huiray

Googlemaps shows Spokane has numerous "Asian" groceries - perhaps one could pick up short-cut pork spare ribs from one of them for next time? (If they are not offered in Western-type markets/butchers)

Early breakfast. There were leftovers. :-) Top left plate: coarse Braunschweiger, House Capocolla [Goose the Market], ring Liverwurst, pressed tongue, Zungenwurst, Caso Bolo Mellage cheese. On right: celery heart & leaves, marinated mushrooms, scallions. Bread: Hunza bread (left), semolina bread (right); butter. Stone-ground mustard, has jalapenos in it.

Time for an update. Saturday, 2014-0118: Claus' German Sausage & Meats: Weisswurst, Ring Liverwurst, coarse Braunschweiger, pressed tongue, Zungenwurst, barrel Sauerkraut, pork brat Schnecken, Bruno's Hunza hearth-baked bread. Amelia's: Semolina bread. Goose the Market: Debreziner sausages, Caso Bolo Mellage cheese, House Capocolla, Pistachio Gelato. The Fresh Market: Lindt 85% Cocoa chocolate bar, Creme Fraiche, unsalted butter, La Panzanella Mini Croccantini, whole grain Lavasch seeded crackers, linguine [De Cecco], spaghetti [Garofalo], bottled marinated mushrooms [Cento], fresh wild American shrimp, canned San Marzano tomatoes [Cento], fresh walnut halves, fresh pecan halves & pieces, fresh grated Pecorino Romano, fresh ginger root, tinned smoked wild kippers [bar Harbor], broccoli rabe.

Anna N, heh. I encourage you to restock soon as circumstances permit. :-) BTW I suspect you would also like it if additional actual kimchi were to be added into it, plus a poached egg or two to counter the spiciness. ;-)

Since quality dried shitake can be quite pricey, practice in my family is to save the stems for stock (as they aren't edible) and use the caps for other dishes. I have porcini powder on hand if I need to add flavor quickly. True. But there are so many grades of dried shiitake mushrooms available (both Chinese and Japanese) that it is quite easy for me to use the water from soaking whole dried Chinese mushroom (cap + stem) or the constituent parts (cap plus broken-off stem) for developing flavor in the mushroom stock, or for developing a stock based on something else - e.g. for many preps for "wonton noodles" I would use a base chicken stock and add ikan bilis (sometimes inclusive of the heads, sometimes not) plus dried Chinese mushrooms/shiitakes cap-and-stem, or stems only, depending on what I had - and not think much about the cost thereof, unless definitely expensive varieties were involved. ETA: ...and NO, "fresh shiitake mushrooms" are NOT a replacement for dried shiitake/Chinese mushrooms. In contrast to what some folks think about "fresh" ingredients being always better than any other permutation of the same ingredient, the dried ingredient is frequently a separate ingredient in its own right which had developed characteristics valued for itself. I find it a constant source of wonderment when some folks declare that anything other than "fresh" is to be shunned.

Lunch yesterday: • Pork slices stir-fried w/ garlic, sliced bamboo shoots (big shoots type), trimmed scallions & coriander leaves; salt, mirin, ryori-shu. • Harm Choy Tong. Salted/pickled/sour preserved mustard (soaked, trimmed), bone-in skin-on-fat-on chicken thighs, sliced ginger, halved Cherub tomatoes, Kong Yen aged gourmet vinegar, sea salt, mirin. • White rice (Basmati). ETA: The pork-and-bamboo shoots does not look like much but I gobbled it down (and everything else in the pan). I think I'll add more bamboo shoots next time, though.

Simple dinner last night: Fried rice; w/ peanut oil, sliced baechu kimchi, a type of (sliced) "fried bean curd" (see pics), petite peas (frozen, rinsed), eggs scrambled in situ, sliced/chunked bamboo shoots (big shoots type), salt, dashes of Maggi sauce [German-type]. Note: The color of the rice does NOT come from soy sauce - none was added. It comes from the kimchi and the marinade (what was added). Pics of the "fried bean curd":

Couple of very recent breakfasts – gussied-up instant noodles. ------------------------- "Spicy Kimchi Flavor Bowl Noodle Soup" [Nongshim], with white standard button mushrooms & trimmed scallions. ------------------------- "Instant Noodles Artificial Seafood Flavor" [Dragonfly], with chopped Napa cabbage, a poached egg (in situ), "(fried) fish tofu", and chopped scallions.

