weinoo

Yep...

I'm sure I've thrown Trader Joe's under the bus, either in this thread or on some other, more local boards I frequent. Probably both. So, when the largest Trader Joe's on the east coast opened with 2 minutes (walking!) of our apartment, I was caught between a rock and a hard place; stick to my guns and never set foot in the place, or join the many devotees who love the place. I joined. Not that I love or even like anything that much; yeah, yeah, I get it, the nuts are cheap, peanut butter's good, cereal, etc. etc. But there are also tons of sodium in the stuff I'd never buy, and you really, really have to practice mindful shopping, especially when it comes to stuff like their produce. That said, a Sunday morning stroll through the store netted me this product: ct: Imported from Italy, only 190mg sodium per 4 oz serving, it's 3 or 4 types of mushrooms, including boletes. With half a bag, I made this: Spaghetti with 1/2 bag of those mushrooms, a few cherry tomatoes, and a good handful of parmesan and pecorino. Took 20 minutes, start to finish. I also picked this up, and it's in the sous vide rig right now... Along with a rib eye. Not a bad looking steak.

I realize this a very old topic, but since i just read it, let me comment on the above (as if anyone cares). Bern's has one of the great wine lists, if not in the United States, then in the world. It is NOT overpriced by any stretch of the imagination, and if a diner knows anything at all about wine, said diner will certainly find wines that are insanely low priced for a restaurant. And the steaks I've had cooked at Bern's are just fine.

I tend to, after a round or two of seasoning, just like cooking in the pan, whatever its manufacturer. Make some bacon, some duck, some pork, etc. Eventually, you'll have a nicely seasoned pan; what's the rush, anyway?

I used to give Julia's The Way to Cook as a gift. A number of times. To me, a very, very good book by all measures. And of course, it can be had these days used for under $10. People would rather look at shiny IG type pictures than really learn how to cook from a book.

Lists like this one are pure click bait for millennials, and have no basis in reality. No Julia? No Marcella? I mean, those books are iconic because, well, they're iconic. Now that I read the "article," it looks like they're just picking books from their 25-year lifespan.

Too much parsley, maybe. Which definitely got blended in with the soup.

Significant Eater didn't like the color or the texture of the cauliflower soup. I thought they were fine!

I was hoping for a portmanteau, @Anna N !

Two soups with my Instant Pot chicken stock. On the left, creamless cream of cauliflower + roasted cauliflower, with saffron and espelette. Creaminess provided by rice cooked along, and then blended. On the right, a pretty classic chicken soup. I used a small pasta in there; next time, it would have to be egg noodles a la my bubbe.

Breakfast yesterday - a bit of a mashup... I don't know what to call it. Potatoes, a little cheese, eggs. So it's not a tortilla, per se, and it's not a frittata, per se. Torttata? Fritilla? I can see it now...

Not necessarily true. Some roasters offer that their beans are at peak (note, not "freshest") 7 - 10 days out from roasting. Everything involved with espresso making, from roast profile, to beans, to grind, to water, to machinery/equipment, involves experimentation - there is no one size fits all.

Decided, since I was in the area today, to give it a try... This is the fresh shrimp, with bean sprouts, scallion and cilantro. Much better than the joint I was referring to on East Broadway. And $7. Also had curry fish balls on the side, 10 for $3. Not a destination, but worthy if hungry and right nearby.

Nah, not unless they're pretty long. These were trimmed quite well. Might even add to the gelatinous texture!

Half a roasted cauliflower. Done in the Cuisinart Steam Oven, on convection bake. Tumminia busiate pasta integrale, with arugula pesto. Some of that roasted cauliflower. And I had a few prepped artichoke hearts in the fridge, so I roasted them as well.

A little Instant Pot chicken stock production last night. I had a carcass of a Union Market rotisserie chicken (quite good, by the way), walked over to the gross market under the Manhattan bridge, where I procured a pound of chicken feet for $$1.50, and a few legs for another $1.00 (they were like $.79 a pound), and ended up with 3 qts. of fine stock.

You know, having been to the old one, I was excited to try the new one. But, like you, I wondered why all the adulation after my meal.

I'd heard good things, and someone I know compared it to one of the old school places on East Broadway. Looks better than that one, but it's actually like 3x the price.

I kinda like the George Dickel, and Sazerac is still pretty damn good. I have a stash of Pikesville, that I accrued on my drives back and forth to DC, at the state line liquor store right over the Maryland border on I95. Stuff was like $11 a bottle.

Something of interest, maybe? I've been finding that some of the varieties of @rancho_gordo's beans are so fresh, I have to be very careful about how long I cook them. I like to give a soak of an hour or two, in salted warm water, just to give the beans a head start - but when I did that with a pound of a bean (of course, I've forgotten which variety), they cooked so damn fast on the stove top, I ended up using my stick blender to make a soup, instead of using them the way I originally planned. This is not, by any means, a bad thing. Just something to be aware of. I also have moved away from using the Instant Pot for beans; once again, timing is important if you want whole beans, and I'm pretty bad at that!

If only salmon tasted like this stuff.

Not even touched up by me - but I sure ate a lot of that platter! Thank god we also ate a lot of fish.

I'd only serve it with lomo, salchichón, and chorizo; all Iberico of course. Like this, at Gandarias in San Sebastian last month...

Exactly. I have a very similar (maybe the same) pan, believe the one I have is a Mauviel. In addition to its use for vegetables, I often make pasta sauces in it. It's great for that purpose, as it will hold a pound of cooked pasta easily, and allows me the right amount of room to toss the pasta around in the sauce.

Also, Ed Schoenfeld and Joe Ng have opened a Red Farm in London. While it wouldn't be for me, since I tend not to like outposts of original restaurants, it might be right up your alley.