Busboy

I have heard that in Thomas Keller's kitchens, if the water drops below a boil when you drop the blanching vegetables in, you are expected to pull them out and start over with another, smaller, batch. But he probably has access to BTU's and pots that would be impractical in, say, a typical Manhattan kitchen. I almost always go by visuals or tasting, so the time the water takes to return to a boil is largely irrelevant. I think that the "return to a boil" benchmark is imprecise not only for the reasons Fat Guy mentioned, but because no two brands of pasta, batches of green beans or whatever are exactly the same.

That sounds like what I had. I don't think they're bad if you know what to expect, but advertising "Alba truffle risotto" and serving these, they're definitely being dishonest, IMO.

Coincidentally, I ended up having a few shavings of the Italian black truffles at wonderful meal at the chef's table at Teatro Goldoni here in DC. The Chef had acquired the truffles from the same guy I was tempted to (and may be again tempted to) buy from when I posted this. They are surely not serious truffles, but they had a nice flavor and a good nose. For the price, I think they'd be be well worth shaving onto a chick broth or complementing Pommes Anna.

I tried the duck proscuitto last year and I think you do need actual magret for that. By the time they dry out, a regular duck brest is pretty teensy. Also, I don't think there's any law that say's you can't confit a breast. I've done it before and it came out fine.

I believe magret are traditionally made from the breasts of ducks raised for foie gras and they are indeed far more substantial than most breasts. On the other hand, even smaller breasts can be boned out and made into a tasty, modestly-size entree. Jacques Pepin makes an excellent salad dressing with duck fat, tamari/soy and (I believe) sherry vinegar which, when tossed on your favorite salad greens makes them an excellent match with a pan-roasted breast and some potatoes. I've never had a duck breast to small to make a course out of.

One of those odd coincidences. My wife wants to make one of our occasional jaunts to a deep-suburbs Chinese grocery store, for the really cheap live lobsters they're selling these days, and she sends me a recipe for lobster with pasta, sherry and salmon roe from today's Times to print out, so I'm thinking further ahead than usual. In the mean time, I'm thinking really far ahead, about cassoulet next month, and I need duck fat so I can get going on the confit, which comes cheap from a place called Bella Bella and while working my way around their slightly-hard-to-navigate site I see that you can buy "Silkie Black Meat Chicken" from Bella Bella, as well (Within the ad, there's a link to a Times article, if you look close). But I recall seeing Silkie Chicken at Great Wall and wondering "what's up with that?" and so I'm figuring on buying one or two when we head out for the lobsters. My question is, does anybody have any experience, advice or recipes that go beyond the Times article concerning how best to dispose of this odd bird?

You could also finish risotto, set a serving aside and finish the rest with the cream, (which Keller whips, for lightness) but I'm not sure that's even necessary. Cheese can be served on the side. I think it's totally unfair for you to have to deal with three types of finickifications at once. One of your guests needs to take on e for the team. Also, sorbet with a nice fruit sauce and a cookie make a fine, non-controversial dessert, assuming you have a machine. Maybe Meyer Lemon infused with thyme and served with a mango/lime puree.

Speaking as a carnivore, I'd be as offended by soy chorizo as a vegetarian would likely be by a real chorizo. The souffle is a swell idea. Someone upthread suggested that the gluten-free are sick of rice (and I am strong on on the polenta -- why not sprinkle it with Gorgonzola, cool it and fry it for serving? Side it with something green and Italianish or maybe sauteed Kale and serve some excellent Italian sausages for the meat-eaters. A little tomato concasse never hurts) but mushroom risotto makes my vegetarian friend damn happy and the meat-eaters never miss a thing. Thomas Keller's got a recipe that uses a mushroom stock, cream, mushrooms and truffle oil. Also truffles, but you can just use plain old 'shrooms.

I wonder if a restaurant can keep its stars while adopting less expensive ingredients and simpler preparations. And what the trade-of would be between maintaining high quality but losing a star versus becoming a more affordable option for more diners.

I wish no one ill, but it would be refreshing if the current economic situation brought down the price of Grand Cru wines and truffles maybe, as demand dropped (in France and the U.S.). I wonder what percentage of overhead in high-end restaurants goes to staff and decor, as opposed to ingredients whose prices might fluctuate more elastically in a downturn.

