Andrew Fenton
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Posts posted by Andrew Fenton
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Goat cheese gelato. Goat cheese and truffles are like peanut butter and jelly, they pair so well.
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Problem is that I'm going to be out of town on Saturday night. The solution, I suppose, is to cook it on Sunday night and have it on Monday for dinner. woo hoo!
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I'm afraid that y'all will have to put me in the baba-bashing camp. I'm not a fan. (Though one of my favorite sights in Naples is the pasticceria on the Via dei Tribunali that has as its sign a giant baba, being ridden by a witch. That cracks me up.)
Pontormo, my mouth is watering. It's not even nine in the morning, and I'm craving onions. I must make genovese this weekend! Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'll have six hours on Sunday to let it braise. what to do, what to do...
As to the months for Umbria and Tuscany, non fa niente.
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There was 2002 Wall Street Journal article saying that Starbucks was good for independents. The mega-chain grew the market and drew customers to the area.
I can only find an abstract of the article, so I can't provide hard numbers.
There was a similar article about Portland, OR, in the Willamette Weekly. Some eGullet discussion of it here.
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I freeze cooked bacon all the time. It's fine. Use it within a month or so.
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I have tried various other hard cheeses, but find that the fresh Parmagiano I bought a chunck of has less flavor than the Green Can!!! Therefore, I can honestly say I do still prefer the Green Can at home. Partly due to the "childhood favorite", but something is probably amiss with my fresh grated cheese. I suspect I bought an inferior piece. I've also got some Romano on hand, which is more flavorful, and much better. Is fresh grated Parmagiano a realtively milder cheese? I also think my grating may have something to do with it - I use a wheel-crank style, which shaves very fine pieces of cheese off. Is this desired?
I don't think the grating has much influence on flavor; I've used several methods, depending on what I'm using it for. If your cheese isn't flavorful, then it's a bad cheese. Try imported over domestic, and more aged over less aged. If you can get a 36- or 48-month aged Parmesan, it will knock your socks off, I promise. (Actually, a cheese like that is probably too good, and too expensive, to put on pasta.)
On a general note, it's funny that this topic has come up. I was recently reminiscing about the green can, and thinking that I hadn't had the Kraft cheese since I was a kid. Actually, my parents have moved on up past it as well; part of the gourmetizing of our culture, I guess.
One other anecdote: I was at the cheese shop a week or two ago, and there was a dad there with his young (probably 3 or 4 years old) son. I asked the kid what his favorite cheese was, and he replied with that little-kid lisp. "Pawmigiano-Weggiano." It was pretty adorable.
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back in the 80s I used to like a snack named "cornquistos".
That is awesome. Was their mascot the Cornquistador?
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UnConundrum-
I don't know of any sushi places in Harrisburg. However, I'll be in the greater Harrisburg metropolitan area (aka Carlisle) this weekend; I'll ask my friends there if they have any recommendations.
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I disagree that knowing a restaurant's owner will necessarily has a corrupting effect. My experience on eG is that there are lots of frequent posters in the PA forum who know lots of people in the business. There's nobody whose integrity I would question; and I haven't seen any manipulation, or for that matter, shilling. (Even of the Trojan variety.)
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I think you're right that more careful butchering would help. Still, all things considered (including expense and the fact that the missus won't eat Thumper), I'm not too wild about rabbit. Now, wild rabbit on the other hand, would probably be good. I've seen rabbits hopping contentedly around near where I work... if only I had my Elmer Fudd-style blunderbuss...
I should be in Compania this weekend!! Yeah! I sincerely doubt I'll have internet connection, but I'll try, I'll try.Dove vai? I'm jealous...
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Sorry your rabbit seemed to drown in too much tomato, Andrew, but sounds as if it was not dry at least. I'm debating whether or not to follow De Blasi's recommendations for tomato in a Genovese or stick to the traditional version without.
No, it definitely wasn't too dry. And shredded rabbit added to the sauce was great on bucatini last night. Though after eating it, I don't think I'll cook rabbit again for a while. Rabbit seems to have a superabundance of tiny, sharp bones that wind up everywhere. They're a hassle to deal with, and the flavor isn't so extraordinary that I'm really tempted.
As for fried foods: it's not exactly a North: butter, South: oil dichotomy since Venetians do nice fried things with some of their seafood, no?Word to that. The most extraordinary thing I had to eat when I was in Venice this spring was a really first-rate fritto misto (golden shrimp, pale calamari) from a take-out place. It was absolutely amazing.
And of course Rome has suppli, not to mention filetti di baccala; so I agree that frying is really an Italian thing, or even just a food thing. Still, I won't deny that Neapolitans do it better than just about anyone else.
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Now that's an endorsement! I will DEFINITELY have to try that hoagie, and soon.
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For a long time my girlfriend has had a similar aspiration (to swim in a vat of chocolate, or, preferably, a river of chocolate), but then we read this: msnbc story
apparently it's more dangerous than it looks
Plus, if TV and movies have taught me anything, I'm pretty sure you'll get attacked by angry Oompa-Loompas.
Anyway, back to Naked Chocolate Cafe: I was a little disappointed by the Aztec chocolate. My feeling is, if it isn't served out of the still-beating heart of my enemy, it doesn't deserve the name Aztec. Oh well; a boy can dream.
