Xanthippe
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Posts posted by Xanthippe
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Even Bobby Flay? Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Bobby Flay have two restaurants in New York? Would that not make him a chef? If he's not a chef, why not?
Did you see that idiotic display on Iron Chef?
Even copious quantities of drugs would not excuse or explain that behavior. Pure Hollywood and thus... no Chef for you.
If possible, I was perhaps more outraged by/contemptuous of Flay's behavior than Morimoto-San. Cutting board abuse should be punishable by demotion; no Chef for Bobby sez malachi -- and I'm in agreement!
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A few Santa Cruz ideas for you:
Unless dad is nostalgic for a corndog at the boardwalk I would recommend crossing Beach Street at the carousel to El Paisano Tamales for lunch. It is a classic little order at the counter place (it does have seating) with fine tamales, chile verde burritos, and the usual range of plates.
For Italian my favorite is Bella Napoli on Water Street. Good, basic, well executed Italian food (regional, not Italian American) in a very small restaurant. Definitely more locals than tourists. Also good is Avanti on Mission Street though the food is less authentic and seems to lean a bit towards France. Both places are ~ $12-$16 for mains.
There is a new Mexican on the wharf (right next to the Boardwalk) that was mediocre and had poor service but a fine view. Downtown has El Palomar which is an OK basic Mexican rest. It has a nice room but gets to be a bit crowded, particularly now in the summer season. They also don't take reservations and the wait can get to 1 hour + on weekends.
Hope this helps.
Hey, Nathan, welcome to eGullet! You're more than a little familiar with this area, so may I assume you're a local??
KNorthrup, I second Nathan's recommendations of El Paisano and Bella Napoli. Both consistently good. As to lunch along Highway 1, your parents simply must stop in at Durarte's Tavern in Pescadero. The place is legendary, still owned and run by the Duarte family, and it won a James Beard award this year (in a category the name of which escapes me at the moment -- perhaps best road food in California??!?
). Anyhow, the food really is delicious-down-home awesome. Your folks should try the creamy artichoke and/or the creamy green chile soup (I always get a bowl of half-and-half), any of the fresh fish specials, and the homemade pies. Olallieberries are in season now; a slice of warm olallieberry pie a la mode is truly an ethereal way to end a meal. -
the pig has such a funny expression on its face.
I recall that exact same facial expression from my first marriage.
Jaymes, you made my day!!!!! And I agree with Stone: we all love you, so please post more!!
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Got a CSA delivery Monday, so:
Hey, laurel, what's CSA?
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The accountant eats here.
I use flat leaf in many visible contexts, but never do garnishes that are not integral to the dish.
Consequently, I rarely have curly on hand to just get chloropyll. I use spinach for that.
No parsley. Steak.
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oooh, rosemary honey. That sounds wonderful.
It is wonderful, Heather; I'm close to being hooked on the stuff!
What wasn't to like about your pasta dish? Too bland, one-dimensional, what?? It sounds good to me . . .Orrichiette, with broccoli, goat cheese, lemon zest, EVOO, s & p. Eh. This could be better.
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Good, but I'd rather have mcdowell's enchiladas -- or his fry bread!
Xanthippe - As soon as I can figure out how to work this scanner, I'll email you some fry bread
(and the enchiladas are all gone, sorry)
I'm on the edge of my seat anticipating the fry bread, mcdowell . . .
Phooey on the vanishing enchiladas!
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Kate,
Have you browsed The Ethnic Grocer?
Thanks--I'll look into it
If you go there, you'll never come out. Ethnic Grocer is a vortex . . .
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"Waiter baiting" makes me insane, particularly if the cretin doing the baiting is a member of our party. That person will never, ever join us again. Once, many years ago during a fashion show/charity lunch, a woman at our table asked that her slice of chocolate chip cake be returned to the kitchen and the chips removed! I was so livid I couldn't finish my own piece of cake (which was quite tasty, incidentally).Pousse Cafe drinks and blender drinks are the bane of every bartenders existence.Ordering these in an obviously busy restaurant falls into the category of sport I call "waiter baiting". Things a customer can do to make the waitstaff homicidal:
"I'd like the seasonal field greens salad with the autumn removed"
"I'll have the 16 bean soup with no lima beans or navy beans"
ETC...
It's supposed to be about conviviality . . .
KatieLoeb, the infamous Mayan Whore consists of tequila, pineapple juice, soda water, and Kahlua in a Pousse Cafe glass.Xanthippe: I simply must know - what on earth constitutes a Mayan whore? -
Red Pepper Soup. Made it last weekend from Peterson's Soup book (pretty much).
Six large bell peppers, a bunch of pasilla chilies, roasted and ground into a paste, a big handful of garlic, heavy cream, sour cream, broth, vinegar... pureed and strained and chilled.
My God.
That soup is truly awesome. I make it, and variants thereof, on a regular basis in hot weather. Try creme fraiche instead of sour cream next time, mcdowell. Nice.
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Two slices Herb Garden bread, toasted and buttered. One topped with sourwood honey, the other with rosemary honey.
Good, but I'd rather have mcdowell's enchiladas -- or his fry bread!
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Because I've been a bit too busy of late, I haven't been posting my daily eating diary. However, I do want to say that I'm staying on course. Last night, for example, I had pan roasted wild king salmon and roasted cauliflower, with a banana for dessert. I had a small flank steak sandwich for lunch with about 10 triscuits. Breakfast was a raspberry smoothie.
