Human Bean

I keep the insides clean; don't care about the outside. The undersides of my saute / frying pans are pretty gunky; lots of baked-on brown oil that probably wouldn't come off without sandblasting. It doesn't affect the food, and doesn't even smoke when the pan gets hot. Pots on the other hand, are reasonably, but not obsessively clean. I have some old Revere pots (gifts; look nice when new, but have very thin metal and plastic handles - avoid them) that have copper bottoms; occasionally (maybe once a year) I'll scrub them with a salt/vinegar mixture to bring back the bright shiny copper surface, but they're soon back to normal (oxidized) so ultimately there isn't much point in cleaning them.

Peeling: I just whack the clove with the side of my cleaver (or big chef's knife if I had one) and the skin slips right off. Alternatively, if you have one of those flat round rubber jar-opener thingys, you don't need the green manicotti tube for peeling. Just fold the jar-opener over the clove and roll, and the skin will peel off. Chop vs press: I have a press, but only use it if a recipe specifically calls for it. Otherwise I prefer to chop to whatever size is appropriate. Along with St. Jacques, Martin Yan is very skilled at whacking a peeled clove into a big flat smear on the cutting board; a tiny bit of chopping, and he's done. Total elapsed time: about two seconds. I'm not good at that, but I've haven't really tried it very much. Stainless steel for odor removal: It works; I'd guess it's about 85% effective at removing the smell from hands and fingers. I rub my hand/fingers over the aforementioned cleaver when washing it; works great. One time at a store, I saw an official Paul Prudhomme garlic smell remover - a piece of stainless steel somewhat larger than a business card, for $5. I laughed at the ability to sell such a thing at a grossly inflated price.

Jaymes, a mere nitpick, but just wondering: A can? Really?? I hardly live in an area where sauerkraut is one of the basic food groups (neither do you, apparently), but, in a can?? I've only ever seen sauerkraut in a bottle, refrigerated. It may be available in a can, but I've never looked. That said, it's probably not that hard to do from scratch (I've done kimchee from scratch) and I'm not questioning the idea of using a prepared product; it's just the idea that it's available in a can that I find weird.

This sounds excellent! In a junk-food idiom, you could use those packages of thin-sliced processed meats, rather than 'real' deli corned beef. I like it, and will probably try it; the substitution of dijon for thousand island seems a bit odd, but it would work. Not a Reuben, but good.

Bento as served at Uwajimiya is served in one of those rectangular plastic clamshells, approx 7 inches square. It has a good-sized portion of cooked rice, a bit of cooked veg (edamame in one of the ones I had), and a main course which can be teriyaki chicken or fish, but could also be some dim sum like shu mai. Nothing like the elegant small meals called bento in Japan (so I've heard), but cheap and filling are the main principles. Good appears to be optional. I tried a couple of the Uwajimiya bento boxes; they were terrible. To be fair, I got them as "half price after 5 PM" items; they may have been sitting under a heat lamp for five hours or more, and past their prime, but I don't think they could have been that good when fresher. I've completey repressed the memory of one, but the other was the worst teriyaki salmon I've ever had. I think the normal price is $5.25 per box; two for $5.25 seemed to be an acceptible risk, but I won't buy them again.

Massive oversimplification warning... Throughout the discussion, I seem to see the ideas of 'food criticism' and 'restaurant reviews' somewhat jumbled together. Can I oversimplify and generalize to two terms, practical and theoretical? Practical is journalism's "who, what, when, where." The guts of most restaurant reviews. Theoretical is journalism's "why." In general food writing, it might be an article on sauces for salmon over the ages, but that wouldn't generally fit into my idea of a restaurant review. In a restaurant review, it might be some exposition on how the chef developed his fusion of Lithuanian-Cambodian food, and why he (and by implication we) might like it. The theoretical parts of a restaurant review are limited to being strictly on-topic for the particular restaurant/chef being discussed. A history of bechamel and it's uses may be interesting in itself, but I'd rather see that in it's own general food article rather than buried in a restaurant review. Edit: X-post with jaybee, more-or-less.

AFAIK, bento is still alive and well in Portland. I don't eat much in Portland itself, so I can't recommend any names offhand. Consulting Wilamette Week's Cheap Eats section shockingly doesn't seem to have anything at a glance. Keep in mind that it's almost a year old (new one due in March), and, inexplicably, they included Todai as a 'cheap eat;' it doesn't seem that cheap to me. Paging Jim Dixon-- help them please, they need an attitude adjustment. The Portland (okay, Beaverton) Uwajimiya sells bento in it's hot food section; not in Seattle?

