nextguy

I have heard that my hotel is pretty far from some of the other hotels. I hope the shuttle and bus service is not too bad.

Which menu did you take? I am just trying to figure it if I would be better off taking the full tasting menu or would a smaller prix fixe give me enough of an idea of the kitchen.

I just noticed that the Palazzo has Charlie Trotter. Has anyone eaten there?

I am going to be in Vegas for 4 days as of March 22. I will likely eat at Bouchon and Boulud since I am staying at the Wynn Encore. I am now trying to decide whether I should go to Mix, L'Atelier, maybe Guy Savoy, Craftsteak, or Stripsteak. I guess I should break it down thusly. I want to eat at a restaurant owned by a Michelin starred chef. I am looking for French or American cuisine and/or steak. Italian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. just aren't interesting to me at this moment. Everyone seems to have mixed feelings about the three french restaurants I listed which makes my decision so much harder. My budget is not limitless so would it be better to have the small tasting menus at two or three of these places or should I get the large menu from only one? TIA!

I've never tried it but I imagine the butter just melting out.

For those that have already done this, is it normal that there is a slight smell from the dry exterior of the rib? I would assume so but I just want to make sure. The smell is by no means strong. I have to almost touch the meat with my nose to smell it. But it does smell slightly off. It has been 11 days now and I have not yet sliced into the rib yet so I don't know what the interior smells like.

Is it recommended to age with the bone in? The rib I am aging now is very dry on top but I wonder if the rib is affecting the aging on the bottom. That is one of the reasons I was wondering if flipping the rib once a day would help.

I grew up in Chinese kitchens, my parents are Chinese and owned a restaurant, and we very rarely added flavourings other than the classic onions and sometimes carrots to the poaching liquid. In my experience, the stock is used as a base for a sauce or a soup and we would add seasonings only when preparing the final dish. The stock was therefore basic and flexible.

I just started dry aging an 18 pound rib following the instructions at askthemeatman. The rib came from the butcher at Le Bifteque which is a steakhouse with locations around Canada. Mine came from the Montreal location and I think it is pretty good quality. It isn't as marbled as I have seen from specialty butchers but this is my first try. I left the rib intact and I am hoping that isn't a mistake. Maybe I should have split it in two. Anyhow, my fridge is generally below 35 degrees though it does sometimes jump close to 40 since this is my primary fridge. I will try to limit how much I open it until I am done aging the rib. So following the instructions, I have been wrapping the meat in clean dish towels every day. It has only been 2 days and I am already very surprised by how hard the outside of the rib has become, especially the fat cap on top. The whole rib cost me 125$ CAD so I hope I don't screw this up Askthemeatman recommends only aging the beef for 10-14 days but I am thinking of giving it 21. Any opinions? Also, the instructions don't say if I should flip the rib over every now and then. Would this be a good idea?

Excellent points. Maybe the unwrapped roulade is the way to go.

Thanks for the recipe. I was thinking that after SVing the roulade I could wrap it in prosciutto or even turkey skin and fry it really quickly to crisp it and to impart another flavor and texture element.

Hi slkinsey, Could you explain your roulade preparation for me? Did you just use a food processor to whip up some dark meat with truffle? If it was a mousse then I am guessing you had eggs, cream, and spices. When it came out of the SV, what was the texture like? Did you sear the roulade or just slice and serve? Thanks!

I am not a big fan of either the US or Canadian Food Network anymore. But I'd say that the US version is more guilty of dumbing down cooking. The Canadian version shows more pro-chefs than the US version which gave birth to the Rachael Ray's and Sandra Lee's of the world. More and more I find myself preferring PBS's cooking shows.

I have owned several and the benriner is hands down the best. You see them being used in many pro kitchens as well as on Iron Chef and Top Chef. It doesn't do waffle cuts but if your son doesn't need that, benriner can't be beat.

