from the digest: I can personally vouch for Mayuri. IMHO, it has the best Indian (or should that be Indo-chinese, or Chine-Indian) buffets in town! It is probably the only buffet that I frequent on a regular basis. Even their desserts on the buffet are homemade, not that stuff that comes in a box from Sysco. Elie

Houston Press' Cover Story Chefs Rule! Brian McManus reports on how to earn your stripes in a restaurant kitchen, it boils down to: “If you can't stand the sight of lopped-off digits and the smell of your own flesh burning, get out of the kitchen!” Houston Press' Dining Section Cyclone Season Robb Walsh reviews Terlingua Texas Border Café, the latest from 2 sons of Cyclone Anaya, the wrestler turned restaurateur. Houston Chronicle's Dining Guide The Best of both worlds Dai Huynh reports on a new fusion concept taking off in Houston, Indian-Chinese. This thread is for food media DIGEST entries. If you want to discuss one of these news items, please start a separate discussion thread.

I have never tried the tasting menu at Aries, mainly becuase on the the three occasions I have been there, it did not interest me as much as regular menu items. Thanks for the detailed and helpful report, it really reflects a balanced and well stated point of view. FWIW, regular menu items at Aries are outstanding (just like Jscarbor's tasting menu items) and the portions are very reasonable. Between myself and my wife we compose a small tasting menu, usually a couple of apps, entrees and one or two desserts are more than enough. As for tasting menu portions, they honestly do sound about right. We had the tasting menu at Nana in Dallas and it also was very well done with similar small portions (probably 8-10 oz protein total, however we had more dishes with meat in them). Elie