My parents were in town for the weekend, but I managed to exercise and to eat fairly well (including some Ben & Jerry's cashew caramel ice cream). I didn't stuff myself.
My pants are getting too big. One of my belts is on its final notch. I have much more energy through the day, particularly in the afternoons. I like this, and I'm hoping that I'll be right around 200 pounds or less by my 40th birthday in late September. Woo hoo!!!!
Way to go, Mr. Varmint! You are totally going about this with the right attitude and a refreshingly realistic approach. We're with you . . .
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Food & Wine (July '03) notes that Cornelius Gallagher (Oceana in NYC) is using the Cocktailmaster "to make his foie gras soup layered on top of chilled mango juice."
This device supposedly (I've never seen one) "separates liquids of different densities."
Anyone have any experience with this product? If so, comments, etc.?
Wow, if this thing works (never seen one, either), I want one. For starters, I could've used it the other evening to prepare our Mayan Whores; the cocktails did not layer up, and thus the resulting drink(s) was inferior. Tasted okay, but looked atrocious.
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And it has begun!!
Thursday before I went to bed, I started the first 2.
The first two flavors are: habanero and watermelon Jolly Rancher.
I ended up going with Smirnoff 100 proof, as KatieLoeb recommended to me the higher alcohol content would be helpful.
I did go with more flavoring than recommended above, 3 habanero peppers for 800ml.
I used 5-6 Jolly Ranchers for the watermelon.
The 3rd one will be star anise, I just have to put it together.
I am very concerned about oversweetening the vodka with that one.
Keep us posted, herba!
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Curly parsley and Italian parsley taste identical. The Thomas Keller model is flawed on this one. It's bullshit.
Disagree. Perhaps when finely minced or pureed the flavour profiles are the same. But the texture of loose chopped curly parsley is manky. And the stems seem more bitter and drier than flat leaf.
I'm with you on this, Jin. Sorry, C/W and Maggie!
But I still adore all of you . . .
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One more suggestion: Hummus and pita chips is always a crowd-pleaser, plus it's quick-and-dirty easy to put together; of late, I've been making a chipotle hummus variant that folks gobble up like crazy. And in addition to the pita chips, I will also set out tortilla chips.
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Very healthy, Bill. Great.
What elyse said, Bill. And take heart in the fact that you're starting up again in spring/summer; much more food variety to choose from, plus the abundance of fresh produce now coming into season. Vastly easier to maintain a healthy eating plan now than in the dead of winter.
Keep at it -- you can do it!
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The first ribs from my new smoker!!! Way good.
I also have some pork shoulder finishing up.
ben
Smoked ribs + smoked pork shoulder + Lionel =
Pre-lunch snack: several small plucots and a handful of black pepper cashews
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Then again, I don't think I would be considered as part of a "normal" sampling given that I've recently driven 9 hours round trip (in one day) to have some good Korean food and pick up 12 bottles of beer.
Belgian beer, I'll bet . . .
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Just in case you all feel like slumming...
Grilled hot dogs
barbecue beans
carrot and celery sticks with blue cheese dip
vanilla ice cream and lemon sorbet
beer for Scott, milk for the rest of us
Sounds like what we called The Saturday Night Special when I was a child! All except the lemon sorbet, of course; we didn't know from sorbet back in "those days."
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By the way, Chris and Shelley (Lydia was in NYC for that episode) started calling themselves "Sticky" and "Smoky" after a few days of shooting over pits and in BBQ kitchens. A solid week of BBQ two three times a day, one sticky, saucy, smoky shoot after another. We all had Original Smokehouse Flavor permeating our pores.
It's the "Sticky & Smoky Show"!!!
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Lemon and Thyme Roasted Whole Chicken, garnished with roasted whole-heads of garlic.
Fresh thyme, minced shallots, minced lemon rind, lemon juice, kosher salt, pepper, stuffed under the skin of the bird; whole roasted garlic heads, both about an hour at 400. Simple, the fresh herb and lemon acts as a room vaporizer. Not quite ChefG's rosemary fumes, but redolent of la belle campagne...
Xan, the beurre blanc with salmon, but making a pilgrimage to Isaacson's again, they've got grouper, mediterranean sea bass, who knows?
Another tempting description, paul 'o. Nice. And the added bonus of a fresh herb and lemon room vaporizer!
Beurre blanc is to sauces what morels are to fungi: both make most anything taste better. I'm sure your fish, whether it be salmon, grouper or Med. sea bass, will be lovely. Hope you can get your hands on those blood oranges . . .
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Salmon chorizo hash topped with two poached eggs
Xanthippe - the whole menu sounds really good, but I have a question:
Was this chorizo made out of salmon? Or salmon w/ chorizo?
Hey, mcdowell!
Thanks for the compliment, and the chorizo was made with salmon. Perhaps I should have described it as "salmon with chorizo spicing," or a variant thereof.
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Uh, No
Stories like that are best told over meals, where there's less permanence than anything typed... you & yours come on over for some fry bread & margaritas (you can bring the salmon chorizo) and I'll tell you lots of embarassing tales.
But I'm keeping my shirt on, thank you very much (and you will thank me), so don't get your hopes up.
Believe me, I've got my own share of embarrassing stories (as does Socrates) from my callow youth.
And you're so right about the impermanence of such tales told over a meal -- particularly when accompanied by liberal amounts of potent potables!That said, the lure of fry bread and margaritas is irresistible . . .
Ethnic Groceries: Where do you go?
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
. . . then you'll love Ethnic Grocer.