Jump to content

Shamanjoe

participating member
  • Posts

    313
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Shamanjoe

  1. I bought these as well. They're awesome for baking, using as trays for resting meats from the grill, etc. I think I paid $12 for the two of them.
  2. WmC, I think his method is interesting, but I'll stick with your method, especially since I don't drink huge quantities of hot tea at any given time anyway. Thanks!
  3. Uh, yep. It's quite the success, too. It doesn't mean you have to buy it. Here's a post I made linking to an article on the money the pancake batter-in-a-can is making (click here). I never said I'd buy it. I'm just sad that it exists..
  4. Shamanjoe

    Green bell peppers

    I've always loved green bell peppers, even though not many people in my family do. Cooked are fine, but I prefer them raw. I used to get funny looks at work when I would pack them in my lunch and eat them like an apple. Sometimes I can't eat the red or yellow ones, they are too sweet. And I'm not a man averse to sweet things.
  5. Two more for me: Emeril at the Grill (it came free with his cookware) Memories of Philippine Kitchens - Amy Besa & Romy Dorotan
  6. I work as a nurse, and currently have an older Chinese gentleman as a patient. We got to talking about teas, Chinese green teas in particular, and he concentrated on the brewing method. He says to do it properly, you must make a teapot full (he didn't give an exact size, but said the customary setup is a teapot with 6 small cups). You add the loose leaves, pour in hot water, then immediately discard the water because it is now bad. Then you add more hot water and allow to steep for 2 minutes. This is the tea that you want to drink, and everything else (I'm assuming he means 2nd brew, 3rd brew, etc.) is something that just isn't as good. Is this an accepted way, or just his particular way of making green tea? I have precious little experience brewing loose leaf teas, and I've never added water and then immediately discarded it. Thanks.
  7. I think you encapsulated my idea and posted it while I was still working on getting my wording right edited: to correct a couple typos
  8. It seems to me that offering copyright protection for food or drink recipes just wouldn't work. Take Coke as an example. From what I've been able to understand, they own IP rights to the brand, and while the formula is "secret", there's no formal IP protection for it. They maintain the secret by producing a syrup that is sold to licensed bottling companies all over the world to produce the end product. This seems like the way it would have to be for a food or drink recipe as well. You may come up with a great new cocktail, but unless you keep the formula secret, other people can make it, sell it, call it their own, etc. The only IP protection you're guaranteed is branding. I think cocktail formulas are different than say, drug formulations because they don't require years of research, and millions of dollars in safety testing, etc, to get to an end product. A great new cocktail can be as simple as taking a recipe and swapping an ingredient out. For instance, I have my own very specific recipe for an Alabama Slammer that uses pineapple juice instead of orange juice. I came up with the variation on my own, but I doubt I'm the first person to think of it, and I wouldn't think of trying to slap protection on it. If I wanted IP rights to it, I'd keep it a secret and create a brand, instead of trying to copyright the recipe. edited: to correct some minor spelling issues (due to typing too danged fast)
  9. Cheez Whiz was bad enough, but now they have waffle batter in an aerosol can. Can this really be happening?
  10. Shamanjoe

    Thai iced tea

    I went to my local Asian market today and spent about 20mins in the tea aisle looking at everything, but I didn't see anything thai tea, not even the crappy stuff I tried the last time. Definitely the internet for me now. I just wanted to search the store to make sure I hadn't missed it before, and in hopes of some instant gratification
  11. I went looking for the thai tea powder mentioned in another thread today, and noticed that my little market has quite a few more loose leaf teas than I realised. They are all in tins though, nothing in bulk, and a good portion of the teas are labeled with names like colon cleanse green tea, cures all ailments black tea, etc. There are some regular teas that seem to be good, though most of the names are Chinese to me. Baroness and Richard, the Vithanakanda Estate looks to be more my cup of tea, pardon the pun. I'll be ordering some to try soon. Thank you!
  12. I completely agree. Instead of personalities, you'd get fundamentals, techniques, ingredients.... Also agree that it ain't gonna happen no how. I'd love to see shows like this too. I don't share your pessimism though Chris. I haven't seen any shows that are getting close yet, but there are SOME shows that have some of the right elements, like Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie. If they focused more on the cooking and less on the culture/specific ingredient, it would start to get close to what we're looking for. Carolyn, you're not the only one. That sounds like an awesome idea for a show as well, especially since I'm addicted to the history channel/history books, etc. And Mr. Hennes, love the new avatar photo!
  13. Back to an old favourite today. It's a holiday blend from the Republic of Tea that my manager turned me on to a few years ago. I'm not sure what the base tea is (the label fell off my package months ago), but it's full of warm spices, like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. I've always had a soft spot on my palette for anything similar to pumpkin pie spice, and the aroma and taste of this tea fits the bill nicely.
  14. Shamanjoe

