docdix

I agree in a sense but with the exception of the four basic tastes... five if you want to include umami. Evidence for this is that patients who have temporary Anosmia (lack of smell), do retain a bland perception of the basic tastes but none of the nuances of any other flavors. Hence when seasoning food when you have a cold, let someone taste it.

If I am not mistaken though, from what I have read and from many years of smoking food, the smokiness is more of an olfactory sensation than one of taste. So it is the rub/marinade or seasoning that you actually taste and none of the smoke... which only releases molecules as the food is presented and as you chew. So I take to mean the lack of smokiness to be not necessarily lack of taste. My opinion is it is easier to compensate for "taste" that is short than for food texture and mouthfeel.

I am assuming that when you give the choice between smoke flavor and tenderness you don't mean total absence of either one. So for me texture is better because I like meat that only has a hint of smoke and a pleasure to chew. The exception is for dried or cured meats where I prefer a stronger smoke profile.

Yeah, Get them a good bottle of cali wine. You can only read about it so much but the true wine education comes from actually trying them... is that within your budget?

Hi, I didn't quite understand your question. Did you mean to ask how to store wine properly or to prevent wine from going bad in storage? There are three basic things to take note of: Temperature, Humidity and Agitation. wine storage temperature should be between 12-16C which is ideal for the wine to age in the bottle, the more stable the temp, the better (meaning there are no wide upswings and downswings). The relative humidity of about 50%, this prevents the outer parts of the cork from drying out and shrinking. This means that the common refrigerator is too cold and too dry to store wine long term. If you are planning to do long term storage, the place should be free from being agitated so any sediments that have settled doesn't get mixed up with the wine. Now having said that, other more minor things of note are; store without any bright lights on them, don't store food (like chocolate, cheese etc...) with wine. I guess screw capped wines have eliminated the humidity issue but the ref is still too cold for the wine to be allowed to mature. I hope I answered your question.

Well just got back from Sing. it was mostly overcast which helped temper the heat and it was surprisingly less humid than last april. As planned, i did get to try what I had intended to eat while I was there plus a few more. Arriving a little after lunch we headed for the most accessible... Din Tai Fung for some dimsum stuffed with pork and chicken broth... fantastic as always. For dinner we ended up at the Food Republic atop Isetann on Orchard... great variety and what was recommendable is the Oyster Omelette, Mee, Laksa and Hainanese Chicken... actually everything looked so good so we tried and shared them. Day 2 breakfast of Nani Goreng and bacon at the hotel then lunch at Spring Court in chinatown and had an 8 course menu. The highlight was the sharks fin soup and Singaporean chili crabs. I tell you, Singapore has the best sharks fin soups I have had so far because of the sheer amount of it that they place in the soup! The crabs were huge and excellent and just properly spiced. For dinner we went to the hawkers stalls at the marina (Makansutra Bay) with a view of the new Sands hotel it was excellent but limited in choices. I think what was nice about it was the ambience. The highlights for me in this place were the Oyster Omelette, Chicken Sate, fried seafood/seaweed rolls. I tried the grilled spicy Sting Ray and while it was different, I think I was just too full to enjoy it especially since you had to eat that with rice. I would have liked to try more but given that lunch was at 2PM I was just too stuffed to go for it. Day 3 i skipped breakfast and had lunch at Maxwell food court and just had hainanese chicken. We left for the airport at 4pm and some of my companions had enough of Singaporean/Chinese food dove into the first Burger King stall they saw... believe me I was tempted but didn't want to forget the experience. Thank you for all your suggestions and I think I am supposed to be back there in 3 months. My next trip is for Xiamen... suggestions and advice anyone?

Thanks for the advice, usually that is what I do but in this trip we will be a party of 8 people so I wanted to find a place with a good number of stalls choices so everyone can get their own fancy. I will go with the recommendation above on Maxwell Centre and based on the Makansutra website, they also recommend Chinatown Centre... is that a good place to go too? How about Gluttons bay? I know it will be rainy so will that be a problem? thanks

Thank you for the advice. If you only had 2 hawkers places you could go to, which ones would they be? I probably have only two free afternoons to spend eating so I may not have the time to shuttle from one place to another. Thanks again

Hi, I have two days in Singapore coming up. can anyone give me places to go for street or hawkers fare that will give me a good taste of the Singaporean home cuisine. Thanks

