Chris Hennes

Up until today, my liquor store stocked a grand total of one Mezcal: the Monte Alban. Right... no thanks. But today they rearranged basically the entire store, and as part of that rearrangement suddenly they carry something like eight different ones. Has mezcal become a popular spirit, or has my local store just randomly decided to stock a bunch? Presumably some of them still suck... what are the good ones? A lot of these seem to be relative newcomers to the field, so I am not sure how relevant older articles are anymore.

I think @patrickamory and I have roughly opposite tastes in dining! In particular I love tasting menus. Being forced to choose just a few things to eat, and then being stuck with a whole plate full? No thanks. In a tasting menu if one course is not to your taste, you shrug and wait for the next one. If you are only getting one entree and it is too salty, it ruins the entire meal. I particularly like the various "seasonal vegetable" tastings that some restaurants have taken to offering. We enjoyed a really excellent one at Grammercy Tavern a couple of years ago, for example. I think both Per Se and Daniel still have such things. Where else can I find a good one?

I was making beans this afternoon when my wife called me into the other room and said "hey, isn't this your bean guy?" And sure enough, "my bean guy" was there in Sunset, right as I was making his Ayocote Amarillos. Nice article.

Are we sure this is cheapness and not an act of rebellion against the swill that passes for "lemonade" in most restaurants?

You can partially cook, chill, then do the rest of the cook later.

Great quote from that Eater article:

I agree with all of the above, parting it out will yield far better results than cooking it whole. It may lose some of the cool-factor of a whole duck, but the end result will taste better.

In which case, even knowing it was Wells, the meals were as lackluster as described? Ouch.

In light of Pete Wells' recent evisceration of Per Se, it seems like now is an opportune time to re-examine the high end of New York's dining scene. What is still good, and what has fallen out of favor? I had a great meal at Eleven Madison Park a few years ago, for example, but it was before the big format change. In terms of high-end NYC dining, what do you all figure the current top five are?

Wow. Down to two stars? I guess I'll reconsider my plan to dine there in August!

No, you're not wrong, and in fact from a food safety standpoint it's actively bad to handle the chicken again by repackaging. I don't use meat past its expiration date regardless of packaging or repackaging. But if I buy a chicken that is seven days out from its expiration date and I plan on using it in the 3-6 day window I find that the taste and smell are better if it has been vacuum sealed for the duration. Freezing would be a fine solution as well, and superior from a food safety standpoint. Since I cook chicken sous vide the vacuum packing is convenient.

I generally figure that if I am going to need more than three days, I re-pack with a food saver to stretch it out to perhaps five or six. Three days or fewer and I just leave it packed as the store had it.

I use the suggested (demanded?) camping-stove propane cylinders. I have no complaints, and they are cheap and easy to get.

I am going to categorically disagree with all elements of this post. A properly-done sear only affects the outermost layer of the meat, which you are trying to "overcook" in some sense. If you chill it then you have to reheat it, which ruins the crust. And if you didn't salt before sous vide, salt as you plate, no need for the meat to absorb the salt at all. And I have successfully used bag juices to produce a sauce when searing in a pan. Deglaze with red wine and those juices, then monte a beurre, it's excellent, IMO.

No, with sous vide there is no point in resting, the meat is already at a uniform temperature throughout. Resting is counterproductive.

Lunch today at Loveless Cafe... Let me remind you all of my biases here at the outset. I tend to wax rhapsodic about whatever I have eaten most recently. I am a sucker for biscuits. Spicy food automatically gets bonus points. Also, I had not eaten anything prior to this 2pm lunch. First, let's be clear, Loveless Cafe is not in Nashville by any real measure. It was a 45 minute drive from our hotel. It's also not under original ownership, and was actually acquired by a couple of Nashvillains (I don't know what they call themselves) and more or less turned into a tourist trap. Little shops where the motel used to be, jams and hams for sale, a little over-manufactured kitsch inside the cafe, etc. The sort of place that a true food lover loves to hate on. We get to channel our inner Gordon Ramsey as we tear into the craptacular food at outrageous prices. But they have biscuits! So I went anyway. And honestly, the biscuits were really quite good, as were most of the homemade jams and jellies that accompanied. Let's be honest, though, lots of places have quite good biscuits. Loveless is also known for their country ham and their fried chicken. My wife had the ham and was compelled to share of course - OK, actually a good country ham, not phoned in tourist-trap fare at all. The day's special was the hot chicken, so I had that, dark meat only. I remind and you again that I tend to get excited about the most recent thing I've eaten.... When I die, as the snow globe rolls out of my hands, I may be heard to gasp "the chicken!" It will make a terrible movie because I reveal the spoiler right here: it's the Loveless Cafe fried chicken I am talking about. I have no criticism. There was absolutely nothing to change. It was fried-chicken perfection by every measure I can think of. It's possible that Prince's chicken is its equal, but the Loveless sides, particularly the white bread properly placed under the chicken to soak up all the extra hot oil, were the tie-breaker. The white beans were also terrific, with tons of that country ham mixed in, and the very home style broccoli casserole was very good as well. When next in Nashville, make the trek to Loveless (go at an off-time, I hear there's quite a wait at peak meal times). Enjoy the drive, get the chicken, and remember to wear short sleeves and bring some of those little moist towelettes.

Just got back from dinner at Husk -- great recommendation. The charcuterie tray was a great starter. I followed it with grilled oysters with marrow butter, then the "southern vegetable" plate. Not everything was perfect, but it was all good, and there were some standouts, like a very spicy brassica braise that was terrific. Finished it with a bourbon from their extensive list. Add it to your Nahville to-try list if you haven't already.

I'm working with Invision to make sure that we catch this everywhere it happened, the fix should be applied soon.

I knew I shoulda put in my order last week! I figured there was no rush and I'm not quite out of beans yet (though my oregano supply is dangerously low).

Pasteurization is almost certain to extend your shelf life, but it will only matter if you are at refrigerator temperatures. At freezer temps I doubt you will have any use for the additional shelf-life. Since pasteurization is about time-at-temp, you probably can get a reasonable estimate for the time by using tables for meat, and then extending it a bit. Since you're not really concerned with a precise numerical reduction in the pathogen counts it's not that critical whether you hold it for the precise amount of time indicated. I'd just suggest that it's not worth the trouble.

And all of that is before they have at it with Photoshop!

Dinner is covered -- I've done Catbird before, I'm eating at Husk and Anatolia this time through.

I think I'll go to Loveless Cafe for lunch one day, but I'm looking for another lunch option if anyone has other recommendations. I've been to Arnold's (not my style) and Prince's (awesome), so anyplace else you can suggest would be great.

For the sake of completeness, here's the shelf that's on the wall opposite that one (so the one I face from my desk)...

This subject has been on my mind all day as I rearrange my office to purge a ton of books from grad school that I no longer need... which left me with a ton of shelf space near my desk. So I reconsidered my prior arrangement (where my "professional" cookbooks lived on a shelf across from my desk and everything else was in another room). I decided that proximity to the computer should be decided by how often I needed it when posting at eGullet . This led to a situation where all of my Modernist books are clustered directly behind where I sit, with charcuterie books right above them. My "professional" cookbooks are just a bit to the left of the Modernist, along with confection books. Baking books and books and "specific" books are on the shelf above. All of my region-specific books are on their own shelf across the room.