fimbul

You know... It never occured to me to save them. We were told to just toss the kidneys out last night, and, in my own experience, well, it's just not something I ever thought of. Most probably, this is because the only time I ever hear anyone refer to a chicken kidney is when they tell me to remove and discard it. I suspect the kidneys are small enough so that most folks don't feel they're worth the trouble of preparing separately (plus they tend to smear a bit if you pull them off raw), so they fall by the wayside. I'll nibble on one next time I roast a chicken though.

They do seem to. I've ended up making a sort-of catch all fowl stock a couple of times from the bones of squabs, pheasant, and regular supermarket chicken. I saw no reason not to toss the squab heads into the stock pot with the rest, and the heads always seemed to find their way to the top. The only fowl that's ever really squicked me was a black chicken. I saw it in the Korean grocery store near work and thought, "Wow! A *BLACK* chicken! I gotta buy it!" After a couple weeks of eyeing the thing in my freezer, I realized, "Um... That's a black chicken. It looks like ass. I have to eat it." When I finally did thaw it and eat it, I ignored everything I read, all of which told me to turn the thing into soup. I, like a doofus, spatchcocked it and roasted it. Ever seen black fat (glistening on black meat, under black skin)? *shudder* It too came with its head on, which also ended up in a stock pot. That was also gross. From now on, I only eat chicken-colored chicken.

I am indeed assisting for the whole run (20 weeks). I took the class last semester, and figured I could codify what I learned by coming back and doing it all again. It's not too bad a gig; I enjoy being in a kitchen no matter what I'm doing, and, since I'm still waffling as to whether or not to take the full professional class, I figure this will give me more experience on which to base my decision. (Me? I don't do snap decisions well.) Though, if I could volunteer my way through the whole program, my decision might be made a lot easier. At least part of what's holding me back is the pricetag. Since this is my first assisting job, I wasn't at the December 8th thing. I'll look forward to next year's though.

I was in Gaithersburg. The Fundamental Culinary Techniques class is billed as a "continuing education" type thingy. It's taught by Chef Susan Watterson and is aimed at folks who may or may not be thinking of cooking for a living, so I guess they want to use their more profession facility. As for the chicken backs, I wasn't too bothered, since I'm squarely in the omnivorous camp and I'm a cheap bastard -- this means I eat fowl and refuse to pay extra for pieces when I can buy a whole bird and cut it up myself, so I'm comfortable with the mess. The only thing daunting about last night's task was the sheer number of chicken backs. The poor guy I was working with seemed a bit upset, though, when I mentioned that the dark bits we were clearing away were kidneys. I felt bad.

Not sure this is really a DC Area only sorta thread, but it was a local experience, so.... I started assisting the Fundamental Culinary Techniques classes at L'Academie de Cuisine last night (I'm a volunteer asistant, just in it for the experience -- in return for helping out, assistants can take half-priced classes later on). My first task upon arriving early at the kitchen was cleaning chicken backs. Having just read Malawry's cooking school diary earlier, I remembered her descriptions of doing much the same thing, in the same kitchen, and could only chuckle to myself. It's a strange feeling to feel the cyber-world and the real one overlap. Strangely, I find I don't mind cleaning chicken backs. It's one of those mundane, menial tasks that allows you to let your mind wander... at least until your hands go numb from being immersed in cold chicken parts for long periods of time. Just thought I'd share.

Vengroff: I can't speak to their burritos, but there's a place on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Alexandria called Taqueria Poblano that has the best crunchy tacos I've ever eaten (bear in mind, though, that I'm a born and bred East Coaster -- I'm told this puts me at a disatvantage in proper taco-appreciation). TP is not tex-mex, really, more Mexican by way of California, and it's a notch or three above fast food, but, whatever else you can say about them, their crispy pork tacos make me a very, very happy monkey and I've had very little else there that didn't taste great.

Hullo. I'm new here (I'm yet another who was brought in by the Washington Post article), but I thought I'd leap into this thread since I'm something of a knife nut. I'm a home cook who has been cooking seriously for a few years now, and my favorite knives are an 11" chef's knife from F. Dick and a ~10" (I think it's actually 9.25" or so) carbon steel knife made by Sabatier 69. The Dick is a good, solid, German knife with a deep belly, though less curvature than a Wusthof. The Sabatier is lighter, thinner, and more triangular; I tend to use it for smaller jobs and when I need precision more than brute force. Because it's old-fashioned carbon steel, the Sabatier is wonderfully easy to sharpen and keep sharp, though I do have to be extra special careful not to let it rust. In addition to these, I also used a number of cheap paring knives, and a couple of 5"-6" boning knives from Forschner, since I cut up poultry with alarming regularity. Thank you all for the discussion. I like it here.