Junk food all the way, baybee. Pizza would be haute cuisine in this context. I usually make nachos; not chips dipped into a molten day-glo cheeselike sauce, but something a bit better than that. Put a single layer of tortilla chips on a cookie sheet, add a dollop of refried beans to each chip, sprinkle some garlic powder on some, cumin on others, powdered chiles on others (the variation from chip to chip is nice). Sprinkle with shredded cheese (I usually use a 50/50 mix of pepper jack and medium cheddar). Add other toppings randomly on each chip; slices of fresh or pickled jalapeno, chopped bell pepper, green onion tops, whatever seems good at the time. Broil. Serve with beer. Mmm, beer. Edit: The nachos I've described would probably be 'haute cuisine,' given my description of pizza as haute. The day-glo cheeselike stuff is beneath contempt even for these purposes; a common nacho sauce is Velveeta 'cheese' melted with a can of Ro-Tel chile/tomatoes. Ro-Tel may not be available in all areas of the US, and even though my tastes may generally be simple, Velveeta is beyond the pale.

I'm with Lou on the 'mutant' idea of soy sauce and chile. I do about 60% soy sauce, 40% Huy Fong Sambal Oelek (this has only chiles, vinegar, and salt; preservatives too I guess). The idea of doing this is doubtless more southeast asian-inspired, rather than Chinese, but I heppen to like it.

My co-writer (for my cookbook), Stephanie, did the Indian recipes for Joy Of Cooking. I can well imagine the recipes working very well. She is a stickler for detail. And loves Indian food. Also Stephanie is famous for her brilliance with seafood. You were lucky and smart in picking the curry shrimp recipe. I am glad to hear it worked well. What did you like about this curry? Did you use fenugreek seeds or powder or leaves? I am guessing seeds... It's taken me awhile to reply, my apologies. I'm glad that the Indian recipes in the latest Joy of Cooking are reasonably 'authentic'; I thought that they might have been 'dumbed down' for Americans, but the curry shrimp recipe was not at all 'dumb'. Although it was time-consuming to prepare, the mixture of flavors reminded me of dishes I've had in Indian restaurants; no particular element stands out, but the whole was immensely satisfying. I used fresh curry leaves for the recipe, which are readily avilable locally (I'm in Oregon), and fenugreek seeds; I still have much fenugreek, so I'll find uses for it before it becomes too old. I'm always willing to try new things; I've made things with prepared curry powder before, but it's much more interesting to create a spice mix myself, especially when I can get fresh ingredients.

The discussion of steaming fish seems to have become fixated on steaming whole fish. That's fine; make diagonal slashes in the body before steaming a whole fish, but I rarely steam whole fish. The kinds of whole fish suitable for steaming that are readily available here seem to tend towards trout and tilapia, and I'm not particularly fond of them. Well, trout is fine, but I prefer Pacific Ocean fish that are mostly too large to steam whole. I'm talking about salmon, snapper, and halibut. I steam fillets of those fish. The generic preparation is to sprinkle soy sauce (or rarely, plain salt) on the fillet, then add fresh ginger slices on top; not to cover the surface, but leave about an inch between slices. Steam; that's it. Thoroughly satisfying, and no oil taste from cooking; regardless of the tastelessness of the oil, I don't generally like pan-fried fish. Variations can include adding lemon slices before steaming. I'm not entirely happy with this; some bitterness from the lemon can get into the fish. [Hmm, Meyer lemons; I need to try this; at the moment, they're in season and available]. Less successful variations that I've tried include covering the fish/ginger with lemon basil (from the garden, lemon flavor didn't transfer to the fish, and the steamed basil was worse than overcooked spinach); and covering the fish/ginger with lemon verbena (again, from the garden, the lemon flavor didn't transfer, and the cooked verbena was far too tough).

As the 'someone,' I feel compelled to clarify my remark. I oversimplifed my description; I didn't mean that it had no flavor at all, but to me, the sweetness seemed too dominant. I don't have any Koon Chun on hand at the moment, but I do have the Lee Kum Kee. I tried a bit of it on a tasting spoon several times last night and this morning. Although sugar and sweet potatoes are the first two ingredients listed, sweetness is only one element in a complex and varying flavor. The sweetness is evident, but surrenders to a complex set of memories rather than a distint flavor; memories of various duck and pork dishes in the past. It may have a bit too much five-spice though. After the other tases fade, an aftertaste of saltiness becomes apparent. These flavors are somewhat less evident in an actual dish, where the hoisin is just one element of the preparation. Maybe I'm just too sensitive to sugar though. It seems to be a common flaw in run-of-the-mill Cantonese-American restaurants to serve common meat & veg stir-frys that have a quite noticeable sweetness in the sauce. I have no idea why they do this; maybe they think they're accomodating American tastes, but I don't give such restaurants a second visit. I claim no particular authority with respect to Chinese food, but I know what I like, and obvious sweetness in most Chinese dishes is one thing I definitely don't like. One of the most interesting parts of Chinese cooking is the subtle balance of basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, hot. Sweetness as a standout element of main dishes is rather rare in 'real' Chinese cooking, AFAIK. (Please correct me if I'm wrong here.)

Thanks, ahr, that cleared it up; sorry I didn't get close enough in the pic to be clear. Mine has flat teeth.

