Dave the Cook

I agree with Steven, adding that what Ian Kleinman is doing at Os is an especially accessible form of the genre.

I had exactly the reciprocal reaction. My mom feeds her dog Beggin' Strips, something I wasn't familiar with when I moved in with her. Soon enough, it became my turn to give him a treat. I opened the pouch, caught a whiff, and thought, "OMG, it's Bacos!" Why do we think that soy-derived protein is better for our pets -- or for ourselves -- than real food?

After Blais left Home he opened Flip, though Mark Nanna is the real exec there (Blais did the menu design and remains creative director). I'm not the best-connected guy in the city, but I'd avoid Home until they figure out what they're doing; I think they're on their third chef since Blais. Having said all that, be prepared for a wait at Flip, especially on a Saturday night. It's a fine choice, but Atlanta is a fairly relaxed city, and there are lots of good places in midtown and the old fourth ward where you can chill and eat very well. I recommend Restaurant Eugene for your romantic dinner Sunday. And if you're cabbing it, go back uptopic and read therese's guidelines.

Why not have Amazon send you the KitchenAid? Here's a link that will get you the mixer for 60 bucks, and garner a few pennies for the eGullet Society (at no extra charge to you): KA 9-speed. At that price, I'm pretty sure they ship for free.

Yep. My bad, and thanks for the correction.

I don't have an answer for you, but I salute your question. I do have some thoughts. The glue problem with potatoes isn't starch, it's protein. But bananas are only ~1% protein. There might be something in the roasting -- I haven't researched this -- about sugar-starch conversion that knowing about would be helpful. The mechanical manipulation of banana + milk/cream seems to induce glue. Both are relatively low in protein, so I'm stumped.

True, at least in my case. My GE is at least 25 years old. I'd like something less homely, but it just won't break. 0.6 amps @ 110 volts = 66 watts, such a small number (in comparison the the competition) that it's no wonder that KA wants to disguise it. On the other hand, these are all describing power consumption, not power output, which, as a cook, is what should concern you. Much depends on the efficiency of the mechanical design. It's very possible that a KA could outperform any of the others, for the same reasons that a 189 hp Lotus can beat the pants off a 300 hp Mustang GT.

What size is your cutout? 30", 36", 42"?

It would be nice if people who write recipes for things like pork belly would use size rather than weight as the primary ingredient descriptor. Something like: 1 piece pork belly, 4" x 4" x 2" (100 mm x 100mm x 50 mm), about 1 pound (500 g) The thickness of a whole belly actually varies quite a bit. For a typical boneless seven- or eight-pound cut, the range can go from about 2-1/2" to a little less than an inch as you move from one side/end to the other. This isn't true if you buy from a wholesaler for a specific purpose, or in packages of slices at an Asian grocery, but if you're looking a way to parcel out the entire cut, you could be easily misled if you work only from weight. That aside, in my experience it's not that hard to dry out a pork belly and still be left with a lot of fat. The muscle in the belly is the pig's diaphragm -- a very tough muscle that does take a long, slow cook to develop properly. But as with any tough muscle, once you've converted the collagen to gelatin, you need to stop cooking, lest the gelatin melt away and leave you with fatty, porky shoe leather.

I'm not sure where you're getting this. Thermal breakdown products of PTFE include toxic gasses such as perfluoroisobutene, octafluoroisobutylene, and tetrafluoroethylene. (And I'm using the term "gaseous" because it describes the physical state of the chemical in the situation we're talking about). ← To expand on this: all plastics outgas, especially in the period closely following manufacture. An example almost everyone knows: that "new car" smell. But Sam and paulraphael are correct. Used according to manufacturer's directions, PTFE is perfectly safe for humans.

Has anyone run into problems with discoloration? I was making a lot of chocolate roux last week, and two silicone spatulas emerged from the process with a distinct brown cast. I was using Prudhomme's high-temp method, but it's unlikely that the mixture got higher than 500 F (for reasons that I won't go into, I was tracking the temperature pretty closely), and these, from Le Creuset, are rated to 800 F. Is that all the change is -- discoloration -- or does it indicate impending failure of some sort?

I've been eating and cooking chili for more than 50 years, and I've seen numerous assaults on chili orthodoxy; I've even mounted a few myself. But I gotta tell ya, those carrots are kind of freaking me out.

One of my favorite ATL chefs, Joe Truex (Repast), will be on Martha Stewart March 5.

One wonders how last night might have turned out if the knife choosing had gone differently. If you assume that last night's sous were all competent at prep work, Richard's real value would have been moral support for whoever he worked with. IIRC, the times last year when Richard faltered, he faulted himself for not sticking with his strengths (which, I'd argue, are not avant-garde techniques but imagination, wit and precision) and choking in the finale. At one point, Hosea said something like "Venison. That's my food" -- given Richard's experience, I'd be surprised if hadn't encouraged Hosea in that conviction. If Carla had ended up with Richard instead, her meal might have been quite different -- more of her, and better executed.

Does this describe a salad? http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1427611

I think chimichurri might be a useful example. In most versions, it contains the things we think of as comprising salad dressing: herbs, oil, acid. But it's usually considered a sauce. Is "dressing" defined existentially?

Then I guess we need to define "dressing"? I make a salad (I think it's a salad) that's served hot: grilled romaine, tomatoes and mushrooms that have been marinated in what amounts to a Caesar dressing. The dressing is concentrated so that the juices from the constituents dilute it to proper serving strength.

So I was talking to someone the other afternoon, and (as always, if you are talking to me) the subject of "what's for dinner?" came up. She said she was making a Greek salad. When I was growing up, a Greek salad was lettuce -- usually iceberg -- and an assortment of cooked and/or marinated veg: olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, along with feta cheese. When I moved to Houston, this definition was expanded (thanks to the original incarnation of Pappadeaux's) to include shrimps and a few other Gulf-coast particulars: chiles, for example. But that's not what she was making. When I asked her for a description, her list of ingredients started with bulgur -- in the end, it amounted to tabbouleh supplemented with extra tomatoes, cucumber and mint, Oh, and shrimps. Okay, I guess. But then I started thinking about all the concoctions landing on our tables that have "salad" appended to a main descriptor: tuna salad, potato salad, pasta salad. And the others: Cobb salad, Salade Nicoise, chef's salad, Thai lime-coconut-shredded pork satay salad. Add any protein to any kind of lettuce and it's adopted: fried-chicken salad, flank-steak salad, lard-braised tofu salad. And this bulgur thing. Are all of those really salads? What makes them so?

Right.

If you need it in a hurry, defrosting in cool running water will thaw it in about 30 minutes; cold, rather than warm or hot water will minimize moisture loss. Otherwise, overnight in the fridge should do it. The fish is already cooked, so flakes are pretty much guaranteed either way.

Probably the most significant development in cooktops for the home in the last five years is the mainstreaming of induction. When you can get a technology with a Kenmore label, you can say it's entered popular culture. Of course, whether it's affordable depends on the size of your house payment: induction seems to start at about $1900 and rises steeply from there.

Both Cheez-its and Goldfish contain real cheese. I'm not saying it's great cheese, but it's not lactic or malic acid in masquerade.

60 F here, and I let it run for a long time. Give it three minutes, Sam, and tell us what your thermometer reads.

I think the answer is no. That's baking, not frying. I'm not saying you can't get a good potato experience from it, but it's not a fried potato, which is sui generis.

Tap water at 34 F? I don't think so. At best, tap water is ground temperature -- averaging about 54 F. In many places in the south and southwest -- Houston or Tampa, for example -- it's well above that.