1 ounce = 28.4 grams 1 US$ = .78 Euro (at today’s rate) $170/ounce = $6 per gram or 4.7 Euros per gram One tenth of that is $17/ounce = .47 Euros per gram Here in Piemonte 2008 white truffles are selling for about 4.5- 6.5 Euros per gram depending on size and quality, so if you are buying white truffles in the USA for $170 an ounce or 4.7 Euros a gram, you are probably not buying Piemonte truffles. Piemonte summer truffles can be bought locally for about .13 euros a gram (in fact, I can buy them from a neighbor for 5 Euros for 100 grams) so the difference in price locally between an Italian (even Piemontese) summer truffle and a proper white truffle is 4.57 Euros a gram or 4,570 Euros a kilo. This is a huge difference and should give you some idea of the difference in quality between a proper Piemontese white truffle and a summer truffle. ← Thanks for weighing in. Regarding the black truffles, that's what I thought. I'm not going to buy the white truffles without giving them the sniff test, but I kind of know the gentleman selling them and I'm pretty confident that he's legit. On the other hand, I stumbled across a nice Perigord truffle for $70/oz and may just buy that instead, but the trade-offs between price and quality are challenging to quantify. PS: if you have an opinion on how long can a truffle sit under glass, nestled in Arborio rice, before it loses its charm, I would appreciate hearing it.

A shop which I trust is selling white truffles from Alba for about $170/oz, which seems about right for good fresh white fungus. They also have, though, Italian black truffles, from Piedmont, for about a tenth the price. I generally go for French black truffles as they seem to offer the best value -- if such a word can be applied -- as compared to the much more expensive Albanians, and I've always been disappointed in "discount" black truffles: summer truffles, Burgundy truffles, Oregon truffles etc. But I'm thinking that Piemontese black truffles might be the exception that proves rule. Anyone have any experience with these?

A couple of Chefs have come out of the White House and gone onto bigger an better things, most notably Frank Ruta who runs the under-appreciated (outside the Beltway) but national-class Palena here in DC. The problem is, political people don't necessarily give a damn about decent food. Capitol Hill was for many years the worst restaurant neighborhood in the city because Hillbillies want to eat whatever they ate wherever they came from and lobbyists don't care what they eat nearly as much as who they eat it with. Similarly, no one goes to dinner at the White House for the food (or to the Oval Room, across the park from the White House, for that matter) so the gig would probably be sort of a drag for an inventive chef. As odd as it is to me and probably most of the people here, the White House chef doesn't seem to be a priority to the First Family, and its not uncommon for the chef to hang on for years out of inertia. The only reason the last chef got his walking papers, it appears, is that Laura Bush hired some hot-shot Social Secretary who wanted to put Laura's (meaning the her own) mark on the staff and so they brought in Christine Comerford, the first woman chef. Before then the Bushes had made do with Hillary Clinton's choice for four years.

They weren't. They were far more focused on looking good, pouting and regaling the captain with a Laundry-List of foods they didn't eat. ← How did you get your reservation? I seem to recall a strategic discussion a few weeks ago.

I had a cabbie tell me that he calls Pepe's two hours in advance for carry-out on Friday nights. I fear your wait will be long. The only thing I regret about my son leaving Worcester Polytechnic is that I no longer pass through New Haven on a regular basis. On our last trip south, we waited 45 minutes for Sally's, but we were almost the last in line on a Sunday night. Apparently the wait earlier in the evening was much longer. Service was comically abrupt, but in a good way -- it appeared to be something of an shtick. FWIW, I much prefer Pepe's of the big three.

The only time I ever got scallops with the roe on is when I found them in the shell in a local fishmongers. The only place I've seen scallops in the shell available since then is here -- they have fresh sea urchins (!), too, but I haven't tried them for the scallops, yet.

At one bar I worked in, the bartenders went down through the entire inventory every day -- estimating by tenths of a bottle -- and a running tally of each bartender's "percentage" (liquor costs divided by gross) was kept. One consequence: the drunker you were, the lighter your drinks got. Rail liquors (gin, vodka, rum, Scotch and bourbon, I believe) by the way, we delivered in pre-measured shots by a "gun" similar to a soda gun.

