ChrisZ

Thanks for the feedback! I've since discovered that the vacuum drawers which impressed me so much aren't chamber sealers, which I thought they were based on appearance. They are still regular vacuum sealers that need the textured bags, just nicely packaged. I'm on my 4th vacuum sealer, they seem to last me about 3 years, so definitely worth considering the repair options and maybe it's time for me to consider something a little more robust.

It's lovely to return to eGullet after a long break and still see a bunch of familiar names. We're currently planning an entirely new kitchen and as it's the first time I've looked at kitchen appliances in about 15 years I'm finding it a bit overwhelming. There's nowhere else online where I trust opinions more than I do here, so hoping for some helpful advice relevant to 2025. First thing that has me intrigued is how many oven brands now offer steam options. I'm heavily into sous vide, and I've been using an Anova circulator for over 10 years. But how do mainstream oven brands compare to sous vide when it comes to their steam options? How accurate are they, and can I expect a new steam oven (or combo oven depending in where you are) to replace my Anova sous vide circulator? (FWIW I'm leaning towards Bosch or AEG, but open to Electrolux. Where I live Miele is twice the price and out of our league) I have looked at the Anova 2.0 Precision oven and although I'd love one, I don't see it replacing a regular oven and the price tag makes it expensive for a 2nd countertop appliance. Is the Anove oven significantly more accurate or just plain better than the steam options available in more mainstream brands? Secondly - I was amazed to see vacuum sealers being built into drawers that slide out under ovens. I hadn't seen this before and they look very neat. So the question is - do they work well? I'm sure I'll have more appliance questions coming, but for the moment I'll leave it here. Thanks in advance!

Ha, wish I had that two weeks ago! Out of gratitude to everyone's posts here are a couple of notes, after the fact. Firstly, I was pretty naive. Get a bunch of tourists who've never been to New York before, and of course even though we're sleeping in Bed Stuy we end up spending most of our time in Manhattan. So we weren't really around Bed Stuy to eat anyway... We arrived about 7pm on a Saturday night and wandered up the road looking for somewhere to eat. Only a few steps from our front door we saw a huge group of people waiting for pizza's at Saraghina. They were fully booked and even the wait for takeout was over an hour, so we moved on. The interesting thing to note was that 3 seperate people waiting in the queue came up to tell us that Peaches Hothouse was fantastic and we should try there. We never made it to Peaches but it evidently has a great reputation with the locals. We did book and eat at Saraghina another night, and the pizza's were great. Personally I found the service erratic and it took a long time to get our meal (doesn't a Naples-style pizza cook in only 90 seconds?) but everyone was really happy with their meal. I wanted to order a pasta dish but they'd sold out. The attached bakery sells all of the ingredients they use too, eg fresh sheeps ricotta, buratta and so on. Because it was so close, I ended up walking there every morning to get a coffee and pastry. The best meal we had in New York was at the boathouse in Central Park. It was also the most expensive. I've always been slightly suspicious of restaurants that occupy such an obviously touristy location, but the scallops and seafood pasta dishes were absolutely sublime.

I was so happy to see Toyo's restaurant appear in episode 2. I was there MANY years ago and still remember the experience. I just did a quick search and found a post where I recomended it, which is almost 10 years old now...

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I realise Bed Sty is not exactly a foodie destination 🙂 I'll be staying there as part of a larger party travelling for a wedding. As part of a larger group I'm not sure how much I'll get out to do my own exploring, and the location was chosen for it's proximity to the celebrations not tourist attractions. But still, looking to make the most of the trip so if there's somewhere good that I can walk to then I'll try it out. I'm already up for the chicken sandwich at The Fly (thanks for the link) and we're just around the corner from Peaches Hothouse, so that will get a visit too, even if it's only out of convenience. So the trip wasn't really my choice, and the location wasn't my decision, but hoping to get a few good meals while I'm travelling. Thanks again!

I'll be visiting New York in a few weeks, staying in Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant area. I'd love any suggestions for family-friendly eating around there. Open to all sorts of advice - breakfast, lunch and dinner - just be nice to get some local knowledge. Thanks in advance 🙂

Just signed back in after a few years of lurking, hoping for some current advice for eating in New Orleans... Will be staying in the French Quarter for a few nights and have no idea about anything. Any tips / suggestions would be welcome. Probably won't get out of the French Quarter while I'm there, so really only looking in that area but want to avoid tourist traps, etc. while feeling like I get a taste of NO! Thanks in advance...