    Thai iced tea

    Thanks prasantrin. I'll have to keep an eye out the next time I go to the store, now that I know what to look for. I'm not big on sweetening the tea at all, actually. I usually ask for light (half and half, milk, whatever they use, etc.) when I order it in a restaurant and then use my straw to drink most of the tea from the bottom of the glass before I mix it. If I can just get the powder, that'll be great. Oh, and I know Google is a great resource, but I think I didn't have much luck last time because I wasn't searching for Thai tea "powder". Amazing what one little word does to change your search!
  15. Shamanjoe

    Thai iced tea

    I found a box of tea bags at my local asian grocery that said Thai Tea on the side in English, so I snapped it up, figuring I could brew a bag, add some half and half or condensed milk and be done with it. One teabag made a fairly bland-looking pale red tea with hardly any taste. I figured I didn't use enough, so I got a jug and brewed the whole box next. It was stronger, but it didn't taste anything like Thai Tea, either straight, or cut with the half and half or condensed milk. I was very disappointed. Also, does anybody know an online source for the mix in the big bag? I don't have a Thai grocery close to me, and I've never seen the mix at my local asian grocery. Thanks! edited: to fix some spelling
  16. After reading all of these wonderful descriptions and tastings, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I haven't tried 90% of the teas on here. Most of the tea I get comes from the local asian market, and I buy one or two different kinds each time I go, to see if I like them or not. Most of them haven't stood out, or merited a second trip. I'm going to have to order from some of these sites and see if there's something out there that just blows me away. I'm really excited to try some different high-quality Ceylon teas. If anyone has a good recommendation for a relative novice to order, please let me know.
  17. I've been wanting to make iced coffees like they have in some of the smaller shops, mixed with some cream, sugar and blended with some ice. The problem is, I want to drink a lot of them, so I have been trying to make them with lowfat milk, less chocolate syrup, etc. When I blend them in this "light" formulation, I get a really large, pretty flavourless froth on top, and it seems like it loses some of the coffee flavour in the rest of the drink. Is there a method for making a light iced coffee without these shortcomings?
  18. Has anybody tried the iced green tea at Panera? I went there the other day to get one of their wonderful turkey clubs, and decided that an iced green tea sounded great to accompany it. It was slightly brighter green in colour than I expected, but I really didn't think anything about it. When I took a sip however, wow! I nearly choked. I'm not sure they use any actual green tea in it. The best comparison I can make is to the Starbuck's green tea frappucino. In its original formulation, they used to add 4 measly scoops of macha powder, and sweeten it with melon syrup. I finally learned to order it with double macha and no melon, but the first one I tried was horrid. The iced green tea at Panera reminds me of this. There might be some green tea in there somewhere, but it's drowned under some sweet, flavoured syrup. Has anybody else tried it, and what do you think of it?
  19. So which teas did you end up choosing? I'm personally a fan of iced green tea in any restaurant, except for Panera. Their iced green tea tasted more like a sugar syrup with some macha mixed into it than anything close to a green tea. Let us know how it turned out!
  20. I've never had much luck cold-brewing tea. I like my iced tea very strong, so putting the normal amount and leaving it for a long time doesn't brew to my liking. I have tried adding extra as well, but I only had tea bags, and it seems like adding extra bags doesn't help. The best results I've had are hot-brewing the tea and then chilling in the refrigerator overnight. This makes the tea as strong as I want it, as well as getting it to the desired temperature. I always brew double-strength when I do this. From the discussion here, it looks like some people are cold-brewing with the loose leaf tea instead of bags. If I were to cut the bags open and try cold-brewing that way, would it work better? Everybody I know that likes iced tea uses the same hot-brew and chill method that I do, so I don't have much experience with actual cold-brewing. Are there advantages to cold-brewing that I'm missing out on using my method?