It was a wonderful experience, both in the people I met and the things I learned. I hope that just because I'm not a power broker any more people like Doc and Rob and Rich won't stop coming around when they're in DC. I leave with a tremendous respect for all of the hosts and managers who have put passion, creativity and an immense amount of time into making this site the best food site on the web. I look forward to continuing to contribute to it and to being a part of the community we have here. Interestingly, my new "free time" endeavor is also food-related, though on a less exalted level: as a leader-apparent of the Elizabeth Seton High School Rowing Team Boosters, I will be managing a snack bar during University of Maryland football and basketball games, with a crew of teenage girls as my FOH and gang of parents "on the line" in back. My first goal -- teaching them how to fry the frites twice, just like the bistros do. Sadly, my suggestion to expanded the offerings beyond frozen burger patties and brutally brined chicken breasts to include Terrapin Maryland has been shot down.

Union Meats in Eastern Market has them. If you haven't a recipe in mind, you might consider getting the "country ribs", which aren't really ribs at all, for your meat. If you find lamb casings, let me know. ← Will do on the lamb casings - help me out though - 'country ribs' first time hearing that... ← I googled "country ribs" and it seems to be a pretty flexible term, but these look vaguely like what they sell. I'm pretty sure they're not actually ribs at all.

Before you give up, call the restaurant. A personal call will often give a positive response where Open Table won't. They can also give a clue regarding Sunday -- if it was Saturday, you'd probably be In like Flint at 6, but Sunday schedules can be tricky. If you don't mind drinking for two hours (and I never do) there are only about a million places within a couple of blocks at Central, so that shouldn't be a concern. I realize that Central is the hip spot these days, but you might consider the less-hyped but equally good (though different -- they're not interchangeable) Cafe du Parc, just a couple of blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue.

Union Meats in Eastern Market has them. If you haven't a recipe in mind, you might consider getting the "country ribs", which aren't really ribs at all, for your meat. If you find lamb casings, let me know.

Well, my first thought was that Brits ought to stay away from proper American food and stick to boiling potatoes or making Shepherd's Pie or toad in the hole or whatever it is that makes English food so un-assertive. My second was that if peppers were capable of killing of Englishmen, then the emergence of vindaloo as the national dish would have devastated the population. (Anybody ever read London Fields by Amis the Younger? Excellent curry-eating scenes) My third thought was can chili kill? Andinteresting thought, given that I'll be having Thai tonight. More here.

Jim -- what was the great bread they served at Clark-Lewis? I seem to recall that their home bakery was near where we stayed uphill from the Pearl District, near the ballpark. Also, if you're still selling oil you would be doing Michael a favor by telling him how to get hold of some. I think the farmer's market is a must, as well.

The final paragraphs in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: Suddenly, the boy cried, "He's [Tom Joad, on the run after killing a man who deserved it] dyin', I tell you! He's starvin' to death, I tell you." "Hush," said Ma. She looked at Pa and Uncle John standing helplessly gazing at the sick man. She looked at Rose of Sharon [who has just lost a baby] huddled in the comfort. Ma's eyes passed Rose of Sharon's eyes, and then came back to them. And the two women looked deep into each other. The girl's breath came short and gasping. She said, "Yes." Ma smiled. "I knowed you would. I knowed!" She looked down at her hands, tight-locked in her lap. Rose of Sharon whispered, "Will-will you all--go out?" The rain whisked lightly on the roof. Ma leaned forward and with her palm she brushed the tousled hair back from her daughter's forehead, and she kissed her on the forehead. Ma got up quickly. "Come on you fellas," she called. "You come out in the tool shed." Ruthie opened her mouth to speak. "Hush," Ma said. "Hush and git." She herded them through the door, drew the boy with her; and she closed the squeaking door. For a minute Rose of Sharon sat still in the shivering barn. Then she hoisted her tired body up and drew the comfort about her. She moved slowly to the corner and stood looking down at the wasted face, into the wide, frightened eyes. Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. "You got to," she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. "There!" she said. "There." Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.

Did you see the one with the interchangeable screens? That would be a good choice, though also an expensive one! (Though not so expensive if you consider how much it would cost if you got individual ones.) ← Yes, I did see that one, but it's 14-inches wide, which is very big, and the finest screen is only 0.5mm, which is approx 1/32", so I'm thinking I might be better off with the 10-inch 1/64" stainless and the 1/16" wooden. Perhaps I should start with the 1/64" and see whether I need a larger mesh one at all.... ← I like my wide tamis because so much of the work is done with it sitting atop a pot, as I work the soup-to-be into it's next vessel, and I want one comfortably wider than the post so it sits steady on top of the rim. I think a 10-incher might be too small to work with comfortably. I guess I'm a size queen.