cdh

Has this ceramic stuff been applied to cast iron successfully? I had a Le Creuset frying pan with a nonstick surface on it. Was absolutely fantastic for certain applications. Nonstick failed, and LC dropped the product line and sent a much less useful replacement. Having huge thermal mass and nonstick at the same time would let me get back into making crispy cheese shelled souffle omelets again...

I'm interested in hearing more opinions on the non-stick ceramic's properties. From the mentions above, it sounds great...

But what is the volume of air in your basement? A chest freezer is 13 cubic feet or so... a basement is what... 1000x that or so. Why are we comparing apples to dust mites?

For desiccants, I've been using the Damp Rid stuff... I seem to recall it is Calcium Chloride salts, and it does a fine job at keeping the humidity in a chest freezer with a temp controller attached to it under control. You can tell it is effective, as the tub of salt crystals eventually turns into a tub full of liquid... which tells you it is time to switch it out. The freezer/fridge seems to do a fine job for beer and beer related purposes, but I'd definitely recommend a few PC fans if you want to be sure the temperature is consistent all the way through the thing.

Why Thai and not other SE Asian foods? Ubiquity probably has something to do with it. There's more chance of finding a Thai restaurant than there is a Malaysian or Lao or Burmese or Indonesian spot. Sure there is the Penang chain in East Coast megalopolis, but what else? Suburbs get Thai spots opening... I would need to go downtown to eat any of the other listed cuisines.

No problems or delays with Sansaire for me at all. When I wrote in to ask about whether there might be a loose connection causing the display flicker that I might reseat myself, they immediately offered me a replacement unit. I held onto the unit for another month and a half and the flickering did not get worse, but did not go away, so then I did take them up on the replacement. It arrived without incident.

No issues with the adjustment wheel on the Sansaire... I have just swapped out my original unit because the LED display was flickery, but no other issues, and the swap under warranty was easy and painless.

I love my Sansaire... I'd suggest you'd not go wrong getting one for yourself.

I'm still not clear on what got you so scared of this stuff... Nothing I've seen about cottonseed oil has made me think "disgusting noxious chemical" or however you described the stuff... The world is made entirely of chemicals... and most of them are not disgusting or noxious... If you're sure you want to avoid cottonseed oil, it seems that Crisco is right out (as it should be anyway because it is hydrogenated), and lots of other non-fried foods are suspect too. I do wish you could explain what you've seen written about cottonseed oil that makes you so averse. FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottonseed_oil

What makes this stuff any different than plain old canola oil or even lard? What do you mean by "bad"? Saturated? As I recall from the one time I met it (when helping out at a funnel cake stand at a country fair), it was cloudy but pourable at Memorial Day outdoors temperatures. I seem to recall straining it and returning it to its jerry cans when it had cooled down. I recall no hazmat trucks or special precautions being needed... I'd wager that a bistro that fries everything in duck fat and lard subscribes to the same oil hauling service to take away their used oils that hauls this stuff away. What gave it such a terrible reputation in your mind? It seems like a brand for a line of engineered oils, but what makes that so bad?

It works great on steaks and lamb chops. I tried it on chicken thighs yesterday and will concur that it can't crisp up poultry skin.

Well, insofar as this is a very fish-out-of-water bar environment in Beijing, perhaps it does qualify as "entertainment" more than many bars would. A fully stocked cocktail bar with skillful staff is rare there, I'd imagine. Or is this place one of many? If there's no competition, then you're sorta at their mercy.

Some classic cocktails explicitly ask for fruit syrups... Grenadine, raspberry syrup and other such turn up in old school recipes. Some cocktail ingredients are alcoholic as much as a preservative as a necessity... Curacao and triple sec and other sweet syrupy additions are there more for the sugar and flavor than the booze, so a well made non-alcoholic substitution could certainly do the job they're called to do. You've got to experiment and see if these syrups bring flavors that you like to the drinks that you make.

Maybe it is that you're an odd restaurant in an odd town. You're not providing the safe comfortable familiar options, so perhaps that emboldens folks to ask for a taste, and to bring their less adventurous friends along with assurances that they can taste before they buy. Has anybody decided your cooking is just not for them after one of these tastes? If not, they're probably helping you do more business.

Mine arrived today! Now awaiting on the torch to get here too so I can put it to use.

Probably capricious pricing is the thing... single malts can sit on the shelf and have to get more expensive to pay the "rent"... or they could decide it has to go (and not come back) for a fire sale price... You're also looking at the capriciousness of foreign exchange rates. Back when the dollar was strong, I grabbed a case of Bowmore for something less than $210... still drinking it and smiling...

There's a difference between "public domain", meaning not under copyright, and "public", meaning available for the asking. The Federal employment status of the people formulating or cooking them probably doesn't mean much. You do wonder how much they wing it vs cooking from preformulated recipes.

You might check your spam folders. My email came from "Booker and Dax <fba-customer-ship-confirm@amazon.com>"

Got the email from amazon... but no goodies yet. Not that it would do me any good... the dang torch is 2 weeks late... need to light a fire under that vendor now that the toy is imminent. Now the track link in the email works, and indicates the Searzall is coming from Arizona... which explains how OK got it first.

oooh. How did you get yours already? I thought they were shipping from NJ... You'd image that NJ to OK would take longer than NJ to PA. /anxiously awaiting.

You might just want to think of it as a sweet fruit-ish flavored syrup and start using it in place of other sweet fruity syrups in recipes that call for them... See Cointreau or Triple Sec or St Germain or any other sweetened liqueur called for in recipe, sub in the Midori and you get all the dilution and sweetening the recipe expects, but with a different fruit. Tweak on from there if the result is too sweet or not sweet enough.

Had a Vichtenaar with lunch. And a Rochefort 10 last evening.

Trying the warm W&N with a drop of mole bitters... the bitters do combat the wr(h)ong that this r(h)um brings... not something I'd drink regularly, but a fine riff on the staggerac...

Damn... that is manly. At least the Stagg tastes good on its own... W&N doesn't have that going for it.

Hmmm... What's a "manly" cocktail? A favorite of mine, and I'm a man, is a Jasmine. Gin, Cointreau, Campari, lemon juice. Pretty and pink, but bitter and grapefruity. You can make fine riffs on this sort of drink with rums and tequilas... really depends on the flavor profile that the particular spirits bring. You need to figure out what cocktails you like and think are "manly" enough for you. The most "manly" cocktail I've ever run across is the Staggerac... 140 proof bourbon with sugar and bitters. If putting hair on your chest is your primary cocktail goal... that is a direction to look in.