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My only real complaint about the dinner is that the shortribs in the Galbi were really stringy and tough. Way too much connective tissue and not the usual falling off the bone texture that I expect from shortribs. There's a reason that shortribs, no matter what cuisine the recipe is from, are always cooked long and slow in liquid.
Galbi/kalbi aren't always stewed; fast grilling is a traditional preparation as well. Depending on the exact cut and quality of the beef, they can be connective tissue-y. But they're really really good...
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Last easter I asked Kevin about a pie my grandmother (who is from Naples) used to make. I found this on Recipe Gullet and it looked nearly exact. I remember something like Pizza Gen/Jen.
Short for "San Gennaro"-- that is, the patron saint of Naples?
Anyway, that's a nice looking pizza rustica. My Neapolitan friends make a version with hard-boiled eggs, ham and (I think) olives, baked into a torus. It's really good.
I had less luck with last night's dinner. I wanted to make sciue, sciue last night but couldn't find any acceptable cherry tomatoes; instead, I chopped up some nice yellow tomatoes. With fresh basil, oregano, etc., it was pretty good.
And then, the coniglio. I did brine it, but didn't soak it in milk, a step that seemed overly fussy for me. Brining didn't hurt, and may have helped: I'd asked for a particularly wascally wabbit, which I'm sure ensured I got an especially flavorful lagomorph, tender and not dry.
The mistake was getting lazy and using Batali's online recipe for coniglio all' Ischitana. Not that it's a horrible recipe-- in fact, it's pretty tasty. But he calls for way too much tomato, plus tomato paste, making a very thick, tomatoey sauce. I prefer-- and I think, this is more traditional-- a lighter sauce, with less tomato and no paste. Still, the extra sauce will be good on pasta tonight, I think...
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Er, yeah. Looking more closely at the recipe, it's definitely a kind of pasta.
(See, that's why I need to get my Italian into better shape. I can read it okay, but I can't skim it worth a damn...)
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Hmm; you know, I do have a nice pot roast in the freezer... Could be a good dinner for later in the week.
I also have a recipe for "mezzani con salsa genovese", which looks more like a reduced tomato sauce than anything else. I'm not 100% sure of what "mezzani" are, though: it ought to mean "middles"-- are we talking offal here?
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I know the original poster has discovered Szechuan Tasty House... but I'll add that last night I discovered their braised beef, Szechuan-style. It's a firey, firey dish, the hottest thing I've had there.
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2 miles from Penn includes most of Center City. Do you really mean that, or do you want something that's in the neighborhood of Penn?
Here are some suggestions for West Philadelphia/University City... There are lots more; this is just skimming some of the cream:
West Phila. BYOBs
Rx is a terrific restaurant, one of my favorite BYOBs; they're at 45th and Spruce. They also have a great $25 prix fixe on weekdays.
Marigold Kitchen is also in that neighborhood, another really good BYOB (though I haven't been there in ages).
West Phila. ethnic
Vientiane on Baltimore Ave. (Laotian-Thai) is always good.
I also like Dahlak (also on Baltimore Ave.) for cheap Ethiopian.
Right near Penn
The White Dog Cafe has been there for, like, ever, and I've always found it reliable, if less exciting at this point than it used to be.
I always hear good things about Penne, though I've never been there.
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You know, I've never thought of a bakery tomato pie as a eat in thing. For me it's always been gimme two seeded bastoni (loaves of bread) and oh yeah, gimme a slice of that tomato pie to eat on the way to the car.
Word to that. I'll typically pick up a slice at Sarcone's when shopping on 9th Street. Breakfast of champions...
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Thanks for passing that along, P. I will give brining a go. I wonder why she says to rinse in milk? (I also wonder whether brining is as useful in braising as it is in, e.g., roasting. Perhaps because rabbit is like poultry, prone to dry out?)
I'm sure I'll buy the Zuni book one of these days. I've been using Rodgers's roast chicken technique very successfully lately (c.f. the "anti-brining" thread).
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Oh great, I had the butcher cut up my rabbit and I didn't check on how he did it. Now I'm gonna be all self-conscious about my chunks of bat-bunny.
Pontormo, does Rodgers recommend pre-treating (pre-salting, brining) rabbit? I wasn't planning on it, but if it's worthwhile, I'll give it a go.
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I still don't understand why they are not simply recommending that the spinach be cooked! That should be sufficient to do the job as Mimi mentioned above.
It's a lot easier to tell people to just throw out a bag of spinach than to explain about cooking it; that's especially true if the spinach in question is the baby kind that's marketed as salad greens. If I were NBC or the FDA or whoever, I'd rather have people throw out a $3 bag of spinach than risk being confused and getting sick, or dying.
Andrew, that is precisely the reason I wrote the last three sentences of my post that you didn't quote. The reality though is that they are giving out misinformation and contributing to a mass hysteria so as to avoid the potential for liability.
You say "liability", I say "concern for people's lives". I think there's a difference there; but let's call the whole thing off.
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I still don't understand why they are not simply recommending that the spinach be cooked! That should be sufficient to do the job as Mimi mentioned above.
It's a lot easier to tell people to just throw out a bag of spinach than to explain about cooking it; that's especially true if the spinach in question is the baby kind that's marketed as salad greens. If I were NBC or the FDA or whoever, I'd rather have people throw out a $3 bag of spinach than risk being confused and getting sick, or dying.
The Cooking and Cuisine of Campania
in Italy: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Now you're talking; an enforced 36-hour sit will be just the thing for it...