I'm not sure what to make of TC NOLA episode 14. The Po-Boy QF challenge - that was perplexing. If the bread is supposed to be a main defining characteristic of what makes a po-boy a po-boy then all the cheftestants had that bread. Squeezing what they thought was a profile of who they were into the rubric of a po-boy then simply depended on what they themselves expressed of themselves. What WAS Roy Choi looking for? Maybe his idea of a sandwich (which the po-boy is, after all) with some sort of POW! BAM! KABLOOIE! feature according to his conceptions of what POW! BAM! KABLOOIE! meant to him as personal expressions? Maybe some harking back to his gangster past, which none of the cheftestants would have had? (Just wildly speculating) I note that both Gail Simmons and Hugh Acheson in their blogs on bravo.com on this episode sort of skated over the question. Judge them on what they put out of themselves into that sandwich. Not on what you thought they should be in your fevered imagination. Mind you, all the judges (especially Emeril, for that matter) keep talking about "soul" and expressing passion etc in your food - but this is a subjective issue dependent upon what and how a particular person's personality unfolds. The Myers-Briggs personality tests for one definitely understand that concept [whether or not one agrees with THAT test ;-) ]. Looking for "soul" in a chef's food (especially where the chef may be someone whose personality is completely at odds with yours) is a subjective thing. Well, immunity was again granted in the QF challenge, with just FIVE cheftestants left. [Jaymes, if you are reading this, are you having conniptions about it? :-) ] The EC again involved "expressing yourself" in a form - and in all honesty I don't see how what the cheftestants produced differed that markedly from what they put out in the QF in terms of "tenor" and "basis", if you will, apart from their composition and execution - so their producing shit po-boys all around according to Roy Choi is odd. Glad Shirley Chung did not need her immunity in the end and I would agree she tried to do the best she could. (However, in the context of last week's episode vs this week's episode I would opine that the two are not directly comparable in terms of what the "immune person" did or did not do) I would appreciate it, though, if she stopped saying "I'm Chinese/Asian" (or dragging her family and everything familial into everything) every chance she got. We can see that, and I'M Chinese/Asian. Just cook your stuff. Nick Elmi had a very lucky escape. Was he sabotaged, with regards to the burnt quinoa as the bravo tape-feed during the episode asked? Heh, that is a loaded question. :-) Bye, Brian. Your were classy in your exit. I *do* find it eyebrow-raising, though, the STRONG bias the judges have against (skinless boneless) chicken breasts, almost just because they are chicken breasts, it seems - and what comes over to me is that they might not even care that much how such breasts were cooked or handled, the very fact that skinless boneless chicken breasts were used was a sufficiently damning thing in and of itself. I found it smirk-provoking that the Magical Elves purposely included a clip of one of the diners declaring that that chicken breast dish of Brian's was the best dish he had had so far that meal. :-) LCK: Another tight one - involving, what else, chicken broth and chicken. Lovely-looking dishes. Brian Huskey cooked "the best dish he had all season" according to Colicchio (The Decider) but Louis Maldonado cooked the "best dish (Colicchio) had tasted all season". Louis pulls it off again.

I agree it was probably not a good idea for immunity to be granted with just 6 cheftestants left. However, they have had teams with an immune cheftestant in the mix before, with the "losing team" subject to having one person thrown off. As an example, in Season 9 they had three teams of three chefs each in the BBQ pit wars with one immune chef (Ty-Lör) in the Red Team [Edward, Sarah, Ty-Lör] and Sarah had her heat/whatever issues and absconded to the hospital leaving Edward and Ty-Lör in the breach...I remember Edward tossing things around in his anxiety because if they turned up on the bottom he felt Sarah was unlikely to be sent home because of her "medical issues" while Ty-Lör had immunity leaving him as the sole sitting duck. (Fortunately for Edward *both* the Red and White teams, not just the Red team, were keel-hauled and Malibu Chris from the White team got sent off instead) As another example, in Season 6 episode 7, if Kevin had opted for immunity instead of cash they would have had teams of TWO in the elimination challenge (in his case, himself + Jennifer) with the losing team subject to having one of the chefs dismissed. In that instance, he ended up winning anyway so all was well. In the current season in this (just) past episode they really should have opted to not send anyone home instead.