Hi I would suggest going via the silverado wine trail. Some wineries I personally enjoy are ZD Wines, Chimney Rock, Clos du Val, Dry Creek Vineyards and Teldeschi. these wineries are within a few miles of each other they are not very commercialized and IMHO still really reflect the Napa terroir well. Download the map from silverado wine trail website. Good luck and enjoy

Yup the cheap ones can be bad but three good ones come to my mind: Kaiken Ultra, Trapiche Medalla & Broquel and Ricardo Santos malbec. I would still say these are priced in the 25-40 dollar range... still reasonable. Try to find the ones you like at wine searcher I am sure it's there. we had a selection of these wines at an Argentinian parrillada where a whole calf, goat and rabbits were roasted on a spit. Bread was even baked twined on metal poles beside the fire. Wow is all i can say but i am digressing.

Yes that's right and two that come to my mind are Teldeschi and Manzanita Creek... if you like Zins!

Hi, I agree tour companies will bring you to the more commercial wineries and you tend to miss out on the good stuff from the smaller ones who are not involved with the tour groups and operators. Just get a rental, GPS and a designated driver if possible. If you have a short time, perhaps the Silverado Trail in Napa is a good place to start as the wineries are within a few miles of each other. Get a good start as most wineries open at 10am and by mid day, they can get crowded especially in summer. Smaller wineries are less crowded. the map can be downloaded from here:http://www.silveradotrail.com/ Among those I personally like are: Chimney Rock, Dry Creek Vineyards, Clos du Val, Joseph Phelps, ZD wines, darioush... Oh and while you can go to wineries with delis, most of them would allow you to "picnic in their grounds for as long as you get a bottle from them. I suggest that you buy what you want to eat ahead of time, pack em and find the winery with the wines that you like and stay there for lunch. Good luck and enjoy

Hi, depending on the type of cooking, most advocate removing the skin because it does tend to be tough. In making bacon, I generally remove it after hot smoking the belly, that way the underlying fat does not get charred and it does not get in the way of the nice bacon texture when it is ready to be eaten. When I make pork chops, i do leave the skin on and in some situations it may crunch up and is delicious but sometimes it's just too chewy. It's really a matter of preference.

Actually I was thinking of fresh oyster omelette.

fresh Oysters and eggs

If you could try to find the coolest room/closet in the house (basement, bedroom etc...) and keep it away from any light source, that bottle might just make it in two years. I assume the climate in your area remains cool year-round anyway. My brother in law who lives in California recently brought out a bottle which he bought in 2004 (and had forgotten in his closet), it was a 2002 vintage and i was quite impressed at how well it kept... of course thats California weather for you. Good luck and enjoy!

I have only tried them braised with liver and pork belly. They become tender after a few hours of braising. Not sure about fried gizzard.

Hi, Why was it discounted? 2004 was a very good year and being from palmer-margaux, it will keep for at least 6-8 years. Wine retailers discount these, in my experience, when they are at peak or just soon to be over the top. I would drink one now and decide whether it is worth buying a few more to have over the next few years.

Hi, I am not sure if this is where i should be posting this but can anyone tell me what particular cut of beef is Tri-tip from? Someone served it for dinner a week ago just marinated and grilled and it was fantastic. thanks in advance

Hi ChefCrash, Been trying to smoke baby backs for some time now and it has always turned out a tad dry or over. I have tried brining them etc... The picts look great! Any particular temp you maintained to finish the ribs? thanks

Sorry, my bad. I had taken the article to mean that they also found similar candies tainted with melamine. Anyway wow you actually copied the candy... you must like it a lot! I travel often to Singapore and if I find some I will make inquiries and let you know what i find... that's if I will be able to understand them.

Hi, Hate to be a wet blanket to your enjoyment of that candy but is this the candy you were referring to? http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-09-24-melamine-china_N.htm I am not sure if this is just protectionist marketing or i it is really true but we all have to be careful.

That's a Guava candy. you can find it here. http://www.piermall.com/Guava-Hard-Candy-p/c-guava-candy.htm enjoy but remember to brush after!

Hi, I have not had this particular one but I would think it would match with any food that also goes with Pinot Noir. A wild mushroom soup and mildly prepared meat especially cold cuts or smoked sausages with German potato salad would go with it. I would avoid food prepared with cream sauces or gamey meats as this is a medium bodied wine. I hope this helps.