Thank you so much! Not only for spotting the auction (I have been checking Ebay myself but stuff comes and goes...) but thanks to your link, I realised that the plastic mold I've been using is most probably a cheap rip-off of a cast-iron cookie mold design by John Wright... https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=JOHN+WRIGHT+CAST+IRON+ALPHABET&_sacat=0 ...and there are loads of these available! I really had no idea... You have made my day 🙂 Thanks again.

Hoping for some help. I accidentally melted an old mould that is very important to us and I've had no luck searching around for a replacement. If anyone knows where I could buy one - or even has one to spare they would be willing to sell - please send me a message. The mould (label attached below) was originally labelled as "Easy as ABC gelatin mould", although we just call it the alphabet mould. Yes there are lots of alphabet moulds around, including new silicone ones, but we need the specific designs on this one to replace the one I damaged. Depending on the cost, I would consider paying for postage internationally (to Australia). Thanks in advance!

In my case it's a regular 3, regular meaning we probably have roast chicken about once a fortnight and we always get 3 meals out of it. As soon as we've finished meal 1 (the traditional roast) I boil up the bones & wings for stock. That becomes risotto (meal 2). There's usually a chicken breast left over which becomes either a sandwich or even an omelette a few days later.

Looks lovely... I have wondered if I can justify the expense next time I'm in Melbourne. Can you shed some light on the booking process - is there a waiting list, set time to finish by, etc etc? And without wanting to be too rude, I'm also curious about the realistic cost of such a meal... FWIW I have enjoyed reading recent articles about both Dinner in Melbourne and Noma in Sydney. While I find articles about (and by) Rene Redzepi endlessly fascinating, and I totally appreciate everything he has done with Noma in Sydney, I have always thought that I would much rather eat at Dinner by HB. In other words, I would prefer to read about Noma, but I think I'd rather eat at Dinner by HB. Obviously the philosophies are totally different and one on hand not directly comparable - but the comparison is bound to be made due to their expense, reputation, celebrity associates etc etc.

Here, with pictures.

Size is a big thing. I'm happy with my Anova and it has changed the way I use sous vide, but I only have 1 pot that is big enough to use it with. I keep intending to get a larger cooler just for sous vide, but space (and to a lesser degree cost) is an issue. Currently, size is the reason I don't sous vide more often. The one pot I have big enough for the anova is stored in a separate cupboard out of the kitchen, so there's always that small amount of extra effort required to set it up and then pack it away afterwards. If the Joule is small enough that I can use it with my existing pots then great. And competition is always a good thing.

I have been dabbling with sous vide for several years. The point with sous vide is that the benefits are most obvious with tough cuts, where you can cook them for a long time until they become tender. So when it comes to steak, there's no real benefit to using sous vide if you have nice tender cuts like fillet, scotch fillet, porterhouse, rump etc etc. If you really like steak and are happy to pay for quality tender cuts such as those then don't bother with sous vide, explore other methods of cooking (FWIW I use the 15-second flip approach). Really, using sous vide on a piece of fillet steak is just a recipe for dissapointment. It won't make it any better than it already is. I do find sous vide useful if I want to pre-cook, or even pasteurise meat ahead of time. This is how I cook all meats for BBQs (which in Australia means a flame grill). If I have lots of guests then having everything cooked before, and pasteurised, means not only is everything safe but I can quickly sear large amounts of meat quickly rather than try to cook everything and get everything right while hosting at the same time. You might also want to experiment with enzyme-based tenderisation, where you sous vide the steak at about 42C for an hour or two before cooking. Hopefully others will share their experience with using sous vide to cook cheaper cuts of steak, something I haven't really tried. But that's where it's really useful.

Gianduja specifically refers to hazelnuts, while pralines can be any nut (e.g. almond, walnut, pistachio and peanut). I guess Gianduja is a specific type of praline. FWIW, while I find nutella too sweet (it's a type of gianduja) I really love some of the artisan gianduja's around. I used to live by a market where a stand stocked big slabs of Callebaut gianduja and they would cut off pieces to order... yum. But that's getting off topic. If it isn't made with hazelnuts, it isn't gianduja.