• Chicken thighs braised w/ garlic (~2 heads worth), shallots & very generous ryori-shu (leftovers from the previous dinner, see here), re-simmered w/ skinny bamboo shoots, seasoning adjusted. Eaten w/ soba (with yam) noodles, cooked in the usual manner. • Stir-fried turnip greens & pencil asparagus. • Japanese cucumbers & sliced scallions pickled w/ rice vinegar [a mix of Marukan (Japanese) "Brewed Rice Vinegar" + Kong Yen (Taiwan) "Aged Gourmet Rice Vinegar"], some sweet mirin, salt (the cucumbers were salted first, then rinsed & squeezed off), toasted sesame seeds. I ended up eating all of the batch of pickled cucumbers I made - about three times the amount shown in the picture. :-)

Monday late dinner: • Bone-in chicken thighs braised w/ garlic (about 2 heads worth), shallots, and a very good heavy pour of ryori-shu. No further salting needed, the salt already present in the cooking sake was enough after everything was reduced down. (Chicken thighs browned in olive oil (flavored w/ 1 garlic clove), removed & reserved, the rest of the garlic lightly browned, the chicken plus halved shallots added back in &etc) Eaten w/ mee sua (麵線; min6 sin3) [a Taiwanese brand; Hung-Ming; hand-made]. • Romaine lettuce, blanched in oiled hot water; drizzled w/ oyster sauce & dusted w/ ground white pepper.

Meredith380, Lunch is often (but certainly not always) the main meal of the day for me. Yes, I would frequently take a nap afterwards but also again not always.

Grubstreet recap of Ep 13: http://www.grubstreet.com/2014/01/top-chef-season-11-episode-13-recap.html LCK: Another close one. Stephanie fails to dislodge Louis but she can hold her head high.

As for chit-chat out there about why Nick had immunity but should have gone home - well, plenty of TC cheftestapants (Max Silvestri's term) have had immunity before *and* had the worst dish or performance *and* would have gone home if not for said immunity (e.g. Carrie in the current season just two episodes ago, for her cold broccoli and yoghurt) but the judges had never made an issue of it before in the same way they did in this episode.

I just only got around to viewing this episode on my DVR. I agree with you. It was handled badly by the judges. Jacques Pepin should NOT have even suggested to Nick (who had the immunity) that he resign and he was wrong to have done so. Nick had won immunity fair and square and which HE, Pepin, had granted in the QF because Nick was the one who executed his dish (Pepin's own dish) the best and done so with what he, Pepin, had said was this extra "organic quality" to it. That Nick's dishes in the EC turned out to be the worst ones were due in large part to CRENN'S pushing for them, as you mentioned, and his (Nick) taking them on, even though they were avant-garde and outside of his comfort zone, *because* he had immunity and thought he was trying to protect the team (at least at the time he was thinking it) by taking on the riskiest dishes. Additionally, he was hovering over the other team members' dishes (Shirley's and Stephanie's) and trying to help ensure those were done as well as could be...and it was difficult to see the, uh, difficulties they had with Nick and the situation subsequently. Note to self: I've never eaten at Dominique Crenn's restaurant(s) and now have no wish whatsoever to do so anytime soon. Since the judges felt that both Stephanie and Shirley had executed such lovely dishes, but accepted that they could not send Nick home - why didn't they NOT send anyone home this time? They've done that before. Fine, have a double elimination next time; or tack on an additional episode to deal with it - variations of both have, again, been done before...that would have been a better decision IMO. Also IMO Carlos is still a dick.

Breakfast today: • Baechu kimchi, bamboo shoots,¶ fried tofu puffs, scallions & garlic soup; with the ho fun plus the soup sachet from a “Ho Fan Abalone Chicken Soup Flavored” package [sau Tao]. ¶(leftover sauce from the previous day’s lunch, plus lots more fresh material, all sautéed w/ more oil before quenching w/ water and simmering)

Couple of lunches. ----------------------------- • Sliced pork belly marinated w/ Shaohsing wine, black pepper, sesame oil, ryori-shu, mirin, oyster sauce; stir-fried w/ Western celery, scallions, baby leeks. • Lotus root soup. Made w/ chicken & beef pieces, smashed garlic, vegetable oil, raw peanuts, lam jou (a sort-of smoked large Chinese jujubes), kei chee (Goji berries), yook chook (dried rhizome of Polygonatum odoratum), dried salted oysters (of a variety called 沙井蠔豉) (from the Pearl River delta), water, salt. • White rice (Basmati). ----------------------------- • Smashed garlic (lots) sautéed w/ bamboo shoots, chopped baechu kimchi, sliced scallions & coriander leaves. Eaten w/ skinny wonton noodles. • More of the lotus root soup from the previous lunch.

