Foodie Moment

For acidic foods, like orange juice or Balsamic vinegar, I have used reverse spherification - adding calcium chloride to my source liquid, and then spherifying in a bath of aqueous sodium alginate. Works for sources high in calcium too, like liquified mozzarella. Jake

Thanks. I contacted BuchGourmet and they said the publisher was still in business and would let me know once the book was back in stock. Jake

Thanks. The Harvard class videos are on my viewing list, hopefully next week. Jake

Not sure if this is the forum area for this topic, so please move to someplace more appropriate. In a discussion about Chang's Momofuku group of restaurants, one of the other eGullet members suggested that if I needed to fill out a reservation of six people (the minimum needed for a particular type of dish), I could call upon him and he would find some friends, for a fee (I'm hoping that was a joke ;-) ). That got me to thinking... I travel a fair bit on business and frequently find myself in a broad range of cities, mostly in the U.S. And while I dine out a lot on such trips, it's usually by myself, unless I have foodie friends who would appreciate my culinary explorations and adventures as much as I do. And I would guess I am far from the only person that deals with this issue. And then I stumbled across eGullet last week (actually, I had stumbled across it early, but only joined last week), and it strikes me that perhaps I have a solution to solo foodie dining - meeting up with other eGullet members for memorable meals in interesting places. So, the questions: Has this already been done? Are people here at all interested in dining with fellow foodies they have never met (virtually total strangers)? And could this concept be extended to group gatherings of traveling eGullet members and local foodie friends? Are there chefs here who would be interesting in hosting such gatherings at their venues? My apologies if these are noob questions and ideas that have been addressed previously (I did a cursory search, but didn't find anything spot on). Jake

For a nominal fee, I will supply you enough hungry friends to fill the remaining spaces. Heh. But that brings to mind a question I'll post in a new thread... Jake

Alas, I don't have 5 other friends in NYC who are all available on the same night when I visiting in a week and a half. I think I will try to plan ahead for another time when their schedules are not as blocked up. Thanks for the comments and suggestions all! Jake

Ah - that would explain the mystery machine I found a video of here from someone's visit to the Alicia Foundation last year. I wonder how they manage to prevent gravity or the impact of the droplets from dispersing the alignate skin. Yeah - no way to do that at home, I think. Dang. I will have to improvise. But heck, experimentation is fun, right? :-) Jake

Well, I have been scouring regular and specialty book stores (Kitchen Arts & Letters and CHIPS Books, as well as some overseas stores) and the word I get is that Cruz' book is no longer in circulation because the publisher went out of business. I've looked on eBay too - no joy. Might I ask, how involved the recipe is? I should add that ingredient listings and simple individual recipes are not covered by copyright, incidentally - see http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html, fourth item down. The question is whether there's enough prose to make this particular recipe subject to copyright law or not, although even then, under the Fair Use Doctrine there would be an allowance to share it for instructional purposes. Let me know if you are, based on the above (both my attempts to secure my own copy and under copyright law), any less uncomfortable about sharing the details of Cruz' recipe. Thanks, Jake

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give this a try the next time I'm in my test kitchen. Another idea that came from a person who studied for a month at the Alicia Foundation was to use Iota Carrageenan. I'll check that out too. Jake

I think the disclaimer approach is a good one (but maybe at the bottom of the last menu page instead of up front with your branding. Do food bloggers seriously ask for free meals? That's pretty terrible. I remember as a computer journalist that the publications I wrote for were adamant that vendors do not taint the review process in any way - unless the item we were review was less expensive than the cost of shipping it back we had to send back all of our review hardware and software. A free meal would certainly be a taint. Alas, ethics in the modern Internet era leave a lot to be desired... Jake

So as a multi-day "feast" for one person interest would likely wane quickly, right? Jake

Well, thanks to the helpful suggestions in this topic, I've got the following booked for my visit in a couple of weeks: - Lincoln - Morimoto at the Omakase Bar - SHO and also Picholine, because I've wanted to go for a while :-) Jake

I seem to recall at Alinea, in June 2009, when I asked about taking photos, I was told to go ahead, but no video. That request makes sense now in retrospect after seeing Achatz's post. But a tripod on the table (or next to it)? Eek! That's terribly. Jerks like that give us all a bad name. Jake

