Anonymous Modernist 5109

Greetings. I received the ElevenMadison Park cookbook for my birthday (December), and it is one of my favorite cookbooks of the year. The recipes are great (some very involved), as is the presentation of the food. I have cooked a few of the recipes and the flavors pair together quite well. One of my favorite things about the book is at the end. The end of the book contains many vinaigrette, infused oil, gels, pickling, and sorbet recipes, as wellasvarious other dessert recipes. It is a very nicely presented book, with recipes laid outvia each season. Has anyone else purchased the book? Have you cooked any recipes? How cookable did you feel the book was? Seth

My favorite in Texas is Salt Lick (beef ribs, brisket)in Driftwood, Texas. City Market (all items) in Luling is good, as is Kruez Market (brisket and sausage) in Lockhart (hard to go wrong at any of the Lockhart venues). Ironworks (brisket and sides) in Austin is pretty good. Myer's in Elgin (sausage, brisket, and turket)is good and Southside market is also decent. New Zion bbq (ribs) was okay (Huntsville). Cooper's in Llano was great (pork chops are amazing). Lambert's in Austin is good, but it is a more modern bbq joint. Finally, the brisket at Thompson's in Crockett was amazing (the ribs are supposed to be the best thing on the menu, but he sold out of them before 1pm and we did not try them). Seth

Wow, I was way off topic, sorry. My wife in I live in Houston and we have an amazing Chinatown (Beltway 8 and Belaire). We shop at the Asian markets twice a month. The vegetables and fruit are typically 25-50% cheaper than other supermarkets. We like to purchase snow pea leaves, baby bok choy, lemon grass, japanese yams, snow peas, chinese brocolli, yuzu, and dragon fruit. They also have really good prices on sea food (including geoduck). We also like to shop at the Middle Eastern grocery stores (in Houston off of Hillcroft) for green almonds, harissa, lamb meat, tea, halva, flat bread, and lots of amazing pastries. Seth

Greetings, http://www.gilttaste.com has some interesting ingredients. Last week they had a pint of finger limes for sale. Their prices can be ridiculous, but they do have some nice ingredients at times. http://www.opensky.com also has ethnic ingredients from time to time. Seth