I have a rather cheap and grungy aluminum steamer with three trays, which is usually only used for dim sum. When I'm steaming other things (generally fish) I use whatever's closest at the moment - a plate in a wok, held up with chopsticks, a plate in a pot, held up with a wire rack-thing, or a steamer basket insert in a pot. I have a steamer insert for my rice cooker too; I may have used it once or twice.

The store had some genuine Microplane models, but I don't remember which ones. Given the choices, I'd have to say flat. Maybe this will help, this is mine: Edit: checked the links in ahr's comprehensive summary; couldn't tell the difference in the tooth shape between the different series.

I think I've had Koon Chun; it's basically sugar. Try Lee Kum Kee if you can find it, it's much better.

Um, that's why the deity/ies invented the microwave 'defrost'/ low-power function?

I visited my local kitchen gadgets retailer today, intent on the purchase of a Microplane for cheese grating and citrus zesting; they had a couple of Microplane models, but mostly Cuisipro/Accutec. As ahr said in the comprehensive summary, "Williams-Sonoma offers its own 38000-like tools, manufactured by Accutec, with a slightly different selection of blades." One of the Accutec models in the store explicitly mentioned Microplane on the label; the others didn't, but it seemed obvious where Accutec got their working parts. I purchased a "Cuisipro" "Accutec Fine Grater" which seems to be more-or-less identical to the Microplane 38004, except for the words "Cuisipro" and "Accutec" stamped on the cutter. Awesome tool; highly recommended, with the caveat that I just got it, and don't have much experience with it yet. I expect that lower-cost manufacturers are even now working on clones; beware. Microplane appears to be a rather small company, and perhaps not able to defend patent-infringement lawsuits against the imitators.

Reiterating what Jin and Nickn already said, if you want to cook rice in small quantities, you can use a pan (the old-fashioned way). Having destroyed pans by incompetence/inattention, I'd still say use the rice cooker though. The minimum quantity you can reasonably cook in a rice cooker is too large for a single serving (about 2 cups of cooked rice, if you have have one of the smaller rice cookers), but you can refrigerate the excess in the pan. It keeps well for a day or two or three; add a bit of water, set on 'cook' to reheat.

Is it that you don't eat plain rice very often? Have you ever tried Thai jasmine rice, or Indian basmati rice? Unlike the boring California or Texas plain rice, the jasmine and basmati actually have a flavor (or scent, at least), and are worth eating. I won't bother with plain California rice; it's Thai for me, with basmati occasionally. And you can mix wild rice with the white, add veg, chicken stock, maybe some fat (oil/butter), and make pilaf right in the rice cooker. Many rice cookers also come with a steaming rack, though I've never used them. Maybe once. You can do more with a rice cooker than just cook plain rice, but maybe not a wide variety of things. I'm generally opposed to single-use appliances (I still can't believe that they (used to?) sell a cooker that ONLY cooks hot dogs), but a rice cooker is useful if you eat rice regularly, IMHO.

After ruining a couple of (cheap) pans over-cooking rice the old-fashioned way, I won't give up my rice cooker. I've had several models, all at or near the lowest end of the range of models, and they work flawlessly. The Japanese "fuzzy logic" models are the expensive ones, and I don't know that they really do any better job than the cheap Thai ones. Edit: Get one with a non-stick coating; it makes it easier to remove the stuff that sticks to the bottom of the pan.

As a non-native resident of Oregon, I wish that people outside the region wouldn't keep hyping the wine, and exporting it from the area. Then there'd be more for us, and possibly cheaper too. Growing pinot gris locally is a trend that's been increasing over the past several years. Personally, I just don't "get" pinot gris. I've tried several local varieties (and no imported ones), and they've all seemed rather boring to me. But then, I prefer more strongly-flavored whites like Gewurztraminer and Muscat, so maybe my indifference to pinot gris is hardly surprising.

The "Food Safety Danger Zone" is generally considered to be in the range of 40F to 140F. Don't keep food in that range for more than 1 - 2 hours. At least, that's what the Food Safety Nazis say. It's your option for what to do, given the limitations above. And don't put a really large, really hot item in the fridge - it may heat the inside of the fridge faster than the fridge can cool itself down. Edit: Just 'cuz I felt like it.

My done-ness methods are pretty similar to Jaymes' (and most everyone elses). Time, appearance, and the push test for thin stuff. If I did large roasts, I'd go by temp, but I don't do large roasts. For roast whole poultry though, I use the "shake hands" test. Shake hands with the bird - that is, grab the end of the leg, and check for the proper looseness in the leg and thigh joints. Like the push test, it takes some experience to be able to gauge the feel to the amount of done-ness.

After I trashed the first probe on my Polder, I bought another. Eventually, the second probe got too hot and died also. I've had the following info sitting around since Sept. 1999, but haven't tried it yet: Polder sells probes for $6.00. 800-431-2133, Denise on Ext 245. I suspect the phone number is still good, dunno if Denise or the extension number are still applicable though. One of these years, I really should get replacements though.