I'm glad someone has noticed I have invested in this little beauty, which just fits comfortably in two pockets so I do not arrive at a restaurant looking like a tourist. Unfortunately its not doing the business for me in low light, perhaps its pilot error, you will see the results when I review the Helene Darroze meal. The NEX5 is a nice camera, but the lack of good noise filtering for low light is an issue. I'm really happy with my Canon S90 on that. And in keeping with the other commentary, I never use a flash - complete detracts from the meal for others, plus it produces crappy pictures. One thing I have used in the past is an Olympus camera which had a built in LED light (for super macro use), but added enough light locally to make taking images in low light a bit more viable. Problem was that the images captured by the camera were not particularly good. Jake

On a related note, well after the start of the thread, I've been dying to have the pork shoulder at Momofuku bo ssam, but they require a minimum of six people, which, seeing as I don't live anywhere near NYC, is a problem for me - I could manage 2-3 friends but not the minimum of 5 others I'd not (since some of my NYC friends don't eat pork or even meat). I am toying with the idea of ordering the pork shoulder to go, and then eating it over several days in the house I'm staying at. Have any of you ever had the bo ssam pork shoulder for one? Or am I just being crazy? Jake

Thanks for the great tip. I've had the omakase at a regular table a couple of times at Morimoto in NYC, and once in Philly, but had not realized that it could be different (and better) at the bar. Looks like I have another thing to add to my dining list for December when I go to NYC... Jake

Chris, The only other reference I found was in an article discussing the Harvard series on new cooking techniques being held this semester, and it suggested a few grains of salt in olive oil and agar would do the trick, but I can't understand how. Alex and Aki from Ideas in Food sent me a note saying that their approach has been to make an olive oil consomme and setting that, and then coating the result with actual olive oil right before serving to fool the tongue. Interesting solution that I will need to try. Anyone know how to make an olive oil consomme? Jake

I'm curious if eGullet members are seeing an increase in restaurants banning the use of cameras (even without flash) during meals. I dined at momofuku ko and Corton in New York City in May and was disappointed to learn that both banned photography. At ko at least they were honest about it - they said simply that it was policy. It was a bummer because I had purchased a Canon S90 high-end point and shoot (sweet f/2 lens, RAW files, great noise reduction) the day before just for this meal. At Corton, the hostess said it was standard policy at many fine dining restaurants, and gave Alinea as an example. I called her on that as when we were at Alinea last year, photography was encouraged (at least by our head waiters). And certainly I've also been encouraged to take photos at WD-50, elBulli, and Mugaritz (they even turned up the lights for me at Mugaritz). So, what I want to know is whether this really is a trend - the banning of photography - or if there are just a few high profile restaurants that have this policy, and it's isolated. Especially important as I'm planning on being back in NYC in a few weeks and am working on reservations, ideally for places that allow photography (since my note taking skills suck). And, as I am new here, can someone point me to a thread with NYC restaurant suggestions? :-) Jake

Thanks. I've seen that blog entry but the phrasing is misleading. What it describes is using cold oil to spherify (if that's even a word) an aqueous solution containing agar agar. The cold oil, ideally infused with an emulsifier, such as glycerol, is used to spherify the agar-based solution, and not to spherify the oil itself. The oil plays the same role here as a calcium chloride solution plays in spherification with a sodium alginate based source, and the residual oil is washed off with hot water. See here for more detail (also from the Cooking Issues blog). Jake

Hi all, I desperately want to make olive oil spheres (caviar or pearls) that look nice and clear. Similarly, I would like to be able to create firm gelatinous olive oil cubes. The same applies to other oils, like truffle oil, for example. I know the spheres are possible, because I had them at elBulli last month: The problem, of course, is that spherification and gelling agents are all hydrocolloids, meaning they absorb water for hydration, but not oil. I tried adding an equal amount of water and emulsifying the oil/water mixture (sodium alginate as my emulsifier, blended with a hand blender), and while I got a substance that could be spherified, it was white and foamy and lacking in flavor. And my agar agar experiments with olive oil have failed as well. I want the color and translucency of the oil to show insider my spheres. Same for my gels. Anyone have any experience or suggestions on how to accomplish what I hope to do? Thanks, Jake