Chez Ashton close to Quebec City is said to be the best poutine. I've had it but cannot say that it is the absolute best. In Montreal I like Mondo Frites although I have not been there in several years. Their french fries in general were very good as was their gravy. But in terms of chain-diners, I'd have to say that Lafleur's is the best although others would say that La Belle Province is better. I am not a big fan of the "fancy" poutines like the one served at Au Pied De Cochon in Montreal. They put a huge chunk of foie gras on top which is just too much in my opinion. Nothing is better than the classic brown gray, squeaky curd cheese, and soft fries.

I guess it really comes down to how hard you try to find something. Friends that have moved to the Toronto area will occasionally complain about how hard it is to find a good poutine. My point is that it simplifies an entire country when someone says that dish "x" is a national dish when it is still arguably a regional one. And this is coming from a Montrealer!

Poutine hit the big time when MacDonald's rolled it out... must have been at least 18 years ago across Quebec. Boy I am getting old But I don't think it is available nationally. Family members in BC still have not tried it.

This reminds me of a funny story. I was eating at a restaurant in Montreal where everyone eats Poutine. An american woman sitting beside my table remarked to her companion that everyone was eating "potato soup". Realize that I was born and raised in Montreal so it pains me to read articles such as these where the author calls Poutine "Canada's national dish". Poutine has its roots squarely in Quebec and although I haven't been to every city in Canada, I am certain you would not find Poutine on the menu of the simplest diner in Vancouver, Calgary, or even Toronto. I also must mention that for those that are freaked out by this dish, you should not that it is very similar to what an American would call Chili fries.

The show was a big disappointment for me. As much as I dislike Gordon Ramsay's *American* tv personality, I think that if the instructor were more like him at least the show would have been entertaining. The students are quirky for the sake of being quirky and the first challenge should not have been difficult for anyone that seriously wanted to become a chef or cook. Cooking School (on Food Network Canada - not sure if it is on Food Network US) is a far better show.

I don't know that I agree about his opinion that boiling meat and then coating it in oil is the same as cooking meat confit style. When cooking confit you are not using a neutral flavored oil. I would think that some of the flavor of the oil penetrates the meat just as spices and marinade in a pouch flavour meat during a long sous vide.

The NY Times just wrote an article about Nathan Myrvold's upcoming cook book. I thought I'd post it here even though it doesn't necessarily deal only with sous-vide. I wish I could try his cryo-seared duck breast. Nathanm, if you are still following this thread I can't wait to order the book!

By the way, has anyone read the Momofuku book yet? It has an interesting "fried-poached" egg idea. I SV'ed an uncracked egg at 45C for 45 minutes and gently cracked it into small plate. The really wet whites were discarded and I VERY quickly fried the gelatinous blob remaining in very hot oil. The texture was very interesting. I haven't seen that technique before so I thought I'd share.

I am hesitant to purchase lab equipment second hand or from ebay. How can you be absolutely sure it wasn't used for experiments? For me (and for most of you I am sure), food safety is paramount. I have made meals for large numbers of people and always worry about getting them sick. I am very confident now when I use my rice cooker and SVM (both food safe) since I am armed with nathanm's cooking charts, but if I were to build something with heating elements and water pumps I'd be worried about chemicals mixing with the water bath even if the food is encased in a water tight bag. What if there is a tiny leak that I didn't notice?

The question I have regarding aquarium equipment (pumps, heaters, etc.) is whether they are food grade. My concern is that the companies producing these things are not so concerned about leeching of chemicals since in principle they are *only* for pet fish. For humans, perhaps these parts are not clean enough. I've also been looking for a good quality water pump (food grade again) that lists its maximum operating temperature. I am concerned that at higher heats, an aquarium pump would stop working.

Sorry this topic is very long and I did not find this info by searching. But has anyone considered building an immersion circulator? As I understand, it is essentially a heating element controlled by a PID controller with a water pump. Food grade, submersible elements can be found in cheap electric water kettles. I have seen food grade water pumps on the internet. The heating element could be controlled by a sous vide magic if wiring the controller is too complicated. The element and water pump could be encased in a stainless steel cage and submerged in the water container. I imagine that this setup could not cost more than 200-250$ max.