I think your omelette looks perfectly fine, Anna N. Your browned omelette looks more appetizing and far preferable to me than it would if it were pale and colorless.

Some recent lunches. --------------------------- • Brat schnecken [Claus'], pan-fried. • Linguine [De Cecco], tossed w/ a sauce of chopped shallots (fried in the pan used for the schnecken, residues + oil and all), halved cherry tomatoes (Cherubs), dried thyme, lots of trimmed parsley, seasoning adjusted. --------------------------- • Rice congee. Julienned ginger (lots) lightly browned in oil, short-cut pork spare ribs, a form of (spicy) preserved mustard (syut choi; 雪菜; literally "snow vegetable"), some sea salt, water, Thai Hom Mali rice; eaten dressed w/ deep-fried shallots, Tianjin preserved vegetable (tung choy) (天津冬菜), chopped scallions & coriander leaves. --------------------------- • Slow-simmered chicken broth w/ vegetables. A stewing chicken plus a Silkie chicken was used, both chopped up; simmered w/ some sliced ginger, carrots, Western celery, sea salt. Stock/broth (a portion) re-simmered w/ fresh celery, red + yellow + orange carrots. Served w/ some of the skin from both chickens. ---------------------------- • Cabbage, garlic & parsley soup. Chicken stock. • Broiled porterhouse (salt & pepper), fried rice (celery, scallions, salt). Didn't finish the steak. • A slice of Bête Noire, an éclair, one raspberry-sugar coated chocolate truffle. All from Rene's.

Couple of recent dinners. ------------------------- • Tofu sautéed/"stir-fried" with julienned ginger, browned minced fatty pork, chili garlic sauce [Lee Kum Kee], yuojialaodouban (友加老豆瓣) [Yuojia (友加)], Japanese-style Worcestershire sauce [bull-Dog], lots of chopped scallions at the end. • White rice (Basmati). ------------------------- Simple comfort food after a trying 1½ day power & heat loss with arctic conditions outside: Beef shin stew w/ carrots, Carola potatoes, shallots, daikon, garlic, dried Mexican oregano, dried thyme, sea salt. (Garlic tossed in oil, reserved, beef browned, salted lightly, fond developed, water added &etc)

Early breakfast today: • Asparagus omelette (free-form, purposely browned; screaming hot pan, asparagus basically flash "stir-fried" w/ Himalayan salt in vegetable oil before adding in barely-beaten eggs diluted w/ a little water; centers of the pieces still wet/runny, the way I like it; asparagus still crunchy, barely cooked). • Fried rice (leftover Hom Mali rice, chopped Western celery, chopped scallions, salt).

Tom Colicchio happens to be the head honcho and judge on this pet show of his, but I certainly agree he is not "all that". I definitely think his expertise is really limited to "Modern American" or "Italian-American" cuisine for the most part and he really should not be judging things outside of those areas *especially* in "ethnic-type" cuisines where he has shown really questionable decisions. I have said before that "Top Chef" really should be called "Who Wants To Cook For Tom Colicchio & Co." (i.e. those who share his specific idiosyncratic palate and preferences)

https://www.google.com/search?aq=f&ix=sea&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=royal+umbrella+jasmine+rice Thailand. You're welcome. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Royal-Umbrella/122868741078428?sk=info http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Umbrella-Jasmine-Rice-Kg/dp/B0096PG0ZY (Pretty expensive)

Top Chef NOLA Ep 11 Recaps: www.grubstreet.com:2013:12:top-chef-season-11-episode-11-recap http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-11/blogs/hugh-acheson/hugh-decides-eight-is-enough http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-11/blogs/gail-simmons/gail-talks-ovengate Carlos is being portrayed as a 'user' and a prick. Nick is losing patience especially w/ Carlos. Sorry to see Justin leaving, he was being true to his cheffy nature...too bad the audience (including the judges) was expecting mac-and-cheese kind of stuff instead. ------------------------------- Top Chef NOLA Ep 12 Recaps: http://www.grubstreet.com/2014/01/top-chef-season-11-episode-12-recap.html http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-11/blogs/hugh-acheson/hughs-sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay Carlos should have gone, IMO. Carlos. Not Carrie. Carlos is not being portrayed in a good light in both episodes 11 and 12. I don't blame Nick (and others) for venting about Carlos. Good win, Stephanie. ------------------------------- LCK: Louis holds on to his TC coat through Ep 11 and Ep 12 LCKs. Too bad, Justin & Carrie. He's looking very strong.