  21. My favourite combination has to be a nice dark roast with either some Amarula cream liquer, or Bailey's. The fruit flavour of the amarula works well with a darker roast of coffee, and the Bailey's is just one of those automatic combinations, at least for me. On the more unusual side, I'd have to recommend either Tuaca, or a little splash of a good brandy. The vanilla notes in the Tuaca should work very well with any roast coffee, and brandy goes very well with a lighter roast in my opinion, to let all the subtleties come out from both the coffee and the liquor. If you want a really off the wall pairing, there's a company in Oregon, I believe, that makes a spruce liquour. It has an unbelievable spruce/pine aroma and a quite grassy taste to it. I would pair it with a very dark roast of regular coffee or maybe a double espresso. Definitely not a pairing for everybody, but it might be good for a specialty item.
  22. Sipping this morning on a Mango Ceylon from the Republic of Tea. It was a gift from my parents when they came back from vacation. They went to a foodie gift shop and brought back a bunch of specialty food stuff, including a very nice California Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The Mango Ceylon was one of the things they brought me. I brewed it in the cup for just under 4 minutes, used boiling water as per the instructions, but it tastes very very light, almost under-infused. I don't taste anything of the mango at all. In all, it's a nice cup of tea, but I don't really taste any mango, or any of the deeper notes that are usually associated with a ceylon. edited: to fix a double typo
  23. I spent about a month roasting my own beans about a year or two ago when I got back from the Philippines. A relative of ours has their own coffee plantation there and gave us a few pounds of green beans to play with. I had never done it before, but my wife told me stories about when she was growing up, and how her mom would just roast them in a frying pan. It sounded like a good idea, so I gave it a try. I just used a cheap nonstick frying pan over medium heat, no ventilation except for an open window, and I treated it just like pan-raosting some spices. Of course, they popped everywhere and the chaff was horrible, but I didn't get any smoke or fumes in the apartment (I kept blowing the chaff out of the pan so it wouldn't burn). I have to say it was the best coffee I've ever tasted. I gave it a medium roast (full city I think is what they call it?) and I ground it and french-pressed it as soon as the beans were cool. I continued doing that until we went through all the green beans we had brought home, and I haven't done it since, but other than the chaff, I never had any problems with the method. It never occured to me to use the hot air popper sitting on top of the fridge.
  24. I'd like to see a "from field to plate" show like the one that Sunny Anderson was doing, except completely different. Her shows were too short, covered things so super-basic that I thought I was watching a kid's show, and then showed one or two uses that sometimes were interesting, and sometimes completely irrelevant. I'd like a show that is an hour long (or a very well-researched and concise 30 minutes) that deals in-depth with how the food is produced, transportation methods, markets and finally at least a few different uses that aren't plugs for the latest food product. Something more generic, like caramelizing an onion until it almost melts away in the pan, or how they make onion powder, and all the products it goes into that we don't realise. That would be my ideal food show, though it might be more at home on the science channel now that I read it. I'd also like a show about french cooking techniques. All the really basic stuff, from breaking down a duck to mother sauces, etc. etc.
  25. You had to pick my two favourite smells Elsie! I'm not a huge coffee drinker either, but I just love the smell. Add to those two the smell of a smoker in action, especially with hickory wood in it, and I'm in heaven. I know the smoke itself isn't actually a cooking aroma, but it usually isn't smelled without some type of cooking going on, so it counts for me edited: to fix some sentence structure
×
×
  • Create New...